The Last Summoning---Andrew and the Quest of Orion's Belt (Book Four) (58 page)

“OOOOh! I can’t do it. I can’t!” He scooted
away from the edge of the tower. “No. I cannot jump. I don’t even
have enough courage to end my own miserable existence.” The
flickering light instantly vanished, leaving him in complete
darkness as before. He groped back through the darkness, his hand
coming across something hard and flat. He quickly grasped the item.
He grinned, and hugged it to him.

“OH! I thought I’d lost you forever. My rock,
my friend. Oh, I knew it was you. But I had to be sure. You feel
changed. Only half of you is here. Huh. What a cruel twist of fate.
Only half of me is here as well. You see, I am shaved, and in a
very sorry state. Oh, but it’s good to have you back. I knew you
would not leave me. I am not so alone as I thought…perhaps we need
to put ourselves back together. If that’s possible, I do not know.
No. I don’t think it is. There are some things that just cannot be
fixed. Everything is broken. EVERYTHING!” His words echoed out
through the darkness as if such ominous words liked the company of
shadows.

Gogindy shivered at the sound of his own
frightening words given power and strength by accumulating gloom.
His words seemed to fit well with the darkness. Too well. As if the
darkness wanted more of these kinds of words to be born in its
womb, to be given wings and cradled in its oily hands.

“Hope,” Gogindy ventured. “Does such a word
even exist in a place like this? Hope?” The word hope fell out of
his mouth like a heavy anchor that plunged into the darkness,
instantly hidden by a sea of shadow, smothered and devoured, in
frightening contrast to the words of woe he had spoken earlier.
Yes, the darkness hid all that had once been good and true. There
was only the misleading light of The Fallen to guide them. And
where that light led was only to a place of destruction.

Gogindy closed his eyes, and hugged his
broken footprint rock, rocking back and forth, trying to shut out
the darkness that pushed in around him trying to crush him with its
weight. He could only imagine what chaos the world below him had
now been plunged into. Darkness. A thing that most had embraced had
now embraced them in its all-encompassing companionship. The only
light that was left was darkness itself. Screams, moans, howls, and
exclamations of woe, and words of desperation rolled through the
darkness, carried for miles, heralding in the despair it fed off
of. Such terrible words, such sorrow, and utter woe surged in
around Gogindy, twisting and curling, eating away at him, shadowing
his mind even more.

Gogindy closed his eyes tighter, and began to
hum in barely audible whispers, trying to drown out the sorrowful
sounds that echoed out through the darkness.

“
Wind, rain, storm, snow, and sorrow, are
but sma---ll th---ings, in compared to to---mo---rrow’s su---n
sunshine, hope for tomorrow…good things, are coming
tomorrow….tomorrow, tomorrow?”

As he uttered those last words, a curious
fluttery feeling beat in his chest. He turned his nose up and
sniffed the air. He thought he caught a hint of something pleasant
and wonderfully familiar, like dandelions. He sniffed again. But he
had lost the scent. The heavy darkness tried to hide it. Gogindy
breathed in a thick sheet of blackness, and suddenly sneezed,
causing him to teeter dangerously over the edge of the tower.

“Oh dear!” he howled, scooting himself back
as safe distance.

After he was completely sure that he was far
enough away from the edge, he sniffed again. This time he could
pick out the faint smell of sunshine and dandelions mixed with the
oily smell of darkness. He groped through the darkness, letting the
smell lead him along, feeling his way over the stones.

He came to an abrupt stop. “What is this?” he
purred, his hand coming across something that was very curious. He
explored this new item with interest. His hand wrapped around the
upper edge of his bell-ringing stick. “What’s this? Ah. I can’t
believe it. I thought I lost you.” He pulled at the stick, trying
to dislodge it. But it wouldn’t budge. He pulled harder, but still
nothing. He explored further, his hand wrapping around a long
sprout sort of thing that looped around like a dandelion stem that
had been peeled. It was connected to the thing his bell ringing rod
was stuck under. He tugged at it with all its might until it came
off in his hands. “I have it!” He ran his fingers over its spiral.
“Wait? It feels like…” he murmured, “feels like…”

“My antenna!” a hissing voice growled.

“My fur!” Gogindy howled back, shaking the
antenna at the bug. “You shaved me, you wicked beast! I ought to
pluck your legs off for what you’ve done to me!”

“I was thinking the same thing about
you!”

Just as the bug moved towards Gogindy, he
grabbed his bell ringing stick that had been trapped underneath the
bug’s body, and quickly retreated away from his enemy.

The bug let out a metallic screeching, click
clack as it scraped its way across the tower. “Once I get my
feelers, I’ll eat you. I’ll pry your head off and pop out your
eyes!”

“Can’t find me now, can you?” Gogindy gibed.
“Lost with out your antenna? Too bad!”

The bug hissed, and spat, clacking and
screeching, groping in the darkness for Gogindy. But all it could
do was veer in circles. It howled, and cried out suddenly veering
off the tower in a loud clacking cry that faded away as the bug
fell.

Gogindy shuddered, and laughed as he heard
the bug fall. “Got what you finally deserved. Ha!” Anger, and
satisfaction swelled inside him. He took a step back, laughing
hysterically. He took another step back, waving his newly-found
bell-ringing rod in the air. “Ha, ha, ha…”

Thud!

His laughs were cut short. His whole body
shook and vibrated. His head rung, and throbbed. His thoughts all
jumbled together into a confusing mess.

He slowly shook his rattled head, feeling
dizzy and very confused. “The bell?” he breathed, running his hands
along the bell’s smooth surface. He had backed up against the bell.
It was still here, in the darkness, waiting like a carcass beneath
the soil, in the darkness, for someone to wake it from death.

The metal felt cold, and slippery, riddled
with frost and snow, held in place by darkness. But still, it had
reached out to Gogindy. Still it had called it to him.

Gogindy put his head against the metal, and
moaned. “I think I’m too late. Don’t you understand? We are all
lost. We are all without hope. Yes, even I. Everything is so dark.
So very blackish.”

Tears spilled from Gogindy’s eyes and onto
the surface of the bell. His tears hit the metal, and caused the
bell to hum so quietly that only Gogindy’s sensitive ears caught
the sound. That sound caused his whole body to tingle, and his
heart to beat faster. A small hint of a smile glimmered on his
face, though he did not know why. He had no reason at all to smile.
Here he was in this terrible place, in this terrible darkness, and
yet he felt something light upon him, as soft as a feather, but as
powerful as Spring. It cast his darkened world a beam of light.
That light seemed brighter than anything he had ever felt, ever
experienced. What he felt was pure, powerful, brilliant---more real
than anything he had ever felt in his life. It transformed the fear
he felt into a deep and abiding hope. Hope for what future? The
world was cast in darkness. Yet, still hope existed. It illuminated
his heart, gave him a reason to look up at the dark sky, though he
saw only darkness. But in it he thought he could see hope for the
future.

“Hope,” Gogindy whispered. “Can it be that it
lives, waiting to be born, even in this darkness?” Gogindy fingered
his bell-ringing rod, unsure, yet feeling a rising, flickering hope
gleam within his chest. Didn’t hope have restrictions? Wasn’t this
the end of all that was good? How was it that hope had still found
him here in the darkness? Was it not stifled in this blackness? Did
it not see that The Fallen had taken power? Did it not know that
without his whiskers he was useless, courageless, powerless? Still
hope swelled within him. It did not care that he was a shaved,
foolish mouse, weak, and cold. It did not need a powerful giant to
give it residence.

All it needed was a host, a heart, a home, no
matter how lowly, no matter how small. Gogindy’s heart was bigger
than them all.

“Don’t you understand?” Gogindy shouted out
into the blackness. “All is lost.”

Yet, hope lingered, waiting, urging Gogindy
to set it free, to let it be born, to renew and revive a world that
had no reason to hope. And because it had no reason to exist, it
had more of a reason to exist, a reason far more vivid and powerful
than ever before. That was the way hope had always worked. Hope did
not need a reason.

Gogindy gulped, feeling his heart beat faster
with each second. The overpowering feeling he felt emanated from
the bell, flooding over him, baptizing him in its purity.

Hope did not need a reason.

It never did.

He had never thought of hope in that way
before. To him, hope had always needed to make some logical sense.
It needed something to hope for. Here, there obviously wasn’t
anything to hope for at all.

Yet still it lingered.

He hoped. But what he hoped for was obscure,
far off, like a dream. Maybe he was asleep? It was dark, after
all.

Perhaps the best dreams only come when it is
darkest.

Here, there was abundance of that.

Here that was all one could do.

“Hope,” he uttered the words reverently, as
if he had said a prayer. “Hope lives,” he said louder. “Yes!” His
eyes flamed, his heart pounded against his chest. He turned to the
bell and lifted the bell ringing stick. Perhaps it did not matter
that he had not succeeded. What mattered is that though he had
failed, he would try yet again.

Hope overcame his reason, his doubt, his loss
of identity, his feelings of failure. Sure, he had lost all his
whiskers. Yes, he had failed. But even without his whiskers, even
though he had failed, he had not lost the most important part of
him, as he had first supposed. He had not lost his heart. It was he
who had to live with himself. And he would live! He would!

Hope was alive in him even in this dark
hour.

This hope drove him to action, although all
his senses told him that it was useless.

It consumed him, caused his mind and heart to
burn as one. Caused him to forget everything else, except for this
resounding throb of truth, the hope the bell foretold would come
into his heart if he let it in.

He gripped the bell-ringing rod firmly. He
raised it high, his face alight with a light only he could
feel.

“Ring,” he cried. “Sing! Cut through this
darkness and ring for me, and for all the world, for the race of
people you represent! RING with the voice of hope, of truth. Hope
is something that is needed much more in dark places than in light.
For you are the voice of hope. And Hope is all the more powerful
when it seems that there is no reason to have it. Ring! Ring with
the voice of truth trapped inside you! Strike fear into the wicked,
give hope to the good, strength to the weak, courage to the coward.
Death and life to those whom you see fit. RING! Let your voice be
heard though the darkness. Let your voice cut in pieces the
darkness that is threatening to suffocate us in its tight grip!
RING! LET HOPE GO FREE. LET TRUTH FINALLY BE HEARD!”

Thus saying, Gogindy brought the stick down
as hard as he could, clapping it against the bell in a flash of
light.

CRACK!

Gogindy was instantly thrown onto his back as
the heavy crust of darkness and grime holding the bell in place
cracked and fell away as the bell swayed back and forth in an
explosion of light and sound.

A stirring toll arose from the depths of the
bell, causing a spray of light to scatter from underneath it like
thousands of glowing fireflies.

Gong! Gong! Gong! the bell tolled, louder and
louder, causing Gogindy’s whole body to shake because of the
sound.

With each toll, the bell grew brighter,
shattering bits of darkness around Gogindy. The shafts of light
underneath the bell scattered throughout the darkness as if it was
searching for something or someone. The music from the bell tolled
in Gogindy’s heart, stirring every cell in his body to some higher
plane of thought, to memories he had not yet experienced, of good
things to come. The voice of hope struck at his heart, causing him
to feel that perhaps, all things were possible. It caused him to
remember why he was there. The voice of hope was one of truth,
truth in its purest form. It told him that even though the world
was captive under a dark power, there was yet a greater power that
still existed that the even darkness, not even death itself, could
shut out.

Gong! Gong! Gong! The sounds from the bell
flooded over Gogindy, stronger and stronger, flooding his mind with
light, causing his whole body to be filled with light. His skin
began to glow, shaven and shorn as it was. With each toll his
whiskers began to grow back, like glowing, golden tuffs of yarn,
shimmering with the hope that emanated from his heart.

Though surrounded by the blackest darkness,
he was not without light anymore. It existed inside himself, bright
and brilliant. With it he could see his way in the darkness.

Gogindy gazed at the glowing bell with
shining eyes. A smile perched on his face, reflecting the feeling
of hope in his heart. With each toll of the bell, a dazzling spray
of light was sent out into the land that reached far and wide. Its
music lit up the dark world with something that was not tangible,
something that could only be held in brave hearts and souls that
were willing to house hope’s gleam. Gogindy rose to his feet and
shouted. “HOPE has been reborn! Take that you darkness. You weak,
pathetic diaper sheet. We shall see who will win in the end. We
shall see what is more powerful!”