Tell a Story Day

Here is my entry in the shared story telling event run by the Genre Underground. This is Part 12. To read the story so far, go to http://www.genreunderground.com/?page_id=361 and follow the links. Thank you to the previous eleven for your hilarious creativity. On with the show!

“They’ve trained their security droids to use fine print,” the android added with a dubious glance back at the lawyer.

The lawyer squinted at his android. “Your sarcasm algorithm could use some adjustment too. We have hardly been outmaneuvered.” He turned back to the security droid, which was now needing to extend additional mechanical tentacles out of its sides to restrain the ever more furious troll. “My good sir, have you asked yourself how this troll got here? We are in pursuit of a lethal fugitive who, it seems, was detained by…” he looked down the corridor littered with metal debris and found the smashed remains of a smaller security droid, “that comrade of yours. We know the fugitive had this troll hidden on his person, so it is only logical that the fugitive freed this troll to afford his escape.”

The lawyer’s android scanned the wreckage around them too, but with a different objective. He stepped up alongside the lawyer and held aloft the elf’s dagger for all to see.

“There you have it!” the lawyer added triumphantly. “Proof of the true culprit. If you will not remand this troll into our custody…” he thumbed through the contract for the right clause “…you must at least grant me the privileges of an extrajurisdictional officer in active criminal pursuit under Section 136, Subsection A, Paragraph XX.”

While the security droid considered the demand, the android examined the dagger, unsheathed it, and found the copper engraving of Princess Zyx.

***
The elf stopped flat on his tiny feet. Lumbering towards him, and completely blocking the 15 foot wide, 30 foot high corridor, was something that at once daunted and confused him. Gravidly rotund at the bottom and narrowing at its crown, the machine was supported by what must have been a hundred squat feet that shuffled along, tilting the entire massive body first to one side, then the other, as it progressed forward. It seemed oblivious to the elf, but it was definitely in his way. Moreover, its function was so obscure and its motion was so unexpected, he was arrested in his perplexity. “What the Claus?” slipped from his lips.

He looked closer and saw that as it tipped to one side, dozens of hoses and arms extended from the eggplant shaped vehicle to connect with the machines that made up the walls. Then those appendages disconnected as it tilted back toward the opposite wall to repeat its refilling task there. The elf screwed up his face so badly he caught his mouth entirely to one side of his face. “I’m a little teapot?”

He shook himself free of his reverie and glanced over his shoulder. No pursuers yet. No time to lose. He patted his jerkin and sighed. Damn droid took everything metal. He reached in and pulled out a thin leather box and the tattered, oddly grease-stained scroll. He put the box back. “Keep those puppies for the General,” he muttered to himself. He unfolded the spell and remembered the cautionary words of the kindly but putrid smelling old wizard who gave it to him in payment for dispatching a band of brigands. “You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant.”

Kat Richardson takes over the story next at http://katrichardson.com/