At first glance, the hotel isn’t special. The room is cramped and dirty. But it has a floor-to-ceiling window. She can look out at the bustling holographic neon wonderland of the city as she lies in bed. From this distance, it looks clean. There are nicer ways to take in the sights, of course. But those are all traceable. They take credit, or scan ID, retinas or implants. The hotel takes cash, and even better, old jewelry. Not at a fair rate, obviously. But she can look out at the infinite stretch of glass and steel and see them coming.
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On the day he shipped out, he had left the bicycle out leaning against a tree, forgotten. She made a promise to herself that he would find the house just as he left it, so she kept it where it was, taking care to secure it properly and protect it from the weather. When he never came home, she left the bicycle where it was, the dangling thread of a promise broken by war. A tree knows nothing of grief, but it still embraced the bicycle, growing slowly around it and keeping the mother’s promise long after she passed away.
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The prisoner was a thief and a horse-killer. He’d shot the mounts out of three riders pursuing him, but they’d caught him. They were far from civilization, but there was still justice on the frontier. They branded him with a horseshoe and left him tied to a tree. The Forest was unkind to humans who harmed animals. The thief had just worked out the worst of the knots and was planning his escape when he smelled a carrion stink on the wind. The Forest’s breath. And then the Forest moved, and the thief didn’t stop screaming for a long time.
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They found the installation tucked into a forgotten corner of the museum. The three children stared at it long after the rest of the class had moved on. Their teacher had to find them when the trip was over. Later, the three of them gathered in their secret hideout. It looked so soft and fluffy,” Beryl said. She was the youngest. Rusty, her older brother, scolded her. “It was all wet. How could it be fluffy?” “Clouds,” Jade said. “I want to see a whole sky full of them.” That was when they began planning their escape from the tunnels.
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The duel was over, and so was everything that had led up to it. She had won. She sheathed her sword and just stood there for a long time. The sun rose, and she felt its warmth on her face. She listened to the wind rustle the long grass. The birds were singing. It was all behind her: The vow of revenge, the years of hiding, and the years of training. He couldn’t threaten her any longer. She was finally free to be a normal young woman again. She just needed to remember how. It would start with this moment.
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The massive being, almost as old as time itself, looked down at the three challengers and considered them through a god’s eyes. They were young. Their cultures would consider them barely out of adolescence. But they had fought a hard road to get to this place, and that journey had left scars upon them, at the end. The fact that they were hopelessly outmatched didn’t matter to them. They still raised their swords to the End Of All Things and shouted ‘no.’ For the first time in so long, it could not remember the sensation, the ancient darkness felt afraid.
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He had the power to read minds. If he could see a person, their thoughts would fill his head, as overwhelming as though they were shouting in his ear. He wasn’t even able to watch television. Recorded images still broadcast the actors’ minds, and plots became lost in their anxieties and emotions. Just a photograph would cause him to experience a single sharp stab of memory. He realized the problem was with his eyes. If he didn’t see the person, the thoughts couldn’t come through. The blindfold helped for a while. Then he had to resort to more drastic measures.
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The ghost ship appeared suddenly out of the fog, floating above the water on rotten boards and torn sails, threatening to overwhelm the little merchant ship. The pilot rang the alarm bell as the crew panicked. “Quit your blubbering and get to your posts,” The captain growled. “Priests to the forecastle!” A trio of holy men rushed on deck, each wearing the vestments of a different order. They chanted at the approaching craft, and it paused before fading back into the shadows. The captain nodded, satisfied. The Haunted Sea was full of dangers, but it always paid to be prepared.
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Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Spence, Hugh, Jason and Jurd consider Mobile Fighter G Gundam episode 13: Big Trouble! Domon vs. the Big 5. Watch on Crunchyroll or YouTube! There are a few audio artifacts in the beginning of the episode. Unfortunately, they occurred during recording and I was unable to remove them. –Hugh
This week: Domon wanders into a trap, Rain actually knows how to use the Gundam, and Chibodee is Captain Falcon. Plus, who is this mysterious new antagonist, and where did Master Asia go?
The bandit crouched along the desert road and waited, his cat by his side. “The key to this gig is patience,” he told the beast. “When travelers come by, we’ll relieve them of their valuables. Honestly, we’re doing them a favor. All that gold will only slow down their crossing.” The cat just stared at him. The sun climbed slowly into the sky, and no travelers came. The bandit balanced a dagger on the tip of his finger, bored and thirsty. The cat hopped up onto his back. “Maybe you should try someplace a bit more populated,” it suggested.
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Hugh J. O'Donnell 