Chapter 6: Kushal
“Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors!”
“What are you guys doing?” Richard called back incredulously.
“We’re playing rock-paper-scissors,” Kushal answered helpfully.
“But what–”
Kushal cut him off. “Pwnzors-style!”
“Yeah, except I’m losing,” said Gordon matter-of-factly.
“Can I play?” said Richard, now interested.
“Yeah, so basically you keep going until you get a tie, then whoever wins the next one wins,” Kushal explained quickly.
“Wait, hold on.” Richard held up his hand. “You mean all of the first ones don’t matter?”
“Yeah, it’s like Egyptian rat screw,” Gordon said satisfactorily.
“OK, let me try,” said Richard, sounding eager. “This is my first time, but…Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors!”
“AND IT’S BEGINNER’S LUCK FOR THE WIN!” Gordon nearly screamed, “Heh, sorry, Ku–”
“OK, let me try,” said Richard, sounding eager. “This is my first time, but…Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors!”
“AND IT’S BEGINNER’S LUCK FOR THE WIN!” Gordon nearly screamed, “He pwnzored you Ku–”
“OK, let me try,” said Richard, sounding eager. “This is my first time, but…Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper–hey, what’s going on here?”
“That was sad, Kushal,” said Gordon, “That wasn’t a paper or a scissors. It was more of…an amoeba. Yeah, an amoeba!”
Kushal blinked. “Did any of you guys notice something?”
“Notice what?” asked Richard, still grinning at the amoeba.
“Kushal, are you feeling OK?” Gordon asked, grinning at Kushal.
“Yeah-zors, I’m fine. I just got deja vu, big time.” Kushal shook his head. “Are we there yet?”
“Yeah, right,” said Richard, “You just do that to annoy us, right?”
“Hey, cool, an invisible bridge.”
What?
“What?” Kushal said incredulously, “Gordon, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard from you. Zors.”
“No, look, he’s right.” Richard climbed up a small incline to point at a descriptive and well-lit sign that clearly indicated the presence of an invisible bridge across the inexplicable chasm that lay across their path, with visible hand ropes stretching across. Convenient how it showed where the bridge was.
“Whoa, where did that canyon come from?” Gordon said, surprised.
“It’s always been here,” replied Kushal, implying superiority without actually changing his tone. “I think we took a field trip halfway down once.”
“Halfway down?” Richard said incredulously, but the other two ignored him.
“Well, let’s get going.” Gordon ran halfway out onto the bridge, jumped up and down a few times, and grinned. “Look at me!”
“I’m not responsible for your death!” Kushal shouted as he carefully moved onto the bridge, using both ropes for balance.
“Guys, I’m not so sure about this,” Richard said, trying to hide his uneasiness as he moved out onto the bridge. “Isn’t an invisible bridge impossible? How do we know it’s really here?”
A loud crack resounded around the canyon, and suddenly the three of them were dangling from the guard ropes. Well, two of them. Gordon, having not been holding either of them, had slipped down and was now hanging from Kushal’s left le–
“Guys, I’m not so sure about this,” Richard said, trying to hide his uneasiness as he moved out onto the bridge. “Isn’t an invisible bridge impossible? How do we know it’s really here?”
A loud crack resounded around the canyon, and suddenly the three of them were dangling from the guard ropes. Well, two of them. Gordon, having not been holding either of them, had slipped down and grabbed for the first thing he could reach, which was Kushal’s pant–
“Guys, I’m not so sure about this,” Richard said, trying to hide his uneasiness as he moved out onto the bridge. “Isn’t an invisible bridge impossible? How do we know it’s really here?”
A loud crack resounded around the canyon, and suddenly the three of them were dangling from the guard ropes. Well, two of them. Gordon, having not been holding either of them, had slipped down and now had a death grip hugging Kushal around the nec–
“Guys, I’m not so sure about this,” Richard said, trying to hide his uneasiness as he moved out onto the bridge. “Isn’t an invisible bridge…” He sneezed.
“…impossible?” Kushal completed instinctively.
A loud crack resounded around the canyon, and suddenly the three of them were dangling from the guard ropes. Well, two of them. Gordon had just gone plummeting downwards and was now hanging from Kushal’s underwe–
“…impossible?” Kushal completed instinctively.
A loud crack resounded around the canyon, and suddenly the three of them were dangling from the guard ropes. Well, two of them. Gordon was hanging by a shoelace off of Kushal’s right shoe. “Stupid Richard!” he shouted.
Kushal shook his head to clear a really disturbing sensation that he had fallen off of a bridge several times. He was relieved to realize that it was only one time, but still, zero would have been much preferred. “Seriously!” he yelled over his shoulder, “If the bridge didn’t exist, how could there be a loud crack?”
“Well, I don’t know! Maybe someone one the other side broke a log!”
Kushal’s hand slipped and he began to fa–
“Well, I don’t know! Maybe someone one the other side broke a log!”
“No way!” said Gordon, “That was the bridge, all right! Now get us back up there!”
Richard did an impossibly acrobatic swing on his rope and smacked into the floor of the bridge. “At least we know it’s there,” Kushal muttered. For some reason the bridge had dropped about a meter down, but no further.
Richard carefully stood up, spead his arms for balance, and edged closer to Gordon’s dangling legs. “It’s all right,” he said, “Come on down.”
Immediately Gordon dropped and landed on Richard’s foot. Richard gave a yelp not unlike that of a Corgi and windmilled his arms for a minute. Kushal’s hand gave out and they all tumbled to the surface of the bridge.
“Guys, I think I have a talent…” Kushal started to say.
“For getting us in trouble!” Richard groaned.
“Hey, who made the bridge disappear!”
“You have no proof that I caused–”
“Let’s just get to the tournament and we’ll talk about it there.” Gordon nodded patronizingly. “Zors,” he added thoughtfully.
Kushal gritted his teeth and followed the other two the rest of the way across the bridge.