Destination: Thataway!

by Hawattie

Apply liberal force to brain. Therapy!

My shoulder itched madly.

Dunno why that was my first thought upon waking up, but it was. You'd think I'd notice the more pressing concerns first. Like the cold iron chains wrapped around my fetlocks preventing me from scratching that damn itch! I struggled futilely against my restraints trying to either stretch my leg far enough to scratch my shoulder or rub said shoulder against the stone wall I was splayed up against.

My attempts only served to rattle the chains. At the noise three nearby shapes which I'd mistaken for rocks turned away from their card game. "He's waking up," one of them said and unlike the last time I'd woken up from being unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time I recognized who it was.

Fphantom, the Courier, and one of the Justice Ponies -I think his name had something to do with water?- had me chained to a cold stone wall in some sort of dungeon. I idly noticed a couple of the cards Fphant had been using transform into different cards and made a mental note to never gamble against the cheaty mirage.

"Do you think he's still being controlled by Ner'Ghalad?" the aquatic Justice Pony asked. What was his superpower again? Something to do with fishes? Or was it daisies? I never did really figure out any of their powers other than Superguy's and the really fast pony. "It doesn't look like there's anything behind his eyes."

Fphant stepped closer and gripped my muzzle, forcing my gaze to lock with his. For several moments he stared deeply into my eyes, searching for something that he desperately hoped not to see.

Then I licked his face.

"Gah!" he stumbled back letting go of my head to rub my spittle from his face. "What the hell man?!"

The Courier chuckled and lowered the gun I hadn't realized he'd been pointing at me. "Yeah, that's him alright."

"Of course it's me," I said. "Who else would have my devilishly good looks and razor-sharp senses of both tact and humor?"

The three of them stared at me like I'd gone crazier. Then they all shared a look. It was a sort of "does he really not know?" look. The kind of look you get when you have to break some really bad news to someone.

Eventually the Courier decided to break the silence. "For the past three days Ner'Ghalad has been controlling your body like a puppet."

I probably did something really bad then, to make them this nervous. "I see," I said slowly. "And you noticed I was being controlled through some change in my eyes, which is why the first thing you did when I woke up was to check if my eyes were normal or not."

The Courier's eyebrows went up in surprise. I couldn't see them, but I assume Fphant and fishy-pony had similar shocked reactions. "Oh don't give me that look." I tried to gesture dismissively but only ended up rattling my chain. "I can be smart when I want to. By the way, how did you 'cut the puppet-master's strings'?" I would have made air quotes but my gesture was again impeded.

"Bullet therapy," the Courier supplied, motioning to the massive gun on his back.

I was mildly shocked I wasn't just a splatter on the wall if he used that on me. I remembered what that gun did to that great big bony beastie back when we first met. As if he'd read my mind the Courier said, "You're harder to kill than a Sierra Madre ghost and an alpha deathclaw combined." I didn't have the slightest clue what either of those things were, but the Courier seemed both impressed and annoyed by my tenacity.

"Well, I'm glad it worked," I said. I knew that sudden jolts to the head could sometimes trigger positive mental changes. Apparently bullets counted as sudden jolts and will provide said mental changes, assuming you survive the encounter in the first place. "So what did Ner have me doing? Nothing too dastardly I hope."

A palpable tension descended on the room like a blanket. The three of them exchanged nervous glances. None of them would meet my gaze.

After a good thirty seconds of this I rattled my chains, startling all three of them. "I'm going to find out sooner or later. I'd rather it be sooner and from someone I trust." I leveled my best serious look at Fphant.

"Do you," Fphant sounded very nervous, almost scared. Why would he be scared? He had me chained to a wall, and even if he didn't I doubt I'd react too poorly to anything he said. Don't kill the messenger and all. He cleared his throat and said in a much more confident voice, "Do you remember the last three days at all?"

"Not really," I admitted. "Little bits of nonsense here and there, like a fence and a classroom. And then there was that chess game..." I paused, the memory was blurry; almost as if I didn't want to remember, though I couldn't remember why that would be.

"The chess pieces... I think I was one of them?" I looked to Fphant's face but he looked just as lost as I felt. "And you were one too, Courier." The human looked a little taken aback, but as I went on his expression grew more and more grim. "We were on opposing sides, you were white, I was black. You... you shot me!" He didn't flinch. He had already admitted to shooting me.

"But before you shot me I took two white chess pieces." I struggled to remember which pieces I took. "They almost reminded me of..." I trailed off. I remembered. And I hated myself for what Ner'Ghalad made me do.

"Where are the Sorceress and Unique?" I asked quietly.

The Courier's face was expressionless. "Ner'Ghalad has them like he had you."

Ner'Ghalad. This was his fault. He would be the one to pay for this, not me, not my friends. Him.

When I found him, oh and I would find him, one of us would not walk away from the encounter alive. And seeing how hard I was to kill... I don't think the odds were in his favor. "Where are they now?" I asked, a cold edge in my voice.

Fphant motioned me over to a map hung on the wall while the Courier undid my shackles. I finally scratched the itch in my shoulder, imagining the itch was Ner and my scratching was Justice. Fphant pointed to the map, where an evil fortress was circled in red ink. "They're thataway."

Author's Note:

Got pretty dark at the end there. Now we get to watch the narrator go on a vengeance-fueled killing spree! Such fun!

On an unrelated note Thataway will be a year old in two days I probably won't do anything for it, which is why I wanted to get this chapter out now ahead of time, but I might release another chapter on the 29th. It seems like such a long time ago that I started this. It's hard to believe that it's only been a year. Inversely it's also hard to believe that it's been a whole year. Time is funny like that. If you'll excuse me I need to find a time machine and tell myself to plan things out more.

Stay awesome. Try not to die.

Comments

[CloudedMoon]

That was awesome, the story been great and when I said aww I made it to forty and ran out, then you updated and had more for me to read, thankes, you rock

[Hawattie]

4302344
I honestly decided to update now because I saw you were reading this and commenting on it. I was like, "I should probably write something, seeing as how this'll be a year old in two days."
Also how does online DnD work? Is there an online version of the rulebook and stuff?

[CloudedMoon]

4302373
There are online rule book, you also can just download the pdf , I could give you a copy and there this sit called roll20.net which is made for dnd and other table top rpgs or as some people prefer you could just do a skype dnd thing, also why did Fphant have money?

[Hawattie]

4302445
I might have to take your offer of online DnD. If you could send me a link to a download of whatever version you use's rulebook/whatever I would need to get started that would be awesome.
Also I never said Fphant had money, just that using illusory money is a bad idea if you like staying in a town's good graces. You notice that Fphant lived alone in the middle of nowhere.

[Zytharros]

Yay! Now to have him filled with evil laughter as he strikes back.
And that's all we get - a chapter of ha ha ha ha ha ha ha et cetera ad infinitium, leaving us completely lost until the next chapter where the narrator realizes all he told us was laughter.

Anywhere, good chapter.