"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 4, Day 329: 5 Minute Freewrite: Prompt: runny

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 4

Day 329: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: runny

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You may need to start here:

Part 1
Day 326: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Dirty Feet

Part 2
Day 327 : 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: describe a clock

Part 3
Day 328: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: screening

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“You, there," said the king. "Step into the light and tell us who you are, and why you are here."

With a little gasp, Erie clasped Erik's arm.

"And bring the girl with you," the king added.

---

If this was just a dream, now would be a good time to wake up.

Erie’s hand felt real and her breathing sounded real but Erik knew he had to be dreaming her big, lake-green eyes gazing into his. He raised his eyebrows, asking without words if she was ready to step into the light with him. She gave him a small nod, faced the throne, and they proceeded to center-court.

The king rose to his feet and descended the stalagmite throne to inspect the “interlopers” at close range. Without looking away from Erik, he waved a webbed hand to the judge or high council or whoever the interviewers were and three of them scurried over. Their scrutiny would have been horrifying but for once in his life, Erik was surrounded by people who looked as weird as he did. All had the triangulated heads, delicate features, big eyes, and little ears. Nobody here looked “normal.”

The king spoke. “I am Donner Idexa, King of Squamata. No bowing, no titles, please." He said that out of habit, apparently, because Erik and Erie hadn't even twitched. "Who are you?”

“Erik von der Walder.”

“Who are your parents?”

“I wish I knew. Either they were killed and I was left behind, or they tried to kill me but failed. The people who took me in gave up looking.”

The bearded dragon sat at the king’s feet, nodding as if it understood.

“This is Pogona,” said the king, patting the creature’s head. He faced Erie. “Who is the girl?”

Erik exchanged a look with Erie, then squared his shoulders and looked directly at the king. “I would rather you ask the young lady herself. She can speak.”

A chorus of gasps, then murmurings, and heads shaking in wonder. Erik winced and could just hear what would come next, off with his head, or Seize him!

~ 5 minutes are up ~

“Speak, then,”

King Idexa said, his gaze landing on the girl Erik would die for.

“My name is Erie von der Meer. My parents found me in the debris of a flood, wrapped like a mummy and stuffed inside a hollow log, but they don’t know I know this."

Wow. Erik sure as hell didn’t know this.

“Then how do you know these things?” the king asked.

“I hear them through the walls at night, wondering who would have done this and how I could have survived.”

Silence fell but only for a moment as the murmuring of many voices filled the cavern. Flickering torchlight made the walls look runny, as if the shiny wet rock were melting, flowing, as if the whole world were changing shape and turning liquid, and the water would meet the sky and everyone and everything would become one.

“Cordalilly.” The murmurs ceased, and a woman stepped forward. The king gave her a nod, and she pulled syringes from the deep pockets of her robe.

Erie knew what to do. Her left hand in Erik’s right, she held out her right arm. Cordalilly started to roll up the sleeve, then frowned, and glanced at the other sleeve, then traded glances with the king. They must have seen the holes left by the spikes.

A needle plunged into a vein in Erie’s arm, but she didn’t flinch. Next, Erik’s turn. His sleeves were already rolled, and he hoped the fishy smell of the river had subsided. At least his clothes were mostly dry now, and his skin hadn’t started itching again.

Cordalilly labeled the vials of blood and handed them off to another robed denizen of Squamata.

“Both of you have been harmed by others who are not like us,” the king said. “I am weary of the savagery of the world, the violence, the greed, and all the little tyrannies. I am, in a word, weary.” He turned and ascended the stalagmite, settling back onto his throne. “You do not seem to know who we are or what we are looking for, Erik of the Woods, and Erie of the Lake.” With a nod to the panel of judges, he said, “The High Council will take it from here.”

His heart pounding, Erik found himself in the line of fire now, facing questions like the boys before him.

“We would like you to answer our questions quickly, trusting your gut, not your head, and not trying to figure out what you think we want to hear,” said the first judge. He stared until Erik gave a nod of agreement. “Now, then. Your so-called brothers and their badass buddies have wronged you. Worse, they have wronged your friend Erie. We have the power to destroy that village and everything in it. How soon would you like us to drop the first bomb?”

Erik blinked. “I…”

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“No thinking about it. How soon?”

“I don’t want everyone in the village to die,” Erik said. “I don’t even want the bad guys to go up in smoke without a fair trial. I’d rather humble them, teach them a lesson, and see them mend their ways.”

A collective murmur started again.

Wrong answer, of course. These guys meant business, as the quick and assertive replies of the boys before him had suggested.

“What about your lady friend Erie?” another judge asked. “Would you not hunt down and kill anyone who tried to harm her?”

Erik turned his face from the judges to her. “I would hunt them down," he said, more fiercely than the boys before him who casually vowed vengeance. Erik felt the wrath of a pantheon of gods with fists full of thunderbolts. "I would do whatever it took to stop them. If I had to kill them to keep them from harming her, I would. But I would try other means first.”

She cast her gaze to the floor and a warm blush colored her face and a smile played at her lips.

The questions went on like this. Erik made no effort to bluff anyone into imagining he would be the big, strong, swaggering figure who would cause the meanest of the mean to flee in terror from the mere sight of him. He would fight to the death if need be, but he would never be the one who sat up high on a throne giving out orders and punishing those who failed to obey. And he didn't even try to deny it.

“And the young lady.” A judge focused on Erie, and heads turned in unison to her. “If you were in charge…”

“Everything Erik said, I would have said too,” she replied. “Not because a woman should defer to a man, but because I happen to think the same way. And if that makes us weak in your eyes, what does it matter? I don’t know why you are screening people like this, or what the prize might be, or if it’s even a contest. I didn’t come here on purpose; the river brought us. And Pogona.” She smiled at the bearded dragon, who blinked at her the way a cat blinks its approval at its human subjects.

“I think you have interrogated us enough,” Erie added. “We were caught up in high waters and swept into your cavern, but we arrived here with no plotting or scheming or ambition, nor even any idea you existed, until now. And if you try to keep us here against our will, we can find a way out. And we don't kill anyone in the process.”

“Erie. Do you not have the dreams?” a judge asked, looking from her to Erik and back. Erie bit her lip but offered no reply.

They certainly seemed to know a lot about him.

“Erik.” The judge pinned him with her gaze. “Perhaps Erie never dreamed we exist until now, but you did. Would you deny it now?”

He pinched himself. Still awake, it seemed. “I have not denied anything," Erik said, "nor have I lied to you, nor answered your questions with anything but the truth as I know it.” He gazed 'round the glistening cavern. “I have seen people like you in my dreams, and I have seen places like this, but I learned long ago not to talk about it. Now I have to wonder how I could have dreams, or memories, of places and people I've never known. ”

The king stood. “The High Court and I will now adjourn. Erie of the Lake and Erik of the Woods, Pogona will lead you to your quarters. The rest of you know your place.”

A great weight fell, and Erik wondered what the penalty was for flunking the Inquisition. Surely they would go easy on Erie. Neither of them had knowingly trespassed into this kingdom; they were just caught up in the slipstream of a very strange time.

“It’ll be all right,” Erie said softly, close to his ear. “I’m not afraid of these people.”

Pogona whipped his tail, and the swoosh of it drew their attention to him. Without words he seemed to be telling them “This way,” and they followed him back to Erik’s dragon boat. Where would the lizard take them?

As long as Erie remained with him, Erik would go anywhere.

Stay tuned for "Soon and Very Soon" - Part 5

Day 330: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: You walk through a door - what do you see?

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Thank you for reading, and thank you to all at Freewritehouse for your support and encouragement!

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 1

Day 326: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Dirty Feet

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 2

Day 327 : 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: describe a clock

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 3

Day 328: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: screening

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 4

Day 329: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: runny

"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 5

Day 330: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: You walk through a door - what do you see?

Today I tried @improv's suggestion:

set timer, type directly into Steemit.

Until next time,

Keangaroo

because Kean sounds like Kane (not keen, hint, hint)

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