So I was out, hawking my thread, when I serf ran up to me, red in the face and out of breath. "Goumas told me to warn you that Strop and Cen are coming with dodge balls! You need to defend yourself!" He weezed. I pondered this. Why would a serf be in the AMW section? Rare. But, he just joined, so he is probably eager to get some street cred around here. Moreover, I sincerely trust Goumas. So I thanked him, and ran inside.
Inside my mini-library, I ran my hand through records, until I found what I was looking for. Fractals. My vibrant creations are sure to distract a horse and his helper long enough for a escape! So I put the fractals in strategic places, and then, while in my backyard, make a silent escape towards Armor U. They would never expect me there. Foolproof, right?
---
"So this is Dudeguy's thread?" Strop scuffed his hoof on the wall, and a bit of paint flaked off. "Poor guy, guess not everybody can be popular."
"But where's Dudeguy?" Cenere's feet were starting to hurt already, and it was barely ten o'clock in the morning. Plus, the swelling may have subsided somewhat but waves of throbbing pain still ebbed through his entire head.
Strop scratched his head "I dunno, he was sighted here last- ooh, pretty!" His eyes sparkled, reflecting the kaleidoscopes of light whirling away from the inside of the building.
Cenere squinted at it momentarily, before clearing his throat. "Strop... focus..."
But it was too late. Strop was now wandering amidst the fractals, talking to himself. "I see now! The spartan nature of the setup is deliberate, contrasting with and therefore accentuating the purity of the beauty in the geometric permutations of light, thus appealing more directly to our pattern-seeking behaviours..."
Cenere quickly concluded that Dudeguy had never intended to have balls thrown at him in his own thread, and as such, his plan had worked beautifully for he was nowhere in sight.
"Dudeguy is nowhere in sight". Strop took the opportunity to state the bleeding obvious.
"I can see that." Cenere saw no reason to break the trend. "But where is he then?"
"He can't be far," Strop said with an air of certainty that actually made Cen doubt that the statement was actually as obvious after all. "And how do you know that?"
"Because these fractals aren't placed in any organisational order. This looks like a rush job."
Moments like these had Cen feeling both confused and glad at the same time- confused that somebody could be a ditz and a genius at the same time, and glad that he wasn't like that.
"...not to mention the trampled grass and scrub out the back..." Maybe not genius, after all. "If we're fast, we can catch him."
That could only mean more running.
---
Whew. Armor Academy Is up in the distance. But I don't plan to go there. Getting my face out of the blazing mid-day sun, I make a U-turn and head back toward my thread. I plan to tire Cenere out, and It will be a showdown between me and Strop. Hardly tired, I remembered how I got 5 miles in under an hour* At the annual AG road race. On the outskirts of AG, I see two shadows in the distance, perpendicular to me. Crouching low, they pass, probably thinking I'm at Armor U. My feet are blistering, better hurry...
*True story.
---
*Weez* Weez* Ok, I'm back at my thread, and I plan to use my fractals again, but not as distractions, as lethal vein-ripping blood-splattering weapons. 2 figures coming up on the horizon now, although one is at least 100 yards back. I put my hand in my pocket, rub my knife....
Griping onto my rainbow toxin tightly, I see Strop jump my picket fence. *gulp* Cenere was nowhere in sight, so it was a duel. "Nice thread ya got here." He said. I remained silent, part fear and part jealousy. "Nice fractal, too." That makes two of you, remembering back to a comment about this very fractal by zilth. Then, he pulled out a compulse ball, emotionless. He winded back, and threw a fast ball aimed at my gut. With the fractal be almost as tall as I am, I was shocked almost as much as the horse to see that the ball simply disappeared into the fractal, leaving a mere ripple. I say through his eye holes that he knew this would not be a long fight. Pretty soon, every single compulse ball was lost in an alternate universe. Cenere finally got to the fence, gasping, uttered, "What did I miss?".
