Hmm, bedrock? How hard do you want Ben and Red to hit the ground, exactly? :-D
Bedrock We walked East out of the mining area, with Jimmy chattering away excitedly. He was clearly pleased to see us, and truth be told I think we were both happy to see him too. We'd parted company a few months back, about six months after the events that led to him breaking ties with his father, who was a no-good disreputable scoundrel in ways that Ben and I would never even consider trying. I'm not sure either Ben or I knew what Jimmy really felt about those events and that outcome, but the impression he gave us, even in his more vulnerable moments, was that he was happy to have them behind him and relieved, in some ways, with the way things had turned out. For our part, we tried not to corrupt him too much. Well, I did. Ben's incorrigible. There was a long slope up away from the mine, which was actually in the side of a foothill. Behind us the mountains stretched up to the sky, looking high enough now that it was strange to think that we'd been flying over them in a balloon just hours earlier, and looking down on them as though they were so far away. It made me realise that the mountains couldn't be all that high after all, and that perspective can play tricks on your mind. As we reached the top of the mine-track we looked out over a steep drop down to the valley floor, and off in the distance -- what looked like a good two-hour walk to me -- was a village, and a dark shadow that might have been a chasm in the bedrock or the Crack of Doom. Three burros were tied up to the stump of a rotten dead tree eating the leaves of two adjacent trees. They hadn't got all of them, but I could see that if we gave them another half hour there'd be three dead trees here, not just one. "Hey look!" Ben pointed across the landscape, and Jimmy and I looked where he was indicating. There was a splash of red and orange there, and I almost wrote it off as another indication that this was mining country when something about the shape caught my eye. "Is that our balloon?" I said. A voice in the back of my head nudged me, it was actually Herr Markus's balloon, on loan, and I ignored it. "Looks like it came down on the side of Margaret's Rise," said Jimmy. Ben looked at him, so he continued. "It's what the local's call it. They've got names for all the bits of hills and mines and lakes round here. I think they've got names for the individual trees in some places." "They sound like a talkative bunch," said Ben. "Think we should pick the balloon up?" "It can wait a day," I said. "It's not going anywhere much like that, is it?" Ben's stomach rumbled. "True that," he said. "It can definitely wait till after breakfast. What you got cooking, Jimmy?" "We're going back into Elizabethtown," said Jimmy. He pointed now, at the collection of buildings that long way away. "That's the place. Next to Humbug Gulch."
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Hmm, bedrock? How hard do you want Ben and Red to hit the ground, exactly? :-D
Bedrock
We walked East out of the mining area, with Jimmy chattering away excitedly. He was clearly pleased to see us, and truth be told I think we were both happy to see him too. We'd parted company a few months back, about six months after the events that led to him breaking ties with his father, who was a no-good disreputable scoundrel in ways that Ben and I would never even consider trying. I'm not sure either Ben or I knew what Jimmy really felt about those events and that outcome, but the impression he gave us, even in his more vulnerable moments, was that he was happy to have them behind him and relieved, in some ways, with the way things had turned out.
For our part, we tried not to corrupt him too much.
Well, I did. Ben's incorrigible.
There was a long slope up away from the mine, which was actually in the side of a foothill. Behind us the mountains stretched up to the sky, looking high enough now that it was strange to think that we'd been flying over them in a balloon just hours earlier, and looking down on them as though they were so far away. It made me realise that the mountains couldn't be all that high after all, and that perspective can play tricks on your mind.
As we reached the top of the mine-track we looked out over a steep drop down to the valley floor, and off in the distance -- what looked like a good two-hour walk to me -- was a village, and a dark shadow that might have been a chasm in the bedrock or the Crack of Doom. Three burros were tied up to the stump of a rotten dead tree eating the leaves of two adjacent trees. They hadn't got all of them, but I could see that if we gave them another half hour there'd be three dead trees here, not just one.
"Hey look!" Ben pointed across the landscape, and Jimmy and I looked where he was indicating. There was a splash of red and orange there, and I almost wrote it off as another indication that this was mining country when something about the shape caught my eye.
"Is that our balloon?" I said. A voice in the back of my head nudged me, it was actually Herr Markus's balloon, on loan, and I ignored it.
"Looks like it came down on the side of Margaret's Rise," said Jimmy. Ben looked at him, so he continued. "It's what the local's call it. They've got names for all the bits of hills and mines and lakes round here. I think they've got names for the individual trees in some places."
"They sound like a talkative bunch," said Ben. "Think we should pick the balloon up?"
"It can wait a day," I said. "It's not going anywhere much like that, is it?"
Ben's stomach rumbled. "True that," he said. "It can definitely wait till after breakfast. What you got cooking, Jimmy?"
"We're going back into Elizabethtown," said Jimmy. He pointed now, at the collection of buildings that long way away. "That's the place. Next to Humbug Gulch."
Greg - eh, there's more than one meaning for it... :)
It's nice to have these three back together again. Jimmy adds something that's missing when it's just Ben and Red.
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