Chapter 5, The Box, p536
I should not have taken the Metallic Chest. That really gave it away. Removing some of the material from the bag may have apparently made someone suspicious, but that could have been an uncertainty for them…. unless…
oh sure… unless the material had been measured….. crap.
A wanderer? — no. I keep coming back to the fact that a wanderer would have taken the whole Wooden Box. I only took what I normally take — a sample. But then the scoop… well, ok… there is that. But the material clung to it so fiercely. They (whoever they are) would certainly have noticed that. Couldn’t put the scoop in my bag, absolutely not in my pocket. Not without knowing what it was. Hmmm, Maybe the dumb thing, taking that scoop to clean it. But it was clean before I used it… shoot, it was just a metallic scoop, nothing of value, or so I thought.
Apparently the material in the Vinyl Bag was of some import, because whoever found it after I did took the bag, but left the Wooden Box. Empty.
Just looking at me, empty. Just try returning the scoop now, clever woman.
Well, if they left the box to ‘catch’ a thief, they succeeded. There I was, intending to return the scoop in its Metallic Chest. I should have just put the Chest back in the Box, and left. Should have just left and been done with it. But no, not indecisive Ghaelen. Stand there like an idiot and then go home to sleep on it.
Which made things even worse, since now I can’t do anything. Now I can’t find the Wooden Box. That’s because I can’t find the Desert Descent Tavern in this town. Heck, I don’t think this is even the same town. It’s the craziest thing…. it seems the more I try to put things back the way they were the more they become irreversible. I’d worry, but I don’t know what to worry about first. A bag, a box, or a tavern disappearing? A town vanishing? Pick one and worry.
If I hadn’t only taken a sample and had left the scoop, would the Bag have disappeared? If I had taken the scoop and left the Chest, would the Bag have disappeared? If I had taken the Bag and left the scoop…. Argh, that’s what bugs me.
All actions have an equal and opposite reaction. All potentials manifest somewhere.
Oh shut up already!