Art by jun_ka
The Psychic Leap
Hadrien had ignored the people around him when they said it was easy to get lost in Cuckoo Land and set off anyway. Whilst many understood why he was leaving, they were adamant that if he were to go anywhere it shouldn’t be there of all places. Regardless, that is where Hadrien went.
He had been gone for months and whilst there had been highs, there were also deep-dark lows. Eventually, the entertainment of the region was no longer able to distract him from the battering of his own mind, and it was time for the Psychic Leap.
Hadrien had read that shifts were possible via the Psychic Leap, and thought it was likely that this would be a way for him to reach the Peace of Mind he sought. His journey was a fresh start in many ways, but he still carried the burdens of his own voice, ringing between his ears. For months before deciding to travel to Cuckoo Land, Hadrien had been in a depression.
The depression had been blunt and unmoving, dulling his mind. Whilst he had grown accustomed to being active and introspective, the cloud that hung over him had made him uncurious. Any inward seeking he attempted brought forth no new insights, leaving him without hope or cause.
It was a librarian at The Rock that had first noticed the change in Hadrien. Her attempts to keep him excited had faltered and he was no longer visiting the Library of The Rock. Whenever their paths did cross, he had come across rude and uninterested. Thankfully for Hadrien, whilst his heart had hardened, hers had not. She did, of course, become frustrated with him for a time, but after weeks of not seeing him at all, she grew worried and visited his home.
She opened the door into his abode quietly and with caution after three knocks and a shout had brought no answer. Pushing through into the room she saw Hadrien curled up at the foot of his bed. The room was a mess, and his appearance dishevelled to say the least.
“Fuck off,” Hadrien started, without opening his eyes.
“It’s me,” she replied, gently. He looked up slowly and raised a hand to protect his eyes from the light now streaming into the room over her shoulder. Seeing who it was his face softened, and the glimmer of tears began to well in his eyes.
“You need to get out of here, Hadrien,” she said.
“What?”, Hadrien said.
She clarified, “You need to leave.”
Hadrien was confused. He brushed the tears out of his eyes and studied her face to try and understand what was happening.
This woman who had been so kind, a true friend and supporter of his studies in the Library, was now asking him to leave?
“You’re stuck. The Rock has no more answers for you. You’ve read every book in the Library and I know, because I have helped you. You need to explore,” she continued.
Hadrien paused for a second, looking back down and around at the state of his room.
She was right. He had been living as if he were dead for weeks, yet despite his trying, he had not made any progress into truly figuring out why.
“Where would I go?” Hadrien asked.
“Anywhere,” she had said.
After that Hadrien had set off from The Rock after a few short goodbyes and headed towards Cuckoo Land. He had been young then, and what he didn’t know was that it would be a long time until he ever returned to the Rock.
He travelled by hitch-hiking and thought many times that he would die. Although he had travelled these lands when he was even younger, when the trails over the mountains were no longer warmed by sunlight, he had twice feared he might freeze to death. Thankfully, first a 12-wheeler lorry, and then a horse and carriage had come to his rescue. Eventually he had reached the boundary between Cuckoo Land and the rest of the realm and had stepped through with only a moment’s hesitation.
To some degree, the step forward had worked. The time he spent in Cuckoo Land had crumbled some of the internal walls that had been keeping his development hostage, and he felt like he had gained some idea of why he had been depressed. Now, all that was left to do was to move on, and hence, he sought the Psychic Leap, a shift.
Now no longer merely wandering through the Cuckoo, he wandered with intention. The beings he had met (or imagined) had been clear that there were no set directions that would lead one to the Psychic Leap, but that if one followed their nose they might find it, if the conditions were right.
He wandered and wandered, and wandered and wandered, and he thought that he might go mad. The regular concepts of time fell away, and he met (or imagined) fewer and fewer beings. All that he did meet would point him in a new direction, which he would follow, until he met another, and so again he would change his course to their tune. Although he had no way of telling if it had been merely days or true months, the moments between these meetings seemed to get longer and longer.
Eventually a great silence fell upon Hadrien. Then, his feet seemed as if they appeared out of nowhere to place one foot in front of another. By all intents and purposes, he was going nowhere and directionless. There was no one else to guide him now; no books, no beings, no goal, nor intention. Even the idea of finding the Psychic Leap had left him.
The emptiness of his experience expanded far out and all around him was no sign of a horizon. All that was left to do was to put one foot in front of the other, and so he did. Hopeless, yet filled with resolve. This continued for some time, until he collapsed.
Blinking his eyes open, Hadrien saw that he was still lost. The blank of the expanse seemed to have no end, but there was a noticeable dot in his vision. Sitting up, squinting hard, and rubbing his eyes, he saw that the dot was moving, just a little; left and right.
Looking deeper, he saw that the dot also seemed to be moving up and down; just a little.
The dot got a little larger, and he saw that it had an aura. It was surrounded by a cloud or kind of shimmering that changed colours from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to indigo and to violet, before blending into red again.
“Curious!”, Hadrien exclaimed aloud, his first word in some time.
Getting to his feet, Hadrien started to walk in the direction of this dot that he had by now made sure was not just something caught in his eye.
They grew closer and closer to each other, the dot continuing to be surrounded by a cloud cycling through the hues of a rainbow, until the dot turned into - a Hare.
“Curious!”, Hadrien said, again.
He stopped where he was and was laughing to himself unselfconsciously when the Hare eventually reached his feet.
Crouching down, he half expected his hand to pass through what he was now calling in his head; ‘cute fluffy disco bunny’, but instead, he was able to gently pat this little being on the head.
'I’m not actually a Hare', the rabbit thought
“You’re cute!” Hadrien said.
The glowing rabbit pulled away from his pets and hopped through Hadrien’s legs.
By the time Hadrien had turned around, he saw that the bunny had made its way to the other side of a large crevasse in the previously flat whiteness of his surroundings.
There it was, still glowing, looking back at him as if nothing had happened, now sat, with a great crack separating them by what must have been at least 15 meters.
Hadrien walked up to the edge of the new feature in the landscape and looked down. There was no bottom in sight, just the slow fade of white into black. Looking left and right, he saw no way that he would be able to walk around it.
Blinking, Hadrien assumed he must be dreaming and jumped in the air to see if he could fly as he sometimes would when he was lucid enough. He tried again, but gravity showed no sign of getting weaker, let alone disappearing.
“Hmmph”, Hadrien grumbled.
Now the internal dialogue had started up again.
Well, what are you gonna do?
Nothing I can do, I’m stuck.
Why not jump?
Oh yeh, and then fall to my death, nice idea, brain…
Some would say more than a brain, but whatever, you might make it...
I am not jumping.
He took another peek over the edge and into the blackness.
Nope, definitely not.
When he looked up again he saw the Hare, but another feature had appeared - a door.
A pretty ordinary looking door was now unhelpfully placed just behind the hare.
Hadrien quickly spun round to check if any more doors had appeared, and they hadn’t.
Great so now there’s a door.
This doesn’t make sense.
Has this ever made sense?
Well, not really.
The door blew open and through it he saw a grass, flowers, and the blue sky.
Oh BLUE SKY, how I missed BLUE SKY!
*Looks pretty nice! *
I need to get back to my life.
Maybe you could jump…
It doesn’t seem possible.
And yet here we are, still wondering.
I’m not sure.
What else are you gonna do?
Hadrien looked around and saw nothing, more nothing, the hole in the ground, the fluffy disco bunny, and the door.
He started pacing up and down, right on the edge, eyes focused on the ground, darting into the crevasse and at the bunny and door, from time to time.
You’re not going to be able to think yourself out of this one, Hadrien.
Finally, Hadrien stopped.
He looked back at the door, smiled, and then started walking in the opposite direction.
What are you doing ?
After about twenty paces, he stopped and turned around, ran towards the crack, and leapt.
Entered by: 0x71c5…3a61 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
Art by Ozzz
A New Friend
The Hadrien and the Hare introduction to 'The Past Masters'.
Long after Hadrien had first traveled through the foothills near the Psychic Leap, he was there again.
A trip down memory lane at this stage in Hadrien’s life was welcomed, but not without pain. Some quiet part of him was afraid of being so close to the place he had once lost himself in. Alas, he was older now, and his journey was not to visit the Leap but rather to meet an old friend.
Hadrien hoped that his friend would still be working at the same tavern he had stumbled into all those years ago - an encounter from which he had left with hope for a new kind of life.
Heading northwards, his legs felt old and the Hare ran many strides ahead of him, only to turn around and wait at the turns of the foothill path.
Hadrien didn’t keep his aches and pains to himself and his complaints were enough to make the Hare eager to rush even further ahead, but the heart understood his old companion’s struggle. For years Hadrien had enjoyed forgetting himself on the path of discovery. With some sections steeper than others, his weariness was merely a sign of a life well-lived. The majority of his life was uncharted and undulating, and he had lived this way for a long time. Through the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows he had carried on this path, Hadrien had felt himself getting lighter, even if his body had become harder to carry.
Hadrien’s slower pace on this visit gave him time to reflect and old memories of the region bubbled to the surface. He remembered his mother who had told him to be Kind and True.
“Whatever will be will be,” she would say, as her mother had said to her.
Turning the corner, Hadrien saw the figure for the first time. They were crouched beside a tree and whilst it was unclear to Hadrien what they were doing, they seemed to be concentrated. He called ahead so as to not startle the traveler.
“Hello!” he called.
The Stranger turned to look over their shoulder and Hadrien saw that not only were they wearing a wizard’s hat, but that most of their face was obscured by cloth.
“Hey!” called back the stranger, before returning to their task.
The Hare had stopped, between the traveler and Hadrien, and was involved in a conversation with a brown rabbit. It wasn’t uncommon for the Hare to interact with the wildlife so Hadrien didn’t pay much attention, expecting that the conversation would be mundane anyway.
The wizard hat was a custom that Hadrien had never thought it necessary to adopt, however, he was often grateful when he met another wizard on the road and so the hat on the figure was a welcome sight.
As he got closer to the wizard, he called out to confirm his suspicions.
“Wizard?” he asked.
“Are you?” asked the man.
“I could never pick a hat,” Hadrien explained.
“I see…” replied the man, “It’s been a long time since I met another wizard on the road.”
“Really? It seems as if we’re everywhere these days.” said Hadrien.
“I’ve been in hermitage,” the wizard replied.
The masked sorcerer had not turned to face Hadrien during the conversation and it was only as Hadrien finally reached him that he finally saw what the wizard had been focusing on so intently. Moving his hands in invocation the wizard had cultivated a whole cucumber plant out of the dry earth.
“I’m assuming that wasn’t here when you arrived,” said Hadrien.
“No,” the sorcerer laughed, “Here, try some.”
Cucumbers were tossed in the directions of both Hadrien and the Hare.
“Thanks,” Hadrien said, taking a bite.
The cucumber was good.
“So where are you headed to?” Hadrien asked.
“Not sure yet,” was the reply, “Northwards, for now.”
Hadrien had began to walk towards the tree and sat under it to look back at the wizard.
“Mind if I hang out under this tree?” Hadrien asked.
“Be my guest,” the man replied, “My name is Qaid, by the way, of the Sun.”
“My name is Adept Hadrien of the Rock,” said Hadrien, and the Hare just waved.
Sorcerer Qaid of the Sun and Adept Hadrien of the Rock exchanged some further niceties as the sun began to make its way down towards the horizon.
As the evening came they looked out over the hills behind them, the setting sun casting long shadows. Colours folded into one another, one after the other, subtle blends pulling the night closer and speaking in a language that could only be silently understood. Hadrien forgot about the troubles of his age for a moment and felt fresh.
“It’s a big world out there,” Hadrien remarked.
“Makes it difficult to find what you want sometimes,” Qaid replied.
“For sure,” Hadrien replied.
“I’ve always found solace, knowing that we can count on the sun to rise and fall each day,” said Qaid.
“It is spectacular on days like this,” said Hadrien.
“My old teacher used to say, ‘Light is always beautiful, you just have to be in the right place to see it,” said Qaid, his eyes still facing forwards towards the horizon.
Hadrien looked across at Qaid and wasn’t sure if he was imagining the tears welling in the eyes of his new friend.
Hadrien agreed, “They sound like a wise person.”
Qaid’s presence seemed to bring a slowness into the evening that Hadrien had not realised that he had forgotten. The aesthetics of existence seemed to dance more vibrantly, and the sounds of wildlife pierced a silence that could somehow still be heard. They sat together without speaking for sometime and Hadrien sensed that the Sorcerer was carrying a heaviness that wasn’t being shared. Falling asleep that night, the colors of the sunset sung softly in the mind of Hadrien, gentle melodies that helped him drift off to sleep.
Rising in the morning Hadrien awoke to find that Qaid was already awake and writing in the light of the dawn. Sat on a rock near the trail side he wrote using what looked like an ornately decorated wooden ink-well and feather quill.
“Need to borrow a pen?” Hadrien called over to Qaid.
“I think he was going to leave us with a note,” the Hare whispered to Hadrien.
“Just writing to a friend back at my old place of work,” Qaid spoke, “This particular ink helps me to make sense of my feelings.”
A coloured mist rose off the page as the Sorcerer wrote. It changed from dark green into lighter shades of blue and onto yellow as he finished.
The pair of wizards set about preparing a shared breakfast in the way they had agreed the night before and the Hare and Qaid’s brown rabbit familiar went off to explore the routes ahead. The rabbit the Hare had been speaking to the day before had turned out to be the Sorcerer’s familiar, Raj.
Over breakfast they discussed where they were headed next and Qaid agreed to travel with Hadrien towards the higher mountain ranges that separate the Elysian fields from the rest of the Realm.
Qaid revealed that he was looking for ‘The Past Masters’, a group of artists that had formed a mastery lineage out of ‘The Atelier’ - a workshop-studio that Qaid had recently departed from.
“Never heard of them!” Hadrien had said, surprised, “Though if you come with us I might know someone who does.”
“Eric?” asked the Hare.
“If they’re traveling through these parts, there’s a good chance they’ll have stopped in the Tavern,” continued Hadrien.
Hadrien and the Hare had first met Arch-Magician Eric of the Mountain a long time ago. When Hadrien had stumbled out of the exploration of Cuckoo Land he had followed the signs to The Tavern out of desperation. Convinced that he was hallucinating the white Hare that was following him, he’d decided he needed a drink. He reached the Tavern in the early hours of the morning and nobody was drinking. The only person around the place had been Eric, sweeping the floor of the empty bar.
“Are you still serving?” Hadrien had asked.
“Sure,” replied Eric.
Hadrien took a stool at the bar and sat on it. The Hare leapt gracefully and landed on the stool next to him. Hadrien looked down for a second, bewildered, before turning back to Eric who was now behind the bar.
“A beer, please,” Hadrien requested.
Eric had poured him a beer silently, watching young Hadrien who had turned back to look confusedly at the Hare sitting next him.
Eric placed the glass on the bar top and jolted Hadrien out of his confusion.
“Thank you,” Hadrien said.
“No worries, it’s on the house,” offered Eric.
“Thank you,” Hadrien had said again.
The disheveled looking Hadrien had confused Eric, and it wasn’t long before he began asking questions about who Hadrien was and where he had come from. Hadrien explained his traveling from the Rock to explore Cuckoo Land and told some fun stories about the mind-boggling experiences he’d enjoyed with the locals. All throughout, Hadrien avoided acknowledging the Hare for fear of seeming crazy, whilst Eric wondered why he hadn’t introduced his familiar.
When Eric had decided to take the plunge and introduce them to his familiar, Apollo, the puppy had bolted out of the backroom with energy. It was only in the ensuing chaos that Hadrien had first realized that the Hare wasn’t a hallucination at all. Apollo had immediately darted towards the Hare, chasing the poor fellow around the Tavern, knocking over chairs and table-top lamps without discrimination.
“Wait, you can see that?” Hadrien exclaimed.
“What?” replied Eric who had rushed from behind the bar to try and grab the chaser out of the chase.
“The Hare!” Hadrien was amazed.
“What? The rabbit?!” said Eric, grabbing Apollo, “Yes, I can see the rabbit. Apollo can too.”
In the quiet that followed the commotion Apollo continued to wag his tail, cradled in the arms of Eric, pleased with his attempts at catching the Hare.
“I thought the little guy was your familiar,” said Eric.
Hadrien looked more closely at the Hare, who had found refuge behind a pillar on the corner of the bar. For the first time, he saw a glint in the little hopper’s eye.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it,” said Hadrien, swallowing down a gulp of beer, “We only met yesterday.”
Eric went on to tell the story of how he had found Apollo a few weeks prior. The meeting between a wizard and their familiar was a shared mystery. Who chose who was often a point of contention, though the way Eric told the story made it sound like he had rescued Apollo.
“It might be nice to travel with a friend,” spoke Eric, “It can get a little lonely without anybody who sticks around.”
Hadrien had nodded but made no decision. He had disliked the idea of relying on anyone for years. That evening, he and the Hare slept quietly in the armchairs of the corner of the bar. They talked at length in the dream-realm, and it was proposed that a magic rabbit could make a useful friend.
The next morning, Eric came early to the Tavern and invited Hadrien to come and visit the wizard orphanage where he volunteered. Dreams Hadrien didn’t remember had made the decision overnight and Hadrien allowed the Hare to climb into his backpack to relative safety, off the ground where Apollo was as energetic as ever. A new friend no longer seemed like such a bad thing.
Hadrien and the Hare have been making friends ever since.
Hadrien and Qaid mapped the route to the Tavern. Qaid was unbothered by the idea of mountain passes in order to get there, but Hadrien was worried that the weather might turn.
Sorcerer Qaid of the Sun was in no rush, so he agreed to take the longer route to avoid the hardest pass. They would make three stops to sleep on the way before they were to reach the tavern on the fourth day’s evening. Walking would take up whole days but the region’s views would hopefully make the trek much easier to endure. It was decided that they’d go their separate ways at the Tavern, once Eric had told Qaid anything he knew about the Past Masters. Hadrien planned to go visit another friend at the White Wizard Tower.
After breakfast, Qaid, Raj, Hadrien, and the Hare set off. Winds sang through the landscape and cleared the skies. Hadrien was able to enjoy the natural landscapes as if for the very first time. His eyes fresh and joyful, he was able to let go of all ambition for moments at a time. Grateful for new friends, the sunlights radiance filled the air in a way that felt dreamlike.
Another adventure, on the road, again.
Entered by: 0x71c5…3a61
