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. This fellow that we
hired was --"
"Excuse me, Trapspringer, but what does any of this
have to do with Hylo?" asked Phineas. As if I really care,
he thought to himself.
"I'm just establishing what year it took place," he ex-
plained. "Proper chronology is very important to a story
like this. If you don't want to know what year it takes
place, I'll just skip the whole story. I know it by heart
anyway. I was telling it for your benefit."
Phineas sighed. There seemed to be no way out of this
situation. He was stuck with Trapspringer until they
found Damaris and returned her to Kendermore. Were
Uncle Trapspringer's whoppers, all with identical themes
and morals, too high a price to pay for the riches Phineas
expected as his rewards Probably not. "Please, go on," he
said stiffly. The words caught slightly in his throat.
As Trapspringer resumed his narration, Phineas's
mind wandered ahead to the Ruins and what he might
find there. Soon Trapspringer's voice had faded into the
background like the multitude of other pains afflicting
Phineas.
The sun was well below the treetops when the two
travelers finally approached the Ruins. The trees cast
long shadows across the tumbled columns and low,
standing walls. The bleached white blocks of stone
stretched away and disappeared in the twilight.
"I didn't expect them to be so -- extensive," murmured
Phineas. He had expected something on typical kender
scale; small, chaotic, and thoroughly vandalized. In-
stead, he found a size and symmetry in the Ruins that
astounded him
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