Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard.
Where anything goes.
-//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7
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Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard. Where anything goes. -//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7 |
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Monday, March 08, 2004 - The Wayward, Part VIII.ii - 26. Nope, nobody that I know. Figment of your imagination. "Well ..." I pondered for a moment before coming to the all-too-obvious situation, "Look, I've only been in this ... this world for a few hours or so. I haven't heard of you in my life, let alone seen you! What gave you such a weird idea?" "I don't know ..." Io Aoi chuckled heartily as he gave himself a quick pat on his back, "I was just wondering if you'd known anything about me before. Sometimes, the name of the famous explorer Io Aoi can exceed the limits of his knowledge." Huh. And apparently, so can his self-confidence. "Seriously, I know as much about you as I do about ... um ..." No names were available on my mind at this point in time, largely because ... there weren't any! Except for maybe ... what's her name? I reached into my pocket for her neatly, surely professionally painted and framed portrait. "About this Princess ... what's-her-name?" "The Princess Uaeouue," he explained, before shooting me a rather displeased glance, "Not anything else. While I'm quite flattered by your comparison, as a representative of the crown I won't tolerate any rudeness to a member of the royal family, thank you very much." "I ... I wasn't being rude! The fact is, well, I don't know any other names!" I yelped, seeking not to offend him in ways which his attitude did not naturally deserve, "Like I said, I've only been here for a few hours or so. Don't blame me for it!" "Oh, I'm not blaming you or anything. If anyone's going to be hostile toward you, it might be those guards at the Palace, but it won't be me," he added with a knowing grin, before continuing on a little more lightheartedly, "Anyway, it's likely that I'm more well known than the Princess herself! Maybe everyone in Va World is familiar with both of our names, but at least quite a lot of Va World has seen me at some point in their lives, while I hear that the Princess hasn't made any public appearances for nearly a decade!" "So much for disrespect to the crown, eh?" I smirked, glancing back at my silent friend half-expecting a word of support. "I ... don't quote me on that," he stammered uneasily as he fumbled with the reins, nearly dropping them despite his equestrian proficiency, "Although, why a member of the royalty would make a public appearance as a child but not as a teenager is quite beyond me." I didn't disagree with him on that one. He fell silent, dwelling on this rather inconsequential fact as we passed the precipice where I had first found myself, confused and miserably. And now? I wasn't feeling any less bewildered, but I was thankful at the fact that there was someone out there who was willing to offer me a trip back to civilisation to rediscover my way home, not to mention the novelty of having a rather unworldly companion who was deferrent to me. The sun having risen quite a bit higher into the sky since I last glanced in its general direction, the rays were now so focussed that it became painful to glance back to enjoy the scenery I had savoured, at least for a while, back at the beginning of it all. I peeked in the other direction, to catch sight of a rustic yet well-maintained farmyard, the lovely crops glistening with pastoral charm, yet cringing helplessly under the oppression of the increasingly harsh and merciless reign of the sun. Noticing the lull in conversation, a rather unusual feature given Io Aoi's tendency to boast and brag about his achievements or to lay heavily patronising remarks upon any who did not share his illustrious status, which is to say, non-male, I sensed that something was wrong with him in his silence and ventured a question so as to gauge his feelings. "Um ... you were saying, about the Princess?" I murmured quietly, not too sure of how he would respond. "Huh? Oh, no, nothing ... I was just thinking," he muttered, before posing a question in return, possibly to lift the burden of thought from his shoulders, "Anyway, I thought it was your turn to reply. Do you have anything to say about that, or are there any questions you want to ask?" "Well ... yes, actually. Something important," I replied, noticing how he had only spoken up after the last bit of fence from the cliffside farm had disappeared past the sides of the carriage, to be replaced with hedges encircling a gradually decreasing piece of land, wherein stood a house of brick or wood not dissimilar from the little homestead situated in the middle of the farm. In other words, we were entering an urban area. "Just where are we going?" The obvious question needed no further suggestions. "This road leads into the town of Ouaiie ("What did you say?")," explained Io Aoi patiently, turning about to illustrate things to me a little more personally while leaving his horse unattended. Quite a dangerous move, but one without much repercussions as the animal seemed to have knowledge of the appropriate speed to travel at, and how to avoid pedestrians and allow them to cross the road, "Yes, I know you mightn't be familiar with it, because it's actually quite a remote town in our country. Remote, but a very busy place in itself because it's like the gathering point of all the farming activities carried out in the whole area around it. As you might guess, I don't live here, but I pass through here often because it's the closest town to some of the places of my greatest adventures. It's famous for not much more than being a port village that's the centre of trade in all kinds of food, like fish gathered by fishermen out at sea, or the sweet milk that's said to be even creamier than butter, or even the famous rosy red Ouaiie apples, more beautifully crimson than the dearest maiden's cheeks ... not that I would really consider anything more dear than a maiden who's fair and willing, of course, but ..." As he was about to go off tangent into yet another one of his rants about his manly desires, I could not help but allow a rather dissatisfied grumble to emanate from me, which cut him short in the middle of his speech. "Fair maidens shouldn't grumble so much, you know that?" he jested rather crudely, his toothy grin a rather stark contrast to the stares of worried passers-by that were wondering how long a horse drawing a carriage could go without being driven until it met with an accident. "I'm not grumbling about your silly remarks, I'm used to them. It's just that ..." I sighed, to another chuckle from the captain of chauvinism himself, before he gasped in mock horror as another angry rumble from within me set the atmosphere trembling, "It's just that I haven't eaten all morning! Aren't you going to, like, stop for breakfast or anything? You promised, you know!" "Haha ... yes, I did promise," Io Aoi replied while stifling a hollering guffaw, "But I was going to stop at the next town, actually. However, seeing as to how it's a long way onward, and I don't want the quakes from your stomach shaking my carriage to pieces ("... sorry ..."), I guess we could stop here for a while. Since Ouaiie is a great nexus of agriculture, there shouldn't be any doubt that it's also a great place for food. There's a eatery in the middle of town that provides take-out meals for travellers too hurried to stay around, so we could get something from there." "Really? Great! I'll ..." I was about to continue before a resonant shockwave which would have set both Richter and Mercalli shivering in their graves rang out from deep within me. Unfortunately, having stifled my hunger for so long with the delicious yet intangible taste of adventure, my unsatiated and dissatisfied digestive system would no longer hold back its grievances against me for depriving it so. "I'll just sit here ... and try not to ... grumble ..." "Hehehe ... no worries. The only thing is ..." Again, Io Aoi was about to continue but he was again cut short, thankfully not by a seismic wave sending him tumbling out of his seat but by the sudden shudder of the carriage to a halt as the horse stopped in the middle of town. "Hi ho, Iiuuaa! Holla! Stop right there!" The middle of town? I had been so busy conversing with him, and worrying about my stomach, that I hadn't given much thought to the evolving scenery around me. And I was certainly overawed when I finally glanced to my sides, and took in the sights of ... what was its name? Being in the middle of a medieval world, it was no surprise that I happened to be in the middle of a medieval township. But what a surprise it was, having never encountered one outside of storybooks and full-motion animated videos. The town's crossroads was a hive of bustling activity as people walked about, bearing items ranging from baskets to books, all engaged in their own indiscernible activities like ants wandering around their nest. Shopping, trading, or simply meeting friends and getting a meal? All of these were possible, for not only were there people with all these intentions, but the village certainly had the facilities for it all. One lane which seemed to lead downhill served as a marketplace, teeming with people buying and selling all manner of goods, while the road itself ended in a port where fishermen landed to unload their daily catch. Another road had an inn or a tavern of some sort situated along it, something easily discerned from the presence of that familiar sign just above its door. A large building, not magnificent but definitely grander than the rest about it stood before us, bearing a dome and a spire like some kind of mayoral office or town hall. And in the centre of the crossroads, the centre of it all, there stood a fountain cheerfully bubbling with sparkling and crystal clear water, so clean that passers-by found no problems in taking a sip directly from it. Having seen the desolated laboratory situated in the middle of the wilderness, this return to civilisation was more than welcome ... and more than impressing. Directing his horse carefully, this time slightly more challenging due to the large numbers of pedestrians and the occasional fellow carriage passing through, Io turned his carriage into one of the lanes and stopped outside a place that looked not too much unlike an eatery, showcasing all manner of hot meals, snacks and titbits in its sizable shop-panel window (it obviously being difficult to acquire large panels of glass without advanced technology or a large infusion of capital), and its swing doors occasionally flapped open to allow a customer to enter or for one to leave, contentedly caressing their bellies or picking away at meals wrapped in old news papers in their hands. It looks good. Hungry. Hungry! "Great, now that we're here ..." Io Aoi began as the carriage shuddered to a halt, the horse taking the opportunity to enjoy a nibble from a patch of grass peeking through a crack in the tarred road, "How much gold have you got on you?" "G ... gold?" I stammered, the shockwaves from my stomach stilled by this new shock running through my skull, "I ... why would I have gold on me? And even if I did, why would I carry it around?" 'Well ..." he murmured as his face contorted into an unusual grimace which showed that once again, I was missing out on something commonly thought to be obvious in this foreign world I had appeared in, "To ... buy ... stuff?" "To buy stuff? You buy stuff with ... gold?" I gasped, eyes bulging from their sockets. Three theories were available, firstly, that 'gold' was just a common slang for money, secondly, that gold was merely the largest denomination of cash available, thirdly, that this 'gold' he spoke of was indeed the precious metal we know, only traded in very small proportions or in impure alloys like medieval people really did in ancient times. Unfortunately, judging from his expression, none of these hypotheses seemed to be correct. "I ... don't have any ... it's really precious where I come from. It's nearly the most precious thing around, and obviously I'm not rich enough to actually have any of it." Not that I would trade it, even if I did, for 'gold' seemed to bear very little value in this world. The only other thing I had that was valuable, other than myself (of course!) was that ring the creature had given to me earlier, but it didn't look too valuable, and seeing as to how it opened the specially locked laboratory room, it was likely that it served a purpose beyond mere ornamentation. "That's probably the weirdest thing I've heard out of you so far," he confessed rather bemusedly, that bewildered expression not concealing any of his sentiments, "If there's anything we and the enemy Consonance can agree upon, it's our currency, and if you don't have any of it you must really be from somewhere ... somewhere far away." "No doubt about it ..." I shrugged, before an issue of concern surged across my mind, "But ... you're the one who's supposed to provide for me, anyway, since you're under orders to take me to the Palace. And you're also going to buy your own breakfast later, surely you've got some of this gold on you?" "I ... er ... heh heh ..." Io Aoi stammered as he reached into a pouch on his belt to pull out ... a rusty iron nail looking similar to those used to hammer the boards of the carriage together, "I didn't say I was 'buying' myself breakfast, did I? I certainly wouldn't expect a well-dressed, prim and proper young lady like yourself to be absolutely skinflint!" "And I certainly wouldn't expect a boastful, chauvinistic, trash-talking, straw hat-wearing 'intrepid explorer' like your self to be absolutely broke either!" I retorted, irked not merely by the fact that he had no money on him but more so by how he planned to lift his meals off from someone, "Look, you're an adventurer! You've told me about how you put down rampaging beasts and apprehend dangerous criminals and ... heck, right now you're doing an errand for people who live in a Palace! Surely you've got some money on you!" "What are you thinking? You've obviously never lived a life of adventure before!" he complained resentfully, making an observation that was very much true but was also very much irrelevant, "I'm an adventurer, not a hunter or a poacher! I don't sell animals or bits of them for a living. And yeah, I do get paid for nabbing crooks and bandits, but do you know how much I spend just preparing myself to make a successful arrest without them getting away? And yes, you're right, I will get paid for bringing all this stuff back to the Palace ... but not until I actually get there! Adventurers are people who struggle just to earn their two meals a day, not rich nobles who can sit back and bask in their wealth. If I was rich, do you still think that I'd be going out, slogging away under the hot sun and dealing with uncooperative people like you?" "Oh, all right! I get the point! You can't even afford to buy a miserable little girl breakfast because you're poor!" I sighed, utterly exasperated, to a huff of affirmation from the explorer himself (' ... wait, did you just insult me?'). He must be a terrible economist, if he accepted jobs that paid only as much money as he spent on the jobs themselves. "But I'm still hungry! I want food! If you don't have money, at least you should have something on you which you brought to eat along the way! Give me some!" At other times, this might have been a totally inappropriate and insensible demand, but my stomach was raging, I was hungry, and I didn't care about rhythm or reason. As a roar that sounded like a cross between thunder and a frog being strangled echoed throughout the carriage, Io Aoi mournfully decided that he had to do something, if not for the sake of his sanity then for the sake of the integrity of his carriage. "Oh, all right, you leave me no choice!" he groaned in frustration, "I know of a nice lady around here who'd give us a free meal, but I'd rather not bother her ..." "You mean a lady who's nice enough to give you a free lunch would bother you more than I'm bothering you now?" I snarled, a fearsome beast on the prowl having already picked up the slightest of scents of a meal, "Let's go now, please! For the sake of me and my good friend over here!" Io Aoi glanced at the robed creature behind me, still resting there noiselessly and seemingly oblivious to my gastronomical torment ... not like gastronomy was something that looked to be one of its interests, before bowing his head dismayedly and seizing hold of the reins once again. Executing a rather difficult turn in the middle of the crowded street (considering the pedestrians, the other road traffic, and the unequal mobilities of the carriage and its power source), Io directed the horse back to the fountain at the crossroads, to return to the road that we had travelled on, all the way from the ruined laboratory at its end. And still, even as the large vehicle was cutting its way through a small stream of people crossing the road, Io Aoi kept his head bowed, mulling about something more important than traffic safety. "I ... I'm sorry if I was rather unreasonable about it, but ..." I stammered as, having temporarily recovered from my frenzied quest for food, I feared the inane way I went about it might have addled the wretched man some, "Are you all right? What's eating you?" "It's just something personal, really ..." he murmured without turning back to face me, "And thinking about it just got me wondering ..." "About what? Maybe I could help," I offered, hoping to be able to stem any wrongs that I had inadvertantly spawned. "Heh, nothing much. Nothing like what you might be thinking," he remarked, chuckling a little, but still avoiding my glance, only watching me mischievously out of the corner of his eye, "I was just wondering why I'm doing all this for you." "I think I might know," I sniggered softly, but rather humourlessly, as his dull expression swelled into an inscrutable grin. Your choice. Lead or mislead, take or mistake. Make or unmake, derstand or understand. 29. I'm still a prisoner! It's your responsibility to provide for me! 30. Don't imprison yourself! You just feel responsible for others! - An advertising offer for tour agencies' farm-stay packages ... Your ad : Venture and shear! - posted by Charlotte | 3:50 pm
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Disclaimer : The Slayers and Filia Ul Copt and all images thereof are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I don't own any of them, although if I had a choice I would want Filia ... ~//n_n\\7 |
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