Saturday, April 30, 2011

Sending

Your comments have been received, and are being sent into the story now. I anticipate that the story will realign itself to accommodate your influence sometime tomorrow (that is, on Saturday), despite the inexplicable changes I am seeing in the pages of the book. These changes may affect the very nature of the book itself...

Thank you for your assistance!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Maybe I Could Help You


I’m afraid I have some bad news. I don’t know how to say this, but something odd seems to be happening to the book. Perhaps I’ve been tampering too much with the laws of space, time, and magic, or something about what we are doing here could be affecting it. I do not know if there is any precedent for tampering with a book such as this one, and none of my reference guides have given me any aid in interpret the odd things that are happening not within the story, but within the pages of the book of the stars itself. I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but I hope to have an answer soon.

In any case, I have transcribed the next part of the story:

“Maybe, maybe I could help you!” Gwendolyn cried. 
                               
“Help me,” the dragon asked, “with what?”

Gwendolyn realized the dragon looked amused. She pressed on, “I could help you get free from Cadderon!

The dragon chuckled, and it sounded like thunder. “And you could do that how, exactly?” He asked.

Gwendolyn’s mind raced desperately. “I could maybe talk to him, or use my, my magic… or, or something…” Her voice trailed off lamely.

The dragon looked as though he might laugh again, but instead, he eyed her thoughtfully for a time.
While he was thinking, Gwendolyn tried to figure out a way to get free. She did not know how to use the star’s tear. In fact, she had no idea if she could use it to free the dragon or free herself from. But while the dragon seemed distracted, she shut her eyes tight and concentrated on making something, anything happen to get her out of the dragon’s claws. Nothing did.

“Do you know what I would do if I were free?” the dragon suddenly asked, and his eyes seemed to burn with an intensity of flame and anger that Gwendolyn had never before imagined in anything. She could almost feel his hatred radiating, poisoning the air….The stone on her pendant glowed a soft red color, and for an instant, in her mind Gwendolyn saw cities burning. “I suppose,” said the dragon, “that you do not. But you did know how to come here, and perhaps you can release me. How much do you know about the Cadderon’s spells?”

Without waiting for an answer, the dragon set Gwendolyn down next to Fisher. At that moment, he was resting almost peacefully, though the lines on his face and the utter exhaustion there still left no doubt that he was in poor condition.

“His chains,” said the dragon, “are ordinary chains as far as I know. They are there as a precaution against his escape and are  not what keeps him sleeping. If you can wake him, I’ll know that you understand what you are doing here.”

Gwendolyn hesitated, uncertain of what to do. She felt so badly for Fisher, lying there, but she had no idea how to break the spell.

Gwendolyn reached out her hand and touched Fisher’s arm. He felt cold even in the heat from the dragon and the fires around the room. She clutched her pendent tight in one hand and tried to wish him awake, and thought she saw his eyelids flicker. But then he seemed to recoil and go into fresh spasms as his nightmare infected mind interpreted her touch as something hostile, and he fell deep into a fresh dark dream.

The dragon laughed. “Little human, you do not know anything about magic, do you? You were brought here by the tear of that little witch Ariadne, and yet you know nothing of how to help her. I’ll bet,” he lowered his head to whisper in her ear, his breath hot on her skin, “that you don’t even know what you’re doing here, let alone how to wake him.”

At the dragon’s mockery, Gwendolyn felt herself grow angry. She turned to look at him and asked, “Do you?”

He pulled back, but kept smiling. "No."

Gwendolyn’s heart sank.

The dragon was clearly enjoying her dismay. “I’ll tell you what.” he said slyly. “I’ll give you a choice. You can go before Cadderon, and ask him for help returning to your home now. I’ll bet right now, you want to go back where you came from, and forget this whole thing. You could even ask him for mercy for the little star. He’s had her long enough, perhaps he is bored with her, and after locking her and Fisher away has forgotten all about them. Or…” he glanced at the tunnel entrance, “you can go out the way you came in, and try to find a way to break the spell.”

Gwendolyn looked at the tunnel. Maybe Cadderon could be reasoned with. But if he couldn’t, maybe she should take her chances going down the tunnel.

“So what will it be? Will you go before Cadderon, or will you try your luck in the world?”

Oh dear. Well, at least the dragon doesn’t seem inclined to eat Gwendolyn at this point. On the one hand, perhaps Cadderon can be reasoned with. On the other, perhaps he cannot and it would be better to try to find a way to break the spell that is on Fisher.

Please leave your comments and advise Gwendolyn of what to do. I believe this point in the story will stay open until midnight on Friday night. I’ll see if I can make sense of what’s happening to the book before then. Thank you for your assistance!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

On Trusting Dragons

I had some difficulty in sending comments into the story this time; my instruments seem to have been affected by some unusual weather recently. I’m not sure Gwendolyn heard anything directly, but she does seem to have been strongly influenced by what was said.

Gwendolyn hesitated. The dragon had just offered her one of the things she came for, but… she still didn’t trust him, and had a strong feeling that she should never trust a dragon.

“Well, halfling?” The dragon prompted.

Ceased by a sudden urge, Gwendolyn called, “What make you thinks you know how I got here? And where I came from?”

The dragon did something with his face that would have been considered raising his eyebrows, were he human. Then with something like a sly smile, he said. “There are only two things down that passageway. One is a river that leads to the place the ratty little water mites live. I know this because occasionally they come up the stream and out from the tunnel. They are quite tasty. The other thing is a place where the star Ariadne hid at a time when she escaped and tried to wake her lover. It is full of her tears, but Cadderon does not know that.”

“She escaped?”

“Yes, and woke Fisher and tried to leave; but they were captured again, and now he is chained and I am stuck here, waiting for Cadderon to grow tried of the game he plays with the two of them and give me something more interesting to do.” He snorted.

Gwendolyn though about this. She was still uncertain, but after all she and the dragon seemed to have in common that they wanted Fisher free. She stepped out from behind the boulder-

-and an instant later was being held tight in one of the dragon’s claws.

As she struggled and kicked, he held her high up in the air and examined her with one large, luminous eye. With the tip of the claws on his other forearms, he lifted her necklace, gingerly by its chain. His eye seemed to glow with fire when he saw the stone. “What have we here? If you did not come by the tunnel, you must have come by some magic. And being bound to serve a human magic user, I despise them. Little human child, give me one good reason that I shouldn’t eat you right now.”

“I thought you wanted to leave!” gasped Gwendolyn. The dragon was holding her very tightly, making it hard for her to breathe.

“If it were as simple as making Fisher disappear, I would have eaten him centuries ago. I am bound and enslaved, I cannot simply allow him to walk away.”

Gwendolyn continued to squirm and kick in the dragon’s claw

“Stop wiggling, or I’ll just roast you now.” The beast said. “I ask you again, is there any good reason why I shouldn’t eat you?”

Oh dear. This is not good at at all. Apparently, dragons are not to be trusted. Perhaps there is something Gwendolyn could offer him in exchange for her release? What could a dragon possibly want? Treasure, perhaps, or perhaps something that could be done for him?

This point in the story should stay open until about midnight on Tuesday.

Thank you for your assistance.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Dragon's Offer


I seem to have miscalculated the time it took for the story to realign this time. Sorry for the delay:

Gwendolyn froze in terror behind the stone. She had to leave the safely of the boulder if she wanted to reach the star’s lover. But the dragon might not be able to reach her there, and she certainly felt safer behind the boulder. The dragon was huge, bigger than she had even imagined that a dragon could be. As she thought about this, she heard one of the voices from before.

“Stare fear in the eyes, master it, then walk confidently out from behind the boulder. If the dragon wanted to kill you he probably would already have done it.”

But then a second voice seemed to contradict the first, saying, “If the monster could do anything to Gwendolyn, he would have done it already. Don't be manipulated, but don't let his commands deter Gwendolyn from what she wants to do.”

‘They’re contradicting each other…’ Gwendolyn thought. Should she confront the dragon courageously? Or think twice before stepping out from her hiding place? The next voice Gwendolyn heard was the dragon’s, rumbling like thunder, scratching like gravel. “Halfling, you are trying my patience. Come out.”

“The dragon doesn't know as much as he is letting on if he thinks Gwendolyn is a halfling.” Said another voice.

Gwendolyn thought about this, and about what the second voice had said…. Maybe she shouldn’t let the dragon tell her what to do just yet.  She could always confront him “confidently” from where she was.
“Why should I come out?” She called. “I can talk to you from here.”
“So you are there. I wasn’t quite sure…” the dragon rumbled. “Its been many years since anyone tried to come in the back way. Are you here to see Cadderon’s prisoner?”

Gwendolyn frowned. “Who is Cadderon?”

The dragon sent out several short, impatient bursts of smoke. “Don’t feign ignorance with me, halfling.” He said sternly. “All have heard of the man Cadderon, who rules the Iron Kingdom, and calls himself the Dragon King.”

“So…you’re not the Dragon King?” Gwendolyn asked.

The beast snorted with indignation. “Dragons have no king. I and my brethren are bound to serve  Cadderon, but although we follow his commands, we have sworn no oaths, and bear him no love.” He paused. “If we were not bound, we would devour Cadderon and his kingdom, doing as we did to man in the days before the so-called king came.”

Gwendolyn thought about this a moment, then asked, “So, where is Cadderon?”

The dragon snorted again, sending sparks and smoke flying. “On his throne, I imagine.” The dragon paused. “ If you want to see him, I’ll take you there.”

Gwendolyn considered this for a moment. The dragon was large and frightening, and as her voices had pointed out, not nescessarally honest. Still, she didn’t want to seem rude to him.

“Maybe later.” She answered. Just then the man on the stone slab moaned again, full of sorrow and anguish. The sound was heart breaking.

“Is that the star’s lover?” Gwendolyn asked.

“That man is called Fisher, warrior of a lost people, and lover to the star Ariadne, who is also, in a sense, lost.”

Fisher continued to moan for several minutes, thrashing around wildly. While Gwendolyn watched the warrior, the dragon watched the stone she was hiding behind. After a few moments, the dragon said, “If you’d like to help Fisher, you could go over there and unchain him.”

Gwendolyn didn’t need her voices to tell her that this sounded suspicious. “Aren’t you guarding him?” she asked.

“Yes, but as I told you, I bear no great love for Cadderon. I’ll let you unchain Fisher and if you can wake him, perhaps I just won’t see the two of you leave.”

Gwendolyn hestated. She didn’t trust the dragon, not even a little bit.

As if he could sense her hesitation, the dragon asked,“What else can you do? You must have had a difficult time getting this far; the only thing back where you have come from is the cold darkness and the chattering foolshness of the water mites. Behold the man’s suffering…” The dragon swept his arm toward Fisher, sending a gust of wind through the cave, “do you not wish to help him?”

It’s odd, I hadn’t thought much about what’s down the other end of the tunnel. Whatever is a water mite? Not that it really matters to the choice at hand; Gwendolyn seems sure that the dragon can’t be trusted, but he is offering a chance to attain one of our goals, namely the liberation of Fisher. Should we take this chance?

Please leave your comments for Gwendolyn below. I’ve readjusted my insturments, and I feel reasonably certain that this point in the story should be open until midnight on Friday night.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sending

I have collected your comments and am sending them now. My current estimate is that story should realign itself by tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you for your assistance!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The End of the Tunnel


The story has continued:

As Gwendolyn stood waiting for an answer, wondering which direction she should go, one of the voices said, “What can Gwendolyn do but continue?”

Well… Gwendolyn took a moment to glance longingly back toward where the door had been. The sound of the water down that way was somehow inviting, but the darkness was not. And the voice had said to continue.… Picking up her baseball bat, Gwendolyn began walking toward the  warm glow and the heavy shuffling sound. It wasn’t long before she turned off her flashlight to save the battery, since she could see fairly well from the fiery red light. Because of the increasing heat, she also paused to take off her jacket and tie it around her waist. When she came to the end of the tunnel, a large stone boulder blocked the exit, leaving just enough room for her to either squeeze through or peek around.

She choose the later, and when she slowly poked her head around the boulder, she saw an enormous, red, scaly, real dragon, lying on his side. He had a gold colored, shiny belly, and matching horns. Thick black smoke poured out of his nostrils. His eyes, which were each almost as big as Gwendolyn’s head, were closed, and she soon realized that the shuffling she had been hearing was caused by the thick, heavy motion of his breathing, as his shifting scales scraped the floor beneath him.

Gwendolyn sucked in her breath. Could this be the King Dragon? A nagging feeling at the back of her mind told her it was not, but it’s difficult to remember something dreamed when confronted with a real live dragon, even a sleeping one.

Reluctantly, Gwendolyn took her eyes off the dragon and began to look around the rough stone cavern that housed him. All around the space stood large braziers filled with unnaturally red fire, the source of the light in the cavern and the tunnel. At the far end of the room, chained to a stone slab, a man lay tossing back and forth. He was wearing what could have been a type of light armor; his hair and beard were black and somewhat short but matted and tangled from his constant tossing. On the ground next to the slab lay a shining metal sword, beautifully crafted and about half the size of Gwendolyn herself.

As Gwendolyn watched, for a moment the man paused and lay still, only to suddenly cry out and thrash about wildly, moaning and calling, “Ariadne! Ariadne! NO! Ariadne!” He continued to fight against his chains for several minutes, and Gwendolyn realized that he was having a nightmare. “The star’s lover…” She whispered. Eventually, he calmed down and lay still again, but tears ran from his eyes, the streaks of them on his face glittering like sparks in the red light.

So caught up was she in watching the man that Gwendolyn momentarily forgot about the dragon. When the monster spoke, deep and rumbling like thunder, she froze behind the boulder. “I know you’re there. I can smell you and hear your breathing. Come out, little Halfling.”

Oh, dear. This does not bode well, not at all. Can the dragon get to Gwendolyn where she is? It is entirely possible that he can move the boulder. What was the other direction down the tunnel? Perhaps she should run…but the star’s lover is right there! Should she answer the dragon? Should she come out?

I would like to assure you that I have checked the settings of the transmission, and only Gwendolyn should be able to hear what you say, the dragon will not. Please leave your comments and advise her what to do. This point in the story will remain open until around midnight on Monday.

Thank you for your assistance!

Sending...

I am sending the comment I received. By my calculations the story will realign itself by sometime tomorrow afternoon at the very latest. Thank you for your assistance, Kara!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Through the Door

It seems that the experiment was once again successful. I have transcribed the next portion of the story:

“Gwendolyn should grab some jeans first. You never know with adventures. They can get cold.

When Gwendolyn heard the voice she jumped straight up and landed on her feet with a thud, her eyes wide and her pulse pounding.

 Another voice came out of the dark, “Grab her baseball bat, those always come in handy when battling dragon kings and other weird things.”

Gwendolyn looked about her room wildly, but no one was there. Yet the voices had been clear and distinct. Another one came, “Gwendolyn should get her flashlight and her bathrobe,” it said, then whispered as if still talking to someone else: “You should never go anywhere without your towel.”

Gwendolyn looked around her room again. Unless someone was hiding under the bed, there was no one there. And yet there were voices talking about her in the darkness.
She almost screamed for her parents right then. Star or no star, hearing voices talk about her in the dark was terrifying.

“Gwendolyn!!!” A fourth voice, and this time, it was actually talking to her. “Put on jeans and probably a light jacket!! Grab a frying pan and flashlight and get through the door!!!!”

“Hello?” Gwendolyn called softly. “Is anyone there? Who are you?”  There was no answer. Gwendolyn looked back to the door. The light was fading. She held her breath and cracked the door open to peek inside, and her face was met by rush of misty wind, as might be felt in a light rain. Behind the door where storage shelves used to be was a round tunnel with glowing stones embedded in its earth walls. The stones in the tunnel glowed softly, all pulsing together in time along with Gwendolyn’s. All the stones seemed to be clustered toward the entrance; about ten meters down the tunnel was totally dark.

“Flashlight. Right.” Gwendolyn said, and propping the closet door open with the chair from her desk, she quickly changed into her most comfortable pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then pulled on the green windbreaker her grandmother had given her for Christmas. On the floor where she had left it after building a blanket fort last Saturday was an old beach towel printed with a camouflage pattern, and although she couldn’t think why she would need it, she picked it up and hung it over her shoulders as if she was going to the beach. Her flashlight was in her desk drawer, the baseball bat she had taken from her brother’s room when he wouldn’t let her play his with his Wii was under the bed. Clutching the bat  in both hands and with the flashlight sticking out of her pocket, Gwendolyn stepped into the closet, ready to strike monsters and voices in the dark alike.

As soon as she stepped into the tunnel, the glowing stopped. Gwendolyn let out a squeal in the dark and dropped the bat as she fumbled for the flash light. She clicked it on, and realized that even though she hadn’t closed the door,  the tunnel now stretched both in front of and behind her. Wondering if the door had somehow just receded and was waiting for her down there, she shined her flashlight back in the direction she had come from. She saw nothing but cold darkness, swallowing the yellow beam of light, but she thought she could hear water running. In the other direction, Gwendolyn realized there was a faint red glow, and she could feel heat. She heard a heavy shifting, as if something was moving around in the dark, maybe more than one something.

“Hello?” She called softly, hoping the voices in her room, the ones who told her to come here, had followed and were listening. She hoped they were there, even though she wasn’t sure she could trust them. “Now what do I do?”

Please post your comments here and I will again send them to Gwendolyn. We must not abandon her now!

I believe I can keep this point in the story until around 11 PM or so on Friday night.

Thank you for you assistance!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sending

Your comments have been received, and I am sending them to Gwendolyn now. As the process is still unrefined, it may take a bit of time for the story to realign itself. I expect to be able to share more with you by tomorrow evening. Thank you for your assistance!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Success!

The experiment was a success! Though her mind seems to have been a bit muddled by sleep, Gwendolyn heard what was said, and responded! I have transcribed the altered portion of the story, which appeared in the book of the stars after I sent the comments I received.

The whispers were soft, but in the still silence of Gwendolyn’s room they were loud enough to rouse her from her sleep. The voices confused her; something about sleepwalking and helping a star? Interaction and concrete? Puzzled by what she heard, Gwendolyn almost rolled over and went back to sleep, but an urgent need to write something down ceased her, and she rolled out of her bed instead. 

She crossed the room to her desk where a pad of paw-print patterned stationary lay under some CDs and a candy wrapper, and picked the paper up along with a purple star covered, tooth marked pencil. Returning to her bed, she curled up with these items, and began to write. At first, she didn’t know what she was trying to do, but slowly her thoughts began to take shape on the page. As she wrote she began to remember the star, the Dragon King, the imprisoned lover. When she came to the end, she stared at what she had written for a moment, unsure what to do with the information now that her dream was clear in her mind. Gwendolyn then noticed her pendant out of the corner of her eye. It was glowing softly, pulsing in time with another light, this one coming from under her closet door.
Gwendolyn stared the door for a moment, then pulled the pendant off the bed post and held up in front of her as she faced the closet, watching the two lights pulse together. Now she was fully awake, and completely unsure what to do. If she opened the door, would she wind up somewhere else, like Lucy, or Alice, or Dorothy? Or…she glanced at her notepad, her eyes widening. There could very well be a “King Dragon” on the other side of that door right now.

What should she do? The glow seemed to be getting dimmer, and might soon fade away. She pulled her necklace over her head, and crept slowly to the door. At the last moment  she picked up her sneakers and pulled them on, just in case. Her hand hovered over the doorknob. What if there was another world in there? And what  if she couldn’t get back, or got eaten by a dragon? The lights continued to pulse, and Gwendolyn could feel the pendant hum softly. Somehow, she knew that time was running out for the star.

What should she do? Should she open the door quickly? Should she change out of her pajamas first? Grab her sleeping bag and a baseball bat? Wake her parents and tell them what was happening? She paused and stood before the door wishing for guidance, as the glow began to fade…

What should Gwendolyn do, indeed? I imagine that helping the star will most likely mean opening the door, but as they say, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Perhaps she should be better prepared, or obtain some help?

Please leave you comments below, and I will again endeavor to send them to Gwendolyn. I believe I can hold this point in the story open a bit longer, perhaps until about 10 or 11 PM on Tuesday. Thank you for your assistance.

Attempting to send...

Thank you for your assistance; I am now sending the thoughts you have shared into the story. I believe Gwendolyn will be able to hear what has been said, and I hope she will respond. I will let you know the results of this experiment within a few hours at most.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

An Introduction

When a star weeps, it’s tears are full of power, the power to heal, and the power to save, but they can also be used for destruction. I am called Claudius Grey, and I have come into possession of a book of the stars, which tells the stories of their lives and deaths. Through means which I can not in good conscience divulge, I have found a way to channel the sound of voices into the stories, and possibly change the outcome thereof. I found this tale some time ago:

Once, when the world was young, a certain star used to come down to the earth to cool her feet in the cold water of a clear lake each morning, because she was tired after dancing across the sky each night. Near the lake lived a young man who came to the lake each dawn to fish. It was not long after they met that the two of them fell deeply in love. They planned to marry, but the Dragon King found the star to be more beautiful than anything else he could see in his kingdom, and took her to be his bride. Her lover tried to rescue her, but the Dragon King captured him and locked him away in place of eternal slumber to be tortured by nightmares. Though a thousand years have passed, the star still refuses to wed the Dragon King, and he still refuses to release her lover. Her tears fall out into space and are seen as meteors. Some of them are lost on the earth.

There were a few more details; it seems that in the end the Dragon King killed the star’s lover, and she wasted away and eventually died from grief. However, at the bottom of the page was this note:

A young lady called Gwendolyn was given one of the star’s tears by her grandmother, who bought it at a craft fair from an artisan. The artisan thought the tear was an unusually beautiful though otherwise unremarkable translucent stone and had fashioned it into a pendant. Every night for several years, Gwendolyn would dream about the star and the star’s lover and their plight. The pendant would open a gateway to the world where the two were imprisoned, and so moved was she by their plight that Gwendolyn would long to go to help them. But every time she tried she found she was still asleep in bed, and when she woke up, she would have forgotten all about the star. These dreams continued until the star’s death.

I have been researching the effects of star tears on dreams, and it seems that if Gwendolyn could not have helped the star, she would not have dreamed about her. Gwendolyn’s not waking up in time to remember her dreams and enter the portal is a problem though. After much time and many experiments, I believe I have found a way to change the story. I have searched the pages of the book (which seem to be ever changing), and have found this point of entry:

Gwendolyn half woke from sleep, alone in the darkness. The storm had passed (had there really been a storm?), and she was comfortable in her bed, her mind heavy with sleep. The necklace her grandmother had given her hung from her bed post. It was glowing softly, and it reminded her of something…something…she… had to…do…

As Gwendolyn began to drift back to sleep, the something began to slip from her mind.

Please leave your comments on this blog, and I will endeavor to send them to Gwendolyn, to help her begin her journey.  The method is tenuous, but the stronger the voice the more likely she will be able to hear; i.e. the more people tell her to take a certain action, the more likely she will be to hear them. It should be noted at this point that Gwendolyn is a minor, and that comments should be made with that in mind (i.e. please keep it clean). Also, I can only keep this point into the story open for a short time, I’m afraid, and I will have to stop sending comments at around 5 PM (American central time) tomorrow.  The story should take a little while to adjust (perhaps a few hours or so) and then I hope to be able to find and share another entry point.

At this time, I believe that the most important thing is to wake Gwendolyn up and remind her of the star before she forgets…