As George and the others followed the signal of the stone, they passed through abandoned shopping centers and crumbling towers. While the group had seen much of the Old World's architecture, barely any vegetation could be seen among the sea of cracked concrete.
~
In the kingdom of Bazelong, the sun scorched the plains. A lone figure stared out from a high balcony as rows upon rows of workers toiled in the fields below. The figure stuck out a clawed hand and beckoned the workers to stop. From behind, a pair of glasses reflected the midday sun. The owner of the glasses spoke in a nasally voice. The kind of voice that people found almost sickly. "Sire," the voice spoke as the clawed man sighed.
"What is it, Lieutenant Darwin?" The man spoke in a low, gravely tone, obviously annoyed at the interruption. Darwin spoke once more, stepping from the shadows to his king's side. The man was large enough to cast a shadow on Darwin, with claws to match the imposing nature in his stance.
Darwin stuttered in his presence. "Well? Are just going to stand there? Speak!" Commanded the king.
Darwin fiddled with his glasses a bit, straightening them. "Well, you see sir, those mercenaries you sent to investigate the Ruined City h-have yet to offer correspondence with us."
The king did not look back at Darwin as he asked. "And? What of it?"
"Well, it's just I don't see why you're investing so much of our manpower into th-that wasteland? There are much more pertinent things that those men could be doing. A-and!" Darwin stopped himself as his king turned to face him.
Darwin shuddered as his long, floppy ears drooped at the sight of King Cabinruz sharpening his claws on the stone balcony. His eyes darkened at the thought that a mere noble had the audacity to question his intentions.
"Ah so you've finally shown me your true colors Lieutenant..." Cabinruz sneered at him, making no mistake to gnash his mighty fangs. With a deep rumble he reminded his subordinate. "So you believe that I am wasting my time. You think that your king has certainly gone mad as to depend on our kingdom's Mercenary forces instead of the vast amounts of soldiers in the kingdom."
He let out a hearty sarcastic laugh as he squeezed one of Darwin's shoulders. Darwin knew that He wasn't using his full strength and yet Darwin felt like his shoulder could shatter at any moment.
"But why Mercenaries? They're nothing but immature, violent, brats the lot of them. Filthy peasants…" Darwin spat at the word brats, clearly disgusted.
"Don't you forget the deal your father made with me…..I certainly know of many peasants that can do your job just as easily, if not better." Cabinruz stared daggers into Darwin, increasing the grip he had on Darwin's shoulder.
They stared at each other for several minutes before a purple orb sitting on the desk began to glow. Cabinruz shoved Darwin aside as he scowled. Before the dog-headed noble left, Cabinruz said one last thing. "You are not to question any longer, lest you face the consequences… are we clear?"
The clearly frightened Darwin nodded vigorously until he let out a stuttering "c-crystal.." and quickly ran from his sight, shutting the door behind him.
Before answering the orb's call, Cabinruz commanded the workers to move.
It shined with a hollow glow, it's light almost hauntingly beautiful. He pressed his hand to the orb and a loud crackling noise emanated from the center.
In a few moments a small purple ray shot out from the top of the orb, spreading out into a fan-like shape with a rectangle in the middle. As he moved his hand around on the orb, the sound of the noise warped and crackled as if he were changing the station on a radio.
Inside the rectangle, an image began to form . It was grainy at first but slowly became clearer. Before him was the image of the man who gave him the chance to live out his dreams. Or at least his head anyway....
In the center of the image was a head floating in what seemed to be a glass jar filled with a strange yellow liquid. connected to the base of the head's neck and the back of the skull were wires that snaked out of small ports on the sides.
The head did open its mouth as it spoke. "What is the progress of your mission, Cabinruz?" it asked.
Cabinruz answered calmly. "well sir we are almost done with the fields and the workers have been going at it for days on end, it should be done before the month is over."
"And what of the pests?" it asked slowly bobbing up and down. It was truly a saddening sight to see that great man now a mere head in a jar of unknown liquid.
"Well the mercenaries that I sent have not called in, so it is unclear whether the situation has been dealt with.."
The head finally moved, a snarling frown was visible. "Tch…..this should have been dealt with already. Do you understand the importance of this task? I cannot have any insubordination amongst my people. Any lose ties that come through here should be dealt with immediately. Is that understood?" God damn priest thinking that he's better than me. I'll have his maggot loving brain on a pike…
"Yes but can you please give us some more time? I promise, you will have your head."
"Head! Oh yeah that's right you're so cute you little buddy.." George cooed at Bonzai, scratching the top of their head with a finger. Blaire eyed the pair as they lagged behind them. Granted they hadn't known George for very long but they could tell that he liked his new companion more than he would people.
"Hey can you two keep up? We can't lose the signal!" Blaire yelled back at the pair, George changing his mood considerably when he replied.
"Yeah… yeah don't worry I won't let you lose your precious signal." He sighed as he placed Bonzai on his shoulder and met up with Rupert and Blaire.
"What's the status on Big Mama?" Blaire asked, looking over at the search stone in Rupert's hand. It pulsed a dull blue light as they walked. Unfortunately it had been this way for the past week, occasionally they had found large holes in the ground but all of them had been empty.
Rupert sighed. "It's the same as when you asked five hours ago Blaire…." Sure, he'd been on long missions before but this had to be the most boring one they'd been on in a long while.
"Hey, since it travels underground, wouldn't it be better if we went into one of its tunnels and followed that?" George asked, offering some advice.
The pair looked back at George. "Are you crazy?" Blaire asked. "Those tunnels are at least the size of a village, at most an entire country! Do you really think that we could catch up to it in time by going underground? What if the tunnel caved in?" Rupert added.
"Geez just trying to help, but I mean it's also alive so wouldn't it have to sleep eventually? Why not head out during the night?" He said yet again, put off by the pair's rudeness.
Blaire and Rupert exchanged looks. Even while they hadn't been tracking it for very long, it was still a surprise that they didn't think about that. Amongst the silence, George cracked a smile.
"Really? You guys didn't think about that? That's precious…"
"Don't get too cocky..." Rupert said as the trio continued their journey under the cover of night.
The only light that illuminated their way was that of the crystal in Rupert's hand as they passed through the stone wasteland.
Sure enough after a few hours of tracking the signal, George fought back the urge to vomit as he found himself climbing down the inside of the monstrosity mouth, his claws sinking into the flesh.
It took him nearly an hour until he met up with the others at the entrance of one its airways. He admired the absolute size of it thinking, I doubt Rupert would be able to touch the roof of this.
They didn't even question why George was smiling to himself as they ventured deeper into the beast.
Chapter 17 [The gates of Wrath pt 2.] end.