The Importance of Journal Keeping
© Cheryl D. Tracy
I wanted to go see Merlin and talk. Sometimes taking a journey to see him helped me clarify things that were going on in Ordinary Reality. I could count on something interesting happening and I could probably count on getting hit in the head with his staff at least once. That's all right it was usually worth it.
When I entered the darkness I saw two paths open up. Not sure which one to take I tried to fly higher up thinking I'd get a better view. Instead I got tangled up in webbing that I had failed to notice and started tumbling down. I landed in water and the webbing dissolved. I sat up dripping. This was going to be one of THOSE journeys. Humph.
I stood up just as a huge fish dove out of the water. Its swinging its tail caught me in the chest and sent me sprawling back into the water. I sat up sputtering and the fish poked its head out of the water.
"It's a lot easier if you go with the flow," he told me, then promptly vanished underwater. A second later he dove out of the water again, moving against the flow of the stream. He made very little headway.
"You might try going the other direction," I mocked. "You know, with the flow rather than against it?"
He dove into the stream, splashing water in my face. "I am a salmon," he told me. "I must go against the stream in order to get where I need to be." He vanished under water again and I felt him swim close to me. I jumped up kicking at him. A moment later his head reappeared. "You are definitely not a salmon."
With that he took off again and this time, when he came out of the water, he sprouted small wings and began to fly up stream. Funny sight that, a flying fish.
I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time for the big wolf to jump me and pin me in the water. "Fenris!" I shouted, struggling to get him off of me. "Heel or something!"
Merlin's wolf ignored me and licked my whole face. As if I wasn't wet enough!
"Stop goofing off, you two!" Merlin's accented voice yelled.
Fenris let me up and loped over to lie beside Merlin's campfire. I looked around to make sure nothing else was going to knock me over, then got up and walked ashore. Merlin was standing near the fire that he'd made several yards from the cave where I always met him. He looked at me, shook his head, and motioned for me to follow him as he moved into the cave.
