The Bellowing Ones

It all began one summer’s day. Four suns are up on a warm afternoon on the remote planet of Tremmour. Separated, beyond reach. A distant cousin perhaps to earth. Both planets are based upon comparable terrains, the inhabitants are almost indistinguishable, yet the very essence of nature is alive back on the rolling plains, I once called home.

The plants and the trees all united to a consciousness that sees all hears all. Yet, the inhabitants simply cannot agree on common ground. Pride, the lust for power, and envy have blinded the eyes of a nation once known for its generosity.

I was walking through the forest collecting berries, bark, tree roots, flowers, and even some insects to make a potion. The way was lit, the distinguished oaks singing as I walked down the trail. I had studied alchemy along with law in the palace courts as required by a member of the royal family. I was enjoying the warmth from our four suns when I noticed they were out of alignment. One was flickering and casting a particularly ominous shadow over the waterfall. I often spent time beside the bubbling river sketching or writing poetry.

I wanted to collect some bellowing ones from an ancient patch of stumps. This mossy patch down beside the river was home to fungi all letters of the alphabet. A flourishing localized eco-system due to the limitless stone face shielding the light from the suns. Anyway, they were moaning and bellowing as they always do. They feel no pain but they do whatever it may take to get inside one’s head. Their words are a ruse to save a swift beheading. Or the loss of one of the countless eyes. I prefer to leave them alone. Yet early this week my uncle took ill, He was incapacitated and unable to speak.

The lashes from a withered iris, crushed in a pestle. Boiled down with the milk of the eye, garnished with a few sprigs of common herbs will cure a withering lung. It is somewhat barbaric, yet to save a life. How far will one go?

Needless to say, I was having none of their tales of caution. Yet even so the misalignment of the suns had me bothered. “Oooh, a trouble its-sa-coming” one bellowed. The voices hissing whilst its mossy necks swayed like a charmed viper. “It’s a judgment from-sa the gods” another butted in. I thought I would humor them and I questioned them “What is going on?” “The child speaksss” “Ooh a, I thoughts it wasn’t allowed.” The eyes piercing my soul with a bitter judgement. “Well it isn’t. But the suns are not flying the course predicted by the star charts today. You seem to have a better understanding about what is going on, so please, do tell”.

I placed my small silver dagger back in my collection basket and sat down beside the mossy patch. Hesitating, it was impossible to know how the eyes spoke, considering nothing appeared to be a mouth. Nothing but a remnant of an experiment gone wrong, or a cruel reminder of a planet cursed. “Well then- a child” “We will- a help you.” The dark emerald eyes swaying tall promised with a hiss.

I stopped and remembered what my grandmother had said when I was a child. “Don’t trust the bellowing ones, they will lead you astray.” I jumped when the haunting voice interrupted my thoughts. “Queen Aramathea was a good lady.”

“You knew my grandmother?” I asked them in surprise. “Ooh did we know her…Hehehe…Yesss child…If it wasn’t for us, she would still be a poor little slave girl”.

Well.

That caught my attention as she had died when I was very young. Or so I believed. I hadn’t questioned the past much as it made Father rather angry speaking about it. I had always assumed that he had a tough time growing up in royalty, but the rumors I had heard never made sense until now. Growing up in poverty not having a family name until one given. His mother selected to rule not born. Grandmother’s passion for the dark arts was exciting. But I had always believed it handed down from her mother. “Oooh No,” The mushrooms squealed. “It- a was Ussss-child. We gave her what her heart desired-a most- to be a Queen.” “What do you crave- a most, child?”

“We can help you.” Another slimy eye encased in a clammy old mushroom interrupted. I guess it’s illogical to say the eyes infringe on each other. Upon observation, the roots of the towering fungi all go back to the same awareness if you will.

Common understanding stipulates, that the entire kingdom of Tremmour thrives on ancient knowledge. Now I was speaking to that very consciousness. My heart raced with fear but also overwhelmed by an unexplainable excitement. I had heard of a place called earth where there were no kingdoms. No such thing as war and people lived together in agreement. All this seemed like a distant fairy tale but one can only dream, right?

“Oooh, do you hear what she is thinking?” The fungi squirmed in delight. “Yesss it seems we can help her. Princess, we will send you to this earth”. The voice becoming more and more as one.

They began to increase in quantity, eyes appearing all over the ground as they ascended my leg. Closer they twirled around my body like a parasitic vine searching for a tree to suffocate. “What do you want?” I cried out in horror.

“Shh, be calm now child.” Only a singular voice now, as though, of one of old, she spoke with authority. “We will get you to this world you seek if you give us the kingdom. It grows dimmers as the fourth light wanes.” One of the eyes brushing my hair behind my ear. “What does all this mean?” I questioned.

The eyes around my face swaying in perfect harmony with the trees now. “Well once the fourth light has gone the others’ vibration will follow along. This too is the natural order of things, but don’t let us make you do anything you don’t want”

The eyes all spoke at once again in the same voice. Whispering in unison creating a haunting effect. As though they were everywhere at once, yet nowhere. “And you can get me off this planet?”

I had been trying to escape since the time of my grandmother’s passing. I was in line to the throne. One may think this to be a grand ambition. Yet, the magic all around had darkened. The common peoples’ life force deliberately fading. The power that provided for us all was now sourced from suffering. The land was happy when she was ruling as we all lived in peace. The power was clean. It was not sourced from our emotions. But after she died I didn’t even recognize family.

I had heard rumors from friends in school that my father had turned to an ancient stone for power overall. This forbidden knowledge, once defended by the elders. He always had issues with neighboring planets for as long as I could recollect. But ever since a deal he made with one elder who promised it all in return for chief counsel. No one dared to fight for power. He was unstoppable. No one from neighboring stars came to visit anymore which was strange. No one dared to question it as they got sent away to be re-educated, “One does not question order”. The mantra drilled into our minds. No one ever returned from those camps. I heard people got reassigned to different sectors but I didn’t believe that either.

“Yes come now child, we will send you there for your crown”. I hardly had to think about that as it was only a crown, right? I took the crown off and held it out in front of the eyes.

“Well, you must also shed blood to make it an official trade.” The eyes began to spin faster and faster. “Pay in life, pay in life” the somber voices chanted. Blue sparks forming jumped like lightning. Electric bursts dancing between the stems and falling to the ground. A dark void began to appear. I had read about time-bending and walking through the galaxies. But those were fairytales, right? Well, there was some truth to it. Much of what was once dreams are now known to be true.

I took out my silver dagger its blade sharp as a razor and pressed it deep into my palm. Blood poured out of the wound onto the ground as I fought back tears. The eyes hissed with delight. “Yesss come now child” they paused as the void was now darkness perfected. Open. An empty look into everything yet nothing at all. Black, without form, silent and cold. “You may go. But remember you are never to return, you are no longer royalty by the natural order, you may go.”

And with that, the swaying eyes shrunk back to the ground. My own eyes fixed on the dark hollow not comprehending what is. Yet, right in front of me. I tried to slow my breathing to calm my racing heart trying to stop the cortisol coursing through my veins. Gazing around at my own beautiful world, wondering would it be the last time and I walked beyond. I don’t remember much happening in the void. Everything yet nothing. I could hear my heart beating sending blood through my veins. In fact, I could trace every beat of my heart to where it was propelling my life force. The hairs on my arms were standing to attention, and it is so still in there I could hear them rustling in the void. With nothing around, everything is. No pressure, no gravity, No form. I guess when everything is, nothing is anymore bound by the laws which govern worlds.

A moment passed: The blink of an eye, and I stepped through into a new world. Surrounded by a sea of faces, gentle rain falling from above. The morning sky lit by one sun more radiant than the four I knew, bursting through a patchy sky. A million umbrellas rushing from someplace to another. I’d never seen so many people in all my life. I would soon learn that this was commonplace in the bustling metropolises of Japan. I was in Tokyo. Panic began to overtake me, but a gentle lady took my arm and led me out of the street and into a quiet lobby of a museum. “Hello Dear, I am Aramathea” She spoke as My eyes widened, convinced my heart would never slow.

“Grandmother?” I grappled for words “You died?” A hot puddle formed below my eyes, they began streaming down my face. She smiled kindly and brushed the tears away. “No, my dear. I had to get away as the once pure power I ruled with corrupted, forever blackening. My own Family gave into corruption, colluding with the fallen elders. Now most in my own court seek the forbidden knowledge. I made a deal with the Bellowing Ones.”

She smiled as my eyes widened. “We can talk all about that later, but right now you’re fortunate to be alive.” She spoke without a shadow of a doubt. “When the fourth sun fades, good has become evil. And evil is now seen as good” “That’s engraved in the temple ruins” I recollected and she continued. “Yes my dear, now come, you have a lot to learn about this world”

She stood up and we headed for the door. “Thanksss for-a coming” The curator smiled and looked deep into my eyes. Her eyes cold, lacking life, cruel without form as she stood by the counter swaying side to side. Nothing more to add she winked and continued to sway from side to side. I have tried to find that place many times since, but it seems like it was never there. Or as I remember nothing is everything and everything is nothing.