|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- YELLOWHAUS--CUP 5--"INTELLIGENT SWORDS AND SPEARS AND STUFF" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Yellowhaus  ||  -------> (Cup SRyh005, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Soon... "A YEAR?" Lemon screeched. "Please." Chamomile said, cringing and holding her finger to her ear. "There's no need to shout. You'll burst all our eardrums." "Okay! I'll be quiet! But a year! We have to hang out in here for an ENTIRE FUCKING YEAR?" Lemon said, not much quieter than before. "Okay." Chamomile said, turning to an information screen. "As you know, Kimberly only gave me an overview of Yellowhaus's systems, but from what I'm seeing here, our flight time, or whatever you want to call it, will be something like 410 days." "Great." Sulfur said. "You gave us the impression we'd be instantly transported to another world, and now this? Talk about a letdown!" "Sulfur!" Chamomile said. "Would you rather be dead like everyone else? Wake up! I don't think you've absorbed this yet--THE WORLD IS DESTROYED. EVERYONE IS DEAD." "Yeah but still, five minutes into our journey and we found out this. What's next? I mean, do we even have enough food? Oxygen? Supplies?" Sulfur said. "You underestimate Yellowhaus." Chamomile said. "That kind of stuff is no problem. All you guys getting along for a year--now THAT'S a problem." "Hey! We can spend some quality time together!" Canary said. "Shut up." Lemon said. Suddenly, Colonia the Sword moaned. "What's wrong, Colonia?" Chamomile asked. "Oh dear--this is not good." Colonia said, looking very pale. "This is not very good at all." "What is it?" Buff asked. "I was afraid of this." Colonia said, a look of panic beginning to spread across his face. "The god who granted me my humanity, Crinim--he's gone. It was his power that allowed me to assume human form. I never worried about it, huh, you know--Crinim was immortal. He was never supposed to die. Now this--" There was a loud cracking noise and Colonia jolted backwards, his hands moving to a position straight against his body, and a blank look appearing on his face. Chamomile jumped forward and grabbed Colonia before he fell backwards. But it was no good--she could feel Colonia shrinking and hardening with every passing moment. "Someone help me!" she yelled. Buff approached Chamomile. "What can I do?" he asked. Chamomile felt a sharp pain in her hands and reflexively let go of Colonia, now halfway back to being a sword. He fell to the ground will a thud. "We can't do anything." Chamomile said. "He just another casualty of O'Riley's madness." "Well--he'll still be conscious, won't he?" Sulfur asked. "I mean--he was conscious as a sword, no?" "Who knows!" Canary yelped. "I like it how he's transforming! It's cool!" "Shut up, you heartless idiot!" Buff yelled at Canary. "If it was you, you wouldn't think it was cool!" "I agree with Canary." Lemon said, putting her arm around Canary's shoulder. "It's cool." "Don't listen to them." Buff said. "They're just trying to annoy us." "They're succeeding!" Sulfur quipped. At this point, Colonia was in the final stages of returning to sword-form. "Let's just hope he retains his mind." Buff said gently. The five members of Yellowhaus watched helplessly as the transformation became complete, and Colonia was a sword once again. "At least he's a nice-looking sword." Lemon commented. "You're such a monster!" Chamomile yelled at Lemon. "Why did I ever let you join this team in the first place?" "Cause I'm so cute!" Lemon said. "Yeah. That was it." Chamomile said sarcastically. They waited silently for a moment, all staring at the sword. "Should we--I don't know--pick him up?" Buff asked. No one answered. "Can he talk, do you think? As a sword?" Chamomile said. "As far as I know, from the legends," Sulfur said, "those intelligent swords and spears and stuff could only communicate if someone was holding them. You know--telepathically or something. I don't know." "Well, I guess I'll touch him and see if he can talk to me. Sound good?" Chamomile asked. "I guess it's all we can do." Buff said, sadly. Slowly, Chamomile knelt down and touched her right hand to Colonia's hilt. She had a look of intense concentration for a moment, then spoke. "He's definitely here. His thoughts are jumbled--I guess from the shock of the transformation--but he seems okay. Wait--I'm getting something--'sorry, need time to recover, give me time'." No one spoke. Chamomile closed her eyes and concentrated. "Okay." she said. "I told him we'd let him rest and recover. Let me ask him if it's okay to move him... Yes... He says it's okay. Alright. I'll put him on the counter here." With this, she gingerly took Colonia by the hilt and lifted him to the countertop, keeping him parallel to the ground at all times. When she set him down, she breathed a sigh of relief. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----