Card Tales - 10. Tale 10

Just through the illusionary great doors there was a vestibule in which sat a box engraved with strange runes. Knowing he was hidden by the illusion, and pretty certain that there were eyes watching him to see what he would do once he passed the first test of knowledge, Cardanniel stepped up to the box. While strange, they were not unknown once he worked out their pattern. They had only been changed like the ebb and flow of the sea, but that would make sense as this was supposed to be the temple of a sea god. He found the rune that represented his goddess and traced it with his finger, and then he found the rune that represented the sea and traced it. He was not sure what would happen so he was not too surprised when the lid of the box opened to reveal a letter and a vial with no visible opening.

Cardanniel shrugged and picked up the letter, which happened to contain directions for a champion of the goddess to come to the aid of a certain young lady who was trapped in a tower. With a sigh, Cardanniel followed the first direction on the page -- he broke the glass vial against the wall. From the vial a cloud of smoke rose and the shape of a person began to form from the misty substance. At first, it seemed to be a grayish color, but as it seemed to solidify, its hold on its color became more tenuous. There were red streaks and blue splotches in the misty gray and the colors seemed to come and go, as they would choose, not as it willed them to.

"So, you are the great hero promised to my poor mistress?" it asked sarcastically.

"I don't know about a great hero, and I know nothing about your mistress. All I know is I was asked to enter this building and I did, and I found this commission. I asked nothing for it, nothing for you, and if you do not mind I will go through those doors now and carry on with my own mission, leaving you to yours now that you are free to do it in peace."

The creature flushed fuchsia, then neon yellow, before settling on lime and scarlet stripes. "I can not do it with out the aid of… flesh."

"My flesh is not my own," Cardanniel told it.

"You belong to the dark mistress, do you not?"

"She is my lover," Cardanniel replied, "but she is not the only one to whom I belong."

"There is another who can lay claim on your soul?"

"There is."

"How does the dark mistress allow this?" the creature changed colors rapidly again making Cardanniel nauseous.

"It is not my place to question the will of my lover, nor is it your place to question the will of a goddess. Why do you need my flesh?"

"I should not say."

"Either you say or you will never get me to do it," Cardanniel told it.

"To get to where she is being held, your flesh must do some things you may not like."

"Such as?"

"Face a dragon," it replied.

"And what makes you think I have not faced a dragon before and lived to tell about it?"

It blinked slowly and filtered through colors, which Cardanniel now took for emotions. He had truly confused the creature. "You have faced a dragon?"

"Yes."

"And yet you live?"

"Yes."

"Blessed Mercy! The Dark Mistress has sent a true Champion to us after all!" The creature came forward to Cardanniel and peered into his eyes. "She marks you deeply, yet, as you say, there is another. Interesting, most interesting, but we cannot ponder the wiles of a goddess, at least not while my mistress is yet trapped. You will give her aid will you not?"

"If she can be found, and if I am able; it is my duty to give her aid," Cardanniel confessed.

"Oh I believe you to be able, and I know she can be found," the creature smirked. "What do the directions say?"

Cardanniel looked at the paper and read the next instruction, screwed up his face then read it aloud to the creature. "'Flesh and Guide together, through the open gate adventure doth await.' I guess we have to join together at least long enough to trigger what ever gate it is we have to go through. Come on, let's get this unpleasantness over with."

"I'll try to be gentle," the creature promised as it slid up next to him and ran its rapid color changing hands over his shirtsleeves. It felt like solid flesh, it looked like solid flesh, then it was sinking into his body and Cardanniel knew it was not solid flesh. He breathed in some of the non-corporeal being and noticed its scent was sweet and salty with a bit of a metallic aftertaste, just like blood would have. Nearly as soon as their forms melded the wall where Cardanniel smashed the vial began to waiver and the mural on it took on a life of its own.

Cardanniel had previously not paid much attention to the mural as it had not seemed important, but now it seemed as if it was going to be very important to his survival. There was a vast garden with several statues and not to far in the distance, a short tower. He took a deep breath, felt the being inside his skin shudder, and stepped into the image.

At first, everything was as gray as the stone the mural had been carved out of, but then a single red rose caught his attention and he headed for it. He reached out his hand to touch it when the creature whispered in his mind 'Don't touch it, for this is a poison garden.'

"I don't understand," Cardanniel said as he pulled back his hand and looked around at the various plants that were now coming into full color, and the various statuary of men and woman in various states of dress and undress as well as states of bliss and agony. Cardanniel stood dazed a moment as it all sunk in, then he grit his teeth. "Out, Guide, and let's get this over with."

Nothing happened, Cardanniel only felt a sense of the negative, and he did not want this parasitic being inside him any longer. "Get out of me, I said," Cardanniel ground out and concentrated on his own form with out the being within him. Splotches of color began to ooze out of his pores soaking his shirt in a fine mist as Cardanniel forced the creature from his body by sheer force of will.

As it slowly reformed, hovering just above the ground just out of Cardanniel's reach the creature huddled as if it had been struck. "You should not have been able to do that," it looked at him with awe.

"When I say out, I mean out," Cardanniel told him bluntly, now, tell me where we go from here.

"To the tower, of course, but my mistress will be protected there. You will not be able to get to her with out my assistance."

"Of course, you are the Guide, I am the Flesh." Cardanniel grinned wickedly at the creature and reached out to pluck the red rose from the garden, being careful not to prick himself on the thorns. "A gift for the lady," he told the creature, "now lead on, my Guide."

They wound their way toward the tower and by midday arrived to a guardhouse near it. A young elf came out with a hat pulled down over his head covering a good portion of his face, ears, and all of the back of his head. Cardanniel looked at him oddly then shrugged it off as he had seen stranger things. He had worn his own hair pulled straight back after his bath, clubbed at the nape, with his ears clearly visible, not something he often did, although he was not ashamed of what he was, he knew how the world perceived his kind.

"How can you mock his highness?" the guardsman asked in an injured tone.

"Mock his highness? How do I mock his highness?" Cardanniel asked.

"Do you not know the proper protocol? No one enters here with ears like that -- exposed," he shuttered. "It's improper."

"What's so improper about my ears?" Cardanniel reached up and touched one, they felt like they always had. "They are perfectly good elfin ears."

"That's the problem, you have perfectly good elfin ears. His highness does not," the guard admitted. "Here, you must cover them up." He handed Cardanniel a cap which was three sizes too big to guarantee his ears would be covered, and so would be half his face. "Now if you hurry, you can still join the game. From what I understand it should be an interesting one."

"Game?"

"Yes, his Highness is being entertained this afternoon by several young people like yourself, you were invited were you not?"

"Of course, of course, I just was not aware it was for games," Cardanniel grinned and noticed that his Guide had already passed the guard and was waiting for him on the other side.

"Good, most people come for the princess in the tower, and that gets quite boring, especially since she no longer resides in the tower. She and the prince hit it off years ago; got married and everything, with children of their own now. Yet the rescue teams keep coming, I just do not understand it. Luckily most of them end up in the gardens, poor chaps, they just can't keep from tasting the freshest fruits even if they are not theirs for the picking." He looked at the rose Cardanniel bore, "I see you could not resist either, why did you not suffer the same fate?"

"I had its permission to pluck it from its vine," Cardanniel told him with a smile. "It is a beauty do you not think?"

"Yes it is," the guardsman nodded and ushered Cardanniel through the gate. "You will find his highness along the path to the right. Do not tread along the left-handed path."

"Of course not," Cardanniel said as he passed the Guide and headed for the fork in the path. It only took him a moment to determine which path he would take, as he turned left.

"He said to take the right-handed path."

"Yes, he did."

"So why are you taking the left-handed path?"

"The road less traveled is often the most interesting, don't you think?"

The creature looked at him oddly, and then nodded as they walked up the path, which curved slightly toward the left as they walked taking them away from whatever activity that, was on the right-hand path. After about a half hour walk they came upon a group of creatures sitting in a loose circle. One was laughing at another who looked truly embarrassed. The largest of them all, a red dragon, looked at them and grinned a toothy grin. "So, we do have visitors today as Glinda predicted. What do you think of that Lugh?"

A small blue fairy looked up at the visitors and shrugged his shoulders, "Don't mean they'll want to play. She never said they'd want to play."

"Oh I think they will play. You will play will you not?" the dragon asked.

"What are you playing?"

"Just a game of questions and challenges. It's your choice, when it's your turn you have the choice of answering a question with the truth or taking the challenge which can be anything that is physically possible to your species and done in a reasonable amount of time. There really aren't any winners or losers, although we sometimes bet on if someone will take the question or the challenge."

"And if I choose a challenge and I fail at it?"

"Then you must answer the question."

Cardanniel pondered this for a moment then walked over to the diverse group of friends. "This sounds like an interesting way to spend an evening."

The creature had no choice but to follow his lead.