[I mentioned in Shaman Story Chapter 5 – Lessons that chapter numbering would get wonky as Shaman Story is a work in progress.
At this point, I’m adding chapters to the beginning to foreshadow events happening in later chapters, this one being a case in point.
I’ve learned to live with such things. Hope you do, too.]
Read Shaman Story Chapter 7 – Sensing.
Buppa stops, turns, let’s me see him in another place. Somewhere beyond the moon, under the sea, through his garden, into the earth.
A big wooden door, made from trees and branches all woven together, leaves grow out of limbs making eaves and lintels. There’s a little window but it’s too high for me to see in. A light flickers through the glass. A candle.
“What’s that, Buppa?”
“It’s a door, a very special door. But only for you, Gio, not for anybody else.”
“It’s my door?”
“Yes, but only if you want to learn more. If you want to learn more you have to go in.”
The door has no handle. I step closer, onto a mat of tightly woven hay and flax.
The mat opens eyes. It lifts and spins like it’s caught in a whirlwind. It pushes me back, grows four legs, a spiky tail and a giant head. The woven flax and hay become golden fur. It stops spinning and lands on its feet, larger than me, larger than Buppa, larger than the door.
It looks down at me. “Are you afraid, Gio?”
“Yes.”
“Good answer, truthful answer. Do you want to go in?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I don’t know what’s expected. “To learn more?”
The creature smiles. It has many, many teeth, like needles. It drools. Its drool splashes and steams like acid on ground that isn’t there. “Are you asking or telling?”
I want my Buppa. He’s not here. He’s always with me. Where’s my Buppa?
“Anything else?”
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