The World Outside The Shell

Chapter 5

The golden staff with the Chaos-Stone was on the kitchen table, but the map was gone. I looked around the room, unsure of what happened.

The door was gone.

The loud metal pounding on the outside of the shell was gone. I searched for other artifacts in the cottage, but time passed and I could not find another map or other clues about the world outside.

The crystal in the staff glowed and hummed a soft melody. I was curious about the ancient artifact and the stories Lady Ri shared during her brief visit.

The walls and floor shook and I fell to the floor.

“Chaos-Stone, return to me!” I held the powerful artifact and commanded the staff to create an opening to the outside world in the cottage, but no door appeared.

Instead, I found myself transported in a flash of bright light, in the bodily form of a small turtle.

Venn was holding me in one hand, while pounding the shell with a large rock.

I was lifted into the sack and carried out of the marsh lands and back to the forest. I tried to claw a hole in the fabric, but soon gave up the effort.

“Wake up,” said Venn, “Lady Ri commands you to return the staff!”

The mood quickly changed when I heard the snap of tree limbs and the rush of water.

Venn ran into the forest, leaping through the overgrown underbrush and climbing the steep hill. “Turtle, I can see a wall of water flooding the marsh lands. The dams in the north have broken! Please return Lady Ri to this world!”

“Please stone hammering my shell! Are you a good cook Venn? I found an old recipe in my pantry to mix sweet grass with bitter-roots and top it with sour drops from the Brill Fish. Hungry?”

Venn lifted the sack to face and shouted a reply. “Food? At a time like this? Lady Ri found the map you stole from the temple of our ancestors, but we need you to read the map.”

I said, “No.”

Vann was holding my torso in one hand, while pounding the back of the shell with a large rock. “The problem with you turtle, is the lack of concern for the danger…”

I was too frustrated to respond. I was quickly dropped into the sack and carried out of the marsh land.

Venn laughed when I tried to escape. “Be still, turtle!”

I said, “The prophecy seeker has a flawed opinion of the world, being too concerned about keeping all things unchanged.”

The short bald man, Venn said, “Lady Ri is not the prophecy seeker, she is the prophecy.”

I said, “Are we lost?”

The world blurred and I sensed a change in the Chaos-Stone. I was standing in the cottage, and Lady Ri was holding the staff and chanting in a monotone voice.

The room wavered into blurred mist and I was surrounded by the mirrors.

The person looking back at me was a young man in robes similar to the green robe patterns worn by the Lady Ri with the exception of a large turtle sewn with thread on the back. I watched as the two arms and two legs of a human form transformed into the legs of a turtle. The robe transformed into a green shell.

The mirrors dissolved and i fell to the floor. I noticed a sense of movement and the familiar damp air of the marsh lands returned.

Ven said, “Turtle! The marsh lands are gone. The lake is reborn, we must hurry.” He was holding me and talking, but I was too dazed to hear the words as he continued rambling on with a panic look on his round face.

I was dropped into the sack as the ground rumbled and shook outside.

The watery home I knew and loved, a great basin of marsh land collapsed into a deep hole and the sides of the forest edge became a sheer cliff of rock and the hole quickly filled with water and a new lake was born as Venn raced into the woods, climbing to higher ground.

The roar of thunder rattled my shell.

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