Len’s Diary ~ Balance III & IV
~ (04) 22/08/1999
By Len Morgan
A babbling cacophony of
sound accompanied her litany of spells.
She stopped, but the
noises continued.
“Quiet!” she hissed. Only the rustling of autumn leaves broke the
unnatural silence that enveloped that gloomy dank forbidding glade.
“Too late, we are too
late!” she wailed in a voice tinged with anguish. “The boy has become a man, he
will replace his mentor Anthrax. The
vacuum has been filled. Aargh! My
Lacyndra is with child? It must not,
cannot be. I Kaladreel will not permit
it!”
“Corbane, Pexey, come to
me my pets,” she called in a solicitous singsong voice.
She turned at a scampering
in the bushes to her left.
“Come to me!” she
commanded.
The two cat-like creatures
scamper in vain to escape from her firm mind grip. But, wild-eyed with terror the moth-eaten
creatures, their fur standing on end, were inexorably drawn to her presence by
the power of her will.
“You have work to do, the
fruit shall wither on the vine.”
Reaching into her pouch
she drew forth a shining black ring, placing it in a small porcelain bowl. She dripped three steaming drops of a vile
green fluid onto it. The liquid bubbled
and hissed as it was imbibed by the ring, turning it to silver. Carefully, she attached the ring to Corbane’s
collar, then drew them closer, hissing into their ears.
“Leave the ring by the
pool of Eternity where Lacyndra can find it!
Guard it with your lives until it is in her hands. Fail me and you will live forever in agony
and damnation!”
She began to chant, and
they felt themselves changing and being transported…
They became two small
black kittens in timeless Paroddiz Vale.
The dawn chorus was in full voice.
They played with a large black feather, stalking & attacking it,
edging slowly towards the small cottage garden hedged with honeysuckle, mimosa
and roses. Their sickly sweet perfume
wafted towards them on a gentle breeze.
It carries their meowing and the sounds of their play to the cottage.
“Whose there?” came a soft
feminine voice, followed by light footsteps.
“She’s coming…” Pexey loosed the ring from Corbane’s collar,
at the edge of the pool, and they scampered into the undergrowth to witness;
meowing to lead her on…
There was a flutter of
wings, the sky darkened, and a large black jackdaw landed and grasped the ring
in its beak and spread its wings. In
desperation, Corban jumped on its back and Pexey grabbed its tail feathers with
his teeth. Jackdaw dragged Pexey into
the water and with a loud caw dropped the ring into the pool. Pexey dived after the ring. It sank deeper and deeper. As he grabbed it he was unceremoniously
dragged from the water half-drowned.
“What have we here?” said
the young woman. Pexey gazed into her
big dark eyes and shook the water from his fur. Her bell-like laughter filled him with
delight.
“Protect it with your life until it is in her hands,” a voice at the
back of his mind warned, as he nuzzled up to her soft warm cheek, purring
contentedly.
.-…-.
Balance IV ~ 18/09/1999
Water thundered down the
mountainside.
The large blackbird
faltered as it struggled to reach the thermals on the crest of the cliff. It was dying from the effects of Kaladreels
poison.
Corbane knew his survival
depended on getting off its back as fast as possible, while it was still over
water. The bird started to spiral
falling, falling, down towards the deep black pool at the base of the falls.
Corbanes mount shuddered and cartwheeled; he dug his claws in but when the
splash came he was thrown clear. He sank
deeper and deeper, the bone-chilling cold seeping into his bones the deeper he went
into the pool filled with glacial melt. He saw the bottom coming up to meet
him, but it slowed and stopped, then started to recede. He rolled onto his back and watched the pale
patch of light from above come closer and brighter…
He broke surface. The thundering sound from the falls forcing
him back to consciousness. His limbs
thrashed feebly, in a valiant attempt to reach solid ground. Something solid and heavy rose beneath him,
lifting him above the surface. The suns rays
warmed him, his dark fur absorbing the heat, he lay spread-eagled on the branch
that had lifted him from certain death.
A young man stretched out
with his crooked staff pulling the branch to the bank. He picked up the bedraggled bundle of fur,
noting it was trembling, and with satisfaction, he realised it was alive! He carefully placed it in his green canvas pack
and continued his journey. Within
minutes, the kitten was contentedly worrying a strip of dried beef jerky, that
just happened to be sharing the pack…
