Free Woodlock by Steve Shilstone Page B

disappointment dispersed. What’s this? Not here yesterday, were you? Fairly I sprang to the back wall of the cave. There on the mud red earth sat a fist-sized rock. Black obsidian.
    She HAS been here! I internally exulted. This is from the outcropping. I saw hundreds like it! I was right. There IS some so such sort of a connection between the woodlock and the mysterious looming black rock. I knew it! I am on the proper path! I wonder what it is!
    I picked up the rock and studied at its glassy brilliance. It had a thorny spur. Sharp. I tested it. Thorn sharp. Such. It was then I saw the marks in the dirt on the floor of the cave. Runes so such they seemed to me and carven with the spur of the very rock I held in my hand. I crouched to get a closer look. The runes meant nothing to me. Squiggles, lines, arcs, and circles.
    She carved ‘em out with this, I thought. She’s a woodlock. She can shift to green sparkles. What else can she do? Conjure with spells? Why not? Kar, I bet this is a spell. What kind? Something about Runner Rill! Something about Runner Rill!
    I sat down to ponder, and while pondering, I caressed the rock’s thorny spur. Such it brought to me a comfort memory of thorn plucking time in my own bower hedge home.
    If she’s casting spells about Runner Rill and they aren’t working, is it up to me to help her? My task? I need to interview her, don’t I, Kar? I need to coax her so such that she allows me to hold her orb while she tells me all about herself. Isn’t that so, Shendra Nenas? I gave her back the orb too quickly. She hadn’t told me enough. Right, Shendra Nenas? I’ll find my task by gaining more information from the woodlock. Such! So! I can do that. Am I not the Chronicler of the Boad, All Fidd and Leee Combined?
    Answers unknowable began to gather behind a thick wall of clouds in my head. I sensed ‘em there! Links were clanking into place. Ideas of woodlock and waterwizard drifted together, drawn to the great black obsidian rock.
    She’ll be back. Her spell will fail. It must, because I have not yet performed my task, whatever it is.
    I sat, brimmed full of thorn confidence, at the back of the cave. I admired the red roamer carpet. I hummed likely tunes. I tapped a quiet rhythm on my chonka.
    â€œYou don’t have to tell me, Kar. I know. Practice patience. Sabeek orrun,” I said aloud every few hours or thereabout all through the day.
    And when the blue shadow light from the lantern outside on the table lit the haunting night, I smiled and waited. I felt so such on the proper path. I sagged to nap and snapped awake. Delia Branch appeared at the mouth of the cave.

Chapter Thirty
    Delia Speaks
    â€œDelia Branch,” I said calmly, “I have been waiting for you.”
    Her chalky gray face bathed in the yellow shaft of light shooting up from the orb she held in her hand. Her dark eyes were fixed on the black chunk of rock I clutched in MY hand.
    â€œI have discovered your runes here. The spell didn’t work, did it?” I guessed softly with sympathy. “I can help you. Truth, such is the very reason I am here.”
    Her gaze flicked up from the rock to my face. I sensed she was poised, ready to flee, but so such somehow was held by my words.
    â€œRunner Rill is in your future,” I said gently, nodding. “I can help. Won’t you tell me what happened at the pool with the cave?”
    Her eyes widened.
    â€œYes, I have interviewed both of ‘em, the waterwizard brothers, about it. Runner Rill saw you, and you sparkled away. Why?” I inquired softly.
    â€œI…couldn’t speak. He… He am… Runner Rill? Runner Rill… Runner Rill… He was…too…beautiful. I…are…too timid,” she managed to whisper.
    â€œYou are a woodlock, the shyest of creatures. It is so such understandable. A truth. Listen. I am sent here specially to help you. I am a traveler through time from