the adventures of yeti - 6. clorinda

by bofa xesjum

part six of ?

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to begin at the beginning, click here

what kind of universe is this, yeti thinks, where a creature can be put in a box against its will and taken it knows not where? the truck rolls on and on. a little light filters through the crack between the top of the box and its sides and through the air holes. suddenly there is a tremendous crash! the truck has crashed into something - another vehicle, or a wall, or a building, or something. the box yeti is confined in breaks apart. yeti, bruised but able to push aside the pieces of the box. crawls out. many of the other boxes are broken, but not so much that any of the inhabitants can get out of them. he hears shouts from the front of the truck - probably the driver arguing with someone. arms and legs stick out from some of the other boxes. yeti grabs at the nearest box, tries to break it enough to free the occupant. but he can not. save yourself, brother, a voice cries, the driver will be back in a minute. yeti keeps struggling with the box, finally rips off enough of it that the arms and legs in it pop out and fall on the floor of the truck. the arms and legs belong to a beautiful young girl, the most beautiful yeti has ever seen. the girl grabs yeti by his arm and pulls him toward the rear door of the truck. yeti sees the door is bent enough from the side that there is a space they can squeeze through. the girl goes first, so quickly yeti wonders if she was really there, or was just a dream. save yourself, brother, voices call behind him. there is no time to lose. he squeezes through the door, lands on his face on a wet street . it is dark, pitch dark, and raining. there is no sign of the girl. he hears shouting from the front of the truck, but does not stop to listen, and without looking back, begins to run. he runs, and runs. the streets are empty, though he passes buildings - taverns? - with lights burning and shouts and singing and voices coming from them. a couple of times he crashes into things. picking himself up each time, he thinks he hears laughter, but when he looks, he sees no one. finally he can run no more. he collapses in a heap against the side of a building. he sees a light across the street, from what must be a basement or maybe a basement cafe, though no sound comes from it. he falls asleep. * when he awakes he finds himself on a cot in a little room lit by an oil lamp. he has never actually seen an oil lamp before and stares at it. he realizes there are two other people in the room. one of them is the girl he rescued from the broken box in the truck. the other is a man with a drooping black mustache, who is built like the strong man in the circus. the man looks down on yeti and laughs. “so this is your hero, eh, clorinda?” “yes, gonzalvo, this is indeed my hero, “ the girl replies. 7. the castle