The Everquest

Mithrandir walked about the wilderness of a land in between Galahad and a minor country, undetectable or traceable. Black robes and a walking stick took the man as he walked across the dry terrain, seemingly headed to nowhere as he took foot after foot, the bright luminary of the night sky staring straight at him as he proceeded. It was unusually quiet, even for the wilderness, and it seemed almost as though the winds themselves had been hushed and kept at bay. He could not ponder it however, for the Aesirian prince had the kind of things on his mind that take a man away from his natural surroundings in real time. He winced in pain as flashes of Tifa appeared in his mind frequently, always with objection by his higher mind and with withdrawal of his emotions. It had been ages since he had felt any real attachment to something, and the least of which was not a lower entity like another human being. It could not possibly be love that Mithrandir felt, but he was not sure what other thing it could be called. Such beings as himself had a wider spectrum of feeling and emotional capacity than mere mortals, thus it was perfectly rational to believe that he could be simply feeling something that he could not put into words simply because he was unused to having to. It had been quite some time since he had been in those kind of worlds and realities where such transcendental experiences took place; no wonder he was going through one like a child goes through its first lesson in swimming. Drowning in confusion, the pace of his walking came to a sudden halt as he looked around the dry land around him, seeing nothing. Not even shrubs or trees blown in the wind, it was pure wasteland as far as the eye could see. Stopping to remove the black hood over his face, his golden locks shown in the face of the moon as he looked yonder. There was something about it today that appeared to him to be more than what it normally was. The Earth’s moon was not… this large, he thought. His calculations of this planet and the nearby luminaries put him at odds with what he currently saw, the moon itself shining as though it were some kind of star. It took him a moment to realize that the white light that broke out upon his vessel was expanding and growing; as though it were actually coming closer. Within a moment, Mithrandir found his entire body and the area around him enveloped in white light. Such a light-based being was unused to being swooned by this energy, and yet it felt good in a way. His sight went blank as all he could see was bright white. Then, for a few moments, it was dark.



Mithrandir awoke in a somewhat hazy state, a perfect specimen like himself not used to having his homeostasis disturbed for even a moment. When he awoke, it was first to a kind of dizziness, but one that was accompanied by various familiar sounds. He heard the sound of water crashing onto rocks clearly several hundred meters below. This sound blocked out most everything else at first, but his ears soon adjusted. Afterwards, he began to notice more poignantly the sound of children playing and feet trampling across a soft terrain, their footsteps leaving a faded vibration that he could feel. These people were near him. His eyes were as of that of someone who had been awaken from the deepest of slumbers or the hardest of dreams; but when his eyes took to the sight before them, he sat aghast at what he saw. He sat down upon a small hill, in which just below was a field of beautiful trees and plenteous green grass. The small forest with individually marked trees preceded a massive waterfall that he could see in the distance. The waterfall reached at least one hundred or more meters into the air and the water hence crashed down, this waterfall marking the very edge of this small forest area. To his left and right were more grasslands, but flatter ground. Upon where he sat was the only hill, and it was clear that this geography was entirely alien to most worlds. He in fact, was not in a place like most worlds; but in Arda, the home of the Aesir. The familiarity of it brought an inward joy in him so strong that tears streamed down his face without warrant or arrest. He could not stop the feeling of emotion swelling up within him as he rose to his feet, lightheaded, and looked about him at the golden and white robed children that ran up and down the hill, some of them floating about and chasing after one another. To his right he saw a group of females sitting in a circle and each with an olive branch in their hand. The olive branch could be seen to leave their hands and float right in front of them, shortly before being shaped by their energy into something of a plant that rooted itself in the ground directly in front of them. The Aesirian connection to nature was quite marvelous to see, and goodness had it been some time since he had seen it. To his left, where the more dense aspect of the forest was, he saw Osgensloths, rhinoceros like entities that fed on the bark of plants found in Arda. They nibbled loudly, and the children who wove in and out of the great mastodons did so with giggling at the sound of awkward digestion coming from each of the ten animals that peacefully munched. There was a kind of flow to life that Arda had that was so seamless it was like nothing in the universe could come in between it. And still yet in the background of all these events there was a serene silence to it all. A type of inward peace in all living and nonliving things as the universal mind that pervaded every aspect of Arda reverberated its inward equilibrium unto all that aroused its cavities, perfect in light and in love.


Mithrandir looked down at his body and saw that he was garbed in a unique outfit that was similar in elegance to those around him, but arrayed differently. He had golden and white robes on, but in the center of his robes wore he a symbol that was Aesirian for “Holy”. It was customary for each Aesirian to wear their House symbol somewhere upon their bodies but it was a triviality he realize now he took for granted. For with what great joy did Mithrandir see that mark upon his chest, emblazoned in emerald, ruby, topaz, and jasmine. Rocks as common as dirt on Arda were jewels on world’s like Earth. How primitive was even the air he breathed in that wretched place compared to that which he breathed now. There was a heaviness his body felt that was indicative of the difference in gravity between where he was now and where he had come from. The feeling gave him a greater sense of reality; a humbling of his physical prowess, if you will. The light above that came from the great star Enya shown upon all the heavens and skies with such glory that the various layers of atmosphere in the world could not contain. An array of rainbow colors splintered through the sky upon all that were below, and though it was brighter than any stars found in the dimensions of mankind, there was a subtlety to it that was like the backdrop of a marvelous painting or picture.


There approached him, at this time, a young girl no more than thirteen years old. She was lovely as were all the children of the Aesir, but with a kind of ancientness to her that caught the attention of Mithrandir as he turned to his right to see her standing before him ten meters away. It was as though he appeared out of thin air. She wore a dress of pure Topaz, a glowing necklace of pure starlight around her neck. He turned to face her, as if to say something, but he realized that on Arda such words were unnecessary; one could communicate through body language alone or through telepathy. He received no words or signs from the girl, yet a look of strange admiration from the stranger was constant. She walked up to him at this time and took him by his right hand, her eyes never leaving his as she did so. Once firmly grasped, she took him down the hill past where the circle of women were and yonder to where a small temple stood in the expanse of grass, with mountains on each side. Down each mountain poured down a waterfall, as was originally noticed and seen, and as the two floated towards the temple gates, Mithrandir first took note of the fact that this building was surrounded by six cloaked figures whose faces could not be seen or determined. The two touched down from being airborne twenty meters in front of the white-crystal temple, where the girl let go of his hand and walked backwards until she stood in between the hooded figures who wore indescribable masks. As Mithrandir stood there in somewhat bewilderment, an intuitive understanding came over him in that instant that he was to enter the temple somehow, and that he needed the help of the young girl in order to do it. Would he take up arms against the priestly guards? He was unsure and felt unable. He had yet to think a single violent thought at this point, strangely enough, and yet instead determined that he would peacefully enter in, if allowed. Without saying a word, he proceeded to walk directly towards the girl, and found that the first step he took was accompanied with an increase in gravity that had to have been astronomical. For when he stepped, he instantly felt as though an entire planet was attached to his ankles. He could not move. He fell to the ground instantly, as his entire body took on a weight of five times what it had previously been, neither the girl nor the sages near her saying a word or making a motion of sympathy. Mithrandir groaned as he began to crawl forth towards the feet of the girl. He thought to summon around him his plant army or his vast array of powers, but they failed him in this moment. If he had a heart, it would be beating twice as fast as it currently did, and he would be without breath if he indeed functioned like most physical creatures. Being above such things, his cells struggled against this imaginary resistance until he found himself inches away from the girl’s feet, his legs on the ground and his head motioned upwards. He reached upwards towards the girl, who seemed to eye him with both amusement and candor, as he weakly failed to touch her. Gaining the strength to at least stand upon his knees, he looked up and around him in exhaustion and caution as the masked entiies began to form a circle around him and the girl who was one foot away from him. Suddenly, she walked forward a step and placed her two fingers on Mithrandir’s forehead. His body instantly went numb. At that time, the whole world around him went dark as the light from the sky flooded Mithrandir from above and around, like all of the world’s ocean’s being poured into a single vessel. His eyes were the first cavity the light poured into, an it permeated all the way into the rest of his body. He vibrated uncontrollably as this occurred, the area all around him getting darker and darker as he was literally becoming a vessel for all the light in an entire dimension. The priests chanted as this occurred, and the girl said nothing, though strangely seemed to be unaffected by the torrent of solar energy that ravaged around her at this time. A single necklace that was upon her neck seemed to have some kind of protective power from all about him, even though surely the very fabric of Arda itself was being ripped up by this light absorption. From below the ground even, did the light come and seal itself within Mithrandir’s vessel. This process seemed to last for hours until he finally found himself surrounded by complete darkness and until his body shone like the brightness of Enya itself. No longer was there light anywhere else around, nor could a sound be heard; there was only he himself, staring up into a pitch black vacuum. His head lowered until he looked straight before him, unaware of his rainbow aura that proceeded forth around him everywhere; his eyes now glowing. Standing before him, strangely, enough however, was still the young girl, who had now appeared to be aging right before him. Within moments she was a grown woman, and one that he strangely recognized. Before he could put face to body, a flash of memories he was sure he never had flashed before his face in a torrent. He saw himself and the woman and many other inexplicable things before there was a bright flash; and he no longer saw anything at all…


When Mithrandir awoke…
He found himself out in a field, someways away from where he had previously believed himself to be. Unsure of how he had been transported to a land he was sure was desolate and destroyed ages ago, he stood erect and naked within the lonely field. He looked upon his hands and realized that they, like all of his flesh, was glowing and radiating. Furthermore, there was a feeling of empowerment that superseded anything he had ever felt before in his entire life. Fifty meters behind him was a village where a small townsman on horse back rode out from the city gates to check on him. He rode up to a stop asking the naked Mithrandir who he was and if he needed help and shelter. Unable to answer, the Aesirian god turned his neck back to glance at the man, his rainbow eyes shining straight at him.


“The crown has begun to show,” he said grinning.


THE END

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