Hmm... looking back on it... writing this story may have turned out to be one of the best and most memorable events of my life... Before writing this, I had considered just not pursuing it, and doing something else. I'm glad I made the right choice regarding that.
Hmm, also, I'm surprised nobody pointed out the ADOM reference.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blitukus looked around. He needed to check his destination using the sphere of direction... yet he was basically out of mana. He still had the amulet. He now needed a suitable source of energy. Energy was abuzz all around... the problem is it was all in forms hazardous to his health, rather than the friendly current of his portal ring. Perhaps he would find a better source somewhere else. He knew by logic his most immediate goal would be to reach a port to leave the city, and the most rapid transit available was obviously air travel... the problem was the landing strip he had seen was likely many hours away by walking. The sun was ready to set, and as humans retreated to their homes, kobolds began to roam the streets in greater numbers. Blitukus walked down the road, in the general direction of the landing strip... hopefully he would find something on the way to expedite his travels. He walked for quite a while, but thought to himself about what he had seen as he left that pocket of corruption. The corruption there had sickened him... but he had done his part against it, and felt fairly proud of himself for doing so. It seemed that although there were pockets of concentrated corruption within the city, there were also pockets of honest beauty. His legacy and his mothers legacy both lived on, and perhaps even from then, still would live on for a long time after. He looked up, smiled, and closed his eyes, remembering the beautiful elements of the city he had once seen to drive the sickness corruption had caused from his heart. Unfortunately, what he got was a rather unpleasant surprise. SPLAT! He ducked down, opened his eyes, and found himself dripping with water. He looked up, and found himself standing below a tall building. A dull snicker came from the roof, but nobody could be seen. Blitukus stood for a moment, shook off, and continued walking, relatively unaffected by what had happened. A few moments later, Blitukus stood, and turned around, curious as to what would happen to the next person to walk by that building. An elderly female human, holding a cane, walked beneath the building. A kobold appeared on the roof, holding a green balloon. The kobold promptly dropped it, and it fell quite rapidly, splattering into a shower of water on impact with the elderly woman. The elderly woman looked up at the kobold on the rooftop, and pointed at him with her cane, "BITE ME YOU F***-**** S***!" The elderly woman then promptly shuffled through the door of the building, slamming it behind her. The kobold on the rooftop shrugged, hesitated, then crouched back down, readying another balloon. Blitukus watched and snickered. Kobolds were renowned for their mischief at times... A kobold on a bicycle, the bicycle carrying several newspapers, rode by. The kobold on the rooftop dropped a balloon, the balloon landing in the bicyclists lap. The bicyclist stopped and looked up. Another balloon landed on his face, the next landing on his papers. The kobold on the rooftop looked down and laughed. The bicyclist took up one of the papers, now heavy with water, and hurled it upward. The spinning newspaper struck the kobold on the roof in the face, lodging itself in his mouth and knocking him over, stunning him. The bicyclist got back on his bicycle and rode off, snickering, "Bullseye!" The kobold on the roof slowly began to stand, spitting out the newspaper, when the elderly woman, having ascended to the roof, smacked him back down with her cane, "YOU **** **** A **** EATING **** SICK **** PIECE OF *** *********-**** UP YOUR ****!" Blitukus broke out in laughter, then promptly continued on his course. Perhaps the elderly woman had once been a naval officer? Blitukus snickered... senseless chaos often proved a more effective source of entertainment than most stage plays. Blitukus kept walking... eventually, he happened upon a group of people standing near the side of the road for no apparent reason. Blitukus waited a few moments, and stood nearby, listening for clues as to what was happening. Soon, it was all very obvious. A large vehicle approached and stopped at the side of the road, opening its doors. On the side of the vehicle, a sign glew in an electric light,
"
Next:
1: W.C. Residential
2: N.W. Com/Medical
3: Rametaru Intl. Airpt.
4: S.W. Wind/Ind.
"
Blitukus read it, interpreted the abbreviations the best he could, and determined it was likely stop 3 was where he needed to go. The group began to board the large vehicle. The driver spoke, "Get your coins ready, one money covers you and the 3 behind you, same as usual." It wasn't that expensive considering... but it could always be better. Blitukus came up with an idea, and decided to put it into action. Blitukus maneuvered his way into the line up, and ascended the steps into the vehicle. The person behind spoke, "Hey, wait your turn next time!" Blitukus turned around, and counted 18 people waiting behind him. The driver asked, "The person in front of you was the fourth... one money, next time get the person behind you to go in front." Blitukus then deposited 5 monies, enough fare for himself and everyone behind him. The once annoyed person behind Blitukus spoke, "Never mind." The driver laughed, "Ok, everyone get in!" The rest of the crowd smiled and, for a moment, some of them discussed it. Blitukus smiled, and took a seat. When everyone had taken a seat, the doors closed, and the vehicle began to accelerate. Blitukus gazed upon the buildings and pedestrians through the window, the large vehicle carrying him around the various sectors of the city, down an incline from the acropolis, and through the rest of the western portion of the city. Blitukus watched the grids of traffic, grids of utilities, sectioned off areas of the city... it was all a very orderly construction, even if many of the events that transfired within were chaotic. The entire sprawling city, likely host to a population exceeding one million, still was a functional community, a large component, part of an even larger nation. The vehicle slowed and stopped at the side of the road in a neighborhood full of houses and medium-sized residential buildings. Some of the people in the vehicle left, mostly the humans, some kobolds boarding. When the transfer was complete, the vehicle shut its doors and began moving again. Blitukus was much nearer to the landing strip now... but he was waiting to be taken right to it. The vehicle stopped next in an area full of various shops, unlike the towers he had previously seen, these were simple 1 story buildings with large signs labeling them. To the left was a large facility, seeming to be fairly advanced, appearing as if it were several towers merged into one another. On top of the building was a square patch of asphalt, a hover-capable flying machine resting on top. There were two main doors into the facility, one marked with a white square and a red +, a ramp and push door looking as if it were intended to be an offloading point for a vehicle. The second entrance was marked with a white square and a yellow +, a much less important-looking entrance, a standard door one would walk through. One person boarded the bus, a human, arm encased in some kind of hard material and suspended by a cloth strap. He wasn't asked for any payment. The vehicle shut its doors and began moving again. It moved toward the south and west, near the periphery of the city, and finally reached the landing strip. It was actually much, much more than a strip. A vast parking lot lay in front of large metal buildings, their blue glass windows revealing quite a bit of activity within. When the vehicle came to rest, and the door opened, Blitukus stood, exited the vehicle, then walked toward the largest of the buildings. Behind him, several tourists boarded the vehicle. Ahead, quite a crowd stood in front of the building.
Blitukus approached, made his way through the crowd, then entered the building. The interior was quite vast, and most of the walls consisted of windows, the buildings structural support provided by steel and concrete columns. The front of the building curved in an organic manner, a road passing in front of it, but the rear was flat, facing the strip and a large paved service area, several aircraft resting there, some connected to boarding terminals, some undergoing maintenance, some just arriving, some about to depart. Some of the aircraft were small, some were large. Blitukus expected that such advanced transit means would likely have a rather lengthy and complicated process to make use of... but it seemed that wasn't the case. People were paying at the boarding terminal to board, no tickets involved. Blitukus walked around for a bit, noticing several commercial facilities present within the building. Blitukus thought... human civilizations have always had undeveloped entities, developing entities, and advanced entities... was there a city more advanced than the Rametaru of 1999? Perhaps such an advanced city would hold advanced artifacts... high technology usually means a high level of curiosity, at least among the elite. Blitukus looked around, and found a large device that was nearly flat but displayed a large, luminescent image, text detailing flights to and from this airport along with their time of arrival and departure. Also on the display was a small world map, red dots, text hovering above, indicating the location of some of the destinations. Blitukus stood and analyzed the information, curiously trying to figure out the speed of the aircraft from the information provided. He found that these flights spanned thousands of miles in several hours, meaning the craft flew several hundred miles per hour... impressive in and of itself, but two flights in particular, one outgoing, one incoming, both involving the same route, stood out among them all. They both flew between, Rametaru, the Anthath Sizet capital, tucked in the southeast continents, and Metropolis, a city apparantly tucked in the southwest continents. These flights flew essentially to the other side of the planet in about 4 hours, indicating a speed multiples that of the other flights. If this wasn't a mistake of some type, then obviously the entity running these flights stood above most of the rest of the world technologically. He thought... the city in his dream, the one he had labeled Utopias Metropolis... perhaps it literally was Metropolis! Perhaps... He looked at the terminal indicated... the craft was already there, and boarding was nearly complete. Blitukus looked back at the board listing the flights... "Time: 4:28 PM"..."Departs: 4:30 PM". Blitukus sighed... on the upside, the incoming flight would arrive in about 1 hour, and since there was no hassle to go through to get a seat, he could simply wait for it. Of course... he had to make sure the craft didn't fill before he could board. He was in luck... the incoming flight was the only flight of its type for the rest of the day. He noticed the sign by the boarding terminal listed a boarding price of 214 monies for the flight. It was much more expensive in total than most other flights, but per-mile, it was quite cheap. Blitukus walked over to the terminal, and watched as the corridor actually retracted from the craft. Immediately, other people, also wishing to board the next flight, started occupying seats near the terminal. Blitukus claimed a seat to make sure he wouldn't miss the next flight. Then, he noticed, some people took a small white board from the table near the terminal, wrote an identifier on it, usually a number or initials, then set it in their chair to reserve it while they went back to tend to other business. Blitukus did this, writing his initials B.T. on a board and setting it in his chair, and stood by the window. He felt curious as to the reasoning behind this odd yet straightforward and efficient way of handling flights. Apparently it functioned so well due to mutual respect among travelers... perhaps surveillance, in some cases. Blitukus walked over to the window, and peered out. The aircrafts engines let out a whir that was quieter than most other air vehicles of its large size. It backed up, revealing its full body. Blitukus had recognized the aluminum and steel in the construction of other aircraft, but this one was made of a metal that seemed to carry a unique shine, a reflection that was characteristic of neither aluminum or steel. Blitukus found it was rather beautiful the way this material reflected the suns low rays. The craft had black glass windows, and wings that seemed to have a curved front, a steep sweep near the root of the wing, nearly straight out near the tip, the feathered rear of the wing angled away from the rear of the aircraft. Each wing had a double-engine mounted to its bottom near the fuselage, larger engines toward the inside, smaller toward the outside, and a fifth engine, larger than the other 4, was mounted on the belly of the craft. The entire aircraft seemed to be sleek and curved, designed with precision to conform to high speed air flows, yet resulting in a rather elegant appearance. The aircraft turned, and taxied down the paved areas, eventually reaching the strip. After waiting for traffic to clear, it entered the strip, turned to face down it, then spun its engines up to full power. It let out a roaring screech as it accelerated down the strip, its feathers bending down in the rear to provide lift in expense of drag. It took to the skies near the end of the strip, and began to turn. Sunlight scattered off of its metal body in a rather beautiful array. The aircraft flew with grace... although it seemed somewhat uncomfortable flying at such slow speeds. It turned westwards, and began to ascend. As it ascended through the clouds, leaving the city behind it, the whistling of its engines became a roar, and it seemed to speed up quite a bit, accelerating skyward. The sound faded, the aircraft disappearing into the distance. Blitukus smiled, excited with the thought of riding in such a craft. Until then, he still had an hour to explore this facility... perhaps somewhere he would find a power source. He would find something to occupy himself with... after all, since the pointless wasting of time was pointless wasting of a resource, he would at least rather have a point in wasting it.
Author
Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76133 times)