The Listening Station, Chapter 5: Reredos
In Middle English, derived through 14th Century Anglo-Norman language, a ‘reredos ‘ was the open hearth of a fireplace. Later on, it came to mean the screen or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. Both of these meanings came to play a part in the battle fought against the Space Monster known as The Purple Frontier, or, The Earth Dragon, as well as, The Long Wall. The leader of the battle happened to be an ignominious Ninjagoan peasant of that same name: Reredos. He was one of those guys who only had one name, like Pele’, Liberace, Cher, Madonna, Beyoncé, Prince, Sting, Bjork, and Slash, to name a few. And, it would be twenty more years before he himself became a rock star. Of course, by then his name was sung and taught and honored and generally thought highly of. Even higher than Dereth, the Brown Ninja and twice savior of Ninjago.
More about Reredos: he bore a striking resemblance to Prince Charming, from Cinderella’s Dream Castle. Like Cinderella, he spent most of his formative years cleaning the household fireplaces. His “castle” was a mid-century custom split level built with bricks from the six( the 1960’s, that is). It was nestled deep in the heart of the Ninjago countryside, not far from the Birchwood Forest. In the kitchen was the fireplace from Belle’s Tea Party. In the dining room was the fireplace from Hogwarts Great Hall. Upstairs was the fireplace from Yoda’s Hut. And, in the Rec Room in the basement was the fireplace from the Flintstones Set. He had a strict but loving father ( the Corn Cob Guy Keychain)who made sure to instill a hearty work ethic by making him clean those fireplaces twelve times a day, everyday but Christmas and his birthday, for his first twelve years. That makes 12 x 9x363, plus 12x 3x 364, to account for leap years. 12x9x 363 =39,204. 12x3x364=13,104. 39, 204+13,104=52,308 total cleanings at the end of the first twelve years. You might say that his life was an open hearth. Home was where the hearth was.
At the age of thirteen, on the very day that he turned thirteen, Reredos became a man. He did so by completing these three tasks:
1). He dropped his first name, which was George; as well as his middle name, which was Charmerende. ( That was his mother’s maiden name ). He started telling everyone that he met that his name was , simply, Reredos. Some people thought that was his first name. As it turns out, it really didn’t manner very much.
2. He set off to seek his fortune. He left a note for his father on the mantle of the fireplace. Since there were four fireplaces, he made four copies of the note. That would make it more likely to be found.The notes looked a lot like the tile 1x2 with groove with mail envelope, cursive script and seal pattern,
from Cinderella’s Dream Castle, Advent Calendar 2019 Friends Day 16, Destiny’s Bounty, and the Detective Office Sets.
3. He succeeded in getting as far as a ditch. This ditch was in the field two fields down from his house-er, Castle. He settled in to stay in that ditch, for a while. As ditches go, it was pretty comfortable. It featured a very soft and distinctly non-muddy dirt. This ditch was actually freely constructed from bags 1 and 3 of The Crafting Box 2.0.
And, there he met his first real friend, not counting the guys who came to clean the chimneys: a ditch witch. More specifically, it was a genuine Friend: Vicky from the Heart Box Friendship Pack. She was also self-deposed royalty. She had left the lap of luxury which was that crazy tiny house built in the shape of a Purple Heart. But, she could not resist bringing along her favorite accessories: the witch’s hat, the magic wand, and her frog friend, whose name was Axes O. Rhee.
Yes, Vicky also had run away and only gotten as far as this ditch. It was, as has already been mentioned, a very comfortable ditch.
The two refugees from Opulence immediately became friends, each one recognizing a kindred spirit. He insisted on no fireplaces in their makeshift hovel which they called, Our Hobbit Hole, or, rather, Ditch; or, The Expected Gathering, in honor of that famous LEGO Hobbit Hole Set, The Unexpected Gathering.
No fireplaces was ok, because Vicky had brought with her the heater from Emmet’s Dream House/ Rescue Rocket. Axes 0. Rhee turned out to be a great cook, and fried up some turtles’ eggs from The Pirate Ship Adventure Set.
This picture of domestic ditch bliss was unceremoniously interrupted by the onslaught of The Purple Frontier. As it slithered toward Jumanakai Village, it deposited never-ending beige towers in it’s formidable wake. It was basically building The Great Wall of Ninjago. Only problem: on the left side of that wall was Nothing: pure empty space. This Swath of space, or Anti-Wall, was about 16 studs wide. It was created in the wake of all that building. That new Ditch was made out of mostly purple 2x4’s, along with a few dark grey and black Lego bricks. Hence, it’s moniker, The Purple Frontier.
It made a perpendicular slash right through the Hobbit Ditch. Gone were one of the eggs, the witch’s hat, and, most importantly, the heater! It was winter, and coolness immediately descended .
“ Reredos, I think we may need to make a fire...” suggested Vicky, innocently enough. She was already shivering. She had neglected to bring her scarf which came from the Winter Village Fire Station Set.
Upon hearing those words, Something popped inside of Reredos. The thought of having to clean up after even one more fire was too much.
This plaintive peasant ditch dweller self-trained himself to fight, using the training weapons and accessory elements ( golden sai’s, kendo mask, and shoulder armor ) from Lloyd’s Kendo Training Pod, These had conveniently been left behind in the ditch by a former dweller, whose initials were L.G. Faster than you can say, “lenticular! “* , Reredos was ready to take on The Long Wall. He drew his two gold-colored weapons from the Pod. Then he pulled the Kendo helmet firmly over his mini-doll head.
“Hey, it fits! “ he exclaimed, his words muffled by the padding in the helmet.
Upon hearing this, the Earth Dragon turned and faced him, Beige Turret to mini-doll face. Then it raised it’s mighty weapon, a long yellow Technic beam. Gold and yellow Lego elements flashed in a stirring clash of ABS.
Next Chapter: Golden Sighs, or Let Go or Get Dragon.
*a lenticular image appears on the front of Lloyd’s Kendo Training Pod. “... view it from different angles to see either a picture of Lloyd’s head or his eyes.”- from Specifications found at shop.lego.com.-Ed.