Sulfur knights

"My hand device indicates that those are Sulfur atoms, but they are red." Conrad said excitedly."Are they some expensive variation?"

"No. Since they are in atomic form, they are really red." K.O. replied. "As soon as we make them forming bonds, their color will properly turn to yellow."

Conrad sighed in frustration. He really wanted to find something expensive and interesting.

"In return, we get a good deal of energy bars from them." He patted the boy's back.

"Okay!" Conrad replied. It seemed, that day would be another boring day, full with work. He sighed, but he knew very well, that he wanted to take part in the Firework Festival. Hard work is a criterion to the participation.

So Conrad picked up two red Sulfur atoms, and held them close to each other. His surprise was relatively big. The two atoms had two free hands each, so Conrad thought they were holding hands with both hands, forming a double bond. However, the Sulfur atoms formed a bond with only one hand, waving merrily with the others. Conrad tried to pull their hands closer, but he didn't manage. The two atoms totally refused to make one more bond with their other hands.

"K.O.! Why aren't they obey, and make another bond?" He asked his old friend after some meaningless trial.

"They are too big to make the second bond between them."

"With Phosphorus atoms, you said they couldn't form only a third bond with each other! I just want these atom to make the second one!"

"Sulfur atoms are bigger, so they couldn't even make the second one. They just make single bonds between each other."

"What about their free hands?"

"Hold another one close to them!"

Conrad did, as he was told, and the third Sulfur atom made a single bond with one of the connected atoms. He had a three atoms in chain.

"Do they also form giant molecules, just like the red Phosphorus?"

"No. It is far more better!" K.O. smiled, and successfully aroused the boy's curiosity. "Eight Sulfur atoms are forming a crown. It is their natural form."

"Crown? Are they the king?" The boy smirked.

"And we are their knights!" He smiled. "Make a chain with eight Sulfur atoms, and you will see!"

Conrad obeyed and glued together eight of the Sulfur atoms.

"It doesn't look like a crown at all!" He protested. "They sway and move like a snake!"

"Connect the two ends!" The quick command came.

It was harder to make, than say. The eight connected atoms preferred to moving freely, and didn't want to let Conrad to make a bond between the terminal ones. With a lot of effort, the boy managed to make the last single bond, thus the squirming of the chain stopped. The eight atoms formed a ring, and that ring resembled to a yellow crown.

"They are really has made a crown!" Conrad was happy with the outcome.

"Congratulation!" K.O. shook hands with Conrad. "Sir Bond, please attach the crown to the tip of your sword!"

"Aye, Sir K.O.!" Conrad laughed happily. "Oh, I don't have a sword..." He stepped out of the act.

"Do you see those wooden sticks?" The old man pointed toward a pair of barrier-like wooden poles not far from them. Conrad nodded. "We will collect the sulfur crowns on them. Just pull it to the pole, and come back to collect those energy bars!"

"How much of it!" Conrad was amazed, but he was happy to gather a lot of chocolate bars.

"The binding energy of them is high, so we will free a lot of energy. Collect them, they sure will be handy later."

When Conrad returned, he discovered that his old friend had made a very long strip of sulfur.

"It is easier and faster to cut the ribbon later to eight molecules. You just have to drag over the red atoms and they simply join. After that, all you have to do is slice them to the desired size."

K.O. brought the long ribbon of squirming Sulfur atoms to the pole. He gave chocolate bars to the eighth and the ninth atoms and the released their hands. He closed the circle around the pole, which made the process easier, than doing it in the air. He repeated this several times, and in the end there were a lot of crowns on the pole. Faster, than Conrad made only one crown before.

"Let's start over!" He said, and showed the remaining five atoms to Conrad.

K.O. was right. His process was very effective. They both made a lot of crowns with his process, and it was funny too. Conrad could make a shorter line, but he was quicker to form the crowns. The rods filled at equal speed. They were nip and tuck.

"It is already filled." Conrad noted, and pointed to the pole, which was full with yellow crowns. "I can't put more to this rod, and this amount in far from enough."

"There is a lot of free space, we just have to make an order between them."

"What kind of order?"

"We have to push them together. Have you seen a stock of paper cups? They are stocked, one in the other." The old man asked, and hoped that the child could understand his example that time.

Conrad nodded. Of course he saw paper cups! Here were a lot of them in the real world on the school corridors, or at parties, or in the supermarkets.

"We have to arrange the molecules together like that."

K.O. picked two rings in the end of the pole, and turned them in a way, that one of the molecules could slide into the other. Conrad followed his example, and the length of the molecules shrunk. There were really more space on the pole.

"This arrangement is an allotrope." K.O. said. "It is called rhombic Sulfur."

"And what if we put them together the other way around?"

"That's called monoclinic Sulfur."

Conrad was silent. It was interesting, but he, for his part, would have rather left this place. The sooner, the better, so he was not in the mood of learning.

"Are we competing?" K.O. asked, and the boy agreed.

However, they needed a lot of sulfur, so despite the hard and quick work, they returned to the church long after lunchtime. As they got out of their protective clothing, they immediately got after the chocolate, they had freshly collected, and ate far more than they should have.

"I never thought a my belly could be full of energy!" Conrad gasped.

"It could, but this uncomfortable feeling soon vanish." K.O. comforted the boy.

"When are we going home?"

"Well..." K.O. started. "Would you mind to stay here for a little bit more?"

"As long as I don't have to leave the temple." He replied. "Why do you want to stay?"

"They have a small pool here, with sulfur in the water and they say this water works wonders on old joints."

"Do you want to try?" Conrad asked his old friend, and that time he was really aware, that his friends is old.

"If we were already here, it would be a shame to miss it." K.O. nodded. "Do you want to come with me?"

Conrad didn't know what to say. He loved being with the old man, but a sulfur bath ... there are limits to friendship.

So ten minutes later both of them were standing in swimming pants next to a steaming little lake. The scene was beautiful. The lake was surrounded by rocks and greens. There were only a few people in the lake, and they were enjoying their bathtime. But Conrad's fears were confirmed.

"It reeks." He stated.

"Just a little bit." K.O. told him.

"It smells like hydrogen sulfide."

"Yes it is. Hydrogen sulfide likes the water, and there are a lot from that molecule around us. But it has healing effects too. Come on! Let's take a dip!"

And Conrad followed his friend, because friendship knows no limits.

However, the water was really pleasant and after a while he got used to the smell as well. K.O. really enjoyed the bath and stated that he had been rejuvenated by the water for at least ten years. So it was also the result of Conrad's effort. They walked back to the train station in a pleasant atmosphere, now under the protection of a gas mask. For a long time, they even wore it on the train so as not to smell the unpleasant, though probably healing, odor.

"Look!" K.O. pointed toward a blue phenomenon in the night.

"What's that?" Conrad asked. It was beautiful, but much less stunning, than the Kingdom of Phosphorus' night parade.

"That's our volcano." K.O. stated.

"Really? Why didn't we saw the lights, when we were there?"

"We saw the lights, but we didn't noticed in the daily light. The Sulfur is burning, and it has a blue light. This is more spectacular at night."

"Yes. It is beautiful after all." Conrad said, and made a few photos to the girls. Maybe they'll be envious. At least a little.