New lore ~ The watchful summer moon

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 18)

Picking up from the previous post, Morio spins his own special yarn of how the strangers came to be in this land of mystery…

“It’s hard to fathom how far we’ve come in a single cycle of the seas, just one month of the watchful summer moon. All almost too quick to tell the truth — like some spooky arithmetic’s at work to keep the time of our lives in check when you sum the entire trek. Like we’re digits of nature’s mathematician, manipulated, our days numbered to solve a secret formula or perform her perfect calculus. Prime examples of fate’s numerology.

“However you figure, the total’s the same.

“It took seventeen suns from our escape cast off the former shores of Merth to cross the timeless Sea of Mer’n, the ancient ocean of our blood. From dawn to dusk it added up. By day by air aloft on the ogs, our hearty high-borne friends in flight. By night by sea afloat on their backs, transformed to make fine boats for us and rest themselves awhile asleep. And alive we made the coast of this land, this island, this Syland, little known.

“Then seventeen more suns did we pass, now sailing the skies above the grass so green by cities old but gleaming boney white below… over velvety rolling hills ribboned in roads, dotted by villages, inns, and outposts… past great golden fields of early grain to the edge of a forest veiled in rain… as lush and vast those woods as could be with treetops so high they touched the bellies of our wingy changelings, all but cloud-bound though they were…”

Morio looked to the distant ceiling, almost as if he could see them.

“But here the pynes grew thin and small, the land ascending to a wall of silent, stone-faced mountains over which we barely dared to climb. The cold froze hard our faces, crystalline as snowmen and snowgirl… word the world had turned and not for the better but dark and wild. Then howling like a devil child the wind forced us to take a dive too steep, falling at the speed of what faint light was left… only to find ourselves fogbound and lost in the thick of a hellish muck that stunk a stink of sulphur so, so acrid that it burned the nose… a swamp to rival any known. O no more than a glimmer of hope could penetrate this woeful place.

“And so sick and dizzy from our descent, into the shadowland we went. The wilderness at the heart of this island. The chamber of secrets of Syland…

“And so on and so forth, which brings us to here!” At that the proud teller threw both arms wide and twirled them with a dramatic flourish.

Young John Cap could not help but laugh. “Whoa there ‘O! Hold on just a minute. I think you left out a couple of things…”

“Left out? Are you sure? It’s hard to imagine… I know! I’ll just take it again from the top!”

“Oh no, that’s alright,” insisted John Cap who had turned out his palms in a signal to stop…

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues
14 ~ Flower of the field (original vision)
14 ~ Flower of the field (another vision)
15 ~ Hearthland
16 ~ Errant mission
17 ~ A few good men

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

New lore ~ A few good men

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 17)

Picking up from the previous post, John Cap reacts to Vaam’s tricky tale of fooling the lost folk’s leader…

“A wild goose chase,” confirmed John Cap. “Vaam, how wicked smart was that?!” He gave her a wry and admiring look. “We couldn’t have diagrammed it better if this were all a game. A game of thrown matches and catches, I mean.” The young man turned to his friend on the floor. “It was more than luck that snuck us in. That’s why there were lazy boys on the walls — just a couple manning them — instead of a few good men.

“And why the regular guards weren’t here to see us land out on the plain then walk through the gates and blend right in.”

Morio nodded, “Yes, I see, that makes perfect sense to me. I can handle the truth, most certainly. Using the cover of broad daylight — really clever, very bright. And I was around when we covered this? You say I knew about it?”

John Cap flashed him two thumbs up.

The ground hog returned a sheepish look. “You might have noticed I’m not one for scheming, rather more prone to a little daydreaming. The same goes for plotting. No. Let alone meetings! I confess I nod off at the drop of a hat then snooze or doze like a lapdog or cat, a napster with the best of them… So I may have missed some finer points during our pregame planning scrum.”

He slid toward the tall two with puppy og eyes as if seeking forgiveness, the road to redemption. “But if you’ll permit me a brief presentation… I’ll prove to be less than a total bum… or at least a bit more than the butt of jokes.” He slid another yard then… “Yikes!” Mr. Yoop stopped abruptly and pursed his lips, seemingly stuck again, re-spiked. “Ouch!” He reached for his moon’s far side and pulled out another surprise from his rump. “I submit evidence, Exhibit A, that some points I sorely did not miss.”

He held up a slender splinter of plankwood then casually tossed it away.

After a pause to compose himself, the defendant continued to plead his case. “As I sit before you in this court of flaws let the record show I do not stand accused of being amongst the most agile of men, when it comes to thinking I mean. On the other hand for a man of my day, born sixty and eight years ago give or take… minus seventeen lost as a nowhere man, living in a nowhere land… um… darn, I’ve forgotten what I was to say…”

“Something about your mind,” cued John Cap.

“Thank you dear friend, as a matter of fact…” Morio placed his hand like a hat. “If you don’t mind I’ll try my suspect brain with an exercise of memory. A little display if no one objects.  I’ll step through each leg of our trip to date, just from the mental notes I’ve made, hour to hour and day by day, all along the way. Then you be the judge and jury.”

“I wish there were photos too,” cracked John Cap. “And brochures from the Syland Travel Bureau.”

Morio shook his curly head. “I assure you these legs have no faux toes. I stand by them sure as you call me ‘bro’ sometimes and picture an honest soul.”

Vaam simply rolled her eyes at both men. She did not dare encourage them.

John Cap shrugged his broad shoulders at her.

Morio carried on, undeterred…

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues
14 ~ Flower of the field (original vision)
14 ~ Flower of the field (another vision)
15 ~ Hearthland
16 ~ Errant mission

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

New lore ~ Errant mission

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 16)

Picking up from the previous post, our friends are still trapped in the strange, crooked chamber known as the Letting Pen. Vaam is discussing their mission with Morio…

“Remember that I was here once before — a fortnight ago, though not for long — and imagined our plan of attack based on that…”

“No, no indeed! Yes of course I recall. But, just for the record, how did that go?”

Vaam gave him half a grin. “Just for the record…” she began. “Under cover of dark on the stormiest night I came to scout this settlement out and unlock its secrets for our quest. The rain and the hour had driven all in, whether gentle folk or beastly men, so without a single soul in sight the road was left to me alone. I soon found myself in the heart of a square, their marketplace by every sign, at the site of a tall, round tent pitched there. Yet still unmet I slipped inside and by the low glow of an oil lamp tried to see what I could see. A strange chamber of shadows spun circles around me, casting all in murky gold. The old dreams of bygone souls. It seemed to be a meeting place with a ring of cushions on the floor and room for standing many more all along the walls. Everything here was wood and bone but hard as any heavy metal. Hoping to find some scroll or book that might give a clue or hold a key, I crept further in to an alcove or den that looked to be hidden at the rear. I neared it quiet as a thief. Then I lifted the tattered patchwork flap they’d made to be its door.

“There on the ground to my surprise was a light-sleeping man who awoke as I spied. But by fortune or luck or trick of the light, which flickered and faked flaring firefly-like, he mistook me for something entirely else. I was to him the ghost of a queen, some songstress from treasured antiquity for whom he feverishly bent a knee to bow and vow fidelity. A siren of legend, the sweet of his dreams…

“Then it struck me, the trick that I almost missed and something more precious than gold in this. His mistake meant that there was advantage to take of this phantom operation. So I used his delusion and played along for the price of a song to help our cause. He mumbled some words about being unworthy… ‘Even as leader of my people… despite my red hair… my family name…’ Yes this was the very same iron-eyed man, the steely jawboned and rust-bearded one, who would meet us so hard in the field tonight… two weeks later and worse for wear riding herd on his wounded beast. It was I who sent him on that errant mission, on a chase through the wild with a goose, as John says.

Yet it was all truly the man’s own idea, a test that he already had in mind…”

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues
14 ~ Flower of the field (original vision)
14 ~ Flower of the field (another vision)
15 ~ Hearthland

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

New lore ~ Hearthland

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 15)

As her ballad’s last notes drifted off in the air, Vaam pressed her lips to the toy statuette and tucked it inside the neck of her frock, hidden away and safe again. Then she raised her downcast eyes.

“Tell me, John, of all I’ve missed.”

But he’d been charmed speechless, so all enthralled.

And Morio’s face was wet with warm tears.

“O hearthland! Dear Merth! You’ve taken me back. Beckoned again to the days of my youth and the fair, green farmlands where we played — I see them even now in sounds, reborne homeward bound by your incantation.”

Morio wiped his chubby cheeks and pressed both eyes with the heels of his hands. His face was red when he pulled them away.

Vaam peered at him. “Are you unwell, Uncle M?”

Morio let go a few more tears but he was less wistful now than proud. “I cry for my beloved country… Oh child, Miss Vaam, so pure of heart, your hymn has made mine beat again refilled with the blood of a native son. It pours from your voice and through my veins, unmeasured by rhythm or rhyme.”

“It’s a song my father sang to me… at bedtime as I fell asleep… wherever we hid that night…” Vaam’s voice faded off into soft nothingness, as if drained of all it had to give.

“Your father, your father,” he nodded his head. “My all-but-brother and dearest friend. The bravest heart of the Underland and comrade-in-ogs so true… Oh how I miss him so.”

“Yes, Uncle M. I miss him too.”

John Cap briefly touched her hand and found his voice again. “We learned some more about this place and these folks or whatever they’re called. They’re tough. They know what hard times are for sure — the elderly ones especially. Their story and how they got here is good. A long, hard road but they survived…”

“Even thrived,” chimed a cheery Morio, heartily joining in. “Yes, a long and winding road of death that left just the fittest alive at the end to build this stronghold on a hill. We’re all but experts now Miss Vaam. The locked door, it turns out, is the key to knowledge. Come and I shall show you…”

“In time, Uncle M, in time. But mostly we must know if your findings alter the map of our mission at all. From what you both have said I say not.”

Vaam unwound her long crossed legs and shifted position with ease in place, half springing up to crouch a-heel. Something in the way she moved seemed to prove her a creature of force and grace, a little cat-like in a way.

The narrow platform she made her lair was but the one flat spot in the room. Nothing else was on the level.

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues
14 ~ Flower of the field (original vision)
14 ~ Flower of the field (another vision)

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

New lore ~ Flower of the field (another vision)

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 14 remix)

Absently she closed her eyes and quietly began to sing. She sang a beautiful, haunting song… the spirit of a shadow’s dream… a shapeless, enrapturing melody that wrapped the mind in mystery… the echo of some ancient lullaby calling from deep inside…

O you my little love, my child
Were born a flower of the field
Your perfumed hair so soft, so sweet
The gold of summer long adored
Adorned in ribbons, O yet wild
Bright-eyed, no darkness have you seen
But kissed of sun, caressed in rain
Brushed by the wind upon the field

My ever love, my only love
My child, my flower of the field
They say your petals ride the wind
One and a thousand leagues away

My ever love, my only love
My heart, my flower of the field
They say your petals sail the sea
Two and two thousand leagues away

My ever love, my only love
My soul, my flower of the field
They say your petals grace a land
Three and three thousand leagues away

Tonight my love, the stars above
Show me my flower of the field
Your petals cast across the sky
Long gone my love yet ever here

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Please note

This post contains the same text as
yesterday’s Flower of the field post
but with an alternative image.

I hope you enjoy the contrasting visions.

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues
14 ~ Flower of the field (original vision)

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

New lore ~ Flower of the field

A sneak peek at the next thrilling Lore of the Underlings episode,
which I’m writing as we speak (Episode 4 ~ Preview 14)

Absently she closed her eyes and quietly began to sing. She sang a beautiful, haunting song… the spirit of a shadow’s dream… a shapeless, enrapturing melody that wrapped the mind in mystery… the echo of some ancient lullaby calling from deep inside…

O you my little love, my child
Were born a flower of the field
Your perfumed hair so soft, so sweet
The gold of summer long adored
Adorned in ribbons, O yet wild
Bright-eyed, no darkness have you seen
But kissed of sun, caressed in rain
Brushed by the wind upon the field

My ever love, my only love
My child, my flower of the field
They say your petals ride the wind
One and a thousand leagues away

My ever love, my only love
My heart, my flower of the field
They say your petals sail the sea
Two and two thousand leagues away

My ever love, my only love
My soul, my flower of the field
They say your petals grace a land
Three and three thousand leagues away

Tonight my love, the stars above
Show me my flower of the field
Your petals cast across the sky
Long gone my love yet ever here

… to be continued. Stay tuned!

~~~

Previous previews of Episode 4:
1 ~ The watchman
2 ~ Dreams
3 ~ Halo
4 ~ Netherworld
5 ~ Semperor
6 ~ Halcyon days
7 ~ Punch
8 ~ Enshadowed
9 ~ Pale ghost
10 ~ Needle
11 ~ New light
12 ~ Something looms…
13 ~ The gray girl’s blues

~~~

The illuminated lore project is an ongoing collaboration of
photographer Michael Leacher
and Lore of the Underlings author John Klobucher

Evil came to our town today…

Evil came again today
This time to Boston
In the sun
Of a beautiful afternoon

A heart of darkness
Bent to break
All we love
To make
Whole

And still…

Tomorrow is ours
To own again
With a stronger
Kind of hand

The kind that smothers
Hate with love

~~~

Our prayers for those who lost so much today

~ John K ~