As the sun stepped out from behind the crest
of the Chainsaw Mountains, Robert gathered himself from his spot around the
fire pit. Tribbon was still fast asleep
and Robert could tell that the man was going to slow him down in the end. Robert adjusted his cloak and pulled the
hood over his head. There was a chill
in the air and his ears were beginning to show their disagreement with it.
He walked to where the man in brown lay and
hovered over him for a moment, hoping that the man might have some sense of
personal space and wake. No such
luck. Robert bent down and tapped the
man on his shoulder, but still got no response. Robert opened his hand wide, taking the tap a little further and
patted the man's shoulder. The man
squirmed and grunted, but still lay asleep. Frustration got the better of him and Robert grabbed Tribbon by the
shoulders and yanked him to his feet.
Tribbon was awake by the time his feet
reached the ground. "What?" he cried,
"What's this all about?"
Robert let go of Tribbon's shoulders, "It's
time to head out," he said.
Tribbon looked at Robert as though he had
lobsters crawling out his ears. "Do you
have any idea what time it is?" he exclaimed.
Robert nodded, "Of course I do," he said
with a grin, "Now pack up and get ready to go."
Tribbon had really spread himself out. Somehow, from within his tunic, he had
manage to produce a blanket, a pillow, and some other sleeping gizmos that
seemed highly unnecessary for the journey at hand. Robert found a piece of bread from within his cloak and ate a part
of it while Tribbon went about packing his things into his tunic.
Together they marched through the trees
towards the mountains before them. They
still couldn't see the base of the Chainsaw Mountains, but they cliffs loomed
above the tops of the trees in sharp, jagged rises. They pressed on through the trees for nearly an hour before the
trees gave way and the rocky hills lay before them.
They marched on all day, climbing through
the rocks along a slightly worn path that wound up towards the heights. The sun was nearing the western horizon,
creating a dazzling sunset against the sky and the few clouds that hovered in
it. The rounded a boulder and began to
walk on a rock surface. They had risen
past the land and had found their way into the mountain itself. Darkness was beginning to fall and still
they hadn't reached a possible location to sleep the night. Tribbon began to get restless, they hadn't
spoken much during the day and Robert didn't mind at all, but now Tribbon was
worried. A bead of sweat dripped down
his forehead and his breathing became a little unsteady. "Where are we going to camp tonight?" he
asked finally.
Robert turned to his companion and said, "On
this path if we have to, but I'm continuing on until it's too dark to see the
path, just in case there is a suitable location further along."
Tribbon didn't like the idea, but he kept
going along anyway since he didn't really have much choice. The sun finally fell below the horizon and
the twilight hours began. The path
wound further and further along with no sign of a place to camp. Finally, Robert stopped walking and turned
to his companion. "Look there," he
said.
The path was winding back the way they had
come on the other side of a chasm. The
path curved a few hundred meters in front of where they stood, and the curve
lasted for a few more hundred meters. He was pointing to where the path turned out of sight across the
chasm. "By the time we get that far,"
he continued, "it'll be too dark to see anything. We might as well stop now."
Tribbon's face became grim in the darkness,
but he knew that he still had no choice. He sat down on the path, which now seemed rather thin and unsuitable for
sleeping on. He pulled the blanket out
of his tunic and left the other items in place. He curled up on the cold rock path and eventually drifted off to
sleep.
The sun lifted into the sky and light was
shed on the path where the two men slept. Robert sat up and tried to stretch the stiffness out of his bones. Finding it much more of a chore than he
wanted, he shook Tribbon's shoulder. Tribbon opened his eyes and was startled to find that he had rolled in
his sleep and now lay with his head partially over the chasm. Strewn along the bottom were many large and
sharp looking rocks that seemed miles below the path. He nearly jumped to his feet and gripped the rock face behind
him, trying not to fall. Robert
chuckled to himself before handing the man's blanket to him before it could
fall into the chasm.
The two men followed the path until noon
when they found themselves in a grass covered field surrounded by mountainous
cliffs. There were trees all around the
field, but not dense whatsoever. A
small waterfall fell from the heights near the far side of the field. Robert wondered where the stream was going,
but he was more interested in what he could see in the field.
There was a herd of about seven or eight
goat creatures gathered in the field, eating the grass. The funny thing wasn't that there were goats
in the mountain, but it was the sound that they seemed to be making. To his eyes, he could see goats; to his
ears, he could hear chickens. "What are
they?" he asked in awe.
"Hobbles," replied Tribbon.
Robert looked quizzically at his
companion. Never had Robert heard of
something called a Hobble. "I've never
heard of it," he said, causing Tribbon to laugh.
"That would be because there are indigenous
to the Chainsaw Mountains. You can't
find them anywhere else in the land."
Robert was astounded beyond his former
awe. "Every five years, people from
This Place come here to hunt the Hobbles and take back to town for the
Hobble-Gobble Hogwash," continued Tribbon.
"The Hobble-Gobble Hogwash? In all my travels of the land, I have never
heard of such a thing," said Robert in surprise, figuring that he had seen it
all.
"Six men are selected each year to
participate. They each capture a Hobble
and take it back to town. Then, it is
placed in an arena for a battle with pigs. If their Hobble survives the first round, then it is put up against more
until either it dies or there are no more Hobbles left in the competition. The man who's Hobble survives is given more
gold than he can handle and is forced to retire to other parts of the
land. Whoever wins, though, gets to
keep any pigs that his Hobble kills."
"That seems like a rather barbaric ritual,"
said Robert in disgust, "When is the next competition to be held?"
"In a few days, the hunting party was due to
depart yesterday, which means they'll be here soon."
"Oh," said Robert, unable to think of
anything more to add just yet.
"Morgan Fritz is actually one of the
participants," added Tribbon.
"That man is coming here?" asked Robert in
sudden fear of more taunting.
Tribbon nodded. "Any time today?" asked Robert.
Tribbon nodded. "I suggest we hurry then. We don't want to get in their way when they arrive, do we?" the question
wasn't directed at anyone, and didn't need answering. Robert walked into the field looking for a way to go further into
the mountain range. He walked up a
small hill and stood at its crest. Before him was the small waterfall, which plummeted into a small pool
before running off into a stream that traveled across the field and disappeared
into the rocks on the other side. There
was something odd about the stream thought that got Robert thinking. It wasn't really anything to do with the
stream itself, but with the man who sat in it. The man reached into the water and moved his arm around before pulling it
out again while calling, "King me."
Robert recognized the man immediately. "Who's that?" asked Tribbon, who was now
standing beside Robert at the top of the hill.
"That would be Angenog," said Robert, and
without waiting for a response, walked down the other side of the hill to where
Angenog sat in the stream.
Angenog reached into the water once more and
moved his arm around again. As Robert
approached, Angenog turned and waved at him, "Hello," he called as he stood up,
dripping all over the ground.
"Good day to you, Angenog," said Robert as
he arrived a few feet from the dripping man who still stood in the stream.
Once there, Robert took a quick glance into
the stream at the same board with dark and light squares lying on the stream's
bed. There were a number of flat disks,
similarly coloured, lying on top of the board in a strange fashion as well and
Robert quickly began wondering what the man had been doing in the stream. "Ah, I see you've found your companion,"
said Angenog as Tribbon stepped up next to Robert, "Now you're all set."
"All set for what?" asked Robert.
"Finding the place I told you about," said
Angenog.
"Okay," said Robert, "so where is it?"
"Glad you asked," said Angenog, "and you'll
never believe the answer."
He stepped over the board with its disks and
walked toward the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. As he passed it, Robert noticed a dark disk
bounce from one dark square to another over light disks that were then lifted
from the board and strewn about on the streams bed. Odd, thought Robert, but quickly turned his
attention to the dripping man in white. "Look," said Angenog and pointed to the pool's surface.
Robert peered into the depths of the pool
and saw that it was deeper that it seemed. There was a small hole in the bottom of the pool that carried on into
darkness. Robert looked at Angenog and
said, "Don't tell me that's where I need to go."
"It is," said Angenog, "Through that hole,
you will find a tunnel leading deep into the mountain where it opens up into a large
chamber where you will find the building in which you seek."
"Why didn't you go?" asked Robert, "You
speak to Mother Earth, so why didn't you go and find the answer for her?"
"Because, my friend, she gave you this quest
and only you can carry it out," he replied.
"So regardless as to whether you're better
fit to perform this particular act, it is I who must do so simply because
Mother Earth wishes it?"
"That's correct," said Angenog.
Robert looked at Angenog curiously; he then
looked at Tribbon peculiarly; he then looked at the Hobble standing next to
Tribbon, gobbling like a chicken and quite intrigued by the events unfolding
near the drinking pond. "What do you
think?" he asked the Hobble.
The Hobble, which appeared to have a rather
rooster-like head with a goat shaped body and horns curling out from behind its
ears. The creature cocked its head
sideways and chirped in response to Robert's question. "I take it then that you don't understand
me," said Robert, whose words seemed to cause the Hobble to wander off in
disgust.
"All right, I'll go," he said finally.
"Excellent," piped Angenog, "I have
something for you that I was instructed to deliver in the event of your
agreement. Now where did I put that…ah,
here it is."
Angenog fished around in his pockets until
pulling something out from within a hidden pocket. "This is of great importance and will one day be the deciding
factor between life and death," the man seemed quite pleased with himself as he
placed the long shaft in Robert's hands.
Robert examined the shaft, which appeared to
simply be a long metallic pole. There
was really nothing special about the pole aside from the fact that it was
unusually light. It was about an inch
in diameter and slightly longer than a metre. The dark grey tone of its colour made it look even more like a useless
piece of scrap metal. "What is it?" he
asked the strange man.
"What does it look like?" returned Angenog.
"A pole. A plain ordinary pole."
"And that, my friend, is what it is," the
smile on Angenog's face suggested that he found some humour in the situation,
but Robert couldn't find it.
"But it's useless!" argued Robert.
"Is it?" said Angenog, causing the field to
go silent for a moment as a dramatic reversal of things took place.
After a moment's thought, Robert replied,
"Yes."
Angenog stepped back appalled, "So what,
it's still a fine pole and it might come in handy."
Robert gave the man in white a look that
seemed to burn through the man, but it didn't have the desired effect. A moment later, the cheerful face had
returned to the man, and he continued to find humour in the anything but funny
situation. "Carry on then," he said as
he began to stroll back along the stream to where he had been sitting with his
strange board.
Robert continued to try and burn a hole
through Angenog's shoulder with his eyes, but gave up. "Okay Tribbon, I'm not going to lie to
you. I don't know for sure, but there
is a very good chance that we might die in this pond today. Are you prepared for this?"
Tribbon looked disgruntled and slightly
shocked. He thought for a moment before
giving a rather hesitant nod. "All
right then," said Robert, but suddenly turned to Angenog in curiosity,
"Angenog, just what was it you were doing in the stream when we arrived here?"
Angenog turned around to face his
questioner, "Playing checkers with the stream," he said, and promptly
disappeared.
"What a strange person," said Tribbon.
"Indeed he is," said Robert, turning his
attention back to the pond, "Let's get this over with and hope we don't regret
it in the morning."
With that having been said, he tucked the
pole into his cloak and dropped through the hole in the bottom of the pond.
