{"id":372,"date":"2020-11-21T00:52:13","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T04:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/?p=372"},"modified":"2020-11-21T02:29:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T06:29:01","slug":"excerpt-from-a-novel-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/2020\/11\/21\/excerpt-from-a-novel-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from a Novel in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, November 20th, 2020 —> +9\u00b0C \/ +48\u00b0F —> Rained just a little – Small drops polka-dotted the porch around 4:15 pm Atlantic Time –<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Metis

Metis Woman in Ceremonial Dress – borrowed from a site I found and lost when a hard drive crashed…<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

{{{ This world is very different – same continents but different history – Derrick will explain this to ‘Xhyrean’ in this excerpt –\u00a0 Derrick and Elise are 17 year old European-Americans – Elise’s parents divorced when she was ten years old – her mother met an upper class British jerk who offered her a job as a professor at either Oxford or Cambridge University in Britain – he had a lot of pull – was a member of the house of Lords and slept around with everybody he could – he drugged Elise and was about to rape her – she jumped out of her body and Xhyrean – a M\u00e9tis from the future who developed the ability to jump between parallel worlds and even jumped back and forth in time on several occasions… found her and helped her back into her body – overcame the drug and scared the jerk into leaving the room in a hurry after he { Xhyrean } threw a few heavy items at him with telekinetic power – When Elise told her mother what happened Her mother packed her up and went to their embassy in London, met with intelligence officers, told them what happened – the intelligence guys were investigating the jerk under the suspicion that he was supplying terrorists with guns and money and information – So the intelligence guys gave Elise and her mother new names, had Elise { <— that’s her new name, Derrick knew her by another when they were 8, 9, & 10 years old } They had Elise dye her hair blonde and and had her and her mother change their names, gave them a new identity and spirited them out of Britain. Her mother had been depressed and heavy when they lived in Ithaka back then – and lost a lot of weight in Britain. Then- because nobody recognized them back in “Ithaka, New Amsterdam” they settled there and her mother got a position as a professor at ‘Cleeson’ University { Cornell in the world you and I inhabit } Derrick kept some bullies from beating up a gay kid and was invited to join an LGBTQ2+ support group as a “Plus”\/ straight guy they knew they could trust. Wacko evangelical gay hating jerks attacked the local high school on the first day of school and killed a small number of people, notably the principal and a secretary – and wounded several others, but the school had a lock-down procedure and an alarm that brought the SWAT team out and they managed to kill the guys who came to the school in a church van with “God Hates Niggers Jews Indians and Queers” in blood red letters – on both sides of the van. Derrick didn’t recognize Elise as a blonde who had changed quite a bit in seven years { and had her nose fixed and wore contact lenses to make her eyes look blue } He protected her during the evangelical terrorist attack and a couple nights later, Elise jumped out of her body again – touched Derrick’s arm and they both jumped to a parallel world where they met —> Eslyn – who looks like a ‘thirty-something’ woman with brown hair and eyes and a log cabin, a large garden and a dog named Jessie. —> Volffe is a tall guy with dark hair and piercing blue eyes – the son of a German American and a mixed First Nations mother – he found himself in this same parallel world several years ago —> Jessicka is a tall red haired young woman that Xhyrean saved from inter-dimensional monsters in an unfinished novel I wrote in 2017 – She wasn’t as tall and she wasn’t a red head back then but the parallel world she’s in now with Volffe and Eslyn for friends tends to change people’s bodies into what they wished they looked like. —> Zearlina is a shape shifting Healer with a lot of spiritual wisdom. She shifts into an Afghan Hound – or a slender ageless woman with white hair. —> Rocky is an Ymmp – a shortish creature with a thick reptilian tail, pointed ears and a snout and upside down canines that curl up near the leading edge of his snout. He’s a fun guy with a demented sense of humour. He likes mangling any language he speaks and he understands how to use music to heal, distract, or even lull anybody into a trance – I think that’s everybody who is just about to finish dinner in Eslyn’s cabin. }}}<\/p>\n

\"Jessicka

– Jessicka + Volffe —> Unexplored Territory –<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

— After they pretty much inhaled their dinner, Derrick sat back and tried not to burp loud enough to embarrass anybody. Elise smiled and turned to Derrick with a guilty look on her face, whispered, \u201cI think I ate too much, too fast.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, whispered, \u201cLot of that going around -\u201d then he turned toward Eslyn, and had the feeling that everybody at the table was waiting for him to say something, \u201cWow \u2013 that was fantastic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Jessicka tipped her head down and either blushed or smiled – or both? <\/span><\/p>\n

— Volffe nodded, \u201cI’ll second that-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Zearlina covered her mouth for a second, nodded, \u201cThat was a little spicier than I’m used to \u2013 but yes, that was really good.”<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, \u201cI don’t know, how does this work, can I ‘third’ that? Or should I second Volffe’s second?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Eslyn smiled, \u201cAt least half the credit goes to Jessicka, she brought most of the ingredients, including the vegetarian ‘beef substitute’ with its all natural ingredients and low fat content. -\u201d she nodded, \u201cI was pleasantly surprised.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Jessicka blushed, shrugged, looked around, \u201cI don’t think I could have figured out how to cook anything over a wood fire if my life depended on it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Eslyn nodded, \u201cTook some gettin used to \u2013 but after a lot of practice, I think I just might get the hang of it some day-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise looked around, \u201cShould I offer to help you clear the table?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Eslyn shook her head, \u201cOh \u2013 no \u2013 deary \u2013 not after what you’ve just been through \u2013 and the same goes for you, Derrick \u2013 but I don’t think I’d say ‘no thank you’ if Xhyrean and Volffe volunteered.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Volffe chuckled, \u201cYou mean I couldn’t just sing for my supper?\u201d he grinned at Zearlina.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cDon’t look at me \u2013 I’ll get down on all fours and go for a run with Jessie \u2013 I just burned off about six months of my stored healing energy here -\u201d she turned toward Elise and gritted her teeth, whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear – \u201cDon’t you dare tell him that we get a real boost from what we do, they have to believe it costs us half our sanity and three quarters of the energy we need to get up and walk across the room.\u201d She grinned and stuck her tongue out at Xhyrean.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise looked like that statement left her totally confused.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Zearlina shrugged and turned toward Volffe, \u201cShe’s new at this \u2013 she hasn’t come into her full powers yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise looked a little more confused, she turned toward Derrick.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick whispered, \u201cZearlina told me that you are a very strong healer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cMe?\u201d Elise blushed, shook her head, shrugged \u2013 looked at Zearlina.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Zearlina nodded, \u201cYou’ll see – if we have the time, I’ll give you a few pointers. You won’t be raising the dead any time soon, but you might be able to save the lives of any of your friends who suffer critical accidents or gun shot wounds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cYou’ve got guns here?\u201d Derrick asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Eslyn shook her head, \u201cNot yet \u2013 I think some of our friends sabotage all research toward that end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Volffe sighed, \u201cSome idiot with a pistol came through here a couple years ago, shot at and missed several deer. We kind of let the slavers capture him. He was out of bullets. He tried to pantomime what the gun could do. Pointed it at imaginary animals and enemies and said, \u201cBang, bang bang.\u201d and acted like he’d been shot and fell down. The slavers thought he was nuts and pistol whipped him, thought the gun made a good \u2013 sort of brass knuckles? Kind of thing? – Xhyrean rescued him about a year later and dropped him off back in his home world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, \u201cHe ran to his local police and told them he’d been kidnapped by aliens and used as a slave, beat with clubs and pistols that they didn’t have bullets for \u2013 The police had him locked up for observation.\u201d Xhyrean shrugged, \u201cHe was not a model patient. They treated him with drugs that left him shaking like he had Parkinson’s disease?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, \u201cWe know what that is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise nodded too.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean sighed, \u201cWe \u2013 some of us \u2013 looked at his possible and probably futures, and he’s the first person I gave up on trying to help -\u201d he sighed.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick winced, \u201cSome of my friends were bullied, beat up and humiliated by football players \u2013 I don’t know that any of the ones who picked on my friends had any redeeming qualities-\u201d he sighed, shrugged, looked sad.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean shrugged, looked at Volffe.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Volffe shrugged, stood up and began piling dishes together.<\/span><\/p>\n

— The two guys actually cleared the table and washed the dishes, dried them and let Eslyn tell them where to put them when they were dried.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked at the cleared table, went outside on the ‘back’ porch and brought in something that looked like it might be a rolled up sail for a small boat. He laid the thing the long way on the table and unrolled it, straightened out the white canvas that covered the table and then some, then unrolled the animal skin that had been wrapped inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Eslyn, Elise, Derrick and Zearlina all cringed and turned their heads.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Jessicka gritted her teeth and shuddered.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cSorry \u2013 we did not kill this animal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick shuddered, \u201cThat looks like a very large deer skin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean shook his head, \u201cMoose hide \u2013 tanned -\u201d he nodded, \u201cBut that was close \u2013 same family \u2013 just bigger -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick shuddered again.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean flipped it over and spread it out. Someone had painted, or somehow drawn a very good map of the world Derrick and Elise had come from. The details were amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cEarth-\u201d Derrick nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cYour Earth?\u201d Xhyrean asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick shrugged, \u201cPretty much -\u201d He looked closer \u2013 there were no man made boundaries drawn in \u2013 anywhere \u2013 He pointed to an empty spot in the Pacific Ocean. “There’s an island here \u2013 and -\u201d he moved his finger to the Atlantic Ocean, near the edge of the Caribbean, \u201cThese two Islands had a volcano go off between them so now they’re joined by a very rocky isthmus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean smiled, \u201cYou never had a nuclear war?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick shuddered, \u201cYeah, we did. The Chinese started a twenty years war, conquered most of mainland Asia-\u201d He pointed, \u201cand all these Islands around it \u2013 Then they started attacking <\/span>Europe \u2013 some of the free nations over here -\u201d he pointed to North America \u2013 came to their aid and a combination of Aztec and New British scientists helped the Germans develop the nuclear bomb. The Chinese didn’t want to surrender until more than half their population was obliterated. That was a hundred and seventy five years ago \u2013 For the next hundred years, all these areas -\u201d he pointed to most of the areas that bordered on the Sea of China – \u201cAs well as most of these islands -\u201d he pointed to most of the islands within a couple hundred miles of the Asian Mainland – \u201cFought each other for the right to become free and independent states.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean pointed to the West coast of North America, \u201cWhat country is this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cThat right there is California.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cIs California a country?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, pointed father north, \u201cThis is Tlingit -\u201d – inland – \u201cShoshone Land\u201d – farther inland \u201cLakota Confederation\u201d – inland from California – \u201cNavajos\u201d – South of California – \u201cAztecs\u201d – Northeast of Aztecs – \u201cHopi Sovereign Territories\u201d -East of Hopi lands – \u201cComanchen\u201d – North of Comanchen – \u201cApachen\u201d – Northwest of Apachen\/Northeast of Navajos – \u201cUte Land\u201d –<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean raised his hands, \u201cOkay \u2013 Okay \u2013 How about this whole area?\u201d he moved his hand in a wide circle above most of North America.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cAll of this is the Turtle Island Confederation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean pointed to an Island off the north coast of what he understood was the ‘Turtle Island Confederation’ – \u201cWhat’s this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cNew Svaeria-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, moved to the mainland northwest of New Svaeria – \u201cAnd this?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cNew Norway -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cAre there any M\u00e9tis Lands?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, pointed, \u201cHere \u2013 between the Annishnabe and the Ojibway\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean smiled, pointed to the north side of the river that flowed from the smallest of the ‘Great Lakes’ and looked to Derrick with a question on his face.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cNew France.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, pointed to other side of that river-<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cAcadia\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked surprised, moved his finger South and West –<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cMadawaska -\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

— South and East of Madawaska – <\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cNew Erin-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean raised his eyebrows, pointed to what almost looked like an Island south and east of New Erin – <\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick pointed to the farthest north eastern bit of land there – \u201cThis Island is Nova Scotia\u201d This part is Mik’Ma land,\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cWow \u2013 this is<\/u> different -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick pointed and moved his finger in a circle, \u201cNew Britain -\u201d then he pointed to several areas inside the circle – \u201c Passamaquoddy \u2013 Maliseet \u2013 this was Micmac land ceded to Madawaska \u2013 Wabanaki \u2013 And this, land along the coast \u2013 was believed to be cursed after first contact with Europeans here brought the Bubonic plague with them. Many tribes were wiped out completely \u2013 Only those who kept to the north and avoided all contact with the Europeans survived. He pointed to the coast from the island that was the border of New Erin down to a mess of small islands and a bay with quite a few more islands, \u201cThis is New Keltia \u2013 My mother’s people are from there.\u201d He drew his finger south and west from there, \u201cNew Mercia \u2013 Settled by British <\/span>Catholics who lost a civil war in Britain.” Then a larger area inland with a small section of coast line, \u201cNew Hampshire -\u201d West of New Hampshire – \u201cVermont\u201d – south of New Hampshire and Vermont – \u201cMassachusetts\u201d – Southeast of Massachusetts – \u201cRhodes Land\u201d – East of Rhodes Land – \u201cProvidencia\u201d – West of Rhodes Land – \u201cKonnecticut\u201d – West of Konnecticut – \u201cNew Amsterdam\u201d – A large, long island south of Konnecticut and east of New Amsterdam – \u201cMontauk\u201d – North of New Amsterdam \u2013 south of New France – \u201cMohawk\u201d – West of Mohawk, North of the finger lakes \u2013 “Iroquois Nations -\u201d he paused and looked up at Xhyrean, \u201cThe Turtle Island Confederation was based on the foundations and treaties of the Iroquois Nations -\u201d – then he pointed to the finger lakes region, and drew a line west to the southernmost of the Great Lakes,and then a straight line most of the way back toward where he had indicated the south eastern part of New Amsterdam was \u2013 moved his finger down at about a forty five degree angle then circled around, \u201cAll this is New Amsterdam \u2013 New Amsterdam City is on this island here and Elise and I came from Ithaka up here at the south end of Lake Cayuga.\u201d He drew a breath, \u201cThere are a lot more sovereign nations here, and I haven’t even gone north to where the Cree and the Inuit and the Alieskans are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean drew a breath and let it out slowly, \u201cI am M\u00e9tis \u2013 my people were forced west and had their families forcefully separated by the British government that conquered New France and subjugated most of the First Nations people from coast -\u201d he pointed to the Atlantic coast – \u201cTo Coast -\u201d he pointed to the pacific – \u201cto Coast -\u201d he pointed to the arctic -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick looked shocked, \u201cThe M\u00e9tis, the Lakota, the Navajo and the Hopi were the first of the indigenous people who joined most of the transplanted Europeans in the ‘World War’ against the Chinese. The Navajo and Hopi had seen that war in visions and said it was the first attempt by a force of extremely evil ones to conquer and enslave us all. They convinced the Lakota – and, um, the M\u00e9tis traced half of their people to other First Nations who had mated with Europeans \u2013 mostly French, Keltian, Erinish and New Svaerians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded slowly, looked tired, \u201cYou seem to know a lot about the history of your world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise laughed and covered her mouth, \u201cHe hardly ever forgets anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked impressed, nodded, \u201cI’m one of a very few humans who can jump between almost infinite parallel worlds. Most others who have accidentally or purposefully tried to jump to too many worlds start to lose their health and their ability to concentrate after three or four jumps. I bumped into one guy who hijacked a inter-dimensional disk shaped craft and escaped with his niece \u2013 and her husband and managed to jump between a dozen worlds before that wore him out. We were then contacted by a group of several dozen human hybrids from a couple thousand years in the future who were able to make as many as two \u2013 even three dozen jumps before they began to lose their ability to concentrate, then their memories, and then their health deteriorated altogether. Together \u2013 we have catalogued, I think – 38 parallel worlds on planets identical to this one mapped out here \u2013 Almost every single one of them calls this area \u2013 The United States \u2013 Up here \u2013 this is Canada \u2013 Down here, this is Mexico \u2013 This whole continent south of what most of them call Central America \u2013 this is a mish mash of several countries where the Spanish and the Portuguese conquered the indigenous tribes and were defeated in a series of civil wars and a lot of maps of what they usually call South America are completely different from most other maps of the same continent. This is the first time I know of that it looks like the First Nations made treaties with Europeans that the Europeans didn’t break and try to kill off most of the First Nations any chance they had.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick sighed, nodded, \u201cAfter the Bubonic Plague killed off two thirds of everybody in Europe, two later plagues nearly wiped them out again. First Nations that survived the Bubonic Plague over here let refugees fleeing Europe ahead of the next two plagues settle here – and kept them quarantined, fully expected all the Europeans to die off in the areas they believed were cursed to begin with. Druids, and Keltic healers as well as the Welsh who settled in Madawaska brought healing herbs with them and traded them with first nations medicine people who showed them more healing herbs and plants in the ‘new world’ that everyone soon began calling ‘Turtle Island’ \u2013 We survived, and thrived, and the first nations saw us as valued friends \u2013 many tribes didn’t want their sisters to have anything to do with the dirty Europeans, but some intermarried \u2013 If other tribes banished or otherwise ostracized anyone who intermarried with the Europeans, the M\u00e9tis welcomed them, conditionally at first and then, when they proved themselves to be honest, contributing members of their villages, granted them full citizenship.\u201d Derrick nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise sighed, \u201cI’m sure he got an A-Plus-Plus for that course.\u201d she winced then gazed lovingly at him.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean sighed, and yawned, \u201cWow \u2013 I guess I have a lot of world hopping to do \u2013 all the historians and extra-world explorers will want to know as much as I can tell them about this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick yawned, \u201cYou had to yawn, didn’t ya?\u201d he grinned.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, \u201cI think we could all use a nice restful night’s sleep.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Zearlina smiled, \u201cWhile I was meditating, I received an assurance that we will get that – a nice restful night’s sleep. I think somebody up there-\u201d she pointed up through the ceiling – \u201cSomebody in the Arch-Angelic strata, has been waiting for you-\u201d she pointed at Xhyrean, \u201cand you two-\u201d she pointed at Derrick and Elise, \u201cto accidentally meet each other like this.\u201d She turned and looked right at Xhyrean, \u201cI saw a flash of your friend \u2013 George’s \u2013 flying saucer in a world that is in their time zone \u2013 has the same exact land masses -\u201d she pointed at the map drawn on the inside of the moose skin, \u201c-but has a population of less than three hundred thousand humans, a lot of untapped resources and animals that have gone extinct on most of the worlds you know about. I think the Arch Angel that showed me that world said it was the New Earth promised by several religions that have been perverted by the forces of darkness and mind control in almost every world you know about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick was stunned.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked like he’d been hopeful that he might some day find a place like that, but nodded slowly, closed his eyes and then wiped them, sighed, and nodded, \u201cIf we still can remember this after our nice peaceful night’s sleep I will allow myself to feel ecstatic for the first time in what feels like centuries.\u201d He yawned and began to roll the moose skin map back into its tight tubular shape. He glanced toward Derrick and Elise as they smiled at each other, \u201cWhat year is it where you came from?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick shrugged, \u201cTwenty seven fifty nine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked slightly shocked, \u201cDo you have some kind of letters or initials to go along with that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick and Elise nodded, \u201cM.E.- Modern Era.\u201d They said almost together.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean began to roll the moose skin up inside the white canvas, \u201cThat’s \u2013 different -\u201d he nodded, \u201cWhat came before that?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick looked at Elise.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise smiled, \u201cC.E. – Common Era.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded as he rolled the canvas as tight as he could get it, and began to tie it with rawhide strips, \u201cHow far back did the Common Era go?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise glanced toward Derrick.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded to Elise, \u201cThey stopped counting at forty five ninety nine \u2013 The common Era began after the Svaerians established trade with the First Nations along Turtle Island’s East coast and the much less aggressive Chinese made peace with the First nations along Turtle Island’s West Coast \u2013 The Egyptians were already exploring Maoria \u2013 and had made peace with the Maories after they gave up trying to conquer them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cMaoria -\u201d Xhyrean finished tying the third and last rawhide strip around the middle of the canvas around the rolled up moose hide. He glanced at Volffe who looked just as interested as Xhyrean seemed to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cThe smaller two big islands to the east of the small continent south of Asia \u2013 where the Madjedbebe lived \u2013 The Egyptians had started out trading with the Madjedbebe and then tried to conquer them and basically had their behinds handed to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean almost looked confused, \u201cAlmost all the worlds we’ve catalogued call the continent ‘Australia’ and the Islands to the east have been called ‘New Zealand’ much more often than Maoria.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean continued, \u201cIn most of these worlds, the British ‘discovered’ and colonized Australia and New Zealand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick grinned, \u201cI guess the three great plagues kept the British from colonizing the Madjedbebe and the Maories where we came from.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cThey also colonized what you call Turtle Island. The colonists rebelled against British economic bullying. The British also colonized a large section of southern Asia \u2013 called it India.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, \u201cIndia put up a heck of a fight against the Chinese before Europeans and then some of us Turtellians joined the war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cHow many world wars did you have?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, \u201cJust the one \u2013 We pretty much stayed out of other wars. Some of us signed treaties with India and promised to come their aid if the Chinese got feisty again. Smaller countries all around China took advantage of China’s weakness and re-established themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise took Derrick’s hand and tried to lead him toward Eslyn’s sofa. He finally turned to her and smiled, \u201cSorry -\u201d and followed her there.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean put the rolled up moose hide back out on the back porch and came back in while Volffe picked up his guitar and played several quiet pieces that blended together – <\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean came back in and sat cross-legged on the floor facing the sofa, \u201cWhat do you call the time before the Common Era?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick smiled. Elise closed her eyes and leaned back, kept holding Derrick’s hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cThere were fifteen hundred years of Dark times after the Kelts and the Germanics sacked Rome. The Roman Era lasted two thousand years \u2013 they were nasty, tried to conquer, subjugate all the known world. If anybody fought back they brutalized and enslaved them. The Roman Era followed the Greco-Egyptian Age. Before that there was a long period that followed the fall of Altania \u2013 The Altanians tried to tame the Very Ancient Chinese by blasting their laser through the centre of the planet \u2013 but they hit huge pockets of subterranean gas that blew the continent of Altania to bits, caused world wide tsunamis and pretty much ended a royal golden age -\u201d Derrick sighed, “Before the Altanians came to prominence \u2013 a long time before the Altanians came to prominence \u2013 there was a civilization in the Pacific Ocean that some called Mu, or Mur, or Lemuria, and some others called the land of Oz \u2013 And that civilization dominated a mostly peaceful time for hundreds of thousands of years. The Lemurians lived for an average of 700 years, some lived a lot longer \u2013 They grew their houses by planting trees close enough together so they grew together, and they bent and trained branches to form upper floors and roofs \u2013 They were really good at cross breeding plants, for instance \u2013 they developed bananas -\u201d Derrick yawned.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean yawned, \u201cSorry \u2013 I should let you get your rest. But your world was able to keep track of hundreds of thousands of years? That’s amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded, shrugged, \u201cThere were times when like, for instance, the Romans tried to claim they’d ruled the planet since the beginning and tried to destroy all records that anything happened before they went on the war path \u2013 But the Israelies and the Indians kept their records in secret places – So did the Egyptians, but the Egyptians fell under the spell of the Romans for about a hundred years \u2013 and their rebellious historians kept their records so secret that after the Romans killed most of them<\/u> and enslaved the rest \u2013 Almost nobody knows where their records are hidden. There are rumours and theories, but Present day Egyptians have several religious sects that claim that Egypt was founded about four thousand years ago and are crazy enough to cut the throats of anyone who says otherwise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean smiled, rose to his feet –<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cAnother thing -\u201d Derrick perked up.<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise winced.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cSomething that isn’t widely accepted \u2013 There have been ages when most cultures went back and forth between world wide Matriarchies and Patriarchies \u2013 Kind of like a pendulum swinging back and forth \u2013 But for some reason, since the time after the Lemurians, who were reportedly both male and female in the same bodies, there might never have been a time when both sexes treated each other like equals \u2013 My Uncle Scott said the last Matriarchal Era ended between three and five hundred thousand years ago, when there was a world wide conference and the matriarchies were losing ground and men were threatening world wide civil wars \u2013 So the women said, ‘Okay \u2013 you think you can do better? Knock yourselves out -‘ And very shortly thereafter there was the dawn of militarism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean looked interested again, \u201cYour Uncle Scott- Scott Baldwyn?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n

— \u201cHe stumbled through a portal into the world we call ‘Earth-NorAm-MexCanUSA minus 9’ and published a very scholarly set of books that everybody thought were fiction -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick leaned forward, \u201cHe disappeared for six months and the next time we saw him \u2013 he looked like he’d aged about ten years. And he grew a beard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, \u201cHe spent about twenty years on that world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Derrick was about to ask a question but Elise gave him a healthy shove, \u201cEnough already \u2013 lets go to bed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean gritted his teeth, or winced, or both, and nodded, \u201cSorry \u2013 yeah, we’ve been trying to head off into dreamland for a while now, haven’t we?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Elise grinned and almost growled, \u201cGood night-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— Xhyrean nodded, \u201cGood night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

— There was a chorus of ‘Good night’ wishes from all around. <\/span><\/p>\n

— Volffe put his guitar away, laughed quietly and just above a whisper, grinned at Xhyrean, \u201cI guess she told you-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, November 20th, 2020 —> +9\u00b0C \/ +48\u00b0F —> Rained just a little – Small drops polka-dotted the porch around 4:15 pm Atlantic Time – {{{ This world is very different – same continents but different history – Derrick will explain this to ‘Xhyrean’ in this excerpt –\u00a0 Derrick and \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,14,12,3,17,2,1,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-should-be-more-fun","category-life-should-be-more-relaxed","category-mars-needs-ice-holes-lets-send-them-a-new-microsoft-corporate-headquarters","category-back-stories-and-racial-history","category-novel-excerpts","category-progress","category-uncategorized","category-we-need-more-positive-news-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Eu2W-60","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aerendel.ca\/TheUniverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}