Tal's Tale

[Felix]

[SIZE="6"][color="Orange"][font="Book Antiqua"]Tal’s Tale.[/font][/color][/SIZE]
[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Orange"]~By Felix[/color][/font]

[SIZE="5"][font="Book Antiqua"]Chapter 1[/font][/SIZE]
[Font="Book Antiqua"]…which consists mostly of an introduction to several characters, a vague timeline, and a narration of the events which occurr near the beginning of the tale.[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]T[/SIZE][/font]his is Tal's Tale.

Have you met Tal?

Tal was there when it all began (and he was there when it all ended, too, but the telling of the events pertaining to the latter of such presences shall have to wait until the incidences of the former and the mishaps of the in between have been fully and entirely related).

Tal’s Tale is a wandering and twisting matter which occurred sometime roughly between the beginning of the tale and the end of the tale. Some of Tal’s Tale stretches back to long before the tale ever began, and a few parts will definitely continue for some time after it ends, but all in all, the majority of the tale happens right in the middle.

If you have never met Tal before, then I am sure you are now quite anxious to meet him, so if that is the case, I shall cut the ado short and lead you by the nose, dear reader, deep (or as deep as we can get) into the tale of Tal. Let’s enter the tale in the same spot where most people enter such tales: the beginning.

~^~

As such things go, Tal was a baby before he was a boy, and he was a boy before he was a man. Other than this logical pattern, Tal’s childhood was always a mysterious affair. As far as the village was concerned, Tal was always a man. Or rather, not quite a man, for Tal always seemed – for lack of a more suitable term – young. By all technical means he was an adult, but some might say that Tal had never truly grown up.

Plus, he was a bit short.

And now you have met Tal.

As we begin the tale, we find Tal wandering alone, conversing with, of all things, a daisy.

“Now I really don’t see what you’re so riffled about,” said Tal, staring at the daisy with some determination.

The daisy was very passive and merely bounced along and swayed with the rhythm of Tal’s stroll.

Tal, being the somewhat impatient and slightly hotheaded person that he is, ceased his walking and held the daisy close to his face. “Gonna have to make this difficult, huh? You daisies are all the same. I honestly don’t know why I bother talking to you at all.”

The daisy, being the patient and understanding kind of flower that it is, said nothing, but nodded agreeably in the breeze.

Tal was about to serve up a further commentary on the stubborn and impudent nature of daisies as a species, when another character entered the tale.

“Taaaaaal! Tal! Where are you Tal?”

Tal delivered a parting glare to the daisy – one that would have caused a lesser flower, such as a buttercup, to lose its petals or even wilt on the spot – and placed it down on the grass in a manner which, although not quite rude, was not entirely polite either. As Tal departed, the daisy sighed and mentioned to the blade of grass beside it that it was really quite a tragedy that humans were such an inattentive and self absorbed species.

Quite a tragedy indeed, agreed the blade of grass.

We now leave the daisy and the blade of grass (who had struck up an interesting conversation which went on for some time and involved topics ranging from the pleasant weather to the state of current politics) and we rejoin Tal as he makes his way toward the unknown character whose voice had called out his name.

Tal clambered through a thicket and into a clearing to find Julia, a beautiful young lady from the village, waiting for him. Her bright eyes peered at him from above her fair, lightly freckled cheeks, and from below her rich blond locks of hair. She lowered one shoulder slightly and slanted her hips, lending her body a draping and curvy appearance which could only be interpreted sensually.

“Oh. Hello Julia,” Tal greeted curtly.

Julia touched one finger to the tip of her nose and then pointed at Tal. “Elder wants to see ya, Tal.” Her voice was sweet, like honey. She winked at him, then spun and walked away towards the village.

It is with the mention of Elder that we are introduced to the third character in the tale. Unless, of course, you were to count the daisy and the blade of grass as characters, in which case this would be the fifth character we have met.

Third or fifth, the fact remains that we have not met Elder until now, and actually we haven’t even met him yet, we have just heard his name, so let’s get back to the events at hand before I get too far ahead of myself, shall we?

Shortly after Julia left the scene, coincidentally taking a large majority of the summer heat with her, Tal also began to trek back towards the village. There was nothing but woodlands for a while, but then he found the packed earthen path which wound to and from the village, and after that it was not long until he arrived. Tal walked into the village and exchanged a few words, glances, and/or nods with a small collection of villagers, who, for the purposes of this tale, shall remain little more than nameless and ultimately insignificant extras. Tal went straight to Elder’s hut and found it chugging out great puffs of black smoke through the small chimney-like vent at the top.

With a polite knock, Tal pushed aside the leather curtain doorway and immediately began to cough as smog billowed out. He blinked tears from his eyes and entered the hut, breathing as lightly as possible.

Elder sat on a cushion near the back of the hut, puffing laboriously on a monster of a pipe that had a special stand for it just to hold the end up. Elder was a small man with a big nose. His face hid behind a great mask of white hair, part of which was head hair, some of which was chin hair, and most of which was nose hair – great tufts of it that sprouted from his nostrils and drooped from his jaw in long strands that collected in hopelessly tangled knots on and around his lap.

Elder took a deliberately slow and deep pull from his pipe, held it for a count of five, and then blew the smoke between his lips into a thick black cloud that gathered around his head before dissipating and mixing with the smoldering fog that clung to everything in the room. He then raised his squinted eyes to Tal and blinked rapidly so that his great bushy eyebrows writhed and danced like fuzzy white caterpillars. “Talllll,” he said, drawing out the ‘l’ into a long low sound. “Thank you… for coming… I have news… mm… that may interest you… yes.”

Tal shut his eyes tightly, partly to keep the smoke from aggravating them and partly to avoid showing his frustration at the slow way Elder talked. “What news, Elder?”

Elder puffed on his pipe pensively for several moments before he continued. “I have news… that in another village… called Neighbor… someone… mm… has heard… about the whereabouts… of the Key… yes.”

Tal exhaled slowly. “The Key…” he repeated.

“You know…” Elder explained, “The Lost Key… for the Chest…yes.”

“I know the key you’re talking about.” A resolute expression settled on Tal’s face, “and I’m going to find it.” He strode from the hut before Elder could reply.

If we were to remain in the hut after Tal had exited the scene, we would have found Elder continuing to puff solemnly on his hulking pipe, and shortly thereafter we would have seen him shake his hairy head and mutter
something about the brazenness of today’s youth, and how when he was a young man he wouldn’t have stormed off so frivolously like that without his elder’s permission, and without properly preparing supplies or at least having the presence of mind to ask whether the village of Neighbor was to the north or to the south, but alas, since this is Tal’s Tale, and not Elder’s Tale, we are bound to follow Tal closely through the majority of the tale, and only rarely may we dwell on the occurrences of other characters when Tal is not present, so really we did not actually witness Elder do any of the things previously described in this lengthy run-on sentence.

So it was that Tal left Elder’s hut with a new determination in his step. He was on a quest to find the key, which shall be discussed, along with the aforementioned chest, in significantly greater detail in the following chapter.

~^~

To summarize, in Chapter 1 we have met three, or possibly five, important characters, one of whom happens to be the main character and also has his name in the title of the tale, as well as an assorted collection of extraneous villager characters, who are much less important (so much so that they don’t even have names). We have also learned of certain items and happenings that could collectively be considered the beginnings of a loose plot, one that will hopefully be developed more thoroughly in the second chapter (which shall be forthcoming as soon as this author has had a chance to refill his ink bottle, re-feather his quill pen and hopefully, all things willing, make a sandwich and eat it too).

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="5"]Chapter 2[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…in which we learn about the chest, and a journey begins.[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]I[/SIZE][/font]t was often said in the village that the Chest had always been there since the beginning of time, and perhaps even before that. It was certainly there long before this story began. The chest was a legend, you see, the source of many myths and moontales. It sat like sentinel at one end of the village, high on a grassy knoll. There was a cobble path that wound its way up the knoll to where the chest rested comfortably in a bed of spongy grass. Layers of ivy had crept all over the chest, hundreds of years ago, so thick and tight that it could not be removed by even the strongest men. Because of the ivy, nobody could remember what the chest underneath even looked like anymore. The only part of the chest that remained untouched by the ivy was the unblinking eye that was the keyhole. It stared out over the knoll, day after day – perhaps wistfully, perhaps not – at the village and its inhabitants as they went about their day to day business.

It was often said that the Key had always been there since the beginning of time, and perhaps even before that. If what was often said about the Chest was true, then what was often said about the Key must also have been true, because a chest is not very useful without a key, and likewise a key is not very useful without a chest, so a reasonably intellectual man can conclude that they both must have come into existence at roughly the same point in time.

Tragically, however, or perhaps in league with fate (since both tragedy and fate tend to have a nasty habit of messing things up), the Key was separated from the Chest, sometime between the beginning of time and today, and the Key became the Lost Key, which is a fitting name since it is, indeed, lost. Many, many ambitious explorers and adventurers have searched for the Lost Key through the pages of history, but none have come close to finding it, for the Key remains safely tucked away in fate’s hands, and as a storyteller like myself knows very well, fate has another nasty habit, which is to pick the most ordinary and most unlikely candidates to fulfill its, well, fate.

Which reminds me why I’m here: to tell Tal’s tale. Let’s check in on him, shall we?

~^~

Tal was walking toward village’s south gate, which was usually kept locked because the southern lands were considered dangerous. Tal, who was not quite as brazen and unthinking as Elder had fictionally claimed, had gone home and packed some simple provisions into a satchel that was now slung over his shoulder. He paused near the base of the knoll and looked up at the Chest, which stared back at him earnestly as if to say please find the Key, Tal, so I can finally be opened.

Tal lowered his head, possibly out of respect but more likely because the sun was in his eyes, and turned to the gate, where a new character awaited him.

The man was a guard, some of the time at least. He is not quite important enough to be included in the main cast, but he is important enough to have a name, which puts him an arm, a leg, and maybe even a toe above the rest of the extra characters. His name was Raj-jad, and when you say it you slur the two j’s together so that it sounds more like Rajad.

Raj-jad folded his arms when Tal approached and said, in his thick accent, “Whet d’ yew whan’, Tal?” When he said Tal it sounded like Tahul. “Yew know yew’re nut s’pose t’ come tharough hare.”

“I know, Raj-jad,” Tal said, “But I have to get to the Neighbor village because someone there knows where the Lost Key is.”

Raj-jad scrutinized Tal thoughtfully. “Theh Los’ Key, eh? Theh woon fer theh Ches’?”

Tal nodded.

Raj-jad squinted one of his eyes, “Naybhor veelage, yew say?” Suddenly he slapped his knee with one of his big hands and burst into a great chuckling guffaw. “Ah, Tal yew lunk! Naybhor veelage is to th’ Neorth! Hwah hwah hwa hwah.” He continued to laugh, pointing towards the north gate.

Abashed, Tal muttered a quick thank you and slipped away from Raj-jad with as much dignity as he could muster. He walked back through the heart of the village and soon came to the north gate, which was never locked. It was while Tal was opening the gate that he encountered Julia for the second time that day.

She approached like a cat. “Where ya going, Tal?”

Tal pushed open the gate and walked through, barely glancing over his shoulder at Julia. “I’m going to the village of Neighbor to find the Lost Key.”

Julia assumed a more normal stance. She followed Tal through the gate and fell into stride beside him. “Oh, that sounds exciting.”

“Yep,” Tal agreed. They walked in silence for several minutes, then Tal said, “Julia, do you have business in Neighbor?”

Julia shrugged her shoulders slightly, “No, not really, but I thought I would tag along with you,” she paused and winked luxuriously at him, “if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” Tal said noncommittally.

They trekked for an hour or so, along paths and beside streams and over hills and through valleys, making idle conversation from time to time but mostly keeping to themselves. Tal had never had much of a reason to be interested in the girls of the village (he always considered them to be more trouble than they’re worth), but Julia, at least, seemed be showing some interest in Tal. It was a strange thing at that, because Tal, although handsome enough, had always been a little bit shy and a little bit awkward, and Julia was considered to be the prettiest girl in the village and was quite the envy of many of the single young men, and even of some of the older married men.

Nevertheless, Tal refused to be distracted from his quest, and so he kept his eyes eagerly peeled for any sign of Neighbor village. Any sign of Neighbor village came soon enough in the form of a grubby fence that peeked at them through the woods. Tal and Julia angled towards it, and shortly emerged near the gate into the village of Neighbor. The word gate, when applied to this particular gate, must be stretched very much indeed, or perhaps it must be shrunk, for the gate into Neighbor was a very small and ramshackle affair that could probably have been easily knocked over by the bugle of a giant Blowbug (quite galeful creatures, you see) or by the breath of a small giant.

There was no guard at the gate, so Tal pushed it open on its rickety hinges and he and Julia entered Neighbor, where information on the oh-so-elusive key was somewhere hiding away. They had not gone far into the village when something happened that could not have been reasonably expected, most especially in a village that bore the name of Neighbor.

~^~

But what that reasonably unexpected something is will have to wait until Chapter 3. Yes, I know, I’m very sorry, but you will just have to be patient. This is what’s known in many circles as “leaving the reader hanging,” and I must assure you that it is a very useful tool for making positive that my readers will continue to, well, read.

So, to summarize, in Chapter 2 we have been educated about the history and the mysterious nature of the Key and the Chest, and we have met a new character who is fairly unimportant (though just important enough to be named). We have also followed Tal while he begins his quest and through Julia’s actions we have learned some of her true feelings toward Tal. On top of that, we have been left hanging in a most abrupt fashion. However, it is because of this that I am fully convinced I will be seeing you in the next chapter. You may get a snack if you must, but don’t change the channel, because Chapter 3 will be coming up right after the break!

[Felix]

[SIZE="6"][font="Book Antiqua"]Chapter 3[/font][/SIZE]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…in which it is discovered that the name chosen for Neighborly Village was a very poorly chosen name indeed. [/font]

[SIZE="6"][font="Book Antiqua"]W[/font][/SIZE]elcome back. I am well aware that I unjustly left you hanging at the conclusion of Chapter 2. Thus, rather than stalling further (and in so doing heightening the sense of suspense, anticipation, intrigue, etc., which, in a majority of contexts, serves as another excellent hook for writers to maintain their audience’s intactness, but due to the circumstances at hand, and also because of my own undeniable impatience, shall be fairly well avoided here), I shall instead hack, maim, and decapitate any further pontification that may have been creeping around inside my brain, awaiting its chance to escape through my fingers, and by extension the computer keys so that it can dance freely across this page with nary a restriction to hinder it. Except that I, and not just I but also my willpower within, shall hinder it, so that it may never escape to roam unchecked through the white lands below, lands that may be resided in only by the words that further the telling of the tale of Tal. And so I will hack, maim, and decapitate any further pontification, and I shall bury it in a shallow grave. No, don’t hail me as a hero. I am only doing this for the good of the story, so that it may be told without any undue hindrances and distractions. And now that the pontificatiosaurus has been slain, let us stomp upon the fingers that bind us to this cliff from which we hang, and fall down, down, down, back into the tale…

~^~

Tal and Julia had not gone more than a few yards into Neighborly Village when something quite unexpected happened, something that I didn’t even expect, and I’m the writer, so if it surprised me then it should surely surprise you only that much more.

“Halt intruders!” The voice shot out - quick and sharp like a bullet - from one of the closest houses, which was in factuality was not so much a house as it was a squat, shack-like affair with dozens of sharpened stakes perched on top, arranged defensively like a parapet.

Tal and Julia halted, while a heavily armored head appeared from over the makeshift rampart. “Who goes there?” It called gruffly.

Tal started to take a step toward the guard but leapt back instead as an arrow suddenly flew from nowhere and buried itself an inch from his toes. Julia yelped and dashed behind Tal, gripping his arm tightly. “Hey!” Tal yelled. “What’s the big idea?”

“We said halt,” came another voice from another house. This house was equally barricaded and Tal soon saw that every other house in the village was the same. The owner of the second voice stood up, clutching a crossbow. Like the first guard, he was also covered neck to toe in metal mail and armor, and on his head was an enveloping helmet with only two miniscule slits for his eyes.

He shifted his cross bow to his left hand, hefted it against his shoulder, raised his right hand to his mouth and made a sharp whistle with his fingers. Instantly hundreds of guards appeared from everywhere and from nowhere. Rows upon rows of crossbow archers rose up from what seemed like every roof in the village, and dozens of armor-clad soldiers filed out from inside the houses or popped out from behind sheds, piles of tools, or various other hiding spots.

Tal could not see the first guard’s face (or any of the guards’ for that matter) but he could somehow still tell that the guard was smirking beneath that helmet of his as he said, “And when we say halt, we mean it.”

An odd mixture of fear and indignation coursed through Tal. He clenched his fists and was about to berate the guards for this atrocious treatment when Julia beat him to the punch. She emerged, red-faced, from behind Tal, “This is ridiculous! What kind of stupid show are you trying to run here, huh?! We didn’t do anything and you’re treating us like criminals! Is this how you handle all your guests?! I won’t stand for it! You’re Neighborly Village, for Heaven’s sake! This village is legendary for its hospitality and kindness. What happened?!”

During her tirade Julia had been steadily creeping forward. Tal, having found a new sense of level headedness after watching Julia fly off the handle, gripped her shoulders and pulled her gently a few feet back. “Calm down, Julia. Perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding. Let’s see what they have to say.”

“The boy’s wise,” the crossbow guard declared in an amused tone, earning himself a withering glare from Julia. “There is a terrible misunderstanding. Neighborly village has never been a hospitable place. The legend is only because of our name. Anyone who has ever been here can tell you, in roundabout terms, that we are rude cads who would even turn away a starving homeless man. There is nothing we hate more than intruders.”

“You mean guests?” Julia challenged.

“No. We take no guests, so there are only intruders.”

“Aye,” the first guard chimed in. “Nobody can remember who originally chose the name for this village, but it is a very ironic name indeed, for we are not neighborly in the least. A better name would have been Hostile Village, or Danger! Stay away! Village.” The other guards thought that this was simply hilarious and began to laugh heartily at the joke.

“Aren’t there any villagers other than guards?” Tal asked, “Women? Children?”

“There are only guards,” a female voice replied. After a moment Tal realized that it was coming from behind the helm of one of the soldiers standing in a doorway. “Men and women are both guards, and the children spend their childhood training until they become guards at 13.”

Tal winced as Julia’s fingernails dug into his arm. He felt slightly sick himself. “Why?” He asked.

“So we can keep intruders out of our village,” the female guard explained, as if that was the most obvious answer.

Tal began to wonder how anything related to the Key could possibly be found in this village, but Elder had said that word on the whereabouts of the Key had been heard here, and Elder had never been wrong before. Perhaps that was the real reason for all the guards; maybe they were guarding the secret of the Key. Maybe they even had the Key here! The thought sent excited chills through Tal’s bones.

Tal decided then to change tact, to try to find out the truth. “Oh valiant and vigilant guards of Neighborly, please find it within your stalwart hearts to forgive us for this terrible and insulting intrusion. We do not wish to tread any further upon the sacred ground of your noble village, but we have come because we seek information on a key… the Lost Key of the Legendary Chest. A reliable source has told us that this village may have information about it. If you can tell us something… anything about it we will extract ourselves from your hair at once.”

There was a long uncomfortable silence, in which many of the guards exchanged curious looks with each other and some of the guards exchanged knowing looks with each other. A guard who had not spoken before jeered, “Why should we tell you anything? You ain’t coming in here either way so why don’t you just beat it?”

“Come, come,” the crossbow guard chided. “We may be inhospitable but that doesn’t mean we have to be total barbarians.” To Tal he said, “We may know something or other of this Key, or at least of someone who can help you find it. If we tell you this, will you promise to leave immediately and never again intrude upon this village?”


(chapter continued below)

[Felix]

(chapter 3 continued from above)


“We promise!” Julia said with no hesitation.

“I promise,” Tal agreed.

“Very well,” said the guard. “If you do come back, we will kill you.” He gestured at the female guard who had spoken before. “Tana, tell them. You knew Blue best.”

The one who we can only assume was called Tana took a step forward. “Yes I knew Blue very well,” she said. Her voice echoed with a tinny ping as it filtered through her metal mask. “He never truly belonged here. He couldn’t understand why we guard ourselves so carefully from intruders. He wanted to leave. If there is one thing worse than intruders, it’s deserters. Nobody had ever tried to leave before, so we didn’t know how to guard ourselves from within, and one day he simply just walked out. That was several years ago. We didn’t think we would ever see him again, but we were proven wrong when he visited us five days ago…” Tana paused and readjusted her armor over her shoulders. It clanked loudly as the metal plates slapped against each other. “Blue showed up again. He was different than we remembered. He wouldn’t stop talking about this Key. He seemed obsessed with it. We wouldn’t let him back into the village, of course, but they sent me out to talk with him… because we had grown up together and I was close to him. He told me that he knew where the Key was, and that he wanted me to come help him find it, but I knew my place. I would never be a deserter and so I told him no. Then he gave me a map, and told me to catch up if I decided to change my mind, and then he left.” Tana fell silent, and Tal couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her.

“Do you still have the map?” Tal ventured hopefully.

“No,” the crossbow guard cut in before Tana could reply, “and if we did have it we wouldn’t just give it to you. She told you what you wanted so now you have to leave.”

“Now hold on,” Julia spoke up, “The deal was that you would tell us what you know about the Key, and a map showing where it is definitely qualifies as knowledge about the key, don’t you think? To fulfill your end of the deal you have to at least let us see the map.”

The guard was about to object when Tana lifted a hand to silence him. “It won’t do any harm to let them see it,” she said. “We’re so busy guarding our village that we won’t be using it to chase after a silly legend, right?”

The crossbow guard clearly didn’t approve of the way she had worded it, but he couldn’t argue, so he remained stoic, but held his crossbow tighter than ever.

Tana approached them slowly, reached into a pocket under her armor and removed a rolled up slip of parchment tied off with a blue ribbon. She halted 10 feet away and tossed the paper lightly to Tal, who quickly untied it, unrolled it, and with shining eyes stared hungrily at its face. A crude map, little more than a doodle, was drawn across it in thick blue chalk.

“You may keep it.” Tana stated with a note of final detachment, before she turned and rejoined the ranks of her fellow guardsmen and guardswomen.

Tal re-rolled the map and slipped it into a pocket in his tunic. He bowed quickly and unelaborately, “Thank you, denizens of Neighborly Village. Your cooperation has been most gracious and more than we could have expected. As promised, we will never set foot in this village again, and we will willfully urge others to do the same.” He and Julia backed away, neither one willing to turn their backs on the scores of archers glaring their way. They stumbled back through the gate, and when they were more than a safe distance away, they turned and ran away through the trees.

Tal and Julia came to a halt when Neighborly Village was no longer in sight at all. Tal stared at Julia, who returned his gaze unflinchingly. She looked somewhat ruffled and scared, but then she regained her composure and winked, “That was fun.”

Tal sighed and leaned against a thick tree trunk. “Well you have a weird sense of fun then.” He smiled, and then looked at her seriously. “I’m sorry I got you into that mess. I’ll walk you back home and then I’m going to try to follow this map. I don’t want to put you in any more danger.”

“You kidding?” Julia asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I feel more alive than ever right now, and I’m coming with you wherever this harebrained quest leads us.” She leaned over and delivered a light peck on Tal’s cheek. “Plus I don’t want to have to be separated from you.” It was the first time a girl had been so forward with Tal, and it caused him to blush madly.

“O-ok, you can come” Tal said, removing the map from his pocket and fumbling to open it. Anything to change the subject. “Let’s take a look at this map then…”

~^~

Ah, romance. Where would any good story be without it? Granted this is not your very ordinary story, but then, neither is Tal and Julia’s romance a very ordinary romance. I can’t tell you if it ends in true love or in heartbreak, because that would totally destroy the magic of love, the risk… the mystery. Ah, romance. I’m such a sucker for it. Maybe I should write a romance story someday. This is certainly not a romance story, but like I said before, where would any good story be without at least a little romance? To be honest I don’t even know where Tal and Julia’s romance will go. I may have written the characters into existence, and to a certain extent I control their actions and personalities, but let me tell you, dear reader, that Tal and Julia and all the other characters you have met thus far… they are as real as you are I. They develop on their own, and many of the things they choose to say or do I have no control over. Bizarre, impossible, you may say, but it is true. I could try to make Tal turn into a blue walrus, but I simply could not, because he is not a blue walrus, he is Tal. Now, I could write a new character into existence who is a blue walrus, and I could name him Tal, but the original Tal would still be Tal, and not a blue walrus. Nothing would have changed. And if I decided to make Julia shy… well, I could try. I could cause her to do some shy things, perhaps, but in the end she would still be flirtatious and outspoken, because that is who Julia is. You see? It makes perfect sense really… but I don’t know how to explain it. Suffice it to say that Tal and Julia are, indeed, real, and they do, indeed, have a real romance, and I have no sway or control over where it goes or how it ends, so I am clueless just like you are. Ah, romance. How exciting!

To summarize, in Chapter 3 we have traveled into a much more plot-heavy area of the story, where things are beginning to happen more quickly and more precisely with somewhat less commentary and circumlocution from yours truly, which to be quite and perfectly honest makes me a little sad too, but is probably necessary for the proper advancement of the story. Fear not, though. As you can tell from my spiel on love (which can be found about 7 lines above in case you missed it before) I am still alive and kicking and will find many opportune, and some not so opportune moments to chime in with my 2, 3, or even 4 cents worth of wisdom or lack thereof. Speaking of which, I was in the midst of summarizing when I got off track again. Bad me.

We have also met the citizens of Neighborly village, who are a pretty stiff lot if you ask me, and we have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that Neighborly was a very poor name to give to that particular village. We have also witnessed Tal gain possession of a map which supposedly leads to the location of the Lost Key, and which will surely be a rather important plot device in Chapter 4. Finally, we have witnessed what could be considered the true birth of a beautiful romance between Tal and Julia, a romance that remains as much a mystery to me as it does to any of you. Glee!

Adieu for now, and see you all next chapter.

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 4[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…which mostly deals with how not to offend a map, and in which Tal makes a new friend.[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]H[/SIZE][/font]ello again. Congratulations on making it to Chapter 4, where only a handful – and a troll’s handful, mind you, which are somewhat smaller than a human-sized handful – have ever been, which is perhaps, I might speculate, because they weren’t quite… what’s the word… insane enough (or perhaps what I mean to say is “inane enough.” I can never quite tell which one it is because of that tricky little ‘s’ always sneaking in there. Well, insane or inane, I know for sure that they weren’t quite something enough) to make it to this chapter, which to be quite perfectly frank with you is neither sane nor nane.

But there I go talking too much again, and if I’m not careful I may lose you before we can even truly start Chapter 4, and then my chickens will have hatched before I can count them, and if you have ever tried counting chickens before you will know that it isn’t quite as easy as most people think and doing so before they hatch is nigh impossible.

Therefore, in order to keep you from hatching before I have counted you, I have put things to a vote, and with a final tally of one vote to none, I have decided to shut my trapeze and get along with the tale. Fair enough? Well it was voted on and that’s about as fair as you can get so I don’t want to hear anyone complaining ok?

~^~

When we last left Tal and Julia, they had just opened Blue’s map, which they had recently obtained at the curiously hostile Neighborly Village. Let’s watch and see what happens next.

“I can’t read it at all,” Tal was saying as he resignedly handed the map over to Julia, who scrutinized it fiercely and then scratched the side of her head and scrutinized it again. After her second failed attempt she turned the map sideways and scrutinized it a third time.

“This looks like a tree to me,” she finally said, pointing at a mostly anamorphic chalk scribble that, with the aid of some imagination, could look like a very ugly tree.

Tal took the map and eyed the scribble, then gave Julia a tired look and motioned at the forest around them, in which resided elevens upon elevens (because dozens is a boring and overused word) of trees.

“Oh,” was all Julia said, and then she sat down on a bed of moss and sulked.

Tal rarely had fits or frustration or outbursts of anger, but “rarely” assumes that there is also a “sometimes” and just such a sometime was about to occur. “This stupid map is useless!” Tal screamed, and chucked the map as far as he possibly, and perhaps even a little farther than he possibly could. Except that the map didn’t get that far. It stopped in midair, near the lower branches of a close tree, and hovered there, fluttering in a nonexistent breeze. Tal and Julia watched, fixated, as a blue glowing light emanated from the map, and it began to fold in on itself, twisting and contorting in a fantastic midair origami show. And then the map was a bird, or at the very least it was a paper bird. The blue chalk marks that had once been merely scribbles on a map were now beautiful blue streaks of plumage on this magical map bird.

The map beat its paper wings quickly like a small songbird as it whizzed down over Julia’s head and stopped in front of Tal’s face. Two blue chalk marks made the bird’s eyes, which now stared unblinking into Tal’s own. Then the map ruffled its paper feathers haughtily and swooped away where it perched on a tree branch and sat watching them.

“I think it’s offended by what I said,” Tal muttered.

“So go apologize to it,” Julia whispered in return.

“Apologize to a map? That’s ridiculous,” Tal snorted.

“So is a map that turns into a bird,” Julia shot back.

“Ok you win.” Tal walked over to the tree where the map bird sat and looked up into the branches. “Excuse me, um, Mr. Map? Or is it Ms. Map?”

The map bridled in offense at the gender confusion.

“I’m terribly sorry, but you see, all you maps look the same to me,” Tal admitted.

This was met with abject horror from the map. With an indignant rustle it hopped off the branch and shot out of sight between the trees.

“Wait!” Tal shouted, sprinting off after the map and heedlessly crashing through brush and brambles, “I’m sorry I called you stupid and useless! Wait, come back!” He tripped his way through a nest of vines and stumbled into another clearing, followed shortly by Julia who was having a much easier time by staying in Tal’s wake. The map was waiting for them in the clearing, staring with those cold blue eyes. As soon as they arrived the map swooped away again through the forest, and the chase resumed.

It went on like this for close to an hour. Just when Tal thought that he had lost the map, he would find it waiting for him in the next clearing or around the next bend. And then it would take off again, never giving him time to stop or rest. By now Tal and Julia were both panting and wheezing heavily, exhausted and dehydrated, and Tal was covered head to foot in cuts and scratches from the branches and brambles, as opposed to Julia’s skin, which was mostly intact.

After a particularly nasty bout with a tangle of thorn-ridden weeds, Tal virtually fell into yet another clearing, and was joined soon after by a distraught and disheveled Julia.

“Oh. Hello there.”

(chapter continued below)

[Felix]

(chapter 4 continued from above)

Standing in the clearing was a young man, roughly the same age as Tal, wearing a long blue traveling cloak and clutching a gnarled staff. Under his mop of shaggy black hair was a tan, well-worn face that seemed aged well beyond his short years. The paper map bird was perched loyally on his shoulder where it stared at Tal with its piercing gaze.

“Hi,” Tal ventured as he picked thorns and burs from his clothes, and then, when the man made no effort toward furthering the conversation at all, Tal added, “Are you Blue?”

The man scratched his chin, perhaps tending to the small garden of stubble that was growing there, and replied, “You know me?”

Tal motioned to the map bird. “We followed your map here.”

Blue patted the bird lovingly on the head. “His name is Rupert. You’re the ones he led to me?” Blue glanced past Tal and Julia into the woods. “Where’s Tana?”

Tal quickly told Blue how they had recieved the map from Tana, and how they were also looking for the Key.

“I see…” Blue said. “Now I know for sure that she won’t come.” He sighed, staring at his boots, but then an invisible load seemed to shift from his shoulders and he straightened slightly, eyes brightening. “But now I have you two for company. Since I parted with Rupert five days ago I’ve just been so lonely. What are your names?”

They told him, and Blue bowed graciously to each, adding a kiss on the hand as a special addition for Julia.

After their introductions, Julia posed the question that Tal had been itching to ask since they first met Blue, “I thought the map… er… Rupert, was supposed to lead us to the Key?”

“Is that what you understood?” Blue replied. “No, Rupert was supposed to lead Tana to me so we could find it together.” He sighed. “I was in love with her you know. I never told her, but I was.” He stared at nothing for a while, then seemed to collect his thoughts and continued, “I haven’t actually found the Key yet, but I know I’m close. Infuriatingly close. I can taste it.”

“Can we travel with you?” Tal asked, more for the sake of politeness than for necessity to know, because the answer was already plain.

“Of course! Three heads are better than one. Four, if you count Rupert.” The map bird preened its wings self-consciously

“Great,” Tal said, clapping his hands together. “Which way?”

“Um.” Blue licked the tip of his finger and held it up to test the wind – for what reason and usefulness Tal could not quite fathom – and replied, while stabbing his finger through the air, “That way.”

Tal was not about to argue, although he could not deny his curiosity as to how Blue knew where to look for the Key. A voice in his head, perhaps? A vision? A random guess? It was a mystery, but still it was nice to have a form of direction to the search.

“Let’s go then,” Julia proposed, tossing her hair prettily despite the scattered twigs that still clung to it. She took Tal’s hand and they set off, along with Blue, their new guide of sorts, and Rupert, his bona fide map bird, to finally, if not once and for all find the legendary Lost Key and solve the mystery of the chest.

~^~

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ..I’m terribly sorry. Really, I apologize. I feel dreadful. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s because… I’m really shamed to admit it, but I absolutely can’t come up with anything to scribe for my wordy and some might say witty little spiels that I often enjoy concluding chapters with. Oh dear, and I’ve just ended a sentence with a preposition, so as you can clearly see, my grammatical mastery has gone completely kaputz. Is kaputz even a word? Good gracious I’m slaughtering this. I should just stop now before I make a total wreck of my writing career. What will the editors think of this? I cry to think of it. Perhaps I should just delete this all now, backspace it into oblivion. But to me, every word and every sentence I produce is like a child to me, and to delete it… that would be like deleting my little son or my daughter. I couldn’t do it. So even if my word baby is ugly and deformed, I will choose to keep it, and to cherish it and raise it with tender loving care through thick and thin, or at least until the end of this paragraph. And would you look at that, my writer’s block and complete vocabular manglement has actually provided for me a beautiful pontification to end this chapter with. Take that, dangling prepositions.

To summarize, in Chapter 4, we have learned that you should never call a map stupid or useless, and you should probably not throw it through the air either, and you should definitely never confuse its gender. We also learned that maps can be birds, and that they can have names too. We have watched Tal and Julia follow the map and meet up with Blue, a new face whose name was first mentioned last chapter, and we have just seen the newly formed group set off “that way” in what shall hopefully be the conclusion to the search for the Lost Key. We’ll just have to wait until next chapter, or maybe the chapter after that, to find out for sure.

Until that time, Godspeed, and watch out for those prepositions! You never know where they might be hiding at.

[Felix]

[font="Palatino Linotype"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 5[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Palatino Linotype"]…which involves some exploration, an explanation, and a daisy.[/font]

[SIZE="6"][font="Palatino Linotype"]A[/font][/SIZE]s the four of them traveled, Tal presently found it imperative to ask, if for no other reason than to satisfy his own considerable curiosity, how Blue knew which way to go and where to look for the Key. Doing so was more difficult than he had anticipated, however, because Blue had struck up a lovely conversation with Julia and it showed no signs of puttering out anytime soon.

There was a brief lull in the conversation, after Blue had posed a question about Julia’s family, but before she had a chance to reply, which was an opportune moment for Tal to interrupt with, “Blue, how do you seem so certain of which way we should be going and where we should be searching for the Key?” Julia seemed slightly put out at being cut off so rudely, but she was also curious to hear Blue’s response so she let it slide.

“Well,” Blue began, waving his arms in an ambiguous fashion, there’s this sort of energy in the air sometimes. It’s almost like a whiff of something, but you can feel it. It feels like magic. There aren’t many people in the world who can feel this energy, but I discovered that I am one of them. And when I feel it, I know that the energy is coming from something old and magical. And the only thing I know of in the world right now that is old and magical is the Lost Key.”

“So…” Tal said, “Presumably, or at least hopefully, if we can follow this energy, it should lead us to the Key?”

“That’s the idea,” Blue replied proudly. “It’s the best lead so far, anyway.”

“Can you feel the magical energy right now?” Julia inquired with interest.

“Well… no,” Blue admitted, somewhat shamefaced, “I found a strong trail of the energy a little over a week ago, and I began to follow it. Oddly enough it led me right past Neighborly, my old home. That was when I implored Tana to join me in my search, and when she would not I left Rupert with her, hoping she would catch up before I got too far ahead. Tragically, several days after that the trail of energy dwindled until I could hardly feel it anymore, and then it disappeared entirely. It was a dead end. I was wandering aimlessly, hoping I would be able to pick up another trail nearby, when you two showed up.”

Tal was silent for a moment, then, “So, that’s what we’re doing now? Wandering aimlessly in search of invisible magic energy that only you can feel?”

“Well it sounds rather silly when you put it like that,” Protested Blue, “but yes, that’s more or less what we’re doing. Back where we first set off together, I thought that I had caught a tiny glimmer of the energy coming from this direction, so that’s why I picked this way.”

“Have you felt it again?” Julia asked.

“Not yet,” Blue said, and then added under his breath, “What I wouldn’t give to have a daisy-talker with us on the search.”

“A daisy-talker?” Julia repeated, perplexed. “How would that help us?”

“Daisies, you see,” began Blue, “are quite excellent at picking up on magical energies. I wasn’t aware of this myself until one day while I was following the previous trail of energy, I noticed that all of the daisies I encountered along my path were leaning and growing in the direction that the energy was flowing. I did some research on the matter in the library of a small village I was resting at, and my observations were confirmed. If we had someone who could talk to daisies, we could ask them if they could feel any energy, since they are much more sensitive to it than I am.”

“I’m a daisy-talker.” Tal stated.

“You are?” Blue asked.

“You are?” Julia echoed.

“Yes,” replied Tal. “Didn’t you wonder why I often was in the woods by myself talking to them?”

“To be honest I just thought you were a little crazy,” Julia admitted.

“Well I’m not,” Tal huffed. He looked at Blue. “If we find a daisy I can ask it.”

“This is a fortunate turn of events!” Blue cried happily. “I never could have believed that I would be lucky enough to meet up with a daisy-talker. Do you have any idea how rare you are?”

“Well… no, I don’t.” Said Tal.

“There are only two other known daisy-talkers in the world, and one of them is dead.”

“Wow,” Tal replied, surprised.

A simple plan was soon established. They continued along in relatively the same fashion as before, but now everyone was scouring the ground and nearby foliage for any sign of a daisy. Julia gave a false alarm when she spotted a daffodil, but otherwise there was little excitement and everyone remained silent and focused.

Presently, Rupert gave a little rustle and launched himself from Blue’s shoulder and disappeared through the woods. Blue made a comment about Rupert being a scamp and not staying to help look for daisies. After about five minutes, however, Rupert returned, and he was clutching, in his paper claws, of all things, a daisy!

“Rupert!” Blue cried, overjoyed. “Good boy! You found one!”

Rupert dropped the daisy into Blue’s outstretched hand and settled himself comfortably back on Blue’s shoulder, appearing to be very content with himself.

Blue quickly handed the daisy to Tal. “Let’s not tarry,” he declared. “Hurry and ask it!”

Tal took the daisy gently and looked very seriously at Blue. “Easy, now. One has to be very polite and particular when talking to a daisy. If you make it feel rushed or offended then it will just shut up and you won’t be able to get any information out of it at all, I say.”

Blue glanced at the daisy with a new kind of understanding. “Oh.”
Tal cleared his throat and peered at the daisy. “Excuse me,” he said in his most formal voice. “Sorry to bother you, Daisy, but I have a question for you.”

There was a light breeze which caused the daisy’s petals to sway and flutter. Tal squinted his eyes and appeared to be listening to something. He looked up at his friends, “It says that it is totally put off by the way it was roughly carried here by Rupert, and it would rather not talk to me unless the bird is gone.” Tal listened to the daisy again. “Oh. Now it says that it would like to go somewhere private. If you’ll excuse me…” Without looking at Julia or Blue, Tal stepped behind some bushes and out of sight.

(continued below)

[Felix]

(chapter 5 continued from above)

There ensued a long period of time where the only sound to be heard was Tal’s faint whispering to the flower, and the following silence while he heard its inaudible responses. Julia glanced at Blue, and Blue glanced likewise at Julia. If this wasn’t odd, they didn’t know what was. But the ways of a daisy-talker are very mysterious, so they didn’t attempt to pretend to understand.

Finally, Tal reappeared, looking very pleased. The daisy was gone. “It was very helpful,” he began. “It said that it noticed the energy very faintly here, which in itself is not very helpful I suppose, but it also told me that some of its daisy kin came to visit recently, and they said that from where they came from it was strong. Really strong! It told me which way to go, and where to find its kin. When I asked about the Key it said that daisies don’t much care about such legends, but that it had heard stories from the same kin that they had seen the key before, where they live!”

Blue gave a small whoop of victory. “It’s even better than I had hoped! What a lead!” He ran over and hugged Tal, “You did it!”

Julia joined in on the celebration, and suddenly she was in Tal’s arms, and before Tal was quite sure what he was doing, his lips were on hers, and they lost themselves in a passionate kiss.

Blue looked on, smiling, with perhaps a small amount of good-natured envy, and stroked Rupert. “Well, my boy.” He said to his faithful map-bird, “looks like we’re really actually going to find the Lost Key. We’ll be legends!”

~^~

You may have noticed, dear reader, that I conspicuously failed to introduce this chapter with a…. well, with an introduction. I would like to imagine that this owes its debt to the fact that I am striving, in my own right, against the becoming of a creature, a man, or an anything else of habit. Not that habit in a constructive way is not a fine thing, mind you, but at least in the writing world, some authors (or storytellers, as the case may be) have a crass tendency to find a certain pattern – a niche, if you will – and stick to it through the entire narration as peanut butter sticks to the roof of a dog’s mouth. Unlike peanut butter, however, this sort of sticking is neither peanuty nor buttery, and certainly not in the least tasty. When seriously overused, it may even lead to the infamous put-down; that is, the thing all writers dread the most. It occurs when the reader puts down the book or the scroll or the what-have-you that the story is scribed upon, and never picks it up again. Ever. Dramatic as this may be, it has been known to occur, and if by carefully avoiding the formation of completely habitual writing, er, habits, I may also perhaps lower the chances of the infamous put-down by even 1 percent, I will gladly do so, and I have done so.
Also, on a lesser note, leaving out the introduction of this chapter achieves another end, which is that which we in the writing business like to call “keeping the reader on their toes.” It is another hook, in a sense, not so effective at keeping the reader in the story from chapter to chapter (like leaving the reader hanging does) but more effective at keeping the reader intrigued and away from boredom, which is something else that can ultimately lead to the infamous put-down, but that’s an explanation for another chapter’s conclusion (assuming there will be one next chapter.)

To summarize, in chapter 5 we-

Hahaha, just kidding. You don’t get a summary this chapter. Stay on your toes!

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 6[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…in which there is a lime tree, and a song.[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]T[/SIZE][/font]here comes a point in certain tales, when the story ceases to be “told,â€

[Felix]

(continued from above)

Tal attempted to inquire about the guardian, but the daisy would say little about it but to “be sure you are equipped for a fight.” Finally Tal gave up and instead asked, “Okay, then would you please be kind of enough to tell me how to find the Key, or the Guardian who has the Key?”

“Since you have your mind made up, I see no reason not to tell you,” the daisy replied. It then proceeded – with several helpful comments, inputs, and reminders from its kin – to tell Tal how to get to the place where the Key lies.

About halfway through the directions, however, Tal had to interrupt. “Hold on a moment,” he said to the daisy. He turned to face Julia and Blue (who had been standing behind him the whole time, and now looked thoroughly confused, since through the whole exchange thus far they had only been able to hear Tal’s side of the conversation) and asked Blue, “Do you have something I can write on? These instructions are complicated.”

Blue’s curiosity showed thick in his voice as he replied, “Just speak it out loud as the daisy tells it to you, and Rupert will hear it and remember it. He’s a map bird so he’s excellent at that sort of thing.” Rupert was still dozing, so Blue gave him a sharp nudge which caused the paper bird to jerk upright and squawk (as only paper can squawk) indignantly. “Listen up,” Blue chided.

Tal nicely asked the daisy to start again at the beginning, and as the daisy obliged, he spoke the directions aloud to Rupert, who blinked his chalky blue eyes rapidly while he soaked it all in.

When the daisy was through, Tal thanked it enthusiastically, several times, and delivered some amiable thanks and farewells to the rest of the daisies, which sent back a few short, reasonably polite replies before resuming their individual conversations where they had left off before Tal had arrived.

They left the area of the daisy ring, and shortly thereafter Rupert leapt from Blue’s shoulder and began to lead the way along their new route, which the bird seemed to have effortlessly memorized.

Julia clutched Tal’s arm affectionately as they followed Rupert through the woods and up the slope they were still on. “That was brilliant,” she said.

“Aye,” Blue concurred from his position behind the two young lovers. “I didn’t follow most of what went on back there, but well done! We practically have the Key already!”

Tal looked up at the darkening sky that peeked back down at him faintly through the sparse canopy overhead. During his conversation with the daisies, night had all but fallen, and the now-chilly air caused Tal to shiver, which by extension caused Julia to tighten her hold on his arm. “I’m a bit worried about this Guardian the daisy spoke of, though,” Tal said pensively. “It sounds dangerous, and I think the last thing we want to do is face off with a mysterious guardian in the dark. The Key has been around since forever. It can wait one more day. And I’m starved.”

Blue, more than any of them, seemed especially eager to reach the Key tonight, but he nodded his agreement. “You’re right, and I’m blasted hungry.” He pointed to a tree several yards distant, which was dotted with an abundance of small green limes. There was a thick blanket of spongy moss under the tree, and its thickly foliated limbs created a nice amount of shelter. “Let’s camp under that lime tree and try to build a fire while there’s still some light.”

The suggestion seemed sensible to everyone, so they moved under the indicated tree. Rupert promptly flitted up onto a low branch where he perched himself and feel asleep, and Julia sat down cross-legged on the soft moss and leaned her back against the lime tree. Tal and Blue set off and searched the nearby area for suitably dry sticks and limbs to use as fodder for a fire. Once they had collected enough, they returned to the camp and tore up a large circular patch of moss so the soft soil beneath was exposed. Tal dumped the kindling in the middle of the circle while Blue produced a flint and stone from a pouch on his waste and began striking sparks at the thinnest twigs. It took around ten frustrating minutes to get the fire going, but eventually they were successful, and after five more minutes it was blazing merrily, bathing the camp in warmth and a soft glow.

Blue, ever resourceful, then procured a fair amount of dried meat, a loaf of bread, and a flask of water from another pouch on his person. He divvied up the food between the three of them, and Tal reached up into the lower branches of the tree and plucked three limes. They ate the food merrily, passing the water flask around as needed. Tal was the only one who was able to eat his whole lime. Julia licked hers, made a face, and tossed it away, while Blue managed a few bites before he said “sour,” and ditched his as well.

Night deepened around the little camp, bringing with it the eerie noises that never fail to be present in a forest at night time. Tal had his arm around Julia as they huddled together close to the fire, and Blue was sprawled on his side on the soft moss, picking at his teeth with his fingernail. After a few peaceful minutes of this, Julia sat up straighter, pulling away from Tal slightly, and began to softly sing.

So far away
In the night’s embrace
My helpless soul wanders
To seek your face
Upward and onward
In the skies of time
Further seems further
While you’re off mind

Further away
I am further from you
But I promise I’ll stay
If it’s all I can do

How would we swim
If the ocean was tears
And how can we live
In a world filled with fears
How many times
Did you hide me away
When all that I wanted
Was to see a new day?

Further away
I am further from you
But I promise I’ll stay
If it’s all I can do
I promise I’ll stay
Cause I know that it’s true...

Blue fell asleep while listening to the haunting song, and Tal fell asleep in Julia’s arms not long after.

Note: you may have noticed that during the encounters with daisies that occurred in this chapter, as well as in all of the rest of the story, neither I nor any of my characters refer to the daises as either he or she. This is because flowers, and really all plants, are asexual, so they don’t have genders! It is actually an atrocious, terrible insult to call a daisy a he or she, since it relates them to animals or humans, which most daisies consider to be unruly, loud and rude.

~^~

To summarize, in Chapter 6, we have observed, from the point of view of a true daisy-talker, an interesting verbal exchange between Tal and a group of daisies, and we, along with the characters, have learned about the presence of a mysterious something or someone, appropriately called the Guardian, that is allegedly guarding the Key. We have encountered a lime tree, where the three travelers made their camp, and where Tal and Julia shared a touching cuddle, and we have listened in as Julia sang a beautiful song.

Things seem to be escalating towards what can only be some sort of exciting climax in the next chapter or two. Will there be a vicious battle between Tal and the Guardian? Will they actually find the Key? Will they encounter a small forest creature, such as a squirrel? Only the future knows the answer to such secrets! And we all know that to reach the future, we have to make the future become the present, and as long as I continue rambling like this, thus preventing you from actually moving on to Chapter 7, then that particular future will never actually become the present! Mwahahaha, now my master plan has been revealed to you. Grovel! Tremble! Quake! No? Well… it was a devious plan on paper, but I won’t be able to go through with it, since I want to get on with Chapter 7 as much as the rest of you. I would probably fail as an evil tyrannical despot.

Anyway, plans for world domination aside, you certainly don’t want to miss the next chapter, which I can assure you now will be quite exciting! So turn the page, scroll down, flip the tape, or do whatever it takes to get to chapter 7, and let the furor commence!

[Felix]

[SIZE="6"][font="Book Antiqua"]Chapter 7[/font][/SIZE]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…which in this humble writer’s opinion is quite exciting.[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]H[/SIZE][/font]ello to Chapter 7. Wait, that doesn’t make much sense. Let’s try that again with a little more coherence, shall we? Hello, and welcome to Chapter 7. There, that was better, wasn’t it? But then there’s always the chance that I really was just trying to say hello to Chapter 7, and why shouldn’t I have been? Chapter 7 is perfectly entitled to its own salutations, just like all the rest of the chapters. Just because it is not alive, and has no soul, no beating heart or sense of personality, those aren’t good reasons not to bid the chapter a good day, now. Au contraire, because of this I do believe that chapters are only that much deserving of a kind word or words of welcome, don’t you? Being cold lifeless things, it must be rare for them to receive any kind of… er… well to coin the writers’ term, personification. So a fine hello to Chapter 7. What new adventures does this chapter hold in store for us? Let’s dive back into the tale and find out.

~^~

The night gave birth to dawn as ruddy tendrils of sunlight climbed from the horizon and began to poke curiously through scattered tree branches before dancing merrily across the faces of the weary travelers slumbering beneath ripe green limes. Julia was the first to awaken. She stretched a crick from her back and yawned like a cat, then stroked Tal’s shoulder gently to rouse him. He snorted and kicked his leg as he fought away the remnants of a dream (which, when dealing with particularly tenacious dreams, can be rather difficult), then he sat up and blinked groggily. Rupert came alive from his perch in the tree and rustled his wings before hopping into the air and drifting lazily in a slow spiral down to earth. Blue was the last one up. Apparently, he was a very heavy sleeper, as he later explained to Tal and Julia after they were forced to shake, yell at, and smack him for several minutes before he finally woke.

They broke camp (which really consisted of little more than kicking some dirt over the remnantss of their fire, since none of them had belongings to pack up other than what they were already carrying) and began to travel along the route that had been given to Tal by the daisies from the previous day. As the morning stretched on, the slope they were traversing began to get steeper, gently at first, but progressively sharper until it seemed like they were climbing a mountain. The trees started to thin, while large boulders and clumps of shale became common sights (and obstacles) in the landscape.

And then the fog rolled in. At first it was barely noticeable, just a light haze that slowly crept across the land, dampening the sun and blurring the edges of the shadows, but then it thickened and grew, broad banks of fog, like clouds, draping across everything and rendering the world into a monotonous scheme of fuzzy grey. The world became a bubble. Visibility was possible up to about eight feet away, but beyond that all was just grey and white, as if the whole universe had dissolved into a white abyss, and they were now walking upon the solitary floating island of somethingness amid the nothingness.

“I can’t see a blasted thing,” Complained Blue from his position in the rear. Rupert made audible his concurrences with a sharp papery rustle from Blue’s shoulder. “I don’t like this,” Blue continued. “Are we getting close?”

Tal squinted up the hillside, which failed to improve his sight in any way, and replied, “I’m not sure. I can’t see either. I think this is the trail, but honestly it’s beginning to all look the same.”

“Is the flow of magic strong enough here for you to feel it, Blue?” Julia asked, attempting to be helpful.

Blue began to shake his head, but seemed to change his mind halfway through and switched to a kind of rolling shoulder shrug that could have been interpreted a multitude of ways. “I can feel something magical in the air, but there’s no distinct path, so I can’t-“

He was cut off as the mountain suddenly rumbled sharply beneath their feet, nearly knocking them off balance and sending them all tumbling down the incline. The quake caused a cloud of dust to erupt into the air, mixing with the fog until truly nothing could be seen at all.

“What in blue blazes was that?!” Blue’s voice exclaimed from somewhere in the fogdust.

“I think it came from up the hill,” Tal said, attempting to feel around for his companions. His fingers brushed against Julia’s and he took her hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly.

“I’ve got Blue’s hand,” she said, voice laced with a tiny fringe of panic.

“Good. Stay together. We have to go up.”

As they felt their way up the slope while stumbling and tripping awkwardly, the dust began to clear, which didn’t improve their vision much, but allowed them to see each other again, and to find their footing more steadily. Without warning, a cave loomed out of the fog before them, its huge rock-lined maw gaping from the steep hillside.

“That must be it,” Blue whispered.

Barely were the words out of his mouth when another tremor rattled the mountain. Stones shifted and fell, and the sparse trees creaked violently. Another plume of dust spewed forth, rendering them all blind once more. The ground shook once more as a second crash came chasing the heels of the first, and then – as they felt rather than saw – something massive clumped from the cave and strode towards them, pounding and shaking the earth mercilessly with its every step. Great twin shadows materialized before them in the fog and dust, towering overhead, upward until they faded again to hazy brown-grey.

They were two legs. The legs belonged to a colossus, an ogre, a giant… a whatever it was. It was big. The massive creature was covered head to toe (or rather, Tal was forced to assume that it was covered head to toe, but in reality it may have only been covered thigh to toe, since that was the only part of the beast that, due to the fog, he could as yet see) with large slabs of stone armor. Either that or the monster itself was made of stone, which seemed a less likely conclusion, but with magical things, one just never could be too sure.

Observations where cut short as a sharp whistling sound pierced the fog, and moments later an enormous hammer, attached to an enormous arm (which was similarly coated in stone armor, thus disproving the earlier notion that the creature may only have been clad thigh to toe) crashed into the earth several yards to the left of their position. The impact sent them all reeling off balance. Tal lost his footing and fell backwards, rolling across the rough ground and sliding to a stop in a pile of shale.

Blue was knocked flat against his back, while Rupert launched himself from Blue’s shoulder and flitted toward Julia, who had slipped on a loose rock and was flailing her arms, attempting to save herself from a nasty fall. Rupert grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and flapped wildly to pull her upright. She found her footing again and crouched in fear, muttering her thanks to the map bird.

Tal climbed from the shale, sporting a new collection of cuts and scrapes, and stared up the hill at the colossus. “It missed,” he declared in a voice that was a ghost of a whisper. “It’s this fog. It can’t see us.” He stepped carefully to Blue’s side and quietly helped him get back upright. “Don’t talk, and move slowly. We might be able to sneak past it.”

They both crept up the slope and rejoined Julia and Rupert. The giant was just standing there, presumably trying to locate its targets before it brought its deadly hammer thundering down again. Tal went first as they attempted to sidle unnoticed past the beast’s legs. It must have sensed their presence, or perhaps it was due more to a lucky guess, but there was a sharp whistle as the hammer came down again.

“Run!” Tal yelled, and they all lurched forward. The hammer imbedded itself into the ground just inches behind their heels, and they were sent sprawling flat on the rocky ground. (Rupert, however, was no sent sprawling. He flitted from Julia’s shoulder as she fell, and alighted atop a rock near the top of the cave, where he could better view the struggle and assist where needed.) “Get up get up get up!” Tal urged, wiping a trail of blood from a fresh cut on his face. Blue pushed himself up hastily, but Julia wasn’t moving. She had struck her head on a sharp rock and lay unconscious, sticky blood beginning to mat her shiny blonde hair.

Making a split moment decision, Tal grabbed Julia by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder, then made a run for the cave mouth. “Get inside!” He shouted to Blue.

(continued below)

[Felix]

(continued from above)

During the struggle, morning had been steadily giving way to day, and with the transition, the fog began to dissipate. More of the huge guardian was now visible, all the way up to its stone clad chest and arms, but that also meant that the travelers were more visible to the giant as well. This fact became apparent as the creature crouched and extended its left arm, which was hammer free, toward Blue. Its stone fingers, each the size of a long flat boulder, snagged Blue by the fringe of his traveling cloak while he was mere yards from the cave entrance. Blue was hefted into the air by his cloak, kicking and struggling futilely, and then rasping and choking as the cloak constricted around his neck.

Rupert instantly launched himself from the mountainside and flapped to Blue’s sternum where he clung tightly as he struggled to untie the cloak. Blue, whose face was beginning to turn blue as the giant lifted him ever higher, lent his own arms to the unfastening process, and finally the cloak came free, and he fell.

Rupert let out the paper equivalent to a shriek and grabbed Blue by the hair, attempting to slow his fall, but he was so small that he could do little, and Blue returned to the Earth with a sharp crunch of breaking bones.

Tal had witnessed the whole thing. Still carrying Julia, he stumbled down the hill to Blue’s side. “Blue! Talk to me! Are you okay?”

Blue stirred slightly. “My legs are broken,” he croaked. “Hurry and get into the cave while you can. Find the key, for my sake!”

“Our fate will be the same.” Tal declared resolutely.

The fog had no dissipated almost entirely, and the Guardian could see them clearly. Its head was, not surprisingly, covered with (or made of) stone, save where two golden orb eyes glowed from deep sockets in its face. Its head swiveled, and its eyes locked onto the motley group clustered near its feet. With movements nearly interpretable as giddy, it raised its hammer again and sent it whistling towards them.

Tal knew it was over, then. He dropped to one knee, clenched his eyes shut and awaited the inevitable impact that would snuff his life.

It never came.

Tal opened one eye and risked a glance upwards. The hammer was hovering inches from his head, humming and quivering as if it were straining against some invisible force. Tal’s attention was caught by the sound of a rock shifting, and he snapped his head around and found himself staring at a small girl wearing a pure white dress that shone brightly against the dark shadows of the massive cave mouth behind her. Her hand was outstretched, and glimmered with a blue light radiating from her palm.

There was a sharp intake of breath from where Blue lay on the ground. “The magic,” he croaked. “It’s so strong!”

The girl lifted her other arm, and an orb of light, twin to the first, began to glow from her palm. After a brief moment of trembling resistance from the colossus, it was lifted bodily into the air with a heavy shriek of shifting stone, and hovered there, glaring resentfully with its golden eyes. The girl’s expression was neither passive nor aggressive, but merely blank. With a barely perceptible motion, she twitched both of her wrists to the side, and with that subtle movement, the giant creature was cast bodily through the air and down the mountainside. It struck the earth several hundred yards downhill – which caused the mountain to shake as if a bomb had gone off – and shattered on impact into a thousand stones and boulders. The resulting landslide of rocks bounced and rattled down the hill until they eventually collected into piles and heaps as the slope leveled out. Atop one of the piles (as discovered by a traveler who was passing through the area long after the events of this tale had taken place) sat two perfectly spherical golden stones, which appeared to the imaginative viewer to be a pair of huge yellow eyes.

Tal’s ears were ringing after the tumultuous amount of noise that the recent event had provoked. He glanced fearfully at the girl. If she could have done that to such a massive monster, what sorts of horrible pains could she inflict on him, should she have the inkling to do so?

Her expressionless features twitched into a very faint smile, and she beckoned at Tal to enter the cave.

He now flitted up and alighted on Tal’s shoulder. Tal motioned at Blue. “His legs are broken,”

The girl stared at Blue for a moment, with what could possibly have been pity shining in her eyes. She grasped the hem of her dress with pale fingers and hopped lightly like a baby goat from rock to rock until she was beside Blue. Tal, who still had Julia draped across his shoulder, took a step back as the girl took Blue’s face between her hands and stared into his eyes. Blue met her gaze, either fearful or amazed Tal could not say.

Then the girl leaned forward and kissed Blue full on the lips. His eyes widened in surprise, then they closed, and his whole body relaxed. The girl pulled away from the kiss and looked at Tal. “He has fallen asleep. When he wakes, he will be better.”

Rupert, who had been sitting protectively beside Blue, seemed content that Blue would be okay now, and he flitted up and alighted on Tal’s free shoulder. Tal stared with unease at the girl, not sure if he could trust her or not. He gestured at Julia with his free arm. “Will she be ok?”

The girl did not even glance at Julia. “Yes, leave her with the male and follow me, for sleeping ones cannot enter.”

Tal hesitated a moment, then reluctantly he laid Julia down gently beside Blue, stroked her face softly, and withdrew. The girl had bounded back up towards the cave. She nodded her head once towards it and then disappeared within the shadows, which despite the growing daylight remained as dark as ever. Tal clambered unsteadily up the shifting and sliding rocks and, after a brief hesitation and a backwards glance at his companions, he ducked inside, Rupert alert upon his shoulder.

~^~

To summarize, in chapter 7, we began by observing the morning routines of our intrepid adventurers, and then we experienced some foreshadowing as the fog rolled in. We were put (at least I should hope so) on the edge of our seats as we witnessed an epic struggle between our protagonists and a monstrous rocky creature aptly titled The Guardian. Then we were introduced to a new as of yet nameless character, whose behavior could be described easily as unusual, and not so difficultly as downright weird. We saw Julia get clobbered unconscious, and we watched as Blue took a nasty fall, thus breaking his legs. We followed Tal as he in turn followed the unusual (or downright weird) girl into the depths of the menacing cave, and that point is where we are now forced to make the transition to Chapter 8 (which you should not forget to bid a kind hello to once we arrive, mind you). So don’t wander far; as soon as I can find some more parchment, I shall sally forth unto Chapter 8, and the continuing adventures beyond!

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 8[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…which begins with a cave scene[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]T[/SIZE][/font]here is just something about caves, isn’t there? No matter what kind of tale you are writing, caves always make for great scenes. They just reek of mystery and danger and ancient magical forgotten things. A cave can be a home or it can be a tomb, Some caves contain treasure, while other caves contain little but bones. Some caves contain entire prehistoric civilizations beyond any modern imagination, while other caves contain nothing but a bear or two. Caves can be huge, deep, twisting, maze-like affairs, or they can be just a single room with some old drawings on the walls. Caves can be tunnels that lead to other places in the vast world, or they can be dead-end passages that lead nowhere. No matter how you look at it, caves are excellent story devices and nearly always make for great scenes. This is not to say that I’m making an assumption about the quality of my scene. It would be very improper indeed for me the writer to make such an assumption. It is you readers, and only you readers, who can decide such a thing for yourselves. But no matter if it is a quality scene or just a piece of daisy poop, it is a scene that remains in my story nonetheless, and it is the setting for the opening of Chapter 8, so really the most I can do is hope that it serves its role without a hitch. Let’s find out.


Inside, the cave was suddenly doused in a shroud of pitch black. Even though the entrance of the cave was mere yards behind Tal, the only source of light was now coming from the girl in front of him, who was shining brightly like a glowbug. When Tal looked back, he could not see outside the cave, as if a thick curtain of blackness had been draped across the mouth immediately after he entered. The girl moved swiftly through a complex series of passageways, and Tal was forced to jog for fear of being left behind in the darkness. Rupert was perched tensely on Tal’s shoulder, staring intensely at the back of the girl with narrowed chalk eyes. His talons dug painfully into Tal’s shoulder, but Tal’s mind was elsewhere. Who was this girl? Where was she leading him?

The answer to Tal’s second mental question was answered soon enough, or answered in a sense at least. He still didn’t know exactly where she had led him, other than that it was within the cave somewhere. From the light shining off the girl, he could see that they seemed to be in a dead end room. She paused in the middle of it and turned to face them.

“Welcome to my home,â€

[Felix]

(chapter 8 continued from above)

After the pitch dark of the cave the bright sunlight was almost blinding. Even while using his hand to shield the sun, Tal was forced to severely squint to see anything at all. He spotted Julia sitting cross legged on a rock near the cave mouth, fidgeting her fingers nervously on her lap.

She looked up sharply as the three figures and one bird emerged from the dark. “Oh!” She exclaimed, covering her mouth with her palm. She got to her feet somewhat ungracefully, bounded across the rocks, and threw herself against Tal in a fierce embrace. “Oh, I was so worried! Nearly beside myself! Blue went after you but I was too scared to go inside but being alone out here was nearly as frightening and I was about to come in after you myself but now here you are and, and… oh!” She buried her face against Tal’s chest and cried softly and happily.

Tal held her tightly and said nothing. Julia finally detached herself from him and looked happily into his face through tear-stained eyes. Her expression settled into something more serious. “What happened? That monster. The key… Did… did you find it?” She whispered.

Tal took Julia by the shoulders and turned her to face Kee, who stood coyly near Blue and Rupert. She balled the corners of her dress inside her little fists and stared at the ground shyly.

“Julia, I’d like to introduce you to Kee.”

Julia, now seeing Kee for the first time, stared blankly, not comprehending the significance of the girl before her. She looked at Tal for help. “Um, who is she?”

“She saved us from that monster,” Tal explained, tactfully choosing to leave out the fact that Kee had also created that monster. “This is it,” Tal said. “She is the Key.”

Julia didn’t get it right away, but then her eyes widened. “Oh… oh!” She hastily bowed, which sent her tangled and dirty hair (a far cry from the picturesque golden locks she had been sporting at the beginning of the tale) flying. “Hello Kee. My name is Julia. It’s nice to make your acquaintance!”

Kee smiled. “Hello! You’re a nice human too, aren’t you?”

Julia wasn’t sure how to respond to a question like that so she just nodded her head dumbly.

Blue stepped closer to Kee, wearing his best smile. “I’m a nice human too!” He declared.

Kee glanced at Blue for a only moment before flatly stating, “You’re a bad kisser.”

Blue stared at Kee indignantly, mouth agape, then he chuckled and smiled fondly at her. “What an imp you are.”

Tal kissed Julia on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said. Then he addressed the group. “Well shall we head out? If we leave now and travel quickly, we might make it back before nightfall.”

“Doubtful,” Blue said, tilting his head back to take in the position of the sun. “Even if we jogged the whole way and traveled all night, I’m guessing it would be almost dawn before we arrived.”

“Well,” Julia spoke up. “The day isn’t getting any younger so we might as well get as far as we can today, huh?”

“It’s about all we can do,” Blue replied as he picked up a staff-sized branch from atop a pile of rocks and tested it as a walking stick.

Tal walked over to Kee and squatted down in front of her. “You ready to go, Kee?”

She glanced hesitantly over her shoulder at the cave mouth, then turned back and saw Tal’s comforting smile. She seemed to brighten. “Ok!”

Tal straightened and took Kee’s small hand in his. Together, they joined up with Julia, Blue and Rupert. Then three humans, a key, and a map-bird began to make their trek down the long hillside.


To summarize, in chapter 8 we experienced a cave scene, which, if I may be so forward as to criticize my own work, was a bit bland and unexciting and not like a typical cave scene ought to be. But then a cave scene is a cave scene, and I’m quite partial to cave scenes and I cling tightly to the opinion that they cannot possibly be done poorly at all. But I digress… where were we? Oh yes, summarizing. So we saw the cave scene, and then we saw an outside-the-cave scene, where a small bit of hugging and reuniting and explaining went on. Then we observed our little group, now plus one, begin to travel down the hillside and homeward. Be sure you don’t miss out on the next chapter! For I’m not making any promises, but there’s a possibility that it might… just might be the last one… See you soon!

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 9[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…in which trees fly[/font]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]W[/SIZE][/font]elcome back! So, we’re in chapter 9 now. It’s been quite a journey so far hasn’t it? Well, I’m sure you’re just champing at the bit to get back to the story, so I won’t keep you here longer than I absolutely have to. See? I’m a charitable tale teller. I deserve a gold star. Alright then, begone, ado! Let us check back in on our motley crew.


“So what’s the deal with her?â€

[Felix]

(continued from above)

Julia had tripped while scrambling to get out of the way, and Blue was helping her get back to her feet, while Rupert fluttered overhead nervously. Tal, wonderment plastered on his face, regarded Kee with wide eyes, then focused on the flying tree, shifted his attention back to Kee, and back and forth several more times. “What is it?” He finally managed to ask, feeling uncomfortably conspicuous even as he formed the question.

Without giving the courtesy of an answer, Kee lifted her hands once more and stretched them out toward the twisted tree structure. Slowly, steadily, it descended, until it came gently to rest upon the twisted barren ground from which its components had been torn. She gestured easily at her creation and fixed her bright eyes on Tal. “I made a flying machine. You wanna get back today, dontcha?”

Tal gazed upon the twisted clump of uprooted trees with a new understanding. It was a flying machine! The middle of the structure was akin to one huge tree trunk, far thicker than any normal trunk could be. From either side of this sprouted broad, flat expanses of branches and foliage that fanned out just like huge living wings. A closer inspection of the tangled knot of roots that apparently made up the front of the vessel revealed that there was in fact a sort of hollow formed there, even complete with places to sit. In other places, trunks, roots and branches seemed - at least at first glance - to jut out in a random and pointless fashions, but in reality they were strategically placed to aid in (or so Tal assumed) balance and maneuverability during flight.

“It’s remarkable,” Tal breathed, aware of Blue and Julia approaching. They were also stunned by the ingenuity of Kee’s creation.

“What powers it?” Blue asked.

“I do, silly,” Kee replied matter-of-factly, as if that were the most obvious answer.

“Magic,” Tal whispered under his breath to Blue.

“Right...” Blue walked toward the vessel then turned to blink at Kee. “So we’re riding back to Tal’s village on this?”

Nod.

“O-kay…” Blue clasped his hands together and exhaled slowly through his lips. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not leery of the idea, but if we’re gonna have a go at it, then let’s do it.” He then strode toward the hollow at the front of the structure with Rupert perched loyally on his shoulder.

Julia came to Tal’s side and gripped his arm. “Should we trust her with this?”

“I don’t see why not,” Tal replied quietly. “If she wanted to do away with us, she could’ve just let that guardian finish the job back up on the hill.”

“Yeah, true.” Julia chewed the tip of her thumbnail for a moment, and then smiled at Tal. “Well this should be quite exciting at any rate! One last adventure before we go home, huh?”

“Yep,” Tal agreed.

“Hurry up or you’ll get left behind!” Kee’s singsong voice floated to them from the direction of the flying machine. Blue had climbed up into the hollow and was sitting with his back against the trunk, and Kee was attempting to follow suit, but struggling due to her small stature.

Hand in hand, Tal and Julia approached the vessel. Tal boosted Kee up into the hollow, and then he clambered up and pulled Julia in after him. There was a horizontal root twisted like a chair, and there Tal sat, facing forward. Roots twisted all around and overhead, forming a roof and a sort of nose for the vessel. There was a squareish opening in the front that acted like a window and allowed them to see forward.

Kee planted herself right in front of this window and placed her hands against two rail-like roots that protruded from the floor on either side of her. There was a faint, low, humming sound, more felt than heard, and the same blue light began to glow where Kee’s palms connected with the wood. A tremor clattered through the vessel, and suddenly it was off the ground. A stomach flipping sense of weightlessness gripped Tal momentarily and then was gone. Slowly, the machine floated higher. Tal glanced out through a gap in the roots beside him and was shocked to see that they were already well above the tree line, and gaining altitude quickly.

“We’re up,” Kee declared, her voice laced with excitement. “And now… we’re off!”

Without warning the vessel accelerated sharply, cutting through the sky like an arrow. An invisible force pressed Tal against the back wall of the hollow, and then slacked off as his body caught up with the speed of the craft. There was a deep whooshing sound as the structure’s huge wings came to life and began to flap slowly and powerfully.

Air gushed into the hollow through the window in the front, sending Kee’s hair out behind her in a wild writhing tousle. She laughed gleefully as she piloted her creation through the air.

At first Tal was deeply frightened at the speed and the unearthly sensation of flight, but as he grew accustomed to it, he found that he was having the time of his life. He unsteadily walked to the front of the hollow and stood beside Kee, facing the wind. The rushing violent air bit at his face and made his eyes water, but he didn’t mind. This was magical. He was flying! He laughed, long and loud.

They were on their way home.


To summarize, in chapter 9 we heave eavesdropped on a conversation between Tal and Julia, with Kee as the subject, and we have also come to realize that Kee is a rather antsy child (or not really a child per se but rather a key… a magical being… or some other sort of what-have-you) and that she enjoys building things when she’s bored. In this case, however, her industrious impatience resulted in something quite extraordinary, a flying machine made only from trees. We have watched this amazing creation take place, leaving behind quite a nasty scar on the earth as a result (the ecology guys will have something to say about that for sure) and finally we have observed as the newly formed magical vessel began its maiden flight, with our one and only little Key girl at the helm. Our adventurers are nearly home. Will they land safely? Will they open the Chest? And what, oh what could ever be inside that Chest? Tune in next chapter to find out!

[Felix]

[font="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="6"]Chapter 10[/SIZE][/font]
[font="Book Antiqua"]…which is the first double-digit numbered chapter, and also the final chapter in this tale.[/font]

[SIZE="6"][font="Book Antiqua"]V[/font][/SIZE]oluminous billows of smoggy air chugged from the doorway of Elder’s hut, like so many huge cotton balls of inverted coloration. Within, the small old man was settled on a cushion, puffing lazily on his gargantuan, ever-present pipe. From behind his great white waterfall of various face and orifice hairs, and above his bulbous nose, his eyes were shut, and his ears were strained to their limits. He remained that way for quite some time, drawing from his pipe through his mouth, cycling the dirty air through his lungs, and sending it back out through his hair-ridden nostrils, again and again, over and over. Then suddenly Elder lowered his pipe, and his lips formed a knowing smile.

“They’re… back…â€

[Felix]

(continued from above)

Kee was staring at the Chest with wide eyes. She looked at the keyhole, then she looked at her palm, upon which was a key-shaped imprint that fit it identically. “I feel strange,” she said. “For once in my long life I feel like I’m doing what I was meant to do… what I was created to do. I am… a Key.”

Without saying anything else she stepped forward and unceremoniously placed her palm against the keyhole. There was an instantaneous, brilliant flash of blue light, and deep within the lock mechanisms of the chest, something turned with a distinct and loud clunk. Kee exhaled softly, and then collapsed, unconscious. Her body was no longer glowing.

But the Chest was unlocked! There was a soft hissing sound, and steam began to rise from the ivy-clad chest. In a blink of time, the ivy and vines that for centuries had so tightly bound the Chest, burst into flames and disintegrated into black ashes that fell harmlessly to the ground. Now fully exposed, the Chest was even more impressive. It was a masterpiece, more elegant and more impressive than any mortal chest known to mankind.

Then there was a final soft click from within the chest, and the lid popped up just slightly. Tal stepped forward and tried to grip the lid and lift it, but it was too heavy, and his fingers could not fit into the slight crevice between it and the body.

“Excoose meh.” Raj-jad’s thick voice boomed as he pushed through the crowd, carrying his axe. Tal stepped out of the way while Raj-jad slid the edge of the axe blade into the crack. Then he pressed all of his weight down on the handle, and the lid slowly pried further open. Tal and Blue rushed forward and gripped either side of the lid, and then hefted upward with all their strength. With a long, eerie screech of ancient and unoiled hinges, the lid rose until it was vertical, and with one final push it crashed over loudly against the back of the Chest.

There was a collective movement towards the Chest, as everyone present tried to catch a glimpse at what was inside. Eagerly, Tal, Julia, Blue, Rupert, Raj-jad, and Elder, peered inside. And what they saw inside that chest was this:

Another chest.

It was smaller, but other than that nearly identical to the larger chest within which it was nested. There was another keyhole in the front, but this one was shaped differently.

Blue sat down hard where he was, his expression deadpan. Tal groaned softly. Everyone else appeared bewildered. Julia then knelt beside Kee and shook her gently. “Kee… Kee wake up!” The little girl didn’t stir.

Julia looked up at Tal with tears in her eyes. “Is she…?” she couldn’t finish the question.

Tal dropped down beside Kee. Her pale, glow-free frame seemed so frail and lifeless. He stroked her hair and looked tenderly at Julia. “She fulfilled her purpose,” he explained.

“No!” Julia yelled, suddenly crying freely. There was an uncomfortable silence, excepting the sounds of Julia’s sobs, while everyone reflected on their own thoughts and emotions.

Then, in the stillness, came a tiny voice, “Hey…”

Tal glanced down in shock. It was Kee who had spoken. She was looking up at him through half-lidded eyes. “Are we to that place you told me about yet? With people who will play with me?”

“Yes,” Tal replied, realizing just now how fond he had grown of the little girl in the short time he had known her, “We are.”

“Oh, good,” she said, seeming to steadily regain her strength and energy. She pushed herself to a sitting position and then got to her feet. She stared at the second chest and said, “Hey… there’s another chest.”

“Can you open this one too?” Blue asked hopefully.

Kee reached into the chest and placed her palm on the keyhole of the smaller one. Nothing happened. She pulled her hand back and examined it. The key imprint was gone. “Nope,” she said. “My magic is all gone now. Sorry.” She then turned and ran to Tal and jumped into his arms, hugging him affectionately.

“You all realize… what this means…” Elder spoke up. “If there is… another chest… then there must also be… another key… yes.”

Tal looked at Julia, and then Julia looked at Blue. Blue glanced at Rupert who rustled his wings. “What do you think, guys?” Tal asked. “Got time for a little more adventure?”

By the eagerness in his friend’s faces, he knew without a doubt that they would say yes.



And that’s that. What? You want more? Well I’m sorry, but that’s the end of the tale, this part of it anyway. You see, Tal, and of course his friends with him, had many more adventures after this one, and perhaps someday you shall hear all about them, but that will be another tale for another time. Are you not satisfied with that? Oh fine. I suppose I can tell you just a little bit about what happens next. Tal and company set off on another adventure to find the second Lost Key. Unfortunately Kee’s magic had run dry and so they were unable to use her magical tree vessel again. To this day, that flying machine remains an historic and scenic landmark in the middle of Tal’s village, where it is admired and wondered at regularly.

So Tal and his friends set off again, well provisioned, and traveling by more traditional means. Their journey was long, perilous, and of course quite exciting. They experienced new adventures, saw new sights, and made new friends. I’m afraid I can’t tell you if they ever actually found the Second Key or not, and if they did, I’m afraid I also can’t tell you what was inside the Second Chest. Perhaps someday you shall find out, but that day is not today.

Anyway, one thing that I can tell you is that Tal and Julia eventually got married, and that they adopted Kee as their daughter. After the incident with the opening of the Original Chest, which sapped Kee of her magical energy, she became quite a normal young girl, and began to age like one too. And that, my dear reader, is all I that I now have the liberty of telling you, for fear of too far spoiling the occurrences of Tal’s Tale 2, should it ever come into existence.

And so, now I can say the two simple words that I have been working towards saying throughout the entirety of this tale. And those two words are thus:





The End