Chapter Twenty-three And so it was, and it was indeed, that they headed back to the elevator with the good doctor, taking the phial to his lab on the fifth floor. There, holding the phial as though he thought for a moment that it might contain some magical elixir, Dr. Fauci turned to them and said, “Frankly, I did not understand and hence did not believe a fair amount of what you told me. On the other hand,…..
Chapter Twenty-One When Denma and Gyatsha arrived at the Revelstoke airport they found the plane refueled and ready for takeoff; once again, the Canadians’ attention to detail was remarkable. After carefully reviewing his checklist, Denma particularly wanted to ensure that the fuel was topped off, as, just like Lacrosse, WI a few days ago, Hibbing lay close to the limit of this plane’s range. While Denma was taking care of this, Gyatsha settled into the co-pilot’s seat and, though…..
Chapter Nineteen The first of the phials, the red one it turns out (though that is a fact most superfluous), was the one to be taken to Snow Dome. Snow Dome, the most inhospitable of the three targeted Great Triples, sits at an elevation of about 11,500 feet. First summited in 1898, it is called Snow Dome for its shape and, well, its snow. It is a rather challenging and popular mountain, accessible to climbers from late spring to…..
Chapter Seventeen As the silence enveloped our group, the dust rained down and the mountain settled back on its 20,000 foot foundation. Three silhouetted figures could now be distinguished above the fire pit. The two who were well known to the group flanked the third figure that stood between them. Gently the trio floated to the ground next to the fire as casually as though they were stepping out of the subway station at 59th Street and deciding whether to…..
Due to events directly and indirectly linked to the current pandemic, the editing of the next two chapters has not come to fruition. We anticipate its delivery June 29. Owl dependent, of course.
Chapter Fifteen It was Leopard Head who broke the icy silence. Her majestic feline voice rung out and shook the mountain to its 10,000 foot core. Even Magyal Pomra who was verily made of the stuff of mountains quaked a bit in his great antelope boots. Words such as hers were made for repetition and so thus did she sing. We may at this time dispense With the Ala and thala. While none more than we Are beholden to…..
Chapter Thirteen The lake that Ne’uchung had seen was Lake Revelstoke, a small artificial lake on the Columbia River, the result of a dam constructed in 1984. The far more spectacular lake that Gyatsha had remembered was Lake Louise, a glacial lake shaded a deep emerald green owing to the silt left over from that same Wisconsin glaciation. What Denma knew already, and the others soon found out, was that there was an available helicopter located at the little…..
Chapter Eleven By Pfly – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12131177 Amnye, of course, knew someone was approaching his cozy firepit. From the car door quietly closing to each pebble moved out of place and each dry leaf or stem cracking, a picture in his mind became ever clearer. First he saw only white light and vibrancy, but then a vague, blue orb that slowly coalesced into the shape of a flying insect or bird, mmm… perhaps a…..
Chapter Nine Ne’uchung took her own bedroom and, while Michung may have wanted for something else, as his yearning gaze suggested, he was given the small fold-out couch in her study, which he shared in monklike repose with Gyatsha. They had never been great friends although, bound by oaths and battles, they were close at times. Tonight, they chatted a bit about their lives over the past few hundred years and, as the silences lengthened, they both grew bored…..
Chapter Seven Well, it turned out that Drukmo was not in Buffalo at all. The bard had just wanted to write ‘Buffalo’ because he liked the word—it reminded him of the yaks, dri, and drong that he had loved so much when he was a boy long ago upon the wilderness of the northeastern Tibetan province of Amdo. There, the verdant valleys and broad mountain reaches contrasted with each other and the livestock roamed and was herded across the…..