A Green Tinted Sky

[Clownpiece]

The gate that stood in front of the now-still Somerled was quite imposing, by its own right. Standing at an intimidating 12 feet tall and wide, those who came up to it would find themselves dwarfed by it. Seated on the lofty heights of his mount however, the monster was quite unimpressed by it, figuring that if it was any shorter, then he would have to worry about bashing his head on the overhang. Not that he wasn’t worried about it anyway, as the two twisting palm trees marking the edge of the gate weren’t exactly the smoothest of borders. Where the two trees met, massive leaves hung around just about all over the place, including a few feet down to where they’d intrude upon the same space Somerled’s head would occupy, if he chose to ride through in that moment. When he needed to go through, the spirit decided, he would either have to dismount and lead his mount through, or he’d need to duck down, unless he wanted to find out the hard way whether these trees were the real deal, or just statues.

While he did find issue with this, another matter of the gate stole his attention away. The inside of the gate bore the same featureless white that marked the rest of the landscape around them. To Somerled, this was a load of bullshit because there was really no way to tell whether walking through the gate would actually get him places. For all he knew, the trees could be purely decorative and walking through would be pointless. Or it could be a wall, which wouldn’t be fun to walk into at all. There were a myriad of other possibilities, too many of which would be pointless or downright dangerous, and none of which eased his paranoia.

“Rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first?”

Connor’s voice drew Somerled’s attention away from the gate. From his motorbike, the man held out his fist. Though he didn’t particularly want to go through the arch first, due to the issues he was having with it, he agreed to the game. If he was to go first, then he was to go first, no other way around it. With a quick count to three, the man and monster’s hands danced in the familiar child’s game, coming to a rest with rock and paper respectively.

Somerled sighed inwardly, keeping a bright smile on his face as usual. “I guess I’ll go through first then,” he said, equal parts curiosity and apprehension stirring inside him. “See you guys on the other side.” Bowing his body low to the moose, he spurred it forward, and at once he was thrown through the white of the gate.

I’ll get on writing up a Vasty Deeps entry post soon enough.