And so we find ourself in the odd realm of Han'a Barbararosa...
The Norns are less than happy with their designated position in their existence, and wish....
Finally, coming upon a wonderful idea, they seek out the one that they know will be willing and eager to help them.
The one is already doing some damage to the accursed Dark Tower in the course of bending the situation in favor to the Army of Darkness. If they can win him to his side, by offering a high position in their New Order, then he'll be their man. It should be easy enough, considering that Flagg is especially feeling put off and unappreciated for all that he's been doing for his Superiors.
So the Norns begin to sing a song....to bring forth and intrigue their potential ally from where he's presently at and down to the Ygg.
The lands of men are supported in the branches of an immense tree. Even though it defies everything you know, even though it makes no sense in common rationality, somehow, deep inside the core of your being, you know it to be true. Every world, every possibility, every eventuality, all are but fruit on the branches of Ygg, the father ash. There are branches higher than the world we inhabit, and there are branches lower. As with any tree, there are roots, far below the worlds, where only the dead can venture, or care to. There, down at the roots, the pulse of Ygg thrums, as the magickal energy of the tree flows up to the branches, there to flower in the mortal lands as ley lines and nexuses.
There, down at the source of all things, there is a beast very much like what mortal men fancy to be a dragon. In many ways, it is the nightmare from which those great beasts take form. It gnaws at the roots, slowly. Its gnawing barely makes a dent in the great roots, but it does do damage, and the creature is patient. It was here at the beginning of time, and when it has gnawed through the roots of Ygg, time will end, and the great tree will fall. Thus the game of waiting is played. There at the roots too is a beast not unlike a great wolf, bound in the strongest chains in existance. Its last meal was the hand of the man who chained it, and it is very hungry. It too waits for the end-days, when the dragon-thing will fell the tree, and its chains will fall off, allowing it to again run free and feast on man-flesh. It is less patient than the wyrm, and hunger has driven it quite mad.
There, also, in the shadowed caverns formed by the roots of Ygg, are three women who watch the wolf and the wyrm. They have been there since the first man took breath, and their vigil has been constant. They tell tales and write stories. Sometimes they sing. Everything they say is true. There is some doubt as to why this is. Some say they see everything in prophetic visions, and record what they see. Still others say that they do not merely record, but instead weave reality by their songs and tales.
Anyway, that's what they'd actually LIKE it to be like. That their home wasn't more than a fancy seeming. Oh, originally, it would have been this way, but instead it was opted to go with those damn Offices.....and not Them!
To say the least, they Norns were rather angered at being passed by, a relic not utilized.....
But if they could significantly embarrass the Offices by secretly bringing about the destruction of the Dark Tower (and the realities that they actually supported).....then surely in the Reconstruction They would be used as initially proposed....
Back in the ancient days in some versions of Earth, various religions attributed very human failings to the gods and goddesses. That and believing there were such things as personifications of natural forces....
Well, in a few instances for the first.....it appears that perhaps there is more than a little truth to it. As for the second, we already know about personifications......
Not exactly classical fantasy, but this isn't meant to be as such.
So the Norns are as they are, and Flagg is as he is......
As said before, we do know how it ends. How Randall Flagg (and his cohorts) were finally destroyed. However, like that one black and white movie from so many Earths where it BEGINS where it ends. That is, the movie started with a dead man staring at the audience and, in voice-over fashion, begins to tell the tale of just HOW he got there. And what a fascinating tale it was. Thus, so begins the tale....at least in part, of all the damage and grief that Flagg did before he is put down!!
Somewhere, far away, a group of teens drive up in a technicolor van, just outside a spooky abandoned house. A great dane cowers under a blanket, while a bespectacled teenaged girl holds a box of dog treats...
It's only coincidence that the Norns chose to lure Flagg through this rather ridiculous reality. It has the redeeming value of being the least likely spot for something upward happening like what the Norns are setting up......but.....
It's just so silly!
The Norns don't have much a sense of modern humor, alas. The three women's sense of humor is stuck in the Norse times, it seems (whole different mindset and all that).
Be that as it may, when Flagg steps through the door into this reality and sees the Mystery Machine....and the coaxing voice within trying to get Scooby to come out for yet another adventure of mystery and fun.....
A smile plasters itself on Randal Flaggs face that speaks of a person who's having too much fun to be considered sane. With a wave of the hand, the van suddenly flips end over end four times (bringing shouts of pain and surprise within).
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12/14/2000 11:25:56 AM
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