Monday, April 28, 2008

all roads lead here... (museum quest part 17)

Location: Picton
Baskets Left: 3

i can't get over how hard it has been to get rid of these maori artifact baskets (the containers maori peoples mystic knowledge!) for my boss ms. rhonwyn.

things had been going fine since queenstown. i'd made it all the way up here to the end of new zealand's south island. due to bad timing everything in picton was closed forcing me to harmlessly explore.

the plan was tomorrow to hit the two... that's right TWO... museums in town, maybe the aquarium too, and than catch the ferry up to the north island.

of course like always in my life it wasn't to be...

having checked out a rather dull and boring picton on ANZAC day (good excuse for it to be boring mind you... just didn't help the events that were about to unfold) i decided to head back to the hotel i was staying and enjoy some TV.


just my luck would have it the british prehistoric related show primeval was on!!! i soooooo enjoyed watching it (review coming after i've finished this whole museum quest thing), but i didn't get much further in my relaxing couch potatoing...

as the next show's teaser came on an intense wave of nausia over came me... it was an all to familiar dizziness... just like when i'd opened up one of the baskets... that could only mean one thing...

MAGIC!!!... or sorry mystic gradient radiation the scientific name for it.

i froze with fear as outside my window a strange rhythmic clicking sound grew louder.

finally it stopped. for a couple minutes, it must have been, i simple sat there listening for anymore sound. all i heard was the deep and deafening pounding of my own heart as my limbs went completely numb.

finally i was able to peel myself off the chair and creep to the giant glass doors. i couldn't see anything directly. however i could make out a shadow being cast by something just outside my field of view. cautiously i unlocked the door and poked my head out the door.

just some deck furniture... PHEW!

than suddenly from behind me a monstrous growl...

spinning around there just on the other side of my table set was whiro the maori god of darkness himself (or is it itself?)...

the fear and pounding heart came back!

we just stood there for almost a minute staring at one another... i realized this was a chance. with that furniture in between us it'd take him a few second to pursue me. i very slowly shifted my feet so i could sprint.

he just stood on watching... right when i was about to dash...

whiro launched himself at me. flinging the deck furniture out of his way! (why i thought he would respect the hotels property i'm not sure... cut me some slack though people of the innerweb i do have that tiny brain and all!).

i stumbled backward tripping over the potted plants behind me and fell onto the ground at the bottom of the stairs.


"we meet again kauwheke te kura [which when i looked it up, after the fact, means ancestor of the moa]," whiro gloated as he towered over me.

"you did an admirable job trying to hide your route across te wai pounamu [the maori name for the south island meaning place of greenstone]. yet you were all too easy to track the same. i can see you are trying to scatter the across aotearoa [maori name for all of new zealand meaning land of the long white cloud]. the only place you could be going than is te ika a maui ([the north island] meaning you had to come to this place," whiro confidently informed me.

oh man. i should have realized there was a flaw to this plan. he was right. obviously i'm making my way across the country, and unless i flew [which ms. rhonwyn informed me after the quest flying with the baskets would have been disastrous] there was no way to get across island to island than here... meaning whiro just had to come here, and wait for me!!!

"you have failed kauwheke te kura , and my victory over tane has finally arrived," whiro advanced once more towards me. his sharp jade fingers being propelled at me. "give me the and i may spare your life."

i've watched enough movies to know that evil things like him always keep to those sorts of promises... NOT!

that and knowing the legend [plus what ms.rhonwyn told me at the conclusion of the quest] that there would be dire consequences if whiro got his hands on the ultimate in mystic knowledge...

his claw infested hand came down on my shirt... the only place i have pockets, and started patting me down.

after frisking my single front pocket "where are the baskets?!?" whiro demanded... oh boy did i just luck out! i'd left the baskets in the hotel room... normally i kept them in my pocket. whiro must have detected the magic residue on my shirt...

i might still somehow get out of this i thought...

the thing is he had me trapped. i couldn't run, i couldn't hide. i wasn't even on my feet. i needed a distraction...

than it occurred to my peanut sized brain... whiro was old. not as ancient as us dinosaurs, but old none the less. he was kinda clueless and gullible when i came to the modern world.

"uh their not in my truck," i lied, and acted like i was trying not to look at the random truck parked in the lot beside us. i hoped he bought it.

he didn't move, and his literally stone cold face didn't give away what he was thinking or emoting. i decided to gamble. "their in my room. i'll get them for you."

"very well," whiro agreed... oh no!

that wasn't the plan at all. i was hoping he'd think i was trying to trick him... now i was leading him right to the baskets. if he could pick up on their having been in my pocket he was sure to detect them in my room...


i reluctantly got up, and turned towards the door with whiro at my back. what was i going to do?

than it hit me!

i slowly walked towards the door in as suspicious a manner as i could. i was rewarded with a "do not even think of trying to tricking me kauwheke te kura," whiro warned me... man if not for the fact he outdated movie stereotypes by a few thousand years i'd have sworen he was the most cliche bad guy ever.

it was now or never.

"what are you talking about?" i deceitfully asked trying to be as obvious as i could. "i wouldn't try anythi..." i suddenly veered away from the door, and sprinted towards the truck.

i made it maybe 5 steps (which considering how built for speed my juvenile tyrannosaur body is not too bad a distance for the time it took me) before from behind i was struck. whiro had taken a lightening quick swing at me, and fortunately for me hit me with his wrist as opposed to the razor sharp ends of his fingers.

i'm sure glad i hadn't planned on fighting my way out! he is superhumanly fast, and strong! i think the only reason i wasn't dead was that i was faster than he'd expected... a mistake he probably wasn't going to make again!

i fell in a heap in the middle of the parking lot...

whiro rushed to the decoy truck as planned. boy i feel kinda bad for the owner of that truck. at the same time it was life over property... granted i never did get the chance to inform the owner of how, what, and why his vehicle was trashed.

needless to say i didn't stick around to check out what whiro did. based on the noise i heard in the hotel as i popped in to grab the baskets he was doing a number on it...

with the baskets "safely" in my pocket i opted to slip out the bathroom window (on the opposite side of the hotel building from the whiro occupied parking lot)...


running through town i had a blood curdling realization with my peanut sized brain... and i'd had a lot to curdle my blood up till this point people of the innerweb!... what was i going to do???

my running had brought me in front of the picton museum. a place i needed to try to use to get rid of the baskets, but how could i? it was closed till tomorrow...

even if i could outrun whiro right now, how was i going to keep away from him standing around in a museum?!?

making my current situation all the more pressing up the block from the hotel... i'd picked a hotel close to the museums and the ferry... came a most inhuman terrifying scream. whiro had just figured out he'd been had.

there was only one option left for me...

i booked it, as fast as my ornithomimid like legs would take me, towards the waterfront.

i had to get across the straight to the north island where i could lose whiro again on the open road.

i just hoped against all hopes that these museums in picton weren't the key to disposing of the baskets... ms. rhonwyn had been quite clear i had to hit every museum and location on the list... i was about to blatantly ignore those orders...

there was no more time to think. behind me came a louder version of the clicking i'd heard outside my hotel. whiro was sprinting after me, and for a guy made of solid greenstone he was getting some pretty good speed!

how was i going to get out of this one? even if i could outrun him to the ferry, how was i going to get my ticket or wait for it without him getting me?!?


to be continued...

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