Dear Reader,
The narrator of this story would like to take a moment and say something about the idea of eating psychotropic snails that feed on toxic bioluminescent mushrooms growing on a rogue planet halfway across the galaxy. If you get the chance and the environment seems safe, you should definitely do it. Obviously, with the caveat, that you are a consenting adult of sound mind and body.
What follows in this chapter is a glimpse into a mental journey that, for three of our characters seemed to last a lifetime, but for the snoozing Øregård wasn't much more than a good night's sleep.
To keep it simple we'll skip over the hallucinogenic colors, the collapse of time itself and reality as we know it, the comprehension of the entire universe, multidimensional travel, past lives, future visions, and random conversations with various gods and other imagined entities. This is to say you'll not be subjected to them discovering the meaning of life or other such nonsense and just be getting the core peak of their shared trip.
Try not to read into it too much or maybe do?
***
Four clones stood around a cloning chamber looking somewhat concerned. It was the first time this happened in over ten thousand years of documented history. The population was informed of this incident as they all shared all knowledge with each other. They made decisions in unison and as a collective so quickly that it almost seemed to happen before a problem even existed. It was decided that she should be contacted.
71EEB8 clones had no identities, they all knew each other and all communicated instantaneously with the entire population. They were all identical twin males birthed into middle-age the moment they stepped out of their cloning chambers. She, however, was an exception and while she, like the rest of the clones, didn't have a name, she did have a fairly unique set of pronouns.
A bald silver-skinned woman and the only female member of the deep space ambassador's guild joined the others at the cloning chamber. The four identical males could have easily been her brothers and for all intents, constructions, and purposes they were.
"We have another sister," she said with a hint of joy that was felt throughout the entire society. "What are the odds of that?"
The nervous geneticist in charge of this batch thought to himself that the odds were four hundred million to one against but knowing that everyone else already knew this and that she had a tendency to ask rhetorical questions, decided to say something that he felt was positive.
"Double X chromosome aside, a perfect clone in every other respect."
"She is perfect," said her, "one can only wonder what discoveries she will make in her lifetime and what great experiences she will add to our collective knowledge."
The door of the cloning chamber opened and the ten-thousand-year-old she greeted her identical sister who would one day take the name Toebee and was born a middle-aged woman with curly luxurious silvery gray hair that was secretly the first time any in the collective experienced envy.
"It's important that you know you are not unique, nor alone, not some kind of a unicorn in a sea of horses, but that you are a member of a massive family, a collective that will always be and will never abandon you," said she to her.
***
The mist from the cloning chamber swirled the scene and the vision resettled on a foggy seaside city populated by a species of elvish humanoids. The beautiful pointed-eared artisans spent five thousand years crafting the metropolis with intricate marvels. Swirling stonework, painstakingly geometric woodcarving, and colorful gravity-defying glassworks brought the town to life with a majestic quality unmatched the world over.
Up the steps of the great library climbed a young man in ascetic robes. His black hair pulled neatly in a topknot and his finely groomed mustache waxed to give it slight curls at the edges. When he reached the archway of the entrance, the head librarian and eldest of the ancient tribe of sorcerers awaited this new pupil.
"Melock, you are tasked with reading the entirety of our grand library. But first, we must expand your mind so that you will be able to inscribe the words you read into the very structure of your brain," said the elf.
"Is that like developing a photographic memory?"
The elf narrowed his eyes at this student who used terms from other more futuristic worlds and said, "Yes, something like that. We will teach you the art of expanding and connecting your neural pathways indefinitely."
"Splendid, how do we begin?" asked the young wizard.
"Like this..."
The elf pulled from his robe a wand made of a long straight spiraling horn and touched it to Melock's forehead.
***
A flash of static charged electric white light melted into soft yellow afternoon sunlight that filtered through the leaves and branches of green trees in a thickly wooded forest. On the wide knotty bumps of an ancient redwood sat a gawky redheaded girl of eleven. Her innocence and virtue were as plain to see as the poverty of her handmade dress. In her little hands, she gathered a bouquet of wildflowers and weeds.
"I know you're here," she called, "come play with me. Father says I'm allowed, now, and that the mean men have all gone away."
She looked about hopefully and waved her offering causing little parachute-like dandelion seeds to drift in the sunbeams. As if appearing out of nowhere, the magnificent steed stepped forth. It was the pride of the forest, monokerōs unicornis, the protector of all things good and natural in the world. While another species of humans once left them behind to drown in a great flood, the humans here cherished the unicorn for its beauty and magic.
The long-maned horse shook its head, neighed, and scratched the earth with its hoof. Its perfect spiral horn glinted in the sun. The girl stood on her tree root with an outstretched arm and waited for it to come to her. She giggled and whispered words of love while she stroked the soft hair of the unicorn's cheek. She watched its square teeth bite at her flowering gift.
"Today, we can ride together again, all through the forest if you like?"
Horses can't really smile but they can show happiness. The unicorn and the girl connected on a deep emotional level and exuded so much pleasure they were both almost glowing, but the unicorn's momentary joy turned to instant alarm.
The clicking release of crossbows and the whistling of bolts through the air registered as fear on the face of the little girl and in the emotive eyes of the unicorn. Two arrows slammed into the animal's neck. It reared, kicked, and let out a terrible scream that one would never imagine it capable of making.
Red swirled the shared vision, the unicorn went down, a sword was lifted above its head, and its horn was removed while it was still alive.
***
Murphy opened her eyes with a fast inhale of fear and guilt. She startled snoring Øregård, who snorted and shook when he woke.
"You're back," he said.
Murphy looked deep into his big gooey blue eyes and he looked back into her tear-filled green ones. She felt hands touch her knees one from each side and looked to see both Toebee and Melock awake and smiling at her.
"Vision quests can be rattling but they also come with revelations, epiphanies, and create new bonds between the travelers," said Toebee.
"Indeed," added Melock with a kindly grin.
"Now, let's eat some real food and I'll send you on your way," said Toebee rising to her feet with a grunt and using Øregård's shoulder as an assist.
YOU ARE READING
Space Wizards
Science FictionUsually, they say not to judge a book by its cover but....
