Chapter 20

Life is like a reunion, and that’s how I first met you.

Brownie was thinking about the prose of the Martian poetry in her mind it didn’t seem to make complete sense to her, it seemed somewhat contradictory, the deeper meaning escaped her. How can someone be reunited and meet for the very first time?

she wondered if they were referring to the Martian idiosyncrasies or if it was to give reverence and value to friendship something that is ever perpetuating and has no beginning or no end, what a conundrum?

They followed Eulin as they soared and rode the jet stream and crossed over the
High Mountain peaks that were encrusted with snow as if a mighty unseen hand had dusted them with icing sugar as sunlight sparkled in the distant horizon… then they glided softly across the orange desert, slowly descending over time, Eulin Called it the Dune Sea. Now, as they came to rest at last at an oasis in the cool air of the evening as they surveyed what looked like the ruins of a modern village.

They landed as softly as could be expected, with a thud.

In the orange sand, which fortunately for them was soft, and caught them beautifully.

“Well, not so bad!” Said Googlee as he shook the sand from his paws, “not so bad!” Remarked Eulin as he landed perfectly showing them how it should have been done “I call that crashing more than landing!” Googlee sneered at the whitebird but knew he was in fact correct.

Brownie dusted herself off as she spat the sand from her mouth “urgh! Is this the right place?” She asked in a hoarse whisper as she straightened herself using Googlee’s giant flanks and tried to relieve herself of the pins and needles sensation that ran down her legs,” it doesn’t look like the place where a wise Oracle would live!” As she quickly cast her eyes over the surrounding environment
” and what would a wise Oracle look like, and how many of them have you seen hmm?” Eulin tormented her. She
Looked at him brushing the sand out of her hair and ears, “in some place a bit more magical!”. she replied

It was truly a graveyard of old buildings gothic looking, but they were incomplete. There were a set of stout granite steps up to what seemed like an old churchyard and statues of what appeared like saintly forms of some kind, a relic to bygone days perhaps thought the little Sprite?

Parched vines had encroached on the built-up structures and began to pull out the mortar in the masonry of the walls and the large glazed windows that were all cracked and broken, the once panes of coloured glass that depicted scenes of political importance where now all broken and there was nothing to prevent the sand from blowing in. The slow invasion of time was evident. At every pillar and post, as there was yet another reminder that the desert could quite easily reclaim what was its own.

The only signs of life were the stirrings of swarms of coloured blue butterflies that swarmed about whenever you drew near. They settled in congregations, but as you drew ever closer, they were distressed and dispersed in every direction like swarms of locusts skimming along on the breeze.

Inside of the ruins, there were yawning cavities where the crimson sky lingered in and began to cast its red eye at the mortal world asunder.

The temperature was dropping and quite rapidly.

Googlee remarked to himself ” my-my it’s bitter!” As he shook tremulously.

There was some type of wooden furniture, reminiscent of congregational benches that Brownie tried to sit in for a while, and contemplate her navel, as she noticed it was, even more, colder now. She began to see the gaseousness of her breath in the air. She rubbed her arms vigorously as she tried to stay warm whilst she visibly shrunk with the cold air, she knew they’d have to huddle together and exchange body heat if they were going to be ok. Her teeth began to chatter as they all laid clustered together, she couldn’t stop
them and now her breath started to frost about her face.
Before passing out, she could just remember seeing swarms of butterflies hundreds and thousands of them.
As she began to fade from consciousness wrapped in Googlees arms and In turn, her fingers entwined in Eulins feathers as they began to go numb with the cold.

She found herself straying back Into the dream once again; it had been quite some time since she had visited it. This time she saw the little winette headed girl something was different it was as if the flow of time at least in the dream was running oddly, there was their time, and then there was the time around them it seemed to stutter and occa-sionally move like a movie that was on pause.

The little Sprite looked at the girl in her dream, and instead of repeating the well-played out events, she found herself saying ” I know you now! “dulcetly as she helped her remove her mask, and looked on with genuine heartfelt emotion “but I don’t know what you want from me?” The Martian girl had red ringleted hair. Her eyes were alluring like polished amber the young girl did not speak, but simply gazed at her across the small space. Brownie could see a similarity between her and Li Kay, not in her features but her mannerisms and her presence, they were the same, that weird, strange nobility and thought, wheels within wheels, a mind always thinking. Brownie tried to hold her hand as she said, “thank you for all that you have revealed and your help!!!” But found that her own hand was intangible as she saw herself slipping into darkness as if she were a torso floating in an ocean of black with only a few particles of ice passing her by as cold began gripping her tightly once again, and then warmth she could hear a heartbeat, as if it were calling her back ,it was Googlees , she smirked to herself and then everything faded to blackness.

The butterflies lied together resting on the sand dunes appearing like reefs of blue Heather, as the rays of the dawn began to warm the sands slowly. They had laid there all-night suddenly one was startled and moved to reveal an eyelid that was closed tightly, slowly the eye beneath the blanket of butterflies opened it was dark brown, and its sclera was white. As the movement of Brownies arousal gently insisted that they swarm away from her, they had in some way prevented them from freezing in the night as the two others began to stir. Eulin stretched his primaries as he began to Stir himself up and prepare for the morning requiem, perhaps to find out what was going on, and to gather information from the other birds in the morning song.

The little Sprite thought to herself that bird is skittish always going here or there looking for his own kind before she concluded that must be the natural demeanor of birds, which oddly enough made sense to her.

If the night was too cold, the days were too hot.

Brownie left the shade of the ruins as she went to the oasis with the singular purpose of washing.

It was an odd sight, the oasis it was nicely surrounded by sparse vegetation, the water shimmered in the sunlight, and it was freezing, even though the air was bent by waves of heat that she could visibly see.

Thinking out loud she spoke to herself “where o’ where could this oracle be, I wonder!?” as she passed a cursory glance towards a swarm of butterflies that seemed to be swarming intelligently, it looked like they were forming a pointer on the orange sand in answer to her question.
Her jaw dropped open as she laughed to herself and applauded as she thought to herself fantastic!!
“That way ?!” She asked the open air feeling a bit peculiar,
There was no way of denoting yes or no. She swept her brow as she began to sweat profusely. The sun beat mercilessly down upon her head, and she cursed her raven locks that tended to absorb all the heat,
She thought out loud “I wish I had a hat for the sun!” As the butterflies, all began to react and swarm about her and land upon her in a whirlwind of silky wings onto her hair and organize themselves into some type of Laurel wreath head covering. It wasn’t the most comfortable form of headwear it would take some getting used to thought Brownie, but it did make her feel much cooler. She looked at her reflection in the water at the oasis and commented “oh that’s soooo cool!” as she giggled with Delight to herself.

Googlee was standing behind her as he interrupted “having fun he asked!”
” Googlee !” She answered caught off guard “the butterflies they answer questions!” She said over enthusiastically.
She demonstrated “Butterflies show me where the Wyrzel is? The butterflies collected in an arrow formation to indicate Googlee was indeed the Wyrzel she was referring too, the little Sprite beamed with a sense of ingenuity and accomplishment, the red and white Pegasus continued “I think I may know what this place used to be!” He said looking around for clues to cement his theory “what?” She asked.” Well if I’m right, it was some type of missionary, but I wonder what transpired here?” As soon as his words left his mouth, the butterflies seemed to swarm into a significant explosion symbol.

Eulin suddenly swooped down as he splashed his feet into the calm of the watering hole, sending ripples across the oasis “the birds!” He exclaimed “there aren’t any, not even those pesky vuzzards…!

” I wonder if it were a natural disaster or a man-made one?” Said Googlee, oblivious to Eulins statement as he broadcast his thoughts audibly, unfortunately, the butterflies had no such way of conveying this, “so!”, Said Eulin “we’re going to just trust THEM are we!” With a degree of skepticism, “I don’t see what harm it could be?” Said the Wyrzel in a show of solidarity for the butterflies.

Brownie asked the butterflies “Take us to the Oracle?” As they again formed directional markers as the 3 of them set off into the wide open desert.
Descant Silhouettes moving across the orange horizon in the distance.
Tiny figures with larger than life shadows.

On and on they trekked, for miles, luckily for the little Sprite the swarm provided shade and air conditioning with the intermittent fluttering of their wings fanning her.

Venturing across the desert. Occasionally they’d come across the remnants of an older civilization, curiosities from an ancient mars. It was hard to believe in fact often they turned away from the discoveries and put them down to being mirages as they passed them in the distance in vane and undiscovered, to disappear back into the horizon with the heatwaves that stayed just out of reach.
Until finally they came to a cliff with a face.

Which had an opening halfway up and precarious stone steps that almost looked safe to use?

The rock formation had a menacing face carved into it intricately of what looked to be a face of an ancient sphinx roaring.

“Is that the place?” Asked the Sprite with dry lips
The cave looked dark inside they were apprehensive about going inside, googlee had a worried look upon his face as he was presented with the prospect of facing his top two fears of darkness and being in enclosed spaces all at once.

They began to ascend the rickety stepping stones up to the higher ground as the butterflies ensued, like a cloud of midges that hung over their heads.

At the mouth of the cave, the three of them stood nervously peering into the unknown. It was inky black. The little Sprite could not imagine a darker shade of black. She turned to Googlee and stroked his mane lovingly as she asked him “are you frightened ?!” She could see he was terrified his poor little face was ashen and the musculature about his jawline was tense ” Yes !” He answered in a tiny voice ” as if he didn’t want the bird to know, Brownie winked at him “someone once told me you should direct your mind to think of being afraid as being On Edge!” He Raised one eyebrow as he asked: ” why!”
” Because
There is a certain advantage to being on edge; senses are more alert, increased adrenaline, so you can move faster than is possible, fight for longer than is possible, makes you stronger, makes you a weapon of unknown predictability!” She said reciting the words Li Kay told her word for word ” so then you don’t have to fear the demons in the dark places, they have to fear you!” She hadn’t realized but now she was In The role of the Grandmarshal, they took a deep breath and slowly and surely began to enter the darkness together all three of them all at once as she called out “hullo!” But no one answered, apart from the echo of her own voice.

As the mouth of the beast swallowed them up.

They frowned as they followed the cavern until they couldn’t see anymore as it progressively got narrower, Brownie could hear Googlee humming the song she sang when they first met, he was humming ” we could be heroes just for one day!” Over and over She thought it was sweet. Eulin was quiet even his eccentricities he kept reigned in.

There was no breeze or No smell.

They continued onwards step by step until they reached a solid wall that was impassible.

The little Sprite began to feel the wall, feel its shape with her fingertips she was looking for something she could push-pull or lift as she felt the makeup of the wall in front of them in the blackness. It appeared to be solid stone, with a smooth texture.
There were no other sounds which was odd not even the sounds of their footsteps as they walked.

But there was one immediate sound a sound of misery.
Eulin and Brownie could hear the low stifled sobbing coming from the big Wyrzel; it was like the periodic mewing of a cat, whimpering, poor thing though Brownie he was in hell, as callously Eulin Remarked: ” how old are you!” In an attempt to rebuke him, or to solicit an emotional response, to snap him out of it. alas, it failed to achieve its desired outcome as he sniffled and seemed more pathetic the little Sprite being mentally adroit seized onto the question as she asked in his general direction ” actually, what is your age??!?”
“About 90 seasons !” He said begrudgingly “. I stopped counting after 70!” He added
She hadn’t realized he was so old, but it was distracting his mind from his current predicament.

“Googlee ?”
“Yes” he replied
“Can I ask you something!”
“Yeh!” He said shakily
“Something personal!”
“Okay!”
“What’s falling in love like?”
He was quite stunned “well that is quite a personal question!?”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” She said, “only I thought about asking you because I figured you’d be old enough to know!?!”
” well, it was different for me!”
“Did you get married?”
“No, we have no need for bonding rituals Sprite!”
“We had to elope though!” “That’s soooooo, romantic !”
” it was later in my life anyway !”

” She was, an Amur Wyrzel !”

“What’s the difference? asked eulin curtly.

” I am a Peppermint Wyrzel -not a lot really

” He said answering Eulins question “stripes and spots, or rosettes to be more specific!” he sighed.

“she got really sick after that!!” he said as the cadent of his voice moved from the twilight to the very very dark ” n’ I miss her every day! ” he said fighting back the combination of pandemonium and grief “But I wouldn’t change a second of it!” He said much calmer now.
” oh that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, I think I may have a little cry!”
“no, please don’t!” He begged her
And then she interrupted the conversation with an exclamation of ” ah’ha!!”
“What is it ?” Eulin Said remaining oblivious until now. ” “I’ve found a space !”, ” a space!?” Repeated Eulin “Butterflies can you check it out and see if there’s a way in?”
There was a flutter as the butterflies wooshed passed her hand and then silence, and then a click, as gears seemed to whir into motion …as a dim chink of light like the thread of a spider that shone its rays into the dark cavern. Behind the door, they could see the butterflies assembled into some type of androgynous figure greeting them humbly as they entered into a giant chamber of what seemed to be a subterranean City basking in starlight.

Inside the chamber was a fountain of what appeared to be liquid light tinkling into a Chanel that ran into a system of canals around the city. The little Sprite kneeled at the edge of the fountain and carefully took out the tail feather birthday present given to her by Eulin and proceeded to dip it in the liquid light and made a gesture of tying the illuminating feather into the Wyrzels mane as she said ” there
For facing your fears and for endeavoring to stay the course ” as she kissed him on his cheek whilst standing on her tippy toes.

Googlee thanked her as they began to follow the figure built out of the butterflies, they walked beneath silver pillars and up white marble staircases until finally, they reached what appeared to be a domed cathedral. They walked into a majestic hall with an arch at the center that was simply breathtaking, indescribable there were no words to do it justice.

Brownie turned to the androgynous figure and commented: “you’re the Oracle aren’t you!” To which the figure took a bow ” I don’t understand?!” she exclaimed, the figure pointed towards Googlee ” I think I do !” he said, ” they were hit by a falling star, and so many of them perished, but a few managed to adapt and live underground, like this!”

And with that, the arch illuminated with vibrant white light ” that’s the philosophers’ gate isn’t it!” She said looking over it with curious eyes? She paused and then asked ” I have so many questions I need answering!” almost as if she were willing to get down on her knees and beg for her answers.
The creature merely pointed to the gate as they slowly walked towards it, she looked back in the direction of the Oracle and saluted as she turned toward
the light .. it was so intense they could not see where the gate began and ended they just endeavored to continue until
They could go no further.

End of act 2