****
Johnny woke to the sound of birds singing and Fen Snoring. Gus was already up and cooking breakfast, using a small wood stove in the corner of the cabin. When he noticed Johnny watching him he handed him a plate piled high with eggs and with flapjacks smothered in raspberry jam, and pointed out a small table where they could all sit.
“Chow down, lad, it’ll be a busy morning for the lot of us, I reckon.”
Yawning and blinking, Elizabeth and Fen soon joined them at the table. The guests were surprised to have fresh orange juice to drink, but were too busy eating to ask for an explanation. In minutes everyone was stuffed to the gills.
“While I clear the table Johnny, I have something that Ned found with your father’s body that has been passed on to me for safe keeping.” He handed a small sealed envelope to Johnny that had his name on it. The envelope was beginning to yellow with age. Johnny opened it anxiously and read it aloud.
‘Johnny: In case something happens to me, I am writing this to you. First of all, take care of your mother and the Tribe. You’re the Goth now, along with your Uncle Mort. Second, stay away from the Cube. It’s dangerous, but dangerous in a strange way, and if you read this my plan failed and I am wrong in thinking it could be controlled. My theory is that we can learn to control it by thought, if we keep trying, and have the appropriate talent. There are others in the other Cube worlds trying to do similar things. I’ve been communicating with them and today plan to visit and join them. We should be able to jointly control the Cube, and I should be able to return.
‘If it doesn’t work and I don’t return, you’ll get this letter. I have high confidence I will return, but if after a few days I don’t, remove the dead me from near the Cube and bury him, and as the new Goth, with wisdom use the watch I leave you through Mort. Love, Dad.’
“All these years there’s been a letter from my Dad?” Johnny asked Fen, dazed.
The little goat man shrugged. “Your mother had taken you away. It was always here, waiting for your return to Goth Mountain. We didn’t think it would be so long a time.”
“What does it all mean?” asked Elizabeth. “I don’t understand it all. Exactly how is the Cube dangerous?”
Gus stood up from his chair at the table. “It will require more thought, that question will. Mark was a little unclear on purpose, perhaps to keep Johnny out of trouble. In the meantime let’s get out of my cluttered little cabin. The Land beckons and I wager we’ll soon be visited by Pru and some of the others.”
Johnny and Elizabeth stepped out of the cabin and followed Gus along a stone path that led towards the nearby woods, but got no further than the first few steps. Then they could only stand gaping, overwhelmed by what they saw.
What had been in large measure hidden by darkness and their weariness the night before was now exposed in the brilliant splendor of a strange daylight. A few steps from the path on which they stood, a small brook of clear cool water bubbled by. As they watched, a large fish of some sort leapt out of the water. A beaver was swimming nearby, and a raccoon with its babies romped along the stony shore. Around the path and across the brook spread fresh, green, grassy meadowland, decorated in blue, orange, red, and gold by rampant patches of wild flowers. Deer and elk grazed the meadows, and calling birds perched and flew in great profusion. To either side of the meadow, forests of titanic trees towered.
A gentle breeze caressed their skin and tugged gently at their clothes, and brought a million odors of forest life to them: sweet and pungent, musty and musky. The cool morning air also carried a chorus of life sounds to their ears: chirping, croaking, chattering, grunting, cooing, whistles, and other songs of life.
It was all illuminated by strange light. Like the dim lighting of the previous night, the light of day, if that's what it was, was also diffuse; it seemed to come from the entire light blue sky rather than from a glowing sphere, as the Sun itself was nowhere to be seen. How could it be so bright here with no Sun? It was as if the light of the Sun was being scattered as it passed through a translucent covering of some sort, though the sky was clear blue; a notion that Johnny dismissed at once, as he realized the engineering demands of such a huge structure. The Land appeared to be at least several miles across, and yet there was no sign of any of the supporting structures that should have been needed for any sort of gigantic roof.
As they looked closer at the countryside, they realized that this was nature as they had never seen it before, even on Goth Mountain. Everything was spectacular in terms of size and profusion, but even more amazing it seemed to also be utterly perfect. Every nearby blade of grass was green and without defect, every flower was without wilt or fade, every tree leaf was without insect chewed edges, and without dead or broken branches. Even the stone path they stood on was not encroached upon by any growth trying to reclaim it. It was as if everything in the Land had its established properties that were somehow controlled.
"A bit overwhelming is it?" asked McGregor, who had been standing quietly studying the couple, as they studied their surroundings.
"It's incredible!" answered Elizabeth.
“It’s the product of several thousands of years of care,” said a familiar voice that hinted of chimes ringing in the wind. Emerging from a stand of giant trees Pru the unicorn pranced, followed by Grog the giant, and several other equally fantastic beings.
“I am Malgandro," spoke the griffin standing next to Pru. Its massive lion body rippled with muscle, its huge eagle wings flexed as though straining to fly, and its beaked eagle’s head stared at the humans with enormous, all seeing eyes.
"I am Thela, humans," said a soft, sexy female voice, as another form seemed to step right out of the trunk of a nearby tree. This one appeared to be very human, and so startling in her nude beauty that Johnny could do nothing but stare goggle-eyed at her with his jaw hanging open. Thela smiled and stared back at Johnny openly.
As she stepped further away from the tree, and the two huge white feathery wings attached to her back became visible. As startling as that was, the human beauty of her naked form monopolized Johnny’s attention, until Elizabeth elbowed him firmly in the ribs.
"I am Sheera," said another female voice, this one definitely and captivatingly nude and human from the navel up, and horse from the waist down. Both parts of the centaur sported brilliant red hair.
“I suddenly feel overdressed,” remarked Elizabeth.
“Don’t let it trouble you,” remarked another member of the party, a tall, handsome, silver haired man with impossibly large, piercing blue eyes, white porcelain skin, long silver hair, and large pointy ears. He was covered from neck to just above his sandal-clad feet by a gracefully flowing, perfect white robe trimmed in gold. He was an elf, the humans immediately realized. “I am called Elnor,” he announced.
“And we are Nera and Tigra,” stated the final two members of the group. Nera was a female Sasquatch, while Tigra was a male. Nera stood a full seven feet tall but Tigra was a head taller. Johnny remembered meeting them both when he was a small boy. Many of the People preferred to secretively live in forests as Sasquatch, while those that stayed in the Land tended to adopt outlandish forms that would receive too much attention in the outside world.
“We are the current membership of the High Council of the Land, Johnny Goth,” said Pru. “As you are acting as the new Goth, we needed to meet with you and decide if we will renew through you our covenant.”
“You mean you’re going to look me over and decide if I’m Goth Mountain material?”
“In part, but not entirely,” said Elnor. “The outside world is changing. We have to decide if we will continue to have any contact with it at all. Part of that decision involves you. We would know your thoughts on this matter, and the thoughts of Elizabeth, of course.”
“You mean you might just hide here forever without ever visiting the outside?” asked Elizabeth.
“In essence,” said Pru. “But not forever, not even by our reckoning.”
br /> “Meaning of course that you are immortal and we are not,” said Johnny.
“Unicorns are immortal compared to the rest of us,” said Malgandro, “who are merely very long of life compared to you humans. We would prefer to remain hidden, from not only your kind but from some others that inhabit your world and this part of this galaxy. Yet, already humans draw unwanted attention to the orb in which we abide.”
“Within a few more of your generations your science may exceed our ability to hide ourselves,” said Pru. “If we withdraw, perhaps your kind and any others will not know to look for us and not find us for a longer time. Or perhaps you humans will become extinct and the danger to us will pass.”
“Is danger to yourselves all that you care about?” asked Elizabeth. “I don’t see how you can stand to live in here away from the whole rest of the universe, no matter how nice it is here.”
“The Land has all that we need,” stated Elnor.
“Does it really?” asked Johnny. “You weren’t always in your current forms, were you? Where did you get the ideas for your current forms?”
“From creatures in the outside world, right?” Elizabeth answered for them.
“The forms please us,” said Sheera. “The Sasquatch is our most traditional form, but when we are young we choose what we want to be. Except for unicorns, of course; unicorns are eternally unicorns.”
“And everything else here? The plants and animals are all reflections of the outside world too, aren’t they, modified to fit your idea of perfection?”
“ARE YOU MAKING A POINT LITTLE LADY?” asked Grog impatiently.
“The point is, whether you like it or not you appear to be highly dependent on the outside world for the ideas you use here,” explained Elizabeth.
“We see your point,” said Elnor.
“It’s an age-old problem for us as well as for you,” said Johnny. “We humans like to mold ourselves and our environment to be the way we think we like them, but we still can’t escape being part of the larger world. Not even you can do that totally, despite all of your powers.
“But that also means that you can’t escape responsibilities. Nobody can, not even you. There is no free ride. I think you would be irresponsible to yourselves and to the rest of us who live on Earth if you withdraw completely from the outside world.”
“And then there is the Cube,” added Elizabeth. “Your help is needed to guard it. If you don’t, there could be consequences for you as well as for us.”
“I have already decided,” said Thela, smiling, her eyes on Johnny. “I agree.”
“And I,” said Malgandro.
”And I also,” said Elnor and the Sasquatch couple.
“Very well,” said Sheera. “With my assent it is unanimous, as Pru and Grog have already made their views known.”
“We will continue our relationship with the Tribe and the Goths,” said Pru to the humans.
“And we agree to continue it also,” said Johnny.
Grog laughed heartily.
“We can move on to other business now, as our human friends are anxious to carry out their responsibilities in their world,” said Pru. “At another time, perhaps they can avail themselves a longer visit.”
“So we would hope,” said Thela, winking at Johnny.
“What can you tell me of my father and the Cube?” asked Johnny.
“Your father, like so many of you short-lived folk, was in a hurry to solve the mysteries of what he called the Cube,” said Malgandro. “But he apparently failed.”
“Where is his body?” asked Johnny quietly.
“The body of Mark Goth is nearby,” said Pru. “Come.”
The entire group followed Pru around the side of the cabin and into a small glen full of incredible wild flowers. A cube shaped boulder the size of a desk sat amidst purple hued orchids if incomparable beauty. Johnny’s father’s name was carved deeply into the smooth face of the stone.
“Mark Goth’s body lies beneath this stone,” said Thela. “He was a handsome human. He looked much like you.”
“Yet Mark Goth lives,” stated Pru enigmatically.
Johnny took out his gold watch and showed it to everyone. Several gasped when they saw it, for his father’s smiling image was still on it, next to his own. “This watch is part of you, Pru. Doesn’t this mean that you detect him alive somewhere?”
“Your father’s complete status is unclear. I sense that he is gone, but not that he is dead. Beyond that I know only that the Cube can change those who are near it.”
“Maybe the Cube changed him so you couldn’t sense him anymore, then killed him,” reasoned Johnny.
“No,” replied the unicorn. “Your logic is good but this is not the case. The man buried here is Mark Goth, yet he is not your father.”
“Then the body must be that of his doppelganger,” reasoned Elizabeth.
“A doppelganger here? In our world?” asked Johnny, though once stated by Elizabeth the proposition seemed obvious. “I agree.”
“And if that is the case, your real father might be still alive,” added Elizabeth. “He might have gone to wherever the body buried here came from. And your uncle too. In both cases a body was found. Both bodies were perhaps doppelgangers.”
“That’s what concerns me,” confessed Johnny. “Bodies were found. Why? Why dead bodies and not live doppelgangers? Might that suggest that Dad and Mort have also been killed?”
Elizabeth hugged Johnny and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t lose hope. In his letter your father says he planned to visit another world and return. He studied the Cube longer than you have, and his note suggests that he thought he knew what he was doing. Besides, both watches still show images of those missing.”
“Both watches?” exclaimed Johnny. “You’ve seen Uncle Mort’s watch?”
“Yes. It was with the Mort doppelganger body in the cabin. I gave it to Two Bears.”
“He no longer has it,” added Pru.
“He doesn’t?” exclaimed Johnny. “Then where is it?”
“I cannot tell you where, but I can tell you who,” said Pru. “After all, each watch is a small part of me. Mort’s watch is now carried by Small Bear.”
****