Snoink's Nano

Instantly, Adelore felt Alonso’s feathers prick up even more. Alonso swore. “You did what?” he asked faintly.

Adelore tried to wiggle unsuccessfully away from Alonso. “The ring,” he said, gritting his teeth. “I gave her the ring and the deck of cards that she wanted for her birthday. Just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Alonso asked testily. Then, when Adelore didn’t say anything right away, Alonso said, “You’re not planning on dying, are you?”

“Of course not,” Adelore said grumpily.

“Good,” Alonso said firmly. “Because my plan so far is to help you triumph over the Conqueror. Then, once you emerge victorious -- with me triumphant at your side, of course -- my plan is to win back Alainna’s love, sweep her off her feet, and make passionate love to her.”

Adelore groaned. “Again, I really don’t want to know.”

Adelore quickly looked into the window. Inside, it was dark, however when he looked inside, he could just make out what might have been a happy home scene, had there not been so much dust. In one corner of the room had been a primitive kitchen area, complete with a wood stove and a little cabinet with one glass panel in it that showed off a stack of colorful china. In another corner, there was a large bed, covered in a colorful quilt. And finally, against the wall, there was a crudely made little cradle. Inside, there was a little toy dog inside of it, propped up so that it looked like he were looking out at the room, ready to greet the baby whenever the baby came. Next to the cradle was a tiny opened trunk, with colorful baby clothes piled in haphazardly. One little shirt looked like it had been midway through being folded when the folder had abruptly stopped.

Adelore glared at Alonso. “Of course we’re going to get trapped inside,” he snapped. “It’s a long house! The whole point of a long house is to trap people inside of it and imprison them in some way. If the Conqueror didn’t try to do that to us, I would be surprised.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t go inside,” Alonso said, trembling.

“And what do you suggest instead?” Adelore said sarcastically. “Burning down the place instead of going inside?”

“That might not be such a bad idea,” Alonso said thoughtfully, all of his feathers raised.

Tiziano nodded and immediately transformed into a human while Alonso peered at the door skeptically, his whole body trembling in fear.

“You’ll hold me when we go inside, won’t you?” Alonso asked Tiziano nervously.

“Whatever you need,” Tiziano said gently. He leaned over and held out his hands, and Alonso gratefully hopped into his arms.

“That one is dead,” Tiziano said quickly. He pointed to the linens. “You see how dirty the linens are? It’s because the body is actively decaying and starting to liquefy. See, the corpse expands at first, which breaks apart the linens, which were probably tightly wrapped at first, and then the corpse shrinks again as it begins to decompose. And if you look closely, you can see that there are bugs crawling underneath the linens and eating the flesh—“

“I can see that just fine,” Adelore snapped, trying his best not to throw up as maggots wiggled in and out of the linens. He looked at the next one who was in the cot just below, but that one was worse. The wrapped body looked very much the same as the other one, except you could see that the cot just above this one had been leaking a foul brown fluid that was dripping down all over this body. Adelore turned away and began to gag.

“Careful with this one,” Alonso said when Adelore approached him. “He’s feeling a little desperate.”

“In what way?” Adelore asked.

Alonso shook his head and clicked his beak. “Hard to say,” he said. Then he added, “He’s a little crazy by now.”

“I don’t blame him,” Adelore muttered. “If I had to stay here as long as he likely has been here, I would probably go crazy too.”

The Black Swans on the roof were still trying to tear apart the roof, though it sounded like they were encountering some difficulties. Alonso looked up and tittered a laugh. “The roof is covered with moss,” he explained when Adelore glared at him. “They were hoping to tear off the shingles easily and get inside, but once they were up, they kept slipping on the moss and falling to the ground. They have just realized that they have to tear off the moss first. But because they’re poisonous, the moss keeps breaking apart in their beaks and they can’t really tear it off effectively.”

“How is Adelore doing?” Tiziano said quickly, still running as quickly he could. “Is he in shock yet?”

“Not yet!” Alonso called out. “He’s still conscious.” Then Alonso swore as Tiziano lurched and jerked his wings quickly. “Watch where you’re going, you dumb chicken! You nearly barreled into that tree!”

“I cut it down, didn’t I?” Tiziano yelled. Somewhere a ways off, Adelore heard a Black Swan cry out in dismay. He guessed that the tree falling may have trapped someone.

“What’s Adelore’s pain level?” Tiziano called out.

“Let me ask him!” Alonso yelled. Then, to Adelore, he politely said, “How do you feel right now, my lord?”

The absurdity of the whole situation struck Adelore hard and he swore. “How do you think I feel?” he snapped.

“I have no idea,” Alonso said calmly. “You are unreadable.”

“Guess!”

“He’s feeling well enough to act petty!” Alonso yelled to Tiziano.

“See?” Tiziano said proudly. “We made it! The mine collapsed, yes, but since it was at the very entrance, it was big enough for me to run through! And I outran the collapse! What do you think about that?”

Alonso groaned and buried his head in Adelore’s chest. “If the Conqueror doesn’t destroy us, I will destroy you for taking us down here,” he muttered.

Besides, perhaps Alonso would see the carts and realize for himself that it really was a mad idea. When Adelore was a boy, probably about eight or nine, he used to drive the carts around the mines. At the time, he had loved it. All the boys did, really. They used to have races and drive the carts as quickly as they could, sometimes jumping into the carts and riding in them on top of the load of dirt that they usually carried — though sometimes they carried raw diamonds as well. At the time, they were little enough that their extra weight didn’t seem to matter too much on the broken rail system.

Until, of course, there was a major accident. One of Adelore's friends, a boy who was always a little bit denser than the rest of them, had jumped onto a cart, just when it had been going down a slope. But the cart went too fast and, just while it was on a massive trestle, it started rattling. The boy got scared and jumped off the cart when he realized that it was completely out of control, but because he wasn’t the smartest kid, he jumped in front of the cart instead of being sensible and jumping in the back. The cart struck him, completely derailed, and promptly fell off the trestle, knocking part of the trestle down.

The accident delayed operations for two entire months since the trestle had to rebuilt and all of the contents of the cart — which happened to contain raw diamonds — had to be recollected and sent up. Father was furious of the hold up and had all the boys go through safety training courses of how to properly push the carts, which were useless courses that Adelore and the other boys just slept through.

Not that they hadn’t learned anything from their friend’s mistake. How could they not learn anything? While the men were rebuilding the trestle, the men, who did not dare to set foot on a partially destroyed trestle out of fear of breaking it further, sent a bunch of the cart boys — including Adelore — to go scrape up the remains of their friend off the rail tracks. And that was an experience that Adelore could not forget, though he tried desperately.

It was around that time when Adelore first learned how to drink.

Alonso flapped his wings and suddenly Adelore felt his stomach lurch as they began to move. And then, just as soon as they began to move, a large screeching sound came and they stopped.

“The wheels,” Alonso suddenly said. “Why have the wheels stopped?”

“Did you oil them?” Adelore murmured.

Tiziano groaned. “It needs to be oiled?" he asked. When Adelore didn't respond, Tiziano asked, "Where would the oil be?”

“In the maintenance room,” Adelore said.

“Where is that?” Tiziano said.

But Adelore didn’t know, so he closed his eyes and groaned.

“We don’t have time for any of this!” Alonso hissed. He hopped down and suddenly Adelore could feel someone handling the wheels.

“What are you doing?” Tiziano cried.

“The wheels need oil, so I am preening them,” Alonso hissed. “How else are you supposed to put oil on anything?”

“It needs a different type of oil, not the oil on you!” Tiziano snapped. “It’s not a Swan, it’s a rail cart!”

“Too late.” Alonso hopped back onto the cart and the whole cart shuddered. “All right! Let’s hope this works better. Ready?”

Tiziano groaned. “This is the worst idea ever!”

“Let’s fly!” Alonso cried, ignoring Tiziano, and once more the cart began to roll. Once more Adelore felt his stomach lurch.

“This is like flying!” Alonso said, laughing. “But better, because there’s no pesky light. No wonder Ryahn liked to work in the mines!”

“Just make sure you’re watching where we’re going!” Tiziano cried. “I can’t see a thing in this darkness!”

“I’m watching, I’m watching,” Alonso said dismissively. “Though everything seems perfect so far!” Then suddenly he swore. “Trestle overhead! Looks like it’s partially collapsed. Hang on tight, everyone! We might need to fly!”

“Please tell me that’s an exaggeration!” Tiziano groaned.

“We’re going airborne!”

Suddenly, Adelore felt his stomach leap into his throat. And then go back again. Though when they landed, the rails squealed and sounded as if they had landed off the rails somehow.

“Get on the rails!” Adelore yelled, his voice hoarse.

“I’m trying, I’m trying!” Alonso said, panting. “The cart is heavy!” He flapped frantically, trying to lift it up, but Adelore could feel it lurch from side to side.

“It’s going to fall off if you can’t get it back on the rails!” Adelore shouted again.

“Again, I’m trying!” Alonso snapped. He flapped more, and suddenly screamed in pain as the rail cart lifted up. But when it landed, it at least landed properly on the tracks so that they continued speeding along.

Alonso whimpered. “You were right,” he admitted to Tiziano, gasping. “I think I broke something just now.”

“Never mind that now!” Tiziano snapped. “Keep your eyes on the tracks! I’ll look at you later, after I get a chance to take care of Adelore. But we need to get out of here first!”

Alonso sighed. “So you want to go through with this mad idea?” he asked grimly.

Adelore grinned. “When have I ever said no to a mad idea?”