The Quest
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The Quest
A group story by the |
Part I - Emerald Wolf She awoke with a shiver. When she sat up, she stifled a cry. The world around her was gray - solid gray. Shapes, seemingly more from her imagination than shapes formed by living things seemed to move just beyond her field of vision - but disappeared the moment she turned her head to concentrate on them. What ... Where ... How did she get here? Where was here? She looked down at herself, a bit rumpled and damp from lying on ... on a carpet of moss, moss that was just a bit greener than the gray of the atmosphere that surrounded her. She was wearing clothing that seemed .... Familiar. But .. But it wasn’t familiar. The dress was rougher than it should be... The color was hard to distinguish in the gray light. Short sleeves, a skirt that reached almost to her ankles. There was a sort of painting on the bodice... She couldn’t make it out from looking at it upside down. This dress ... she never remembered wearing anything like this before ... Her feet were shod in soft sandals, straps wrapped around her ankles ... What had she normally worn? Why did she feel so .... Vulnerable? Her heart, beating louder and louder in her ears, as she began to assess her situation, deafened her to any sounds around her in the grayness. She felt she must be in some sort of danger, if only danger from ignorance. So, she fought with her body to gain control - to calm enough so that she could think what to do. She closed her eyes again, leaned backward, and began a deep breathing exercise, muttering a mantra to complete the exercise. "She guards me, I am safe. She knows me, and I know her." It felt like an eternity before she was calm enough to open her eyes again and hope to actually attempt to make sense of her situation. She sat there, completely still, listening to this strange world that surrounded her. Her patience was rewarded when she began to distinguish dim sounds around her. She strained to see through the gray fog, to see anything that might give her a hint as to where she was and what she might be doing here. The grayness was still there, but now, as she scanned her surroundings, she could make out shapes within it. And the noises ... She whispered a quiet prayer. Noises. Noises of Life. Dim, but becoming recognizable now. A bird chirping in the distance... A brook? Could that sound be water running over rocks? She suddenly realized how thirsty she was. She moved to sit up and realized she had been leaning with her head against the root of a tree. An enormous tree! A tree that reached upward forever, she realized as she looked up above herself. The branches stretched out above her, where they weren’t lost in the darkening grayness. The branches, thick with leaves, that protected her from a softly falling rain that moistened the ground just beyond where she sat. Light... Was it getting darker? Or was that just her panic beginning to set in once again? No, no, she really believed it was just a bit darker than earlier. And cooler. There seemed to be a chill coming into the air. She shivered and rubbed her bare arms. What would she do? Where was she? How had she gotten here!!! Then, before she could stop it, panic set in. A veil of darkness moved over her. Blackness ... Emptiness... She felt herself curl up into a ball, her head against a root of the tree, the tree that was the only other living thing she felt connected to in the enveloping darkness. She cried. She slept. She dreamt of Light. Part 2 - Willow The dream light was a soft, safe blanket, slipping around her like a shield. In her dreaming mind, the words kept echoing softly—"She guards me, I am safe. She knows me, and I know her." Slowly the light shifted, still holding her within its safe shroud, yet at its heart, it began to glow brightly, changing shape, swirling softly around a small center, gathering, growing, then lifting up above her. The sleeping woman stirred but slumbered on, a faint smile playing upon her lips now, replacing the look of fear. The light shape began to take on form, a majestic body, arms reaching outward, the head coming into focus. Now she could see the figure clearly, recognition bringing a thrill of joy to her dream. "Great Mother," she said, "is that you?" ,p> "Yes, child. You are safe." "Yes, safe now. But what about when I awaken. Mother, I am in a strange land. My clothes are not my own. I do not recognize this place. There is a great tree, but I have never seen any tree so large in any of the woods around our home. I am afraid to wake up again." "I know you are afraid," the light being said gently. "But you must awaken again, and soon. You have come to a special time and a special place. Not many are chosen to walk this path. It is for those who are ready to learn the great secrets." "What great secrets? Please tell me more. What must I do? How will I find my way?" "I can tell you no more. All that you need to know you will come to know. Now awaken, my child." And with that, the light receded to a small spinning circle that moved quickly up into the dark night sky, until it was lost among the stars.
Part 3 - Brightwolf
She awoke to the sound of thunder. The skies had opened, and the rain was pouring down. She touched her face, and her hands came away wet. Had she been crying in her dream, or was she dreaming now? She thought she remembered a voice, a woman’s voice, a voice which cradled her like a child. She thought she remembered a flash of color, but everywhere she looked now she saw only gray. The thirst was filling her up until she could think of nothing else. She tipped back her head to feel the full force of the rain, and she drank. She drank. She drank. She felt the water run down into all her dry places. She could not remember when she had ever been so thirsty. She could not remember. She could not remember... Were those memories flickering through her mind, or were they dreams? Standing in a field of golden sunflowers, higher than her head. Wrapped up in a blue woolen blanket, sitting close to a roaring fire, purring cat pricking her legs with its small feet. A hand she held in her own, a baby wailing. A woman singing a song she thought she knew. Standing before a hot stove, stirring the pot and tasting - barley, carrots, pepper - warm in her mouth. A raised voice. A slammed door. A pain in her side. She was running... She was running. She was up and running through the rain, through the gray, stumbling and falling and getting up to run again. Her hands were muddy now, her dress was torn and everywhere she looked she saw only gray. She closed her eyes and ran on, thinking of sunflowers, thinking of the light, and finally fell to her knees, gasping for breath, unable to go further. And over the sound of the pouring rain, she heard a voice. "Listen." "Listen." "Listen to your heart." Her eyes flew open. Directly before her, hovering in the middle of the air, was a hummingbird. Smaller than her hand, brilliant in its coloring, it was singing very quietly. "Listen. Listen. Listen to your heart. Remember. Remember. Remember your name." It turned its head, and began to fly directly ahead into the gray. She arose to her feet, quieter now, and began to follow. Where the hummingbird flew, the rain ceased to fall, but came down on all sides around them as if they were moving through a tunnel. She tried to listen to her heart, the steady beat. The singing grew louder. "Listen. Listen. Remember your name." She felt it on the tip of her tongue - "I remember sunflowers, I remember the cat purring beneath my hands, I remember the taste of pepper in my mouth, I remember, I..." And suddenly there was color everywhere, and a sky blazed with stars above her head. She found herself standing on the edge of a canyon, and where the hummingbird hovered there stood a bridge, old and frail and weather-beaten, stretching across a space so vast she could not see the other side. She listened to the steady beat of her heart. "Sara," she said. "My name is Sara." She took a step onto the bridge.
Part 4 - Swampy
The bridge which was suspended over the canyon with ragged ropes swayed back and forth in the breeze....though frightened, she knew she would have to cross....something was pulling her like a magnet....it was as though gentle hands pressed her shoulders urging her forward......she had to be brave and take a risk...for how else would she learn the secrets of her memory flashes.....Even though the stars shown brightly the bridge was shadowed ...."have faith"...said a voice...."take a step"....and she did...and before she could take another one the bridge lit up ...Fireflies came from the lower bowels of the canyon and perched on the ragged ropes...making her journey across safer... Slowly she made her way across...and just as she set her feet on solid ground and turned to see from where she had come, the bridge disappeared..just vanished. "I must still be asleep", she thought out loud..."things are just not as they seem". By now she was feeling the wind blowing across the canyon....she pulled the tattered skirt up and around her arms to ward off the chill and surveyed her surroundings. Nothing was familiar, but she couldn’t get over the feeling that she had been here before. Suddenly something caught her attention...something she viewed for only a fraction of a second out of the corner of her eye.....something dark slipping back into the shadows. Now fear was beginning to clutch her throat..."Wake up Sara she thought...Wake up so this fear will go away"....but she didn’t wake up..everything stayed as it was... "Show yourself...please come forward...I am frightened enough. Let me see who you are" And then a voice could be heard coming from behind a bent tree in the dark shadows..."What. You don’t recognize me...after all these years you don’t know who I am"? "How can I know who you are when I have not seen your face", said Sara, show yourself at once." And then she appeared. Stepping out from behind the tree was an old woman....Bent with age..Wearing a black dress as tattered as Sara’s...a shawl made from burlap hung from her shoulders..Her hair, was snow white drawn up on top of her head, and whips of it flutter around her face pulled loose by the wind ... Her face was lined deeply..but her eyes held a gentleness...held a knowing..held wisdom... "Now do you recognize me, said the old woman.... "No...no I don’t...have we met before" The old woman began to laugh....throwing her head back her shawl dropping further down her back....and then she stopped as suddenly as she started....."Look into my eyes my dear....see anything familiar......" Sara walked closer to the old woman and peered into her eyes.....Suddenly.......she gasped..... "Aaah......you know.........don’t you....you have seen something that reminds you....... "How...what...how can it be possible...no no...I know this isn’t right....I have to be dreaming..this just isn’t possible...." "Not possible.....Not possible....oh but it is my dear....for what you see is you......in the future..............Part 5 - Two Wolves
"Or rather what I might be or maybe it’s who you are becoming or who you are or I was..... I really don’t know. I have such a hard time keeping all this time sequences thing straight" the Elder Sara stated with a wave of her hand. She then turned away as if lost in thought.
But what am I doing here? Sara implored, "I must waken from this dream" "Dream?" the Elder Sara repeated, "you're not in a dream, we’re in the Dreamtime." "The Dreamtime?" "My you’re much younger than I remember myself to be, I must say", Elder Sara stated with a chuckle, "but that’s the way of age, everyone seems to be my age even if they are just born. I remember one time when I was about fifty.... wait you don’t want to know that.The Dreamtime is a place beyond physical time. Oh most people visit for a short while each night and some stay longer but the only time they're allowed to really explore the Dreamtime is when they are old, as we are or they are on a quest such as you right now." "So I can’t wake up?" "Nothing to wake from, I’m afraid" Elder Sara said with a soothing smile. Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she waited for Sara to take it all in. Elder Sara suddenly tilted her face skyward and scanned the treetops."Look" she stated, "I have to skeedaddle. Here is a present to help you. You should ask all you meet for a gift. They’ll give it to you, don’t worry and remember: Time heals all wounds." With that the Elder Sara turned and rushed into the thicket. Panicked, Sara dashed after her. The brush clung and pulled at her clothing slowing her path. Soon, the Elder Sara disappeared from view and then the sounds of her footsteps fell away.
Part 6 - Cymraes
Sara was unwilling to let her go so easily, and followed. She looked closely at the old woman, but found it was like trying to pin down something that danced right on the edge of her vision. Wind from the chasm swirled up, laced around her ankles, making her turn and look down into the valley below. "You have crossed the bridge, Sara, and that was the safe way to get here. You could continue," The old crone stopped and pointed with her walking stick to a path, ill-defined, but there, beyond them both in the trees. "Or…you have a choice." She pointed down into the chasm, past the shadows into the darkest part of the valley. Sara shuddered. "Why would I make the choice to go there? The path is already marked. I survived the bridge, and made it safe." The old woman laughed, the sound of dry leaves across a slate. "So, it seems that you have earned the safety of the path? What if I tell you a secret? What if I tell you that even if you take the path, this Safe and Different Path, you will still have to pass through that Valley? For that is where it leads, dear heart. That is where they all lead, and then there is a path beyond. That is where you earn safe passage." Sara turned and faced the open rift before her. "You are telling me it is only a matter of time until I must face this?" The old woman nodded, and now, her face looked tired. "It would seem…the longer you avoid the Valley and keep to the path, the more you must surrender when you enter the Valley. You cannot enter it with your hands full. And it will take everything from you. It is a choice of the heart." "If it takes everything, what does it give in return?" Sara was incredulous and a little angry. She felt cold and hungry, and was still feeling confused. "You." The crone began to back up, and the wind rose a little. Leaves swept around her, rain stinging her face and arms. A snarling crack of thunder descended and a ice blue flash of lightning lit the area in eerie relief. The old woman was gone. There was no following her any further. The choice lay before Sara…Part 7 - Crystal
Sara stared into the blank space that the old woman had just occupied. Not just any old crone, but it was herself, in her future ... how could she come to terms with the fact that she had just spoken with herself. Sara shuddered, and looked around her ... where had this woman led her. The old woman had stated that she would eventually have to enter the dark chasm below her, and that she could take that route now ... even made it seem that the longer she took to enter the valley, the more she would lose when she got there. Sara looked down and tried to find a pathway, a trail that would lead to the valley. She wasn't totally convinced that she would even take the trail if she did find one, or that she could bring herself to set off in that direction. The air itself seemed menacing down there ... and the woods and the very stable trail that lay before her up here, felt inviting as a comparison. After stepping alongside the ridge just long enough to convince herself that this was a ridiculous option, she decided it was totally impossible to reach the valley from where she now stood. Sara breathed a deep sigh of relief and turned towards the Safe and Different pathway ... she had decided to walk this dreamland, and to learn what it was she had come here for ... Had she come here ... or had she been sent here? She decided not to think about that right now .... the taste of pepper, the purring cat, the fireplace ... those were things that she knew and tried to remember more of those things. Sara walked towards the trail, it was partially hidden by branches of the nearby trees that had tried to over grow it, to erase this trail. It seemed to Sara that no one had walked this way in a very, long time. The air was silent, a bit of wind blew past her. She heard the wind rustling leaves nearby, but not much more. The trees were old, gnarled, and seemed to be sleeping as she pushed their branches aside whenever they blocked her trail. Sara kept her eyes to the trail, alert for anything that might make walking difficult, or cause her to trip. And then ... up ahead, she saw something on a leaf at the side of the trail. It was a snail, just a simple little ordinary snail, although quite a bit larger than ordinary it seemed to her, and it was just sitting there at the side of the trail. It seemed like such a relief, it was life, it was a companion on this trail, and she felt she should not ignore anything or anyone that appeared to her here in this Dreamland, everything was here for a reason it seemed. She stopped to look at the snail, picked the entire leaf up, bringing the snail closer to her face. "Would you like to accompany me on this quest?". She felt a bit ridiculous, but no one was around to see her, so she touched the snail's house and said softly, ... "Do you have a gift for me?" The snail moved forward along Sara's hand and up her arm. She stood there amazed as she watched him crawl into the little pocket in her bodice. She hadn't even realized she had a pocket there. Sara laughed lightly, the first laugh she'd felt since she'd awaken ... and realized she had received a gift of laughter. At least that is one gift the valley cannot take away from me thought Sara. "Thank you," she whispered quietly to her snail companion, and started walking down the trail again, wondering what could possibly happen next to her here in this Dreamland.
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This site was last updated May 9, 2006.