Travels of the Evening

These are the Chronicles of the Chronicler of Desmond.

Were it said that he was once assigned a great Project, to be accomplished by the time the last leaf fell in the autumn-time, before the monsoons of India and Thailand and Burma and Myanmar and Egypt came, and swept his great work away; and did he work with other artesans, that the task might be accomplished. And did they live in many and divers locals; and did they have much trouble in communicating, for the turtles and snails that carried their messages across sea and land were very slow, and they were often slow to send more in response. And so did the Chronicler find himself labouring with only half of his group, mere days before the last leaf fell; already were the trees of the forest pale and sparse in foliage.

And did the Chronicler transport himself to a place, the home that once was the Ratte-King's, in the time of the Chronicles; and did he, with the others there gathered (a fraction of those united in the task) take valuable time to accomplish little, despite his efforts to the contrary; and did they travel to far lands to find the items they needed, but find nothing in despite of the law; and did they at last travel to the home of the Shrew-Beast, whose flesh was kin to hops and barley, wherein they hoped to begin construction.

Were there people of great age there, and strange demeanor; was there a room filled with swords, and a hidden porch filled with cigarette-smoke and the sound of gun-shots past, and a wolf-beast with pale blue eyes; and did the Chronicler not persevere in despite of all these trials and tribulations to reach the place of the construction.

And did he labour for an hour or more with his comrades, to lay the foundations of the work, to film what might be filmed; and was he menaced once more, by sword and javelin and ill-made furniture; and did he at last flee, as the night descended in full, that he might live and work another day.

Did he?

Did he truly drive through all the world on the way back, from Munich to Moscow to St. Petersburg to Vichy Paris to the Battle of Hastings to, at last, the bunker in which Hitler committed suicide in 1962, after his return from the secret Moon-Nazi base?

Probably not. Especially as there was never such a thing as Vichy Paris; the city was under direct German control during World War II, it wasn't a part of the Vichy state, oddly.

But the rest could be true.