Sky Swimmer

Inside the Hoodoo, Part 21

Floe, Eric and Dan come to the end of the trail they have been following as they attempt to find their missing friends.

"Their footprints end here," says Dan.

"They walked straight into stone, I didn't think Bollingsworth could fit into cracks like Olphina."

"He can't, he's a walker. There has to be an entrance, somewhere ... or they figured out how to open the rock."

Eric says, "If Bolly could do it, then you can too. Use your powers to open it."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," answers Floe. She immediately starts to feel anxious.

"Think small, it's only a door. Just try," Eric encourages.

"Right. Small. A small panic attack ... a miniature one ..." she whispers to herself, she can already feel it coming on ... her palms suddenly slick with sweat, her stomach tightening, feeling sick, her breathing becoming too shallow, her heart speeding up ...

Eric and Dan run for cover behind boulders. Floe searches for the right incantation ... inwardly focused, trying to ignore the rising panic ...

And a shudder envelops the entire valley.

All the hoodoo spires, all the cliffs start to quake, change, transform, losing their innate, natural shapes ... landslides, dust clouds ...

The Lost City Of The Originals is revealed in all it's ancient glory: a city of incredible beauty. And the hidden Gates that Bollingsworth and Olphina had passed through are open as well.

"Holy ..." says Eric.

"Shit," says Dan.

"I'm so sorry! Are you guys ok?... I'm sorry!" And Floe is terrified that she has again done some irreparable harm to her friends. But they assure her they are just fine, just in awe of her powers and the reveal of the lost city.

Floe leads Eric and Dan inside the cliff, through the uncovered gates and into a vast, great hall.

It is the dusty, time forgotten interior of a long lost civilization. Resplendent with stone sculptures of Soilers, Aireons and Fluidians. The Great Hall is furrowed with dried out channels that once presumably flowed with water and fed magnificent fountains. Floe thinks this Great Hall may have been the main public gathering place for the Originals.

She investigates one of the many sculptures. "This one's a Fluidian."

"And check it out, this Soiler doesn't look so mean, looks friendly," marvels Eric as he examines another sculpture.

Dan starts to hypothesize, "They probably weren't aggressive when they all lived side by side with the Originals keeping the peace ... but look at that nasty one over there."

In the back of the Great Hall engraved into the thirty foot towering stone wall is a high relief creature; made of Soiler, Aireon and Fluidian body parts.

"Yikes ... kind of ... a freak?" says Eric.

Floe shoots Eric a nasty look, then, "But where are the Originals?"

"That's one there, I think."

"They walk over to a sculpture of a woman, standing tall and proud among the other statues, as if consulting with them ... she is manipulating water in one hand and fire in the other ...

Dan says, "That looks a lot like the Goddess Athena of the ancient Greeks."

"Goddess?" says Eric, "But it looks just like Floe."

"You got a point, most of the Greek goddesses were beautiful," agrees Dan.

Eric points, "I mean look, no webbed fingers like the Fluidians, no mineralized skin like the Soilers, no symbolic winged ankles like on the Aireons, this Goddess looks just like Floe."

Floe says, "But that means that the Originals were humans, like us?

"Mother of all natural wonders, how far we have fallen from grace," says Dan.

"Maybe we humans were the Originals a long, long time ago," says Eric. "We were the ones who had the power to keep things in balance, to control the elements."

"And somehow we stopped believin' in our own powers and our ancestors became distant memories and we only remember them as gods and goddesses?" says Dan.

"Maybe," says Floe, "or maybe there was a wonderful race of Originals who tried to keep peace between the constantly warring races and eventually they had to banish each of them to their separate realms; Aireons to the skies, Fluidians to the seas, Soilers to the underworld and Walkers to the land surface.

"Where do you get that from?"

Floe points to glyphs below the Sculpture, they show exactly what Floe had pointed out, the different races being shepherded to different realms.

"If that's what happened, it sure didn't work," says Eric.

"You think?" she quips, " Anyway, it's all ancient history. Now we have to stop The Warming. Hamada wants to eradicate all the Kingdoms but his own. And if we're right, we are the ones who have to bring the Balance back to where it was."

Shadows suddenly spring forth in the Great Hall.

Transgressa and a horde of Soiler warriors have surrounded Floe, Eric and Dan. The warriors hold a battered Bollingsworth and Olphina captive, lances pressed against their necks.

Transgressa gets right to it, "And what a valiant endeavor that would be, no doubt. But the time of Walkers is about to pass, once and for all. I have wasted too much time in your pursuit. Underlord Hamada demands my attention upon the battlefield. You seek the Guardian of the Red Curse. Make your own introductions."

Transgressa grabs a lance from one of the warriors and aims it into the empty channel in front of her. Abruptly a steady stream of red sand starts to pour into the channel like a wellspring of blood from the surrounding rock.

A Soiler lookout rushes in, bad news etched across his worried face. "Your Eminence," he says.

She already knows. "Aireons." Then she addresses Floe, "You will be dissolved, and your soul imprisoned, but do not think ill of me, I valued our time together, your defeat will become legendary."

Transgressa retreats from the Great Hall, taking her Soilers with her, locking Floe and her small party of would be saviors inside.

The red sands continue to pour from the rock, filling channels and fountains, quickly gushing and splashing like water. The sands splash onto the surrounding statues, the stone carvings come apart, breaking into pieces, an arm from this one, a leg from that one, a head, they all roll and migrate toward the high relief sculpture of the strange fresco on the far wall.

The sculpted body parts attach and meld into the sculpted fresco and, the guardian shifts, moves, breaks free of the wall, it is made of all the statues in the great hall, it has multiple heads, arms and legs.

"Not speakin' for the rest of you, but I'm not keen on meeting the Guardian," says Dan.

"We have to find another way out!" says Eric.

"There isn't one, we searched last night," adds Bollingsworth.

Floe surprises everyone, "We can't leave! If this is the Guardian, then it must be destroyed, that's the only way to stop UnderLord Hamada, and isn't that why we came here in the first place?"

The group stays quiet for an awkwardly long time, and then, "I'll buy some of that," says Eric and he launches into an attack, blasting the approaching Guardian with his lance flaring bright bolts of energy.

Author's note; If you like the story please consider voting, thanks!