When you are barefoot and have to walk across concrete on a summer day, it’s best to just begin walking and focus on the goal. That was the attitude I took about meeting the children of Lord Charles Darville on the other side of my door. With my backpack slung over my shoulder I stepped through the door.
Out in the hallway were three girls in dresses the same color as many of the Tapestries and Lord Darville’s colors; green and gold.
I inclined my head and tried to begin a polite greeting. “Good morning to you. I am Wade Calhoun.” I started but didn’t finish.
The youngest of them, a blonde-haired girl who instantly reminded me of Bridget both in age and attitude, interrupted me with a leaping hug.
“We know who you are! You’re Wade! Our brother from another world! I’m Olivia!” she said while dangling off of me with all the maniac energy of a child her age and I shifted my shoulders so I could put her back on the ground.
Before I could make much progress, the eldest of the girls interceded. With the practiced ease of someone who had done this hundreds of times before, she grabbed Olivia by the waist and put her back on the ground. When she came back up to standing she spoke.
“Olivia, I told you not to act like that. It’s rude.”
She then turned to me and gave a curtsy, as did their middle sister. “I am Isabelle Darville.” said the oldest.
“And I’m Rurin Darville.” added the middle sister.
Both were about the age of Osbert and Gwen. Or I guess at the moment, the same age as myself.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, but I’m a bit surprised.”
They began to walk, and I followed. The hallways were lit by bright light not created from fire, despite their ‘medieval chic’ aesthetic. As we went, the decoration was dominated by tapestries and rugs, lit by those lights. There were also wood carvings hung up like paintings.
As we passed the carving of fire, the runic digit of one, Olivia piped in. “That’s the number one!”
For earth, “That’s two!”
For wind, “That’s three!”
For water, “That’s four!”
I let the preschooler continue because it was polite. I smiled despite myself and despite seeing my own daughter Bridget in Olivia’s place for a few split seconds.
I was quiet though, so when we got to the fifth such carving, which looked to be a cloud with two lightning bolts sticking out, I was caught flat-footed.
“What one is that, Wade? You’re big, you know the runic digits, right?”
I turned my head, “I don’t actually. At least it’s significance. It’s five, right?”
“Five is for fundamental! For Nature! The foundation of life!”
It wasn’t just an answer from the girl, it was said with the cadence and practice of a mantra or as I realized; an alphabet song. As she tugged on my tunic with a smile, expecting praise for the words, I looked again.
The carving looked like a storm cloud shooting lightning, but it looked like a tree.
“Thanks for showing me!” I said, moments after looking. I flashed a wide smile as I did.
The trio of girls and I went on, with Olivia acting as my numeral guide. Six was a symbol that looked like a cross and a triskele put together. Two lines made four points, and circular lines appeared from the points of the lines and surrounded the internal shape.
“What’s that?” I asked; because while I had been told the names of the other elements I had no idea.
Isabelle is the one who answered that question, “The runic digit for six stands for the fae. Some call them the seasons, and others the spirits.”
Which stumped me, the others were easy to visualize without much work. With my modern upbringing, I didn’t have an answer to what sort of element the concepts of spirit world denizens or fairies brought forth.
Before we got any further though, the trio led me through a wrought iron door with carvings of eight symbols. The six I had seen and two more; though I didn’t have time to take them in as we walked through. As soon as the door was passed, the door closed on its own accord and latched.
The room we entered was large enough to be cavern and decorated with elements of a theater and a classroom. Desks and stages mixed with great red velvet curtains throughout it and it was dominated by the smells of ink, chalk, paper, and pencil shavings. There were four stages.
Before I could take in more, the room darkened and an adult’s voice I had not heard before spoke up.
“In the beginning, there was fire.”
Immediately following the words, a great ball of fire came forth and stood there in the middle of the large room, as if projected or held by great magic.
“Then, there was the earth.”
The fire slowly cooled, and the majority of it became rock. Great quakes shook it and the perfect orb of rock and fire became textured with ridges, faults, and cracks.
“Next, there was the wind.”
Immediately I saw gases venting from the volcanic orb, and soon they coalesced into an outer shell of air that moved on its own accord. The wind kicked up and blew across the room - I could feel it pushing across my face and moving my air. There had been no heat or dust before; not even the smell of the fire or earth.
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It was then that I noticed that several voices, including the girls, were chanting the words as the voice spoke them.
“Water joined next.”
The great maelstrom of clouds began to coalesce in places and soon rain began to fall across the barren earth and the flaming volcanic plains alike. In sections, it formed new clouds, and in others, great rivers and oceans began to battle across the earth. More than just sight, I could hear the sound of water moving, and rain coming down in great sheets, and for a second I think I imagined the smell of an oncoming storm.
“With the four basic elements born, nature could sprout upon the world. This was the first of the higher elements.”
This forming planet soon began to grow plant life, first patches of green near the confluence of water and earth, and patches of green in the seas. These transformed into great plains of grasses and forests, fields of kelp and seaweed, and more. The tide of green pushed where it could; and as it did animals began to appear, as if out of nowhere. The majority were ones I had seen, but some I had not.
More than just seeing it, I could almost feel the pollen in my nose for a few moments, I could hear the buzzing of bugs busily spreading alongside the plants, and animal sounds which would make a wildlife park sound like a sampler CD.
“With nature coming across the land, spirits began to bloom alongside them and as they did, the fae began to appear and the first seasons awoke.”
I could see specs of firefly-like light in places, great spirits in the shapes of dead animals in others, and occasionally shadowy shapes that seemed to almost match humans. As they came, sections of the world changed with groups of them. Some areas became icy and covered in snow, while others areas were dominated by the dropping leaves and dying plants of fall. Still other areas with fresh-grown plant life and drops of few like spring, and others with the vibrant plant life of summer.
Along the edges of each of these territories, I could see the seasons shift, and soon the world began to shift so that each of the seasons shared dominance over the majority of the areas.
“Then came man, and with man came artifice.”
Before the image changed I felt a tug on my sleeve and looked to the side to find Olivia beaming at me with a grin as she mouthed the words everyone else but I was speaking.
As I looked up, I could see the signs of man begin to crop up. Crowds of human-like shadows crowd animals and hurl spears and rocks, other groups putting up tents. Quickly, they turned to villages and towns.
This wasn’t real, it was definitely some sort of projection. I looked for anything I could find that might do such a thing in the dim light of the room, and I could not find a probable source.
“With nature, fae, and the artifice of man in a day-to-day struggle, the primal force that had sparked it all came to roost.”
I saw battles between humans and great animals, between animals and fae, and whole human villages simply disappear.
Now great beasts of all varieties of animals, plants, and insects moved across the land. There were kaiju-sized moving mountains, a translucent bird the size of an island that seemed to be made almost entirely of air, numerous beings of water from a fish to a dragon to a great alligator in a swamp, and there was even a series of great beasts basking in the sun across fields of lava and even what seemed like a fire elemental lounging in a volcano’s bowl.
“Where artifice would not do, some made contracts with these great primals; and those who proved themselves worthy gained a portion of the primal’s power.”
I could see humans doing great feats now. The things of legend. These had definitions, not shadows and light.
To the top of the orb, a man strode forward with a flaming tiger at his side into the heart of a tundra, and as flurry-like snow began to coalesce in unnatural patterns around him, he held out his hands and a great ball of fire began to form in his hand. The great tiger’s mouth opened and an identical orb of flame began.
In the center, a town was soon surrounded by a great wall created by a woman with one arm and a stony creature with the segmented ridges of an armadillo and the great front claws of a ground sloth. They did not lay bricks; they simply rolled across the plain together and where their bodies had passed sheer rock rose.
I saw movement to the left hand of the orb, and across a great plain of unnaturally tall grass and flowers - ones which could be two-story houses, a woman with a baby in a papoose across her back, holding the hand of a little girl with braids in her right hand and a scythe that looked to be grafted from a mantis in the other. As a great horde of fairy lights, strange beasts, and massive predators charged the little family, the woman let out a smile. The great tower of a mantis that had donated the claw earlier in its life strode out beside its partner.
Then there was movement to the right hand of the orb, which I initially mistook as an alligator proved to instead be closer to a mosasaurus with three shark-like fins. It rushed forward across a field of the ocean and after prey which I noticed to be a ship carrying sailors of every gender and age. A village, not a crew. A child of indiscriminate age and gender stood facing the great sea beast without fear and played a flute as spray and wave hit the great raft of a vessel. With one hand raised to the group behind them, a great sheet was let down from a mast and held tight. Their oars came up.
Then a great black and silver bird, one I recognized as the size of a passenger jet, appeared out of the sky. It resembled a Hyporvid in some ways but a giant osprey-winged, flying penguin in others. It kicked up a great breeze of air which increased the speed of the boat to breakneck speeds and still its partner played the flute. The osprey threw three more blasts of wind before diving directly after the great sea beast.
Towards the bottom, a continent of savannah and hard-packed earth with scrubby plants and sparse forests could be seen and there a boy in ceremonial paint held what looked to be a wooden bucket. He drew lines across the ground of this parched land and as giggling creatures of fae light touched plants; a wild fire began. The boy lifted the bucket and flipped it. He drummed upon the bottom, and soon a great crocodile scuttled from the dry river bed nearby. As it left the riverbed a rush of water flowed through and soon it let out a great roar that echoed through the room, and soon rain began to cross the land where the wildfire rapidly spread.
Towards the far western edge of the orb on a mist-covered island, I saw a boy with a grin and a bone-carved reliquary stand against a great black hound that radiated purple mist from its sides. He launched it and soon the beast was swallowed.
Near the center, I saw a girl’s village being cut down by rampaging warriors and her cries over her dying father sparked cold light from a cat that soon shifted to closer to a werepanther; charging at the enemies.
Then the image of the great orb dissipated like mist and the room was filled with sunlight as curtains opened. Near the window, I saw the speaker. She was a woman lithe of body and short, her grey hair was cut short. The slacks, leather loafers, and sweater of a stereotypical academic attired her and in her hands, there was a small, runic carved harp.
Beside her stood a bird that spread out eight long peacock-like feathers against the glass panes. As it almost basked in the sun I saw a parrot-like head. Next, I noticed a set of long tail feathers that had the length and thickness of a pheasant and the vibrant colors and shapes of a peacock. Its body was like that of a wild turkey. Great wings of alternating color were tucked against it, and soon its eight long tail feathers began to move with agility and grace that made me think of animations of a nine-tailed fox.
“Welcome to the beginning of your education, Mr. Calhoun.” spoke the woman with the harp. Her eyes were on me intently as she spoke. “My name is Matilda Farstrider; I am but one of your teachers, but I am here to make sure you catch up to the knowledge of those of your age. For the next few weeks; you will see no other subject but what we call the fundamentals, no teacher but myself. When I am satisfied, I will give my report to Lord Darville and you will begin splitting your time from my teaching and your other teachers.”
She strung the harp and the sound of a ruler hitting a desk could be heard.
“Class, find your seats.”