The Wizards of Xitt

The Quest

CHAPTER TWO

The Quest

The last few flickers of the outgoing days were being doused and night preparing to take over. Kaila was seated to one corner of the family living room relaying what had happened in his mind. A puffy-cheeked reporter from the large television was gathering her gears as she rounded up her special. She had been reporting the near-crisis, according to her, of the Delta 757 flight. How the brave pilot had brought the plane down upon the safe hands of the Pacific Ocean, saved the lives of over a hundred and eighty passengers, himself, and his crew. Only four of the passengers were unaccounted for as at press time.

Kaila smiled darkly, such act of bravery he knew was worthy of a presidential medal of honour, only problem was that was not how it happened. However, the truth he knew will never be revealed in this matter either. Because nobody would ever believe the truth. That Kaila Maentel could do just about anything chance presented him with. He had just flown an airplane, without even prior knowledge of what the inside of a cockpit looked like. He had known exactly what to do, and had done them at the right time. He had also possibly broken up a pillar of rock, by merely thinking it. And he had also seen the incident beforehand. Perhaps the puzzle of his life, of his very existent were coming together. Perhaps the constant nightmares were a marker for a future event.

Needing to do something apart from facing Malena, he reached out and powered on his laptop.

Malena’s voice still slithered through to him. “Tell me you had nothing to do with that incident?”

Kaila sighed, it was already bad enough, feeling he was responsible for the four passengers unaccounted for. Having to recount it to Malena was like skinning such guilt. But how could he begin to tell her that he had seen himself negotiating such a difficult landing of an airplane. A final year history student in the University of Hawai’i. “Why did you ask?” He returned a question. He wasn’t ready yet to share this new revelation of his life. Yes she knew he was different, but she knew very little, any more would definitely spook her.

“I know when you don’t want to answer a question.” Malena said and slid to the edge of the cushion.

“And today is one of them?”

“Yea, come on, let’s see what you found.” She drew the small backpack rescuers had found in Kaila’s hands while rescuing him from the plane.

Kaila smiled, knowing she will find the trophy from the quest. He had refused to tell her what he had found in his grandfather’s stable since the day before. Malena had not been pleased of course. She had threatened to be in Bethany around evening today if he did not return.

She rummaged through the backpack and found the bloated image of the scorpion.

Kaila giggled; Malena did not even spare him a glance. Her attention was fixed on what appeared to be an otherwise empty backpack.

“Is this all?”

“No, there was a...” Kaila snatched the backpack from her and began shuffling through. It definitely was not there. “There was an Advent calendar somewhere here!” He pulled out the clothes and turned over the backpack.

“Apparently, it’s not there anymore.” Malena supplied resignedly.

“There was a twenty-four window Advent Calendar from which I got the scorpion.”

“Did you see anyone or anything suspicious on board?” Malena quizzed turning her full attention to him.

“No,” Kaila said firmly. It would not be those three creatures. It definitely would not be the air hostess.

“You know all those clues...” Malena was saying “...they are gone. It’s like we are very close to whatever those clues lead to, and someone or something is trying to stop us.”

That made perfect sense, or why would those creatures try to crash the plane. They may have caused the confusion to be able to slip in and steal the Advent Calendar. Perhaps, there had been more clues or answers in disguise. Maybe there was something to find after all. Why would anyone think of crashing a plane with over a hundred people on board for nothing?

Kaila stood up abruptly. “I need to see the Shrink...”

Malena gave a huge sigh, “Okay, but be careful”

“Sure” Kaila perked her on the cheek and left.

It didn’t take him a long time to reach Professor Magenta Reece’s Condo house. A retired Professor of Psychology from UCLA. She and Malena were the reason why he had decided to undertake this expensive trailblazing to self-discovery, as she would put it. More than a year had gone now and he was still no closer to finding the answers he so dearly sought.

Maybe Ululani was right, his ways were truly beyond any mortal’s means. Those words said just over a year ago, had caused him more sleepless nights than the nightmares.

He had gone to see the woman on Malena’s request. Ululani was the best sightseer in all of Honolulu, not very much that was decreed in the physical or spiritual realm was kept from her.

On getting to Ululani however, the wiry woman had gone straight into a trance on touching his palm. She had then shaken violently as if parts of body were going to fly apart, then she had said the lines “your answer lies within your walls”.

When she had calmed, she had politely asked him to leave. On his way out however, she had called out “...I do hope some other seer will be able to help you, because your ways are beyond my means.”

What other seer was there in all of Honolulu better than Ululani? Kaila had thought. The woman was believed to be inspired by the Heavens. Perhaps, he had concluded, his ways were beyond Heaven’s mighty means.

That visit had left him worse off. And the nightmares that had taken him there in the first place became more frequent and intense.

Kaila knocked on the door and Prof. Reece opened. She was considerably shorter and someone looking from behind Kaila would definitely not be able to see her.

“Mr. Maentel?” she intoned as she yawned and led him into the room. “I wasn’t expecting you till weekend.”

Prof. Reece must have been sleeping because her eyes were red and she looked drained. Her undenying beauty and youthfulness was still there, and Kaila wondered again just how old the woman was and at what age she became a professor.

“It so happened that I found something,” Kaila said as he took a seat opposite the one the woman sat.

Prof. Reece reached out for a writing pad. She became very interested “Really, what did you find?”

“An old advent calendar.”

“Where is it?”

“Lost”

“What do you mean lost?”

“You’ve not heard the crash, have you?”

“What crash”

She switched on the TV. The news of the near plane crash was still on.

“That’s the plane I came back on.”

Professor Reece appraised Kaila again. “What happened?”

Kaila hesitated. He decided to exclude the fact that he saw some creatures and that he flew the plane from the story.

“I cannot fully explain this... The plane just came to a complete halt in mid-air. It began to move again, and we landed in the water.”

Prof. Reece was jotting what he was saying.

“When I got home, I realized the advent calendar was missing.”

“You didn’t see anyone suspicious on board?”

Kaila shook his head.

Professor Reece pondered a little. It seemed she didn’t believe Kaila’s half story.

Kaila knew he had to change the topic.  “I had that dream again.”

We hear an electric kettle whistle. Professor Reece yawned again. She turned to a door.

“You care for some coffee?”

Kaila shook his head.

“Okay, it wouldn’t take a minute,” she rose and strode into the kitchen.

Kaila watched her go, the flowered chemise hugged her jealousy. There were times he had been turned on by this woman. Today was not one of those days. Today he wanted answers; answers to his constant string of nightmares; answers to who or what he really was; answers this woman had told him would be found at the end of this quest.

His mind reeled back to the very beginning. It was a bright Saturday, days after Ululani had told him his ways were beyond her means. Professor Reece had sounded interesting, very knowledgeable like many shrinks around. She seemed to understand that Kaila was special in many regards, but she could not be specific. She had suggested that there would be answers somewhere.

On her counsel, Kaila had followed the directions on the only surviving photograph of his parents together to the property vaults of Central Pacific Bank. He had retrieved a boxful of title deeds, chronological trees of Royalties, and books a normal human being should have no business reading. They were his father’s.

There was also a letter suggesting his father also had strange nightmares. Probably, the same with the one he was having. More the reason why he had earlier held onto the notion that the answer to his problems was buried in the pathway of his brain. Perhaps, his father had legally transferred those traits to him.

It had taken countless futile medical tests to convince him otherwise.

There had been something else among the items in the box. Something that had kick-started this avalanche of a quest. It was a single sheet of felt material, a very ancient item that should have out-dated his known forefathers.

The felt had borne writings in a very ancient symbolic language. A language only Professor David Alana, the History teacher seem to know and believed to be older than the world itself. He had translated the writing to be; ‘The answer lies within your walls, and not a fiery fruit, but a gentle bud, which, until much shaken never falls. Yet grows and hides behind your blood.’

The first line was the exact words Ululani had used days earlier during her trance.

Malena had then taken it upon herself to find the meaning behind the words and within two months she had come up with something. They had retrieved two more felts written in English from a family photograph. Found sandwiched between the back cover and the photograph. One of the felt had been a very old document bearing the seal of Connecticut. It was a part of the Constitution and Amendments of the United States of America. The other felt had bore a quartet; ‘Every water is deeper than it seems, So be ready for a tumultuous dive. If you must stir the stillness of it seams. But stray no further than you believe.

The two writings had made little sense. Good, the quartet warned them that what they sought after was more deeper than it seemed. But the Constitution of the United States of America had nothing to do with what they sought after.

Malena did not quite agree that the two felt materials were useless. She had paraphrased and re-paraphrased the few articles of the Constitution on the felt. She had turned them into numbers, and even applied Cryptology. All was to no avail.

Giving up on the quest had become very appealing to Kaila then. All he wanted to know was the cause or causes of his nightmares. Probably, by knowing the cause, he might then find some remedy. Numerous doctors had already dismissed his claim on any sickness. And maybe he had also believed that those clues would throw more light on his parent’s death. As far as he was concerned, their death had more in it than the authorities wanted him to believe.

That his mother had died from complications of childbirth and his father from an unidentified heavy metal poisoning. All on the same day, at the same time and within the same room, moments after his birth was anything but what the authority were claiming. What annoyed him most was that the case was never treated as homicide and for some reason, he felt he was responsible.

Later that night, his sleep had not lasted as usual. It had been cut short by another episode of that same nightmare. He had stirred to find the table lights on, and Malena poised over the two felt materials they had gotten from the family photograph.

“That dream of yours again?” Malena had asked casually, not taking her eyes off the materials.

“Yep,” Kaila had replied as he stretched his weary limbs. He wanted to tell her to drop the materials, and go get some sleep. And he hoped she had informed her mother.

A moment of silence had passed between them. It seemed some ghostly ferry had just rowed across the room when, the chair dragged harshly against the floor. Malena was on her feet.

“You got any petrol, diesel, or anything to make this material translucent?”

“’Think so,” Kaila had drawled and watered his lips before he spoke again. “’Burnt some things the day before yesterday.” He only hoped, he had not left the little petrol gallon beside the car in the garage.

He rose and scooped up the idling flashlight on the bedside stool, then headed for the door. Malena did not wait for any special invitation or order to follow him, she had jumped right after him.

They trotted along the dimly lit hallway. Gareth had been snoring loudly, deep in some consuming sleep in an adjoining room.

There was a very slim chance, that Gareth was sleeping alone in the room. The guy liked women and was never ashamed to admit it. Right from his college days, he had always been at the top of the womanizing food chain. He dated most of the best of his days, and in fairness, the women were the better for it, because he brought them instant popularity.

In the University however, he pivoted between three ladies, and recently only Kiana came around. Who knew, maybe, pigs had gotten wings and Kaheola was changing. More so, now that Aunties Puanani and Charlotte had stopped paying the bills. They posited that Kaheola should be able to upset them, now that he was working. He ought to take up some responsibilities and get a tad serious with his life.

In the garage, they had found the little gallon where he had left it. It was leaning beside one of the garage walls, and a spider was already practicing its architectural skills upon it.

Malena had picked up the gallon and took off the lid. She had poured the fuel over the felt with part of the Constitution and Amendments, a pattern had appeared. Words imprinted on one corner of the felt material. It was glowing silver against the beam of the flashlight. It read; ‘Let the dragons light up your path.’

Relief and triumph had poured over Malena from some invisible jar. She let herself crumble into the Kaila’s embrace. Once again, she was human, feminine and soft to touch; the lovely Malena spars he had loved since he was a child.

They did not need special interpretation for the clue. It was the clearest they had ever met, because there was only one place to find dragons in Honolulu; the Honolulu zoo.

It was already too late to go to the zoo, so they both exchanged a loaded look. Come the next day, the Komodo dragon will not only light up their path, it will light up their day.

Malena kissed Kaila back generously and let him lead her back in for the night. She told him to remind her call her mother in the morning.

The next day, they had arrived at Kapiolani Park even before the gates were thrown open to visitors. They had waited restlessly for a short period of time before they were admitted in.

On entering the grounds, Kaila had stopped briefly to appreciate the place. The forty acres zoo had managed to remain a wonder to him, no matter how many times he had been there.

They both gladly exchanged greetings with the over three hundred species of animals there.

Kaila realized somewhat bitterly that the Zoo didn’t hold any appeal for Malena. She had become completely obsessed with the quest.

They had made their way straight to where the Komodo dragons nested in the zoo. Lucky enough for them, the dragons had come out to sunbathe in the weak rays of the morning sun. Being reptiles, the dragons often trapped energy from the sun and used it for their daily activities.

The two dragon seekers took seats upon the dusty rock and watched the dragons for some time. Their aim was to note the average path and direction the Komodo dragons patronized, as they went about their daily activities.

Malena struck up a gist and they dwelled on it for most of the time. Then, she rose; she had noted that the dragons on average moved between two points, when not disturbed. The two points were their burrow under the rock and the beachfronts.

She cross-checked the felt. “Can you swim?” She asked, barely holding her breath.

“Yea,” he replied. Of course, she knew that. They had often gone for swims every now and then. And though, she often out-swam him, it did not mean he could not swim.

“I mean dive.” She rushed on, “our next clue is beyond the beach.” Then without another word, she had peeled her shoes and top, and started out to the sea.

Kaila ran after her, half-smiling at the turtles who jumped onto the tides in fear.

Before he reached the beach front however, she had dived in. He jumped in after her.

Malena swam very deep, reaching the reef-like floor of the sea, turning out everything for clues.

After a while, she swam up for air and called out to Kaila. He surfaced just beside her.

“Look at that dragon,” she pointed to a dragon retreating from the beach. “Stray no further than you believe,” she mused, “let the dragons light up your path- the clue is not in this water- it is beyond those burrows, probably on the tree.”

And without further ado, she turned back towards the beach. Kaila followed her, noticing that her skin was glistening seductively from a combination of water and the sun.

He was tempted to lick away the water with his tongue, and run his fingers gently round her body. He knew however, that it was utterly impossible at the moment. And not just because they were at a zoo, but because Malena was in one of those foul moods. When she was in such mood, she even forgot to eat, let alone, remember she had an official boyfriend of over seven years.

Kaila smiled; their relationship had stirred so much gossip through the years. People wondered what made them so inseparable. They didn’t think it had anything to do with love. In fact, their problem was Malena. They didn’t think any man should be able to stick with Malena for that long. And they were not so far from the truth; dating Malena sometimes seemed like the hardest job in the Universe. Not only was she impossible to please or reason with at times, her mood swings could win record anywhere in the world.

However, there was this strange connection between them. Kaila was not sure the connection had anything to do with the fact that Malena was the most faithful person in the world, and that her positive outlook on life was unbeatable.

Malena grabbed her shirt and headed for the tree. Kaila was right behind her. He succumbed to the urge to slide an arm around her. She said nothing, nor even react to it. She just kept staring up at the branches of the tree.

“Maybe, I should climb up.” Kaila offered.

“Maybe,” Malena turned to give him a full smile.

Kaila went up, albeit laboriously. After a few breathless seconds, he was on top of the tree, turning branches after branches for clues.

Minutes may have hurried off before Malena told him to come down. “... the clue can’t be up there. Trees can be cut down burnt you know.,” she breathed when he was on the ground.

Kaila noticed the lines of stress appearing on her face. She was getting frustrated, the smile she had flashed earlier was gone and her lips had become like two thin lines.

“Why did you ask me to come down?” he quizzed

“’Stray no further than you believe’ so says the clue,” she threw at him as a reply.

“Believe?” He asked.

“Yea, I think that’s the key word.” She said, her eyes opening wide. Her lips were becoming luscious like before. “What do you believe in?”

“God,” Kaila supplied shrugging.

“What else do you believe in apart from God?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay, what else is constant in time apart from God?”

“I don’t know, nothing else is constant.”

Malena moved her feet on the floor. “Earth, Earth, this earth was here before your great grandfathers, it will be here long after you.”

“But Science says the islands were formed later...”

Malena was not having any of his snide “Stray no further than you believe. Stray no further from what you believe. Stray no further from the earth- come.” She dropped to her knees beside the tree and began removing leaves.

Just as they turned round the tree, they found a rock with an inscription ‘a.d. XV Ide Nov’. Malena copied it quickly then tried to move it.

It took Kaila great effort to finally pull out the rock from the earth. And behold, underneath the rock, there was another felt with a couplet on it. ‘Beneath the shrines of men, where mules are tended, in old Bethany, your quest may be ended.’ 

That discovery had both excited and amazed Malena. She had soon found means to link up the clue to Kaila grandfather’s farm house in Bethany. It was for that reason that he had to be in that airplane in the first place.

All these thoughts went through Kaila’s mind in the time it took Professor Reece to fix herself a cup of coffee.

She returned to the seat in front of Kaila, sipping the coffee. “You said you had the dream again?”

“Yes, in the airplane.”

“Did you write it down?”

“No but I can still remember it clearly.”

“Okay?”

Kaila took a deep breath before he began. “Today’s was a lot more clearer... I saw myself in the fire. Or I may even have been the fire. I was in this strange planet. It couldn’t be the earth.”

Professor Reece seemed to shift closer.

“The planet had two moons at different phases, and the sky was marine, a tinge of turquoise... And there was this huge greenish meteor coming towards it. I don’t know what I was doing but I was kinda halting the proceed of the meteor.”

Professor Reece thought for a while. She sipped more coffee.

Kaila looked at her intently. He had come to believe that this woman could interpret anything his abstract mind would throw at us.

“You said you were involved in a fire incident? How old were you?” Professor Reece began.

“I don’t really recall, perhaps, six or seven.” Kaila racked his brain.

“Can you remember details of what really happened that day?”

“I think I was playing in the barn house... It seems I had a match stick or a lighter. Somehow, the straws caught fire and I was kinda trapped inside.” Kaila smiled, “Everyone thought Kaheola had caused the fire and he was punished for it... I don’t think I’ve ever told the truth.”

“Did you lose anything dear to you in the fire, or around that time?”

Kaila shook his head. “Nothing that I can think of... except Sprocky, my action figure.”

Professor Reece nods. “You loved Sprocky so much?”

“To some extent, I did?”

“You it’s possible that your mind could have frozen right there, watching Sprocky burn.”

Kaila thought. It was highly unlikely. Sprocky was an action figure for all he cared.

“You may have grown outside, but your mind is still fixed to that moment.”

“What if this dream is a marker for a future event? I know what I saw. Believe me Sprocky dying by fire or a ghastly accident is the least of my problem.”

“A future event?” Professor Reece shrugs. “One problem is that the world you described seemed to belong in a movie you may have seen recently.”

Professor Reece’s phone rang and she looked at Kaila dismissively.

Kaila rose to his feet.

“See you over the weekend. I think we would start working on letting Sprocky go. Your mind needs to grow beyond that moment.”

Kaila nodded, not that he believed that Sprocky fiery death could have affected him that much. “Thank you” he said before he went for the door.

It was clear now to him that Professor Reece would not be able to help him either.