Comments: Whoops! Almost entirely forgot that today was Wednesday! Today’s snippet comes again from the novel-in-progress, a young adult fantasy entitled “Cheetah on the Roof”. I almost told you who this conversation was between, but decided that instead I would love to hear who you infer these people to be from the conversation itself! Hope you enjoy! And thanks for reading! – JRF
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Arrelious smiled, looking up at him. “And what do you think became of Lua Mater, Loremaster?”
“I’m still not convinced she was ever real,” Odin admitted. “You have bones there, bones larger than those of any creature which still lives, but that doesn’t mean they came from a dragon, or if they did, that they belonged to either of the infamous Eldest. They could be Saturn’s bones, true. But they could also be Lua’s. You could be leading us off on some fruitless treasure hunt, when you have what you want right in your hand already.”
The fugitive laughed. “You know, for a Loremaster, you sure are skeptical.” He brushed the layer of fine white bone powder from the surface of the make-shift staff, inspecting his latest progress. “Sometimes I wonder if you aren’t just playing devil’s advocate to throw me off the scent. Would be quite clever of you to do so. You play the humble fool sometimes, but I know the truth of the matter, Mister Wen, and that’s that you wouldn’t be a renowned scholar if you were truly a humble old fool.”
Odin shifted on the log, disliking receiving a compliment from the likes of one such as Sapien. He grumbled unhappily. “I am not trying to fool anyone,” he insisted. “I have studied such stories for thirty-three years now. I am an expert on the subject. If I wasn’t, you wouldn’t have dragged me along on your idiotic journey. In my experience, it is the nature of conscious creatures to exaggerate a tale the more often it is told, and the tale of Lua Mater has been told many millions of times. The story is different from book to book, and region to region.”
Arrelious smiled again, a slow, easy smile that set Odin on edge. So languid and carefree, as if he had nothing in the world to worry about at all. As if he had forgotten the terrible things he had done to Eligio the vampire and Nia the unicorn and the last human wizard, had forgotten his thirty years of solitude in the Neverending Hallway, forgotten the fact he was a wanted fugitive whom every law-enforcer in the realm would now be hunting. He tsked his tongue lightly, shaking his head. “And what of the stories in Gandraíocht, Loremaster? Before I came here, I firmly believed the tales of dragons and unicorns and werewolves were pure fiction. As it turns out, they are not. And if those stories can turn out to be true, then I have no reason to doubt the tales of Draíocht now, do I?”
Odin sighed heavily, waving a hand dismissively. “You can believe whatever you want. Let’s just hurry up and get this over with so I can get back to my life.”
Arrelious picked up his cup again in another mock toast. “Indeed,” he said, and then sipped carefully. When he put his tea down again, he resumed carving and continued, “So. We know that Lua was buried in the heart of a mountain.”
“Yes. But that hardly helps. There are three mountain ranges in this realm, and each thousands of kilometers long.”
“Sometimes I feel as if you have read these stories so often you have become blind to them,” Arrelious said. “What is said specifically about the mountain?”
Odin repressed another sigh and picked up the book again, reluctantly opening it back to the tale of Lua Mater. “If you already know all of this, why am I here?” he snapped.
“Do not fret so much. You are a very valuable member of this expedition.”
***
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