B – Back to Selat

B – Back to Selat

It had been almost a year since I had my adventure in the kingdom of Selat, a place you won’t find on any map and where all the stories and story characters you know reside. My task had been to find and rescue all the stories and characters that a powerful sorceress, Necroma, had stolen and bewitched. With the help of other story characters, Necroma was defeated, and stories were again brought back and shared in multiple universes, including ours. (https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=3431)

So here it is, almost a year later. I have not thought of Selat in months. I enjoy my brand of storytelling, both live and virtual, doing some writing, interacting with real people daily, and doing everything I thought I was meant to do. That was about to change.

It was the evening of April 2nd. I was setting up for a virtual storytelling session with a group I belonged to when my computer misfired. By misfired, I mean I opened the Zoom window as usual when the screen suddenly went blank. I quickly rebooted, and the screen brightened to show me the face of a woman with short blond hair and vivid green eyes staring at me.

It took me a while to recognize her face. She was the mystic of other kingdoms I had met when I first got involved with Selat. Her face looked a little older, and something didn’t look right. 

“Ah, the teller of tales, so we meet again.,” she said.

“Why are you here?” was my reaction. “Has something gone amiss in Selat?”

“Everything is fine and well,” she answered quickly as if in a rush.

This just added to my confusion. “Then, why are you here?”

She looked to her left and right, then back at me, and replied, “Can’t someone just stop by and say hello?” After saying this, she looked both ways again and then blinked nine times—three short, three long, and three short.

I would have to be stupid not to recognize the Morse code signal for SOS.

I said cautiously, “How is my friend Ronald doing?” Though Ronald was part of my adventure, he was no longer connected with Selat and had no memories of it. I was hoping that by talking about Ronald, she could give me more information without anyone watching her realizing she was. And it worked.

“Oh, you know Ronald, always looking to get in trouble,” she started, “I recommended to him to seek some help from you know who, but he didn’t care to take my advice.”

“Well, next time I see Ronald, I’ll take care to tell him he should listen. I assume he got there the usual way.”

“He did, indeed,” she responded. It’s good he brought his flashlight and the red-covered book, you know, the one that went missing; otherwise, he would never have returned home.”

“That’s good advice,” I said, “Maybe someday I’ll visit again,  too.”

“There’s no rush,” she said quietly, blinking nine times again. 

I thought briefly about how to respond and then said, “Good to hear from you. Please remind the Little Red Hen for me that when her bread is kneaded, it always rises to the occasion.” I slowly nodded my head up and down while subtly signing OK. “I’m glad we had this chat.”

The gatekeeper nodded once, and the screen returned to my normal desktop.

I hope I got the message right. Selat was in trouble, I needed to see the Caretaker as soon as possible, and Little Red Riding Hood was missing. I also needed to bring a flashlight. 

I had no idea what I was in for or why they needed me. Sometimes, you have to think about how to couch the truth. You never know who might use it against you or misconstrue what was being said. 

I was about to find out.

To be continued in D – Darkness