Gate: Gundestrup Cauldron
I passed through the vision gate and was nearly run over by a herd of deer. The animals bumped into me as they rushed past into the standing mist. Just as quickly as the creatures had appeared, they were gone.
Then, within the fog, a boy with antlers and eyes like two gold discs appeared. He startled at my appearance and shied backwards. “What do you want?” he asked.
“I’ve come to learn your true nature,” I said. “My name is Heidi and I’m seeker of knowledge and truth.”
The boy’s eyes glowed with molten gold light and he raised both arms to the level of his shoulders. Gesturing, he transformed the mist around us into leaves. Then, he took a deep breath, pushed his palms forward and blew a small tornado of leaves towards me.
I summoned Badger and Dream to my aid. Spreading his wings above and before us, my gossamer dragon reflected all but a handful of errant leaves. Badger batted the rest away with his claws. We resisted the onslaught until the boy ran out of breath and the vortex of leaves faded away.
“I mean you no harm, Prince, I promise,” I called across the space that divided us. “What is your true nature?”
Instead of answering, the spirit transformed himself into a magnificent stag and bounded away. As he ran, his golden eyes glowed once more, igniting the leaves of the forest and setting the world on fire.
Badger, Dream and I ran, following the stag down the only clear path through the fire as reality disintegrated into flames. “Who is this guy?” Badger wondered, transforming into his human self as we tried to outrun the dangerous heat from the inferno.
“I don’t know,” Dream replied, also changing into his human self. “But I suspect we’re going to find out.” He raised his hand to brush his thick, dark hair away from his forehead and it came away covered in sweat. “How are you holding up, Heidi? I know running isn’t really your thing.”
“It’s not the running that bothers me so much because sometimes it feels like I’m flying over the ground,” I replied. “I just don’t like being overly warm.”
It seemed as if the spirit we were chasing heard our words for he abruptly stopped in his flight and changed back into his human form. Then, he grinned mischievously in our direction.
“If you can follow me into a different realm,” he said. “I’ll speak with you but only there.”
Stretching an arm above his head, the antlered boy produced a torc out of the air. Mirroring the motion, he gestured and a serpent appeared in his other hand. The spirit threw both objects in the air where they joined together in a flash of swirling light and disappeared. In their place stood a gate to another world.
Laughing, the boy leapt through it. A couple leaves with their edges still aflame followed.
My friends and I looked at each other and then at the gate which was very small.
“I don’t think you guys will fit,” I said and they nodded their heads in agreement. Taking my hands, the animals of my heart melded into my spirit. Then, I passed within the swirling sphere and was swallowed by the mist.
On the other side of the door, there stood an ancient forest with trees larger than sequoias that hid the sky with their canopy. Pine needles, leaves and moss cushioned my steps as I sought the antlered boy, but in vain, for he was nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to ask for a guide, a herd of deer crashed through the woods behind me and nearly ran me over again. As they rushed by, I looked around expectantly for the boy but he didn’t appear. Instead, something else followed the herd, chasing it through the forest.
Winged creatures appeared halfway up the tree trunks, skittering from one tree to another and driving the deer before them. The beings were too slight to be human with pale skin that glowed like moonlight.
Though they had wings, they propelled themselves through the canopy with spindly arms and hooked claws. As the deer ran in panic before them, the creatures hooted and screamed in a language I had not heard before in my travels. I felt the sound of their cries enter my heart and a nameless fear began to grip me.
I heard something else coming behind the moonlit creatures, crashing carelessly along the ground and pushing huge trees aside like matchsticks. While waiting for the latest member of the chase to pass me by, the boy with antlers suddenly appeared at my side and grabbed my hand.
“Get down,” he said frantically. “Hide, hide now or they’ll see you.”
“Who?” I asked.
He shoved me into a depression on the forest floor rather than answering. I opened my mouth to ask again but the boy shushed me and we waited, a sense of dread building in my chest as the noise grew ever louder and closer.
A giant slug came through the trees. It dripped slime and goo, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. Slowly but inexorably, it followed the winged hunters and herd.
It glided over us, close enough that I reached up and trailed a finger along its belly. The boy grabbed my hand again. “Are you mad?” he asked. “They’ll feel you. Why can’t you just stay hidden until they’re past?”
“I’m sorry, Prince,” I said. “I am unaccustomed to cowering. I will try to do as you wish.”
We stayed down, crouching on the forest floor and holding hands, until the monster slug passed. When the boy thought it was safe, we stood and watched the slug making its way through the woods. On its back sat a pavilion, containing more of those winged creatures and an ornate throne made of wood.
It drifted regally onwards like a royal barge but atop a slug. I could feel fear emanating from the beings contained upon the conveyance and felt an answering panic in my own being. “I wonder what they’re so afraid of?” I mused, watching the spirits’ glacial progress through the ancient wood. “And why do they have such sway over my own heart? I have never met these fae before.”
“Come on,” the boy said, taking me in the opposite direction of the behemoth. “It might hurt you to ruminate overly long on such a subject. I will keep you safe with me.” After a short time, we came to a hidden cave that went deeply into the ground. A small but elegant etching of stag horns adorned its archway.
We crawled through the entrance together into deeper darkness. A light grew ahead of us, coming off of stalactites shaped like crystals and spaced so closely together it was hard to squeeze by. But we progressed forward all the same because we were small too.
“Impossible to enter my home if you have wings,” the boy said. “Trust me, it’s better this way.”
“I’ve never had trouble flying with or without wings,” I said. “So either way, it is not of concern to me. Clever you for finding such a safe place in this hopeless world.”
After struggling forward for a time, the boy led me to a pool of clear water at the bottom of the cave surrounded by beautiful crystals. He reached out his hands and gestured. A globe of water rose up, separate from the pool. It glowed bright gold like his eyes.
The gold shone on the crystals in the cavern and up to the ceiling on an open space where the boy had drawn a depiction of himself but older and wrapped in shadows. The horns on his head were larger than the current era as well. I admired the artistry of it.
“Who are you?” he asked, after some time had passed. “And why are you here?”
“I’m Heidi, remember?” I said. “I shared my name with you in the other world. But if you can’t remember, that’s ok as well. I can always remind you if needed. What’s your name?”
“I’m the Lost One,” he said. “Of the ancient forest and forgotten spaces.”
“Lost?” I asked. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said. “I am so very lost and I want nothing more than to go home.”
“You can travel through worlds,” I said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Why don’t you just go back to your home and where you started?”
“I’ve forgotten the way,” he said, a wistful tone entering his voice. “And the place. And my reason for being.”
“Setting all that aside for just a moment, who are those guys with the moonlit wings out in the woods?” I asked. “And why are they seeking you?”
“My horns grant them immortality,” the boy said. “If they catch me, they cut them off, consume them and I die.”
“How awful,” I said. “It must be a terrifying way to exist. You seem so alive to me.”
“That’s because I’m born again,” he explained. “I go away for a while but then I end up back here in their woods. The herd of deer finds me eventually because I am the father of them all.”
“Only the royals eat the horns,” he continued. “But the rest help in the hunt because the one who spots me first also gets a piece. They are always hungry and never cease their games.”
“You need a better hiding place,” I said. “Until you can remember your way home. Maybe I can help you. My friends and I are accomplished at hiding from our enemies though I disagree with them often times on applying that designation to the ones we’re running from. Funny how both you and I are occasionally hunted.”
The antlered boy turned his golden eyes upon me. “You are hunted too?” he asked. “What do you suggest we do?”
I sighed at the never ending struggle with the shadow. “Well, Prince, I seek allies in other worlds,” I said. “Though the situation you may find yourself in may appear to be impossible or wrong, I have learned that there are always those who will help you emerge into the light again. The Light Congress has taught me this truth. Maybe you can find your Light Congress too if you just look as far and as carefully as you are able.”
I took one of the boy’s hands and pressed our palms together to discover that our hands were the exact same size. Something passed between us, a spark of understanding or knowledge, and for a moment our hands glowed gold like the crystals in the cave. The antlered boy smiled for the first time since we entered the cave.
“You know what, Heidi,” he said. “I’m not feeling nearly as lost as I was a moment ago. Maybe your plan has merit. Let’s try it and see, shall we?”
The boy stood from where he had been crouching with me beside the pool. The golden torc reappeared in one of his hands, the serpent in the other. This time instead of throwing them in the air, he smashed them to the cave wall. Where they struck the stone, another gate appeared.
The boy went to run through it and at the last minute he reached back for me. “Come on, Heidi,” he said. “We won’t be lost again if we’re together.”
“You never told me your true name,” I cried, the fear from the beings in the wood entering my heart again in that safe space. I lunged for the antlered boy’s hand as fast as I could but I was too late and he was gone. The gate through the stone of the cave shut with a snap like a creature’s mouth closing.
I sat in that dark place in despair for some time. The water from the pool slowly crept towards me, wetting the hems of my clothing. As the water bathed me and a few of my tears entered his pool, I heard the boy’s voice coming from the glowing globe of golden water that was still shining upon me and floating in the air of the cave.
“Let me out,” he cried. “Heidi, where are you? Why didn’t you come with me? Let me out!”
“Prince, where are you?” I cried out in response. “I’m not lost, I’m here. I’m still here. I promise, I’m not going anywhere.” Shadows began to move on the walls, my only friends in that sad place.
As the tears continued to roll down my face, the globe of light shifted and changed. It turned into a metal cauldron, hanging suspended in the air and shining with light.
The boy’s voice now came from an etching on the cauldron. “Let me out,” he said again. “I want to go home and I want my Heidi and the Light Congress.” And my vision ended with his voice echoing forlornly in my ears.
The Light Congress 