Post by Guardsman Patrick on Oct 12, 2006 23:21:47 GMT -5
Chapter 7: Awakening a Legacy
The first four floors of the tower stood nearly complete in the middle of the field that was to be the new Gym Master home. Alex and Patrick worked tirelessly on the tower and the results were obvious. The sun sank slowly into the sea making the western sky red and telling the world that the day was coming to an end. Alex, set up and laid down his hammer, walked over to the tiny cooler that sat on the edge of the tower and began to search through it impatiently. Finally he grabbed hold of what it was he was looking for and pulled it out as if he were a crazed beast.
“Finally, some good old water to settle the mind and body,” he sighed after a large gulp and turned to Patrick, “You thirsty?”
“I’d be scared if I wasn’t,” Patrick said with a smile in Alex’s direction.
“So, what’ll you have?” Alex searched to see what he had left in the cooler.
“How about a Coline?” Patrick said, continuing to nail down the board he was working on.
“All right, one Cola coming right up,” Alex said, pulling out an ice-covered can from his cooler.
“No, I said a Coline,” Patrick repeated the name slowly; making sure Alex had it right.
“What’s a Coline?” Alex asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“You mean to tell me that you have never had a Coline?” Patrick looked at Alex in mock horror as Alex nodded his head.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to get you some, but, for now, we need to keep working on the tower. We can probably finish this floor, the fourth, and fifth before nightfall if we work hard enough,” Patrick drew out a little plan in his mind, seeing if the sixth could be done too.
“That’s good, and speak of the devil, Rachel and Pairon are here,” Alex faced the tiny path coming out of the woods and jumped down to the ground, using the side of the tower to slow his descent.
Rachel and Pairon didn’t even look at each other. They were obviously not getting along. As Alex approached, they stopped and Pairon put down Rachel’s bags and things.
“No, no, no, I want you to put my things over there!” Rachel pointed to the farthest side of the clearing.
“Sorry, your highness, I didn’t mean to drop your crap wherever I felt like dropping it,” Pairon said through clenched teeth. He glared at Rachel before gathering her things again.
“Well, I accept your apology, and I hope this is a lesson for you. Now be sure that you get it all in the shade. I don’t want to fry out here,” Rachel was trying to make Pairon mad and was being very successful. He grumpily walked over to the shade and dropped her stuff again.
“Thank you,” Rachel said with a quick little smile. Alex just stood back and watched. He watched as Rachel unfolded her lawn tanning chair and her reflective mirror. As Alex approached Rachel, he saw Pairon tense up and his lips curled back, showing a line of silvery teeth. He crouched and looked into the air. Alex didn’t see anything until a huge black dragon with gold plates of armor flew in low above the clearing.
This dragon was almost twice Pairon’s size, and had two large silver fangs protruding out of his mouth. It wasn’t flapping its wings, so Alex new it was coming in to land and it was heading right for Patrick. Alex was just about to yell to warn him when he saw Patrick look up and see the oncoming predator.
“’Bout time you got here Ulptian,” Patrick said, standing and walking over to the now landed dragon.
“Sorry, it wasn’t as easy to find you as I first thought,” Ulptian said in a deep voice, a couple of octaves deeper than Pairon’s.
Alex let out a sigh of relief when he saw that they knew each other. He didn’t know what he would have done if it had been a truly dangerous dragon. Then, he saw Patrick draw Ulptian in closer and begin to whisper to him, too quiet for Alex to hear.
“So, did you find out anything at all?” Patrick whispered, glancing at Alex out of the corner of his eye.
“No, not much, security was extremely tight for that section of town,” Ulptian said, also lowering his voice so that Alex couldn’t hear the conversation. “The only thing I could find out was what they call themselves. It is something like the A.O.T.”
“Well, it’s not much, but it does help a little.” Patrick thought over the acronym and found he could think of nothing it would stand for. “Well, you did alright. Maybe you should go hunt for a little while.”
“Okay, I’ll be back soon, unless you need help here?” Ulptian asked. He could see that, without help, the tower wasn’t going to get done any faster.
“Nah, but you could go to town and get us some Coline. In fact, you should go get it from Dragonia. That way, you can hunt going there, since you’ll have to go over the Radong Forest. Get the Coline, and then you can head back.” Patrick handed Ulptian some money he had with him and then returned to hammering boards down. Ulptian wasted no time taking off and soon he disappeared over the northern edge of the forest.
“That was odd,” Alex said almost to himself. He then turned his attention back to Rachel.
“Anyway, Rachel, are you going to help with the tower some, or are you going to relax all afternoon?” Alex asked.
“I was thinking I would relax all afternoon, and besides, you’re doing such a good job without me,” Rachel smiled at Alex, trying to get out of doing work.
“Gee, thanks,” Alex said sarcastically as he turned back to the tower and strode to it. He climbed up the side to get back to the section he was working on prior to Rachel’s arrival.
The gentle crackling of the fire made a tiny, sporadic rhythm as the three officially chosen Gym Masters sat around, watching the flames dance around the red coals of the fire, glistening in the blue-white moon’s stark light. It made the small clearing glow with just enough light to make the ground visible.
Alex looked over at Rachel, who was wrapped in a blue quilt, though she wasn’t cold. Alex felt the strange tingling in his stomach again, and he thought, for just a second, that he would love to be able to keep her as warm as those covers did. Alex caught himself and stopped thinking. He realized that he shouldn’t become any more than friends with his fellow Gym Masters. Even as he thought this though, he wanted to go over and offer her his coat. Alex looked over at Patrick and realized he would only be embarrassing himself, not to mention endangering the fragile bond that he and Rachel had.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Pairon snoring rhythmically under the great arms of the oaks near the edge of the pasture. It was then that Ulptian appeared again, flying low and silent over the trees. In his hands he carried two twelve packs of Coline: one Regular-Flavored and the other Lemon-Lime Flavored. Pairon woke up just in time to make it to the fire before the ground shook under Ulptian’s sheer weight.
Patrick and Ulptian began handing out the cans, waking Pairon in the process. The click of the opening cans and the hissing of carbonation being released filled the air. The crunch of tin bending unwillingly followed. All except Patrick and Ulptian hesitated. Alex and Rachel both thought of the taste and considered it almost as one would consider a fine wine. When Patrick took the first big gulp, the rest followed his lead.
“All the wasted years and I never knew that this stuff existed,” Pairon said, as he began to cry, obviously the only one getting emotional over the experience.
“Man that really is good. I wonder what it’s made of?” Alex was recalling all the flavors of his past soda experiences, but he couldn’t recall anything that had this same taste.
“Actually, I used to know the guy who made it. He would make it only for special occasions, weddings, holidays, you know, the works. It wasn’t until I asked him why he wouldn’t take it public that he considered mass-producing it. He did tell me the ingredients once too,” Patrick told the story with a small hint of pride.
“So you mean to tell me that we can make cups, even tubs of this and not have to pay?!” Pairon said with a devious look in his eye.
“No, we can’t. First off, I didn’t exactly write down the ingredients. Second, a tub is an exaggeration. And third, almost all the ingredients are expensive and hard to find. Finally, that would be like stealing and we all know that stealing is wrong.” Patrick emphasized his last comment.
“Since when is stealing so wrong,” Pairon asked indignantly. Everyone thought he was being sarcastic and Rachel even laughed until she realized that he was completely serious.
“Pairon, just… be quiet,” Alex’s hand slid down his face as he said it, his words slightly muffled.
As Patrick finished his can, he got up and wandered to edge of the clearing, sitting down on the beach, watching the blue-white moon set.
“So, do you still think this is going to be all it was made out to be or are you having second thoughts about the idea?” Rachel asked Alex calmly.
“I’m not sure of success, but, if we never give it a try, it will never have a chance to succeed. Who knows, it may be the only chance we have to turn Andorg around. We may succeed. Then again, we may bomb on the whole plan and watch as Andorg grows worse. We have the chance if we take it seriously enough.” It was at that moment that Alex knew just how serious T3GM was. He had known what he was getting into, but it didn’t really become this personal until now.
He finally realized the truth. He was in not for himself; he was in it for everyone else.
The next morning was cool. Alex unzipped his dew covered sleeping bag and crawled out into the crisp air. He wasn’t the first up. He could see that Patrick was fully awake. He was already hard at work setting more of the pipes for the plumbing throughout the tower. Ulptian was also on the move. He was moving lumber and sorting it so each floor’s boards were in a neat stack. Alex moved up the side of the tower until he was by Patrick’s side. The sun was just rising. It made the few small clouds in the sky turn unbelievable shades of pink, red and orange. This was it. This was the beginning.
The first four floors of the tower stood nearly complete in the middle of the field that was to be the new Gym Master home. Alex and Patrick worked tirelessly on the tower and the results were obvious. The sun sank slowly into the sea making the western sky red and telling the world that the day was coming to an end. Alex, set up and laid down his hammer, walked over to the tiny cooler that sat on the edge of the tower and began to search through it impatiently. Finally he grabbed hold of what it was he was looking for and pulled it out as if he were a crazed beast.
“Finally, some good old water to settle the mind and body,” he sighed after a large gulp and turned to Patrick, “You thirsty?”
“I’d be scared if I wasn’t,” Patrick said with a smile in Alex’s direction.
“So, what’ll you have?” Alex searched to see what he had left in the cooler.
“How about a Coline?” Patrick said, continuing to nail down the board he was working on.
“All right, one Cola coming right up,” Alex said, pulling out an ice-covered can from his cooler.
“No, I said a Coline,” Patrick repeated the name slowly; making sure Alex had it right.
“What’s a Coline?” Alex asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“You mean to tell me that you have never had a Coline?” Patrick looked at Alex in mock horror as Alex nodded his head.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to get you some, but, for now, we need to keep working on the tower. We can probably finish this floor, the fourth, and fifth before nightfall if we work hard enough,” Patrick drew out a little plan in his mind, seeing if the sixth could be done too.
“That’s good, and speak of the devil, Rachel and Pairon are here,” Alex faced the tiny path coming out of the woods and jumped down to the ground, using the side of the tower to slow his descent.
Rachel and Pairon didn’t even look at each other. They were obviously not getting along. As Alex approached, they stopped and Pairon put down Rachel’s bags and things.
“No, no, no, I want you to put my things over there!” Rachel pointed to the farthest side of the clearing.
“Sorry, your highness, I didn’t mean to drop your crap wherever I felt like dropping it,” Pairon said through clenched teeth. He glared at Rachel before gathering her things again.
“Well, I accept your apology, and I hope this is a lesson for you. Now be sure that you get it all in the shade. I don’t want to fry out here,” Rachel was trying to make Pairon mad and was being very successful. He grumpily walked over to the shade and dropped her stuff again.
“Thank you,” Rachel said with a quick little smile. Alex just stood back and watched. He watched as Rachel unfolded her lawn tanning chair and her reflective mirror. As Alex approached Rachel, he saw Pairon tense up and his lips curled back, showing a line of silvery teeth. He crouched and looked into the air. Alex didn’t see anything until a huge black dragon with gold plates of armor flew in low above the clearing.
This dragon was almost twice Pairon’s size, and had two large silver fangs protruding out of his mouth. It wasn’t flapping its wings, so Alex new it was coming in to land and it was heading right for Patrick. Alex was just about to yell to warn him when he saw Patrick look up and see the oncoming predator.
“’Bout time you got here Ulptian,” Patrick said, standing and walking over to the now landed dragon.
“Sorry, it wasn’t as easy to find you as I first thought,” Ulptian said in a deep voice, a couple of octaves deeper than Pairon’s.
Alex let out a sigh of relief when he saw that they knew each other. He didn’t know what he would have done if it had been a truly dangerous dragon. Then, he saw Patrick draw Ulptian in closer and begin to whisper to him, too quiet for Alex to hear.
“So, did you find out anything at all?” Patrick whispered, glancing at Alex out of the corner of his eye.
“No, not much, security was extremely tight for that section of town,” Ulptian said, also lowering his voice so that Alex couldn’t hear the conversation. “The only thing I could find out was what they call themselves. It is something like the A.O.T.”
“Well, it’s not much, but it does help a little.” Patrick thought over the acronym and found he could think of nothing it would stand for. “Well, you did alright. Maybe you should go hunt for a little while.”
“Okay, I’ll be back soon, unless you need help here?” Ulptian asked. He could see that, without help, the tower wasn’t going to get done any faster.
“Nah, but you could go to town and get us some Coline. In fact, you should go get it from Dragonia. That way, you can hunt going there, since you’ll have to go over the Radong Forest. Get the Coline, and then you can head back.” Patrick handed Ulptian some money he had with him and then returned to hammering boards down. Ulptian wasted no time taking off and soon he disappeared over the northern edge of the forest.
“That was odd,” Alex said almost to himself. He then turned his attention back to Rachel.
“Anyway, Rachel, are you going to help with the tower some, or are you going to relax all afternoon?” Alex asked.
“I was thinking I would relax all afternoon, and besides, you’re doing such a good job without me,” Rachel smiled at Alex, trying to get out of doing work.
“Gee, thanks,” Alex said sarcastically as he turned back to the tower and strode to it. He climbed up the side to get back to the section he was working on prior to Rachel’s arrival.
* * *
The gentle crackling of the fire made a tiny, sporadic rhythm as the three officially chosen Gym Masters sat around, watching the flames dance around the red coals of the fire, glistening in the blue-white moon’s stark light. It made the small clearing glow with just enough light to make the ground visible.
Alex looked over at Rachel, who was wrapped in a blue quilt, though she wasn’t cold. Alex felt the strange tingling in his stomach again, and he thought, for just a second, that he would love to be able to keep her as warm as those covers did. Alex caught himself and stopped thinking. He realized that he shouldn’t become any more than friends with his fellow Gym Masters. Even as he thought this though, he wanted to go over and offer her his coat. Alex looked over at Patrick and realized he would only be embarrassing himself, not to mention endangering the fragile bond that he and Rachel had.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Pairon snoring rhythmically under the great arms of the oaks near the edge of the pasture. It was then that Ulptian appeared again, flying low and silent over the trees. In his hands he carried two twelve packs of Coline: one Regular-Flavored and the other Lemon-Lime Flavored. Pairon woke up just in time to make it to the fire before the ground shook under Ulptian’s sheer weight.
Patrick and Ulptian began handing out the cans, waking Pairon in the process. The click of the opening cans and the hissing of carbonation being released filled the air. The crunch of tin bending unwillingly followed. All except Patrick and Ulptian hesitated. Alex and Rachel both thought of the taste and considered it almost as one would consider a fine wine. When Patrick took the first big gulp, the rest followed his lead.
“All the wasted years and I never knew that this stuff existed,” Pairon said, as he began to cry, obviously the only one getting emotional over the experience.
“Man that really is good. I wonder what it’s made of?” Alex was recalling all the flavors of his past soda experiences, but he couldn’t recall anything that had this same taste.
“Actually, I used to know the guy who made it. He would make it only for special occasions, weddings, holidays, you know, the works. It wasn’t until I asked him why he wouldn’t take it public that he considered mass-producing it. He did tell me the ingredients once too,” Patrick told the story with a small hint of pride.
“So you mean to tell me that we can make cups, even tubs of this and not have to pay?!” Pairon said with a devious look in his eye.
“No, we can’t. First off, I didn’t exactly write down the ingredients. Second, a tub is an exaggeration. And third, almost all the ingredients are expensive and hard to find. Finally, that would be like stealing and we all know that stealing is wrong.” Patrick emphasized his last comment.
“Since when is stealing so wrong,” Pairon asked indignantly. Everyone thought he was being sarcastic and Rachel even laughed until she realized that he was completely serious.
“Pairon, just… be quiet,” Alex’s hand slid down his face as he said it, his words slightly muffled.
As Patrick finished his can, he got up and wandered to edge of the clearing, sitting down on the beach, watching the blue-white moon set.
“So, do you still think this is going to be all it was made out to be or are you having second thoughts about the idea?” Rachel asked Alex calmly.
“I’m not sure of success, but, if we never give it a try, it will never have a chance to succeed. Who knows, it may be the only chance we have to turn Andorg around. We may succeed. Then again, we may bomb on the whole plan and watch as Andorg grows worse. We have the chance if we take it seriously enough.” It was at that moment that Alex knew just how serious T3GM was. He had known what he was getting into, but it didn’t really become this personal until now.
He finally realized the truth. He was in not for himself; he was in it for everyone else.
* * *
The next morning was cool. Alex unzipped his dew covered sleeping bag and crawled out into the crisp air. He wasn’t the first up. He could see that Patrick was fully awake. He was already hard at work setting more of the pipes for the plumbing throughout the tower. Ulptian was also on the move. He was moving lumber and sorting it so each floor’s boards were in a neat stack. Alex moved up the side of the tower until he was by Patrick’s side. The sun was just rising. It made the few small clouds in the sky turn unbelievable shades of pink, red and orange. This was it. This was the beginning.