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Date Posted: 20:26:40 01/26/02 Sat
Author: Argus (with Barry)
Subject: Revelations
In reply to: Valhorek, Corum & Yorik 's message, "More explanations" on 17:14:24 01/26/02 Sat

Argus was glad to get some food in his belly and ate as if he was ravenous. Funny... he hadn't been hungry at all when he was in the other world. Or thirsty, either, for that matter. But now that he was back in the "real" world again, he was parched and famished.

“I don’t know of this Kelkenny that you speak of," Valhorek told him. "I’ve traveled the lands here quite often, and I’m not acquainted by its name.”

Argus looked at him in obvious disbelief. "Yew dun know Kelkenny? 'ow tinnie yew not know Kelkenny? It's de capitol, by de gods!" he spluttered. "E'yer now... ay yew 'av'n a joke ed me?" He looked around, puzzled. It was true that this place didn't look even remotely like Brytonland. But it was probably in one of the eastern provinces.

Apparently the daft lad wasn't joking, though, and Argus began to get a sinking feeling that he wasn't where he thought he was. “So tell me,” Val said, rummaging in a pack and pulling out some spare clothes. “What is the name of the land that you come from, and why were those things trying to capture you? Did you perhaps commit a crime of sorts, or is it simply that way on the world that you come from?”

Argus had been sipping his java (it was quite good... reminded him of kaff back in the Temple) when Val asked him this. He nearly spit the java across the camp. "A crime!? ay most certainly did not commit any crime!" He said indignantly. "Me only "crime" wuz not be'n reverent E-blewdy-nuff fe de High Mucky Priest, which means ay didn't suck up ter 'im like a gob o' snot like de others did."

The healer looked a little blank on this, so Argus looked up at Barry. "Why dun yew make yoself useful and tell 'im yer wha ay said, yew bag o' bones!"

Barry sighed. "Sure, sure, ya berk. Don't get yer shorts in a twist. The basher said he didn't commit any crime. That his only crime was not suckin up to the high muckymuck of his order."

Argus nodded. He began his tale. "Ay am from Kelkenny in Brytonland. It's probably west o' e'yer... ay dun know much about dese eastin lands. Ay'm an acolyte at de temple o' de crant bun thuz."

"He says he's from someplace called Kelkenny in Brytonland. The berk thinks it's west of here. He's an acolyte at the Temple of the Sun."

Argus continued: "De gateway 'ad beun found by one o' de temple archaeologists and it wuz brought ter de temple fe study..." Barry translated:

The gateway was found by one of the Temple archaeologists and it was brought to the Temple for study. The scholars figured out right quick that the weird pictures it showed were reflections of another world.

One of the scholars, name of Morgan, came up with the daft idea that the mirror was a gateway to the other world in there. Everyone laughed at him at first, but after a while he convinced a few of the others and they worked out how to get the thing to open. Well they needed someone to test it, didn't they? So Morgan volunteered himself.

They opened the gateway and Morgan went in. They could see him standing on the other side looking around, but they didn't see anyone around him. He eventually turned, looked out at them, and grinned. He wandered off out of sight and never came back.

Well the high mucky mucks didn't like this much and a lot of people wanted to just trash the gateway and get rid of it. But the high muckymuck had the idea that there was some kind of treasure in that other world. Who knows where he got such an idiot idea -- probably one of his butt-kissing lackeys.

He was determined to get the treasure -- "for the temple" of course -- and asked for volunteers. Nobody was daft enough to want to go after Morgan's disappearance. Finally the high muckymuck grabbed Argus and told him he was going. Nobody ever said it was because he was in dutch with the high ups but it was obvious.

He was pissed off and said a few things that got him in even more hot water. Well, pretty soon they had that gateway open and shoved him through. He turned around to jump back out but he couldn't see the Temple anymore. The gateway was nothing but a gray slab of stone.

The other world was kind of barren. There were large mesas and boulders, rocks all over. No plants, no animals. It was a constant temperature and there was an everpresent sort of orangeish light. When he'd been there long enough he realized there was no day or night. It was always the same.

He wandered for what he thought was days but he couldn't really be sure HOW long it was. He never got tired or thirsty or hungry. It was like time was supspended there, in a way.

One day he was just wandering, kicking some of the stones, when one of them smacked into a big boulder. There was some sort of weird explosion and suddenly those nasties you saw chasing him were standing there drooling and snarling and gnashing their teeth.

Well, of course he tall-stepped it like mad away from them. They chased him for what was probably hours until he tripped on a rock and fell on his face. They tore him to pieces.

Instead of being a deader, he woke up back at the gray slab. He pounded on it over and over but nobody opened the gateway. He shouted at 'em beggin' em to open it. No luck. His shouting must've attracted the beasties, because they came after him again. Same thing... after a while they caught him and ripped him apart. He woke up at the slab again.

"And that's 'ow ay 'uv lived ever since. Every once inna while ay would beat ed de slab try'n ter get someone's attention but nobody ever noticed. until now." Argus finished.

He looked suddenly very tired. "If yew fellows dun mind ay think wanna take dat bath now and get cleaned up. And... ay think i'm go'n ter need a nap."

He got up and made his way to the lake to bathe. He found a bar of some lavender soap laying on the bank and shrugged, nabbing it. He tossed off his shredded smelly cassock and jumped into the lake, luxuriating in the feel of the water on his skin. How long had he been in that other world? It was impossible to tell. But he sure felt like he hadn't had a bath in about twenty years.

He soaped up his body and his hair and beard, making sure he got the itchy sand out completely. Then he submerged himself and came up sputtering. Flinging his hair out of his face he blinked up at one of the trees. It looked kind of strange -- there was a sort of shimmering at the top. But everything around here looked strange.

Finally he got out, sloughed the water off himself as best he could, and dressed in the clothes Valhorek had given him. He felt like a new man. But this damned beard was itching like crazy still. "Ay could use a trim."

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