Perla Vardo: The Ragnarok Chronicles (Part Nine)

"What happened, Tu? What in the world happened? That couldn't if been Lucy, could it?" asked Perla, anxiously.

"I don't know for sure Perla, but there a few things that point one way and the other. She referred to the forest as 'Ethantropia', even though its real name is 'Sparrow Hollow'. I thought that it was an atrocious name, so I simply call it 'Ethantropia' now. It's possible that our enemies heard about it, but unlikely. As for her cryptic speaking, it is possible that it was a plot to confuse us. If she WAS a fake, and they somehow replicated her, it means that we have a much more dangerous foe than we had previously thought."

Perla had nothing to say, as was often the case. Tu's personality was such that he enjoyed making long speeches; droning on, and on, and on. Perla, on the other hand, was more quiet. He had matured a lot since living in the house; he was no longer a prankster, whose every moment was focused on entertainment, and getting a cheap laugh.

"You see Perla" started Tu, on yet another long speech "Society, technology, and culture have all receded. There are some humans about, but almost the only ones that have survived thus far are the troglodytes, secluded from the rest of their race. The cities were wiped out quickly, and easily. All conventional weaponry is useless. If we do encounter any humans on the way to Ethantropia, they will almost certainly have a savage demeanor, and it's possible that they could be violent."

"Tu, how in the world would you know all this? You've been with us the entire time!" said Perla.

"Most of this has been foretold in Icelandic myths. The rest I could piece together by what we have seen do far."

Perla was not so certain about that, but he decided that now would not be a good time for a discussion, so he saved Tu the trouble of changing the topic. "Tu" he asked "just how much that has happened so far come from Norse mythology?"

"Well Perla, bits and pieces. The flames are very much true to it, as well as those wolves that Lucy talked about. Not to mention frost giants, even though I have only seen one, and it was from very far away. There hasn't been a hard winter yet, even though that was the first thing that happened in the old myths. A central part of them, of course, were the gods. Although I don't see any Odins, Heimdalls, Lokis, or Thors, it is possible that they are being represented by beings that we are unaware of."

His thirst for knowledge temporarily sated, Perla and Tu kept on walking, being careful to skirt around the multiple dehydrated trees that had fallen and blocked the path.

Meanwhile, Radunk decided to imitate a frog. With each leap, he would say one word, repeating the same sentence over and over again "Ru Pa Glomp, Ru Pa Glomp, Ru Pa Glomp..." Every now and then he would say "Ru Pa" as one word, but it hardly mattered. Eventually, Radunk got bored of simply hopping about, so he tried to play leap frog. He leaped forward, and waited for someone to leap over him, and continue the game. Sadly, this was never to be. After a few minutes, even someone as dense in the head as Radunk could see that no one was coming. Not dismayed a bit, Radunk resigned to play leap frog with himself. The only that Radunk could accomplish this, was by doing a flip. To his surprise, he did a perfect one, with impeccable form. Although this was quite cool, he immediately got dizzy, and went back to walking normally.

Perla looked towards the horizon. For a fraction of a second, the red sky looked blue again, with white, fluffy clouds, and white doves flying in pairs. Truthfully, it was the kind of scene that made Perla sick to his stomach. Still, it was refreshing from the sky's current appearance. Of course, the entire time the sky had been red. Perla must of just had seen an optical illusion, or a mirage. Right?