|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- FOOLWARD OAK--CUP 6--"COASTER" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Foolward Oak  ||  -------> (Cup SRfo006, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Bellicose Billion stepped back as Norlime Eckert looked up at the tree, which was several hundred feet tall. He put his hands on his hips as he gazed. "S'matter Norlime, 'fraid a heights?" Dandy Banish asked. "Ehhh... no. Just a funny idea, that's all. Guess I can... thrust my fingers into the wood for... handholds... y'know..." Eckert said. "Yes no problem, now get going won't you? We haven't all day and I'm bored as it is." Billion said in a mock irritated manner. "Cool your jets, ya harpshihairhead. I'm just getting psyched to do it, y'know." Eckert replied. "The squirrels are looking forward to you Norlemonmerangue. Ready to stuff nuts into your ears." Billion said. "Funny Vericose Killion, very funny." Eckert said. Suddenly Toggle Joseph burst into song. "Brandy and rum! Brandy and rum! Sixty-million jugs on a rug a tug tug! Steen! Steen! Tome a rumlit lettras skiing the breeeeeeeze! Cajue!" Then suddenly, Norlime yelled "Super!" and jumped onto the tree. A great leap at least twenty feet, fingers digging into the bark, feet thrusting into wood, shoes and all. He clambered up as fast as could be, and was soon lost in the lofty treetops. "He did that well." Ow Muchy Moyar commented. "How wery vell indeet." Billion added. Up at the top of the towering tree, Norlime Eckert hung, clinging with superstrong fingers dug into bark and wood. He surveyed a breathtaking landscape of green hills, distant mountains, meandering rivers, and the like--all beautifully lit in the late afternoon sun. In the distance he could just barely make out the shoreline and a tiny dot which must have been the Urbandersnacheron IV, the pirate ship on which he and his friends were crew members. They were taking a well-deserved shore leave from their duties, on this utopian world of Furnace Woven Earth. Turning his attention to the forest below, Norlime Eckert immediately reasoned that there was no way to see even the ground, let alone a house of little monsters, being that the canopy of trees was so thick. He cursed mildly and was about to jump back down, but then he spied a bare upwisp of smoke in the distance, a mile or two to the southeast. After mentally marking the spot, Eckert summoned an extra burst of superstrength and push himself forcefully away from the tree, falling backwards. He figured that with the power of his launch, he would land hundreds of feet from the others. "Look out below!" he yelled, his voice loudened to a thundering by the superstrength. As he flew backwards and down, brushing against a tree here and there, he was reminded of the favorite roller coaster of his youth at Chaosatteer Pier. It's funny, he briefly thought, to think of one's childhood whilst plummeting in an alternate world. Soon he landed with a loud thud, stirring up leaves and knocking down a small tree which was in his path, as well as leaving a small crater in the moist earth. An unquestionably fatal fall in his normal state, it hardly knocked the air out of him while under the effects of the Overwhelm-supplied superstrength. Norlime Eckert then stood up, brushed himself off, and began walking back to the others, a broad smile on his face. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----