"Heart of the Crown" Chapter 91

[seymoure]

Chapter 91

Baby Steps

Count Gerathio had waged war with his tiny body, and he was winning.

He could now walk with dubious ability.

He felt more like himself as he had used some cloth from the table to make something approaching a toga to wear.

On a footstool near the fireplace he discovered something that made him wish he could jump for joy without falling flat on his face.

It was a pipe. Next to the pipe was a packet of tobacco that was older than Gerathio’s real age. But he didn’t care about its age; he would have smoked wheat straw if it had been the only thing present.

After finishing a pipefull, he instantly threw up all his baby stomach held, which was amazingly large amount. He marveled at the spectrum of colors present.

What had he been eating?

And what parent allowed their child to devour this kind of garbage?

He decided to drop the internal conversation, as he did not want to meet the parents of this child’s body.

Especially a father with such bad taste in tobacco.

His next goal was to exit this room.

He became obsessed with this objective.

He pushed against the room’s only door, but the door was not ajar and did not freely give up its position.

He would have to turn the knob, and that would be a major feat.

He jumped, trying to grab the brass fixture and turn it.

He didn’t even reach it.

He knew he was going to have to brush up against it with his hand and hope to turn it enough to pull the bolt.

He repeated his attempts with increasing ferocity.

His head was so far into the attainment that he hardly noticed the cat-like creature that slammed against the wall across from him.

In fact, it was just at this moment that he was able to make the perfect connection with the door jam.

Slowly the door swung open, offering the strange romance of the next room to the victor of the battle.

Count Gerathio walked into the room with the stride of a military commander arriving in the conquered city.

He stopped in his tracks.

In the middle of the room was a tiny man astride a rat, leading what seemed to be a small army of rodents.

Despite the fact that the man’s face was slightly familiar, the Count’s terror at the advancing vermin caused him to panic and rush back into the other room just as the door was closing.

© 2008 C. Wayne Owens
Chapter 92 is here.