It was Jack that somehow managed to bring Ty back to reality, to impress upon him that we wouldn't even be here if his team hadn't fouled things up so badly. Also, Bridgitte was DEAD, and that was a shock to him. Laurel lowered Bridgette's special glasses down onto her face for confirmation. "Holy shit!" exclaimed Ty. He reluctantly got dressed into a pair of wrinkled tactical BDU pants and an olive drab US Marine Corps t-shirt. He looked like hell, as if waking up from the Whore of Babylon Butch Lesbian Motherf*cker of All Hangovers.
Nate told Ty that we needed to go investigate Horrace's whereabouts, and if possible, try to recover him, or at least report back the intel. He also told Ty that if we got into any combat, Ty should just lay low and exit the combat area until it was all over.
Ty nodded his assent, though still bleary-eyed and fuzzy in the head.
We returned to the Grand Hall and found the cloaked man-servant, curiously named Pond Scum, standing there.
"I will take you to Horrace now. Come please, follow me."
Pond Scum led the way with an odd, stumbling gait that looked more animal than human. Perhaps he was elderly?
We reached the central elevator, and Pond Scum motioned for us to enter.
Once inside, Pond Scum inserted a special key into the elevator's main panel of buttons and turned it. We all felt the elevator shake briefly and begin a downward descent into an unmarked basement area. It felt as though we were traveling down a very deep shaft. When the doors opened, we entered into a very deep underground cavern with a large pool. Nymph-like feminine figures were pushing around lotus petals on the surface of the pool gently, but with seeming purpose. I could see from the look on Laurel's face that she recognized the species of these creatures and mouthed the words "be careful" to all of us.
We were led through another door to the desert floor outside and apparently behind(?) the Furnace Creek Inn. It was pre-dawn, but already the eastern sky was noticeably brighter, awaiting the arrival of the sun. The air was still cool, but before long that sun would be bearing brutally down upon us from high overhead. I made Aisling wake up. I explained to her that we would probably be facing a trek of several days across the desert. I wanted her to switch to a nocturnal schedule. She should plan to sleep during the day inside my flask, which I would keep out of direct sunlight. I would let her out at night to ride on my shoulders and stretch herself and to fly around and be active. When dawn came, it would be time for her to return to the flask for her own safety. Aisling agreed. She wanted to doze off back to sleep but I made her stay awake until mid-morning, so I could be sure she'd be tired enough to sleep during the rest of the daylight hours we had ahead of us.
After a few miles, Gunnar said:
"Satyr, you can drop the pose of being human, by the way..."
Pond Scum happily dis-robed, letting his cloak fall around him, and there stood before us an adult Satyr, very relieved.
"Is much better for Pond Scum as well. Glad that Master Esparza caught on so quickly."
"I'm not your Master, just your friend", Gunnar corrected him.
"As you say, Master."
Gunnar groaned and just shook his head. "Let's keep moving, then."
We trekked on. After a time, we sensed passing a barrier of some kind and Gunnar realized we were no longer in the mundane world of humanity but in a kind of divine realm.
"It is the Terra Incognita", explained Pond Scum.
Neither Gunnar nor I, nor anyone else in the band had quite heard of this place, so I wasn't sure what to make of it, beyond its obvious Latin dictionary definition. I speculated it must be not unlike the mythical places known in Ireland.
If my mind weren't so fuzzy from being drugged at our last meal, I might have recalled Terra Incognita but alas, this time it slipped from my mind, which was enormously frustrating.
by the third day of marching, Ty was really looking bad, really struggling to keep up with the rest of us. His powers were still greatly diminished from the overdose of Sway he'd been drugged with continuously while at the hotel. I shared with him some of the water Pond Scum had filled our canteens with...we didn't drink them because Gunnar again detected the same chemicals that were in our foods...but since the damage had already been done in Ty's case, we decided keeping him properly hydrated was more important than exposing him to more Sway. In hindsight, it probably also kept his later withdrawal symptoms temporarily at bay...it was like using a step-down patch for smokers, weaning him off the nasty stuff with a lower dose before making him quit cold turkey.
We soon approached a mountain that looked not unlike Devil's Tower...but couldn't be since this was in Terra Incognita.
Before the mountain we noticed a semi-circular mound off in the distance. I decided to levitate up to get an airborne perspective as we advanced closer. Gunnar decided to do me one better and took a flying leap at the mound...as he landed, the ground shook and shifted and out emerged the most horrific serpent-like creature I have ever seen. Its eyes flashed--or did they somehow glint in the sun?
and the next thing I knew, Gunnar let out a genuine scream of intense pain and agony.
"Gods damn it, Gunnar!!!", Laurel screamed below me and raised her M-16 to take aim.
I remembered that the gaze from one of these things...a Basilisk, that was it! ...can turn an enemy to stone, and that must have been what it had just tried (and partly succeeded) to do to Gunnar. Nate pulled out a Japanese Hachimaki headband and wore it like a blindfold before taking a running leap to jab his sword into the Basilisk's head. Nate did manage to land a blow and strike the creature, but at this stage, it seemed mostly to enrage an already annoyed monster.
I flew in to a closer range and hurled the Gae Bolga at the beast with a mighty heave. To my horror and disappointment, Gae Bolga glanced off the beast's scales and landed harmlessly on the desert sand below.
"Hey Brendan!", I heard Jack below me. "Catch!"
I looked down just in time to see Jack's M-16 hurtling through the air, which I caught at port arms.
After confirming I had caught the rifle, Jack rushed forward and gave the Basilisk, that was what this thing was...a mighty body-blow with his fist. The Basilisk's body rippled from the impact of Jack's blow, but it seemed utterly unfazed.
Laurel opened fire from where she was but most of her fire either missed or was ineffective.
Gunnar managed to pull himself together just enough to raise his M-16 and take very careful aim at the beast. Through a sheer act of will, he stopped his body from shaking and locked on target. It seemed like an eternity before he squeezed off a three round burst then collapsed again. I was gratified to hear Gunnar's rifle speak, but supremely disappointed to hear it only loose three rounds from its muzzle.
WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU HOLDING BACK, GUNNAR!! I screamed inwardly inside my head.
I glanced at the M-16 to confirm a round was in the chamber and the selector switch was on full auto. Check to both. I flew at dashing speed and brought myself to rest hovering just behind the creature's massive head and shoulders, er, well, hooded part of its body where shoulders would have been on a creature with arms.
I took careful careful aim at the creature's head and body mass then squeezed the trigger long and firmly to loose a burst of fully automatic weapons fire. Time seemed to slow to a crawl...I could feel every recoil of every cartridge firing...I could actually see nearly all my rounds were penetrating this loathsome monster. I could hear its elongated screech of agony as ten hot rounds of .223 caliber ammunition tore through its body. At nearly the same instant, Nate had repositioned himself and took out a huge chunk of the creature's throat with his sword and it fell dead to the desert floor. I lifted my finger from the trigger and put it back outside the trigger guard housing. I levitated down to the desert floor, clicked the hidden button on the Gae Bolga, and returned it to compact form, placing it back on my belt. I also found out Jack had landed a more substantial blow on the creature while I was repositioning myself, and had also managed to use his breastplate to lessen the damage he was taking, obviating the need for a blindfold. I had managed to stay above and behind the creature for the whole encounter and thus had seen nearly all of the combat.
We also smashed the Basilisk eggs it had been guarding; from the look of it, these were very close to being ready to hatch. It may have seemed brutal and cruel, but in this hostile environment, it was kill or be killed.
We entered the mountain and I was literally stunned by an Angelic vision complete with soundtrack...I saw Horrace high up above us...with a crown of crystal...? It's hard to describe from memory, actually...I also remembered some of the most angelic singing I have ever heard...in either Hebrew or Arabic...I was completely enraptured by its beauty. The pitch was perfect, the harmony exquisite...better than the best classical concerts I'd ever attended in London or New York, better than the most raucous Irish pub in Dublin or Boston...I wept openly at the beauty. I looked over at Laurel, to see if she appreciated it as much as me, but to my great surprise she was frowning and looked extremely worried and frustrated. I closed my eyes so as to not be distracted by Laurel's discordant face that detracted from this divine image of beauty...I sensed more than saw Angelic Beings all around us, glowing in a soft white light...
I heard Gunnar, Nate, and Jack yelling my name as if through a distant fog...I tried to shut their voices out as well. I had felt so crushed as a musician in the presence of Pan, but maybe here I could learn the musical secrets I needed to redeem myself...Expression was a Tuatha virtue, was it not?
But so was Intellect...I tried to extract my rational mind from my artistic longing and carefully examine, rationally, why I was here and what I was doing...but the effects of Sway still...swayed me...and I felt helplessly overwhelmed by the magical aural and visual beauty all around me. I vaguely sensed Nate and Gunnar grabbing me by both arms and beginning to move me backwards physically out of the area. I remember resisting them, breaking temporarily free of Nate's grasp and reaching for Gae Bolga, only to discover it not there on my belt...I puzzled as to where it must have gone and was going to release Aisling to help me find it when Nate used my confused state to regain control of my arm and together with Gunnar continue carrying me out of the cave...I hazily realized that Jack was also bodily pushing me on the chest backwards.
The shriek of a buzzard overhead startled me out of my hazy state and I realized we were back on the desert floor of Terra Incognita.
Laurel was some distance away from us, on her knees in deep prayer and concentration.
Gunnar looked like hell, and only slightly better than Ty, who was propped up against a rock on the edge of our encampment.
Gunnar saw that I was back to awareness and told me this one was too big for us to handle by ourselves. Taking stock of just how injured Gunnar was, I nodded in assent. Jack commented we should consider this a successful recon mission and cut our losses. Nate agreed, too.
"Also," said Gunnar, lifting a huge chunk of Basilisk hide in the air above his head, "I'm making me a new pair of motherfucking boots..."
I laughed like a banshee and nodded enthusiastically in approval.
On the first part of the journey,
I was looking at all the life.
There were plants and birds. and rocks and things,
There was sand and hills and rings.
The first thing I met, was a fly with a buzz,
And the sky, with no clouds.
The heat was hot, and the ground was dry,
But the air was full of sound.
I've been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain.
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