The Last Summoning---Andrew and the Quest of Orion's Belt (Book Four) (52 page)

An explosion of light washed over him,
flooded in around him caressing him, at every turn, blinding him
with its brilliance. The room appeared to light itself. Light
emanated off its walls, seeped up from the floors, shone in every
direction. Every inch of the walls were laden with candles, so that
no part of the room was not lit. The floors were made of mirrors
that reflected and triple-reflected all the light in the room,
bouncing it off themselves, sending rays of light in every
directions. Starflowers lined every shelf and every stray corner of
the room, so that even the cracks of the room were lit up. It was
so magnificently lit that it made the torchlight from the halls
seem like a small spark compared to its brilliance.

The room was as vast, as it was light. A
giant fireplace, the size of seven normal fireplaces combined,
stood in the center of the room, heaped with coal and lusty logs
that crackled and roared as the fire consumed them. Fireflies
flitted around the room, looking rather lost in such a brilliant
place. Shelves filled with brilliant light-bearing relics:
lanterns, glowing rocks, clear bright light-giving orbs---glowing
eels and fishes that swam in clear, glass jars, lined the room top
to bottom. There were unicorn horns, rare glowing mushrooms,
collections of every type of glowing tree leaf, every stray
moonbeam. Every object of light was held here, trapped, but
nonetheless free to give light. It was a room as frightening as it
was magnificent.

The only spot in the room that looked vaguely
dark was a large opening that led out to a terrace. A white,
silvery cloth hung over the opening. It shone like it had been spun
out of the very threads of golden light itself.

Something on the terrace moved. It cast a
lengthy shadow across the curtain, causing the light in the room to
dim and flicker.

Then HE entered. Andrew stood in the middle
of the room, transfixed, unable to think or move. The Fallen stood
before Andrew, tall, brilliant, huge. His face shone and glimmered
as if he had swallowed thousands of stars and their light was now
engrained into his skin, coursed through his blood, shone from his
face, and sparkled in his eyes. His face was alluring, mysterious,
and beautiful as if carved out of material that would never age nor
dim. His hair though black, shimmered like silver.

He held the long arched staff of Scorpio’s
stinger. This weapon glowed a golden honey-hue, looking dangerous
and yet subdued in the hands that now held it. Laced around The
Fallen’s shoulder was the bow and arrow of Sagittarius. It blazed
like fire, as if it had been fashioned from the dust of Saturn and
Mercury. The arrows that protruded from a quiver on his back were
no less magnificent. They were long and golden, their feathery ends
made of jagged lighting bolts. Their tips glowed in the quiver like
fire, held captive in a thin layer of ice.

Andrew stood paralyzed in place as he gazed
at the radiant figure that loomed before him. Andrew had tried to
prepare himself for this moment. But he what he had thought would
be, and what he now saw was very different.

The Fallen was mesmerizing, magnificent.
Someone bold, and powerful. Someone that made him feel very hungry,
yet satisfied. He had the urge to both flee, and to stay at the
same time. After traveling so long through dark hallways, this
light called to him, begged him to worship it, to bend to its will,
to obey it. It was after all, LIGHT. Such power demanded to be
obeyed. Demanded worship. Demanded that Andrew stay.

He felt drawn in towards this Fallen
creature. Lured by light. He had witnessed so much darkness, this
shimmering being seemed like a safe haven from all the darkness he
had witnessed. He wanted to touch its shimmering cape. He wanted to
know what this being knew. This thing of borrowed light dazzled him
to the point of blind obedience. He stood there unable to remember
why he had come, only that this bright being was watching him, and
he wanted to please this creature. Wanted to lick up the crumbs of
its brilliance if only to taste the brilliance for a short
while.

He wanted to be absorbed by it.

Replaced

Gogindy rested his back against a cold step and
closed his eyes. His nose twitched as something tickled his
face.

Gogindy cracked his eyelids. The tower was
dimly lit, Something green and shiny, with two lacy wings,
fluttered on his nose, and crept through his whiskers. He twitched
his nose again, and readied himself to flick the thing that had
disturbed his sleep.

His eyes widened, and he smiled. “Oh,” he
said, going cross eyed as he watched the beautiful bug creep
through his whiskers. “It’s only you, my bug friend. It takes a
special sort of creature to tickle a Twisker. And for that, I
suppose I cannot eat you now. For in doing so, it would be like
eating a fellow Twisker, with whiskers. And what a pity that would
be, too. You were going to be my brunchfust. My meal. You see, I
haven’t eaten for a very long time.”

The bug moved from Gogindy’s nose and climbed
on his shoulder, rubbing its long antennas together and making a
gentle chirrup as if it were talking to Gogindy.

“You can talk too?” Gogindy patted it like it
was some domesticated feline. “Ah, I’m glad you’re intelligent.
Some bugs aren’t, you know. I’m glad you can talk. I was getting
rather lonesome. I had my rock footprint to talk to, but he never
talks back. He’s quite moody, you know. I think he’s had a bad past
or something. But now I can talk to you. I hope my footprint
doesn’t mind me talking to you and such. He doesn’t like to be
replaced. But the truth is, I don’t think he will even miss me
talking to him. You are ever so much more interesting and
beautiful.”

Gogindy yawned, and looked up the long flight
of steps. “Well, Mr. Bug. I am still very tired. I’ve gone up so
many steps that I can hardly even move. But I guess I should keep
going. Stay there on my shoulder, and enjoy the ride. I am going to
ring that bell as soon as I figure out where the top of this tower
is.”

He groaned and stretched out his sore
muscles. Every part of his body ached and protested. His knees
wobbled unsteadily, and his back groaned, and throbbed. “Oh this is
jolly. Wonder how many hours it will before I reach the top. Or if
there is a top. Maybe it fell off while I was sleeping. Maybe the
top of the tower crumbled to bits and I’ll just walk off into
nothingness.”

He frowned, and slowly pulled himself up the
steps. He moaned and shivered as the cold wind blew snow through
the crumbly tower walls.

Gogindy walked on and on, up and up, feeling
more and more weary and disheartened. No one told him it would be
like this. No one told him he’d have to climb to the very heavens
in order to ring the bell. He could not tell how far he had gone or
close he was to reaching the bell tower. The stairs seemed to go on
and on, like a bad day. Every time he thought the stairs had ended,
more appeared.

“This is a mean trick!” Gogindy spat, staring
at the continuing steps with gloomy eyes. “They never end.” He
peered out a vast opening in the crumbling wall, and gazed out into
the misty clouds, wiping a couple of matted whiskers out of his
face.

His stomach burbled and growled loudly. “I
told you to stop complaining.” He closed his eyes, and grimaced.
“Oh, but I am hungry. Fine, it has finally come to this. Eating
friends. How horrible it is. But there isn’t any other way!” he
exclaimed, his hand carefully closed around the beetle perched on
his shoulder. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have a little snack.
Times are tough. Friends, especially bug friends, must be
sacrificed. I’m truly sorry.”

Just before he popped the bug into his mouth,
he stopped himself, opened his palms, and wept. “I’m sorry, Mr.
Bug. I didn’t mean it. Honest. Here, go, fly away, fly before I eat
you. Don’t tempt me.” He flapped his hand, trying to get the
stubborn bug to abandon him. “Go, while you still have a chance. I
may eat you in my sleep. I’ve been known to sleep eat. It’s a
condition that my whole family is inflicted with, especially when
we are starving. We’ve been known to eat whole barrels of apples,
cakes, pies, gardens, stores of mushrooms, and bugs while sleeping,
without even knowing it. That’s why my family is so fat, except for
me, that is. It can’t be helped, really, this sleep eating. My mom
used to chain me to my bedpost while I slept, so I didn’t get fat
like them from sleep eating, but they soon learned that it didn’t
matter how much I ate. I burned it off in worrying. Now you see why
you have to go. I don’t want to eat you by mistake. You’re such a
nice-mannered bug, it would be terrible if I digested you.
Especially without getting to taste you.”

The bug looked undisturbed at his words. It
chirruped, and rubbed its wings together, creeping up Gogindy’s
arm, back onto his shoulder.

“Fine, then,” Gogindy shouted. “Now that you
understand the risks, I suppose my part is done. You may stay. But
know this. You may become my lunch! Or my sleep snack.”

Gogindy sighed, dusted his hands of green bug
dust, then trudged up the steps, murmuring, “One step, one more
step, one and one more step makes, one more step, one more step
more, and…” his voice broke off as his ears started to twitch. His
eyes widened. His heart thumped against his chest like a trapped
rabbit struggling to get free.

He twirled around, and gazed at the dark
steps below. He heard and saw nothing except for the unsettling
empty sound of a lose rock falling down the stairs, clip, clip,
clip.

“I know you are there, IT!” Gogindy purred,
his eyes scanning the steps with caution. “You’ve been stalking me
for some time. Why don’t you come out into the light?”

Still the silence greeted him.

Gogindy waited for a long time, perched on
the steps. When nothing happened, he turned very carefully and
hopped up a few steps, then turned around and waited once more. He
did this for a long while until he grew tired of it. He yawned, and
without even realizing it, he curled up in a fluffy ball and fell
asleep on the tower steps.

When he awoke, the moon was shining through
the decaying walls of the tower, casting eerie shadows. The bug on
Gogindy’s shoulder had vanished, leaving Gogindy very alone.

“Oh dear,” Gogindy cried groping around in
the darkness for the green bug. “I hope I didn’t eat you. I told
you it would be like this. I told you that I sleep eat. That I’m
not responsible for my actions while under the influence of sleep.
He searched, delving his small hands into every crack, breaking
through spider’s webs and along the crumbly walls, in search of his
small friend. But he could find no trace of the missing beetle.

“Oh MY!” Gogindy exclaimed, picking out a
small leg of a bug that had lodged between his teeth. “I did eat
you. I must have.” He stared at the leg, twirling it around in his
fingers. “I fear I must have eaten you. What a savage beast I must
be.” Tears began to spill down his face. “I’m so very sorry.” He
moaned, and whimpered, spinning the bug leg between his fingers
nervously. Then without realizing it, he began chomping down on the
bug leg. When he swallowed it, he suddenly realized what he had
done.

“EEK! I did it again. Oh, I am hopelessly
unable to change my chewy ways. I’m sorry. I am. I am, I am, I
am.

A rumble sounded, long and loud. The sound
was so disturbing that it made Gogindy’s bones ache. He stopped
sobbing and peered out the through crumbling walls. “Oh my!” he
murmured, watching as a falling star shot across the sky, lighting
up the foggy air in an orange light. The star grew larger and
larger, its fiery combustions reflecting in Gogindy’s big eyes as
it neared the tower. “I do believe its heading right for this
tower. Oh, my but it is.” He turned and ran.

“Run, Gogindy,” he told himself. “Run!”

He dashed up the steps just as the star hit
the opening he had just been staring through. It exploded in a wave
of heat and flames, causing the bell tower walls to groan and
heave. The whole right side of tower, began to lean precariously to
one side.

“What is that horrible smell?” Gogindy cried,
sniffing the air. He glanced behind him, horrified. The fur on his
back was sizzling. “Fire!” Gogindy hollered, slapping at the flames
as he ran. “Surely things can’t get any worse.”

Just as those words fell from his lips, a
huge mass of brick fell from above and landed on one of his
tails.

“Youch!” he screeched, yanking at his trapped
tail. “For the love of mushrooms! Get off my tail, you lump of
rock.” He heaved against the rock with all his Twisker might,
trying to lift it off his tail. The heat from the burning tower was
rising up the steps from below.

“Move you unschooled brick. Don’t you know
that your place is supposed to be helping to support this tower.
Not smashing my tail.”

The brick suddenly lifted itself up, just
enough for Gogindy to free his trapped tail.

Gogindy’s eyes filled with wonder. “This is
unbelievable. You actually listened to me?” He quickly peered
underneath the stone. “Oh, my! It’s my friend. Mr. green bug!”

The bug was standing on its hind legs holding
up the large rock with its front legs. Gogindy carefully snatched
the bug back, and let the rock fall. “I thought I ate you. I’m so
glad I didn’t. You saved me. My, you are one strong little bugger.
Well we better go, before we both fry in this terrible heat.”

He held the bug tightly, bounding up the
steps, away from the smoldering heat. Without fully realizing it,
he came to the end of the eternal stairway bursting out into the
moonlit night.

Chilly air hit him in the face. Smoke poured
up of the stairwell like smoke flowing through a chimney, then
dissipated into the darkness.