The Muses Speak Through RainDog




<Fugue> 
 How was coffee?
<RainDog> 
 I had a tall cider, a double mocha, and a lemon bar.  I wrote notes
          on that story for three hours, then they kicked me out.  Saw Molly
          there, but she left early.  End of report.
<Fugue> 
 Heh. Cool. 
<RainDog> 
 I think I can just about TELL the story, but it's nowhere near
          anything decent when written down.  I don't really know ifit was
          ever meant to be written down now...
<RainDog> 
 Probably could tell it here, at least the first half.
<Fugue> 
 Me: Three Afri Colas. Two double Americanos. and 12 cups of coffee.
        Saw the female target, chatted. Saw roya, Scared her. End of report.
        <grin>      
<Fugue> 
 I'm curious. Gimme some.
<RainDog> 
 You had a much better coffee night than me.
<RainDog> 
 You want the story?
<Fugue> 
 Hit me! <making keanu reeves "jonny mnemonic" pose> 
<RainDog> 
 Sheesh.  OK.  Here comes my story....
<RainDog> 
 >cracking knuckles<
<RainDog> 
 OK.
<RainDog> 
 Long ago there was a nomadic kingdom that constantly moved
          northward.
<RainDog> 
 Its citizens would gather everything up: houses, supplies,
          whatever... and follow their fellow citizens north, where they'd set
          everything down and begin working again.
<RainDog> 
 The reason for this was that to the South was the end of the Earth,
          and it slowly crept Northward as time went on.
<RainDog> 
 the citizens saw nothing wrong with this, as it was the nature of
          time and space and the universe
<RainDog> 
 The king and queen of this state were inseparable.
<RainDog> 
 They worked and functioned as one living creature.
<RainDog> 
 One day they realized that they had a few years headway on the end
          of the world, and decided to leave the kingdom in the capable hands
          of their advisors and go on a journey east to see the land where the
          sun rises and all good things are made.
<RainDog> 
 They traveled for a year and a day, and finally came upon the final
          mountain range that the sun creeps out from behind.
<RainDog> 
 They stared in awe at the rising sun, and turned to each other,
          bathed in its glorious light, and both realized how lucky they were
          to have each other.
<RainDog> 
 They journeyed onward into a valley, where they came upon a castle.
<RainDog> 
 The place was empty, but a banquet was set out and ready for them.
<RainDog> 
 There they met the Caretaker, who explained that the castle was a
          living creature, and that it required companionship and human
          warmth.
<RainDog> 
 In exchange for friendship and love, the castle had many many
          powers.
<RainDog> 
 Most importantly it could vanish and reappear anywhere in the world
          in the blink of an eye!
<RainDog> 
 And the spirit that inhabited it would speak to them through images
          in the Throne Room
<RainDog> 
 But they were never to go one particular room in one of the lower
          levels, for that was where the spirit rested, and no mortal could
          look upon her.
<RainDog> 
 The king and queen took the castle back to their kingdom with the
          caretaker's blessings.
<RainDog> 
 The people were afraid at first, for they did not like change, but
          they grew to trust it and saw the benefits this had for their
          kingdom and their way of life.
<RainDog> 
 After a time, the queen mentioned that it would be possible to take
          the castle far northward and see what lays in store for the kingdom.
<RainDog> 
 The king agreed and they went together in the castle up far
north to
          see what lay in the future of the kingdom.
<RainDog> 
 They stepped out over the drawbridge and onto a snowy drift.
<RainDog> 
 "I think we have gone too far." the queen noted.
<RainDog> 
 But before them was a large ice palace, and they agreed to enter and
          introduce themselves
<RainDog> 
 The servants were all lifeless folk, with blue skin and frost on
          their hair and clothes.
<RainDog> 
 They were led into a large chamber where another banquet was laid
          out, and several servants had instruments made of ice
<RainDog> 
 They were greeted by a beautiful ice maiden, with stark white hair
          and light blue skin, and a long flowing robe.
<RainDog> 
 They talked for quite some time, and she appeared to be quite
          friendly.
<RainDog> 
 But then the music started up and the maiden asked the king to
          dance.
<RainDog> 
 Etiquette demanded that he oblige, so the two of them danced.
<RainDog> 
 "My," he said. "Your hands are quite cold and thin."
<RainDog> 
 "They have been like that for quite some time.  Warmth is something
          that is very rare up here.  I require the warmth of others to stay
          young and beautiful."
<RainDog> 
 They danced for three days and three nights, and by that time the
          maiden had rosier skin and a warmer look all about her.
<RainDog> 
 The king stopped suddenly when he saw what had happened to his
          beloved queen; for while he was dancing, the ice maiden (Who
was, 
          in fact, an ice witch) had woven a spell about her, encasing her in
          a block of ice.
<RainDog> 
 He tried to touch his other half through the ice, trying to break
          her out, but...
<RainDog> 
 "What have you done to her?" he demanded of the ice witch.
<RainDog> 
 "I have taken her warmth for my own personal use!  It is my source
          of immortality!  I will have yours too!"
<RainDog> 
 And with that she began to weave her spell on the king, forcing him
          to run out of the ice palace empty-handed
<RainDog> 
 He returned to his own land, but before he left, he saw the witch
          using some of his beloved's warmth to melt the largest iceberg in
          the northern lands, sending a torrential flood southward.
<RainDog> 
 He walked, stiff-limbed, to the panopticon and told his subjects of
          what had happened.
<RainDog> 
 "We must fight the witch!" some said
<RainDog> 
 "We must flee the land!" others said
<RainDog> 
 But the only sensible suggestion came from the military
advisors. 
          "We must raise a levvy."
<RainDog> 
 So the subjects worked, but it was evident from the start that their
          work would not be enough.
<RainDog> 
 So the king took the castle back to where he found it, and began to
          search for the Caretaker.
<RainDog> 
 He found him tending a garden not two miles from the valley
where 
          the castle was.
<RainDog> 
 He told him the whole story, and asked for help in building the
          levvy
<RainDog> 
 "Oh, my son.  that is not the answer!" the old man scolded.  "You
          must let the flood waters pass!  It is the only way to end this!"
<RainDog> 
 But the king was adamant, so the old man told him to build a golem
          of clay and stones, and told him the secret to giving him life
<RainDog> 
 So the king worked for three days and three nights building a
man of
          clay and stone that was taller than the mountains, and after three
          days and three nights, he climbed the golem's body and waited for
          the first rays of the rising sun to fall on theface of the large
          stone monster, and whispered the Golem's name in his ear.  And the
          name was "William."
<RainDog> 
 "What do you wish of me?" the Golem boomed, knocking the king down
          the plummeting fall to the ground
<RainDog> 
 "My lands are being flooded and we need a levvy to be erected."
<RainDog> 
 And with that, the golem walked off to the kingdom.
<RainDog> 
 The king ran to the castle and returned home, but the golem was
          already there, moving the mountains in the way of the flood waters.
<RainDog> 
 The people were afraid at first, but finally the king coaxed
them to
          trust the great monstrosity.
<RainDog> 
 The levvy held.
<RainDog> 
 But the king moped about the castle, feeling incomplete without his
          queen.
<RainDog> 
 The castle felt this loss, and mourned with him.
<RainDog> 
 After a time, it had been a year since the kingdom had moved, and
          the castle had fallen to a state of disrepair.
<RainDog> 
 The whole kingdom was stuck in a feeling of despair.
<RainDog> 
 Finally, the levvy broke.
<RainDog> 
 The king ran to the highest tower to look for the golem, but he was
          nowhere to be found.
<RainDog> 
 He ran to the throne room, and saw an image of the giant walking
          south, toward the end of the world.
<RainDog> 
 He commanded the castle to take him to the golem, that he may
try to
          convince him to go back.
<RainDog> 
 He found him sitting on the ground, weeping.  He was so filled with
          the king's despair that he was confused.
<RainDog> 
 "What is the matter, William?"
<RainDog> 
 "They look like such good strong hands... don't they?" WIlliam wept
<RainDog> 
 "they are, WIlliam!  You are a powerful giant!"
<RainDog> 
 "But they just weren't strong enough... not strong enough to keep
          the flood waters back..."
<RainDog> 
 "William!  Don't do this!  You can still stop them!"
<RainDog> 
 "...not strong enough to save the queen..."
<RainDog> 
 "Oh, no!  What have I done?  It isn't your fault, WIlliam!  You
          weren't even there!"
<RainDog> 
 But before he could say anything, the golem screamed out in pain as
          the end of the world began to disrupt him and tear him apart from
          the inside.
<RainDog> 
 He ruptured apart, and his left hand was all that was left, and it
          flew and landed in the castle's courtyard just as the king took it
          back to his land in the vain hopes of trying to control the flood.
<RainDog> 
 The castle shuddered and groaned as it reappeared.  It was worn and
          weakened and clearly on its last legs.
<RainDog> 
 And the hand of the golem was stuck into the courtyard, fingers
          downward, wounding the castle.
<RainDog> 
 The people of the kingdom had their houses up on stilts, and the
          flood waters were so far flowing under them.
<RainDog> 
 Creatures and horrors of all sorts emerged from the water as ice,
          and terrorized the citizens.
<RainDog> 
 the king grabbed a sword and began fighting.
<RainDog> 
 His years behind the levvy had made him tough and bitter and he had
          grown good at fighting.
<RainDog> 
 His army had grown, because he had waged war on other kingdoms.
<RainDog> 
 He had tried, in vain, to find another queen, but all that was
          irrelevant now, as he fought the ice monsters that rose up from the
          flood
<RainDog> 
 Finally, in the midst of the chaos, he saw a figure rise from the
          waters, almost as big as the golem had been.
<RainDog> 
 It was the figure of the ice witch!  Though she was no longer
          beautiful, but rather plump and old.
<RainDog> 
 "I will get out of this mess, you know!" the king spat at the witch.
<RainDog> 
 "Sure you will." she cackled, "Just as she got out of THIS!" and
          with that, she pointed at her head, from which emerged the queen,
          still encased in ice, and still halfway through voicing protest
          about the king's dancing.
<RainDog> 
 The king flew into a rage, slicing at the ice witch with his sword,
          but it was all in vain, as she was enormous.
<RainDog> 
 He ran into the castle, running through the hallways and corridors,
          feeling as though the situation were hopeless.
<RainDog> 
 The witch returned to human size, and chased after him, preparing
          the spell to absorb his warmth.
<RainDog> 
 Slowly he felt his legs stiffening and turning to ice.
<RainDog> 
 He ran and ran, knowing eventually he'd run into a dead end.
<RainDog> 
 he felt her icy fingers on his back, when he ran into the room in
          one of the lower levels where he was not supposed to go.
<RainDog> 
 Inside was an armoire wardrobe, with a glass knob which glowed from
          the power kept inside.
<RainDog> 
 The ice witch laughed as she saw him trapped in the tiny room.
<RainDog> 
 But the king THREW OPEN the wardrobe and leapt to the floor,
          covering his eyes as he did so.
<RainDog> 
 The witch was vaporized instantly!
<RainDog> 
 The spirit of the castle leapt from its chamber and headed back to
          the east, where it looked for someplace else to be.
<RainDog> 
 The king stepped out onto one of the towers and surveyed the damage.
<RainDog> 
 the flood waters had receeded up and back to where they had come
          from, but so had the queen in her icy prison.
<RainDog> 
 A faint image appeared in the throne room, showing the witch
          laughing from her icy palace in the North.
<RainDog> 
 The king finally realized that what he must do is go back and get
          her, but he could not anymore.  Not without the castle anyway, the
          journey would take decades, possibly centuries!
<RainDog> 
 So he set about puttering in the castle ruins.
<RainDog> 
 he took timbers from here, cranks from there, canvas from here, and
          the wood from the cabinet that the spirit lived in, and he worked
          for a year and a day.
<RainDog> 
 He made an infernal device with his bare hands, one that could fly
          and was a weapon of war.
<RainDog> 
 But he was still bitter, and he didn't go North.
<RainDog> 
 First he attacked the neighboring lands.
<RainDog> 
 He conquered and grew stronger.
<RainDog> 
 He found allies and enemies, and played the game of diplomacy
with 
          all the shrewdness of a lifelong businessman.
<RainDog> 
 he lost sight of his goal once again, and his citizens fell into
          despair.
<RainDog> 
 They still hadn't moved over the barrier that the golem had created
<RainDog> 
 And the end of the world was slowly approaching.
<RainDog> 
 The king moped around the halls of his ruined castle, talking to
          himself and worrying about how lost he felt.
<RainDog> 
 He was still partially sapped of life by the witch's spell.
<RainDog> 
 But one day someone came who changed all of that.
<RainDog> 
 The king and queen had never been able to have children.
<RainDog> 
 And a princess came on horseback, seeking asylum.
<RainDog> 
 Barbarians had sacked her country, and killed her mother and father.
<RainDog> 
 And they were chasing after her.
<RainDog> 
 The king put all his misplaced rage at the barbarians and together
          he and the princess used the machine of war to kill every last one
          of them.
<RainDog> 
 The princess understood the king, and adopted him as a father.
<RainDog> 
 "I want to help you, father." she said, taking his hand.
<RainDog> 
 "I have built a golem of rocks and clay, been to the end of the
          world, built an infernal machine with my own two hands, sent
          messages on breaths of wind, and seen the sun as it rises from its
          cradle.  What do you, a mere girl, think you can do to help me?"
          The king asked.
<RainDog> 
 But at that, the weight of all that had happened bore down on him.
          He felt all the pain of loss and sympathy for all those that he had
          wounded in his blind rage.  He saw the myriad demons that had 
          arisen both directly and indirectly as a result of his actions.
<RainDog> 
 And he wept.
<RainDog> 
 He wept for three days and three nights, flooding the corridors 
          and hallways of the broken castle.  His tears soaked the earth
and 
          the vines all about it, and soaked the hand of the golem, still 
          stuck fingers-down into the courtyard.  The vines grew, and the
          castle once again came to life.
<RainDog> 
 The golem's hand softened to a putty that sank down into the
muddy 
          ground, and from the earth came the golem once again, this time
          made of earth and leaves and vines.  He picked up the castle and
          began to carry the kingdom Northward once again.
<RainDog> 
 The king's eyes were opened by the princess, who showed him what he
          must do.
<RainDog> 
 "You cannot go back in time and change what happened.  But there is
          a wrong you must right."
<RainDog> 
 "No," the king said.  "We must do it together.  Come with me, will
          you?  Let us go to the lands of the north and release your new
          mother, whom you have never known.
<RainDog> 
 And this is where my story ends...
<Fugue> 
 whoah. 
<Fugue> 
 Wow.
<Fugue> 
 I'm impressed.
<RainDog> 
 I skipped around, of course...
<RainDog> 
 A little, anyway.
<RainDog> 
 It's much more coherent than previous tellings...