"C'mon Regal, you take for-ev-er!"
"Yeah man, I think I could go around and score half the hunnies here before you make it."
"Are you sure you just don't want me to run over to the castle and deliver the message? It might… Save us some time…"
"No! No, I can do this…" Regal called up to the circle of light far above him around which several heads broke the ring to look over and watch. 'I can do this…'
He bent down and dried his hands on his pants again but by now they were so damp and dirty any filth he managed to wipe off would simply be picked up by the other hand. Taking a deep breath he leveled his head and reached forward, gripping the horizontal bar before him with an iron fist. He tested his shackles, then raised his other hand as far as the chains would allow, stretching for the ten inches to the next bar. It stopped at nine, tips of fingers barely grazing the cold iron as his other hand's fingers strained against his weight.
Putting his feet on the bottom of the ladder, he thrust himself upward and gripped the new bar with both hands tightly.
"He did it! He got one!" Zelos' voice carried down to him. He almost looked up to grin until he recognized the hint of sarcasm.
Regal let one hand slide out, fearful of how easily it did so, and stretched it for the next bar. It didn't help that the iron was smooth and cool, kept slick and grimy from the moisture of the sewers below. Or that their entire party had gone before him, rubbing the mud and sewer gunk from the deepest crevices of their boots. He doubted he could hang a sheet over one of the bars without it sliding off instantly. Not to mention the humid air below Meltokio beginning to make him sweat, mixing with the dirt accumulated from traveling the plains for days on end without a proper shower.
Yes, all of these factors had set before the man a task unlike which he'd ever been faced with: climbing a ladder. Now that he came to think of it, this was the only place in either world he'd encountered this particular foe. So appropriate, therefore, that it was all but undefeatable. 'So primitive. This sewer system must be seen to by our architects and have this abomination removed immediately. Perhaps an elevator or–"
"Um, Mr. Regal? I can come down and fly you up if you want to..." Regal looked up to see Colette's face peering over the side of the manhole down at him, large eyes questioning. "I mean, I've picked you up before. You aren't that heavy…"
He had half a mind to accept the offer but his meeker side won out. "Ah, no. Thank you, Chosen. But I…" He realized there was no logical reason to not take this while it stood. No reason other than pride.
"Don't worry about him, Angel. Let him struggle if he's too stubborn to see a good chance when it's offered. Hey Lloyd, bet three gald I can get her address before big man makes it three more."
"You're on!" Lloyd's and Genis' voices sounded simultaneously.
Regal ignored the sounds of idle conversations above him as he began his dangerous climb, each step taking him closer to outside and farther from the ground should he slip.
Several minutes later Zelos appeared in front of the light again, jingling gald in his hand. "Alright we're bored now, can we just go on ahead and have you meet us?"
Regal sighed, nodding his head silently as he shot his hands up from one bar to the next.
"Mmmkay, don't make it too far up though. We'll be coming down by the time you get near where-I'm-standing." And with that the red hair hanging over the side disappeared and the sounds of voices faded away.
Regal muttered quiet curses to himself as he continued his ridiculous trial, once or twice the thoughts of breaking the links flashing through his mind. Then he froze as voices were heard above him again, getting closer.
"…and I just don't know… Oh look. Someone doing maintenance forgot the cover here."
Regal wound his arms around the bars and threw himself to the side, putting most of his mass in the shadows away from the beam of light. A menacing looking man in prisoner uniform still wearing handcuffs and climbing out of a sewer could be misinterpreted in many different ways.
"Huh, well it doesn't look like anyone's down there. Gimme' a hand with this will ya?"
Regal's eyes widened as he stared up at the circle, one sound of grinding metal turning it into a crescent, and then one more casting him in complete darkness.
He set his head back and let out a dejected sigh. Even if he could make it to the top, how was he supposed to open it? With his head? Who knew how long it would be until anyone from his group thought to check the sewers again.
He felt for the bar under the one he was currently gripping for his life but felt only air. His new inability to see was the straw that broke the camels back, it seemed.
Regal groaned, knowing he would be hanging there for some time.
'I hope you know what I do for you, Alicia…'
People ask "How does he fight with those things?" Pff. That's easy.
Day to day living, that's the challenge.