Interlude #2

An elderly gentleman, his fingers curled with age and a long salt-and-pepper beard framing his weathered face, sat upon a gnarled piece of wood, once the sturdy trunk of a large maple tree. The log, fallen decades ago, had become a familiar resting spot for woodland creatures and weary travelers, evidenced by the scattered mounds of scat and debris littered around its base. Though the bark had long since worn away and the center hollowed out, the log remained structurally sound.

A small stream gurgled nearby, its clear waters forming an oblong pool held back by a makeshift rock levy, creating swirling eddies. Golden-scaled fish darted within, their movements shimmering in the sunlight as they hunted for unsuspecting insects. The water's clarity was striking, revealing every rock and fish beneath its surface.

Suddenly, a round mouth broke the surface to snatch an insect, sending ripples across the pool. Despite the disturbance, the scene beneath remained visible. The fish had just gulped down the small flying insect, which was tethered to a curved bone hook hanging from the end of a string. The string was attached to a flexible wooden stick held by the old man, whose eyes were closed against the warmth of the setting sun. Lost in quiet contemplation, he gently tugged at the pole in his hands, the movement reflexive.

Upon the opposite side of the stream, a large antlered creature with dappled brown fur and small hooves noisily made its way through the underbrush as it moved closer to the stream and drank deeply from the water. Its presence scared the fish as its shadow extended over the pool, long antlers spanning the distance as it bent its head low to drink.

When it looked up from its drink, the creature noticed the old man sitting across the way. It cocked its head curiously, and a long furry ear twitched to listen. The creature's posture didn't change; it remained relaxed, for it knew it could easily fight or run if anything in this situation changed.

"It's about time," the old man said in a weathered voice only slightly louder than a whisper. He held a long weed gripped in his teeth, which bobbed with each syllable spoken. The man opened one eye very slightly to visually confirm the presence of the antlered creature across the stream from him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Time is irrelevant. The assistant has become merged," the creature said in a deep and proper voice. But due to its form, its large teeth clicked with each closure of its large maw, giving the voice a severely staccato rhythm.

"Yes, it has," the elderly gentleman chuckled. "I hadn't foreseen that outcome. It shouldn't change anything, though. The person was successful and will move on to the next item."

A dark scowl came over the antlered creature's face, and its yellow eyes narrowed. The dark brown fur covering its back stood on end, and its lower hooves pawed the ground impatiently. "This cannot fail. The complete merger must happen if either of us is to survive," it growled.

"Yes, yes, I know. Everything is still on track. Don't get your panties in a bunch," the elderly gentleman said with a smile. At this moment, another tug at his fishing pole caused him to grip the rod tightly and yank back, but this time rather than the reflexive pull from years of fishing along the banks of the stream, the old man yanked hard as if pulling something large from the small pond.

What emerged from the water, somehow hooked to the small bone hook, was what appeared to be a human man. In his hand, he held a yellowed parchment and a quill pen. He didn't look up or make any motion to acknowledge the grizzled older gentleman or the dark antlered creature as he dangled between them. He simply wrote upon his parchment of the two cosmic beings and their conversation, the beings in question being named Frank and Tenebrous.

The man was perfectly dry and stepped onto the shore of the stream as the end of the pole moved to drop him off. The long white hair growing from his head blew gently with the breeze, obscuring his vision momentarily. From the ground in front of the man rose a small lectern. Upon this, he laid the parchment and continued to write.

"No further changes or excuses are allowed!" the antlered creature roared and stomped its hooves, which caught flame as he reared up. As the creature brought his hooves back to the solid ground, the dirt flew into the air, swirling and raging, ultimately causing a tornado to wipe out a trailer park on a distant world none of them could see.

"Of course not," the old man said. "This outcome affects both of us, as you previously stated. My stake in this is just as large as yours."

The sun above them fell behind a cloud, and a shadow washed over the setting. The curiously orange hue streaming from the light passing through the cloud bathed the stream in golden hues.

The old man melted with the loss of direct sunlight and became a bright blue moon that shone brightly above a world of endless sea, its inhabitants chanting in worship and making sacrifices to appease the wyrm who dwelt within its shadow.

With a powerful leap, the antlered creature rose into the air. A billowing cape sprouted from its fur-covered back, and sleek black tights encompassed its now-sculpted muscular humanoid body. It flew off with a glowing streak of yellow trailing behind it.

The human man's hair had stopped blowing in the breeze. A large hoof had squashed the man into a puddle of gore before leaving. Still, he wrote of the streaking yellow anti-hero as he flew away and yelled back to the moon, “Don’t fuck this up!”