Thru the Badger Hole Read online

  Madrik made one more run around the room, checking once again the items that he had discovered. Other than the additional lighting, it looked pretty much as he had found it when he came into the little suite. He glanced around one more time before leaving, carefully closing the door.

  He walked out into a hall that was now quite well lit. There were additional sconces bright with light every few yards of the hallway, alternating on the side that they occurred. He could clearly see that there was no dust on the floor in this area. Interesting, I wonder when that change happened.

  He counted a total of six doors off the hallway. Methodically investigating each one, Madrik found the same general layout as the first suite, with some minor variations as to size and configuration. It reminded him of staff quarters above the bar at which he used to work. Smiling in remembrance, he went back to the center landing at the top of the stairs.

  Even here the lighting was better now, and the dust that had stirred as he walked up the first hallway was gone, totally gone. Someone or something is listening to me very carefully, he thought. It doesn’t feel dangerous or harmful, but I better be careful.

  At his last thought, there was a brief stab of hurt along the connection bond that he had made. Instantaneously responsive to that distress, Madrik wordlessly sent an apology and reassurance. The lights in the hallway grew brighter in answer, and Madrik felt the satisfaction of a puzzle piece that had finally attached. He may not understand everything, but at least he had a few beginning clues.

  Standing in that center area, Madrik noticed that another one of the hallways was now lit. Occupying the center position, it was a shorter, wider hall than the first one he had explored, with only three doors visible along its length. There was a door on the left that was close to the landing, one on the right that was midway down the length, and a third that was at the very end of the 15-foot hall. It was the first that he had seen with double doors, and he resolved to look at it last.

  His curiosity now totally roused, Madrik made his way down the hall. Once again noting the pristine appearance of the floor and other surfaces, the man was determined not to be distracted by anything. It was time to check out the three doors.

  Madrik found that the first door on the left did not open. He tried the handle several times, but when it stubbornly refused to open, he chose to bypass it. The same result happened when he tried the door on the right. Sighing in disappointment, Madrik walked a few feet to the double doors and slammed to a halt.

  The doors were beautiful and stunningly colored. Rectangular in form, they were stained a vibrant teal color and artistically carved to resemble the trunk and branches of a tree growing up the center jam and branching out to touch each of the door tops and sides. The lower half of each door was a solid panel of carved wood while the upper half had cut out branches of the wood backed by sections of darkened glass. It was a distinctive and amazingly well-crafted portal to whatever chamber was beyond it.

  Running his hands over the detailed carving, Madrik almost felt like the wood was still alive. It seemed to pulse and warm under his fingers, generating a low-level hum that echoed the song that he kept hearing across the bonding channel in his mind. He loved the door. It spoke to him, sang to him, murmuring words that he didn’t understand but somehow had always needed.

  Shaking himself out of the light reverie, Madrik steeled himself to open the door and then froze once again. His hand was in midair, his foot was slightly off the ground, and he was unable to move. His eyes felt like they were going to fall out of his head as he stared at the small panel that was mounted on the wall beside the right-hand door.

  This wooden plate was not carved elaborately like the doors, but its beautiful carving matched the craftsmanship of the main doors. It had only two words carved into the wood. Madrik Norgren. Someone had expected him and had carved his name into the panel.

  Madrik’s hands were shaking as he started to open the doors, his mind bubbling with conjecture and questions. He almost dreaded what he was going see next because nothing had been like he expected since he had landed in the dirt and dust of the room downstairs.

  Steeling himself and taking a breath to gather his courage, Madrik pulled the doors open and saw the chamber beyond them.

  Chapter 4 – Gathering Clues

  The room was both expected and a surprise. It was a large open chamber just like the other living quarters had included. This one, however, was easily four times the size of those. It had more doorways opening off of it with three to the left and two on the right. Exploring the left ones first, Madrik found a smaller version of the normal bathrooms. It lacked the strange smaller chambers and the soaking tub of the other bathrooms that he had seen but still contained the toilet and sink. The small room opened directly onto the sitting room and reminded him of the company powder room in his old house. Moving to the next door, he found a smaller version of the sleeping chambers, complete with attached bathroom. Might be guest quarters, he thought.

  The third doorway led to a room that was larger even than the other suites’ bedrooms. It was tall and airy. Madrik could feel its atmosphere of peace in the balance of its structure and the order implicit in its layout. Most of the walls were covered floor to ceiling with built-in shelves. Madrik immediately dubbed that the office. He could almost see a desk in the room, as well as, a comfortable couch and chairs in front of the fireplace for those days when he just needed to get away. Dear God, I’m thinking of this in terms of ownership, as if I am staying.

  Shaking himself to bring his tiring mind back into focus, Madrik went to the large sitting room and on to explore one of the two doors that opened off the right-hand side. The first of them was obviously an area for preparing foods and some informal dining.

  Madrik was a talented amateur chef and had delighted in making meals and treats for his wife and daughter. Pain shot through him, radiating down his arms as he realized that it had been hours since he last thought of Jenny and Rachel. Feeling disloyal, he might have lingered in that trough of depression, but his thoughts moved on, uncontrollable as a team of wild horses.

  The rectangular table in the eating nook was three times the size of the square one downstairs. Just as well made, it dominated the room easily, especially since there were no chairs or benches anywhere.

  That’s something I’m going to have to take care of later, he thought.

  Before opening the final door, Madrik was convinced that he was going to find another sleeping area. The pattern was there, and the functionality telegraphed what he should find beyond the portal. Once again, he stopped in amazement. It was indeed a sleeping chamber. He could see the strange hooks and the closed niches that were probably closets. There was an open doorway for a bathroom as well.

  What startled and amazed him was that the raised platform that had been bare and uninviting in the other chambers was different here, very different. A soft light on either side of the platform made it easy to focus on the inviting-looking rectangular mattress and covered pillows that softened its surface. The bed was turned back seductively, and he could see the deep green sheets and the loft of the comforter that topped the bedding.

  As if a switch had been thrown, Madrik’s body ached in exhaustion. All of the strangeness and weird experiences of the day had culminated into this moment when he could allow himself to be tired. Shaking like a leaf, he dropped with a thunk onto the seat of the chair. What? What chair? There wasn’t a chair here a little while ago.

  Overwhelmed by the rapid changes and the many unfamiliar things that he was having problems mentally digesting, Madrik gave into temptation. He stood up, pulling off his torn and dirty jacket and kicking off his shoes. With no conscious thought and no mental conversation, the weary man crawled into the bed and pulled the comforter over his shoulder.

  As he slipped into the abyss of sleep, Madrik felt the soft touch of moving air and the slow fading of the light. Feeling cared for and comforted as he sank into boneless collapse, he let sleep
claim him.

  << <> >>

  Madrik’s awakening was a slow, gentle reclamation of consciousness. A diffused golden light was shining on him, and he stretched to get the kinks out of his muscles. Part of his normal waking ritual, these were the movements that got him up out of bed and onto the tasks of the day. Luxuriating in the feeling of a lighter spirit, Madrik was initially confused. Then he remembered. Sitting bolt upright in the bed, he glanced around wildly. It was not a dream.

  The room was as he remembered before he had lapsed into unconsciousness and desperately-needed sleep. The bed, the lone chair, and the closets, hooks, and open bathroom doorway were all still there.

  Mentally, he struggled to fit things into a sane framework. Luckily, the deep sleep had let him resolve some of that uncertainty while he slumbered, and he did not feel as disoriented this morning.

  Suddenly, his body let him know that it was awake, and it needed a bathroom. It needed it NOW! The urgent need drove him up out of bed and into the bathroom before he realized he didn’t really know how to operate the bathroom fixtures. The controls were all things that he had to figure out but had not. Of course, that didn’t make a difference to what his body needed. Hoping that he was not creating more of a mess than he wanted to clean up, Madrik approached the bathroom toilet with trepidation.

  An explosive breath escaped him in relief as he realized that there now was water in the bottom of what he thought was the toilet. Still nervous, he urinated into the toilet and then examined the structure for something that resembled a flusher. The top surface of the toilet looked unbroken, so he examined both sides of it, wondering how he was supposed to flush. Straightening up, he saw that there was a previously unnoticed button set into the upper right corner of the toilet back. Hoping that he was doing what he wanted to accomplish, Madrik pushed the button and was rewarded by the sound of water flowing and the visible evidence of new water coming into the bottom of the toilet. Hah, one thing figured out!

  Feeling more confident, Madrik walked over to the sink and turn the faucets on. A gush of hot and cold water poured out of the faucet and pooled in the upper sink. Madrik saw that there was a stopper mechanism that prevented the water from flowing down to the lower bowl, but that it was closed at this point. When that obstruction was removed, the water would travel down a pipe and pour into the lower sink. He wondered briefly about what it was intended for but decided it wasn’t important enough to figure out right now.

  Madrik felt itchy and dirty. He had always preferred to have showers in the morning and a soaking bath after a hard workout. Since he appeared to be on a roll of discovery, he decided to try the “grater” fixture because that was the only contraption in the bathroom that seemed to sing “shower.”

  Pulling off his clothing, Madrik spared a regretful thought for the memory of his abrupt collapse of the night before. He knew that he had transferred a considerable amount of dirt and grime to the bed sheets. His clothes were so filthy that he didn’t like even laying them on the edge of the bathing pool. I’m going to have to do something about getting them clean or finding something else to wear, he thought to himself.

  Alert and tense at trying another experiment, Madrik stepped into the grater room. He expected something to happen, anything. He was poised to react, to fling himself out of the room if something happened that was hurtful, but nothing happened at all. Confused, he put his left hand on the chamber side that had the larger holes, planning on bending over to see if there was any clue lower on the wall. As soon as his hand touched the side, water began to spurt out of the holes. The longer he left his hand there, the greater the force of the water that emerged. It was cool, colder than he liked. As he pulled his hand off the wall, Madrik slid his fingers slightly toward the left side. The water got warmer.

  Excited at finding another clue, Madrik started playing with his shower. Moving his hand to the left made the water warmer while moving the hand to the right made it colder. Much colder. Brrrr! He would not make that mistake again!

  He finally settled on a medium-hot shower, standing there under the rush of water and feeling it pummel his body in a gentle massage. After the events of the last 24 hours, it was heaven. The water was like warm, thick silk on his skin, washing away stress with the grime. It felt good, even though he didn’t have soap or shampoo. Rinsing his face and hair, Madrik just let his mind float, content in the feeling of getting cleaner and letting the movement of the water pull some of his worries away.

  Laughing to himself because he hadn’t thought about what he was going to put on his body when he got out of the shower. Madrik carefully left the little chamber. As he stepped over the small threshold, he noticed that it was cleverly designed to keep the water inside so that the polished stone floor of the rest of the bathroom did not become slick. Even so, his damp feet slid slightly, and Madrik put his hand on the wall to prevent any bigger slippage. He noticed absently that the water stopped as he moved over the threshold, which became one more of the pieces to the puzzle that was this world.

  Instead of the cold hard wall that he expected, he got a handful of a very soft fabric. It was not the terrycloth pile of the towels that he had used at home, but he decided that its sudden appearance was a sign that he was to use it to dry himself off. Rather than mentally fight the sensation, Madrik decided just to go with the flow and used the large rectangle of fabric to thoroughly dry his body and hair. It was an amazingly absorbent fabric. Even after he had thoroughly taken care of the moisture on his body, it still felt dry. This technology would make me rich at home.

  Home. Madrik wondered where ‘home’ was. The house that he had lived in with Jenny and Rachel was no longer that. It echoed painfully with their absence and pulsed with pain and the aftermath of grief. Shadows of their smiles and laughter haunted him there.

  That house would never be home again. Caught by the unexpected stab of sorrow, Madrik held onto the edge of the sink and let the pain pound its way through him. It was not as bad as it had been before. There was another presence in the back of his mind now, something that was sending comfort and the welcome of belonging to him. He knew he wasn’t alone, and that helped.

  Knowing that he needed to get moving, Madrik straightened up and scrubbed a hand across his face, removing the slick, salty moisture of his tears. As much as he dreaded putting them back on, he turned to pick up his dirty clothes but realized that they weren’t there any longer. Instead, there was a pile of neatly folded garments waiting for him on the side of the bathing pool where he had left his dirty clothes. An exploration of the new garments showed that he been given an assortment of different types, ranging from tightly fitted slacks and shirts to looser tunics and lower garments looked almost like sweatpants.

  Deciding on a whim that he was going to try the tunic and looser pants, Madrik realized that there were no undergarments. Apparently, men in this world go commando. That is going to take some getting used to.

  Smiling to himself, Madrik quickly completed dressing. As he pulled the clothes on, he was already mapping out a plan for his day. First, some more water, then he needed to find food. Further exploration and more puzzle pieces would follow. This world was a gigantic puzzle, a challenging game he got to play. He was conscious that he felt excited for the first time in a long time.

  This was going to be a monumental task, one that he was confident that he could perform well. He was not sure that he remembered how to have fun, but he certainly was going to try.

  The day was waiting for him, and he was in a hurry to embrace it.

  Chapter 5 – The Importance of Names

  Madrik wasn’t sure what was going to be facing him when he made his way down the stairs. Considering his last 24 hours in this world, he thought anything was possible. Coming downstairs, he noticed in passing that the steps had been cleared of all dust and dirt. They were structurally the same stairs, but they look subtly more finished and polished. Maybe the difference was that the coating on them was shinier or look tha
t way due to the absence of dust.

  The man had descended most of the length of the stairway from his bedroom level into the main barroom. The upper portion of the staircase was now enclosed which seemed more finished to Madrik. He liked this look better and appreciated the wall sconces that brightened the view. Am I getting used to the way this place weirdly changes all the time?

  Two-thirds of the way down the staircase there now was a small landing that allowed him to turn to the right and descend the last few steps into the main room. Sometime during his sleep, he had fixated on the idea that this building was a bar. Therefore he had decided to call the biggest and most immediately available chamber the barroom. And since he felt like he had come down a hole he thought that the bar should reference that, but it definitely wasn’t a rabbit hole. Trying to figure out a better image, he had settled on the idea of a badger hole. That image fit better because it was the type of pit that would be dug by a powerful and intelligent creature. Something that was very stubborn.

  “Badger Hole Bar, I like that name,” he said out loud. A flash of intense pleasure and gratitude slammed along the mental connection that he had. There was a visceral set of clicks that echoed in his brain and body as if some important threshold had been crossed. He had almost forgotten about the presence of that other entity in the back of his mind. It had been so quiet this morning that he had focused on his day and hadn’t spared a thought to whoever, or whatever, had bonded with him.

  The intensity of the mental touch reminded him of all of the contacts and touches of the day before. The increase in lights, the dust cleanup, the water in the toilet, all of those details were things that were supplied by somebody that cared about him. His mental partner could change the configuration of this building and was responsive to his desires.

  This was an incredible sort of thing to have happened. Madrik wasn’t too sure how he felt about the whole situation, but he was conscious of intense gratitude and pleasure that he had a companion now, especially after being so alone in his grief.