That night I had another dream about the girl. She was sitting under a huge tree, with a white and a black Beaulani laying down next to her as she pet their forheads. Their eyes were very electric, and made me think of anti-gravity for some reason. I half expected them to fly away rather than run away. "Well little Lanni, what do you think of Finn and the Red Branch Heroes thus far?"
"I like them," I said with a big smile, "they make me laugh inside."
"You know," she said looking down in a very feminine way, "it doesn't hurt to laugh outside too once in a while. You might try it, I don't think it will break your ribs." Then she looked up with a mischievous smile, "it might even have saved your leg, if you had laughed all the way down that hill instead of groaning and cursing.
I could not help but laugh. "I shall try to laugh out loud more often," I said with mock seriousness. We both laughed. But then as suddenly as she was there, she was off in the distance walking beside the black and white Beaulani. "Wait," I cried, "I have so many questions."
"Ask Finn," she said, as she disappeared into the undergrowth.
"But they are all about you," I hollered, but it was no good, she was already gone.
I awoke to the feeling of something tickling my nostrils. I swated at it, and heard a scuffle of feet and the hush hush of supressed laughter. I opened my eyes to see Kian staring down at me. "Do you really think that you can sleep all day, just because your leg is broken?" he said, barely supressing a grin.
"Are you people always so cheerful this early in the morning?" I said.
All three of them drew close around me, and Kian said, "You wouldn't be able to stand it if we were cheerful. We were told to take it easy on you since you don't know quite how to walk yet and are therefore apt to fall down hills at any time it seems.
"You could have knocked," said one of the quiet ones.
"We most likely would have let you in," said the other quiet one.
Then they all smiled, as if they were all thinking the same thought without being told to think it, but it seemed that Kian was there voice most of the time. "He thinks that all things good must come only after lots and lots of pain. So we shall have to beat that thought out of him."
"No, no," said one of the quiet ones, "let's teach him the Great Shout.
"Yes," said the other quiet one, "then he will know what to do when he is tired of doing everything wrong. He will know how to clear a path to where the music sings in his heart."
"I've no idea what you all are jabbering about," I said self-consciously.
"Of course you don't," said Kian, "and that's because you never pay attention with your heart, always that busy body mind of yours, all wind and no fire, signifying a pile of leaves gone brown from arrid windy thoughts. But never fear David, we will show you the way to laughter.
"Did someone say laughter?" said a melodic boy's voice just then from the doorway. I turned to see who it was, and was surprised to see a boy my age, with the curliest, yellowest hair I have ever seen. He had bright blue eyes, a rather pointed nose, a very handsome face, and the kind of muscular features that some boys have, not robust, but sinewy, from always being on the go.
"You're timing is perfect Arthur," said Kian, not skipping a beat, "we are going to take this stick in the mud for an outing to the canyon today, want to come. And where ever have you been you little hoolagan?"
"Arthur?" I said slowly to myself, "as in..."
"As in the King that was, and will be again," said Kian, finishing my statement, "as in the reborn king."
"Don't pay attention to that nonsense," said Arthur, "if I wanted to be a king you'd bet I'd be one, but I have a ton of things I'd rather do then boss people around."
I laughed. I had heard many stories about Arthur from Dame Katherine, all of them were tales written on this earth. One day she told me, "Many of these tales contain many kernels of truth, but it is always more interesting to meet the real person." I tried to get her to elebarate on that point, but she only smiled and got that distant look that so many women from Avalon get when they are remembering something from very long ago. Kian looked a little put out, but then quickly recovered and told us all to pack some gear, that it would be an all dayer.
"What about my leg?" I said. Up till this point I thought they had been kidding about taking me along, but Kian tossed me a knapsack, and said that we'd fill mine with some food.
"What about my leg," they all mocked in unison, with Arthur standing neutral and seeminly eager to be off again, with or without us.
"Have you not tried standing on it?" said Kian.
"No, that would hurt too much, "you really are a bunch of nuts," I said, flexing my leg a little to reassure myself that it was still broken, but there was no pain. So I moved it, expecting a shooting pain up my entire leg, but none came. So I did it, I stood up, and there was still no pain, and then I walked, and I was filled with emotion. I knew that there were many healing herbs on Avalon, and healing fruits, but I had never heard of such a thing as a broken bone being mended overnight. I was speechless.
Kian looked at me seriously for a moment, and said. "A life has healed you, you should thank the nature spirits of the plant for giving its life so that you could mend. It is a great honor to have such a healing take place so quickly, which means a great sacrifice on the plant's part."
I was deeply moved. "I will," I said, "Please tell me the name of this plant, and explain what it looks like. I will write a symphony about this plant." Already I was thinking that this could be a part of the drama that I knew I must still write somehow by Dame Katherine's deadline.
Kian smiled, "That seems proper. I will show you this kind of plant today on our way to the Idyandrath Gorge."
We left after each had filled his pack with an odd assortment of goods which seemed to be mostly musical in nature. Flutes, and small stringed instruments, and strange bells. We got food for my pack outside from the remains of the previous night's feast, and then were off without so much as a word of farwell to anyone. It seemed that these boys did exactly as they pleased, which gave them such a mischievious air about them. I found myself wondering if I was supposed to seek out the woman who had said goodnight in our hut now, or after our return, but I didn't get a chance to figure that one out, because it appeared that these adventureous boys also waited for no one. I was amazed at how strong my leg felt, which had hurt so badly after my fall, and I found myself wondering about the scientific aspects of this marvelous herb.
We hiked through the woods for several hours, through dense woods, with moss hanging from the trees. The terrain sloped downward, even though we were in a large rift valley. After a time the trees began to thin, and then we entered a bush type country, with lots of evergreen type trees. Then after about three hours of hiking I got my first glimpse of the giant rift canyon. A canyon that was created by a deep rift in the continent. And the rift canyon that we were traveling in was one of many fractures in the rift that were almost like tributaries of this one gigantic rift. Long ago the Rheans had stabilized the geology of this great crack in the continent through meditation. They say that part of the reason our planet is in constant geological turmoil is because we do not have enough souls meditating and developing themselves spiritually. They say that dark thinking in group can even create gigantic storms, because the become a vortex of swirling energy in the atmosphere that then perciptates on the physical plane after a time.
All I can say is this rift was magnificent. It was on the order of twelve miles wide, and close to two miles deep. It would not be too hard to create a great shout in such a place I thought. No talking was allowed while we hiked. And keeping up with Arthur was no easy task. When we arrived at the edge of the great rift they picked a rock formation as our rest spot. I was glad for the rest, since we had walked none stop for three hours at a grueling pace. We all sat in silence for a time. I listened to the song birds that flitted in and out of the brush, delicate little black and white birds with thin piercing songs. I felt that I was once again in the presense of God, as if God were very close, and everywhere. Then as if in answer to that thought Kian began to talk. "The great shout my friend is not a sound that comes from your lungs, it is a sound that comes from the land itself, and is channeled through space by the spirit. It is used to awaken the people to danger. The evil ones use a mind shout to strike fear into their prey, this is nothing like that. But before ever you can produce the great shout you must be able to contact joy in your heart, the joy of the soul. And forgive us for saying so," he said, and looked at his companions, "but you are such a sour puss." Then they all giggled, except Arthur who always looked so serious, almost like he was always somewhere else in his thinking, already fighting distant battles. I laughed too, because I knew it was true, and because I felt God, and who can be dreary when God is near?
"So how can I experience this joy?" I said.
"Easy," he said, "you are not used to playing music with others. You have composed great symphonies, you have played solo for the king, but you've not joined your heart with others in order to make sounds of joy. So today you will play with us, on this sacred rock where so many have come before you, in order to touch their hearts." And so we played, on small string insturments and woodwinds. And he was so right, by joining these sounds togehter with others a beauty and a joy began to fill our hearts. And to give that music to God, was so powerful that at one point I just began crying like a baby. I could not stop, it poured out of me like rivers of damed up muddy waters. My new found friends did not make fun of me now. They looked at me with the eyes of true brothers. When I was done, and appologized for my lack of control, they all smiled, and Kian said, "Now you are one of us. There is hope for you yet little one, of that I'm certain."
I smiled and we played some more, what I would call Celtic tunes, yet with many more variations that what I have often heard on earth. Some were sad, and brought pictures to mind of a race of nomadic peoples, some of them who had made their way through the portal at Glastonbury or New Grange to this region of Avalon, by the cosmic powers of sacred geometry. Other tunes were lively and made us all laugh, as if we our fingers were wild nature spirits flitting through a world of string sounds and piping whistle. I felt filled with the holy spirit of unity and brotherhood. For once in my life I was not prone to backaway from the fun, this time I was joining in, and having a wonderful time. We played till early afternoon, when we became hungry. Arthur was the only one who had not played an instrument. He spent the whole time looking off into the distance, as if he were seeing the future, and occasionally he looked over at us and smiled his approval. He was so young, but so like an old general, planning years ahead atime for all of his battles.
After our lunch Arthur motioned for me to walk with him. We walked along the rim of the rift canyon. We didn't talk at first, just walked, him wearing it seemed his serious young face, me wearing my curious one intent upon what he would say. "What I will teach you now must never be used in hatred, never in fear, never in hesitation, not for the hunt as in days of yor, or to announce a great victory, for this shout is to bring down the warriors of heaven in the very last days when all will seem lost. Do you understand this, for I know it is in your nature to be tempted. Will you deign this knowledge for heaven's sake? Or will you make it a part of your will? I must know now, before we continue."
I was silent for a while, pondering his words as if they were words coming from Pellenas or Brignatia. "This is what I think," I said after a short while, "that there will be times when I am tempted to use it for ill, but that something in me will prevent it, will wait for the proper moment, will be strong to the end, no matter what may happen to me."
Arthur smiled and patted me on the back and said, "I like that answer, come, there is a special place where I was taught, where you must be taught also." We walked swiftly along the rim, until we came to a place in the cliff that was a overhang, we you could look down to the valley below, which today was covered by clouds. This place gave a magnificent few of a place where the canyon opened out to almost twenty five miles wide, with it's tall pentacled ridges of straited rock, which were due to erosion along the edges after many millions of inactivity from this large continetal rift. The tributary rifts were covered with thick forests and swamps, and the main rift was like a vast chasm along the center with a wide bed of erosion along the edges. The rift cliffs along that rimmed the tributaries were the result of a lower layer of rock being exposed after the rift opened and the top sediments were blown away by terrific winds that scoured the planets surface many millions of years ago. Most of the erosion along the rifts was due to ancient wind storms that had long sense been brought under control by many acts of co-creation by the inhabitants of that earth.
Needless to say, I was awestruck by what I saw. It was almost like being high in the sky, the drop was so far and so wide, like a great crack in the earth. After we took in the scene for a moment, Arthur said: "You must first be able to contact your heart. Has Pellenas taught you this yet?"
We have done the visiualization of the rose, and the flame in the rose." I said.
"Good," said Arthur, "I want you to close your eyes and visualize it now. Do you have it?" he said after a moment. I nodded a yes. "Good, now see the canyon at the center of your heart, really see it, and the sky above it. It is no longer outside you, it is inside of you, in your heart. When you have done this, nod."
At first I could not do it at all, I saw only the flower. I became engrossed with the beauty of it, and the scent, which was like a full rose garden in bloom. But then I remember what I was supposed to be doing. At first the best I could do was to increase the silence. But somehow this felt like the right direction, so I focuse upon this. Until all was silence, it was like there was no time, no space, just silence. Then I began to see a tiny blue dot at the center of the flower, which began to expand into a vast scene. It was like I was hovering above the canyon, and just at the periphery of my vision were the petals of the rose. I thought of nodding my head, but had no idea if I had, for I could no longer feel my physical body. It was like I was just that tiny point of blue light that I had first seen in the center of my heart. As if I had been distilled down to a tiny granule of light. Then I heard a voice, Arthur's voice, say from inside this tiny point of light. "Shout, shout what you feel!"
So I did. "Niatu bor Niac Dedd" I yelled. That's when I awoke from my vision, for suddenly I heard those words, not inside, but as a thunder clap of wind in the sky overhead that rolled like thunder across the valley and out into the landscape. Then suddenly there were a dozen saucer ships in the sky buzzing around in every direction. And then my teacher, Pellenas was standing next to us, in a shimmering white glow. "Arthur, what have you done?" he said sternly.
I was too stunned to talk, to come to Arthur's aid. "I thought he was ready," he said. "I thought it was time."
Pellenas looked at me. "Where did you get those words?"
"I don't know," I said, scared and trembling. "They just came."
"From him I'll wager." he said, with lines of anguish on his forhead. "Well you had better get back. There will be a storm. Don't do this again, both of you. He is not ready Arthur. When will you learn patience?" Then he made a frustrated wave with his right arm. "Go, before I must come in physical form to save you all from this storm. Begone I say."
He was not kidding. The sky was already turning black, and soon the thunder was deafening. Arthur would not talk to me, and Kian seemed distant too. I had no idea what I'd done, only that I had tasted for a brief second a power that seemed truly incomphrehensible. Like something that only a god should have. By the time we reached the village we were drenched and nearly in shock. We ran most of the way back, through wind and rain, and lightening that was way too close for comfort. The storm lasted two days, and despite the deafening roar outside, it was the quitest two days of my life. I felt like an outcast. I found myself even longing for Kian's tearing wit. And there was no invitation from the pretty lady to call me to meet her daughter either. Only after the storm had passed was I called by someone. I was called by Finn. I expected the worse.
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