Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (15 page)

Another morning of incredible, deep, blue light invited me to saunter through the woods. I plucked stalks and sucked their sweet sap as I walked, and walked, and walked. I lolled on some lilac moss by the side of the pool and watched the birds sing in the noontime haze. The birds sang contentedly that this fine weather was going to continue for a few days at least. One bird had a particularly lovely song about the glories of a warm, sweet-smelling noontime. The bird had only one leg which worked like a pogo stick. I was wondering if this were a deformed bird; when ten more, just like it, flew down to join it on the branch. So there were eleven birds set equidistant from each other on the branch, ridiculously jumping up and down pogo stick fashion as they sweetly sang that they were the masters of the branch and all its insects were theirs to eat.

I ran again through the trees, and this day's sprint was just as delightful as the sprint of the day before. Trees, rocks, all seemed to yield to my footsteps. The fragrant air rushed into and out of my lungs, seeming to breath me instead of me it.

This time, when I came to a stop I stood before a huge tree--by far the biggest in the Forest. Right at eye level, there was a perfectly round hole in the trunk. The hole looked extremely deep. Yet when I put my hand to the hole, I discovered there was no hole. It was an optical illusion created by the smoothness of the wood. Except for this one place, the tree was covered by gnarled, rough bark. At times the soft, blue light fell across the smooth disc of the tree. The fluttering, blue light made swift, brief, lightning figures across the smooth wood. These figures changed colors. Green, yellow, lilac---there seemed to be no end to the variety of colors. The figures intertwined, making designs. My sensations began to alter. Watching the light forms play was like trying to remember, or learn of, or see something ahead of me. In the futility of the effort, my mind went still, near blankness. Images appeared on the strange bark, remaining in form only as long as I did not try to name them. Whenever I labeled an image with a word, the image faded away… The images returned to colors and shapes. The colors and shapes returned to mere flashes of light.

I turned away from the tree. I felt invigorated, relaxed, and alert. Ifelt so good I wanted to do something. Why not try a cartwheel? I had never done one in my life, and now I did a perfect one. Unfortunately, when I landed, completely erect and at ease, I realized I had landed in a mud puddle and was sinking to my knees. The mud was bubbling noisily. It sounded suspiciously like giggling. I waded out of the mud. I looked around me.

Like the day before, I was lost. I envisioned myself stranded forever in this wily wood. Now I had to get a hold of myself; I couldn't stand rooted to the spot and lost out of mere fearful fantasy. I forced myself to calm down and allowed myself simply to walk. The walking felt good; it relaxed me. My surroundings seemed more familiar. Or was that merely wishful thinking? Clutched with fear again I stopped, uncertain of my bearings. I closed my eyes, counted to ten, took a deep breath, and visualized coming upon the pool and then strolling to the house. Calm again, I opened my eyes and proceeded. I hurried a bit, pleased that now I really did think I knew where I was. But what if a snake came slithering up to me? I hadn't brought a knife. Again I came to a dead halt. Now, seriously this was getting silly. No, it wasn't snakes--yes, this was definitely silly. Snakes wouldn't come after me; the wild boars would. Of course, I had never seen a wild boar in either Zollocco or this Forest, but that didn't mean they weren't lurking around ready to charge! I looked around with wild eyes. There was nothing around. Why was I so jumpy? Bad conscience? Confusing my guilt with this Forest's innocence? I shook out of my head memories of climbing into windows to steal gems, and looked at the beauty around me.

She senses the presence of danger and looks to Us for calm. The Toelakhan intrude amidst Us intent upon harm. The Toelakhan We shall beguile, and beguile, and beguile!

A zephyr rustled the leaves melodically. Soothed, I walked placidly on, and found the pool, and found the house.

That evening, after I had finished eating dinner on the stoop, there was still sunlight enough to practice throwing the knives I had brought from Ichloz. Unused to the weight and size, I nearly flipped the knives into my throat more than once. Once I got used to their heft, I found they were much easier to handle than the scalpels I had used in the Forest Zollocco. I stepped inside the house and shut the door just as the last shred of sunlight disappeared. The door locked itself. The hair on the back of my neck crawled. Had the door been locking itself each night? Would the house have locked me out if I had stayed outside one second longer? What was there to lock against anyway? These woods were too gentle to offer any harm.

I fell asleep imagining the Toelakhan was prowling around amidst the trees. This thought contributed to yet another night of nightmares. I dreamed I was watching from the huge spacecraft that had kidnapped me when I saw the Earth suddenly and completely vaporize. I dreamed I was in Ichloz again breaking into a darkened apartment. A small animal that I couldn't quite discern took my ankle in its nasty little jaws and wouldn't let go. I heard people approaching. The little animal still wouldn't let go as I tried to climb back out of the window. Then I dreamed that a huge mosquito, the size of a house, was peering in the window at me with one huge eye that was thousands of eyes. I saw myself in the bed reflected a thousand times in the huge gleaming black insect eye. My eyes became parched with the terror of staring, and I became aware that I was staring at the drawn drapes. I must have been sleeping with my eyes wide open. I was drenched with sweat. Even the sheets were slightly damp from my profuse sweating. I turned on the lamp next to my bed. I sat stiff, tense, cowering, and silent. I imagined I could feel the planet rotate towards the sun and the welcoming dawn. Before I could convince myself that there was nothing at the window, the planet was halfway in its turn towards daylight. Nothing had been at the window, I told myself, and even if there had been it was gone by now. Branches rustled soothingly against the house and I relaxed somewhat. I leaned back against the pillows and waded back into a shallow, but sweet sleep.

When I awoke the next morning, I could tell it was a little later than usual because the sunlight wasn't as deeply blue. I followed my now established routine of eating, bathing, and running in the woods. This time after my run, I turned my attention to hunting. It was very hot by the time I had killed enough birds to last for a few days' meals. As I pulled a knife out of a featherless bird, I felt badly that I had killed it. The bird had been one of many sweetly singing about a drastic change of the weather and how nice the rains would be. It had caught my attention by flapping briskly its wings as it sat on the bare tip of a branch in full view. It had seemed to wait patiently for me to creep towards it with my knife. The bird, purple eyes calm and steady, had watched the knife fly towards it without budging to save itself. Where had I read that the deer allowed the hunter to kill them because mankind, the weakest of all creatures, would starve otherwise?

I found my way home, skinned one and plucked the other of my kills, and put all but one in the large green freezer. This house, I mused, could easily accommodate six or seven people and was equipped to put up about thirteen. Both the two sofas in the living room and the sofa in the library were sofa beds. I took a shower in the upstairs bathroom for the first time. In the bathroom was a set of switches which had names of flowers written beside them. I pressed one of them for experiment's sake, and then turned on the water. To my very great surprise and pleasure, the scent of a flower wafted in the steam of the shower. I pressed a few more of the switches and more floral aromas were added to the water. Again, on the stoop, I ate my dinner; this time I had stir-fry fowl mixed with nuts and vegetables. I watched that reoccurring blessing, the sunset. Feeling sweetly subdued I went to bed and listened sleepily to the Forest's scented rustlings. My dreams that night were filled with anxiety and unpleasantness, but they weren't vivid or extreme enough to linger in memory.

I strolled in the Forest next morning, and nibbled on whatever edible looked like it might be tasty. I splashed in the pool and lolled on the purple moss. Once dry I raced through the trees. Lost as usual, I stretched out on a sunlit moss-bed, stuffed myself with the truffles I had found nearby, and sucked the sweet, pink sap of a golden plant's stalk. The warmth of the day grew around me as I loitered. I felt wonderfully indolent.

Above me a twig snapped. I sat up feeling it was late. I stood, stretched, and grabbed my knapsack. I picked truffles, and put them into the knapsack. I wanted to gather other produce for my kitchen, and now that it was late, I must find the food quickly. It would help a lot if I could find it all in one place. With the advance of the day the humidity was building, so the Woods grew hazier and hazier, and more lushly green. I looked meditatively through the verdant Forest before me. A shaft of sunlight was hanging like a blue tapestry between the trees. This long, wide shaft seemed to have threads of color embroidered through it. The illusion of a great embroidered tapestry became more and more sharply defined. Walking as though I were entering the splendid chamber of a slumbering royal infant, I went to examine the glowing tapestry. Shining through the soft blue haze in the light of a shaft of warm, pastel yellow were berry and fruit bushes.

As I approached the bushes several birds burst into flight, scattering the berries they had been eating. The fruit trees bore the fragrance of their spicy bark. The fruit of these trees I was afraid to eat because I had dreamed it was poison, but the bark was heaven to eat. At the base of the spice bark trees grew foot-high leafy plants, another favorite of mine. Below the berry bushes grew plants whose roots made a fine tea or could be eaten like carrots. I filled my knapsack. As I peeled the outer-most layer of spice-bark from one tree, I noticed the light was becoming more and more deeply blue. The wind began to swell. A storm was imminent. I put on my knapsack.

I had no conscious idea where I was, but I ran, feeling sure and at ease. Within twenty minutes I was out of breath and approaching the clearing of the house. To my surprise, I found myself coming towards the back of the house. How had this happened? It started to pour. In the few moments it took me to get in the door, I was drenched. Inside, I hung up my wet clothes and wrapped myself up toga fashion in a sheet. Then I went down to the kitchen to prepare a bird for roasting. Soon the tantalizing smells of the cooking---spices, nuts, and fowl---filled the house. The pounding of the rain indicated that the storm would last some time.

The next day the rain was still drumming melodically on the roof and windows. The house remained comfortably warm. At one point, I opened the front door to smell the sweet, moist air. I looked around the door and saw a Trotting Homely-Bush sitting to one side of the door. The Homely-Bush shook its leaves at me in friendly greeting. Then it spotted a yellow striped worm coming out of the ground. The Bush yanked on the worm with one of its branches and then ate the worm with great smacking pleasure. Suddenly the Homely-Bush stood up. It seemed to listen attentively. To my astonishment, it began to push on the door to close it. I resisted for a second, but the Homely-Bush seemed to grow so distressed that I let it close the door. When the door shut, I heard the lock click. What was going on? I stood in the narrow hallway formed by the stone wall and windows. Outside the locomotive bushes and trees were running higgledy-piggledy, like happy children in a summer sunstorm. What could be going on? I wondered. At the end of the clearing, the ground, now mud, was churning itself. The Forest seemed to be taking a mischievous delight in running around. This went on until after lunchtime.

After eating, I went upstairs to explore more fully what was in the closets and chests of drawers. As I passed a window, I looked out at the still continuing antics of the woods-

--But what was that? A person standing by a tree? The tree hopped backwards and forwards. If there had been a person there he was gone now. I started gasping for breath. Was the Toelakhan searching for me right now in the woods? No, no, it couldn't be, maybe there was a village nearby, and the person was just taking a walk. In this weather? Well, I was as safe as I could be. If it were the Toelakhan, there was nothing I could do about it. I shivered.

It was a bit cool in the house for my light clothing. I opened a chest I found in the hallway. Sweaters! This cheered me up quite a bit, so I looked through a closet. There were seven gorgeous, long blue robes. The blue of the robes was the same beautifully deep blue as this Forest's dawn light. I took one out and tried it on. It was a lovely garment. Strangely, there were metal rings, two at the hem, and two at the throat. I took the robe off, laid it out flat, and looked at those rings. I got to thinking. I went off in search of some rope and found some in the kitchen. I returned to the robe I had left laid out on the floor and tied one piece of rope through the rings at the hem, and another bit of rope through the rings at the neck. Then I tied the rope ends to opposite doors' handles. Yes, the robe could be converted into a very nice hammock. Then I remembered something. The music professor, who turned out to be the Priest who had helped me escape Raiboothnar, had worn a robe of exactly this color and style. He had worn a long purple belt with it. I rummaged through the closets and bureaus again looking for purple belts. I found none.