The Essence of Story

by Colleen Forrest

Level: Beginner

Assignment 7:

Write an outline for a story

showing Protagonist's past

strength as a weakness.

At the foot of the Great Tree of Peace, the shaman Kethor held out her arms and beseeched the Great Tree to keep the People safe throughout the coming Cycle of the Gull. Her apprentice, Mulky, sat patiently at her feet. He should have paid more attention to the prayer, as it would be his job to deliver it one day, but a question burned in his mind that he desperately wanted to ask. It would have to wait until after the Ceremony of the Changing of the Cycle.
"Kethor," Mulky asked his master, "it is true that the Great Tree of Peace holds up the Blanket That Covers the World, is it not?
"Of course," Kethor replied confidently.
"Then, what lies beyond the Blanket?"
Kethor smiled. "Very good. I have been waiting for you to ask such a question. A good shaman must always look beyond what is known." Kethor took a deep breath as she prepared to answer Mulky's question. "Beyond the Blanket is the Great Chaos, from which the World sprang. The Goddess Shao knitted the Blanket to protect the World from being consumed back into the Chaos, and she planted the Great Tree to hold it in place. Her knitting wasn't tight, though, so at night, when you look up, you can see the places where she left loose stitches and the light of the Chaos beyond shines through. The Blanket protects us so the People may flourish. Nothing of substance exists beyond."
"Oh," Mulky said, wrinkling his brow.
"Why do you ask?"
"It's just.... Last night, while I was walking vigil, I looked up to the Blanket... and I saw something fall through.

OUTLINE

Kethor is the shaman for her village. On the night which marked the passing of the Cycle of the Fig (a time of prosperity), and the arrival of the Cycle of the Gull (a time of questions), her apprentice, Mulky tells her that the night before he saw something fall through the Blanket that Covers the World (the sky).
Kethor she fears the "something" is evil. What good can come from beyond the Blanket. But it also might be a new creation that the goddess Shao sent under the Blanket for protection. If this were the case, the "something" may need their help. Mulky wants to investigate, but Kethor says "no."
Kethor's duties to the People keep her and Mulky busy. She doesn’t have much time for sleep. Rumors abound in the city. Several people saw the New Thing fall, but the Governing Council has not yet decided whether or not to investigate. The people seek solace from the shaman. This keeps Kethor, Mulky, and the other shaman busy. Kethor is one of many shaman in the Temple of the Gods. She is medium ranked. Mulky is dutifully by her side, but every once in a while, she'll catch him staring off in the distance the where he told her the New Thing fell.
Kethor receives a message from the leaders of a group called the Pillar. They want to meet with her. Kethor is a member of the Pillar. The Pillar upholds the traditions of the People. They are concerned about reports of this New Thing. They fear it may be the Others returned. The Others were agents of evil that the Great Chaos had caused to look like the People. They fell to the World when Kethor was a little girl and tried to burn all the trees. The Pillar had discovered their true nature and destroyed them, keeping things as quiet as possible to protect the people. They are currently arguing in the council to take caution in investigating this new thing to minimize the People’s exposure to it. The Pillar want’s Kethor to say nothing more of his sighting of the New Thing until it has been safely investigated. Kethor agrees.
A week later, Mulky arranges her schedule so she can sleep. That night, Kethor has a dream. She's is a little girl. Looking at the horizon, she sees a demon made of metal standing on a high mountain. In horror, she watches it take out a knife and cut a hole in the Blanket. A shaft of Chaos falls onto the World. Little Kethor screams.
When Kethor wakes up, Mulky is there, waiting for her as usual. He has her clothes laid out for her and her breakfast ready. But there's something different about him. He's not his usual peppy self. He seems to be more tired than she is. This business with the New Thing, she decides. Kethor walks out on the deck to drink her juice. She sees the boots Mulky had on yesterday sitting on the deck, drying in the sun. They have peat mud on them. The nearest peat bog is down near where the New Thing landed.
Kethor confronts Mulky about disobeying her orders about not going to see the New Thing. At first, Mulky denies his visit. Kethor points to the mud on the boots and he knows he's been found out. Mulky tells Kethor that the New Thing that fell was a metal house, and inside the metal house were New People that looked just like the People of the World. Mulky thinks Shao sent the New People. Kethor has other ideas. She forbids him to visit the New People again. They argue. Mulky leaves.
Kethor has to handle her daily duties without Mulky's help. She should tell the Pillar about Mulky’s visit, but she’s afraid what they’ll do to him if they find out he made contact with these New People. She makes excuses for his absence. By mid-afternoon, when Mulky hasn't returned yet, Kethor decides to go looking for him. She sends the people waiting for her away, claiming she as a ritual to do relevant to the changing of the Cycle.
Kethor changes into some clothing that will blend in with the peat bogs. She also digs out of her closet an old box with a few items in it, among them a doll and a necklace with a square attached to it. She holds onto the necklace, says a short prayer, then puts it back into the box. She walks down to where the New Thing landed. As she's walking, she remembers a time her master, shaman Belam, took her down to the peat bogs. He told her that her father was a peat cutter who lived in one of the small villages on the other side of the bog. Kethor didn’t remember her father. He died when she was six years old. That’s when shaman Belam took her as his apprentice.
It’s dark when Kethor arrives in the area Mulky the metal house landed. She sees a light in the distance and walks towards it and finds the camp of the New People. There are seven of them. Looking at the metal house, she realizes it’s not a "house" at all. There’s another word for it, but she can’t remember what it is. The camp isn’t lit by burning trees, as she had feared, but by glowing stones that glowed like the holes in Shao’s knitting. Mulky is sitting cross-legged on the across from one of the New People men. A small, glowing cube is between them it blinks when either of them talks. The man points and an object, says something strange, and Mulky repeats the gibberish a few times until he can say it correctly. Then Mulky gives the thing it’s proper name and the man tries to repeat it.
Kethor realizes what the man is up to. If these people were the Others, the Pillar wouldn’t hesitate to kill Mulky if he knew their words. Who could say what spells they taught him. Kethor wouldn’t be able to save him if the Pillar found out about this. In a fury, she marches into the compound and grabs Mulky by the wrist, trying to pull him up. He resists, and Kethor pulls harder. They argue. The New People watch this scene, not knowing what to do. The man tries to reason with Kethor, but she brushes him off. She gestures to indicate all of them, points to the metal house, and then to the Blanket saying "Go into your house and take it back beyond the Blanket!" When the man still looks puzzled, she says "Take your…ship back beyond the Blanket!" Ship, yes. That’s the word she was looking for. The man looks at her, stunned.
She finally manages to get Mulky off his feet, threatening that if he doesn’t come back with her she’ll tell the council where he is and who he’s with and that the New People bewitched him! Mulky’s embarrassed, and mad, and leaves the camp ahead of her. Kethor looks back at the New People and points to the Blanket. "Go!" She leaves, trying to catch up to Mulky.
When she’s gone, the New People man picks up the glowing cube and touches its surface. The other New People gather around. The cube repeats Kethor’s words "—your… ship beyond the— " The man plays with the cube until it just says the word "…ship" over and over. The New People look at each other, puzzled by what they are hearing. The man stands up, looks off in the direction Kethor and Mulky just walked, and smiles.
The next day, Mulky still isn’t talking to Kethor. He’s laid out her clothes and has fixed her breakfast, but he did so with deliberate movements meant to wake her up and show her he’s still mad at her. Mulky tries to explain that she’s doing this for his own good, but she’s hampered by the fact that, as a member of the Pillar, she can’t talk to him about what happened with the Others. They argue. Mulky tells her the one he was talking to has a name, it’s Alan. But she doesn’t get much more out of him, so she sends him the temple to do penance, a.k.a., janitorial work.
Kethor has her own place to bare her soul. She visits her old master, shaman Belam. She trusts him, so she tells him about Mulky and the New People and her concerns that they might be the Others returned. Belam cautions her to be careful. Communication is the key, and it looks like that's what Mulky's trying to do. They have to be able to talk to the New People before they can deterring if they are indeed the Others. He cautions Kethor to move slowly. He doesn’t want her making the same mistakes he did with the Others. He asks her to search her feelings. What does she remember of the Others. Do these New People feel the same way?
Kethor tries, but it’s hard to keep her objectivity with Mulky involved. The only thing she can say for sure is that she’s never seen those "fire stones" or the blinking cube before. She still feels guilty about never telling Mulky she’s his real mother. Shamans are not allowed to raise their own children—it would interfere with their duties--so their children are given to another family to raise. The rules didn’t say anything about a birth parent taking on that child as an apprentice after the child decides to join the temple. She could have told him then, but didn’t. She knew how frustrating it was not to have anyone to run and complain to when Belam got on her nerves during her apprenticeship to him.
Belam informs her that it’s probably best for her not to mention Mulky’s connection to these New People. Rumors about the Others have made it to the streets. The Pillar is not happy about this. Kethor understands. She leaves Belam’s and finds a balcony where she can stare out over the city and get lost in it’s rhythms. Trying to think back to when she was a little girl and the time of the Others has left her shaken. She doesn’t know why it’s upsetting her so. Her thoughts keep returning to that dream about the metal demon that lives in a hollow mountain and tries to rend the Blanket.
As she stands on the balcony, she realizes that something’s wrong in the city. A commotion somewhere. She looks for the source of the commotion and sees two of the New People, in their strange clothing and with their strange gadgets, walking down the main street, gawking and trying to engage people. They’re attracting a crowd and don’t seem to be concerned about this. One of them is the man who was talking to Mulky the night before--Alan. Kethor swears and runs down to the street.
There is a crowd around the two New People by the time Kethor gets to them. They are smiling and trying to talk to everyone. The glowing cube hangs on a chain around Alan’s neck and blinks wildly. Alan spots Kethor in the crowd, smiles, points to her and says "ship!" Kethor is horrified. The man continues talking to her like she should be able to understand him. She doesn’t, but the sound of the language he speaks frightens her. It’s not the same as the language they were speaking before. There’s something familiar about it. It’s a language giants spoke. It might be the language of the Others, but Kethor isn’t sure. It’s been so long. Alan looks sad when he realizes Kethor doesn’t understand him.
The Guards show up and arrest the New People. They are thrown in jail while the Court of the Grand Council debates the situation. It’s an open forum since they want to get a consensus from everyone who’s willing to talk to the Council about the encounter on the street. Opinions are mixed. Representatives of the Pillar want the Council to send Guards to see if there are any more of these New People around. They should be arrested as well.
Kethor thinks this whole mess will be over soon when steps out of the crowd and protests that these New People are good. He’s seen them. They mean no harm. Kethor curses again and announces that she and Mulky both have seen them. Mulky glares at Kethor, sure now that she will use this opportunity to turn the council against the New People. But seeing his eyes, she doesn’t. Lying to keep Mulky out of trouble, she says she was conducting her own investigation of the New Thing when she and Mulky discovered these New People. They watched them from a distance. She hasn’t reported it yet because she wasn’t sure what to make of them.
The council asks her what she’s seen, especially if they’ve cut down any trees. She has to admit, no, she’s seen no signs that they had, nor had she seen any signs of peat use. Mulky then announces that Shao has given them other means to make light and keep warm. He then tells the council about the glowing rocks that they were willing to trade for. He says the rocks are better than peat. Kethor curses under her breath. Mulky tells the Court that all they’re trying to do is figure out a way to communicate. How could the Court judge the intentions of the New People unless they could state what they are? The Court considers this and sends for the imprisoned New People.
The New People are brought from their cells and into the Court of the Grand Council. Alan is looking sheepish, his companion is glaring at him. Mulky demonstrates how they’ve been learning each other’s language. Mulky asks Alan for a glowing rock, and demonstrates how that works as well. "Who knows what we could learn from each other." The Council is in a liberal state of mind. They agree that the New People can continue to learn the language of the People, but any new devices had to be presented to the Council first.
Kethor watches Mulky’s presentation helplessly. From behind her a member of the Pillar whispers in her ear "It appears your apprentice has been doing more than observing." Kethor has to agree.
The New People are allowed to move among the People, though a guard must be present with each one. It’s for mutual protection. The New People don’t seem to mind. All seven of them find a place to stay in the city. No one is left to guard their metal house and they don’t seem to be worried about that either. Mulky invites Alan to stay with him and Kethor, but when Kethor finds out about that, she forbids it.
The next morning, Kethor gets up. Mulky hasn’t laid out her clothes. She goes into the kitchen and finds him with Alan, learning more words. Mulky sees her and realizes he’s been negligent in his duties. He rushes to Kethor’s room to lay out her clothes, leaving Kethor and Alan in the room alone. Alan says "ship?" hopefully. Kethor glares at him. Alan tries again "coffee?" and gestures to the opposite chair, smiling. Kethor sits down and Alan pours her a glass of the brown liquid. "You give us glowing rocks, we give you coffee. Fair trade," Kethor tells him, knowing that he doesn’t understand the joke. Alan tries to start another conversation. "Mulky—." Kethor cuts him off. "Why can’t you just leave him alone? Why can’t you just get back into your metal house and leave us all alone?" Mulky walks back into the kitchen and tells Kethor he’s laid out her clothes. He’ll make her breakfast while she gets dressed. Kethor returns to her room.
Time passes. The New People have gotten better at learning the People’s language. Some of the People, like Mulky, are learning the New People’s language. Kethor sees less and less of him each day. The more Mulky finds out about the New People and their ways, the more belligerent he becomes to Kethor and her "primitive beliefs." When Kethor asks Mulky why he doesn’t show up at the temple anymore, he responds that he doesn’t believe in that stuff anymore. There is no Blanket, or skipped stitching. The lights in the "Sky" are "Stars", with other worlds around them. The Great Tree is just a really big tree and doubts the years in one Cycle are any different from the years in another. He even doubts Shao’s existence. Kethor begs him not to tell anyone of this.
Rumors on the streets lead the Pillar to believe that other people are having such doubts. These people are starting to congregate in groups to discus their ideas. The Council isn’t doing anything about the situation. At Belam’s insistence, the Council has granted the New People sanctuary for the time being, so the Pillar can’t move against them, but they can disburse these dissident groups of the People. The disbursals aren’t always peaceful. After a particularly brutal confrontation, Kethor sees the New People arguing with each other. They aren’t talking with the People as much, and some of the People refuse to talk to them. Kethor gets a small pleasure from this turn of events, and that bothers her.

That night, Kethor dreams of seven metal demons standing on a mountain, rending the entire Blanket. All of the Great Chaos shines through and consumes the world. The next day, Kethor sees Alan sitting alone on a street corner. The inquisitive smirk is gone. He’s looking distant. She glares at him. The rhythms of the street are different. They’re darker, gloomier. Kethor doubts they’ll ever return to the way they were. Alan looks at Kethor, sadly, and says "I get into my metal house and get out of here." That afternoon, no one sees any of the New People on the streets anymore. Rumors abound that the Council has secretly arrested them. The Council denies this.

The dissidents plan a big rally. It will conclude with a march on the Council to demand the release of the New People. Kethor begs Mulky not to go. She knows the Pillar will not allow the rally to take place. She assures the Council doesn’t have the New People under arrest. Mulky says he knows this. The New People went back to their metal ship. They’re looking for something in the mountains near where they landed. Kethor looks at Mulky in shock. If he knows the Council isn’t holding the New People, why go to the rally? Mulky tells her he’s not going to the rally, he’s going back to the New People. He’s going with them when they return to the "Sky". Kethor forbids it, but he isn’t listening to her anymore. She’s no longer his master so she has no more claim over him. Kethor almost tells him that she does, but doesn’t. Instead, she threatens to destroy the New Peoples "ship". Mulky laughs at this, not believing she could. He tells her they’ll just call another one, and leaves.

This news leaves Kethor in shock. If the New People are looking for something in those particular mountains, it could only be one thing. Kethor remembers the mountain... the Other's hid something there, a metal demon that can call other "ships". She goes to the box with the necklace and the doll. She gets out the necklace and holds it, hoping it will trigger her memory as to where the mountain is. She starts remembering, but she also gets some memories she's not prepared for, so she stops trying to remember. She has an idea of where it is though, but now, she doesn’t want to go there... but she must to save Mulky. If the New People are looking for the metal demon, then they are the Others returned, and Mulky is in danger from them.
So she goes looking for the mountain. The closer she gets, the more her memories of the Other’s try to emerge. She finds the mountain and the cave where the demon lives. Its actually a piece of metallic machinery. She remembers the name of this demon is "The Coventry Beacon"
The noise and the flood of memories overtakes her. She thinks it's a trick of the demon machine trying to drive her mad. Her only hope is to destroy the machine. She remembers that the card has the power to do this, but how. She has to sift through the memories to remember how ... her... father... started the machine. She remembers it was her father, that he was an Other. He put the card into ... that slot... and said... "Coventry Beacon start transmit." Kethor remembers the words and what they mean {just those, though, she doesn’t all of a sudden speak a Terran language now}. The word is "start" is wrong. She needs another word to stop the machine.
She has to remember back farther, back into the memories of a loving family that doesn’t exist anymore, how their colony ship of two thousand cryogenically frozen people came to the World to start a new life for themselves, and how the first ones to wake up cut down trees to clear farm land and burn campfires with. Then the Pillar came and destroyed the ship with all the frozen people. Her parents and a few others managed to rescue the Beacon signal, carry it to this cave in the hopes the People wouldn’t find it, and start it up. On the way back down from the mountain, the Pillar found them. Her parents sent her off into the woods to escape. Belam found her, realized who she was, lied about her family background, and took her as his apprentice.
Finally she gets the word "stop". Saying the sequence "Coventry Beacon stop transmit", the beacon shuts down. She relaxes, understanding who she is now, not sure who she is anymore. She sees the survey team in the doorway. They’ve just heard her speak more of that mysterious. They look at her dumbfounded, and Kethor realizes they know. Mulky is also there. He doesn’t understand what's just happened.
The New People return to the city to stop the rally. Kethor explains to the Pillar that realizing the damage they had caused, the New People had meant to leave, but they couldn’t communicate this to the People, so their disappearance almost caused a riot. Their only hope now was establishing better communications, with the Pillar and the New People working together. Only then could they figure out what the truth was and what they should tell the People. In light of recent situations, the Pillar agrees.
The Pillar has learned that the New People are actually a survey team from a galactic planetary alliance. There’s wasn’t the first such galactic civilization. At least one other had existed before, spreading humans throughout the galaxy, and then collapsing, leaving the humans to forget where they came from. The survey team’s job was to find isolated civilizations, make contact, and recover any information they might have on the old civilization. The Others were members of a colony ship launched thousands of years ago in the infancy of the new galactic planetary alliance. Those ships were a lot slower. The survey team was in the area when they heard the distress beacon. They thought they’d be rescuing an old colony and never expected to find the People until Mulky turned up at their doorstep. They definitely had no intention of destroying the People’s belief system.
Mulky still wants to leave and explore this new thing called a Galaxy. Kethor decides not to tell she’s his mother. Not yet anyway. She doesn’t want that news to interfere with his decision to leave.
Kethor and Alan are sitting in a park outside the temple. Kethor has brought a book. It’s an old one that tells about the time before the Blanket. They are both wearing small translator devices on their ear that the New People created. Only members of the Pillar get these devices and the New People only travel in the company of a Pillar member. The New People have no problem with this.
It ends with Alan taking the book…

"How old is it?" Alan asked, carefully turning the pages. He couldn’t read the language yet, but the images in the margins spoke volumes to him.
"This particular book is only thirty years old," Kethor told him. "It's been copied several times. The original goes back thousands of years. It was said to have been written at the beginning of time." She got a sad, far off look in her eyes. "Two months ago I would have told you it was written at the beginning of time."
Alan smiled. "Thank you for this. I'll return it once it's been scanned. I’ve ran across Shao in my research before."
"Really?"
"The Goddess of Protection and Secrets, oh yes. I’m looking forward to the cross references."
"Do your people believe in Shao?"
"No," Alan said.
"Oh." Kethor said. She sat back, closed her eyes, and listened to the rhythm of the city. It was lighter than it has been in months, but different than she remembered. More complicated. But it was still her city. "Can I ask you a profession question?"
"Sure."
"Now that the Blanket's gone, how long will we be safe from the Chaos of your Alliance?"
"We have protections set up for native populations. There are Laws--"
"--that do not prevent the young from leaving home, that do not prevent us from buying wondrous objects we've never seen before, or listening to ideas we've never would have contemplated on our own," Kethor said. "You've had experience with these things. How long do we have before we are consumed and are no longer different from any other world in your Alliance?"
Alan sighed sadly. He knew what she was really asking. It was an insightful question, one he didn't think he'd have to answer for quite some time yet.
"It can happen in a generation," he said finally, "maybe two hundred years, maybe longer. It depends on how willing your people as a whole are to fight for their traditions."
Kethor nodded and looked back at the book in Alan’s lap. She took in the musty smell of the paper and the feel of it as she brushed her hands over the rough ink. It had been intricately decorated, fashioned by a loving hand that was doing the work of the gods, work that had been going on for thousands of years. Alan patted her on the hand and she looked back at him.
"Keep what you can safe," he told her. "Eventually, your Children will look for it again. They always do. Everyone needs to know where they came from."
Kethor smiled. That, if anything, was true.

Instructors Comments
Back