The story of King Rik - Chapter 1: The arrival (part 2) () - Gamaker

We walked through a wooden slide door and came into a beautiful wooden chamber, in the corners there was bamboo growing out of the ground and there were shiny swords attached to the walls. From around a curtain a women walked by wearing a red kimono. She had blond long hair and kind round face.

"Oh hello" she said when she noticed us "I didn't know I had visitors."

"Good afternoon, milady" the advisor said and he made a little bow "I was just showing David here around the castle" and he pointed at me.

"Nice to meet you David, My name is Carmen and I am the chambermaid and company of the queen." And she gave me a hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, Carmen." I smiled and also made a little bow.

"Well, now that you've met each other, let us continue" Stephan said walking out of the room. I followed him. "Because there is not much time left before dinnertime, we shall go to the fourth floor next. On this floor we also have the balcony with the Jacuzzi, the royal bathroom and a few rooms for the king's amusement." We walked back to the throne room while he talked, it was empty now, and we reached the great wooden door with the piano keyboard attached to the other side. Dinnertime sure seemed important to the advisor.

"What's around dinnertime?" I asked, pretty sure there was some important event happening then. The advisor stopped and turned to me.

"We dine." He said and without another word he swiftly started to move again.

He opened the door and we walked through and down the stairs. We came to the fourth floor and walked through the first door on the right. The walls here were no longer made of bricks, but out of pretty big boulders and the floor was covered with a fluffy dark red carpet.

"On this floor the 'higher ranked' people live." Stephan pointed at some of the doors. "Take this one for example" He stopped in front of one of the doors. "This room belongs to the royal book report maker, Saksia." He pushed the doorknob down and walked into the room. Unfortunately he didn't open the door. For a split second it seemed as if he was going to walk right through, but he crashed against it and fell over.

"Ah well, errrm, the door seems to be locked."

"What does a book report maker do? And why is it a high ranked position?" I asked, watching him as he scrambled to his feet and wiped the imaginary dust from his sleeves.

"The royal book report maker reads books and turns them into summaries. I already told you that the king and a lot of the inhabitants of this castle are dyslexic, so the king decided all books must be shortened in order for him to read it. We actually legalized a law for that. And thus being a book report maker is an important job."

"Right" I said "So are you dyslexic? ... errm sir" I added quickly.

"No, I'm not, that is why I draw up all the laws. The king only signs them."

"He does read them I hope?"

"Yes, off course, but only the summarized versions." He smiled. "But we're dawdling again, let's move on now, shall we?"

I agreed and we moved on. We stopped in front of another door and this time the advisor did manage to open the door. He let me inside and I found myself standing in a pretty big room with lots of windows in one of the walls. It had a thick blue carpet and a big bed against one of the other walls. In one of the corners stood a big shiny medieval armour and in one of the other corners, the room counted five, was covered with all sorts of electrical guitars and amplifiers. On a desk next to it lay a big book opened with pictures of tasty looking meals.

"Let me guess" I said "This must be the room of the royal musician or something like that."

"Nope" Stephan replied and grinned "This here is my room. And a pretty nice one too, if I may say so myself." He proudly added.

"You're always free to come by any time. But let us move on as we now both know that our time is limited." He said walking through another door than the one we came through. As far as I could see he was standing in his own closet now.

"Hmm... What was I doing again?" He asked

"We were going to the next room, sir." I answered.

"Ah yes, I knew that, won't happen again!" He hurried out of the closet. "Well, lead the way then lad."

"..."

"Oh right, I was leading. Come on then! So much to see, so little time!"

We left the advisors room and moved on. We walked past a lot of doors.

"Most of these doors are blanks."

"Blanks?"

"Yes blanks, they lead nowhere."

He stopped in front of one and opened it. There was a beautiful view of green fields with a little lake in the background. He laid his hand on it and told me it was only a painting on the wall. He closed the door again and we moved on. We turned around a corner and ignored a few other doors. Finally Stephan stopped in front of a door and opened it. Behind it lay a big room similar to that of the advisor. In the middle stood a grand piano with a few amplifiers surrounding it and some of the walls were covered with all sorts of weapons and helmets. Suddenly a door opened and a man came walking in. He was really tall, wearing a bathrobe, had a towel over his head and was wearing glasses. And he was really tall!

"Stephan!" he exclaimed "what the hell are you doing here? And who's that?"

Suddenly I turned white and slowly shuffled behind the advisor. This was a voice I had heard before...

"Willem" Stephan replied "I thought you weren't here. Why were you showering this time of the day? Oh and this here is David. I was just showing him the castle. He's going to work for the king."

"Right, nice to meet you kid, but I had to wash my hair. Again! Rik was being funny again and shat right in my face."

Luckily he didn't suspect me, but he stared walking straight at me. I took a few steps backwards. He was really, really tall! Suddenly his hand shot out and stopped right before my face. I looked at him and then I realized he just wanted to shake my hand. So I shook his. After that he turned around and without a word he disappeared into his closet to change.

"Willem is the general of the king's army. He has a really important task and has to be ready twenty-four/seven. That is why we installed that into his room." He pointed at a door right next to a window. I hadn't really noticed it before, but it seemed to lead into the clear blue.

"Only one more to see on this floor." The advisor suddenly said "Shall we move on?"

I nodded and we also left this room. I followed him until he stopped again and opened another door. We were standing before an empty room with nothing but the same blue carpet I saw in the other two rooms.

"Don't believe everything you see lad." The advisor said and he stepped in. As he did he completely disappeared.

"Follow me please" I heard him say from within the room. So I also stepped into the room. The moment I came in the carpet changed from blue to red and everywhere in the room all sorts of things appeared. The floor was now covered with movies and clothes. There were growing some plants out of the wall and in a corner a computer screen was flickering.

"That, we just stepped through, is called the bubble-of-things-you-don't-want-others-to-see. One of the few things our alchemist invented. It creates the illusion that the things which are covered with it aren't there. The jester had to be funny and installed it into his door-post. This is Quincey's room, but it seems he's not here."

"Why is that thing called the bubble-of-things-you-don't-want-others-to-see? Couldn't the alchemist come up with a more logic name? Like the bubble of illusions or something."

"Well, that would be too simple now, wouldn't it? We can't give away the actual purpose to our enemies. What if it falls into the hands of some evil democratic? That would be disastrous."

"But doesn't the bubble-of-things-you-don't-want-others-to-see give away the whole clue?"

"No, because it doesn't say it not only hides things inside, but that it also creates a complete different illusion. Look at this." He said and he stepped outside the room. I did the same. "You see!" he said, looking very excited "Not only does it completely hide everything within the room, it also changes the color of the carpet from red into blue!"

"Right" I said "That does explain the clever naming."

"One Month!" I thought "One month I'm going to stay with these idiots. Then I'll take my silver and get the hell out!" This was the first time in my entire life I had such a selfish thought. Off course, I borrowed a horse without asking and am now unable to return it. But that was all with good intentions. I was sure it was this castle that was playing with my mind already. I had to be strong and overcome these bad thoughts.

The advisor signed we had to move again, so we moved away from the door again and walked down the stairs that leaded to the third floor.

"Welcome to the third floor." he said when we reached the bottom of the stairs. The carpet and the big boulders were changed again. Something I hadn't paid attention to at all when I was going up. This time they had made room for wooden walls, like you were standing in a little mountain cottage, and the floor seemed to consist out of huge black rock plates. We ignored a few doors again and reached a door which was a bit smaller then the doors thus far. Stephan opened it and stepped inside. I followed. It seemed like we did step into a little mountain cottage, the only difference was that it wasn't located on a mountain and that it wasn't in fact a cottage but a room in a castle. But in this room even the ceiling and the floor were made out of wood. In the middle of the room stood a big bed and around it lay a lot of fabrics. On the walls were large posters of all kinds of models, rock legends and all sorts of different guitars. In a far corner on a desk lay a lot of fashion magazines opened and sketches of clothes.
"Hmmm" Stephan hummed "I don't think he's in here."
"And where could 'he' be then?" I asked.
"Somewhere in this castle doing his job off course."
"Ahh, and who is 'he' and what is his job?"
"Well 'he' is Luuk and his job is obviously fashion designer."
"Yes, I thought so, but then again at this castle he might even have been the funeral director or anything of the sort."
"Hmmm" He looked as though he was seriously considering giving him the job. "Nope" he said "that would make no sense at all."

The moment we got into the corridor again I started to hair a faint whistling. It was the same tune the advisor played on the piano on the door. Stephan looked around to spot the source of the sound, but suddenly it seemed as though he just remembered something. He tucked up his right sleeve and I noticed the whistling came from under it. He pushed some buttons on his watch and the sound stopped.

"Oh dear" he said "I am so sorry, but I have to leave you now. I can't leave them waiting. I'll see you over dinner. The dining room is on this floor and dinner itself is in an hour and a half. Bye!" And he ran away towards the end of the hallway and disappeared around a corner.

I was a bit startled by the sudden leave of the advisor and found myself standing in a deserted corridor, all alone... I stood there for a few minutes and looked around. Maybe the advisor had sent someone to show me the rest of the building, or at least lead me to my room.

...

I waited for another fifteen minutes, but nobody came. I didn't want to wander around and get lost, but I didn't want to stay where I was either.
Eventually I started to move. If I could get back to the throne room I could ask the king for some help. I walked back from where we came from and hoped I was going the right way. I didn't recognize anything at all. Suddenly I thought I heard music. Because it was the only thing I heard or saw I started walking in the direction it was coming from. I walked through a corridor I had never been before with little paintings on the walls. I turned around one after another corner and the music was growing stronger. Finally I saw someone and walked over to it. When I came near I saw it was a man wearing a really large yellow sombrero and a big brown poncho. He was leaning against a wall and was playing a rather small guitar. It was a pretty happy song and felt cheerful again.

"Errrm, excuse me, sir?" I said and I poked him in the shoulder. "Sir?"

He stopped playing and slowly looked up. Though he had stopped playing the music happily continued. He looked at me and seemed to examine me with his eyes. His skin was a little darker than that of the others and he had dark brown hair and big brown eyes. He put down the guitar without looking away from me.

"Yes?" he said and only now the music stopped. "What do you want?"

"Well, errrrm, I'm a bit lost and was wondering how I could get to the king, or maybe just to my room."

"And who are you exactly? I haven't seen your face before. And I never forget a face."

"I am David, sir." I said "just a humble traveler that has just arrived here at the castle. I'm supposed to receive a room, but I don't actually know where it is."

"Do you know on which floor it is?" he said. He had a little accent which I could not fit in anywhere, but it sounded pretty funny.

"Yes, it's on the second floor. But may a ask who you are, sir?"

"I, signor, am the great Rodrigo!" he proudly smiled "I am the speaker of this castle."

That sounded pretty important. "What does a speaker do?"

"I hold speeches for the king and I announce all sorts of things in this castle!"

"That sounds like a pretty big job, but can you maybe show me how to get to the second floor, sir?"

"Maybe" he said and shrugged "But I don't think so. I'm very busy at the moment."

"With what?"

"With standing here."

"So standing here is more important than helping another person?"

"Pretty much, yes."
Suddenly I heard something stumble behind me. I turned around to see what it was. I couldn't see anything so I turned back again. The man called Rodrigo was gone and nowhere to be seen. I sighted and leaned against the wall. Even his guitar was gone. The people I met in this castle were getting stranger and stranger. How can a man disappear within seconds without making a sound? I walked to where the stumbling sound came from a bit earlier and found nothing but a little rock. I threw it away and it glanced off one of the little paintings. Its glass broke and it fell to the ground, where it shattered. I sighted again. At moments like these I just wanted to be home with my mom in our little house. She would walk in from the kitchen with a plate with two cups of steaming hot chocolate on it. Which we would drink up together in front of the fireplace. I even started to miss our dog, Bernard. Who would stick his tongue in my mouth wile I was sleeping. Yes, those were different times, but right now I was standing a
ll alone in a huge castle. Somewhere far away from the little village I grew up.

I wondered if it was dinnertime any time soon. If it was I would just stay on this floor and look for the dining room, otherwise I would search for the stairs leading to the second floor. I tucked up my sleeve see what time it is, but unfortunately I couldn't find my watch.

"Hey, that's odd!" I said to no one particularly "I could swear I had it just minute ago." I reached for my pouch, in which I kept the only treasure I had left, to find that it was missing too. I started swearing and only then I realized that Rodrigo probably had stolen everything, the second I looked away. That bastard! Because I didn't know what else to do I started running in the direction that he seemed to have disappeared to. I ran past doors and windows still swearing and didn't really knowing where I was going. Suddenly a foot shot out from behind a corner. I spotted it way to late and tripped. Luckily a wall broke my fall. At this point I was laying upside down against one of the wooden walls and my whole body hurt. From behind me I heard a hard mean laugh. A hand appeared in front of my face, seeming to want to pull me up. I couldn't really see who the hand belonged to, because I couldn't move my neck from this position. I grabbed the hand and pulled myself up. The man who stuck out his foot and pulle
d me up was the jester. This was the first time I could see him properly. Before he was sitting at the table so I couldn't take a good look at him. Actually he didn't look like a jester at all, more like a doctor on his day off. He was wearing a striped shirt and jeans. Although he did have strange shoes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, still laughing.

"Yes," I said angrily "but not thanks to you!"

"That was a really nice fall. You have talent, dude. Want to try it again?" he grinned.

"No thanks!" I moved my left shoulder, which hurt the most. "Why the hell would you let me trip anyway? That's dangerous!"

"Because it was fun." He smiled "You should have seen your face right before it smacked on the floor. It was all like: Whaaaooo... smack!" He burst in laughter again "Why were you running anyway?"

"Errrrm, I've been robbed" I said.

"Ah, so you've met our royal thief then. Rodrigo's pretty talented, don't you think?"

"Well, he told me he was the castle's speaker." I said, pretty embarrassed. "Wait a sec!" suddenly I realized that this sounded stupid. "I've just been robbed and you're saying that that was an order of the king or something?" I started to get angry again.

"Nah, I never said that. Rodrigo doesn't take orders from the king with stealing. He does get paid for it though. But he is the speaker too. He announces all sorts of things on behalf of the king. But the robbing within the castle is more of a sport. If you go to his room in a few hours and you ask him nicely I'm sure he'll give it all back."

It took me while before I had processed all this information.

"So this Rodrigo is both a thief and a speaker? A person you have to distrust and take him for his word at the same time? And he is getting paid for it too?"

This castle seemed to make less and less sense.

"Yeah, yeah... like that's the weirdest you've heard here. But where were you going anyway? It's not like you know where he had gone to." He didn't wait for me to answer but continued. "So you were running in some random direction. Now THAT is strange!"

"Well yes... errrrrm no. I mean... well, never mind." I stammered. I paused for a few seconds to regain my conversation skills. "I was looking for my room."

"Which is on the second floor if I'm not mistaken? Well, it certainly does make sense that you're running around here. Shall I show you your room?"

"That would be nice." I said, relieved I finally found someone to show me my room.

"Okay, just follow me" he said and walked away. I hurried to get next to him and we turned around a corner. We now moved through a corridor which had windows in the walls on both sides that showed a nice arctic landscape. It was snowing gently and I wondered why the weather had changed this sudden. I wanted to ask the jester this, but I realized I had already asked enough stupid questions for one day so I didn't. After a few turns and a lot of doors and windows, Quincey stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it. Behind it didn't lay a room as I expected, but a staircase which led up. We started to climb the stairs.

"Aren't we going to my room?"

"Yes we are."

"But like you just said it is on the second floor. Shouldn't we be going down?"

"Nope"

"Right..."

I wondered where we were going, but I just followed him. The stairs seemed to go on forever and even seemed to exceed the height of the castle, but suddenly we reached the end and came to a door again. He opened this door too and we stepped into the corridor again.

"Well, here we are" he said "The second floor."

We were standing in a corridor that was almost wholly made out of metal. It looked like I was standing in the middle of a big submarine. The doors were made out of wood though. This didn't look like any corridor I'd seen before, but this couldn't be the second floor. You just can't move a floor down when you're going up. As he had been making fun of me ever since I got here, I figured this had to be one of his stupid jokes again.

"Yeah right..." I smiled. "Don't think you can fool me with every bloody trick you pull on me!"

"I'm not pullin' any tricks on you. I assure you this is the second floor and that" he pointed at the black staircase behind us "is actually the way from third to second."

I sighted "Suuuure, and even if it is as you say it is, could you at least explain how the hell this is possible?"

"Errrrm..." He thought for a moment and rubbed his head doing so.

"I knew it!" I smiled with pride. "We're on the fourth floor again. Well, nice one, but I do want to go to my room now. Can you please show me RIGHT direction now, please?"

"Oh right! That's it!" he exclaimed and he snapped his fingers. He hadn't paid attention to a word I just said. "I just remembered why. It's very easy really. You see, physics are law-bound, right? And as Rik is lord and master at this castle and he's crazy enough to do it. He legislates every single law here, and he decided to alter some of them. He is the supreme ruler here so even physics have to obey him."

"Yeah... well, that makes sense... here" I said and shrugged. I didn't know whether to believe him or not. I was getting tired of all this nonsense and just wanted to see a bed where I could collapse. I hadn't even been here for more than a few hours and already I had been robbed, yelled at, traumatized, laughed at, hit in the face with a wall and more. I had already seen and heard more idiotic, unusual, strange, unreal and utterly stupid things here since my arrival than I had in my entire life. So I just decided to believe him. "Can you maybe show me my room please and I'll be fine."

"Sure" he said "If you just tell me which room it is I'll show you."

I had absolutely no idea which room it was.

"I have absolutely no idea which room it is" I answered.

"Didn't the advisor say anything about that?" he asked.

But no, the advisor hadn't even left me a clue.

"No, the advisor hasn't even left me a clue."

"Well I don't know where it is either." He said and looked around as if he was searching for a sign telling him where my room could be.

I knew he didn't know, otherwise he wouldn't ask me where it was.

"I know you don't know, otherwise you wouldn't ask me where it is!"

"Shuddup and look around" he said "See if you can spot a sign telling us where your room could be."

I shrugged and started looking. There was no use in arguing anyway, though I would be really surprised if we actually found one. But then again, being here it wouldn't surprise me at all.

After a few minutes of intensive looking he seemed to give up. "Nope, nothing" he said and looked disappointed "Bummer!"

Actually we hadn't moved from the place where we entered this corridor. He looked in both directions and finally turned left. I followed him.

"I just remembered that there was a room on this floor that is just recently been redecorated. Maybe you'll get that one. We'll just take a look." He grinned.

We walked for a few minutes, came past a lot of doors, windows and strange decorations and finally stopped in front of a rather small looking door.

"I believe this is it" he said and opened the door. Behind it lay a really small room, more like a cupboard with in it just one bed. I sat down on the bed and looked around. Suddenly the door closed and it became dark. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dark. Besides the bed there was nothing there but a little table with a pair of big black round glasses on it. I didn't know why but I put the glasses on and suddenly I heard loud banging noises from above me. It sounded like some fat kid was running up and down a wooden stairs, though I had never heard something like that before.

"Harry, Wake up! Come out! NOW!" My uncle Vernon raged from the other side of the door. It took a few seconds before I realized I had no uncle nor any other relatives named Vernon. And I was pretty sure my name was David, not Harry. In total confusion I took off the black glasses and dropped them above the little table on the right, which missed and shattered on the floor. I lifted my feet, kicked the door open and jumped outside. I landed and looked to my right and left, but there was no one there. I stood up and waited a little to regain my calm. I heard a faint laughing sound behind me. So I closed the door and behind it lay the jester. He was sniggering and his nose was bleeding. Apparently I had hit him in the face with the door. "T-t-that... that was fun" He stuttered and grinned.

"FUN?" Now I was getting really angry "What do you mean fun? I know what fun is and that was not fun! What the heel happened anyway? Where was I? What was I doing there?"

I looked furious at Quincey, who was sitting against the wall and smiled at me with a rather dumb expression on his face. His one hand was resting on his left leg and the other was under his nose catching the drops of blood coming from it. It took him a few moments to realize I was talking to him and he stopped laughing. He got up and leaned against the wall.

"That my friend..." He tried to look seriously and like he knew what he was talking about, but it failed and he looked kind of stupid with all those blood splatters on his face. "...that is a secret."

I was really annoyed and frowned at him.

"You really are an idiot, you try trick on me and get hit in the face yourself." I sighed "Do you actually know where my room could be or was that just some stupid excuse to pull this off?"

He grinned.

"Hehe, no I do know where your room could be. Just follow me!"

He wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and pointed down the corridor. He started walking in the direction he was still pointing at. I sighed again, but had no choice but to follow him anyway. I had no idea where I was or how I was supposed to get to the one place I wanted to be in this castle, my own room. We walked for a while, I was silent and looked around and he whistled some strange melody. Suddenly I heard a loud scream behind me.

"HOLY SHIT!"

We both turned around, but behind us was nothing at all. Then one of the doors on the right flew open and a man jumped out. The stranger was now laying in the middle of the corridor face down and with his trousers on his ankles. He looked angry and lay silently cursing. But when he spotted us he quickly pulled up his pants and jumped to his feet. He was about my height and about the king's age. He had brown sheep-like hair and baggy looking clothes. His hands were covered with gloves with no fingertips and he was wearing goggles on his head. He looked at us pretty embarrassed and scratched the back of his head. This was a pretty awkward situation. I looked at the jester, but he was already laying on the ground crying with laughter. I looked at the sheep-haired guy again, but he had already disappeared. I stood there for a minute, waiting for the jester to stop laughing, but he didn't. I kicked him against his leg, but he didn't react. So I walked back to the door which was left opened and looked inside. It w
as a toilet, but this one looked just as clean as the one I visited on the fifth floor. I had a hunch about what could've happened within this room, but there was no indication that this had taken place whatsoever. I called the jester who seemed to have stopped laughing. He was sitting against the wall and smiled. When he heard his name he got up and walked towards me.

"Did there happen here what I think happened here?" I asked him "If there did, how come the whole toilet is this clean?"

"Well... that depends on what you think happened here. If you think he stabbed a chicken twenty times in its stomach with a mirror shard, I have absolutely no idea."

That confused me somewhat. "He did what?!"

"But" he continued ignoring me "if you think he almost got hit by a shitload of well... shit, it's very easy. You see, from the hole in the ceiling to the hole you usually sit on runs a tube. You can't see it nor feel it and for human senses it's practically non-existing." He moved his hand through the air, through this tube he was talking about. "But it, like, directs the crap coming through. That's why the walls can't get hit, but everything within the tube itself can. And believe me, that shit is almost impossible to wash out of your hair and it leaves the crappiest stains on your clothes."

I shivered, that was something I never wanted to experience.

"Luckily for us Sneek the great alchemist has already found somethin' for it. He calls it the Juice-of-clearing, but everyone else calls it va-poo-rizer which is a way better name if I may say so myself. If you go to him he'll sell you an unlimited supply for only a one year salary, a half if he's in a good mood which mostly comes once a year, so you'll have to be really lucky."

Silence fell and lasted for a few seconds, enough time for me to understand I didn't understand at all. And frankly I didn't care about it anyway; I just wanted to find myself a nice warm bed to collapse on.

"Right" I said "So who was that man that jumped out a minute ago and disappeared instantly?"

"Oh him, that was Niels and he is, like, the shepherd of this kingdom. He does a fine job herding, but he spends a lot of time doing strange things here in the castle. Anyways, he's known as Sheep here, because of his hair, you must have noticed."

"Yes, I did notice. But anyway is my room far from here? Because I just want to go there and be left alone, thank you."

"Sure thing kid" he said and he pointed with his thumb to the right "It's just around this corner over here."

I was sure relieved to hear this. I speeded round the corner and stopped. In the wall on the right there were five identical wooden doors. Quincey stopped right next to me and looked at the doors one at the time.

"Hmm..." he said "It's one of these doors, I'm sure about it being one of these... but which one again." He inspected the doors for a while and suddenly turned around facing me. "Yep" he said "it has to be this one" He pointed at the second door from the right. "Look at this" Now he pointed at a spot just beneath the doorknob. As I looked closer I saw it was a small x carved in the wood there.

"Yeah, no doubt about it" he said and smiled. "After you." He bowed and gestured I had to go in. I hesitated for a moment. This could be one of his tricks again.

"Wait!" I said "first you go stand over there" I pointed at the end of the hall on the left. This way he couldn't close the door right after I go in.

"Yes boss!" he said and grinned. He walked over to the point I was pointing at.

Now I felt it was safe enough to go in, so I slammed down the doorknob and wanted to pull open the door. But just a split second after the doorknob had gone down the whole door exploded in my face. I was blasted backwards and crashed into the wall behind me. The wall had no intention catching me, so I bounced off and fell face down on the floor. Which was pretty soft compared to the wall. I laid there for a few minutes with my face buried into the carpet, trying to convince my spine it didn't hurt as much as it did. But stubborn as all of my body parts it hurt like hell and prevented me to get up. Laying there I heard the jester laughing to the left of me and he was slowly coming nearer. I felt all of my other body parts, but none of them other than my back were hurting. It did make me realize I was still holding the doorknob in my right hand. Suddenly I felt two hands grabbing me by the shoulders and pull me up. Quincey was roaring with laughter and wiped a tear from his cheek.

"That was awesome! You really are a natural at exploding. The way you flew backwards and bounced off that wall was just perfect." He patted me on the shoulder. At this point I did nowhere near understand any spoken language so I nodded in a daze and made a strange humming sound. "I haven't seen anyone get blasted that good in years!" and he continued laughing.