Elves, Drugs, and Opium:
A Look At The Drug Use In The Quaraun Books

Quaraun befriends a candy making Faerie named BoomFuzzy. BoomFuzzy is by race a Phooka, which is a type of shape shifting evil trickster Faerie, that normally spends it's time pretending to be an injured shaggy pony to lure humans to get close to it so it can eat them.

BoomFuzzy, however developed a taste for Elf flesh and is known by other Phookas as "The Elf Eater". He ends up becoming something of a cult leader, gathering up a following of other Phookas who likewise give up eating Humans to eat Elves.

The Elf Eater gang, led by BoomFuzzy who is also known as The Elf Eater of Pepper Valley, soon discovers that different types of Elves taste different depending on their diet. The forest dwelling Wood Elves, who are hunters and gathers, are described as having a wild gamey flavour, while the city dwelling aristocratic High Elves are described as having a delicate buttery flavours, caused by their rich diets of baked goods and sweets.

The Elf Eaters discover that the farther North they travel, the richer the diets of the High Elves get, until they reach the North Pole region where they find Christmas Elves who feast on gingerbread, eggnog, and candy canes. 

Prior to meeting Quaraun, BoomFuzzy lived for several centuries in Santa's Village at the North Pole, where he became the head chef and spent his time perfecting making gingerbread, sugar cookies, eggnog, candy canes, taffy, and chocolate, all of which he used to fatten up Santa's Helper Elves which he later ate.

Later, when BoomFuzzy returns to the Deep North and finds the Moon Elf Village a few miles south of Santa's Village, he sets up shop and once again goes to work fattening up Elves on sweets and eating them.

The secret to BoomFuzzy's success in getting Elves desperately addicted to eating his gingerbread and chocolate, is the greenhouse full of poppies at the back of his shop. All of his candy, cakes, cookies, and drinks are brimming full of opium, causing the Elves to get uncontrollably addicted to eating only foods he makes.

BoomFuzzy starts out intending to eat Quaraun, but finds the Elf too smart to eat his food, knowing it is drugged. In his decades of trying to get Quaraun to eat his food, BoomFuzzy ends up falling in love with Quaraun, and by the time Quaraun finally does eat BoomFuzzy's cooking, Boomfuzzy is not able to bring himself to kill Quaraun.

Quaraun and BoomFuzzy live together as lovers for 30 years. During that time, Quaraun eats nothing but BoomFuzzy's drugged food and is no longer able to eat anything else, due to his addition to the opium in the food.

When BoomFuzzy dies, Quaraun is sent into a massive fit of depression, which is heightened by the fact that without BoomFuzzy to drug his food, Quaraun is now tossed into a mind wrenching fit of withdrawal.

Years later, while going from tavern to tavern drinking his sorrows away, Quaraun discovers that a drink called Faerie Wine (which is a cross between blackberry juice, opium tea, and elderberry wine) is sold via the blackmarket, by Faeries to some unscrupulous tavern keepers in very shady taverns in very bad parts of very slummy towns. The Faerie Wine, having opium in it, produces the same effects as BoomFuzzy's drugged gingerbread, and Quaraun takes to seeking out all the worst taverns he can find, in hopes of finding Faerie Wine.

It is shortly after his Faerie wine addiction habit kicks in, that Unicorn shows up in his life and, it never is known if Unicorn is actually real or if Quaraun hallicinated the entire thing.

The series starts the day Quaraun meets Unicorn and so, he's already a very high, High Elf at the start of the series.

Quaraun insists that his unicorn IS in fact BoomFuzzy returned from the dead. The series never confirms nor denies if Unicorn is in fact BoomFuzzy, though Unicorn himself makes the claim to be BoomFuzzy, however, this fact is disputed by other characters who are unable to see Unicorn and tell Quaraun there is no Unicorn at all.

When Quaraun questions Unicorn about why some people see him and other people don't, Unicorn explains that he is "an invisible pink unicorn" that can only be seen by people who believe that Faeries and Unicorns are real. He then explains that, the Human race is losing it's belief in all Magical Races and that many Humans can no longer see Quaraun because they no longer believe in Elves either.

Quaraun believes the Jellyfish is real in some scenes and denies it's existence in others.

Once again, Quaraun is an unreliable narrator and it is left up to the reader to decide what is real and what is not. At no point does the series ever deny or confirm the Jellyfish's existence.

Some characters believe the folklore that there exists a race of alien Jellyfish who burrow into a person's head, eat their brain, and take control of their body. Essentially it sa "pod people" or "body snatcher" myth.

Quaraun hears the story of the brain sucking alien Jellyfish told and retold at just about every tavern he visits.

Quaraun is a transvestite. (Not to be confused with a transgendered person or a transsexual - 3 separate things)

A transgendered person is one who lives as the opposite gender (a man who lives as a woman).

A tanssexual is a person who has had surgery to become the opposite gender (a man who has surgically become a woman.)

A transvestite is a person who wears the cloths of the opposite gender but makes no attempt to be the opposite gender. (A man who wears dresses but still uses male pronouns for himself.)

Quaraun is a transvestite: a male Elf who dresses as a female Elf, but continues to identify as male and make no attempt to actually be a female. This causes him to often be on the receiving end of many rude remarks and insensitive jokes. It is one of those jokes which results in him believing the Jellyfish story.

Because Quaraun wearing very outlandish pink, rhinestone encrusted, sequined silk sari and kimono, many people describe him as looking like a sea creature floating around the room, to which others added, "he must be one of them Jellyfish". Unicorn then added to this.

Unicorn believes the story of the Jellyfish and tells Quaraun that he believes, Quaraun is a transvestite, because Quaraun's brain must have been taken over by a female Jellyfish.

Initially, Quaraun laughs at Unicorn's belief that Quaraun has a brain sucking alien Jellyfish living in his head.

However, Quaraun meets a cult of priests who believe that a sacred brain sucking Jellyfish messiah is coming to rid the world of sinners, and that, he will be dressed as a woman wearing pink frills that resemble Jellyfish tentacles.... when they meet Quaraun (who is a transvestite and ALWAYS wears pink sequined dresses and long flowing feather boas), they believe he is their messiah and that he has a Jellyfish living in his head.

Between the cult of Jelly worshipers ad Unicorn's telling Quaraun he is a Jellyfish, Quaraun starts to question if there is truth to the myth of the brain sucking Jellyfish from outer space, and starts to believe that he is not an Elf, but that the Elf in him died decades ago when it was replaced by a Jellyfish that ate his brain.

Whether or not a race of brain sucking Jellyfish exists or not, is no longer important, nor is it important if Quaraun does or does not have a Jellyfish living in his head. The only important fact is that Quaraun believes he is a female Jellyfish living in the body of a male Elf. 

Again, the series is told from Quaraun's point of view, so moves forward as though there is a Jellyfish living in his head, whither one actually does live there or not, and because of this, no attempt is made to either prove or disprove the myth of the Jellyfish.

Not really, no. Quaraun is the main point of view character, so you the reader are seeing the world exactly as he is seeing it, and that's not necessarily the way the world really is. 

In the volume "BoomFuzzy", you are seeing Quaraun BEFORE he starts taking drugs, and just as BoomFuzzy starts slipping drugs into his food. In MOST of the story titled "BoomFuzzy" what happens is actually happening to him.

In the story "BoomFuzzy" his hallucinations don't start kicking in until, the Moon Elves drag him away and lock him up in the tower. After a week of being without BoomFuzzy's drugged food, Quaraun starts having a massive withdrawal attack, and it's at that point, the remainder of the events become questionable.

When Quaraun escapes the tower and finds BoomFuzzy dead, the reader is never really shown what happens. The reader ONLY sees Quaraun's interpretation of how BoomFuzzy died. There are several scenes throughout the story, where BoomFuzzy mentions that he is sick, old, and wants to die. He comes right out and tells Quaraun at one point that he is planning to kill himself because he's too old and in too much pain. BoomFuzzy himself is taking the opium near the end of the story, in an desperate attempt to alleviate the pain caused by a festering knife wound that have become infected. When Quaraun last sees BoomFuzzy alive, BoomFuzzy is bemoaning the pain the wound is causing and contemplating killing himself with a drug overdose to make the pain stop once and for all.

Quaraun is out of his head from a fit of withdrawal, a week later, when he discovers BoomFuzzy has done exactly what he'd said he do and has died from a drug overdose suicide.

From that point of the story onward, nothing the reader sees happening can be trusted, because Quaraun is an unreliable narrator, and the combination of withdrawal, the shock of finding BoomFuzzy dead, and being in BoomFuzzy's house with nothing to stop him from taking every drug he can find, Quaraun's version of what happened to BoomFuzzy's body and how the Moon Elf village is destroyed, is known only to Quaraun, and he's too busy hallucinating about Liches killing everyone to be able to give an accurate retelling of how BoomFuzzy actually died and who murdered the Moon Elves.

It is sometimes possible to make an educated guess, as to if Quaraun is hallucinating out not.

And example of that is seen in The Vampire Leprechaun of Fire Mountain, when the group is traveller, and stop to rest. The scene includes a point when Unicorn hands Quaraun and drink of what he says is eggnog. Quaraun knows immediately that it is not eggnog and upon questioning him, Unicorn finally admits he made it from the flowers he picked along the road, which Quaraun remembers they had passed a field of poppies, and drinks said drink without further question. It is an hour later that the undead leprechaun shows up and talks to Quaraun, but the following day the rest of the group, has no memory of the old man who had visited them.

As a general rule, if Quaraun is drinking Faerie Wine or eggnog or eating apricots or gingerbread, he's likely not hallucinating at the time he ate the food, but hallucinating in the scene immediately following it.

You can usually tell if Quaraun is high or not, by his refusal to engage in sexual activity. Quaraun id a wizard priest of an order that shuns sex and requires a vow of celibacy. When Quaraun is thinking clearly, he absolutely refuses to have anything to do with sex on any level at all. 

However, when Quaraun is high, he's insanely addicted to BDSM, loves being tied up, submits to very violent episodes of cock and ball torture and cock docking, and can't get enough knotting (no, not the kind with ropes) and being fucked by a barbed penis. (There are several very graphic scenes where Unicorn has four long sharp sword like barbs protruding from the end of his penis, and more then once has nearly killed Quaraun with them, during anal sex.) Unicorn is very dominant and has a fetish for using Medieval torture implements as sex toys.

Ironically, throughout the series, when he is clear headed and not hallucinating, Quaraun maintains the fact that he is a virgin and denies his drug induced sexual activities with Unicorn. Such denials are usually immediately followed by Unicorn drugging Quaraun's food and dragging him off to tie him to a tree just to prove that Quaraun is not only not a virgin but that is addicted to submitting to violent sex.

In the books, what Quaraun takes is called "Faerie wine". Faerie wine is based off a very real drug. Yes, it is real, yes, I have used it, and yes, it does produce those wild freaked out neon coloured unicorn filled hallucinations that Quaraun gets sent into. What is it? It's opium.

At the time I was using it, I was 4 years old and it could be bought over the counter under the name "Novahistine" - it's Opium oil/tea. I have Autism and in the 1970s opium tea was a common "cure" for Autism and Autistic children were sedated pretty much 24hrs a day with it, so from the time I was 4 until I was 12 (when opium was banned from over counter sale in the USA) I was flying with pink unicorns in pretty much the same way Quaraun does in the books - right down to my wearing lots of frilly pink tulle dresses dripping in sequins.

A side effect of opium, is, that not only do you see strange things, you because compelled to dress up as a pink princess so you can join in in dancing with the strange things you see (yes, that IS how I got started wearing my pink sequined and rhinestoned dresses that I still wear to this day. And yes, that is why Quaraun also wears same dresses.)

You can get seriously addicted to opium, I know, when it was banned I went through 2 years of very bad withdrawal. While the high times were filled with pretty colours and unicorns, the withdrawal was filled with black pits, falling through eternal black holes, and being chased by 300 foot long snakes. The nightmares and night terror withdrawal caused were like being tossed into the pit of hell. 

And I was just a kid. I remember trying to explain to my parents, that unicorns were talking to me and they'd say I was too old to have imaginary friends. I had no idea back then what the medicine was they kept me on or that it was what was causing the things I was seeing. Likewise when the withdrawal happened, again, I was still a kid and, my parents would just laugh and say "it's only nightmares, they can't hurt you".

It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I found out what the doctor had been giving me. When I started college, I had to get my medical records to find out if I had my shots and stuff, and the doctor the college sent me too was looking at my charts and said "Wow! They had you on opium?"

I was all, I don't know, did they?

She goes, "yeah, it's right here, look at this. They had you on it for years."

I was looking at the charts and said: "Oh, I remember that stuff. They mixed it with green peppermint tea. Yeah, I had to take it with every meal and before bed. Novahistine  got banned and the doctor went over hell and high water trying to find a replacement for it, never found anything that worked. It did weird stuff to my head."

She goes: "I'll beat it did. That's a powerful hallucinogenic they had you on. And you were only 4 years old? What is wrong with them. The doctor shouldn't been given you that. Doctors were barbaric back then. Given children opium as an Autism cure, what were they thinking!"

I'm not sure why my parents so dutifully pours opium down my throat every day, but a doctor had prescribed it. To this day - I have no idea why the doctor put me on opium. Just that, I had Autism and back than, if a kid had Autism they were given opium. I just know from the time I was 4 years old til 12 years old - I was given it 4 times a day, 2 tablespoons of it at a time, with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and just before bed.

And so, yes, I'm able to write Quaraun's trips through unicorn filled opium lunacy with very good accuracy, haven taken those trips myself.

Answers To More Reader Questions About Quaraun can be found HERE

Also:

Is the Quaraun series Erotica?

A Look At Quaraun's Drug  Addiction

Quaraun vs The Amazon Adult Filter

The Books Can Be Bought On Amazon