Clink. Clink. Clink.
The line of souls stretched out before Charon. They would step up, hand him their obol, which he dropped back into his bag. Clink. They then stepped onto the ferry and the next one strode forward. Rinse. Repeat. His skiff would soon be full again and he would depart the outer shore of the river Acheron and deposit them within the underworld for Hades to do with as he wanted.
His pole struck the bottom of the river again and he propelled his newly emptied ferry forward. Finally the bottom skidded along the sand and he got out, the water soaking through his boots. He dragged the boat further onto the sand and took up his position before its bow, dropping his bag beside him again. More souls shuffled forward. More obols fell into his sack. More souls crossed the river.
Charon could see down the line, could see that trouble was approaching. Four more souls passed and the trouble maker was in front of him. “Dear uncle. I should have known it would be you.”
Tartarus stood before Charon, fuming “What took you so long?”
Charon held out his hand.
“You know I do not have one!”
“Why not? I gave you one.”
Tartarus glared at him.
“I will see you in one hundred years.”
“No, you cannot do this to me! Do you know who I am?”
“You were Tartarus. And now you are just another wanderer upon the shores of the River Acheron. You lost.”
“No!” But Charon had already moved on to the next soul.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
1 comment:
XD
Take that Graham! Is this really the last part!?! I would have loved to see a little bit of Evelyn. But then, in not ready for Hollow World to be over.
When I have the book/s (you better print this) I gave a feeling it'll join the roster of reread books in this house.
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