When she finished getting dressed, she quickly left her room, ready to find Delit and talk with him about them leaving. After all, Charlie had kept track of the days herself and knew that it had been thirty days, which Beth insisted they should wait, rather than just four weeks.
Charlie had several times where she'd talked with Delit and found the conversations rather enjoyable, even though she couldn't exactly say what it was that made them that way. Maybe it was that he didn't focus on some of the same issues that her friends did that bothered her, or that their talks sometimes touched on subjects that Charlie hadn't talked with anyone about that she found really interesting, such as some of the details involved in governing the kingdom as well as some other things, or maybe it was a combination of things. All she knew was that she had started to feel more relaxed around him than around her friends.
Although, she worried that he might try to use that to separate them, but Charlie hadn't seen any sigs of that. She just hoped she was being paranoid about it and that Delit wasn't going to try anything underhanded like that.
As Charlie made her way down the hall, she was a little surprised to not find the guards at the stations they usually were at. The only thing she could think of was that it was probably the changing of the shift. Which meant that the guards had left because their shift was over and the replacement shift hadn't arrived yet.
Charlie couldn't help but wonder if that might be a flaw in their security. After all, if she was trying to sneak through here, the time would be best during the shift change. Although, she couldn't say why she'd be sneaking through here anyway. Yet, she wouldn't be surprised if there was something in this area that she wasn't aware of, but was common knowledge about the populace. After all, she didn't really know very much about their culture and what she did know was merely what she'd seen herself. Even though she really didn't know what she was looking at anyway.
So, she merely waited until the next shift arrived. She wasn't worried about getting hassled by the guards, as most knew who she was by this time and the rest had to have heard about Charlie and her friends by now. As such, she knew that she'd be able to use this method to find out where Delit was.
Charlie suspected that he'd given a standing order that she was to be directed to wherever he was when she wanted to speak with him, as one time she had been directed to a room, that turned out to be where he usually slept. It certainly made Charlie feel awkward.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long. The guard recognized her from a distance and directed Charlie to where the king currently was, discussing with some of his advisors about one problem or another.
Charlie thanked the guard and continued on her way. She knew a few of the guards by name, but most she couldn't recall. Yet, as she reached the door of the room she had been directed to, about ten minutes later, she suddenly wondered if she should have made more of an effort to learn their names. Not that she had any reason as to why she should have, but the thought stuck with her.
Knocking on the door, Charlie waited patiently for it to be opened. She didn't want to create problems by entering a room where they were discussing… well, classified information for lack of a better term.
At those times, usually she'd be asked to come back later, although, other times the man would step out and talk with her in the hall, Charlie didn't push on those occasions, after all, it wasn't like she expected them to trust her like that at this point. She was still just a visitor to their world, and she didn't plan on settling down in this world. She didn't know what the future held for her, but this world definitely wasn't it.
A minute later, the door opened and the king's butler, Foren opened the door.
"Is he busy today?" Charlie asked, more out of being polite than any real curiosity about it.
"He's available," Foren replied stiffly. Charlie always held her feelings back around him, mostly because she was certain that saying anything would only create problems,
"Thank you," Charlie said as she stepped around the butler to enter the room. "Excuse me, Delit?" Charlie spoke the moment she saw the king. She didn't care to waste any of her time if she could help it waiting for him to finish whatever he had been doing.
"What is it?" he asked pleasantly.
"My friend and I were wondering what you have ready for us to continue on our journey," Charlie said. "It's been a month, and that's the time-frame you'd given us as well."
Delit nodded. "Yes, I have some transportation or you to use. Though, it's nothing fancy. I located the gate for you, as all I needed was a direction and the spell you and your friends taught my people to find gates will be invaluable," Delit said.
Charlie merely nodded. She and her friends had taught the elves some of what they knew, as it felt right to do that, since the elves were helping them out. Though, sometimes it felt like they were getting more than what they were giving as well.
"If there's anything else you'd like just let me know before you leave," Delit said.
Charlie nodded, when she suddenly remembered something that had been bothering her for a while, but she kept forgetting to ask.
"By the way, how were you able to understand my friend when I wasn't around when we first got here?" Charlie asked.
Delit nodded. "Yes, that actually is because of an ancient artifact that no one has been able to reproduce. The records show that there used to be more, but it's hard to say if they were lost or destroyed," Delit said, then paused for a moment before continuing. "Or maybe they're just on other worlds."
"So, how often do you use it?" Charlie asked, not sure why they would have it so conveniently available for them to use when Charlie and her friends got here.
Delit merely chuckled as he shook his head. "Mostly we use it to translate for other elves from other countries that have a different language and they don't speak ours. It's rarely used and we normally keep it at the police station, but very few people know about it because it's been a while since it was last used."
Charlie nodded. "So, what would it take to make one? After all, it would be useful for my friends to be understood whichever world we go on, regardless of what language we know or don't know."
Delit merely shook his head, looking rather apologetic. "Wish I could tell you, but even I don't know. The artifact is ancient, even for us, with how long our lives are. What records survived, say that the translation plates were made by a thought mage that was also an enchanter. Or at least that's what's believed to be the case. The other option was that there was an enchanter who used thought mages to make them. All we can be sure of about that is the fact that how they were made was lost. Maybe there's a way someone can figure it out, but we can't be sure."
"Well, I thought I'd ask," Charlie said, happy to at least have a response. Even though it didn't turn out to be like she had hoped.
"Is there anything else you need?" Delit asked.
Charlie merely shook her head. "No, nothing else."
"Well, if you're even on this world again, feel free to come back here. Rooget really enjoyed the… uh, movie?" Delit replied. "Regardless, it wasn't anything like we have here."
"No problem. It was partly an experiment about what we could do with our magic. As well as the fact that my friends were bored at the time. A month is a long time to stay still with nothing to do," Charlie remarked.
Delit nodded, chuckling. "Well, hopefully you won't have any other problems on the worlds you travel to until you're able to find the one you're seeking."
Charlie smiled as she nodded. "It was nice to learn about another culture. It wasn't something that I had really thought about as I started traveling across worlds," Charlie said.
"When you're ready to go, just let the guards know and they'd escort you to where we have the supplies and transportation that will take you to the gate. It'll take about until late afternoon before you and your friends will be at the gate," Delit told her.
"Thanks. Maybe we'll see each other again someday."
_
Ralph wished the elves had better transportation than what they were forced to endure. True, he didn't have to walk, but he was pretty sure that he could have made better time just by walking, although he had to admit that it was nice not having to take a break from walking every so often.
They were currently sitting in the bed of a truck that was around the same height of Ralph, though, it was just a little taller. It was painted brown and was rolling along, maybe reaching ten miles an hour. Although, he wasn't good at estimating speeds, so it could be more like five. Not that it mattered to him.
While it felt like he was riding a car that was either almost out of gas or on its last leg, it at least was allowing him to sit the entire way. Although, he couldn't help but wonder if trusting the elves was such a good idea. He even still had trouble thinking of them as elves. What he had in mind for elves was more with a middle ages kind of appearance rather than early twentieth century tech and fashion.
At the moment, he was at least happy that they were almost to the gate. The thing he looked most to in it was that they would be away from this world. Yet, he couldn't deny that chances were that they would have to come back through this world when they finally reached the world that they were looking for.
He was hoping the next world they would enter would be somewhere tropical. Largely because he'd always wanted to see a tropical place in person. He wasn't sure if he'd get what he wanted, but that wasn't what was important.
He also hoped that there wouldn't be anyone or anything to interact with, aside from those he was traveling with, that is. That way he wouldn't have to be used as a translator and could just relax. Although, he wouldn't be able to have fun tweaking what was said a little from time if that was the case, but he was willing to let it go in order to get some peace on that front.
Although, he'd be surprised if his luck was that good. After all, while he didn't really believe in karma, he wouldn't be surprised if this was karma's way of getting back at him for some of the pranks he'd pulled in his life. Not that he cared about that or felt bad about the pranks. There were a small handful of pranks he wished he could have not done, but it wasn't like he could move back time himself and undo it.
Even if he knew Heathcliff's spell to do that, it wasn't like it would put him in that moment again. If anything, he'd merely be with himself rather than himself at that time. He also couldn't approach his younger self to explain why he should do whatever prank, because he knew that he'd have assumed that someone else was playing a prank on him and dismissed it.
"Ralph, you there?" Amelia asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Probably not," he answered.
"Well, as long as you respond then," Amelia remarked. "Any guesses on what the next world will be like?"
Ralph merely smirked. "Tropical," he said. "It should be tropical."
"Ooohhh, yeah, that would be nice," Amelia said, writing something down on a paper Ralph just noticed.
"What're you writing down?" he inquired.
"Oh just what your guess is. We're doing another pool of who can get the closest to what the next world will be."
"What's the prize?" Ralph asked, more amused than anything else.
Amelia paused her writing. "You know, I haven't thought about that."
"It's that whoever is closest will be able to decide what traveling music we get to listen to when we take a break from reading," Hannah said. "I already talked with Beth and Wes about it. They agreed with that."
"Well there you go," Amelia said, continuing to write down Ralph guess.
"What're the guesses so far?" Ralph asked.
"Uh, well, Charlie has down a desert, I put down a forest, Beth said it'll be a canyon, Wes said that it's going to be mountains, Hannah said hills, and Tim's guess is a swamp," Amelia read off.
"Would be nice to get a preview of the world before we enter it," Ralph remarked.
"If we could do that we wouldn't be able to make our predictions and have these betting pools," Beth said, chuckling. "So what would the fun of that be?"
"We could just head straight to the griffin canyon then?" Charlie asked. "It would save a lot of time. Oh, and we could avoid having someone win who really didn't want the prize anyway."
Ralph couldn't help but chuckle at Charlie's remarks. She certainly could be a bit standoffish, but there were times in which she'd join the conversation and he never knew what to expect from her. Although, this was one of the times where he answer was a bit predictable as she made no secret she didn't like these bets. Not that she was allowed to opt out anyway.
"Who knows, maybe if we could give you another dose of the fungaloid spores you'd be more interested in the bets," Ralph remarked, laughing.
"Hey, I think we're almost there," Wes said, standing up and looking over the top of the truck.
"What do you see?" Tim asked.
"Well, if they didn't have so much fanfare around it, I wouldn't have noticed it. It looks like its in the middle of a field, but with all the tents they have around there, who knows exactly where it is there," Wes answered.
"Well, as long as we can get out of here," Hannah mumbled.
Ralph didn't pay attention to the conversation around him when they arrived. He just wanted to go through the gate and leave these elves behind. He didn't know what to make of what the elves were doing, but he did get annoyed by the elves who kept asking him questions that they didn't want the answers Ralph had for them, so he wouldn't be sad to leave this place behind. He just hoped they'd be able to fid another way back to Earth that didn't involve traveling through this world again.
One of the elves that was standing guard at whatever this place was, showed them over to where the gate supposedly was. To Ralph it looked like a military encampment, which kind of made sense, given the gates could possibly transport armies to other worlds, and so could be a potential security threat.
However, since the gates were still so recently opened, Ralph couldn't help but feel like the military people were unnecessary. However, he didn't plan on saying anything. All that would do was to keep them from leaving that much sooner. Which Ralph didn't want at all.
Then as soon as the guard shoed them where the gate was, which they had put a tent over, Ralph just walked straight up to it and stepped through without hesitation. He didn't want any delays to hold them up. Especially since he could see Charlie, or even Beth, striking up a conversation and making the rest of them waiting for who knows how long for them to finish. Where, by stepping through the gate, if they did something like that, he wouldn't be considered rude or anything for not staying for that, since he'd already gone on ahead.
When Ralph feels the freezing part of going through the gates, he took a few steps forward, looking around like he had gone on a trip and looking at some sights. Not that there was much to see.
With the dampness he could feel in the air, as well as the pitch black darkness, he moved away from the gate as he didn't want anyone to knock him over accidentally.
While he had looked around, he couldn't help but wonder if he should use his magic to create a light so not only he could see, but his friends as well once they came through.
He also couldn't help but wonder if they'd have to travel through caves in this world or if they would lead up to the surface and allow them better conditions to travel in.
Although, as he waited another thought came to him that gave him a headache. Who would win the bet with this world? He didn't think that a cave would be the terrain that resembled any of the guesses others had.