Patchword

Walking into the dusty parlor, Lenore couldn't repress a slight shudder.

When she'd been a little girl, she'd always loved coming to visit Great-Grandmama in her crumbling Gothic mansion. How she'd delighted in exploring all the nooks and crannies of the rambling old place, running down cavernous hallways and up narrow, twisty flights of stairs, climbing in the massive wardrobes and giggling at the solemn, disapproving faces peering down from old paintings. She'd spent countless happy hours in this very parlor, playing with priceless antiques as though they were mere baubles.

But now Great-Grandmama was dead, and the task of cleaning the mansion and sorting through its gallimaufry of trash and treasure had fallen to Lenore. She'd done a quick walk-through the day before, and today she'd decided to tackle the front parlor where Great-Grandmama had spent most of her time. When she'd been alive, her vibrant presence had filled the room; her frail figure, ramrod-straight despite her age, in the elegant armchair next to the fireplace, drew the eye the moment one entered the room, and her authoritative alto effortlessly carried to the farthest corners of the room.

Now, though, she was gone, and the place seemed cavernously empty despite the clutter of ancient furniture and dusty knickknacks. Worse, though, were the barely audible sounds that filled the air. In vain she tried to tell herself that the rustles and creaks were merely the sounds of an old house.

So when a loud screech abruptly sounded next to her ear, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning, she relaxed at the sight of an old gramophone sitting on a heavy oak end table. A heavily worn record spinning on its tray was producing the staticky, tortured sounds that, when she concentrated, she was able to identify as music. That gramophone had been there as long as she could remember; yes, it was just Great-Grandmama's gramophone.

Absently pressing a hand to her racing heart, she turned back to surveying the room. Yet in the back of her mind, two questions niggled. That gramophone had always been there...but had it always been there yesterday?

And who had started the record playing?

The needle clicked along the record emitting a scratching noise along with the music. It was an odd selection that Lenore had never heard before. Yet somehow it brought a strange sense of clarity to the place and warm familiarity. Absently she began to tap her toe along with the music.

Shaking her head as she realized what she was doing Lenore approached the gramophone. Even as she did so however, the carpet began to move beneath her feet she lost her balance and found herself lying on her side dazed. As she got up the carpet appeared to be in precisely the same location as it had always been. Perhaps she truly was losing her mind in this place of memories. Of memories of things that had and hadn't happened. She turned off the gramophone and walked into the next room. She took a deep breath and patted down her hair and her skirt. Best to get this place sorted as quickly as possible she decided.

Immediately she set about opening up an antique dresser that was situated against the south wall. It had been there so long that the large wooden hulk had left a stain against the floral wallpaper. It smelled faintly of water damage. She began to open the lower drawers and pull out various bits of clothing that were still in there. Throwing them onto the desk chair behind her for sorting she moved onto the next where a collection of brightly colored eggs were to be found. They looked like that had come from all over the world. In the back corner she could see the shape of another such egg carefully covered in a silk cloth. Curious and, after the experiences so far, hesitant, she pulled the cloth back from the egg and was hit by a shimmer unlike any she had experienced. She turned her head away from the brightness and squinted when she was finally able to look back again at the object. The original flash had dimmed but it swirled and swam in ways she didn't think possible.

As she reached down to pick it up there came a tapping from the desk behind her.

She jumped at the sound, flailing for a moment to keep her balance. Slowly, reluctantly, she turned to look at the desk.

There was nothing there.

It was just my imagination. Just my imagination. Just...

Resolutely, she turned back to her task, packing up the egg collection to be sent to the auction house and deliberately ignoring the rattling from the desk, growing ever louder. About to seal the box, she paused, remembering the hypnotically shimmering egg tucked in the back corner. She reached for it, intending to tuck it in the box with the rest, but somehow found herself tucking it into her pocket instead.

She picked up the box to take it out to the moving truck she'd hired. But before she could take two steps, the desk emitted the loudest bang yet, and a drawer flew out and slammed into her shoulder. Stumbling, she tripped over the carpet again and fell headlong. Her head hit the corner of a massive brick hearth, and she knew no more.

When she woke, the house was dark, the sun long since set. Groaning, she rubbed the bump on her head with one hand while fumbling for the light switch with the other. After what felt like an eternity, she felt the welcome sensation of modern plastic under her hand. She flipped the switch.

Nothing happened.

With mounting panic, she flipped the switch on and off several times before giving in to the inevitable. She pulled her phone from her pocket, shuddering with relief when the screen lit up. By the cold, bright light of the flashlight app, she found the door and stepped out.

The house was changed.

The familiar rooms and passageways were all twisted around into an impenetrable labyrinth. She had no idea which way to go to get out.

At least she had light. For now. Her gaze crept unwillingly to the small "42%" in the upper corner.

Swallowing a rising panic Lenore swept the phone around the room. The once ancient but comfortable wallpaper had been replaced by vines that seemed almost to be poured out of the rock that had replaced it. Turning to the far side she encountered a waterfall of what seemed some kind of bubbling oil. In a vain hope of finding something, anything, sane or familiar she swept the small light in all directions finding nothing. Well, almost nothing. The eggs remained. Somehow still intact despite having moved from their position on the now missing table to the ground. A ground that had changed as much as the rest of the space she occupied. A ground that seemed to be moving. After a moment Lenore realized it was the eggs themselves that were shifting, seemingly of their own accord around the room.
"
As one of the eggs came rolling at her Lenore was finally galvanized into action. There was still a hole in the wall where the door had been and she leapt for it. The space was as empty as it appeared and she quickly found herself passing into a dark tunnel. She wanted to stop, to breath, to think, but this was hardly the place to do such a thing. The phone light provided enough light to avoid bumping into the uneven walls but outside of that everything was an all consuming shade of black. Everything was eerily silent but for her breathing. Taking a quick look behind she noted that no eggs were visible. Heaving a sigh of relief she turned back to the path. After a few moments she suddenly noticed that the walls were no longer visible. A glance up showed no ceiling. She had entered some much larger space. A moment of terror gripped her once again. How long would this endless darkness continue and how lost was she?

She thought about turning back but what would be the point? All that was back there was the dark hallway and the eggs. Whistling a tune she pushed forward. After several more minutes a light in the periphery caught her attention. She was immediately drawn to it as the only thing other than her camera that had provided any illumination since waking up in this... place. As she got closer it became apparent that the light was flickering and there was a figure perched behind it, fidgeting. As the figure noticed her it jumped up and rushed over grabbing her arm. "Ohh you... you are new. How did you get into this one? Where's your egg!?

Lenore blinked at the peculiar creature - small and furry, with oversized ears and entirely too many teeth. What was it, a goblin? A gremlin? She shook her head sharply to clear her thoughts. "My...my egg?"

As if in response, she felt a twitch in her pocket, where she'd tucked the peculiarly shimmering egg.

The creature noticed the movement and said happily, "Oh! A live egg! New life! Must go to nursery, yes yes!"

"Nursery?" she repeated. Idiot! You can do better than that, she scolded herself.

She tried again. "Nursery? What nursery? Where do I need to take this?" She pulled the rainbowy iridescent egg out of her pocket.

At the sight, the creature flinched. "One of those! Get it aw—"

For a brief moment, the egg shone bright enough to blind both of them. By the time Lenore blinked the spots out of her eyes, the creature was cowering on the floor.
"Forgive us, we meant no harm, noble one!" With a remarkable turn of speed, the creature had scuttled away into the darkness.

"Wait! I still need to know—" she called futilely, then slumped and finished in a whisper, "Where the nursery is. Or the exit. Or I'd even settle for a decent-sized window."

Shaking her head and eyeing the currently innocuous-looking egg, she tucked it back in her pocket, picked a direction at random, and started off. Half a dozen steps later, she nearly walked into a gnarled tree stump. She was about to go around it when she noticed something odd and almost familiar about the top of the stump. It almost seemed to have eyes...

She gasped. When viewed from a certain angle, it almost seemed to be carved in the shape of a lion's head—just like, she suddenly remembered, the post at the bottom of the stairs to the second story in her great-grandmother's house. She transferred her gaze to the tumble of rocks behind the stump, which did indeed look distinctly more climbable than she'd thought at first.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But it wasn't like she had any better ideas. Taking a deep breath, she began climbing.

The rocks had a grainy texture to them and they were piled loosely. More than once Lenore found herself nearly falling as she lost a hand or foothold as the rock slid out from the pile and away down the hill. The rocks couldn't have been more than ten meters in height but as neared the top it seemed to her frightened view that it must be a thousand. Catching her breath a final time as one last rock slid out from underfoot she flung herself onto the top. She lay for a moment looking down at her feet and thinking oddly about her choice of footwear that day. The slightly worn tennis shoes were fine for most applications. Certainly they were perfectly acceptable for the cleaning she'd set out do before this madness began. But they were far too worn on the soles for this kind of climbing.

Rolling over and sitting up she got a first good look at what she'd climbed her way into. The first and most obvious thing she noticed was just how much brighter this area was than the tunnels she'd left below. Lenore had to blink a few times before her eyes had fully adjusted. Even when she'd managed to get her irises fully lensed though the light was still almost blinding and some of the details of this place were lost in that brightness. Shading her eyes somewhat with her left hand Lenore stood up and took a step foward toward what appeared to be some kind of shimmering jungle. Great vines hung from above supported by great trunks of trees whose tops were lost among the light. There were a plethora of smaller plants lining the floor before her with strange insects busily working their way along the ground.

Becoming a little more settled Lenore decided that despite the blinding effects she rather preferred this to the dank and dark corridors before. She still had no idea where this was or how she'd gotten here but the warmth was refreshing and the trees inviting. She walked on for a ways wondering where there might be some water as she was beginning to feel thirsty. It was then that she noted the music coming from her left. Having nowhere better to go toward she aimed herself toward its source. It seemed a dreamy melody with soft and happy tones. Definitely a promising sound. Eventually it became clear that it was coming from a clearing and was accompanied by the sounds of flowing water as if by a river of some kind. In the clearing she could just make out several figures standing in a circle.

Squinting into the brightly lit clearing, she saw that the sound of flowing water came not from a river as she'd expected, but from a massive fountain in the center of the clearing. She swallowed convulsively at the sight of the clear, delicious-looking water. The centerpiece of the fountain was a tall, elegantly arched stone doorway, water falling like a curtain where a door should be, and through the water, she saw... She blinked, wondering whether the light was playing tricks on her eyes. Instead of the eye-searing light that pervaded this floor, in the doorway she saw nothing but dark.

Circling the fountain were three figures, singing the melody she'd been following. A gentle lullaby, flowing ceaselessly without start or end, it wove seamlessly into the peaceful burbling of the fountain. The three figures were oddly blurred, but as she stared until her eyes began to water, she got the impression that they were three women: one young, one in the prime of life, and one in her twilight years.

The more intensely she focused on the singers, the clearer their song became, until she could almost make out the words. They were singing something about...
They were...
They were...
It was...
She was...
She was so thirsty.

She suddenly realized she was standing next to the fountain, hands outstretched as if to scoop up a mouthful of the cool water. The women had stopped circling and were standing in a triangle around her. Their song continued, but it had modulated into a minor key, and the words were now crystal clear. In heartbreakingly pure harmony, they were singing:

Bearer, Seeker, Guardian's heir,
Ward ye well the life ye bear.
Seek the Cradle, if you dare,
That lies beyond the Shadow's lair.
For that which lies within your care
Shall bring an age of fortune rare.
But should ye falter, fail, or err,
Destruction comes to all. Beware!

And in a flash of light, they vanished, leaving Lenore standing alone by the fountain, blinking tears out of her eyes - from the music or the light, she wasn't sure.

Destruction comes to all? That didn't sound positive in the least. For a moment Lenore pondered it in silence barely noticing her tears dripping into the fountain below and mingling with the flowing waters.

Eventually she became aware of the egg becoming warmer in her hands. It seemed to pulse in response to the light. Could this be what the singers were referring to? If so was she somehow its caretaker now and what did that mean? Lenore longed desperately to find them again so she could ask these questions and listen once again to their beautiful singing.

She looked about her trying to discover where they might have gone. Nothing was obvious though. There was only the darkness from which she had emerged and the light in which she found herself now bathed. Still there was an ache in her heart now and the music would not leave her mind. It played again and again in her head the lyrics teasing and something just on the edge of clear meaning. Lenore bent over to look into the fountain once more and took the drink she had been longing for. The water was delicious in ways she had never experienced. It seemed to soothe her and she was able to focus on the problem at hand. She decided to call out and see if there was any response.

"Hello" She cried in a clearer voice than she remembered. "is anyone there? I need to know more about what is going on. Where am I? Where should I go?" Her words rang into the warm air and there was a slight breeze that seemed to waft over and through the space almost visibly shimmering in the light. It caressed the egg and then seemed to form about it a message. It wasn't in any words in any normal sense but communicated in rhyme nonetheless.

Out the corner there must meet
A gust of air thy fleeting feet
Step out of danger hast already
Continue on and forward steady
going left and going right until
The waterfall shall pass the hill.

Corner? Waterfall? She puzzled over the new rhyme, trying to make out the meaning.

It had something to do with the egg. She was sure of that. She had to take it...somewhere? A cradle of some sort? But how to get there?

The playful breeze was growing stronger, tugging at her clothes. It almost seemed to be trying to push her into the fountain.

Unless...

She eyed the rectangle of darkness in the center of the fountain. Well, what could it hurt to try? Slowly, she climbed up onto the low ledge around the fountain and stared into the void, just slightly out of reach. She glanced down at the water at her feet, then shuddered. No, she would not, could not, pollute that pure liquid with her feet.

The breeze was now a steady gale at her back. A wild thought occurred to her. Without pausing to think about it, she leaped straight into the air. As she did, a sudden gust pushed her forward, into the dark portal. Just before she entered, the darkness cleared to reveal...

A forest. A surprisingly normal-looking forest, apparently lit by mundane sunlight.

She landed, stumbling slightly, on a narrow trail. Turning slowly, she inspected her surroundings. The trail stretched straight ahead and behind, as far as she could see through the undergrowth, which wasn't far.

Continue on and forward steady. With a shrug, she tucked the egg carefully away in a pocket and started walking down the trail, in the direction she'd been facing when she landed.

A few minutes later, she came to a small clearing. In the center, a peculiar creature squatted on a stump, humming tunelessly.

It was...humanoid? Ish? It appeared to have a single leg with two feet on the end, one pointing forwards and one backwards. It had a single long, double-jointed arm emerging from the center of its chest, with—nine? Yes, nine long fingers, including a thumb on each side. It wore what appeared to be overalls, twisted sideways to accommodate the unusual position of its arm. Its face was fixed in a permanently amiable expression.

Lenore gasped. The creature looked up at the noise and gasped in return.

"A person! A human person! Why come you here, human person?"

"I...well, I, you see..." she stammered.

"Sit! Sit! We talk. Ah, all comes clear now! I knew not of what this shaping spoke. But I see true now!" The creature shoved a small wooden figure toward her.

She blinked. It did indeed look oddly like her. "Did you...make that?" she ventured.

The creature abruptly leaped six feet straight up and turned halfway around, landing facing away from her. Except...

She gasped again. The creature's back side was similar to its front, with a second long nine-fingered arm in the center of the torso, and a second, angry-looking face on the back—er, the other side of its head.

"Foolish human person! Is not a making, is a shaping!"

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't, didn't mean to—"

The creature made another of those startling leaps and turned its smiling face back toward her. "Is well. You were not to know. Human persons are ignorant. This is known." It reached out with its disconcertingly long arm and patted her head condescendingly.

Giving herself a mental shake, she tried to get this odd encounter back on track. "Look, I was wondering, do you know of something called a Cradle, or a shadow's lair, or someplace where a waterfall passes a hill?"

It stilled, turning its head sideways. "Why seek ye to know, human?"

"Well, I've got this egg, you see..." She pulled it out of her pocket.

There was complete silence for a moment, then a series of thuds that sounded like thunder. When she looked up, the clearing was filled with hundreds of the odd creatures, all staring at the egg she held. Then in complete unison, they intoned solemnly: "The Egg..."

"...The Egg!" They cried "The giver of life and death!" Yelled one "The power to travel the worlds!" cried another. There was a constant shifting of bodies as the creatures shifted back and forth between their positive and negative sides. Seemingly their emotions were highly inconsistent and none could wholly reconcile their feelings.

Lenore took a deep breath and looked down at the egg she was still clutching. Her own perspective on the egg shifting yet further. The attention wasn't exactly helping her mood and she wondered if she should put the thing down and walk away. But no, clearly this was something meant to happen. Poems and destiny were wound up in this and it had to go forward. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she responded.

"Can you tell me more about this egg? What it is for, what it does?

Why does it have this power? Why am I even here?..." She would probably have kept gushing questions but one the strange creatures interrupted her.

"The Egg!" it cried "You do not know!? You who are the keeper and grower. You who shall meet and become the egg?"

Lenore felt a flash of anger and nearly threw the egg at the creature. After she restrained herself she finally broke down in tears.

"Doesn't anyone here speak in anything but riddles!?" She yelled at no one in particular.

"You shall learn! You shall learn!" Came the response from the crowd.

This seemed a bit more hopeful than what Lenore had dealt with in the past. A chest-hand was extended toward her beckoning and she followed.
Lenore and the small army of two-faced people wandered into the woods for some time. After a while Lenore was sure that she could not find her way back to her arrival point. The turns had been very convoluted and the idea of straight lines seemed to be almost foreign to these people who looked at the world from two directions at all times. Nor were there any roads or trails that she could discern that would have provided some kind of guidance.

Whatever means they were using though her companions led the way steadily and seemingly without fear of missing the mark. Eventually they arrived in what seemed a village with a series of huts scattered about. These seemed as out of place as anything she had yet witnessed. They had blinking lights on them and seemed to blend seemlessly with the trees. As if they had managed to wire screens onto bark and blend alloy with leaf. A figure stepped out from a darkened corner waving a bright flame overhead and flanked by two more of the two-faced people.