[Hereford Eye]

Eyes calls the group together. Decisions need to be made and all concerned need participate, humans, faeries, unicorns. He tells it to them straight; there is no other way.
“Folks, what we have been attempting is not going to work. What we’ve drained off has filled back in almost as soon as we drained it. The problem is deeper, much deeper. We have to get down to the source and turn it off. When we do that, we’ll save Yellowstone and life as we know it but all we are truly doing is buying time. The old lady is going to blow her stack sooner or later; we’re just persuading her to make it later. But, we’ve got to approach this thing differently.
“It’s going to take all the power we can muster and it’s going to be very dangerous and – if we screw it up – we’ll set things off today.”
The unicorns and the faeries, familiar with the problem because they experienced the Toba incident, merely nod their heads in agreement. The humans, seeing the nodding from those who will pay most dearly, have difficulty in generating counter-proposals. Eyes’ regret in bearing the bad news overcomes the man; he falls into Emily’s waiting arms crying. She is first but they are all there to comfort him. Not his fault, can’t shoot the messenger.
In a while, when all are more stable, they address the problem again. A 45-mile diameter funnel needs to be closed. It needs to be done at the base of the funnel so that pressure does not build up again in this place. The pressure will build again, over thousands of years, in another place. In the meantime, all the hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone are going to be turned off. It will no longer be the place it was but the world will be safer for a while.
Tomorrow, they decide. Tomorrow is soon enough. Tomorrow they will attempt to save the world or destroy it. Matt wonders who died and made them god but he knows the choices are limited: take the chance or await the certainty.

[Holbrook]

What do you do while you wait for tomorrow?

You go back to the camp, freshen up, eat and try to sleep.

But can you?

The Unicorns dance and the fairies sing.

Each to their own I suppose.

As for the humans, somehow the individual tents have melded into one. Magic? most likely. The five and one small half lie with their heads in the centre A wheel of magic users, a living device than can shape the future.

Only Evan seems to want to sleep, surprising, it is normally the other way round. Adults need their 8 hours, children can exist on cat naps and dozing in car seats for 5 days at a stetch.

Something though is coming through the woods it is rather annoyed at all this moving of rock a round it knows the reason for it, understands the reason for it, but it or rather they are still annoyed, mainly at the fairies for not asking permission to move rock.

Rock trolls don't take kindly to others moving rock... ever heard of a rock fall before the blasting takes place?

The ground begins to shake as the trolls get closer.

As the top of the tent is lifted Sandra thinks Ghanima has misjudged the song this time

Ahh, crush, ahhh

I see ya blowin' me a kiss
It doesn't take a scientist
To understand what's going on baby
If you see something in my eye
Let's not over analyze
Don't go too deep with it baby


So let it be what it'll be
Don't make a fuss and get crazy over you and me
Here's what I'll do
I'll play loose
Run like we have a day with destiny


It's just (aah) a little crush (crush)
Not like I faint every time we touch
It's just (aah) some little thing (crush)
Not like everything I do depends on you
Sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la


It's raising my adrenaline
You're banging on a heart of tin
Please don't make too much of it baby
You say the word "forevermore"
That's not what I'm looking for
All I can commit to is "maybe"


So let it be what it'll be
Don't make a fuss and get crazy over you and me
Here's what I'll do
I'll pay loose
Run like we have a day with destiny


It's just (aah) a little crush (crush)
Not like I faint every time we touch
It's just (aah) some little thing (crush)
Not like everything I do depends on you
Sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la


Vanilla skies (vanilla skies)
White picket fences in your eyes
A vision of you and me


It's just (aah) a little crush (crush)
Not like I faint every time we touch
It's just (aah) some little thing (crush)
Not like everything I do depends on you
Sha-la-la-la
Not like I faint every time we touch
It's just (aah) some little thing
Not like everything I do depends on you
Sha-la-la-la
Not like I faint every time we touch
It's just (aah) some little thing
Not like everything I do

[kater]

Surreal left a long time ago, fantastical - hah, reality - sorry whats that? Now if I were playing to an audience and I began this chapter as I have many others with 'imagine that' I'd guess there would be a great many vocal groans. Imagination is dead but then who needs it when you're awoken by a sentient, ten foot rock troll in a pissy mood with a face that a mother could only run screaming from let alone love. Perhaps my too long association with comics has influenced me greater than I think but if he/she/it had said 'Hulk Smash' then I would have died a happy squashed red puddle. As it was, the line which came out was one only a ten foot rock troll or Arnie could have got away with;
"What are you doing puny HUman."
Debating, debating whether to respond or question 'its' use of the possessive and the fact 'HUman' may have been plural, in which case I wouldn't have to answer and could return to whimpering whilst praying to the god of clean underwear. Who isn't listening.
"What is this, what are you all about then?"
If pushed I'd have to say this was the last opening gambit one would expect from a fairy toward a TEN FOOT ROCK TROLL. Note the emphasis, its my way of saying a Joe expression which would have run along the lines of "F*** me this thing is F***ing gigantic."
You see I blame it all on reality television shows, sylloquising just incase none of this is real (I should be so lucky) and that there is a slight possibility some fool will hand you a million green at the end of it all. Darn I'm doing it again.
"Why you move rock little fairy?"
Vegas closed on the answer being 'Rock Baddddddd'.
"Because otherwise she's going to explode like before, remember?"
"We remember, it baddddddddd."
"Indeed."
"So why no ask rock troll to help little fairy."
"Ohhhhhh, I don't know."
Well stuff burgers down my face and call me Elvis , Ghanima stumped by a rock troll, its another one in a long line of 'those moments'. To her credit she recovers well.
"Would you."
"Yes rock troll like living here, we no wants to leave."
I couldn't help myself.
"Well that's jolly good of you."
"Brrfffpppttt."
"Bless you."
"Matt."
"Yes Ghanima."
"That's his name."
"Bugger."
Brrfffpppttt turned his head at an angle the way a curious dog does, albeit a 2500lb dog with tree trunks for arms and pyramid foundation stones for legs. 'Fetch boy' was far from my mind, I swear.
"I'm Matt."
"Well met HUman."
Back to the drawing board.
"We accept your offer of help Brrfffpppttt, its very generous."
"Of course, we rock trolls are greatly misunderstanded."
"Yes I'd imagine you are, well welcome to our campfire, I think introductions are in order."

[Hereford Eye]

Eyes sees it, of course. He shrinks into himself with the knowledge wishing everything would go away, just let him be a normal, stupid, dumb, content civilian. If only he didn’t know, how much better his world would be.
He knows. Because he knows those close to him, closer to him than any people in his entire history have been close to him, from birth to this instant, they know as well. Joe is there with hand on shoulder; Ghanima is there wandering through the vastly thinned crop on his skull; Matt and Sandra are there; Emily too. Evan has crawled into his lap. The unicorns are gathering close.
One huge, ugly, monstrous Rock Troll sits across the fire regarding him. “You t’ink I shouldn’t play? You t’ink it’s okay for all of you do go down swinging but I’m too good for t’at? You really t’ink t’at?”
Eyes knows the logic stinks, knows that all his emotions are misdirected but he looks at the ugliest being he has ever seen and answers “Yeah, that’s what I think. I think enough of us are at risk. I think that you can help more than almost any of us here but I think the price is too high.”
“I can’t die? Somethin’ ‘bout me that makes it important I stay alive while unicorns and faeries are going down faster den mosquitoes at a ‘lectric fryin’ grill? Makes no sense, man.”
“You’re right; it makes no sense. It’s just me. I don’t want any more dying.”
“Just you guys.”
“We may make it through. We have hope.”
“How ‘bout dem faeries and dem unicorns. Do dey got hope?”
“You’re right. I’m not making sense.”
But Emily is there beside him and she contradicts Eyes: “Yes, he’s making sense. We’ve all got our arms around the problem this far. We know the cost and we’re paying it but bringing you in seems to up the stakes, more than we bargained for. Not that unicorns aren’t important; that faeries aren’t the most beautiful people I’ve ever dreamed. Not that at all. Just that we got this far and knew the cost and worked our way into paying that cost. Now, you want to raise the ante.”
“But, lady human, I can do this job better than any of you. I’m a Rock Troll. You want 45 circular miles of rock to fill a gap? You need me. You can’t handle that much rock; I can. That’s what Rock Trolls do.”
“No arguing with you,” Sandra jumps in. “Course you’re right and, yes, I noticed how your language improved there all of a sudden and I get the point. We all get the point. You’re a Rock Troll and you know all there is to know about being a Rock Troll. You just don’t appreciate all there is to know about being human. Eyes didn’t say you shouldn’t help. He didn’t deny that we need you. He just hates the thought of using you, too……..so do I.”
“So do we all,” Joe adds.

[Holbrook]

Five and a half humans, a tumble of Fairies, a herd of Unicorns and now at least one Rock Troll, all sit pondering the what’s, why’s and how’s Why are they doing this? Risking their lives, lying them down, paying the piper, measuring the cost? It has something to do with the magic you say. Does the magic have anything to do with the what’s oh yes for sure. And what about the how’s, of course the magic is the main spring isn’t it.

Which begs the question what the magic is?

You can say it’s the waggling of fingers, making something happen out of nothing. Turning the tide and stopping the King’s feet from getting wet. It is the sprinkling of fairy dust on the bum of a dog and watching it fly towards the fourth star on the left and straight on till dawn.

It is singing out of tune with the rest of the world, casting a net and catching the moon’s reflection. It is being different. Yet that is not the magic, not its root or its core. The magic you see is just the outer layer the cover, what happens when the magic if full blown and working within you, humans, fairies, unicorns and trolls. It made you, before you were born. It stirred the pot and out you popped full of magic.

The sad thing is that so many don’t let the magic happen. They stick to the path, don’t wobble and step in the mud and the magic just lies there untouched, not in gear.

Somewhere along the line the first Fairy wobbled real good and bam! It happened. This fairy reached out with this magic and whoa.. The next fairy and so on. They might seem prickly, but that’s just the way the magic works in high gear in them. What makes them take a human’s mental hand and vanish into what comes next.

The Unicorns being the creatures they are did not wobble, they were in the mud from the start rolling in it, trusting, caring. That is why they are here now, bringing that energy they have stored up into play, knowing the risks and the costs, allowing themselves to fade away.

The rock Trolls well they are slow, foot hovering over that mud, but once they plant their foot into it they are stuck solid. Damn mad that others think they are not up to standing there and taking it, but that’s trolls for you rather get stuck down a lava tube and shout I told you so than have someone else do it.

Now humans, they over think things always do. If I put my foot in there what will happen. Can I really stand having my foot in the mud. What will the mud do to my foot, my hair, my sex drive. What will the neighbours think. Often they go mad and roll like a unicorn in it. Doesn’t have the same affect on them as a unicorn and often they make a hell of a mess, and drag themselves back onto the path swearing not to go in the mud again.

They can wobble like a fairy and never get it quite right and get so prickly that they are a pain in the backside to one and all. Often plant themselves solid in it like a troll, never moving, this patch of mud is good enough for me not moving, not going to risk it. Good enough and right for a troll, but for a human? Nope.

Still doesn’t answer the question what magic is? What is the centre, the root, the heart?

Look at the way Emily pushes the hair back over her son’s ear and squeeze’s Eyes hand. The way Sandra teases Joe and has the youth laughing. Watch Matt grumble and then find a reason not to and rubs the kinks out of Sandra’s back. They way the humans here react to each other. They are in the mud all right, right up to their necks. They reach out mentally and physically to each other, don’t cling to just one, touch all, are with all, eccepting each other, growing together, taking the risk together.

That answer your question what the magic is; like mud it sticks us together. Love.

[Hereford Eye]

Having the job hanging over their heads was less tolerable than getting to it. Fairies arrive to take Evan in tow, the little guy is fast asleep after another day of glorious adventures, but all adventures are glorious to a five-year old. The charge and the sitters wink out of existence going somewhere safer than Yellowstone.
“How is this going to work,” Matt grumbles. The Rock Troll responds that they need to get him where the action is; he and his friends will take it from there. He responds to the chorus of “friends?” with a grin and “you don’t t’ink I’m big ‘nough to do dis job all by meself, do you? Why, t’ank you! Dat’s de nicest t’ing anyone never said to me.”
Eyes summarizes for the group that Matt needs to open the passage down to where Eyes will show him he must go. Joe needs to move the Rock Troll to the point of attack; Emily needs to close things up behind them to prevent loose spray from wiping out their physical bodies before they finish; Sandra, the faeries, and the Unicorns need to power the whole thing. He reminds them they will all be downstairs with the Rock Troll to aid wherever they can; that if anything happens to the any of them, they should probably get out of there as fast as they can. On the other hand, once the Rock Trolls start their thing, the chance of setting the supervolcano off go up exponentially every second until they finish the job. They are going to seal a vent; that’s the easy part. The vent has a diameter of 45 miles; that’s the hard part.
The Rock Troll tells the Unicorn leader where his friends will be and a small herd of Unicorns vanish into the night air to assist the other trolls.
All the preparations are finished; no one can think of a reason to delay any more except for Emily. Emily asks for a prayer, a blessing on their mission. The humans nod in agreement but none steps forward to lead the service. The faeries blink in and out but none steps forward. The Unicorns bow their head but none steps forward. The Rock Troll looks around in exasperation. “You folk is somet’in’ else,” he grumbles. “Okay, here it is. Dere is powers in dis universe, bunches of “em and lots of folks call dem gods. We ain’t too particlar worried about most of “em at dis moment. Not dat we disdaining de others; jest we need to talk particlar to one of dem, our own fine lady, what some names Gaia. It’s her we be gonna be messing wit and we ought to tell her what we’re doing and why. She ain’t going to notice us much. It’s going to be a show and a half for us, but she won’t notice so much. Still, it’s only polite we tell her what we’re up to and ask her not take too much offense to our meddling around. Okay, dat’s dat!”
The humans smile. “Yep, that’s that!” they agree. On another occasion they might have said “amen” but this time they say “that’s that!” and it feels right. The faeries clap; the Unicorns stomp their feet. That’s that.

[Hereford Eye]

Sandra mounts the Unicorn stallion who has chosen to lead this venture. All close around this pair, making contact, feeling the rush of glee as their minds come together, the astonishment, the power, and the humor of the Rock Troll. “You folk act like we never met before.” They are joined and they dive into the earth. Eyes leads Matt down 200 miles; Joe brings the Rock Troll along; Emily closes up behind them. They reach the point where things can begin.
The Rock Troll sends a thrum across the vent into the rock on the southern edge. The thrum keeps going heading south and west. A second troll picks up the sound and forwards it on to a third and then to a fourth and fifth sitting at the base of the Grand Tetons. A 45-mile diameter circle is going to need a lot of rock to close it. The Grand Tetons are a lot of rock.
The trolls at the base of the mountains send an answering thrum back to the party down under. The channels for rock flow are ready. The Rock Troll begins to draw it towards him, a few feeet at a time. The wall of the vent begins to protrude into the vent. Behind the wall the trolls bring supporting material so that the protrusion will not fall in on itself. The process works smoothly.
Ten feet of protrusion, fifteen miles high, 45 miles wide. Pressure begins to build in the vent. Faeries blink into existence to support Matt’s unbonding of magma, releasing some pressure. They die in ones and twos but Matt keeps working. Other faeries support Joe’s pushing magma down from the vent into the vast magma sea from whence it came, dying in ones and twos. Sandra channels power to all but primarily to the Rock Troll losing the lead stallion after just a half hour into the process, that unicorn immediately replaced by another of its kin, that one by another.
The thrums gain energy, the protrusions around the southwest wall growing ever faster. Instead of feet the wall has moved across miles of the vent, narrowing the gap. The constant moving of the magma contents keep the pressure reduced to manageable levels but above on the surface, things are happening.
Every vent in Yellowstone is spitting horribly, sprays mounting hundreds of feet into the air, and an army of faeries in the vent forest protects tourists from the deadly hot steam. The hot springs are boiling over, rising as steam into the night sky. The tourists are smart enough to panic, jump into their vehicles, begin the exodus out of Yellowstone, most unaware their exit is protected by faeries gambling and losing their lives.
With all that is happening in Yellowstone, the truly awesome view is the Grand Tetons. For those humans silly enough to stay at scenic viewpoints, the sight of the grandest range of mountains in North America imploding resists our language’s capacity to describe. Imploding! The center of that range, the vitals that had pushed them into the Wyoming sky and held them there for centuries upon centuries are being drawn away, sent north to furnish and buttress the seal being placed across the Yellowstone vent. The grumbling from the Tetons has a bass range that sinks into human bones, vibrating them, building terror.
It goes on through the night. Hour after hour. Dawn creeps in from the East illuminating the final throes of the Grand Tetons, the turning off of Yellowstone’s spigots. The work is finally done.
Matt burrows upwards; Joe brings the troll, Emily closes behind. The party arrives at their camp, now a humid, miserably hot place wet with sulfuric moisture, uncomfortable, dangerous to their health. The Rock Trolls who participated in the adventure are no larger than Joe. They will die soon, too diminished to ingest the rock they so badly need. The ambience bothers them not at all.
The last of the Unicorns, just twelve from the hundreds who had arrived the day before, nod tiredly at the party and trot into the mist, needing to return to their fields to gather strength, to start over again.
Ghanima remains but she reports less than a hundred faeries remain. They will gather together when this group returns to safer climes.
The humans, now burned to the deepest black ever seen on human frame, their bodies crisscrossed by the blazing reminders of faerie sacrifice, stare at each other, knowing they should move, too tired to want to move, feeling none of the elation that is supposed to attend a job well done but all of the misery associated with losing family.
Yellowstone will not blow, nor for another several hundred thousand years. Soon, if you think of ‘soon’ in Gaia’s scale of time, somewhere else will blow. Maybe Toba, maybe somewhere else. But life-as-they-know-it has a reprieve for now, a few hundred centuries at least.

[Holbrook]

Five sit abandoned it seems in the centre of their camp, each though alive in body feel their souls are deadened.

No voice is raised, no hand outstretched. Each sits alone, but they are not. The magic in them is linked a thick cable from which runs lots of other thinner wires.

These wires are twitching, as others answer the call of the magic. The love that has come into being.

The five and one small soon to be magic user are surrounded by their fellows; in spirit and in flesh. Lifted and wrapped; held and taken away to rest in halls of light somewhere between now and tomorrow.

Here whispered words are offered to ease the pain of the heart, hands placed on temples to ease the ache in the body.

And for the soul there is fairy song. Soft, sweet, it lulls them to sleep, but as Matt closes his eyes wondering on the future for their little family; one fairy sings a different tune.

Oooh, life goes on, and it’s only gonna make me strong
Its a fact, once you get on board say goodbye cuz you can’t go back
Oooh, it’s a fight, and I really wanna get it right
Where I’m at, is my life before me, got this feeling that I can’t go back

Na na na na na life goes on, na na na na na made me strong
Got a feeling and I can’t go back
Life goes on (and it’s only gonna make me strong)
Life goes on and on and on