Klipso: From death comes life.

Field Notes from Diamonds Hadder: On the topic of Klipso and the Paper Cage.

When I arrived at Kilwaughter Castle I was young and always felt out of place… a stranger of sorts amongst the things and people I encountered. Zabble did his best over the years to make me feel normal and blend into the crowds but it was obvious that I didn’t view the world through the same eyes as everyone else, no pun intended. There was a lot of confusion and misunderstood pain in me… a longing and yearning to understand why I was who I was and where I came from. I seemed to find solace in the gardens of Kilwaughter… often crawling out of bed in the wee hours of the night with Ezra and sneaking out to the Klipso ponds on the northern side of the gardens. Many a night we sat there with the frogs and dragonflies under the stars and I seemed to enjoy that… it calmed me anyway. I’ve always had a connection with the animals around the castle and it’s obvious to me that I could pick up on something about them… almost sense their feelings and thoughts. I can’t explain it but it was always evident to me. It might sound strange, but I took a liking to a frog that made a strange humming sound, similar to the Warmoths hum. In time I began mimicking the sound and it seemed to calm my temper and give me a little taste of peace. I think he liked it too as we would go back and forth humming as though we were talking about a million different things about our day. For years this was a weekly routine with me and Ezra and my little garden friend.

One day while returning from town with Zabble I happen to notice a large flock of Emperor geese roaming the gardens in quite a frantic stir. Emperor geese are not really something you see on the grounds and I thought it rather odd… so I decided to investigate… upon reaching the Klipso ponds I felt a strange emptiness…. The Klipso Pads were tattered and sunken and everything was destroyed… still wet Emperor footprints were everywhere as though they had quite the feast… all frogs were missing and most likely eaten. In the background I could see and hear the emperors hissing and squaking defiantly on the garden grasses… with fat bellies. It seems silly now, but at the time, I had a rather touching connection to that frog. I cursed the geese of course and tried to convince Zabble that we have them for dinner… a thought that Zabble did not find very amusing. I cried a few nights but came to terms with it as a 6 year old must. For the first several weeks following the incident.. Me and Ezra returned to the Klipso ponds each night thinking maybe my little friend might be there humming to me but he never appeared again. This was the first real connection I had to the gardens and it was hard on me to think it gone. As a young child that connection and time represented so much more to me… it was a safe place where me and Ezra didn’t have to try to fit in and it was a relationship that although might seem insignificant to most, as a 6 years old, it was everything to me. And so I learned that things come and go and that the time you do have, well, you should cherish it when you can with who you can.

One day a few months later, on the 7th anniversary of me arriving at Kilwaughter, Zabble called me into his chambers and presented me with a gift. I thought it be just another silly scroll, as he seems to think I enjoy reading about spells as much as he does. I do not. He laid a paper down on the table and then backed away…. With a silly grin…. I was expecting perhaps there was more to the package but he just sat there grinning… he seemed rather pleased by himself and I think maybe he was looking for a pat on the back… We both sat there for minutes in silence till I finally said,….. “and?”

His grin suddenly lost its curl as he looked at the paper in wonder.…. And then quite suddenly there was a pencil drawing of water on the page… although the water was moving…. How strange and bizarre …. and lily pads drifted by as though drawn in real life but moving…. and Vern Dragon flies.... How astonishing I thought…. An animated paper world of its own…. A pond…

"How amazing Master Zabble! Thank you!" I said, "How on earth did you do that?"

“That’s not all Little Hadder, keep looking”.

No sooner than the words left his lips a tiny pair of eyes poked out from the pencil water line… penciled eyes from a frog… my frog or one that looked just like him of course…

“Dear Lord Master Zabble.. what have you done?"

As I finished my sentence the frog jumped from the paper and onto the desk… the pencil lines turned to color and flesh and bone… or at least the appearance of it… making a illusionary watery mess of the desk and Zabbles scrolls… which sent him into a frantic reflexive paper rescue mission. Ezra turned her head to the side as though she was confused but somehow working out what she was seeing… her ears perked up as well.. if she could speak, she would be saying “What the?” and then boom, the frog leapt over her snout back into the paper in a big pencil lined splash. She nearly fell on the floor trying to escape it’s launch only to quickly gather herself and start smelling the paper to investigate… with a few grumble grumbles and small moans and grunts as if to say “Do it again, do it again!!”.

“What is this I said?”

“Little Hadder, I made this for you… to remind you that although we lose things in life… the memory of them never dies and with a little magic and wonder you can always call upon that place that gave you joy and hope. It’s my gift to you now. A little familiar friend to hum with forever. Death is just a silly made up word Little Hadder, the memories we have are alive and well but simply in between time and space. I hope you remember that. Far less important things have decided the fate of the world Mr Hadder. I lost a few grey hairs with that spell… but I thought it would serve you well someday. It could and it just might save your life.”

Zabble had a strange smirk cross his lips as he said this, tapping his head, which usually implies something that only he understands.

“I don’t know what to say, what an amazing gift Zabble, Thank you, I suppose I’ll call him Klipso.”

I rolled up the paper and took it to my room and that night me and Ezra listened to it hum while we fell asleep… I drifted off to... “It might save your life…. It might save your life“ … that Zabble, always so dramatic.

PS. Off topic: If your still here… there might be a preliminary video on the front page for the Stargazer song… maybe.

#klipso #diamondshadder #evermore #hadderuniverse #zabble #fieldnotes #erza #klipsoponds #zabblegifts #emperorgeese #theearlyyears #kilwaughter #papercage #thepremonition

Klipso and the paper cage.

Image: Diamonds Hadder on pilgrimage.

It’s Friday and the eggnog tap is running in BOK like the red river in spring… a small update this afternoon as I approach the weekend and return to the lower tower full time. It’s a spooky time this mid October…. My favorite month of the year. I’ve been thinking about Klipso and the story surrounding him, he’s an interesting frog… Magic you know…. His cage is a pencil drawing and he can leap from the page….. Another gift from Zabble and if you haven’t figured it out yet… his gifts are generally secret lessons to teach me something, next week I’ll tell you about Klipso, he might come in handy someday… things usually do in my world. I Hope to release the stargazer video this weekend and I imagine I’ll be able to finish up “Hell Fall”, or close to it, although the middle of the song has a beautiful little arrangement that might require some orchestration and time at the piano… we’ll see… never know how the day or night will play out. I may end up on a mountain tonight.. you never really know. I did a few video shoots while on my 1st pilgrimage, which is where I’ve lifted these stills from of me in the forest reading the good book. I imagine that a few people who stumbled upon me in the woods might have been a little confused or down right scared as to what they were seeing and hearing echoing through the white tree forest that afternoon… it made me chuckle then and it makes me chuckle now…. But that didn’t stop me from reading or doing the things I was doing. I don’t have much time anymore to care about what people think… I’m madly guided by a odd vision and a strange dream and it’s nonnegotiable. It has no timeline… no limit.. no beginning and it has no end… and it doesn’t matter what the world looks like or acts like outside of its existence. It doesn’t bend and it doesn’t mimic for reason. It just is what it is based on what created it in the first place. Nonnegotiable dreams are kind of fun… and rewarding. Results may vary but in time your choices help you sleep at night because they are yours and no one else’s. I’ve always enjoyed failing on my own terms, well not the failing part. Succeeding is better, but that goes without saying. I’ve shared in the outcomes of both in life many times my little woodsy friends. I like to think that my ability to peruse crazy self-serving notions is a notable attribute of mine but sometimes… hhmmm... it can be tricky to maneuver down that road with other people’s expectations and ultimatums blurring the path like a june fog. There’s always another king around the corner you know… looking at your throne and your queen for that matter. Trust in any form is a hard thing to come by. All kingdoms fall… but the towers stay and the dream that built them can live forever without any silly crowns or lines in the dirt. Trust IS the dirt under the tower. It's the unmovable earth to which all things stand upon that are worth a god damn.... “Ezra… get down from there!!” Well, let’s just say Klipso is an amazing frog and if not for me, he wouldn’t even exist. A thought has brought him to life. It's a simple thing that is forever now in a world of wishes and could of beens.... my own world of witches and hooded things. How amazing is that. Wait till you see him.. he’s very cool. (Ribet)

Well, I’m off to buy spiders and pumpkins for the lower tower. Enjoy your weekend.

#diamondshadder #evermore #klipso #johnhadder #stargazer #philosophy #Zabble #october #hellfall #pilgrimage #thegoodbook #thewhitetrees #news

Europa: Finding the hidden Diamond City.

Field Notes from Diamonds Hadder: On the topic of finding the Doorway to the hidden city of Europa and learning of his true identity.

“We came over another ridge, it was me and Ezra and our new mysterious friend who saved me and Ezra from that dreadful encounter at the outer rim of the forest. I’ll talk in more detail about that another time, for now I wanted to make note of this journey to the hidden doorway of Europa. I think these notes will come in handy for lord Zabble. He’ll be happy to hear about the black forest and what truly lies beyond it, it’s a place he’s only read about in secret books but never had the chance to see for himself.. perhaps someday I can take him here. We approached a large cliff face at the top of "Black Mountain"… the mountain is covered in Black Dolomite rocks.. loose to the touch as though they just fell from the sky or were placed methodically to teeter and totter purposefully as a deterrent… occasionally as you step they move and shift and strange critters run from the cracks and creases, never a dull moment with Ezra as she seems to enjoy the occurrence again and again… and again… to the point it’s become quite funny actually, and annoying at times. I’m tired and sometimes it shows. I’m happy for her, I don’t think she enjoys the castle life much and it’s obvious to me that she belongs out here in the wild rather than chasing magic books around all day. I think perhaps that I hold her back but she’s so loyal to me I can’t image us ever being apart. There’s a glimmer in her eyes these adventurous days and it warms my heart to see her happy. It’s been days climbing this wretched face of the mountain… I’m told there’s a way to the hidden city at the top, though I don’t see any city and we are getting pretty high I must say. It’s quite the view out over the black forest… I can almost see BOK from here… occasionally we run across a kill and carcass or bones and it’s rather obvious that we are not alone up here. Ezra seems to freak out once and a while chasing an invisible scent of something and her hair stands on end… as she sticks her nose in holes and cracks and paces back and forth at the excitement of what it was or where it could be. It’s fun to watch. At the second ridge on day three we approached what looked like a white rock face that seemed to extend up into the clouds with glowing red dots marking the face of it… only these clouds never seemed to diminish or move for that matter. I noticed it a few days ago and slowly we’ve been inching towards it. Carved into the white rock face are small notches, almost like they were perfectly placed as some puzzle to solve… one possible solution would seem to take you into the clouds while any other would leave you there stranded on a rock face. My eyes seem to solve the puzzle instantly as though the notches have some sort of magic attached to them… I can’t imagine any human being able to make the choices needed to solve this puzzle and scale the wall correctly, but who knows. When I look up I see a strange red glow almost like a solved map.. I can’t explain it although it makes me think that maybe It was designed for me to see it… or people like me perhaps… I don’t know. Our mysterious friend surely knows the way as he doesn’t seem to skip a beat placing his hands and feet in the proper holes without hesitation. He’s rather poetic in his motion I must say… he moves rather effortlessly and doesn’t seem to tire much, to say nothing of what he did back at the forest to save us… he’s an interesting fellow for sure with an interesting weapon. Ezra will need to be strapped to a harness and carried up from here although she is quite a jumper and there are a few ledges that are within her reach… not for a human…but a Fanglor could certainly attempt the jumps as long as she follows us up. I decided to let her do it her way, judging by the look on her face when I reached for the harness... she didn’t appear very interested in the notion of being lifted, ha, grumble grumble… I don’t blame her… although I would have rather enjoyed seeing that. As we reached the clouds, we were suddenly climbing in a dream… a milky white nothingness… just glowing red lights and a rock face and us… this went on for a few hours and I recall thinking there was no way a normal man could accomplish such a thing. Suddenly we reached the cloud tops and broke through into an open sky… the cloud base looked as though we could walk on it… it was so thick and distinct. The ledge flattened out to plateau rather abruptly and we rested a brief moment in complete awe of the view. Ezra lay on her side exhausted from the adventure… panting with a sneaky gin on her face as though she was ready to do it again. Our friend was already on the move towards a strange rectangular shape hovering a few inches above the white polished plateau… a strange red glow outlined it…. It appears to be the same magic that outlined the path up the face of the cliff. It’s obvious now that this wasn’t meant to be found and that it was conjured by some very intense magic, that somehow I seem to be related to. Inside the window you could see another place… it was amazing… my first glimpse of the giant red diamond city… with pointed diamond spires that glimmered in the sun like crystal’s sparkling in a rainbow reflection. I felt an overwhelming peace come over me staring at it as my eyes glowed bright red and every inch of me felt whole again… I was lost in the moment of its beauty… Ezra and I both were still and frozen staring out into this strange place inside the glowing red window above the clouds…. it seems like we stood there forever, I’ll never forget it… or what happened next… when our mysterious companion approached slowly from behind, glowing red diamonds now shimmered under his hooded cloak…… he turned to me and said “Welcome home my Lord, we’ve missed you.” with a strange smile I’ll never forget.”

#europa #diamondshadder #evermore #hadderuniverse #fieldnotes #erza #diamondcity #blackmountain #johnhadder #dolomite #theredcity