//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Daring Do and the Gryphon's Goblet // by Sir Squidfish //------------------------------// Readers- Ok (pant, pant). Here it is: Part II. It’s almost a miracle I ever completed this. Sorry it took so long. Next time someone slap me before I attempt to keep up with two sagas at once while still somehow keeping up with my hectic life and hectic school assignments. Thanks. -X.F. ~~~ Daring Do paused for a moment in her trek across the sandy wasteland. She looked up to the sky, hoping to see a bird, some sign of life. Blue sky, brighter-than-necessary sun, no clouds… the kind of day that would have been perfect back in Indianapples. But here in the desert the sun was painful to her exhausted eyes, she would have gladly welcomed even one cloud. Clouds could mean rain, and rain meant a drink. Seeing nothing in the firmament worth her attention, she turned her bloodshot gaze to the landscape, wishing even for a cactus to provide her with some moisture. All she saw in any direction was sand, sand, and more sand, occasionally broken up by a small outcrop of rocks and bones. Bones mainly of birds and small animals, but not always. Some she recognized as the complete skeletons of ponies. Ponies who hadn’t made it. She realized that unless something drastic happened, she would soon be joining their ranks. But she wasn’t dead yet. And she wasn’t about to just lie down and give up, either. She would keep going until she had no strength left in her imagination to have strength left, and maybe even a little after that, too. As long as I can put one hoof in front of the other, I’m getting somewhere, she decided. It’ll be a walk in the park, she mentally continued, with some amount of grim humor. A walk in the park… it was a strange choice of words, all things considered, seeing as it was literally a walk in the park that had kicked off this whole mess of an extended field trip. And this is why walking can be detrimental to your health… *** Daring picked up her pace as she trotted along the sidewalk leading up to her street. She was glad she’d decided to go on a walk… it had been a breath of fresh air in more ways than one. The clear sky, the trees, the birds… and no hyperactive foals to ruin it for her. She was still loathe to come back and pick up her work again, but less so than before. She felt more awake and full of energy than she had before. Rejuvenated. That was the word. Recharged. She took a deep breath of late spring air, savoring it for a moment before exhaling. Ahhhhhh. Serenity. She walked through her door and fell flat on her nose. Getting up quickly, she rummaged around the hallway to see what had caused her to trip. She found an object that looked like a small, flattish cardboard box, knocked aside into one corner when she stumbled over it. Picking it up gingerly in her teeth, she deposited it on her small table and lit a nearby lamp for better visibility. She eyeballed the surface of the box thoroughly, but was unable to find any markings which might identify its sender. Strange… She flipped the box right side up and carefully undid the string. She still wasn’t sure why she was being so cautious; it was probably just a gift from a secret admirer. Except, to the best of her knowledge, she didn’t have a secret admirer. Although, if she did, it was more than likely that he would be…secret… This was getting dumb fast. She ripped the box open, thrust her teeth in to see what she had got, and encountered a mass of wires. Wires… In less time than it takes to write this, she had seen through the wires, noticed a kind of hard putty, and seen the numbers rolling down from 10 on the analog display. Uh oh. Rapidly bucking open the window and hurling the package into the petunias in one smooth movement, she hit the floor under the table just as a piercing FLASH-BOOM! echoed outside, its supplier razing the flowerbed in a second. Bits of earth and petunia floated through the window a moment later. Still lying low, the pegasus edged away from the window, eyes flicking around the room. Nopony outside seemed to have noticed, then again, kids were always setting off firecrackers around here. The noise was nothing unusual, although she did wonder if anypony had seen the devastation wreaked on her garden. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger, so she picked up a paperweight and bunged it at the cardboard box which had held the bomb. She held her breath for a second. Nothing. She waited a moment more, and then retrieved the box, taking it to the corner of the room with the lamp, still away from the window. She looked inside the box cautiously, ready to chuck it away at the first sign of anything suspicious. There didn’t seem to be anything inside, except a bit of dirt. She tipped it out onto the desk anyway, setting up her magnifying glass in its stand so she could see more clearly what it was she had. It wasn’t dirt. What she had found was a few pieces of hair, probably from the mane or tail of whoever had packed her “special delivery”. And… deeper in the box. Was that… a tooth cap? Examining it thoroughly, she found that it was indeed the decorative gold mouth ornament used by some upper class ponies. Usually not around here though… A faint smile played about her lips. She had wanted an adventure, and here it was. “And I,” she resolved, “am going to see this one through myself.” Of course, she could have simply reported the matter to the authorities, stationed a few obliging officers, and had done with it. But for some obscure reason, she just didn’t want to. Perhaps it was the monotony of her daily life. Perhaps it was simply her investigative nature. But she was going to do this thing on her own. “The first thing to do” she said, reasoning it out in her rapid but logical manner, “is to take this down to the lab. Of course, it will probably be closed, and I don’t have a key since it’s not at my school….” This is why you should have stayed at college and gotten your doc… a voice in her head whispered. But I don’t need a doctorate to crack this, so shut up please… she told it. Aha! Chemist Guy had a key; he was the chemistry prof at the university. Not to mention that he was a jolly, obliging type, particularly when it came to charming young mares. The university lab, then. And after that… Wing it, she decided, mentally quoting the old pegasus phrase. *** Daring Do kept on walking even though her muscles screamed in protest, her tongue felt like a dehydrated block of sandpaper, and her stomach was beginning to think her head had fallen off. Had to be little miss Dindin, didn’t you? she thought, remembering her younger days and her fascination with comic books, particularly the adventures of Dindin the Belgian explorer and his nautical friend Captain Hatrack. Had to analyze everything. Everything except how stupid the whole thing seemed in retrospect. She mentally bet that this was NOT how Dindin would have ended up. Good old Dindin. He always came out on top. Then again, continuing stories usually like to keep the hero alive until the next installment…. The brown pegasus attempted a sigh and winced. If only her life was as simple as that. But the real world goes on- it doesn’t care about my puny little existence. So the task of making sure my life HAS another installment… falls to me. She straightened up as she kept on trudging toward the unknown. A great calm seemed to have descended upon her as she accepted the fact that her life would very soon be completed. She would eventually collapse, and that would be the last thing she remembered. But until then… She gave a cracked smile. She was Stayin’ Alive. /// Note to self- For the last time, install smaller mail slot, darn it! -D.D.