Monday, January 16, 2012

The Tower of Trials Chapter 5 Page 1

"It's still itchy," Mabel griped as she rubbed the armor over her arm.

They were on the staircase just past the plastic curtains. George was relieved to be out of the room with the gas but, like Mabel, his skin still itched. And he was sweating beneath all the armor.

Was that the excitement and adventure he had been dreaming of? Sweltering discomfort with skin irritation?

"A good shower will wash all of it off," Iona recommended as she followed behind Tricia.

"As if I'll find a shower conveniently placed here!" Mabel snapped.

The stairs curved around the tower as they ascended. At a landing before another set of stairs, they came across a door built into the wall on the inner side. Mabel carefully inspected the door for traps before sliding it open.

"It's a shower..." Mabel said as she stared through the doorway.

George took a peek. There was a small brightly-lit room behind the doorway. There was a bathtub and a shower, along with a sink. The walls were all mirrors and the tiles on the floor had the pattern of clusters of purple-colored fruit. George would have identified the fruit as grapes if he had ever seen one.

"Now you have a shower here," Iona pointed out needlessly.

Mabel shut the door and continued up the stairs. "It's too dangerous to remove armor here. It's probably trapped anyway." So said the fox about the grapes.

The next floor was "the Trial of Combat", as proclaimed by a sign that was right in front of a black power armor of enormous size. The power armor was even bigger than Tricia's. There were spikes too. On the sign. And there was small writing at the bottom of the sign that added, "(one-on-one)".

The level itself was a roughly circular space devoid of decoration. The exit was a small curved staircase on the other side of the giant.

If George had more experience with showmanship, he would have realized that Madboy Keith was really skimping on the surroundings. The place would look better with a few pennants, perhaps mounted on beautifully carved columns. And maybe a banner or two and a statue at the base of the exit staircase. Unfortunately, Keith had ceased to bother with decorations after the sixteenth time the place was torn apart by fighting.

"So, someone's supposed to take this on thing?" Mabel asked.

"Looks like it," Tricia replied.

"Maybe we can take it home!" Iona said happily as she skipped towards the armor.

"I don't think I can allow that!" a voice boomed from the external speaker of the black armor. It rose to its full height to look down on Iona. "So, are you to be my opponent?" It flexed its arms, which had wickedly enormous chainsaws attached to them.

"Wait, shouldn't it be me?" Tricia asked with concern.

Iona waved a paw at Tricia. "No, no, I've got this," she said. She turned back to the towering armor. "You're going find out what it feels like to be beaten by a little girl!"

"Let her handle it," Mabel whispered to the rest of the party, "Watch for my signal."

George did not know what to think. Certainly Iona was strong. But she was up against a larger opponent, with superior armor. Maybe the girl had some tricks that he did not know of.

"You beat me!?" The warrior in the armor laughed. "Why don't you run along before you get hurt?"

"Awww, you scared of a little girl?" Iona taunted.

"Me? Scared?" The warrior flexed his arms. "While I'm in this? Why would I be?"

Iona pointed a finger at the power armor. "Because you'll be beaten by a little girl!"

There was another harsh laugh from the man in the armor. "The only thing I'm scared of is squishing you like a bug. I don't want people saying I bully little girls!"

"Why don't you try it?" Iona invited as she danced to his side, just within his reach.

"Didn't you hear?" the warrior bellowed back as he twisted to keep her in sight, "I don't want to be called a bully!"

"Says the man in the big scary armor."

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