Chapter 29 Portal to History
Master Chang seemed to float rather than walk. But he stepped up to Shibu and family, holding out his hand to his new apprentice.
"Come with me, little brother. Your journey of discovery starts in a place one hundred times older than both of us together."
Shibu nodded with resolution. "This is something I want as much for Felice and Cici, as much as for me."
"I can tell you have read many books Shibu. But what you will see now will bring those pages and your understanding to life. The life you have been missing."
The group gathered together before a door unlike any that Shibu had seen so far in the fabled castle of Bonta. Another thing that made this door different is that Chang didn't use any sort of latch, or key to open the door.
Rather, he put a leather skinned hand with long slender fingers, ending in sharp looking pointed nails, flat in the middle of the door itself.
The door itself seemed to react, glowing with a faint light that Shibu could already recognize. A magical seal, probably put in place by Master Chang himself to limit access to whatever was beyond the door.
Moments later, the glowing door seemed to fold back on itself, revealing a tall but narrow opening.
Master Chang led the way himself, as the doorway seem to fit his shape, as if the opening in the ancient wall had been crafted specifically for him.
There was enough room for the others to take one step beyond the frame of the door, and look out and down into what at first glance seem to be a sheer and dangerous drop into nothing at all.
But across his nose, Shibu could both feel and smell the presence and movement of slightly musty cool air.
Master Chang took another step forward, and other magic seemed to take over the moment, as small iron sconces set into the stone walls above flickered to life with bright yellow and orange flames. Their dancing light cast enough light on the black stone below to reveal a single step cut into the rock of the dark floor.
Chang continued downward at a steep slant, waiting for each step to be illuminated before walking on. All the while the Sage carefully shepherded the group along with him, while Shibu stood steadfastly at his Master's side.
The black steps descended, first tens and then hundreds of feet, so that Shibu could feel the air across the tip of his nose become gradually cooler. The light sconces were now providing a measure of heat as well as light as the group was seemingly pulled deeper and deeper under the ground.
Shibu had started to count the steps, the way Cici had taught him, as a way to avoid becoming lost in any strange place. But he gave up his count after five hundred, knowing that Cici was still counting, and because Shibu sensed another change in the atmosphere around the group.
"Walking down these timeless steps have taken us back more than one thousand years in the history of Bonta, and in the entire World of the Twelve." Master Chang explained to Shibu as the group arrived at the bottom of what seemed to be the nearly endless black staircase.
"With each step, we have also gone back in time a little bit." Master Chang continued. "Many generations of people have lived here and built here, far into the past, even before the time of Ogrest's chaos." Chang told the group, as they huddled together as much for warmth as for security in the new and strange place in which they found themselves.
"Shibu?" Master Chang asked.
"Yes Master Chang?" Shibu replied, his voice still filled with resolution, despite the fact that his bronze skin was covered with goosebumps.
"You feel it too, don't you little brother?" Chang asked while one of Shibu's hands rested almost tenderly on one of Chang's large fingertips.
"I feel strange." Shibu confessed quietly. "Something ahead of us is.. Pulling at me." The boy with the black hair continued.
"We have arrived, little brother." Master Chang answered him slowly. "You feel the touch of the magic that belongs to your people."
Master Chang paused, long enough to indicate another set of great wooden doors just ahead of the group. These contrasted the other doors which the group had seen. Each of these wooden doors were constructed of ancient heavy timber, and equally heavy appointments of black iron.
The most unusual thing about this set of massive doors was that there was no trace or scent of rust or rot coming from what was obviously ancient construction far older than anything even Shibu could imagine.
Shibu, Felice, and Cici all stood in line at Master Chang's side, as the Sage extended one index finger, and tapped the very center of the set of doors which were twice s big as the main doors of the throne room far above.
A moment later, as silently and smoothly as if they'd been opened only yesterday, the two cavernous doors parted to admit the party.
There was no draft of cold, or foreboding in the air as the group stepped over the threshold, and into what seemed to be another world!
It was revealed to them this time not by open flame and iron sconces, but by a smooth flow of blue light.
"I don't know why, but we're safe here." Shibu told the group speaking in an almost absent-minded tone, as his eyes which were blue as the light around them, seemed to dart everywhere he could see within the vast chamber.
"From what I understand, little brother." Master Chang began.
"This great cavern vault was built by Bonta's people, more than 1000 years ago." Master Chang revealed, as the Sage felt the young boy at his side slowly becoming more and more excited by his surroundings.
"The writing in their books says that they built this place to preserve, and protect something, or perhaps, from what I've been able to find, a set of something."
As Master Chang spoke, Shibu was listening, but his eyes flickered over the seemingly ageless walls of the cavern. They were made of a sky-blue stone, and engraved with markings that seem to rivet Shibu's attention from the first moment he saw them.
"Are these artworks, Master?" Shibu asked quietly, almost out of breath, but having never exerted himself.
"Each decorated stone, or series of stones, is called a fresco, Shibu."
"Mom! Cici! Come and look! The people in these pictures all have hats like mine!" Shibu said, a quiet excitement barely held down by his near whisper.
"So they do, Dear!" Felice said. "And looking at these, reminds me a lot of someone I knew when he was younger." Felice said with a smile as she snuggled Shibu warmly, and joined him in looking at the artwork, which decorated both sides of the vault-like cavern.
After several seconds, Shibu looked up from the artwork, with tears running down his cheeks. Only Felice's steady touch on Shibu's broad shoulders kept him from crying right out loud in front of his friends.
"Master Chang, these are my people." Shibu said quietly.
"This is what was missing from me, way down deep." Shibu explained slowly. "Did they have a name, Master? What did they call themselves when they talked to each other about themselves?"
"The word your Heart needs to hear, and you need to understand, Little Brother, is "Eliotrope." Master Chang answered at last.
Just hearing the word set something he could not explain ringing, deep inside him. The sensation was like the one Shibu felt when he first heard the great bells in Bonta. But this name vibrated him too, in exactly the same way.
"Eliotrope." Shibu repeated clearly, not only claiming the strange word, but allowing it to ring thru him, like one of Bonta's great bells.
"Eliotrope!" Shibu repeated. "Eliotrope!" He said again, this time in that gentle, loving voice that Shibu used when he cared about anything or anyone, which was most all the time.
"Maxim called me that, too." Shibu reflected. "But His was a voice of greed and deception." Shibu continued. "From now on, no one shall ever abuse the name of my people within my hearing." Shibu spoke in quiet solemn tones, creating a vow from his spoken words.
"Your people were gentle, peaceful and wise, Little Brother. Yet, when they worked together they could wield great power to do good among themselves." Master Chang told Shibu quietly. "The Eliotropes never made war,and always kept peace whenever they could." The elder Sage explained.
"That's my Darling Shibu!" Felice whispered proudly. The best Sea Dragon, and the best Eliotrope ever."
"My people, The Eliotropes." Shibu didn't so much as speak the name of his people this time as he did quietly proclaim it, in a steady, respectful voice that seemed to fill the vast cavern around the group.
"Now I have a people. But I'm still missing a piece of my own name." Shibu thought aloud in a quiet whisper.
"Master Chang?" He asked quietly.
"Yes, Little Brother?"
"Can you read the language of the dragons?"
"I have learned some, Yes. Eliotropes and Dragons are bound together, Shibu. Like the stars and the night sky." Master Chang answered.
Shibu nodded. Then he took his right index finger and rubbed it in a small circle in his left palm. The Blue energy stayed on his finger as Shibu "wrote" on the air between he and Master Chang.
As Felice and Cici saw the symbol traced in the blue energy, both of them gasped!
"There were three symbols on part of a gold medallion that was with me when I was rescued." Shibu explained. "The first two were Shi-Bu in the ancient language of the dragons. But we had never seen this one before." Shibu explained calmly as Master Chang looked on.
But as he went on, Shibu could already see a light dancing in the old Sage's eyes.
"That isn't a name, Little Brother." Master Chang replied.
Shibu's face fell, along with his hopes. "It is a Title, Little Brother." Master Chang revealed. Shibu's smile, and his hopes rose again quickly.
"It means "Guardian." in the tongue of the Dragons from the World of the Twelve. "It is pronounced after the name of the holder. Learn your most important word of Draconic, Shibu. Your birthright is the title pronounced "Nen."
"Shibunen." The dark haired boy pronounced slowly. "I remember reading a book of Astronomy back home." Shibu reflected for a moment. "Isn't there a meteor shower with that name?"
Chang smiled. "Yes, it happens once every 250 years, together with a comet that has three tails, in the sign of the Sea Dragon." Chang related.
"We saw both of those the night Shibu arrived." Felice recalled. "There was also a tremendous storm which almost leveled our village." Felice recalled. "And most of everything else between Amakina and Bonta." Cici added.
"Little brother here came on the most powerful lightning storm anyone could remember. Even the Elders had seen nothing like it before." Cici recounted.
"A lightning bolt, you say?" Chang asked, with his bearded chin resting on the tip of his thumb as he listened.
"Yes, it carved a crater so deep, after we took Shibu here out of it, we had to plant an oak tree to fill in the spot." Felice recalled.
"Lightning is a sign of the most potent of ancient magic." Chang told the trio. "It is supposed to be the result of all types of natural magic coming together as one."
"Sounds like a Guardian to me." Cici reflected. "And it certainly sounds like Shibu here." Cici hugged Shibu close as she replied.
"But that leaves us another question, doesn't it?' Felice wondered aloud. "If our Shibunen was put here to guard something, what could it be?"
"I can't say." Cici answered. "But I know my Little Brother. Whatever or whoever it might be is absolutely safe when Shibu is around."
"Maybe it's this place." Shubunen spoke up quietly. "There must be every kind of magic down here." The Eliotrope reflected. "Maybe it needs protection from people like Maxim."
"That's a fine idea, Little Brother.' Master Chang answered in turn. "Bonta still faces many problems from people who want to take everything the City has." Master Chang explained.
"They won't get it." Shibu said quietly. "Or this place, or anything down here."
"Can you imagine what Maxim would have done with just a small amount of this power?" Felice shuddered as she spoke. Just thinking about what might have been gave the Enripsa goose flesh.
"This is our Place. The world of the Eliotropes." Shibu said with quiet dedication. "No one will use us to harm anyone else. I promise, with Cra's help, and Enripsa's blessing."
As Shibu spoke his heart, he noticed that both of his palms now glowed with a layer of the same blue energy that seemed to live in the vast space around him.
Shibunen dropped to one knee, and placed his palms flat on the ancient blue stone floor at his feet.
"For the Elitrope people, This I promise," Shibu said out loud, even though he wasn't quite sure where the words came from.
Cici knelt also, stripping the glove from her bow arm as she bent lower. "And by Cra, I swear no one shall profane this place or harm Shibunen while I can draw my bow."
As she spoke Cici placed her palm next to Shibu's so their fingers could intertwine. Cici's palm, and her bow arm was instantly washed in the same Blue energy she had always seen in her Little Brother's shimmering, happy eyes.
Then Felice fluttered over between Shibu and Cici, placing a hand on the shoulder of each as she spoke in her turn.
'And by the mercy of Enripsa, I promise to look after your safety, health and welfare, always. As you are my family, I grant you all Enripsa's blessing."
All of a sudden a forth figure joined the circle, kneeling before the other three.
Master Chang spoke out in a quiet but powerful tone, in a language none of the trio had ever heard before. But Shibu felt something touch his deepest heart, as well as his ears, and suddenly, he could see, hear and understand the Draconic spell being recited in his mind. The new language was simply there, as if Shibu had known and understood it every day of his life!
After the Draconic vow was done, Master Chang also put his larger and more formidable hand down gently over the other three in the same place on the mystical blue stone floor.
Suddenly, Shibu felt more energy than before flowing around, and thru him. His ears were now sensitive enough to hear great blocks as they moved slowly, in corners of the vast cavern to distant to see in the blue light.
It was like turning a key.
Before anyone could react, a new shade of blue light seemed to shimmer from between the individually drawn blue stones that made up the scenes of the art on the walls. The same light seemed to push outward, along the individual spaces between the ancient blue stones that made up the walls of the great cavern itself, until the entire cavern was lit a soft blue, like a spring sky on a sunny morning!
Even Master Chang showed alternative expressions of surprise and delight, and these expressions became outright amazement as the art drawn onto the plates of blue stone took on a life of its own, and the drawings began to move!
One set of drawings along the wall flowed and flickered, creating a motion that never stopped so the drawings became a continuous flow of motion!
Suddenly, Shibu's people were all around him, and filled with his own energy.
Shibu could see them doing everything. They were Playing, building, and most intriguing, looking up at a sky that flickered with its own stars, glowing with the same energy that animated the other drawings!
Shibu walked into what he thought was the center of the cavern room, watching the drawings come to life on the inside of the dome of the cavern that was higher up than he could see.
"Shibu, My Little brother." came a familiar voice.
"Yes, Cici?"
"Take off your hat, little brother." Cici said quietly.
"My hat?" Shibu repeated, unsure of the moment.
"In here, you don't need to keep yourself secret any longer, Little Brother. You are among your people, and we love you all." Cici said quietly.
"Go on, Eliotrope Shibu." Master Chang encouraged gently. "You are at home, among your loved ones. They will never betray you."
"You can be what you really are now, My dearest boy." Felice said lovingly. "Hat or no hat, you are who you are, and we love you." The Enripsa healer said.
"Go on, Little brother." Master Chang encouraged. "What happens in this place stays forever in its stories and history." Show your loved ones your deepest magic."
Shibu nodded quietly. "I love you all, and I'm not afraid anymore." Shibu replied, as his gentle touch swept his hood back, off of his thick, black hair, and let his hat fall to the animated blue stones at his feet.
At the top of Shibu's head was a set of blue, almost antler-like horns! They were long, and tall, with many points on them. But they didn't wrap around his head like deer anthers. Instead, the blue energy projections gave Shibu a sort of vertical crown, whose crackling blue branches made Shibu one forth again as tall as he was. But the visual impression of Shibu's secret multiplied, as the soft blue light coming from the top of his head, also showed off a pair of round projections within the space between his two blue horns.
A second set of horns were growing solidly from the top of Shibu's skull, between his pair of blue horns!
All this could be seen most clearly because Shibu was hovering in the air now, a step or two closer to the blue light shimmering down from the domed ceiling. The black-haired, blue-horned boy needed no more black stone steps leading upward, because Shibu was hovering in mid–air almost twice his own height off of the blue stone floor!
"Shibu, you're — Awesome, Little Brother!" Cici found the words at last.
"Thanks, Big Sister." Shibu answered.
"My little boy has grown up in wonderful ways, But you're still our sweet, Dark-haired boy." Felice told Shibu, as she fluttered up next to him and took Shibu's hands in her own.
"Sorry I didn't show you before now, but how could I explain this?" Shibu said apologetically.
"This is what you are, Little Brother, and I love you too! Cici spoke up firmly. "So there!" Cici added for good measure.
That made Shibu giggle, and Shibu moved just a bit, to reach out and down.
Cici was amazed as Shibu picked her up along with her new bow and quiver as if she weighed almost nothing at all, until all three of Shibu's family were in mid-air with him.
"I'm still not sure what all this means, Mom." Shibu said. "But I do know that regular folks aren't ready to see me this way yet."
"Yeah." Said Cici in reply. "Most people can't take so much magic all at once. But you have it, Shibu. And until you're ready, it's going to be a family secret, Cra's promise."
"Mine, too, Sweetheart." Felice told Shibu tenderly. "My guess would be that you have more skills than you know about, especially down here." Felice said, thinking things over a bit.
"Your mother is as wise as a dragon, Shibu." Master Chang spoke up as the trio floated back down to the floor.
Shibu picked up his hooded hat and slid it back on. All traces of Shibu's unusual anatomy disappeared, and to any set of normal eyes, Shibu was a tall, lanky, broad shouldered, boy who could kick harder than anyone and run faster than the forest deer.
"Master Chang, will you help me, please?" Shibu asked, dropping to one knee in front of the venerable Master.
"As much as I can, little brother." Master Chang replied. "This is your home as much as the city above." Master Chang added. "And to mark the return of our Guardian, permit me to share with you now, one of the wonders that I have found stored in these cavern rooms."
So Saying Master Chang ushered Shibu and his family into another arced passageway only a few steps distant from the brightly illuminated cavern where they were gathered together.
"You have learned, Little Brother that each calling bears unique skills." Master Chang explained as the group walked farther into the seemingly endless blue-lined vastness of the Catacombs. "And that each calling has it's own rights of passage. So it is with the Calling of Guardian, young Eliotrope."
"Like the bond of the Bow, and the heart of a Ranger." Cici explained gently.
"And the bond between healer and the Nature that brings forth our Potions, My Darling Boy." Felice continued.
"Guardians also have their hallmarks,Shibu." Master Chang explained as the Elder Sage stopped before what seemed to be a space where the passageway ended before the group in what seemed to be a blank blue stone wall.
"This is the Hall of the Guardians, Shibu. You alone hold the key. Show your people and their legacy that you have the wisdom and the heart to open what they have left for you alone." Master Chang told Shibu.
For just a moment, Shibu didn't know what to do. But then, he put the flat of his palm down on what seemed to be the wall which ended the unfinished passage.
To everyone's surprise, including Shibu, a portal appeared in what looked to be a solid wall of blue stones!
The wall of the passageway glowed a deeper blue than Shibu could imagine, and the wall before the group vanished from sight and existence under Shibu's energetic touch! And in place of the wall, there was a doorway, arched as in the style of all the others Shibu had seen, which led into a smaller room that glowed with an inviting and warm blue light!
'Well done, Shibunen!" Master Chang encouraged. "Now, enter in to your own space within this Cavern, and claim the hallmark of your true calling."
Shibu nodded his understanding, and as his family waited, Shibu stepped thru the archway, passing alone into the room beyond.
When Shibu vanished from the sight of the group, Cici felt her hart skip a beat. But it was only another heartbeat of time before her worry or Shibu was replaced by a warm draft of gentle energy that Cici knew came from Shibu himself!
"Come in everyone. Come in and see this wonderful place!" Shibu called out to his family.
The group stepped thru the blue seal, and found themselves in what might pass for an armory room copied from the white Castle far far above.
In the center of the room, there stood a display case, gilded with gold corners, and made of a thick glass that seemed to sparkle as if diamonds had been used to form the glass, rather than mere sand.
Inside the case, clearly visible displayed on a form made of dark wood, carved into the form of a small figure, there was a crisp, clean set of what seemed at first glance to be red and silver accented silks. The display figure showed off a loose hood, that came up around and over another hat, the mere sight of which stole Shibu's next breath away.
The next piece in the sat was a matching jacket, whose red color and silver accents melded exactly with those that could be seen and traced on and thru the hood. The harmony of the reflected and flowing energy seemed to meld the hood and the jacket into one piece, charged with a common energy that made both shimmer softly under Shibu's gleaming eyes as he beheld them.
The jacket was tapered slightly, as if some mystical tailor has foreseen Shibu's own shape, cinched by a broad belt of the same material and silver filaments which adjusted by tension kept by folding the length of the adjustable belt back upon itself thru a pair of identical silver rings. The lower half of the unique set was a somewhat looser red and silver wrap which fell from the waist down to the ankles, where a pair of broad soft sandal-like shoes secured with black elastic cords finished the complete set.
Shibu was so enraptured at the sight of the silks that Cici had to touch Shibu gently on the shoulder to break what seemed like a spell cast between the silks and the Eliotrope for whom the set seemed to had been nearly custom made!
"Shibu, don't ask me how, but these were made for you, just as much as any bow." Cici told her little Brother in a whisper filled with quiet awe. "It's as if your people saw you coming, Little Brother."
Shibu was silent as he put out a single finger, and laid it as softly as he could on the edge of the display case.
Without a sound, or any trace of mechanism, the clear case lifted, up and out of the way of the display figure and the silks it supported.
"Go on, Dear." Felice encouraged. "I think Cici is right. These are yours, in the same way this place is yours."
"I want to see my brother, the Guardian, wearing his colors." Cici whispered quietly to Shibu. "When you claim these, this place, and all it holds will be truly yours, and your People's place, once again, Shibu. I can feel it." Cici told Shibu speaking softly and gently from her heart.
Shibu didn't reply, but the glow of determination in his blue eyes could have doubled the intensity of the light within the blue stone room.
Shibu reached over to the display figure, and with a reverent touch filled with awe and a warmth he had never known before, Shibu claimed each of the pieces in the set, folding them carefully across his palms and over his forearms before he walked back up the passageway a short distance to change his clothes.
Left alone with Felice and Master Chang in the armory room, Cici found herself looking for traces of weapons of any kind. She did see a small rack against one of the walls, but it was empty, altho she could recognize the cut out spaces in the rack as matching those for a lance of some sort, altho no blade of any sort could be seen. Across the room the Cra also looked fr a long while at a circular frame meant to display a buckler type shield. But this wall mounting, like the weapons rack across the room, showed no signs of use.
Cici's trained ears worked, even in this place filled with unique life energy. She was the first to hear Shibu's nearly silent footsteps, as Shibu seemed to slide, rather than walk back into the room where his family waited.
"Hay Everyone!" Shibu interjected optimistically. "How do I look?"
As Shibu's Master, and a moment later, Shibu's family turned to look at Shibu's new attire, a deep moment of silence descended on the ancient room.
"It may be that no Eliotrope has been in this room in hundreds of years." Master Chang told Shibu in a calm and reverent tone. "Now your people have truly returned, at long last, Shibunen." Master Chang took two full steps back from his newest student. The elder Sage made Shibu blush as red as the silks he wore by going down on one knee before Shibu. "It shall be my Honor to light your path ahead in as much as I may do, Oh Guardian of the Blue Light.'
Shibu did what came naturally. He bowed in return to the Great Sage who had started his journey toward the answers he needed so much.
"Thank you, My Great Sage, and venerable Master." Shibu replied, before stepping forward and helping Master Chang to rise again. "You have helped me to walk a path of wisdom and discovery," Shibu told his Master respectfully. "May we walk that path together for the good of everyone in this world we share."
Master Chang took another step back, to allow Felice and Cici to pounce happily upon Shibu, breaking the weight of the moment with the gentle love that was the true strength of all three of them.
"My Darling Boy. My sweet Eliotrope!" Felice told her boy, as tears flowed freely down her cherubic face. "I'm so proud of you, my handsome Sea Dragon, and I love you more than all the worlds in the night sky, my Dark-haired Hero." Felice told Shibu as she kissed him gently on cheeks and forehead before rubbing noses with her son as she had always done and would always do in all his days to come.
"I Love you too, Mom, and no matter what else I may be, I'll always be your son, first and best of all." Shibu replied, drizzling his Mother's cheeks with gentle kisses that needed no more words between them.
Shibu felt another familiar figure kneel into the group, and as Cici's arms wrapped up Shibu in a strength that seemed to flow like the blue energy around him, Shibu felt a peace and a power flow into him that added many fold to his own wakfu.
"Cra blessed me from the first moment I saw you, My sweet Shibu." Cici told her brother. "Everything of value in my life has come thru you, and your wonderful heart. My Brother is the Guardian of his people, the Eliotropes, a Sea Dragon, and with Cra's blessing, a Ranger like no other." Cici told Shibu. "I have a family like no other in all history, thanks to your light, and your love, my Darling Little Brother. I will be yours forever and always, and our only limits will be the stars where the Sea Dragon dwells. I love you so much, Shibunen."
"Thank you all so much. I love all of you as much as you love me." Shibu told his family and his Teacher. I feel so lucky to have so many who care about me so much. But for all that I have, where before I knew so little, I still have a problem. One that only you all will be able to help me solve."
"And what problem would that be, Sweetheart?" Felice asked her son.
"There is so much to do, and even more I have to learn. And to be honest with those who I know love me most of all, I confess that I am not sure at all where we ought to begin together," Shibu confessed quietly without putting on airs. In a moment, Shibu was, in spite of all he now knew that he might do, quite simply the uncomplicated, openhearted boy with the vivid blue eyes.
"Master Chang?" Shibu asked, in his normal, endlessly curios tone."Please tell me where is the best place to begin?"
"Here, you are truly a Guardian, Shibunen. It is you who must direct us. What do you wish to do, Noble Guardian of the Eliotropes?"
The dark-haired boy thought about things for a moment. But just as he started to speak, Shibu's tummy let out a growl worthy of an ageless black dragon! The sound spoke much louder than he ever could!
Shibu gently put both hands across his tummy, and blushed as pink as a rose.
"Maybe we ought to eat before getting started down here." Shibu said quietly, as the drawings still dancing around the cavern seemed to laugh with him.
Master Chang smiled. It was an odd expression for a Sage, and one Shibu had not seen often since they met.
"Now that is the beginning of true wisdom, My young Shibu."
The elderly Sage observed as he led the group back toward the stairs.
A long walk upward would give Shibu and friends a hearty appetite for both lunch and the adventures that all of them knew lay ahead for Shibu, the Eliotrope.
