Campaign entries - Caspian: Crystal Caves, ch3 - snakes and ladders - 733 words

A spoon chinked sharply against the crystal bowl every time it scooped down for more of the sweet delight that was known as ice cream.

 

"Leslie." Caspian tried to be as polite as it was humanly possible through a row of gritted teeth. "Please."

 

Leslie halted. He didn't understand the hint. "What? Did I... do something wrong?"

 

A somber smile made its way across the shifter's partially painted lips as he closed his eyes for a moment. How he wished he could have at least one curse less for a day. Or two. A week would've been nice. "Let's just say that I hear better than a Volai. Whether I like it or not."

 

The realization hit the man like a miniature bolt of lightning. "Oh, sorry!" In his startled state, the blacksmith accidentally dropped the spoon into the bowl once more, this time lacking the control of purposeful movement. The metal hitting crystal made a series of piercing tinks and clangs. He could see Caspian flinch with every single one of them. "...sorry."

 

The eternal inhaled through his teeth. "You're fine."

 

"No, I'm not," Leslie argued back. He wasn't blind.

 

"Oh, shut up," Caspian hissed to silence him, and concentrated on fishing a slice of fresh strawberry out of his ice cream bowl with his claws. The eternal was already on edge with all the damn paperwork he was practically forced to go through. Records and files didn't really agree with him. He couldn't focus on them. They bored him out of his mind. Even when he wanted to sort such things through himself, and actually not dump them on Steve, it just made him feel like he was going insane. Made it next to impossible. It took hours to work through something that should've taken thirty minutes, or even less.

 

Perhaps it was better to stay away from the Guild - no matter how much it would not help his financial situation. Time would tell.

 

"How come sound wasn't an issue for you before?" The question Leslie presented was sincere, and simply just curious. The smith held no ill will towards the colorful beanpole, despite the vexed reactions he received. Still, explanations were something he needed to understand the workings of worlds - and people, too.

 

The Athos smiled, and blew air out of his nose. He didn't lift his eyes to Leslie. "It's worse when it's quiet. Nothing to mask the sore thumb or the sixth left leg."

 

At the very least it seemed like the narked tension in the shifter's body had started to unwind. It loosened the ribbons of butterflies strung together in Leslie's chest. Yet, he turned away.

 

"There's just this one thing I don't get," the crystalsmith mused out loud. Caspian petrified in place, and lifted his gaze to Leslie from under his brow without moving an inch. The man turned back to the eternal. "You already knew the Thath - or what they were called, anyway."

 

Leslie wasn't wrong. Quite the contrary. Caspian might've blurted out something a little hastily when they were down there. Even though he had claimed it to be just a guess, Hangh had confirmed that so-called hypothesis right after an awkwardly long silence. Considering the uncomfortable combination that built the ruin-rimmed scene, it didn't feel like a coincidence.

 

"Have you met any of them before?"

"Yes." Caspian didn't give the other any time to add to his question. "They haven't been around the 'verse for long. Or so I've heard."

 

Such claim only raised more questions than it had the audacity to provide answers - on top of the ones that already floated in the air like colorful soap bubbles filled with bitter smoke. How had an entire city appeared in the caldera? The serpent people almost twisted themselves into literal question marks when planets were mentioned. It indicated that they got there before Kahari began to utilize portals.

 

The whole scenario prickled the edges of possible, reaching outwards like tree branches desperate for sunlight, demanding to be set free to the territory of preposterous. It wanted to spread like a garden of nothing but weeds, uncontrollable and impolite. It didn't feel plausible. Magic had its ways to do unbelievable things, but it still had a rhyme or reason - usually, at least.

 

This one lacked them both - or there was more than what met the eye on the jagged surface of the crystalline structures.