A SHORT JOURNEY
Jerrandal announced it was not far to the valley of the jarbots and asked me, “Would the Jaha like to go now, slip and slide?” I translated for Kar. The beast warned me to stay in the shadow cast beyond purple. I translated for Kar.
“What’s the shadow cast beyond purple?” asked Kar, showing a good measure of sense.
I shrugged our shrug only in order to annoy my friend from ever. Such was the merry mood I’d been tossed to when first I saw my ruby ring on the talon toe of the jarbot jesterbeast.
“Ask it then!” snapped Kar, as I knew and predicted she would.
I did so such, and by so such doing my merry mood deflated, thorn punctured. How? Jerrandal explained how the dangerous creatures were ever trying to sting jarbots to death with lightning sticks called guns. The creatures could not see beyond purple. Jarbots in the distance of past had learned to cast the shadow and hide in plain view. So said Jerrandal.
“They call us Bigfoot, slip and slide,” rumbled the jesterbeast.
Not without good and proper reason, I thought before asking, “How can we … be … flee … tree … see! … the shadow?”
The jesterbeast grinned horribly again and tapped one of its lower tusks. It ripped the hedge briar open and stepped four great strides down the slope, paused, returned, paused, paced away again, never taking its huge skyblue goggle eye gaze off of us. It stopped and rumbled, “See?”
Truth, we did see. A perfect circle of dark purple shadow spread on the ground all around the jarbot, the jesterbeast, the Jerrandal, and when the beast moved, so such too moved the shadow, ever keeping Jerrandal in its very center.
“Why can … we … we … see … you?” I asked.
“You are Jaha from the world of the ancestors, slip and slide!” roared the suddenly joyful Jerrandal, jumping and flipping and rolling about in the purple shadow circle.
I grabbed Kar by the hand and rushed us both quickly to the safety of the circle after I realized we sat there easy to be seen. Up, down, left, right flicked my wary eyes. Tumble slope with boulders and silvery green scrub brush. Stands of trees. The cliffs behind us towered. The jesterbeast smiled horribly.
“Take us to your … your … tally … valley, Jerr … Jerr … jarbot,” I said, gazing at my single ring glowing yellow danger.
Jerrandal nodded once and started off down the tumble slope. Kar and I hurried to remain in the swiftly moving purple circle of shadow. Kar asked why we didn’t fly. I told her we couldn’t risk losing contact with the shadow on the ground. We might be seen by the dangerous creatures. Kar wanted to argue, I could tell, but she shrugged instead and said she was the first jrabe jroon ever to run on a purple circle of shadow after a jesterbeast. We moved through a rising forest up to a broad level meadow of grasses, grasses gold green to grasses black green, with scattered white tufts and sprays of tiny yellow flowers.
“Nice meadow,” said Kar.
Jerrandal turned, putting a claw to tusk, and whispered softly, “Don’t speak, slip and slide. Sometimes they camp over there.”
I translated for Kar quietly and directly into her ear, and we the both of us looked off to where Jerrandal pointed. A tricklestream flowed by a cluster of trees on one side of the meadow. And right then there is when a creature stepped out from those trees, raising its arms in a stretch and bending from side to side. It wore a red shirt and blue pantaloons. Kar and I clutched at each the other. Jerrandal stood motionless. Another one appeared, smaller, arms stretched out like as wings and running in a wavy line around and about so such as if at play. A youngling!
I’m on the world down the Well, I thought. Danger! Oh, danger. I want to collect my house and go home.
Jerrandal waved us forward, and we crept, the three of us, silently across the meadow. We reached a rising slope of tree forest at its far side and paused to look back. The creatures were there, four of ‘em now, three standing with their backs to us, the fourth the youngling running at play. Jerrandal pointed up the slope and mouthed ‘Soon.’ Kar mouthed ‘What?’ I mouthed in translation ‘Jut’, which of course means you know what in the bendo dreen Boadlian language of my world.
We climbed the rise and topped its rocky and treeless ridge. A wide view of peaks stabbed the sky all around us. We looked down at vast running cups and humps of thick forests which seemed so such to be as like a topsy and turvy dark green sea shadowed in purple.
“My home,” said Jerrandal, massive arms spread wide.
“What?” said Kar.
“Home,” I translated.
“Where?” asked Kar.