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- BANG!
- TLG was woken by the impact of colliding with solid ground but he was not hurt. His cloud was back in place above his head and he imaged it might have helped break his fall. But surly a cloud has not the substance.
- TLG sat up and rubbed his head.
- I wonder for how long I had been falling. He thought to himself.
- Where am I? TLG looked around. He was sitting on the ground in a field. He struggled to his feet and looked around him. The grass was almost as tall as he was and seemed to glow with bright green.
- A few yards away was an ornamental oval mirror with a beautiful polished brass frame that looked as though it had been cast with immaculate precision by a master craftsman. The mirror stood about one and a half yards high, supported by a ‘U’ shaped trestle that held the mirror in balance on both sides. The stand had beautiful ornate eagle claw legs that pierced the ground to stabilise its top-heavy form.
- Next to the mirror was a platform. It was a cream coloured platform about nine yards square and about a yard high. TLG walked past the mirror and approached the monolith. TLG touched the surface. It was perfectly smooth, without blemish and seemed completely out of place in its rich natural surroundings. It was so pristine he could clearly see his reflection and that of his arcing storm cloud in the side but it seemed also imperfect, as if it was missing substance.
- The object seemed very primitive in an aesthetic way. He reached up and grabbed the perfect edge of the monolith. It was so smooth he could barely get a grip. After a struggle, he managed to pull himself up onto the surface. He looked across at the mirror that stood about two yards away. From here, he could see more clearly, where he was.
- All around the grassland stretched into the distance in all directions. TLG marvelled at the stunning contrast of the green endless grassland and the crystal blue sky occasionally dotted with tiny white clouds. It looked so peaceful, but something did not feel right about this place. It felt even worse than when he was with the Bee. It felt as if its existence was impossible, even worse than his broken homeland or the place he had just fallen from. He felt he where falling into ever more broken realms where eventually he would break. Or maybe I am already broken. Maybe it’s I, who breaks this world.
- TLG imagined it must be broken because there was nowhere to go. No mountains, no hills, no forests. This was the central place of nowhere. He felt as if he could walk in any direction and always be walking toward this place. TLG felt as if he were getting further away from reality with every moment. But he also felt the presence of Odelin growing stronger.
- *The strange mirror and the perfect stage*
- He looked at the mirror and could see his own reflection as he stood there on the platform. Suddenly he noticed something else in the reflection in the mirror. As he looked more intently, he could make out two shapes appearing slowly from the transparency of the ether. He turned around to face what was manifesting behind him.
- *The Ghost Head*
- He looked on in amazement as the face of an old man with a beard slowly emerged in front of him. It was hovering about one yard above the platform but its beard touched the platform. It was about two yards tall and was about one and a half yards wide. The face was grey and as the apparition grew more substantial TLG could see deep age lines etched into the face as if calved by the waterways of the ages. His eyes were hollow and deep set but emitted the warm glow of kindness and nurturing.
- TLG was drawn in by this apparition and was not afraid. In a way, he felt glad that he was not alone in this strange place.
- *Robin*
- The giant floating head smiled a warm smile at TLG. Just then, TLG noticed another apparition materialising from the Ether just to the left of the giant head. TLG looked on in anticipation for what would emerge. Finally, the strangest creature stood before him.
- It was about two yards tall and looked like a large Lima or fox with great glistening eyes the size of dinner plates. It had a long snout nose and a mouth with two rows of teeth that were as sharp as needles, perfectly formed as if machined in a lathe. The creature presented the most ridiculous expression. An over enthusiastically, friendly grin that was held in such cold perfection, as cold as the ice of hell. This creature clung to the boundary of perfection and delirium. It appeared as if this creature was a giant child’s toy, the masterpiece of a genius toy maker, gone insane.
- TLG could not explain why he felt this way. It seemed so lifeless, but so wanting of life, that just being near it could suck the life out of you. TLG suddenly felt terrified by this creature. It was like the platform, too perfect. It was covered with yellowy brown fur that was so fine you barely noticed it apart from the fact it rippled and quivered in the gentle breeze of that grassland plane. How could something look so warm and cold at the same time? TLG thought to himself.
- It stood there in stark contrast to the rich intricate ethereal structure of the giant floating head.
- ‘Why have you summoned me?’ the voice boomed out from the floating head.
- ‘I did not summon you’ TLG replied.
- ‘I accidentally fell into a vortex when I was looking for my friend.’
- ‘No one accidentally falls into a vortex’ the big head pronounced.
- ‘Not that vortex! That vortex is only for summoning me’.
- ‘Well maybe it’s because you are the only one who can help me find who I'm looking for’ TLG said, seizing the opportunity to introduce his own agenda to find Odelin.
- ‘If anyone can help you find your friend I can, as I am the Ghost Head of the Meta Universe.’
- TLG contemplated this remark with awe and excitement, at the prospect of getting closer to his goal.
- ‘What is your name?’ TLG asked the giant head.
- ‘I do not know.’ replied the head.
- ‘How can you help me if you do not even know your own name?’ TLG replied puzzled.
- ‘I cannot say because that part of me is not in place yet. As you can see by my appearance, most of me is not, and I will only know my name when I am complete.’
- ‘What are you?’ TLG requested politely.
- ‘I was once a man that lived in another universe far from this one. I was getting old and did not want to die so I invented a way to live forever. As I knew that all men were just haunted skeletons, I conjectured that, if I were to present myself in the thoughts and memories of all men, then I would exist as long as the memory remained. As all we are, are just memories in a shell. The only thing left is to wait for these thoughts and memories to condense in across the quantum horizon and I would be whole once again. However, as you can see, I am still waiting to be complete. This is not an exact process’.
- ‘Then who is that?’ TLG gestured to the bizarre creature beside him.
- ‘That is Robin. Robin was created accidentally when a child in a summoned me in a dream. Robin was also in the dream. He helps me so I keep him around, he lets me posses him, so I can use his body to find traverse the Meta Universe. You see, he was created in a broken universe, a universe that does not adhere to the ethics of the Meta Universe, so as a side effect, can travel anywhere within the Meta Universe, moving between universes at will.’
- TLG stood there stunned at what he was hearing but also indifferent.
- ‘What is the Meta Universe?’ TLG inquires.
- The Ghost Head smiles looks up at the sky.
- ‘The Meta Universe is the ethics that describe all realms’
- ‘But how can ethics be a thing?’ TLG replies still very confused.
- ‘The Meta universe is not a thing, it is all things.’
- ‘But I do not really need to travel to other universes. I just need to find a friend of mine, that I have lost for a long time and was wondering if you could help me.’
- ‘But you already have travelled to another universe, have you noticed you are not in Gnome Village anymore. You do not usually fall into another universe unless you need to, even if you did not know it at the time.’
- The ghost head smiled at TLG with a warm adoring kindness that made TLG feel secure. As if he was in the protection of a mentor king that would make sure, he was kept from harm. Then, with a deep timbre voice, the ghost head said softly.
- ‘So I ask you again. Why have you summoned me?’
- TLG stared at the ghost head marvelling at the deep twisted sinews of his unrealised form. He could see a fire in his eyes, like a warm glow in the distance behind the frosted glass orbs of his eyes.
- The Ghost Head looked at TLG’s cloud and inquired.
- ‘Why does that little storm follow you?’
- ‘I was hoping you could tell me.’ TLG replied.
- TLG explained all he could to the ghost head, of his chronic lightning affliction and the story of how Odelin had appeared to him, and how he Odelin was the key, to finding his peace and how all memory of this past had been lost in distant blur of lighting and the corrosive effects of time.
- After TLG had finished explaining the best he could, he suddenly realised he may have stumbled on a shortcut to the solution of his problem.
- ‘Could you cure me of my storm?’ TLG asked the Ghost Head. The Ghost Head’s laughter boomed out across the grass planes.
- ‘I wish it were that simple, the Ghost Head replied’ I think you need to find Odelin. I certainly cannot conjure your freedom, but I will help you find you’re Odelin, if you are ready for the journey.’
- ‘What do you mean by, Journey?’ TLG asked trying to gather more information.
- ‘If you want me to help you find Odelin, we will need to travel distances and dimensions and scales you cannot even imagine, and I will need to come with you. You cannot traverse the Meta Universe alone. I cannot even do it without Robin. We need a lot of magic to find, your Odelin, little one’.
- The ghost head paused and faced TLG.
- ‘Are you ready for the journey?’
- ‘Well, I cannot live as I do now, so I guess I have no choice’ TLG replied carefully.
- *The Possession*
- At that, the ghost head rose slightly off the ground and looked at the inanimate Robin. The ghost head opened its mouth out of which a red and black striped serpent slithered and protruded towards Robin. TLG stumbled back in horror as the snake tongue slithered under one of Robin’s large mouse like ears and seemed to pierce into Robin’s brain. Robin just stood there motionless as the ghost head suddenly vanished in a cloud of smoke.
- There was silence as TLG stood there staring at Robin waiting for something to happen. Then Robin, in a cold and calculated swift movement turned his head and looked TLG square in the eyes, with his teeth glistening in the pale sunlight he opened his mouth and gasped slightly, then fully extended his preposterous grin.
- TLG shuddered and stepped back almost falling of the stage. Then the menacing Robin finally spoke.
- ‘Greetings! I am now Robin, climb onto my back and hold on tight, as we in for quite the ride.’
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