Land Of The Thunder Dragon
Page 13
Lurch interjected, “My scanners show that the shield is drawing around five watts, not much in itself, but a lot when you consider the requirements of the climb as well.”
“Maybe we are safe enough now,” said David, checking their surroundings. “Perhaps turn it off and save the energy for the climb or if any danger happens.”
Skye, shaking her head said, “Not going to happen David, this shield isn’t turning off until you are safely inside the Takstang Monastery.”
About to object, David noticed an old man emerging from a teahouse on a knoll just below them that overlooked the valley. He was beckoning for them to come down to him.
“Please,” he called up to them, “I have sweet tea and biscuits. It will help you with the climb.”
They all looked at each other, surely they shouldn’t take up this nice man’s offer at this critical time, but.
“The extra energy would really help Skye at the moment,” said Timothy, as his stomach growled.
Skye said, “I can keep the shield around us while we have something to eat and drink, that will keep us safe. I could really do with the extra energy.”
David wasn’t convinced, and as they came down to the tea house he said to the man, who was dressed in traditional Bhutanese dress, “Thank you for your kind offer sir, however, we can accept no assistance from anyone on this journey, perhaps on our way back, we will stop to have tea with you.” David bowed politely and motioned to the others to keep going.
Wayne said, “I can’t believe we nearly fell for that one, good call David. Do you think he was being kind or deliberately leading us astray?”
“I am going to choose to believe that he was being kind, and accept that it is our responsibility alone to stick to our mission. I could do with tea and biscuits right now, but if we weren’t smart enough to bring them with us, we will have to wait,” David said reflectively. “Having said that, if we had paid for the tea and biscuits rather than accepting them for free, that would not be accepting help.”
“There is one big problem with that solution though,” said Skye.
“Yeah, we have no money,” they all said together.
They walked on, feeling a little better for their short rest and distraction.
After another hour they came out onto a crest which was really a knoll on the ridge line. They looked straight across at the Takstang Monastery. They had climbed up to the same level at last, but there was a massive gorge between them and their destination.
There was a small building being rebuilt, with a terrace and wall that they could sit and rest on, while they took in the amazing view.
David could look out at every detail, and spotted a small wooden staircase leading up the front wall to a landing and a small door through the whitewashed stonework. Somehow, he knew that this was the entrance he had to take. He looked down at his staff and the inscription read, “Alone From Here”.
David gasped, which caused them all to look at the staff.
“No Way,” said Skye, “I must stay with you to protect you David.”
“It will be ok,” he said, as everyone crowded around. “You can place a bubble around me from here Skye, you know you can, remember the guy on the fuel line?”
Skye nodded, and shivered a little as she realised that it was getting cold, cloud had covered the sun and had left a shadow on her heart, a cold premonition. But she decided to stay cheerful on the outside for David. This was the hard part now, and he had to do it alone.
The young monks started a fire with sticks they had collected along the way, and immediately they felt a little more cheerful. One of them filled a pot from a small waterfall alongside the path and threw a handful of tea leaves into it as he placed it on the burning sticks. Another one smiled at them as he unrolled his mat to reveal a cup and a small bag of biscuits hidden within it. He indicated that the others should do the same.
Flynn unrolled his mat and found that he also had a battered tin cup and a small bag of biscuits as the others did the same. “How did that get in there?” He said. “I rolled that mat up and it hasn’t been out of my sight.”
David stood up from where he was sitting on the precipice of the gorge and walked on. He knew that he had to keep going, that he could no longer be distracted from his task.
“Keep the kettle on for when I get back,” he said without looking back.
Skye mentally scrambled to form a shield bubble around him as he stepped over the edge and down into the gorge.
David descended on a staircase hewn directly from the rock, there were a lot of steps, that took him well below the level of Takstang again to a landing. A path headed off to the left.
The path, once again, was cut directly from the rock of the gorge wall and was almost like a tunnel, but without one wall. This meant that David could see up to the monastery and down into the gorge, but not the bottom far below. There was no railing, so David walked as close to the left-hand wall as he could, using the staff as a walking stick in his right hand. The floor was anything but smooth, and he really had to watch his footing. If he tripped, he would fall over the edge and into the abyss.
David could hear water cascading down into the gorge. All of a sudden, he could see the water, falling across the path as he reached the apex of the gorge. Here he could see that the trail disappeared under the waterfall and then turned back and along the wall on the other side. It looked like he was going to get wet. It was cold in here, there was no sunshine reaching into this wet corner of the gorge. But multi coloured prayer flags draped across the gap lightened his mood, and he could look upwards and see the monastery sitting in the sunshine.
There was nothing for it, he took the plunge through the waterfall. Much to his surprise, he realised that Skye’s shield was still working, and the water cascaded off it, keeping him dry. Now that was a win.
The path now rose towards the sunshine and the monastery bathing within it.
As David approached the base of the monastery, he realised that it was in fact much larger than he had thought from below. The door through which he needed to go, now looked much larger than it had from his vantage point on the other side of the gorge.
The sun disappeared behind cloud again and suddenly mist swirled in, obscuring the view of his surroundings. He reached the base of the wooden stairs and was disappointed that he couldn’t see the rest of his team on the opposite knoll.
There was nothing else he could do, so he put his right foot on the first step and began the climb up the staircase. In a way, he was grateful for the mist, as he couldn’t see the massive drop below him through the gaps in the steps, some of which were missing altogether.
As he reached the landing in front of the wooden door, he looked down at the staff in his right hand. It read, “Shield Gone, Move Now.”
David’s eyes grew wide, surely no one could shoot an arrow at him while he was in this thick fog. And then he worried if something had happened to Skye. And then he moved, quickly.
As he reached for the door handle, just a simple wooden lever, he heard a rumble from above. He pulled, but the door wouldn’t budge. He yanked on the handle harder and harder, but it just wouldn’t open. The rumbling grew louder, he rapped on the door with the staff, when he noticed the text on it had changed, “Push You Fool.”
With that, David pushed, and the door opened easily. As he had one foot in the doorway, something wooshed behind him, and with an almighty crash the landing and first part of the staircase disappeared into the abyss. David started to lose his balance and felt himself sucked along with it. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to hook the handle of the staff in the door jamb and he pulled himself in, falling onto the floor in a tangle of arms, legs and staff.
The staff read, “Pheww.” And then, “Be Sure You Have Had No Help.”
Lying there shaking uncontrollably, David thought about that for a moment. Had someone planted the tea and biscuits in their bed rolls, as proof that he had been helped? He unrolled it and saw
that indeed, there was a cup, another battered tin mug, and a small bag of biscuits inside. As is always the case, you never really know how hungry you are until you see food. David had to fight hard to resist smashing a few of those biscuits. He tossed them into the abyss and then proceeded to check everything from his blanket to his pockets.
As he pulled a piece of paper from his right hip pocket in his shorts, he knew that strange things were afoot. He looked down at the One Hundred Ngultrum note. He had never seen Bhutanese money before, and for that matter, he didn’t even know what it was called, until now. How on earth would he happen to have one in his pocket?
The only people they had contact with since leaving Paro were the young monks, and the tea shop guy, who he hadn’t got close enough to touch. Now he was worried about his cousins, the young monks were aware of the tin mugs and biscuits in everyone’s bed rolls. He felt the need to go back and warn them, but with the staircase gone, there was no going back.
David thought about what he should do with the money. It was a waste to toss it into the gorge. For the first time he looked around into the room behind him, careful not to fall back out of the door.
The room was a shrine, with a huge golden Buddha nearly filling the room. He remembered Grandpa Jack’s description of this room from his story and realised that it was one and the same. Grandpa Jack had touched the belly of the Buddha to open a secret passageway.
Forgetting the One Hundred Ngultrum note in his hand he took the two steps towards the Golden Buddha and reached out to touch his shiny belly. He then saw the note in his hand and snatched it back before making a huge mistake. He went to throw it out of the door, when he noticed a small donation box on a table with candles in a box for lighting in the temple as offerings.
David placed the note in the donation box, “Why waste it,” he thought.
He went back to the Buddha and placed his hand on his belly, gently, as his Grandfather had done. It felt strangely warm, as if it was alive. But nothing happened.
The staff read, “Nothing Will Be The Same, Numb Nut.”
“Numb Nut,” David said incredulously, “Who are you calling Numb Nut?”
Chapter 25
“Faith, Courage, Committment.”
David sat cross legged on the stone floor, looking up at the golden Buddha. He had been there for nearly an hour now, after searching the small room for any clue as to how to make the next step. Nothing had happened. He had lifted small statues, looked for loose stones, rubbed the Buddha’s belly again, clockwise and anti-clockwise. Maybe he had been rejected for receiving help in some way. Perhaps Grandpa Jack’s interpretation of the prophesy was wrong. What if flying from Australia to Bhutan in Priscilla had been help?
He walked back to the open door and looked out at the swirling mist, he couldn’t see more than a few metres out, and could hear nothing. He hoped the others were ok, it was nearly dark outside and even darker within the little room.
He went back to the little table with the long tapered candles on it, maybe he should light a couple to create a bit of cheer.
He picked two up and used the lone burning butter candle in front of the Buddha to light them. He held them up to light the space a bit better, it had grown quite dim. He looked around the room to see if the candle light would highlight something he had missed. As he turned to his right, he noticed a change in the light. The wall on that side, now had a large opening in it that hadn’t been there before. Outside was bright daylight and he could see right up the valley to a snow covered peak in the distance. Somehow, he knew this to be Mount Jomolhari. “How did I know that?” He said to no-one in particular. It shimmered as if it was a painting.
David covered the candles and the wall reappeared. When he allowed the flickering candlelight to once again play upon the wall, the opening re-formed and the view was once again apparent. He moved closer.
He reached out to touch where the wall had been, and his hand passed through it as if it was an open window. Covering the candles, it became a solid stone wall again, centuries old.
David couldn’t understand what it meant, as there was no floor on the other side, just a massive drop into the valley below. However, it was obvious that this was a door, not a window, as the opening went all the way to the floor. Perhaps whatever had smashed the staircase had also taken this with it, so if he was meant to walk out there, now it wasn’t possible. But there was no other way out of this room, with the staircase gone.
He sat back on the floor, and thought. But the only thing he could think of was his thirst, it had been a while since he had had a drink of water from the waterfall.
His staff compelled him to look at it, and the inscription now read “Perhaps A Leap Of Faith?”
“What is that supposed to mean,” he said to the staff. “A leap of faith? With a question mark? Are you suggesting that I just jump out of that door? With a question mark?”
“Just Sayin,” the staff replied.
“Oh crap,” David exclaimed as he got up off the stone floor to have a closer look.
He placed the lit candles in holders in a position that they could cast their light onto the wall. David walked over to the opening and put his foot through it to see if there was some kind of invisible floor that would support him, but there was nothing, just the terrifying void below. But then, why is the weather different on this side, he thought as he looked back at the swirling mist outside of the door that he came in through.
“Faith, Courage, Commitment.” Read the inscription.
“You really want me to kill myself by leaping out of that door?”
“Faith, Courage, Commitment.” The inscription glowed brightly.
David thought for a minute. “What if I step through and fall? What if I go through and can’t get back? What If?”
All of a sudden, his mind resolved that there was no going back. The staircase was gone, the swirling mist in itself, was blocking his path, urging him to go forward, not back.
David walked over to the table and took two more candles and slipped them into his pocket, just in case.
He strode boldly over to where his staff lay on the floor and picked it up. Without further thought, he stepped through the opening, “Faith, Courage, Commitment,” he thought.
David plummeted into the abyss.
Chapter 26
“I Am Druk”
Wayne woke up with a start. It was pitch dark other than the glow from the dying embers of their little camp fire. They were all curled up around it on their sleeping mats.
Everyone else appeared to be asleep, even the young monks.
Wayne was sure he had heard a scream. He tried to look out into the dark, in the direction of the Takstang Monastery, but it had started to snow and as a result the world was deathly quiet.
He placed a few sticks on the fire that they had collected while waiting for David to return.
“I heard it too,” said Skye, as she rose with her blanket around her and moved closer to the sputtering flames. “I’m really worried Wayne, he should have been back by now. I am quite sure that what I heard was telepathic, rather than actual sound. I also had a dream of falling, but I’m not sure if it was of me, or someone else.”
“I had the same vision,” said Flynn, propping himself up on one elbow. “I would like to think that there is something we can do, but what if we leave here to look for David, and he comes a different way and finds we are not here. Getting split up seems a really bad idea, especially if it means David will be alone.”
Timothy shook the snow from around the blanket over his head. “I think we are going to have to find better shelter than this anyway.”
With that, Skye produced a shield dome over them to stop the snow from falling on them. “That’s better,” she said, “I must have stopped the shield when I fell asleep. That’s a worry, I will have to work on that one.”
“Probably no need to worry” said Timothy. “It should all be over by the next time you sleep,” He said.
Wayne kept feeding the fire with sticks and thought long on what Skye had just said. “Do you think we will ever see home again?” he said.
“Wow,” said Skye, “You sure know how to lower the mood Wayno.”
“I didn’t mean to be negative. It’s just that, well, home isn’t really there any more, is it.”
“I understand what you mean,” said Skye reflectively. “So how about this. What if we all choose that from now on, or at least until this is all over, home is wherever we are all at, as long as we are all together. I know David and Grandpa Jack are away from us at the moment, but that situation is temporary, and it will always be up to us to work at bringing us all back together as soon as possible. I really don’t like that they are not with us at the moment, so let’s fix that. Who knows, if all of this goes well, maybe one day we can join our families on Gamma Cygnus Three.”