Porthole

Space Cadet 4150 220 Treaty of Crystal Tears

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Blogging Circle of Friends   (E) A group for WDC bloggers. #1901868 by Lyn's a Witchy Woman

Please use these words in your entry today~ calm, dialogue, wall, chop, treaty and deadly. Have fun.

A back story out of time...

4150 220 Treaty of Crystal Tears

Wahlena (Guinan) took me on a 'walk'. She had ways of wording things so that none would suspect. She was always taking people on walks. Most were just that. A walk. Chit-chat. Some advice. She'd even taken me on a walk or two. And then we would be somewhere else, some time else. I didn't know whether to be honored or frightened. But she hadn't killed me yet, so I continued to trust her.

This day... we suantered through swaying grey fronds and angled black rock. She asked me not to speak as she picked up a stone and placed it in my hand. I listened. I had learned that crystal vibrations could record and transmit messages across time and space and that I could pick up the vibrations if I cleared my mind. I shook my head. Nothing.

Wahlena shook her head and beckoned me to follow. We rounded a bend and now the grass was a pale sea green and the rocks a bit weathered and rust stained. I stood in awe at pink clouds while Wahlena stooped for another prize. We tried again. Nothing.

Hours slipped by as we followed a path, now paved, now dirt, now covered with moss. I can't say we collected rocks or stone or crystals as my guide would pick one up, place it in my hand for some echo of recognition, put it back again among its dead companions.

I was puzzled and a bit grumpy by the time we entered a glen with flowing water. At least the tinkles interrupted the silence of an empty landscape, theonly nioses the ones we made in passage.

I listened to the water. It was speaking, as water often does. I heard a flow of melody and then... then I heard some harmony that wasn't water. Startled I motioned to Wahlena and went to see where the commotion was coming from. There was a bed of crystals... and they were singing.

Finally, Wahlena spoke. "What are they saying?"

"They mourn for the others; they are begging the water not to abandon them; They speak of a Great Wall."

"Come." Wahlena got up and carefully followed the water to where a waterfall plunged. The riot of voices drowned out words. I heard everything and nothing.

We climbed to the top of a ridge. When I dared to look around the stream was gone. A calm lake shimmered below us.

"Come." That there was a stone path now shouldn't have surprised me that it entered a tunnel should have warned. One word. "Come, but touch nothing."

We entered a green upon green world that showed no trace of barren rock. The path disappeared. But Wahlena moved as if she knew the way. I could only think she's been here before. And then she stopped before a wall. It glistened.

She looked at me and motioned that I should close my eyes. I could faintly here voices speaking in a musical dialogue. And then... they sounded louder and clearer. Wahlena touched me and I opened my eyes. There was a door before me. We entered.

"They are deadly."

"They will guide us to the stars."

"And the stars will bring ruin upon us."

I heard laughter.

"We bring ruin upon ourselves."

The walls spoke, "Without the treaty we cannot leave and cannot help."

The lights went out. A faint glow appeared before us.

"We go without them." "Yes, we go alone." "What will happen now?" Silence.

Wahlena took me by my sleeve to guide me. We went up some stairs into the sunlight and chatter of a day at the market. She smiled.

"I'm always right." We went unnoticed past strange cloths and stranger vegetables dangling among dead carcasses, herbs and squawking creatures on leashes and in cages. The chop chop of the butchers unnerved me for some reason. My ears felt twitchy.

Wahlena waved at a vendor and she waved back, beckoning us to enter her shop.

"This is what you asked for last time." She held up a necklace of emeralds for Wahlena and looked at me. "We don't get too many Oxen here. They've been warned that some of us consider their extra ears a delicacy. And those with horns... are priceless..." Her voice trailed off.

"I love the emeralds but the necklace I was really looking for had one ruby." Wahlena had thankfully interrupted as I blushed. I didn't have horns but I had read about the myths.

"Ah... This?" The ruby glinted in the sun.

Wahlena put her hand in her pocket to pull something shiny out and placed it in the merchant's hand and then touched the sparkling red crystal.

The market had disappeared. There was nothing but smooth black rock.

"I will explain later," murmurred Wahlena as she placed the ruby in my hand. I blacked out.

When I came to we were back Home and someone was spooning stew into my gaping mouth.

I heard him say, "Was it worth it Wahlena?"

"Yes."

I was told that I had been sleep-walking for a week, that we had left and were again in the Void, that Jaafaar was at the helm, that Kat would speak to me when I was ready. Ready for what?

The next day everyone was assembled. Coffee, tea and biscuits were placed on tables. I was seated next to Kat where everyone could see and hear me. All sentients were represented, most of them fellow Xenos. All eyes and ears and limbs went silent as Cook brought out a bowl of water. Walena placed the ruby in it, bore her eyes into me as Kat commanded.

"Tell us about the Treaty of the Crystal Tears."

For

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Space Blog  (ASR) Cruising WDC cyberspace and raiding ports for blog prompts! #2223838 by SharmellesLovableExpressions

"In the Beginning"   [E] by Teargen

Write your views about this poem.

Nice to read a villanelle, a simple yet tricky form. Also nice to read a creation story without an overload of Christian jargon. Calling the Creator "His Majesty" works well. It avoids some cliche that way.

Poetry? It uses rhyme and syllable length well. Villanelles have built-in poetics. As is I give it a 4.2 because I think it can be strengthened.

Newsfeed comments:

Thanksgiving: I grew up in Snow Country with ample amounts between me and my cousins. One year we almost went without snow until December! But 18" on the 30th. Needless to say we didn't travel much. One aunt lived fairly close and she and her daughter would visit. Later, my mother decided that eating in a restaurant was better. I hated that. Still do.

We didn't always have turkey. Almost sure we had stuffing, probably rolls, always sweet potatoes.

Last year I bought a goose and 5 of us without family had dinner together. Not this year. I picked up two turkey lunches today, ate one, will eat the other tomorrow. Tomorrow will be just another boring day.

My best Thanksgiving? Spent at the Botanical research lab at Kansas U. I was 20. Two of us shared what we had brought. I remember sardines and crackers. I remember being happy.

Gifting: I will answer from when I was a teenager.

I had no money, had no allowance. I used what I had saved up all year to buy gifts. We saved wrapping paper from year to year. Foil was special. The usable pieces would get smaller and smaller. I would wrap everything to make it as beautiful and unique as I could.

I didn't like getting gifts. I refused to open up anything in front of others. I would wait and be disappointed alone. I never got what I wanted. I had given up by age 13.

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