Chapter 16 -
01/14/2018
My head popped up. Before I could even locate the source of the outcry, I was appalled at the transformation before me.
From where Krystaline had once dipped in her hand, ripples formed atop the Lake of Tears. Tiny wrinkles expanded into grand loops, outspreading across the entire body of water. Following the circular motion of the waves, the Lake began morphing into something obscure.
I was stunned, my heart in my throat, as I sighted a strange blend of two movements happening simultaneously.
One force was visibly extracting the currents away from the center of the ripple, while the other drove them into a destructive collision. The compaction caused the lake water to segue from translucent to opaque and from fluid to rigid. White ridges formed, gravitating around the waves as they pushed out thick substances. The process stretched from all around the bank to the middle of the Lake in just a blink of eye.
I shivered at the air temperature that had jumped from cool to burning hot and then dropped to an aching chill. It wasn’t until moments later that I came to learn this was the crystallization of the Lake of Tears.
As I took in the drastic change before me, a terrifying notion came to my mind. I could be shredded into pieces, if I had gone into the Lake and caught up in this mess. The mental image was so gruesome that I leaped to my feet.
Who had warned me of the danger?
I glanced up. But something slapped over my face and shut off my vision. The next thing I knew, I was being carried off and moving apace.
What was happening? Someone help me. Please.
Desperate and blind, I couldn’t even squeeze a sound out of my throat. I squirmed but my body was clamped tight against something firm. It wasn’t until almost two hundred steps later that the movements finally broke to a stop.
A brightness flashed into my field of vision and I blinked to focus. I first spotted Bulkee right next to me, his head rolled back and his eyes dull. Soon enough I discovered myself hemmed in the furry arms of a large creature. I couldn’t see his face against the glare behind him, but I was immediately shaken by the view. I tried to sit up, before every ounce of my terror rushed up from my lung into one shrill cry.
“Do not move.” The creature said. His voice was low and it made my hair stand on end.
I wanted to kick him when he stiffened his grip around me. But I felt paralyzed and Bulkee seemed unresponsive to everything around us. All that I could do was staying put, while attempting to get a grasp on the situation by looking out through the bushy arms.
Strangely we seemed to be right in the center of the now solidified Lake. I took noticed of the two Enchantresses standing by the bank and glaring in our direction. Anger had taken up their faces. From far their once gorgeous features appeared like tree gnarls.
“It’s the ugly blind one. He’s taken the girl!” I heard a yelp from one of them.
“We should have just slain it right at its birth,” hissed the other. “I always know that the twerp’s up to no good.”
“Don’t be afraid. They can’t get to us,” said the voice from above, soft and much less threatening than the screech at shore.
I began to comprehend that their vicious comments were directed at him, although he appeared unfazed by the verbal abuse.
I returned my gaze to see the creature freeing an arm from his hold of me. He brought over a crystal ball filled with clear liquid. “Drink this first. I saved it before they touched the Lake,” he told me.
I glimpsed to see a human hand holding the crystal ball and I hesitated.
“You were the one who drained the canteen,” Bulkee said. He seemed to have woken the state of stupor.
When the creature nodded in acknowledgement, my mental connection turned crisp and clear. He was the Bearman whom I had mistaken for a heap of rag at the base the hills. I had offered him the canteen of drink after discovering his collapse.
The recognition offered me a sense of relief. I brought the crystal ball to my lips, finding a small opening and I took a sip from it. The water was refreshing and thirst-quenching. I gulped it down in three quick drafts, my throat and body rinsed by the uplifting drink.
“What is going on?” I asked after l emptied the crystal ball.
“I came to the Lake of Tears in search of an exit. A true exit to the labyrinth,” the Bearman replied. “But when I was near, I overheard the Enchantresses talking to someone who ordered your detention. They tried to detain you by crystalizing the Lake along with you in it. I had to do something to stop them.”
Detention of me?
Who wanted to detain me?
Any why?
I was stunned, feeling a cold chill spread from the base of my back. But I pushed the questions to the back of my head, as I had to make sense of the situation at hand.
“A true exit? What do you mean?” Bulkee asked, the vigor returning to his voice.
“Here’s the thing,” the Bearman said. “There’s no way out of the labyrinth. Once you step inside, you are just meandering through the complex set of tracks. Even if you are lucky enough to reach the Lake of Tears which is at the heart of the maze, you are still stuck,” he took a pause. “I suspect that the only way out of the Pocket of Crystals lies beneath the Lake. The Enchantresses had always barred me from being near it. But their ban just reinforced what I believe is true.”
“Are they coming to get us?” I glanced toward the shore, fearing that the Enchantresses would soon make their way over.
“For now, they can’t,” the Bearman replied. “When the Enchantresses crystallized the Lake, the water temperature had to drop to a point that would freeze them. They probably didn’t expect that you could’ve escaped so the temperature issue wasn’t something they were prepared for. But soon enough they will catch up.”
“What are you going to do with us?” I asked.
“It’s up to you to decide. You can stay here. Or you can come with me,” he replied. “And I want to be transparent with you that the exit to the labyrinth is just my hunch. I will have to test it out.”
“We are skating on thin ice here,” Bulkee said before I had a chance to think. “And if that’s what it takes, let’s do it.”
“How?” I pressed.
“I am afraid that I can’t go into detail,” the Bearman hesitated, as he shifted his gaze.
I followed his line of vision and was surprised to see Crystaline and Krystaline move as if they were under a spell. Their bodies twisted like centipedes, elongating from the waists. Their arms flailed like slippery noodles.
Their action seemed puzzling, till a rush of torrid air hit me and made everything crisp clear. The Enchantresses were amending their miscalculation. They were drawing upon the heat from the maze and redirecting it to melt the frozen Lake!
A tendril of fear traveled up my spine, when the Lake began to thaw. From all around the bank, the stiff edges liquefied into large white froths. The sheet of ice supporting us jolted and cracks ruptured like blood veins.
“We are going to take a chance,” the Bearman said, raising his arm over his head. He swung it down so fast that the hefty punch left a hole on the ice next to his feet. I experienced the impact as a wild wave sailing through my body.
With a swift whisk, the Bearman put his crystal ball to spin. It gyrated and flattened into a disc before gradually curving into a bowl. Gelid shards splattered in all directions, when the bowl dug into the hole on the ice plank.
The Bearman leaped up in the air with me in his arms and Bulkee on his shoulder.
“They are getting away!” That was the last holler I heard from the Enchantresses. I wondered if, to them, we appeared like we had slipped away in an instant. But for me, the experience was quite the opposite.
Everything transformed before my eyes in slow motion. The Lake of Tears expanded into an unbound ocean, the frosted spumes spiraled into hills, and the centipede-like Enchantresses swelled into monsters. The whole world in front of me seemed to have been blown up like a hot balloon.
Meanwhile, I underwent a surge of internal pulls. It was like blood boiling and reeling in my vessels to the core of my existence. I felt myself grow smaller and smaller.
All three of us shriveled and eventually delved into the crystal bowl, as it worked like a drill. We simply bored our way into the still frigid center of the Lake.
“We are heading out,” the Bearman said with a level of confidence. He released me from his grip and leaned against the edge of the bowl. His arms rested by his sides, almost touching mine.
I sat back and watched the light above us converge into a single point. “I am Sasha Ears,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“My given name is Sye Eiersim. But no one calls me by that name,” he replied.
In dim light I studied him with stealthy glances through my eyelashes. He seemed to be looking straight ahead, like he was staring into the distance.
“What do they call you then?” I asked.
“The Blind One,” he relied.
“I’m so sorry,” I said quickly.
“Why do you apologize, Sasha? You don’t need to,” he said evenly.
“Right,” I nodded.
I noticed the lavender furs around his face shedding off like loose paint peeling off the wall. The fresh layer of skin glowed with a touch of translucency, revealing the man behind the shroud of furs.
Framed around his opaque eyes were the distinct cheekbones, relaxed and soft lips, and a straight nose that heightened a surprisingly charming face. In some ways, I would even describe him as beautiful with the figurine-like qualities of the Enchantresses.
“I’m Bulkee. The knightly guard of the AkxieMoreRun Forest,” Bulkee spoke from the corner opposite of me. “I’m also one of the Seekers.” He shifted in the spot and I caught a sparkle in his eyes.
“The legendary Enlightened Seeker?” Sye asked.
“Yes indeed. And with the symbol,” Bullkee said and flipped around.
Space was tight inside the crystal bowl. But Bulkee managed to moved out of the shadow with his back to us. I crawled over to see three curved letters like a tattoo scored on the base of his neck.
“A.S.E., what is that?” I asked.
“The AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened,” Sye said and careened his head. I brought my hands to my mouth, when I found identical letterings of “A.S.E.” burned into the furs just below the nape of his neck.
“Why do both of you have this marking?” I asked. Was I really in the company of the legendary AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened? “What exactly was the legend about the Seekers?” I asked again.
All along I had been told that things were purposely kept isolated in Pockets to reserve peace in AohhoA. Yet here I was, going through so many changes and witnessing impossible interconnections in places that I least expected. I needed answers.
From where Krystaline had once dipped in her hand, ripples formed atop the Lake of Tears. Tiny wrinkles expanded into grand loops, outspreading across the entire body of water. Following the circular motion of the waves, the Lake began morphing into something obscure.
I was stunned, my heart in my throat, as I sighted a strange blend of two movements happening simultaneously.
One force was visibly extracting the currents away from the center of the ripple, while the other drove them into a destructive collision. The compaction caused the lake water to segue from translucent to opaque and from fluid to rigid. White ridges formed, gravitating around the waves as they pushed out thick substances. The process stretched from all around the bank to the middle of the Lake in just a blink of eye.
I shivered at the air temperature that had jumped from cool to burning hot and then dropped to an aching chill. It wasn’t until moments later that I came to learn this was the crystallization of the Lake of Tears.
As I took in the drastic change before me, a terrifying notion came to my mind. I could be shredded into pieces, if I had gone into the Lake and caught up in this mess. The mental image was so gruesome that I leaped to my feet.
Who had warned me of the danger?
I glanced up. But something slapped over my face and shut off my vision. The next thing I knew, I was being carried off and moving apace.
What was happening? Someone help me. Please.
Desperate and blind, I couldn’t even squeeze a sound out of my throat. I squirmed but my body was clamped tight against something firm. It wasn’t until almost two hundred steps later that the movements finally broke to a stop.
A brightness flashed into my field of vision and I blinked to focus. I first spotted Bulkee right next to me, his head rolled back and his eyes dull. Soon enough I discovered myself hemmed in the furry arms of a large creature. I couldn’t see his face against the glare behind him, but I was immediately shaken by the view. I tried to sit up, before every ounce of my terror rushed up from my lung into one shrill cry.
“Do not move.” The creature said. His voice was low and it made my hair stand on end.
I wanted to kick him when he stiffened his grip around me. But I felt paralyzed and Bulkee seemed unresponsive to everything around us. All that I could do was staying put, while attempting to get a grasp on the situation by looking out through the bushy arms.
Strangely we seemed to be right in the center of the now solidified Lake. I took noticed of the two Enchantresses standing by the bank and glaring in our direction. Anger had taken up their faces. From far their once gorgeous features appeared like tree gnarls.
“It’s the ugly blind one. He’s taken the girl!” I heard a yelp from one of them.
“We should have just slain it right at its birth,” hissed the other. “I always know that the twerp’s up to no good.”
“Don’t be afraid. They can’t get to us,” said the voice from above, soft and much less threatening than the screech at shore.
I began to comprehend that their vicious comments were directed at him, although he appeared unfazed by the verbal abuse.
I returned my gaze to see the creature freeing an arm from his hold of me. He brought over a crystal ball filled with clear liquid. “Drink this first. I saved it before they touched the Lake,” he told me.
I glimpsed to see a human hand holding the crystal ball and I hesitated.
“You were the one who drained the canteen,” Bulkee said. He seemed to have woken the state of stupor.
When the creature nodded in acknowledgement, my mental connection turned crisp and clear. He was the Bearman whom I had mistaken for a heap of rag at the base the hills. I had offered him the canteen of drink after discovering his collapse.
The recognition offered me a sense of relief. I brought the crystal ball to my lips, finding a small opening and I took a sip from it. The water was refreshing and thirst-quenching. I gulped it down in three quick drafts, my throat and body rinsed by the uplifting drink.
“What is going on?” I asked after l emptied the crystal ball.
“I came to the Lake of Tears in search of an exit. A true exit to the labyrinth,” the Bearman replied. “But when I was near, I overheard the Enchantresses talking to someone who ordered your detention. They tried to detain you by crystalizing the Lake along with you in it. I had to do something to stop them.”
Detention of me?
Who wanted to detain me?
Any why?
I was stunned, feeling a cold chill spread from the base of my back. But I pushed the questions to the back of my head, as I had to make sense of the situation at hand.
“A true exit? What do you mean?” Bulkee asked, the vigor returning to his voice.
“Here’s the thing,” the Bearman said. “There’s no way out of the labyrinth. Once you step inside, you are just meandering through the complex set of tracks. Even if you are lucky enough to reach the Lake of Tears which is at the heart of the maze, you are still stuck,” he took a pause. “I suspect that the only way out of the Pocket of Crystals lies beneath the Lake. The Enchantresses had always barred me from being near it. But their ban just reinforced what I believe is true.”
“Are they coming to get us?” I glanced toward the shore, fearing that the Enchantresses would soon make their way over.
“For now, they can’t,” the Bearman replied. “When the Enchantresses crystallized the Lake, the water temperature had to drop to a point that would freeze them. They probably didn’t expect that you could’ve escaped so the temperature issue wasn’t something they were prepared for. But soon enough they will catch up.”
“What are you going to do with us?” I asked.
“It’s up to you to decide. You can stay here. Or you can come with me,” he replied. “And I want to be transparent with you that the exit to the labyrinth is just my hunch. I will have to test it out.”
“We are skating on thin ice here,” Bulkee said before I had a chance to think. “And if that’s what it takes, let’s do it.”
“How?” I pressed.
“I am afraid that I can’t go into detail,” the Bearman hesitated, as he shifted his gaze.
I followed his line of vision and was surprised to see Crystaline and Krystaline move as if they were under a spell. Their bodies twisted like centipedes, elongating from the waists. Their arms flailed like slippery noodles.
Their action seemed puzzling, till a rush of torrid air hit me and made everything crisp clear. The Enchantresses were amending their miscalculation. They were drawing upon the heat from the maze and redirecting it to melt the frozen Lake!
A tendril of fear traveled up my spine, when the Lake began to thaw. From all around the bank, the stiff edges liquefied into large white froths. The sheet of ice supporting us jolted and cracks ruptured like blood veins.
“We are going to take a chance,” the Bearman said, raising his arm over his head. He swung it down so fast that the hefty punch left a hole on the ice next to his feet. I experienced the impact as a wild wave sailing through my body.
With a swift whisk, the Bearman put his crystal ball to spin. It gyrated and flattened into a disc before gradually curving into a bowl. Gelid shards splattered in all directions, when the bowl dug into the hole on the ice plank.
The Bearman leaped up in the air with me in his arms and Bulkee on his shoulder.
“They are getting away!” That was the last holler I heard from the Enchantresses. I wondered if, to them, we appeared like we had slipped away in an instant. But for me, the experience was quite the opposite.
Everything transformed before my eyes in slow motion. The Lake of Tears expanded into an unbound ocean, the frosted spumes spiraled into hills, and the centipede-like Enchantresses swelled into monsters. The whole world in front of me seemed to have been blown up like a hot balloon.
Meanwhile, I underwent a surge of internal pulls. It was like blood boiling and reeling in my vessels to the core of my existence. I felt myself grow smaller and smaller.
All three of us shriveled and eventually delved into the crystal bowl, as it worked like a drill. We simply bored our way into the still frigid center of the Lake.
“We are heading out,” the Bearman said with a level of confidence. He released me from his grip and leaned against the edge of the bowl. His arms rested by his sides, almost touching mine.
I sat back and watched the light above us converge into a single point. “I am Sasha Ears,” I said. “What’s your name?”
“My given name is Sye Eiersim. But no one calls me by that name,” he replied.
In dim light I studied him with stealthy glances through my eyelashes. He seemed to be looking straight ahead, like he was staring into the distance.
“What do they call you then?” I asked.
“The Blind One,” he relied.
“I’m so sorry,” I said quickly.
“Why do you apologize, Sasha? You don’t need to,” he said evenly.
“Right,” I nodded.
I noticed the lavender furs around his face shedding off like loose paint peeling off the wall. The fresh layer of skin glowed with a touch of translucency, revealing the man behind the shroud of furs.
Framed around his opaque eyes were the distinct cheekbones, relaxed and soft lips, and a straight nose that heightened a surprisingly charming face. In some ways, I would even describe him as beautiful with the figurine-like qualities of the Enchantresses.
“I’m Bulkee. The knightly guard of the AkxieMoreRun Forest,” Bulkee spoke from the corner opposite of me. “I’m also one of the Seekers.” He shifted in the spot and I caught a sparkle in his eyes.
“The legendary Enlightened Seeker?” Sye asked.
“Yes indeed. And with the symbol,” Bullkee said and flipped around.
Space was tight inside the crystal bowl. But Bulkee managed to moved out of the shadow with his back to us. I crawled over to see three curved letters like a tattoo scored on the base of his neck.
“A.S.E., what is that?” I asked.
“The AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened,” Sye said and careened his head. I brought my hands to my mouth, when I found identical letterings of “A.S.E.” burned into the furs just below the nape of his neck.
“Why do both of you have this marking?” I asked. Was I really in the company of the legendary AohhoA Seekers of the Enlightened? “What exactly was the legend about the Seekers?” I asked again.
All along I had been told that things were purposely kept isolated in Pockets to reserve peace in AohhoA. Yet here I was, going through so many changes and witnessing impossible interconnections in places that I least expected. I needed answers.
