The Blue Truth Berry
Kar’s worried face hung close above mine. The cube was different. The light. The mirrors all everywhere had been replaced by luminous goldglow panels. The cube seemed smaller. Was it shrinking? I struggled to sit up. I wanted out.
“Settle, Bek,” said Kar, and her voice stood alone, unaccompanied by chorus.
“I find this one is bendo dreen, but not you,” said a … yes, it was a fat blue berry as big as my head floating up from behind Kar. I was rightfully scattered with puzzlement. The berry had red bead eyes and sneering red lips. Such was so. It had four of tiny arms and four of three-fingered hands.
“How do you know I’m not bendo dreen?” challenged Kar. “And so said, in fact, who are you?”
“I find that you have asked of me four questions. Your allotment, I find, is limited to six. There’s the warning. Take note of it. I find that there will be no other. Question one’s answer – I am the Blue Truth Berry. Question two’s answer – I came from the Book Room behind that panel. Question three’s answer – I find that you are not bendo dreen because your mind is solidly bolted into place. This poor creature’s mind is rootless, I find, easily stolen by images in mirrors. Question four’s answer – I am the Blue Truth Berry. I find of you that asking the same question twice is not very efficient.”
As the Berry spoke in a liquid jamlike voice, it floated back and then forth in front of Kar, waving its tiny arms and wiggling its tiny fingers. At the conclusion of its recitation it glided to one of the goldglow wall panels, clasped both sets of its tiny hands to rest on its bulbous plumptitude, and stared frowning with half-closed red bead eyes at the ceiling.
“We have two more questions to ask it,” said Kar.
“If the mirrors come back, I’ll lose myself,” I said, trembling.
True, I did feel a boost of relief when I heard my own voice from inside my own head speaking singly all alone. I turned my gaze to the Berry. It haughtily ignored us. Such seemed so. But, fact revealed, it waited for the final two questions. Such I know from what happened next.
“There’s a Book Room behind that panel. That’s what the Berry said. If we get into the Book Room, something better might happen. I’ll ask it how to get in there,” reasoned Kar.
“If this Realm is knocking me over, what might the others do?” I asked, feeling not much at all like continuing the adventure.
“Bek, Bek, I am the first jrabe jroon. It will get easier. I know things,” soothed Kar, and she winked!
Well, so such, a wink from Kar provided a comfort. I shrugged. I trusted her. She winked again and turned to face the Berry.
“Blue Truth Berry, I am the jrabe jroon Rakara,” she boldly proclaimed. “This is Bekka, a bendo dreen as you have guessed. We are on a challenge to reach the Realm Beyond Realms. Such being so, I will ask you one of my two remaining questions. How do we get into the Book Room?”
Without uttering a word or even looking at us, the Blue Berry spun slowly to tap with a tiny finger on the goldglow panel. The panel slid open. The Berry floated through. We followed, and as we followed, a terribly bad idea occurred to me. I thought it wonderfully good, but it was terribly bad. I whispered it to Kar. Sadly so such, she, too, thought it wonderfully good.
“You have one question left, but I have six, don’t I?” was what I whispered.
“That’s right!” agreed Kar. Then she called to the Berry, “Hold, Blue Truth Berry, I have yet only one more question, but Bek has six. Right?”
“Wrong. I find the final question answered. Too bad. Here you are in the Book Room. You’ll find no exit from here. Good-bye.”
The Blue Berry departed abruptly, the entrance panel slamming shut behind it. Kar and I were abandoned without clue in the Book Room. A formed cube like the mirrored room, the Book Room’s walls were shelved, wooden floor to wooden ceiling, with books and books and books.
“Oops,” said Kar.