[Sticks]

Episode VI – A question of guilt and culpability

Ever heard of the expression “between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea?”

In earlier times the Devil was the longest seam on a ship, at the bottom and caulking it was a really nasty job to be given. Usually it was a punishment assignment, whose meaning is preserved in the saying “you’ll have the Devil to pay”

Nowadays it has a similar meaning of “between a rock and a hard place”, i.e. being placed in an impossible situation.

For Meetal the kobold, sent to Earth by his master, a former ruler of the Mystical Realms believed by others to be long dead, he has now been placed in an invidious position.

Meetal is on a quest to pass a message offering a deal to the humans to rid themselves of the rule of the Lady High Troll to a human called Mr Vee. He had been told that this human was in a city called New York, but when he got there with the help of a human trucker called Howard; found that this Mr Vee had moved further north.

To add to his woes, a drow is seeking him out after his entrance in to the world of humans was detected. Thanks to a treacherous gnome this drow knows who he is and is using special magic to try and hunt him down, by invading his dreams should Meetal try to sleep…

+ + +

Meetal looked up the human called Howard, “I was just told he was last seen in New York” he whined, “The elf never said how long ago that was, I’m so sorry”

“We’ll find him Meetal” the human called Howard insisted, “We have to”

Meetal looked down at the floor again, and then took out his talisman of location and moved it around so that it glowed green.

“See” the human called Howard insisted, “He’s still alive, we just have to drive north until we find him”
“But what if I fall asleep?” Meetal asked

“We will just have to make sure you are stocked up with coffee” the human replied
“Coffee?” Meetal asked

“It’s something we drink if we need to stay up late” the human explained
“Is it cold?” Meetal asked, thinking of the drinks called sodas that this human called Howard had bought for him.
“It can be served that way, but usually it is served hot” the human answered further and then added “Now we better get moving since we are up against the clock”

Meetal went “huh?” and looked at the human with a confused expression

“That means we don’t have much time” the Human said to Meetal

The human then went into the bathroom and started using the facility he called a shower to wash himself. This shower thing seemed to work with what sounded like artificial rain. Meanwhile Meetal got his items together and put on the cloak of invisibility, although he did not yet do it up.

Meetal then started wondering, was it fair to put the life of this human at risk by staying with him? But then how could he find this elusive Mr Vee without transport, especially if the next time he fell asleep the drow could intercept him.

While the kobold was contemplating this, suddenly the box with the glass front suddenly burst into life.

Meetal scrambled away from it, it was obviously enchanted and under the power of the drow. Meetal was unable to help himself giving a small yelp.

“What’s the matter with you?” The human called Howard said as he came into the main part of the room with just a towel around his middle and carrying a small long black box.

Meetal pointed at the box with the glass front in terror, “It ca-ca came on all by itself” Meetal forced out, “The drow must have found us”

“Sorry about that Meetal” the human said, “After you fell asleep last night I found the remote for the TV. I just thought I would put it on for the weather and road reports”

“It’s not magic?” Meetal asked quizzically

“Not really” the human responded, “I think it works on infra-red” he added showing Meetal the long black box. Meetal noticed it had various coloured button on it.

The human stood there while some image of a man talked about how the weather would be and then started discussing the state of the various roads around the local area. Predictably a lot of these reports were how New York City was still blocked, because of the results of “Her imperial majesty’s justified instrument of power” as the human on the glass screen described it.

“Why don’t you just say nuke” the human called Howard shouted at the curious box with the glass front.

Meetal held his tongue; it was obvious that these humans whose images were being put on this glass screen had to watch their words for fear of upsetting their new overlords.

After gleaning the information he wanted the human then pointed the small box in his hand at this strange box with a glass front and once again it fell dark and silent.

The human called Howard then got dressed and got Meetal to do up his cloak of invisibility so they could go outside.

Meetal then followed the human as he left the front door and closed it. He then went to the door where he had picked the keys up the night before, dropped off the keys and then headed for his horseless carriage.

After checking that it was safe to do so, Meetal undid his cloak of invisibility so the human called Howard could see him to lift him up into the front part of his enormous horseless carriage. Meetal then retreated to the small room behind the curtain, while the human got in.

“I’m going to see if I can get a load going up north” the human called out to Meetal as he started up the horseless carriage.

It was obvious that both of them would be sacrificing the break of day meal in order to travel early

Meetal sat in the semi gloom behind the curtain, now terrified of falling asleep, in case the drow with the aid of the gnome found him. It was bad enough that he had discovered that he was travelling north and not south. All they had to do was to track down those who were driving these horseless carriages, who were headed north from that city called Washington DC. For all Meetal knew, he was riding in the only one headed north and it was a only matter of time before they tracked him down.

After quite a time the horseless carriage arrived at some large port which seemed to go on forever. It was far bigger than Faldon, which Meetal had thought a decent size harbour, especially as Faldon was the major port for those travelling to and from the Far Islands on his world.

There was also row upon Row of giant metal boxes, the likes Meetal could never have imagined. Also there were gigantic cranes that were lifting these giant metal boxes off of huge ships, the likes of Meetal had never seen before. Even the biggest of the stone giants would be dwarfed by them.

In the distance Meetal spotted a drow and a bugbear, along side some other humans. All of them had strange hats on that looked like they were made of some hard material.

“I’m going to see what load they want me to haul and try and get one going north” the human called Howard told Meetal.

“What about the drow?” Meetal asked, “They know I came north”
“It’s a chance we’ll just have to take” the human replied, before opening the door and climbing out.

Meetal then sat on the bed in the small room behind the curtain in the horseless carriage and waited. That was all he could do, it was too dangerous to venture outside.

Meetal took out the talisman of location again and held it up so first it glowed yellow and then green. Why did his master not have a ring of teleportation that would have been so much easier?

Meetal then lay back against the wall of the small bed chamber listening to the sounds of the port outside. They were loud and strange, but this only put him in mind of what he should have done in that port town of Faldon

If only he could roll back time and do what needed to be done, then the Sacred Law would not have been so violated.

But No! Meetal kept going over this old ground, there were too many Ghetto trolls and bugbears with her that night, not to mention that drow consort, and besides his mission then was not there to assassinate her, but to report back on her to his master.

But she was consorting with drow and bugbears as well as being a Ghetto troll it was obvious she was up to no good, so he should have acted

“But I never knew she was going to violate the Sacred Law” Meetal spoke back to the accusation.

Then to his horror, he was no longer in the horseless carriage, he was in a dark space. Meetal brought his left arm to his mouth to bite it again; he had to wake himself up.

“Don’t do that” screeched a squeaky voice, as what looked like a pixie materialised in front of him.

“No, No” Meetal whimpered, “You’re that gnome and that drow”

“No we are not” the voice squeaked, “I would have teleported in to speak to you but the Voice of Hope said it was not safe. The drow are looking for us and they may detect us if we show up in a populated area”
“What would a pixie want with a kobold” Meetal asked with scepticism in his voice.

Meetal opened his mouth and thrust his forearm in to give himself a really big bite.

“We know where Mr Vee is” the figure looking like a pixie shouted.

Meetal pulled his arm away, “How can you?” he asked, then he realised, the gnome might be stalling for time. He tried to reinsert his arm to his mouth, but found himself paralysed.

Maybe if he bit his tongue?

Just then he found he was unable to move his mouth, the drow had won! All was lost!

“We don’t want you hurting yourself” the figure looking like a pixie told him, “and we understand your disbelief. I can not belief this situation either, that a pixie and a kobold are on the same side in our opposition to the Lady High Troll”

Meetal was desperate to wake himself up, this could be a pixie, but then it could be a clever ruse, to stop him from hurting himself to escape this drow’s dark space magic.

“We know this Mr Vee you seek” the figure looking like a pixies went on, “As soon as you told the Voice of Hope, we searched for him ourselves”

“So” Meetal said through gritted teeth, “You invaded his dreams”

“No we could not” the figure looking like a pixie replied, “He has a protection amulet, so we found our way in through another. One who was once one of our world and also one of this world, but they became totally one of this world. We thought they had been slain by the works of Vabalvich and the Lady High Troll, but they still live. We went in through them and they told us where Mr Vee is as they are with him”

“How do I know you are not working for that abomination” Meetal got out.

“You don’t” the figure looking like a pixie squeaked, “You will just have to trust us” he added.

The figure of the pixie then turned round to speak to someone that Meetal could not see and then turned back to him, “Look for Mr Vee in a place called New Hampshire. He was making for a town there called Rochester”

Then the figure of the pixie squeaked, “Got to go” and promptly vanished

Meetal suddenly opened his eyes, as he was being physically shaken by the human known as Howard.

“Thank G_d for that” the human told him your awake, “Did you see the gnome?” he asked with a note of concern.

Meetal felt woozy and disoriented.

The human climbed in and sat opposite Meetal.

“I’m sorry Mr Howard” Meetal whimpered, “I did not mean to fall asleep”
“Stuck inside here its no wonder you did” The human called Howard replied, “Since that drow has not showed up yet, it looks like we got away with it”

“I was on a dark space” Meetal admitted.
“What did you see?” the human asked, “The gnome or the leprechaun?”

Meetal shook his head, “It was appeared to be a pixie Mr Howard. A pixie and he said that Mr Vee was in a place called New Hampshire heading for a town called Rochester”

The human called Howard blew through his teeth, “Now that would make sense, direction wise”

“What about your load?” Meetal asked
“I managed to bribe an official to give me a load to take to Vermont” the human called Howard replied, “A slight detour will not be that suspicious. I just have to drive over and collect the load.

“Will it take long to load up?” Meetal asked.
The human called Howard shook his head, “This is a container truck. They just unhook the empty container and swap it for a full one”

Meetal frowned and remembered the enormous cranes he had seen on arrival.

The human called Howard then got into his seat and started up the horseless carriage.

Meetal continued to hide behind the curtain at the back.

It seemed to take ages to Meetal as they stopped and he then heard the sounds of the big metal box at the back being unhooked and then the sound of the giant crane as it removed the large empty metal box.

Meetal then tried to hold his breath as the gigantic crane loaded the full metal box onto this horseless carriage. Meetal kept imagining that the box would slip and come crashing down on him. But it didn’t. There was the loud sound as it was placed on the horseless carriage and then there were the sounds as it was obviously secured. Compared to how long it would take to unload a ship and load up wagons back on his world, it was surprisingly quick.

Then the human called Howard announced that they were getting underway and the horseless carriage started driving through and away from this enormous port.

“We will be driving through Jersey City” the Human called Howard called back to Meetal, “And we will be getting back onto interstate ninety five at Fort Lee, that way we will bypass most of the blast zone where New York was nuked”

After a while Meetal crept forward and into his seat on the human’s right side. The Human called Howard then passed him some strange hat, the human called a baseball hat. He suggested that it might hide Meetal’s face, so people might just think that Meetal was a human child riding with their father.

Meetal put it on his head and looked out the side window across an enormous river the human called Howard said was the Hudson River.

Across the river Meetal could see closer up the devastation wrought by one of that accursed Ghetto troll’s firestorms, although the humans had been making valiant attempts to clean it up, it would take many cycles for such a task to be accomplished from what Meetal could see.

As Meetal saw it all, again his mind just kept going back to that one night in the Port of Faldon, when with the thrust of a dagger into a troll’s heart he could have saved so many lives., but he had just observed from the shadows

The human called Howard manoeuvred the giant horseless carriage as this very long road he called an interstate started to almost turn back on itself as they started to head towards the large river. After a while, the human suggested that Meetal climb into the back behind the curtain, as they were coming across something he called toll booths. Meetal clambered into the back and peeked out from behind the curtain to see a number of arches across the road, before they got onto the bridge. Meetal watched as the human passed what appeared to be some pieces of paper and coins to another human. Then they were free to drive across the bridge. This Meetal could understand as even on his world there were some who claimed the right to bridges over streams, rivers and gullies and exacted a toll out of all who would cross them. Maybe humans were not so different.

And what a bridge it was! This bridge was bigger than any bridge Meetal had ever seen on his world. For a start it had a massive arch at the beginning of it.

As they were crossing the bridge Meetal climbed back into his seat, as the Human called Howard assured him that that was the only toll bridge they would have to cross

The human called Howard said that the bridge used to be called the George Washington Bridge, but had been renamed the Lady Geerol Bridge in honour of the Lady High Troll’s late mother.

The large road, the human still said was part of Interstate ninety five then went passed an area with many buildings, some still showing signs of damage from the firestorm that had been sent to this city.

The human called Howard said they were passing an area called the Bronx and after that they would go along the Bruckner Expressway and then turn north, as that was the direction this expressway turned.

Meetal just gazed at the large amount of buildings and the destruction in the distance.

Finally they turned north and were on their way up towards this place called New Hampshire, where Mr Vee supposedly was.

All the while, as they drove along this road, Meetal saw buildings either side of the road.

At a place called New Rochelle, the human called Howard brought the horseless carriage to a stop at a place he called a diner, and went in and got “take out” which consisted of a bag of something called “Burger and fries” and this time instead of the sodas, he brought back two cups with lids of a hot liquid he called coffee.

Meetal was now used to the burger and fries from the day before, but the coffee was new. He sniffed it and tried to drink some of it.

He spat it out! – It was hot

“Sorry Meetal” the human apologised, “I should have warned you about that. By the way I brought some milks if you want any”

“Milk?” Meetal queried, “Do you still drink milk? I would have though you would have been weaned off of that by now?”

The human called Howard gave a small laugh, “I think this is cow’s milk, not human milk. We humans drink quite a lot of it”

Meetal looked at him quizzically and said, “Oh really”

The human took from the bag a small pot, made of strange white material that seemed to bend as if it were a small leather sack, and peeled some metal top off of it. Then he deposited the contents in his cup of the liquid called coffee.

“Would you like to try some Meetal?” the human asked.
“Ok” Meetal said sceptically
The human then opened one of those small pots and emptied it into Meetal’s cup. From what he could feel it did not seem to cool it much.

“Do you want another milk?” the human then asked
Meetal just nodded to be polite, and another small pot of this milk was added to his coffee.

By now the coffee had ceased to be a black liquid and was now dark brown in colour.

“Sugar?” the human then asked

Meetal had no idea what that was, but thought best to play along and accept what appeared to be white crystals held in small twists of paper.

Meetal observed that his human travelling companion was having little difficulty consuming the hot liquid, and so he tried again, this time blowing on it gently and sipping only a small bit.

It tasted bitter!

“Will this help me stay awake?” Meetal asked
“Well I hope that that’s at least is its saving grace” the human called Howard replied, “I’ve tasted worse, but not by much”

So even this human found this drink bitter, maybe it was like some kind of potion of healing they had on Meetal’s world back home, some of those tasted awful.

After the brief meal, they were off on the road again and the human called Howard told Meetal that after a place called New Haven they would be changing to another big road called Interstate Ninety One, and that hopefully by dark they might hit the state border of New Hampshire.

All Meetal felt he could do was nod and say thank you, and then secretly hope that there were no more check points

After they had been driving for a while they reached New Haven, which like his Port Faldon was on the coast. Then they changed to Interstate Ninety One and headed inland. By now there were fewer buildings on either side of the road, as it appeared to go through semi wilderness areas from Meetal’s perspective. All the time they either listened to what the human called music, which was unlike anything Meetal had ever heard of or they would talk about their respective worlds.

Meetal was of course careful with what he said as he could sense in this human a fair degree of decency and some of the things he had had to do during the glory days when his master ruled the Mystical Realms, which were expedient at the time, might by some seem underhand and unethical. Even though the human had seemed to understand and had referenced similar situations on this world, Meetal was worried about saying something that might anger him and jeopardise his ride.

Meetal therefore let the human do most of the talking, and where possible described various aspects of his world and how the various races, co-existed.

One aspect of his world that this human called Howard found fascinating was how it had two suns and four moons. To Meetal this was normal, for him he found it disconcerting that the world of the humans only had one sun to light and warm it and only one moon to light the night sky.

How could humans live like this on a world so inadequately provisioned?

As the horseless carriage drove though leagues of wilderness, some of it farmed, they started driving through more areas where there were more buildings of sort. Some time after the middle of the day, the Human called Howard said they were soon passing by a place called Bradley, and that it once had what he called a thriving airport.

Meetal had asked what an airport was to which the human had said it was where they caught things called aeroplanes to travel to other places, before his world was conquered.

Meetal asked if they were like his horseless, but the human wistfully said that there were some kind of flying machines that took humans and cargo long distances.

“Why do they not fly now?” Meetal asked

The human called Howard then explained how that it had been part of the strategy of the drow consort and the Lady High Troll to release onto his world the dreaded gremlins, which prevented all aircraft from flying.

Meetal opened his eyes wide when he heard this and said “Gremlins?”
“You know about them?” the human asked

Meetal nodded, “My master worked with the leprechauns who had treaty with that country you call Ireland to capture them the last time they came to your world. They were never to be released because they feed on the fear of those who are about to die and can not prevent it”

“Well those Es Oh Bees” the human said with anger, “They released them, and first they used them to kill our president and then they used them to deny us air-superiority”

“So nobody can use these aeroplanes you speak of” Meetal asked
“Only those under drow control as they have the only access to amulets against gremlins” the human replied, “For the most part it is now only us truckers who are allowed to travel any distance as they need us to keep this world they stole from us functioning”

“I am really sorry Mr Howard” Meetal apologised

At that point the horseless carriage drove over another large bridge over a wide river

“You’re not to blame” the human called Howard told Meetal, “Those thugs that did this to our world they are the ones to blame for all this”

Meetal closed his eyes and without realising it uttered the words that persisted to haunt him, ”But I could have prevented all this”

“What do you mean by that?” the human called Howard suddenly asked

Meetal shook his head and put his hands over his eyes, “I’m so sorry Mr Howard” he sobbed, “Some cycles of our moons ago I had told my master I had seen a new troll who might challenge those who took over after my master was deposed” he began,
“Was this the Lady High Troll?” the human called Howard asked

Meetal nodded, “Master sent me back to find out her name and who she was and I did just what my master asked me to. Mr Howard, I was in the same tavern as her when I saw that she was cavorting that wretched drow consort and worse of all Ghetto trolls. She was even consorting with bugbears of all things. Oh Mr Howard, I was in the same tavern as her as she spoke to bugbears and drow, while other trolls from the Ghetto clan were disembarking their ships to join the others that were in that tavern that night. I was there and I failed to try and kill her with that dagger that Mr Travers took from me and gave to you. I’m so sorry Mr Howard, I failed to kill her and because of my cowardice your family…”

Meetal could not continue for a moment, then he recovered composure slightly “I will understand if you wish no more to help me or if you wish to take vengeance on me.” Meetal told the human, “I owe you a blood debt I can not pay”

“That’s bull!” the human called Howard said angrily, “Meetal I can’t believe that you hold yourself responsible for the whole of Earth being conquered because you did not kill this one troll?”

“But I failed you all and I am so sorry” Meetal sobbed, “I know I have no right Mr Howard but when you kill me please make it swift”

The human brought the horseless carriage to a halt.

“This is it” Meetal thought, “He will surely kill me now, and I thoroughly deserve it”

“Meetal” the human began, “Was she on her own?”

Meetal shook his head

“So if you had tried to attack her” The human called Howard asked, “Would you have been able to get to her”

“I don’t know Mr Howard” Meetal replied, “If I could have sneaked up to her past the bugbears”
“Wouldn’t the drow have spotted you?” the human asked
“They hardly miss anything” Meetal replied, “I was so surprised how you managed to deceive that drow yesterday”

“Ok Meetal, did you know she was going to attack Earth?”

Meetal shook his head, “I swear Mr Howard, Master and I had no idea, I saw she had brought a horseless carriage with metal cylinders but I knew not what they were. I was just hoping they were just going to depose those who had deposed my master”

“Why would you want that?”
“Because Mr Howard they were not keeping law and order as efficiently as my master did. There were occasional riots between some of the different races from time to time. My master would never have tolerated that”

“Anyway” the human called Howard cut in, “So you didn’t know what she was going to do”
“No sir”
“And if you had tried to attack this troll in a crowded tavern there was a good chance you would have been stopped and possibly killed”
“But I should have tried Mr Howard” Meetal insisted, “I should have tried”
“Did your master tell you to kill her?” the human asked

Meetal shook his head, “No Mr Howard, he just sent me there to find out who she was?”

“Meetal look at it this way” the human began, “If you had tried to attack this troll, they would have killed you and they still would have attacked Earth”

“But I did not try” Meetal said as he dropped his head in shame as tears filled his eyes.

“And what good would that have been” the human called Howard said quietly, “If you had you would not be here to find this Mr Vee to try and free both our worlds from the Lady High Troll”

“But your family?” Meetal asked looking up at the human as tears rolled down his snout.

“I could blame myself for their deaths” the human responded, “My wife and child wanted to come with me as I was hauling over to Alaska but I told them I would loose too much time if I diverted to Detroit to pick them up, so I asked them to stay there until I got back. I play this over and over again Meetal, if I had not been so eager to deliver my load in on time and if I had diverted, then possibly they would never have died when Detroit was nuked”

“But this hurts so much” Meetal sobbed, “When I saw all that destruction, pictures of those missing in Washington DC on wooden boards and I just kept asking why did I not kill her when I had the chance”

“I know Meetal” the human called Howard sighed, “We can’t bring them back, I mean, if I had diverted, whose to say that I would not have been caught in the blast myself, if I look at the time scales, I could have been and where would you be”

“Still not far from that city Washington DC” Meetal ventured

“Exactly Meetal. Meetal there are times in life when we wish we could have done things differently, and times we wish we could turn back time and change things”
“But…” Meetal tried to say before he was interrupted.
“We can’t Meetal. You may have met her in that tavern, but even though it may not seem like it now, you did the right thing. Meetal, by the sound of it you would not have stopped her”

“But I should have tried” Meetal insisted
“And I should have diverted to Detroit, but where would that have got us. We never started this war, maybe we were spared so we could help take the war back to those two and free our two worlds”

Meetal just looked at the human called Howard in silence, he was right, Meetal even with his abilities to move in shadows would never have stood a chance of getting near that accursed Ghetto troll, let alone getting away.

“You Meetal” the human called Howard then told him, “Are nothing like the kobolds we fought in that Dungeons and Dragons game”

Meetal looked at him in confusion.

“Kobolds were never expected to have consciences” the human replied, “And I think I can trust you with this” he added as he retrieved from the ceiling of the horseless carriage Meetal’s dagger and handed it to him.

“Thank you” Meetal said, still choked with the emotion of his feelings of guilt.

The human called Howard then started his truck up again, “Ok Meetal, we’ve got a job to do” he said gruffly and for a while they drove in silence.

It was about the time of day when this strange world’s solitary sun was low in the sky that the human called Howard announced they were crossing the state border between Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Meetal wondered if this meant that there would be a checkpoint, like they had on his world, when one country had a land border with another along a main road, usually in order to raise money for taxes.

But when they got there it seemed a fairly non descript piece of road, with forest on either side, and no checkpoints or border guards.

“I had hoped we would have got to the New Hampshire border before dark” the human called Howard observed as they drove past this rather arbitrary border, “We spent too much time at that dock getting the new load”
“What do I do?” Meetal whined, “As soon as I sleep the drow could be on to me”

“Do you kobolds have the ability to go for long periods without sleeping?” the human asked.

Meetal shook his head then suggested that perhaps they should part company so at least the human might not suffer if the drow came in the night.

“No way!” the human exclaimed, “We will find a way”

Meetal was silent, the night was falling and the drow and the gnome would be using a dark space to find him while he slept. Whoever that leprechaun or pixie was, assuming they were not part of some elaborate drow deception, they could not be relied upon to block the drow’s dark space search. Even if they did, as the figure looking like a leprechaun said it would tip the drow off to the rest of the resistance.

The horseless carriage drove past another forest through a settlement called Springfield. Then the human pulled off of the main road and head for a place he called Broad Street Truck Stop and parked the horseless carriage.

“You will need that invisibility cloak” the human told Meetal, “For when we go to that hotel” he added pointing to a several story white building in the failing light.

Obediently Meetal followed the instructions and made sure the cloak was on, but not done up so the human could see him to lift him out of the horseless carriage. Then Meetal did the cloak up and became invisible.

As they were walking across a large area that seemed like some kind of endless paving, he heard something like a banshee approaching.

Had they been unleashed on this world as well as the gremlins?

But no, it was a smaller horseless carriage, with two humans inside, both in a uniform of sorts. This horseless carriage had a small bar on top with lights, and was making the banshee sound..

The horseless carriage came to a stop just in front of the human called Howard, and the two humans inside got out of the horseless carriage to confront the human called Howard.

“Are you Howard Brown?” One of these humans asked
“Whose asking?” the human called Howard replied in an irritated manner
“We are” the first human responded.
“That your truck sir” the other human chipped in
“Why?” the human called Howard asked
“We have a warrant to search it and a warrant for your arrest on suspicion of consorting with an enemy of the Lady High Troll” the first human answered, “Now assume the position”

Meetal had no idea what “assume the position meant” but it was obvious that his travelling companion did as the human called Howard placed both hands on the front of this other horseless carriage, while the other humans ran their hands down him obviously looking for concealed weapons.

Meetal was glad he had his dagger back, if they had found that, all would be lost

The two other humans took out two metal bracelets that were joined together and used them to restrain his travelling companion’s hands behind his back. Then while one of these new humans opened the back door of the small horseless carriage on its left side, the other human forced his travelling companion in. and then the door was shut.

Meetal was in a quandary, and in a split second decided to quickly jump in to this horseless carriage through one of the open front doors, and then he scrambled between the two front seats, and lodged himself behind the front seat on the horseless carriage’s right side.

“Meetal” the human called Howard whispered
“Sssh” Meetal replied.

His interjection must have worked as his travelling companion refrained from further talking to him

The two of them watched as one of the other humans in uniform went up to the front of the horseless carriage driven by the human called Howard and opened it.

It was lucky that Meetal kept his back pack with him at all times, they should not find evidence he was there

Meetal did his best to try and see what this human was doing in that horseless carriage, and after a while they emerged shaking their head. They had found nothing

Then this other human walked towards the back of the large horseless carriage

“Hey” the human called Howard shouted, “That’s a sealed container on the orders of Consort Vabalavich”

The light was fading fast now, how long would it take to search the giant metal box on that horseless carriage Meetal wondered. To Meetal’s surprise the human just returned also saying something about an imperial seal. Obviously something brought in by that infernal drow.

The two other humans returned and got into the front seats of the horseless carriage and closed the doors.

“What’s going on?” the human called Howard demanded to know

“A definite enemy of the Lady High Troll was spotted at a truck stop just north of DC where you were at” the human in the left front seat replied.
“I know” the human called Howard told them, “I have already been asked this by a drow just south of New Jersey”

“And you told them he may have gone south and yet the imperial drow have established he travelled north, just like you have”

“Just like many others from that truck stop” the human called Howard objected.

“And they will be picked up too I imagine” the human in the front left seat replied, “Meanwhile we have to take you in while they bring in a drow interrogator to do their mind probe mojo” and with that he started this small horseless carriage.

“Mind Probe?” Meetal thought, “If they have a trained telepathic drow they will know I have been with this human for certain”

Meetal found his hand moving to his dagger. He stopped himself and felt ashamed for this instinctive reaction.

Then he realised, he had few choices to evade detection, and one of them would be to kill his travelling companion and then if possible these two other humans, but that would alert the drow for sure as to where he was, plus he was still along way from this place called Rochester in New Hampshire and this Mr Vee, the goal of his quest.

As this horseless carriage drove to who knows where, to meet the drow interrogator what was Meetal to do?

To be continued