‘Are we going to hang around here forever?’ enquired Orb after some time.
‘That won't be necessary.’ The deep voice seemed to echo within their bones with a tremulous power. As one, the friends spun around, toward the source of the voice. Danny's heart was thumping madly and even Ben, who in times of stress tended to retreat further into himself, looked panicked. The fear soon passed as they recognized their canine mentor from the far-off Sapient Realm nature planet. The others were terrified. It had a foot wide beautiful grey and white furred head with pointed ears and inch long fur. It had incisors that could drip saliva in quarts. Its breath hung, sweet but threatening, in the air. The dog’s electric brown eyes sparkled with raw power.
‘Do not be scared,’ said Zafearon kindly, his telepathy loud and clear as sound. ‘I am a friend of Danny and Ben. Perhaps you could say I am a guide who appears in times of great need. That is one of my roles anyway.’
His eyes locked on to theirs and a magnetic power burst through into their minds. A deep reverberating sound could be heard. Zafearon physically reversed their fear with his eyes just like he had done when he had first met Danny and Ben on the nature realm planet.
Danny stood back from the edge of the wooden cave and watched the two mind entities. Their auras had gone red and purple with fright. They slowly resumed their normal soft-blue glow.
‘It’s never easy introducing myself,’ said Zafearon. ‘This organic, cosmological tree-ship is named, like all the great Sapient trees after a stone.’
‘It’s the Arkstone isn't it?’ returned Danny, ‘don't ask me how I knew.’
‘That’s right my friend, the Arkstone. For this is the original Ark, the great holder of the eternal forms. I am the "form" of “Dog” of course. All dogs in the galaxy are an emanation of myself.’
‘But who are you an emanation of in that case?’ Ben asked.
‘That is a good question Ben, one that would be worthy of an ancient philosopher. I am an emanation of myself. Of many, many canines, their thoughts come to me and from me. We are one. Some even call me the canine librarian. As a guardian of this great tree-ship I am entrusted to hold all the canine memories of this whole galaxy.’
‘That's a lot of memories. Is there no other great dog here with you?’ said the Orb, ‘are you all alone?’
‘The only loneliness I know is the loneliness of peace. I am alone with my awareness of nature's great expanse. I have my companion of course. Come in Marla.’
With a great leap from the darkness at the back of the expansive wooden hall came another great wolf-like creature. Like Zafearon she was some 5-foot high at the shoulders. In contrast to his grey bristle she had softer longer fur of a light cream colour. Still, looking into her deep brown eyes was like staring into the abyss of wolverine death. Yet strangely she was also profoundly comforting.
She sniffed at the little group for a while and then with a deft flick of her nose tossed Ben onto her back. Using her eyes she motioned Golden Frog to follow Ben's lead. Zafearon knelt down and gathered up Danny, Orb and Jodie.
‘Although we'd like you to stay with us, the felines hold a key for your journey within the Arkstone. We've going to pay the feline librarian a visit, hold tight!’
Marla barked in excitement, the sound echoed off the old wood, stone-like walls. Orb caught a glance at Marla's incisors. I wouldn't like to see those in anger she thought, quaking ever so slightly. The two dogs began to run toward the back of cavern. By the time they'd reached the back of the cave they were travelling at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. At the end of the cavern was a single tunnel entrance. On through the darkness they spun. They were as swift as an arrow shot forth from the strongest bow, inevitably toward its target.
The tunnels were gently curving and dark. Root-like veins could be seen along the walls. They flew along the passageways banking left and right. Dark green light glowed quietly from the curved wooden walls as they flashed past. Ben leant his head down. He watched the graceful fall and rise of Marla's enormous grey, long-furred paws as they strode down the corridors of the Arkstone. Great pants of breath left Zafearon's nostrils. He looked like an ethereal steam train cutting through the cool misty air.
The two dogs shot along the cavernous tunnels. Their tunnel appeared to be opening out. At the same time the roof was narrowing down. They continued for some seconds until Danny thought he could feel the brush of the cavern ceiling upon his wind-swept hair. Holding onto Zafearon's bristly mane, Danny risked lowering his head to see out beyond Zafearon's jaws. The cavern would shortly come to an end. Yet the dogs didn't seem to show any signs of slowing down. If anything they were actually speeding up.
‘Hey, this is great Zafearon but isn’t that a solid wall we’re steaming toward?’ telepathised Danny quickly.
‘You’re in safe paws,’ returned Zafearon chuckling with a wolf-like growl.
Danny just about managed to look past Jodie and the Orb to take in Marla and her travellers. Jodie and the Orb seemed oblivious to their impending doom. Golden Frog looked like he was having the time of his life. He probably wouldn't care if they all got smashed to pieces. Ben was clinging on for dear life.
The wind tugged Danny’s head back round. He made himself open his eyes. Zafearon's front legs paused for a microsecond as the two great dogs simultaneously launched themselves into the air. They hurtled toward the solid wall at the end of the cavern. As Zafearon's nose touched the wall the near-black wood rippled outwards as though a rock had been launched against a lake's surface. It was as if a spirit had flown straight through her, Jodie reflected. Danny and the others had similar feelings. They appeared to have shot straight through the wooden wall of the Arkstone as if it were water. They were now submerged within a light, breathable yellow liquid. Zafearon commanded them not to panic, ‘Breathe the liquid, you will come to no harm,’ he said.
It felt tingly all over like an electric current was running through the substance. It was cool yet somehow this liquid didn't seem to penetrate their clothes. They felt light, buoyant. Danny could see through the clear sunny liquid, which had a slight glow of its own, to the dark, veined walls of the tunnel.
‘Welcome to the great Arkstone’s internal navigation system.’ remarked Zafearon proudly. ‘We are now in River-Sap One or R1 for short. We'll be taking this channel for a while before diverting off on to the R2 for a bit and then we'll catch the R45 over to the top limbs.’
The crew still clung to Zafearon and Marla but instead of breathing the cool air of the tunnels their lungs drew in golden yellow liquid light. It was too light to be a just a liquid - but too heavy, and supportive, to be air. It pulsed rhythmically as though it were itself alive. It didn't run downwards. It ran up. Straight up. The liquid had poured into their lungs suffusing them with undiluted raw power.
‘Maybe I am dead and this is all just a spirit world,’ Jodie wondered to herself. ‘Everything is just too weird to be real,’ she thought.
‘You’ll get used to it,’ Zafearon added in his deep telepathic tone.
‘Don’t think I’ll ever get used to broadcasting every last thought though,’ she replied. She could hear Danny chuckling in the back of the mind.
The bodies of Zafearon and Marla arched and curved as the river swam its way ever upward. Danny watched eddies of amber light gather and then disappear into the liquid. He glanced at Ben, who was smiling broadly. His black hair was slicked backwards from the current of sap. He looked more alive than Danny could ever remember seeing him. Ben didn't smile that often. He tended to keep his emotions to himself.
The river of yellow light branched out ahead. With a deft flick of his entire torso Zafearon moved against the main upward current. He edged into the lesser stream. Marla followed, a little more elegantly. Soon the flow eased and the volume of golden-light slacked off.
Eventually, they left the yellow liquid altogether and emerged into an air-like atmosphere. They were at what appeared to be a beach. Yellow snakes of light oozed their way across the sand. The beach however had no real sand. It was too perfect. It was composed of a plastic-like shiny substance. The ceiling of the cavern had a slight blue colour to it which gave off a gentle blue phosphorescence. Toward the edges of the cavern the ceiling resumed its dark brown wooden colour.
The two great dogs knelt still within the sand. Their large front paws indented massive prints into the plasma-beach. Danny felt himself sliding down from the dog's back. His naked feet came to rest on the beach.
Ben landed with a soft sound by Danny's side. Marla had just shaken him off as though he were an annoying puppy. Orb hovered beautifully, lightly above the ground. Golden Frog’s skin seemed to glow a more intense metallic yellow after the excitement of the journey. His eyes, a striking green, had a thoughtful expression to them. He appeared to be sat on the beach but was actually hovering just above the plastic substance.
The plasma curled itself around Danny's feet, the cool slime licking at his toes. Ben just stared. He was sitting cross-legged quietly watching the plasma-beach gather around him. Ben seemed to have gone within himself, in a quiet meditation. Danny glanced at Zafearon who didn't speak but his look said not to worry.
Danny glanced around the cavern, inquisitive as usual, soaking up information like a sponge. The cavern was the size of a large hall, enough space for a hundred people to mill around comfortably. The ceiling rose to about the height of house at the centre and its blue glow lit the cavern. It then tapered down toward the side-walls which had the same dark-brown, veined appearance as the first tunnels they had seen in the Arkstone.
Zafearon and Marla were edging backwards from the beach. Suddenly they turned tail and leapt toward the side-walls. These melted as the animals hit and in a mere flash of the eye they were gone. The wall healed itself immediately and returned to its former state.
‘We were just waiting for the return current, Danny,’ remarked Zafearon telepathically. The quiet echo of increasing distance measured in Danny's mind. ‘The feline ones will see you now. They wish you to know their domain. And then you must travel onward to the human zone, Danny. Learn the things you must learn and gather the ruro, as the Sapient Ones have intended.
'As the dog librarian I have special powers to travel with humans through the Arkstone. I cannot take you all the way to the human zone however. For that you need the help of our feline friends. But their zone is inaccessible to humans. You will have to change form, which is why I have brought you here, to the plastic beach where the miniature sea of changes laps at its shore.’ And with that he was gone.