Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Agetian Ninjas and Other Household Pests
Getting out of Bes Pelargic proved easier than they'd expected.
Of course, Rincewind thought sourly, he hadn't expected it to be easy, no, not even despite the fact that Emporer Tang's trusted and rather trusting Grand Vizier had put about that the Great Wizzard was to be afforded every honour on this brief visit as one who had changed the shape of the Agatean Empire. There just had to be a couple of people with sharp brains and sharper knives in the port city who'd liked the Empire the way it was and would have stayed had Lord Hong had his way (trapzoid-shaped, if anyone was interested), and had a vested interest in introducing Rincewind to the split-unit shape, body in one place, head in another.
Subtlety was called for when you were suddenly faced with enemies not kind enough to come at you from one direction with their pointy objects advertised at a distance, and running out of the city with the echoes of "Ooooooohhhhhshiiiii--" trailing in his wake was not the subtle option.
Luckily, his new travelling companions were equally interested in leaving Bes Pelargic unnoticed. They'd left the lion train costume hanging in the branches of a wayside tree after making a break for it out of the city gates.
The four of them (or five, if you counted the Luggage, which was sulking furiously off to one side because the fat boy had bitten it for trying to take his crisps and his fingers along with it) were sitting on an outcrop attempting to sort out things like l-space and cruel and egregious geography and...
"...and why the heck does your hat say 'Wizzard'?"
"'S a perfectly legitimate alternate spelling," Rincewind mumbled, giving the blonde girl an awkward look. She was still at the cheerfully boney stage thirteen-year-old girls sometimes get at even without ludicrous practices like dieting, but the wizard had an idea that left alone for a few years she might turn into something Conina-esque. The thought was disconcerting.
She made it worse by snatching his hat off his head. "No it isn't. Not to worry, though, I can fix that."
"But that's my-! But you can't-! But you're a wo-!" The girl, Ino, leveled a stare at Rincewind that would have made a basilisk give it all up and go in for standup comedy. Rincewind, being somewhere at the core mostly rodent, shrank back.
Chouji patted his shoulder pityingly. "You really haven't dealt with girls a lot, have you?"
"Er...more than a lot of my senior colleagues," Rincewind mumbled as Ino began mucking with his sequins in disconcerting ways, "but it's mainly discouraged among wizards, yes."
The boy Rincewind had come to think of as the group's mastermind, Ponder Stibbons' brain attached to Rincewind's own personal code of ethics, looked up from the dirt diagram with a thin smile on his lips. "Lucky bastards."
"I heard that!" Ino snapped.
Of course, Rincewind thought sourly, he hadn't expected it to be easy, no, not even despite the fact that Emporer Tang's trusted and rather trusting Grand Vizier had put about that the Great Wizzard was to be afforded every honour on this brief visit as one who had changed the shape of the Agatean Empire. There just had to be a couple of people with sharp brains and sharper knives in the port city who'd liked the Empire the way it was and would have stayed had Lord Hong had his way (trapzoid-shaped, if anyone was interested), and had a vested interest in introducing Rincewind to the split-unit shape, body in one place, head in another.
Subtlety was called for when you were suddenly faced with enemies not kind enough to come at you from one direction with their pointy objects advertised at a distance, and running out of the city with the echoes of "Ooooooohhhhhshiiiii--" trailing in his wake was not the subtle option.
Luckily, his new travelling companions were equally interested in leaving Bes Pelargic unnoticed. They'd left the lion train costume hanging in the branches of a wayside tree after making a break for it out of the city gates.
The four of them (or five, if you counted the Luggage, which was sulking furiously off to one side because the fat boy had bitten it for trying to take his crisps and his fingers along with it) were sitting on an outcrop attempting to sort out things like l-space and cruel and egregious geography and...
"...and why the heck does your hat say 'Wizzard'?"
"'S a perfectly legitimate alternate spelling," Rincewind mumbled, giving the blonde girl an awkward look. She was still at the cheerfully boney stage thirteen-year-old girls sometimes get at even without ludicrous practices like dieting, but the wizard had an idea that left alone for a few years she might turn into something Conina-esque. The thought was disconcerting.
She made it worse by snatching his hat off his head. "No it isn't. Not to worry, though, I can fix that."
"But that's my-! But you can't-! But you're a wo-!" The girl, Ino, leveled a stare at Rincewind that would have made a basilisk give it all up and go in for standup comedy. Rincewind, being somewhere at the core mostly rodent, shrank back.
Chouji patted his shoulder pityingly. "You really haven't dealt with girls a lot, have you?"
"Er...more than a lot of my senior colleagues," Rincewind mumbled as Ino began mucking with his sequins in disconcerting ways, "but it's mainly discouraged among wizards, yes."
The boy Rincewind had come to think of as the group's mastermind, Ponder Stibbons' brain attached to Rincewind's own personal code of ethics, looked up from the dirt diagram with a thin smile on his lips. "Lucky bastards."
"I heard that!" Ino snapped.
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