Where Lies Adventure!

OF GODS AND MEN Chapter 17: Pathways               Tarsus awoke suddenly.  He was lying facedown in arid dirt.  He turned his head, resting one side of his face on the earth as he took in the scene.  It was only, some seconds after waking, that he realized he was breathing.             “How?” he thought.   Only a moment ago he was losing consciousness, stranded in some unknowable depth of the Crystal Sea.   Now, he was on dry land; a desert, from the looks of things.               He took short breaths, not wanting to take the luxury of air for granted.   He waited some moments, contemplating whether or not this was real; whether or not he was real anymore.   He shifted his body slowly, bringing up his hands and arms to push himself up.   He slid them along the earth - felt the rocks, pebbles and dirt move beneath him.   Once his hands were in place beside his head, Tarsus took a deep breath, testing his limits in this strange, new place.             He began coughing imme

HIGHER POWER       “Sonny.”      The small man didn’t move.  His ass was firmly set on his bar stool, and his face was firmly planted on the bar.  His skin was pale, and his clothes hung off his rail-thin frame.  Even hunched over like he was,  it was easy to see that he was swimming in an ocean of cotton and polyester.      Sonny Larson, barely breathing and fast asleep at the bar, looked like a skeleton dressed up for an appearance in a house of horrors attraction: a literal bag of bones.      “Sonny, wake up!”      Sonny did this time, but it wasn’t from being yelled at.  It was from the shock of a hard slap that came down on his right cheek.  The sting of it burned.  He cursed under his breath as he sat up on his stool rubbing his face.      Then he realized; he felt it.  That meant he was sober.      Sonny swung his heavy head around, taking in where he was.  He was sitting at a beautiful wooden bar that stretched on endlessly in both directions.  The liquor display