Make a Rug The 10th Art Assignment

Ohborn Castle Finale

Eric ran among the broken rocks of Ohborn. He could discern small traces of color swiftly evaporating through exposure to the sun's light. There was no way he could be fast enough to capture it, or to even see it clearly. His mind raced. He realized that nearly seventy people were in OhBorn when it collapsed. Perhaps one of them lived. Perhaps one did not perish underneath the weight. He frantically began shifting through what rocks he could move.

“You are wasting your time Eric. They are all dead. Let the professionals remove them!” Cried Claude.

“I have to know! There was residue on the rocks. There must have been more to the image! I need to know!”

“You are mad Eric! Even if their was such an image it is gone now.”

“I have to know. I have to know!”

A small portion of a representative's robes could be seen beneath a movable bit of rubble. “Could it be?” Eric thought, and hoped. It was Bernard. Out of all the people Eric could have found,but fate led him to Bernard. His body did not appear to be mangled, but upon closer inspection one could tell that he was crushed. Eric fumbled over him. Painfully willing to see any traces of life.

“Bernard, tell me. Tell me what you saw! Bernard! You need to live and put an end to all of this! People need to know the truth! Bernard!”

“Shouting at a dead man is in bad taste, Eric!”

A small glimmer appeared in Bernard's eyes.

“Bernard. What can you tell me?”

Bernard's lips parted. Eric drew his head to them, in order to hear.

“You're mm-my friend.”

The pit of Eric's heart burst. No news of the wall or its image. Just faint words of friendship.

Ohborn Castle Pt. Ten

The documentary continued on as planned. Eric did not speak to Bernard again until the final day of shooting. They met face to face, but not eye to eye, in the round garden in front of Ohborn.
"So this is it then." Mumbled Eric.
"Indeed it is." Said Bernard with his eyes now fixed on Eric.
Eric's face drew inward as though Bernard's eyes placed pressure on his face.
"The interior footage has been reviewed. They actually managed to record some stuff, but-"
Bernard interjected. "It was too dark and grainy to use."
"Right." Eric chuckles lightly. "They had to try."
Bernard nodded.
"I know it hurts you that I no longer follow The Artist, but-"
"All is well between us Eric. Except, I will try to persuade your return and you in turn will anger, and withdraw from me, and-"
Eric interjected. "You are obligated to bring me back to the Artist. I know, but did you ever consider..."
"Yes? Did I ever consider? You trailed off there."
"Never mind. I know the answer. Goodbye Bernard. I doubt we shall meet again." Eric offered his hand to shake.
"Goodbye Eric. We'll see each other again one last time. The walls will fall soon and then you will return. You will want to know." Bernard shakes Eric's hand.
"Goodbye Bernard." Said Eric gruffly releasing Bernard's hand.
With that, Eric left Ohborn castle. That afternoon he boarded a train with Claude headed for Paris. He was to fill a post at an art institute there.
"I am dead! Please keep the sun out of my face. I want to sleep." Moaned Claude.
"No one is stopping you from pulling the shade." Said Eric annoyed.
"Are you kidding? Whenever we take this route you must see the castle as we pass by, or did you forget?" Argued Claude.
Eric angrily pulled at the shade. In his wrath he failed several times to successfully pull it down ,but once it was done his frame and face relaxed. Eric was not tired, but the dark was soothing. His eyes would never see Ohborn again. He would leave it as the ruin it is, but then a strange rumbling twanged beneath his feet.
"Claude, do you feel that?"
"Hah?" snorted Claude."
"The floor is rumbling."
"We are on a train, Eric!"
"That's not it! The metal..."
Eric gasped as iron rivets began to tremble. No sooner did he observe that did the train screech to a halt. Eric listened out his carriage door. "The rails!" "There is something wrong with them." The rumbling beneath his feet grows, and terror strikes Eric's heart. One thought and one thought alone  permeated his thoughts. Ohborn Castle. Quickly he leaped back to the carriage window and ripped off the shade he so wanted closed moments before.
"We've gone too far I can't see Ohborn!" Eric shouted.
"Ah I knew you couldn't stand it." Hollered Claude after Eric.
Eric didn't stop to respond. He had to see if it was true. He had to run to get a view of Ohborn. He raced against a tide of people trying to make their way to the front. Each one of them furious with the engineer. None of them considering what was happening outside. Eric pushed and forced his way past. He found an exit and kicked it open, and out in the distance Ohborn still stood as small and ugly as ever. Eric laughed a breathless laugh. He hadn't noticed but even the ground beneath him had stopped trembling. He smiled at the castle, as one smiles at a friend who has played a prank, but his smile faded and his brow furrowed and his eyes squinted. The pitched walls of Ohborn were crumbling, and a great cloud of dust swallowed it from view.
"Claude!" Shouted Eric as he freely ran back to his carriage. "We need to get off this train Claude, now!"

Ohborn Castle Pt. Nine

The castle remained unchanged. The rough ground still rolled. The pitch coated rock walls still felt colder than ice, and the light from the scattered openings did not shed deeply. OhBorn is very small. There is the entry chamber with the hole, and the ante chamber. As Eric walked through the entry way he made sure not to look at the hole. He avoided all of it. He steered far clear of the velvet rope blocking its entrance. In the ante chamber, the stairway to the ramparts was blocked off by a metal gate, and that was it. That is the whole of Ohborn. If he dared hop the metal gate and climb the crumbling stair he'd find nothing but a view of the surrounding area. Instead, he re-entered the main chamber. He didn't mean to but he did glance. An accidental glance, but a glance just the same. The hole was there. It's smooth descent into the wall still had its ever alluring pull. Eric's mind filled with memories. Even of memories he could not remember. His parents often told him of his first outer uterus trip to the castle. People asked his parents if they were going to show him the image to which they replied. “We don't do that. It will be his choice.” Eric did eventually view the image when he 12 years old. Did he have a choice even then? Was he pulled by an irresistible call? Or did societal pressure make it impossible for him not to look, or human curiosity? Even now, a devoted skeptic, the pull to look remains. “It is not even that beautiful.” He thought. He could prove that thought to be true too. He could look upon its face and scorn it. He could do it surely. He edged closer. At the line of the velvet rope one can leer in such a way as to see it from afar. (No true need to do it proper.) He inched closer. His hand reached out toward the wall to steady himself.

“No touching at Ohborn!”

Eric couldn't help but to lurch and reel. He spun round to see the worn brown robes of Ohborn's overseer. Yet his voice had not matched him. He shouted like the overseer of his internship days. Of course he would know. He knew his predecessor well.

“Bernard, you nailed him. That was.” He catches his breath. “Superb.”

“And it did the job too. He always scared the bejeebees out of you.”

“Anyone would have been startled. I was told I had free reign to scope out this place.”

“Within reason.”

“Oh is reason a thing here?”

“Funny. Doubly so if they think they can film here. They use digital cameras now correct?”

“They think that will help.”

“Do you think they're right?”

“....”

“I suppose they have to try don't they?”

“You didn't have to give them the go ahead. It wasn't my idea to shoot the interior.”

“I know it wasn't.”

“You knew? But I thought...”

“No. And.. yes. Besides it is good that they are doing this documentary. Ohborn needs to be preserved before the end.”

“Ever the doomsayer! I thought of you last year when the crack pot predicted the world's end for what is it the fourth time? I imagined you in here. Huddled by the wall hoping that the tar would fall.”

Bernard's eyes shift within their settings.

“I knew it. I know you.”

“And I you.”

Ohborn Castle Pt. Eight

“It's not about making good art it is about emulating the artist.” Insisted Bernard on a sunny day years before the documentary shoot.

“Who made great art the best art ever!”

“That's disputed, Eric.”

“Oh discovered created. Either way it was/is still great art. That's the point of this whole business, Bernard!”

“But if one is to fail at making great art the point is still emulating the artist.”

“If the art is not great than they are not a true artist.”

“You know that it isn't just about that. It is about bringing blessings to the people, and if a piece of art makes just one person happy then they are succeeding at emulating the artist.”

“Are you actually saying that sentiment overrides quality?”

“In many cases, yes.”

Eric turns and shakes his head at the ground.

“True happiness is not found in crap.”

“True happiness is accepting.”

“If only the artist was here. He could settle this dispute.”

“It will be settled, with the illumination of death.”

“And we can never know until then?”

“Is that so bad? Is knowing so important?”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

As Eric walked into Ohborn for the first time, since he left it in anger five years earlier. He couldn't help but relive long suppressed conversations with Bernard.

Ohborn Castle Pt Seven

I'm here at the Ohneal excavation a mere five kilometers from Ohborn. This place is a buzz with anticipation. They are searching for artifacts. Not from the Artist himself , but from his ancestor the warrior King. To date, there has been no archeological evidence of the actual existence of Yana. However, here there have been some promising finds. A battle went on here some several hundred years ago, nearly dating to the time the warrior King took over. Could this be the legendary battle that won him this land and ultimately the rocks of Ohborn? Henry Teller chief of this site comments.

"We've had really promising finds. There definitely was a battle here. I don't think we'll find any proof of King Yana, but most certainly more circumstantial evidence. There was a battle here at the right time, and it was the invading force that won. That all aligns with what was is written in the manuscript.”

Circumstances has always been the friend of Ohborn. Storms, and fires have never harmed it. And even during years of famine disease and hardship the overseer of Ohborn has never been absent. During the schism this was said about the overseer of Ohborn.

"Surely there has never been nor will there ever be a stronger form of employment than that of the overseer of Ohbron. It is protected by fate, and is solidified by the beliefs of the multitude. Even the King in all of his splendor cannot touch the hem of his robe.”

This was said as a reaction to the blanket dissociation of the western artistry. While it applied to the common lay artist it did not apply to the Overseer of Ohborn. Indeed, where the line of kings has had several disputes the line of overseers has never been broken nor fought over. Even after the great disassociation.

Ohborn Castle Pt. Six

The age of the rocks- the foundational rocks of Ohborn is a controversial subject. Were they placed there by the ancients like stone henge? Were they a natural phenomena? Are we seriously going here?

“Cut! Read the darn prompter as is Eric!”

“We're not going to get into the age of the rocks debate. It is silly, and boring. Do you want your viewers to be bored to death?”

“This won't be in the main film. This will be on the comprehensive DVD.”

“Comprehensive?”

“Yes.”

“Meaning..”

“An all encompassing explanation of all things associated with Ohborn.”

“You're insane. That would take forever.”

“Oh please. If people can watch the extra features of the Lord of the Rings movies then they can watch this.”

“Not willingly.”

“This will be shown in schools.”

“Those poor people.”

“Come on you studied this stuff.”

“Yes. Yes I did.”

“Now you get to spit it all out.”

“This teleprompter is written from my studies isn't it?”

“I bought more than just your time, Eric.”