Theodore & The 7 Layers of Space, Book 1: Brick & Bird

CHAPTER 13: How To Prevent...

...A Ravenous Night Bat of the Noxious Swamps of Yarm Attack"

Like any country, plateau, or local convenience store, Gup is its own delicate eco-system.

While some time ago things were quite different, generally speaking, monsters and cranky ghosts now rule the surface of Gup, sustaining themselves by eating one another and the occasional unlucky passer-by.

For his part, Theodore was unaware and unable to comprehend the amount of danger he currently faced, which was almost certainly for the best.

***

"Soooo, what were you doing in that cage? Are you a criminal robot mastermind?" Theodore asked, trying to make conversation with the pile of parts in his arms. He'd been walking through the inky night of another dimension for a few minutes, and neither he nor The Buddy Bot's head had said anything. For his part, his mind had been busy trying to pull together the rapid succession of wild events that had lead him to a frigid stroll with an armful of robot.

"Oh, well. It's been my job to monitor the Thru-spot Cages for some time. Or Professor Hero forgot me here again. Either way, not much has come through since we installed the Intentio-meter."

"Intentio...?" Theodore asked, awkwardly shifting the load in his arms so as to not fall over or drop anything.

"The Intentio-meter is an ingenious device designed to measure the intentions of any Traveler or Magician who passes through. Or anyone, really."

"You measured my intentions?"

"No, the Intentio-meter did. My job is to clean the cage after someone with untoward intentions tries to get through."

"Clean the cage?"

"The Intentio-meter is set to...dismantle... anyone who passes through the door with the specific intention of assassinating Professor Hero. It doesn't happen very often these days, but when it does, it tends to be messy."

"Why would someone want to assassinate Professor Hero?"

"That's what Magicians do. They try to assassinate Professor Hero. It's been going on for some time, really, I'm not sure why they're not tired of it." His head booped and beeped a bit at the thought.

"What?" Theodore could see no reason why the robot would lie to him, but he struggled to think of his mentor as an assassin.

"Your Magician Detective is well-aware of this fail-safe. Indeed, it's quite likely that he applies an exactly equal amount of effort towards getting through that door."

Theodore nodded politely, still chewing on the strange idea of the Magician Detective trying to murder someone. "You could've left, though?"

"My current hypothesis is, since my intellect is its own cage, perhaps if I occupied this physical cage, I might come to a better understanding of it."

"What? Your brain is a cage?"

"Yes, I believe it is."

"It sounds like you got bored."

"Impossible. My plan was working until you broke me."

"Again, really sorry about that."

"It's simply another physical manifestation of my inner world. In a way I owe you a debt."

"Happy to help?" he said, and they fell into silence again. As they walked, Theodore still couldn't see much, but the flashlight from The Buddy Bot continued to help him along. It became clear that the little beam of light was guiding them down an old cobbled pathway made up of large and small interlocking flat rocks, though many of the stones had succumbed to nature's inclination to overtake them. Theodore struggled not to trip over the irregular jutting bits as he balanced the Buddy Bot's many parts. He caught flashes of the landscape, mostly looming tall trees and sharp piles of rocks. Here and there he'd spot a sign of civilization-gone-by ­– a little wooden hut that had long-since lost its shape and been overrun by sheets of moss, a pile of indecipherable rusting vehicles covered in bulbous mushrooms and thick green vines. He wondered what had happened here, but paused mid-thought, startled by a THWAP THWAP sound. It seemed to his ears to resemble what might be the sound of giant bat wings. "Is that...?"