The Turning Point
THE MORNING FOG had completely vanished by the time Arenh left the watchtower. Though large white clouds gave occasional relief from the sun and the distance he had to walk was short, he was glistening with sweat when he arrived at the upper entrance to the Mountain.
As he entered the corridor to the caverns, he felt a feeling of foreboding, as exciting as it was disturbing, that something major was about to happen. He went directly to the zendo and stood before the altar platform.
Standing on the platform was a life-size statue of the Ancient Mother. She was dressed in an indigo robe. In her right hand, she held a sword, symbolic of her defense of the helpless and oppressed. And in her left hand, she held a blue iris — the Indigo symbol of peace.
Arenh sat down on a cushion in front of the altar and listened to the morning chants of the priests beginning behind him.
And here see form as void
and void as form
and form apart from voidness not
and voidness not apart from form.
The chant was from an ancient Zen scripture of Old Earth. It was chanted over and over in a monotone, very slowly at first and then gradually faster with each repetition. The rhythm was marked by the beat of drums.
Arenh let the words of the chant flow through his mind like water, with no effort to comprehend their meaning. The chant continued until its tempo was furious and the words could hardly be distinguished. And then the chanting came to an abrupt end with a rolling crash of the drums and a deep sonorous bong of the zendo bell.
After the chant ended and the reverberations of the bell faded, Arenh continued to sit for a few moments in the utter silence of the great hall. Then as he brought his palms together and prepared to stand up, he saw something lying on the altar platform that hadn’t been there before — a simple necklace of tiny gold links from which was suspended a disk of gold. And on the disk was mounted a small dark blue oval stone.
Arenh took a deep breath and felt his heart begin to pound. They had found him worthy. He felt a moment of guilt for his mistrust of the Dreamers. But then he thought, “Just because they find me worthy of their Amulet doesn’t mean I find them worthy of my trust.”
He carefully picked up the Amulet and put it over his head so that the stone hung in the center of his chest. When the stone touched his body, he experienced a feeling of déjà vu as the Dreamers whispered in his mind.
“What is past remains even now,
and what is yet to come is already here.
The things of time are not what they seem.
Hold fast to your faith, O Dreamer of the Dream.
Do not surrender to your fear.”
Feelings surged through his mind of joy mixed with anxiety and anticipation mixed with dread. He breathed the feelings in and breathed them out until at last he felt at peace.
This is Chapter 3 of The Dreamers of Ourdh, (Great Way Publications, 2013) my first and likely my last attempt (considering its lack of success) at writing a novella length story.
The Dreamers are a race of superbeings who were present on the planet Ourdh before human beings colonized it. This chapter is called The Turning Point because in it the Dreamers choose Arenh, a prince of the Indigo Clan, to be the bearer of the Amulet, a choice that invests him with the powers of telepathy and teleportation. The choice also indicates the Dreamers consider him to possess the wisdom to properly use such powers.
