They survived the next day and a half with little incident. The edge seemed to have been taken off their previous mood, although Milly was still quiet and buried in her books. Eventually, they reached the Dutchy of Linebar, a mountainous and moody place. The main village, appropriately called Linebar, was a rather ramshackle place, an old city that had not so much grown as diluted, spiralling in random directions. Small, claustophrobic stone houses dotted the town at random. As such it was rather hard to get directions.
“Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find the old druid around here?” Leonas asked a woman in the streets.
She chuckled and stepped past him.
“Yo, chumpstain!” Anjanette yelled at a shopkeeper. “We’re looking for a druid.”
She got a similar direction.
“Um, why are people laughing at us? Did we both do the kick-me sign thing at once again?” said Leonas
Anjanette shrugged. “Because people are dumb?”
An old lady, bowed over but brimming with the kind of enthusiastic charity that made both Leonas and Anjanette nauseous, tugged on Milly’s arm. “I’m sorry young folks, but did you say that you were looking for the druid?”
“D-do you know anything about it?” asked Milly.
The old lady chuckled a bit. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken. The druid of Linebar is a local myth, a fairytale parents tell their kids when they misbehave. There’s no actual druid.”
Anjanette stood there, jaw unhinged, face twitching with bubbling rage. “Okay, Leonas? If we see that smarmy wizard prick again, I’m wringing his fucking neck, understand?” The old woman looked agahst at the langauge and quietly shuffled off.
* * *
The door creaked open in the scenic Edgemont Castle. Martin di Edgemont spun around, drawing his rapier on reflex, but he relaxed when he saw it was the beautiful Belle Bloomeaux. “My apologies, milady. I thought you were your brother.”
“My brother... and also your cousin, remember?”
Milly stared at the ilsc with undisguised contempt. “This is so bad.”
“I know,” said Leonas. “Why did you decide to start watching this again?”
“Because I felt like it, okay!” Anjanette said, not quite leaping down Leonas’s throat but coming damn close to it.
“Okay, you can have your coping mechanism,” Leonas whimpered. After the past few days, starting a fight with Anjanette was the last thing he needed.
Previous
Next
Showing posts with label chapter 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapter 3. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Chapter 3-3
In the books, it always said that when you were about to die, your life flashed before your eyes. But when the dinosaur came their way, Milly had no such flashback. Instead, the only thing she had on her mind was that she would never get to find out what happened to Jayn in The Courts of Avanthar. And then there was a blurry patch in her memory, with a lot of screaming and panic. The next thing she knew, Milly found herself in a tree with no idea of how she got there, and no dinosaur in sight – but foot-deep imprints of giant feet and trees strewn about like toys on the floor of a child’s bedroom.
A dark form rose from a muddy pond nearby. Milly shrieked in panic before she saw it was Leonas, covered in mud. “I’ve chosen better spots to hide, but you don’t have to be so terrified about it,” he said. He looked with dismay over his ruined dress shirt.
“Y-you’re alright,” she said, aware that her voice was high, cracking with uncertainty. “Where’s Anjanette?”
“Shit,” Leonas said. “Milly, get down from their, I’m going to go looking.”
“Wait! I can’t climb trees!”
“Well, you did a good enough job getting up there,” he yelled, hurrying out into the distance.
Milly frowned. Leonas’s concern for his partner was admirable, but it would have been nice to get her down from there. How had she gotten up here, anyway? Probably just some latent survival instinct that she was unable to replicate now.
She decided to head back on her own, and stared at the ground below. The ground far, far below, which seemed to be spinning and uncertain. Her head snapped back from fear. Okay, that was a bad idea. Stubbornly keeping her eyes on the wooden bark right in front of her, Milly began to inch her way down the trunk.
* * *
Leonas gasped when he saw Anjanette. She was laying face down on the ground, her
red haired splayed around her head like a halo of blood. Around her was the impact of a dinosaur track. Leonas immediately rushed to her side.
“Anjanette, are you okay?” No response. “Are you alive?”
“No,” Anjanette answered. She rose, perfectly intact.
“You... y-you...”
Anjanette laughed in his face. “The thing missed me by a mile. You blinded it, remember.”
Leonas stared at her, looking torn between hugging her and hugging her throat with his hands. Hard.
“Oh come on, you should have seen your face. ‘Oh Anjanette, what will I do without you? Why, cruel world?’ Ha! And you say that you’re the master thespian here.”
Leonas continued to give her an iron stare. He couldn’t hold it for long, though, before bursting into laughter. “Okay, my bad. That was pretty nice.”
“Why do you think I did it?” said Anjanette.
“Okay, good show, we’re all alive. Now let’s get Milly out of that tree.”
Previous
Next
A dark form rose from a muddy pond nearby. Milly shrieked in panic before she saw it was Leonas, covered in mud. “I’ve chosen better spots to hide, but you don’t have to be so terrified about it,” he said. He looked with dismay over his ruined dress shirt.
“Y-you’re alright,” she said, aware that her voice was high, cracking with uncertainty. “Where’s Anjanette?”
“Shit,” Leonas said. “Milly, get down from their, I’m going to go looking.”
“Wait! I can’t climb trees!”
“Well, you did a good enough job getting up there,” he yelled, hurrying out into the distance.
Milly frowned. Leonas’s concern for his partner was admirable, but it would have been nice to get her down from there. How had she gotten up here, anyway? Probably just some latent survival instinct that she was unable to replicate now.
She decided to head back on her own, and stared at the ground below. The ground far, far below, which seemed to be spinning and uncertain. Her head snapped back from fear. Okay, that was a bad idea. Stubbornly keeping her eyes on the wooden bark right in front of her, Milly began to inch her way down the trunk.
* * *
Leonas gasped when he saw Anjanette. She was laying face down on the ground, her
red haired splayed around her head like a halo of blood. Around her was the impact of a dinosaur track. Leonas immediately rushed to her side.
“Anjanette, are you okay?” No response. “Are you alive?”
“No,” Anjanette answered. She rose, perfectly intact.
“You... y-you...”
Anjanette laughed in his face. “The thing missed me by a mile. You blinded it, remember.”
Leonas stared at her, looking torn between hugging her and hugging her throat with his hands. Hard.
“Oh come on, you should have seen your face. ‘Oh Anjanette, what will I do without you? Why, cruel world?’ Ha! And you say that you’re the master thespian here.”
Leonas continued to give her an iron stare. He couldn’t hold it for long, though, before bursting into laughter. “Okay, my bad. That was pretty nice.”
“Why do you think I did it?” said Anjanette.
“Okay, good show, we’re all alive. Now let’s get Milly out of that tree.”
Previous
Next
Friday, May 16, 2008
Chapter 3-2
A heavy air accompanied the trio as they rode the following day. Except for the smacks of the horse’s hooves against the dirt road, there was little noise. Anjanette was still upset about what she had learned last night, and at Leonas for never sharing it with her. Milly was feeling the familiar terror of not fitting in. And Leonas had been in a foul mood since they began the quest.
To amuse herself, Milly took to staring at the landscape as they passed. It was not a very good amusement. The plains of the Dutchies stretched on for leagues, ordinary farmhouse after ordinary farmhouse. From the distance of the road, she could see the farmhands and animals in miniature, always going about the same lives, every place and every day.
Leonas abruptly stopped, pulling back on the reigns sharply. His horse reared back but quickly calmed down. The girls stopped a little further down, noticing his haste.
“What?” snapped Anjanette.
Leonas dismounted and pointed at the ground. There, too light to see well in motion, was a giant footprint. The feet were round and had thick spiky claws.
“What... is that?” asked Milly.
“Some sort of dinosaur,” said Leonas. “They must be in the area.”
“Are we talking the friendly, peaceful type of dinosaur?” Milly asked.
“With our luck?” Leonas laughed. “Anyway, keep riding... but keep an eye out for anything large, reptillian and hungry.”
“I always do,” said Anjanette.
* * *
Milly felt the thorns piercing through her robe, and the cold dirt crushed up against her chin. Anjanette and Leonas were next to her, squashed even worse under the bush. Anjanette had ditched her oversized sword by the roadside, but still seemed to be fretting over getting dirt on her.
Fortunately, what lay outside was a much greater inconvenience – a triceratops, lazily chewing at tree leaves, stomping around like it owned the road. Which, in all practical terms, it did. The green-scaled beast was close to them, and seemed impossibly large. To try and fully think of its size was to cause madness. Leonas had a faceful of pulsing leg muscle, while Milly couldn’t stop staring at it’s horns, as large as a man, glinting sharply in the sunlight. The foilage vanished into a maw of swords, never to be seen again.
“What did I tell you,” whispered Leonas.
“I think this kind just eats plants,” said Milly. She scrunched her brow, trying to come up with certain information – but the one time her useless knowledge would have proved valuable, she couldn’t come up with it at all.
“Well he’s leaving our horses alone...” said Leonas.
“Yeah, can you guys be quiet? ‘kay, thanks,” snapped Anjanette.
The triceratops turned towards them. Whether drawn by their whispers or something else, it slowly ambled over to the bush the three adventurers were hiding under. Its movement was slow and deliberate, a rumble coursing through the ground with each step. Even the earth seemed frightening, shrinking away from its mammoth feet. With a gluttonous lunge, it swallowed the bush in one mouthful.
The three stared up at the dinosaur, surprised to be exposed to him. It looked down at them, equally suprised, although it was hard to read a dinosaur’s expression.
Their was a brief moment of calm, which is known in most circles as “oh shit”.
The triceratops roared, a deafening sound like a thousand waves at once crashing down on one’s ears, and flailed back. The three dashed off as fast as they could, a mad and formless scramble to get the hell out of there. Leonas had the presence of mind to mutter an incantation and shoot a stream of sparks into the triceratops’ eyes, blinding him momentarily. And then he, too, ran like hell itself was on his tail... because it was.
Previous
Next
To amuse herself, Milly took to staring at the landscape as they passed. It was not a very good amusement. The plains of the Dutchies stretched on for leagues, ordinary farmhouse after ordinary farmhouse. From the distance of the road, she could see the farmhands and animals in miniature, always going about the same lives, every place and every day.
Leonas abruptly stopped, pulling back on the reigns sharply. His horse reared back but quickly calmed down. The girls stopped a little further down, noticing his haste.
“What?” snapped Anjanette.
Leonas dismounted and pointed at the ground. There, too light to see well in motion, was a giant footprint. The feet were round and had thick spiky claws.
“What... is that?” asked Milly.
“Some sort of dinosaur,” said Leonas. “They must be in the area.”
“Are we talking the friendly, peaceful type of dinosaur?” Milly asked.
“With our luck?” Leonas laughed. “Anyway, keep riding... but keep an eye out for anything large, reptillian and hungry.”
“I always do,” said Anjanette.
* * *
Milly felt the thorns piercing through her robe, and the cold dirt crushed up against her chin. Anjanette and Leonas were next to her, squashed even worse under the bush. Anjanette had ditched her oversized sword by the roadside, but still seemed to be fretting over getting dirt on her.
Fortunately, what lay outside was a much greater inconvenience – a triceratops, lazily chewing at tree leaves, stomping around like it owned the road. Which, in all practical terms, it did. The green-scaled beast was close to them, and seemed impossibly large. To try and fully think of its size was to cause madness. Leonas had a faceful of pulsing leg muscle, while Milly couldn’t stop staring at it’s horns, as large as a man, glinting sharply in the sunlight. The foilage vanished into a maw of swords, never to be seen again.
“What did I tell you,” whispered Leonas.
“I think this kind just eats plants,” said Milly. She scrunched her brow, trying to come up with certain information – but the one time her useless knowledge would have proved valuable, she couldn’t come up with it at all.
“Well he’s leaving our horses alone...” said Leonas.
“Yeah, can you guys be quiet? ‘kay, thanks,” snapped Anjanette.
The triceratops turned towards them. Whether drawn by their whispers or something else, it slowly ambled over to the bush the three adventurers were hiding under. Its movement was slow and deliberate, a rumble coursing through the ground with each step. Even the earth seemed frightening, shrinking away from its mammoth feet. With a gluttonous lunge, it swallowed the bush in one mouthful.
The three stared up at the dinosaur, surprised to be exposed to him. It looked down at them, equally suprised, although it was hard to read a dinosaur’s expression.
Their was a brief moment of calm, which is known in most circles as “oh shit”.
The triceratops roared, a deafening sound like a thousand waves at once crashing down on one’s ears, and flailed back. The three dashed off as fast as they could, a mad and formless scramble to get the hell out of there. Leonas had the presence of mind to mutter an incantation and shoot a stream of sparks into the triceratops’ eyes, blinding him momentarily. And then he, too, ran like hell itself was on his tail... because it was.
Previous
Next
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Chapter 3-1
They moved quicker on horseback than they did by cart, but still not as quick as they would have liked. Between the three of them someone always seemed to need to go to the bathroom or have a bite to eat, and by nightfall they hadn’t even made it a third of the way. Worse yet, it had recently rained and so there was no dry wood to light a fire with. Leonas used a light spell in its place, but wasn’t happy about it.
They made camp in a quiet glade off the side of the road. Leonas’s quick light spell bobbed against the ground, providing an unnatural white light. All three pulled bedrolls out of their packs and sat down on them, forming a scattered circle around the campfire.
Milly produced three packs of trail rations from the sleeve of her robes. Anjanette remarked “Wow, that thing’s more handy than I would have thought.”
“Uh... thanks,” said Milly.
They dug into the trail rations with an obscene hunger. Despite being dry and tasteless, the rations were all they had to eat. After a while your senses flipped around so that they were delicious.
“So tell me about being a... what was it, battle librarian?” asked Leonas.
Milly blushed, shrinking away from the light spell and into the shadows. “I basically just search for rare books and artifacts. I hope to open up a big library one day, with all these treasures and stuff, but that’s a long way in the future. It’s really not as interesting as it sounds.”
“Really? Because it sounds pretty fucking dull,” said Anjanette.
Leonas ignored her, even if Milly didn’t. “If you don’t mind me prying, why?”
Milly apparently found an ant crawling on the ground supremely fascinating, but talked anyway. “I guess I’ve just always loved books. Fiction, histories, poems, advice books... like, anything I can get my hands on, really. And, uh, these ancient books that have been lost... I mean, how could I not go looking for them? I just really want to know what’s in them, you know? It sounds really dumb, I know.”
There was a brief hesitation, which Milly used to immediately change the subject. “So, what about you guys? Why are you in the questing business.”
“We’re not,” said Anjanette. She leaned back on her broadsword, planted in the ground behind her.
“We’re con men by trade,” said Leonas. “We figured it was a much better way to make a living while keeping all the adventure and travelling of questing.”
“But doesn’t your conscience bother you?”
“What’s that?” said Anjanette. She and Leonas shared a chuckle.
They talked a bit more, trading road stories over their dry rations. Eventually Anjanette ventured into her pack and pulled out an ilsc.
“Oh no,” said Leonas. “Please don’t tell me...”
Anjanette cracked a sadistic smile. “That’s right. The brand new ‘Noble and Beautiful’. Suck it.”
“Come on, Milly,” Leonas said, turning to her like a doomed princess looks at her shining knight. “If you agree with me that Anjanette can’t watch her stupid soap opera out here, then she can’t, right? Majority rules! The principal of modern life!”
“Um... wait, you still watch ilscs?” gaped Milly, ignoring Leonas.
Anjanette looked at her as if she had asked “You still breathe?”. “Uh, yeah. Don’t you?”
“Well, I’m more of a book person, but since I, uh, learned how they were made...”
“How they’re made? Some sort of magic mumbo jumbo, right?”
Leonas shot Milly a dirty look which seemed to miss by a mile. “Yeah. It was, like, a deal with demons like all magic, but I think that it was particualrly severe. Um, do you not know?” Anjanette shook her head, and Milly launched into scholar mode. “Well, about two centuries ago, shortly after the War of Enlightenment, a group of demons appeared before the A.O.K. Council. They offered the Aokians the spells to make as many ilscs as they wanted, recording their ideas in illusions that could later be released. The Aokian government wanted this technology badly, to help with trade and, as many scholars suspect, placate the masses. But the demons wanted a high price – they wanted a generation of mankind.”
“A generation of mankind?” asked Anjanette. “What does that mean?”
Milly lit up, carrying the air of a passionate professor. “Basically, the apocalypse, whenever and however it happens – and the demons seem pretty sure it’s going to happen – will happen one generation sooner. In the tree of humanity, the top layer of branches got cut off. After conferring with themselves, the Council made the deal.”
“That’s the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Anjanette. “You expect me to believe that conspiracy theory bullshit?”
“It’s true, actually,” said Leonas.
Anjanette swivelled her head to stare him down. “What? Why did you not tell me this?”
“It usually tends to ruin them for you,” said Leonas. “ I figure now that the deal’s done, ignorance is bliss and I’d just let you enjoy your soaps.”
“So what, a generation isn’t going to get to live, so that I can veg and watch soaps?” said Anjanette, aghast. “How dare they fucking decide that for us? I should guess this doesn’t just affect Aokians.”
“The demons have always communicated with the leaders of the greatest nation at the time, assuming that they speak for mankind,” said Milly.
Anjanette got up and tossed the ilsc away, pacing around the light source furiously. Leonas, a somber expression on his face, said “Personally, I was more disturbed knowing that there’s an end to all this. It could be tomorrow, it could never happen in our lifetimes... but mankind isn’t going to last forever. Of all the creepy shit I learned in the Academy, that’s got to be the creepiest.”
“Um...” Milly wanted to have something thoughtful to say, but she didn’t.
Leonas looked at the ground. Anjanette continued her rampage, crushing all the anthills and plants that got in her way. Milly still felt like she should say something.
“I’m sorry... I thought you would know,” she said. “I mean, I know that the AOK covered it up, but there’s a pretty big part on it in the Historica Arcana, and...”
Anjanette pivoted to glare at Milly, before breaking out into laughter. “Girl, I can count the number of books I have read since leaving school on one hand. And you can bet your ass that none of them were the goddamn Historica Arcana.”
It was Milly’s turn to stare forward with abject horror.
Previous
Next
They made camp in a quiet glade off the side of the road. Leonas’s quick light spell bobbed against the ground, providing an unnatural white light. All three pulled bedrolls out of their packs and sat down on them, forming a scattered circle around the campfire.
Milly produced three packs of trail rations from the sleeve of her robes. Anjanette remarked “Wow, that thing’s more handy than I would have thought.”
“Uh... thanks,” said Milly.
They dug into the trail rations with an obscene hunger. Despite being dry and tasteless, the rations were all they had to eat. After a while your senses flipped around so that they were delicious.
“So tell me about being a... what was it, battle librarian?” asked Leonas.
Milly blushed, shrinking away from the light spell and into the shadows. “I basically just search for rare books and artifacts. I hope to open up a big library one day, with all these treasures and stuff, but that’s a long way in the future. It’s really not as interesting as it sounds.”
“Really? Because it sounds pretty fucking dull,” said Anjanette.
Leonas ignored her, even if Milly didn’t. “If you don’t mind me prying, why?”
Milly apparently found an ant crawling on the ground supremely fascinating, but talked anyway. “I guess I’ve just always loved books. Fiction, histories, poems, advice books... like, anything I can get my hands on, really. And, uh, these ancient books that have been lost... I mean, how could I not go looking for them? I just really want to know what’s in them, you know? It sounds really dumb, I know.”
There was a brief hesitation, which Milly used to immediately change the subject. “So, what about you guys? Why are you in the questing business.”
“We’re not,” said Anjanette. She leaned back on her broadsword, planted in the ground behind her.
“We’re con men by trade,” said Leonas. “We figured it was a much better way to make a living while keeping all the adventure and travelling of questing.”
“But doesn’t your conscience bother you?”
“What’s that?” said Anjanette. She and Leonas shared a chuckle.
They talked a bit more, trading road stories over their dry rations. Eventually Anjanette ventured into her pack and pulled out an ilsc.
“Oh no,” said Leonas. “Please don’t tell me...”
Anjanette cracked a sadistic smile. “That’s right. The brand new ‘Noble and Beautiful’. Suck it.”
“Come on, Milly,” Leonas said, turning to her like a doomed princess looks at her shining knight. “If you agree with me that Anjanette can’t watch her stupid soap opera out here, then she can’t, right? Majority rules! The principal of modern life!”
“Um... wait, you still watch ilscs?” gaped Milly, ignoring Leonas.
Anjanette looked at her as if she had asked “You still breathe?”. “Uh, yeah. Don’t you?”
“Well, I’m more of a book person, but since I, uh, learned how they were made...”
“How they’re made? Some sort of magic mumbo jumbo, right?”
Leonas shot Milly a dirty look which seemed to miss by a mile. “Yeah. It was, like, a deal with demons like all magic, but I think that it was particualrly severe. Um, do you not know?” Anjanette shook her head, and Milly launched into scholar mode. “Well, about two centuries ago, shortly after the War of Enlightenment, a group of demons appeared before the A.O.K. Council. They offered the Aokians the spells to make as many ilscs as they wanted, recording their ideas in illusions that could later be released. The Aokian government wanted this technology badly, to help with trade and, as many scholars suspect, placate the masses. But the demons wanted a high price – they wanted a generation of mankind.”
“A generation of mankind?” asked Anjanette. “What does that mean?”
Milly lit up, carrying the air of a passionate professor. “Basically, the apocalypse, whenever and however it happens – and the demons seem pretty sure it’s going to happen – will happen one generation sooner. In the tree of humanity, the top layer of branches got cut off. After conferring with themselves, the Council made the deal.”
“That’s the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Anjanette. “You expect me to believe that conspiracy theory bullshit?”
“It’s true, actually,” said Leonas.
Anjanette swivelled her head to stare him down. “What? Why did you not tell me this?”
“It usually tends to ruin them for you,” said Leonas. “ I figure now that the deal’s done, ignorance is bliss and I’d just let you enjoy your soaps.”
“So what, a generation isn’t going to get to live, so that I can veg and watch soaps?” said Anjanette, aghast. “How dare they fucking decide that for us? I should guess this doesn’t just affect Aokians.”
“The demons have always communicated with the leaders of the greatest nation at the time, assuming that they speak for mankind,” said Milly.
Anjanette got up and tossed the ilsc away, pacing around the light source furiously. Leonas, a somber expression on his face, said “Personally, I was more disturbed knowing that there’s an end to all this. It could be tomorrow, it could never happen in our lifetimes... but mankind isn’t going to last forever. Of all the creepy shit I learned in the Academy, that’s got to be the creepiest.”
“Um...” Milly wanted to have something thoughtful to say, but she didn’t.
Leonas looked at the ground. Anjanette continued her rampage, crushing all the anthills and plants that got in her way. Milly still felt like she should say something.
“I’m sorry... I thought you would know,” she said. “I mean, I know that the AOK covered it up, but there’s a pretty big part on it in the Historica Arcana, and...”
Anjanette pivoted to glare at Milly, before breaking out into laughter. “Girl, I can count the number of books I have read since leaving school on one hand. And you can bet your ass that none of them were the goddamn Historica Arcana.”
It was Milly’s turn to stare forward with abject horror.
Previous
Next
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
