The Searcher

The Searcher

  By Frank Terranova

  Copyright 2013 Frank Terranova

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, or real events, are entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Special Thanks

  To the many classic rock songs of the 1970’s that helped to inspire this story; but most specifically the progressive rock band YES and their song “Heart of the Sunrise”, and of course Bob Dylan and his masterpiece “All Along the Watchtower”.

  The Searcher

  And then all the churches will know that I am the Searcher of minds and hearts, who rewards each of you according to your works. Revelations – Chapter 2:23

  ****

  As I remember it now, the silence was deafening as I, Francisco “Kid Cisco” the tree dweller, trudged through the nefarious Forest of Mystery, lost for days uncounted in what seemed to be a never-ending night of eternal darkness.

  I was in the company of my two tried and true companions, Felonious the honorable thief (or Fel as he is also known as by his many loyal companions), and Courtney the roguish jester (or Court as is painted on his banner in the King’s amphitheatre), and as we wandered through the thicket of thorny underbrush searching for signs of light and life in this dense canopy of vegetation, I suddenly realized that we, individually, and collectively as a group, had no idea where we had come from, or for that matter, where we were going to.

  The silence was becoming excruciating when Felonious, who was a good man deep beneath his cunning exterior, finally found the will to speak, thus breaking the spell which held us asphyxiated.

  “There must be some way out of this maze, this dungeon, this gated fortress of gloom. Aye, but for the life of me I cannot find an escape route. Aye indeed, for the first time since the days of my apprenticeship I have come across a lock that cannot be picked, a jail cell from which I cannot escape, a prison sentence that I cannot bear to serve.”

  Not to be outdone, Courtney, who was as clever as he was jovial, chimed in with his own confounding proclamation of confusion.

  “Oh brave Fel do not despair, for I too am bewitched by an impervious blackness of the heart which overwhelms this land…for I too am bewildered by this bustling forest that hath somehow lost its tongue…for I too am bothered by this impenetrable puzzle of a wilderness, the likes of which cannot even begin to be jig-sawed back together, even by an accomplished riddle-solver such as I.”

  And with that, the longtime acquaintances engaged in a tearful embrace as I stood back and watched; all the while wondering what was to become of us.

  After an extending wringing of the hands, Felonious lifted his rather large head up off of Courtney’s slender shoulders, and as he blindly wiped away both of their tears, he looked into the jester’s gleaming eyes and seemingly begged his comrade for an answer he knew full well was not to be forthcoming.

  “Court, my faithful friend, please pray tell, in all our miles of wandering, how can it be that there has been not a star in the sky, not a slice of moonbeam, not a streak of sun, not a sliver of lightning? How can it be that there has been not even a solitary hoot of an owl, not the howl of a wolf, not the croak of a frog, not a crackle of thunder?”

  Courtney ponder the question as thoughtfully as could be expected from one who practices the art of jesting, and judging from the words he spoke, it was clear that he didn’t have a clue in regards to how this land of deathly silence and darkness had come to be.

  “Pray tell my dear Fel, pray tell, for who am I but a foolish jester? One such as I am not equipped to unravel such dark secrets, no doubt planted by a sorcerer’s spell. You may as well riddle me to untangle the eternal truths of the universe for all the good that it would do. Ha, for surely this retched silence has brought about a madness of the brain which is shared by thee and thee and me. Oh how I beseech this devil whose magic holds us to lift these foggy clouds from our heads so we might challenge him to a duel of the minds.”

  The pandering of perplexing words between the suddenly faint-hearted thief and the equally timorous jester continued deep into the dark night that hath no end, until ultimately their spoken volleys reached the regrettable stage of reproachfulness, and at that point I felt obliged to step into the fray.

  “Hear me my friends, please hear me,” I cried, “for surely the time for quibbling has come and gone. We must stay strong somehow and stand as one, for only then will we find our way back into the light. I grant you that this unworldly silence, especially when accompanied by this accursed darkness, would have broken a lesser group of troopers by now…but we three knights are strong, we three knights are warriors of the New Earth, we three knights mustn’t let the demons overtake us without first enduring a fight that they will never forget…a fight which will go down in the history of this hellish land as the night that the tree dweller and his brave companions brought light into this dreary forest…and then, mark my words, then the ghastly legions who protect these lands will look back in trepidation from this day forward.”

  If the truth be told, at the time, I’m not completely sure whether I even believed my own words, but I felt as if it was incumbent upon me to lift the spirits of my downtrodden friends…and so I did what I felt needed to be done. Although, based on my confederates’ responses, it was clear that I hadn’t fully succeeded in allaying all of their fears.

  “Can you not see the folly in your words, courageous though they might be, Kid Cisco, my truest of friends? For how can we fight off a madness which hath no hands, no face, no voice, or in fact no form at all? And furthermore, my noble tree dweller, how can we fight off a madness which makes not a sound…for in this silence I fear that my will grows weak? Alas my lad, how can we fight off a madness of which we cannot see…for in this darkness I cannot even so much as glimpse a shadow of my own doubt?” howled the thief while all the while he stopped not his bellowing for even a second to hear my rebuttal.

  Courtney, who couldn’t even begin to comprehend, never mind crack, these riddles in the night, managed to crack a shadow of a smile instead, and with that, he took up the cause where Felonious had left off.

  “Well said, my dear Fel, well said. Yes, my heroic tree dweller, I too have my doubts, for I am but a jester, no sword do I carry, no weapons do I hide, not even my trusty slingshot do I have in my possession…and so how is it that I am to combat these forces of evil? How am I to thwart these armies of wickedness? How am I to muzzle these dogs of the underworld?”

  “Ah but you mustn’t sell yourself short, Court…you of all people, reared by the Jester’s order…for surely your skills with the slight of hand might win us a battle or two, as much as it doth render mouths agape, aided only by a deck of cards and a trickster’s dexterity at the art of illusions. And surely your proficiency with the running of the mouth might even swindle Satan himself in a war of barbed words if it came right down to it,” I replied with an enthusiasm which was true to its word. And then after pausing briefly to catch my breath, I turned and aimed my rhetoric at my friend the thief.

  “And who would I rather have by my side in a battle-hole but you, Fel? Yes you, Felonious the honorable thief. Who but you would have the ingenuity to enter the King’s castle and depart without so much as leaving a footprint in the dirt, while at the same time filling your pockets full of his magical fool’s gold, stolen right from under the nose of his majesty’s impenetrable coffers? Yes, and who but you would have the resourcefulness to free us from any prison that this foul land has to offer us?”

  My words of encouragement seemed to have hit the mark, and so upon seeing the strength returning to the faces of
my allies, I bade them to carry on.

  “Onwards and upwards let us march down this bumpy road…a road which was surely paved by the hands of another world. Where this journey leads us we cannot say, but if we walk with dignity, every step of the way, then let no man cast a stone upon us,” I commanded as I pointed the way past the latest fork in our path. And confident though I may have been on the outside, deep within me I was as confused as my companions, for I had not the slightest idea what destiny this darkened forest had in store for us. I knew only that the fickle lord of fate had intended for us to pass this way, perhaps fated since the day we were born…and as we trudged on through the endless night I began to comprehend that we three comrades had come as one to this time and place in search of a common destination.

  As