The Polyglot's Nightmares: Part X1⁄2 in the Narrative of John of Origin

By Ian Kraft

A search for the self in which Ion, a refugee of war, flees into the wilderness and finds a strange wall with a strange language on it. He tries to learn the language and eventually ventures to a cave in hopes of finding rest. There, he meets a woman named Sam, who seems to sympathize with his condition. As he falls asleep in the cave, he is plagued by bizarre dreams that are strangely lucid and involve both Sam as an active participant in the dream and the strange language that he has discovered. During the dreams, Ion is continually preparing for some sort of conflict against the darker elements of his mind. Can Ion and Sam defeat the darkness and escape the terror of the sleep-inducing caves?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Kraft
• Release date: Jan 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458099549

Ian Kraft

I am a grad student at George Mason University. During my last few years of college, I began writing a great number of full-length novels. The stories are heavily, although tacitly, influenced by my experiences having a brain tumor 8-1/2 years ago. Surreality, word play, use of multiple languages and an overall sense of that which cannot be dominate my stories. I'm more than friendly, so please, if you have the time, friend me on Facebook with a message that you found me through Smashwords! I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone!

Book preview

The Polyglot’s Nightmares: Part X½ in the Narrative of John of Origin

Ian Kraft

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011

A dark horse moving through darker air is the pinnacle of the darkest corner of the mind, for it is the one that we never catch a full glimpse of. And in trying to hunt that stallion, one assumes the full responsibilities of that netherworld. But the fear inspired by a dark horse is trifled by the fear inspired by its rider or the message that it brings.

I found myself at home, sweeping the floor with a stiff, wooden broom with stick-like bristles. They swept across the floor in a scratching, scraping chorus and the sound began to grate my ears. I stopped and looked around. My small cabin was quite almost nothing – no tables, one chair, a series of round, hay beds on the floor for the dogs and myself to sleep on and beyond that, not much else besides a wooden box of a cabin whose walls let some light leak in from the outside. The one window in my house had no glass, but was rather a square cut into the wood with a great amount of mold collected underneath it where rain had poured in during the storms.

I swept the dirt and dust to the door and flung it out, feeling good for the moment, like perhaps today would bring some hope. As the dust flew into the air, swirling around as if it were raveling in the air, I heard a series of barks and opened the door wider. Three thin, medium-sized dogs, one black, one white and one a mix of these colors, came running into the cabin and ran immediately to their beds, curling up into balls and panting.

What are you guys doing? I asked the dogs. You’re crazy!

The black dog, Chrissy, then barked at me with her head held high, so as if to respond.

I think we need to go find food – what do you skidunkles think? I continued, creating a new word.

The black and white dog, Collie then barked, lowering her snout as she did, and I rose to make my way to the door, hearing the dogs rise from their beds behind me. The white dog, Rebel, ran over to me, his head straight up as he stood by my leg and gave a foreboding whimper that perhaps should have been a sign to me. Ignoring this, I turned to look at the other two dogs. Each of them, with their frazzled, wild fur that stood like a that of a hunter, even though they were quite far from being great hunting dogs – they were far too rambunctious and frantic for that. Still, we were always able to catch something and so, grabbing my bow and quiver from by the door, we departed into the cool, mid-afternoon air.

The sky was a dusky shade of blue as I moved between the town’s houses. The ‘town,’ however, was really much more of a random gathering of people, running from something that they couldn’t remember. We had all built homes in a dusty clearing, but well knew that tomorrow the deck could be cut and reshuffled, pushing us somewhere else. Our homes were set out on the sand-filled plain like dice haphazardly positioned on a table after being rolled. The orange, dust-filled air filtered through my lungs as I made my way to the woods, followed by Chrissy, Collie and Rebel.

At the edge of the forest, I looked into the trees and felt a certain sort of pity for myself, the town and a world that would let such circumstances exist. Between the trees, I saw the limited light filtering through the trees like water through a sieve. The trunks of the trees, dark in the shade of the forest, blocked most of my view of the deep woods and so, stepping around the first tree, I began to make my way into the forest, the dogs running out ahead of me.

I tried to tread lightly over the crunchy leaves of the forest as I moved forward, arrow at the ready, held in my bow like a catapult, pulled back and ready to fire. I heard Rebel barking deep in the woods and assumed a faster pace, slipping between the monstrous, awkwardly shaped trees. My booted feet fell on the crunchy leaves like premonitions of a ringing bell, tolling the nighttime. As my foreboding steps continued to fall, I felt a shiver cross my chest as if I had been splashed with cold water. My muscles twitched in uncertainty and I then looked up.

I neared Rebel and found that he had not found a game animal, but rather, some other manner of beast, lying amidst the leaves. It was a large, bulky creature with tan and gray fur. There appeared to be two horns on the front of the beast’s head and grabbing an arrow, I used the tail end to poke the monster and found no change. The motionless corpse lay there and not desiring to bring down the hand of fate on myself, I let the body be and pointed onwards, blowing into the air as I did to indicate for Chrissy, Collie and Rebel to move on. Still, my mind continued to be somehow haunted by the sight of the dead creature.

We continued through the trees as the dogs ran ahead and a moment later, Collie came running back to me so as to indicate that she had found something. Her black and white tail wagged as she danced on her back two legs to let me know. I watched her waddle around, almost like a penguin for a minute as she awkwardly tried to stay on her two back paws, her front paws dangling in front of her like the draped fingers of a piano player, and as she landed back on all fours, she turned and began to move back deeper into the woods. I followed her on into the forest and a moment later, in front of me, between the trees, I saw a stag with an enormous shelf of antlers. Its reddish brown hair glimmered with a wet shine and as I pulled back the arrow, I felt its big black eyes set into me like a rotten ball of cabbage being shoved into my throat. I struggled to breathe for a moment, not quite able to fire and suddenly, I heard the most monstrous scream that I had ever heard as it bellowed out from behind me. In shock, I let the arrow fly and turning around, I saw the dead beast, now very much alive, up in the air above me, descending onto me with limbs curled around and ready to attack. Its horns had a gray, indistinct color and its gray and tan fur that changed colors in intermittent rings up and down its body neared me with a savage anger that was amplified in its bestial face. Its teeth were dully-colored, ivory blades as its bottom jaw stuck out with two big teeth rising up from either corner. Its untamed eyes sliced into me in a brown glow and its two gray ears, placed in front of those horrible horns, pressed back against its horns as it fell.

I dove to the side and the beast landed on all four of its monstrous paws exactly where I had been standing. I heard its claws slice into the soil and then listened as it pulled them out. Throwing my arm back behind my shoulders, I felt the thin, round, wooden end of another arrow in my shaking hand and pulled it out, positioning it in the bow. I grew ready to fire at the savage creature, wondering if it had already been dead, whether it was truly dead or just sleeping when I had seen its body lying there earlier. The beast looked at me, breathing heavily, and released another savage roar of FROAG!!!!

I let the arrow fly and it cut through the air with a whip-like whoosh. It pierced the beast’s chest and stuck like a nail beaten into a tree. The creature’s fur began to turn a heavy shade of red around the puncture and drawing forth another arrow, I fired again, hitting the beast in the belly. The creature screamed again and charged at me. Jumping behind a tree, I tried to avoid what I saw was a coming attack, but as I watched the beast dive towards the spot where I had been standing, it twisted its body and began to reach towards where I now was. It swung a heavy, powerful claw that wrapped around the tree I was hiding behind and I felt the flat surface of its paw smack against my face. I was sent hurdling to the ground and as I landed in a shallow pile of leaves, colliding forcefully with the solid ground, my state of consciousness then somehow shifted as my head hit the roots of a tree. As I stood back up, staggering and supporting myself against the tree trunk by my head, I saw the beast through hazy eyes. It roared again and then, after charging at my delirious body for a few steps, collapsed in a heap.

I stumbled through the woods for a great while, Chrissy, Collie and Rebel all running around me with their heads cocked to the side as they cried, perhaps sympathetic to my pain, until I finally came back to the town. I stumbled towards my house, made my way inside and collapsed onto my pile of hay on the floor, immediately falling into sleep.

Chapter 2

I was once more in the forest, hunting, slipping between the trees as a surreal light beat down on my head. Chrissy, Collie and Rebel all ran out in front of me, crunching through the leaves, as we made our way deep into the woods. I saw animals all around me, but somehow, felt no inclination to kill them, only to continue deeper and deeper into the forest. As I went further and further, the dead, orange and brown leaves on the ground became deeper and thicker as the trees too became larger and more foreboding.

As my crunching steps fell one after the other, I watched Rebel running further and further ahead. I tried to follow her with my eyes as she proceeded, but she soon became lost in the labyrinth of trees. I continued on, following in the direction that Rebel had gone, for some reason, beginning to wish that this would all soon be over. I could then see a sudden clearing up ahead where it appeared that the forest disappeared and gave way to a perfectly clean, grayish blue, stone pathway that seemed to stretch infinitely left, right and forward from where it began. A strangely bleak sky lingered above this stone plain and I neared it, ignoring any inclination that I may have had to turn around. The stone had a rugged, worn appearance and as I came to the edge of the woods, my fear of stepping on it subsided into fascination and my booted foot fell onto the stone with a hushed thud. I continued forward across the stone plain until I saw another strange sight. Sitting out on the field of granite was an enormous, rectangular stone wall that appeared to have a great amount of writing on it. Its smooth stone sides angled in slightly as they neared the top as the bleakness continued to beat down upon the plain.

I approached the stone wall, which was the same, grayish blue color of the stone ground, and began to look at it. On it were printed white letters and words that I could not recognize:

"Kumanlong galling ang halimaw dahil hindi masawí.

Vivir - viver - vivire - vivre - a locui

ser - ser - essere - etre - a fi

beber - beber - bere - boire - a bea

comer - comer - mangiare - manger - a mânca

The list continued on all the way down the wall and I suddenly heard a voice. Horns and teeth are coming in hopes of prevailing where a mind has not been able to. For this is very much the nature of the things that happen in the mind of the polyglot.

I turned to see the beast that I had killed in the forest standing before me with the arrows still in his belly. The blood was gone and with his big, finger-like claws, he began to pluck the arrows out of himself. The projectiles each came out of his body with an unsettling rustling of the beast’s tan and gray fur and a strange pop as his skin resisted. I looked at the beast and suspiciously drawing an arrow, prepared to fire and kill it once more. As I did though, the beast held up a paw and said Don’t fire, in a booming, powerful, yet calm and almost unconcerned voice, It doesn’t matter anyway. I can tell you now that I won’t be able to tell you that the world is about to befall you.

What do you mean by that? I said, lowering the bow and opening both of my eyes.

I mean that you are very much in need of befriending the Glottal Wall for full occlusion is a death as terrible as silence of the mind. For every sound is like a bandage on a self-inflicted pain past a certain point.

You mean this wall? I asked, pointing to the stone wall and all of its letters.

The beast did not answer and then, with a single utterance, Credulous, disappeared all at once.

I looked at the stone wall again, trying to learn everything that was there, but felt that I must be failing as I continued to repeat to myself Vivir, ser, beber, comer, andar, luchar, batallar, soler. The list went on and on and it seemed to me that each of the words was a locution of some world that I hardly understood.

As I reviewed the wall, the sky began to cry, the clouds above me forming into a face that began to wail as the tears fell. I felt the drops soak through my dirty white shirt and began to leave the wall, turning around and heading back to the forest. My feet passed through the first of the thick leaves and I suddenly heard the blaring siren of a horn cry out like the voice of a trumpet being tortured. The tone infiltrated my ears and as I turned back to look at the stone plain behind me, I could see a tall, black line on the horizon. The horrible trumpet blew again and the ground began to shake as if there were a great many hooves beating against it. A devastating crack formed in the stone plain, stretching from the edge of the plain where I nearly stood right to the center of the stone wall.

The ground continued to shake until I saw torches and flames held in the hands of a great many riders, a black army descending upon the land. I began to sprint through the forest, running, swiftly passing trees, until I came to the town where I lived, its makeshift homes dryly set out like wooden booths. Run!!! I screamed, They’re coming!!!

The homes sat still, however. Nothing happened. The dark army gained on me as the galloping of hooves grew louder and as I looked back, I saw that they were coming threw the woods, some on horseback some on foot, chasing me. Their eyes were malevolently locked on me in a skewering gaze and I continued to run past my house, past my town.

At the edge of my town, I came to the makeshift wall that had been assembled by piling stone and pieces of logs. As I jumped over it, feeling the cool, damp stones beneath my hand as I did, I felt a gust of wind as a black stallion came jumping over the wall beside me. It landed, continuing into is clopping gallop, and then turned to face me. The rider was a man in a black mask that covered the entirety of his features except for his eyes and mouth. Baring a sword in hand, he waited there, horseback, in the rain. His body, veiled in black, lurched a little as the horse shook and I soon heard the rest of the army coming. With a turn of my entire body, I saw that the rest of the black army was coming, some jumping over the wall on horseback, others climbing over it as they savagely screamed. The warriors disfigured, black, orc-like faces contorted in anger as they roared and I turned back, releasing a whimpering noise as I ran, panting.

The rain beat me down, lower, into fear.

My body began to strain as I fought the nightmare, tried to open my locked eyes, and suddenly, I lay on my bed, eyes flung open wide, terrified. My body was covered in sweat and I felt a bead of it roll down from my forehead and into my eye. The salty burn lingered for a moment and I knew it was time to move on.

Chapter 3

Springing up from my bed, I saw Chrissy, Collie and Rebel rise, and made my way to the door. As I opened it, looking out to the graying sky, I began to shout It’s time to move on!!! They’re coming!!!

There was a strong breeze and almost immediately, the doors began to rattle, and without waiting to explain, I began to run towards the shallow wall of the town. Climbing over it, followed by Chrissy, Collie and Rebel, I began to run