A Fantasy of Distraction (standard:science fiction, 0 words)
Author: Aruzio Calkar	Added: Jun 06 2001	Views/Reads: 3451/2320	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
One man's fantasy can be another's reality

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

shark through water. 

"It's enough I have to pay to have my ship cleaned after your grubby
hands have polluted all the crystals I take back with your disease." He 
then motioned several of his deckhands over to start loading as if his 
last remarks were the final piece of the agreement. 

"You can send them back because I'm not selling for any less," I said
without breaking my stare. 

With a crack, the back side of his hand and all its rings struck across
my jaw. "Don't talk to me like I am one of your nucklehead women." 

My head bobbled back in forth like a rag doll. I was caught totally off
guard. I couldn't think, I didn't know what to do. I grasped 
frantically to bring myself back into reality. The merchant still stood 
in front of me but it was a blur. Everything was a big red blur. At 
that moment the power appeared close, within my reach. I could feel it, 
running like a thread across my mind, it pulsed with a life of it's 
own. It seemed alive and calling to me to seek shelter in it. For the 
first time it moved at my will. I became one with the thread as it 
wrapped itself all around me. My rage was replaced with cool calm for 
the moment as I looked at the merchant in front of me. He wore a smirk 
that told how pleased he was that he found a reason to slap me. 

What I willed took action. My wants found form. The air as if it had
been a wall of bricks pounded the merchant head-on and he fail back to 
the ground in a heap. He looked to the sky as if the gods had struck 
him down and then he looked back to me. I could tell he was confused at 
first then fear enveloped across his face. He got to his feet and 
turned towards his ship. He started to run as if a pack of wolves were 
nipping at his heels. 

The thread tugged at my mind. I was drunk from the pleasure and sick
from the rancid taste of it. I tried to push it away although I wanted 
to bathe in it. The thread fell back from my reach and drifted back as 
a vague rememberance. It had been seconds since I had let it go but it 
seemed like years for every second. For some time I stared into nothing 
completely unaware of my surroundings. I gathered my senses and decided 
to pack my belongings. But as I turned I was met with a sword pommel. I 
was suddenly dreaming of frolicking in a meadow of flowers on a 
beautiful day. A nice dream considering what had proceeded my sleep. 

I awoke to find myself chained to a deck of a ship. I knew immediately I
was one of those flying ships. All my senses were bombarded by that of 
blood. As I looked at myself and the deck where I was chained I 
realized it was all from me. It seemed that some time had passed and 
night had fallen while I was unconscious. It was cold, so cold. My 
entire body shivered and convulsed. Long had I imagined what it would 
be like to ride aboard one of these but never like this. 

There was no one around that I could see at the moment. I was chained
face down and could only move my head to look from one side or the 
other. The ship seemed void except for the wind itself that howled 
against the long balloon the ship was strapped to. A light shined from 
behind me but I couldn't turn myself to see where it was coming from. 
What I could see to my side was what looked like wooden boxes full of 
cargo. Most ships left dock much more full than this one, I couldn't 
help but think if that was good or bad news for myself. 

From behind I heard a door open and footsteps coming closer. I tried to
contort to see what it was before it was upon me. 

"Why don't you stop bleeding all over my ship." I knew who it was after
the first word. 

"What are you PHFWWW." He planted the toe of his boot across my mouth. A
few teeth chattered across the deck. Blood now poured like a fountain 
from my mouth. I turned my face away hoping the next blow would be one 
that knocked me out or killed me. 

The merchat bent down to get close enough to whisper in my ear. 

"I would of already killed you but I want it to be light out so I can
see you squirm." 

The merchant strolled back behind the door while I struggled to keep
from chocking to death on my blood. The night was long and I drifted in 
out of sleep for minutes at a time. But I did dream, somewhat....... 

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It was dark and I was in a forest of dense towering trees. I'd never
seen anything like it which was unusual I thought for a dream. Why 
would a dream be of some place I've never been. I could see something 
coming into my vision.A man seeming to float drifted towards me. The 
hair on his head seemed to flow in all directions as appearing to be 
immersed in a sea of water. His body was completely still as if frozen 
in time. I noticed as he got closer that he was smiling and his eyes 
were unusually wide and unblinking. 

"Dad?" Yes I could till now it was my father. It had been so long I had
forgotten what he looked like outside of the pictures I had of him. 

"Yes son, it is I," he said moving his mouth without disturbing the
smile. "I have little time but am here because now, more than ever, you 
need to know the truth." 

"You are Sordanshe and therefor part of the Excernere. It gives us our
life but it is more than that. This I know now. The river itself is 
alive and we are tied to it with a bond that is our life as it is the 
river's. The river is magic, but we are creatures of it and also magic. 
Once our people were strong with this magic but now it is rare. This is 
because the river is dying and our bond to it has weakend. It has been 
dying only a short time in the scale that the river knows. But to us it 
has been a thousand generations that it has declined. When it dies, so 
do we." 

His wide eyes shifted for a moment and his head rocked to the side
quickly and back. He looked back to me and continued at a faster pace. 

"But the river has given you a gift. This gift is the magic of old. You
may be the last with it, but in this gift is also hope. Our last hope. 
There is a way perhaps that the river can grow again and become strong. 
If the seed of life was returned to the headwaters it could use the 
seed's magic to recover. But that is all I can tell you because I do 
not know where it is or how you will retrieve it. The river will guide 
you. It can feel magic and the seed is of great magic." 

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I awoke startled but the chains that trapped me slammed me back to the
deck. I was still alive and atleast not bleeding from what I could 
tell. The ship was bustling with commotion now. The dim light that 
shown through what areas of the ship that were not blocked by the huge 
balloon announced that it was early morning. My chains started to 
loosen and several deckhands unlocked the chains around my arms and 
lifted me up. The pressure from being face down on the deck was gone 
and I could again take a deep breath of air. However the pressure was 
replaced with the fear of inevitable death as the merchant stepped in 
front of me with his sword drawn back ready to hack me to pieces. I 
couldn't move so I did the only thing that I could. I reached out to 
that thread again, maybe it would protect me like before. It came 
easier this time and I was soon swimming through the powerful flow of 
energy. 

This was odd I thought. The scene that was in front of me appeared to
become frozen in time. Maybe I had taken in too much of the power. My 
view of the frozen world around me flickered in and out almost like it 
was being forced out of existance. 

Suddenly the ship I stood on was gone and I was floating down what
seemed to be a tunnel. The tunnel looked to be almost alive like a vein 
pushing me along down it's stream. The way I moved my body felt as if 
it was underwater but it was as if the air was thick like water and ran 
like a current pushing me forward. Light lit the tunnel from bright 
circular disks that ran past me to each side. As I looked closer I 
could make out that some disks shined brighter than others. A little 
farther ahead I could see one that was the brightest yet. Maybe if I 
could grab a hold of it I could see what it was. I reached out to it as 
it came close, but instead of touching something solid my arms began to 
vaporize into nothing. I was being pulled into the light and I could 
not do anything about it. 

A jumble of sounds reverberated in my ears. The tone drifted from one
pitch to another then started to separate into clearer sounds. The 
sound of water splashing against stone was the only noise now as I 
looked around to find myself in some sort of foul murk. I could hear 
the noise of people in the distance above what must be some sort of 
tunnel I had landed into. A gate hung down from the roof of the tunnel 
ahead of me and a dim light cast across the murk from the opening. I 
made my way up the gate and onto the street above. 

I found myself in a peculiar city. People in strange clothing walked by
me staring at my near nakedness. A few of them tossed coins at my feet 
but all covered their nose as if passing something long dead. Carts 
moved up and down the street without horse or any means of propulsion. 
Unnatural noises permeated from the city streets that made me long for 
the quiet nights I had spent under the stars. I never imagined the 
crystal could create such magical machines as these. I could sense the 
river's magic here, it came from everything as if it was covered in 
it's magic residue. There was one place in paticular the magic was very 
strong. I could feel it even though I could barely make out its 
location that seemed to come from the edge of the city. I moved through 
the streets trying to find my way through this maze of structures. 

After a long walk, often having to follow arbitary streets in the wrong
direction, I came upon the magic's source. What a magnificent creation 
it was. The colossus stood tall as a mountain and looked out over a sea 
of water that fell over the horizon. The colossus held a huge scepter 
and atop it was the largest crystal I had ever seen a thousand fold. 
That I thought must be the seed of life. 

"I suppose you thought you could retrieve it if you climbed this
colussus right?" The doctor jotted a few more notes onto his clipboard. 


"I would have had it if only you people had let me be. The river will
not survive without it you understand?" 

"I understand you would of killed yourself if you had not been dragged
down." The doctor shifted in his chair sore from sitting for so long. 

"There is a force that lies just beneath the surface. Most only see the
result of it's existance but some are born to live by it, to caress it 
to their will." 

"Yea I think I've heard this one before. I'm going to have a cigarette
and some nice men will show you to your cell." The doctor motioned to 
the guard to let him out of the room. 

"So this is all he has been saying since he was taken down off the
Statue of Liberty last week?" 

"Yea pretty much I suppose he will be getting an extended stay at the
funny farm right doc?" The guard said with a chuckle. 

"I'll recommend that he gets sufficent medication and a nice padded room
to call home." 

THE END 


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