Chapter 12 #2
Torin switches to a smolder, so I switch to a glower.
He just laughs and whips my shirt off before picking up the first item he brought and sliding my arm through a sleeve.
He wraps the other side around, slipping a fabric strap through a notch in the side and looping my arm into the mix. Then he does a swift knot on the side.
“Comfortable, right? Much better than those ill-fitting clothes you keep putting me in.”
I… do suppose that I have made him wear my clothes since he arrived. It’s not my fault he’s a giant and doesn’t fit well in them… and that the idea of clothes shopping sounds about as fun for me as riding the subway is for him.
Ah well.
He whips my pants down before I realize what’s happening.
Torin tsks. “I was hoping you were naked underneath.”
“So I gather,” I say as he glances at my package through my underwear anyway, like maybe he’s going to try his hand at X-ray vision. “Can you see through clothes?”
“Sure thought I’d try,” he mutters. “You want to try seeing through my clothes?”
“Not necessarily.”
He sighs and helps me into the pants. I look at myself in the mirror and then raise an eyebrow while I question what exactly I’m wearing. It might be comfortable, but I look a bit odd. I guess I’m just not used to seeing myself in such unusual clothes.
I head straight to the library where Torin soon meets me with another lackluster concoction of food. The two of us then continue searching through the books until Torin and Kit have had enough and need a break.
“Can we go outside the palace?” I ask curiously.
“Yes, of course. You’re not confined to the palace. You are not my sweet and sexy prisoner of lov—”
I walk off before he can finish that.
The halls are still confusing, so I don’t actually get too far, and he quickly catches up.
“Let me show you the wonders of my world,” Torin says as he parades me up to the front of the palace before sliding open the large door that looks like it weighs hundreds of pounds with ease. He waves me through with a beaming expression on his face. It’s quite concerning how happy he is.
“The stables are that way, and this way we head off into the abyss!”
“The abyss sounds worrisome.”
“It’s really just the road out toward town. I didn’t know how else to make it sound exciting,” he admits as we pass through a large open gate to a crossroads. The road to the left leads us into town, but he takes the right road.
“Where’s this go?”
“Just out,” he says.
I point toward the town. “That way looks more fun.”
“This way is definitely more fun. But since you hate riding horses, you will have to use your legs and walk. It is not illegal to walk here like it is in your world.”
“Ah… right,” I say, uncertain whether he’s being sarcastic about believing my little lie. “Are we heading to that pond where your buddy lives who eats the people you don’t like?”
“I considered it. But you still have uses for the time being.”
“Do you see why I keep refusing your advances? I feel like the longer I do, the longer you’ll keep me alive.”
Torin just laughs at that.
So I trail after the strange god in this strange world. Although the sky is still blue and the grass is still green, there’s something peculiar about it all. And all too soon, I discover what it is.
The green grass beyond the area surrounding the palace has withered to nothing and the trees are barren of leaves, their bark cracked and blackened.
I turn and look back at the palace where green trees reach for the sky and the grass and flowers flourish.
It’s almost like there’s a circle around the palace where the green grass stops and the beautiful world turns into a wasteland.
“What… is going on out here?” I ask hesitantly.
He looks around like he doesn’t notice the drastic change. Out here, the beauty of the palace is washed away as I get a sinking feeling about all of this.
“Torin, why is everything out here dead?”
“It’s not. Come on,” he says, and I question how far I should follow this god I really don’t even know.
Is he a malevolent god? Has he consumed every surrounding resource for himself so that his palace could flourish while the world outside fell to ruin?
Or am I being dramatic and this is just a seasonal change for them like winter is for us?
He keeps walking and I really have nothing to do but follow him.
He seems eager, almost, not at all caring about any of this.
I notice there’s a trail through the dead grass that he follows step by step.
The trail is only one person wide, so when I walk beside him, the grass cracks and crumbles to dust beneath my shoes.
“You’re going to love this,” he says as he leads me over to a ledge.
“Are you planning on pushing me off?”
“I feel like if I was going to kill you, I could have done it a number of different ways. No pushing needed.”
“That… should make me feel better, but oddly does not.”
Torin just laughs while I reach the ledge and realize that across from us, I can see a breathtaking waterfall. It crashes down into a large pool of water that steadily flows into a small river. The water below sparkles like gems as the fall cascades down.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“So beautiful,” I whisper. “Why does the water glisten like that?”
“The metal used to create my weapons is made with resources found in that river,” he says.
“It’s beautiful.”
“I can take you down there, but it’s a bit of a walk unless you’re willing to jump.”
I glance down at the extremely long drop. “I’m good. Thank you.”
He chuckles and sits down. “I spend a lot of time out here.”
“I bet,” I say as I sit next to him. Kit jumps off my shoulder to explore, and I suddenly feel anxious about the drop before me and scoot back.
For most of my life, I never really experienced anxiety.
But once I lost my eyesight, it crept into my life and took root deep inside of me—the feeling of not always being in control, of not knowing what was going to happen.
Torin’s hand brushes my shoulder. “I wouldn’t let you fall.”
“Yeah, I just… it seems more daunting when you can’t see it properly.”
“Very true,” he agrees. “There was once a fence that lined this area after a child fell in. Thankfully, he was fine. There was a selkie in the water who pulled him out and made us trade her far too many pretty gems to get him back. But after that, we had a fence built.”
“I don’t blame you,” I say, wondering why it’s no longer here. “Why’d you remove it? So you can push your victims off now?”
He grins. “Sure. It became my primary method of sacrificing people. Good kick in the ass.”
We sit in comfortable silence for a little while before he stands up and Kit returns to me. Offering his hand to me, Torin says, “Let’s go back and be tortured with books a bit longer.”
Heading back toward the palace, we follow the path we took coming here.
Torin walks right down the middle of the worn path, and since I don’t like the sound the grass makes when I step on it, I try to put each foot on a space where I previously stepped.
But just as he turns at the crossroads to head into the palace, I realize what was off about the waterfall.
There was absolutely no wildlife.
No birds.
No bugs.
No animals.
Glancing toward the town, I start walking in that direction.
“Where are you going?” Torin asks. “I didn’t say you could go over there.”
“Why can’t I go over there?” I question as I pick up my pace, expecting he’ll stop me, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t even follow me. He just stands back and watches me go, which makes me feel even more uneasy about it. It’s almost like… he’s afraid to go into the town. But if he’s afraid… should I be?
I reach the first building and find that it’s extremely run-down.
The thatch roof is buckling and the windows are cracked.
Shutters lie on the ground outside of it, and when I try to look through the windows, there’s so much grime on the glass that it’s hard to see anything.
The wooden sign for a blacksmith has fallen from its pole and lies broken and rotting on the ground.
After walking a little farther, I stop at the third building since the door is open, and step inside under the sign indicating it’s a general store.
The shelves are full, but everything has either decayed or rotted. The only items still standing are things made of wood or metal. The next store is the same, holding boxes of supplies that are all still there and haven’t been looted, but time appears to have gotten to them.
When I exit the building, I find Torin standing at the entrance to the town, stepping no farther into it as I turn toward him and walk down the cobblestone path that has suffered from the passage of time.
“Are you going to tell me the truth now?” I ask once I meet up with him.
“Didn’t plan on it,” he says. “Do you want your book or not?” His expression is dark, and I question whether I was wrong to go against his wishes.
“Of course I do.”
“Then stop wasting time.” His voice is sharp and I wonder if it’s the first time he’s been short with me. It almost makes me feel guilty.
I follow him back to the palace and into the library, where I sit down in front of the shelf.
“Torin, I’m sorry I went into the town without your permission.
Could you please tell me what’s going on with this place?
Why is no one here? Did they have to move out because of whatever is going on with the land and how barren it is? ”
“No.”
“So then… where is everyone? Can you tell me that? Or no?”
“This is everyone.” He sits down facing me and leans against the bookshelf. “They’re all dead.”
“What happened to them?”