In Huck's Hands

Chapter 17: Gone Fishing

I stepped into the musky hallway, the adrenaline still pounding my heart against my chest. Aiko watched me before taking steps in line behind me. President Parva's envoy had made their way quickly back to their silly master in that god-awful jungle office. My brow collected not only sweat but mists somehow manifested by their strange technology that would bring endless happiness to my land's people.

Aiko and I made our way silently back toward our near barren wing housing our country's delegation, through silver portholes I glimpsed crashing dark blue waves yet I did not feel their tremor...the level of ingenuity in this place still baffled me as to the reason why? Why if so many nations across the globe invested their energies into this display? I turned my dreadlocked head to speak to Aiko but she interrupted me unexpectedly. "Why have you been acting like a wounded puppy since our arrival?" A simple question.

I pondered the scrutiny from Aiko as the toxins of the previous conversation played at my mind. "I do not trust my countrymen...I do not trust my cabinet, and it has become clear to me as well that our sister nations may not take arms in our fight for true liberty." The nippy vented air caused me to feel so brittle as we passed by different halls filled with slobbering nobles from the Doigan high clans.

We finally made our route out of their permitted wing of the Eastern Bloc's division of rooms. The breeze of the sea surprised me as much as the amount of people representing their own fatherlands, I started to rest my arms on a small bronze railing that lined the balcony Aiko and I found ourselves looking over. "So plan to collude with foolish sheep and plump wolves?" My pulse rose as the anger in my body nearly took hold. "Get Yana...Now." I barked to her murmur, the clack of her tough boots breaking through the crowd's near-joyous reactions to whatever had caught their attention.

Barely pivoting my neck I was able to finally see what had caused such a stir; The fattened king of Svet had made his presence loudly known for all to engourge on. His large golden beard was perfectly groomed like the rest of the almost glaring armor he chose to wear to the United Coalitian's summit. No doubt the northern borderlands had been completely pilfered of its gold just for small displays like this, my father claimed that the trade of our resources for paper bills was for our prosperity...Bullshit.

I spent some time taking in how extraordinarily enamored the other dignitaries and masses were with this albino wildebeest, there must have been something my sand-riddled mentality did not see clearly on why they acted as if this man and his countrymen have not been an enemy of the whole eastern-bloc for the last thousand years! To my surprise, the Doigan president rushed quickly to greet the king with a low bow. "He'sa really gross old bastard..."

Nearly fracturing my spinal collum at the unprompted voicing of my own sentiment I found my gaze meeting the down-turned pale head of Tella. "You are brave to speak so freely of the mad frigid tyrant," I spoke while offering a click to punctate my dissatisfaction with definitive Buriti flare. "His dress would fit better on a steed rather than attempting to test the tangible strength of such a gorgeous element." Both I and Tella snorted at the remark. He had a funny laugh that squeaked as if unused.

The pale and skinny boy shuffled for a moment before staring off at the assemblage of finely clothed nobles and high-class idiots. "Can I ask you something, Mr. Vasca?" I felt a subtle ting of slight at how common the prefix made me sound..."I am King Vasca, and you may ask me another inquiry." The virtually pink irises flexed for a moment before darting down the hall of our near-abandoned wing of the summit delegation zone. "Sorry...I was told only Sir Dennis was to be addressed as the king--I was just wondering, where is he?"

The portraits of Dennis' plump body being torn to mucky sunder and then squashed like a simple desert yam soup shimmered in my mind. "I will answer you once you answer me something...as frankly as you care to be," I slanted my loftier skeleton to bring myself level with his regard. "What have you heard of me? Huckleberry Vasca?" For a moment he seemed to weigh how to answer the uncomplicated query.