The Truth Did Not Set Me Free
J.T. Hilltop

After being chased by a pterodactyl wannabe and the legion of angry rattlesnakes the quiet three mile hike was welcome. I had no clue crossing dimensions could be so unreal but then again, I didn’t know alternate dimensions were real to begin with. Castomar seemed unaffected by the heat and bugs but perhaps that was because the bugs were all busy feasting on me. By the time we reached the cabin I was half eaten alive as well as mentally and physically fatigued. We entered the cabin which was in the middle of nowhere, perhaps even in the literal sense all things considered. Atop a heavily wooded mountain sat this small cabin, or maybe its more of a huge shack but it seemed sturdy enough and functional. As we entered there was a large room to the right with nothing in it and to the left a small kitchen with a eat in table. Castomar pointed to the hallway, “my room is on the left, yours on the right, the bathroom at the end of the hall there. There is water in the refrigerator and tea in the cupboard. Help yourself.” I looked around, clearly it was designed my a minimalist with no concept of decorum. I pointed to the big empty room, “What’s that room for?” Castomar disappeared into his room and returned equipped with bow and arrows a large dog trailing behind him. “That’s the learning room kiddo, that’s where your gonna spend the night until you find your learning spot. I’m going out to catch us some dinner. Have some tea then get some rest, I’ll be back when I have something for us to eat.”
The learning room, was he out of his fucking mind? There isn’t a single thing in that room, I mean nothing save a lone window. “What do you mean find my learning spot, there’s nothing there?” Castomar was frustrated , “Didn’t Kha tell you anything? Oh shit of course not, Castomar will show him. What you mean to say is you don’t see anything in that room but that doesn’t mean its empty. Look kiddo, you relax and have some tea while me and Travis get us some dinner and I’ll explain it all after we eat.” He walked outside without explaining the dog so was unable to hear me when I said, “What the hell is it with these guys and tea?” On the way out of the cabin I could swear the dog chuckled as if he understood what I said, but that’s not possible. Or is it?
Exhausted from the hike and dimension jumping I headed for the kitchen to take his advice. There was a small stove with a black kettle which I filled with water and placed on the burner. In the cupboard was a variety of tea’s, only one of which I recognized. “Guess it’s chamomile tea for now.” I poured a large cup and went to check out my room. The room was a small but functional with an unneeded dresser but a large very comfortable looking bed complete with nightstand. The room was adorned with Native American arts and crafts, a set of four dream catchers at the foot of the bed. I felt like I was in some ancient Native American spiritual ceremonial quarters but it was surprisingly serene. Not sure if it’s the tea or the room but I was becoming very sleepy, totally at ease so I hopped onto the bed and closed my eyes. Outside the forest was jam packed with all the sounds I expected, hooting owls, scratching crickets, howling wolves as well as a number of unfamiliar animal noises. Outside this tiny cabin was a world teeming with some kind of life while inside I was alone with my thought which turned immediately to sleeping. I surrendered to the comfort of the bed.
At some point I heard Castomar and his dog enter the cabin and could tell he was in the kitchen. I got up and walked to see the dog coming down the hall towards Castomar’s room. As he walked past I heard someone say, “Remember the crow, the crow will show.” I could hear Castomar at the sink so it wasn’t him but no one else was around. I looked at the dog suspiciously and asked, “Did you just say that? Are you a talking dog?” He stopped in front of me staring waiting for me to pet him but said nothing. I’m not sure exactly what kind of dog he was, he looked kind of like a Retriever but hairy as an afghan hound. I patted his head, he moved on but before he went into the room I heard it again, “Remember the crow, the crow will show.” Someone was fucking with my head.
When I got to the kitchen I noticed Castomar was cleaning some sort of flying animal in the sink. I say flying animal because I’m not sure if it’s a bird or a winged monkey the way things have been around here so far. “What’s that?” He stopped cleaning and turned to me with a huge smile, “We’re having Ringneck Clomart for dinner” He stepped aside revealing three dead animals, two plucked and clean and one that looked like a cross between a pheasant and a duck the size of a small turkey. The feathers on the counter were brightly colored former plumage, red, green, and orange. They looked almost jubilant although I suspect the families of thee fowls would disagree about the jubilant terminology. If they could talk that is, and well, who knows? “What’s a Ringneck Clomart?” Beaming with pride he returned to the sink, “Only the tastiest and hardest to catch fowl around these parts. I got two with one arrow and the third as it attempted to escape Castomar. I’ll put one in the freezer, we can share one tonight, the other tomorrow. It’s the tastiest thing you will ever eat JT.” He wrapped two of them up placing one in the fridge and the other in the freezer compartment on top, then skewered the last on a spit. “You relax, I’m gonna cook the bird and have a mug.” He poured something into two mugs, handed one to me, “Here kiddo, have some meade, it’ll do you good.” I had learned at this point to just shut up and do what he says. Castomar yelled out loud, “Come on Travis, outside boy!” The dog came running out of the room sneering as he ambled past me. “The crow.” I squeezed my temples together, “Don’t start that shit again Travis!”
Reduced to talking back to a dog I tried to find solace in the meade. It tasted like a liquid honey cough drop only not as sweet. Had a little burn to it but I kinda liked that, goes down like bourbon but tastes like honey. The more I drank the more lightheaded I got like I was sipping grain alcohol or something. By the time Castomar came back with the cooked Clomart I was downright tipsy, “Hey Castomar, what’s happening my man?” He laughed heartily, “Enjoyed the meade did you?” He had cooked the fowl outside on a spit and it looked like the most amazing huge rotisserie bird I’ve ever seen, twice the size of a chicken. He plopped it down at the small kitchen table and motioned for me to join him. He grabbed one of the legs ripping it off, “Don’t got no forks or knives, grab what you want.” We ate dinner Castomar style, ripping an chomping on appendages of Clomart tossing pieces to Travis who waited patiently at Castomar’s feet. Travis never said a word, not even a thanks. I have to admit it was a delicious if somewhat barbaric dinner.
After we ate Castomar brought me to the learning room, “Before I teach you it’s important you find your learn spot. No two people have the same learn spot, the universe has chosen yours and will not reveal anything to you until you find the spot.” I eyed him suspiciously to see if he was pranking me or something. He was quite serious. “Okay, so here’ what were gonna do. You will have a cup of Psilocate tea then enter the room. I’ll be resting in my bed until morning. If you are in your spot when I get here I can begin your enlightenments, if not, we will need to try again another time.” I was slightly confused, “How will I know when I found my spot?” A warm smile came across his face, “The spot will let you know Justin, drink your tea and find your spot.” I felt slightly vulnerable hearing him call me Justin. Something in the way he said it struck a familiar chord, as if the words came from my Mom but in his voice. But my Moms been gone for years. One thing Kha said is ringing true, things really aren’t what they seem.
When I turned to look at Castomar he was gone, a cup of steaming tea sat at the table. I did as told, finished the bitter tasting tea then began the search for “my spot.” I felt silly walking around the room waiting for something to happen. How the hell am I gonna do this? I decided I would just keep going around randomly, sitting for a few seconds and see what happens. After four hours of frustration I felt nothing spot worthy. Not one single thing felt different. A gust of wind blew the door open and a green bird flew into the room. It looked like a normal bird, like a bird from my world except for its unusually bright green coloring. It flew in four circle around the room then came to rest on the sill of the window. I stared curiously as it just sat there motionless. For twenty five minutes it didn’t move and neither did I, when just as suddenly as it flew in it sprouts its wings, flew directly toward me stopping by the side of my head for one second, just long enough to say. “Travis sent me” before flying back out the door. “What the fuck is going on here?” A bird just talked to me saying a dog told him to. Are they partners or something? What the hell? Suddenly it dawned on me. That bird was a bright green crow, that’s why it looked familiar. I ran to the spot under the window sill and sat down. Believe it or kiss my ass I knew straight away that it was my spot! I found my learn spot, I was sure of it. I didn’t move for the rest of the night, waiting anxiously but patiently for Castomar to return.
Castomar finally walked into the room smiling wide, “I knew you would find it. Kha knew you would too. Not everyone does ya know?” I felt an enormous sense of pride as he came and sat with me. “Lets get started kiddo, we have a lot to cover. Kha tells me you have an intensely inquisitive mind that remains open. We have shown you things about the universe most never see because Kha believes in you. There are many forms of life, many laws of nature, many new and unique things in this world far beyond what most ever see. Universes’ are like bubbles, soft and pliant edges that can rub up against each other shape around each other without bursting. Inside each universe lie an endless amount of mysteries, Kha will get to them, I am here to tell you of your world. Infinitesimally small in the scheme of things, but important none the less. Your world is framed with four truths.”
I chose to do as I had been instructed, silently listening but the questions were building up already, the first being why is he saying my world. What world is he from? Whatever, I just want to hear about these four truths right now. “The four horseman of the apocalypse, four seasons, four strands in your DNA, and four noble truths. The concept of four is etched deeply into your cultures and your selves because it is a reflection of the universal four, the four forces. The horsemen represent, conquest, war, famine, and death, the noble truths are suffering, craving, death, an acceptance. Even the stages of grief were originally four, denial, anger, depression, and acceptance, only bargaining has been added in the modern model. Your DNA is a series of double helix’s held together by strands of four guanines. This ain’t no accident kiddo, its mirroring of the four forces that define your universe. The four forces are what make life in your universe possible. The truths, the horses both represent life stages. We are born, we survive, we reproduce, we die. Truths are unchanging rules and these four truths can never change in your universe. Religious scholars interpret them more dark in nature, suffering, famine, war, but all truths come down to the four unchanging forces of life. The weakest of these forces you all know well, gravity. Strong as it may seem keeping everything on earth, and pulling everything in space towards it, keeping all planets in orbits gravity is still the weakest yet its gravity that binds everything. Gravity is survival. The other three forces are electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear, and in terms of your universe they represent birth, reproduction, and death. These are highly complicated energy forms even your most brilliant physicists grapple with them so I will explain them not so much on a technical level but on a vibration level, on their energy. The sun is a huge ball of pure energy that sends portions of energy to earth. The sun is life. You absorb the energy, convert it to strength. It makes you warm, it colors your skin, but you feel it and take it for granted. You have spent years absorbing energy so where do you think that energy goes?” I remained silent. “Time for you to answer kiddo, you can speak.” Castomar was smiling and I liked him more an more as the day wore on, “Um, in the things we do, like walking or push ups, or like even catching Ringneck Clomart?” Castomar laughed heartily, “yes, like catching Ringneck Clomart. But everything that lives uses that energy. Every species consumes something else to absorb that energy, like you an I absorbed all the energy the Clomart had an now its energy iss part of us. When a male and female combine energie, or DNA’s, the result is another of its own speciess carrying not only information from both parents but energies. That’s electromagnetism, or birth. The sun sends own energy through electromagnetic waves to insure birth occurs, the second truth you learned but the first truth of your universe. Birth and survival, without those you would not be able to live. The next two truths are important for the continuation of life for you, reprouction and death. Those are the four realitie of your univers, all other realities can change and life will adapt to that change. That’s a lot to take in, we can pick this up tomorrow. Have some meade plus, the enhanced mead will help you sleep.” He poured me another mug of meade and placed a capsule in it which began instantly smoking like dry ice. “Drink this down and take a short nap. When you wake up Travis is going to take you across dimensions for some perspective. You must be exhausted. I chugged down the meade plus because he was right, I was very tired. So tired it never even registered that he told me that a once I awoke I would be traveling across dimensions with a talking dog.
TBC