Episode 4: Following the Deer
It was an unusually warm day in the little valley of Macadonia. The sun was out most of the morning, which was really a strange thing in the usually cloudy world. Sir Elrod worked up a rare sweat doing his daily calisthenics in the old rickety deck, then sat in his wooden recliner and let the sun warm his ample forehead.
Sir Elrod had not worked in his dungeon studios for several days now. His usual zest to write new songs and record was overtaken by a more pressing desire to escape his little world and play music for people, real people. Then out of the corner of his eyes he saw one of the deer
of the nearby forest cautiously approach the apple that he had put out to lure them. Sir Elrod turned carefully on his side and watched the animal cautiously approach the apple. It was hard for Sir Elrod to give up one of his precious apples. The tree in the castle courtyard only gave a few every year and Sir Elrod relished each and everyone of them. But Sir Elrod needed to get out of the prison of his virtual world and he thought that the deer held the key to his escape.
Sir Elrod was sure that the animals slipped in and out of his world and he intended to find the gate that they used to do so. The reason he was so sure was that the forest of Macadonia was very small, just the size of a regular city block. Yet the deer were seldom seen and when Sir Elrod looked for them in the forest he could never find them. Elrod flinched as the deer took a bite out of the apple, then cringed when the rest of the fruit disappeared down the gullet
of the doe. For it was Elsie, the female of the deer pair who had taken Elrod’s bait. Elsie started to leave and Sir Elrod cautiously got up and followed her into the woods. When she got to the clearing in the middle of the forest, next to a large rock that Elrod often sat upon when he walked that way, the deer stopped. Sir Elrod crouched behind a tree and watched the deer nuzzle some grass in front of the rock. Then Elsie vanished into thin air!
“Aha!” Sir Elrod said aloud. “That’s where the gate is, I knew it!” Then he hurried to the spot but try as he might he could not find the gate that the deer had used. He even got down on all fours and grazed the grass as Elsie had. But it was all for naught. The gate was nowhere to be found. Sir Elrod spent hours and hours going around the spot, replaying the actions of the deer in his mind. He just could not find the spot! Day gave way to night in Macadonia, and because it was a fairly clear evening, Elrod heard the hooting of Horny, the local talking horned
owl. “I bet Horny knows!” said Sir Elrod to himself and went to look for the owl. He had not taken more than a couple of steps when Horny the owl flew to the tree opposite the boulder in question.
TO BE CONTINUED!