The next morning Golden Frog remained asleep. It may turn out to be a good day thought Danny. Michael had some time off so Nathalie had come along to get him up and dressed a bit later than usual. She was a cheerful, motherly soul and her happiness was infectious. She smelt of an old-fashioned perfume that reminded Danny of country meadows. The sun shone brightly through the bedroom windows making a comforting pattern. Nathalie hoisted him from the bed to his wheelchair. As he rocked in the blue cradle Danny watched the light shining through the large gap in the curtains, picking out motes of dust speckling through the air.
A little while later, Danny put mouth to joystick and glided forward in his double-battery, black, electric wheelchair. He entered Ben’s room, which was just along the corridor from his own.
Unusually for this time of day Ben was already up and dressed and sat quietly on his bed. His thin, child-like legs hung over the bed-side in his tight black jeans which he insisted on wearing (much to the consternation of his carers).
‘I-I know,’ said Ben.
‘Y-you know what?’
‘I know about the f-frog. They just want top control, right?’ Ben’s Indian accent rose in tone at the end of his sentences.
‘I guess,’ spluttered Danny who was himself in mid-stutter.
Ben seemed to go inward briefly. He looked as though he was meditating. However, what he had done was switch to telepathy. Ben continued, the words bouncing clearly, but quietly around Danny’s mind, ‘We've got to get round that frog of yours. I'll meet you in the Sapient Realm later.’
‘I think Frog is asleep. Why don’t we just talk now?’
‘Sorry. It’s got to be the Sapient Realm. That frog might just be pretending to be asleep. We’ll be safer in the Sapient Realm.’
‘What if next time I can’t get back?’ Danny queried anxiously. He loved visiting the Sapient Realm but there was always an outside chance that you would not return.
‘We’re seasoned travellers, its second nature to you.’ Ben counselled wisely.
‘Sapient Realm it is then.’
Switching realms was a bit like birth and death - there was always a risk. Ben knew Danny was not a great fan of risk but would be good to his word.
Frog was very quiet that day. He needed to rest for a while after his travels. Danny in turn, needed all his wits about him for the social interaction and buzz that was their school. To him, it was like a great sea of people. Sometimes he felt like he just was not cut out to be a human being - everyone talking all day long and rushing about in circles. He preferred the non-verbal quietness of nature. That night, after what felt like a very long day, Danny went on his way to the Sapient Realm.
Everyone entered the Sapient Realm in a different way. Ben entered through a slipstream of sensual feelings as his mind released its grip upon the material world. Danny entered through a world of sound. A heartbeat at first, then broken half-chords flew from above, below, every direction. Each unpredictable snapshot of music seemed to follow its own pattern - yet it all fused together in harmony.
‘It is perfect,’ said Danny out-loud to no one in particular. The musical ecstasy caressed his mind sending all memory, all thoughts, back to their home in oblivion. Danny watched, as his body became the music. His hands, arms and then his legs disappeared into pure movement. He watched the last of his little self vanish. For a split second the most dreadful flash of pure fear spread throughout his body. And then it was gone. The real fear was the sheer pleasure of it all.
‘Maybe I'll just leave my material body back there in the ordinary world,’ Danny thought to himself. But he knew in life there was never such an easy escape.
‘So you have brought your friend little one,’ said Thinking Stone, the Sapient Tree, in his rich chocolate tones. ‘Perhaps Danny, you would like to climb this old tree, which, as monkeys, you are particularly well-suited I must say.’
Thinking Stone was his favourite tree. He was an old oak tree with a weather-worn trunk, gnarled and open in places with a broad canopy. It was like a father to him. In the Sapient nature realm, no humans can abide. It is the realm of the Sapient trees and their near-eternal intelligence. Danny and Ben had been transformed into small grey and brown spider-monkeys by their journey here. Each time they were born into this realm it was as a different creature.
Both Danny and Ben had full use of their limbs in this higher energy Sapient Realm. Their bodies, having been transformed into small spider monkeys were wondrously strong. Danny was fascinated by his small supple fingers. The two of them started to look for handholds as they pulled their way effortlessly to the first crook of the tree. Soon Danny and Ben had both made it to the safety of the tree's highest nook. They were sitting comfortably, backs against a branch, each in their own little hollow.
The trees in the valley seemed to be dancing to a slow beautiful harmony. Danny felt the cool air flowing through him, refreshing his spirit. He felt that each wind-swept hair on his body was alive as he looked out across the shimmering valley. The two friends and the tree sat quietly. Each was thinking the same thoughts in a myriad of different ways as silently as a graceful bird in flight.
‘Now there is something we really need to discuss,’ said Thinking Stone eventually. ‘Why such trauma should have happened to the humans, I shouldn't like to guess. Only thing I know is that the Great Trauma did indeed occur. It is just as it says in the old books of man. A long time ago a most terrible thing happened. Before this time there was great happiness throughout the land. Humans were as wise as the trees and as happy as the animals. We called that time the 'Eternal Dance of Energy' or EDEN for short. Everything happened back then just as it should. And that was the way it had been for as long as even I can remember. However, we all knew a short, but traumatic time was coming. The Earth and its celestial friends were to travel through the hostile space plains of Armageddon for some six thousand of your Earth years.
‘In time, the planet grew sick, animals died of thirst and the crops withered. The people thought that Mother Nature had abandoned them. They cast away their gods and cried salty tears into the newborn deserts. Their children crumpled before their very eyes. Little did they know that the Earth cried with them, that she mourned as much as they did. The humans became traumatised. The great cities of the ancients decayed and were plundered. Much of the human race simply died. Those that survived forgot their roots and succumbed to the power of anger. Bitter anger, hatred and fear, people scrambled for food and water. War became the norm.
‘The Earth is about to enter the space plains of Aquaria. It can heal itself now. However, the evil lords of the Armageddon era must step down! The Council of Sapient Ones and I as their representative want you, our precious human friends to do something for us...’
‘Who are we though? Nobody listens to us,’ Ben said breathlessly.
‘And I've got a frog in my brain,’ said Danny half seriously.
Thinking Stone laughed. He indicated to look at the sky. The sun came out from behind a perfect cloud and warmed their very bones.
‘Now you two really should not worry. Everything is just as it should be. All you need to know will come to you when the time is right.’
Danny and Ben didn't feel scared anymore. All afternoon and into the evening they wandered the nearby hills, they climbed trees with their muscular monkey arms, they played with sticks in the mud. The sun shone, the ants worked, and Danny and Ben explored. All was right with their world.