Scene 5.06 - Secret Mountain Pass
EST: Mountain Pass - Dawn.
ELS: Painter's Pass.
(Snow-covered side of a mountain. Bullet holes cut a semi-circle line in the snow. All the snow below it falls, exposing the mountainside. This is repeated to the right of the mini-avalanche. When the snow falls away, a heart shape is revealed. The heart is crossed with a stream of machine-gun fire that soon brings all the surrounding snow crashing down. The bursts of gunfire are expertly and masterfully-delivered to create the maximum-possible effect upon the mountainside. A rock slide ensues.)
ZOOM OUT
(MARY fires, ecstatic. The men look-on; watching a child with a new toy.)
MARY
This is wonderful! The most incredible device ever! Fashioned from true, strategic genius! Loud and frightful to ghosts, and spectacular, like our fire-sticks! It slings stones better-than the straightest arrow and pulls from a quiver faster than the greatest archer! No warrior is worth her salt against this! (Fires-off another dozen-or-so rounds at the mountainside.) This weapon easily obeys its master, (Joyously:) and even a small child may wield it with impunity -- certainly, a weapon as this was forged upon an anvil by the Goddess herself! (Rockslide.) What a blessing the Goddess has bestowed-upon us! A woman could rule the world with this, for it demands silence upon its foes, forcing their hasty retreat or their swift death! (She fires.) This sends no cryptic message, it only promises to destroy all who dare approach it. (She fires.) Please, tell me, most honorable warlocks - (Long pause, tries to form the words:) How else do you practice this magic? Are there other enchantments? Ones that could destroy a greater enemy, a city, perhaps? (Bows head to hilt of sword, absently swinging the barrel around, the guys hit the deck, putting hands near their heads, MARY kneels, bows head, not noticing.) I swear upon all I am commanded, by the Goddess: I will submit to seventy-seven years of apprenticeship to master its utility and development. I must know, how did you craft such a wonderful weapon?
BUD
(Dismantling the hot barrel, carefully packing it as others gingerly help.) We didn’t make it, we bought it. Shouldn’t we move on?
MARY
Oh yes! Things look a little different, but I’m sure a Holy Temple Of The Virgin is just around this peak. We can rest there. Then it’s simply two hours down the other side of the mountain, and we're at the palace gates!
ZOOM OUT
(Two blurry, robed figures are on a ledge high above them, watching the group. They move away from sight.)
CUT TO:
No establishing shot.
CU: Old Coin
(From the bottom of an empty temple pool, a luminescent hand quickly snatches a very, very old coin, corroded -- yet seeming familiar in its size and vague markings. The hand and coin dissolve out; a stain remains where the plain coin had lain.)
ELS: Group traveling around rocky ledge, to scenic view at hidden sanctuary.
CUT TO: