Changing the Prophecy Chapter 21

 

Chapter 21 Canyon of Imaginary Reality

They stopped to eat a hasty lunch while the tigers and Dagobaz drank water from a flowing stream and took a moment’s rest. Then they pressed on into the afternoon. Before long they began to notice that the air had become humid, bloated with moisture, and it was hazy, as if contaminated by a nearby fire. The light from the sun had an eerie yellowish cast to it, the way sunlight looks shining through many dust particles in the air. Denzel and Mole discussed the deteriorated air quality in hushed voices. They had come to the same conclusion as Cardamom and Reggie and they had also chosen not to discuss their observation openly.

In the late afternoon, as they approached the North Coast, and just as Doshmisi had begun to allow herself to hope that Sissrath did not know their whereabouts, she heard the sound of many tiger paws pounding hard on the ground behind her. Those pounding paws could only mean trouble. The travelers had arrived in a meadow that gave way to a rocky hillside rising up abruptly from the meadow’s edge. Jasper had intended to turn from the rocky hillside and to lead the group toward the water, where they could skirt the rocky region by riding on the beach. They were nearing the damaged oil rig and the Corporton compound.

Unfortunately, the tiger paws that Doshmisi heard behind her belonged to tigers carrying Special Forces. She bent low over Dagobaz’s neck as the horse fairly flew, increasing his speed. She worried the tigers carrying her family and friends could not keep up with Dagobaz. Despite their exhaustion, the tigers pushed themselves to the limit. On Dagobaz, Doshmisi quickly pulled out into the lead. She dropped back slightly to ride alongside Jasper, who called over to her, “We have to enter this canyon up ahead. I don’t like it. Something feels wrong about it.”

“I have a bad feeling about it too,” Doshmisi agreed. “Can we avoid it?”

“I don’t know another way,” Jasper lamented.

The Special Forces bore down on them from behind in a horseshoe formation. She suddenly realized the Special Forces were herding her and the others into the canyon on purpose. There was something in that canyon that the Special Forces knew about and Doshmisi and her companions did not. Jasper shouted to her but she couldn’t make out his words over the pounding of tiger paws and Dagobaz’s hooves. Despite her dread of finding out what lurked in the canyon, she and the others had no choice. The pursuit of the Special Forces drove them into it.

Inside the canyon, steep walls of rock rose on either side. Interestingly, the Special Forces continued to follow them. If the Special Forces did not fear entering the canyon, then perhaps they hadn’t purposely chased Doshmisi and the others into it after all and maybe nothing bad awaited them. The travelers picked up speed and put more distance between themselves and the Special Forces. Doshmisi clung to Dagobaz’s mane and hunkered down over the horse’s neck. For a brief, bright moment she thought, with exhilaration, that they could outrun the Special Forces. She could no longer hear them in pursuit. Then she remembered that it did not bode well if the Special Forces had fallen back and retreated from the canyon.

Doshmisi hollered to Dagobaz, “Whoa! Hold up!” as she reined him in. Jasper, Sonjay, Denzel, and Crumpet flew past her. Next, her father, Cardamom, Honeydew, and High Chief Hyacinth passed her. Doshmisi slowed down and shouted to the others, “Stop, stop, stop!” Everyone slowed, turning to look at her in bewilderment, until all the riders had brought their tigers to a halt and rode over to cluster around Doshmisi. “Think about it,” she said. “The Special Forces have disappeared. Something is up.”

“They wanted us to ride into this canyon, didn’t they?” Sonjay asked.

“I think so,” Doshmisi confirmed.

Denzel groaned. “I wonder what the heck is in here,” he said.

“No mice, I hope,” Hyacinth announced anxiously. “I hate mice.” The instant the words flew from Hyacinth’s lips, three enormous mice, as big as elephants, appeared just ahead in the canyon. Cardamom instantly held his hands up in front of him and, as sparks flew from his fingers, said a few words of enchantment, which blasted the giant mice into the air. The enormous rodents screeched and ran off into the canyon. “Imaginary Reality,” Cardamom stated grimly.

“What does that mean?” Maia asked.

“Speak up, we can’t hear you back here,” Reggie called to Cardamom.

Cardamom raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. “We’ve entered a zone of Imaginary Reality. Sissrath probably set it up especially for us.”

 An enormous cinnamon roll fell from the sky and landed in front of them with a splat, obstructing their path forward.

“OK,” Cardamom said impatiently, “who imagined the cinnamon roll?”

“That be me,” Mole replied sheepishly. “I be a little hungry, mon.”

“Well unimagine it right away,” Cardamom commanded.

“We could eat our way through it,” Guhblorin suggested hopefully. “It looks tasty. Could you imagine one with frosting on it?” Guhblorin asked Mole.

“Sure thing,” Mole replied.

Another cinnamon roll dropped from the sky, missing Guhblorin’s head by mere inches, and impaled itself on a spiky fir tree, which prevented it from rolling down the steep side of the canyon and crushing the geebaching. Guhblorin leaned over and took a bite out of the cinnamon roll. “Yum. Delicious frosting Mole,” he said appreciatively. He had almost fallen off the tiger while leaning out to take a bite and Elena grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto the tiger they shared.

“Both of you, stop that this instant!” Cardamom roared. “Unimagine these pastries right away. Don’t you see? Anything you imagine in this canyon will become real, more than real, in fact exaggerated and malevolent. The canyon will use your imagination against you. You must make your mind blank. Don’t think of anything. Do whatever you have to do to not think. Meditate. Scream. Sing. Count. Anything. We have to ride through here as quickly as possible without imagining a single thing!”

“Impossible,” Reggie declared. “It’s the nature of the human mind to be active.”

“Enchanters learn to clear our minds of all thought in order to perform enchantments. It's possible. It’s a learned skill. You will just have to learn how to do it quickly and immediately. Now Mole, unimagine that cinnamon roll,” Cardamom ordered again. “We need to keep riding and it’s blocking our way. Do it now.”

Mole closed his eyes and concentrated hard. The cinnamon rolls disappeared and Cardamom shouted, “Let’s go!” But they only progressed a few yards before a river of thick, brown sludge swooped down the floor of the canyon and engulfed the tigers’ ankles. The sludge began to rise.

“Oh no, perdón, perdón,” Elena cried out. “Mole sauce. I’ll try to forget it.”

“Holay Molay,” Guhblorin announced, with a giggle that bordered on hysteria.

“It’s not funny,” Maia yelled at Guhblorin, as the mole sauce rose rapidly around the legs of the tigers, who howled and hissed and pawed at the swampy river beneath their feet.

Guhblorin leaned down to dip his finger into the mole sauce and fell head first into the sludge. His head popped back up and he reported to Elena, “It has crushed almonds and coriander in it.”

“What about cilantro?” Elena asked, unable to resist figuring out the recipe. “And what kind of chocolate? Real Mexican chocolate?”

“Not sure about the cilantro. The chocolate is premium dark, at least 70% cacao,” Guhblorin replied as he stood up. The mole sauce had almost reached his stomach. Elena leaned over and gave him a hand up behind her on the tiger. Then she licked the tips of her fingers.

“Yum,” Elena muttered. “I like the coriander.”

“Get rid of this mole sauce, Elena, before it drowns us,” Denzel hollered at her.

“Of course,” Elena replied, as she informed Guhblorin in a low voice, “no cilantro in it. Cilantro would definitely improve it.” The mole sauce dried up and disappeared.

The travelers proceeded further into the canyon where flying books and maps swooped down from overhead and fluttered menacingly around their ears.

“I brought the books,” Iris admitted. “It’s hard work to clear my mind.”

“An impossible task,” Jasper exclaimed with a gasp. “Those maps came from me.”

The books and maps flapped around their heads, pummeling them with snapping pages. Holding their hands up to protect their eyes, the travelers could barely see. The tigers moaned and shook their large heads back and forth to rid themselves of the crazy assault. Then the books disappeared but the maps kept swooping and battering them.

“I can’t make it stop,” Jasper apologized with a note of desperation in his voice. “Someone tell me something else to think about,” he pleaded. The tigers inched forward into the swarming maps.

Then the air filled with the sound of laughter. It began softly and increased rapidly until massive belly-laughs echoed from side to side in the canyon. Loud and vicious, the laughter hurt their ears. At least it distracted Jasper so that he forgot the maps, which vanished.

While they covered their ears against the pounding laughter, a fleet of screw drivers and wrenches swarmed into the canyon. “Oh no,” Denzel wailed. “I can stop it. Give me a second.” He squeezed his eyes shut. Before the metal tools could stab the travelers, they turned into water balloons and when they hit the travelers they burst with loud pops, soaking everyone’s clothes. “That was a close one,” Denzel said.

“Nothing is funny,” Guhblorin was yelling. “I’m not laughing. No one is laughing.”

“That bad laughter must have come from Guhblorin,” Crumpet guessed.

“That’s a no-brainer,” Sonjay responded. He had just barely managed to control his thoughts so far by using techniques he had learned in his early training as an enchanter, but he kept losing his concentration. He struggled to empty his mind of thoughts.

Doshmisi brought down a pod of dolphins swimming through the air straight at them and Maia manifested an avalanche of drums and flutes, which gave her an idea. “I have a suggestion,” Maia called out, “let’s sing!” And she launched into the Temptations’ “My Girl” with funky enthusiasm. She quit singing for a hot minute to encourage the others, “C’mon, everyone knows this song. Sing! If you don’t know it then hum along.” Reggie’s rich baritone voice joined Maia’s sweet soprano and they belted it out. Everyone else either sang or hummed along or drummed a beat on whatever they could find handy. Hyacinth slapped his thigh. Doshmisi thought they sounded pretty good and, as the song echoed through the canyon, the bad laughter died away and no food, sea creatures, musical instruments, or sharp objects hurled themselves at the travelers. The tigers and Dagobaz tore through the canyon as fast as they could go, eager to leave the Imaginary Reality behind them.

Elena’s mind wandered for a moment and tacos jumped off the treetops and sailed through the air, but she quickly focused on singing and the tacos disappeared before they hit anyone.

The singing helped them focus and clear their minds. When they finished “My Girl,” Reggie immediately led off with “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” funkin’ it up with enthusiasm.

“Gotta love those Tempts,” Denzel shouted in delight.

“Not this much,” Sonjay replied, as he pointed ahead on their path to the end of the canyon. Blocking the exit from the Canyon of Imaginary Reality stood six giant figures in red silk suits towering to a height of thirty feet. They spun and danced, swinging microphones around in a dangerously threatening way. The men were unmistakable. They were Otis, Al, Melvin, Eddie, and Paul, the original five Temptations, with David Ruffin thrown into the bargain as the sixth. The singing had conjured the whole group. The lovely stage smiles of the Tempts swiftly degenerated into wicked grins and their teeth grew into fangs. They aimed the microphones at the travelers menacingly, throwing them in their direction and then hauling them back in as they sang “Ball of Confusion” in a scary, frenzied way.

Bayard sat perched on Sonjay’s shoulder as usual and Sonjay told the bird quietly, “Imagine blueberries squashed all over those red silk suits, Bayard. Do it now. Do it quickly.” No one heard what Sonjay had said to Bayard, they simply saw the Tempts pummeled with blueberries, which squished all over them. Meanwhile Sonjay repeated the word “parrots” softly to himself over and over again until the sky filled with parrots, their bright green, red, blue, and yellow wings beating the air.

Bayard squawked with delight and then pecked Sonjay affectionately on the head before flying into the swarm of parrots. Instead of attacking the travelers, the imaginary parrots followed the very real Bayard Rustin and pecked at the Tempts furiously in their effort to eat the squished blueberries. Bayard did an exceptional job of imagining the blueberries, which landed and burst in the Tempts’ hair and on their faces. The parrots Sonjay had imagined pecked at the men’s eyes and cheeks in their efforts to eat the blueberries. The nasty imaginary giant Temptations turned and fled from the canyon, with the birds giving chase.

A cheer rose up from the travelers. The tigers roared their approval. Bayard returned to Sonjay’s shoulder and announced, “Blueberries,” as they reached the mouth of the canyon. Sonjay emerged first to discover himself on a high bluff from which he could see the North Coast, the Corporton compound, and the damaged oil rig. Unfortunately, waiting for them on the bluff, stood Sissrath, surrounded by a handful of his Special Forces and at least a hundred Corportons bristling with guns aimed directly at the travelers.