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Dust Devil Dimensions

Chapter 4 - Meeting the Wizard

By Robert TaylorPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Chapter 4 - Meeting the Wizard

Chapter 4 – Meeting the Wizard

The group of people, six in all, stopped abut 20 feet below us and stared at our clothes and hairstyles.

“Qud unneh trek?”

“Do you speak English? American?”

“Habla Espanol?”

All we got was dumb looks.

I pointed to myself. “Harry,” I said.

Then I pointed at my wife. “Shirley.”

I did it again. “Harry.” Shirley”.

One of the women said, “Uhh.” She pointed at me and said “Hay Ree.”

I smiled. She understood. She looked at my wife. “Sure Lee.”

“Right.”

I pointed at myself. “Hay ree”. Then at my wife, “Sure lee.” then I pointed at the woman.

“Ed lah.”

I repeated, “Edlah.” The woman smiled through crooked teeth. She nodded her head. “Edlah.”

It was a breakthrough in communications. Well, a beginning anyway. Edlah came closer and examined our clothes, making sounds such as, “Uuhhh. Hmmmm. Ooh.”

She beckoned and started down the hill.

“See Harry. All it takes is a woman to get the flow of conversation started.” Well, come on then. We are invited down to the village.”

I was not sure about it but we seemed to have little choice. I could smell the aroma of something being roasted down below. I just hoped it wasn't another human on the spit. That would make further communication difficult and not be easy to get away once we were down there.

“Oh well,” I said and smiled as the others also urged me to follow them. Going downhill was much easier than going up. I can tell you that. I suppose we could have gone around the hill, though that might have taken a good deal longer. They did seem quite friendly.

We only went halfway down the hill where there was a plateau and the entrance to a cave leading back into the hillside'.

Edlah stood a few feet from the door and called, “Jinek? Ma ju djerok.”

A large male body filled the doorway. The elderly man, obviously a town elder, was wearing a long gray robe and a matching cowl. Even I knew he had to be the local wizard. He was carrying a beaker with some smoking liquid in it.

“Who dares to disturb the Wizard Jinek?”

He did not speak but we heard it plain and clear in our heads, and it was in English. At least we heard it in English.

Edlah spoke to the Wizard, obviously apologizing for having disturbed him as she pointed to Shirley and I. He cast his gaze our way and looked us up and down.

'Where do you come from?' was what I heard.

“We come from the year 2021. What year is it here now?”

'That depends on which calendar you use. Commonly it is 1073. Why are you here?'

“We do not know. We were driving to see our son and his wife when a dust storm guided us here. As the storm passed over us, It must have taken us back in time.”

He motioned us to come inside the cave and dismissed the townspeople. 'Thank you, Edlah. You did the right thing by bringing the newcomers to me. They will be safe here. The Lord is not fond of strangers.'

'Yes, that is true, Wizard Jinek. Thank you. She herded the others ahead of her down the rest of the hill and towards the town.

'Come with me. What are your names?'

“I am Harry and my wife is Shirley. We are sorry to have disturbed you.”

'Never mind. Sometimes it takes a disturbance to learn something new. We get too set in our ways. New ways are the way of the future. I am sure you will be able to tell me a good deal about the next 1000 years.'

“That could take 1000 years to tell you about all the changes.”

The wizard laughed. 'At least you have kept a sense of humor'.

Shirley had been strangely silent but an urgent need forced her to speak. “Forgive me, your wizardness, but do you happen to have a toilet?

Jinek looked at her, quickly discerning her urgent need and guided her inside the cave to a little room where water was flowing downward from the ceiling, just away from one of the walls. It carried on down through the floor. From ages of water flowing down and hitting the floor, a basin of sorts had formed in the floor around the drain.

'I am sure they have improved toilet facilities immensely in your time but we function adequately with the bare essentials – water and a wash-away system. It works well, is sufficient for our needs, and never requires repair.'

“Thank you.”

A few minutes later, Shirley came out looking refreshed and relieved. That reminded me that I should take advantage of the chance and so I did.

“Why have you come here?” asked the wizard.

I explained what had happened and my feeling that it was the dust devil that had wanted us to come here and when we had tried to turn around, came back and turned our car around again as though insisting that we should come here.

The wizard pondered for a minute and then suggested, “Perhaps there is something that you need in your time that you lack or, perhaps, more to the point used to have but do not have any longer. Perhaps some ancient knowledge that has been cast aside as time advanced.

Something flashed through my brain. “There is one thing that I find we are able to do here that we cannot do in our time in the future.”

Janek asked, “What would that be?”

“Well, I do not know what language you and the townspeople speak but it is very different from the English that we use at home, and yet, we are able to understand you and you can understand us perfectly. It is a form of instant translation performed by our brains.

“That would be very useful back home. If that is what we were sent here to find, the question would be how we acquire it so that we can take it back with us. Without question, it would be very useful at home. The world in 2021 has hundreds and languages spoken around the world. Being able to communicate with people in other countries would be helpful.”

“That is very interesting. Until now, we have assumed it to be something everyone is capable of. As you are able to understand our speech and we can understand yours, it cannot be just the brain. There must be more to it.”

Watch for Chapter 5 coming soon…

©April 2021 Robert W. F. Taylor

fantasy
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