Are you travelling? Or is this more of a comment about your morning commute? :)
In transit War and Famine caught up with Pestilence and Scuffles at the Embalse de Uzquiza, where the hippos were swimming happily in the water and Hilda was stood on the bank barking at them occasionally. As they changed the direction they were swimming in when she barked, the scene was a little like watching a swimming instructor trying to get synchronized swimmers to perform. The Embalse was a reservoir and stretched out further into the distance than any of them could see without making an effort. A light mist drifted above the surface of the water, contrasting its frigid depths with the heat of the day. “Did you get lost?” asked War. Hilda saw him and stopped barking instructions at the hippos so she could run over and greet him. He picked her up; the contrast between his size and hers was so great she seemed to just disappear until a pink tongue appeared from the depths of his arms and licked his nose. “We felt you blow something up,” said Pestilence, feeling oddly annoyed that Hilda was giving War attention and not him. Without really noticing what he was doing he blighted all the thorny bushes in a two mile radius. “I figured we should probably find out what you did before we joined in.” “Narusheteli,” said Famine. “Or at least a bit of her. It. I’m not sure what pronoun you use for an eldritch horror, actually. Do you think xe’d like xe?” “The oath-breaker?” Pestilence looked slightly stunned. “You let the oath-breaker loose?” War harrumphed and set Hilda down, who trotted back to the bank of the reservoir and barked imperiously at the hippos. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “That’s because the boss would kill us if we said that,” said Pestilence. “You know what he’s like about not waking up the Sleepers.” “Grumpy?” asked Scuffles. They all looked at him. “No, grumpy is what he was when it was his turn to wash the dishes at Christmas,” said Pestilence. “He glared at them until they aged three hundred years and turned into dust and ash. Then he said it was Fam’s turn to sweep up.” “When he gets annoyed, fam,” said Famine, “you get things like boiling thunderclouds and rains of lobsters and earthquakes whose epicentres, taken together, spell out rude words.” “And when he gets angry,” said War, “nowhere’s really safe so we all just go ‘in transit’, to the places between places where you can hide for a little bit. You might say he’s got anger issues.” “Only if you wanted to make him angry,” said Pestilence. “Oh,” said Scuffles. He shuffled his feet. “I’ll just stay out of his way then.” War patted him on the shoulder, which knocked him off-balance and made him stagger towards the water’s edge. “We didn’t let the oath-breaker loose,” he said. “Someone has nudged her-“ “xer,” said Famine. “- whatever, towards wakefulness,” said War. “Sh- Narusheteli said something about stones being lifted and the threads of the oupir’ being snapped. So we’re going to take a look. Ezcaray, sh—it-- said.” “Xe is eating Villameriel though,” said Famine. “A… side-effect?”
Our local transit bus schedule was going to be changed, which would have screwed up people's ability to get to Penticton and then on to Kelowna. But the changes were reversed at the last minute. So... hurray!
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Are you travelling? Or is this more of a comment about your morning commute? :)
In transit
War and Famine caught up with Pestilence and Scuffles at the Embalse de Uzquiza, where the hippos were swimming happily in the water and Hilda was stood on the bank barking at them occasionally. As they changed the direction they were swimming in when she barked, the scene was a little like watching a swimming instructor trying to get synchronized swimmers to perform. The Embalse was a reservoir and stretched out further into the distance than any of them could see without making an effort. A light mist drifted above the surface of the water, contrasting its frigid depths with the heat of the day.
“Did you get lost?” asked War. Hilda saw him and stopped barking instructions at the hippos so she could run over and greet him. He picked her up; the contrast between his size and hers was so great she seemed to just disappear until a pink tongue appeared from the depths of his arms and licked his nose.
“We felt you blow something up,” said Pestilence, feeling oddly annoyed that Hilda was giving War attention and not him. Without really noticing what he was doing he blighted all the thorny bushes in a two mile radius. “I figured we should probably find out what you did before we joined in.”
“Narusheteli,” said Famine. “Or at least a bit of her. It. I’m not sure what pronoun you use for an eldritch horror, actually. Do you think xe’d like xe?”
“The oath-breaker?” Pestilence looked slightly stunned. “You let the oath-breaker loose?”
War harrumphed and set Hilda down, who trotted back to the bank of the reservoir and barked imperiously at the hippos. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said.
“That’s because the boss would kill us if we said that,” said Pestilence. “You know what he’s like about not waking up the Sleepers.”
“Grumpy?” asked Scuffles. They all looked at him.
“No, grumpy is what he was when it was his turn to wash the dishes at Christmas,” said Pestilence. “He glared at them until they aged three hundred years and turned into dust and ash. Then he said it was Fam’s turn to sweep up.”
“When he gets annoyed, fam,” said Famine, “you get things like boiling thunderclouds and rains of lobsters and earthquakes whose epicentres, taken together, spell out rude words.”
“And when he gets angry,” said War, “nowhere’s really safe so we all just go ‘in transit’, to the places between places where you can hide for a little bit. You might say he’s got anger issues.”
“Only if you wanted to make him angry,” said Pestilence.
“Oh,” said Scuffles. He shuffled his feet. “I’ll just stay out of his way then.”
War patted him on the shoulder, which knocked him off-balance and made him stagger towards the water’s edge. “We didn’t let the oath-breaker loose,” he said. “Someone has nudged her-“
“xer,” said Famine.
“- whatever, towards wakefulness,” said War. “Sh- Narusheteli said something about stones being lifted and the threads of the oupir’ being snapped. So we’re going to take a look. Ezcaray, sh—it-- said.”
“Xe is eating Villameriel though,” said Famine. “A… side-effect?”
Greg - local community stuff :P
Our local transit bus schedule was going to be changed, which would have screwed up people's ability to get to Penticton and then on to Kelowna. But the changes were reversed at the last minute. So... hurray!
Ah, Death :)
Particularly enjoyed the hippo parts.
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