Mine Imagination: Flight of the Hummingbirds
By: T. M. Ashley
Chapter 1: The El Dorado Nexus
Six centuries later the tangerine sky and thick purple clouds lingered over the ruins of a former civilization that had been reclaimed by nature.The aromatic scent of wildflowers and the underlying scent of gunpowder. The terrain was overtaken by thick ropey vines with dagger like thorns and purple flowers growing out of them evenly spaced out. The structure that once held the temporal nexus was a husk of its former self, half of the building was destroyed and what remained was overgrown with the vines. The stillness of the ruins made them eerily quiet and only the melodic rustling of distant leaves could be heard like a whispering ghost on the wind. The tranquility was shattered by the backfiring of an old engine as a star vessel entered the atmosphere. The ship seemed to fall slowly but suddenly picked up speed and caught fire a it plummeted towards the planet below.
Inside the ship a grumbling curse resounded off the walls of its interior amd a large tattooed fist slammed on a flickering counsel. “Work for me Bertha, this be our last hurrah anyways. I’ll let ya rest as soon as we touch down safely.”
With the man’s words the ship settled down and regained its former slow descent and the large man in the ship sighed with relief. The ship suddenly shut down and plunged toward the ground and crash landed in a lush bush with thick red leaves. The man was thrown from his seat and groaned as he stood up.
“I’m getting to old for this,” the man said to himself as he rubbed his aching knees. He wore a pair of dingy red and white striped pants that fit him loosely, a tattered white shirt, a denim frock coat with random patch work, and a short red scarf. On his wrist was a gaudy watch with all kinds of knobs and buttons on it. He looked down at the watch and tapped the screen and twisted one of the knobs. Nothing happened and he sighed before whacking the instrument on his wrist. He shook his head and pressed a button.
A door appeared on the exterior of the star-vessel and slid open. The eight-foot-tall man with broad shoulders, a thick white beard, and a scar running along the bridge of his broad nose stepped out. He took a deep breath, opened his massive arms, and exhaled. He choked on the stale air and reached for his throat, he laughed at himself as he wiped his face with his handkerchief. He leapt from the crashed star vessel and landed with a loud thud that created a small tremor.
“Bertha’s been through a lot, it’s nice to have her caught by such a lovely bush,” the man said as he rubbed the exterior of his star vessel. He adjusted his striped trousers and looked at his gaudy outdated data watch again and groaned. He gently tapped the screen with his thick sausage like finger and a holographic display appeared over it. He fiddled with it for a few minutes before a pulsing red light appeared over the screen and shot into the sky. As he waited for it to descend he couldn’t help but notice the former walkways that ominously disappeared beneath the vines. When the red light returned his watch chimed and he was provided an aerial map of his surroundings.
“So this is where ya were last seen eh?,” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a pair of reading glasses and as well as an old book titled, “Tucy’s Tales.” He opened the book and compared the map his watch displayed to the one drawn in the book. He took his glasses of and closed the book, “Close enough. Can’t always get things right eh, Mr. Charm?”
The large man made his way through the ruins doing his best to avoid the undisturbed flowers. Despite his size and age the man was incredibly nimble as he almost danced across the terrain with ease. Unbeknownst to him, he was being closely monitored by the creature that dwelled there and considered the ruins to be its home. When the man reached the structure that was ensared by the vines he walked around it to find an opening but the only one he could identify was the gaping hole in the domed ceiling. Before he tried to climb the vines he knew he had to make sure his assumptions of his surroundings were valid.
“Hmmmm…” the man approached a flower as he scratched his beard. He reached in the pocket of his frock coat and pulled out a paintbrush. His eyes brown eyes started to swirl with color along with the tip of the brush as he waved it over the flower. He painted a transparent light blue cube that encased the flower.
“I may not be a botanist but I’ve got a good idea why yer pulsin and it smells like gunpowder.”
He twirled the paintbrush and poked the blunt end into the cube without breaking it. He barely nicked the leaf of the flower when it exploded violently inside the cube. The man started to chuckle and said, “Violet nebula blossoms eh?”
He stepped away from the veil of vines and looked up at it again. The flowers were evenly spaced and he charted a course to his destination. Before he started to climb, he used his paintbrush to encase the flowers on his route in cubes. The hole in the dome was the only entry point and the man huffed at the task ahead of him. He began the arduous climb and was careful as he made his way up the thick ropey vines making sure not to disturb the flowers or to get sliced by the thorns. The vines were as hard as stone and the thorns as sharp as obsidian as he made his way up the vines making sure to avoid the flowers.
As he reached the top of the curtain he took a deep breath and sat on the edge. His hands had fresh wounds and swelled from gripping the vines. He cursed under his breath when he noticed his palm was sliced open. The man snatched his scarf from around his neck and haphazardly wrapped it around his hand. While striving to fasten the knot with his teeth, the hairs on his forearms stood on end.
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The man looked down and noticed the prowling predator that had been watching him. It circled the structure looking for a path to the man. When it noticed the blue cubes it tilted its head. From the man’s position the creature was of the feline variety but with scales instead of fur and its long tail was spiked. It had four eyes that glared up at the man from below and yowled in his direction. The creature leapt onto the vines and teased one of the cubes with its tail to test. The flower exploded but the cube mainatined it and the creature stretched before it began to follow the man’s cube-lined trail to safety.
The man knew the creature wasn’t friendly and it getting closer wasn’t ideal. The creature moved slowly at first never taking its eyes off the giant meal of a man. It’s body flexed and it pounced. The man clenched his jaw and threw himself back as his eyes started to glow again. With a sweeping motion, he wielded his paintbrush like a sword unleashing a surge of red paint that splattered the airborne creature. The paint splattered across the creature, emtwining its six legs as it crashed beside him. He managed to grab the creature's tail before it touched any of the cube free nebula blossoms. He sighed with relief which was short-lived as the angry predator started to writhe in the man's grip. The creature was powerful and nearly tore free.
"“Cut…” With a swift grip, the man seized the creature's tail and forcefully hoisted it into the air, “…it…” He flung the creature away from the violet nebula blossoms towards the ground, letting out a fierce roar, “Out!”
It slammed into the ground and continued to struggle with the red paint binds. The man got to his feet and groaned as he took a step without looking. The creature crashed into the ground, wrestling against the red paint binds. As the man rose to his feet with a groan, he took a step without looking. The sudden crunch reverberated through the area, seemingly slowing down time itself. Before he could glance downward, the violet flower he stepped on detonated, triggering a domino effect across the dome's structure, leading to its collapse.
At the base of the structure, the creature freed itself just as the explosion occurred, launching violet nebula blossom seeds in a sprawling eruption. Swiftly, the creature evaded the bullet-like seeds by burrowing into the ground, escaping the barrage.
Emerging from the debris, the man effortlessly pushed aside a boulder as though it were a mere blanket. A cascade of colors erupted from his body, pooling into a vibrant puddle of paint at his feet as he looked around. While the once-vivid hues of his attire dimmed to a dingy gray, they retained their original form.
“There goes my last life,” he grumbled. He was inside the structure and the former dome ceiling had caved in. His watch was broken and he cursed as half the screen was blank while the other had a myriad of colored streaks of light. He snatched it off his wrist and tossed it on the ground in frustration.
“Flow be with me,” he whispered. He knew that the explosion took more out of him than he was willing to give but he was determined to find what he was searching for. He walked for what seemed like hours, hours which seemed to turn into days and days which seemed never-ending. He noticed a mark on the wall that he had come across several times on his jourmey. He stopped to examine it and suddenly his eyes started to glow. He painted an ‘X’ over the glyph and the room swirled around him. He was suddenly standing at the foot of a giant crystal throne. He stepped back and his jaw fell at the sight of a giant helmet on the seat of the throne. The sapphire blue helmet shimmered and gleamed as if it were recently polished and buffed. Behind the mask of the helmet a single red orb came to life and glared down at the man.
“Are you Kingston?” the man asked with tears welling up in his eyes, “The Living Armor?”
“Yeah yeah,” The helmet said clearly annoyed, “Who are you and what do you want?”
“Bazpo Gonnerhiem, last Captain of Bailey White’s Flock,” the man stated and bowed his head, “It’s an honor to meet you. You’re one of the legendary figures of Tucy.”
“So I’ve been told,” The helmet said getting agitated by the old man’s emotional state. “What do you want?”
“I’ve come for Mine Heart,” Bazpo said.
Kingston groaned, “Just go arond to the back of the throne, go down the stairs and look up.”
“Is that it?” Bazpo asked, “Why so simple?”
“Most things in life are simple,” Kingston said absently. The light behind the helmet faded and Kingston was quiet again.
Bazpo walked around to the back of the throne and there was a hole punched into the throne where the magic door used to be. He immediately headed down the spiraling staircase that led to Mine.
As he descended the final steps, the vista unfolded into the chamber of doors. It was a sight beyond belief, a unique feature unlike anything in Tucy. The doors hung suspended in midair, each revealing emptiness beyond. He refrained from attempting to open them, opting instead to examine each one meticulously.
His gaze followed Kingston's instructions, and there it was—a circular door shrouded in chains, entwined with thick vines, secured by a padlock, hovering above the room. His brow furrowed as he contemplated how to reach it. Nothing in the space made sense and he knew from experience that when nothing makes sense always…
“Trust ye sway,” Bazpo said with a brilliant grin.
Bazpo closed his eyes and brought his palms together before his chest. When he reopened them, they shimmered with vibrant colors that matched the vivid hues swirling within his irises. His colorful tears streamed down his cheeks, cascading into his luminous beard. At his feet, an orbiting kaleidoscope of colors danced around him.
Unsheathing a colossal paintbrush, he began to embellish the room with strokes of bright hues. The floating doors responded, shifting and transforming into a staircase. With determination, he embarked on the strenuous ascent. Upon reaching the padlock, he delicately touched it with a smaller brush retrieved from his coat pocket. A kaleidoscopic key materialized within the lock, accompanied by a resonant click that filled the room.
The doors to nowhere began to dissolve as the padlock plummeted to the ground. He observed as chains and vines slithered away from the door, a slow retreat that matched the disappearance of the doors below. Meanwhile, the circular door in the ceiling split apart, flinging open just as the final door vanished beneath his feet. An all-encompassing darkness spilled forth from the now-opened ceiling door, engulfing the chamber. In an instant, the man was seized by the force, whisked away from the vanishing chamber into the unknown.