The Beckoning Within
by thunder falcon
featuring opening narrative by Jaebi
"Don't!" Sara pleads. Torrential sounds batter vertically across the other side of the twin steel doors. "You can't. I won't let you!"
Nick's face defies meaning. Does he feel nothing or is it the sensation of all things that absolves him of emotion? The weight of his advance presses against Sara's palms, her outstretched arms baring him from the sound.
"Always, Sara, we have lived on this side! Here, with the bastard children of fear and wonder! And every day it beckons- I must know what calls beyond the barrier. I must open it!"
"If we were meant to know, The Father would have born us on the other side!" Sara screams. "Why must you tempt fate with the unknown?"
Nick's bland stare seems to answer before his lips do. (finish this sentence...) "You know the way I am. You always say, I don't have any feeling for anything. But there is nothing here to have feeling for, save for you. There is no other reason to stay, save for you. Yet the only reason to go, is for you!"
"What did you say?" Sara's hands suddenly go weak and fall to her side. Small motionless things, they do not move. Where had all the might gone? "You want to leave me?"
Nick quivers, the roaring sound crying out against the rare expression of pain moving through his handsome brown face. "No, I don't wish to go unless you come with me. Besides, Father has gone into seclusion for his time of contemplation. He will not return for two or three daily cycles. It's our only chance to go. I will not wait any longer!"
Sara is stunned to hear such a thing. But the fear is still there with the hope, the hope of The Father. Why leave? The Father had always been so good to them, the way he's been good to all of his children. True the Underworld was very cold, with its many chambers of cement and steel. But The Father always tried to make it warm with his words and deeds and safe with his laws. "But it's wrong to go through the doors!"
Wrong? Was it indeed, profoundly wrong? Sara couldn't help but wonder.
"When has the father said it was wrong? He has said some things are wrongs. Like you can't hit or bring mean harm to anyone - that's wrong. You cannot take things that belong to others - that's wrong too." Nick's face hardens against his warm brown skin making Sara feel sad. "I've always listened to The Father, very carefully. True, he has said we shouldn't go through the doors, but he has never once described it as wrong to do so. Besides, if it were truly a bad thing, don't you think The Vora, would stop us?"
The doors beckoning with bangs and rattling steel, shakes Sara's limbs. But there are other frightful sounds beyond the barrier, like deep voices puffing savage air and vibration, ordering them to do the unthinkable. "But others say it is bad! And they will think you're bad! I don't want them to think you're bad! And think of all the others who spoke of going through the doors! They vanished, because it's wrong! Think a moment! Hasn't it occurred to you, that maybe The Vora made them vanish, because it's bad!"
Nick laughs. It's a sudden, unexpected thing, him laughing. What a strange and lovely foreign sound, the deep shudder of him laughing over the thundering steel. "The Vora didn't make them vanish! They vanished because they went through the doors!" His smile fades and disappears. "But let me tell you the real wrong. That you would stay here, with the bastard children of fear and wonder! And that's all they'll ever do! Wonder about things that will never be, because they are too cowardly to follow the voice within! How could you want to live the way of a coward, when you have that pretty thing growing in your belly?! To make our little one, live in such a dead world - that would be the Wrong!"
The steel barrier is roaring, but suddenly Sara can't hear it. Nick is standing before her, but she can't see him for all the tears flooding her eyes. He knows the special secret. How could he know the special secret?
Nick is grabbing her, shaking her. "Think of it Sara! The special little one, you have growing within, trapped here forever!"
A panic rushes over the girl's trembling limbs. As memories flood her senses, her tiny world spins in a peculiar way, swishing from one side to another. Then suddenly plunging down into the tunnels and chambers that bore it, everything grows still.
"There you are," the voice said in its soothing, fatherly way. "What are you doing in the alchemy chamber? Looking for mischief?"
"What?" Sara asked with a tremor of fear, moving down to her finger tips. She turned to see her mentor and teacher looking at her. Was The Vora watching her too? "Father? You have returned. We were not expecting you back so soon."
"It is true, I greatly covet my excursions into contemplation," The Father said with a touch of melancholy. "But with the garden harvest coming, I could not stay away too long." The man squinted with a youthful expression and brightness about his large eyes that belied his years. Yes, it seems he's quite a bit younger than he should be. But than again forty-three is so very old. He smiled in his generous way. "I didn't know you had an interest in alchemy. I could have given you instruction."
"I did not have such an interest until recently," Sara confessed shyly. Glancing at the shelf and the table below, she hoped The Father would not notice the incriminating bottles scattered about, filled with various medicine potions. Especially one in particular, sitting on the counter next to an empty glass. Sara winced. If only she had the time to complete her task, before The Father's return. "I was just looking at different things."
"Forgive me, Father," the bodyless voice of The Vora, sounded into the room through the talking box. "Perhaps, I should have kept the chamber secured during your seclusion."
"Vora, if I wanted to keep the alchemy room locked, I would," The Father said with his disarming frankness. He always spoke to The Vora as if she were a person. Though when it spoke, it sounded like an older girl or a woman, Sara and most of the other children, couldn't help but think of it as a thing. A talking, cold thing. "Besides, Cleo and the others need to use it, to further their studies. Don't you agree?"
"Yes, I can see how that would be useful," The Vora concurred. "There are matters, I should attend to elsewhere. Do you require any further assistance?"
"No, we're fine. I just want to visit with Sara, for a bit." The Father said, eyeing the clutter on the counter. The Vora offered a parting platitude and the light on the talking box, went out upon its departure. In The Vora's absence, the Father said nothing as he took up the various concoctions and returned them to their places on the shelves above, somehow overlooking two items.
He left out the special bottle and the glass, Sara thought in panic. Why did he leave the special bottle and the glass on the counter like that?
Now was a good time to change the subject. "I've always wondered where you go, when you leave for your times of contemplation. Is there a secret chamber you retire to?"
"You could say that," The Father said. "It's a very large, beautifully painted chamber filled with color and softened with lush carpet from wall to wall. I keep all my special things in this chamber and go there from time to time, to think. Or rather not to think."
This statement perplexed Sara to an extraordinary degree. "Why would you not want to think? You are always telling us, it's important to think about things."
The Father puttered a laugh. "Yes, but sometimes, when you think about things too much, as I do from time to time, you need to give your mind a brief respite."
"What else do you do in the painted chamber?" Sara asked, plotting of a way to put away the bottle and the glass, without it appearing to be a matter of great importance. Or better yet, if she just ignored the presence of these items, maybe it would appear as if they had been left out by someone else. "I was just wondering," she asked casually.
"What do you think I do there?" The Father asked with curious mischief about his eyes.
"I don't know," Sara said, feeling tension in her answer. A great man like The Father, must do all kinds of things, she can't quite imagine. "Do you read, perhaps?"
"Maybe I read, or maybe I play music? Or perhaps," The Father said in that teasing tone, that always sought to challenge her, "I steal away to be with a secret lover."
"A secret...love-er?" Sara became even more confused. "What is that?"
The Father looked down at the incriminating bottle and the empty glass in a strange way. "You have these things here, and yet you do not know what a lover is?" he said with a peculiar smile. "Perhaps Nick could tell you?" he suggested with strange humor.
"Nick is smart about some things, but I don't think he's smart about everything." Sara then thought of a small detail, that she suspected was relevant to the matter, though she wasn't certain why. "Besides, he's a boy."
"Well, you could have asked me about such matters, or looked to the learning books?" Sara just stared her mentor blinking. "Are you not curious about such things?"
"What things?" Sara was befuddled by The Father's strange manner and questioning. And he had made mention of the potion, so there was no escaping his prying eye. "I can only guess you mean, being a love-er of plant knowledge, which I do enjoy. You say, that we should love to learn, as you do." Feeling awkward, Sara cleared her throat. "I know, I have not been as good of a student as others. Nick is a very good student and has read most of the study books. Still Cleo, is the smartest of all of us and knows everything because she's the oldest." Cleo was the oldest of the children who remained. There was no telling, what happened to the others. But Sara tried not to think about this. "I'm not much for books, but I'm good with plant knowledge. Is that what you mean? You go to be a secret love-er of special private knowledge?"
"Sort of." The Father bit his bottom lip. "My apologies. Forget I mentioned it."
Sara nodded and shrugged in childlike agreement. Yes, she would try to forget the whole thing. She looked down to find her feet shuffling back and forth. Now, was the moment for a quick escape. "I should be going. Nick is waiting for me."
"Yes, but you never answered my question," Father prodded, "about the bottle?"
Sara suddenly couldn't speak. Her small mouth just opened and closed like the fish they grew in large tanks for food. Yes, it was easier to be a fish. That is, until you were eaten.
"I'll word it like this," the Father continued, picking up the abandoned potion, rolling it in his fingers. "What is it, that compelled you to enter the alchemy chamber - without permission, I might add. Did someone else force you to do it?"
"No, Father," Sara stammered, finding her voice choking and quivering. There was no running from it now. She would have to confess. "It was me. It was my inner god-self, who told me I must come here. But it was something that I needed to be secret, at least until I could find an answer to my question."
"An answer for what question?" The Father plied. Sara lips drew tight and trembling and she was again robbed of her voice. "Are you are frightened? That is understandable, if it is what I suspect," The Father said in a soothing tone "Alright," he said thoughtfully. You know, how you mentioned that you are good with plant knowledge? Well, I think you're here because you've encountered a new plant that you don't understand. A very special plant, maybe?"
A startling wave of emotion rose up from within Sara's heart exploding.
"Yes Father," she suddenly blurted out, with a flood of tears erupting from her eyes. A strange relief drew over her senses for a moment, only to be trampled out by panic. Wiping the rush of water from her eyes, she tried to see past the blur in her vision. "I don't know how it happened, exactly. But there is a plant, I think. It's in my belly and I'm not sure how it got there. But my cycle time has not come as it should, and I'm certain I can feel something growing in there."
"Can you tell me how you came to be in such a state?" The Father asked gently.
"I don't know," Sara whimpered. "Maybe it's because I handled too many seeds. Pattie said that's how it happened to her." The Father was so stunned by this revelation, he covered his mouth, looking as if he was trying to stifle an explosion rumbling in his chest. "I'm so sorry Father. I should have been more careful! A few weeks back, when we were sorting out good seeds for the next planting season, there were piles and piles of them all over! And I just sat in them, without even thinking about it! One must of gotten into me somehow. Maybe that's how it happened?"
The Father, with his fingers pressing over his labored mouth, suddenly laughed out loud. Sara's mouth fell open. Clearly this was a very serious matter, so how could her beloved mentor, laugh like that? But The Father kept laughing until he was out of breath.
"Forgive me," he gasped, his strange giggling humor tinting with regret. "Forgive me child. The fault in mine, and mine alone." He sighed, the remnants of his laughter dying away. "I've never forced knowledge, especially intimate knowledge, upon you and the others, as I believe our children should come by learning in their own way, according to where their will takes them. But now I see, that maybe there are some things that you should be told, if only to better guide your decisions."
"Like not to sit on the piles of planting seeds?" Sara suggested.
"Yes, I mean no," The Father sputtered a painful giggle and then pushed it down. "True, one should be careful about where they sit. But I'm fairly certain that's not how you ended up cultivating this special plant in your belly. That is, if it's even there to begin with." Father unscrewed the cap of the potion in question and centered the glass on the counter. "But we had better make certain, shall we? I trust, you know how this potion works."
"Yes Father," Sara said bowing her head down. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out another small glass container. "I made body water into this little jar."
"Then there will be no need for the glass," Father said putting it away with a patient smile. He took the little jar from Sara, opened it and set it onto the counter. "But I'll let you manage the mystery behind your little plant yourself," he said pushing the bottle of special potion towards her. "Now there's a little dropper in the cap. So just squeeze a couple of drops into the jar and that should do it."
"Okay," Sara whispered nervously. With her fingers quivering, she lifted up the bottle cap and followed the instructions. "Now what do I do?"
"You wait. It should take about a minute of so," her mentor provided, looking at the timepiece around his wrist. "If there is indeed a special plant growing inside you, then the water will turn pink. If not, the color will not change at all."
"I see." Feeling the moments tick past as if they were years, Sara's hands tightened into fists. "But what will happen, if it goes pink? What will I do?"
"You will do, what has been done for ages. You will have a child," The Father told her gently. "Many have done it before you and many will do it after you, so there's no need to be frightened. You'll have many worries, no doubt. But you'll take them one at a time, starting with this small wonder. And if indeed, it is there waiting for you, then you will come to know the dream of The Mother."
Yes, the dream of The Mother. Sara hoped it would find her one day. It's just the dream was not unfolding in the way she hoped it would. Sara herself, had always longed for a mother to guide her and care for her, but she never came. In her absence, did that mean she would be The Mother instead? Sara didn't care for the notion. Then a worse thought came to mind. What if The Vora is The Mother.
Well, that doesn't make any sense at all.
A sudden longing from within, ended in remorse. What if she wasn't worthy enough to truly know the dream of The Mother? But how was she going to raise a child without it? Slowly breathing the moments as they passed, Sara tried to forget this painful thought, to ponder the possibilities of her special little plant. What will it look like? Will it be a boy or a girl? How did it get in there, to begin with? Did it creep up on her like a little mouse, while she was sleeping? And if she was to care for a little one, why wasn't it brought up from the deep hole in the ground, like the other new children? That didn't make any sense either. Her mind was just swimming with questions.
"There we are," she heard The Father say suddenly. "It's pink." He smiled looking both proud and pleased. "It looks like you have a special little plant - a little person plant."
"Wow," Sara said, marveling at the confirmation. She looked at the pink water, thinking she was not nearly as shocked as she thought she would be. But then again, she was only confirming what the voice of her god-self had been telling her. "Do I have to tell anyone?"
The Father sighed. "Well, that's up to you. But perhaps you should tell Nick."
"I don't know if I want to tell him," Sara cringed rubbing her tummy. "I think when my belly gets bigger, he'll make fun of me." She resealed the jar and the telling potion bottle, putting them away. "But I think you're right. I really should begin taking alchemy instruction from you. It's very interesting."
"No," The Father said with a long sigh. "With the different places your inner-will, will be taking you, I'm afraid it's too late for that now."
"What do you mean, Father?" Sara asked.
The Father smiled, casting the last real image of him in Sara's mind for all the days ahead. "I think your intuition will tell you, when the time comes."
Something strange is happening. There is a mysterious quaking, from within adding to the thundering shutter of the doors. The Father knew. He knew all along, that she would come to this place, because for her something had to change.
Sara can suddenly feel her hands on cold steel pulling at the howling partitions. She pulls harder, a mammoth wave of emotion welling up within her. As if urging her on, the barrier clamors louder. The special secret is there inside her, and suddenly she knows that she has to fight for something better than what the fearful, dead world below can give. "Well, just don't stand there! Help me! Help me open the doors!"
Nick stares in complete and utter disbelief at her sudden change of heart. He shakes himself free of the shock, moving towards the rambling steel. His face now all but resolve, he pulls a bar of metal from his tunic. "I brought this to force the doors."
"Yes, that will work! Push it in this crack to make it open! Quick before someone comes!" But Sara can't wait, taking the metal bar in her hands, she pries the tip into the center crack of the beckoning steel. With a shock, the doors suddenly push back against the bar, sending it flying past them. The tremendous surge thrusting against them, Sara and Nick fall to the corridor floor.
The doors falling open, an astonishing new world rushes in. And the air! The air is strange and alive, pushing aside the partitions to greet them with a bright new vision.
Sara stares amazed, seized by the surreal sight before her. It is full of strange light devoid of any clear source, and there is a seemingly endless green carpet floor that appears to span into infinity. It looks uneven, rising up and down in places with strange patches of color and sweet dark. Are those big plants, flowers and dirt in the carpet?
Sara thinks of the plants, flowers and dirt, The Father taught her to set into little pots. That is, until her mind is broadsided by the spanning walls of the monolithic chamber. Looking almost translucent, they're painted in red, orange and blue colors, blending like a dream. Laced with puffs of gauzy white, they come up from the incalculable distance beyond the green carpet and seamlessly climb up and up and up with no ceiling in sight.
Suddenly something terrifying eclipses their vision. Two inconceivable monsters rise up in the doorway sending limbs trembling. One has long hair, the other short hair. They are both different, yet the same in terrible fright. Breathing as living barricades of muscle and bone, they stand at the open steel doors, their mouths agape with large, fierce fangs and behind them strange limbs fan fiercely. Barring entrance into the bright new chamber, their mouths open and close, puffing that strange sound of savage air and deep vibration, bellowing so loudly Sara wants to cry.
Oh, what horror! How could they have known, they'd be met by such horror!
"I'm sorry!" Nick throws himself over Sara crying out, "I'm so sorry! I made a mistake!"
Sara sees the bar just beyond them and desperately reaches for it. But the monstrous beasts are upon them, bellowing and jumping on their bodies. With flashing sharp teeth and wet tongues licking hungrily at their flesh, their hind limbs fan wildly as if in savage delight. Fighting them, Nick tries to push the monsters away, but they overwhelm him.
"Pogo! Talon! Come here! Right Now!" a voice orders. The beasts suddenly vanish.
Everything stops. The voice? Where did the voice come from?
There is a woman standing at the doors, with incredible light rising around her body. Magically lit with silver streaked auburn hair, she smiles. "I'm sorry. Did they frighten you? They just get so excited, when new ones come and they forget their manners."
"But the monsters!" Nick stammers. "What are those monsters that tried to kill us?"
The woman laughs. The woman laughs as if the world were new. And it is. It must be!
"They're not monsters, sweetie. They're dogs. You've never seen a dog before, have you?" The woman smiles. The monster dogs stand behind her now, peeking out as if they have been bad. How exotic and strange they look. "You see Pogo, that's her name, is a Collie and Talon is a German Shepard. And they weren't trying to kill you. They were just playing with you, because they so were excited to see you."
Is the strange woman speaking the truth? Oddly enough, the beasts don't seem nearly as large and fierce as they did just moments before. Looking mischievous, their strange hind limbs fan about madly. The woman pats one on the head. "See? They're wagging their tails, because they're so happy to see you."
In this new light, Sara is happy to see them. Delighted by the thought, she tries to get up. But Nick pushes her down, his face now alive with the kind of emotion she's never seen in him before. Blocking her body with his own, he grimaces. "I say, they tried to eat us."
"You can say whatever you like," the woman notes brushing back her long mane. "It's important to have an opinion now, even if it's the wrong one."
Nick shutters, perhaps pondering this. "You said there were others that came before us. Where are they now? I demand to know what you have done with them!"
"I'm not sure if I should tell you that. Maybe they're all here somewhere, living and working and dreaming up special things, they'd like to do for themselves. Or maybe..." the woman's brows flare with a smile, "Pogo and Talon ate them. You will have to decide."
Sara stares at the dogs. Talon makes that loud barking sound and Nick jerks at the animal's grunting, beastly breath. Perhaps, he could eat someone. But she knows right away that she likes the one with long hair, called Pogo. Pogo looks at her so sweetly, her head tilting to one side. No, she couldn't eat anyone. Aching to get up, Sara thinks of stoking and petting Pogo, the way the woman standing before them, is petting Pogo. "Were the dogs at the doors? Are they the ones that make the doors quake?"
The woman seems amused by the question. "I've never thought of it like that. It's just their job to let us know, when someone is at the doors. And they get very excited, bouncing on the doors and barking at them, when new children come to call."
"New children," Sara asks timidly, "like us?"
"Yes. They get to know them, you see? Dogs have very good hearing and a keen sense of smell. They got to know Nick quite well, because he would come to the doors all the time, thinking about wether or not he was going to pass through them." Nick is as rigid as steel, staring at the woman suspiciously. She smiles. "It looks like, he's still thinking about it."
From his chosen place on the floor, Nick glares. "How do you know my name?"
"To know your name, is my job." The woman looks down on Sara, her face glowing in the strange light coming from everywhere. "And you must be Sara. The Father will be so proud that you have decided to come here. Because you were so brave, your child will never know the stifling imprisonment of the underworld."
"You know The Father?" Sara stammers. She thinks of something even more amazing and recoils bashfully. "You know about my secret?"
"The Father told me." The woman's eyes become a question and a strange smile. "Tell me, you do know how you got that way?"
Sara is embarrassed by the inquiry. "Um . . . no," she says shyly.
The strange woman cringes, nodding her head disapprovingly. "Well, now that it is left up to me, such things will be explained to you. But I suppose, The Father was thinking there are some lovely mysteries, you should figure out for yourself. Of course, I suspect he may now be reconsidering his position on certain matters. And whatever he decides, it's his choice. Besides, there was terrible time when all the children needed to be protected from the bad things that came upon the world above. But that is changing now, so I have to trust The Father, in the roll he was given, fore he's the one who looks after all the children of the underworld, until they can find the strength to leave. For you, that day has come."
Nick's eyes are as big as saucer plates. "I don't understand. The father has always told us, we shouldn't go through the doors, no matter what we heard beyond them."
"Yet you chose, to defy him," observes the woman. "Why did you do that?"
Nick becomes flustered. "Because, I can't be a baby anymore! To have someone tell me when to eat and when to sleep, what I'm allowed to do and what I am not allowed to do. I have to make my own choices, even if they could be wrong. I have to think for myself! And in the end, that is what The Father said is our greatest duty - to think for ourselves."
"Excellent." The strange woman smiles with satisfaction. "Then you are ready. And in this world, you will have to be able to think for yourself, because we may not always be here to help you. Truthfully, that's what The Father wanted for you."
Remembering The Father, Sara wants to cry. "Will we ever see him again?"
"No, you shall never see him as Father, ever again," the woman states bluntly. "However, you can speak with him from time to time, if you should need his guidance. That is, if you decide to come into the World Above. But for now, you're still in the Underworld."
Sara stares at the open steel doors and looks back. She knows it will be the last time, she will ever look back. Her eyes fall on the strange woman. "Who are you?"
"You know it's funny. When the other children come, they're always so curious about the dogs, it seems an eternity before they think to ask about me. But that is good, you see? Because there are so many unknown mysteries in the World Above. And sometimes you need to think on them, before you ponder the obvious."
"I see now," Nick gasps. His eyes watering, his body softens and starts to quiver as if he were a small child, reborn as something lovely and new. His sound breathless, a tear runs down his cheek. "You're The Mother. The Father, always said when we were ready, the dream of The Mother would come upon us."
"Well, there's a trick to that. You see, the dream of The Mother, doesn't come upon you. You must find the will within, to bring the dream of yourself to The Mother." The Mother smiles, a proud watery ache in her eyes. "And that is what you've done."
"Is that what we did?" Sara's eyes are all soft and wet. "I never thought, I'd be worthy enough to come to know the dream of The Mother."
"Yes, but I'm only The Mother as teacher and guide." The Mother gazes at Sara's tummy and the small flesh dream growing inside. "You shall come to know the dream of becoming The Mother, from within. There will be times, when you feel you're not worthy of this dream, but I think you will do well."
Sara's mind is full of questions and they begin to pile upon one another in one lovely, delicious heap. What is this beautiful massive chamber of the world above, and how was The Mother able to build something so large and so full of color and wonder? Where is all the flooding light coming from? Is there a button to turn it off? Why does the air around them, move about so strangely, almost as if were alive? Why does Pogo's hind limb, fan around like that? Does she do this to keep The Mother cool?
Sara can't wait to ask them all. But there is one question that comes to her lips and it frightens her. "I will become The Mother? I wouldn't know how do to that. Besides, if there is only one Father, there can be only one Mother."
"Oh, but there are many Mothers and Fathers."
Nick's mouth is falling open and he tries to make it move. "I will become The Father? We will become the Mothers and Fathers of our own lives?"
"You see? Now you understand." The air moving about in a magical dance, The Mother turns away from the doors and into the light. "You will become the Mothers and Fathers of an old world, born new again. And they shall be the only gods you need to know, because they were born from no other source but from within."
Nick's eyes widen. "We have heard The Father speak many times of the god within."
"Yes. At one time, there were many other gods, but they were too faraway in lofty heavens or exotic realms, hidden from small creatures of flesh like us. So no one was really certain if they were real." The engulfing illumination turning soft yellow and orange, The Mother turns back to them, her expression growing sad. "But belief in them, over belief in The Mother and The Father of inner-self, brought war and ruin to the world, with many children fighting, killing and dying for the glory of these faraway gods."
"The sad days of lost self and lost life," Sara recalls dimly.
"Yes, it was because of those many sad days and all those lost lives, that The Father and I, decided this would not be so in the new-born world. We swore to our own hearts, to teach the surviving children, to find The Mother or The Father of their own small god within. You will find it's not a perfect god and it will make mistakes, but the Mother or Father God of your heart, will help you make choices and find the means to know and understand the guiding forces within others, so you may learn from them and they from you. But no one but you, shall ever follow your Inner God. And no one should force you to follow theirs. Finding your own inner will, to pass through the doors, is the first test of your belief in the god-self within. As it grows, it may take on any shape or special name you wish, to better guide you and it will be yours and yours alone."
"In other words, as The Father says," Nicks whispers, perhaps afraid of what is within, "you're solely responsible for your own actions and your inner god-self."
Sara took a breath.
"And those who have not the strength to take the responsibility for self and blindly follow the will of another's god, will live forever in the dark," she states, now fully comprehending the sheer depth of the words, as if for the first time. Staring at the open steel doors, Nick is still boyish and very un-godlike. How funny. He wanted to go through them so badly, but now he is trembling beneath Sara's touch. She looks to the dogs, taken by their large eyes. "Do the beasts, have their own inner gods?"
"Animals have the best of inner-gods, for they cannot be found in a book or legend, but in the instinct of the natural born heart of the world. Devoid of ideology and the desire rule over the souls of others, they rely on this instinct within, to teach and guide them. That is why they were chosen to stand at the entrance. Their calls, beckon this instinctual will in others, without trying to rule over it."
"Is that like intuition?" Sara asks quietly.
"Why, yes it is," confirms The Mother with a smile. "Intuition, is instinct, touched by the growing wisdom of one's inner god-self."
Feeling something soothing in the strange lively air, Sara looks to the horizon of the monolithic chamber. A painted chamber full of color, she ponders to her self. Her eyes drawing into slits, she sees a man in the distance, holding some sort of pipe to his lips and lovely exotic sounds emanate from his location. Is it some kind of water pipe? If so, why does there seem to be music coming from the pipe, instead of water?
Watching the man moving about, as if wafting lightly to the sound of his flute, Sara detects something familiar in his manner. Then quite suddenly, her intuition answers a number of mysteries that seemed unfathomable just moments before.
This is the painted chamber Father spoke of and The Mother was The Father's secret lover. And yes, the Father would play music in this special place of contemplation, along with doing many other things of mysterious adventure. Instinctively Sara knew these things, just as she suddenly knew that Nick had been her own secret lover, all along. And being lovers, they had somehow created the growing little, person-plant in her belly. Yes, she knew this too.
Gazing at her long time mentor from afar, she understands what The Mother has said, is true. The man moving about in the distance, no longer seems like The Father at all. In the new light brewing around him, he's been transformed into an entirely new and mysterious being, just as she now sees that Nick is beginning the slow transformation into becoming one of the many Fathers of tomorrow.
Sara looks to Pogo standing next to The Mother. The collie's ears perk up, or a least she thinks they are ears. Then as if answering a secret voice, the long haired beast passes through the doors and comes to stand next to her. Sara smiles at the friendly creature, stroking her fur. "Come Nick. I think it's time for Pogo to eat us."
A quiver still moving about his limbs, Nick laughs. Yes, he is still frightened of the little deity growing within. But Sara knows it will be the one of the first, of many times, she will see him laugh as he tickles the delight his inner-father and god.
"Yes," he concedes, a lovely glow seizing his face, "it's time to be eaten."
Rising from the floor, Nick and Sara follow Pogo, passing though the entrance into a world just now waking to a new dawn.
"Mother?" Sara is stunned to hear The Vora's bodyless voice rise through the air. "Would you like me to secure the entrance now?"
"Yes Vora. And thank you for your patience," The Mother says.
"I have nothing but time," says the Vora in a voice more pleasing than Sara had ever heard before. "And when a new child comes to call, we'll see each other again."
"Of that, I'm sure of," The Mother offers with great expectation. "Look after the others until The Father's return." With a wave of farewell, the partitions close. As the heavy, steel, twin doors seal once again, a pair of secret eyes of fear and wonder, watch and wait for the barrier to beckon again, summoning yet another growing little god from within.
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