NJ97020106

February 1 2006 NJ97

I thought I'd better get back to the Council description. I said I'd do that and never got back to it.

That's because it was so, well, so damned overwhelming. Like looking at the Grand Canyon for the first
time and realizing the sheer size of it. Very difficult to grasp.

This was almost like that. But because we'd kept on moving, it was even harder to take in. I took it in small
bites.

Going from point A to point B was not a simple long walk like I made it sound in my earlier postings. It
really wasn't. It took a while. Even assisted by Theta and SueMac.

Like the huge set of steps that we would have had to scale if Theta and SueMac hadn't been there. Walking
critters had to take 'em if they wanted to have an audience with the Council or Queen Leonurus.

Wait, let me try and do this in order.

From the outside we entered into the Grand Atrium. You saw the on-line comic image Johnathon drew,
right? Big.

From there we went past the living "apartments." Very cozy "rooms" of a sort. But not. Not rooms. I'll see
if Johnathon can draw that for you. They had set one aside for Fleur and I.

Then we walked through the actual Council Chamber. From there we came to "The Steps of
Determination."

A HUGE set of steps. It would take a creature with no wings a long time to scale. Apparently that's on
purpose. In order to show that you are serious in your desire to see the Queen, you must scale these steps.
Even flying critters are asked to scale them on foot. Apparently we had special dispensation as we were
allowed to be flown up by Theta and SueMac with Aris escorting us.

We ended up in the first anteroom, from there.

When we were there for a moment, Fleur and I both looked around. We could not for the life of us find a
way IN to the chambers. There were no doors anywhere. Then Fleur leaned over. "Look up, hon."

I did.

There was a hole in the very very high ceiling.

A hole.

Of course.

The way in. The honeybees fly.

I shook my head in silent self-reproach. Their entryways would be different because they fly everywhere. I
grinned back at Fleur as we were again lifted. Up, up, up, through that hole and into the official Throne
Room anteroom. This, apparently led to both the Throne Room and the Queen's chambers.

We were escorted from there into the Queen's private chambers.

It was from there that we accompanied Queen Leonurus directly into the Throne Room.

Whew. Just a lot of verbal description that gets nothing across! Sheehs.

Okay. That's it. There will be a rough sketch of everything in tomorrow's post. It's just not feasible to get it
across with just a text description.