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componentplanet · 4 years

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2020 Subaru Legacy Tech Dive: EyeSight, DriverFocus, Starlink Shine

Subaru Legacy Touring XT 2020 (April)

The 2020 Subaru Legacy is a near-perfect car if you’re looking for solid transportation and extensive safety technology across all trim lines. Every Legacy has all-wheel-drive, and enough driver-assist technology to be virtually self-driving on highways while protecting pedestrians in town (called Subaru EyeSight), track and alert inattentive drivers (DriverFocus), and call for help in an accident (Subaru Starlink).

The new, 2020 seventh-generation Legacy also has front cupholders deep enough to not spill a 32-ounce Big Gulp, were the car capable of a 4-second 0-60 run (it’s more like 7 to 9 seconds, depending on the engine). The engine’s “boxer” technology, similar to what Porsche uses, lowers the car’s center of gravity. The front and back rows are spacious and the trunk is enormous. Highway mileage is in the upper thirties.

So what’s not to like? Not much. This Subie won’t move the excitement needle quite like Mazda or Honda does among midsize sedans. It’s not as dazzling as the 2020 Hyundai Sonata. There’s less ground clearance than the similar Subaru Outback crossover. The new infotainment system and navigation had a few quirks, the kind a firmware upgrade typically cures, and stop-start twisted the steering wheel and my thumb a couple of times (more below).

The Nappa leather cockpit of the 2020 Subaru legacy.

The Car for Inattentive Drivers?

You say you’re a good driver; I say I’m a good driver. Yet surveys find the majority of Americans self-describe themselves as above-average drivers, which is statistically impossible. And yet, we also know people close to us whose driving skills or cognition worry us: teenagers and others in their first few years of driving, aging parents, a spouse or partner who’s had a couple of fender-benders that were the fault of “the other guy,” and people who text or create on-the-fly playlists even when they know it’s unsafe.

Subaru is a leader among automakers in making virtually all its safety technology standard across every one of the six trim lines, or model variants, of this new 2020 car. Buy any Legacy Base, Premium, Sport, Limited, Limited XT, or Touring XT and you get:

A dual front-facing camera system, Subaru EyeSight, to keep you in your driving lane, warn of / brake for possible forward collisions, detect and brake for pedestrians at speeds up to 20 mph.

Full-range adaptive cruise control as part of EyeSight.

An active driving assistance system that controls speed and lane centering, pacing any car in front of you, also part of EyeSight.

LED low and high-beam headlamps with automatic high-beam control.

All-wheel-drive for extra grip in snow or rain, or on gravel roads.

Any Legacy other than the base model has safety telematics (called Subaru Starlink) standard. Blind-spot warning is available, optional on two trim lines and standard on three; it also includes rear cross-traffic alert and automatic braking while backing up. An excellent eye-tracking driver distraction system, DriverFocus, is standard on the top two trim lines and optional on a third.

One feature not offered is a surround-view camera array that primarily improves tight-spaces parking, but it also protects you (if you watch the screen) from running into kids’ tricycles or kids on tricycles. Rear auto-braking provides that protection.

With the 260-hp turbo engine (top two trim lines only), you’ll hit 60 in 6-7 seconds. Add 2 seconds for the 182 hp engine on other Legacies.

Legacy on the Road: Mostly Smooth Sailing

I drove the top-of-the-line 2020 Subaru Legacy Touring XT, about $37,000 including shipping, with warm brown Nappa leather, moonroof, an 11-inch portrait-orientation center stack LCD, vented front seats, heated fronts and rears, onboard navigation, and immense amounts of back-seat legroom and trunk room.

Subaru lie-flat boxer engine: two cylinders go left, two cylinders go right.

With the new, 2.4-liter turbo engine of 260 hp and continuously variable transmission on the Limited and Touring XTs, it was quick, hitting 60 mph in 6-7 seconds. Highway miles went by quickly. Under foot-down acceleration, there wasn’t much noise from the CVT transmission; some testers have noted it on the non-turbo Legacy that has to be pushed harder to get up to highway speeds.

Most four-cylinder-engine cars have an inline design. Most Subarus including the Legacy have horizontally opposed, flat or boxer engines. They are effectively V engines where the angle is 180 degrees, not the 60 or 90 degrees of V6 or V8 engines. The engine is more compact, has less inherent vibration, gives the car a lower center of gravity, and allows for a lower hood and better driver sightlines. Against that, the engine requires two cylinder heads. Porsche also uses flat-six engines in the 911, Cayman, Spyder, and Boxster. The term boxer alludes not to the small crate it fits in, but rather the in-out motion of the two adjacent pistons that looks like a boxer’s fists.

Where most automakers use a combination of radar and a camera for driver assists, Subaru’s Eyesight system uses stereoscopic cameras. It’s standard on the 2020 Legacy, Forester, Outback, and Ascent; and available on the Impreza, Crosstrek, and WRX.

Pedestrian Detection Saves Another Jaywalker

Highway driving was enjoyable with the driver assists, a nicely sound-insulated cabin, very good Harman Kardon premium audio, Wi-Fi on Starlink telematics cars, and USB jacks for four people. In town, the driver assists work well; a jaywalker who popped out mid-block was picked up and the car came to a quick (sudden) stop. But spirited back-roads driving was not as much fun as some other cars in its class, notably the Mazda6 and Honda Accord. The 2020 Subaru Legacy is based on the same new platform as the 2020 Subaru Outback crossover-almost-wagon. But the Legacy’s ground clearance is 5.9 inches to 8.7 inches for the Outback. So the Legacy is fine in the rain, snow, and on gravel roads, but not the first choice in Subarus if the road to your country cabin is deeply rutted.

Subaru has rudimentary self-driving capabilities utilizing EyeSight, although Subaru doesn’t consider it to be formal self-drive tech and has no Eye-something shorthand name such as, say, EyeDrive. (BMW might not be amused.) Once activated, it centers you on a highway and proceeds at a pre-set speed, slowing for cars in front of you. It combines Subaru’s Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control feature with Lane Centering. As with other vehicles, activation is a multi-step process.

DriverFocus, on upper trim lines, combines a camera and infrared illuminator. It watches to see if the driver’s eyes are on the road ahead.

DriverFocus: Big Brother Is on Your Side

Take your eyes off the road, and the DriverFocus eye-tracker tells you to pay attention.

Subaru DriverFocus, an eyebrow module at the top of the center stack, contains a camera and IR illuminator to track where the driver is looking, and rats you out after 10-15 seconds of not looking ahead. GM’s highly regarded Super Cruise self-driving technology uses eye-tracking also.

Some driver-attention monitors count the micro-movements a driver continually makes as he or she drives.

I had two concerns with my test car: I was startled a couple of times by the gas-saving stop-start system. Occasionally as the engine came to a stop at a traffic light, the steering wheel on my test car abruptly turned a couple of inches and twice caught my thumb that was loosely holding the wheel next to the spoke. After the second time, I decided to keep my thumbs off the thumb grips once this car stopped at a light.

The infotainment system had trouble parsing some spoken commands, wanted to drive me to the intersecting street with the same name plus “Extension” at the end, and occasionally would not connect an iPhone using two different Apple cables or with Bluetooth. On sunny days, the LCD was sometimes hard to read and the brushed chrome-look trim strip around the center display reflected the sun’s glare.

The Subaru Legacy instrument panel. The center multi-information looks busy. (It is.) But it also gives the driver lots of information at a glance. If this feels like TMI, you can flip to simpler views.

EyeSight Is Improved, Still Unique

Subaru says EyeSight has been improved and I sensed that both in the ability to pick up a car ahead from a greater distance and to be less affected in the rain. In some ways, EyeSight in snowy conditions may be better than radar in that windshield wipers clear the paths in front of the two cameras. If snow blocks the radar sensor, you have to get out and scrape it off with a brush or your gloved hand, assuming the driver knows where the sensor is located in the grille. Also, snow and rain reduce the effectiveness of radar to some degree.

Subaru Legacy Touring XT, the top trim line.

Safety Features Abound

Even if you are a statistically good driver, a car such as the Legacy improves your odds of staying safe. It also improves pedestrians’ odds: A 2019 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found Eyesight-equipped Subarus reduce pedestrian-injury claims by 35 percent. IIHS also found Subarus with second-generation Eyesight did better than first-generation systems dating to 2010. IIHS said it found no significant self-selection bias, meaning the idea that safety-conscious good drivers might seek out safe-seeming Subarus and Volvos. Separately, IIHS found Subarus with EyeSight had up fewer rear-end collisions and passenger injuries.

How solid is Subaru on driver assists and safety technology? Here’s a rundown:

2020 Subaru Legacy Key Safety Technology, Driver Assists

Trim lines: Entry Middle Top Lane departure warning Std Std Std Lane-keeping assist Std Std Std Lane centering assist Std Std Std Blind-spot warning — $ / Std Std Adaptive cruise control Std Std Std Forward collision warning Std Std Std Auto emergency braking Std Std Std Pedestrian detection/braking Std Std Std Safety telematics (Starlink) — Std Std Driver-assist package (EyeSight) Std Std Std Driver monitoring (DriverFocus) — — / $ / Std Std Active driving assistance Std Std Std The table shows features as standard (Std), optional ($) or not available (–) on entry (Legacy base), middle (Premium, Sport, Limited, Limited XT) and top (Touring XT) trim lines.

Should You Buy?

The 2020 Subaru Legacy is a solid midsize car for people who don’t need a status symbol. The Legacy wins a lot of awards but not all of them. Consumer Reports has it as the best midsize sedan and one of only 10 CR Top Picks among 300 models for 2020. In contrast, Car and Driver put the Legacy eighth behind the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, and the Mazda Mazda6, among others. Guess which publication favors safety features and comfortable ride versus spirited handling? The Legacy is also a 2020 IIHS Top Safety Pick+, which means good ratings in crash tests, advanced or superior ratings in available front crash prevention, and (the plus part) acceptable or good headlamps standard.

We like the Legacy a lot, even if within Subaru this is an outlier, a sedan in a company known for outdoorsy crossovers and SUVs: Crosstrek, Forester, Outback, Ascent. The Ascent had arguably been the best midsize SUV until the Kia Telluride / Hyundai Palisade came along last year. The Legacy had been unique in offering all-wheel-drive, but the Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry added it for 2020.

The steering wheel has big buttons and rockers, all legibly labeled. If only all cars were this clear with switchgear.

Subaru is a relatively reliable brand. The car is eminently practical. From the side, though, it’s hard to distinguish from a half-dozen other brands. Fuel economy is good, an EPA combined rating of 23 mpg for the turbo models, 29 mpg for the non-turbo. Real-world mileage should be several mpg higher, and with judicious driving, the non-turbo could approach 40 on the highway.

If you’re shopping Subaru for max safety, we’d suggest: Move past the Legacy base ($23,645 with freight) because you can’t get blind-spot warning / rear-cross-traffic alert or safety telematics, and past the Legacy Premium ($25,895) because you can get BSW / RCTA, but not reverse automatic braking (RAB). Blind-spot warning matters: Not all young drivers know to check side mirrors and look over their shoulders; older drivers may know, but may not have the dexterity to turn their heads sideways.

Every Legacy has dual front USB jacks (above) and, except for the base model (below), two more jacks in the back. Note how every jack and switch is nicely and legibly lettered.

The Legacy Sport ($27,845) lets you get BSW-RCTA-RAB in a $2,245 options package, along with a power moonroof and onboard navigation, for $30,090 total. Or for $30,645, you can get the Legacy Limited that includes BSW-RCTA-RAB, and the one options package, $2,045, gives you the moonroof again, a heated steering wheel, and DriverFocus. The top two trim lines, the Limited XT ($35,095) and Touring XT ($36,795), give you nice and nicer leather, DriverFocus, and the moonroof. So the sweet spot may be the Legacy Sport plus the options package, or the Legacy Limited, at about $30K each. Cross-brand shoppers comparing front-drive-only midsize competitors should attribute about $1,500 of Subaru’s price to AWD.

The Subaru Legacy should be at the top of your consideration set along with the Hyundai Sonata, the ExtremeTech 2020 Car of the Year. If you want a sporty car, look to the Mazda6, the Honda Accord, or – this is not a joke – the segment best-seller Toyota Camry with the TRD Sport, as in Toyota Racing Division.

Now read:

2020 Hyundai Sonata Review: Car of the Year? (It’s That Good)

Honda Accord Review: Way Better, and Honda Even Fixed Display Audio

2020 Subaru Forester Review: The Safety-First, Can’t-Go-Wrong-Buying-One Compact SUV

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/309080-2020-subaru-legacy-review from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/04/2020-subaru-legacy-tech-dive-eyesight.html

#2020 Subaru Legacy Tech Dive: EyeSight #DriverFocus #Starlink Shine

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zealoptics · 4 years

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Turn Your Car Into the Ultimate Adventure Wagon

By Jamie Normandin & Brian Sewell

As the Stay At Home orders began to be put in place in Colorado, we decided to embark on a new project - a build out in our 4Runner so when the pandemic ends, we are ready to hit the road and get lost in the woods.

We have camped for the last 4 years with a RTT on our 4Runner. It is a Tepui Ayer which is the smallest/lightest RTT that tepui offers. It has been great, but it has been slightly small for us, along with all the other standard RTT complaints; you have to setup/breakdown anytime you want to take the rig anywhere, which isn’t a big deal, until you go to Moab and you are on the move everyday for a couple days in a row. Due to this, we figured this year we would try building a platform inside the vehicle so we don’t have to break down for every adventure.

I started searching online for drawer systems and stumbled upon Solid Wood Worx. Brian at Solid Wood Worx builds drawer systems for all sorts of different vehicles, but he also sells the build plans for every model 4Runner. The gen 5 drawer plan is $40 and although it honestly is a pretty basic set of plans, that $40 saved me a ton of measuring and a ton of headache down the road if something didn’t fit right. It also gave me a guided starting point. For people that have a little bit of builders block and have trouble picking a direction when building something from scratch, I highly recommend it. They also sell the 36” drawer sliders that you need to build the drawers. They sell them for $149 for all 4 of them, and honestly that was a pretty good price for them considering they are rated at a very high weight; 200lbs each, and I didn’t have to worry about trying to find something that would work to save a couple dollars. The cheapest I found for drawer sliders that would work were $36 a piece so that would have only saved me $5. I’d recommend just buying them from Solid Wood Worx.** **

Starting with the drawer plans, I used exactly 1 sheet of ½” birch plywood and 1 sheet of ¾” birch plywood. I layed out all the pieces I needed to cut on a piece of paper so I didn’t have much waste. Everything I needed to cut for the drawer system fit on those 2 pieces of plywood. I cut all the pieces to what the plans told me and figured I would weigh them since I have access to a large crate shipping scale at work. The wood for the drawer system weighed 88lbs. Much lighter than most of the RTT on the market if you are concerned about overall weight.

Next up was assembling the drawers. I deburred and sanded all the corners and edges on every piece before I started to make sure that I didn’t have any splinters or sharp points when I was done. I used screws along with wood glue on everything just to make sure will last a long time and can take the beating we will give it camping as much as we do. When assembling the box and drawers it is CRITICAL you make sure all your measurements are perfect along with everything assembled and lining up perfectly. If it isn’t dead on, your drawer sliders won’t line up and your drawers will bind up and won’t slide. In the plans SWW just had some hand holes in the front to pull on the drawers. I had some sprung recessed handles from another box build that I used that I thought were a lot nicer than just some holes in the front. I also used some butterfly pull latches on the side of the drawers to keep the drawers closed and not opening up when driving or opening the rear hatch on a hill. I built some batwing things that covered the open areas behind the wheel well and created 2 little cubbies to store more items. You can buy templates for these hinged side pieces from SWW that you print out a trace onto wood and use a jigsaw to cut out. They are $5 so again pretty cheap for what they are, but you can totally do it without. I cut some out with their templates and used their left side template but made my own for the right side.

To put this box in the back of the 4Runner, you needed to remove the small carpeted piece between the rear floor and the back seats. This is done by removing the 2 bolts used to mount the D-rings and then pulling up on that piece until it pops out. I then removed the 2 brackets for the D-rings that mount them to the truck frame and screwed them to the bottom of the box so that the box would be hard mounted to the truck, meaning it won’t move around or flip over if both drawers are open at the same time.

This is the butterfly latch on the side of the drawer placed to keep it shut while moving around

Now that the drawers were completed, I needed to build the sleeping platform. Unfortunately with the fact that Jamie and I are both tall people, the 5 ½ feet you get with the rear seats in wasn’t enough. Luckily the rear seat bottoms are attached with just 4 bolts. I took those 4 bolts out and replaced them with studs and put nuts on there to make it easier in the future. Then I built a t handle with a socket on the end so you can quickly loosen those nuts and pull the seats out. They store pretty well in the front seats. Another option is to just take them out before you go camping. Easily taking the rear seat bottoms out got us an extra 9” of room to stretch out with.

We also had a very tough time finding a mattress that was shorter than 72”. Being that the platform hinged off of the drawer box, you only had 27” from the box to the roof of the car. My solution was to build a double hinged platform that hinged the first 27” then hinged another 9” that gave us a total of 75” long by 41” wide to sleep on. That also solved another issue with this platform; Jamie uses this truck for work. She has to transport displays and other work related items, so the double hinge creates a flat surface with the rear seat bottoms in or out. She can easily fold the seats up and fold the platform down to the first hinge point and easily have a flat surface to load things into the truck. Once I had the platform itself working, I had to figure out support legs. I needed something that was quick and easy to set up, but also very supportive as there will be 2 people (and a bernese mountain dog) sleeping on this. My solution was a 1” stainless tube with a threaded end. I then used pronged nuts hammered into the top side of the platform. With the leg threaded into the pronged nut from the bottom side, it would sandwich the plywood and keep the leg extremely stable. To avoid pushing the winged nut out of the wood when screwing in the leg I JB welded the nut to the wood. After testing a handful of different glues and epoxies I found JB weld to work the best at gluing metal to wood. I used 4 legs; 2 long to go down to the rear footwell and 2 short to go down to the seat back.

Now that the drawers, platform, and sides were all built, the final portion of this project started. Sanding any of the painted wood, which if you use new plywood you won’t have to do. The amount of time I took was incredible and I would recommend using new plywood to avoid this and save time.. We then applied Olympic Water Guard wood sealer to every surface. Once that dried, we painted everything with Rustoleum Professional semi gloss spray paint to make everything black and match the interior of the 4Runner. The final touch to the finish of this platform was the carpet. I honestly think this is what changed this whole setup from looking like a homemade box to looking like a professional did it. We glued and stapled black carpet to everything besides the bottom of the box

Now that everything was finished, painted and carpeted it was time to put it back in the truck, assemble with all of the hinges, and test it out.

This is with the sleeping platform folded up

This is with the sleeping platform folded down.

As for a mattress and sleeping setup, we went with an Exped Deepsleep Mat Duo 7.5m. It measures 72”x41”x3” and fits literally perfect with this setup and is extremely comfortable. The sleeping bag is a Sierra Designs Backcountry Bed Duo and for a couple, there isn’t a better or warmer sleeping bag. It is a zipperless sleeping bag with sleeping pad inserts. We used it in our Tepui last year and even used it in the snow. The 700 fill down kept us warm, but for people that run hot, like I do, it has foot vents in the bottom that you can stick your feet out of, so highly recommend it.

Here is the final product

Can’t wait for this quarantine to be over and life to go back to normal so we can put this to use. For now we continue to stay inside and do our part so we can use this sooner rather than later.

Parts List

Exped Mattress with REI discount $145.45

Solid Wood Worx Plans $45

Plywood $111.23

Drawer sliders $149

Wood sealer $13.06

Adhesive $25.96

Hinge $22.76

Pronged Nuts $32.88

Wood filler $10

Carpet $32

Rubber Feet for legs $8.75

Turnbuckles $12

Drawer handles $11

Butterfly latches $6

Misc hardware $15

Carpet waterproofing $22

Total $662.09

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privateplates4u · 5 years

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2018 Mercedes-Benz E400 4Matic Coupe First Test: Ooooh, Look at That!

Did you look at the taillights? No, really, how closely did you check out the 2018 Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe’s lit up taillights? The superficially satisfying taillight design is said to have a crystal look, which is fitting from the same automaker that brought us the S-Class coupe’s Swarovski-crystal-filled headlights. When it comes to details that make coupe buyers feel special, the 2018 E-Class coupe knocks it out of the park with a B-pillarless smash. ‪Probably not a good idea to want a car for its crystal-look taillights, but check out how this @mbusa E400 coupe design detail sparkles!‬ #mercedesbenz #mercedeseclass #eclass #coupe #lights #crystal #details A post shared by Zach Gale (@zachgale) on Jul 26, 2017 at 7:00am PDT Of course, our 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400 4Matic coupe tester wasn’t perfect, but over the course of track testing as well as driving in traffic, on empty highways, and through winding canyon roads, the car mostly presented itself well. Because luxury coupes carry a “pretty” premium over similar sedans and are made to be seen, we’ll start with design. As with the S-Class coupe, the E-Class coupe continues a Mercedes tradition that’s been around for decades: a B-pillarless design on two-doors. The design detail actually improves visibility, but it is mostly cool because no one else in this price class does it. If the C-Class coupe’s exterior styling is “bar-of-soap boring,” as we called it during 2017 Car of the Year testing, the E-Class coupe is one attractive, half-melted bar of soap. Decide for yourself what you think of the exterior (and Mercedes’ diamond-block grille) by opening this review’s extensive gallery of photos. The only pimple on the 2018 E400 coupe’s design—one shared with the last-generation model—is that the rear side windows aren’t a one-piece unit such as those of the S-Class coupe, so a sliver of the rear side glass stays in place even when you lower all the windows. Compared to the last-generation model, the 2018 Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe’s wheelbase has been stretched by 4.4 inches. The new two-door is longer (4.8 inches), wider (2.9 inches), and slightly taller (1.5 inches).Step inside, and you’re greeted by air vents inspired by turbine blades. It’s a rich touch for an interior that lives up to our tester’s $86,685 as-tested MSRP. Before you start adding options, know that for now, every E-Class coupe is powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 producing 329 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. That engine is mated to a responsive nine-speed automatic that behaves well except in the car’s sport mode, where its very aggressive tuning can cause the car to lunge forward a little more than you’d like. Our car was equipped with a $1,900 air suspension that provided a smooth, if a little floaty, ride in comfort mode, but that changes drastically if you switch the car all the way to Sport+. When you’re in a sporty mood, I’d maybe stick with Sport because the suspension doesn’t feel as rough. No matter the driving mode, the 329-hp engine is well matched to a car such as the E-Class coupe, and for the 2018 model year, it is now available on the sedan, too. On the track, the all-wheel-drive 2018 E400 coupe accelerated from 0 to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds (Mercedes expects rear-drive variants to be 0.3 second slower). Road test editor Chris Walton remarked on the car’s “surprisingly linear, nonturbo power delivery,” and said that in hard acceleration, the nine-speed auto turned in smooth and quick shifts. We’ve tested an all-wheel-drive E400 wagon reaching 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, and an all-wheel-drive E300 sedan (with a 241-hp turbo-four) hit 60 mph in 6.5 seconds. Driven quickly around a street corner or on winding roads, the E400 4Matic coupe’s steering is surprisingly reactive, and the car exhibits little body roll. Braking from 60 to 0 mph takes a respectable 112 feet, and the coupe completed our figure-eight course in 25.7 seconds at 0.72 average g. Our tester had AMG Line visual upgrades that don’t translate to better at-the-limit performance. Testing director Kim Reynolds commented on the car’s “slow response to throttle” and said it was “hard to control the understeer.” This is the type of behavior you’ll find close to the car’s limits, and if you’re really seeking out the limits of your luxury coupe, smaller and sportier entries including the Mercedes-AMG C43 and Audi S5 might be more your style. As we noted in our 2018 E-Class Coupe First Drive review, this Mercedes shines as a boulevard cruiser. If you take some friends out to dinner, they’ll access the back seat by pulling a lever on the edge of the front seat that folds the backrest forward, at which point the seat automatically powers forward and up a little bit. In the rear seat, there’s actually a decent amount of legroom, plus some extra space for feet under the front seats. Those rear bucket seats are comfortable enough, though there’s no central armrest, and rear headroom is limited by the way the roof slopes downward toward the car’s rear. What might really keep the rear seat from being used for more than 30 minutes at a time—especially for passengers who get claustrophobic—is the small size of those rear-side windows. You wouldn’t sacrifice the coupe’s styling for a practical concern like that, though, right? If you really want a two-door, four-seat Mercedes without that issue, wait for the E-Class Cabriolet to roll into your local dealership. Both two-door E-Class models are pricier than the sedan, and our E400 coupe was loaded down with more than $25,000 of luxurious options. All-wheel drive is a $2,500 option that doesn’t actually come at the cost of lower fuel economy; the E400 4Matic coupe has the same 20/26 mpg city/highway rating as the rear-drive E400 coupe (in Real MPG testing, the car was good for 18.8/29.7 mpg). Standard equipment includes multimode drive settings that can adjust throttle sensitivity, the transmission, and the weight of the steering. A collision braking mitigation system, LED headlights and taillights, and the large 12.3-inch infotainment display with navigation as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility are also included. An awesome ambient lighting system is wonderfully integrated into the car’s interior and offers five intensity levels and 64 colors. The all-wheel-drive E400 throws in a feature called Magic Vision Control that might be worth getting on the rear-drive model (for $350) just for its eye-roll-worthy name alone. The E400 coupe’s slim windshield wiper blades have laser-cut holes out of which the washer fluid is released, reducing the chance that fluid will spray over the windshield entirely or run off toward the A-pillars. Other features on our $86,685 E400 4Matic coupe included a $2,500 AMG styling package that adds sportier design accents on the outside, different 18-inch wheels (19s are available), a black headliner, and a flat-bottom steering wheel that feels great. The adaptive air suspension is $1,900, and although the system can appreciably change the car’s dynamic performance from one mode to another, we’ve not yet driven a nonair-suspension E-Class coupe. Inflating our car’s as-tested price was a $5,400, 1,450-watt Burmester 3-D sound system with 23 speakers (including ceiling-mounted speakers) and a few listening modes. The system sounds great and those ceiling speakers even get some ambient lighting, but we’re guessing most will be satisfied with the available 590-watt Burmester option that has 13 speakers and attractive aluminum speaker grilles. Mercedes’ multi-camera parking aid is a well-executed version of the tech offered by many automakers, but that feature and a head-up display are bundled in the car’s most expensive package. If you actually have a limited budget, consider stopping at the second of three “Premium” packages. You’ll miss out on Mercedes-Benz’s most advanced active safety tech—though I found the adaptive cruise control left too much following distance on its closest setting—but you’ll still get the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, headlights that help you see around corners, and a few other features. If repair costs on some of the E400 coupe’s cool options don’t scare you, there is another feature I hope a future E-Class coupe will offer—a power-door closer. Just like most luxury coupes, the E400’s doors are long, heavy, and require an awkward reach to close if you get inside and realize you forgot to hold onto the inside of the door to close it as you sit down. So you can either remember to close the door as you get inside or, perhaps on a next-gen E-Class coupe, have the car do it for you. The E-Class coupe’s extensive options list, interior color combinations, and wood trim choices might be overwhelming to some buyers, but they’re a part of the car’s appeal. As with similar BMWs, most E-Class coupe customers will probably pick a car that most closely matches the options they want from dealer stock, but knowing you have so many ways of customizing your car is a luxury in itself. The E400 4Matic coupe doesn’t have any direct competitors of a similar size now that the BMW 6 Series is offered in convertible and four-door forms but not as a coupe. That leaves consumers interested in an E-Class coupe to also consider the smaller Audi S5, Lexus RC 350, BMW 440i, Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400, or Cadillac ATS 3.6 coupe. The more expensive E-Class is not really designed to compete against them, but in a segment as ME-oriented as luxury coupes, start your search with designs that speak to you (and view them in person, if possible). The E400 coupe is a solid entry with few competitors, and especially if you’ve got many thousands of dollars to spend on extra-cost colors and interior options, it could be just the car for when the larger S-Class coupe is too ostentatious. 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400 4Matic Coupe BASE PRICE $62,395 PRICE AS TESTED $86,685 VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD, 4-pass, 2-door coupe ENGINE 3.0L/329-hp/354-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 9-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 4,305 lb (55/45%) WHEELBASE 113.1 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 190.0 x 73.2 x 56.3 in 0-60 MPH 5.2 sec QUARTER MILE 13.7 sec @ 102.2 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 112 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.90 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 25.7 sec @ 0.72 g (avg) REAL MPG, CITY/HWY/COMB 18.8/29.7/22.6 mpg EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON 20/26/22 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 169/130 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.87 lb/mile The post 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400 4Matic Coupe First Test: Ooooh, Look at That! appeared first on Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/mercedes-benz/e-class/2018/2018-mercedes-benz-e400-4matic-coupe-first-test-review/

#First Tests #Real MPG

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abakersquest · 8 years

Text

CHAPTER SEVEN – SPORADIC RAIN

The Bandit Circus quickly scrambled at the command of their leader. She’d seen Wally and Hector move away from the caravan and the ridiculous event that concluded their meeting, her jaw on the floor as Wally sailed through the air. A long steel chain, intended for their performance at Arborledan, was pulled from the lead wagon and brought over to the wall. With some doing, the chain was anchored to the top of the wall and Hector readied himself to climb, however, he wouldn’t be climbing alone.

“I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY THOUGHT OF SUCH A STUPID PLAN!” Shouted Rozzi from her place on Hector’s back.

Sir Hector grumbled something best not spoken aloud to anyone in polite conversation.

“AND OF COURSE WALLY AGREED! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE HIS MENTOR! WELL MISTER SENIOR KNIGHT, Y’ FAILED! CONGRATS”

“… We… Were in a rush.” He huffed as he continued to pull both their weights and Wally’s surprisingly heavy bag up the chain.

“A rush? Oh is that it? WELL Y’ SURE AIN’T CLIMBIN’ LIKE YOU’RE INNA RUSH NOW, EH?”

Taking that as a challenge, Sir Hector doubled his efforts.

---

While Hector and Rozzi were making their way up the wall, Wally had settled into a seated position in his thorny cage, undoing the knotted rope around his waist. He certainly wasn’t about to start swinging a sword in a middle of a library, especially one on foreign soil as wars had been started over things like that. Instead he took the time to observe the Planaetian who’d caged him and had been staring at him for quite some time now.

It was thin and very tall, taller than Sir Hector. It moved so smoothly he wondered if it even had bones. Its head was adorned in almost luminescent lilac colored leaves that cascaded to frame its smooth, noseless face. It wore a particularly ornate looking silk robe over its very narrow frame and what he could see of its hide resembled polished wood. Scanning back up to watch its deep purple eyes carefully, it appeared to have no pupils of any kind, which he found slightly unnerving. Even more unnerving was the fact that it said nothing, not a single word or startled sound. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Wally was reminded of his more aimless customers staring hungrily at the myriad of freshly made pastries under his glass display case and winced ever so slightly at the thought of being eaten.

The space occupied by the two of them was abruptly filled with a very low rumble. The Planaetian reared back defensively and the thorns on the cage seemed to grow sharper.

Wally sighed and held his stomach; thinking of his bakery reminded him how hungry he’d been the last few days, apparently a side effect of his first foray into magic. He slowly reached into one of his interior pockets and produced a small wrapped object which was quickly snatched from his hands by quick wooden fingers. He watched as the Planaetian moved back and studied the item in question closely, Wally thought he heard the sound of sniffing before finally it spoke.

“… Is this… Nandi Bread?”

Surprise washed over Wally, he wouldn’t have figured this Planaetian was female, at least, it sounded as if it was. The voice was certainly the right pitch for it to be. “Yes it is, well, almost, I couldn’t find one of the spices so I experimented for a bit before-… ”

“You made this?” she interrupted.

Wally nodded calmly.

Her face contorted at the gesture, as if she’d been told fire was wet. “… How?”

Confusion abounded as Wally explained, “I… Followed the recipe? Mind you, it was still written in Planaetian so that was a lot of cross referencing before I could read it at all. Since it keeps for weeks I thought it’d be perfect to just have some on hand so I took the ones I hadn’t sold-”

“Stop.” She said sternly.

Wally locked his jaw, watching the Planaetian attentively for its next action.

“What you say is impossible. There are no remaining copies of that recipe and no one alive who remembers it. There has been no Nandi Bread made, bought, or sold in Planae for many years.” She turned over the foodstuff in her hand before finally unwrapping it. The now stronger scent of the still fresh but only slightly leavened bread impacted her senses like a metaphysical stone dropped into a metaphorical lake. In an instant she was a child again, sitting on her mother’s lap on a sunny summer’s afternoon. All logic against it faded away as she took a bite. The sweetness of the glaze on the crust and the smooth texture of the interior was everything she remembered it was. When she finally opened her eyes again and saw she was still in the library, she quickly turned to her small prisoner.

“… How…” Her voice was clearly filled with a number of emotions crowding up all at once to be expressed simultaneously, so she took another bite to calm herself. It was true that the last remaining examples of the prized foodstuff had been eaten years ago; in fact she had only tasted a single bite before this moment, the rest of it having been distributed between members of her family. She would never admit out loud that she’d always wished to have had a second bite.

Filling in the blanks himself Wally politely smiled. “I believe the book was called ‘Sage Juniperus’… Well it was translated as ‘journal’ or ‘log’ when I-”

“YOU HAVE A PRINTING OF THE CHRONICLE OF SAGE JUNIPERUS?!” She slapped her free hand over her mouth. Wally wasn’t certain, but she appeared to be blushing.

“I bought it years ago from a traveling merchant. I couldn’t read it at the time, but I did recognize some of the illustrations as ingredients I use… A lot of it was medicinal however.”

She stared at him again, setting the wheels in Wally’s brain spinning. She didn’t believe him, and judging by her reaction to the title, it was a very rare book. He scratched at the back of his ear thoughtfully, was there any real way he could prove he’d only translated eight or so pages and even that was a solid year of study and research with help from his brother, Dale. In fact, thinking back, he gave the book to Dale as a birthday present soon after, knowing it wasn’t so much the content as the puzzle of learning a new language that interested him.

The Planaetian interrupted his thinking with a question. “There is a quotation at the very beginning, do you know it?”

His brow furrowed, as if somehow contorting his face improved the powers of his brain. At the very least it distracted him from how hungry he was long enough to remember a smattering of translated words. “It was something about ‘roots’ and ‘finding soil’… I remember it was a metaphor about life.”

“Roots take whatever path needed to find soil, no matter how arduous.” Her tone was almost wistful. “I cannot believe there’s still a copy in the world! I’d thought them all destroyed in the War.”

“Well the one I bought seemed rather complete, if a bit well used. My brother has it now so I can assure you it’s well taken care of.” Wally carefully checked his other pockets, sighing as he realized that she was holding the last of his private food supply. While he was relatively silent about his complaint, his stomach was an uproarious lout, demanding the attention of whoever was in charge of his establishment to complain about the service.

She moved closer and tilted her head in a pure gesture of curiosity. “What is that noise you keep making? It is not threatening if that is what you are trying to do. Also counter intuitive! Why answer my questions intelligently and politely if you were going to turn around and threaten me regardless?”

“It’s-”

“Then, logically, it could not be a threat,” she continued, completely ignoring Wally. “You do not seem to be the kind to levy threats, even if you are carrying a sword. And an ornate one at that, very large crossguard with a bright round red gem, if I did not know any better I would say that was the Stellar Flare, but if that was the case then you would… Be…” She went rigid before quickly lowering her profile and moving around behind Wally, eyes wide as two full moons, staring at the sheathed Flare. She snapped back to her standing height and rushed off, leaving Wally alone in his cage for a moment. She returned quickly with a large old book in her off hand, taking another bite of bread from the other. She stood behind him once more, alternating her gaze from page to sword and back again several times before shakily shutting the book.

Wally looked back at her over the shoulder the Flare’s guard didn’t block. “Yes, it is. Because it fell out of the sky and into my kitchen and I’m the only one who can lift it. I’m here to speak to someone named ‘Elder Ygg’, and that noise means I’m hungry and you’re eating the last of my food. That about cover all your questions?”

She nodded slowly.

“Going to let me out of the cage now?”

She shook her head just as slowly. “I… I cannot let you go anywhere, even if you are the Flarebearer. You are a foreign national who entered the city without proper checks.”

Wally turned to face her and crossed his arms. “Bit hard when the doors are closed.”

“They are closed for a very good reason, the city is under se-” She recoiled at a sudden realization. “But perhaps that is why you are here? Planae is in danger!”

“Oh! Well then, now you can let me out so I can help.”

She hesitated. “But… You have broken the law. Several, actually. Yet you carry the Flare, a weapon used for the good of Mondia, so keeping you caged could cause untold havoc. However, the right thing to do is to present you to the proper authorities and have you tried in court. Although doing that might rob you of the time needed to-”

“Ma’am?” Wally politely interjected.

She snapped out of her personal debate.

“If I may solve your problem?” Wally finally stood, carefully taking the branches of his cage in hand and snapping them with ridiculous ease before stepping out.

“… Could you have done that at any time?” she said with a measure of caution and surprise.

“Not any time, no. Just when I thought you could trust me.”

---

At the top of the Arborledan wall, Hector stood hunched over, struggling to catch his breath, while Rozzi gathered up the chain to ready it for their descent. When he did manage to steady his breathing he looked up toward the cityscape before them. In truth, while Hector had escorted dignitaries to and from Arborledan, he’d been forced to remain outside the city on every visit. Now, atop the wall, no one could keep him from taking it all in.

The city was comprised of tall cylindrical buildings made from brick and stone, but mortared entirely with what appeared to be moss, branches, and ivy; a strange mixture of masonry and gardening to be sure. Despite being laid out on a grid within the squared walls, he couldn’t help but imagine the buildings as more of a forest than a city, with many of the buildings bearing large bushy canopies. Sunshine scattered like raindrops through the massive leaves above their heads, the central tree of Arborledan dwarfed everything around it, and its roots created massive hills in the center that no building could be built on. What was missing, however, was a more notable element. In every direction Hector looked, and no matter how hard he listened, the streets of Arborledan were frighteningly empty, and all he could hear was the wind, rustling the leaves around them and whistling through empty alleyways.

It was then his sharp eyes caught a glimpse of something in the distance, just entering his field of vision from above. It moved heavily in the breeze, like a large misshapen grey snowflake that was quickly joined by hundreds of identical floating oddities. It wasn’t anything recognizable and he didn’t have the time to study it as one exploded in midair when a brilliant beam of light shot out from the trunk of Arborledan’s great tree. Several other emerald hued shots fired off, erasing more of the strange objects. It seemed however that there was no destroying them all, as some lazily drifted past this defense and down to the city streets. “Rozzi,” Hector said without looking to her. “I don’t know what’s going on, but if you see something that looks like an oversized snowflake down there… Don’t go anywhere near it.”

Rozzi, who’d of course noticed the bright flashes earlier, nodded in agreement before anchoring the chain for their decent.

---

As he finished tucking bundled rope under the Flare to keep it in place Wally turned and extended his hand to the Planaetian. “My name is Wally B. Walter, I’m a ba-. I’m a Kni-. Hrm… That’s a bit more complicated, let’s just say I am here to help.”

She took on a very regal stance and bowed her head respectfully. “I am Wistea of the clan Faboi, fifth family of Arborledan.”

Wally resisted the urge to say something he knew was more sarcastic. “… Are you alright with me just calling you ‘Wistea’?”

Wistea nodded. “If you like, but please remember my station as you do so.”

Years of service industry training began to return in an instant, ‘the customer is always right, greet every complaint with a pleasant smile, and even if it sounds like they’re talking down to you; be polite.’ “I’ll certainly try, ma’am,” he said politely. “Now, what’s the trouble?”

“You have no doubt noticed several towns on your way here having been either abandoned or cloistered. The reason is the spores. They rain down across the whole country, countless numbers drifting on the wind.”

“Spores? As in fungus?”

“Correct, and an aggressive one at that. When any Planaetian has made contact with one of these spores, it grows almost instantly to full size. Once that occurs,” she paused momentarily; Wally could see the sadness in her eyes. “The infected Planaetian falls under its sway.”

He quickly erased any images of fuzzy green mold on old bread when the word ‘sway’ hit his ears. “What do you mean ‘under its sway’?”

“Yes, the fungal growths connect to their origin, the being that produced the spores in the first place; a former general of the nation’s defense force, Mycete. One day, he simply turned his back on us all, using his unique gift and skills to lay siege on Arborledan. We sealed the city gates and sent warning to the outlying villages to stay indoors to avoid his spores until such time as General Mycete is dealt with.”

Wally looked around for a moment and noticed the absolute silence in the library, clearly they were the only two inside. But there was no sound of siege, no screaming, and no showing of force of any kind. “Are the infected in a different part of the city?”

Wistea shook her head. “No, the infected cannot function in the light of day, they bury themselves until nightfall. It is then that what is left of the city’s defense force engages them and searches for the general. He has managed to avoid detection by forcing Elder Ygg to defend the city every morning from new spores, draining the magic he could use to find him.”

The wallaby rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Then if I’m ever going to have that audience with Ygg, we have to solve this problem first.”

A loud knock at the library’s large doors startled them both. Silently, they made their way over to the door and listened for any more sounds. Wally pressed his ear to the door and quickly regretted it as more knocking rung his skull like a bell. Shaking it off quickly he barely made out one or two familiar sounds. He looked to Wistea and motioned to the knobs, she nodded and entered what Wally assumed was a defensive stance. Slowly he opened the large heavy doors, peeking through the quickly forming gap before smiling and opening them the rest of the way.

“There, see?” said Sir Hector as the doors opened. “He’s perfectly alright, just like I said he’d be.”

Rozzi struck his side with her forearm, a mess of anger and relief playing across her face as she approached Wally. The wallaby began to say something as she reached out and brought her fist down hard onto the top of his head. “That’s for going through with one of the stupidest plans I ever heard!”

Wally laughed painfully. “I had that coming, yes.”

“Damn right y’did.” Rozzi crossed her arms. “Now get t’ talkin’ ‘bout what’s goin’ on so’s I can get done bein’ mad at you.”

Wistea watched silently as Wally introduced her and explained the situation to his friends. ‘So these are Animani,’ she thought. ‘The books hardly described the variety they come in, or vast differences in height. They certainly seem more polite than described as well, and there is hardly anything I would call an offensive smell. I must remember to update those passages afterward.’

Hector turned to Wistea. “We saw those ‘spores’ Wally mentioned, some of them made it through your defenses.”

“Elder Ygg does his best, but there are more and more spores drifting down every day. As I have no idea what effect they will have on you, please be careful to avoid them.”

“Right…” Hector looked to Wally. “For now, I’d say we meet up with the soldiers here and coordinate with them, see if we can’t get this Mycete to pop out of whatever hole he’s hiding in.”

Wally nodded in agreement, then felt something wrap around his arm. He looked down to see Wistea’s firm wooden fingers wrapped around it.

“I shall be coming as well; Mister Walter is in my custody.”

Every other person in the library’s lobby turned to her and in a chorus of varying tones replied “What?”

“Statute eighteen of foreign national representation, paragraph seven, ‘any and all offenders from foreign nations are to be escorted by their representative to assure no other infractions of the law occur until day of trial.’ I began talks, therefore I am his representative, and thusly he is in my custody until such time as he can be properly tried for his infractions.”

They all stared at the well dressed Planaetian for quite some time before Wally cleared his throat to gather everyone else’s attention. “Well we are knights, Sir Hector. Wouldn’t do for us not to follow the letter of the law, right?”

Hector rolled the question around in his head for a moment or so. “… Yes, I suppose you’re right Wally. Ma’am you do realize that means you’ll be in considerable danger?”

“I am neither helpless nor ignorant; I understand full well what I am doing so I would thank you not to insult me again.” Had she a proper nose, the gesture of turning hers up at him would’ve meant something more. She began walking out, her grip on Wally’s arm unwavering, forcing him to walk alongside her. “I shall lead you to the defense force encampments in the city’s central ring.”

“Oi!” Rozzi shouted quickly closing the gap between them. “What y’think you’re doin’ there bark britches?”

“‘Statute eighteen, paragraph eight. The foreign national must remain within arms length of their representative at all times.’ And I’ll thank you to keep your little commoner colloquialisms to yourself!”

Rozzi was about to unleash an unstoppable tirade before Wally reached over to place his free hand on her shoulder. “If that’s the law, then we just have to respect it ‘til everything’s settled.”

Still frustrated, but calmer, she huffed out the remnants of her anger. “Fine. But I’m comin’ too. Someone’s gotta make sure y’ stay out of trouble. And I already know I can’t count on ‘Sir Taller than he is bright’ over here.”

Hector shook his head, “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

---

Beneath a specially woven canopy that hid their position and shielded them from errant spores, the Planaetian Defense Force was haggard from what seemed to have been endless combat. Medics scrambled from patient to patient, treating wounds, mending limbs, and sharing prayers over the dead. The battlements, made from whatever the central ring of the city could provide, were a patchwork of doors, tables, and the cut up remains of carts and carriages. It was clear from the makeshift barricade’s damage and wounded beyond it that they’d been under violent siege several times.

Wistea parted the canopy and entered first with Wally still in tow, followed by Hector and Rozzi. All of whom were greeted by the business end of many well-worn weapons.

“HOLD!” Shouted one voice before standing out from the crowd of soldiers, to Wally he appeared to be a much more densely built version of Wistea with his lilac leaves pinned behind his head. “Sister, I ordered you to stay at the library and… Why on Mondia do you have a small Animani by the arm?”

Wally took a breath to introduce himself before Wistea interrupted “Brother Millette, this is the Flarebearer. He arrived today with allies in tow, no doubt to aid Arborledan in its greatest time of need! With their help, we should be able to save the city!”

The assembled soldiers looked over all three of the foreign visitors slowly before Millette replied, “Are you sure it’s not the tall one?”

With some quick explanation, some more introductions, and Wally eating all the provisions Hector had on him, the group was ushered over to a table bearing a map of Arborledan. Several locations on the map had been marked off; Millette explaining that those places were already scouted for General Mycete’s location. During the day, scouts would position themselves to observe the nighttime movements of the infected citizens and soldiers in the hopes of predicting their movements and finding the General.

“What are they after?” asked Wally.

“They seek entry into The First Tree. Inside is the temple where Ygg the Elder resides and guards the Wellspring of Planae. Without it, we would perish… His goal has to be control of the Wellspring, as he’d die as well if it was destroyed. Should he gain control of it, we’d be forced to submit to his rule.”

“What could have made a once loyal soldier turn his back on not only his nation but his people?” Hector wondered.

There was a frustrating silence, no doubt that question had been asked countless time since Mycete’s insurrection.

“Maybe…” Wally began. “Cinera told us that one of Kota’s Generals was a Planaetian, right? The Thorned Princess?”

The room grew deathly silent and all Planaetian eyes turned to Wally.

The wallaby cringed both under the weight of their stares and his own mistake. “Oh… Right you didn’t know about… ”

Rozzi sighed and shook her head. “Just… Keep talking Wally.”

“I mean, you read stories like that, yeah? Pretty face changing a person’s loyalty? Giving everything up for love and such. So, maybe, General Mycete’s under the influence of The Thorned Princess because she’s Planaetian.”

There were several scoffs and angry grunts from the gathered soldiers.

Wistea leaned down and spoke directly into Wally’s ear. “The Thorned Princess only resembles a Planaetian, it is a source of great shame that she appears as one of us, but is not born of the Wellspring as we are.”

Wally recoiled at how offensive that must’ve sounded and began to apologize profusely only to have Hector’s voice completely overlap his.

“Regardless of the reasons, he was still one of your generals, so no doubt he’s well aware of your tactics, skills, and battle plans. It seems to me he’s keeping the bulk of your forces pinned here and leading you on meaningless scouting missions all around the city. A good soldier however must be willing to think laterally to overcome an enemy that knows everything about them.” Hector points up. “If the entry into the temple were at the base of the tree or even near it, anyone would’ve found it by now… But above you, in a maze of enormous branches and leaves, he could take his time finding any secret entrance up there while you dealt with ground forces.

Millette gasped. “Of course… Why didn’t we think of that sooner! He’s been playing with us this whole time!” He slammed his fist into the table. “Damn! How are we even going to get up there in time to stop him?”

Hector smiled quite broadly and looked down at Wally.

“… No. No no no. Hector no, we are never doing that again, ever, so put it right out of your mind.”

“Oh come on Wally, we know what we’re doing now!”

“Right because it worked so well the first time!”

“Correction! It worked too well! This time we’re aiming for a much higher target so it’ll be fine!”

Wally desperately turned and sought a dissenting opinion. “Rozzi, you know this is a terrible idea, tell him.”

Rozzi hesitated. “I… Well… We need to check the top of the tree quickly… And it doesn’t look like it’d be that easy to climb…”

Wally grabbed his own ears in frustration. “Not you too! Just an hour ago you said it was the stupidest plan you’d ever heard!”

“… Well for the wall it was. Hector’s right, it’s much higher so it should actually work this time.”

The Planaetians all exchanged confused glances at the argument unfolding, and again when they were tying a rope around Wally’s waist, the wallaby having lost the argument 2 to 1. Those expressions were soon replaced with amazement as, with yet another mighty heave and jump, Wally raced into the sky, and into the thicket of branches above. Hector and Rozzi grabbed up the slack in the rope and waited for Wally to signal with three tugs on the other end. Wistea looked to her brother for a moment before taking up the bit of rope behind Rozzi.

He stepped forward and called out to her, “Wistea?”

“Millette, I know I am not a soldier like you… But I cannot stand by and do nothing any longer. Besides, finding the temple may be difficult without someone to show them what to look for.” She turned to Hector and Rozzi. “So, we wait until he signals and begin to climb?”

“Something like that,” Rozzi muttered as she made sure of her grip.

With three tugs from Wally, Hector replied with two on their end. Suddenly the rope was pulled upwards at ridiculous speed, the three passengers hanging on for all their worth as all of them rose into the air far too quickly. Hector could feel his stomach lurching awkwardly and did his best to hold onto its contents, while Rozzi was actually shouting with excitement the whole way up. Behind them Wistea created noises from her throat she’d never dreamed possible, a fusion of utter amazement and absolute terror.

The reached the high branches in almost no time and there was Wally, rope in hand, pulling them up with seemingly no effort. He reached out when Hector was close enough and grumbled. “No one is throwing me, ever again. Understood?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He took Wally’s hand and proceeded to help everyone else up behind him.

Wistea shook like the enormous leaves that surrounded her in both fear and excitement. All her life she’d read stories of ancient Planae and the first of their kind to walk and speak, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine standing at the cusp of their most sacred temple.

Slowly and carefully, the four of them walked toward the tree’s trunk, moving from branch to branch with some doing. The leaves made for difficult going as a single one easily outsized Wally and Rozzi, and causing outright damage to the tree was forbidden by Wistea. Finally at the trunk, they focused on moving higher hoping the entrance lay at the top of the tree’s trunk if nowhere else. Soon the sun began to set and Wally looked down with a worried glance. “Hector… Do you think one of us should’ve stayed with the Defense Force?”

He shook his head. “Our fight isn’t with the bulk of the army, just its head. We take that off and work our way down.”

“Actually,” Wistea interjected. “If you do defeat Mycete, his spores should dissolve. They are not natural growths you know. That is not how Forest Magic works. One simply shapes their magic to resemble the form and function of an actual plant, and once the caster has exhausted their reserve of magic it vanishes. It is remarkable his creations have lasted this long, really.”

Rozzi suddenly held up a hand to silence the group. She pointed in a direction and they formed up behind her. Through the foliage they spotted their quarry.

General Mycete was as tall as any of the other Planaetians they’d met, but far denser, built more like a rock than a plant. His shoulders and head bore telltale black fungal caps with deep blue spots. The dull grey armor he wore suited his build as it was as thick as him. With a massive two-handed axe, he callously carved his way through plant matter, clearly continuing his search for the First Tree Temple. What was odd, however, was that he was entirely alone.

“Wistea,” Wally whispered. “If we get him to stay in one place long enough and get that axe away from him, do you think you could cage him?”

Wistea thought on it for a moment then nodded.

“So then,” Hector began. “I go and confront him head on, while Rozzi and Wally sneak into a better position and use Rozzi’s chain to yank that axe out of his hand, then Wistea cages him and we deliver the final blow.”

“Wow Hector, that plan actually sounds sane, good on ya’,” Rozzi said sarcastically before setting off.

Wally moved to follow before turning at the last moment. “Are you sure you can handle this Hector? He is a… Rather large fellow…”

He scoffed. “I’ve fought larger, have a little faith in your fellow knight.”

Wally nodded and headed off.

Centering himself, allowing the beating of heart to slow, Sir Hector bounded from branch to branch landing squarely behind the massive General. “MYCETE!” he shouted, drawing his sword. “YOU SHALL MENACE PLANAE NO LONGER!”

Mycete turned slowly, the branch bouncing slightly under his weighty steps. “Eh? What’s that? I think I hear a breeze…” The fungal fiend looked his enemy up and down. “Oh. One of those louse bag Animani then is it? Has my nation sunk so low as to call in such pitiful louts to save it?”

Sir Hector said nothing; this was not a time for words. He lowered his stance and dashed forward, his sword clashing hard against the iron axe’s handle. The speed and power of his strike was enough to stagger the massive mushroom. Mycete snarled before he planted his feet again. He raised the axe high and brought it down with savage force, not cutting into, but splintering a large chunk of the branch below it. Hector dodged to the right, striking the broadside of the axe as he went, forcing one of Mycete’s hands off the handle.

The general pulled back his weapon, hopping backward to put more distance between himself and his opponent. He smoothly slid the axe’s handle in his grip, increasing the reach of his swing as he whipped it horizontally. Hector, just barely ducking under it, sprang forward, ramming his shoulder squarely into Mycete’s chest. But, to the knight’s surprise and dismay, he rebounded like he’d struck a sheet of iron on a trampoline and rolled backward as all his momentum reversed on him.

Mycete laughed as he gripped his axe with both hands again, raising it high over his head to bring it down on Hector. There was a quick sound of a chain clinking and the axe locked in place. “EY?!” He bellowed trying to yank the axe out of whatever it was stuck too. He turned his head and growled at the sight of the sickle and chain tied around his weapon pulling even harder against the resistance.

Wally didn’t budge, not an inch. The other end of the chain firmly gripped with both hands.

All around the general’s feet, thick bamboo shoots quickly emerged. They grew to full height in seconds before bending to form a cylindrical cell around him, crossing above his head to close him off entirely.

Wally yanked as hard as he could, wrenching the axe out of Mycete’s hands, sending it flying off as the chain unwrapped mid-yank. He quickly handed the chain back to Rozzi and rushed down to join Hector’s approach toward the cage with Flare in hand.

Mycete turned slowly, catching sight of Wally as he approached the magical cage. “Aaaah, now it’s making sense. What a surprise. I’d heard the Flarebearer was a little fellow, but you’re positively PUNY!” He laughed. “Well, what are you waiting for pint size? Come and strike me down while you have the chance!”

Wally readied his blade just as Hector did on the opposite side when suddenly; from somewhere deep within him, a doubt emerged. A slim and frightening glimmer of an idea that seated itself quickly in the moment; this was no animal defending its territory or hunting, or some obvious monster out to destroy everything good. This was a person. Up until recently the general was as much a citizen of this nation as any other.

In that moment of hesitation the air seemed to freeze in place, and the moonlight peeking through the leaves became like jagged glass. Horrible, otherworldly sounds filled every ear and from any surface bearing a shadow, dark figures began to yank and claw themselves into existence.

“Oops,” Mycete chortled. “Too Late.”

<[Chapter 06]–[Index]–[Chapter 08]>

#A Baker's Quest #writing

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morfiction · 5 years

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Is this a better beginning?

ON THE ROAD

Bleach stood at the side of long, paved road which winded its way from the west to the far eastern horizon. He held his hand out with his thump up and waved it while he looked expectantly to either side. He was hitching a ride, something Grampah warned him against never, ever, doing. When Bleach asked him what it was, Grampah showed him how.

Sometimes, adults were funny that way. That you were always told not to do something, but they did it anyway. Grampah could of hitched a ride lots of times, but he never did. So far, Grampah needn't worry; nobody was coming, anyway.

Funny how somebody built this road and they never used it. I wonder why? How could this road possibly be here and not be used?

Could they perhaps not know it was here? That would be impossible!

As he thought these things, he walked. The ground beneath his feet is hard and firm, radiating a mysterious heat through the thin soles of his shoes. He liked the feel of it, a complete contrast to the soft, wet grass and filthy mud which drastically changed with each foot step. The road is resolute. It goes straight ahead and around a corner, exactly where he's headed. He knows not who put it here and for what purpose is completely inconceivable to him. He stared at his feet, marveling at how they moved. One foot lifted itself from the ground, moved forward, lowered itself to the ground, and the other advanced ahead of its brother. Right foot forward, left, right, left, right... He envied them, they knew how to walk. He knew nothing, but they knew how to walk. He looked ahead of himself to see where his smart feet were taking him. He stopped.

After waiting a full hour, he sits down in frustration and slowly falls asleep. He lies there, undisturbed, in a dreamless slumber. He begins to snore.

Much later, he begins to have nightmares. He dreams that Grinlab climbs out of the gaping mouth of the volcanic mountain, Devalcrag, and stares down at him menacingly. The little creature which had shot at him while he sleeps now dances about his feet, about the size of an insect, and stabs him continually in the ankle with a sword the size of sewing needle. He stomps it with his bare foot and the giant does the same to him.

He wakes with a start and hears the same chugging, whistling, popping sound he had heard the day his mother died coming from the west. He looks that way and sees a cloud of dust and glint of steel, coming closer every second. He jumps behind a boulder and hides.

He peeked out from behind the rock and saw an eccentric looking old man in peculiar clothes pull up in a bizarre, metallic vehicle. He slowed down to a crawl and called out in a voice has somehow gaspy, friendly, and, some how, as Grampah used to put it, with A-MAN-OF-THE-WORLD's tone ("I've been all over the world, and, boy, the tales I can tell...") all wrapped into one, "Hey, you there! Hop in the wagon and you climb in front with if you want a ride! I can't spot this damned thing on a dime, y'know!!!"

Well, almost.

Bleach did as he was told. At least, the man did gasp. And with good reason: a miniature chimney was attached to the front of his contraption and it gave off grayish-black smoke which blew directly in his face. He decided to trust the guy. Surely, somebody as peculiar as this couldn't be of any harm to associate with. Could he? He shouldered his backpack by both straps and jogged alongside of the wagon and leapt in. He landed heavily on a large pile of coal which filled the wagon halfway. This must be the power source, he thought. The wagon was hitched to the back of the odd machine by a short length of chain. Bleach hopped over that gap lightly and landed on the seat right next to the old man.

"Graceful, ain't 'cha?" the old man asked almost casually. He wore a leather aviator's cap with his white hair protruding out the front over his fore head like a small fan. Because of the exhaust, his hair was almost black at the tips and his bushy side burns were white. His face was creased in many places and he had crow's feet around his eyes, which made him look very old, but the eyes themselves were bluer and more lucid than those of any one any fraction of his age could possibly be. Worldly. Like Grampah, we wore horn-rimmed glasses with wire frames, which occasionally got all sooty so he had to clean them with a dirty handkerchief while he drove with his elbows---which he was doing at the moment.

He wore a red-and-white, candy cane-striped scarf which he wrapped around his neck twice and flapped in the breeze. Besides these things, his dress was not too different than that of the common blacksmith, complete with brown apron with the pockets filled with tools. He wore a leather belt which was buckled over top of the apron he had a pair of utilitarian boots which have appeared to have been torn and repaired and then torn again a great deal times, considering the various stitches on them.

The man held out a gloved hand, his left, and shook Bleach's from across his body. "My name's Athens Ford. And this, my friend is My Marvelous Machine. I invented it. I'm going to display it at the circus. What do you think, my lad? Isn't just a simply wonderful machine?" Athens smiled with teeth whiter and straighter than Bleach would expected in the mouth of such and old man. A little spark of light glinted off of one tooth, creating a peculiar sense of goodwill, actually making the smile seem even more benevolent than it otherwise would of been. Then, Athens upper row of teeth popped out of his mouth and fell in his lap. Bleach blinked. Where there had been healthy teeth a second ago, there was only pink gums in Athen's open mouth. "Oops!" said the toothless old man. He plucked his teeth out of his lap, blew on the them to get the crud off which might of accumulated on them, and put them back in his mouth. "Sorry. It's these dang dentures of mine! They keep falling out!"

Bleach was astonished. At first, he had been absolutely terrified by the sound of the oncoming machine. He had thought that the malevolent machine which had killed his mother and all of the trees in the Forest of Tears so many years ago had finally returned to finish the job by killing him, too. Then, he saw this strange little man roll by in this thing which he calls his "Marvelous Machine" and he could only wonder what else could possibly happen to him. The machine at first resembled a wagon or a horseless carriage made out of steel and other metals, with large, wooden cartwheels which were three or four feet in diameter and were just as tall as his hip. The seat which they sat abreast of each other on was comfortable and well-padded, in fact, it was actually and old sofa which was bolted down by the feet to keep it in place. Athens steered it with a "wheel" made out of the iron loop of a barrel and wore tough, leather gloves to protect his hands from getting cut by any sharp edges he hadn't already sanded out. The workmanship was admirable, although it was by no means perfect. Here and there, along the body, there were dents from a misplaced swing of a hammer. It was painted a noxious shade of green, almost florescent, and, along the sides, "MARVELOUS MACHINE" was written in bright yellow. On the hood, a large stencil of three balloons (one blue, a red one, and the last was purple) were drawn with their strings tied together and held in a disembodied hand. To the right of the balloon-holding hand, there was a clown's smiling face with gaudy make-up on it and it wore an orange wig.

Athens Ford was obviously a very pretentious man. Having gotten the idea of taking his invention to be shown off at a circus, he had gone to the trouble of actually making it looked it already was part of one. If he had been rejected by the circus's manager, Bleach had the feeling that he might continue to stubbornly insist that they needed him, that, after a while, they would come to him and beg on their hands and knees for forgiveness and so on until the poor man finally knuckled under and let Athens join up just so that he'd shut up about his damned machine's potential for earning the circus money. He had to admit, Athens could be just as tenacious at bartering with those show biz types, may even more so, as he'd expected him to be.

Athens was saying, "---do you really like it? I modeled after the Little Engine that could. All my life, no matter what task had been set before me, I tackled it with the same determination and courage as that danged little sucker in my favorite story. He'd always say, `I think I can, I think I can,' and, you know what? He did! If you think you can do something, you will. If you don't, you won't. All ya gotta do is try!" He smiled again, this time with only his lips so his teeth wouldn't fall out again. After a second, he showed a little bit of teeth, then returned his attention to the road ahead.

Bleach asked him, "How does it work?"

At that, Athens Ford stomped his foot hard on a pedal and threw back a metal lever. The Marvelous Machine all at once came to a screeching halt, and Bleach was thrown forward into the dashboard by the momentum. They hadn't been going too fast at all, but, if they were, he might of been tossed right out of his seat and collided head-first into the hot chimney and burned himself very badly. That was a close one!

"Why, I'll do better than tell you how it works, I'll show you! Come with me!" Athens jumped out of his seat onto the floor and landed as gingerly as a small child would of. Bleach did the same, but tripped on his own two feet and fell headlong into the dust. Athens was standing around the front of the vehicle, waving impatiently at Bleach in the manner of a child, eager to show a discovery to an adult, but too impatient for them to move in their own pace. In fact, the same impatience with which Bleach had acted with Granpa so long ago over the argument about a towel. Dismayed, Bleach pushes up off the floor and hobbles painfully around his side until he stands next to Athens.

Athens opens the hood of his car, revealing complex array of mechanics which would take a child as young Bleach or an old man like his grandfather a great deal of curmudegoning to understand. Athens points out the parts as he goes along. "This is a design of mine, the external combustion engine. I'm currently drawing up plans for an internal combustion engine, but I can't find the right materials to use. I once obtained a special elixir from a tradesman in Nistau who said that it was a nearly purified form of the stuff in the Black Tide. He said if I would invest in his wares, he may someday, with my help, find a way to actually purify that entire ocean's putrid toxins for abundant drinking water. Of course, that all was so much poppy cock, but I've found that the elixir is surprisingly flammable. Now, follow me. This engine is powered by two different cycles. First, I heat the water by burning the coal, the boiled water makes steam. Second, the steam passes through the turbines, creating motion.

"Of course, you can see that it would not be a very good idea if I kept boiling and boiling a great deal of water, over, and over, and over again. That would be all fine and dandy if I lived near a major body of water and always followed along it, but that would be both ridiculous and impossible as I've already said that there is none abundant enough for this task. In fact, most people get their water from cactus-es or reconstituted whatever. So, using the process of---" said Athens in a lecturing tone of voice used by many pompous and brilliant people alike. The question is, what is the difference?

"Distillation," said Bleach. When it came right down to it, he actually knew a great deal about how machines worked, after all. He knew of distillation because that was how the people in the City of Eden had kept the water in their bath house so pure, from distilled hot spring water.

"Right!" said Athens. He applauded Bleach, literally clapping his hands together. Not knowing what was expected of him, Bleach bowed. "This tube, here, leaves the engine after the vapor has passed through the turbines, then goes down, along the bottom of the car," said Athens, trailing the tubing exactly and even climbing underneath his contraption, "this prevent the steam from re-entering the engine immediately. It goes up here, into this chamber underneath the seat where it is cooled by a mechanical bellows. The bellows are powered by each rotation of the rear-left wheel, see? The liquid is then pumped back into the engine. I guess you could say that my design is almost as efficient as the human body. The bellows are beating heart, the water is the engine's life blood which is continually recycled throughout the cycle. No haste makes waste." Athens started to breath deeply, both because he'd talked himself hoarse and also because he could tell that Bleach needed some time to let this all sink in.

As a child, he had been anguished by the way mechanical giant Grinlab had destroyed first the Licanthos forest, then his own mother, with out even a trace of emotion. Its face showed no trace of the characteristics of a creature which had a conscience. It had worked its evil deeds without mercy or a moment of pause. If it had expressed pleasure, grinning insanely as it chopped its great ax into the flesh of each tree, he would of felt a touch of disgust as well as fear. If it had re-directed its fury on the millions of animals which it displaced from their homes and even then were attacking it on all sides to no avail, he would of also been outraged. As it was, Grinlab was oblivious to the misery it was causing to all of those living things. If it felt the slightest twinge of pain as the birds pecked at its knees or the lion's teeth upon its arms or coils of a boa constrictor around its neck, it didn't respond in the least bit.

Once, after it had been completely overrun by beasts so that, to Bleach, it looked as they were all posing for some odd living sculpture only a complete genius or a lunatic would conceive and only hope of accomplishing. A living heap of inhuman creatures, of the entirety of life besides our own, all writhing together in an orgy of ferocious violence as if they all planned to fight to death so that only one of them would stand victorious among a hideous slaughter to proclaim itself the rightful King of the Jungle. A bizarre thought, but, with that most inhuman and conscious-less mechanical wonder absolutely covered from head to toe by the beasts which attacked it, that was the only conclusion you could make. Then, every single creature screamed in agony and left of their prey, fleeing in every possible direction. Some died and fell in a lifeless pile around Grinlab and others were trampled to death by the escaping menagerie. When they all were gone, Grinlab stood there shining even brighter than the Suns themselves with an incandescent yellow light for a few seconds.

When it had finished, it spit out an crude, black liquid on the heap of corpses which was the exact color with which the entire then-blue Pax-Atlantic Ocean would become in a year's time. It sparked once more and all of those dead creatures were burned in a huge, ring-shaped bonfire with Grinlab standing in the middle with a expressionless face. Afterward, after the fires subsided, it plowed through a wall of ash and set back to its work as if nothing at all had happened. No counter-attack, no murder, nothing. As if it hadn't even stopped doing what it was doing all of this time to defend itself. Most of all, it didn't show any regret whatsoever.

If a machine could do all of these things, carry out a single-minded task such as destroy the Forest of Tears completely and indiscriminately and efficiently dispose of whatever obstacles stood in its way, then leave once it's mission had been completed; Bleach could accept such mindless destruction even though it had so traumatized the rest of his life. However, to sit here and find out that a man like Athens Ford, an inventor, could create such a thing in the name of science and discovery of their own potential for creating "life" out of something which never lived was too much. Sure, Athens probably didn't make that horrific thing which haunted his dreams with the murder of his own mother, but the facts still stated that he could of been. Could of made something like it and sold it to some insidious person who then sent it on such a destructive rampage. That was unthinkable. And unforgivable.

Then again, looking into the wonder-lust in the man's eyes which would of been more appropriate in a child of, well, Bleach's age or younger, rather than the spectacled eyes of a man perhaps sixty or eighty years old. It was a look which seemed fundamentally out of place but strangely reassuring in its presence. He was used to seeing older folk with a contented, happy look in their eyes and faces, who always seemed to be smiling confidently no matter what happened as if it had happened to them a million times before in earlier years and they were used to it.

He had even seen those of the perpetually ill or disadvantaged who always seemed to be in some kind of excruciating pain but were too proud to cry out in agony. Those people looked at him, with his youth and dependably functional body, with aether an odd measure of envy or mild disgust. Such health is wasted on the young, is a thought he perceived of them thinking each time he saw that particular look.

But, worst of all, he had seen the eyes of the tragically old and wretched. Their eyes were too glassy, too pathetic, the hound-dog expression a dog would use to beg of its master for a treat. There was no clarity in those people's eyes, just a lost, sad expression. As if no cognizant thoughts rattled inside their heads except endless rhetorical question for which they had long-ago forgotten the answers: Where am I? Who are those people? Who am I? What am I doing here? Why can't I remember anything? This was the way he had always perceived babies, but at least babies have their entire lives ahead of them while the elderly have lived their entire lives but have forgotten every nuance of them.

Even though Athens Ford looked old, he didn't act like it, and thus left the impression that he had never been old for a single second in his entire life. The same way Bleach was only a decade old, but acted way too mature for his age.

He had grown up quickly, during the course of five years, after his mother died. That was when he had lost the greatest piece of his faith in the world he lived in: the belief that his mother would always be there for him, no matter what happened or what he did to disappoint her. She had said all of that herself, with him sitting in her lap and enfolded in her loving arms as he cried and cried and cried. She said that when he was a baby and continued to say it every day, for five straight years. The last time she had said it was the morning before her death.

Bleach blinked a couple of times, rubbed the tears from his eyes, and saw Athens looking at him. Before he could speak, Athens winked an eye at him. He had no business knowing about what ails him so. Just a simple moment of nostalgia for things past. If he felt like talking about it, Athens would listen.

Bleach took a moment to collect himself, then spoke. "Alright, so you're saying that this thing is powered by steam, right? You just boil the water, then boil it again. So I assume this also eliminates the problem of having to carry around a cumbersome supply of fresh water whoever you go. All you have to drink is the distilled water which comes out of your machine, right?"

Athens took his cap off of his head and slapped it hard against one knee. "Well, yes'sir that's just about right! Except for the fact that, having gone through all that there dirty smoke, the dang water tastes so gawd-awful that I'd rather die of dehydration than drink the foul stuff. When making drinking water I make of point of getting a big kettle, fill that with water, then distill it with some tubes into pot sitting in nearby stream to cool it. Throw out the crud in the bottom of the kettle, then fill it back up with the same water. I distill it, screen out the impurities, then distill it again for about an hour before I drink it, then keep the stuff in a canteen. But at least you know some of the fundamentals. I 'spect you used ta live in that dang City of Eatin' with all their new-fangled ideas on how to do things, but they stole their process from me!"

Bleach stood there for a moment, shocked by this insight, but then began to laugh. Just then, for only a brief second, he had no idea what he was talking about, then he remembered. The City of Eden. The place he had lived for almost nine full years of his life. He had been displaced for so long that he had actually forgotten his own routes. He had also forgotten the fact that he had a brother, but that idea wasn't as funny as the other. He felt a little ashamed of himself, but the grief he felt was perfunctory. He really never had a chance to know his own brother, they had been apart for most of their lives. Now, he was the only one left of his line and the only surviving citizen of the City know that it had been destroyed. He had no faith that at least one other person had managed to escape before hand. Nobody ever left there by their own volition. It was paradise.

"So, kiddo?" said Athens. He was leaning over on the closed hood of his Marvelous Machine, arms folded, looking down at Bleach with casual impatience. "Got any more ideas ya want'ta throw my way? Well?"

Bleach blurted out the first thing he could think of: "The smoke!" Athens rolled his eyes a little and raised an eyebrow. "You could, um, do something so it wouldn't be, uh, chugging out a lot of smoke in your face all of the time. Maybe you could... do something about that? Right?" He said, hating himself for sounding so stupid.

Athens slapped his hand across his forehead in that timeless gesture. "You know, you are right! Perhaps I can divert it instead out the back instead in the front? Yeah! That would be a great idea! It'll make it a heck of a lot safer to maneuver the contraption without the smoke making my eyes all fuzzy! I wonder why I didn't think of it myself! I always said you kids had more initiative than us old fogies. Not as much brains, mind you, but more initiative," he said, more to himself than to Bleach. He held a hand out across the hood, Bleach shook it, and he took two running steps to the back of the car to fetch a tool box.

Bleach just stood there, silent. He put his hands in pockets, shook his head, then slowly got back in the contraption and sat on his side of the seat while the inventor set to work on the necessary modifications. He didn't bother trying to tell Athens the fact that, yes, while it may be a little easier on them, it would also be inconsiderate of them to blow all of their smoke in the faces of people he were traveling behind them. He had a feeling Athens wouldn't even care. He was engrossed in work at the moment to even consider a flaw in his plans.

Half an hour later, chugging along contentedly like the Little Engine That Could which Athens he had spoken of earlier, they came to the chaired remains of the sign post which he had watched Joe McDougle and his cohorts burn the night before. Bleach recognized the place because of the fence which went along of to one side. That, and the fact the was a small pile of dung, covered with buzzing flies, in the spot where Joe's horse had "went."

Surprisingly, it and the other horses hadn't spooked at the sight of the fire. It seemed they were as used to the sight as they were of the strange ways that their masters had dressed.

Athens was furious. He fumed with anger and spat out a string of foul words, one after the other, so quick that Bleach couldn't even understand what he was saying but was certain that whatever they were, they weren't the kind of words you would use to address an elder with. He just pointed in the right direction, the one he had seen the sign pointing toward before it was set on fire.

Athens asked him if he was sure that was the way they had to go? He said he was, and Athens headed off in that direction. He didn't ask Bleach how he knew the way and Bleach didn't even try to explain to him. It didn't matter. Athens wanted to know the way and Bleach had told him. Nothing more, nothing less.

It occurred to Bleach, looking back on the events on the previous night, that there was a very thin line between a zealot and a nihilist. One had faith in the continued proof in favor of their beliefs and the other was just as dependent in the refuting of that proof. One was as dependent on those proves as the other was dependent on the lack of those things.

As far as Bleach was concerned, his loss in faith was both an omen of disaster to come and a welcome comfort.

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polandandback2019 · 5 years

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June 5 PM

After we returned from the National Park, we had coffee and cake and chilled for an hour or so before we went to the transportation museum. It was a little disappointing. We had hoped to see more then we did. The ground floor was a fascinating display of bicycles, old cars and wagons and such as the first motorized bicycle made out of wood was there. During the first World War they were low on rubber for tires so someone invented a wheel for a bicycle that had springs around the rim and a piece of flat metal to touch the ground. It wasn't a very easy method of transportation, but it was better than nothing. The ship part of the museum and the aviation part of the museum was a little less interesting. They did have a great exhibit about how the railroad was built in the middle East in the early 1900s up through the beginning of World War II by a German engineer who was given an honorary title of Pasha by the Turkish government. There were a lot of stops and starts based on economics and politics of the region, but the railroad was finally built after 40 years or so. That evening we wandered around until we found a bar and restaurant it had the meal we wanted. They had a schnitzel with french fries which was enough for two people at least. We have been eating rather late lately because the sun comes up around 3:30 and goes down about 9:30. We actually hated to leave Dresden because it is such a beautiful city and we had a great hotel downtown although there was a building being constructed across the street from our room They only work from 7 a.m. to 3:30 or 4 p.m. We did not get to see Anna when we left because it was her day off, Sina was very helpful and said she was sad we had to leave. We were going to drive straight to Anna’s hometown, but decided to stop in Wroclaw because it was on the way and they had very interesting Town Hall. We thought we got a hotel in downtown, but it was more uptown when we got there. We checked in around 1 but couldn't get in our room until 3 so we walked downtown about a mile and a half to the Market Square. It was very impressive as was the Old Town Hall. This is the most commercialized downtown we have been at because there are permanent booths set up all around downtown selling everything from food to souvenirs. We stopped on the way the Opera House for coffee and cake and practiced the words for please and thank you with the staff. It's a process. Our hotel is not the best one we've stayed in but it is very clean functional and inexpensive. I think we're paying thirty-five bucks a night plus $9 for underground parking. It has a full refrigerator with freezer but no filter coffee maker. We had to improvise. The bed was very comfortable and the bathroom was very nice.

June 7

It had to happen sooner or later so we woke up to a cool rainy day. It's cool and drizzling rain but starting to clear up a little bit. We are headed to the concentration camp near Auschwitz-Birkenau for a couple of days. We will take day trips out of there to Anna’s hometown. We drove to Auschwitz in the morning got to our hotel about 11:45. The desk clerk said we could not check in and we asked about going to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She suggested we go there right away and see if we could get in for a tour. There were no English tours available online, but when we got there that was one spot in the English-speaking tour at 12:30, but there were 16 in the German speaking tour for 12:30. We took the German speaking tour along with a lot of other non German speaking people just to get in the ground. You can only get into the museum from 0900 - 1600 hrs with a guide. It was a very sobering tour and they didn't hold back anything about Camp life. Auschwitz was a relative small concentration camp in size, but they managed to kill over 1 million people. The tour took a little over two hours and then we boarded a bus to Birkenau. This camp was over 500 hectares, according to our guide, if I understood her correctly, about 1,235 acres and had a woman's camp, a man's camp, a gypsy camp with families and a Roma camp with families. The barracks were designed for 50 people or so but at times there were it up to 500 women in one barracks. There was no room to lie down. People coming to the camps in trains some time spent up to three days on the train with no food or water and no time to go to the bathroom except in the train car. Children were separated early if they weren't able to work were killed immediately. There was an infirmary where sick people went, but if you weren't deemed suitable for working within 3 days you were either gassed or killed by lethal injection. They had major displays of how the belongings of the prisoners were taken and sorted in warehouses to be sent back to Germany for people who had lost everything in the bombings. They had a section where they collected the hair of people who were being gassed and burned to you sell for $0.50 a pound. They sold the hair and made material out of it. The material look like regular cloth and we saw hundreds of pounds of hair that was left over when the camp was liberated. There were thousands of shoes, hundreds of suitcases, hair brushes, shaving brushes, toothbrushes etc still on display. There was one display that had a collection of eyeglass frames that were being sorted to send back to Germany or to be used for other purposes. There is documentation of all the things that they had done and why they had done it. There were displays of the canisters used to hold the pellets that created the gas when acid was poured on it prior to burning people in the crematoriums. There is also a display of experiments from Dr. Mengele where he cut off legs and tried to see how people functioned with artificial legs. There was experimentation on sterilization on women and you can't imagine some of the pictures you see. We saw one barracks where they had cells were you could not stand up in and you had to crawl into from a door near the floor. There was no light at all in the cell. I could go on and on but I don't want to think more about it. We have many pictures in our heads. After going to the concentration camps oh, we had our cocktail hour and set out to find a place to eat. Auschwitz was celebrating 30 years of freedom with a festival in the Town Square. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The music was very loud and uncomfortable so we walk around until we found a hole in the wall Restaurant. The mosquitoes were pretty bad outside and we had not seen mosquitoes ever on this trip until then so we went inside to eat. The cook was very happy to speak with us and a friend of his came in and sat across from us at another table.He was watching the news on TV and drinking a beer. He didn't speak for at least 15 minutes, but when he got started we had a long conversation in halting English and no Polish. It was a very interesting conversation and when we left he gave us a hug, but we realized we have not taken a picture. It's one of those reasons that we travel and it's the only money you spend that makes you richer. This came from a plaque given to us as a Christmas present from Christina. She surely knows her dad and Nana.

June 8

We had a good breakfast at the Hilton Inn by Marriott and headed for the town of our hotel clerk in Dresden. It was a nice drive through the countryside to a ski resort town that had some interesting wood carvings. We spent a little while walking around and then headed for Krakow an hour and a half away. We thought we had reserved a room in Old Town Krakow, but was told by Orbitz and the hotel owner that it had been overbooked and we had to look for another place. We look for a place that we thought was in the old town but was about 1 KM away. It took an hour and a half to find a parking place because all the parking is free on Saturday and Sunday in Krakow. We got to our hotel at 3 went out for coffee and went to downtown to look around. Krakow has the largest outdoor market in Europe and I can believe it after looking at it. We came back to our hotel for a cocktail and got a bite to eat in a little Bistro across the street from our hotel.

June 9

We spent most of the day looking at the castle in Krakow and saw the St Mary's Cathedral. We spent five and a half hours touring the castle and we only saw four exhibits. It was fantastic but no photos are allowed inside the building. We toured the state rooms (where business was conducted on our own), the Royal Apartments ( with a guide), the Arsenal and a special exhibit of old coins, tapestries, seals Etc. One of the kings of Poland had over 150 tapestries made over a ten year period in Belgium. When the Nazis came, they spirited all of them out through various countries to Canada for safekeeping. The Canadiens finally gave them back in the late 1960s, but only a hundred and thirty-seven survived. These tapestries were from the early 15th century. They have over 300 total tapestries over the last 500 years. We had a very nice English speaking tour guide for the Royal Apartment tour. We even got to see where the king's private bathroom was. It was an indoor / outdoor one-holer that had a drop of 22 ft. We also climbed up one of the guard towers look out over the city. I lost our map of Poland that I bought so we have to buy another one or use the European map we have. We hope everyone is enjoying the blog as much as we are enjoying the trip. We start freewheeling again tomorrow and I will try to get some photos uploaded in the next few days. The blog is pretty much up-to-date. We have to be out of here tomorrow before 10 when they start charging for parking. We are finding ingenious ways to make filtered coffee when all they have is a hot water pot to make instant coffee.

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robertkstone · 6 years

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2020 Kia Soul First Drive: Classy and Sassy

As one of Kia’s consistently best-selling models, the Soul has always been difficult to categorize. Tall wagon? Crossover? Maybe a little of both? Since its U.S. debut in 2010, the Soul has proudly marched to the beat of its own drum: boxy and dorky—and is ultimately cooler because of it. Now entering its third generation, the 2020 Kia Soul adds a healthy dose of refinement while keeping its weird streak intact.

Soul competitors have come and gone through the years. Nissan lost faith in its oddball Cube and Juke, replaced by the more conventional-looking Kicks for 2018. And the original subcompact box-on-wheels, the Scion xB, went from quirky and cool to flabby and boring in its second generation, before Toyota pulled the plug on the brand altogether. The verdict is still out on Toyota’s curiously styled spiritual successor, the C-HR.

Neither of these models can touch the Soul when it comes to horsepower. New for 2020 on all trim levels (except the GT-Line 1.6T) is a 147-hp 2.0-liter naturally aspirated I-4 driving the front wheels through Kia’s own CVT, first seen on the 2019 Forte and replacing the six-speed automatic. That’s 14 fewer horsepower than last year’s 2.0 (and 17 horsepower more than the outgoing car’s 1.6-liter base engine), but fuel economy bumps up from 25/30 mpg city/highway to 27/33 mpg (or 29/35 mpg on a special economy-minded model). A six-speed manual remains on the option sheet, but it’s only available on the base LX model.

If it’s power you really want, the turbocharged 1.6-liter I-4 returns on the top-dog GT-Line 1.6T, once again connected to a seven-speed twin-clutch automatic and offering shift paddles for the first time. With 201 hp on tap, this boosted Soul has more than enough grunt to spin the front tires. Even though power is rated the same as last year’s model, it feels even punchier at highway speeds. Also exclusive to the 1.6T are larger disc brakes and a sport-tuned suspension. Although it might not be a certifiable hot hatch, the turbocharged 2020 Soul features moves to match its power and doesn’t embarrass itself in the corners. Better yet, the 1.6T is almost as economical as the less powerful 2.0, scoring a near-identical 27/32 mpg.

Sport-tuned suspension or not, the Soul delivers impressive ride quality, dispatching mid-corner bumps without drama or complaint. Part of the credit goes to the longer wheelbase this year, up by 1.2 inches to 102.4. The body is longer, too, by 2.2 inches, but the overall shape remains very much the same.

At first glance, the exterior silhouette is familiar: It’s unapologetically tall and boxy. The front end is now more streamlined and cohesive, with squinty headlights connected by a center trim piece that emphasizes the width, which remains unchanged at 70.9 inches. The overall effect lies somewhere between sleepy and sophisticated, kind of like a Range Rover Evoque that consumed one too many edibles. High praise, indeed, considering that the Evoque starts at over 40 grand while a base 2020 Soul LX begins at only $18,485.

Conversely, the back end is overwrought in its execution, with too many styling elements competing for attention. On their own, the new “boomerang-style” taillights are a nice touch, especially in how they wrap up into the top of the tailgate. But peek around the corner to the C-pillar where there’s a black piece of plastic embossed with the Soul logo. Kia likens this shape to airplane wings, but honestly, it’s just another take on the “floating roof” concept, and it looks a little tacked on when combined with the upright lines of the hatch. Chances are the styling cue will age as well as that plastic piece.

Even though the Soul defies category description, it’s definitely not an SUV—and up until now it’s bucked the trend of visually pretending to be one. New for 2020 is the X-Line trim starting at $22,485, which adds contrasting body cladding and chunky fenders. This package will be great for the urban warrior who drives within spitting distance of a gravel road. The 2020 Soul wears the look surprisingly well, but it’s lost some street cred in the process.

Chances are most Soul owners will be more concerned with what’s going on inside. For the most part, they won’t be disappointed. Even base models receive a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with a six-speaker audio system and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Standard on the EX and GT-Line 1.6T is a new 10.3-inch infotainment system with satellite navigation. The widescreen display is crisp and bright and provides plenty of visual real estate for a two- or three-up split-screen display. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto users will appreciate the added room on this screen for up to 10 apps.

Although last year’s model featured whimsical circular-shaped speaker housings that seemed to float atop the dashboard vents, the tweeters are now housed in tiny rectangular bezels next to triangular-shaped vents. It takes a few blinks before you realize that the combined shape emulates the form of a speaker, with the tweeters serving as the coil and the vents taking on the role of the horn. The motif carries over onto the door panel, where a stylized trim piece gives the illusion of sound waves. Neat!

Only GT-Line 1.6T buyers will be treated to the 2020 Soul’s most notable option—the 640-watt Harman-Kardon audio system. In addition to more sonic oomph, the mood lighting is really the star here. Illuminated speaker surrounds glow and pulse in time to the beat of the music. In response to customer feedback, Kia made the lighting brighter and more responsive in contrast to last year’s version. Although it’s not for everyone, it’s a shame that this Soul-centric option is limited to only the top trim level.

When it comes to safety, Kia offers a comprehensive slate of active safety features on the 2020 Soul, though you’ll have to step up past the LX to get any of them. Still, automatic emergency braking, lane keeping and change assist, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert are all standard on the S, which starts at $21,285. Not bad.

By offering five trim levels instead of last year’s three, Kia has also mapped out the pricing and options of the Soul across a greater spread. The biggest jump is at the top end, with the GT-Line 1.6T commanding a cool $28,485—roughly $500 more than a fully loaded 2019 Soul. That’s in line with a Mazda CX-3 Touring or Subaru Crosstrek, though the Kia dusts them both with its turbo power. There’s also an EV version of the Soul right around the corner, if electrons are more your thing.

With its expressive styling and clever interior touches, the 2020 Kia Soul stays true to its eccentric mission. But it also happens to be an extremely well-rounded and likeable car with solid mainstream appeal. The quirky flourishes serve to enhance a strong package, rather than compensate for any glaring deficiencies. So for those who want a practical package with a little sass, the 2020 Kia Soul is ready to oblige.

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itsworn · 6 years

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Breaking with Tradition at the 2018 L.A. Roadster Show & Swap

Many hot rodders have been looking forward to Father’s Day weekend for decades, the time of year devoted to a worldwide favorite: the L.A. Roadsters Show & Swap Meet. It has played a significant role in our hobby’s history thanks to the efforts of the L.A. Roadsters, a club that formed in 1957 and launched the event three years later. The show evolved into a well-oiled machine, with a huge swap meet, an area dedicated to hundreds of pre-’37 roadsters/cabriolets, a specialty parking area open to well over 1,000 pre-’78 automobiles, and dozens of professional vendors scattered across the show grounds.

Paul and Linda Mooney of Kernville, California, had Image Street Rods and Keith Vander Meulen restore their family relic built in 1949. Among this ’25 Ford track roadster’s claims to fame: gracing the pages of HOT ROD in January 1950. That same year, it also won first in class at the Oakland Roadster Show, better known as the Grand National Roadster Show today.

In 2017, John Buck and the team of Roadster Shows Inc., the same folks who put together the Grand National Roadster Show, took over the happening. They renamed it L.A. Roadster Show & Swap—that’s “Roadster” singular. It resulted in a new price structure for participants, including roadster owners, who until then were able to enter for free. Another major change took place this year, when Sunday was dropped from the schedule altogether. Shocking? Not really. Over the decades, Father’s Days have seen lighter foot traffic compared to Saturdays. It seems that some longtime hot rodders now prefer spending time visiting with their children and grandchildren on Sunday.

Remember the Ross Heale/Jack Foye Model T roadster pickup? It sparked many memories when appearing on the cover of HRD in May 2010. Raced extensively in So-Cal between 1958 and 1961, it set the national A/SR record at Bakersfield in 1960 (131 mph). A supercharged 1956 354ci Hemi gives it plenty of go. As a side note, the ’26 truck attended the very first L.A. Roadsters Show at the Hollywood Bowl in 1960.

The weekend of activities was therefore condensed to Friday and Saturday, with numerous vendors/swappers setting up early Thursday. While the weather has been brutally hot during the last few years, the 2018 edition proved very pleasant, making the LARS experience truly enjoyable. Considering this year’s smaller turnout, let’s hope our scene will support the show in larger numbers in 2019.

Need a Willys for a gasser project? This vendor had a couple of four-door examples for sale. The ’41 model (left) offered at $6,900 comes equipped with a new fiberglass nose and a 10-bolt rearend, plus loads of extra parts. Or for $8,200 you could have purchased the frog-eyed ’36 sedan, “99.9 percent complete and uncut,” per the seller.

The idea of starting a series of front-engine dragsters in front of the crowd, aka “Cacklefest,” has been a tradition at Famoso Raceway’s California Hot Rod Reunion since 2000. Other events, not necessarily 100-percent drag related, have adopted this cacophony of V8s over time too, including the L.A. Roadster Show. This year’s affair gathered half a dozen historic rails.

The crew of Retro Rods, Inc. (Monroe, Washington) had the luck of purchasing this Hemi-powered ’31 Ford roadster, built by Irving Landing while in college in California. They restored it close to its 1956 configuration, when it first hit the street. An engineer who helped with the original Moon landing, Irving made constant clever and subtle improvements over the years, though the vehicle did not change much until it was last driven in 1979.

The Burbank Choppers have been LARS regulars for years, traditionally setting up in the swap meet to sell their old parts and a few T-shirts. Here is club member Aaron Kahan’s Bad News Model T, which he has owned since age 5 (!). Some 14 years ago, the ’27 coupe played center stage on a TV show called Rides while being built as seen here.

The Specialty Parking welcomes an eclectic mix of automobiles, from customs and lowriders to VW Buses and muscle cars. You might occasionally notice a theme within certain rows—traditional hot rods in the case of this trio. Geoff Murray cruises in the black ’30 Model A, while the grey coupe and red roadster, both Deuces, respectively belong to Pat and Austin Grabowski.

Throttle Kings club member Peter Rodriguez drove from nearby Azusa in his ’30 Model A. The chassis came from a Deuce, which also supplied the grille, a timeless combination. When not running these smooth hubcaps, the triple-carb’d coupe runs Lyon caps or plain chrome wheels.

The Immortals Car Club brought a handful of cool rides, including a pair of Deuces owned by the Branch family. Diana hit the road in her chopped ’32 Tudor (she also owns the blue and pink A/V8 partly visible on the right), followed by her husband Tom’s gold-painted Deuce. Car looks tough with its 15×4 and 15×8.5 magnesium American Racing rims, eh?

When not cruising in their trio of 1930s hot rods, the Branch family can be found in this ’46 Ford coupe. It gets driven everywhere thanks to a dependable Chevy 350 V8, TH350 trans, and 9-inch rear. While the body remains all stock and proudly shows its patina, the suspension has been nicely slammed, courtesy of a 5-inch dropped axle and de-arched springs (front) and a parallel leaf spring kit (back).

Check out this excellent display of chopped sleds, some belonging to the Mercoholics Car Club. From left to right: Shawn Blackburn’s ’50 Ford, Marvin Coley’s ’50 Merc, and Craig Pardue very red ’51 Ford. We understand the ’47 Merc seen on the right was chopped by custom hero Dick Dean.

So, you like magnesium? How about this ’55 Chevy 210 gasser (owned by Tom, aka 55_210_gasser on Instagram), which drips with rare mag parts. They include a Mooneyham supercharger and McLaren valve covers, fitted on a race-gas-fed big-block Chevy. This car must be terrifying to drive.

Some guys take the nose-high look to the next level! Wild Omar’s Speed & Custom selected an unusual candidate for its Radiator Lady gasser tribute car: a 1959 Rambler Cross Country wagon last registered for road use in 1971. Under the hood lurks a 410ci Olds V8 that delivers 567 horsepower.

Although it has changed hands since, this 1960 Ford Galaxie Starliner was originally built by Jack Fields, a partner in Starlite Rod & Kustom (now closed). The coupe helped promote the shop and Jack’s work thanks to its crazy paint job, enhanced with Radir Tri-Rib wheels and thin whitewall tires. The car was for sale at the show for $30,000.

Wonder what it is? You’re not alone. You won’t see many German-made 1956 Lloyds in the U.S., especially gasser versions! This one competed in the 1960s, posting a best e.t. of 11.22 at 122 mph in 1963. Motivation comes from an Olds motor with six carbs. Burt Frisby has owned the diminutive automobile since 1961.

Augie Delgado unearthed a ’66 Nova with a ton of history, having been raced by Sonny Young almost since new. He ordered the coupe with a sought-after 327/350hp option. Delgado did a fantastic job bringing the neglected straight-axle Chevy back to life. The 331ci engine features a ton of cool parts, such as a 1966-’67 Pete Jackson injection setup.

The post Breaking with Tradition at the 2018 L.A. Roadster Show & Swap appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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lordofsark-blog · 6 years

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Prologue

The silence of death permeated the air; the smell of it the sickly sweet charring of flesh mixed with the aromatic fragrance of maple. Critias looked on numbly at the funeral pyre, watching the canvas wrapped form of his mother burn. Despite the heat of the large bonfire, the young boy couldn’t help but feel cold in the dark winter night. His curious eyes glanced up at his father, a tall hardy looking man with dark hair and a cleverness in his dark glare. There was no cleverness in him tonight, however, only the dark mood that had imbedded itself in Artarius these past few weeks. He had his strong, long-fingered hand resting on his son’s shoulder, but there was little fondness to the gesture. Critias idly wondered if he was trying to be supportive, or if he was trying to support himself.

The young boy, no more than 9 winters, turned back to watch the flames dance. He felt as though his thoughts were thick, and wondered why the world was so cruel. As if to answer his question, his father spoke.

“Never forget, boy, the High Gods do not care for our happiness or plight. They are too busy reveling and feasting in their halls of silver and stone.” As he talked of the High Gods, Critias couldn’t help but flinch at the bitterness in his tone. He practically spat the words, marring the usual beauty of his baritone.

“We forge our own path,” he continued, gesturing at his clothing of skins and hand sewn cloth, clothing that matched Critias’ own. He dimly remembered hunting the stag that had provided furs for his current suit last

“Father, did the Gods do this to mother?” Critias found himself asking.

He felt Artarius’ hand stiffen on his shoulder. He felt the silence thicken all the more, as if his father was the source of all the world’s quiet.

“Critias, the Gods High and Small take little notice of such things. Only Crael takes a tally of the dead, and only after they have entered his realm. Right now your mother is likely walking through a field of lilies and lilac, drinking sweet honey wine and feasting… and waiting for you and I to join her.”

The young boy didn’t much like his father’s response. It seemed to drive away from the point, but he decided for now to keep silent and save the wondering for another day.

5 Years Later…

When Critias opened his eyes the sun almost blinded him. He rubbed his side from where his father’s foot had lightly rapped him. Artarius sat beside him and handed the teenager a waterskin. “We have a lot of walking to do today, boy. The storms will come in a few pass. We have to reach the Eldor mountains before then.”

Critias glanced at his father. He seemed to look worn, but his smile flowed easily. Critias couldn’t help but be thankful for such a father. It would be Rainlet soon, and the hefty storms of the Wilding forests and the North-lands of Yellis would befall them. Rainlet and Windling were never good parts of the year for Wildlings, as a rule.

“Father, why do we not travel south for the storms?” Critias asked, “We could keep working then, and bring home more money.”

Artarius’ face took on the look that let Critias know a lesson was forthcoming.

“My son, the Eldor do not travel south. You know why.”

Critias shrugged, hoping to goad his father into revealing more of his well-kept secrets. He had a habit of keeping important facts such as these hidden in his head like tiny treasures, making a game out of history and lessons.

“The Tael hate us, I thought.”

“They do not hate us, they fear us. Fear makes them dangerous, like a startled dog.”

The young man sighed and sat upright, taking a long drink from the waterskin. When he was done he had finished forming his next question.

“Why do they fear us father? They have their industry and machines and things. We just have bows. Swords.”

“Why indeed, boy?” Artarius replied, raising one of his eyebrows at his son. He tugged on his well-kept beard, and Critias could tell there was a hidden smile tugging at his lips. His gray eyes danced at the game he played.

Critias chose his next words even more slowly, “Is it because of our Gods? The Tael do not worship the Nine.”

His father nodded slowly.

“It is more our God-borne they fear than anything. It is why, despite their rampant civilization and industry, our swords never break. Our shields never bend. Our bows never miss.” As he mentioned each fact, he plucked a blade of grass from the ground. He proceeded to slowly strip them apart as he spoke, his pleasant baritone rolling over the hill just out of earshot of their encampment where Critias had chosen to nap for midday-break.

“Why did King Eld not crush them then? In the War?”

His father shot him a scathing look and Critias fell silent.

“Because, my fiery son, that would have been foolish. The Wars of Old ravaged the land, and its people. That, and the Tael were useful. When they sailed to or land from the Calding Sea they brought many things with them that were amazing and wondrous: machines that made piles of food, lamps that needed no fire or fuel to light your way, so on and so forth. If King Eld, in all his power and wisdom, had crushed them, all that would have been gone forever.”

Critias nodded as he listened, it made sense. Instead of erasing them, the King had given them lands of their own. Made their leader a king in his own right, although still subservient to the High King. So they had peace, and still benefited each other. It was a clever move, Critias thought. He told his father his thoughts on the subject.

Artarius nodded approvingly,

“All true. It is a lesson you should learn before you reach adulthood in a few years, my boy. Mercy upon your enemies may benefit you more than anything. However, if you do not place proper restraints on them, you may find your peace eaten away at like rust on iron.”

His father dropped his shredded blades of grass and stood, stretching out his long arms and legs. He was a tall man, but as he aged Critias slowly began to catch up to him. He was only three years away from adulthood. He had yet to firmly decided on what Path he would choose. He was only certain he wouldn’t choose to become a Gaelican Priest. As glorious as becoming a warrior-priest might sound, he had a distinct distaste for every time a Judicre had passed them on the road and demanded hefty payment in silver pennies. Perhaps the Path of Volus, a blacksmith. Or maybe the Path of Bemus, where he could become a learned-artificer of magical goods… He shook his head clear. He still had much time to think on such things.

They walked their way back to where the rest of their caravan was resting for luncheon, the midday sun high in the sky. A light breeze wafted through the hill-infested undulating landscape. It was nice to take a break from the road, the green grass and small towns they passed were very unlike their usual forest-haunts where they stayed most of the year. After Windling came to a close and it was nearing Harvest, they would make the two-pass long journey back home and start their trade up once more. As Wildlings they spent much of their time peddling themselves as mercenaries and scouts, and occasionally as a woodsman. Critias’ father was their leader of sorts, not that it was anything as official as that. Simply put, when he spoke, they listened.

As they came into view of the caravan, Critias spotted Jax, their oddest of companions, tweaking the pegs of his violin. He was frowning sternly at the instrument, but brightened as he saw the two of them approaching.

“Good afternoon, little master. Are you finally going to let me teach you the fine art of music?” Critias chuckled. He liked Jax, he was less brigand and more artificer than any of the others. Even his father could hardly keep up with the diverse set of skills the sandy-haired wry man displayed. Critias often wondered if Jax had Tael blood, because of his light hair. It was uncharacteristic of Eldor, who as a rule generally were dark haired and fair-skinned.

“Not today, musician-fair. My foolish hands would undoubtedly damage such a pretty little instrument.”

To this, Jax looked practically offended. “Pretty! I’ll have you know that a violin is the instrument that best matches the human voice. A skilled player may sing with two voices, in favour of one. As for your hands...” he trailed off, coming forward to grip Critias’ hands in his. The boy began to protest but Jax was already surveying his hands with uncharacteristic intensity. So, he held his tongue.

“These are no fool’s hands, even if the owner’s tongue tends to be foolish,” He said with a wide smile, “Your hands are long-fingered and wise. These are a godly-gift, and can do much.”

“That’s enough of that, Jaximo.” Artarius said quietly behind Critias. He distinctly caught the chill in his voice, and was about to ask what had upset him when Jax stood up sharply.

“Yes, you are quite right. We should get going. I’ll get the rest up and moving then, shall I?” He said. Before Artarius could respond, he was already off gathering the others. Artarius sighed and went off to untie the horses for the journey. Critias set about making preparations himself, dousing the fires and gathering up supplies into the backs of their traveling wagons. They were big, four-wheeled caravan wagons with waterproof canvas covers for keeping supplies dry, and sleeping in on particularly bad days.

In about an hour, judging by the sun, their things were packed up and ready. The horses were tied to the wagons, and they were off once more. Once they had set off, lessons began anew. Critias was handed a book from his and his father’s wagon, and was told to set about reading. It seemed to be a history of the Eld Empire. Critias loved histories, so he cracked it open and set to reading.

“… And so it was that the forces of Doumo the Wise overtook the gates

of Great Sün Taer. Their blades of magick tore through the Taer

barbarians like a stick through air. Blood and bone scattered the

once-great city. Many songs have been written of this battle, such

as Regulus’ ‘Lament of the Sün.’

Seeing that the battle was won, Doumo went to the commander of the

Taer army, and demanded that he order his men lay down arms and

surrender. The commander, who was named Ion the Hard, spat at

Doumo’s feet.

“My men will not bow to you demons and your foul magic. We fight

for the purity of man, not your black-blooded Gods.”

Doumo nodded, almost sadly, and took hold of his Godborne gifts,

slew the man with fire and stone.

It is for this reason we celebrate Doumo day, and the Gaelican

Church gives baked bread on the third Crada of the first pass of

Seeding each year...”

Critias blinked, turning to the front of the book to find the date: 357, almost three hundred years ago. Doumo day hadn’t been celebrated in nearly three generations, after the Royal Family outlawed such things that celebrated the superiority of the Eld. Relations with the Tael, and all that. Critias sighed and set back into the book with renewed intensity that came from a drive to finish his lessons so he could get on to more exciting things.

“… This led to the treaty of Ion, signed by High King Eld in the Year

Of Azeil two-hundred and three. This treaty ensured protected trade

routes for one uninterrupted decade, allowing the flow of resources

to resume...”

#writing #fae #faerie #fantasy #chapter #prologue #tradgedy #story #stories #prompt

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cartyresfranciscowrnn747-blog · 7 years

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