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- *The Return*
- There was a load bang and TLG finds himself with Robin back in the Orange world from which there journey had began.
- TLG stands up and looks at Robin, who is just standing there, still with the little Etherscope between his claws. TLG Laughs loud and manic.
- ‘I cannot believe this but I must say, I grow more amused at the absurdity of my situation as time goes by, and maybe now I am just more enthralled than surprised by this event, but could you explain what just happened to us?’
- ‘Everything is fine, I now have Odelin and that is what we came for.’
- ‘But how did we get back here so quickly?’
- ‘What do you mean Back Here? We never left.’ Robin said with a wry grin.
- ‘Now I'm really confused. Are you trying to tell me that everything I have just experienced was a dream?’
- ‘Not at all, but an Etherscope is not for travelling in, it is for looking with. That is why it is called a Scope. Did you ever wonder why it is called an Etherscope?’
- ‘So what happened to us in the Etherscope?’
- ‘Ah, well you see…’ Robin pauses as he prepares himself for the explanation.
- ‘Imagine you are back at your Village in front of your pond. Imagine you have a telescope, used for looking at things far away and making them appear closer than they really are’
- ‘Yes alright, I have one myself’.
- ‘Now imagine putting the end of the telescope into the pond and looking into it. You would see fish and weed and whatever else resides in that place in your pond. Now imagine keeping you head still but moving the end of the telescope around the pond. You can look at different parts of you pond but still remain in the same place. You see, that is what an Etherscope is. I can move the Etherscope around the pond that is the universe without actually needing to go anywhere. What you experience in the scope is just an entangled projection of somewhere else. You did not think we could actually travel to the centre of a super star did you.’ Robin state proudly.
- ‘I think I understand… But if that is true, then how can we see and communicate with other beings? If we are merely witnessing something from a far, then how do we speak to Starmites?’
- ‘Well you see. When you use a scope it is a two way process. The elements flow through the entangled skin of the scope in both directions. Light and sound and flow through backwards and forth. So, to them, we are there. We appear to them as strange being floating in a bubble of glass, just as we see the universe as though, through a lens.’ Robin seemed to enjoy the amusement of TLG’s revelation as if a great secret has been released to him.
- ‘I see, but that does not explain how you can get Odelin from the Xroud Cloud. If we where not there, then how could we bring something back?’
- ‘Have you not been listening, little one. We are bringing things back constantly. That is fundamental to the Etherscope. When we see, we are bring back the element of light, when we hear, we are bringing back the element of air. Just in our short trip we have move countless Microverses from one part of this universe to another, here to be precise. You see even the element of light consists of Xrouds, which are universes. When we see, it is universes colliding with our minds eye. This is the nature of seeing.’
- TLG stares at the scope Robin is holding in his claws.
- ‘Does it hurt the universes to flow through the Etherscope?’
- ‘No at all. The universe is oblivious and its inhabitants will not perceive anything, no information is exchanged in the process. If it did, then the scope would not work either. There are few things that can break Xrouds as I explained earlier and mainly it is Starmites and their inhibitor machines.’
- TLG thinks for a moment and finally understands.
- ‘I see it all now, of course.’ TLG smiled with the pride of his full understanding. The more he learned, the more confident he felt.
- ‘Could I make an Etherscope, I should like one very much. I think I would find it useful. Maybe more useful than my telescope back home.’
- ‘Sure I will show you how.’ said Robin.
- Robin whispers something in TLG's ear that sends TLG in fits of laughter on the ground. TLG never told me what it was, he whispered in his ear, so unfortunately, I cannot divulge it to you, but it certainly was profound enough but so simple and so easy to convey that it left TLG did surprise and delight TLG. But maybe it was only for the ears of such creatures as they.
- TLG then got up and threw his hands up into the air and literally, threw an Etherscope into the sky. It was slightly smaller than the one they used for the Starmites but was certainly good for a first try.
- ‘Incredible!’ said TLG.
- ‘You see, I knew you would get the hang of it.’
- Robin waved at TLG's scope that had come to rest on the ground and it disappeared as instantly as it had materialised.
- ‘And you have used a scope to trap Odelin’s Xroud, I see now. This is how you did not need to harm the stabiliser. You just diffracted the Xroud clouding into another Etherscope rather than create a vortex that would endanger the machine.’
- ‘Exactly! We moved Xroud to safety so we can now create a vortex into it from here. We must now proceed to Odelin’ Robin says with enthusiasm.
- ‘I have another question… What were those Monkey Birds that attacked you in the scope, and how did they get in there?’
- ‘I do not know but you should as you brought them in with you. Should you be telling me something?’
- ‘They use to be Gnome skeletons I came across when I met the bee called Cosmo, and he looked exactly like the Starmite king. And how did the dead Gnomes change into living Monkey birds and why did they try to destroy you and what was the symbol I could see in the air and why did my lightning strike you and where did the Monkey birds go. I know nothing of the circumstances of how these things could take place. I am just a simple Gnome but you are the strangest thing in the universe.’
- TLG’s rant had taken his breath away, and his lightning struck him as if warning him to calm down.
- ‘You should look in the mirror, you are not so normal. I know this much about you. And those creatures in your pocket where not from any normal universe so it would appear you can attract quite the riff-wrath of the broken realms.’
- ‘I guess your right Robin, but my friend, I know you are not right. Something tells me you know more about my predicament than you are willing to divulge at this point and I am hoping no harm will come to me before I find the answer.’
- ‘We are both looking for answers little one. You need your Odelin and I need myself. I just feel that you can help me get there. This is why I need to help you little one. You need me, and I need you and we should wait no further to find out what help this is.’ Robin smiled at TLG, baring his rows of shiny teeth, hydrangea breath washing over TLG.
- ‘Of course. Let us move on.’
- TLG resigned as he looks up at TLG. ‘What now?’
- *The Vortex*
- ‘We summon a vortex to Odelin’s Xroud’ Robin replies as he holds the tiny Etherscope out to TLG and waits there as if after a queue from TLG.
- ‘What are we waiting for?’ TLG asks after some time.
- ‘Could you please do that thing again and call your Odelin again as you have done in the past?’ Robin asks with an inexplicable embarrassment in his tone.
- ‘Certainly’ TLG closes his eyes and does the Odelin memory resurrection again.
- TLG waits for a while with his eyes closed, picturing the vision of Odelin in his head as he had done on previous occasions but he waits and waits but Robin says nothing.
- ‘Shall I open my eyes now?’
- ‘Sure’
- TLG notices something in Robin’s voice that was not as self assured as usual.
- ‘We are done, thank you little one’.
- TLG opens his eyes to see Robin staring at the ground, puzzled.
- ‘Come little one.’
- TLG wanders over to where Robin was standing and follows Robin’s gaze to the ground. To TLG’s surprise, the ground in the clearing was moving in a large whirlpool about three yards in diameter. The brown dirt and orange ground was rotating as if a whirlpool of quicksand. But the odd thing was that the ground still seemed solid, as if the image of the ground were being twisted and not the ground itself.
- Sitting in the centre was a Robin’s scope containing the Xroud cloud. TLG looks at Robin and asks.
- ‘Is this the vortex?’
- ‘Yes.’
- ‘Do we just step in?’
- ‘Yes, I'm sure we do.’
- TLG looks at Robin who is obviously avoiding his gaze.
- ‘Why do I get the impression you were not expecting this?’ TLG says still trying to catch Robin's gaze.
- Robin hesitates but then finally looks TLG in the eyes. ‘The Odelin Xroud is broken. Therefore complicating any vortex it may spawn. Come on, we must go now.’
- TLG cautiously accepts Robin's explanation and begs Robin to continue.
- Robin gingerly steps out onto the swirling ground. TLG was half expecting Robin to sink into loose quicksand, but he did not. He just stood there on top of the swirling pool of solid ground turning with the ground as if on a child’s turnplate and looking expectant for something to happen. He beckoned TLG to join him.
- TLG steps onto the vortex and positions himself to face Robin who is now grinning with a mixture of anticipation and embarrassment. As if he were in the uncomfortable position of presenting a show he had no control over. TLG looks up at Robin but realises that nothing is happening. But something IS happening. TLG looks down to the centre of the ground. He can feel the particles of earth beneath his boots jostling for position as they turn in the spiral with the ground closest to the centre moving faster than that of the perimeter.
- They are both now staring at the centre of the vortex which is now spinning faster and faster. TLG feels the now familiar sensation of hypnotic trance as finds his will drawn into the centre as if his very soul had already descended and was just waiting on him to follow.
- TLG finally motivates himself to look to Robin. TLG is not surprised to see that the world was gone but always feels thrilled when he travels like this. All around TLG and Robin who is also looking around in bewilderment are the churning walls of a vortex tunnel that has ascended around them adorned with orange and brown stripes as if the whole world with its colours and forms had been extruded around them.
- TLG catches Robin's eye, who is now looking decidedly more confident again. TLG looks down the centre of the vortex, which was now revealing a gaping hole in the centre about one yard wide. As the whole widened it starts to envelope them TLG finds himself standing on the walls of the vortex now as the ground has completely disappeared to be replaced with the striping extruded landscape.
- Suddenly TLG loses his footing and fall into the black whole. As he is falling he looks up to see Robin flailing around trying to catch a grip of the walls if the vortex. TLG noticed that he looked uncomfortable about falling helplessly but this was a feeling to which TLG has become accustomed. TLG struggles and flaps in an attempt to slow his descent in relation to Robin's and it works. TLG approaches Robin who still appears struggling.
- ‘What are you doing Robin? You are falling. You cannot do anything about it.’ TLG shouts to Robin with a slight jest in his voice.
- ‘It is not falling I am worried about. It is hitting the ground that concerns me.’ Robin shouts back noticing the jest in TLG's tone.
- ‘But surely a creature like you would not suffer the impact. You seam invulnerable to me.’
- ‘I guess I'm just not used to this form of travel. Normally my vortexes leave me firmly placed somewhere, during my journey. Even if that ‘Somewhere’ is not well defined.’
- They both look down into the abyss which has no sign of abating. TLG stares intently, looking for anything he could fix his eyes on below but nothing was apparent. Now all light has gone and they can no longer see each other. TLG shouts.
- ‘Robin! Can you hear me?’
- There is a distant acknowledgment but it was faint. It would appear to TLG, that they may be separated for the duration of there journey.
- As TLG falls he senses a change in the air rushing past him. It was getting colder and damper. But he was completely comfortable. As the progressively colder air rushed past him TLG felt encapsulated and somehow shielded from the elements. He felt cocooned a strange despair. It felt like melancholy, but it was a welcoming melancholy. As if where about to reach a welcomed death. A release from all the pain and woes of this complicated existence.
- As he fell deeper in his melancholy pit, his equilibrium became harder to manage. The air seemed to be getting irregular and colder forcing him into uncontrollable spins. He was also getting wet as rain drops and hail filled to void around him, as he struggled to maintain balance in his fall he realised it was not important so he just let himself spin helplessly out of control, and as soon as he did, he felt free once again. He was brought back to his vision back home. The sensation that originally drove him to this journey was now being realised. He suddenly felt exhilaration and inebriation of his all his senses. The wind blew and hail and snow were all around. But he loved every minute of it.
- He felt as if he could endure any elements, he revelled in the ice and hail as it battered his face. The coldness of which made him feel more alive than ever before.
- Just then he sees the ground approaching at speed but before he could think, he hit the ground with force.
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