Will Ye page 3
Going to his dilapidated one-room shack, he gathered up his shield, a double-edged battle ax, a sword, a hunting knife, his bow and arrows, a bottle of water, some dried mushrooms; and began his trek.
Every once in a while, he wondered why it was that the path to the treasure was so contorted and he tried to go straight, attempting to connect one part of the dotted line to the other with a short-cut, but the thickets formed such a wall that he couldn't even cut his way through with his sword. However, he found the going to be rather easy if he kept to the route indicated on the map. Though he kept a very sharp lookout for ambushes, traps, weredragons, and other menaces, he was quite surprised that all he had to do was to keep on walking.
If it was this easy, he thought, why hadn't anyone else succeeded? And why hadn't anyone ever returned from Mount Doom? Perhaps all the demons resided in the cave and they hid there in that darkness, letting the traveler become overconfident with the ease of the journey -- only to pounce on him, once he traversed that portal?
He gripped the handle of his sword more tightly and took on his most fearsome expression. Let them try it! Just let them! They'll learn not to mess with ole Sourjack!
After many, many miles of walking that tortuous path, he came to a clearing -- and ducked for cover, lest those within the cave would spot him.
Yes, there it was: Mount Doom!
And across the top of the entrance, engraved deep within the solid rock in the form of an arch were those words written large again:
Will Ye Mortals Never Learn!
He had better be careful.
He needed to find a way to sneak up on that entrance, but there was only a wide patch of dirt between himself and the mountain, like a moat around a stronghold. And it did go all the way around, because he scouted the area to be certain there was no way to cross the distance without being seen.
Though there were no trees and therefore no branches to cover the sky, there was a very thick mist encompassing the top of Mount Doom, making it nearly as gloomy in the open space as it was deep in the Forest of Malevolence.
Many years of training and battles had taught him that sometimes the boldest approach will take the enemy off-guard enough to give the attacker an advantage, so he ran right up to the entrance of the cave yelling his war cry just as loud as he could, and then darted off to the side behind a large rock. Huddled up against the mountain wall, while trying to breath regularly but in deep breaths, he waited for the startled evil to come out so he could whack it dead with his sword.
