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"Oh, alright Zedd," I said with a little meaness I didn't really feel, but just so he'd know I was'nt in any humor to be fraggled this morning. "I'll go on your fragging mystery tour, but don't expect me to be the one to run the gauntlet for ya when this fellow - What's his name? - Mr. Destroyer ( and what kind of name is that, anyway?) decides to cook yer goose. No sir'ee, not this old boy, I've had it with all these mystery tours and treasure hunts in which we never find treasure, but always find trouble..."
"But, Zedd," he interrupted me like a man who knew more than men could know, saying, "we're not going alone."
Now that stopped me in me tracks. For once in me life I had nothing to say. I just looked at him, smiling.
"See, you're better already," Zedd laughed. "Yep, we got company on this trip, someone you'll love."
Oh no, I should've known what was coming next, but I was in a good humor even if a little tired and feeling bumrushed about the whole thing, so I went along with his little charade just to be a sport about it all. "Ok, I give," I said with more nonchalance than I was feeling. "Who is this mystery guest?"
"Why you know, Wiz, our little sister, Talia?" he said this like it was something I'd known all me life.
At the mention of her name -and what a name, too - I tried to stand up, but instead I burned me poor toes, which had been warmin' themselves on a toasty rock by the fire, where I'd been sippin' me coffee, and eating one of them fancy d'ni rolls that Jesse Lee, our Bevin Chef Meister in Residence, had fried up only a few minutes before.
(Oh! what a treat they were, too. Just like the Indian bread I used to eat as a kid up by Flagstaff, Arizona. You know the kind, dipped in hot oil, fried super thin and crsip, and filled with honey so rich your mouth floated in manna. They called them sopapillas (after the Spanish Conquistador who'd named 'em, not having a clue how to annunciate the true Havasupai name), but I called them bliss and comfort for the simple reason that with each bite I was sent to a place where real magic was not only possible but prescribed. Yummy Land.).
I roared. I screamed. I did figgle jig in circles holding me aching toes like a wounded Tasmanian devil, spinning and hopping around knocking down bookshelves, bumping into me new cookware and sending the whole shebang banging down on the stone floor that the entire hood came rushing to our alcove, where Joby, Tibby, Althea, and Markus found me making such a ruckus that they thought I'd finally gone over the edge. But instead, I finally fell into the fountain and comming up with me beard and me favorite coddlin robe all spittling and dripping wet.
(And all this because that little pipsquik, Talia, was comming along on our adventure. Of course, I didn't really have nothin' against her, no it wasn't that she hadn't been entertaining - in her way, but it was more that she was always a persistant thorn in me side, always asking a thousand questions, always combatting me with my replies, always chattering and spouting her opinions on every little thing, like she was the most gifted student any teacher's pet could be. No, it wasn't like she couldn't make me laugh, or cry as the occasion warranted; it was more like she made me feel things and remember things out of me own youth, things best left int he dark foretime of unmentionables. Yes, she was so full of energy, so full of courage in the face of danger, so full of curiosity and ... and... newness; yes, that's the right word.... newness, she was full of it, full of that magic of life that so few still have, the feeling that all the world before her was an open adventure and each day was the first day of that adventure. Oh, Talia, what a breath of fresh air.... yes, you remind me of me dear departed wife.... that was it in a nutshell. Nothing more need be said.)
I looked around me and saw that I was the center of a comedian hour without a comedian. "Oh sure, let old wizzy be the center of fun and laughter. Go on, have yer laugh, see if I care."
So I troshed me way slipping and slidding on the pavement back to me alcove where I found none other than Zedd and Talia both at the kitchen table talking and laughing, drinking me coffee and eating me rolls like nothing had happened to poor old wizzy.
What could I say? I said nothing, went to me room, slammed the door, and proceeded to sulk for a while, then showerd, trimmed me beard, put on me favorite hunting jacket, adjusted me Crawford Beret, twisted me stash of Hummer's finest, filled me tankard for the long haul, and grabbed me favorite bone pipe for those long dark evenings ahead, then I walked to the kitchen grabbed what was left of me roll, picked up me cold coffee and downed it in one shot and said, "Ok, I'm ready. Let's be off..."
--- more to come ----
_________________ Earthwizard - KI # 01555592 - The Ageless Explorer's Hood
D'ni Digest | AoG | Guild of Cartographers
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