rooms to sleep early.
Lesson 2 was all they did for the next few days, with some extra weight being added each day. A sword one day and then a shield, and finally heavy metal boots.
On the final day they each had to carry a big hefty Norseman on their shoulders. Peter's Norseman was thrice his height and girth. But they succeeded. In the afterlife it's not about how strong you are physically in being able to carry out physically trying tasks. It's about mental strength and coordination between mind and body. Strength comes from within the mind. The body exists only because the mind says it does. By succeeding in seemingly impossible tasks, Peter and Thomas were learning this from their own experience. And then Peter, experimenting with this new knowledge, learnt to fly.
The Norseman who went 'swoosh'
Peter and Thomas were training as usual, running around the lake with Norsemen in full armour on their backs when Peter suddenly decided to race Thomas to the end of the lake. Thomas and Peter were neck to neck until Peter, with a new burst of speed launched into the air, creating sparks on the ground as he left it. The Norseman, on his back, decided to enjoy the ride and made 'swoosh' noises (like an aeroplane), to help rectify the disturbing lack of sound effects. Peter, enjoying this new experience, 'swooshed' through arches, under trees, over trees, into the lake and out again, and then went higher and higher until his clothes froze. He then crash landed into the lake and swam to the shore, with a very wet angry Norseman, who cleaved Peter in two as soon as they reached the shore. That day, Peter gained a new ability: an ability to get Norsemen to make aeroplane noises. Plus, there was the flying thing too.
"Mary," said Peter, after he had been healed with the magic meat. With a look of determination, "I can find her now. I can fly wherever I want to, and look for her."
"Relax lad," said Hearthoff. "You'll have a lot of flying to do and you'll spend half your life here looking for her. Besides I already know where she is. Sif told me. I've arranged for us to meet in China."
"China? That'll take us years to reach" said Thomas.
"Not here. A week possibly if we move leisurely, which I'm sure Peter would object to. We leave in two days. I still have some preparations to make and you still have your training".
"Two more days of training? Aargh!" Peter complained.
"Today Peter you shall teach Thomas to fly. Tomorrow you shall both fight with the Einherjar, and the day after you will fight me. Only after besting me is your training complete."
"I'd rather not," said Thomas. "I'm a man of peace."
"You'll be a man of many pieces soon if you don't listen to me," growled Hearthoff.
"Yes sir. Beat the Einherjar, and then you. All right, Sir," Thomas said sarcastically. "The only thing we've learnt is how to run and fly if I can manage to learn that from the shepherd boy. Why can't we just run if we encounter any difficulties? That's all we've been taught anyway!"
"Because that's not the way men do it. And you're a man no matter what you sound like. We never did do lesson 3 come to think of it. Perhaps we should now," Hearthoff said threateningly.
"Yes Sir. I mean, no Sir. I'll do whatever you say sir," replied Thomas hurriedly.
"Good," said Hearthoff, stroking his hammer.
Smoothies, Burgers and a Merlin
"Have you ever had a smoothie?" asked Mary. "No. Of course you haven't. Come. I bet you've never had anything like it."
Mary pulled Anne over to one of the smoothie machines at the corner of the marketplace, and made two smoothies. She handed one to Anne and slurped hers up noisily.
"How do you like it?" she asked.
"It's refreshing and sweet. I love it!"
"That was an orange smoothie with vanilla yogurt. You can add chocolate too if you like".
"Umm... No thank you." Orange with chocolate?
Mary added a liberal amount of chocolate to her own smoothie and slurped it up.
"These are the only things from the future that the Utopians permit here," said Mary between slurps. "Oh. This and burgers. We'll go get some of those next."
"The future?" asked Anne, battling brain freeze from drinking her smoothie too fast.
"Yes. Exciting isn't it? Merlin's been teaching me a lot about time and space. Reality touches all dimensions. But the Afterlife touch reality and nothing else. Time and space are created inherently through the power of belief and expectation, unlike in most other parts of reality. Most people believe time and space to be a set quantity and that's why we have it here. That's why there are twenty six hours a day (most people add two extra hours. That's why time flows so quickly when you have a watch), and 365 days a year. If enough people believed that there was only day then the sun would never set."
"Whatever you say," said Anne, not really paying any attention. Her mind reeled at just the thought of trying to follow Mary's explanation.
"Belief is one of the essences. It helps shape that power I've been telling you about: The power of belief helps shape reality. It does this in our world too, but it's much easier here. Anyway, each era in history has its own after life, separated from the others by what they call The Desert. In theory you can travel across the different Afterlives instantly if you've shaped your own beliefs of time and space just right. But, nobody's been able to do it. It usually takes travellers a few weeks. That's how Shorty came here- Across the desert. And the smoothie machines too. Oh, and the hamburgers of course. Utopia's sort of a common era. We get people from all over the time-space continuum here. All the philosophers come here… changed though. They're not at all like what the books make them out to be."
"So," said Anne, "we could go to the future or the past if we liked?" some of Mary's words floating through her head despite her best efforts to stop this. She resigned herself to a week of migraines.
"Well… Yes. And I guess technically we could do it in the real world too. I think I've figured out a way of doing it. I haven't tested it out though. So, it might not actually work."
"Your strange energy powers stay with you when you enter the living world too?" asked Anne, suddenly intent.
"Well…That's how I brought you here, didn't I?"
"Can I learn how to manipulate this energy too?"
"Only if you can see the patterns. It'll either happen in another day or two, or not at all!"
They walked over to a street side vendor selling hamburgers.
"Two please, with extra cheese" said Mary.
After finishing the burgers they explored the rest of the wide expanse of the agora. Everything, from exotic perfumes to detergent was sold here, by the various hawkers. Anne fell in love with a necklace but forced herself to look away, as it cost more than they could afford. Besides, she didn't feel right in using Mary's money. Mary had got the money from Merlin, but it was still Mary's money all the same. They walked over to the temple. The statues of the temple were not Greek gods and goddesses as Anne had first assumed. They were of the various philosophers of the city. Nietzsche, Foucault, Shorty, Hegel, Kant, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and many more. Merlin's statue was in the process of being constructed. A gong sounded and all the philosophers came out of the temple.
Merlin waved at Anne and Mary and hurried down the steps." Forsooth, thou must needs leave Utopia," he said. "Dost thou perchance know a youth whose name is Peter?" he asked Mary.
"Yes I do. He lived next door to me in the real world. We used to play together as children," she replied.
"Do not call it the real world," snapped Merlin. "Remember what I have taught thee. Hast thou lost a lamb?"
"Yes. My lamb. Snow White. Where is she?"
"It accompanies the youth Peter. Thou art to meet him and his companions in the Orient. Shorty shalt accompany thee."
"China?" cried Anne. "But that's millions of kilometres away.
"Aye!" said Merlin. "At the ends of the earth. But time and space are not the same here. Thou shalt reach in a week."
"That's all right then."
"I wish thee luck in thy quest. And rem
ember all that I have taught thee." Merlin suddenly lost his calm, "Damn all these 'thou's and 'thee's. I'm going to stick to plain old simple 'you's like a normal person from now on," he said before scooting off to talk with Plato.
Beware of Mrs. Noggs
The next day, Thomas and Peter began the fourth stage of their training. They equipped themselves as thoroughly as they could, Peter with a spear, Thomas in chain mail(you got everything from stones to phasers in the Valhalla armoury), two shields: one on his back one on his arm, a spear next to the shield on his back, a sword by his side, and a set of twelve daggers on a belt around his waist. He kept stumbling under the weight but insisted that it was nothing and that he'd get used to it in a second. After an hour or two he actually did manage to walk without stumbling, to the wonder of everyone watching him. Now there was just the problem of picking a fight. Not one of the Einherjar seemed willing to fight the two beardless boys. Peter solved this problem easily. He went to a man wearing a crown whose table manners most offended him. "That's a nice shiny sword you have there," he said.
"Leave me alone beardless cretin," said the Einherjar throwing the eggshell he had peeled off his hard boiled egg onto the floor.
"Ill either fight you for it or take it," said Peter.
"Ha. If you try I'll carve you into such fine pieces that even Odin's ravens wouldn't be able to spot you."
"You can try," said Peter, grabbing the sword and running away.
The Einherjar roared in anger and chased after him. He