The Trappings of War: Volume XVIII
An UnOrthOdOx View of the Glory of War
Shiber dashed out through the city darting back and forth while his mouth seemed to run non-stop and was constantly filled with excitement. He seemed to know a little bit about every building in the city and was excitedly telling me the history of everything from the drinking water to the year each stone had been placed in the town square. Fortunately after about 10 minutes of his constant chattering, I had grown to the point where I did not even hear it anymore and it faded into the background.
I began to focus my attention more on the surroundings and noticed that there was a strange scent in the air, almost sweet, yet a bit smoky as well. I thought for an instant of asking Shiber what it was, but quickly thought the better of it. Such a question would undoubtedly derail the tour and further delay my acquisition of writing instruments, which I sure hoped we were heading for. I soon noticed the pots hanging around the city that were obviously burning something. Whatever that was had to be the source of the smell.
The people here were also dressed a bit odd. It seemed that they had found some way in which to tan leather that also kept the fur of the hide intact on the skin. This led to some interesting designs in the clothing. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out. “What are those things?”
“What those? Those over there? Those are called furs! Furs are used for many things, we have used them as clothing, as rugs, even as blankets. Why it was just last night that I purchased myself a brand new fur blanket! It was on sale and I could not resist, it had the whitest fur I had ever seen, it was created from several rabbit hides, actually. You ever seen our rabbits here? We grow them ourselves just to make furs, yep! We should go and see the rabbit farm, oh, oh, it’s right over here, you can see how we make them yourself! You could even buy yourself a blanket to take home with you! Furs are my favorite thing they are so soft and warm, nothing feels better than to curl up under a nice fur with your wife on a cold night! Have I told you about my wife? We were married last fall! It was an unusually warm autumn evening actually, and the river shown in the sunset…”
My head was aching beyond belief. “Shiber. Writing instruments. I need writing instruments. We’ll go look at furs later.”
“Right, Books! Books are some of the best things to read! Why we have some of the most interesting books here in town! I remember when
Tales of the Storm: The Charioteer of Arashi first came out! Man I sat down and read that over and over! But my personal favorite has to be
Grog Want Tank!! Did you know I actually wrote that?! Yep, its funny you are looking for writing material because I am a writer too! Maybe when we get back we could share works with each other! Why just the other day I sat down to write...”
At least we were back on track. I hoped. I had no idea what these so-called books were I only hoped that they would allow me to at least get prepared for the meeting at hand. At long last we finally stopped before the building housing these books, and much to my dismay I discovered it was right next to the building where we started. Shiber had definitely taken the scenic route around the town back to where we started. These ‘books’ were an interesting sight. They appeared to be made of several scrolls somehow bound in place and then separated into sections that allowed for far more information to be stored than on a scroll. One in particular caught my attention:
The Art of War.
As I read through the first sections, I discovered that it was a manual that described the methodology of warfare and the proper ways in which to engage in battle. Though it was not all that different from what we taught our troops ourselves, a book containing such knowledge was unheard of, and sheer genius. Try as I might, though, I was not allowed to take a copy with me. Instead I purchase the tools I needed and returned to the building I had been instructed to wait. Studying it for the first time, I noticed it was indeed an Inn, and perhaps the largest on I had ever seen. The sign hanging caught my eye for it featured prominently a horse and rider, an unusual sight for all the giant chickens here, and the words “Arrian’s Deception”
While I desired to seek out this Arrian and discuss with him the point of having a horse featured in such a land, I had no time for such indulgences. A quick meal and hot bath cleared my head of the confusion that had occurred throughout the day, and I set about organizing myself for the meeting that I hoped would take place soon. No sooner had I finished my preparations was there a knock at the door.
“Greetings UnOrthOdOx, my name is Alva, and the GodGather will see you now, please follow me.”
I had long ago ceased to be surprised by anything I would see here in the lands of the Storm, and as such was not shocked to see a small cat be the one to summon me. This cat, though, seemed to exude a much greater presence than his own size would seem to suggest, almost as if some great power was bottled inside. As we left the inn, I wondered to myself what kind of being I would be facing. Who would be so respected in this land as to be known as the ‘GodGather’?
For those interested, a Word Document from #1 to present. I promise it will get more complete later...hopefully pictures and such will be added...any volunteers? oh, and turn off both auto spell and grammar checks if you don't want to see how truly horrid I really am....
I see nothing but red and green lines under every sentence!!!
