Fun fact of the week, I promise I am not making this up, when a baby hippo is born it has to eat shit or die. That's right baby's first ever meal is mothers shit. They have to do this in order to populate their digestive tracts with the appropriate bacteria. I know far more about hippo shit than is healthy. That's why this amuses me. You see when a hippo takes a dump, it spins its tail to spray it as far and wide as possible. That's when the shit really hits the fan. When you add that to the fact that hippo's kill more people than all the other wild animals of Africa combined, you know this is a seriously dangerous beast. One that can bite a fully grown crocodile in half. Crocodiles are basically the hippo's bitches. Mommy will watch her kid using crocodiles as teething rings. If the crocodile wants to survive it has to take it. A group of crocodiles will sometimes attack a lone baby hippo though. Isn't nature fascinatingly dreadful?
(The copyright to this image is the property of Roaring Earth.)
That was an excellent question. Kulathorn's one certainly and Pip's had its merits given the circumstances. What was she doing here? The immediate explanation was that she was a memory. He'd gone to bed with her, in the cleanest sense, he also remembered her. Not here though. She'd never been part of this recollection. The question wouldn't have been asked by Kulathorn if this were the case. Somehow he'd brought her along. He'd been to Scarlet's memory palace so it had to be possible. He'd never really thought about anyone else being able to do it. Which was silly of him. She was still looking around. Not addressing him. Unable to process what was happening. Pinching herself and examining her funky new wardrobe. No shaven head though. Not a monk. Rather an acolyte. A newbie if you like. The Neanderthal scientist was still looking at him.
"Is this going to cause a problem?" Jake asked apologetically.
Kulathorn tutted.
"No. This is where you were supposed to bring her." He responded testily. Kulathorn took a deep breath to calm himself. "That's the problem with all this shit. To you this is new, to me I've already gone over the whole thing before. Once when you explained to me. Once when I explained it to you and now I'm going down the same road again. A secret so big and so dangerous you had to keep it from yourself."
His gaze switching between Pip and the man, Jake continued.
"You did say you were going into my memory palace. This isn't what I expected though. I thought you'd be a memory. You aren't are you? Sorry Kluke wasn't a memory either. Last time we met you told me how to save The People. Is this a refresher? I was expecting a trail of clues if I'm honest."
"Wouldn't that be grand. If someone did all the work for you. Guess what? I lied. Lies are a very useful servant Wanderer, a very poor master. You have to use them though. Everyone does, we even lie to those we love. We lie a lot more to them than we do anyone except ourselves, only for better reasons. Mainly. That's a very circuitous way of saying you have got to stop lying to yourself."
That became less and less cryptic the more he examined it. The model he'd made of his world wasn't working. Sticking with it would be a very bad idea. Pip was roaming around ignoring them.
"Is she going to be alright? Does she actually know we're here?"
Before answering he stood up.
"Nothing here can harm her. It's a step on the way to what she's going to become. At the moment that lovely young thing is convinced she's having a very vivid dream. Eventually she'll understand. Construct a memory palace of her own. What she's mostly here for is this."
Kulathorn gestured toward her. The air rippled and twisted. A portal opened. On the other side of that portal were Pip's parents. Without even pausing she ran to them. Disappearing from sight. Jake jerked into motion. The scientist grabbed his arm restraining him.
"Leave her be. She's got things to learn just like you. She'll be right back and when she returns she'll know where she is. In more ways than one."
The two of them began to walk across the lawn. Falling into step naturally.
"What's this about then? A final reveal or another enigmatic riddle?"
His companion sighed impatiently.
"When you told me you'd have to be clueless I had no idea it would this intense. Has to be I suppose. Now where was I?"
"In my memory palace, sitting beneath my thinking tree."
"I always said installing a sense of humor in you was a big mistake." He hesitated giving Jake an all over examination. "Maybe I was wrong. It happens. You're going to need it from this point on. And I suppose it's what got you here eventually. After a few diversions and a lot of pointless crap. You're here to save The People. That's part of it. That was the promise you gave Daisy. The Fafindi are The People. There are other lands their descendants occupy of course. They've been here a long time. The place that she would call home is over 50,000 kilometers away. These are an offshoot. The most populous one, but they had all the advantages. That's their problem. Same antecedents different cultures. All with the same roots. Homo Sapiens are like that. Their greater ability to adapt is a weakness as well as a strength."
They continued their stroll. The mismatched pair walking in a place that existed elsewhere and elsewhen.
"Fafindi seems fine to me. I haven't seen a lot of it." The skeptical look from his fellow walker hinted at something. "You know about me and the ship being linked don't you?"
"That was your plan. Took a hell of a lot of doing. Getting a galactic civilization to owe you so much, they wouldn't flinch at sending the most expensive star ship ever built into a dead end. There are reasons you don't know what's going on. Important ones. Now it's time for you to wake up and smell the coffee Jake. I can't do that for you. I can only tell you what you told me to tell you."
It was Jake's turn to exhale meaningfully.
"I've got a lot on my plate at the moment as you can probably guess. I am being buried under the sheer amount of information my senses are receiving."
Kulathorn put an arm around his shoulders.
" You gotta learn to delegate boy. Logic is a useful tool, but sometimes you have to go with your gut. And what is your gut telling you now?"
"It's telling me this isn't about me. This is about Pip. Something's not right. It hasn't been right all along. Since before this life I'm living now. Through many life times."
"That's a part of it. There's more though. You have to work out who your competitor is Jake. That's the long and short of it. Who are you really up against here?"
During the extended silence, Jake considered this. Coming to no conclusion.
"I don't know. I've been working along the lines of it being some mysterious unknown third party. Or several parties. Right now the most competitive person I know of is Scarlet. Boy she's competitive. With everyone. Especially me."
Kulathorn chuckled.
"That sense of humor again. Don't rely on it carrying you through what's to come. I will have to reassess my opinion of its efficacy. It does serve a useful purpose. In a constantly evolving universe nothing is permanent. Everything changes. Nothing is quite what it seems. Appearances are deceptive and lies are all around you. Now is the time for those scales to fall from your eyes Wanderer. That's why you're linked with an alien ship, stranded in a place where it can't fly."
"Things will be revealed to me?"
"They already have been, only you haven't worked things out yet. Pip will help you see through the fog of deceit."
"She's pretty deceptive herself. Pip had a good teacher on that subject."
"Very true. Thing is with lies they don't have to be malicious to cause harm. The rationale behind them can seem perfectly moral to the liar. A means to a justified and desired end." The scientist stopped. "I really wish you were taking notes right now, you know. This is vital advice I'm giving you. Advice you gave me to give to you. You have to work out what it is that was too big a secret to remember. Secret is the wrong word in some ways. It's more like keeping your cards close to your chest. Which was impossible given how closely you were being watched."
"I was being watched? By who? Are they still watching me?"
"You were. You'll have to work that out for yourself and not right at this moment of course. Their attention is elsewhere right now. Has been for a while... Now I'm going to stop before I say too much. If you don't work this out yourself you'll not fully believe it. There'll be doubts. I'm afraid you have to go through the whole process rather than have things dished up on a plate. That way it'll stick."
"So I have a mortal enemy keeping watch on me." Jake summarized.
Kulathorn shook his shaggy head.
"Enemies isn't how you should look at this. Like the universe they are constantly changing. A close friend can become an enemy and an implacable enemy can become a friend. Nothing is fixed. And yet again I'm saying too much. I'm sure if I were you I'd have worked this out by now. Ignorance is bliss I suppose. You'd have revealed everything by now if you'd come into this knowing the full facts."
With a supreme effort of will Jake stored these nuggets of wisdom away. Right now he had not the foggiest idea of a conclusion. He could feel things slowly dropping into place. That was a start.
"With Daisy's people being scattered all over, how do I go about saving them?" He queried wearily
"You can start here and work your way through. Sorry they didn't all stay exactly where they were. Remember they had arrived from earth after a huge battle. Putting all their eggs in one basket was not an option for them. They split up and went their different ways to spread the risk. That way any failure, catastrophe or invading force that came their way wouldn't wipe them out. A war like that leaves scars. Ones that last a very long time. The echoes of them linger on for good and ill. Some of them came here. Others sailed across the boundless ocean. Then there's those who are the closest to The Golden Light Of The Dawn."
There was a lot to think about here. Something to occupy his mind for a while, hopefully.
"What other pearls of wisdom will you provide me Kulathorn?"
"That's your lot. The well is dry. For now. I'll be on my way."
Even though he already had more than enough conundrums to solve, Jake still wanted more. He wasn't going to get it. That was for sure.
"Where are you going to?" He asked, floundering for something to cling on to.
"I'm going to sit under that tree."
"Oh right... Trying out humor?"
Kulathorn gave the idiot the idiot stare.
"No. That's what I'm going to do. I'll be over there. Try as hard as you can, not to bother me. I won't be giving you any more. I've said way too much already. Oh, and before you ask, your young woman will be here shortly. I should say, to prevent confusion, she's been gone a lot longer than you've been here. By at least a couple of months."
"That's good." Jake responded to fresh air.
Kulathorn was back under that tree. Way off in the distance. The air boiled. Pip appeared from the distorted pool it made. Looking at him curiously.
"I always imagined your mind to be a lot dirtier and messier than this." She grinned.
"This is one of the more salubrious parts. I'm not going to ask. It's private."
"Thank you." She hugged him. Hard. "They told me to take care of you."
"In a way that's what I was told as well... As in take care of you."
"How do we get back?"
"You sure you don't want to take a look round? There's more to see."
"No thanks. I have not slept for weeks. I really need my bed." She turned away then back. "In case you're interested, it was the pendant that brought me here with you. It's caught between us. Skin to skin." She waggled her eyebrows.
"Mmmm. I think your parents are having a very bad influence on you Phillipa."