In A Different Timeline, Far Away From Reality Part 7
By: CD
Authors Note: Here's part seven of the story. In this one I directly borrowed (or stole, if you wish) a character from Anton Pieck's Efteling. I hope he and the management don't mind, as this is only a work of fan fiction. I'd rate this chapter some low PG for minor voilence and mildly intense scenes. Ask if you have any questions.
The three adventurers had traveled for some time now, without to much trouble.
Chip and Mercy did have to warn Philip who was so interested in reading in his
books that he didn’t pay attention to where he was walking. When they sat
down to rest some, they suddenly heard laughing. It sounded grumpy and had a
couple of incomprehensible words mixed into it. Mercy, Chip and Philip looked
around to see where it came from, and discovered it came from a tree. A small
stream of water separated them from it and before the small moat stood a large
carved stone with a shiny arrow attached to it, but it was impossible to tell
if it was gold or fake. Chip got up and slowly approached it, the others following
him. When they where a bit closer to the tree, they could see there was a hole
in it and inside sat a grubby man. His hair and beard had turned into a dirty
gray mass, his skin was covered with warts at some places, and his body had
an unhealthy brown color. On his head was a crown and an assortment of items
was located next to his ‘throne’.
“I don’t even want to know what happened to him!” Mercy exclaimed
disgusted.
The man/abomination heard her and looked at his visitors. He grumbled something
before breaking out in laughter. The owl in his tree woke up and looked down
with great interest. The strange old creature in the tree laughed a bit more
before coughing and taking a scepter and pointed it at the visitors.
“What is he trying to do?” Chip wondered and scratched behind his
ears.
“Probably trying to cast a curse or something.” Mercy assumed and
took a defensive stance.
Nothing happened, and the man pointed to the stone in front of the chipmunks
and said something in his own language. The trio approached the stone and found
several marking on it. A lion, a bull, fishes and several more.
It looked similar to a clock, but with only the silver arrow attached to it,
it seemed more like an astronomical device.
“Do you suppose he wants to help us?” Chip asked and tried to move
the arrow.
It slid out of place but nothing happened.
“Gimme that!” Mercy ordered as she shoved Chip aside and moved the
thing a bit “Let’s see what happens if I put this thing on my own
sign. Let’s see, November is scorpion right?” She wondered as she
moved the arrow and waited.
For a while, nothing happened. But then she felt a vibration and it steadily
increased intensity.
“Earthquake!” Chip cried alarmed.
Philip clasped his arms around Mercy’s leg.
“Mercy, I’m scared!” He cried and closed his eyes.
Panic consumed them as the shaking became worse. This continued for a while
before decreasing it’s intensity. As the tremors grew faint, Mercy could
hear the hideous man laughing out loud.
“You think it is fun to scare people like that, your ugliness? Dirty proletarian!”
She shouted at him.
Apparently he understood her as he coughed at looked at her angrily. He grabbed
a book next to him and threw it at Mercy. She ducked, and the book passed over
her head. But then she heard someone scream in pain and looked back to see Philip
on the ground with the book next to him lying on the ground. Measuring from
the size of the thing, Mercy reasoned that it wouldn’t have felt pleasant
to get hit by it. She became furious, helped her brother up and guided him over
to the tiny river.
“No one hurts my little brother like that. Philip, use your magic knowledge
to set his tree on fire!” She commanded, with a murderous look in her eyes.
“B-but Mercy, I…” Philip stumbled “Y-you want me t-to hurt
him?”
“Do it! He hurt you, so you should hurt him. Just do it for me would you?”
Mercy pressed on.
“A-alright already.” Philip agreed and got ready.
He pointed his one hand toward the man who had just injured him, looked away
and closed his eyes tight. A fireball formed in his palm and shot toward the
royal prankster. The joker himself remained confident and didn’t seem to
mind the flaming projectile rocketing in his direction. Just before impact,
the ball of fire bounced off a invisible shell and shot upwards. The owl panicked
as the searing flame bolt passed right in front of him. After a while it was
out of sight.
While Mercy was stunned, Philip decided to inspect the paperwork that had hit
him on the head.
“Hey, it’s another book about magic!” He let out excitedly as
he picked it up.
Mercy recovered and grabbed a stone of the ground and threw it at the old madman.
This time, there was nothing the magic shield could do for him and Mercy scored
a direct hit on his forehead. This angered him even more and he raised his wand
as energy gathered at the head of it. He threw it at Mercy, but apparently the
man was nearsighted because he only succeeded in hitting the stone, which exploded
into many pieces. All three get on the ground hoping they wouldn’t get
hit by the debris. The ‘golden’ arrow fell down next to Mercy, who
looked up to see if it was safe again. The abominable old timer was shocked
to see the object shattered and murmured something inaudible. When he saw his
three guests had recovered he became angry once again. He began shouting things
at them and waved his arms and scepter around. Finally he calmed down a bit,
but it was clear it took him a lot of self control. He pointed his scepter at
the road and spoke at them in a low, deep and hostile voice. Neither three could
make out the words, but it was obvious he wanted them to leave. Chip and Philip
obeyed, Mercy remained behind for a moment to huff and shot him a ‘serves
you right, bum’ look.