WHAT NOW?
“Mmmmmm, yes. The moss has a tang of spiciness to it that I don’t remember from before. Maybe it tastes different in different parts of the Forest. Doesn’t look or feel any different, though. Want some, Bek?”
“No, I …”
“Are you stuck? You’re stuck. You’re standing there. You’re worried about the Prophesy. Let me help. You don’t know what to do because you never do. Then you do something, and it’s just what you should have done all along! That’s the way it is. That’s the way to be Harick! That’s just the how and the what of it, isn’t it? Isn’t that what you yourself have said?”
“Yoss, but I …”
“Well then. Do something.”
“I don’t …”
“Do anything! It will be right because you did it!”
“But …”
“All right, all right, settle. You have to flatten your mind again like as I told you before. Close your eyes. That’s right. The Prophesy wants you to find a charborr, a something called Ommy Anthus. Then it wants you to guide this Ommy Anthus to a pie wedge boulder and explain to the so said Ommy Anthus that in order to save the Charborr Forest from purple snow flame destruction, it must eat the boulder. That’s it, isn’t it? Should be
simple.”
“No, no! I must not reveal … myself. I must ride … chide … guide! … yoss … I must guide the charborr unseen.”
“Why?”
“I … I … feel it.”
“Oh, then, there, that must be the way. Easy enough to disguise yourself as something other now that you’re the Harick. What will you be?”
“We. What will three … sea … WE … be?”
“We? Me, too! Good, good, good. What will we be? Miffens? Trofles? Beeketbirds? Beddysnakes? Oh, yes, let’s be beddysnakes!”
“Charborrs.”
“Charborrs? How can we be charborrs when we don’t know what charborrs look like?”
“We will … grind … find out.”
“How?”
“I … I … I … I …”
“Don’t get stuck again! Here’s an idea. I’ll shift to Rakara. I can flatten my mind and think better when I’m blind … There. Ah, now, right away I can say to ye that all we need do be to find the underground entrance to the charborr city and sneak a peek.”
“Yoss! That’s it! I’ll sigh … fly! … to the … the … new … no … Blue Hills and ask Babba Ja to sell me … to tell me where the entrance can be sound … ground … found.”
“A good plan, but wasteful. Ye need not travel so far when ye be in the company of Rakara. My jrabe mind, I have discovered, when properly flattened, as now it be, can sense underground hollows. This Charborr Forest may be large and steep and rapidly
filling with snow, but it cannot hide its secrets from the me that I be when I shift to jrabe. With flat mind waves I’ll probe for hollows, circling wider and wider and ever wider.”
“Flat rind?”
“Don’t talk, Bek. Follow. Up … and … now … solid … solid … solid … oh … oh … there! … there! … A hollow be there!”
“Beer?”
“Yes, under here. Wait. I’ll shift back to bendo dreen … Ah, hmmmmm, nothing obvious. Trees and snow. But it’s hollow under. Right here under. Maybe at the base of a tree through roots. We should …”
“Hide!”
“No, we should … huh? Hide?”
“Kar, now, behind this bee … flea … tree!”
“Why? What do you see?”
“Look.”
“Oh.”