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Chapter 6
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“It even had a gold star molded into the butt! Do you realize how much that and the ivory handle makes it worth?”
“It seems to me,” The silver figure replied, “that you carelessly fling your valuable possessions at whatever ominous entity decides to attack you. I would think a gun would be more worthwhile firing bullets instead of-”
“SO DO I.” Diero hissed, some mist-like substance shooting out of the holes of his mouth as his teeth clenched in fury. “Maybe a more applicable dream that didn’t involve a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DEFENSIVE MANEUVER WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE APPLICABLE. I wonder if any would have FIT THAT DESCRIPTION?”
“Why do you even have something so valuable on you if you’re going to go gunslinging in the wilderness?” I hazarded, knowing full well it would earn me an angry retort. But to my relief, the retort was a bitter deflection in the form of a rhetorical question.
“What on earth do you know about value, Cordax?”
I didn’t bother asking. After all, I’m definitely not a Cordax, and the question was addressed to him. Maybe this Cordax was the box across my legs? Were these two idiots speaking to “me” as a way to speak to this odd rectangle pinning me in position, to circumvent some blockage which prevented them from communicating directly?
…Likely not. They were both too stupid to conceive such a plan.
The strange contraption we sat upon which had the unflattering job of ferrying us to our destination suddenly made a whistling noise, like a kettle about to boil. Wait, did I already use that description? I really should expand my vocabulary a bit more without relying upon exorbitant, pleonastic delineation in my belletristic blithering.
Where was I? Ah, yes, describing events as they proceed, as always. Well, the vehicle had stopped its whistle and now seemed to tug at the ground despite not being grounded in any way, heading towards what appeared to be an impenetrable darkness. The group seemed unconcerned by this development, although Diero did tilt his head at a slight angle to imply curiosity or suspicion. With no other facial features besides rather inhuman eyes, it was difficult to read his expression by emotion alone.
As we sunk into that ominous void there appeared a tower silhouetted on the horizon, impossibly tall and extremely decrepit. No possible indication of life sprung out of that ruin, which had remained hidden from view until now. It spoke of a pinnacle of majesty once constructed to begin a civilization, but now lie in waste at the edge of society, abandoned by all who knew of it.
“You’re probably not familiar with that place,” The silver figure began, in spite of my being completely familiar with it. “but rumor has it that Ghid constructed it because of some device that would let him conquer all of reality. Perhaps that’s why he has so much control now, since that plan clearly didn’t work.”
“Clearly.”
I could feel the steely gaze of Diero burning through the back of my head, and against my better judgement I slowly turned to meet it. It was suspicious, irritated, judgemental, threatening… Everything except things that were positive. Could it have been my tone of voice that warranted this response? It was unclear. Surely it was not simply what I had said that caused this reaction. There was something this Diero character was suspecting, but I couldn’t guess as to what it was.
Now, I can only assume you are clamoring at the edge of your seat, unless you are some kind of freak who stands while reading, in which case I recommend you push yourself to even greater extremes and consider acrobatic gymnastics while reading, to determine what happens when we reach the tower, and as your unwilling schlepper of the unascertained, I am duty-bound to inform you of the journey.
Hmm… Well, nothing beyond the conversation has happened so far… How about I just update you on how many rocks I see on the way there.
One.
Okay, I think that one counts as double. Three.
There’s another One.
Five.
Six, Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen…
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