Bromfords of the Kollobita´´rtainnen - Part 27

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"Bromford"

If I get back from wherever I travel
I'll tell you what I've seen
The good and the bad
The hearts and the hassle
In the cities under siege
I'll tell you all about where I have been
And I won't ever leave again
Now you might think it's a lie
When I say I'm going to write
But if I break my pen filling you in
Wouldn't that change your mind


Bromford, Bromford
Have you even seen anything, Bromford?


When I get back from wherever I go
I'll look for you in the shade
A marker in the grass
I'll tell you at last
You're not the reason I went away
Sometimes I wish you were the one
Who had left and I had stayed


Bromford, Bromford
Have you even seen anything, Bromford?
Bromford, Bromford
Have you even seen anything, Bromford?

 

Mr. Tumbleweed comes to me the next morning - after a night full of music and singing and dancing and talking and good sleep, full of good and better food, cold and warm beverages, from the beaches of the Kollobita´´rtainnen and the banks of the silver river, through the woods beneath the trees, over the green hills and meadows, over the walls and into the streets of the City of Gold with its palaces and towers. But was it only one night? Or was it days and nights, weeks and months, even years, decades and centuries? It is hard to tell. Time is acting strange in Greenlion and the Kollobita´´rtainnen Sea.

»It is time for you and your friends to go home now«, the faun says.

All the dancing and singing and playing his pan flute haven't exhausted him at all. He is smiling a more smirking than mysterious smile and looks as fresh as the morning.

»Is it time? « Nigel asks.

The young man looks as if he has slept under a pile of fallen leaves, his shirt and trousers covered by them and some of them tangled in his disheveled hair.

»Another full moon is rising«, Tumbleweed, the faun explains, »the Cold Moon, this time. «

»So, there are in fact thirteen full moons in the twelve months of this year? « Kylie asks.

»I knew something was wrong when only eleven symbols lightened up in the circle of stones back at Brompton Castle«, Nigel is clenching his fist in a gesture of success. »And you yourself told us about the missing and yet very powerful moon, remember? «

He starts poking his forefinger into the faun's arm.

»You yourself told us as the black sheep we met at home in our world. The Blue Moon, the most powerful of them all, being an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year as the third of four full moons in a season. «

»Yes«, the faun admits, »the Blue Moon kind of slipped my mind and I forgot to mention it when Claude Sideburns pressed the stony symbols in the circle of stones. And that's the reason why we landed on the WaveEater ship in the middle of the Kollobita´´rtainnen Sea instead of dry-footed on the island of Greenlion. But now, the moon circle has been completed. The end of your year is close. Pressing all thirteen symbols in one of our own stone circles in this world will bring you right back to where you came from. «

»Which is? « the llama asks a little sceptical.

»Brompton Castle, of course«, Claude Sideburns is looking very happy and kind of relieved.

»Look, where we are. «

Mr. Tumbleweed is pointing at an old tree with long, heavy hanging branches by the side of the silvery river.

»It is that old willow tree by the silver creek where my own odyssey started many, many years and eons ago. «

There is a circle of stones all around the sprawling tree engraved with signs and symbols that look exactly like the ones in the circle in the front yard of Brompton Castle.

»There's more space between these symbols«, Sideburns points out. »So please give me time to reach them when you call out the names of the moons. Make it slow, but not too slow. «

»What about Captain Ahabraham Hammock and his crew? « I ask. »Will you send them home as well? «

In this exact moment Captain Hammock, Rilliam B. Wiker and Hollow Tummy are approaching along the riverside.

»We are here to bid you farewell and goodbye«, the captain says. »By Neptune's trident, may your days be long and your nights be pleasant. «

»But what will become of you and your crew? « Kylie asks. »Are you going home as well? «

»I'm afraid; it is too late for that. « Captain Hammock is rubbing his golden earring. »Too much water has flowed under the bridges and across all seven or even eight seas. Centuries of our time have past. And we cannot go back in time. That is what our fair Queen Titania told me. I am an old sea bear and my sea legs have become grounded on the continent of Greenlion and the Kollobita´´rtainnen Sea somehow. Believe me; I wouldn't be able to find my way in your time and your world. I will stay here under the sunny sky where it is always springtime. «

»And the rest of you? « I ask Mr. Wiker and Mr. Tummy. »Are you going to stay, too? «

Mr. Wiker is only nodding, and Mr. Tummy says, »There would be no one waiting there for me in Pittsburgh when I came home from the sea. My wife and my children and even the childs of my children would have passed away a long time ago. So the best will be to stay here in this world and to explore all its wonders and fruits and joys. «

»The rest of my crew decided to stay, too. « Captain Hammock continues, »King Oberon and Queen Titania granted us asylum. And who knows? Maybe one day we will build ourselves a new ship and we'll sail the seas again. «

Mr. Tumbleweed is smiling.

»But don't get into trouble with those wood elves when you try to cut down their trees. They are kind of thin-skinned about that. «

Captain Hammock is shaking my hand in a last farewell gesture.

»You know, Mister Bibble«, he says, »I came to Greenlion and there really was a great sorceress living in these woods. And I truly fell under her spell, her spell of beauty and kindness. I haven't felt so close to home in many, many years. «

»It is really time, now«, Mr. Tumbleweed says pointing at the circle of stones beneath the old willow tree. »Mr. Sideburns, are you ready? «

Claude Sideburns is cracking his finger joints and neck-bones.

»Ready, if you are, Mr. Tumbleweed. «

And so we are gathering around and under the long, hanging branches of the tree.

»Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Worm Moon«, Mr. Tumbleweed starts to tell the names of the full moons like he did that night in the front yard of Brompton Castle. And every time he does so one of the symbols on one of the square stones in the circle starts to shine in a silvery light. Claude Sideburns hurries from one symbol to the next to push and press it down in the ground. And like before the stones start emitting flashes of lightning to the centre of the circle that happens to be the trunk of the willow tree.

»Pink Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Buck Moon, Sturgeon Moon and…«

Is the faun trying to make a dramatic pause?

»And… the most powerful of them all for spells and enchantments… the Blue Moon, followed by Full Corn Moon, Hunter's Moon, Beaver Moon and finally the Cold Moon. «

I can hear Kylie whisper to Nigel, »Did you count? Were that thirteen moons? Did you count thirteen, too? «

Nigel is only smirking and nodding.

The stones have sunken deeper into the earth around the willow tree and started spinning around in a blurred edge. The inner circle is filled with flashes now. They unite in little silvery and silent explosion and form a soothed and smooth surface in the end. At first this surface is as silver as the flashes, almost as clear as the waters of the silvery river, then, all of a sudden, the surface of the open gate turns pitch-black, a black hole in the world of Greenlion that is not reflecting the Cold Moon in the sky.

»What is that? « Kylie asks sceptically. »Is everything alright? Is it save? «

»Must be one of those dark, cloudy nights on the Brompton estates«, Sideburns says putting forth his foot as if he wants to dip into the black hole only with his toes first.

Kylie, Nigel, Sideburns and myself are standing close together and to the rotating edge of the circle of stones. The llama is standing a few steps behind us making strange and again unreadable faces.

I turn around to Mr. Tumbleweed, the faun.

»So, this is a goodbye, I think«, I say, »or do you we have to say farewell? «

Out of the corner of my eyes I see the llama turning sideways and starting to make a run-up.

»This whole thing is getting too sentimental for my taste, dudes«, the animal shouts. »Bye-bye, demon sheep! «

And with all its strength the animal bumps into us four human beings with its flank.

»Time for a new adventure! « I can hear the llama shout. »No risk, no fun! «

And we fall through the surface of the stone circle into complete darkness.

Today is Wednesday, the 27th of December 2023.
Cold Moon