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(excerpted in part from a rare unabridged copy of "The Chronicles of
Talislanta", by the wizard Tamerlin.)
"After two unsuccessful attempts to study a tribe of Wildmen at close
range, the last of which involved a truly frightful encounter with a pack
of Wildwomen in heat, I hit upon a more fruitful strategy. Rather than
attempting to watch the tribe from hiding or approach them in an open and
friendly fashion (the latter method having nearly proved fatal), I
scoured the surrounding woods until I had gathered a considerable
quantity of a local fungi known as skullcap. This done, I packed the
mushrooms in a basket, sat on a rock in plain view of the tribe, and waited.
"Several moments passed before any of the tribe noticed my presence. Then
a small group of Wildmen approached, their expressions registering a
combination of curiosity and puzzlement. One touched me one the shoulder,
then jumped back as if shocked to discover that I was actually there and
not some sort of vision. Another came close, looked into the basket, and
exhibitted a great, fanged grinned. The creature pointed to its mouth; I
nodded and gave him a mushroom. He swallowed it whole, shook his mane of
dredlocks wildly, and yelped in apparent glee.
Soon the others were crowding around me in a most friendly fashion. I
handed out mushrooms by the dozen, until there was only one left in the
basket. This last mushroom none of the Wildmen would accept. Instead, by
the use of certain signs and grunting noises, they indicated that this
mushroom was for me. At first I hesitated, uncertain whether it would be
more dangerous for me to ingest a poisonous mushroom or to defy a band of
armed and inebriated Wildmen. Since the mushroom was rather small and the
Wildmen quite large, I decided on the former course of action.
As soon as I ate the skullcap the attitude of the Wildmen underwent a
marked change. Clapping me on the back and hooting loudly, they motioned
for me to join them. Together we set off into the woods at a loping gait,
the Wildmen swinging their peculiar "singing stones" above their heads
and howling like tundra beasts. Fantastic images of prismatic-colored
topography swirled before my eyes, and I was swept away by feelings of
wild euphoria. This was no doubt due to the effects of the skullcap, as I
realize now, though at the time I was convinced that these were visions
of some great truth that had eluded me since childhood. I remember little
else about the experience save for the fact that I awoke sometime later,
suspended from the uppermost branches of a spyder-oak, with a headache
that lasted the better part of three days."
©1994 SMS
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