City of IF

[D-Lotus]

Chapter 2: The Brawl



Yahoo smiled ruefully at the men. It had reached the time to provoke them.

“I imagine you are one of the very fine intellectuals we have in this room, are you not, my dear gentleman?” he said.

The three men looked at him as they slanted their eyes.

“We dun like sophisto’s who think therr better.” said one of them with his best grammar.

“Ah, I see you are struggling with one of those complex words. I often wonder myself how to pronounce it. I think it’s said DON’T. With a D. You do know what a D is, my dear chap?”

The man grunted and slammed his fist on the hard table. If anyone hadn’t paid attention to the intercourse, now they were. Yahoo’s apprentice moved slowly away from the table as Yahoo motioned him to.

“You should study your alphabet a little bit more. I have an idea! I’ll help you stud-”

It seemed that their impotence to do anything to the old man at the moment had struck them, or maybe they felt that they needed to show their bravado, but the case is that one of the men drew his foot back and kicked over the table with tremendous force. It flipped twice in the air as it traveled right at Yahoo’s face.

Everybody stood silent. Even the feeble protests of the bartender, who had been pleading for them to calm down, stopped.

The table stood suspended in mid-air. Yahoo sat calmly at his chair, without moving. His right arm was extended, while his hand was in the fixed position of a fist. He smiled at the broad-armed men.

“I was saying that I could help you study your alphabet, but since you seem unwilling to collaborate…”

He released his hand into an open palm and the table flew back at 60 mph in the opposite direction.

It took the three of them together a split second to form a weak barrier against the angry table. It smashed to bits, splinters flying everywhere.

In a mad struggle of a few moments, the whole tavern was full of overturned tables and people hiding under them. Green slop from spilt soup covered the floor, and waves of water and beer rippled against each other as broken glass intermingled in the whole bloody mess.

“Over thurr!” shouted one.

Half the tavern, or those who supported the three ruffians pointed behind them.

“Raight behand ya!” shouted another.

They turned around.

There was a faint glimmer in the air, like in a hot summer day, but then there was nothing. Suddenly Yahoo appeared halfway across the room.

Amid more pointing, the three shot respective small thunderbolts torwards him, but the next instant he was gone again.

The mad race continued, as the three spread out and tried to trap him.

Finally, one of them gave a triumphant yell and sent a powerful electric shock torwards the old man. It traveled swiftly torwards Yahoo. Yahoo snapped his finger, smiled, and moved his arm up and down all in one second.

Five thousand bolts of electricity slammed into a huge pile of sand that hadn’t been there before, uselessly, exploding sand everywhere.

The men jumped backwards as the sand expanded and filled the whole room in a flurry. There was sand everywhere. There was sand in everybody’s face and eyes and hair and anywhere you could look. Coughing sounds resounded across the tavern as sand traveled up peoples noses and in their mouths...

Being all Yahoo needed to form his complex spell, he began. Joining his two hands, he waved his index finger forward and backwards in a repeated motion for thirty seconds.

The three men finally cleared the room with a quick dispell. As the sand dissipated, they found the old man sitting once again.

“Givin’ up, ye dumb emflikar?” grinned one.

One thing you should know about Yahoo is that he never loses his temper.

“My dear lads, how would you like to find yourself’s upside down?”

The three men raised their hands to invocate a boulder at the same time they all said:

“Huh?”

And this, my friends, occurred the same time Yahoo blasted a yellow blurr from his hands. The yellow blurr reached its destination, separated in three and slithered like a little fish into each of the men’s head.

Then the madness began. It was truly a sickening sight that day at the Wormy Dog, a tavern near the downtown part of Vlusos. Inside the said local, all the tables, chairs, dishes, glasses, and paintings were scattered on the floor. To add to it all, slimy substances combined with sand clung on the ceiling and walls. People crowded outside the doors in the cold night air. The few that remained inside, including the poor taverner, who we must at all costs consolidate with, crouched behind the counter.

In the middle of the room, was portrayed one of saddest spectacles drawn to human eyes. Besides an old man, who stood, maybe more astonished at his own powers than assured, were three men.

By their appearance, your first chance to understanding their problem, would be to guess that they are in a deep state of drunkedness. A further look would reveal something worse. With immediate sudenness, and almost at a synchronized moment, they began lurching and convulsing, continually crashing into walls and anything in their way. They continued this practice, until, amid the most sudden and strangest convulsion, they fell on the ground, flopping like a fish. It must be said for one of them that he tried to get up. With incredible force of will, he lifted himself on his knees amid bulging muscles. He was without good fortune, and he gave a strangling cry before being forced down on the ground abruptly.

Meanwhile, the other two were emitting strange gurgling noises as they clawed on the floor. Green sand splattered all around their body and face until they were barely distinguishable among the mess around them. They seemed to be clutching on the floor for dear life. Apparently, they thought they were suspended, and they’re legs hung loose. The third man soon joined the other two in their strange struggle. Outside, people watched, as these men, made into worms by Magic, suffered, making pitiful struggles to hold on to the floor.

Seeing as the old man next to them was in a state of incomprehension, a man ventured to make his way through the slop to the three denigrated men. He carefully crouched down next to them, avoiding the drops of green substance flying around him. One of the men shifted his eyes slowly to meet the adventurous savior.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked slowly, enunciating each word carefully.

The man screeched, spluttered something out, and resumed flapping around.

The man in the short frock fell back a pace, recovered after the initial shock and resumed his questioning.

“Wha-t is wro-ng wi-th you?”

The man, nails dug into the floor, whispered something. The short-frocked gentleman bent down and put his ear in front of the demented man’s lips.

“Say that again?” said he.

“GOOD GOD, MAN! HOW ARE YOU STANDING ON THE WALL?” he screamed into his ear.

The volume of his voice penetrated deeply into the short-frocked man’s eardrum, and he yelled in pain. He got up, and staggered back to his place behind the counter, nursing his ear amid curious and concerned cries.

One of the men crawling on the floor had finally reached the far wall. Suddenly he let go of the boards and let out a deep sigh. Then, to the amazement of everybody, he started trying to walk up the wall as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As is natural, without the aid of Magic, he could not. Then he started to panic. He used a small spell used for acrobats so they can land safely on the ground, but the wall, not being the ground, it didn’t work. Then he really panicked and noticed the other people in the room. When he saw them, to his vision, standing on the wall, his face paled and he fainted.

The crowd gasped, and cries of, “What have you done to him?” issued out. Yahoo, snapping out of his daze thanks to the crowds voices, began conjuring a spell. His left hand moved in reverse, circling about his closed fist. Something yellow and slimy crawled out of the men’s ears. Yahoo walked over to it briskly and stepped on it, ending its life.

He looked for his servant, but he didn’t seem to be there. He must have escaped to his room during the confusion of the fight. People rushed to the three wounded men and crowded around them. They soon came to, and recovered their senses fully. The old man knew he had overdone it. He had treated them like animals. Instead of gaining their respect, he had probably made enemies. He had to be more careful next time; if he had practiced his Magic, this would have never happened. If he would apologize to them, then maybe…no, this old man was too proud. Instead, he walked in front of the counter and was going to go up the stairs when he was stopped by the taverner. His face was set into a deep grimace.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Up to my room, most naturally.” he answered.

“And what about THAT?” said the taverner pointing behind him in a dead serious tone.

“Ah, well, THAT, yes indeed…ah, well, if you’ll excuse me, I-”

The taverner crossed his arms.

“I’ll take care of it at once…” said Yahoo, finally subdued.

_____________________________________________________

The tavern was back to normal, and everything had been repaired and cleaned. Following his rule of a Jomakar, Yahoo had spent three back-breaking hours cleaning everything. Of course the chairs were irreplaceable and impossible to fix, so he had been forced to use Magic to reconstruct the design with the broken materials.

The next day, Yahoo had spent sleeping and reposing from the other days labor. Yahoo and his disciple sat in the far corner of the drudgy but clean tavern that night. Yahoo sat inclined in his seat, producing moans once in a while, to his disciple’s alarm. It was a spectacle to watch as the poor old man started up amongst the sharper notes of a musician playing in the local, as if his pain was caused by the sour notes in the music. The whole tavern, enthralled by the young musician’s music turned back at such times, and whispered to him to be quiet in unison. This continued partly through the night, until the young man started playing a particular slow ballad.

A man got closer to Yahoo. He was a small man, dressed in cheap, badly stitched clothes. The old man nodded at him, while his disciple shrank from the strange appearance.
“I saw what you did.” he said simply.
Yahoo smiled.
“A drink for my friend!” he told the bartender.
“Thank you, but it’s not necessary.”
“Very well, what is it you want then?”
“Look, I have something that can help you a lot. Are you trying to get to the Lyceum?” he asked.
“Well, yes…”
“Yes, then I do have something for a powerful wizard like you. But you’ll need to come with me at once.” he continued, looking around him.

Something attracted Yahoo’s attention to the musician. Yahoo watched him carefully. Suddenly, the man, who was using Magic along with his music, like most musicians now days did, plucked a certain note on his instrument. Very suddenly, his music started taking a different tone. Yahoo knew what had happened. The young musician had discovered the pleasure note. A word popped into his head….emflikar. He knew all the phases an emflikar went through…he should, he had been one before reforming. This kid was about to get sucked in, and he knew it.
“Hey, kid!” he yelled across the room.
No answer from the young musician.
Jumping out of his seat, ignorant to the pain, he waved his hands. A pair of scissors appeared in front of the instrument, cutting the string.
The young man snapped out of it. Yahoo signaled to him to follow him amid the confusion of the crowd and ducked into the kitchen. The young man followed him without a word. The cook was holding his knife when they came in.

“Could we use this room for just a moment?”

The cook looked confused, nodded and walked out, checking behind him to see if they were crazy.

“Boy, you know what happened to you there?”

“No….no, sir.”

“You were well on your way to becoming an emflikar.”

He gasped and almost fainted. He regained his color and stood up straight. His lyre hung limp from his hand. Yahoo’s tall presence seemed to impress him.

“An em..emflikar, sir?”

“That note you played, it was the note of pleasure. I imagine you have never encountered it before?”

“No…no, sir.”

“And yet you want to keep playing it?”

He clutched his lyre.

“Yes..you’re right, sir….”

“Look, you have to be strong. But you also need help. Do you want my help?”

And yet he knew that even though he had so readily offered his help, he wanted to know what that short man had. He sighed in indecision. Just as the boy was going to speak, the taverner came in the kitchen, looking angry.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked.

Yahoo sighed again. Over this trip he had already learned he was all too human. And now, these two mysterious people he had met. He didn’t even know their names.

“I demand to know what is going on in here!”

“Boy, what’s your name?” Yahoo said to the young man, ignoring the taverner.

“Ja…Jakeen.”

_________________________________________________

Alright, let me know what you guys think. Oh yeah, by the way, now that we have two chapters, this storygame is ELLEGIBLE FOR THE IFY'S!!!!!

[Chainfire]

alright great chapter D. I think he should follow the mysterios stranger and bring Jakeen with him. who knows maybe he has two new friends or more competition.

[Araex]

i agree with chainfire. are we meant to read the other storygames? because i have a strange feeling that the stranger is Gorin, and all three have just met up

[D-Lotus]

Gorin?????


lol, no!

All evidence points against it!

If you want to , you can wait for Mordok's chapter, but it won't reveal much more. His options will probably be: Do you trust the old wizard or not?

Well, we have one good option so far, but will Jakeen want to come? And will the stranger allow Jakeen to come?

Well, did you guys like the fight scene? Personally, as the author, I think it's one of my best.

[Araex]

i think it's wicked. you really got a cross the terror of being upside down. although i wasn't sure about the fish...

[D-Lotus]

Quote: you really got a cross the terror of being upside down. although i wasn't sure about the fish...

Cross out the terror part?

What fish?

Oh, remember, this story can now be nominated for the IFY's

[kenshin himura]

heh this was a great chapter!
I exspescially liked the yelling into the mans ear!

[Araex]

sorry about that D, "a" and "cross" were meant to be one word

[PoopOnYoop]

hey love this chapter, i like were its going.

[D-Lotus]

yeah, but what do you guys want to do now?


AND THIS IS ONLY A SMALL REMINDER, THIS STORY CAN NOW BE NOMINATED FOR THE IFY'S! :D

[D-Lotus]

Hellllo?

[kingcappie]

I apologize for the delay. Having to use a friend's computer nowadays, a real inconvenience. I agree with what everyone has said so far- see if you have made two new friends, find out as much as you can. Reveal as little about yourself as possible in the process, and use your knowledge to your advantage.