Ink Me Insane (Book One)

Twenty Five

There is battle and then there is war. A battle sounds heroic. It's good versus evil, heroes versus villains. Battles were in the tales of old and the stories of legends. War, war is different. War is chaos, blood, and destruction. War is a gritty tragedy of two oppositional sides each with their own reason for fighting. Battles are black and white. Wars are not. Life is described as living in the shades of gray, but nothing is that simple. The world is made of colors just as our perception of it. Good and evil are not that easy to spot. They reside on a spectrum of morality shaped by the culture of society and experiences of the individual. There are those who moralize life in similar colors, the people who believe in the varieties of blues, ally with the different yellows, and disavow the shades of reds. The people who are mixtures: the purples, the greens, or the oranges. As a person changes, so shifts the color wheel through which they examine life. No one paints the world the same. There are no number guides for the moral compass. The world is a kaleidoscope of colors, turning and changing to reflect the individual. One earth viewed billions of different ways, in a rainbow of colors and arrangements. No wonder it's such a chaotic world.

"So," Danny inquired with a quirk of his eyebrow. "How do you want to do this?"

Rene tapped her nose lightly with her index finger and opened her mouth slightly to respond.

He quickly cut her off. "No, we are not doing last nose goes. Ya cheater."

Rene sighed with a frown. "I don't know then. Ah, how about rock, paper, scissors?"

"Interesting, though a bit cliché don't you think. You know, I'm always up for a rousing game of twenty questions."

Declan's head wiped back and forth in disbelief. "What?!"

"Sh..." Rene scolded him, "We are trying to have an important discussion here. Now back to the matter at hand, twenty questions is fun and all but I don't think we have the time to enjoy it properly."

Danny bobbed his head solemnly. "True, too true. I got it!" He raised a finger in the air for a eureka moment. "Odds or evens."

"I suppose that's alright." Rene replied, "You care to call or throw?"

"Excuse me!" A fuming Miss Rachel shrieked at them.

The pair turned to look at the cause of the outburst. Standing front and center of her little army, Miss Rachel was shaking angrily. Her normally prim and proper demeanor was long gone. Wisps of mousy brown hair bounced loose from her bun and her glasses sat skew on a red face. Someone wasn't happy with Rene, not that that was exactly anything new. The guards were all incredibly tense and alert as they stood surrounding them. Gez, a bunch of grown adults scared of some kids...and a dragon. Karo had created a defensive barrier around them. A sea of glittering black scales shone in the sunlight as Karo curled a ceaseless circle. Still Danny and Rene just blinked calmly at all the swirling crazy.

"Miss Rachel, don't you know you shouldn't interrupt someone when they are working. You should wait patiently to be talked to first." Rene echoed the lecture she knew so well. Rene returned her focus to the task at hand. "Now as I was saying, call or throw?"

"I'm in a throwing mood today thank you." Danny grinned putting both his hands behind his back.

Rene became quiet as she focused on him. She started pacing slowly in front of Danny staring him down for any sort of hint. Danny smiled at her widely taunting her. She could do this, she wouldn't lose to Danny. She was the game master. She folded her arms over her chest and in a serious tone announced her choice. "Odd."

"Right and wrong, because while I personally am odd," Danny revealed both hands to show himself once again holding up two middle fingers "my digits are currently not."