Before they entered the game
His footfalls were light as he plodded forward. He walked gently, his hand on the tip of his straw hat, his cloths ragged and his boots old and worn out. His face was a frown and his lips were so dried they seemed like an old woman's skin.
The wind howled and rustled, he fell on his knees and the wind sweeped his hat off his head. He ran after it and saw that it landed on a railway track, he picked it up delicately and examined it. He gazed at the sky, a dark, cloudless horizon, dreary and gloomy.
The man in the straw hat stood up and looked sideways, he could hear the faint horn of a train. He smiled - a crinkled gesture. His breathing was hard and strenuous, he heaved a sigh and looked backwards. Pebbles, only pebbles and dust, dry parched ground and little cactuses. He returned his gaze forward. Those were the past, he had gone past that now.
It had been six months ago, when he embarked on his journey to find the enchanter. He had trekked from far and had passed many places and here he was now. Still trying to find him. He kept his identity a secret and told no one his reason for seeking for the enchanter.
The man in the straw hat was harmed, a little pistol was in his pocket and he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger if he smelled foul play.
The horn of the train was now nearer, he saw the glimmer of lights in the distance and waved sheepishly at it. It was useless, the train couldn't stop. His mind raced desperately for an idea, he stood akimbo, and soon he was on his kneels, touching the railway track despondently. He gazed at the lights up ahead again and saw that the train was nearer.
A gust of wind hit his face as he suddenly jerked his hands forward, slapping the wind with such ferociousity. He seemed to grab the wind and as he did so, he jolted his hands backwards and leaped up very highly, spontaneously the train dashed forward but he was on it already. He gripped on the surface tightly as the train continued forward.
His hands hammered on the surface of the train, trying to find and opening, he found one and he hammered on it. It opened egregiously and he hopped inside, the pantaloons he was wearing moving whimsically as he went down. He was meet with gaps but that was all. Everyone resumed their earlier positions and he walked indifferently to his seat.
" Put back the roof, you pipe skull!", yelled a goblin.
The man in straw hat stood up and struggled to fix the roof, when he was done, he walked back to his seat.
The fact that his trousers were pantaloons- baggy things, and his jacket was worn out and bad looking, his straw hat looking more like basket than a hat and his eyes an almond shape blunder made him strange.
The seats of the train were filled with different creatures - goblins, bat- headed monsters, skull- headed beasts, dwarfs and creatures that looked like a monkey and a lion merged together.
The man in the straw hat was sitting beside a figure who covered it's face with the hood of it's cloak. He felt they would be a deleterious stare behind the cover.
" You know where the train'll stop next?", the man in straw hat asked the figure sitting next to him.
" Not really ", it replied huskily. " But I think it's bat mockers hedge".
The man in straw hat almost gasped. BAT MOCKERS HEDGE!. He sighed, he should be expecting more hullabaloo and chaos then. The atmosphere of the train was far from effervescent, it was dull, and one could hear very clearly the ticking of the clock and the breathing of the creatures in it.
" The moon hasn't shined since six months now", said the figure.
" Yes", the man in straw hat said. He knew the reason though, why the moon hasn't shined, he knew but he couldn't tell this stranger. He couldn't imagine what would unfurl from the cloak if he told it that the enchanter had murdered the crow's lord, and stole the crow's pendant. And what would be it's reaction again when he told it that he was after it.
" I bet you don't know the cause?", the figure asked, as if mopping the man in straw hat's mind.
" No!", the man in straw hat snapped abruptly. " Not at all".
There was silence, a deep vociferous visitor. It was soon disrupted by the clap of an enormous hand. The breeze following the clap seemed to sweep the air as the wind twirled and whirled in a frenzy.
It was an enormous hand, owned by and even more enormous creature, it resembled a cat. It whiskers like a moustache, his face ugly and noxious to the eyes.
" Bat mockers hedge is a stone throw away!", he said loudly.
This seemed to make the other passengers happy as they smiled and talked in muffled mummurings.
" Told you it was bat mockers hedge", said the figure, pulling back his hood for the man in straw hat to see. The face that came out of it was repulsive and hideous. It was a goblin, a hideous and pernicious looking goblin. The man in straw hat almost gaped but he suppressed it with a chuckle.
" What's that for?", the goblin asked looking directly into his face.
" I'm only happy we are almost at our destination", he replied.
The goblin put back his hood and sank into his seat. Meanwhile, the enormous creature moved forward to where the man in the straw hat sat.
" Long time no see mate!", it exclaimed.
Oh boy ,thought the man in straw hat, here we go again.
" Hey makkot", said the figure. " I haven't seen you for years".
Damn!, now every one knows my name is makkot., thought the man in the straw hat.
" only going to visit a friend", said the man in straw hat.
" Ok, so long pal", the figure said and sauntered away.
That was stone, when the man in straw hat was still in high school, they were class mates.
" So your name is makkot", said the goblin sitting beside the man in straw hat. " Well I never knew, I'm gobbot, kinda rhymes right?".