Photo by Nik Owens on Unsplash
Photo by Pablo Pacheco on Unsplash

Links to the original post and the story so far (in order) can be found in the Tale of Two Pizza's Archive Post

This weeks Tale of Two Pizza's brought us back to the perspective of Rachel, Danny's most trusted spy and agent. It was about time for her to get a look back into the main plotline and now that we have the established presence of supernatural beings we had the pleasure of discovering that her faithful horse Bucephalus is of course one of them! No wonder she was always there when Rachel needed to get somewhere or get out of trouble fast! With Rachel and Bucephalus on their way to investigate the Preda's and search for poor Henry we may be in for some excitement in the near future as Rachel always seems to shake things up!

With only the one entry from @wrestlingdesires this week I'll just put the link below for you to take a peak at and get on with writing our next segment!

@wrestlingdesires/a-tale-of-two-pizzas-2d3979b97cabf

Winners delivery pics

Congrats @wrestlingdesires! Thanks for continuing to write awesome entries and help to drive the story forward each week!

Barry did not have Rachel's skill on horseback and even though his journey was only slightly longer than hers, he chose to exercise the privilege of being one of Danny's trusted and drive there in comfort. Danny insisted on maintaining the vehicles as much as possible but still after years with minimal maintenance it showed substantial rust and wear. It had seen it's share of fighting... as evidenced by the pockmarks and bullet holes in various places along its sides. Barry loved the old thing. It had been some time since he had driven it due his lengthy assignment spying on the Preda's so he reveled in the sensation of speed as he dodged between the old wrecks along the highway. He knew it was Danny's car, but he thought of it as his. It had been this car that took him and Rachel on their first assignment together. Before she found that horse of hers. Now she preferred to ride everywhere- and it seemed somehow she arrived just as quickly. I still have to ask her how in hell she manages that, and how the horse is always there when she seems to need it... What does she call it? Bustephelles? Something like that anyway.

He was a capable driver and the road practically flew by beneath him. He pulled off the highway after just 30 minutes and stopped at the bottom of the off ramp. He knew he was fairly close to the Grove, the Fruit Baron's estate. He had never been there before but Danny had given him good maps to study of the whole area, locations and holdings of allies and enemies, landscape, old roadways, and new paths were all firmly cemented in his memory. He thought for a moment while the engine idled and planned his next move.

If I leave the car here anyone else driving or travelling by the road will realize something is wrong. I can't very well drive up to the gates either. I'll have to hide the car... Ah yes!

He took off driving towards Grove once again, turning left at the bottom of the on ramp and then right onto an old dirt track that was nearly unnoticeable. It was so overgrown that unless someone had memorized the maps as Barry had they would drive or ride straight past it. After a few feet it opened out again and became a deep green tunnel. Grass had attempted to colonize the road- mostly successfully, but nothing larger could thrive in the deep shade of the taller trees and poor soil of the old roadbed. Where the trees grew right up to the edge of the main road, however, shrubs and bushes and saplings had raced up towards the light and hidden the turnoff effectively.

This is perfect! I will just have to pull some of the branches back into place after driving through and no one will ever know

With that he began to gather what he needed from the car and locked it. He shouldered a pack, then a rifle, and finally, perhaps most importantly- based on how long he had spent rummaging for it on the floorboards and under the seat- pulled on an engineers cap. He made short work of disguising the cars passage, easing broken branches back into place and lifting damaged stems so they would stand more upright. He surveyed his work for a moment to make sure the car was hidden, then crossed the road into the underbrush on the other side before continuing on foot towards Grove.

Will was lost. He didn't care. Anything that would keep him away from Mrs. Preda a moment longer was fine by him. In the back of his mind he thought perhaps he had gotten lost on purpose... This was not his first time taking a message to Grove. His horse was getting frustrated with his constant stopping and turning him about to stare back the way he came to make sure he didn't suddenly recognize it. At least I am still on a path... If I can't find Grove I might as well run. I can't go back to Slickville without delivering the message the Baron will kill me... and the Baroness... she will probably do worse!

He shuddered just thinking about her.

He turned the horse once again to continue on. Suddenly he felt a wave of the same sort of trepidation and fear he experienced when he was near Mrs. Preda. It felt... somehow less threatening... but terrifying nonetheless. He looked down at his horse. He had never named it. It was stock still. He tugged at the reigns to get away from whatever had suddenly come over him. It would not move. It whickered slightly, then snorted.

It turned its head to one side and seemed to fix him with an eye. Something was wrong with that eye... normally a deep liquid brown... it was red and bloodshot... he realized its head was still turning... impossibly far, he heard muscles creak and tear until its head was almost facing him. He stared at it in horror. It snorted again and he saw a red mist escape its nostrils. Some of it landed on his hands that still clutched the reins. He realized it was blood. He couldn't move or react, frozen in fear and shock. Suddenly the creature reared, tipping him backwards out of the saddle while still staring at him.

Will hit the ground hard. He lay there stunned for a moment, watching the twisted horse smashing off the path through the undergrowth, it's ruined neck still turned to face him.

As soon as he could no longer hear the crashing of the horse-thing through the trees he felt a great weight and terror lift from him, along with a sudden realization. I've been riding that thing around all this time! No wonder Mrs. Preda trusted me as her messenger! It's been with me every time! The message! It is still in the saddlebags!

The rules for this week remain the same as previous weeks!

I'd like to continue building on the story of the Pizza Baron and his post apocalyptic world. Each week I'll pick a winner that becomes the next piece of the story and wins 20 $PIZZA and a 2 SBI sponsorship from me. I may award additional prizes if I feel multiple entries expand the story well.

Each week I'll write a post announcing the winner and then I will write another chunk of the story and open it up again for the next weeks competition. I'll compile the winning entry for each week. If we reach a conclusion of the epic tale of the Pizza Baron I'll divide another TBD amount of PIZZA among all the winning entries throughout the whole story and publish the finished story here on Hive with all the contributors as beneficiaries. If this goes well we might have the first open source blockchain novella on our hands! 😂

Bear in mind this is an experiment as well as a competition so we will see how many entries I get and how well it goes!

Rules:

Entries must be more than 200 words.

Entries must use the hivepizza tag

Entries must comment on this post with the link to their entry

Entries must fit in the world/scenario that has developed from the previous weeks contest(s). You are free to develop characters, introduce new ones, invite aliens to the feast, I don't care as long it makes some kind of sense in the context! The Pizza Baron should remain relevant to the plot!
(I've named it a Tale of TWO Pizza's for a reason HINT HINT)