At the... wait, where are we?It took Uks some time to realize that the group had stopped walking. And that it had grown a bit darker. The periods of insensibility brought by intense agony had grown longer as of late. He stared at his feet for a minute before his double vision cleared up and he could actually see the ground. It still looked stony, just like the road, but slightly more ancient. And quite worn, too, though one could see arcane-looking markings on the stone that time had done an inadequate job of erasing.
"-must apologize for my brothers' uncouth behavior, sir," came the voice of the littlest kingspawn from not too far away.
"We can discuss any financial issues later, of course.""If you'd just take a look at some of these calculations," Uks' master could be heard from but a few steps away,
"you'd see what my issue-""I'm sure it is very exciting for you, Wallace, but we must not forget our manners."Though raising his head felt like far too much strain for Uks to willingly subject himself to right now, he was nevertheless compelled to look up, if only to know which way he would need to go when this little interlude was done. And what he saw was not enough to provide him with any measure of further wonderment - just a half-finished temple hall, the solid wooden walls crudely worked into the ancient gnomish stonework. The altar, placed on an elevated platform with two sets of spiraling steps leading up to it, looked to be far newer than the rest of the temple, and sported quite the garishly painted sculpture of a tiny man with a long beard, oversized head and absolutely huge crown. It looked familiar for some reason. All around there seemed to be people working, building walls and carrying things.
"Not to mention the other obvious problem with the proposition," a small figure in a black robe with swirling dark gray patterns embroidered on it, about a head shorter than Prince Don all in all, said. It took Uks a moment to realize that there was something incredibly odd about the figure. There was the voice, of course. It felt quite deeply authoritative for someone of that size, and Uks felt strangely compelled to follow its directives. And also slightly patriotic for some reason. But no, to find that incredibly strange he would have had to ignore the rather more obvious thing.
The man in front of them seemed to have a crown visually very similar to the one on the altar's idol. Except, somewhat unlike the idol, it seemed to be made out of flesh, and growing out of his head. This was a tad creepy, Uks thought, but if the others hadn't bothered to remark upon it, it probably would be rude for him to bring it up. The little guy might point that thing at him, even. And who would want that to happen?
"And what problem would that be?" the swordfighting guy asked, looking quite suspicious of the diminutive freak of nature.
"Why, you can't tax the king, of course," the little man said, and the room went silent for a bit.
"... and that would be you?" the alchemy guy ventured to guess.
"Yes! Well, not exactly anymore, but I certainly used to be, see?" the king said, pointing at his flesh-crown with one hand and scratching his bushy black beard with the other. The crown even had little jewels probably made out of knotted blood vessels, Uks was disturbed to notice.
"Or at least he used to be him, and now he's me, you know?""Perhaps you could provide a more... detailed explanation?" the little guy asked, and from his face it appeared that Uks was not the only one getting a tad more queasy than usual.
"There's not much to it, honestly," the king-priest said, shrugging.
"People go through the Gate all the time. Some go one way, some go the other. And I went out once, but came in twice. Reincarnation, see?""Who are you supposed to be, then?" the girl next to Uks asked with quite a bit of sarcasm.
"Well, Heer Fogeye, of course," the little man said in a very regal fashion that practically begged for fanfare.
"Since the dragons are coming back, I figured, why shouldn't I? Hate to leave unfinished business and all that," he continued altogether more nonchalantly.
A short little update, but hopefully we can get back on track now.
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Topic: Kingspawn of Allochthon: important question! (Read 19669 times)