Free The Promised One by David Alric

your well-being. We know about your home and your possessions and henceforth your whereabouts will always be known to us.’
    ‘So,’ thought Lucy, ‘blabbermouth Tibbles has been talking about my toys over the animanet.’
    The dolphin continued.
    ‘I shall be speaking today to those who know the marsupihops to see if they need your help; I cannot, however, speak yet to the Terrible Ones for I know not what kind of Terrible One it is that you cherish. We know of the great manefang that lives south of the Great Sands on the plains where run the striped horse and the endless herds of clovenkin; the fleetfang that can outrun even the clovenkin, and the spotfang that hunts from the trees; then there is the stripedfang who lives where the Brilliant One rises, or there are the Terrible Ones over the Great Salt where the Brilliant One sleeps – the mountainfang in the north and the junglefang in the south. Which of these Terrible Ones is it your desire to assist?’
    ‘Hmmm,’ thought Lucy, ‘so clever-clogs Tibbles isn’t so hot on her big cats – she doesn’t know exactly what Jackie is.’ The dolphin obviously didn’t know whether Tibbles meant a lion, a cheetah, a leopard, a tiger, a cougar or a jaguar. She spoke to the dolphin.
    ‘I respect and admire all those Terrible Ones of which you speak, but the one that I have loved since I was very young is the junglefang.’
    ‘I shall speak to those who know the junglefang today,’ he replied. ‘My own kin live in the great river of the junglefang, and I shall speak with you again after the Brilliant One has slept.’ ‘But how can you speak to those so far away? Is it with the fledgiquills you do this?’
    ‘No, O Promised One, the fledgiquills can fly at great speed – faster than any other living creature – but even they cannot reach us from the lands of the marsupihop or the junglefang in but a single sunsleep. No, it is through the Great Ones that we speak. They learn of matters far away through the Great Salt and when I swim in the Great Salt today I can speak to them.’
    Lucy remembered that the dolphinarium was now connected to the sea, so Jonathan would be able to speak to wild dolphins and whales, but she had no idea how that was going to help him to communicate overnight with Australia and South America.
    ‘We will speak again when the Brilliant One rises once more,’ continued the dolphin, ‘but before you take your leave I have a question that has perplexed the Great Ones and all their kin since the beginning of time. Perhaps you would ask the Sagacious Ones, though I fear that even they may not know the answer to the mystery of which I speak.’ Lucy was fascinated.
    ‘What is the mystery?’ she asked.
    ‘The Great Ones that pass for league upon league through the Great Salt have discovered a secret that is known only to those that can journey for many moons across waters far from those that they know and love. It is said – and I only know what others have told me – that if a Great One follows the path of the Brilliant One, then after many, many leagues there are other lands – the lands where live the junglefang and the mountainfang.’
    Lucy nodded; she had already noticed that the dolphin recognized her head movements for what they were.
    ‘The Great Salt flows around those lands, close to the Great Ice,’ the dolphin continued, ‘and if, beyond them, the Brilliant One is followed once more for an immense distance there are yet other lands which the Great Salt also passes. It is said – and here is the great mystery – that, when many such lands have been passed, the Great Salt once again becomes that part from which this great journey began. I know not if this can be true for it seems as if nothing could be so – yet my father, and my father’s father, told me that they had heard this from many Great Ones and I have also heard it tell that there are fledgiquills who say the same: if they fly always towards the Brilliant One