Perpetual–The End

This is the last installment of Perpetual. It includes some of the hardest writing I’ve penned to date. Warning: some passages in this entry may seem harsh or a bit emotionally hard to deal with. And for the record, yes, I did cry. A lot. Thank you for reading. NaNoWriMo 09 winner with 50448 words (Scrivener tells me 50462 words however).

When I opened my eyes, I am no longer standing out in the cold. My hair is plastered to my face, wet with the melting snow that had fallen down from the sky. The sky no longer appears above me and I do not see my friends. Instead, I find myself standing out in the middle of the Consortium Chamber Room of the Council. I blinked and wonder if everything I had experienced was a dream, that the Portal had not yet transported me to the other side.

Perpetual–Day Nineteen

The storm crept over them almost unexpectedly. The evening sky surged with dark and menacing clouds. Large, fluffy clouds began to fall from the heavens. Sardonios turned on the windshield wipers and they scrubbed the break proof window with a loud squeaking sound. He reached out with his right hand to turn on the internal window defroster system and then gripped the steering wheel with both hands.

Perpetual–Day Eighteen

I thought about taking today off but after having a good time at the local WriMo Game Night, I felt compelled to add a thousand words or so to my story.

A bald eagle circled over head. The wings of the bird stretched long and it dipped down as the tail feathers twisted and shaped themselves. Through her enhanced hearing, Xep heard the bird call out and skreech to the sky. Xep smiled and strained her head against the window as to get a better view of the magnificent bird. She had read about the omens that many of the ancient cultures of the local area placed on the bird and smiled. “Only good things,” she repeated in her head hoping that the appearance of the bird meant that her journey would prove successful. “So many interesting new things,” she thought to herself, “it will be a shame that I cannot hang out here more often to explore and see what else is around. I never knew that this side of the veil had so many wonderful things.”

Perpetual–Day Seventeen

The goblins cheered as they carried the limp form of Xep through the street. Some people also raised up their arms and cheered as the small horde of hooded creatures moved in and out of them. They took the slightly heavy robot back to the large purple tent their master set up for the markets. In return, the hooded man tossed out small satchels to each one. The goblins dove down and fought over the small packets of food. Once everyone had a bag, they tore into it and started chowing down on the paste like substance inside.

Perpetual–Day Sixteen

The goblins marched around the market, occasionally sniffing the air around them as they searched out the person their master wanted. The market had grown in the past two stops and it was getting harder and harder to spot and find and take the things that their master constantly wanted. He was always on the look out for the rare, strange, unusual and one of a kind items that no one else seemed to have. He used a lot of his magical talents to hone in on the things that came through the market passage ways. Once he knew what items were available he would spent the rest of his days at the market locating the owners and then bartering with them to try and get them to trade away the unique toy with promises tainted with magic.

Perpetual–Day Fifteen

Sardonios drove the silver Nissan Sentra into the Goblin Market at about five miles per hour. Everyone sat silent and still, allowing their eyes to do all the talking. Once they passed the bus on the left and right, their eyes widened to the sights now visible. Off to their right sat many tents and tepees and other structures that could be built up and taken down quickly. Cars were parked behind the structures, many of the trunks were open to expose cardboard and plastic boxes full of items to be sold. People jammed the makeshift streets, which seemed to cram into one another in a labyrinth-like pattern.

Perpetual–Day Fourteen

Xep spent a lot of time quickly reading through all the books in the exhaustive library in the home of Sardonios. Unfortunately she did not see anything in any of the books that could offer a shred of hope in solving their problem. None of the magical books spoke of the stone circles as being portals in any capacity. This shocked and made Xep a bit depressed but she continued to pour through the books in the hopes that she could find something that could provide inside.

Perpetual–Day Thirteen

“And how do you propose we go about doing this,” Sadonios laughed, “You are a machine, I am too old for adventures, and while Tristian is conscripted to help you, I doubt Paige would want anything to do with this. And you see how tight those two are at this point.”

Perpetual–Day Twelve

The world shifted and sighed and stretched out underneath the buildings, homes, and cars that sat upon it. In California, the world split open a bit near the San Andreas fault. Cars littered the side of the highways and buildings nearby had toppled to the ground. People wandered around the area looking dazed and confused. The brave ones took their chances to take a peek down the sides of the earth that had pushed itself open, as if it was trying to escape from itself. All they could see as they peered down the deep ledge was a darkness. Those that took their time to sit and contemplate their existence by the hole were soon rewarded with something else. A faint but pulsating glow almost barely perceptible to the naked eye appeared way down, deep near the core. The strange metallic scent of metal wafted up along with the overpowering scent of rotten eggs.

Perpetual–Day Eleventy

Xep frowned. She hated the tone of this creature and resented his caviler attitude towards everything she believed in. She understood that he was so far removed from proceedings in her world but felt that that was not an excuse for acting and behaving like a fledgling child. She folded her arms across her chest and stood there standing. By now, both of her companions had already sat down on either side of the elf but she choose to remain standing. She wanted to be able to make a quick leave of exit in case he decided to end her existence.