Chapter 19 -
02/25/2018
At the brink of chaos, Bulkee jumped forth. “Hold up!” His arms flailed like the flying shoelaces of the green loafers. “We mean no harm,” he said.
Heads turned, the Koalas sluggishly got up on their feet again. Doe broke from batting his eyelids. Sye repositioned himself, gaining a firm footing on the ground.
Bulkee had me lift him up to stand on my shoulder. “I am Bulkee, an AohhoA Seeker of the Enlightened. I’m here with Sye Eiersim and Alexandra Sasha Ears. We are only passing by your Pocket to greet the Prince of AohhoA.”
Murmuring began when one by one the Koalas circled back. They held their curious gazes on us, their eyes shining like stage-lights.
“He said he was ‘an AohhoA Seeker of the Enlightened,’” someone said.
“Yeah. I heard him,” echoed another.
“But what does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” came a reply and a question. “Do you?”
“No. I have no idea. Maybe they play tricks.”
I was puzzled by their exchange. I thought that everyone in AohhoA knew about the legend of the Seekers. But apparently, the Koalas had been kept in the dark.
An awkward silence ensued, when Sye straightened and walked over to the crystal bowl. He gave it a light thrust with his foot and sent the bowl straight up. In midpoint the bowl transformed back to a sphere before landing onto Sye’s hand.
The act was captivating, especially when the ball kept spinning at the tip of his long finger. The Koalas dropped their jaws like they were enchanted. Perhaps in their eyes, Sye was more than a beast. He was a skilled basketball player showcasing his favorite trick. Sye proceeded to place the ball on his chest and let it roll down to his torso. The moment the crystal disappeared into his abdomen, the Koalas went wild.
Doe was the first one to clap, and he applauded profusely. Following him the crowd cheered, breaking into a holler of excitement. A look of admiration appeared on their faces, as their shimmering eyes captured the reflection of the towering Bearman.
“That was good. You almost got me there,” one Koala said.
“I told you, they are those folks who play tricks,” replied another.
“Great performance. Bravo,” commented the third one.
I was just beginning to feel at ease, when a blaze of light flashed over our heads. The sky went a shade darker as the sun moved one notch down the Belt of Sunpath. I turned to see the pupils of the Koalas contracting all at once.
“The Big Gloom is coming down,” one of them said. When the dusky clouds sank further, everyone began scurrying away like it was a mission to abandon us. In less than a heartbeat, we were left alone in the middle of a five-way intersection.
“The Cycle is about to turn,” Bulkee started to say, giving me a jolt of realization.
The turn of the Cycle was different in each Pocket. In the Pocket of AkxieMoreRun Forest, I witnessed the Cycle refresh right when the forest transformed. Then with the Lethans in the Pocket of Origination, I experienced the turn through the eruption of the bread rolls. Later after stepping into the Pocket of Popcorns, I went through another switch of the Cycle by the explosion of the river.
“We’ve got to find the breakthrough before the Period of Chaos turns Cycle,” Bulkee went on. I understood that he was referring to the breakthrough of traveling from one Pocket to another.
“We can give it a try,” Sye replied, the exact moment the sky crumbled.
We all looked up to find the clouds dim like they were shrouded by a large piece of cloth. The sun had reached the end of the Belt and appeared consumed by the pervasive darkness. With another crushing sound, the Belt of the Sunpath drew its curtains and exited the stage in the sky, taking the sun with it.
“Come to think of it,” Bulkee frowned with a head shake. “We have to wait till we could see the sun and the Belt of Sunpath again to track the direction to the Floating Palace. We must stay and wait.”
But stay here?
The place was vacant with everyone having abandoned us. Except for Doe. My heart leaped up, when I caught him with his head bowed stalling a few feet away drawing circles on the ground with a left toe.
I walked up to him, seeing him send stealthy glances at us. “Doe, do you have something to tell us?” I asked.
“Well,” he continued staring at this foot. “Your name is Alexandra, right?” His voice was surprisingly soft in contrast to his sturdy built.
“Yes. But you can call me Sasha,” I replied.
“Okay, Sasha. I live on Straight-down-forward-and-left Street,” he said.
I locked eyes with him, when he finally looked up. “And?”
“And it’s the sixth house.”
I gave a few quick nods, encouraging him to go on.
“And if you want to, you may come and stay with me. Stay through the Big Gloom.”
I was caught off guard by the invitation. “What is the Big Gloom,” I asked.
“It’s when everything turns dark and gets wiped out,” he said and raised his head all the way back till his forehead touched the ground.
I looked at his strange act as I tried to wrap my head around the situation. Would the Big Gloom be similar to a nightfall? Like back home, when I’d wake up to the fresh start of a day?
I was still baffled by what exactly the Big Gloom was, when Doe set his head straight and began insisting on having us over to his residence.
“It might be a good point to wait,” Bulkee said, considering the plan. “It’d allow us a chance to think through our options to find the breakthrough.”
Sye and Bulkee readily accepted the invitation and in spite of myself, I went along. I figured that it would be a short delay to our journey and we’d be on the road as soon as the sun returned.
I followed behind, as the trio filed down one of the five lanes. The next thing I knew, we were fast on our feet trailing after Doe the Koala. He led us through a winding path and we made a few hairpin-turns, before arriving at a barren tree.
The trunk was covered in a net of knitted ivies and the size was quite impressive. I assumed that it would take at least five people linking hands together to form a complete circle around it.
Doe gestured for us to wait. I watched him as he patted along the rough surface of the bark. He paused at a small lump and turned it all the way till a round bulge slowly appeared on the trunk. He stooped down, twined both arms around the protuberance and pulled on it.
The top part of the bulge fell to the ground and produced a wide opening. There were grits mounted on the side facing up and Doe stepped forth using them as staircases to go up. Once he reached the top, he waved at us eagerly, “Come on in. You three.”
Bulkee took the lead and we slowly scaled up the staircase. “Welcome to my tree house,” Doe met us by the entrance. “Let me give you a quick tour,” he eagerly ushered us inside.
We followed him around the corridor into a room with walls covered in slabs of leaves and braided ivy plants hanging over our heads. The room was lit up by a line of green lanterns along the low ceiling. My stomach churned when I discovered a cluster of squarely-shaped insects inside the lanterns. They crawled through layers of leaves, emitting yellowish green lights. I turned away from the insect-lanterns to a spiral staircase in the center of the tree house. Doe walked over and we began hiking up to the second level.
Upstairs I found five giant windows with no glass panels. Outside it had gone completely dark. I squinted to see the silhouette of tree branches scratching the window frames like ghastly figures trying to sneak their way into the house. The sight of the dark shadows gave me a sudden chill and I quickly shifted my gaze to the hammocks that spread across the room.
They seemed to be made of ivy vines and I counted a total of five, one by each window secured to the beams in the corners of the room. Underneath the hammock was a thick matt of layered leaves bounded by vines.
When Doe invited us to sit on the matts, I swatted down hesitantly. “How would we find the breakthrough to the next Pocket?” I asked, feeling anxious.
The question was meant for Bulkee and Sye, but Doe responded instead. “That I wouldn’t know,” he said. “To be honest, no one here has an answer because we’ve never had a need to venture outside our Pocket.” He darted a searching look at my friends, “You said that you were going to the Prince of AohhoA. But what for?”
“To propose that we make some necessary changes to our kingdom,” Bulkee replied.
“What kind of changes?”
“I’m seeking for the installation of life. A true form of life, because I am sickened that my forest is nothing but a show,” he said.
“How so?” I asked, curious at the Bulkee’s sudden gesture of opening up.
“You see, I’m the guardian of the AkxieMoreRun Forest. But my forest is just a conglomerate of seeds brought into AohhoA from alternative realities. They were artificially cultivated into large plants. To put it this way, my forest is just an imitation of nature. A phony,” he heaved a sigh.
I remembered the synthetic appeal of the forest, the neat row of trees and the neon bright colors. The bleak truth about it boiled down Bulkee’s responsibility as its guardian to a mere title. Admitting this must make him feel insignificant, I imagined. But his openness certainly closed a gap that used to make me feel oceans apart from him.
“Interesting,” Doe remarked, nodding as he turned to Sye. “And what about you, my friend?”
“I’d seek the installation of life, too. But first I’d have the destruction of the Lake of Tears,” Sye’s voice was very solemn.
“Why would you want to do that?” I was taken aback.
“Because for this Lake, the Enchantresses had turned ruthless,” replied Sye. “They slaughtered everyone who disobeyed them.”
In a leveled tone he proceeded to lay it all out for us. The Lake of Tears was once called the Lake of Life, situated in a limpid land of crystals, where many creatures of such clarity resided.
The Enchantresses used to look no different from the crystal stones. But during the previous Period of Chaos, they discovered a tactic to reshape their features. By drawing water from the Lake, they exploited its cooling temperature to chill and remold the scorching crystals, and ultimately creating a look of youth and beauty in themselves. Soon they became obsessive and were constantly updating their looks.
It came as no surprise, that by the end of the Period of Chaos the Enchantresses drained the water and exhausted the Lake of Life. After nothing was left, they grew relentless. They began slaughtering their co-inhabitants. Their rampage became the norm in the Pocket of Crystals.
“Because the Lake fed to us all,” Sye said after a long pause. “Our tears stored its essence that enabled them to manipulate the temperature. The Enchantresses formed a maze to ensnare us and they massacred many just to have us shed tears. And that’s why the Lake is now called the Lake of Tears.”
The story was sickening to me. My fingers flew to my mouth at the thought of Crystaline and Krystaline conducting such ruthless acts with their perfectly fashioned features. Their darkened hearts made me shudder. It must be excruciating, when you had to face the death of your loved ones and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
My mind trailed off to my Father’s earlier experience. Dad didn’t talk much about his past so I only learned from Mom that his parents had shared a bottle of pesticide to end their lives as well as the incessant torments from the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution in the late sixties. Dad had then left his hometown to seek refugee from a distant relative in the States. Fearing retribution from China, he took up a new name, Americanizing his given name to Jay Ears, along with a new life.
How I needed my family! I wondered if my Dad and Mom were looking for me at very moment. How worried and terrified they must be, calling the parents of a handful of friends I had, and perhaps even contacting the police to report me missing.
“The Enchantresses spared me, only because of how I looked,” Sye continued, bringing me back.
“You look just like them,” words escaped my mouth.
Sye responded calmly. “The similarity that you noticed could be from hybridization,” he said. “Long ago before AohhoA became timeless, there was interbreeding amongst the Aohhoaians and those from the alternative realities. Some of us bore features that captured such traits.”
I began to comprehend why Sye exhibited characteristics of mankind. The very handsome kind.
Later on, I explained my situation to Doe, our host and new friend. I talked about my strange abduction and my need to be released from AohhoA. I was calmer the third time talking about my request. “Doe, is there anyway you can help us find a way out of this Pocket,” I asked again.
Doe dropped his head to the floor as if thinking to himself. “Well. We do have an oracle in our Pocket. Her name is Guru Gumii. She knows stuff beyond what we know. She might be able to tell you what you are looking for.”
I sat up, as a wave of excitement rolled through my chest. “Let’s go visit Guru Gumii,” I suggested.
But Doe replied with a yawn, his eyes watery. “Guru Gumii should be resting by now. When the Big Gloom comes, we’d all drift off to sleep. I can take you to her at the onset of the Cycle.”
The green lanterns flashed over our heads, and the room went dark like someone had smothered the lights. I left out a soft gasp.
“Don’t worry,” Doe said. “The Big Gloom has arrived and the Lightbugs are asleep.” In the dark, I heard him rise and clamber up into the hammock closest to him. “I’m hitting the sack. Feel free to pick any of these to rest in,” he told us.
I squinted to see him swipe his hand at the other hammocks before disappearing completely behind the ivy vines. My head grew heavy and exhaustion washed over me.
“Get some rest now, Sasha. There will be more for us to do, when the sun is back up in the sky,” I heard Sye say.
His deep voice seemed to have a hypnotic effect on me. Before I knew it, I was inside the bunk, supported by the tenderness of the vines. I mumbled “good night” to my friends and soon drifted into a deep slumber.
Heads turned, the Koalas sluggishly got up on their feet again. Doe broke from batting his eyelids. Sye repositioned himself, gaining a firm footing on the ground.
Bulkee had me lift him up to stand on my shoulder. “I am Bulkee, an AohhoA Seeker of the Enlightened. I’m here with Sye Eiersim and Alexandra Sasha Ears. We are only passing by your Pocket to greet the Prince of AohhoA.”
Murmuring began when one by one the Koalas circled back. They held their curious gazes on us, their eyes shining like stage-lights.
“He said he was ‘an AohhoA Seeker of the Enlightened,’” someone said.
“Yeah. I heard him,” echoed another.
“But what does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” came a reply and a question. “Do you?”
“No. I have no idea. Maybe they play tricks.”
I was puzzled by their exchange. I thought that everyone in AohhoA knew about the legend of the Seekers. But apparently, the Koalas had been kept in the dark.
An awkward silence ensued, when Sye straightened and walked over to the crystal bowl. He gave it a light thrust with his foot and sent the bowl straight up. In midpoint the bowl transformed back to a sphere before landing onto Sye’s hand.
The act was captivating, especially when the ball kept spinning at the tip of his long finger. The Koalas dropped their jaws like they were enchanted. Perhaps in their eyes, Sye was more than a beast. He was a skilled basketball player showcasing his favorite trick. Sye proceeded to place the ball on his chest and let it roll down to his torso. The moment the crystal disappeared into his abdomen, the Koalas went wild.
Doe was the first one to clap, and he applauded profusely. Following him the crowd cheered, breaking into a holler of excitement. A look of admiration appeared on their faces, as their shimmering eyes captured the reflection of the towering Bearman.
“That was good. You almost got me there,” one Koala said.
“I told you, they are those folks who play tricks,” replied another.
“Great performance. Bravo,” commented the third one.
I was just beginning to feel at ease, when a blaze of light flashed over our heads. The sky went a shade darker as the sun moved one notch down the Belt of Sunpath. I turned to see the pupils of the Koalas contracting all at once.
“The Big Gloom is coming down,” one of them said. When the dusky clouds sank further, everyone began scurrying away like it was a mission to abandon us. In less than a heartbeat, we were left alone in the middle of a five-way intersection.
“The Cycle is about to turn,” Bulkee started to say, giving me a jolt of realization.
The turn of the Cycle was different in each Pocket. In the Pocket of AkxieMoreRun Forest, I witnessed the Cycle refresh right when the forest transformed. Then with the Lethans in the Pocket of Origination, I experienced the turn through the eruption of the bread rolls. Later after stepping into the Pocket of Popcorns, I went through another switch of the Cycle by the explosion of the river.
“We’ve got to find the breakthrough before the Period of Chaos turns Cycle,” Bulkee went on. I understood that he was referring to the breakthrough of traveling from one Pocket to another.
“We can give it a try,” Sye replied, the exact moment the sky crumbled.
We all looked up to find the clouds dim like they were shrouded by a large piece of cloth. The sun had reached the end of the Belt and appeared consumed by the pervasive darkness. With another crushing sound, the Belt of the Sunpath drew its curtains and exited the stage in the sky, taking the sun with it.
“Come to think of it,” Bulkee frowned with a head shake. “We have to wait till we could see the sun and the Belt of Sunpath again to track the direction to the Floating Palace. We must stay and wait.”
But stay here?
The place was vacant with everyone having abandoned us. Except for Doe. My heart leaped up, when I caught him with his head bowed stalling a few feet away drawing circles on the ground with a left toe.
I walked up to him, seeing him send stealthy glances at us. “Doe, do you have something to tell us?” I asked.
“Well,” he continued staring at this foot. “Your name is Alexandra, right?” His voice was surprisingly soft in contrast to his sturdy built.
“Yes. But you can call me Sasha,” I replied.
“Okay, Sasha. I live on Straight-down-forward-and-left Street,” he said.
I locked eyes with him, when he finally looked up. “And?”
“And it’s the sixth house.”
I gave a few quick nods, encouraging him to go on.
“And if you want to, you may come and stay with me. Stay through the Big Gloom.”
I was caught off guard by the invitation. “What is the Big Gloom,” I asked.
“It’s when everything turns dark and gets wiped out,” he said and raised his head all the way back till his forehead touched the ground.
I looked at his strange act as I tried to wrap my head around the situation. Would the Big Gloom be similar to a nightfall? Like back home, when I’d wake up to the fresh start of a day?
I was still baffled by what exactly the Big Gloom was, when Doe set his head straight and began insisting on having us over to his residence.
“It might be a good point to wait,” Bulkee said, considering the plan. “It’d allow us a chance to think through our options to find the breakthrough.”
Sye and Bulkee readily accepted the invitation and in spite of myself, I went along. I figured that it would be a short delay to our journey and we’d be on the road as soon as the sun returned.
I followed behind, as the trio filed down one of the five lanes. The next thing I knew, we were fast on our feet trailing after Doe the Koala. He led us through a winding path and we made a few hairpin-turns, before arriving at a barren tree.
The trunk was covered in a net of knitted ivies and the size was quite impressive. I assumed that it would take at least five people linking hands together to form a complete circle around it.
Doe gestured for us to wait. I watched him as he patted along the rough surface of the bark. He paused at a small lump and turned it all the way till a round bulge slowly appeared on the trunk. He stooped down, twined both arms around the protuberance and pulled on it.
The top part of the bulge fell to the ground and produced a wide opening. There were grits mounted on the side facing up and Doe stepped forth using them as staircases to go up. Once he reached the top, he waved at us eagerly, “Come on in. You three.”
Bulkee took the lead and we slowly scaled up the staircase. “Welcome to my tree house,” Doe met us by the entrance. “Let me give you a quick tour,” he eagerly ushered us inside.
We followed him around the corridor into a room with walls covered in slabs of leaves and braided ivy plants hanging over our heads. The room was lit up by a line of green lanterns along the low ceiling. My stomach churned when I discovered a cluster of squarely-shaped insects inside the lanterns. They crawled through layers of leaves, emitting yellowish green lights. I turned away from the insect-lanterns to a spiral staircase in the center of the tree house. Doe walked over and we began hiking up to the second level.
Upstairs I found five giant windows with no glass panels. Outside it had gone completely dark. I squinted to see the silhouette of tree branches scratching the window frames like ghastly figures trying to sneak their way into the house. The sight of the dark shadows gave me a sudden chill and I quickly shifted my gaze to the hammocks that spread across the room.
They seemed to be made of ivy vines and I counted a total of five, one by each window secured to the beams in the corners of the room. Underneath the hammock was a thick matt of layered leaves bounded by vines.
When Doe invited us to sit on the matts, I swatted down hesitantly. “How would we find the breakthrough to the next Pocket?” I asked, feeling anxious.
The question was meant for Bulkee and Sye, but Doe responded instead. “That I wouldn’t know,” he said. “To be honest, no one here has an answer because we’ve never had a need to venture outside our Pocket.” He darted a searching look at my friends, “You said that you were going to the Prince of AohhoA. But what for?”
“To propose that we make some necessary changes to our kingdom,” Bulkee replied.
“What kind of changes?”
“I’m seeking for the installation of life. A true form of life, because I am sickened that my forest is nothing but a show,” he said.
“How so?” I asked, curious at the Bulkee’s sudden gesture of opening up.
“You see, I’m the guardian of the AkxieMoreRun Forest. But my forest is just a conglomerate of seeds brought into AohhoA from alternative realities. They were artificially cultivated into large plants. To put it this way, my forest is just an imitation of nature. A phony,” he heaved a sigh.
I remembered the synthetic appeal of the forest, the neat row of trees and the neon bright colors. The bleak truth about it boiled down Bulkee’s responsibility as its guardian to a mere title. Admitting this must make him feel insignificant, I imagined. But his openness certainly closed a gap that used to make me feel oceans apart from him.
“Interesting,” Doe remarked, nodding as he turned to Sye. “And what about you, my friend?”
“I’d seek the installation of life, too. But first I’d have the destruction of the Lake of Tears,” Sye’s voice was very solemn.
“Why would you want to do that?” I was taken aback.
“Because for this Lake, the Enchantresses had turned ruthless,” replied Sye. “They slaughtered everyone who disobeyed them.”
In a leveled tone he proceeded to lay it all out for us. The Lake of Tears was once called the Lake of Life, situated in a limpid land of crystals, where many creatures of such clarity resided.
The Enchantresses used to look no different from the crystal stones. But during the previous Period of Chaos, they discovered a tactic to reshape their features. By drawing water from the Lake, they exploited its cooling temperature to chill and remold the scorching crystals, and ultimately creating a look of youth and beauty in themselves. Soon they became obsessive and were constantly updating their looks.
It came as no surprise, that by the end of the Period of Chaos the Enchantresses drained the water and exhausted the Lake of Life. After nothing was left, they grew relentless. They began slaughtering their co-inhabitants. Their rampage became the norm in the Pocket of Crystals.
“Because the Lake fed to us all,” Sye said after a long pause. “Our tears stored its essence that enabled them to manipulate the temperature. The Enchantresses formed a maze to ensnare us and they massacred many just to have us shed tears. And that’s why the Lake is now called the Lake of Tears.”
The story was sickening to me. My fingers flew to my mouth at the thought of Crystaline and Krystaline conducting such ruthless acts with their perfectly fashioned features. Their darkened hearts made me shudder. It must be excruciating, when you had to face the death of your loved ones and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
My mind trailed off to my Father’s earlier experience. Dad didn’t talk much about his past so I only learned from Mom that his parents had shared a bottle of pesticide to end their lives as well as the incessant torments from the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution in the late sixties. Dad had then left his hometown to seek refugee from a distant relative in the States. Fearing retribution from China, he took up a new name, Americanizing his given name to Jay Ears, along with a new life.
How I needed my family! I wondered if my Dad and Mom were looking for me at very moment. How worried and terrified they must be, calling the parents of a handful of friends I had, and perhaps even contacting the police to report me missing.
“The Enchantresses spared me, only because of how I looked,” Sye continued, bringing me back.
“You look just like them,” words escaped my mouth.
Sye responded calmly. “The similarity that you noticed could be from hybridization,” he said. “Long ago before AohhoA became timeless, there was interbreeding amongst the Aohhoaians and those from the alternative realities. Some of us bore features that captured such traits.”
I began to comprehend why Sye exhibited characteristics of mankind. The very handsome kind.
Later on, I explained my situation to Doe, our host and new friend. I talked about my strange abduction and my need to be released from AohhoA. I was calmer the third time talking about my request. “Doe, is there anyway you can help us find a way out of this Pocket,” I asked again.
Doe dropped his head to the floor as if thinking to himself. “Well. We do have an oracle in our Pocket. Her name is Guru Gumii. She knows stuff beyond what we know. She might be able to tell you what you are looking for.”
I sat up, as a wave of excitement rolled through my chest. “Let’s go visit Guru Gumii,” I suggested.
But Doe replied with a yawn, his eyes watery. “Guru Gumii should be resting by now. When the Big Gloom comes, we’d all drift off to sleep. I can take you to her at the onset of the Cycle.”
The green lanterns flashed over our heads, and the room went dark like someone had smothered the lights. I left out a soft gasp.
“Don’t worry,” Doe said. “The Big Gloom has arrived and the Lightbugs are asleep.” In the dark, I heard him rise and clamber up into the hammock closest to him. “I’m hitting the sack. Feel free to pick any of these to rest in,” he told us.
I squinted to see him swipe his hand at the other hammocks before disappearing completely behind the ivy vines. My head grew heavy and exhaustion washed over me.
“Get some rest now, Sasha. There will be more for us to do, when the sun is back up in the sky,” I heard Sye say.
His deep voice seemed to have a hypnotic effect on me. Before I knew it, I was inside the bunk, supported by the tenderness of the vines. I mumbled “good night” to my friends and soon drifted into a deep slumber.
