I Expected The Fountain to be Bracingly Cold
rule the world with his weather control device- His knees don’t bend
- and, of course, a “heavily sedated but alert grizzly bear.”
- recount all sorts of salacious tales
- Glass etching requires etching paste
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I expected the fountain to be bracingly cold, an unpleasant but sensible measure to aid in reviving me. But it was warm like tropical waves, and I didn’t in the least bit mind sitting in it. The nurse prodded and shoved at my shoulders and back, seeming dissatisfied with my posture.
“Listen,” Brady said. “The League of Tap Dancers is led by Kabbadan Scrim, a madman who wants to rule the world with his weather control device. The fact that he doesn’t have one, and that he spends his days overseeing nefarious tap dancers, makes him grouchy. Bitter, really. See, dancing is something he can never do. His knees don’t bend, like, at all.”
I spread my arms in a dramatic shrug, splashing the pretty nurse. She poked me between the ribs with her knuckle. “Youch! But, really. What does all this have to do with me?”
Brady made one of those smug faces he was reviled for. “He’s expecting to haggle with me over a weather control device. You’re playing the part of my head engineer. When he asks how it works, start to answer and I’ll interrupt after a few seconds.”
The nurse stepped back quickly, and I looked over my shoulder into the fountain. It was filled with salmon, which accounted for the splashing. And then I noticed that I was not the only one seated in there. An enormous animal lounged against the opposite rim, watching me blearily.
Brady chortled. “My head engineer, you see, has an eccentric taste in pets. So,” he summed up, “at the meeting it will be you, and me…” He trailed off, but I knew he meant it would be the two of us and, of course, a “heavily sedated but alert grizzly bear.” At least I hoped it was sedated.
“Kabbadan’s a boor,” Brady declared, “and will recount all sorts of salacious tales about tap. Your true job is to detect any coded messages he works into his soliloquy. He might try to test me, and I’ll need you to feed me the proper responses.”
I shrugged again, this time splashing the bear. “How am I supposed to do that? I’m taking a bath with a bear over here.”
“You know that old expression,” Brady said with a wink. “Glass etching requires etching paste.”
bonus points for using them in order