ChapteR TeN

ThE RoadschoLaR

 

he hole was little more than a separation of branches that wove a light path into the nest. Akiiki found himself being carried down the thin winding hole of branches by the longest arm he could imagine. Each of its fingers wrapped around him at least once so that if he had an inclination to free himself, there was no chance. The hand came out in what was a small room in the middle of the nest surrounded by walls of branches and dirt. Akiiki was swept around the room by the hand and all at once the fingers unbound and he dropped to the floor.

A loud crunch sounded from the hole. There was a thrashing and several screeches as he ran to the furthest dark corner. A tall thin figure stood at the opposite end of the room, his head and arm reaching into the branches. “Ha,” he cried taunting the thing. “It can’t get in here,” the figure said. He reached is arm into the hole then he cried out again, taunting the bird. He giggled and did it again before pulling it out. The long arm shrunk as he did so until it was in proportion to his height. Everything above dimmed into silence and the man turned to Akiiki. 

He was little more than skeletal and Akiiki crouched even lower. “That was cruel and rude to taunt it thing like that.”

“Oh was it? Are you referring to the thing that was trying to eat you? That was childish entertainment. One takes what one can get for there is little in this place.”

Akiiki remained poised to run. Of course where was still to be determined. The man’s body was dirty and unwashed. When he moved his body flaked and he left bits of dirt and dust, large bits sometimes.

“Nothing to worry about for now. You are as safe as I am.” He moved to the wall dribbling bits of earth and sat on a large branch that reached out. “You might as well relax for there is no place to go unless you have a way of escaping or calling for help. I have neither.”

“Who are you?”

“Oh excuse me,” he stood. “I am the Roadscholar,” the man said this as if he were giving a revelation. Akiiki’s expression didn’t change, “Never heard of me?”

Akiiki shook his head.

“Humph… most who find there way here have at least heard of me. I am sort of a legend.”

Akiiki continued to stare.

“How old are you?”

“Four.”

“Hum? What is four? No, how old are you, Kingsome, Queensome, Jokesome, Lostsoem or Knowsome. What is your age?”

“Four. I am four years old.”

Roadscholar stared and suddenly understanding crossed his dirty face, “Are you from the Yonderland?”

Akiiki stared. “I don’t know what that is.”

“It is the place in which things come to arrive here, quite often it seems, but no one ever seems to see them. There is one group of animals taking over the Tulgey Wood now,” he paused and seemed to contemplate. “The caterwaul. They sort of look like… well they sort of look like you as far I have seen, but they have great loud voices, they scream a lot and given half a chance, will eat almost anything. I mean eat. Trees, birds, flowers, even me theoretically and actually if they would only eat the Jubjub then we would all be fine, but it is quite a horrific place from what I have heard. In fact you…” He stood, but when Akiiki crouched fearfully he raised his hands and sat back. “I’m sorry but you are not a caterwaul are you?”

Akiiki shook his head slightly, his heavy green eyes staring at the Roadscholar, “I am a mau.”

“Never heard of a mau. You have a name?” the Roadscholar said.

“Akiiki.”

“Never heard of that either. Akiiki the mau,” the Roadscholar furrowed his brow searching his memory and causing dirt to flake from his forehead. “Or is it Akiikimau, Mauakiiki, or something like that? I’m not certain, but those names are at least somewhat familiar.”

Akiiki didn’t know how to answer so he remained silent.

“I didn’t name you,” the Roadscholar said flatly and shook his head. “So you see, things come through from Yonderland, strange things that most have never seen before. They arrive Heere.”

“What is Heere?”

“Here is where we are for we are not there, and there is not Heere.”

Akiiki starred.

“This place,” the Roadscholar raised his arms. “This place is Heere and this is, as far as I know, the only place to be, other than there. For everything else is not in this place for it is there, which is not Heere. So in answer to your question, this is Heere. And everything else is there, or not Heere.”

“Does this place have a name?”

“Not that I have ever heard it called and so as I do the naming. I simply called it Heere. There is Yonderland, but there are many places in Heere that are not named. For example this,” he regarded everything around reaching out, “is the nest of the Bandersnatch. That is… This is the place it is after I reimagined it. It is not a nice place to be. I have been in this Heere for many somes, so many somes that many believe the roads were never mine and that I never was. Can you imagine that? To be and to be believed to never have been. If that were so then may I ask you where the roads came from?”

Akiiki was not following any of this, but he remained silent.

“I am the pioneer. I discovered everything Heere and named it so, when everything else was just everything else.”

Akiiki was quietly regarding the figure who was becoming more solemn and to himself as he continued to speak.

“It seems I am condemned to stay here for I have found no way out.”

“How did you get here?” Akiiki finally asked and brought the Roadscholar back.

“The Bandersnatch. Its nature was… just to snatch what it finds interesting and bury it. Back then the Jubjub terrorized the sky so I recreated it. I recreated it and it snatched me. It snatched me and dropped me here.”

“So what was that?” Akiiki regarded above.

“That was the Jubjub. The Jubjub eats Bnadersnatch droppings,” the Roadscholar said.

“And there is no way to climb down from here?” Akiiki asked.

The Roadscholar smiled a long melancholy look that seemed to cause him discomfort. He stood and moved to the other side of the room not caring that Akiiki crouched in alarm. He pulled at a branch on the far side of the floor letting the dirt fall away, then another. He stretched and crawled down a bit, his body elongating then pulled out some other branches before backing out of the whole and moved back to the other side of the room and sat back down. “Take a look,” he said. “And careful not to fall.”

Akiiki crawled forward slowly and glanced into the hole, then back up.

“You need to really look. There is no place for either of us to go.”

Akiiki climbed into the hole then stuck his head down into the branches. The drop was dizzying and terrifying and far deeper than anything he had ever seen. The tops of the trees below could be seen and the entire shaft of the tree they were in had no bark or branches for a great distance so that the tree itself was nothing but smooth wood all the way down to the tree line.

Akiiki climbed back up out of the hole feeling woozy from staring down at such a height.

The Roadscholar threw his hands up, “I can dig through branches with no problem. I can reach a great distance, but not that far and my hands cannot get any sort of purchase without the bark.” 

“What happened to the bark?”

“The bark is what the Bandersnatch eats now. It is food for him and gives his tree protection from any sort of predator trying to climb up. His actual droppings are not but dirt and bark, which is coincidently what I eat.”

Akiiki looked at his claws and got a hold of a branch and pulled.

The Roadscholar starred in wonder at him. “What is that?”

“What, my claw?”

“You must be at least part caterwaul for they too have protrusions such as those.” He made to get up and stopped, “May I?”

Akiiki reached out a paw and extended his claws.

“They are sharp, are you a good climber.”

“Well all mau are good climbers. Much better than dogs or baboons,” he stopped and remembered his friend for a moment.

“I have never heard of baboons, but I do recall something of dogs.”

“Yes lesser creatures from where I come from. Yonderland I guess.” Akiiki said.

“All four of your feet have these claws?”

“Yes.” Akiiki stuck his other paws up one by one and extend the claws.

“Do you think you could crawl down the tree?”

Akiiki looked shocked and thought about the drop, “I don’t know. It’s a long drop if I fall.”

“Yes, but if your claws dig into the body of the tree it would be no problem for you.”

Akiiki remained silent.

“Look you are not going to have a choice. I don’t think you can eat Bandersnatch droppings.” He looked down. “You aren’t the first creature to survive and come down here.”

“What happened to the others?”

The Roadscholar shook his head, “They are all different. Some go crazy and they attack me to see of they can eat me. They can’t, for I am just earth and bark. I am the road if you will. Some try to climb down, but they fall. Others just jump.” He made a sad face, “Others get tired. They go out in to the nest and wait for the Jubjub to take them. And still others wait and waste away telling me their stories, while they slowly starve to death. Then I drop them through the hole.”

If the color could drain from Akiiki’s face it would now, but instead his whiskers simply dropped, his ears flattened and his green eyes bulged at the horror of it.

“So you should at least think about it. If your claws hold to the tree you can probably make it.”

Akiiki went back to the hole and braced himself as he reached out to scratch the smooth side of the Tree. He scratched and pushed, but his claw only sunk into the flesh of the tree a small bit. He gave a simple tug and it came away easily. He crawled back out, “I get a little hold, but I don’t think I can get a good enough grip to climb down. The tree is too dense.”

The Roadscholar thought for a moment and smiled. “You know,” he said standing. “I know just about everything there is to know in Heere and I think it might be able to help you out, but you must be very careful with it.” He reached a small area along the wall of branches and mud. He moved the leaves aside, reached in and pulled out what looked like a hand full of gravel. “Okay now,” he held his hand out. “These are bits and pieces I have collected over the years. Things people left behind or the Badersnatch dropped. This will sort you out, but you can’t eat them… exactly.”

Akiiki looked at the bits, “So what are they and what can, I do with them…exactly.” 

“Some of this could make you bigger, and some of this could make you smaller,” he looked into his hand confused. “But I can no longer tell which will do what which will do... or don’t… do,” He reached up and scratched his head causing a shower of dirt to fall to the ground. “They are only bits and pieces and we… well, we will have to hope and test.” The Roadscholar didn’t look very sure of himself.

“What are they?” Akiiki asked.

“Well, they are bits of mushrooms and cookeys. Allow me,” He took one of the small pieces and held it up. “Stick out your tongue.”  

Akiiki tried to feel if something bad was going to happen, but he sensed nothing. This of course told him nothing. The Jubjub bird’s intentions were quite clear and he sensed nothing from it.

The Roadscholar waited. “I assure you it is not poison,” he said.

Slowly Akiiki stuck out his tongue.

The Roadscholar touched a bit of something to it and stepped back. Akiiki drew his tongue back. It tasted of nothing, but a moment later Akiiki was aware of the faint taste of earth, of something grown, minerals perhaps.

“Do you feel anything?”

Akiiki shook his head. “No.”

“Humph, they’re very old. Perhaps they do not work anymore.” He set the piece back in his hand and selected another. Akiiki stuck out his tongue again and again Roadscholar placed something on his tongue and stepped back with a questioning look.

Akiiki waited. The same mineral earthen taste came again, but no sensation. “Maybe I should eat it,” he was taking note of how hungry he suddenly found himself.

“No you don’t what to eat this. Not in here anyway. If it works,” he looked around at the small enclosure.  “Oh my… no, really you don’t want to. Let us try another one.”

Akiiki stuck out his tongue again, and again, then another, while Roadscholar shook his head puzzled. “Perhaps they’ve gone bad.”

“What is supposed to be happening?” Akiiki felt a tickling sensation in his stomach. The way it did when he leapt and fell a short distance.

He turned and moved across the small room feeling his tail on Roadscholar who suddenly exclaimed, “Whoa!”

Akiiki looked back and was suddenly eye to eye with the Roadscholar. Before he could speak there was the popping sound of an implosion. Suddenly he was staring at the Roadscholar's shoes and balanced on two branches. The implosion sound came again and he was now standing on only one branch. There was great whoosh of air and they were eye to eye again. Another whoosh and his head struck the top of the small enclosure and Akiiki felt the nest beginning to give with a creaking sound of his weight and the pressure on the branches. His head suddenly forced its way up through the branches with a crash. The entire room made the sound of straining and the Roadscholar cried out, “No!” Suddenly a large imploding pop sounded and Akiiki was dangling by his neck stuck the hole at the top if the room. His head released and he dropped to the floor where the two were eye to eye again for a moment. The popping sound and he was back to himself.