About the YuYu

The YuYu (Doralyt Lyf La Sorafys - People of the Shadows) are malevolent race of little people who are not of the earth, but exist in a parallel universe. Like the Faeries however, they are masters of interdimensional travel and can cross into our world at will (and several other worlds adjoining their own). For this they don't use any machine or technology, because again, they are like the Faeries in that they have magic.

The approach of the YuYu horde is heralded by their low, steady chant, which is a mysterious part of their ritualistic 'crossing over'. It has been said that if you interrupt the YuYu chant, you thwart their advance.

As you fall asleep, you cross a short stretch of no-man's land that divides the world of waking and the world of dreams. Being human, this is where you are at your most vulnerable, and if the YuYu ambush you here, your best escape is to flee back to the world of waking. If you rush forward into the world of dreams, you are also fairly safe, but with the YuYu horde in pursuit, it's very difficult to fall asleep.

The Stolen Boy

Except for their chant, YuYu voices are very rarely heard by their victims until it is much too late. Everything we know about their language is based on accounts from one escaped human slave. He was a boy who was stolen from his bed at the age of 9. He spent several uncounted years of his life as a miserable slave in their shadow world. His daily work involved dragging, pushing and rolling massive unseen objects, tending to vicious unseen creatures and being stung by unseen whips.

Over the first year or two, he picked up the language of the YuYu by listening to them whispering to one another around his feet (they are only about knee-high to a 9yr old boy). He learned that it was a very basic language, comprising just 7 syllables. Every word in the language was a simple combination of one or more of those 7 syllables.

One day, thinking that it might gain him some favour, he decided to speak to the YuYu in their own language, so he sat on the ground and spoke a few words about wanting to rest.

"Dor retyf tism domyt"

No sooner were his words spoken, than he was stung by many whips from all sides and thrown against the walls for an hour or more. He never heard them speak again, so for the longest time he had no way of knowing whether or not they were watching him.

All around on the dark ground he would often see tiny flashes of colour. Thousands of multicoloured sparks, flashing like the reflections of a rainbow across a field of dark glitter. One day, after realising that there were only 7 colours in the glitter, it occurred to him that this was the silent form of communication of the YuYu. They flash their eyes to one another in colour sequences. He was excited to discover therefore, that he could continue to learn their language and eavesdrop on their conversations simply by converting what he'd already learned of their language to colour. What delighted him even more though, was that each flash of colour betrayed the exact location of an otherwise invisible YuYu.

Some months passed, and his thoughts turned to escape plans. Unfortunately there was no special information to be gleaned from the YuYu conversations flashing about him. Being in this world was like being blind, and even though he could vaguely make out the sky above, it was no more bright than a dark grey ceiling in a pitch black room. There was no sun, moon or even stars to illuminate anything, so he had to feel his way around most of the time.

As he performed his daily chores, he collected stones in the darkness and put them in little piles here and there. He knew that if he collected enough stones and made enough piles, he wouldn't need to fumble too far to find some when he needed them. After an estimated several months of this, he began to notice the colours flashing in clusters, and soon realised that the YuYu were gathering around his little piles of stone. Whenever he moved towards them in the course of his heavy duties, the YuYu would disperse into the darkness, moving out of his way.

One day he decided that he should make a break for it. Run in any particular direction and see what happens. The first part of the plan though, was to stand his ground for as long as possible and fling stones into the YuYu crowd.

With excitement building, his heart and his head pounded as he performed his chores for the final time. He decided to make his move after shifting this one last object. As his hands fell on its surface in the dark and he pushed it along the floor, he felt that he may be able to lift this one over his head. He glanced around, and saw a glittering conversation with probably several hundred pairs of flashing eyes.

With all his might, he lifted the heavy object up and onto his shoulder. As he grunted and strained under the weight, he saw all the glittering eyes turn upon him. They all stopped flashing colours and became white. With the weight threatening to topple forward and onto the ground, he ran toward the crowd. As he ran, his feet clattered through several piles of stone and he almost stumbled, but he held his balance and ran on, shouting as he hurled the heavy object into the cluster of white eyes.

As hundreds of voices suddenly cried out at the impact, he rushed toward where they had been clustered and felt that they had indeed been gathered around a large pile of his stones. In a half panic, half rage, half exhilaration, he repeatedly bent to pick up stones from the scattered pile, then unloaded them unforgivingly into the darkness around him. Not pausing at all, bending to pick up more and unloading them blindly in all directions. Here and there were wild sparks of colour, as if it was the shouting version of some silent YuYu word.

He could hear whips whisting dangerously about his head, and one connected behind his ear with a terrible sting. But he battled on, running blindly through the darkness until his feet connected with another pile of stones. He hammered relentlessly at the surrounding darkness with stones, and occasionally taking wild aim at a fleeing pair of white eyes.

Abruptly, all the noise of the battle ceased.

There was not a flash of colour or any white sparks in sight. The sky above seemed to grow a little brighter and the ground all about him, littered with rocks became very barely visible. There was an almost impreceptible breeze blowing and it carried an acrid, smoky smell, something like a cross between singed hair and bitter marzipan.

He wandered aimless for a day, and the YuYu did not return to pursue him.

Almost everything in the shadowy YuYu realm appears in silhouette, so when he suddenly noticed something above him that looked like a glistening pool, swirling and inviting, he didn't hesitate in reaching up to touch it. Immediately he was sucked up into it, and propelled upwards along a dark roaring tunnel, like the funnel of a tornado.

After falling upwards through this dark chaos for what seemed like hours, he slammed without warning into a body of warm dark water, whereupon he lost consciousness.

Wilfred Barker who, at the age of nine mysteriously went insane overnight, spent 63 years in an asylum, dribbling and groaning with no soul. His parents lived their lives grieving for their beloved son, and in due time they grew old and passed away.

Wilfred's mind was somewhere else for those 63 years, but one morning in December of 1987, orderlies found him sitting on the edge of his bed, looking into the wall mirror. His tear-streaked face was crumpled with an expression of fear, grief and bewilderment all at once. When they approached him, he backed away and spoke to them in a strange language.

Teams of psycho therapists from all over the world descended on the asylum to hear, discuss and analyse Wilfred's story. The old man was the subject of many news stories and after being discharged from the asylum he spent several years avoiding the relentless media. No matter how many times he told them the story, every one of them wanted to know what it was like going to sleep in 1924 and waking up in the future.

In 1989, he moved to a peaceful and remote corner of a dairy farm, which was owned and operated by Wilfred's nephew, himself now a 65 year-old grandfather. The dairy had been in the family since the 30's, so they had invited Wilfred to come and live with them, to spend his final years in peace. With a mind that was still very young, Wilfred loved ice cream, aeroplanes, birthdays and Christmas. He was given a black puppy one Christmas, and despite the nightmare he claimed to have endured for several years, he named the dog YuYu.

The daughter of his nephew was an english and music teacher at the local primary school, and one day Wilfred asked her to help him "catch up on stuff". Of course she agreed and she soon found that he had a young person's enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge. He caught up on reading and writing very quickly and spent several hours each day watching educational programs on television.

In 1998, Wilfred self-published his memoir; a thin, naively-written book that read more like fiction. A local newspaper published a chapter each week for 6 weeks, but without any serious marketing help, that's as far as it went. It did manage to gain a small cult following over the next few years however, so now and then an occasional copy turns up on eBay. Otherwise it is very difficult to find.

One morning at 4am, a farmhand noticed smoke coming from the eaves of Wilfred's cabin. Breaking the door down, he discovered that a blanket had been left over a radiator and was smouldering. However, Wilfred had been sick for the previous few days and was found to have died quietly the night before.

When his mind was only 29 years old, Wilfred Barker died of pneumonia in 2007 at the age of 92.

Wilfred left very few posessions behind but amongst them was a cloth-bound journal of 300 pages. His hand-writing covered every page from the first to the last. The entire journal was filled with the grammar of a language he had learned in his time away. It included a dictionary of more than 1000 words.

The name of the YuYu language given in the journal was 'Sarus'. Three of Wilfred's great grand-nephews are in the process of publishing the language on the internet. If you search Google for "YuYu Sarus", you will find more information.