D’Onofrio kept walking diligently through the dark woods. He never had troubles with the night before, he carried a powerful lantern on his suitcase, and walking through this forest at night was as hard as walking at day, which is a wonderful thing, considering his circumstances, the ones he preferred to ignore. The animals that could be a threat were intimidated by the fire of the lantern, so D’Onofrio was left alone and walking. He didn’t rest. He didn’t rest before, he wasn’t planning on rest now. For days he kept on walking, and then, he stopped.
He saw a huge shining wall in the middle of the forest, one that went left and right as far as the eye can see. It wasn’t too tall, but still, an obstacle, one of those that he couldn’t see on the map, but that Bobby and the warner told him about.
“Oh, this must be the land of the small people” he thought “That warner told me the weren’t friendly, but I still have to see for my own eyes… I better find a gate to this thing.”
He walked towards the left and towards the right, and in the end he found a gate, further from there, on the West of his starting location.
“HEY THERE! WHO COMES?” said one of the sentinels of the wall, with a irritated voice. He was only one third of the height of D’Onofrio, but armed it was with a musket and there were sentinels with swords as well, not exactly a very welcoming reception.
“Greetings to you, dear sir, I’m Zachary D’Onofrio, and I’m going to the land of socks”
“The land of socks?! The path goes right through the middle of our lands! We don’t like to let people just walk through our lands, foreigner!”
“Yes! Leave us alone! We only let trade partners come in! You don’t look like a trade partner!”
“Go away before we lose our patience!!!”
“Please, I come in peace! I just want to go to the land of Socks! I don’t want to bother your society! If I had a way to go without even crossing with you people, I would!”
“Well… right. There’s no other way to go than through our lands, unless you’re good at climbing high mountains or you are with your ice skating shoes at hand. You better just give up and return to the land you came from...”
“Or… stay here for a bit and tell us a bit about yourself”
“Hm.. why?”
“Everything in its time. Sit for a bit, and talk”
Seeing no better option, Zach decided to do just that, he reclined on a tree nearby, for the ground of the forest was too dirty and the road was sparse. He, carefully, told them a bit about his life, having no idea of the evil plan they had in mind.
“You are quite an interesting fellow D’Onofrio! Interesting indeed. With that in mind, we decided to let you in!”
“OH DEAR GOD, REALLY?!”
“Yes, yes, you just have to do a little thing first!”
“Of course, of course! And what is it?!”
“You’ll have to burn a dozen of your better socks, and leave your hat with us!”
“WHAT?!”
“You heard him! This is the price! Burn the socks, or face the facts: you’ll never be able to go to the land of Socks!”
“NO, I WILL NOT DO THAT! WHY WOULD YOU REQUEST ME THAT?! I have qualities to offer! I have money with me! I can sing! Why my socks??”
“We don’t care for your money, and we don’t care about your stupid voice, foreigner! Our lives are boring and we want some entertainment! There’s nothing we value more than seeing foreigners suffering! Give us your suffering and we will for sure let you in!”
“You…” Zach was disgusted to hear that and very angry too, but seeing the guns they had, he had to contain himself. Those people were small but he could not face them. “Well, I will not do that. I will find another way to go to my destiny, I don’t care if I have to face thin ice or no oxygen. I’ll make it!”
“Oh yes, and then you’ll honor your fool Grandpa and so on, good luck foreigner!”
Zach, very angry, left the place and started wandering around, very upset and lost, how was he going to reach his destiny?
He had no idea what happened next.
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