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First Impressions

8/21/2016

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While packing up and breaking camp the twins discussed their options.  The Old City they crossed off the list. The roads led to smaller towns to the right and left.  Which way should they go?  Or was it time to split up?  That was an inevitable step they knew they would take, but was this the time?
They decided that it was not. With some kind of hostile influence in the area, it would be best to stay together until they had more information.
But, again, right or left?
Consideration of the geography showed them that the river would pass between The Old City and the two big towns on the right.  They assumed there would be a bridge somewhere along the way.
To the left, though, was a single small town and there was no way to be sure that the tunnel did not veer off that way, and there was the source of their night time visitors.
They had no trouble agreeing.  They were not looking for trouble...yet. They would take the prudent course. The two of them, burdened lightly with their travel gear, strode with casual and good-hearted determination on the road along the river.
After several miles of nothing but hard dirt and short yellow grass along the roadside the path turned sharply right and bolted toward the river like a homesick water snake.  There was no bridge.
There was no bridge where the road met the water and none within sight in either direction.  The dirt road slithered itself into the water and then, ten yards on the other side, slithered itself back out.  There was no elevated bank here at all.  The river was like a shoreless pond somehow drifting barely downhill.
The two exchanged glances, shrugs, and waded with that same casual determination into the water.  They walked out on the other side, wet only to the knees.
Ahead of them only a few miles they could see the first outskirts of their immediate goal. But those outskirts seemed unfamiliar. The buildings did not match the ones of Groakpod. They were longer and lower and dried mud was much more in evidence as a building material than in their home town. At first glance they did not like the difference. As they drew closer, and the smell of the town and the sound of the breeze through the reedy rooftops assailed them, they liked it even less.
They muttered their disapproval to each other, and Feldspar added a humorous disparaging remark hoping that the people did not smell like their homes.
As they walked forward they were noticed by the citizens living in the those homes.  Strangers were uncommon.  Large and well-formed strangers that looked as fresh as if they'd stepped out of their own homes only hours ago were as rare as beneficent buffalo.
Most strangers that came from that way, if they got that far at all, were much the worse for wear. They usually had wounds to be bound, fractures to be re-splinted, and sported broken tusks or horns. Matted blood usually adorned their fur.
The pristine condition of these two would be the talk of the town.


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Unwelcome Visitors

8/8/2016

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As light from one of the moon began to cast shadows across the landscape, five shadows emerged from…the twins could not be sure. The shadows—black-clad Riotori males—seemed to simply grow from the river bank and slip silently across the terrain to the tents.
They passed within a few yards of the brothers without seeing them.  After they were to the tents Gypsum woke Feldspar with an easy shake of the arm.  The older twin knew to make no sound upon waking.  They watched as the interlopers surrounded the tents, then produced clubs and slipped into the tents.
Feldspar growled deep in his throat. He started to rise but his brother held him back.  Feldspar was not pleased, but could not argue. They would discuss it later.  But both gathered themselves in case their would-be attackers perceived their location.
Oddly, though, the interlopers did nothing. They emerged from the empty tents and simply looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to the river bank where the faded into the darkness as they had emerged.
The twins declined to reveal themselves in case the withdrawal of the attackers was a trick.  Gypsum took his turn to sleep while Feldspar kept watch.
But the attackers did not return. The brothers slept through the night, alternating watch duty as each became sleepy.  The night passed without disturbance.
In the morning, even before checking on their tents, they went to where the shadows had emerged from the river.  Quietly they slipped over the edge of the bank and saw at once a cave.
Gypsum volunteered to explore a short distance into the dark hole. It took him only a few yards of crawling to determine that it was a tunnel that led away from the river and toward The Old City.  He declined to go farther.  He did not know what he might find and he had no desire to crawl all the way to The Old City.
He emerged, brushed himself off, and explained what he'd found while the two inspected their tents.  Nothing had been taken or damaged.  They could not help but wonder about the mental state of their unwanted visitors.
With the clubs in their hands it was certain that they had bad intentions.  Yet they had destroyed nothing, taken nothing, and most puzzling they had not even looked for the two that they had expected in the tents.
What kind of people were they going to encounter in the next days?

    

 

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    The story: This serial is about the "mascot" shown at the top of these pages. There are actually two of them, identical twins, Feldspar and Gypsum.
    The people call themselves Riotori, and their planet is Kylrock. The twins have been journeying for hundreds of miles, across many hazards, in search of mates. Please visit the archives to read their whole story.



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