Sid and Arthur's Steampunk Adventure

Part 18

CHAPTER TWO

“Hello,” helloed Sid, “are you there Author?”

“Yes Sid, we are now in chapter two.”

“At least you seem to be getting somewhere then,” he replied, “oh, while I think about it,” he continued, “shouldn’t we have a base somewhere on this planet? Seeing as we are sort of trapped here until the end of the story.”

“That’s a good idea Sid,” agreed Arthur, “well Author?”

“OK then, where do you want a base?” asked I.

“A palace?” mentioned Arthur.

Sid took umbrage to this straight away, “Always wanting the best, you snob.”

“Well I am a king.”

“Hah, battle chieftain more like.”

“So,” I interrupted them before they could continue to argue, “where would you like a base then Sid?”

“In a cave, deep under the earth, that’s filled with steampunkery and safe from the meddling of men.”

“That sounds interesting…” mused I.

“Great,” moaned Arthur, “dwarves craving solace in the great underworld. It’s a bit of a cliché isn’t it?”

“It could be an underground dwarven palace, forgotten since time immemorial?” suggested I.

“Forgotten since the 6th of July 1189?” announced Sid.

“What?” queried I.

“Well, time immemorial means anything before the 6th of July 1189.”

“Oh, I thought it meant thousands of years.”

“Don’t you watch QI?”

(“Of course I do Sid,” whispered I, “that’s where I got it from, and by the way, time immemorial was redefined in 1832 to being 20 or 30 years previously.”)

“OK,” relented Arthur, “an underground palace, but not dwarven please, I’d keep banging my head on the door lintels.”

“Hoo?”

“Me.”

“No silly,” said I, “I meant H double O not WHO.”

“Oh, Hoo,” Arthur thought for a second, “alright, let it be Hoo, at least I won’t bang my head.”

So, immediately, I transported them to their new base, deep in the earth (the earth of Thera, not the earth of earth.)