Changing the Prophecy Chapter 5 Episode 1

Chapter 5 At the Dome -- Episode 1

On her way back to the Garden, Doshmisi pondered the images sent to her by the trees. They urged her to go see Clover, and she would do that. But first she wanted to find out more about Mole and the situation on the North Coast. She believed that if she went to the North Coast, then she would learn something important about the blue-green algae and the whales. She would prefer to solve the mystery about the threat to the algae before she visited Clover so that she could share that information with Clover and seek her grandmother’s advice.

Upon her return to the potting shed at the Garden, she found that the intuit Jack had joined Jasper and Jade. Although only six years old, Jack had the ability to see into the future and to witness events taking place far away from him. Typical of people who lived at the Dome Circle, he had brown skin with a deep purple glow. He also had thick, purple curls. He hovered over the ground, like all intuits, whose intense energy caused them to lift up off their feet. Jack floated to Doshmisi at eye level and happily flung his little arms around her neck shouting, “hi, hi, hi.”

“What’d the trees say?” Jasper asked.

Jack clung delightedly to Doshmisi’s neck and she shifted him to one side so she could see Jasper and Jade.

“They’re sad,” Doshmisi began, and then hesitated. Jack put his hand on her head and closed his eyes. “They want me to go to see Grandmomma Clover on Whale Island.”

Jack’s eyes sprang open, he pushed himself off Doshmisi, and told Jasper, “Sick ocean. Poison.”

“Yes, Jack,” Doshmisi confirmed. “The trees showed me that something will threaten or has already threatened the blue-green algae and this has deeply disturbed the whales. I’m not sure if I saw the present or the future, but whenever it takes place, it’s not good.”

“Poison?” Jade asked. “The algae poisoned?”

“Poison,” Jack repeated.

“Grandmomma Clover once explained to me that the algae cleans the air in Faracadar, and that without it, the air will thin out and become too dirty to support life,” Doshmisi said.

Jack grabbed his neck, and pretended to choke himself. He fell over sideways, gagging for air.

“Leave it, Jack,” Jasper said, anxiously. “We can do without the theatrics.”

Jack floated benignly in the air with a slightly hurt expression on his face.

“Correct,” Jade confirmed for Doshmisi. “The algae and the whales each have a role in a delicate ecosystem that supports the quality of the air for us air-breathing creatures.”

“And the quality of the water for the sea creatures too, I suppose,” Doshmisi added.

“Of course,” Jade said.

“Then I guess we should head for the Islands to check in with Clover,” Jasper said, eager to strike out on the open road and do the guiding work for which he was trained.

“No, not yet,” Doshmisi disagreed, as she pursed her lips in thought.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean that Grandmomma will have to wait. I intend to go see her, just as the trees wish; but first I want to find out more about what’s going on at the North Coast. I want to look for Mole and see if he can shed any light on Sissrath’s game plan.”

“Do you think it wise to contradict the trees?” Jade asked, worriedly.

“The trees showed me several things. They showed me Clover and they showed me that the algae could potentially be in danger and that the threat to the algae has the whales distraught. I want to find out as much as I can about what we’re up against before I talk to Grandmomma so I can ask for her opinion about all of it. What do you think, Jack?” Doshmisi asked the intuit.

“Coast.” Jack nodded emphatically.

“North Coast it is then,” Jasper said. He asked Jade if she would look after Cocoa until Granite returned. When they took their leave of Jade, she gave them fresh fruit and cheese for their journey. Jasper seated Jack in front of him on his tiger and the travelers headed in the direction of the ocean. Doshmisi enjoyed riding through the familiar landscape, bathed in the light from the greenish sun. She had missed this land. They rode for the rest of that day, stopping only when the shadows grew long and darkness began to descend.

Jasper set up two small tents in a birch forest that night. “If we ride hard tomorrow, we can reach Akinowe Lake and the Solferino Settlement before nightfall,” Jasper told the others before they went to bed. The Solferino Settlement housed the Crystal Communication Dome, a hub for messages traveling throughout Faracadar and therefore its communication center. Perhaps they would learn something valuable about Sissrath’s activities at the Dome.

The travelers rose at dawn for a tasty breakfast of bread, cheese, and grapes. By midday they arrived atop the hills that ringed Akinowe Lake. The many-colored birds that lived near the lake swooped in brilliant streaks across the sky between the hills and the water, which sparkled invitingly in the distance. Jasper led them on the path down to the lake and around its edge. When the blue-tinged fingers of evening brushed the treetops, they arrived on the outskirts of the Dome Circle. They looked forward to staying at the Tollhouse run by Jelly and Mrs. Jelly, whom they had befriended the year before. Mrs. Jelly made terrific pancakes. As they approached the circle, Jack warned them, “danger, danger, danger;” so they remained alert and cautious.

It soon became apparent that it did not require the clairvoyance of an intuit to recognize that something at the Dome had gone amiss. They did not see any people and the footsteps of their tigers sounded loud in the silent road, empty of the cheerful voices of children calling to one another as they played in the yards and pathways of the circle. Jasper pulled his tiger up short and swung off of the large, gentle beast, leaving Jack on the Tiger’s back by himself. He motioned to Doshmisi and she too dismounted. They led the tigers into the eerily quiet circle and made their way to the Tollhouse. Jasper knocked on the heavy wooden door. Two eyes peered out of a slit in the door. The slit slammed shut. Then a jolly balding man with inky purple-black skin and a lavender-colored beard opened the door and hurried them inside, tigers and all, swiftly slamming the door shut behind them. Once he had them safely inside, Jelly (for that is who the man was) crushed each of them in turn in an enormous bear hug as he called over his shoulder, “Mrs. Jelly, come see what the tigers dragged in!”

The travelers stood in the middle of a large dining hall with a high, wood-beamed ceiling. Mrs. Jelly emerged from the kitchen, wiping her work-worn hands on her apron, and exclaiming, “Marvelous to see you, so marvelous. And just in the nick of time. Have you eaten dinner? No, of course not. Let me fix each of you a plate. Say, what became of the rest of you?” She meant Doshmisi’s siblings, the rest of the Four.

“We got separated during the passage,” Doshmisi replied. “I don’t know where the others wound up or if they even made it through.” Her words caught in her throat and reminded Doshmisi of how worried she was about what had happened to the others. She didn’t want to dwell on it because it scared her. She had to focus on the task in front of her.

“It was the first time without Amethyst,” Jasper added.

“Yes, well I’m sure Crystal did her best,” Mrs. Jelly said sympathetically.

“She had Ruby with her. Ruby will replace Amethyst as the Gatekeeper soon, but it seems they need more practice,” Doshmisi explained. She didn’t want to sound too critical of Crystal and Ruby. She knew that they had tried their hardest and had not intended to separate the Four during the passage.

“I’ll get you some dinner while Mr. Jelly tells you about our visitors here at the Dome Circle. Not a pretty story,” Mrs. Jelly said as she shook her head ruefully and retreated to her kitchen.

Jelly called a boy over to him and asked him to take the tigers outside, and to feed them and bed them down. Then he sat at one of the heavy wooden tables with Doshmisi and Jasper. Jack climbed happily into his Uncle Jelly’s lap. “Dome down. Dome off,” Jack said sadly, as he patted his uncle’s beard.

“Yes indeed,” Jelly confirmed.

“What do you mean?” Jasper asked.

“What Jack said. The Dome is not working,” Jelly informed them. People communicated across long distances throughout the land using crystal energy generated from the Crystal Communication Dome. If the Dome had stopped working, then the people could only communicate from one place to another by messenger.

“What happened?” Doshmisi asked. “And why is the circle deserted? Where did everyone go?”

“They’re staying out of sight for their safety,” Jelly said. “Sissrath’s Special Forces arrived last week with guns, which are a kind of tool that shoots a small piece of metal.”

“A bullet,” Doshmisi said.

“A bullet?” Jasper asked.

“The small piece of metal shot from the gun is called a bullet. They have them in the Farland, but I have never seen them here. I wonder who introduced them into Faracadar. Perhaps Sissrath invented them. I’m sorry to hear that guns have come to Faracadar,” Doshmisi said regretfully.

“The Special Forces used these guns to kill the security guards at the Dome,” Jelly continued to recount recent events. “Then they sent the Dome workers home and they covered the central crystal with a large cloth. No communications have come in or gone out since. Fearing for their lives, the people of the circle have stayed inside their houses, only going out for essentials. It’s like a siege.”