Day 1
Raining.
Where does it come from?
Rain.
Is there a vast aerial ocean above our heads?
Pondering as I sit alone.
Thinking about the life I have lead.
66.
What an age to reach.
My Rose has left our island home to be on the mainland.
She is gone.
They have both gone.
Mother and Child.
I look over to above to fireless mantelpiece to see
the skeletal remains of the Chimera staring back with a hollow, soulless stare.
19.
Nineteen years.
Nineteen years since the day Casso and I captured
the creature.
I miss the crew.
I miss her.
I’m getting old.
What have I achieved so far?
Have I achieved nothing?
I thought I’d found my purpose.
Is this the end of my life?
How do I find out what the purpose of my life is?
WOOSH!
The sobering touch of rain and salted–wind upon my face as my door was flung open and a friendly face smiled at me. It was Miss Daze.
Since the fateful day that my Rose left me I have not wanted to go back to the main land.
Without being aware of it
I was slowly wasting away,
heartbroken with
only my thoughts
and the sea,
which I was once master of,
as companions.
That was until, intrigued by St Nicolas and its apparent dormant interior, the kind, inquisitive Loriette Daze rowed her happy self into my world.
She lives in a lovely little cottage on the mainland.
70.
Retired now but from what even she doesn’t know, she’s done so much with her life that it’s hard to distinguish what was her job and what was her life.
From that day onwards we became friends, she came round every fortnightly Monday with a wooden crate of fruit and vegetables that she grew in her allotment, as well as the other essentials - milk, bread, eggs, flour.
And unbeknown to me today was a Monday, and not just any Monday, for as I wallowed in my own mental mire of questioning; Loriette came in with her usual package,
plus more?
Cake?
What?
Why?
Is it my birthday?
It is my birthday.
Miss Daze cooked up a sort of birthday stew with extra vegetables she’d brought with her. She also put in a strange looking vegetable I’d never had before; a courgette - it was like a robust cucumber. Once we’d both finished and mopped up the residue, we had a considerable slice of cake each.
But once that had been devoured my mind snared me again within its grasp
I miss the crew.
I miss her.
I’m getting old.
What have I achieved so far?
Have I achieved nothing?
I thought I’d found my purpose.
Is this the end of my life?
How do I find out what the purpose of my life is?
‘Stone Haven’
Her presence pulling me out of the world of deep thought again.
Loriette continued to describe that Stone Haven is an island that her father, the great architect, built. No one knows exactly where it is, apart from her for her father passed down no only the knowledge of the island’s existence but a map of its location. As for the purpose of the island, Miss Daze said that –
‘It is where people go to live out the rest of their days and find the meaning of their lives.’
To find out the meaning of their lives.
The answer to all questions.
Complete. Enlightenment.
Ted.
Ted.
Edward!
What do you think?
A calm evening.
We push the pea-green rowing boat into the surf.
I got in first, with Loriette holding the boat as to not let it float away, and got comfortable then with one clean movement the lady of the boat pushed off and then vaulted in like that of a woman half even quarter of her age. She took up each oar and started rowing with consummate ease.
Looking into the endless
nothingness of the clear night’s sky.
Day Four
The alarming abrasive sound of the boat coming into contact with something solid.
I woke.
Where am I?
The familiar face of Miss Daze smiling brings me back to reality.
Three Days.
I’ve been asleep for that long?
Was I really that tired?
How did I sleep through the entire journey?
Magic
The magic of the island.
A place no one should know about until it’s his or her time.
We pulled the boat far enough onto the beach so that even if it was high the sea couldn’t use her tidal claws to drag our vessel away. Once I’d got my breath back I looked in front of me and what I beheld was a shear wall of greens and browns.
Forest.
So dense only the most concentrated rays of sunshine could penetrate through this thick hided foliage creature.
Three giantess oracles.
Past. Present. Future.
The ladies of Stone Haven.
We slowly made our way through the vast entangled mire of the forest but Loriette seemed to know where she was going.
The location of the sisters.
In the distance.
A light.
The light of day.
A small amount to begin with but as we waded forward.
The forest getting more open.
Like the trees were bowing to a power from within this glade.
Then I saw them.
Three titanic stone figures, each so different to next.
The First.
Past.
Long flowing hair.
| The Second.
Present.
Short dense hair. | The Third.
Future.
Mid-length framing hair. |
So life like for stone.
What?!
Did their eyes just focus on me?
Or was it a cloud moving across the sun?
Casting a shadow across their faces.
Yeah.
That must be it.
Just stone.
They have stone animals around their person.
EDWARD MAGPIE.
WE ARE
THE ISAACS SISTERS.
I, PAST.
I, PRESENT.
I, FUTURE.
WE KNOW WHY
YOU’RE HERE.
BUT WE CAN’T TELL
YOUR PURPOSE IS.
BUT WE CAN TELL
YOU WHERE YOU
FIND IT.
Simultaneously the sisters went into some sort of trance.
Above the plane that we exist on there are many other planes. Nine. When we pass we are reborn again into a higher or lower form depending on the life you have lived. Once you have reach your ultimate form on one plane you ascend to the heaven, which is actually the ocean the next plane, you start again as the most simplest form of life, plankton. Though because only the good people can transcend, this plane is more enlightened than the last. This process continues until the person gets to the ninth plane, where complete enlightenment can be discovered and the purpose for our very existence is found.
Though below the plane that we exist on there are also another nine planes, for not all of us can be reborn into higher forms for we have not used our lives in an enlightened way. If this happens you transcend down to the HELL, WHICH IS ACTUALLY MANY plains of burning oceans. It is possible to ascend once again on the path of enlightenment though this would take a miracle especially the further down in the plains of hell you are.
I stood silent.
THOUGH THERE IS A
WAY OF BY PASSING
THIS PROCESS.
At that point I felt a spherical object fall into my pocket. As I took it out I saw it was a hermit crab in the roundest shell I’d ever seen.
IN YOUR HAND YOU
HOLD HERMES THE
HERMIT KING.
HE WILL TAKE YOU
TO THE NEXT PLAIN.
How?
THROUGH HIS SHELL
HE HAS THE POWER
FLIGHT.
ANYONE WHO WEILDS
HIM ALSO GAINS HIS
POWER.
THOUGH THIS IS NOT
ALWAYS THE CASE.
HERMES DOES NOT
ALWAYS FLY.
HE ONLY USES HIS POWER
TO ESCAPE FROM DANGER.
ESPECIALLY WHEN
CONFRONTED BY HIS
GREATEST FEAR.
THE TWO HEADED
SNAKE.
USE THE TWO HEAD SNAKE
TATTOO THAT YOUR FIRST
MATE HAS ON HIS ARM –
TO SCARE HERMES
INTO USING HIS
POWER TO ESCAPE
WHAT HE THINKS
IS DANGER.
How did they know about Casso’s tattoo?
I guess they are oracles, thus see and know everything.
And with that the sisters stopped their focus on me and when back into more of the distance gaze that had before.
OH.
BEFORE YOU GO.
TO USE HERMES TO GET
TO THE NEXT PLAIN.
YOU MUST FIND THE
CORAL FOREST.
THE ONLY PLACE WHERE HERMES
HAS EVER USED HIS POWER.
GOOD LUCK.
Before the crew arrived I made sure as always that all the necessary precautions were made to ensure that as much good luck surrounds this coming voyage as possible.
I ticked off my usual checklist to guarantee that I don’t forget anything:
Ø Step onto the ship with my right foot.
Ø Put a silver coin under the Masthead.
Ø Pour wine on the Deck.
Ø Put in my gold earring.
Ø Put Horseshoes on the Mast.
Ø Spit generously overboard.
Choosing a crew to accompany me on this vast voyage wasn’t very difficult, I already had a very strong crew already behind me on my ship the Stultifera Navis:
Robin Casso – My First Mate and the best friend a man could ever ask for. He is an expert fisherman; if there was something to be caught he’d catch it, birds, fish, women. Although there was only one woman for him, the beautiful Cleo Casso, although some of the other members of the crew said that he wasn’t married to her because he would always be betrothed to another, The Sea.
Peacock Le Vent – A man whose fingers were the most nimble I have ever known or seen. A world renowned Artist but also just as good surgeon, net weaver, and expert in knot tying. He’s never been completely happy with me living on St. Nicholas Island for his Grandfather was sentenced to life imprisonment there and so of course never has or ever will set foot in the storage area whether it was renovated or not.
Gulley Cooper – A damn fine Ships Cook and ruler of the part of the Navis that the crew have dubbed ‘Gulley’s Galley’.
He decided quite some time ago that unlike his forefathers he wasn’t interested in the making of barrels but what was contained within them, thus becoming the size and shape of one.
Christopher Crowe – The youngest of the crew, when he’s aboard he lives, eats and sleeps in The Crowe’s Nest, playing his guitar which keep moral high on deck which at certain points is the greatest strength we have. A quiet, reserved man but with the eyesight unmatched by any man I’ve known.
I have missed them.
Before all the men came aboard I made sure of a few things to continue my checklist:
Ø Has everyone avoided red headed and/or flat-footed people today.
Ø No one has a black travelling bag.
Once this was done we set sail to the area that the Isaacs had told me about, where the Shell of Hermes could take us to the next plain.
Then Casso showed his tattoo of the two head snake, the one thing that Hermes is most afraid of.
The shell started glowing
More.
More.
More.
The Navis started shaking.
The glowing absorbing the vessel in light.
The ship slowly started to rise out of the sea.
Up.
Up.
Up.
Plain 1
Darkness.
A Void.
The bottom of an alien ocean.
The light of Hermes had become like a shell of its own around the Navis, not allowing any of the water to get through it.
We continued rising.
Creatures started to swarm around us, drawn in by the light. I thought I knew all the creatures of the sea but this was defiantly a new world.
I partially recognised all the animals that made up the encircling horde but they were different.
More eyes.
More limbs.
Extra Heads.
We continued rising.
The water becoming clearer.
We still had schools and pods following our rise to the surface.
As creatures left the mass new ones joined.
The surface.
The light slowly retracting from around the ship as it was being replaced by the rays of the sun.
The sun.
Warming my skin once again from the cold of the deep.
The crew and I decided that whilst we were here we could explore and also be the first crew to catch and bring back a creature from another world.
It was hot.
The sun continued to shine.
We all decided that the best thing to do was to go for a swim.
Though there were questions on whether it was safe or not.
Once we got into the water we became aware that the water was not as safe as we thought.
FANGED WHALES.
They were coming straight for us.
It ended up that on this plain the fanged whales were like common whales on our plain.
Not man-eaters.
The crew held on to their fins as they passed by taking them rushing through the water.
We ended up sending all day in the sea.
Once we got back aboard the Navis the sun, still being prominent in the sky, dried us as we talked of what we could eat.
At that very moment a Solar Fish leapt out of the water into the sky almost eclipsing the actual sun and landed on deck.
Delicious.
Gulley had just lightly fried the fish with a squeeze of lemon with a selection of Daze’s home grown vegetables.
After that everyone slowly fell into a deep sleep with the evening sun beating warmly on our skin, covering us with a blanket of reds and oranges.
We woke to another fine day though I was aware that we had spent quite a bit of time on this plain and we needed to get to continue up to the next plains.
I took Hermes out of my pocket and again Robin showed the tattoo.
Something was wrong
The hermit crab seemed unphased.
As I looked around that the crew my grip must have slackened only slight but at that very point an eruption of light.
Hermes shot into the air like a comet and then in an instant dropped into the sea.
Trapped.
How are we going to get home?
Lost in paradise.
HE WAS NEVER MEANT TO STAY WITH YOU.
THIS IS WHERE HIS KINGDOM LIES.
FOR HE IS AFTER ALL THE HERMIT KING.
We looked down into the water to have two massive green feline eyes stare right back.
A lions face made up from sea weed.
The lion of the first oracle, Past.
How are
we meant
to travel
to the
next plain.
I WILL TAKE YOU.
It felt like a gigantic wave had hit the ship as the lion scooped us up into its mouth, leaped out of the water and shot into the sky.
Plain 4
Darkness once again.
The sound of the lion breathing.
The rush of the water. Outside of its tightly shut mouth.
Even though it sounded like a thunder storm around us everything inside of this behemoth seemed calm.
The water that the Navis was floating on was undisturbed.
Not even a slight ripple could be seen.
Brilliant sunlight.
As the jaws of our guide opened.
Allowing the Stultifera Navis to float gently into unchartered waters once again.
GOOD LUCK.
With that the lion leaped out of the water again.
As it did so its seaweed covered skin started to dry and the weed started going golden and then turned back into fur and the colossal creature took the form it had the day I saw it on Stone Haven.
It then became merged with the rays of sunlight that were stinging our delicate eyes.
What are we to do now?
Have we gone from being stuck on one plain to another?
Why would the sisters do this to us?
HELLO GENTLEMEN.
A posh, well-spoken voice.
Who’s voice?
I looked on board and it was only the crew and I.
DOWN HERE.
IN THE WATER.
PORT SIDE.
We all looked over port side.
Only a Dolfin.
HELLO.
What?
HELLO.
What?
H – E – L – L – O.
I AM BENJAMIN BOTTLE.
AND YOU ARE?
Edward Magie.
This is my crew.
I said as bold as I could though this came out more like a bleak whisper.
After all this was my first time talking to a Dolfin.
AH YES.
THE CREW OF
THE STULTIFERA NAVIS.
I SEE IT IN YOUR EYES.
YOU DESPAIR SO.
THOUGH ALL IS WELL.
COME.
FOLLOW ME.
And with that Benjamin amazingly started pushing the ship along to
an unknown point
on an unknown map
in an unknown world.
As we were being pushed along, the crew discussed the matter of that if there was a way of getting home, to our own plain, we should do it.
Food and fresh water was low.
In general moral was like the surface of the sea we were being pushed over –
Continuously up and down.
We stopped.
HERE WE ARE GENTLEMEN.
Again we were left as the Dolfin swam down into the depths.
Curses.
Many curses surging in my mind.
I did not know if I wanted to cry.
Or shout.
Or even just laugh.
We were back to square one.
That is if we knew what square one actually looked like anymore.
YOU DESPAIR.
WHY?
Another unknown voice from a hidden source.
Where are you!?
Show yourself!
As these words were bellowed into the void, the clouds above us started to swirl and eddy.
It looked like the beginning of a hurricane.
Slowly, they took the form of a bear.
The bear of the second oracle, Present.
Will you not help us?!
I WILL.
WHY DISPAIR THOUGH?
The sisters have sent us on a wild goose chase for enlightenment.
Going from plain to plain with no real answers.
Why would they do that?
It’s hell.
A small smile seemed to appear on the nimbus bear.
YOU THINK THIS IS HELL?
OK.
I’LL TAKE YOU HOME.
It then dived out of the sky into the sea.
It then surfaced and the Navis seemed to merged with the pelt of cloud of the creatures back.
We dived again.
We plummeted into the deep.
The surface of the bear’s back.
Unlike the jaws of the lion of past.
A tempest.
Giant waves of cloud tumbling on deck.
Not damaging.
Like a fine mist.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Through water and air.
Hell 6
We seemed to be getting faster.
We must be.
The mist seems to be getting warmer.
More and more like steam.
It is becoming harder to see.
The heat is coming unbearable.
We should be home soon.
Its been an enlightening journey.
Though I do not think its my time to know the ultimate question.
Heat.
So very hot.
WE ARE HERE.
The bear hit the water.
Instantly turning into steam.
As the steam rose it reformed again into the bear.
Again the form it had on Stone Haven.
This is not home!
Where are we!?
Where have we been taken?!
THIS IS HELL.
AND NOW YOU MUST ENDURE IT.
With that it bound away into the crimson sky.
Hell.
Hell.
Hell.
Hell.
The Navis was slowly eroding away in the boiling hot sea.
Parts of it alight with fire lapping at the bow.
What have I done?
I have damned us all.
We will spend eternity in hell.
Burning.
‘It is possible to ascend once again on the path of enlightenment though this would take a miracle especially the further down in the plains of hell
you are.’
There is very little chance of escape now.
Dead.
Chard bodies float on by.
Maybe this is what the meaning of my life is.
My enlightenment comes from being alight.
In pain.
Maybe that’s all I deserve.
The ship slowly sinking.
I don’t want this to be the end.
AND IT IS NOT.
I looked up to be confronted by the light of a blood moon.
The light of hell.
A shadow came over it.
Turning it into the face of an owl.
The owl of the third oracle, Future.
EDWARD.
WHY SPEAK WRONGLY OF THE SISTERS.
WE WERE ONLY TRYING TO HELP.
I did not mean to.
WE KNOW.
AFTER ALL WE DO KNOW ALL.
FOR THAT IS WHY I AM HERE.
THIS IS NOT THE END.
THOUGH IT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Half the hull had already been eaten away.
My life slowly crumbling away under me.
What must we do?
NOTHING.
JUST KNOW EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.
ONCE AGAIN TRUST THE ISAACS SISTERS.
We do.
We really do.
I do.
I really do.
GOOD.
The owl then swooped down and took what remained of the Navis in its talons.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Plain 9
In an instant we were shooting up through the different plains.
It was getting cooler.
Thankfully.
I realised then that as we were rising the Stultifera Navis was returning to its former glory.
Once it was completely restored the wood that made up the ship started changing.
GOLD.
THE NINETH PLAIN.
ENLIGHTENMENT.
THE ANSWER.
THE VOID FILLED.
The ship was now completely gold.
My mind felt like gold.
Enlightenment.
Everything made sense.
I saw in the eyes of my crew that they were there too.
Enlightenment.
I DEPART.
FAREWELL.
Wait.
How do we get back home?
THERE IS NO GOING BACK.
YOU ARE NOT OF THAT PLAIN ANYMORE.
YOU ARE MORE.
As I said the words it all made sense.
We are dead.
Fin.
