Chapter 16 15 Colored Death - Grao Graman

"Master," said the Lion in his booming voice, "is this how you spent the whole evening?" Bastian sat up and rubbed his eyes.He sits between the lion's front paws.Glaog's large face looked down at him, full of wonder.His fur was still as black as the rock he sat on, but his eyes were bright.The hanging lamps in the cave started to burn again. "Aha," Bastian stammered, "I... I thought you were turned to stone." "I have indeed been turned into stone," replied the Lion. "When night falls, I die every day, yet every morning I wake up again."

"I thought it was going to be like this forever," Bastian said. "Yes, every time is forever," Graograman replied, but he was also puzzled by this. He got up, stretched himself, and then walked up and down the cave in the lion's way.His flaming fur grew brighter against the colored tiles.As he was walking, he suddenly stopped picking and looked at the boy. "You shed tears for me?" Bastian nodded silently. "Then," said the Lion, "you are not only the only one who has slept between the front paws of Colored Death, but the only one who has wept over his death."

Bastian looked at the lion who started pacing back and forth again, and asked softly: "Have you been alone—people drinking?" The lion stopped again, but this time he was not looking at Bastian.He turned his head away, and repeated in a booming voice: "Alone..." The word echoed in the cave. "The desert is my kingdom—and my masterpiece. Wherever I go, everything around me must become a desert. The desert follows me wherever I go. I am made of deadly fire, except What else can I expect from Shuiyuan's loneliness?" Bastian was silent in astonishment. "Master," continued the Lion, walking towards Bastian and fixing his fiery eyes on his face. "You bear the mark of the Child Empress, can you answer a question for me: why do I have to die when night comes?"

"In order to grow the night forest bud forest in the colorful desert." Bastian said. "Bellywood?" repeated the Lion. "What is this?" And so Bastian spoke of the wondrous tropical forest of living lights.Graograman listened, motionless and full of wonder, while Bastian described to him the splendor and variety of those shining plants, how they multiplied themselves, grew incessantly and silently, and It presents dreamlike beauty and spectacular views.As he narrated excitedly, Grao Graman's eyes became brighter and brighter. "All this," said Bastian at last, "is only possible when you are turned to stone. But if the berel forest doesn't die and turn to powder after you wake up again and again, then it will consume Everything is smothered by itself. Belerin and you, Graogramman, you are one."

Graogram was silent for a long time. Then he said, "Master, now I understand that my death brought new life, and my new life brought death, and both are good. Now I finally understand the meaning of my life. Thank you!" He walked slowly and solemnly towards the darkest corner of the cave.Bastian couldn't see what he was doing there, but he heard the clang of metal.When Graogramman came back, he had something in his mouth.He lowered his head deeply, and put the thing in his mouth at Bastian's feet. This is a sword. The sword doesn't look pretty at all.The scabbard is iron and has rusted.The handle of the sword was old wood and looked like the handle of a child's toy knife.

"Can you give it a name?" Grao Graman asked. Bastian looked at the sword and thought for a moment. "Hikanda!" he replied. At this moment, the sword swished out of its sheath, and just in time flew into his hand.At this time, he saw that the blade of this sword was a flickering light, so bright that he could hardly stare at it with his eyes.This is a double-edged sword, light as a feather in the hand. "This sword," said Graogramman, "was destined to be yours long ago. For only one like you has ridden on my back, eaten, drank and bathed in my fire. People, use this sword so that it will not be harmed by it. However, it will only be yours if you give it a proper name."

"Hikanda!" Bastian said softly.He circled the sword slowly in the air, watching the flickering light with fascination. "It's a magic sword, isn't it?" "Whether it's steel or rock," replied Graogram, "in Fantasia, nothing can defend against it. You can't do violence to it, though. No matter what kind of danger you encounter, only if it You can only use it when it jumps into your hand automatically as just now. It will guide your hand, and its own power will direct it to do what it should do. If you draw it out of the sword as you wish If you don't scabbard, then you will bring great disaster to yourself and Fantasia. Don't forget this!"

"I won't forget," Bastian promised. The sword was back in its scabbard, still looking old and worthless.The scabbard was attached to a belt, which Bastian fastened around his waist. "Master," suggested Graogramman, "now, if you will, let us go for a ride in the desert. Get on my back, and now I must go!" Bastian jumped on the lion's back.The lion walked slowly outside.The morning sun has risen towards the horizon of the desert, and the night forest has already turned into colored sand grains.The two of them whizzed across the dunes like a jumping fireball, like a fiery hurricane.Bastian felt as if he was riding a burning

The comet passed through the light and various colors.Once again he was in a state of insane intoxication. noon.Grao Graman suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Master, this is where we met yesterday." Bastian was still a little reveling in the wild ride.He looked around, but he saw neither the Buddha-blue sand dunes nor the fire-red sand mounds, not even the letters.The two sand dunes in front of me are olive green and rose red. "Everything has changed," he said. "Yes, Master," answered the Lion, "it is like this every day—always changing beyond recognition. I—have never understood why. Now, after hearing you tell that the berberine grows in the sand After the story, I understood."

"But how did you recognize that this was the place yesterday?" "It's what I feel, like I can feel a part of me. The desert is part of me." Bastian dismounted from the lion's back and sat down on top of the olive-green dune.The Lion lay down beside him, and he too turned olive green.Bastian rested his chin on his hand and gazed thoughtfully at the horizon. "Can I ask you a few questions?" he asked after a long silence. "Your servant is all ears," replied the Lion. "Have you really been here all this time?" "It's always been here," said Graogram affirmatively.

"Then, has the Goap Desert always existed?" "Yes, this desert has always existed. Why do you ask these?" Bastian thought for a while. "I don't understand," he said at last. "I'll bet the desert has been around since yesterday morning." "Master, what do you mean by that?" So Bastian told him everything he had experienced after meeting the Son of the Moon. "It's all so weird," he concluded his report. "I only need to have a wish, and something that matches it will happen immediately, and the wish will come true. These things are not imagined by myself, do you understand? I did not imagine these things at all. Not coming out. There is no way I could have created all those various night plants in the bud grove, or the colorful Goap and you. All of this is more than I can imagine So much more spectacular, so much more real. But, nonetheless, it always came after I wished for it." "It's all possible because you're wearing Orin, you're wearing the luster," said Lion. "What I don't understand are other problems." Bastian tried to explain his problem, "Did all this happen after I hoped, or did it happen before, and just happened to be guessed by me?" Is it just a hit?" "It's a little bit of both," Grao Graman said. "But, how could this be?" Bastian shouted almost impatiently. "Who knows how long you have existed in the colored desert of Goap. The room in your palace has been there waiting for my arrival. The sword called Hikanda has long been destined to be mine. It's -- you said it yourself!" "Indeed, master." "But, I, I just arrived in Fantasia the night before yesterday. So, didn't all of this happen after I came here?" "Master," replied the Lion calmly, "don't you know that Fantasia is a kingdom of stories? A story can be new, but what it tells is old. The story is there." "Then, Belerin should have existed a long time ago?" Bastian asked blankly. "Master, since you gave it this name. It has existed since ancient times." Grao Graman replied. "What you want to say is that it was created by me?" The Lion was silent for a while before answering: "Only the Child Empress can tell you that. You got all this from her." He stood up. "Master, it's time for us to return to the palace. The sun has already tilted, and we still have a long way to go." That night, Bastian remained at Grao Graman's.The lion still sat on the big black rock.Neither of them said much.The little low table in the bedroom was filled again with the same divine hand it had been the night before.Bastian fetched food and drink from the bedroom.he sits leading to the Dine on the steps of a large rock. When the fire in the hanging lamp began to dim, and the beating of the light became slower and slower, like a heartbeat that was gradually slowing down, Bastian stood up and silently put his arms around the lion's neck.The lion's mane has hardened and looks like stiff volcanic stone.Then, there was another terrifying sound, but Bastian was no longer afraid.Once again tears welled up in his eyes, lamenting the unalterable suffering that Grao Graman had endured. After late at night, Bastian groped his way outside again, watching the glittering nocturnal plants grow silently for a long time.Then he went back into the cave again and fell asleep lying between the front paws of the stone-turned lion. Bastian lived many days and nights in Colored Death.The two of them became friends.Sometimes they pass the time in the desert with crazy games.Bastian hides among the dunes, and Graogram always finds him every time.They ran a race, and every time the lion was faster than him, a thousand times faster.The two of them even wrestled for fun.They both wrestled and wrestled—Bastian was evenly matched with the lion in this respect.Although it was only for fun, Graogramman tried his best every time to show the boy his advantage, so that the two of them were tied and neither could win the other. Once, after a rough fight between the two of them, Bastian asked breathlessly: "Can I stay by your side forever?" The lion shook his mane. "This will not work, master." "why not?" "There are only life and death here, there are only Berellin and Goap, and there are no stories. You must live your stories. You cannot stay here." "But I can't leave here," Bastian said. "This desert is so big and boundless that no one can get out. You can't send me out either, because wherever you go, you will take the desert with you." Grao Graman said: "You can only find your way in Fantasia through your own wishes. You can only go from one wish to another. If you don't wish for something, you can't reach it. This is the so-called 'far ' and 'near' mean what we have here. It's not enough to just want to get out of one place. You have to want to go to another place too, and you have to let your desire guide you." "But I don't want to leave here at all," Bastian replied. "You have to find your next wish," Graogramman said almost harshly. "If the next wish is found," Bastian asked, "how do I get out of here?" "Master, listen," Graham Graman said softly, "There is a place in Fantasia that can take you anywhere, and you can enter it from anywhere. This place is called It is known as Qianmen Temple. No one has seen its appearance, because it has no appearance at all. Its interior is a labyrinth composed of many gates. Whoever wants to know this Qianmen Temple must have the courage to enter. " "If you can't get to it from the outside, how can you get in?" "Every door," continued the Lion, "every door in the whole of Fantasia, even the most common barn door, kitchen door, or cupboard door, has the potential to open at any given moment." becomes the entrance of Qianmen Temple. When this moment passes, it will return to its original form. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to walk through the same door a second time. No door in Qianmen Temple will lead to where you came from. there's no turning back Walk. " "But once you get in," Bastian asked, "you can always get out of it?" "Yes." The lion replied, "However, it is not as simple as in an ordinary building. Because only a real wish can guide you out of the maze of Qianmen Temple. Before you find this wish, you Getting lost in the Temple of Thousand Gates until you know what you want. Sometimes this process goes on for a long time." "How can I find this entrance?" "You must have the desire." Bastian thought for a long time, then he said: "The strange thing is that people don't necessarily wish what they want so easily. Where do our wishes come from? What is a wish?" Graogramman stared at the boy with wide eyes, but made no answer. A few days later, they had another very important conversation. Bastian showed the lion the words engraved on the back of the treasure. "What does that mean?" he asked, "Do what you want. Do you think that means I can do all the things that interest me?" Graogramman's face suddenly became extremely serious, and his eyes began to light up. "No," he said in his deep, booming voice, "it means that you should do what you really want to do. It doesn't get any harder than that." "What is my real will?" Bastian repeated, touched. "What is my real will?" "This is a secret hidden deep in your heart, which even you don't know." "So, how can I find it?" "You have to follow the path of wishes, from one wish to another until the final wish. This path will lead you to your true will." "I don't think it's that hard to do that," Bastian said. "It is the most dangerous road of all," said the Lion. "Why?" Bastian asked. "I'm not afraid at all." "It has nothing to do with being afraid or not," Graogramman said in a rumbling voice. "It must be taken with great sincerity, with great care, for there is no road like this one." It’s so easy to get totally lost.” "You mean that maybe not all people's wishes are good?" Bastian questioned him. The Lion slapped his tail on the sand where he lay.He pricked up his ears, wrinkled his nose, and shot fire from his eyes.Bastian couldn't help curling up his body, when he heard the lion say again in his earth-shattering voice: "How do you know what is called wish! How do you know what is called good!" Over the next few days, Bastian thought a lot about what the Colored Death had said to him.However, there are some things that cannot be understood by thinking, but must be experienced.So, until a long time later, until he recalled the words of Grao Graman after experiencing many things, he Only then did I begin to understand their meaning. During this period, another change took place in Bastian.In addition to the gifts he received after meeting the Son of the Moon, he now has added courage.Like every time before, this time he also lost something because of it, which was his memory of how timid he used to be. Since there was nothing left to frighten him, a new desire, at first unconsciously, then more and more clearly formed in his mind.He didn't want to be alone for long.Even with colored death.In a sense, he too was alone.he wants to be in front of others Showing his ability, he hopes to be admired and honored. One night, as he watched the belwood grow again, he felt suddenly that this was the last time, that he had to say goodbye to the splendor of the shimmering Nightwood.A voice inside him was calling him to go. He looked around for the last time at the fiery and gorgeous colors, and then went down to Graogramman's tomb and sat on the steps in the darkness around him.He couldn't say what he was looking forward to, but he knew he couldn't sleep tonight. Probably he sat down and dozed off.He jumped up suddenly, as if someone was calling his name. The door to the bedroom opened automatically.A long, red light shot through the crack of the door into the dark cave. Bastian stood up.Did the door of the bedroom become the entrance of Qianmen Temple in this instant?He hesitated and walked to the crack of the door, looking inside.He couldn't see anything clearly.At this time, the cracks in the door began to close slowly again.Just a few moments before this unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will be missed. He turned again to Graogramman.The lion sat motionless on the stone pier, staring into his lifeless stone eyes.The beam of light shot from the crack of the door is good to shine on the lion. "Goodbye, Graolaman, thank you for everything!" he said softly. "I will come here again, I will be back, for sure." Then he slipped in through the crack of the door.The door was closed instantly behind him. Bastian didn't know he couldn't keep his promise.It wasn't until a long, long time later that someone in the name of Bastian came here to fulfill his promise for him. That's another story, though, to be told later.