INNEREAL ADVENTURES - ONE

THE VESTURE

THE VESTURE

   Byron awoke and saw the note that Ajobis had written before he left to go find Jacobis. He too, was thankful for some time alone with his thoughts. So much had happened that he just needed some quiet time to sort through it all. Alone time was not unfamiliar at all to Byron. Most of his adventures in the woods were on his own, just climbing Old Oaken and letting his imagination run free.

   The first area that he wanted to explore further was the shore. He treasured the rare times when his family had taken trips to the coast and he had opportunities to explore tide pools. The rocks were wonderful to climb on and the shallow pools had a great variety of plants and creatures to discover. As Byron looked out across the sea, he wondered just how large his innereal world was and he wondered how much more of it he was going to be able to explore.

   About midday, Byron went back to the tree and as he walked up, he noticed lying there on the ground the branch that he had broken off the day before when he fell out of the tree. It was odd because it already looked quite dead and dried up. He wondered if he should make another walking stick out of it, but then his left hand started to tingle a bit. He lifted his hand and opened his palm and saw that the orb was swirling and glowing.

   He then went to pick up the branch and as he did, fluid poured out of his fingertips the same way that it did for Ajobis. And, at the place where the fluid landed on the branch, it became new and green again. Soon, the entire branch was restored, so Byron picked it up and climbed the tree and took the branch up to the place where it had broken off. As he placed the broken branch back next to the place on the main trunk where it had broken off, more fluid came out of his fingertips and poured onto the location of the break. The fluid spread across the break and completely healed the damage. It was amazing! Byron was filled with joy over the new life in the dead broken branch.

   Well, a few days passed by, but that didn’t really bother Byron all that much. There was so much to explore that he was eager for every new day to begin, so he could discover more and more new wonders in his innereal world.

   One day, he noticed that his cloak was drying out and leaves and grass were starting to fall off, so he poured some of the tree fluid from his left palm onto it, which helped for a while, but eventually stopped working. He was quite sad one day when it completely fell apart into dry leaves and grass and was blown away across the plain by a strong steady wind from the sea.

   Eventually, Byron became more and more lonely and, even though Ajobis wrote in the note for him to wait at the tree, he just couldn’t wait any longer and decided to head back to the house and find out how Narrie was faring.

   [From the back seat came, “What do you mean by faring, Daddy?” “It just means how Narrie was doing, like when you say, ‘Farewell, I hope you fare well,’” said I.]

   So, the next day, Byron left a note for Ajobis to let him know what he had decided to do and then he set out back in the direction that he and Ajobis had come from, to return to the house and see what was going on there.

   Around midday, Byron saw a shady spot near some trees, so he walked over and stopped to rest for a while. There was a nice pile of large boulders that came together creating several good places to sit. As he was resting, he looked across from him at a rather large flat boulder. Soon, he saw that an area in the center of the flat surface started to change into the color of bliss, so Byron stood up and walked over to get a better look at it and saw that the color was forming the shape of a vest. The shaping then stopped and there appeared a glowing bliss colored vest on the flat face of the boulder.

   Byron reached out to touch the vest and try to determine if he would be able to separate it from the rock, but he discovered that it was embedded and immovable. He then had the idea to maybe transform into his solid rock hard body to see if he could remove the vest from the boulder with his rock hard hands. So, he clenched his right fist and transformed his body to a solid and tried to wedge his hand behind the vest to pull it away, but that didn’t work. Then, he thought that maybe fluid would release the vest from the boulder, so he clenched his left hand into a fist and transformed into fluid and tried to pour his hand between the rock and the vest, but that didn’t work either.

   Not one to easily give up, and absolutely certain that the vest was intended for him, Byron decided to try all of his orb powers at once to try to retrieve the vest. So, he shined the light from the lighthouse on his right hand and poured fluid from the vase in his left hand and pressed against the vest with the “W” on his chest.

   Suddenly, shafts of light shot out from behind the vest and tinkling sounds filled the area and the vest transferred from the boulder to Byron. Of course, it fit him perfectly and he instantly discovered that it was also extremely comfortable and protective.

   Byron was completely fascinated by his new vest. The material was amazing – both strong and seemingly impenetrable like armor and soft and supple like cloth. Like the cloak, he could tell that it would match his body temperature perfectly and would keep him warm when the weather was cold and cool when it was warm. 

   The design was like a vest in that it had no collar and a V-neck, but it had elbow length sleeves and was about mid-thigh in length. It had interesting clasp-like buttons up the front and it retained its bliss color when it detached from the boulder.

   It was such a magnificent article of clothing and Byron was quite thrilled to be wearing it. For some reason, wearing the vest made him feel special and unique and even more complete in himself. He already felt like the vest was specifically made for him and after wearing it for even such a brief time, he couldn’t imagine himself without it. It was definitely an integral part of him now and as he continued to wear it, he definitely felt more whole.

   [“What is integral, Daddy?” asked my daughter from the back seat. “Integral means that the vest was a very important part of who Byron was and that he would be much less without it,” said I.]

   Byron decided to call this new article of clothing his vesture and as he continued to walk happily toward the house, he noticed one more interesting thing about it. There was an inside pocket on the left just in front of his heart, so he reached in and discovered, to his sheer delight, another leather bag. It was just like the first one (which, by the way, dried up and blew away with the cloak). So, he loosened the gold cord at the top and reached into the bag and took out two more orbs.

   “Wow!” thought Byron. “This is amazing!”

   The new orbs were about the same size as Byron’s first three and one was slightly larger than the other. The larger of the two was a clear blue color and the smaller one was colored in two halves and had a clear stripe between them like the brown one in his left hand. One half was bluish and the other half was greenish and, as he examined it, he noticed that the colors seemed to cross over back and forth across the clear separation between them.

   Like the first leather bag with the three orbs, this second bag also contained a note, so Byron took it out and moved his hand across the surface to reveal his name in the same beautiful calligraphy. The same type of silvery seal then also broke and got absorbed into his fingers. Words began to appear as he swept his hand across the paper and this is what it read: Byron, you have done well. Here are two more orbs. Bring all five safely back to me. Keep walking. Jacobis

   Again, just as before, each of the letters in the note became feathers on a bird and Byron’s name became the tail of the bird and Jacobis’ name became the head. The bird rested on Byron’s right hand for a brief moment and blinked its clear glassy eyes and then flew off in the direction that Byron had just come from that morning, back toward the tree.