TERRITORY WARS: The Royal Ballads (On Hold)

CHAPTER 5: THE DISCOVERER

CHAPTER 5: THE DISCOVERER

"Help me understand this, Edwin. you spent our last money on a treasure map," said Aberford Crowbart, a tawdry charmer of women who always had his shirt unbottened. His hair was as wild as his character and he had the tendency to swear at every little occurrence.

"Yes," Edwin Lomen said casually, a comely young man with curly hair as black as raven's wings.
His eyes were a scarlet brown.

"Fucking Jackbulls, Edwin. Why?!"

Edwin was studying the map; a brown parchment claimed to be made from vellum when indeed it looked
as if it had been torn from a hag's cloth. He looked up from it and said, "This is an adventure Aberford, Besides we need money, don't we? all we need to do is follow this map."

Aberford stared at him as if he were mad, "We could have had breakfast with five silver casters. Now we're all going to have nothing but cocks to eat. The cocks that dangle."

Edwin smiled wanly at him and clasped him on the shoulder, "Do not despair Aberford. we are closer now to treasures than ever," he looked behind him, "Ronald, you need to hurry up."

Ronald a tawny haired boy of a man with eyes blue as ice said, "Master, these bags are not easy to carry."
"Very well then, Aberford, help him out."

Aberford stared at Edwin and then Ronald, "Fuck No. The only bags Im carrying here will be bags full of hidden treasures."

Edwin stopped,"There."

All three men had walked far into a field of grasses and little trees. On Edwin's orders, they stopped to look at a cliff which sloped
from the fields in a bed of rocks down into the abyss below.

"Thats it," Aberford gave an exasperated sigh, "A good waste of five silver casters. Hear that Edwin, my belly shows its dissapointment you by growling."

"Master, what do we do now?" asked Ronald who had sat on the grass with three heavy bags slumped unto the ground.

Edwin reached into his jacket and pulled out his scribble note. He drew and wrote into his note for a while and then, "One of us has to go down the cliff."

"He's completely lost it, hasnt he?" Aberford said to Ronald, "I feared this day would come. Edwin, Im afraid to say this but you have run mad."

Edwin  walked to the edge where the field started to slope and watched it, "Its down there alright. Treasure. Its down that cliff Aberford."

"How do we get down that cliff then?" asked Ronald, "We're not cliff- hangers."

Edwin laughed at the joke and showed him the drawing in his note, "We build."

Moments later Edwin was laughing hysterically, "This is my best invention yet Aberford."

"Yeah," said Aberford doubtedly, "but what the fuck is it?"

"I call it the cliff- hanger."

"How un-original Edwin," said Aberford, "I prefer Barrel tumbler."

Edwin revised his drawings again, "Components Aber, a thing inside another."

With tools from the bags Ronald carried and planks from tree branches, Edwin had constructed a barrel big enough to accomodate a small man. Ronald.

"Edwin, Im not so sure this would work." Strapped to Ronald's back was a kite made out of thick clothes. It was folded and
strapped from his shoulders, "What if I crack my skull. Look at those rocks!"

Aberford looked down from they all stood into the bumpy slope, "Yeah Ronald, those rocks are enormous. Almost as big as the
breasts of that ugly wench at the night pub"