Teddy, Montethug, the black haired beauty, and the crippled boy stood in the middle of a bizarre town.
Teddy saw unbelievably tall walls all around. There was no sky. The walls had joined up to some kind a ceiling, yet it was still bright in here.
Debris and carnage surrounded him as he gawked in the center of a street. Snapped lumber, decimated storefronts, even a couple mangled bodies…
An old woman slumped down in front of a well having been run through by a…a monstrous black rock—the same kind of black rock his old passport was made from; though, Teddy had never seen one that size before.
A man with no arms nor legs hung by the neck from the well itself, contaminating the water supply below with his drippings.
Behind them, a crude tower stood above the town and strung from the top of it, a taut rope, connecting the tower to the well.
Teddy immediately understood what happened. That boy had a personal passport stone; he’d saved everyone from that jail cell and now they were far, far away from that mire pit of a town.
Despite the carnage all around, Teddy fell down to his knees and…and he started bawling like a baby. He’d escaped, escaped that shithole. Escaped that wretched desert and all the junkies and corner whores living there.
A big arm hugged him tight.
Montethug was crouched down next to him. Seemed that one might be dumb, but he was kind.
“We really should clean this place up,” the beauty said.
“Nah, it’s doomed,” the boy replied.
Those two hovered in front of Teddy as he wept and groveled. Studying him for a bit, the boy spoke up, “it’s not that bad here, or is it?”
“Is it?” He asked the beauty.
She hugged her bundling closer and hummed, pretending to ignore his question; though, Teddy could have sworn he heard her whipser “It’s the apocalypse.”
The boy shrugged and pointed to himself and then her. “Loogman and Eta.”
Eta nodded and asked, “You can find his friends?”
“Y-yes,” Teddy replied. “I used to be a porter, but I got fired because of…because of…”
He trailed off for a moment before correcting himself. “Anyway that shouldn’t be a problem because you two have your own passport stone. I’m obligated to the gentleman next to me, but if he agrees, I can show you the way.”
Montethug patted Teddy on the back; hopefully that meant ‘yes’ or else Teddy would be in a very awkward situation.
Loogman crinkled his face. “We don’t have any stones or nothing.”
Teddy’s jaw dropped and he pointed all around. “How—how did you—how did you—?”
“Cause I was a god, stupid. I was the great god, Oenus!”
That, that was a name Teddy knew, a name everyone knew. He couldn’t help the next words from slipping out his mouth.
“Oh fuck.”
End of Arc.
Just asking it's not dropped isn't it?
Yes and no. I was outlining the next arc and realized both Eta and Loogman were gag characters. The story had no real MC to empathize with (which was really depressing after spending so much time on them). Worse yet, the world got way too big too fast. Totally rookie mistakes. So I started over on Royal Road with a regular joe straightman MC. It's still the same story, just with Loogman and Eta as side characters. I've been spending some time getting critiques and feedback on the next iteration so it works out right--something I didn't do with this one.
I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on it, but unfortunately, the next arc was going to have to be a bunch of invisible retconning to make this story work. Though, the first arc of this is still canon, just from the Dragon's Desert on isn't going to work.
But I'm absolutely not giving up on telling this story.
And done