The Chronicles of Soft and Dawn

by StormDancer

Lumbermill beach golden pear hammocks

11-04-2018
Prompt: Link

Soft Touch stared a the sign. Well, at least she ~thought~ it was a sign, to be honest, she wasn't quite sure. There was a big doubled-paned sheet of glass, framed, outside of the shop, with a painting sandwiched inside, protecting it from the elements. The frame was a well maintained wood, though weathering was clearly evident, while the glass was a pristine, bubble free, sea-foam green. It must have cost a fortune to have it made, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what the heck it was supposed to be advertising.

"Hey, Dawn, get over here and tell me what you make of this thing."

The two had been traveling across the realm, seeking adventure and a bit of coin for some time now, and they'd gotten into some pretty strange situations over that time. Soft was familiar enough with most things that she tried to roll with the punches, but there were times when she knew she was simply out of her depth.

Dawn, meanwhile, was much more adventurous in his dealings, often taking risks and gambles that had little chance of paying off. The end result was that she often had to pull his sorry little butt out of the fire. However, the offshoot was that he had experienced more things than should really be healthy.

Also, since Soft hated magic, and Dawn was a freaking unicorn, he knew stuff she couldn't be bothered with to save her life.

"Um.... it's a sign? I mean, what's not to get, Soft?"

Rolling her eyes, Soft turned her head to address him. "Well, yheah, it's a sign, but what do you think it means?"

"Um.... have a great day? We hope you like the sun? I mean, it's just a sign, Soft... it's probably not all that important."

"The hell it's not. It's the first thing we see when we stumble across this little desert oasis, sitting out in the sun, in great condition, outside a little market with all kinds of stuff that the locals are probably just begging to sell for a few bits, and it doesn't even have any words!"

Dawn rolled his eyes. "Oh come off it, Soft, it's probably just someone's icon or maybe an artisan mark, you know... like their brand or something."

"But it can't be that... I mean, sure, if you're an established company with recognition and all that, but for a little desert nowhere place like this? You need your stuff to be instantly recognizable. You can't just put a horseshoe up and expect people to know you're selling dental equipment... it needs to make sense."

"Soft, it's probably nothing more than art, meant to draw people in."

"Bull! It's something important. I mean, it had to have cost a fortune to make. Look at that glass! It's almost 5 feet across!"

"Well... you've got a point, but still, like you said, it can't really NOT make sense. So, I'm going to just ignore it and go on in."

Soft spun around and grabbed her companion before he could walk off. "Oh no. Oh hells no. You aren't going to leave me out in their blasted heat without at least figuring this thing out first. I'm not having another 'sinkhole adventure' because ~someone~ forgot to tell me they were going for a piss and didn't tie off the rope."

"Oh come ON! Are you still pissed about that? I told you I was sorry and it's not like I knew there were tentacl—"

Soft jabbed her hoof into his side fast enough to make him double over. "I told you never to speak of that again."

Weazing and struggling back to his feet, Dawn grimaced, "S-sorry, Soft, it's just that you know... I don't think there are any sinkholes around here. It's a desert oasis, with a market. They wouldn't put a market over a bunch of sinkholes with caves and naughty creatures below."

Dawn trailed off as he caught his companion's glare.

"Never. Speak. Of. It. Again. Dawn."

With a practiced roll of his eyes, Dawn nodded and replied. "Yheah, yheah... I gotcha. But still, I'm not going to sit out here in the blazing sun just because you're stuck on a sign. Not when there's a market with SHADE and WATER right over there. So, you can keep trying to discover the secrets of the weird Lumbermill beach golden pear hammock sign or whatever, but I'm going to go have a look through here."

And with that, the unicorn turned, yanked his tail from her grip, and trotted off into the market, leaving her to puzzle over the sign.

It was a strange sign though! Why couldn't he see that? A big, bright golden disk with little squiggly bits hanging off the sides, with a clear and bright image of a beach plastered across the middle. And right there, just slightly below the beach, was what looked like a giant, golden pear just above a stylized hammock painted in gloriously bright white.

It didn't make sense. What the heck did golden circular saws, beaches, pears, and hammocks have to do with one another?

NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

So it couldn't be that simple. It couldn't be hammocks and pears and beaches and saw blades. It was a market, in the desert. It could almost work... Maybe they sold hammocks and traded in preserved fruit. Maybe they could pass the place off as a resort or something; it was next to an oasis after all. But saw blades? Specifically circular saw blades? There were no forests for hundreds of miles. What use would there be for the giant circular saw blades they used in lumbermills? And why was it golden?

And then it hit Soft like a blow to the gut.

It wasn't a saw blade.... and those little squiggly things weren't saw teeth.

They were tentacles for some ancient monster. Some giant, golden, dark god who lurked in the oasis! And this market was just the bait to lure in unknowing fools! The locals were probably mindless slaves to its will, biding their time until foolish travelers wandered through, only to sucker them in and use them in dark rituals!

And Dawn had just wandered off into that mess!

Soft, shifted on her feet, ready to race after him when she paused.

Had he really had to piss that time with the sinkholes? Maybe it was supposed to be a prank? Maybe it would have been funny if he'd pulled her up immediately. Maybe he was a perv and got off on hearing her squeal?

So, for a few moments, Soft deliberated with herself.

It would be getting a taste of his own medicine.

It would be turnabout being fair play.

It would be funny as hell to watch him racing back with his tail tucked between his legs as she crowed out "I told you so!"

But....

With a defeated sigh, Soft raced off to save her idiot companion. He was just lucky he was kind of cute when being rescued.

And so, she completely missed it when the proprietor of the shop she had been standing in front of for the last eight minutes sauntered out, swept the stoop of the little sunglasses shop, and smiled at his sign. "I am so glad I got this little sun painting. It really is pulling in the customers. Best sign ever."