chapter 1 - Shirker John, Leprechaun

I had the guards spell bound.

It's not magic, everyone loves to dream of the gold, piles of it. There were shining piles of it in this room, and now there was just me. You could see the guards eyes light with golden fires as they realized leprechauns were real, and they had one captured.

I played to their better part, their greed. "You have lived in various places and had wonderful times on slight soldiers pay, with resentment of soldiers swirling around you. Think of going back to your favorite places, with a large pot of gold to sustain you, and only the appreciation of friends and lovers to contend with. You will live beyond kings. You need to act quick, or this moment will pass you by, and I will escape by other means."

I was knowing I would escape, I always do. But I was by way of obligation to these warriors. I would keep my bargain, if they but kept their eyes and hands on me. I hate waiting, who knows what opportunities I was missing while sitting on this perch. A small collection of golden cauldrons was a small price to pay for immediate freedom.

I wasn't about to tell them the rules unless they asked, but I was bound to a boon for them if they let me out of the cage and held on to me. Like Bob Heinlen's Oscar, they would find themselves on their own glory road; dressed in lederhosen and aloha shirts. With a pot o' gold to ease them over all rough spots.

But jails, schools, and armies are a species of institution where achievement is measured by number of cycles around the sun. In that form of bondage thinking is a violation of principle. They were more bound than I.

So they dreamed too long without action. My escape came through other means.

Those fine solders all went to sleep, with a bump on their heads so they could protest they were physically overcome, akimbo on the fort's floor.

The Kings of Leprechauns and the king of the pixies both turned up to set me free. It seems I had slightly miscalculated the effects missing thousands of tons of gold would have on a nation pretending gold is a barbarous relic, The elitists care about gold after all.

Perhaps because gold always has value, and the paper they said was better than gold has value only from their promises. They know the value of their promises. Paper money is more valuable as blank sheets, before they print zeros on it. Gold always has value -- even when they made it illegal to own. Outlaw gold, and only outlaws will have gold; everyone else has soon to be worthless paper. Paper money always becomes worthless, in less than a chaun's lifetime.

But these two hidden kingdom kings acted as kings will. With threats and veiled mention of my family, they elicited a commitment from me. With no real heroes remaining, they asked me to save their kingdoms.

Have you ever noticed there are names for steps on a ladder, rungs. But what about the legs rungs are attached to, hunh? Nobody notices the legs or names them special, 'cause they are focused on the rungs.

The various occupied physical worlds is one leg, the spiritual leg is on the other side. Each of the hidden kingdoms is a rung, only connected to other rungs by the legs. There is a chain with many loose links that runs between the middle of each rung. At one time it may have been to add strength, now it threatens to tear the ladder in half, top to bottom. Your earth is that chain.

The kings want me to save the chain, and maybe keep the whole ladder from splitting in half, top to bottom.

It's an easy task they ask of me. Search from here to kingdom rung until I find where dragons hang out. I'm to talk the dragon lord out of a magic pot he favors; a pot that never runs out of what you put in it, until everyone is satisfied. He finds it handy to feed his court.

Put dragon food in Dagda's Cauldron, say a leprechaun, and everyone could eat chaun. The last bite of that particular chaun would be when all the dragons were finally full. To me, a bit of ale or whiskey in the pot would be a fine use of its powers. Somehow the kings think I ccan use Dagda's Cauldron to save all the kingdom rungs, and maybe even the earth chain.

I'm free of the fort, but now bound by the threats of kings.

I work alone, I make enough mistakes for a team, but only I have to pay for them. The kings want a team. I'll pick some friends where we can kinda work together independently. I'll be in charge, but only because my friends and the kings want it that way.

But I'm open to suggestions - wanna help?

It's bound to be more fun than fighting giants.





Below you will find what may have really happened - it's almost, kinda similar.

The guards waited too long, each waiting to see how others reacted, none willing to lead. You would think they didn't trust themselves to trust me.

One minute they were all looking around, avoiding each other's eyes, next moment they were on the ground sleeping soundly.

They waited too long for me, too. Suddenly the room was full of chauns and pixies, all of them looking back at me. The ring leader looked at me, shook his head, and sat down as if there was a chair behind him. There was, instantly the throne was under him, his scepter in his hand, and nineteen of twenty leprechaun prince and princesses settled into their thrones-minor. Even the attendant pixie flock floated down onto their formal perches.The rest of the chauns just stood and looked serious.

"Hi Dad," I said brightly, "thanks for coming to rescue me."

His voice boomed as it always did when he was wearing the pronouncement stone, the Lia Fail. Guess there were no new Irish kings to test with it. "Not sure we will rescue you his time, it's too nice to be able to find you."

Dad's a great joker. "I was just waiting for a wandering pixie to work the lock, then I would have answered your summons, really."

"We were all sitting here listening as you spun that tale to your guards, you almost told the truth once or twice. Are you going straight?"

Ouch, trapped deeper, "Dad it's a difference in the twisting of a tale to be told to shorts (you may be taller than us, but we prefer to focus on the length of your lives, unless we are talking to you). I wouldn't have told you I was coming if I didn't plan to."

"I heard that, 'Would a High Elf Lie?'" That brought a belly laugh from my siblings. Cruel Chauns, all of them; nothing but the carnivorous ankle bitters from which they were descended.

Suddenly it got crueler. From the back of the room pallets started showing up with my gold on them. "Dad, You can't steal that from me, I rightfully took that gold while they weren't looking."

"You are too greedy by 10% son. That's why got you caught." I hate it when he's right. "The shorts that trapped you, were cheating you." Shirker John had been trapped, cheated. The brothers and sisters are snickering - my reputation is ruined. The only word in my favor is greedy, and even that is modified.

"That shipment they tricked you with was only real gold brick on the top of each pallet, all the rest of the bricks were lead with gold plating. A 50 year old child should have sensed that."

I turned my senses toward my gold filling the room, even through the steel bars I knew only the top layer was my gold.

Dad laughed out loud at me, ouch. I deserved it. "You think they want to report all that missing gold? They will count pallets, not too closely, and allow an audit. They will call off the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark -- no more wealth guardians searching the hidden kingdoms for you."

I hung my head like I meant it, maybe I did. "Sorry Dad. Now can you get me out of here?"

"Maybe."

"What do you mean, maybe? Even these brothers of mine could manage the magic from outside the cage."

"Are you finally proud of your magic then; and would taunt your brothers who are not in a cage, with the wonders of your powers?"

All I could do was continue in the hanging of my head. Then Dad got really tough. "You break your mother's heart John, and mine. Too late is not the time to learn how to rule the Sidhe and the Chauns. You can not go from twice a fool to twice a king in one move. You have the magic of two races, and responsibilities to match."

Dad got real serious, must have been mentioning mom; High Elf queens can have that effect. "You know how I won enough respect to guide our free people, repeat it."

This must be why he is wearing the spell stone, so I would be trapped in it's geis. It was a royal command, supported by Lia Fail. I could not deviate from the truth. "At great risk, you retrieved one of the four lost jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Having rescued the lost proclamation stone, Cloch na Fail, you placed it to thunderously anoint Conn of a hundred battles as Ireland's king."

He sighed at the enormity he was about to pronounce on me, his beloved but errant son.

"For the good of two kingdoms united in you, you will retrieve Dagda's Cauldron from the Lord of the Dragons. If humanity destroys as much of the earth as it is capable of destroying; the Cauldron in your hands is the best hope for humans and the connected kingdoms. There will greater loss with any other victor.'

I might be the youngest of twelve brothers and eight sisters -- but I was the only one with the magic of both Elf and Chaun. Dad hoped my unique talents could save the world. I just wanted a quiet place with a lovely stack of gold. Not a lot of agreement here.

Another Royal Command boomed from his lips, "It's not the magic, tell everyone here why you are qualified to lead."

Preamble: "I don't lust for power, although I have other lusts." A quote from dad; "The deceitful trappings of the lust for power serve but one goal - the suffering of those weaker than themselves." The true answer to the King's command; "My sole qualification for leadership is I don't want the job, even though I could probably rule fairly well ."

Dad rubbed my nose in it. "It is not hereditary, but that is the one thing that qualifies your father to be king of the Chauns - I don't want to rule over anyone. It is a burden, a curse, one you will have to take voluntarily. Against your own powerful inclinations. I pray God the following assignment will show you need for your brand of leadership."

Dad was warming up. "To prove your commitment you will acquire no gold while on your quest. You may pick a team to assist you, I would recommend no fewer than three, no more than twenty." Now would come the death stroke.

Dad waved his hand and the cage opened. He approached and put the stone to my forehead. The screaming from the Cloch na Fail accented his final royal command - "If you have not recovered the cauldron in one year's time, you will be returned to this cage. You will rot here until others, sidhe or leprechaun, succeed in acquiring the cauldron; or humans destroy everything."

I was fairly trapped.





I will be finishing and editing this chapter by Friday, July 31. There will be a new chapter by the following Friday, if John doesn't poof out on me.

again

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"Civilization's development has always been initiated by individuals balancing demands within their intimate groups against personal needs for independence and identity. Social engineers and planners always error at this point. What they endeavor is to convert humankind from small, intimate, flexible tribes to a collective with one mind (their mind of course).

They want to make all the complex human herds and packs of individuals into a single hive of drones. They have always failed, they will always fail; for outstanding individuals will continue to emerge - imagining and accomplishing exceptional goals - changing everything." - Allan R. Wallace



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