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.
