A large log mansion sat on a cliff overlooking a sizable den of pirates. The sea lovers harboring in the cove below had an interesting business relationship going with the harbormaster. The lawless had grouped together to fend off threats to the sick society they had formed underground.
Once upon a time he had started humble known by a few as Prospector Hood. While his outlaw brother was out making himself a thing of legend. That eventually led to being executed by the crown. Things were about to change for good. Killin Hood's mind had a lot of grand plans crystalizing. He polished off his dinner into the running sink, scrubbed the plate with soap, and dumped guts out of the strainer. He strolled to wipe his hands dry before opening his icebox to retrieve a portable cooler. He whistled on the elevator heading to one of the many basements eventually leading to his mining operation 100 miles below. There large caves, and larger tunnels burrowed deep into the mountainside underneath the log mansion.
At the heart of his success pulsed a massive ore of 12 large crystal arteries all fused together. In addition, occasional visits by Elven contractors contributed their prisoners of war and mining technologies and heavy machinery in exchange for %50 of the crystal. There was a workforce of many diverse factions captured in roadside raids, piracy kidnapping, and looting rural homes.The unfortunate captured sailors and forest folks found themselves slowly becoming what they mined forever trapped away from the suns.
The elevator slammed to a stop. The crystal heart far below cast rays of sharp light through holes in the floor to light the cavern. This was his man cave where there was a massive row of archery, and hunting trophies. There were even a million first place medals attached to the feet of little critters stuffed on display and furs stacked floor to ceiling. On the opposite wall, and over the midnight tablecloth a flickering crystal ball sat casting shadows. It connected to every game camera on his massive property. One massive grizzly stood out stuffed. Killin Hood sidestepped the outstretched claws dangling from the motionless beast.
"You're mamma done good work hunting tonight son Ah ha,” he cackled to his trophy.
The other grizzly was the zombie mamma bear trapped after killing the Queen on its hunt. It had been installed with a convenient zipper along its stomach. This came in handy every time the bear swallowed treasures. In this case the contents had been packed into the cooler with ice crystals.
He sunk into the last buffalo he had turned into a recliner. It was well broken at this point. Life was grand.
"What's up Witch?" he said.
The Witch was so old she was only known as Witch by most. She had been the one to visit King Mardin as an adviser. She had also been a life coach, fortune teller, and administrator of bogus tests to Edward and his siblings.
"Hurry with the brains before they melt," she croaked out.
"I see Isabela, that means my future wife, has been delivered here alright," said Killin Hood, giddy slamming the reclining mechanism into the metal skeleton.
"Yes hehehe, the delivery men did good work so I didn't break my back," she cackled.
They exit the room to the witches quarters down the hall. There they stood silently dissecting the Queen's lifeless body with their eyes. The witch slapped on two medical gloves while Killin Hood stroked the victims hair. .
"We must get on with the procedure now before the core steals too much of her essence forever," he said, before Kissing the cold forehead.
“Yes I have the last piece stored here after we collected that bounty on the corpse from a fool of a wizard and borrowed all his belongings hehe,” said Isebela, as he turned a key in a nearby lock box.
The door popped open, and inside was a mask with a massive circuit slapped onto the outside. She took out a bag of twelve small different crystal chunks, and loaded them into the device so they would stab into a skull. It sparked shocks before he switched it off, retracting the crystal control.
“Ooops I shouldn’t have left that turned on.. Ah ha that could have ended badly for me,” she buzzed.
“Yes yes anyway hurry and put the facemask mask on my Queen,” he ordered.
Isebela drew open the strings of Queen's new hood.
"With the dead Queen raised the crystal cult will grow even faster in our expansion," she cackled.
"Yes until our marriage papers are finalized in their capital," He finished.
Meanwhile Jed and Mule had been descending the mountain's peak for over an hour.
“Going by the map we only got a week or so of travel before returning to civilization, and earning ourselves a hefty reward for this cargo of jungle juice,” said Mule.
“Yes but we can't underestimate any more threats from here to there on our quest,but I really hope there won’t be any more bullshit to deal with,” said Jed.
He removed his air mask and tested out the air. Having sniffed, and affirmed it was good he placed his dark shades back on. Mule eyed him over through the rear-view, Jed was looking rough. His hair was thinning, and his face slender, and malnourished. He clamped his trucker hat back on, and gave Mule a yellow, and black toothed grin.
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“Buddy this plan is all we got, all or nothing really huh,” said Jed.
“What do you mean?” asked Mule.
“I mean that if this doesn’t work out, or if we don’t get paid what was promised that our lives are not going to be very pleasant going forward,” he sighed.
“We will figure something out Jed, some other work or something. The only option we have to win is to keep fighting forward in life,” said Mule.
“Yeah the problem is buddy I’ve certainly got a warrant for what I did trying to help Fred,”
Jed adjusted his seat. His body was beginning to fall asleep.
“My wounds have healed enough for me to drive when we see a place to pull over, you know it Jed” said Mule.
The seat clicked into a new position. It had ended in a spot very close to the dashboard.
“Yeah I'm sure there will be a spot just around the next bend,” said Jed.
They had slowed to a crawl, but could not stop moving due to ice underneath.
“I can’t stop us Mule,!” yelled Jed.
“That’s alright Jed just guide her down the mountain it will all be alright,” said Mule calmly.
This was ice road trucking where it had begun to slide sideways. Jed quickly corrected the course. Then the cab began to shake on account of rough terrain. A steep bend was ahead with a long drive off to the dealership of death.
"You're on the break too much, let off or we will spin over the cliff," warned Mule.
"I'm not sure whether I'd wish you were driving this machine right now expert or not. you're a better driver but there's something less scary about having your demise semi within your control," said Jed.
"And do you imagine I feel any different about the situation?" said Mule.
The pair held on tight for dear life. Jed concentrated, and Mule used his hoof to steady the wheel. They slowly went around the corner. The cab briefly hung out over the edge.
“We cleared it,” said Jed, leaning, adjusting his seat closer to the wheel to feel more in control.
He gave a thumbs up with one arm while now gently adjusting the wheel with the other. Mule looked behind them in horror at the trailer in grave danger of being sucked over the side. He made the on the fly decision to lightly smack Jed’s hands to correct the course.
“Ow,” said Jed.
“Focus on the road,” scolded Mule.
The truck evened out on a steady course. The ground was rock, with patches of snow, and snowberry bushes splashed around. A small tree here or there, or a still statue of stone standing there. The suns had set in the sky. It was dark but the road had gotten significantly smoother.
The next morning the truck sat parked overlooking a vast forest of mushrooms. The foliage swayed around spreading spores that smacked against the windshield collecting like dust.
“Those are big shrooms,” observed Jed in the passenger seat.
“You can say that bud,” said Mule, wearing his own “Super Duper Legendary” branded trucker hat, and crystal suns glasses.
They were well cleared of driving down the last rocky of the mountain's rocky roads. Jed was playing with his banjo, plucking them along.
“We got a long time to go till our destination, but that ain’t true, time goes pretty quick as long as you stay alive along the distance,” sang Jed out of tune.
“That’s great man, how about we hit the road again?” said Mule.
“Tomorrow’s the time for this.ok, let's check the map one more time before we let off,” said Jed.
The big rig barreled down the forest dirt road throwing the pair in the air. They both wore seat belts. The truck smacked back down. Mule focused intensely on correcting the wheel. Jed felt his gut get squeezed smacking back into the seat with a thud.
Behind them in the snowy hills Killin Hood’s men kept their distance in luxury crystallac cars. The henchmen wore matching balaclavas, and snow suits suited for winter woodland. The cars were also painted in camouflage winter colors. The men inside smoked cigars, and sniffed away their payment for previous missions. The driver shifted into second and pulled out behind them a rock formation with a second car following.
“Jed we got company.. Can you grab my double barrel shotgun from the glove compartment,” said Mule.
“Sounds like a plan,” said Jed.
Jed grabbed the shotgun, and put on his armored helmet that doubled as eye protector. The first crystallac car was overtaking them. One of the men aimed his gun, while another one jumped. He latched onto the jungle juice container. A third car in woodland camouflage had joined the battle. Jed blasted the grill from a medium distance, but the car kept on running.
Mule concentrated, he whipped the trailer around the sharp bend of the mountain path. The big rig pushed the pursuing car over the edge of the cliff. It exploded into flames below. The second snowed car had pulled directly behind the truck. The goons inside the car jumped onto the ladder climbing the jungle juice container. The car fell behind them a distance, its crew having jumped aboard.
Jed opened the passenger door. He climbed up the ladder on the side of the cab. He saw the first henchmen who had jumped barely holding on by a thread. The truck banged, making his gun hard to handle. Jed started shooting at the attached thorn in the side who rolled away. The bullets then traversed spraying wildly. One cracked a windshield killing a passenger.
“Jed there’s a ledge coming up close that's threatening to sweep you off! It’s time to change course,” instructed Mule.
Jed reloaded one of two shot gun shells the gun held. He looked over to see a narrow fit up ahead, and in the rear view enemies on top of the truck. He climbed into a sneaky angle and used a metal bar to steady the weapon.
“Bang,Bang!”
He blasted the two men on the roof. They fell off. One smacked a car knocking out the driver who plowed into the ledge exploding into a fireball.
The truck steamed into the mushroom forest. The remaining speeding car with cracked windshield and leaking fluids still somehow managed to gain the distance. Jed sprayed more shots at them, missing many times. They began shooting from the backseat shooting holes in the container next to him. Jed dove into cover between the truck and trailer as bullet holes leaked juice on him. He was reloading when the last man to climb the ladder on back jumped above. The henchman in a military snow uniform used close quarters combat shakedown smacking fist. Jed fell backwards tumbling down the truck barrelling down a hill. He grabbed onto one of the arrows lodged into the cab's underside. The road threatened to give him a shave.
The big rig banged, throwing the pair in the air. The truck smacked back down. Mule focused intensely on correcting the wheel. Jed felt his neck get squeezed hard by the tightened snake-like belt.
“Bang!”
The man tumbled, crunching under many tires on the way out.
“Thanks bud,” sighed Jed, soaked in sweat.
The last pursuing car slowed down, falling away from them. Its gray woodland camouflage painting enabled it to fade away. The towering mushrooms overhead blocked away all the moonlight. All that was shown now was the big rig's headlights.