Saturday, June 16, 2012

Caesar the Troll Part 14

Just as a warning to you all, I will be away from my computer for pretty much all of next week... so there might be no posts at all for that time. I am working on how to remedy that, but it may not be possible.

Then Caesar turned to stage left, and charged off-stage, leaving his crowd of fans still cheering.
The trail was almost twenty minutes old, and every moment counted.
Following a trail over bare rock and rubble can be difficult, especially for one such as Caesar, but the task did not daunt him. He knew where they would have gone. He had followed them there once before.
Over heap and under sagging building Caesar ran, clearing ground at twice the speed of the men, despite his encumbrances which he carried. He made some, but only little, effort to avoid making much noise during the first part of his headlong run, but when their fortress came into sight, he took pause and care to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to himself.
To Caesar, their fortress was like two theaters put together, wrapping completely around, and build all over the outside with tall spiraling arches. Built all of stone and able to seat many times more than Caesar's throne, it lofted into the sky as the second tallest building nearby. Under it lay many tunnels and catacombs, where prisoners and beasts had been kept before.
The only thing within sight that was taller than the ancient arena was the remnant of a modern building from before the war. One side of a skyscraper had survived, leaving a strangely shaped tower of I-beams and rubble. The building had been built in defiance of gravity, and, before the bombings, had had one wing of offices jutting out over the arena, hanging only onto the side of the tower. The only remnant of that wing was one long jutting bar of steel that launched itself halfway over their fortress. From it hung a banner of the renegades, bright red with flairs of yellow and a stripe of black.
Caesar climbed the ruins of the shell of a tower, up until he reached the bar. It was only a foot wide, about as wide as Caesar's foot. At first he the bar cautiously, but balance was difficult. The king lurched back to the one vertical bar to which he could cling.
Then Caesar charged out on the bar, feeling it wobble under him with every step. He reached the end and leapt off, snapping off the ridiculous banner of the renegades as he did so.

3 comments:

  1. The imagery of that broken skyscraper is stunning. Love the post-apocalyptic scenery!

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  2. I love it, as always, but I have one question.
    "At first he the bar cautiously, but balance was difficult."
    Er, what? XD

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