TO POP THE BUBBLE
Alert and efficient, my mind briskly commanded hidden knowledge to appear. No more doubts. No more dawdling. I was not going to allow myself to be defeated in my first Prophesy test. So such, I thought as I dug snow from around the treetop, the snow will ever return to bury this last tree and I will ever have to stay here digging to keep its tip uncovered unless Ommy Anthus eats the boulder. I need Kar to shift to Dragon and keep this treetop clear. She can’t sense you now, Bek. She’s a charborr. I know that. Simple. I will change to charborr and tell her.
Keeping the black needled tip and the two topmost branches of the tree free of snow with my left hand, with my right hand I reached for my pouchbag. Fumbling awkwardly one-handed, I managed to bring out the amethyst vial. I pulled the stopper with my teeth and poured the last of the purple drops onto the back of my left hand.
There’s the end of that, I thought. Once more as charborr will have to do. Dig, Bekka Ja Harick. Dig deeper. Expose enough to allow for the span between when I cease to dig and Kar starts.
I exposed three more black branches by digging swiftly with a purpose and sweeping with my broom before I began to feel liquid and wobbly. Moon blue branches. Glowing pink needles. Aura of gold. Glittering silver snow.
There you are, Oddy Drago! I hurled the thought at Kar. Slide over here NOW!
Kar sensed the witchly command in my thought and obeyed without question. She slithered from the bubble to join me at the treetop.
What is it, O great Orry Culla, Wisest of the Wise? she thought, playing one of her silly Kar games.
I want you to show the Forest charborr one of the many other superior powers that we lake charborrs possess, I thought loudly so such that Ommy Anthus could sense me clearly in the bubble.
Huh? thought Kar.
Yoss, Oddy Drago. Shift yourself to invisible Dragon and keep the top of this tree uncovered by snow while I watch the Forest charborr Ommy Anthus fail to eat the pie wedge boulder! Ha ha! I thought, feeling embarrassed at once about the ‘Ha ha!’
Yes, Orry Culla, so strange and so odd but yet all-knowing, I will do as you ask without jrabe jroon delay, said Kar, and she disappeared.
I knew full well Kar laughed at me, but at the same time kept the treetop safe from burial. I turned my attention to the bubble, slithering swiftly to where it bobbed lightly and took on an ever thickening cap of glittering silver snow. The bubble itself remained crystal blue, the same to my charborr self as like it had been to my witchly form.
Well, there, Ommy Anthus, what do you think of lake charborrs now? I mistakenly thought.
A bubble for the great Ommy Anthus to ride in should not be so cramped and shabby. Also, the color is wrong. I suppose you might learn in time. Miracles do happen. I will need to practice the greatest patience if ever I am to teach the likes of you about respect and dignity, thought the insufferable creature.
My pot of anger boiled over. I couldn’t hold back. Instead of shrieking an enraged reply, I flung myself with a violent wobble at the bubble, and it popped. Oh, I thought, efficiently walling off my musing from Ommy Anthus, Prophesy. I see. Ommy Anthus enrages me. I throw myself at the bubble. It pops. Simple.
Composed and calm, I addressed the charborr, now freed from the bubble, If you eat the boulder I am about to show you, you will never have to see me again.That thought as it left my mind kindled in me a small budding flame of joy sparked by the idea of maybe perhaps never having to see OMMY ANTHUS again.
What a relief that will be, thought the charborr. Show me the boulder. The sooner, the better. Then you can vanish with that other lackwit lake charborr and leave me in peace.
Follow me, I thought shortly, not trusting myself to think anything more.
Down through Kar’s Dragon breath chimney tunnel in the snow I led Ommy Anthus. We reached the hollow and the pie wedge boulder, which shone bright red to my now charborr senses. I slid aside to allow Ommy Anthus entry into the chamber.
There it is. You couldn’t eat it in a million bar years! I taunted.
You’re right, thought the charborr.