#gluckuk

With a full-page illustrated A(1)

All the beasts in Howling Forest were safe in their caves, nests, and burrows.

It's midnight, and a storm is raging. Then, a light sips through the woods. Not lightning: a will-o'-the-wisp(2) that's lost its way, quite unusual even in Fantastica. It carries a white flag, making it a messenger of one sort or another.(3)

It finds a clearing, where three figures sit at a campfire.

There's a giant, who looks like he's made of grey stone and almost ten feet tall. The wotw(4) recognizes him as one of the rock-chewers, who are few in number and slowly eating the mountain range far from the Howling Forest. His vehicle is a great bicycle with two millstone wheels.

There's a night-hob, not much bigger than the wotw, who might have come from anywhere in Fantastica but likely came from somewhere far from the Howling Forest, because his vehicle is a bat.

And, there's a tiny, who live even further away than the rock chewers' mountain, but here he is with a pink snail mount.

The wotw is curious at three such different creatures sharing a fire, until it sees that they all also bear the white flags or scarves of messengers. It approaches, and is greeted warmly. They exchange names: the wotw is Blubb, the tiny is Gluckuk, the night-hob is Vooshvazool, and the giant is Pyornkrachzark.

The wotw really shouldn't stop for too long, as it carries a secret message for the Childlike Empress. The others say they're sure they carry the same message, and some discussion is had, describing how something ominous is happening in the far reaches of Fantastica. Objects, places, even whole features like lakes disappearing, leaving nothing, not even a hole, behind.(5)

Still, the wotw doesn't know the way to the Childlike Empress's tower, and the others won't share what they know unless the wotw will light their way. The wotw refuses and takes off, and the others decide to make their own way as well.

In the school attic, the clock strikes nine, and Bastian is a little confused to come to awareness of his surroundings, as he'd immersed so deeply into the story. He usually likes stories that are exciting, or funny, or make him dream. He can build such a story so vividly in his senses that he completely forgets himself until it's over.(6) He's glad he's up here reading instead of in his classroom, as this is just the right book for him.

In Fantastica, a week later, the night-hob arrives first, or believes he does because he's flying. He circles his bat over the great garden of the Labyrinth, designed entirely to amuse and delight, since no one known in Fantastica would ever dream of trying to harm the Childlike Empress. He continues flying over it until he reaches the Ivory Tower, her residence.

The word 'tower' might give someone who has never seen it the wrong idea. It had nothing of the church or castle about it. The Ivory Tower was as big as a whole city. From a distance it looked like a pointed mountain peak twisted like a snail shell. Its highest point was deep in the clouds. Only on coming closer could you notice that this great sugarloaf consisted of innumerable towers, turrets, domes, roofs, oriels, terraces, arches, stairways, and balustrades, all marvelously fitted together. The whole was made of the whitest Fantastican ivory, so delicately carved in every detail that it might have been taken for the latticework of the finest lace.

The night-hob landed lower down, at a stable, where his bat is taken and he's offered a ceremonial welcome cup. The ritual is observed, and the bat is taken to a stall, where it falls deeply asleep. In fact, not a single animal in the stable is making a noise.

The night-hob is also pretty exhausted after the trip, but hears a voice call out to him: the tiny arrived first, after all. And, he says, to see the Childlike Empress one must put in for an appointment, as so many messengers have come from all across Fantastica. The night-hob is unconvinced, so the Tiny takes him out to the High Street, where people and creatures of all sorts are in discussion. The menace of the nothing has broken out everywhere, and the Childlike Empress is ill, which could be the cause or a symptom.

Soon, the wotw and the giant also arrive.

During the long waiting period, the four so unalike messengers became good friends. From then on they stayed together. But that's another story and shall be told another time.

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