Gramp’s Journal – Chapter 12 Excerpt

Standing up I realized I was as tall as he was. His walking stick was a little taller and had an odd stone mounted on top. I saw it as more of a staff than a walking stick. Denegrille was about four feet tall with a small frame completely hidden inside a long robe with a hooded cloak that covered his head and shadowed his face. His stature was slightly hunched and he walked with a slow manner.

I followed him into the tall grass and after a few minutes I saw something shimmering as if something was there but not there. Walking up to it Denegrille used his staff to push aside part of the shimmer and suddenly a doorway appeared. Stepping inside he gestured for me to follow. Doing so I saw him let the shimmer go and suddenly the doorway was gone and we were standing inside a large round hut. It was all created from meadow grass and the doorway had been no more than a small flap of it. Looking around I had a really hard time believing what I was seeing. It was as if the meadow grass grew to form much of what was inside as well.

Shelves of it, holding all sorts of odd things, lined the walls and in between were odd looking grass lamps holding strange looking crystals of different colors. Staffs with strange markings hung off hooks of it to my right and cauldrons hung from hooks of it to my left. In the middle of the hut was a fire pit with orange colored stones that seemed to be glowing just a bit. Above them hung a small cauldron on a tripod made from meadow grass. Daylight seemed to find its way through the walls and light the hut up nicely.

This was so unbelievable I wondered just who this Denegrille was and what kind of being he was. I had never seen or heard of anyone like him. Sliding his hood back I finally got a good look at his face. It almost seemed to droop as if it were well worn of time. Furrowed with deep wrinkles it looked as if it had begun to loosen up. Long grayish hair fell downward past his narrow shoulders. A large nose, half the length of his face protruded outward past a bushy grayed mustache. His mustache covered his mouth and grew to blend with a long grayed out beard that blended in with the hair falling past his shoulders. I couldn’t tell where one stopped and the other began.

His perfectly rounded, black eyes were blank of expression and half hidden by low hanging brows giving him the appearance of being half asleep. I felt a sudden sadness as it looked like time had taken a terrible toll on him. I was pretty sure he had been around a lot longer than even I could imagine.

Pointed tips of his unusually large ears poked out through the falling hair on each side. Curving slightly backward they made me think of him as a gnome of sorts. Small hands with long fingers had gray hair covering the backs of them as well. I noticed he only had three fingers and a thumb instead of four. He was definitely a race of beings I had never heard about before, but then again, so were the Daka.

I realized he had politely waited for me to get comfortable with my surroundings before he continued. He sat down on a mat of meadow grass and instructed me to do the same. Facing me he grabbed a small bowl of differently colored crystals and slid them between us. Reaching in and pulling out a clear one about the size of an apple he spoke again in his soft crackled voice.

“Denegrille see Reeshard walkabout true,” he said. Holding up the crystal he began chanting and there was a sudden flash of light. Reeling backwards I felt him take hold of my arm and steady me.

“Toadwarts!” I said. “What was that?”

“Denegrille see Reeshard walkabout true,” he repeated. It took a few minutes for me to see again. The flash of light had been so bright I was temporarily blinded. Once I could I watched as he held the crystal between us and saw shadows appearing in it. First blurred images of faces, and then blurred images of people moving about showed up. After a few minutes the stone cleared and he sat it back down into the bowl.

“What was all that?” I asked.

“Reeshard see true stone true,” he replied. “Denegrille see Reeshard speak true.”

“You mean to say that crystal showed you the truth?” I asked.

“No be kreestowel,” he said, “Reeshard see true stone true. Yes, Reeshard, Denegrille see Reeshard speak true.” Waving his hands above the bowl of crystals he said, “Reeshard see stones of Otrindara.” I was sure he meant they were called stones and not crystals. I smiled and just nodded in agreement.