Living Tomb

On the fifth level down there were acres underground of babies being sustained within capsules inside artificial wombs, fed with transfused blood via conduits designed to go in and to go out. There was an odour in the air that was hard to define amongst the bright lights and collective whir of reparative inducers and electronic pumps. The mechanical noise was almost deafening.

“It’s the next generation” Romulus explained - he was speaking to a large man in a suit, perhaps a dignitary, who was clearly out of his depth and appearing extremely flushed and flustered.

This was literally a baby factory, with glass and steel and hundreds of little bodies captured within. There were no mobiles or fluffy animals - the entire floor was stark and sterile, and it was hard to imagine any child emerging from such a cold space as this.

“We’ll make to order a boy or girl, or an ambiguous if you like … intersex is popular these days” he said as casually as though he was speaking about new cars. Romulus pointed to a wall of photographs with numbers beneath them. He then continued: “we can share your DNA no questions asked, or use someone of your choosing …the prodigy will be yours within the definition of the law”.

Goober glanced over to Puck who heard this also. They remained still now standing in a supply closet with the door ajar. The shelving there was packed with saline packs and transport cribs.

Yes! thought Goober to himself - that is what this middle-aged man had come for - a child of his own.

“Ah, er, - how long?” he stuttered.

“Well assuming you keep up your end of the bargain I’d say seven months turnaround - seven to twelve. You can start choosing names and I am happy even to give you two for the price of one.”

The man in the suit appeared nervously excited hearing this - clearly he had achieved what he had come for. They watched him go to take something from his wallet.

Romulus raised his hand to stop him saying “That won’t be necessary. We have contracts with terms - you will need to go through our Neonatal Department to formalise our agreement. Just understand - if you ever tell anyone anyone about our plant downunder we will not hesitate to put you, your wife and your children into our very own tissue bank. We can recycle these days - eco friendly and all that”

He had said this threateningly and then finished with a casual laugh saying “but then you know that already Parker”. For one brief moment Romulus’s eyes turned crimson, and then green, and shot sparks from them.

The air suddenly got colder, and the man in the suit wet himself. It did not appear he was used to being threatened, and pee saturated his trouser leg all the way to his sock. Perhaps the environment underground had proved too much for his nerves.

“I hear you” he said belligerently, looking away from Romulus and towards the exit. He could not bear those eyes. He mumbled something else that Puck and Goober could not hear and the two departed leaving Puck, Goober and Needles in the laboratory alone.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Salt Line

There is a morning tide within the Earth
whereupon the land, will rise and fall.
This heave and pull is governed by the Sun,
an orbital cannula prospecting the light without.

“Salt of the Earth” said Goober absentmindedly as he repositioned the salt shaker now bulging in his back pocket (one the two shakers he had sequestered from the diner during lunch). “Quick, empty it here! Make a line, one that no madman can cross, no witch nor warlock, or they who are unruly may pass beyond.”

It was an attempt at humour to break up the mood of trepidation fast setting in.

Now that they they had made their way through the fallen steel doors to the ground floor lobby, they came to a hallway of lifts such as you might see in any contemporary building - except that instead of going up all floors went down.

“Not much good is found under the ground - least not deep down like this” whispered Goober.

Instinctively Needles, who had just joined them, briefly held Goober’s hand as they entered into the first lift that opened. He had far more experience with the forces beneath the ground, being familiar to all things mining as his kind are, and did not much like the surprises often found there.

“Which floor?” asked Goober.

“Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up”, answered Puck, who was already finding the atmosphere inside the lift as constricting. The lift descended and bumped at the bottom. Needles was idling from one foot to the other, and Puck put his hand upon his shoulder, gently motioning to be quiet. Invisibility was a power they all had, but it was only ever short lived within the physical world - they could maintain it for five minutes at a time, but anything more than that was almost impossible.

“Here goes” he said, jumping out ahead of them.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Rock Art

On a rock wall that shouldered where they stood were pictures painted with very small bright dots. Murals that were of the rich ochres and rust, chalk and mixed earths, with perfectly formed circles, methodically placed, a braille of creativity. One could make out a great goanna dragon contesting the kangaroo men with whorls upon whorls encircling them. 

Goober fixed his eyes on the picture wall just momentarily and the dots appeared to move and group before his eyes, forming and reforming images of other pictures entirely different. He was reminded of the Tibetan sands and similarly they too were comprised of the many places and ages, for which the substance itself was their secret … how they are of themselves a living testimony to a time, and a deep magic of memory. 

The Azlan had once again disappeared as quickly as he had arrived, however his presence was still apparent. It had been he that enabled the tribesmen to come forth … and yet they were not summoned or compelled by him, his authority had simply appealed to them. 

Until now the spirits of the ages had only the licence to be observers; yet by the Azlan’s asking came also the permission for them to intervene. The native souls were now gathered and ready. 

With one single breath the two thousand spirit tribesmen each opened their mouths and blew the doors open. The surrounding structure gave way also, and the front of the building came down. Puck and Goober were staring right inside at a lobby that had several lifts whose only button to press was for going down.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Mother of All

William Ricketts

Never wake the sleeping Mother
she could break you like a twig
she gave birth to the land upon this Earth
and protected her children within.

Her blackness then became the sky
her pearls entwined were moon and stars
her nakedness was corporeal
the mother Divine, portal for all.

I will beat you men with your own sticks
I will strangle the demons with their own tails
I will take the power right back from you
that was never yours to steal.

I will throttle your threats and disable your deals.
For I am the mother of all,
and you, the mother of none.
I decree, from this moment,
from the seas to the hills
all demons be gone, all evil be done.

There was now a gathering of two thousand standing upon the highest ridge - a single line of gracious men - spirits who became visible … guardian spirits of the rotunda plains, shielding the earth from the ominous forces beneath, making themselves known to the Elvish two. This gathering brought the gravity of the early world, and there was not a power in this realm that could stand against them. Their solidarity was solemn and of one mind - perhaps more angelic than once human.

Their own histories spanned centuries - each being a representative of their time and tribe. Guardians of the land, watchers of the world. And, with them, there came also the cosmic souls … the guardians of the guardians.

Small pygmy spirits of children swung from the silvery-green-leaf trees. They were not of any particular race, yet presented as being native Aboriginal for they had lived in the care of the Elders and had begun to appear as they had do, most naturally. It was apparent to Puck seeing them, these hundreds upon hundreds of small ghost children, that they had come from the underground laboratories as experiments that had failed - born and died in the warehouse that Puck and Goober were about to break into - and that these were their ghosts.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Sealed Doors

Richard Browne

“Now, let me see …we can’t think our way in, not this time - because we’ve been blocked from doing so, and this portal is being guarded. This fortress has been sanctified against the likes of you and I.” 

Desert bats fluttered past their heads in waves of a hundred. The landscape was imbued with colour, yet was depressingly repetitive. The dawn birds were calling to one another, and the waterhole in the distance was crowded with the animals that had congregated for their morning’s refresh. There were wallabies and bilbies, mudlarks, possums and rabbits a plenty. 

The mysteries of the natives of Australia were fluid … spiritual … they would shape-change to avoid being caught by the unworthy. The conservership was always with the Elders who fully knew the potent magic that literally linked the oldest period, before written history, to now. It was a custodial privilege to be a living testimony to time itself. It was this deep magic that made the outback so mysterious.

The doors remained closed to them.

“They require a pin-prick of blood to identify the caller - and everyone knows that the Elvish don’t use blood within their systems.” Puck said quietly. “The locking devices behind these doors are distinctly set to repel the otherworldly - they have astral mesh.”

“Turnip juice - a powerful motivator.” said Goober handing a large bottle over to Puck. 

Every time they had tele-transported themselves through to the other side of those doors they had been pushed out of the underground compound back up into the air above, onto the hot red sand with the glaring sun beating down on them. There seemed to be a three second delay, actually setting them back in time further every time they were pushed out.

They barely had a moment inside when the forcefield had expelled them again with a remarkable aptitude for the magic it required. 

“What am I missing here?” Puck asked … I knew it would not be easy, but I really don’t like the way I hear laughter every time this happens. Moreover, we cannot walk away - not when we know the damage Marsden is causing to all of the realms right now as we speak.”

“Too true, too true”, said Goober deep in thought. His head was beginning to pound, “I swear the sun is brighter here than most places” he grumbled. 

“And the grit is sharper too.” 

“And the sky is bluer”, he added with an attempt to be cheerful. They had now been inside and straight back out again seven times.

The red dust swirled and circled around them, a chorus of green flies and gnats, sting beetles and red ants were swept up in the circular force, propelling them into their faces and clothes, stirring up the powder dry ground beneath. 

When the dirt came to settle a dark figure appeared, with a bare chest, partially dressed, with a tall decorated spear on one side and the Azlan standing at the other. 

Puck knew in that moment that all would become well. 

Upon the ridge of stone in the distance there appeared over three hundred such tribal men. Each had a radiant light flaming from the tips of their spears, piercing the brightening sky above.

The Elder now standing face to face in front of them looked straight at them with the deepest dark brown eyes and kindly face. His bony hand rested on the Azlan’s head. Three red dingos circled in the background, keeping their distance, pacing throughout the scrub. And behind them, in the far distance, there was Mother Nature watching on.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Who Roo Fare

 What amulet?

What luck can be worked?

What may save this world?

Other than love?

Cobwebs of clouds laced their way over the deepening sky.

“Am I imagining trumpets?” Goober asked faintly, after having collapsed on a red rock once again outside the desert fortress.

A brown snake had made its way to his boot, Puck took it by the neck and hurled it back into the moat it had come from.

Goober was very pale, and his energy low.

“This might be my end”, he said out of breath.

“No” said Puck firmly, “it was the second helping of fried ice-cream and that blue syrup you just gorged yourself with. What were you thinking oh great one? Especially when we have such serious work before us, we have already delayed far too long.”

And as he stood up the very tall and once thin elf was showing a pot belly congested with half the menu from the Who-Roo Cafe.

He groaned. “Maybe we should do this tomorrow? have a good night’s rest and come back our best?” he asked hopefully.

Goober had blisters from the heat frying his feet. The walk to the camp seemed to be taking longer and the options were few.

Puck ignored his request.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Memories Flew Right Back to Her

Eve was sitting at a bench, soaking in the sun, eating from a tub of ice-cream that had been delivered to her caravan door. It was just what she felt like eating - there was something about the intense heat that made one want to eat ice-cream all day long.

It felt so good to be back in the world and already most of what she had experienced over the last few days was drifting fast away from her recall. She did not question at all how she got to be in outback Australia - but was just pleasantly day-dreaming away in the sun. Her spirit had shifted, and she was a very different woman to the one who she was a week ago.

Jupiter was still trying to find his way within the constraints of his new body. When, as Granoldi, he had experienced all of the physical limitations that the body endures, he had a totally different set of senses and ‘thinking’ to participate with. Becoming a man was very differently nuanced, and, there was a joy he had not known before - a lightness, a happiness, in just being alive.

He found Eve just as she devoured the tip of the cone. He could sense her wellbeing also.

“I’ve found you” he said, wanting to share with her his newly formed humanhood.

Eve was still in her state of holiday (holy-day) feeling carefree and completely at peace. She had no idea who this stranger was, but she did feel that she had known him from somewhere before, and knew him now.

“Have we met?” she asked, brushing her untidy hair back from her face, which was a little reddened, either with the heat or a blush, or both.

“Yes” said the stranger, looking hopeful that she might recognise him.

She gazed at him - he seemed fit for fortyish, wearing white shorts and a track suit zipper jacket - with a sports singlet beneath. His sunglasses looked expensive. His smile was so familiar …

He held out his hand as if to shake it … and although it seemed a little corny, she reciprocated. The very minute their fingers touched the memories flew right back to her: she could see in her mind’s eye her time with him as Granoldi, and she as Hannah; and then into this life, and how it led to the lower heavens where she came to see him as Jupiter. The man before her was her friend - no, he was more than that … her soul-mate.

She threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“How about a bear hug?” he asked jovially, when she pulled away.

He put his arms around her this time, and looked straight into her wondering eyes.

Needles, who had been there the entire time, decided it might be best if he left the two of them for a while. He set out onto the dirt road to go find the shuttle-bus to take him to Puck and find out what was happening with him and Goober.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series