Zedd and I - A beginning...



"Ok, quit being so fidgety, will ya... ", spoke Zedd, his eyebrows twitching at me, up and down like a couple of old polecats that couldn't make up their mind whether to pounce or run.

What could I do? I wanted the old boy to just stop. He was trying one of his dang blame foolish spells again. I'd told him to quit his hijinks, and listen to reason. I kept telling him these old D'ni books were useless. The descriptions about a Guild of Illusionists and the hidden cache of Linking Books was all smoke and mirrors. But no, he had to find out for himself, had to do things his way.

"Ok, so what if it works," I said. "What if you do accomplish the task of finding a way inside of K'veer. It's just a House of Illusions, nothing good can come of it. There's a spell of death on the place and I want have thing to do with it."

He looked up at me and started laughing as usual; that's his way of sloughing the criticism, sprinkling the air with laughter. What was a poor wizard to do? I just watched on, what else could I? He was going to have his way whether I liked it or not, and somebody would have to pick up the pieces if something went wrong.

Well, it had all been a mistake, a couple weeks earlier we'd found a book hidden in a secret nitch in the Egg Room of all places. I'd just shook my head when he'd come running out of the Egg Room his hair flying like a bad example of a scare crow flailing his arms round and round, and so excited he could'nt even talk. He'd just kept saying, "lordy be, lordy be, lordy be... "

I'd finally chased him down and found him going in cirlces round the fountain hooping and hollering, his old tattered red jacket flapping in the wind like a gull who'd eaten too much and just could'nt quite lift himself into the air, saying, "I found it, I really found it..." And, he'd probably still be wandering round in circiles to this day if I hadn't grabed him by the shoulders and said, "Found what, Zedd? What did you find?"

His eyes like a couple of sorrowful black poodles lit up, roiling in their sockets till the white and black made a sudden truce, and then he said, "The Book of the Grower." Well, that stopped me in my tracks, I'd never thought such a book existed, thought it was just another of the legends of the D'ni that hid some educational truth that we'd yet to discover. But here it was, a physical object, an actual artifact come alive out of the past;; and my buddy Zedd held it in his hands like it was a gold incrusted statue from an ancient D'ni King. Yet, here is was, no golden book, but a simple leather bound treasure with a key clasp and D'ni letters carved in intricate detail. Musty smelling.

"But what of Yeesha?," I spoke anxiously, "many believe she is the Grower. How will we explain this?"

In his usual anti-climatic style, Zedd said, "We won't. At least not till we find out what it's all about." Always the rationalist, by golly, Zedd, always defeated me by his logic. What could I say...

Before I could say anything he'd walked off leaving me standing there like an old fool, like a dang blang idiot.... But what do fool's do best? Yep... you guessed it, I proceeded to follow him down the path toward a new adventure, just hoping in the back of my mind that it wouldn't be our last...

---- Zedd and the Bahro -------

Zedd's always been the type to think, and think, and think about something till it has been turned round in so many ways that there's nothing left to know. Except he always forgets that you can never know everything with the mind, sometimes you just have to listen to the body and what it knows about things. He'd get that funny look on his face when I'd tell him "The body's got a mind of its own that the mind knows nothing about."

When something bothered him he'd sit in his comfy rocking chair by the stone fire, pot of stew steaming away, smoking his meersham -- little puffs circling in the air like fireflies in Kemo.

I found him that way when I came over that night. Not a word out of his mouth, not even a turn of the eye, just a stone cold face staring into a void. Nope, he just set there rocking away, muttering below his breath, puffing. Well I helped myself to a sip of coffee, sat me self down, petted Zim, his ole hound, on the head, and watched the flames licking the logs like fire cats on on an autumn night.

In the distance the waterfall was burbling away, and the mists were rising steadily around the island. Every once in a while we'd hear a bahro chittering on the other side of the mountain. Always gave me a few goosebumps when that happened.

Zedd muttered, "Don't worry, Wiz, that ole boy ain't goin' come down here and bother us. He's just trying to let us know that things aren't right. Something in the air...."

Zedd and the bahro seemed to concur, they seemed to have a sixth sense about trouble...

--- more to come ---

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

Last edited by earthwizard on Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:01 am; edited 10 times in total

Interesting beginning...the Book of the Grower, eh? Not aiming high much then...unless of course it turns out to be a gardening manual.

That's what I'd like to know some time...what happened to all the *other* books?

Keep going...

Thanks, Zander...

Yeah, reading Andrew's, Hitana's, and your fanfic spurred me on... I've been dabbling for a while, but decided well let's see where we can take a couple odd characters down the humor path, with a few quirky travels into unknown Ages and some beneficial object lessons for a couple of old wizard wannabee's

yep... earthwiz figured, wha-ta-he... might as well join 'ya, can't let yu have all the fun now

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

I should've known better. Should've just walked away, minded my own business, gone down to Shuggy Bear's Hood and done a little hoe down dancing, but no... I'd agreed to go with Zedd on his wild goose chase, paddle across the cavern lake in search of that isle of magic.

"Com'on, Wiz," Zedd slapped me on the shoulder, "it'll all turn out alright, you'll see. Just follow your buddy, Zedd, and you'll be sitting pretty."

Sure I thought: "I'll be sitting in a cage somewhere, without a key and a bunch of grungy misfits as my sad lot. Trouble, huh... yeah, that's my middle name."

Well we gathered some supplies from the surface, made sure our KI's were actually in synch with the GZ, and hitched our selves down to the Ferry Harbor. Of course we waited till the wee hours in the morning when only a few stragglers would be wandering the backside of the harbor area. Then when no one was looking we went down by the back edge and slipped off the tarp on our little Herreshoff dinghy.

Just how we'd gotten it down into the cavern without anyone spotting it was a tale in itself, but there she sat our little bucket of pride. Oh she wasn't much, just big enough for two or maybe three people, but she had a sail, and a couple good oars for the slow spawn. She'd do us just right.

We'd been stocking her for about three days with enough drygoods and water to last us a week or more. But we hoped that our little mission to the Isle of K'veer wouldn't take more than a fort'night. At least that's what we thought.... funny how things always take another course than what you expected.

Well, we jumped in, pushed the the little skiff off into the murky waters. I unpacked me spyglass, while Zedd raised the small sail and put the oars in their sleeves.

It was a cool night so I buttoned up me jacket, slipped the slover hood down over me greying bush, grabbed one of the heavy oars and sunk her deep into the water, eddying us onward toward the Great Gate, while Zedd sat forward on the starboard side humming a little tune from his arsenal of Irish ballads.

Oh yes, Zedd was quite the singer, and I must confess a muscian as well. He was quite proficient on Bodhráns, Flutes, Concertinas, Gig Bags, Capos, Whistles, Tippers, Violins, but his favorite was still his ole Framus banjo. He'd tiddle a tune till your feet would couldn't help themselves, you'd be sitting there calmly listening to the music and suddenly your feet were out on the dance floor padding the wood like they had a life of their own; and, most of the time they did.

Ah! Those were the good times, but here were out in misty waters rowing toward Lord Rakeri's Palace on the Isle of K'veer. Who knows what we'd find, or what kind of mischief it would like cause. I'd repeat to myself over and over: "Blessed are the peacemakers oh lordy... " But there wouldn't be any peace for Zedd and I; nope no peace for the wicked they say...

As I looked back on the lights of Ae'gura, watched the high towers, the red blinking of the light above the Great Zero, the hoods gleaming off in their alcoves, all I could think about was a spot of tea, a nice plum jack breakfast cake, and my feet resting in a hot tub of epson water. Oh me what was I thinking when I agreed to this... O me o my oooo... what was I thinkin'....

----- more to come....

earthwiz

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

Kerath's Arch ---

Now I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to sail under this great arch. They say the old King Rikooth saw his son, Kerath, sailing through the arch on a massive lizard shaped skiff, as if it were a black dragon riding the waves, returning from exile. The legend has it that he felt Yahvo moving in him from his deathbed and rose up to declare Kerath the next king. Later on the Arch of Kings would be renamed the Arch of Kerath to honor the King's son, who utimately became the last King of the D'ni.

It's an eerie feeling to feel the waves lapping on the shore, and the silent towering edifice rising high above you like the ancient memory of a forgotten god. It leaves one in awe. Even Zedd was quiet as we passed under this strange glowing monument. They say it was modeled after one just like it on Gartenay. And that it was the prime place where all King's were honored and coronated on their arrival to the city.

One can almost feel the presence of the D'ni here in the bones of this building shouting out at you as you pass by. The crowds of cheering people rising in the dark dank air, memories of processions form long ago when ships of grandeur full of princes and princesses of this culture time out of mind came dressed in their finest livery. Even in my mind's eye I can imagine the vessels full of white and gold sails, silver bangles flowing round the mainstays, the honor guard dressed in red and black, the women with high crowned hair in bright greens and yellows, their dresses flowing to the ground.

"What the heck you doing there, Wiz," Zedd shook me, "look like your in a trance." He laughed.

I woke with a jerk and looked around me and realized we were almost half a kilometer form the Arch. "Must've been off somewhere." I shrugged and put my strenghth into the oars, while Zedd shook and giggled at my dicomfiture.

But in the back of my mind I kept seeing a woman on the edge of my vision, someone that just didn't fit the scene, as if she were a traveler out of time.... Yeesha....

---- more to come -----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

The Book and the Key ------------

Well, after a while Zedd picked up the book he'd wrapped in cloth, lit up the lamp we'd brought with us (being that we we're now far out of site of the city), and began pondering the key and lock mechanism. "Where've I seen this before, huh?" He handed me the book expectantly.

I began looking it over. It had a copperish tone to it, burnished, as if someone had dropped it in a ladel of copper tint and then quickly dried it in an oven leaving a light sheen that almost, as you turned it round in the light, gave off both a metallic and leather glow. Must've cost a fortune for this book... eah gads, and the intricate inlay work done in wood, gold, and jewely encrusted threads of such fine craftsmanship that I was wondering if the old D'ni guilds had a jewlers guild (and now I'm convinced of it).

I looked down on the key itself. It was done in a symbolic crest of the King Rakeri's family, with animals, birds, and some kind of strange glyphic signs that I couldn't make out. The lock mechanism looked very complex indeed. It was one of the old turnstyle types, wherein you had to have a specific key that would fit down into the intricatly designed mesh holes that then would allow you to turn the key and undo the clasp. Oh it was work of beauty, and whoever had done it had made sure that you could undo it unless you had the key.

The clasp was wrapped clean roung the book so that if you tried to cut it you'd tear the book iteself, and more than likely you'd ruin the inside too; for many of these types of clasp help acid in them, that would be released if the wrong person ever tried to cut into it which would drip all over the unsupecting culprit as well as destroying the book itself.

I wasn't going to take any chances in this being so... so I handed the book back to Zedd and asked, "Well, so what are we going to do?"

He grinned, "What do you think, Wiz? We're going to find the key that fits the lock... that's what."

Oh how stupid of me, should've known better than to ask that question. Now I know we're in for it, that trouble was definitely at the end of this road...

(an aside to the audience: What would you do if you were me? Ok folks, it's alright to enter the stream and interact with the characters. Let's make this fun, so if you feel like adding a little to the story, be my guest... I should'nt be the only one having the fun here... let's make this an interactive dialogue. Have fun... earthwiz)

------ more to come ---

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

How many islands? ------

Now anybody whose read a little of the history knows there were at least 23 islands out here on the big lake, and as we began moving around in these dark waters we had no idea which way was the correct route to K'veer. We'd been rowing (oh, be sensible: I'd been rowing ) for a couple hours when we saw a mound of darkness separating itself from the thick mist that hovered the waves a few above the surface.

"Le'ts take a rest, Wiz," Zedd turned to me, "about time for us to get a few fixin's out and have us some grub."

I couldn't've have agreed more. So I hitched up me sleeves, and put the iron to the post and we were licking in the shallows in less than five minutes.

Zedd jumped out stretching his hand up high and bending round and round, while I gripped the forward rope and looked for a place to tie the skiff off. By the time I'd finished latch the rope round some boulders on the shore Zedd was walking toward some unusal formations farther up the shore.

"Hey, not so fast there," I hollored. "Wait up... don't we want some grub before we go wander off into the unknown?"

Zedd shrugged and kept on going. What's a guy to do? I was hungry and was'nt ready to just traipse off into the void without feeling my belly, so I proceeded to pull a couple sacks out and grabbed some cans of the good old standbye vienna sausauge, crackers, and some packets to sunflower seeds. Figured it do us just right.

Then I wandered off in the direction I'd last seem Zedd heading. It was at that moment that I saw two shadows whip right past me, just like I was moving in slow motion. Then off in the distance I heard Zedd scream.... and right after that I heard something that left my blood frozen... I heard the cry of bahro coming at me from all directions...

I picked up my feet and moved one foot in front of the other just as fast as my old bones would take me, and before I knew it I'd lost my sack of goodies, my shoes, my floppy hat, and my blinkers (glasses).... and, I was standing in the middle of a small glen, a place of such surpassing beauty that I'd never thought such a think possible.

That's when I glimpsed Zedd grasping the edge of a cliff overhang, his big body swinging from side to side like he was a kubie doll on a string....

---- more to come ----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

oh this is getting good sounds like you got too close too where the bahro have been living.
can't wait to read more

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Seek the Path of Light.....Enter a New Beginning.

The Rescue ---------

There's never a tellin' how people can get themselves in such fixes, but it always happens and here I was not twenty feet from my partner with no way to help him. He was dangling there like a worm on a needle, just flipping from side to side. But the one good thing about it was that he was hooked good.

Somehow he'd gotten his wooly coat caught by the sleeve in some crystal protusions, and just below him was a cave, a big black hole in the wall. I was about to say some words of encouragement when out of that cave a couple of arms suddenly appeared and grabbed my partners legs. He made a yelp like and old coon dog riding the swamps for a night fest. One moment he was there, his face glinting in the light of the crystals, his big bushy eyes full of desperation, and the next moment he was flowing into the darkness like a crow without wings.

Now I've always been the kind of man who usually has some pithy little statement lying on the edge of my awareness ready to pop out and take charge of the usualy void that comes in most conversations. You know the kind of thing, when people are looking at you, unable to say anything, waiting for you to do it for them... boredom. Well, I didn't have to worry about that, no sir'ee, I had a whole army of little figural epithets poppin' all over the dang blang place. And my mouth was uttering such inanities that my mind couldn't catch up.

But by the time I did catch my feet had already been doing the work for all of us and I was sitting at the top of that cliff trying to figure just how I was going to get down into that cave to help my partner.

All I needed was a rope....

---- more to come ----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

A rope it is -----

Well I could've sat there all night and nothing would've gotten done. I'd already tried inching over the edge face down, my legs strapped into a tangled mess of roots, to see if I could look down and see inside the cavern. But that wasn't going to happen for the simple reason that everytime I scooted closer to the lip I'd suddenly slide forward, and if I'd not been holding on for dear life to those roots I'd of plummeted down and down and down... into that dark place we don't every want to talk about.

So I finally decided to go back and unhitch the rope from the skiff and bring it back and tie it off to a tree and lower me self down into that pit. That was my second mistake. My first was to forget about tides; high tides that is. Later own we'd find that the skiff had flown the coop. But that didn't matter right now, no what mattered was getting my buddy Zedd out of the clutches of whatever kind of creature(s) had him.

By the time I'd lowered myself down into the open entrance of the cave I noticed two things. One was that the glenn down below seemed to be getting lighter, as if dawn were approaching which I knew was ridiculous. But there it was, light over the edge of the far trees. So what was it? What exactly was I seeing? All I know is that I didn't have time to stand there gawkiing at the mysterious light show. Nope, had to about my business. That's when I noticed the second thing: the inner cavern was covered in glowling crystals of every hue and color imaginable.

It was so bright as I began to walk forward that my mind was reeling in circles, as if I were walking down one of those carnival halls wherin the walls seem to be moving around and around you with each step. Quite disorienting... I had to stop every few feet just to decide if it was the wall or me that was going round and round....

--- more to come ----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

could those mysterious lights in the glen be ppl/creatures of some sort carrying crystals, perhaps the cave leads to the valley.

_________________
Seek the Path of Light.....Enter a New Beginning.

Oh, my head is swimming, I've got to take a break, sit down and think about things. No, must move on, Zedd is in here somewhere.... but I'm so tired, these lights, the colors, visions, water, people in the distance....

Is it people? I can't see, I can't think... it looks like hundreds of gleaming eyes, red eyes glowing, channeling all their energy, focusing on something above us....

I see it, way above us, a light, a crystal, dangling down out of the darkness... it is perfect, its shape like a diamond, hanging down with a thousand sparkling fractures and prisms glowing and expanding, like little dancers with wings of gold and silver, purple and blue, green and yellow... and their moving in the air, flying toward the ground, toward me...

I feel so feint. Where am I?

"It's alright, Wiz... you're going to be just fine." a voice, soft and feminine trails off into the darkness.

--- more to come ---

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

When I woke up I was cuddled in a small alcove on a bed with a couple of lambs wool blankets that were smooth and silky to the touch. Opening my eyes I saw the crystals above me, but these were different and gave me a sense of warmth and peace. They were small and round, and the color of honey and amber. As I reached my hand out to touch the crystals above me music started up in small waves, and I gently moved my hand back and forth and in circles and saw that the crystals lit up and sang out following the movement of my hands as they described an arc across the firmament of this small cell.

Amazing. Singing crystals. I wanted to lay there and just let that sweet music fill my whole being forever, but I knew this wasn't the time or place to be laying down on the job. No sir'ee, my buddy Zedd needed my help, and by kraken I was going to get up and go find him.

I raised me self up and tried to move out of the alcove, but as I slipped me feet over the edge of the bed I felt a little quizzy and just fell back and snuggled close to the warm pillows, and pulled the blankets back up over me and fell asleep again.

That's when I heard her voice, calling to me, saying, "Wake up, Wiz, we're waiting for you. There's nothing to fear, come to us in the Hall of Lights."

So as much as I wanted to just lay there in that music world of comforts I knew I had go, had to help my friend....

-- more to come ---

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

I gathered my strength, shifted the sheets and blankets and scooted -- or, should I say "tumbled" -- off the bed into the middle of the bed chamber. The room was truly amazing. The floor was covered in tiles, a spiral mosaic with small lavender flowers and helix like icons scattered here and there; and the walls were covered with thick tapestries depicting unusual scenes of, what I took to be, Bahroglyphs. Each one had an unusual stamp at the right and left corners that lit up every few seconds revealing a small set of handles that rotated round and round in an endless arc.

Being curious about the mechanism, and in no rush to wander off into whatever awaited me in my present state of denuded exposure, I shimmied over to the closest mural and took a turn on the turnstyle. What happend next I'd of never figured in a thousand years: the whole tapestry came alive, the characters in the mural began moving and talking in an unknown tongue, of which I had no clue how to annunciate much less decipher, so I stepped back and watched the procession move on about its business.

From what I could see there were several orders of creatures, I took to be the Bahro, who were all elegantly dressed in bright colors of burl, crimson, fuchsia, and an amalgam of soft weaves of color and light that seemed to shimmer from the cloth robes like moonstones on a field of ice and fire. I could see they were happy and dancing; or, that is what it seemed. But then all at once the scene changed, and the happy creatures were all sad, heads hanging down, and each of them appeared to be being led away somewhere in chains. That's when I saw them, the proud ones who were leading these once happy creatures off into who knows what dark place. These were not unlike humans, and I assumed by their haughty demeanor that these were the D'ni of long ago.

Oh what sadness in the eyes of these creatures, a listless and unthinking stare into the emptiness that is. And the ones who led them off, I could see in their eyes nothing but triumphant gazes: the gaze of a being who thinks it is superior to all things, and owes nothing to anyone, the eyes of a warrior, an elite member of a cold and resolute civilization whose only mission seemed to be the enslavement of all who stood in their way.

One last item made an impression on me. As the last of the Bahro (for so I took them) was led off, I saw "her" -- yes, it must have been female, for she was holding a young one and feeding her from her breast ('udders?') -- turn and face me directly as if she could peer out of this moving mural of light and sound and say: "Remember the least shall again return and those who have caused so much pain and destruction shall reap what they have sown."

Then the moving mural (or holographic device) went blank and returned to its former state of solidity...

--- more to come ----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers

I was determined to get to bottom this, but didn't feel I had the time to explore each of these fabulous talking murals, so I turned round peering for an exit to this hall of mirrors. I did not see one. There was no way out. So I began looking for some secret access point, a hidden door, or even a book or object that might reveal a way; an answer.

At the end of one side of the room was a bookshelf lined with old and marvelous treasures. There were books of course, but there were also some sculptures and figurines of such delicate mien and splendour that my eyes could not unlatch themselves from such beauty. One of the figurines reminded me of the tale of Faresh's daughter, for it had small delicate ghost like filaments drifting above her head, and she was holding her hands in front of her face and standing very close to the edge of some kind of precipice. Oh to see terror and beauty come together in such a contrived artifact is beyond recall; a triumph of imaginal beauty.

But the more time I spent fooling around looking at these artifacts the more puzzeled I became about the creatures or inhabitants of this strange place I was now a prisoner of (or so it appeared). I was beginning to feel a little edgy now, and desperation was crawling up my empty gut, so the only thing I had left on my mind now was getting the heck out of this place.

I turned away from the artifacts and the bookshelf, and walked toward the opposite side of the room -- which wasn't difficult, since the room itself was rounded and circular and was less than twenty feet in radial circumference. On this side of the room there was a vanity, a wash basin, and a small cabinet carved with superb inlay grafts of diverse stones and gems.

I opened the cabinet and to my surprise and door popped open and a mechanism slid a tray out with a large book on it. I'd seen such books in the city and other ages and expected when I opened it to find the great link to the Nexus revealed, but instead I found a rotating screen that lead into what appeared to be a Great Hall of such magnitude that it was difficult to see the far end which tapered off into darkness round the edges.

Well, I knew that if I stayed here I wouldn't eat, so not finding any other way out, I figured I'd take my chances so I pressed my bony old vein ridden hand to the screen before me and....

--- more to come ----

_________________
Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers