Uzekamanzi: book1

Uzekamanzi: book 1

Rewinding The Coils

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Khemisatra had called them back. She had deciphered the riddles of the resonance structures for the aromatics which had the depth to carry the call. It had taken her seven years to accomplish. It was done. The dragons had answered. Now too many were in this present and in their prime swirling. They were hunting the one who had called them. What would she do next?

Chapter 1

Khemisatra

It was an impossibility. Yet it had been written in her heart song. So there must be a way. The whole tribe must be enticed by a powerful enchantment because they all shifted phases together and because they were the only ones that could re-calibrate to rewind their life cycles. She would manifest the wakening frequency throughout the star decks by planting chemical impressions in the pivotal scent cycles of the flowers and trees. She must entice them to grow backward through their previous phases.

The dragons had crossed into formlessness a millennia ago. They existed only in the Glamour now. Their bodies were magnificent memories of shell and stone, scale and fin, flower and bone. Mercurial they had been: Smarter than the Fold; Faster than the Kairete; Subtler than the Ashu. She needed them. Time was running out because time was still running linearly. This line was coming to an end. With the help of the dragons she could alter the paradigm. She could recoil linear time. She needed the Uzekamanzi to want to waken. But she could never have predicted the force of the resurrected dragons upon this weak verse of humankind. She hadn't foreseen the Enforcer. She simply hadn't understood the gravity of the Impossibility.

Serendipity

There was something on the wind. It seeped through her aethereal arteries. She could feel the pressures rise and fall. It sent tingles down her phantom spine. It was like petals crushed beneath lost feet. A scent wave caught and curled around the place where her nostrils used to be. Where did she remember that scent from? It reminded her of the pause before she shed her skin for the last time. She missed the smell of real flowers and their effervescent light. But how could there be flowers here? Something new was happening. She wondered if she might like to go back. She need only rewind the phases. She had always known how. That was part of their ancestral knowing. The Old Ones had done it once, but she had already been in the state of newness then. Her mother had named her Silver Fang. Had her fangs been silver at all?

Ryu

This current was unstoppable. An endless existence of gnarly waves. He rode the aethers for infinity. It's all he wanted to do. What was this now interrupting his bliss? Pine forests? He had felt the sting of pine needles while surfing an avalanche of icy snow. Where was that? The astral talon caught and ripped the wave. He lost his balance. He fell. He never fell. That scent had distracted him from his one delight. Had he loved snow once as much as salt? Had his brothers ever called him Avalanche? Hadn't he loved another being as much, no, more than himself? But she had been lost. How could an immortal die? What did she have to do with pine needles? He felt sick and sad. He shook it off. He was formless. No pain could reach him. How could you truly love without form? It wasn't right. Memories were an indulgence for those with things they wanted to remember. He did not want to remember. Just focus. Just catch the next wave...damn, pine needles.

Tarakona

I exist for the unity of our species. I bind the blood that is no more. I dispel the dissolution. I keep the wisdom of the Phases. I internalize the records of the dance. I guard the unhatched Eternals for the next great Impossible. When we all go back, I bring the New. Someone is circulating lavender. I remember purple fields as far as the eye can see... rolling purple... royal purple. I am leaping, twirling, laughing, soaring, diving through purple. I smell fields of purple. I am purple. I am She, sweet with yearning. I am they, and they are me. We are one, the great Ah-teen, and we are the royalty not of this earth.

The Summoning of Zaj, Kekelona and Th'uban by the Master Luckvalon

All dragons loved their lives of form, but Luck had also loved a human. It was considered a weakness amongst dragons, but he did not care for the judgment of others. He was the center of his vortex. So, it was no surprise that he heard the human strategizing to reach them long before he sensed the alchemical high notes on the winds of change. He liked the enchantress because she was peculiarly intelligent. He admired the audacity of her schemes to use their Rewind to recoil time. She had captivated his curiosity. Also, he was ready to go back. He missed his body. So, Luck began thrashing his metaphysical tail. He leapt crest to crest on the light waves. He roared and stomped in the troughs. He caused the visible spectrum to vibrate as his pulse generator thrummed the incantation.

Awaken sleeping giants.

Awaken Dracha kin.

It is time to float on marshmallow clouds.

It is time to listen with sharp ears again.

Awaken gemstone bearers, Arach, lost and found.

We are due to light the skies with flame and shake the frozen ground.

Awake my formless family. All ye who would go back.

Let us meet forwards in forever to re-embrace the Impossibility.

Watchers, I wake thee.

Listeners, I wake thee.

Dreamers, I wake thee.

It is I,

Luck the Sailor,

Luck the Joker,

Luck the Player,

Luck the Valorous,

Friend of Humans,

Luckvalon, who would return to form

to kiss the opalescent moons.

Luckvalon, who would rewind the coils

to claim the sunrise and sunset as boons.

In his exhilaration, Luck got carried away. The spectrum was oscillating on high now. There was light and heat. There was noise. The sympathetic vibrations were spreading. Other things began radiating Uzeke energy, too. Music began pouring forth from the skies. The constellations began to sing. The star decks were becoming a living theater powered by a blatantly unearthly force. It was exquisitely beautiful. It was terrible. Luck's well-strung astral arrow went straight through his mark, penetrating the iris of the favorite eye of the Enforcer.

C.B. Elliott, June 2022. Rights by Permission of the author only.