Tenku Knights Go Go Go!
The Tenku Knights were not having a good day. Two days out from the City of Algernon, they realized that they were wandering, with little idea of where they were or where they needed to go.
Having left the forest behind that morning, noon found them lost in a wasteland of blackened tree stumps, the ground covered with ash and the sun beating savagely down on their heads. Mostly, they blamed Golf.
“Thees eez your foault!” cried Sakura Legend,
resting against a stump and fetchingly rubbing her tired feet. One limp
strand of her normally-bouncy hair drooped in front of her eyes. “Thees
whole scenario might only be a very compleecated game, but eet steel makes
my feet hurt!”
The rest of the Knights sighed. In spite of all they’d been through,
Sakura still thought they were in the carnival, playing a virtual reality
game. It was an eccentricity they’d all learned to accept, even
when it seemed to border on psychosis.
“Now, Sakura,” Tank said, sweat dripping from his forehead, “I’m sure Golf had a good reason to bring us out into the wilderness without a map. Right, Golf?”
Golf, a slight sheen of perspiration forming on his brow, looked around at his friends dejectedly. It hadn’t seemed so bad when they were lost in the forest. He thought he’d known where they were going then. But then they came upon this clear-cut area, and all of a sudden things didn’t seem so easy anymore.
Sakura was right. He had no idea how to lead a wilderness expedition. He had done so well dealing with the king and his advisors that he thought he could lead the team through anything, but maybe it was time to admit that he was wrong.
“Hey, guys! Look over here!” Shiba Batsu was standing atop a nearby rise, peering off to the west.
Harvey, whose track experience left him faring a bit better than the others, ran to join Shiba, his feet leaving a trail of dust behind him. “Well, will you look at that. Civilization!”
Sakura, perspiring madly, struggled daintily to the summit. “Hmph! You may call a tin-roofed shack ‘ceeveelization’ in America, Harvey, but in France we call it ‘squalor.’”
“Call it what you want,” Shiba said, “but I call it the first sign of life we’ve seen since we left Algernon.” He pointed towards the dilapidated wooden outpost with his ever-present bat. “I say we check that thing out.”
The hulking Tank huffed his way to the top, his jersey soaked with sweat. “Wow! It is a shack! What do you say, Golf? Should we go?”
But Golf was lost in thought, his doubts forgotten. “Did somebody say ‘tin roof’?” He peered intently at the building in question. “Look at that. That’s corrugated tin. This society doesn’t know how to make sheets of corrugated tin. They were still using grass roofs in Algernon!”
“What are you saying?” Shiba asked, annoyed.
“I’m saying that these people shouldn’t have the technology to make that roof. And now that I’m thinking about it, I wouldn’t have expected to see such a large and thorough logging operation here, either. This is practically a slash-and-burn operation! That kind of technique indicates a great need for a large amount of wood, gathered quickly. And that kind of need for fast lumber says that they’re building something on a large scale, which also indicates some kind of technological advancement. And technology, now that we’re staring it in the face, makes me think of one thing: it makes me think of home.”
Sakura blinked. “Oooo! A clue! Thees could be our portal to the next level of the game, could it not?”
Golf rolled his eyes. Sometimes, it was hard to believe that she was a genius. “You could look at it that way, I suppose. Let’s go.” And so the Tenku Knights began their next great adventure...
