The Descent Into Hell For A Bottle of Milk

Chapter 9 ~ The Crown Prince of Northfay

Chapter 9 ~ The Crown Prince of Northfay

                 Life in the Eloi seems duller in the week that Poppy has been gone. She just had this uplifting bubbly personality that made everyone want to smile and joke around, but now that she’s gone. I started taking my warrior training more seriously than anyone else and as a result had improved enough to more up a class level. If I continue to progress like this I might really become the person fate has picked me out to be.

                “Alex do you want to go on a tour of the Kingdom?” Panther Lily asked.

               “Right now? I was on my way to the training hall. Why are you dressed like that?” She was dress as if she was a man.

               “Even though the main focus of the Royal family is to make the Kingdom the best for its people and to protect them. I rarely get to go to the lower rings. I’ve only seen the outer wall close up a handful of time,” she said. I agreed to go, I don’t see what harm a break could do and I did what to see the Kingdom.

              We went on by foot through the rings of the Kingdom. Not many people recognize Panther Lily dressed the way she was, but those that did, didn’t say anything about it. After what seemed like forever, in the third ring of the Kingdom we stopped in front of a hole in the wall shop called the Silver Dragonfly. Panther Lily gave the door three swift knocks.

            “Password,” a thick a ragged voice said quickly.

            “The black cat wishes to enter the dragon’s nest,” Panther Lily told the voice. I guess ‘black cat’ was Panther Lily’s code name. A series of locks began to be unlatched and the door cracked open. Without hesitation Panther Lily walked into the dimly lit room and with no other choice I followed.

           “It is always a honor Princess and who is your friend,” an old man graying brown said.

           “This is Alex, the world’s savior and Alex, the is Wizard Pendragon an old friend of mine. He collects things from the time before.” I let my eyes adjust and looked around the room.

           Things from the world before were lining every wall of the small shop. Things like tape recorders, fog horns, hand crank lights, a car engine, radios and other little things I couldn’t put a name too. He had dolls that eyes opened and closed when you moved them. Hundreds of books, from the classics to the ones on the New York Times worst list. But they are all now a part of human culture, our mark on the world.

          This man was less of a wizard and more of a hoarder that collects broken stuff. It would be too prefect if he happened to stumble upon a time machine that could send me back home. “Why do you collect this stuff?” I asked.

          “Like my father, I’ve always been interested in the way things work. And even though it is work that many frown upon, thanks to the Princess I’m allowed to continue. In order to understand the future we are walking into we must learn the past.”

          This was the reason why Panther Lily brought me here. Just like the old man, she was fascinated with the past. I could put names to these things, explain how they work, and what they were used for. But before I could utter a word the door flew open and outside light filled the room.

         “Princess Panther Lily, you know you shouldn’t have anything to do with the magic man. The things he has in here are dangerous!” a man I’ve never seen before shouted.

         I pick up the hand crank light and gave it a few good turns, “This flash light is dangerous?” I point it at the man and turned it on. A dim yellow glow escaped from the bulb. I was shocked the bulb would even light.