Sensual Dabrowski knows

“You must include the smell, taste and sound of colours” stated Sensual Dabrowski.

“AND colours” corrected Intellectual Dabrowski firmly, with a dismissive wave of his paw. “Yes, that as well. But at present we are considering the use of colons, semi-colons, em dashes and Little Plump Jo’s rather confusing use of dot, dot, dot.”

“No OF colours. I do mean OF colours. And it is of vital importance to recognize it in the context of this story!”

It was another editing session in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies. The ARC Arthurian Readers Club were the caretakers of the cabin and Little Plump Jo was the current Artisan in Residence. She was reading aloud to her five canine writing companions, the overexcitable Dabrowski Dogs and to the ever-present shade, owner of the cabin, Malory Tennyson.

Jo had taken a break from working on her presentation for the upcoming ARC Conference to return to editing some of the previously written chapters for her book The Realm Beyond the Cloudbank. Tonight it would be the tale of Sir Lancelot du Lac freeing the prisoners in the Dolorous Tower. Jo had the ability to communicate with animals and fictional characters. She found that reading aloud to them helped her determine whether the descriptive passages and the dialogues were flowing well.

Sensual Dabrowski did not usually contribute much to the editorial sessions.

Psycho Motor Dabrowski would always give encouragement about exciting action scenes, by barking and bouncing and would chant ‘Bor-ring!’ when descriptive passages were being read.

Imaginational Dabrowski tended to interrupt, making suggestions for possible fanciful inclusions.

Intellectual Dabrowski had very little patience with both Psycho Motor and Imaginational and could make quite scathing remarks about their input. He was hyper focused on ensuring accurate information, proper punctuation and comprehensive citing of sources.

“I DO mean OF colours” Sensual reiterated. “Emotional and I are getting really frustrated by your failure to heed our input and confining us to contributing the occasional adjective or adverb. For this story it is absolutely essential that you put emphasis on sights, sounds, smells, and tastes OF colours.”

“And why is that?”

“In this story, the fact that Sir Lancelot is experiencing sights, sounds, tactile stimuli and scents as the colour copper, shows his courage and a real measure of his character” clarified Sensual.

Emotional Dabrowski was whimpering softly and her lovely dark Spaniel eyes were filling with tears.

While Sensual was talking, Intellectual had been researching the matter.

“Synesthesia” he barked. “So, are you suggesting that Sir Lancelot, as a gifted person, is a synesthete? Whether you actually like him or not, we cannot dispute that he is highly gifted in many ways.

Are you saying that experiencing other senses as colours is part of ‘the heightened intensity, which creates inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm’, as was stated in The Columbus Group, 1991 definition of Giftedness as Asynchronous Development?”

“It’s his super-power! yelped Psycho Motor Dabrowski excitedly. “He is so brave he can feel colours! Or does feeling colours make him brave?”

“Moving right along…” barked Intellectual. “We have accounts of this event from Sensual Dabrowski, Psycho Motor Dabrowski and also from Sir Lancelot’s companion dog, Heureux, formerly known as Guard on Duty Black Dog at the Dolorous Tower.

Here is Heureux’s account :

The Black Knight was a tyrant. He practiced the black arts. He was cruel to all the people who served him in the tower. He was harsh with kitchen staff, the pages and serving maids, abused the women, cursed and fought with his men at arms. His farm workers were left in near starving condition while he benefitted from their labours.

We had seen so many brave knights attempt to free the captives. Before reaching the Black Knight himself, the odds of overcoming first ten knights one at a time to pass the gate and then ten knights at one time in a narrow passageway appeared almost insurmountable. And those twenty had to be beaten on the same day. We had almost given up hope of ever being free.

When Lancelot arrived he defeated the first ten knights but he was not allowed to advance further. The drawbridge was pulled up and he was told to return tomorrow.

And when he returned he was compelled to fight ten more fresh knights to pass the first gate. We were all up on the battlements cheering for him. We were almost daring to hope that he might succeed. He managed to overcome the ten knights in the passageway.

And then he had to descend into the bowels of the tower and run the gauntlet between swinging axes to get to the Black Knight. He received wounds to his shoulder and leg from glancing blows of the axes.

In spite of that he managed to defeat the Black Knight and cleanse the well water.

The tower is no longer the Dolorous Tower. It is now the castle of Joyous Guarde with the flags flying high.

And here is the account from Sensual:

When we arrived Lancelot had already defeated the first ten knights and was inside fighting the next ten knights in a narrow passageway.

There was a really foul stench about the place. Part of Lancelot’s mission would be to remove items of black magic from the basement of the tower and cleanse the well water.

We could not tell what was happening inside but early in the evening a swarm of Black Dogs came running out, snivelling and howling and saying that their master, the Black Knight had been defeated. They were off to seek the company of the wicked Sir Breuse Sans Pitie.

Jo has attempted to transcribe these accounts in order to write this chapter. I am finding that her version, quite apart from needing much punctation editing, is lacking in ….”

Now Emotional was whimpering loudly and the tears were staining dark brown marks in her creamy fur, all the way down to the chestnut coloured freckles around her muzzle. “They just don’t understand it, Sensual!” she cried.

Jo put her arms around Emotional’s neck, her own tears mingling with Emotional’s.

“I am so sorry” Jo cried. “I know what is lacking, but I do not know how to fix it.

The problem is related to the Voice. This needs to be written in the first person; but I write in the third person from an external observer’s point of view. Sensual and Psycho Motor only witnessed the events from outside the Dolorous Tower. Heureux was inside the tower, but even so, he only saw part of the action.

But none of them actually experienced the events in the same way as Sir Lancelot.

Sensual and Psycho were there because they were supposed to meet Seraide, who was taking extra armour supplies to Sir Lancelot from his foster mother, the Lady of the Lake.

They were bringing Lancelot the herbals that he needs to take each day. His supply would have run out a few days earlier.”

“We were delayed” barked Sensual, “because Psycho Motor wanted to try running the gauntlet at the fair on the way.”

“I wasn’t the one who spent so much time at the fair checking out all the smells and sights and sounds” yelped Psycho Motor indignantly. “Sensual caused us to stay much longer at the fair than I would have. Once I had run the gauntlet I was ready to go! If we had reached the Dolorous Tower in time, I could have run the gauntlet for Lancelot and turned off the mechanics. But we didn’t, and Seraide wouldn’t let us go in”.

“So you see the implications!” barked Sensual. “Sir Lancelot had to defeat twenty knights and then face destroying the black arts materials and cleansing the well when he was experiencing disturbance to all his senses. Everything was spinning and everything looked, felt, smelled, and tasted of copper.”

“Donald Gow wrote about this so beautifully in his book Lancelot Knight of the heart” said Little Plump Jo. “He writes in the first person voice and so is able to describe the copper coloured sights sounds tastes and smells so vividly.”

“I understand Jo’s problem with the Voice of the piece” barked Intellectual, “but I am not clear about Sensual’s opinion that the colours somehow reflect Sir Lancelot’s courage.”

“Go ahead and research it, Intellectual. Put in Synesthesia and Seizure Auras. Sir Lancelot has had seizures all his life since he nearly drowned in the lake as a baby. Usually they are controlled by the herbals he takes. He was having symptoms of a major seizure about to strike. It would take immense courage to continue to fight his way through all those challenges.