Brrrr, Shhh, Brrrr Part 4

Dave Schraders piece here:

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The Red Queen stretched languidly. Her spirit flowing and reuniting with her physical form as it reconstituted on the beach.

With soft eyes, she watched with her peripheral vision Robert shuddering and making halting steps. Not the smooth transition she experienced, he was resisting, obviously trying to think, instead of allowing himself to let go and feel his body and the new environment.

The Cowboy was even more spastic and frantic. “What do you smell?”

She inhaled. The bite of the crisp sea air. But something was odd.

Robert called out. “The very air is different, Woman. I have been to Cornwall a thousand times, and look at the stars!” The sky was unnaturally clear. Had they been keeping up with time, or was this the far distant past?

In a flash, it all made sense to her. She remembered a joke at a dinner of shrimp and cocktail sauce back in San Francisco. The punchline being a liquidity crisis just as Bohemian Rhapsody was playing:

“Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landside,

No escape from reality

Open your eyes,

Look up to the skies and see,

I’m just a Poe boy, I need no sympathy,

Because I’m easy come, easy go,

Little high, little low,

Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to

Me, to me…”

“Grab a stick, Robert! Look at the Cave!” Screamed the Cowboy. A figure watching them could just barely be perceived.

The Red Queen moved swiftly, holding back the Cowboy, Robert also looking alarmed. She called out, “Do we have the pleasure of meeting the esteemed Merlin?”

The figure in the cave’s entrance laughed, “Nameless here for evermore. But ye can call me Merlin, ye seem to be the sensible one, Lass. And I perceive blood Royal in ye lovely pulse.”

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 27.14 Topic: Keeping Up With Time
Hard Bonus: Include an Edgar Allen Poe line or quote
Easy Bonus: Mention shrimp and cocktail sauce

Following continuation Written By Christine Wichman

The Red Queen smiled, “Ah you do remember me. I definitely remember you.”
The ancient wizard squinted his eyes and fixed on the Queen, slowly he grinned, “Well well, it has been a time. You must have known my foreshadow, Myrrdin, I assume?”

“Yes I was here in the time beyond before we knew each other well.”

“Then you are well aware I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

“Indeed Sir, all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream“

Merlin paced, looking over the lot of them his long staff, tapping at the rocks below. “A Sleeping Queen, A Bard, and another Wild Man of the Wood such as myself. All of you Storytellers,” Merlin looked amused, “What brings you to me in this fragmented bend in time? Not that any of us are keeping up with time.” he laughed.

“These Sir,” The Red Queen slowly pulled from her cape pocket two brilliant crystal clusters that shimmered and shined with an unearthly blue glow.

“Ahh I see so you wish to restore the codes?”

“Codes?” The Cowboy was intently curious.

Robert looked up to see a Moon rising behind them, and he began to sing.

“I face the wind, I have no choice, but you must guard the heart…it’s only love in the colours of the shade…”

Merlin reached out for the crystals. The Red Queen placed them in his hands.
The cave began to sing in frequencies and tones only the holy could hear.

And Robert continued his song.