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The Lightning Gnome Book

Chapter II - The Quest

  1. But he did not feel differently. He awoke before Nimrod and quickly but quietly drew together his possessions and sneaked out of Nimrods cabin.
  2. He stuffed his pocket with a small amount of bread started on his way.
  3. The stormy weather of the night had retreated but the weather was still damp and cloudy. TLG walked for days along the ridge of the Stony Mountains of which no Gnome had ever ventured. He walked up high and low, across hill and hollow, clambering when he needed. Occasionally he would stop and look out across the dark landscape hoping to catch a glimpse of the future or past. Being always mindful of the little Gnome Odelin he was searching for. He did not have a direction as he did not know where he was going. He just knew he had to go somewhere. Somewhere was better than nowhere when looking for little Gnomes. He thought a lot as he walked his lonely walk. He did not think as us normal folk think. He though in broken thoughts of confusion and b’muddlement, always interrupted by constant and relentless badgering from the storm that followed him. As he walked and thought and shocked and thought again not quite knowing if the thought he just had was a continuation of the thought he had prior to the last shock or a new thought with a memory from the past welded to it.
  4. After walking and thinking for a whole day he finally arrived at the base giant cliff. The cliff was so vastly high that he could not see the top. ‘This is strange’ he thought to himself not believing that such a land formation could exist. He looked from side to side and realised that there was no way around the cliff as it stretched for as far as the eye could see in both directions. He knew he would have to find his way over it some how. For hours he walked along the base of the cliff searching for a track or ridge he could climb to get to the top.
  5. Finally he found a narrow path that seemed to wind its way up as if chiselled from the cliff face in a way to avoid discovery. This was disconcerting as if a warning to whom ever found the path unwittingly, but he was determined to continue. So up he went very carefully up the narrow ledge hoping not to be knocked off by the lightning as it followed him up the face.
  6. *Cosmo*
  7. After climbing for hours he was becoming exhausted and new he would need to find a place to rest. He could still not see the top of the cliff of course the storm cloud that hovered over him did not help, but now he could also not see the bottom either.
  8. He took stock and rested on a rock perched tenuously on the ledge. Next to the rock was a large flower. A single mountain Violet growing from a crack in the granite cliff face. It looked so intricately delicate and so striking, contrasted to the colourless granite of the cliff.
  9. Just then a he heard a buzzing sound and a huge bumble Bee the size of TLG himself landed next to the Violet and started to collect some nectar from the solitary flower. The Bee stuck its probe onto the flower and TLG watched, as the bee seemed to grow before his eyes as if being inflated by a volume of nectar being sapped from the tiny flower.
  10. Just then the flower snapped back into the rock as if being yanked through from the other side. The bee then dropped to the ridge, looked at TLG and asked. ‘Are you looking for someone?’ The bee was beautiful with soft downy fur covering a black and yellow striped body. Every part of that bee was clean and new and healthy and it’s eyes where the deep and glistening.
  11. Gathering his thoughts TLG answered the fat bee. ‘A small Gnome that goes by the name of Odelin, I am on a quest to find this Gnome. Do you know where I could find him?’
  12. The bee paused with reflection and replied.
  13. ‘No, but I know of two small creatures that have recently appeared in our cave, that once where but are not anymore. If you follow me I can show you and you may see more than from where you now stand.’
  14. Just then the bee struggled into the air and buzzed off. TLG watched as it disappeared into a large opening in the side of the cliff further up the path. Taking to his feet, TLG clambered up the narrow path until he could more clearly see the cave entrance. The cave positioned off the main path, off a side ledge that was even narrower than the main ledge. Carefully TLG edged his way along the path until he made it to the entrance of the cave.
  15. The cave was only just large enough for TLG to stand in.
  16. As TLG walked along the inside of the narrow cave, he noticed that the cave was illuminated by tiny orange mushrooms that grew along the inside of the cave wall. These mushrooms pulsated with a mallow glow that seemed to emit calm and happiness. As he walked yet further, the cave got wider and wider and occasionally, bees would buzz past not paying TLG any attention for which he was quite glad of as attention from bees is not always pleasant.
  17. *The Honey Pool*
  18. Finally he caught up with the bee that before had invited him to the cave. The bee stood on the edge of a recession in the cave floor. The recession was a glow with orange mushrooms and was half full of clear liquid honey which was hypnotically churning like a whirlpool that appeared to be constantly draining but never emptying. The smell was enchanting as it reeked of nourishment and security.
  19. ‘Welcome to my cave, Gnome! We are the Chasmites and my name is Cosmo’
  20. TLG looked curiously at Cosmo standing there before his strange whirling pool of honey draining into an abyss.
  21. ‘Greeting to you Cosmo I am The Lightning Gnome and may I ask you a question?’
  22. ‘Certainly’
  23. ‘Where does all that honey go?’
  24. ‘We know not.’ the Bee replied. ‘This whirlpool of honey has only recently appeared before us thus we behold it as a mystery. Yesterday morning we awoke, and there it was. Maybe it has something to do with you.’ The Bee said staring puzzled at TLG’s lightning cloud. The orange glow under TLGs features and the lightning flashes above must have been a sight to behold for the Bee.
  25. ‘A lot of strange things have been happening lately and you are one of the strangest.’
  26.  ‘And you are quite strange to me.’ TLG replied.
  27. The bee gestured for TLG to look down into the recess. He peered into the whirlpool and noticed two Gnome skeletons immersed in the honey near the edge of the pool. TLG was shocked as had never seen a real Gnome skeleton before, at least he guessed they where Gnome skeletons.
  28. He studied the two artefacts carefully and noticed something was amiss. The two skeletons appeared to have bird wings in the place of arms. He could see the long bony stretched out fingers a bird needs to support its wing feathers for flight, he marvelled at the intricacy of the bones in the fingers. Fine bones were splayed out from the knuckles, so fine and delicate but somehow contrived in appearance. Out of place as if they had been invented by a clock maker and attached to the Gnome skeletons to in place of the real limbs.
  29. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the Gnomes with wings soaring through the air like a bird, he imagined the wind blowing and the rain falling and suddenly the bird gnome lost all control and started falling into space. Again he felt that freedom had had experienced back at the village. TLG’s mind was falling free and he lost all awareness of his surroundings. His lightning cloud stirred into action and shocking him causing the image if the flying Gnomes to be cut from his mind only to be replaced by a strange symbol. It persisted in his mind’s eye, as if burnt in by the intensity of the flash lightning. It was the image of a white circle with two spiral arms elegantly balanced. The image was bright and warm. It seemed to beckon him, as if it were calling him home. Like the mother he never had, was just waiting inside with a broad and benevolent smile. He imagined the spiral arms would reach out to embrace him.
  30. But the sense warmth was soon followed by a familiar sense of loss and dispossession. Suddenly the bright welcoming arms had turned into dark tentacles.
  31. TLG snapped out of his daydream in horror. He looked around at the cave walls that seemed to be writhing. He panicked and almost fell over.
  32. ‘Lightning Gnome!’
  33. TLG found himself in the clutches of Cosmo’s spiny arms.
  34. ‘You almost fell into the pool.’
  35. ‘Forgive me Cosmo. I lost my composure momentarily; It’s has been happening to me a lot lately.’ TLG calmed down as he realised the wall were not moving. ‘But a trick of the light...’ he whispered to himself.
  36. ‘What do you search for Lightning Gnome?’ Cosmo asked TLG with earnest. TLG turned his gaze to Cosmo. Cosmos eyes were heavy and fixed on TLG, as if he too were searching. TLG marvelled at the Cosmo’s complexion. His face was similar to a Gnome’s with similar features as his own, but covered in beautiful soft downy black fur. His large compound eyes where black and glistening. TLG could see his reflection many times over in the honey cone parts, occasionally dazzled by the flashes from his lightning cloud.
  37.  ‘I am searching for home my friend. Odelin is the only one who can show me the way. This is why I need to find him.’
  38. ‘You too have this sense Lightning Gnome?’ Affirmed Cosmo as though he found what he was searching for in TLG’s eyes.
  39. ‘You know of Odelin too?’
  40. Cosmo disengages from TLG’s close quarters and hovers down to the entrance to the tunnel to gaze out at the world below him.
  41. ‘I am afraid I do not know of Odelin. But I do sense that all is not well with our existence. I could see in your eyes that you feel this also. I sometimes look at the landscape and see it moving, shifting before my very eyes as if it were crawling with something menacing. We Bees all feel it. We try to come to terms with ourselves and our place, our destiny. We try to tell ourselves we are a natural part of the world but we fail to fool our conscience. So we just wait for some sign. This is why we find your arrival so intriguing. This Honey pool just appeared to us yesterday. We sensed it was a prelude to something, and then you arrived.’
  42. ‘Well, I assure you. I have nothing to do with that pool. I'm just looking for Odelin. But I draw comfort in the knowing that I am not the only one that feels this way. My own contemporaries back at Gnome Village assume I am insane.’
  43. TLG looked at the Skeletons under the honey.
  44. ‘Thank you kindly for your help my friend. But I really must get going. I need to keep going but I'm sure we will meet again. Do you know of a way though the impasse?’
  45. Cosmo chucked and replied.
  46. ‘I would not be an impasse if you could get though now would it.’
  47. TLG just shrugged.
  48. ‘Then how am I to continue?’
  49. ‘All of our existence we have never found a way over the wall. We have flown for days until utterly exhausted, but never have we reached the top. We think it must be the edge of this world. But then again. We have never had a whirlpool of honey mysteriously appear in our cave floor before. I wonder if this is your way through.’
  50. ‘You mean swim down into the honey pool. But I would surly die.’ TLG was feeling anxious, as the inevitable seemed to be encroaching upon him like a pack of wolves.
  51. Cosmo just glared at TLG with an obvious ironic look.
  52. ‘I believe that would be as unlikely as this pool. Have you seen anyone die before?’
  53. ‘No’ TLG replied glumly.
  54. ‘Although we are supposed to die. Right?’
  55. TLG though this was strange. ‘We know of death but we never die. This is exactly the kind of absurd paradox I have been fruitlessly trying to convey to my good friend back at the Village.’ TLG let out a sigh of resignation.
  56. ‘Well I guess I have no choice but to swim.’ TLG said as he turned to Cosmo.
  57. ‘But have you ever had a choice?’ as Cosmo spoke those words they sent a chill down TLGs spine.
  58. ‘You should take those skeletons with you. I have a feeling they are of significant value to you on your quest.’
  59. TLG lent down and gently reached into the honey pool. He gently picked up the skeletons and placed them into his right pocket.
  60. ‘Thank you Bee, I trust your good judgement as I dread this perilous descent into a whirling pool of honey. It’s forceful grip I fear I could not resist. So I may suffer the same fate as those Gnome Birds in my pocket.’
  61. ‘Just swim strong and do not look back Lightning Gnome!’ Cosmo replied.
  62. TLG braces himself, looking into the churning mass. But his fear melts away. He feels it is the right path. He leans over the rim and jumps in, head first, his lightning cloud disappearing after him.
  63. *The Swim*
  64. As TLG swam down and down into the centre of the whirlpool he feels strangely invulnerable again. Similar to the way he felt soon after the apparition of Odelin appeared to him. TLG did not need to swim with much ferocity as the current was strong. As he swam further down, he thought he could hear distant chanting as if some mob of Gnomes were celebrating. He struggled to adjust his eyes to the honey as he peered into the golden darkness. But the golden darkness was not void. He senses those cursed tentacle again, but this time, he felt he were in their domain. The very darkness itself seemed to be animated with thousands of dark tentacles reaching out for him, each other, themselves, knotted, tangled, helpless. He had to turn away and keep swimming.
  65. He looked down into the swirling centre and noticed a dim light in the distance. He hastened his swimming, slicing with his arms and kicking with his legs. He was suddenly startled by two tentacles grazing him on either side. He pulled his arms in to protect himself from the attack but to his horror, he realises that the two tentacles are his own arms. He tries to scream but just gurgles, nearly choking on honey.
  66. Suddenly he is engulfed in light as he falls from the honey, onto a hard floor onto his side. He quickly sits up and shakes his head violently, to release the honey coating from his eyes, to glare at his arms. They are just arms. How curious... he thought. TLG assumes his mind was playing tricks on him again, but somewhere in a dark culvert in his mind there is nagging scenario. Maybe Odelin is sending him a sign, a warning. But the idea is too dangerous. He would rather it just be his fantasy.
  67. Licking off the last of the honey, TLG looks around himself to discover where he was.
  68. There were two round windows on the opposite wall. TLG approached the windows and gazed out. The windows were made of honey cone shaped pieces which were made of smaller honey cone pieces. Each smaller piece was itself made of ever deceasing smaller pieces. It was an amazing window. Never before had he seen such an intricately crafted window, or anything for that matter. Between the two round windows was I yellow and black striped lever with a large red ball on the end. Above the lever was a sign that read ‘Control’.
  69. He peered from one of the windows and marvelled at the view beneath him. Such was the grandeur of the scenery it was breathtaking.
  70. There were mountains and grand arched bridges with rivers rolling down hill, and roads and trees and waterfalls, and there were silver lined clouds, it was fantastic. There were butter flies and strange birds and steam clouds poured out of valleys below. The sun shone brightly down on everything. This is where I must be, he thought to himself. But how will I get down? The lever was beckoning him like the giant delicious sweet.
  71. *The Bee Machine*
  72. TLG pulls himself away from the windows. He walks around the cave looking for a door. The walls of the cavern are also beautiful. In fact, the whole cavern was lined with yellow and black pinstriped velvet. He runs his hands along the velvet walls, attempting to perceive some hidden crease or texture that would suggest an opening or door in the velvet. He looks up to see where he fell in from but the ceiling of the cavern lined with the same velvet carpet.
  73. Then he found it. Right under his feet as if it appeared from nowhere. ‘A hatch!’ TLG reached down and grabbed a small handle near the edge of the hatch an pulled with all his might but it did not budge. As if it were locked from the other side. Then he remembers the control lever.
  74. But what does it control? TLG guessed it must be a lever to unlock the hatch so he grabbed the red knob of the yellow and black lever and gently pulled it back. TLG suddenly became aware of a beating sound getting louder and louder so he stopped pulling the lever and the sound stopped getting louder but it did not stop completely.
  75. He walked over to the hatch and tried to pull it again but it was still stuck fast. He pulled the lever again, the sound got louder and faster and suddenly the cave shook and groaned. ‘How can the cave be moving?’ Mustering courage from curiosity and thinking to himself ‘If you have a lever, then it must be for pulling’, he yanked the lever back completely.
  76. The sound escalated into an enormous buzzing the cave shook wildly and without warning, TLG found himself thrust against the ceiling of the cavern. The cave launched itself off the cliff face and started plummeting down to the valley below at enormous speed.
  77. TLG fell back to the floor with a thud. He grasped for the lever, instinctively pushing it forward to reverse the situation. The cave suddenly swooped upwards as if under its own power. The buzzing sound seemed to labour as the cave stopped falling. TLG, confused and frightened, just stood there, frozen with his hands on the lever, as if any move he made might break the equilibrium, sending him plummeting back to the earth.
  78. Eventually his composure was regained and he started to relax. He even started to enjoy this precarious experience.
  79. ‘Flying?’, ‘I'm flying!’ shouted TLG. His little cloud was bursting with little sparks that crackled on his head.
  80. ‘But how can a cave fly?’ He let go of the lever and it held in steady flight. He pushed his face into the concave the window and looked up. To his amazement, he discovered the source of the intense buzzing sound. Giant bee wings were beating up and down so fast you could he barely see them. Looking down he could see huge insect legs and mandibles large enough to chop a tree in half. The Lightning Gnome was flying inside a giant Bee.
  81. ‘Wow, I'm a Bee I'm a Bee Look at me!’ He pushed the lever forward and the Bee flew up. He pulled the lever back and the Bee flew down. If he pushed the lever right, the Bee would turn right. TLG was very satisfied with his new found flying machine. ‘This is just what I need to find my Odelin’.
  82. *The Monkey Birds*
  83. As he was flying he looked out of the window and noticed he had company. A flock of the strange looking birds he had seen earlier were following him and looking into the windows of his Bee with curiosity. There were about fifty. They were the strangest birds he had ever seen.  They were about six spans long and had brightly coloured feathers and wings like a bird, but they had faces like monkeys. No real nose or beak to speak of. Their faces looked oddly Gnomesk, but were covered completely with feathers with big protruding blunt teeth and large black eyes which made their appearance very creepy. One pulled up close to TLG’s window, its huge wings beating strong and methodically as it peered in. He was so close that TLG could see stains on his feathers around his mouth. TLG imagined it to be the blood of its last meal and was hoping it did not intend for him to be his next.
  84. TLG presses the lever forward and the Bee speeds off leaving the strange creatures behind. He feels powerful and secure in his newly acquired transport.
  85. TLG tries to remember what Odelin was telling him. He also thinks about where Odelin could be. He peers from the compound eyes of the giant Bee. But as he does not know which way to fly, he decides to just follow the Sun.
  86. He follows the Sun for hours, keeping a close eye on the landscape beneath him. He imagined it would change, but oddly as it repeating, it seems always familiar. Bridges and rivers, roads and smoke stacks pouring from the valleys below him. Along with the ever present flocks of monkey birds.
  87. Hours had passed and TLG was starting to find this flight path monotonous. It felt like the Sun was just leading him around in circles. He scourers the landscape for unfamiliar features, notices a shoreline in the distance. He presses his nose against one of the windows and gazes in the direction of the shoreline.
  88. Suddenly a ghostly vision appears to him in his mind. It is of Odelin and a muddy flat shoreline. TLG is looking down at Odelin, who has a foreboding expression. TLG grabs his head and winces with emotional anguish as he recoils from the disturbing images. Those eyes haunted him. He turns the Bee heads towards the shoreline. Feeling that he may discover something he may not want to find.
Published Sunday, July 05, 2009 6:26 AM by admin

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