the Clockwork
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 22475
|
And so our heroes began to take the route that would allow them to skirt
the underground marketplace unawares. Sir Velus took the lead as
he knew which way wound the path - though currently in the form of a small
dog (a curse of the Dragon) he was truly an Allarian sheep herder who once
(many years ago) actually saved the life of the woman following him;
Princess Astra was that woman, she was a warrior princess from the
lands of Aqualaria and had been captured by the Dragon, imprisoned,
chained and left in the nude, she currently was covered by the cloak of
the man following her; Paladin, noble warrior of the Three
Kingdoms, on a mission to rescue and bring back Exotica the witch-in-
training of the village Hephaesteus, he just so happened to bump into
Astra and the man behind him; Duke Fred, knight of the Great
Kingdom, he was tasked to kill the Dragon, a mission he felt more than
ready for.
The marketplace of shoppes and homes which stretched vertically below them was an odd sight for Duke Fred. He had never imagined that such a place could exist within the Southern Caves, or within any caves for that matter. He wondered what kind of people would pledge themselves to the Dragon. As they walked across a wooden bridge stretching from one precipice to a firmer landing, Fred took a closer look at the people below. He was shocked to see that not all was well: he saw that some looked like normal folk, but others had a green/gray shade to their skin, a few had sharp ears and sharper noses, some were hunched while others were much too lithe and tall. "These are not human!" whispered Fred to Paladin. "Not all of them," Paladin responded. "Some are humanfolk, some are fairiefolk, a few are kobolds and dwarves, there are even a few lawyers down here." "Oooh," spat out Astra. "We got rid of that kind from our lands generations ago." They continued their trek, following Sir Velus, and they gradually came lower and lower into the crevice of the caves, but soon they took a turn that pulled them away from the marketplace. Upon going left past a dripping cistern and then right, beyond a curiously adorned brasier with burning coals, they soon found themselves in a barely lit chamber that was ticking. "Is this chamber ticking?" asked Astra. "Not exactly," said Duke Fred. "I think its that," said Paladin, and he pointed at a large clockwork. The clockwork had many wooden wheels with teeth and clogs and some springs, they intertwined as if in some aerobic dance, cogs and clogs churning and turning, and the whole affair powered by the water of the waterfall at the end of the dimly-lit chamber. The water cascaded from a higher point and onto the paddles and buckets of the largest wheel which was turned by the force of the falling water. This wheel in turn powered the series of other wheels and ropes, pullies and winches. These were connected to other levers and riggs that extended down through another tunnel out of sight from the troupe of heroes.
|
YY
7/18/2006 9:47:24 PM
24980960 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.