Heart Of Ice
folder
Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
22
Views:
6,562
Reviews:
27
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
22
Views:
6,562
Reviews:
27
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Chapter Fourteen: Hospitably Helpful Worm
Title: Heart Of Ice: Chapter Fourteen: Hospitably Helpful Worm
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall.
Summary: Avery meets the worm.
Warning(s): Language
Disclaimer: Technically, this is a rewrite of the movie Labyrinth. However, how much it resembles the movie remains to be seen. I do not own/am not associated with Labyrinth or anything related to it. However, all of the characters and some of the ideas in this story are mine.
Note(s): If I don’t start getting reviews on the damn thing I’m going to assume that no one likes it and it will be discontinued. Sorry.
~*~
The voice seemed to be coming from somewhere around his left shoulder. Avery looked down but all he saw was a large round white worm with bright orange hair sprouting from its back all the way up to its head in what looked like a badly formed Mohawk haircut and spread around its head almost like a head of human hair. It’s eyes, large and a sort of grayish color with pink irises and large black pupils, stared up at Avery with something like human intelligence.
“No,” the boy said to himself. “Worms don’t talk.” He glanced around. There was no one else around, human, animal or otherwise.
“Allo!” the voice said again.
It was definitely coming from just beside his left shoulder, right where the worm was sitting on a ledge of broken stone in front of a hole it must have come out of. “Umm,” he said, addressing the worm for the first time. “Did…did you say ‘hello’?”
The little worm grinned at him and Avery gasped. “No,” it said. “I said ‘allo’ but that’s close enough.”
“Oh my god!” Avery’s hand flew up to cover his mouth and, still sitting on the ground, he moved back several inches. “But you’re a worm!” he cried.
The little creature looked down at itself as though trying to ascertain that little fact. “Yeah,” it said finally, bobbing its head up and down. “That’s right.”
Right, Avery thought, I should never have taken it for granted that a worm can’t talk. It was just as Mohandas had said. He took too many things for granted. But at least here was someone else he could talk to, someone he could ask directions of. “Do you…You wouldn’t know how to get through the labyrinth, would you?” Maybe it would. Maybe Avery could cut his trip through this labyrinth – if one could really call a long, seemingly endless corridor a labyrinth – much, much shorter.
The worm laughed. “Who, me?” it asked.
Avery nodded.
The worm shook its head. “Nah, sorry. I’m just a worm.”
Avery sighed. He had figured as much. It seemed no one knew how to get through the labyrinth, or that no one was willing to help him anyway. “Well,” he said for lack of anything else to say.
“Come inside and meet the missus,” he worm invited.
He seemed so nice. Avery managed a faint smile. “I can’t,” he said apologetically. “But thank you. I have to get through the labyrinth, only there are no turns or corners or openings or anything.” He gestured to the corridor they were currently the only inhabitants of. “It just goes on and on.”
“Oh,” said the worm, laughing. “You just ain’t looking right. It’s full of openings. It’s just that you ain’t seeing them is all.”
Avery frowned and glanced around. There were definitely no more openings than there had been a moment ago. On each side of the stone pathway the walls rose up to the sky and seemed to extend on and on forever. “But there’s no openings,” he insisted.
The worm laughed again. “There’s an opening just across the way,” it continued, “right in front of you.”
Avery looked. He studied the wall in front of him, tipping his head first to the right and then to the left. There was no opening there, just a stone wall covered in dirt and lichen, crumbling down right where it stood. “There…there’s no opening,” he reiterated. “It’s just a wall.”
In a kind voice the little worm said, “Come inside and have a nice cup of tea.”
“But there isn’t an opening,” Avery insisted. He did not want to come inside for a cup of tea. He wanted to get through the labyrinth with his sanity intact – although he was having doubts about that one already – and rescue his sister and go home to his warm, soft, comfortable bed. That did not include coming into a worm’s house and having tea with it.
“Of course there is.” The worm continued to be good natured even though Avery had not accepted its offer of tea or a meeting with ‘the missus’. “You try walking through it. You’ll see what I mean. But first, why not have a nice hot cup of tea.”
Avery was beginning to think this worm’s hospitality was only one of Fabian’s tricks to delay him. “Where is it?” he asked looking at the plain, crumbling, lichen covered wall again. “It’s just wall. There’s no way through.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem in this place,” the worm informed the boy. “Take this labyrinth for example. You can’t take anything for granted.”
Strange. It seemed as if everyone in this place were reading from the same script, the same few lines of the same script. The worm’s words were almost exactly the same ones Mohandas had used when trying to dissuade Avery from entering the labyrinth outside the gates. But maybe there was an opening there. What was it that Mohandas had said when Avery had asked if he would go left or right? It was something about not going either way, right? So…so maybe there had been an opening there too and Avery had not seen it either. Maybe it had been possible to go straight! He frowned. Well, what else was there to do? He stood and, holding his hands out in front of him, closed his eyes and walked at the wall…
Through the wall.
And into another passageway.
He turned around and went back. “Thank you!” he said happily to the worm. “That was incredibly helpful.” Avery had chosen to go to the right in the last passageway so he started down the new one to the right.
“Wait!” the worm called after him frantically.
He turned to look at the little creature who had – sort of – become his friend. “What was that?” he asked.
“I said, don’t go that way,” the worm repeated. “Never go that way.
“Oh,” Avery said, shrugging. “Thanks.” He turned to follow the right side passageway just as he had in the previous one.
When he had gone the worm let out a sigh of relief. “Poor boy,” it said. “That was close. If he had kept on going down that way he would have gone straight to that castle.”
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall.
Summary: Avery meets the worm.
Warning(s): Language
Disclaimer: Technically, this is a rewrite of the movie Labyrinth. However, how much it resembles the movie remains to be seen. I do not own/am not associated with Labyrinth or anything related to it. However, all of the characters and some of the ideas in this story are mine.
Note(s): If I don’t start getting reviews on the damn thing I’m going to assume that no one likes it and it will be discontinued. Sorry.
~*~
The voice seemed to be coming from somewhere around his left shoulder. Avery looked down but all he saw was a large round white worm with bright orange hair sprouting from its back all the way up to its head in what looked like a badly formed Mohawk haircut and spread around its head almost like a head of human hair. It’s eyes, large and a sort of grayish color with pink irises and large black pupils, stared up at Avery with something like human intelligence.
“No,” the boy said to himself. “Worms don’t talk.” He glanced around. There was no one else around, human, animal or otherwise.
“Allo!” the voice said again.
It was definitely coming from just beside his left shoulder, right where the worm was sitting on a ledge of broken stone in front of a hole it must have come out of. “Umm,” he said, addressing the worm for the first time. “Did…did you say ‘hello’?”
The little worm grinned at him and Avery gasped. “No,” it said. “I said ‘allo’ but that’s close enough.”
“Oh my god!” Avery’s hand flew up to cover his mouth and, still sitting on the ground, he moved back several inches. “But you’re a worm!” he cried.
The little creature looked down at itself as though trying to ascertain that little fact. “Yeah,” it said finally, bobbing its head up and down. “That’s right.”
Right, Avery thought, I should never have taken it for granted that a worm can’t talk. It was just as Mohandas had said. He took too many things for granted. But at least here was someone else he could talk to, someone he could ask directions of. “Do you…You wouldn’t know how to get through the labyrinth, would you?” Maybe it would. Maybe Avery could cut his trip through this labyrinth – if one could really call a long, seemingly endless corridor a labyrinth – much, much shorter.
The worm laughed. “Who, me?” it asked.
Avery nodded.
The worm shook its head. “Nah, sorry. I’m just a worm.”
Avery sighed. He had figured as much. It seemed no one knew how to get through the labyrinth, or that no one was willing to help him anyway. “Well,” he said for lack of anything else to say.
“Come inside and meet the missus,” he worm invited.
He seemed so nice. Avery managed a faint smile. “I can’t,” he said apologetically. “But thank you. I have to get through the labyrinth, only there are no turns or corners or openings or anything.” He gestured to the corridor they were currently the only inhabitants of. “It just goes on and on.”
“Oh,” said the worm, laughing. “You just ain’t looking right. It’s full of openings. It’s just that you ain’t seeing them is all.”
Avery frowned and glanced around. There were definitely no more openings than there had been a moment ago. On each side of the stone pathway the walls rose up to the sky and seemed to extend on and on forever. “But there’s no openings,” he insisted.
The worm laughed again. “There’s an opening just across the way,” it continued, “right in front of you.”
Avery looked. He studied the wall in front of him, tipping his head first to the right and then to the left. There was no opening there, just a stone wall covered in dirt and lichen, crumbling down right where it stood. “There…there’s no opening,” he reiterated. “It’s just a wall.”
In a kind voice the little worm said, “Come inside and have a nice cup of tea.”
“But there isn’t an opening,” Avery insisted. He did not want to come inside for a cup of tea. He wanted to get through the labyrinth with his sanity intact – although he was having doubts about that one already – and rescue his sister and go home to his warm, soft, comfortable bed. That did not include coming into a worm’s house and having tea with it.
“Of course there is.” The worm continued to be good natured even though Avery had not accepted its offer of tea or a meeting with ‘the missus’. “You try walking through it. You’ll see what I mean. But first, why not have a nice hot cup of tea.”
Avery was beginning to think this worm’s hospitality was only one of Fabian’s tricks to delay him. “Where is it?” he asked looking at the plain, crumbling, lichen covered wall again. “It’s just wall. There’s no way through.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem in this place,” the worm informed the boy. “Take this labyrinth for example. You can’t take anything for granted.”
Strange. It seemed as if everyone in this place were reading from the same script, the same few lines of the same script. The worm’s words were almost exactly the same ones Mohandas had used when trying to dissuade Avery from entering the labyrinth outside the gates. But maybe there was an opening there. What was it that Mohandas had said when Avery had asked if he would go left or right? It was something about not going either way, right? So…so maybe there had been an opening there too and Avery had not seen it either. Maybe it had been possible to go straight! He frowned. Well, what else was there to do? He stood and, holding his hands out in front of him, closed his eyes and walked at the wall…
Through the wall.
And into another passageway.
He turned around and went back. “Thank you!” he said happily to the worm. “That was incredibly helpful.” Avery had chosen to go to the right in the last passageway so he started down the new one to the right.
“Wait!” the worm called after him frantically.
He turned to look at the little creature who had – sort of – become his friend. “What was that?” he asked.
“I said, don’t go that way,” the worm repeated. “Never go that way.
“Oh,” Avery said, shrugging. “Thanks.” He turned to follow the right side passageway just as he had in the previous one.
When he had gone the worm let out a sigh of relief. “Poor boy,” it said. “That was close. If he had kept on going down that way he would have gone straight to that castle.”