Potlendh

by David J. Wallis

  “Oh, all right,” Karen gave in. Truth of the matter, she was so bored that she would do anything, even if she was too tired to do anything. “So, where did you see it?”

  “There! I just saw it again!”

  “I saw it, too!” Karen exclaimed. Suddenly, she didn’t feel tired any more.

  As the children walked quickly towards the spot where they saw the flashing glint of light, I need to tell you something about this Island. To tell you the truth, this Island has all kinds of strange. You see, in some places on the Island, the distance between two points would not be all that far away. However, it might take a long time—hours, days, months perhaps—to traverse this short distance. In other places, you might think the distance between two points was long, but it would only require a very short time to cross. It was as if time was different in one place on the Island from another place right next to it. I cannot begin to explain such a phenomenon, but it was in this case. I suppose when it comes to magic, there are no satisfactory explanations.

  So, when Carl thought that the distance they had to travel to get to the point where they saw the flash would take maybe ten minutes, it nearly took an hour to walk. In fact, when they reached the spot where the light was coming from and looked back at the lone building, the lonely building had relatively shrunk in size so much that it appeared no bigger than a dollhouse, and the Village could not be seen at all. Also, as they walked along, they noticed that the land had become slightly more uneven and wilder than around the barren runway. Trees seemed to just sprout up right alongside of them until a whole forest hid the feet of the mountains that surrounded them.

  “That’s weird,” Karen said.

  “What?”

  “This.” She pointed to a small metal arrow that pointed west through the trees. On the sign these words were clearly stenciled: “This way.”

  “This kind of reminds me of Alice and the White Rabbit,” Carl mumbled.

  “Fine,” Karen said. “You be the White Rabbit, and I’ll be Alice.”

  “Gee, thanks. But do you think that this might be a path to the rest of the Island, or do you think it might be another trap?”

  Karen paused to think. “I didn’t think about that before. I don’t know.”

  “I see that my two visitors are restless and bored,” Mr. Who’s voice boomed behind them. Where did he come from, and how was he able to sneak up on them without them hearing him? “Or could it be possible that you two are seeking adventures?”

  Karen and Carl quickly turned around to see the old man staring at them, but they could not tell whether or not he was angry with them.

  “If you take that path, you will not be able to return to this airfield,” he advised them. “But if you do, you will have an adventure beyond your wildest dreams.”

  “But what about Tony?” Karen asked. “He might be back any day.”

  “Oh, that is not a problem. Eventually he will return for you, if you are willing to wait long enough. On the other hand, if you take this adventure, you will most certainly go home.” Then his face darkened. “One way or another.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Carl demanded.

  “Do you think that having an adventure is always safe?” the old man challenged back. “Oh, sure, if you stay here, Tony will eventually return, as I just stated. But what will you learn? Is that what they teach you back on that oceanographic platform? Is staying in one place your fervent desire? I thought you wanted to ‘get away from it all,’ or am I mistaken?”

  “What is on the other side of this forest?” Karen asked somewhat timidly.

  “Your wildest dreams,” was the reply.

  “Then it will be dangerous,” Carl rejoined.

  “What would an adventure be if there is no danger?” The twins either could not or were unwilling to answer him. “However, since this is your first adventure, I will help you this one time: I will grant you both three wishes. You can use these wishes in any way and at any time you want to. But there are two exceptions.”

  “And they are?” Karen asked skeptically.

  “You cannot wish for more wishes. And, you cannot use your wishes to teleport yourself or anyone else to any place on this Island or anywhere else on the Earth, for that matter. To reach the goal, you must do the hard way.”

  “I just wish I knew where we were going?” Carl muttered aloud without thinking.

  All of them heard the tinkle of a little bell.

  “Carl!” Karen reproached her brother, which meant that she could not believe he could be that careless or stupid with a wish.

  “What?” Carl asked her.

  “You just used up one of your three wishes!” she pointed out.

  “I did not!” Carl protested.

  The old man chuckled. “I’m afraid you did, Carl. You have just shown how dangerous wishes can be and how unwise people can be when they do have wishes. In retrospect, you did not need to have wished. All you had to do was ask the question.”

  To try and describe Carl’s anguish at this point might be a little bit difficult. He felt both ashamed and kind of foolish. But above all, he did not like the idea that both his sister and the old man knew that he had made a big mistake. If you could have looked into Carl’s face, you might have been able to see a hint of tears forming at the corners of his eyes and that he was fighting them back so that he would not look like he was a baby. Also, he was very angry, first with himself, but then he felt like turning his anger against his sister and the old man rather than just admitting that he had made a mistake and moving on.

  The old man turned and looked at the towering mountain behind him. “Behold Mount Power,” he proclaimed. “There on the very summit lives the owner of this Island. We call him the Lord of Power.”

  “Is he all powerful?” Karen asked.

  The old man turned back to look at her. “Some people think so, but I cannot really say. I guess it all depends on how you want to define the word ‘power.’”

  “When I think of power, I think of tanks and guns and the like,” Carl blurted out.

  “Well, when I think of power, I think of money and how you can use it,” Karen interjected.

  “Power is certainly these things, but it is also a tool you can use to help people or have people help you,” the old man added. “Anyway, getting back to the point, you will have to journey to the top of that mountain and ask the Lord of Power to help you get back home.”

  “Sounds easy,” Carl scoffed. “We just need to climb the mountain, and we’re home free. Let’s get started, Sis. I’m getting tired of just sitting around here all day—day after boring day.”

  Mr. Who laughed again, and this time his laughter echoed throughout the surrounding area. When he had finished laughing, he wiped tears from his eyes. “Thank you, children. I haven’t had such a good laugh in ages. I shall honestly miss you when you have gone. Good luck to you, and remember to use your wits and talents wisely. Do not rely on wishes alone.” He started to walk away.

  “Will we ever see you again?” Karen asked.

  “That, my child, is a question only you can answer.”

  “What are you going to tell Tony?” Karen called out.

  The old man just waved. “Don’t you worry about Tony. He’s fine. He’ll be okay.”

  Carl was still feeling hot-tempered. “Come on, Sis. We don’t need him and his silly riddles. I want to get started.”

  “Just be careful,” she told her brother. “And, besides, don’t be so hot-headed. Everyone makes mistakes now and then.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder.

  “Yeah? Well, why does it always have to be me who makes the mistakes then?” He turned toward the thick stand of trees and tried to interpret the sign that told them to go “this” way. He blinked, unable to see any kind of path that would let them pass, and then there it was. Later he would claim that the trees in front of him had suddenly parted to reveal the pass.

  “Let’s go.” A little bit of his enthusiasm to ge
t started was dampened by the apparent magic, but he was eager to leave Lonely Field. So, he led Karen through the newly parted trees down a narrow path bordered by thick trees and undergrowth, allowing no deviation from the path.

  Their adventure had finally begun. Had the children taken the time to look behind them, they might have been more than a little dismayed: the path disappeared and the gap in the trees closed, barring them from retracing their steps. Mr. Who was right: they were never going to be able to return to Lonely Field again.

  According to the map that Carl had all but memorized, it appeared that the twins could have crossed through the forest in a matter of hours and reached the first mountain foothills. However, the twins never did reach any mountains, as the forest seemed to go on forever, until the twins thought they would never get out.

  “Are you ever going to meet that important date?” Karen asked wearily, stealing a line from Alice and the White Rabbit. She longed to sit down and rest. She felt like curling up and taking a long nap, like for a month or two.

  “We’re still falling down the rabbit’s hole,” Carl rejoined, feeling equally tired, “and there’s no end in sight.”

  “We might be in here for days. Why didn’t we think of bringing some food.”

  “I could wish for some,” Carl suggested.

  “Don’t you dare!” Karen growled back. “We need to save them for when we really need them.”

  “Halt! Who goes there?” a booming voice challenged them. Whoever it was sounded huge and invisible.

  “Who are you?” Carl challenged back, trying to sound braver than he felt. Nevertheless, he and his sister stopped quickly and barely dared to move.

  Then the strangest sight the twins had ever seen—and I can tell you that this would not be the first—emerged from behind some thick bushes in front of them: a Unicorn! This Unicorn had her head down and her horn aimed straight at them, while her eyes bored into the twins. She meant business, ready to fight the children to the death, if necessary.

  “I am Uniqua,” she told the twins. “State your business, or you’ll get the business, if you know what I mean.”

  “Actually, we don’t,” Karen admitted.

  Karen’s answer kind of confused the Unicorn for a minute.

  “What do you mean, you don’t understand what I mean?”

  “Well, we’re not on any business,” Karen tried to explain. “I mean, we’re not business people. We’re just on an adventure, and we’ve been following on this path for—” Here she turned to her brother for support.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged his shoulders. “It seems like we’ve been walking for hours. Could be days in this place.”

  “Are you a friend or a foe?” Uniqua asked impatiently.

  The twins looked at each other with the same question in mind. (That’s how twins are sometimes: they seem to be able to read each other’s mind.)

  “We’re brother and sister,” Karen said. “I guess that means we’re friends. Well, we fight each other sometimes, I guess, but that’s what brothers and sisters do. It doesn’t mean were enemies—”

  “Yeah,” Carl added. “The question would be, I would think, if we are your friends or your enemies. The problem is: we don’t know you. We don’t know enough to know if we should be your friends or your enemies.”

  “What would you want us to be?” Karen asked.

  Uniqua looked first at Karen and then at Carl and then back at Karen, and finally back at Carl, all the while trying to figure out what the children were talking about. She blinked once in frustration and decided that she needed to take charge.

  “Enough of this silliness,” she declared. “I am challenging you, and you do not know how to challenge back!”

  “Why are you challenging us?” Carl asked.

  “Because—because—oh! What a silly question! I was walking in this forest—my forest, I might add—minding my own business, and then you two just popped out of nowhere and disturbed my meditations!” She sounded angry and frustrated at the same time.

  “We didn’t just pop out of nowhere,” Carl said, feeling a little angry himself. “We were walking through the forest just the same as you.”

  “Well, I didn’t hear you!”

  “Look!” Karen interjected. “We’re sorry that we disturbed you. Mr. Who didn’t exactly say what we would find or do once we started on this path. He just told us to go.”

  “Mr. Who?”

  “Oh, no,” Carl groaned. “Not this again.” He was thinking that the Unicorn was using the word “who” as a pronoun, asking for the name to be repeated.

  “I know Mr. Who,” Uniqua responded. “Are you telling me that Mr. Who sent you into my forest?”

  “Yes,” Karen answered. “Could you tell us where we are going?”

  Uniqua looked at them with the same stare for several minutes. Then she relaxed and raised her head to look at them normally. “Why, with me, of course.”

  The twins looked at each other. (They seemed to do a lot of that.)

  “Where?” both blurted out together.

  “You know, for a pair of children who are out on an adventure, you don’t seem to know much about anything, do you?” Uniqua appraised critically. “I suppose I’ll just have to be your guide, at least for the time being, until you both figure out what you’re really doing.” She shook her head and mane and mumbled to herself as she turned and started walking down the path away from the children. “What a crazy idea: sending two foolish children on an adventure when they have not one clue as to what they are going to do, how they are going to do it, or what dangers lie ahead of them.”

  “Excuse me,” Karen called after her. “Where are we going?”

  “Why, to the castle,” Uniqua answered. “Surely you know about the castle.”

  “We don’t know much about anything,” Carl stated.

  “That’s for sure,” Uniqua muttered to herself again. Loudly, she added for the children’s benefit, “We must see ‘she who rules with flame and smoke.’ Got it?”

  The children nodded, mainly to keep Uniqua from complaining about them again. In truth, they had no idea what the Unicorn was talking about.

  It is at this point in our story that it is necessary to describe this next part of the Island. Since there are so many parts of the Island, I think it is best we just take one part at a time. Less confusing that way.

  Most of the southwestern part beyond the western Barrier was flat and grassy. It was good earth, too, and there were many large plantations of different vegetables and fruits that were well tended. But the twins were not going into this lovely part of the Island yet, for they had to be presented to “she who rules with flame and smoke” first at the castle. The Barrier mountains had marched all the way to the sea, completely severing Lonely Field from the western plain. This particular castle that Uniqua was leading the twins to was nestled in the topmost part of these mountains close to the sea, built upon a huge ledge that had been carved out of rock to support it.

  “You know,” Carl confided to his sister as they climbed a long—and I mean a long—flight of stairs up the mountain to the castle, “I was really hoping that we wouldn’t have to climb any mountains.”

  “Stop fussing,” Karen responded wearily. How many hours, days, months, or even years had it been since they had started on this adventure?

  Uniqua stopped about halfway up the stairs and turned to her charges. “I believe you must be tired,” she surmised, looking at the way the twins were dragging themselves with each step. “You need a drink.”

  “What we really need is a bed and a pillow,” Karen muttered dejectedly.

  “You can sleep in the castle,” Uniqua told her. “But for now, let us drink from the Spring of Energy.”

  “And just where is this spring,” Carl asked irritably.

  “Right here.” Uniqua turned to her right and pointed with her horn at a little trickle of water that flowed steadily down the mountain besides the stairs.

&
nbsp; The twins struggled to stand beside the Unicorn and stared at the tiny little stream of water.

  “You call that a spring?” Carl grumbled.

  “Yes,” Uniqua answered. “Wait until you see where the water comes from.”

  “Are you sure it is safe to drink?” Karen asked dubiously.

  Uniqua lapped up the water several times and then made a sound like you and I make when food tastes good. “Satisfied?”

  Carl cupped his hand and put it into the middle of the rivulet of water and waited until he had collected enough to make just the tiniest sip. He then tried to drink what remained in his hand as he brought it up to his lips. It wasn’t much, but he was genuinely surprised when the water not only tasted good but was also very refreshing.

  “It kind of reminds me of that old drinking fountain that old school of ours had,” Carl remarked to Karen as he scooped another thimble-full of water. “You remember that?”

  “Ugh!” Karen growled. That drinking fountain had hardly worked at all, and it smelled terrible, and no one wanted to drink out of it. Except, it was the only drinking fountain that worked in the whole school. She nudged her brother aside and scooped up a couple of handfuls of water for herself.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed. “I feel great! I don’t feel tired any more. What’s in this water anyway?”

  “Just a little bit will do you wonders,” Uniqua declared. “Now, shall we proceed? It will be getting dark very soon, and I would like to spend the night in the castle.”

  With renewed energy, the twins fairly ran up the remaining steps and soon came to the grand entrance of the hewn rock castle where they gazed upon the gates with great disappointment. Like you, I suppose, when Uniqua spoke of a castle, they thought of one of those grand castles of medieval times, maybe glistening with white stone, a little gold here and there, bright and beautiful in color. But this castle was all black in color, and not a uniform black either. It reminded them of some inner cities where people lacked pride to keep the streets and building walls clean of grime and “advertisements” left by various gangs. When Carl tentatively touched one of the walls he found they were covered in black soot.