The Pole Shift

Quest

The next day Son awoke to news. He was urgently rushed to Flat Head Rock yet his mind dwelt in the bottom room and the unsettling events that had occurred. His thoughts chased Sassafras and he wondered if it was she that waited at the meeting place. Instead, it was the travelers he had set on quests. Their eyes danced with exhilaration, hands went to grab at Son.

"We have found a strange island! Upon are stones that form circles, we think they are houses of another peoples!"

"Were there other peoples?" Son felt his attention was raggedy and feared he was letting them down with his lack of thrill.

"None, but foot prints lay in the sand, and some great disturbance to the earth had happened. There were many glass bottles, look!" From a hold all half a dozen clear bottles were produced. There was little left of labels but embossed were words that none could make sense of. The bottles would be useful and suddenly Son was released from the spell of the bottom room, and of Sassafras.

"How far is the island?"

"Two days and one night. We have set  the journey by landmark, we know the way." There was silence for a moment then one of the sailors ordered:

"Ask Crystal Ear as to the meaning of stone Circle Island." There was a long expectant silence. Son engaged with Crystal Ear rarely, seeing how Toorak turned to it and lost some part of himself. He did not want to become as Toorak was, sitting on a rock asking question after question and being lost in circles of answers. Yet the people wanted that, they wanted to know that a higher power gave answers because it gave them comfort and certainty.

"Ask Crystal Ear." said another voice and the dozen or so men and boys shifted body language to that of impatience. Son paused but before edginess turned to something else he said:

"Crystal Ear needs more than vague stories and empty bottles. I will travel to this island myself and describe what we find carefully. Crystal Ear will then answer. Which of you brave adventurers will take me?" There was a cheer and the captains of the small fleet of Smiling Face boats argued to host the Lord Vet. At last a man who had remained silent caught Son's eye and nodded.

"I will travel with you, prepare! We will all travel as one." The man smiled in a downcast way. He was in his prime as a man, yet had been ravaged with some disease leaving his complexion blotched and pock marked. The people of the island had already begun to ridicule the unusual or flawed and Son caught the looks of resentment on the others. He was tempted to ask Crystal Ear a cure for the judgment that men always are ready to pass on the strange . Perhaps the Wizard Perez would know. Instead he caught the man's downcast eyes and raised them up with a smile, soon resentment fled from the faces of the other adventurers and as a group with a shared objective discussed the voyage in all detail. Son announced:

"We sail tomorrow. All captains and the Smiling Face boats! I name Sassafras guardian of our people during the quest!" Cheers and startled comments merged and one then asked:

"Sassafras?"

"An earth bunker girl, she knows a Wizard. She is not a She, she is not a Her. Sassafras named by a Wizard who knows all Gods! Find her and bow!" Words flew. Wizard? A girl? Son rose to stare all down, the pock marked man arrived at his side, he too took on all eyes. He thumped a breast and yelled without knowledge of Sassafras yet loyalty born of a few moments ago:

"Sassafras!" The pock marked man's eyes had found a cause. To the captains some secret had been kept from them and suddenly they all acquiesced .

"Lord Vet," one spoke "We love Sassafras and will ask for her blessing."