Departure - Traveller

I have packed my things into a small knapsack. I have my medicine bag containing a bottle of Rescue Remedy and some crystals, especially labradorite and amethyst. I have a magnifying glass, for my sight is not as good as it was, and it could always be used to light a fire, my pen, with its everlasting ink and my journal. I also have the things le Enchanteur gave me - spectacles, medallion with the unicorn on it, the tiny anchor, a pair of wings, map and an as-yet-unidentified object** wrapped in some soft cloth. Its use will be revealed at the proper time.

I reluctantly bade farewell to my gypsy caravan - having only just found it again after a gap of more than 35 years! It's a beautiful caravan, housed in the museum of my birth town, Bristol. Ever since I was a child it has filled my imagination. Maybe I'll have more time at the end of this journey to enjoy the experience of living in it.

I walked up the path from the gypsy caravan and stood in front of the door which leads to the New World. On the wall hung a wooden box with the words "surrender" engraved in it. What do I surrender, I wondered and then "I will slough off the boa constrictor that strangles my voices". As I went through the door there was a tune in my head. My urge to sing out loud was tempered by an acute feeling of self-consciousness. I turned around and put that in the box too. I may find myself in all sorts of situations where self-consciousness might not be very helpful.

I was just wondering what I was supposed to do next when a warm body pushed up against me and I turned to find Ariel, the donkey who accompanied me on the trip to the Sybil's grotto, staring at me with what looked like a grin on his face. I turned around and gave him a hug. I was so pleased to see a familiar face there. All around me people were calling to each other. Old friends greeted each other, new people were welcomed. Donkeys brayed, horses neighed and general confusion reigned as we tried to get ourselves organised. Eventually, with a buzz of conversation accompanied by the jingling of harnesses, a small group of us set off on the path leading into the distance.

I think I must have dropped off to sleep, sitting on Ariel's back, in the warm spring sunshine because, all of a sudden, I jolted awake and realised that I was on my own. What seemed like a few minutes ago I was part of a group and now there was only me. I reined my donkey to a standstill and listened. All I could hear was joyous birdsong and the buzz of bees at work in the heather bordering the path. I looked up the path in front of me - nothing - and nothing behind me either.

I tried to get my bearings but we came through a different door this time and I had no idea in which direction the House of Serpents lay. All I knew was that we were supposed to camp at the Blind Spring that night so it couldn't be too far away. "Oh, whatever am I supposed to do" I thought disconsolately and silently - or so I thought. A loud bray - a laugh? came from Ariel's mouth. "I think this would be a good opportunity to look in the bag le Enchanteur gave you" said Ariel loftily. I climbed down and opened my knapsack to consult the map. When I spread it out I thought maybe le Enchanteur had made a mistake, for it wasn't a map at all. It was just a bit of paper, tattered at the edges. I stared at it, feeling tears of frustration well up in my eyes. This can't be right, I thought to myself. "'Well, what are you waiting for? put on the spectacles" he said. He might be right, I thought. "Of course I'm right" he snorted. Obviously Ariel can read my mind .......

I put the specs on and looked again at the map and now I could indeed see something. Dim shapes began to form before my eyes. Images began to appear but it wasn't a conventional map at all. I blinked and looked away from the map at my surroundings and realised that what I was seeing on the map was actually the landscape around me. There were no place names on the map but I could see buildings and people on the page. It was as if I was looking through a pair of binoculars. I swept the spectacles cum binoculars over the map/landscape, in search of something that might give me a clue to my whereabouts or my destination. I could identify the door through which I had just come but that was all. A faint blue line on the map turned out to be a small stream. Aha, I thought, where there's water there must be a spring so I will follow the stream to its source (hoping of course, that it turned out to be the right one).

After I had made my decision, I found I didn't need to wear the specs anymore so I carefully put them back into the knapsack. I was sure I would need them again. Now I could see the edge of the stream in the distance and walked towards it, over the springy turf. Ariel almost raced ahead of me, so eager was he to take a drink while the going was good. I knelt down on the bank, giving thanks both for the water which I was about to drink and for its presence, for surely it was meant to help me find the blind spring. My face stared back at me, not yet dusty and careworn but excited about the new adventure.

I would happily have tarried a while on the stream bank but Ariel nudged me on to my feet. "Come on, we have to get going, we still have a long way to go" he ordered. "Do you know where we are going?" I asked him, knowing full well that he might have known all along. "Of course I do, but you have to find it for yourself" he replied. We followed the course of the stream for the rest of the day, stopping in the early afternoon for me to eat the sandwiches I had packed and for Ariel to nibble on a few choice thistles. The stream was getting smaller and smaller and there were no signs of habitation anywhere around. We continued, up hill now and the going was harder. Rocks appeared to twist my ankles. At this point Ariel suggested I rode on his back again as he was more sure-footed than I.

We were almost at the top of the hill when the stream appeared to dry up completely. I dismounted and cast around for a sign of it re-appearing higher up the hillside but there was nothing to see. It was getting late and I knew we only had a couple of hours of daylight left. Ariel seemed disinclined to talk at this point so I scrambled up to the top of the hill to see what lay on the far side.

Some way down the slope grew a small spinney of trees. I called to Ariel that I was going to take a look and slowly made my way down the hillside. Bright green and luxuriant undergrowth gave way to spongy tussocks of grass. I had found water again. My feet disappeared in brackish water but I struggled on, the water sucking at my boots, leaking in through the stitches. At length I came to the edge of the spinney. It was very wet there. I could just make out a path, which I followed, stumbling over the tussocks, into a clearing filled with greenish light. In the middle a spring bubbled forth merrily - but was it the blind spring?

posted for Carol Abel