Faithful Pebble
Part Twenty-Nine
He tugged her higher on his back then turned towards the tunnel he'd just exited. His mind was racing, his attention wandering, like a wayward child in a crowded market place, focusing on the surprisingly heavy body resting against his back, the rough tattered feel of the fabric wrapped around his neck and shoulders like a robe a king. He blinked, the wanderer, swallowed deeply, damply, drudgingly forcing his gaze to face forward. He willed his mind away from the girl and instead concentrated on how he was going to get them pass the pit, up and over that impossible slope, and on and on and on down that long narrow pathway towards the vortex and the well shaft that he'd entered nearly a century ago. He nearly whimpered, but before the sound could erupt from his lips, before he could even set foot through the entrance of that abominable quest, the girl stopped him.
Iris shook her head. The hood of the fabric—no, the fabric of her hood tickled the back of his neck.
He licked his lips.
"No," she whispered pointing towards another tunnel, "this way. That path isn't safe."
"I know," he said smirking in slight relief—no, amusement turning back towards her. "You trapped it."
"I-it's," she stuttered. "It's good to be safe."
He nodded knowing that what she said was true, easily guessing the reasons why. He remembered his back hitting brick wall, a fist tightening along his collar as beer drenched words snaked into his eyes and ears and mouth and nose. He—
"She belongs to me. You goanna save her, are you?"
The wanderer licked his lips tasting, feeling—
Tick.
Tick.
He quickly turned towards the right, towards the tunnel his Pebble had expressly pointed and—
His Pebble?
Again?
He-he shook his head, the wanderer, took a breath and tugged her higher. With an almost slouch to his shoulders, he shuffled through the portal his thoughts roving, planting, soaring…
His thoughts daring, like his heart, to foolishly dream.
Was that Princess Bride? Eh... maybe. I love allusions. There's a number in this story, some intentional (meaning, they are there as symbolism or whatever), some because it was floating in my head somewhere when I was editing. You be the judge of which is which. Some of these will make more sense towards the end of the story. Currently, we are coming to the end of Act One. There is a lot more to come after they leave the well. To quote Jim Henson's Storyteller, "Sometimes a story doesn't end with two people falling in love. It starts there..." *gives you weird creepy heavily foreboding eyes** OOoooo... (^_^)b - Calla