Belraous Colony 10,000 years ago The boy peeked a sleepy eye out from under his threadbare blanket. The morning sun slipping into the small room through cracks between the logs made dust drifting lazily across the room sparkle. The blanket didn’t provide much warmth, but that didn’t matter. His ninth birthday had been two months ago and Ma had given him a set of new long johns made of red flannel. The long johns were a one piece undergarment, and a bit too big, being that Ma had wanted it to last for several years. The long johns kept him plenty warm and cozy during the cold nights. He rolled off his straw-stuffed mattress and did a little dance to get the blood flowing. The hard-packed dirt floor was still a bit chilly from the night. He didn’t have boots to put on; none of the boys he knew had boots, not even the shopkeeper’s boy. Boots were too expensive for a fast growing boy and didn’t make much sense when you had perfectly good feet. He’d never even worn a pair of boots before, and if he had anything to say about it, never would. The smell of bacon and corn meal mush drifted in through the door and made his stomach rumble. He headed out to the main room of the cabin; there were only two rooms, his room and the main room. Ma and Pa slept on a mattress in front of the wood stove, and kept the mattress stacked against the wall during the day. Ma was sitting next to the stove with her sewing kit in her lap mending some old shirts. “Morning, Ma.” “Morning, Cael. Run out and get your britches and shirt off the line.” “Someday I’m going to have enough clothes to fill ten cabins and wear something different every day.” “I believe you will, now hurry up, you can have three pieces of bacon this morning.” “Really?” “It’s the last of the bacon until your Pa gets back from up north.” Cael ran outside to the clothes line stretched between two posts. Corn fields surrounded the cabin on every side, leaving only a small yard for him to play, and Ma to put clothes out to dry. He stopped to check the corn, it would be ready for harvest in a week, and that would put an end to his daily exploring of the river. Everyone had to help with the harvest, you couldn’t do it alone. He would have to travel from farm to farm helping. He could see the tall Colony Ship in the distance, just a derelict now, and had been for a thousand years. The colonists had come from a world destroyed by technology. Once they’d arrived, they had forbidden the building of any advanced machines. He grabbed his britches and shirt off the line, and ran back inside. “Hand me them britches before you put them on. I need to sew up that hole in the knee before it gets worse,” said Ma. He turned over the britches, then went to the stove to get the promised bacon. There were four pieces of bacon in the pan, but if he took three pieces, Ma would only get one piece. He put two pieces on his plate, then scooped out some corn meal mush, and went to the table. Ma saw him only take two pieces, but she didn’t bother arguing with him. Once Cael made up his mind about the fairness of something, the sun would burn out of the sky before he’d change his mind. Cael finished his breakfast, cleaned his plate in the sink, and then grabbed his satchel hanging on a peg next to the door. He returned to the table and dumped the contents of the satchel out, consisting mostly of crayons nearly worn to bare nubs. He had paper also, but not expensive white blank paper, but old sheets of newspaper Mr. Baker would pay him with to muck out his barn. “I’m going to need new crayons soon,” said Cael. “Mr. Clarence pays a nickel a day to load freight wagons,” replied Ma. “He only hires the older boys that are stronger,” said Cael. “Mrs. Tomson pays two pennies a day to carry eggs to town,” said Ma. Cael did the math in his head. It would take 15 days to have enough for a new box of crayons. “I can do that, I’ll go ask her today.” Ma’s needle and thread moved up and down as she sewed the patch to the hole in the knee. Cael repacked his satchel and sat tapping his heels against the legs of the chair. Ma finished and set her needle aside, then turned the britches to show Cael the patch. Cael’s eyes widened with delight. “It’s a sun, with a smiley face!” “Not just any sun with a smiley face,” said Ma. “It’s your smile, Ma!” Ma kissed the tip of her finger, then touched the patch. “This patch has special mother magic. As long as you have this patch, I’ll always be with you and nothing can hurt you.” Cael took the britches and pulled them on, then stuck his leg out to admire his new sun patch on the knee. “I love it, Ma.” Ma smiled. “Okay, I’ve got chores to do. Off with yourself now, I don’t need a little boy underfoot causing chaos. Draw me a pretty picture today.” He giggled and danced in circles with his arms out to his sides as he moved towards the door singing: See me spin, See me dance, I’ll draw the world, With a crayon, And be all done Before night has come. Cael ran out the door and into the promise of the morning sun. He stopped at a little red wagon he’d had since he was little. It had been a birthday present from Pa on his fourth birthday. He glanced down at all his treasures he kept in the wagon. There was a crate he’d found in town. The crate had three river rocks he had stacked on top of it. There was an old rusted can with a peaches label on the side. The can was good for storing rocks and stuff he found, and then there was an old oil lamp, but he couldn’t afford to buy any oil to go in it. There was a left shoe with its laces missing, but he wasn’t going to wear the shoe. He thought Ma could use the leather to make something, but he kept forgetting to take it inside and give to Ma. And last was a little box his Pa had made for him to keep crayons in. He only kept the crayons that had become too small to draw with. Someday he was going to melt them into one crayon and see what color it made. He didn’t feel like playing with any of the stuff today, he was heading to the river to explore, and draw something interesting. There were several paths leading through the cornfield, and next to each path was a sign. The signs were just old cardboard he’d salvaged from trash he found in town. The cardboard was fixed to a stake and said different things. One sign read; School Path. That was the path that led to town and his school. Another sign read: To the Baker Farm. And another read: To the Gibson Ranch. He ignored those paths and went to the one with a sign that read; The Dragon Path. That was the path that went to the river where he imagined water dragons lived. He knelt down and peered through the stalks of corn searching for dragons. You could never be too careful, they were tricky sometimes and liked to hide and eat you when you were just minding your own business. And sometimes there would be pirates, wanting to steal all your treasures. He’d been eaten by dragons many times, but he always escaped. When he told Ma about getting eaten by dragons, she’d made a special dragon repellant for him. She boiled water on the stove, and spoke spells and incantations, then put it in a water bottle and set it outside to get cold overnight. And it worked! He took the bottle with him the very next day, and sure enough, he’d drank the magic water and not a single dragon attacked him. The way ahead looked clear, and he headed out along the path, but he kept a close eye out for dragons. Pa wouldn’t like it if dragons got into the corn – dragons could eat a lot. Sometimes they’d find stalks of corn out next to the road completely stripped of the corn. Pa said it was the Gibson boys stealing corn again, but Cael knew it was the dragons. The path opened onto a dirt road with deep wagon ruts in it. Town was to the left, but of course that was the long way if you wanted to go to town – it was faster to take the school path if that’s where you wanted to go. He went to the right for about a mile or so, then cut down to the river, and his favorite spot to draw. His sitting spot next to river had a flat board hidden under a bush to put his paper on, but today, the exploring itch made him keep walking. He followed along the bank of the river, stopping to skip rocks whenever he found a good skipping rock, and in a couple spots were good rocks for walking on. Some blackberry bushes provided a snack for lunch. He picked some extra to take with him and munch on as he walked. A couple more miles brought him to the old bridge that cut across the river, but he’d have to climb up the bank and cross over the road, as there was no place to walk under the bridge, unless you wanted to swim. But, the current was a little too treacherous under the bridge for that. By the time he’d climbed up to the road, it was too late. He hadn’t seen the older boys hanging out next to the bridge. He knew the boys, and they were trouble — it was the Gibson boys. “Well, if it ain’t the baby with the crayons,” said the tallest of the boys. “Paul Gibson was fourteen, and had been held back in school so many times, he didn’t even bother going anymore, but he and his brothers would wait until school let out to torment the younger kids.” “Yeah, baby, where’s your crayons?” said Tommy Gibson, younger than Paul by a year, and mimicking his brother’s menacing tone. The other two Gibson boys, Billy and Stevie, were eleven and twelve. Billy, the twelve year old, had a pocket knife out and had been whittling on a stick. Billy tossed the stick aside and brandished the pocket knife in a threatening manner. The boys surrounded Cael. “He keeps his crayons in that satchel,” said Paul, then lunged at Cael and pulled the satchel away from him. “Hey, give that back, it’s mine,” shouted Cael. Tommy came up behind Cael and grabbed his arms and pulled them back. Billy, the one with the pocket knife, held up the knife. “You want me to cut him?” asked Billy. “Maybe I’ll let you make him into a girl,” said Paul, the oldest boy. “He already looks like a girl, with that long hair.” Cael never saw the new boy arrive. Cael heard an ‘Umph’ from Tommy behind him, and then Cael’s arms were free and Tommy was on the ground trying to get his breath. Paul hesitated too long and the new boy came around Cael and lashed out with a foot. Paul turned white and doubled over. The new boy pulled the satchel out of Paul’s hands and tossed it to Cael. The other Gibson boys hesitated for a moment, then Billy lunged at the stranger with his knife. Cael could see now that the new boy was an Atan amphibian, though there really wasn’t much difference between a human and an Atan, other than the Atans had a dark, almost green skin, and their face bone structure was different — their noses were flatter. The Atan boy was fast and did something with his hands and took the pocket knife from Billy, then hit him in the chest with the flat of his hand. Billy staggered back, trying to get his breath. The Atan boy closed the pocket knife, and threw it over the bridge into the water. The last Gibson boy, the youngest, Stevie, threw up his hands, then turned and ran. The Atan boy shrugged and looked at Cael. “Come on, we should go before they recover and I have to fight them all over again.” Cael followed the boy down the other bank and back to the river. They walked for almost fifteen minutes before Cael finally asked, “Who are you?” The Atan boy glanced to his side at Cael, then stopped and stuck his hand out. “Hi, I’m Jon Black.” Cael took the boy’s hand and shook it. The hand felt like hard rubber. “Hi, I’m Cael Walker, thanks for helping me like that. You were awesome.” The boy shrugged. “Bullies can’t ever fight, it was nothing.” “I’m nine and two months old,” said Cael. “I turned nine a month ago,” said the boy. “Want to be friends?” Cael nodded. “Yeah, you bet! You’re great.” The boys followed the river upstream, and in the way of kids, were best friends in five minutes. They jumped rocks, skipped rocks, chased crawdads, and even had a water-land race. Cael was pretty sure Jon let him win, because it was obvious he could swim faster than Cael could walk. Cael asked where Jon lived, but he was vague about it. Then he asked if his dad was up north with the other men logging. Jon looked at him for a long moment before replying. “It’s almost time, I guess we should get ready,” said Jon. “Ready for what?” asked Cael. “I’m an immortal,” said Jon. Cael grinned a crooked grin. He could play make-believe also. “I got ate by a dragon once.” “I can die, but I can’t stay dead,” said Jon. “My father is the God Carina.” Cael squinted an eye. Jon might be better at playing make-believe than he was. “Hey, we’re almost at the top of the hill, let’s go out to the road. We can see the whole valley from here.” The boys ran through the trees and out onto the road. Cael looked out at the valley in confusion. They had gone much further than he intended. The hill he thought they were on was at least twenty miles away. He could still see the whole valley, but they were so far away, he couldn’t tell which farm was his. “I’ve never been this far from home,” said Cael. Jon pointed. “The hill you thought you were on is way over there. I moved us over here to give you a few more seconds to understand, and say goodbye.” “You’re starting to scare me,” said Cael. “Don’t be scared, I’m your friend,” replied Jon. Booming sounds in the sky made Cael look up. Hundreds of white streaks were descending to the ground. “What are those?” Jon didn’t bother looking up. “An Eroden Fleet is in orbit, they will destroy this planet. Cover your eyes or they’ll be burned and you’ll be blind.” The urgency in Jon’s voice caused Cael to throw his hands over his eyes, and even with his eyes closed and covered by his hands, the light was so bright it stabbed at his eyes and he turned away. When the light faded away, Cael uncovered his eyes and turned around. Dozens of massive clouds were rising into the sky — they looked like giant mushrooms. And… a wall of fire hundreds of feet high was sweeping across the valley and up the hill towards them. “We’re going to die,” whispered Cael. Jon turned to look at the wall of flame racing up the hill. He waved a hand and an arched doorway appeared. He grabbed Cael by the arm and pulled him through the doorway just as the flames swept past where they had been standing only a moment before. Cael was standing in a room, but not his room, this was the room of a very wealthy kid. There was a big four-post bed with a mattress big enough that he, and his Ma and Pa, could have slept in all together. The bed was stacked with big fluffy pillows, and covered with a blue-checkered quilt. There was also a dresser, a desk, and a big chair next to a window, and on the floor was scattered with at least a hundred crayons, and paper… real drawing paper. Cael looked at Jon, but couldn’t think of what question to start with. Jon solved the problem by speaking first. “A long time ago, the Lord of Chaos’ immortality was stolen from him, and so as he neared death, he chose a nine-year old mortal boy to be heir to the powers of the Lord of Chaos. The boy’s name was Kae - later to become Cael. The boy was only a cave boy. The boy’s mother was their tribes Magic Woman, and she knew the most ancient of human magic. She drew an image of a sun above the place her son slept, and then cast the spell of Mother’s Magic to protect Kae from harm. The Lord of Death tried to kill Kae, but only managed to fragment his soul into endless shards of the boy. The Lord of Chaos gathered the shards together, and then threw them out into the universe to each wait their turn to be born. And since then, every Kae/Cael born has had the image of that sun manifested on him. Mother’s Magic is the most powerful magic in the universe, and it is what allowed me to find you, and save you.” “I don’t understand,” said Cael. Jon shrugged. “Neither do I, I’m only nine. I’m just telling you what I was told to tell you. Come on, you have to receive your inheritance now.” Cael followed Jon out of the room and across a hall to another room. Inside were a bunch of kids standing around a bed… and… Ohhh… Cael knew what this was. His mother had taken him with her when they had stood death watch for old man Taylor. There was a man standing on the other side of the bed, and had a gun belt on with two very large guns in twin holsters. Cael knew this also, the man was a Gunslinger. Cael whispered to Jon. “Is that your father? You look like him.” Jon shook his head. “No, that’s me, when I get old, and I’m him, when I’m nine.” “I really don’t understand what’s happening. I want to go home.” The Gunslinger spoke. “Jon, come here.” Jon ran around the bed to stand in front of the big man. The man unbuckled his gun belt, then knelt, and wrapped the belt around Jon’s waist. He had to wrap it three times to make it fit. “They’re yours now,” said the man. “I can hear them!” said Jon. “Yes, they will guide you, and warn you when there’s danger. Take care of your Cael, as I have mine.” “Yes Sir, I will,” said Jon. The Gunslinger patted Jon on the shoulder, and turned back to Cael. “Come closer to the bed, boy.” Cael edged closer to the bed. “I don’t want to wake him up?” whispered Cael. “You can’t wake him,” said the Gunslinger. “He will never wake again in this life.” A sob from one of the girl’s standing in the room got a glance from the Gunslinger, but he didn’t scold her. Another girl took the crying girl into her arms and comforted her. “I don’t know what all this is,” said Cael. “In his hand is a box of crayons, do you see it?” asked the Gunslinger. Cael nodded. “Yes.” “The Lord of Chaos was the equivalent of a toddler when he created that box of crayons with all the imagination of a child with the nearly infinite power of an immortal. And with those crayons he created the Universe…” The Gunslingers eyes blazed with all the stars in the sky as he spoke. Cael was having a hard time looking into those eyes. They were the same eyes as Jon, but older, and wiser. “…and many eons passed with the Lord of Chaos watching over the Universe, but as he grew old, he knew that soon he would be gone, and the Universe would have no protector. So, before the Lord of Chaos died, he brought twelve mortals together, and to eleven of those mortals he gave each a Crayon of Creation, and to the 12th mortal he gave all his power. Each fragment waits to be born in the correct time, and it is that fragment that holds the power of the Lord of Chaos. You, Cael, are the 12th Dreamer, and it is your turn. Take the box of crayons from your predecessor’s hand.” Cael reached out and did as he was told. He lifted the box of crayons from the old man’s hand. “It is done,” declared the Gunslinger. “In this room are the Dreamers your predecessor selected to help you in your task. Trust them, take care of them, and they will take care of you. Many years from now you will select your successor’s Dreamers, and so it has always been, and always will be.” The Gunslinger slipped his arms under the old man and lifted him from the bed. Cael watched as the Gunslinger and the old man faded away, like a memory being forgotten. Cael turned his head to the Dreamers assembled in the room. A boy standing at the foot of the bed gave him a little wave. “Hi, I’m Jonathon Dreamer, I’m the Dreamer of roads and trails and paths and all the ways people get from one place to the next. Do you like to explore?” Cael nodded his head. “Good, because that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re going to blaze trails between all the worlds of the Crystal Universe.” Cael tipped his head to the side. “What’s the Crystal Universe?” *** Peirtathian Home World 20,000 years ago Cael ran along the beach, his memories of the last 10,000 years fading with each step. Jon Black had kept his promise and created an alternate time-line in which the asteroid passed harmless by his world. He had completed his tasks and now this was his reward — to go home. He had organized a system to provide food and medicine for many worlds of the Crystal Universe, but there were still so many worlds he hadn’t been able to help. The new Cael would build trails between the worlds and increase the trade-routes, and the Cael after him would have to fight the primordial monsters and push them off the roads, and the next Cael after that would build… …Cael couldn’t remember, the memories of the Crystal Universe were almost gone. He could see his house, standing on stilts to keep it safe from ocean surges. It was almost dark, if he wasn’t back before dark, his mother would worry. She was waiting outside for him when he arrived. Cael threw himself into her arms and hugged her tighter than he’d ever hugged her before. “What’s this all about?” she asked. “I missed you,” he replied. She hugged him back and kissed the top of his head. “Your new brother is here.” Cael looked up, confused. “What?” “Remember, we talked about adopting one of the Atan refuges.” Cael couldn’t remember his parents ever talking about adopting anyone. He turned, and ran up the stairs to the house. The amphibian boy was sitting at the table, and he was just as he’d remembered him on the day he’d come to rescue Cael moments before the asteroid had destroyed the world. Jon Black’s reward was also to be allowed to go anywhere in the universe, but he’d chosen to come here and masquerade as his nine-year old adopted brother. Cael opened his mouth to say something, but Jon Black held up a hand. “Remember, I’m immortal,” said Jon Black. “It makes for a very lonely life. I asked the House at the End of the Universe for this as my reward before it calls me back to service. So, forgive me, brother, but I am going to remove this last memory from you so that I might have that life.” Jon Black waved a hand and the last memory of the Crystal Universe was gone. Cael’s eyes went blank for a moment, then he smiled. “Hi, my name’s Cael, I’ve been waiting forever to get a brother. Have you seen our room, I have lots of sea shells. Do you like sea shells?” “Hi, I’m Jon, and yeah, I like sea shells.” “Come on, I’ll show you our room.”

If you didn’t understand this chapter, I’ll clarify a little, as it might have been confusing. The Cael in the first part of the story is the Cael that Jack Dreamer knows, but 10,000 years ago and long before Jack was born. The Jon Black the first Cael meets, as a boy, is also the Jon Black Jack Dreamer knows, but as a grown man. The Cael at the end of the story is the old man Cael that was lying in the bed, and the Cael that Jack’s Cael replaced, just as he replaced a Cael 30,000 years ago. Jack’s Cael, in the current story, is actually an old man, of which the story is about, but as a boy, and soon he will be replaced by a new Cael, just as Jack’s Cael did 10,000 years ago. There are also many other questions answered in this chapter; The Sun Patch, the Magical Items in the yard at the House at the End of the Universe, how the signs at the House at the End of the Universe came into existance. (Cael brought memories with him from his home), and why he never wears shoes, and why he wears a new outfit every day. Basically, this story is an open paradox loop of Cael’s endless life cycles as a fragment of the original Cael, or Kae, as the Lord of Chaos. Are you still confused? Well, that's understandable. Cael is the Lord of Chaos. Any life story about him is going to be a maelstrom of chaos. I hope this clears it all up. I think this is the best paradox story I've done since I wrote Nezo Black's backward looped paradox day trying to recover a box of treasure from the Crow Temple.