This Place was as usual: the people were cheerful, the trees were plentiful, and the buildings grew larger and larger

This Place was as usual: the people were cheerful, the trees were plentiful, and the buildings grew larger and larger. Children ran about like rats in search of food while the adults walked from place to place, spending their money or making more. Robert walked among them with an obvious look of loathing. Every smiling face, every sound of laughter seemed to taunt him. We're rich, we're rich, they seemed to call. We made a fortune off your rock, Robert. A fortune.

Robert sneered at some children as they pranced past with chunks of gold in their hands; he knew where they had found it. Look what you lost, Robert. What you lost. Robert thought of snatching the rocks from their hands, claiming them as his rightful possessions, but he held himself back. I can't let myself become one of them, he thought to himself.

He entered the town's tavern and sat down on a barstool. The bartender approached him, as expected, and offered Robert a drink. "Yes, thank you," said Robert, and a moment later he was handed a gold plated mug of ale.

Robert looked at the mug and snarled. The nerve of these people, he thought, this is my gold; it should have stayed in the rock where I liked it. Just then, a man abruptly sat himself down on the stool next to Robert. Robert looked at the man, who conspicuously was looking right back at him. They stared at each other for a moment before the man said, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

Robert turned on the stool, "I highly doubt it," he said as he stood up to walk away.

"Yes," argued the man as he turned and followed Robert with a taunting grin, "You're the fool hermit who claimed that the gold mine was his."

Robert turned to the man, "It wasn't a mine; it was a rock, and yes it was mine."

The man laughed out loud at the claim. "In all my years, that has always been the funniest thing I've ever heard," a few other men joined in the laughter, "I remember the day that Old Phil came to the bunch of us and said a silly yap was going around claiming ownership of our gold. We laughed for days."

Robert filled with anger, but managed to find some control over himself. He stared at the man and his mocking cohorts and tried with all his might to burn a hole through them, but to no avail of course. He took a swig of ale and slammed the mug down onto a nearby table. He turned and stormed out of the tavern followed only by the heightened laughter. As he stomped up the street past all the people whom he despised even more than the taunting, he began to feel as though coming to This Place had been a mistake.

He began to make his way to the southern most entrance to the town, intent on leaving as soon as possible. If it had been anyone else, they may have thought it logical to spend the night in This Place where it was warm and better protected. Robert, on the other hand, would rather be gnawed to death by a monkey than spend one night in This Place, especially if the monkey was high on the sugars of a banana at the time.

As he made his way south through the city, he was forced to pass the spot where his beloved rock had once stood. Now a gigantic hole in the ground, the memories flooded back and a tear formed in Robert's eye. He turned his face from the horrid sight and kept moving. He didn't look forward again until he stood at the gates to the town.

He stopped there for a moment and sighed. Why did I come here? he wondered. Just then, a voice from behind him called out, "You there, wait!"

Robert turned to see what was happening, assuming there had been some sort of robbery that had taken place. Instead, a man was jogging towards him with his arm in the air, waving it about like a fool. "Wait," he called again.

Robert recognized the man from the bar. When the man began taunting him, Robert had noticed this man next to him at the bar as he turned on his stool. The man had looked as though he had recognized Robert as well, but had said nothing. Now here he was running towards Robert as though he had something urgent in mind, but Robert couldn't for the life of him think of what it could be.

The man wore a light brown tunic with a slightly darker pair of pants pulled up above it. The pants were held up by a black leather belt wrapped around his waist. On his feet, the man wore a pair of brown heavy work boots, covered in a thin layer of dried clay, which suggested that he worked in the mine and made it awkward for the man to run. As the man approached, Robert noticed that the man's hair was also a light brown shade and would probably be able to hide well in the sands of The Unexplored Deserts to the east. When the man stood a foot or so away from Robert, he stopped and began to draw in heavy breaths, worn out from his run. "What is it you want?" asked Robert.

The man stood up again, one hand on his belly as he continued to breath heavily. Sweat dripped down his forehead and Robert knew the man was terribly out of shape. "My name is Tribbon," said the man.

Robert waited for more, but none came, "And?" he urged.

"I remember you, just like Morgan Fritz, the man in the bar, only I don't wish to mock you."

"What do you want, then?" asked Robert.

"Well sir," he began as though he was about to start a long story, and indeed he did, "I had heard a while back that you had been seen in Town, but I never quite knew why. That was over twenty years ago and at that time we all thought you to be a loony. I next heard that you were up in the vicinity of what is now Forestville, but then it was only still a dream. After that you disappeared for a few years and most forgot about you, but I didn't.

"I began to wonder about you. Had you been telling the truth about the rock? Were you just more than a lonely hermit whose home was ruined when we moved in? I became fascinated with you, though I never knew what you looked like or whether you would despise me if we ever met.

"One day I received a book on my doorstep, a man had placed it there as he passed by. I later learned that the man was our beloved Phil, who had purchased a copy of this book for everyone in the town. I looked at the cover of the book and read it out loud, 'The Bibble.' I opened the cover to see more of this strange book and saw there on the first page, 'Written by Robert Willex.'

"I was stunned to see your name in print upon this rather large book which I had received so ironically from the very man who had stolen your rock from you – by this time I was quite sympathetic towards you and had published many anonymous flyers on your behalf.

"I decided, then and there, that you were a holy man and that I would follow you to the ends of the earth. When I saw you in the bar, there was something about you that seemed different, and when Morgan said your name, my eyes were filled with joy. At last, I had found my mentor and we could be together at last."

Robert listened to the story that Tribbon seemed quite enthusiastic about. He wasn't sure what to think about it; it was all quite sudden and very surprising. "You followed me here because you consider me your mentor?" he asked finally.

"Yes," said Tribbon, "and also because I picked up your tab at the tavern. You owe me four gold nuggets."

Robert looked at the smiling face of the man who started to giggle. "I'm only pulling your leg," crowed the man, "How could I possibly ask you to pay me back?"

Robert was starting to get the impression that he wasn't going to be getting rid of the man any time soon. "I believe," started Tribbon once more causing Robert to cringe as he expected another long story, "that you are on a quest."

Robert relaxed slightly as he realized that the man had stopped talking before expected. "A quest?" he asked cautiously, "what sort of quest?"

Tribbon smiled, "A holy one," he said.

Robert looked shocked a little, but after having no one to talk to about his journeys for so long, he found it hard to resist gloating about them. "Well, I wouldn't call it a holy quest. It's more of a quest for the earth," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Tribbon, and Robert suddenly found that he was going to have to come up with a pretty good explanation aside from saying that he converses with Mother Earth.

He thought for a moment, but soon decided that Tribbon would probably believe anything Robert tried to tell him, so he did.

"You talk to Mother Earth?" exclaimed Tribbon in awe, "That's amazing!"

Robert found this praise somewhat flattering and continued, "I was asked by Mother Earth to seek something out for her," Tribbon's eyes widened, "She requested that I to discover what happened to her before The Great Beginning."

Tribbon grew excited, "That's astonishing. I can hardly believe it, you truly are a holy man," Robert blushed slightly, "But you said, 'before The Great Beginning.' Where do we find information from that era?" he asked.

Robert was suddenly faced with the reality of the situation – he had a follower. "Are you suggesting that you're planning on following me everywhere I go?" he asked.

Tribbon nodded vigorously and Robert sighed. It seemed futile to try and rid himself of the man, so he let himself succumb to the fact that he now had company, "I've been told of a building in the Chainsaw Mountains that may hold a major key to the truth. I'm going to find it."

"This sounds like an adventure," cried the man.

"Indeed," sighed Robert, who was beginning to think he was going to be sighing a lot over the next little while.

Together, the odd couple disappeared into the forest with the jagged images of a mountain range looming on the distant horizon. Robert could only hope that they would hold the end of his journey. Only time would tell.