Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!olivea!uunet!pilchuck!li From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus) Subject: [AU] Curse[s] Foiled Again! Message-ID: <1993May11.162138.5986@data-io.com> Keywords: Kardia, Sheryl Sender: news@data-io.com (The News) Organization: Data I/O Corporation Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 16:21:38 GMT Lines: 135 On the second day of her silence, Kardia woke when it was still dark outside. She dressed and used the bathroom and washing facilities while most of the Inn was still dark. By the time she had her breakfast from a yawning Mary Littlefair, the sky was just lightening. Kardia closeted herself with her materials and tools. She had almost half the second rear leg covering done from knitting while the conversations, stories, and songs flowed the night before in the Inn's taproom. She smiled a bit at the memory of Kadrys' company. His quiet presense had kept away the comments about knitting in an adventurer's bar; and he'd ordered for her. She was still a little puzzled as to why he hadn't ordered anything for himself. She'd found him, occasssionally, watching her instead of the storytellers or Listener and she'd wondered why as well. The memory of the feel of his hand in hers brought another blush to her cheeks. She smiled a little to herself, enough mysteries to tempt a dozen cats. Alistair's favorite phrase brought a slight pang and then a smile. She sighed and got down to work. The second rear leg was finished when Kardia heard the sound of small hooves on the wooden floor and the door to her room opened and let Sheryl bounce into the room. The little unicorn nickered in greeting and bounded over to the bed to look at what Kardia had finished. Kardia smiled and then laughed softly at the look on Sheryl's face as the little 'corn contemplated the slightly crumpled lace leggings, which was all that Kardia had finished up to this point. Kardia got up off the bed, and took the leggings with her and washed them gently in the washbasin. Then, taking a box of pins from the things that 'Raelf had given her, she pin the leggings onto the bedcover according to the measurements that were on her parchments. Sheryl blinked blue eyes at the now rather more shapely lace leggings and nickered her approval. She soon left, bored by Kardia's stitch by stitch construction. The morning saw the making of the right front leg, which was more slender than the hind legs and, therefore, faster. Sheryl trotted in and out during the afternoon, not really disrupting anything, but seeing how Kardia was going with the second front leg with a touch of impatience. Kadrys had looked in occassionally, and Kardia had been intrigued to see that Sheryl was uncomfortable around him. He didn't stay for any long stretch, which seemed to suit the little unicorn just fine. Kardia found herself missing his quiet company. After dinner in her room with the light of the lamp, Kardia managed the first third of the single piece that would cover the back and sides of the little 'corn. She woke early again and finished the rest of the back and sides by just after lunch time. The early afternoon had Kardia working up the chest and neck, which she finished only after dinner. That night she went out to find Andrea and Sheryl to tell Andrea to tell Sheryl that Kardia wanted her in Kardia's room at first dawn. Kardia just ate in her room as she worked on the fastenings and blocking of all the pieces that she'd finished so far by the clear light of the oil lamp. Kardia was woken the next morning with a silk soft muzzle in her palm. She smiled at Sheryl's dancing eagerness, and got dressed quickly and went right to work. Food could wait until this was done. Gently, thoroughly, Kardia worked, stitch by stitch along Sheryl's face, going up to the little 'corn to measure and compare. She did her best to only make the filly stand still for ten minutes at a time. The little filly tapped around the room while Kardia worked each row between measurements. The toughest part was the part around Sheryl's horn, and Kardia took extra care there, a few fingers of thread at a time. When she got past Sheryl's eyes, the long part of Sheryl's face was easy. The last of the covering for Sheryl's muzzle was almost a boring conclusion to what had gone on before. The piece that would fit over Sheryl's head was washed and pinned to dry while Kardia started putting the other pieces on the restive filly. Instead of her voice, Kardia used her soft hands to sooth the silken soft creature. Piece by piece, she built the whole on the filly. Tying the pieces on with the supports that she'd made, slipping a band between the split hooves to keep the leggings centered on the filly's slender legs. The back and sides were laid carefully on with Kardia's eye to the magical patterns in full focus. She made absolutely sure that the white lines of her threads matched up with what she saw as the black lines of the curse. She then tied up the small ties along Sheryl's belly and at the tops of her legs to the top side. The neck piece was next, with ties to the sides and the under Sheryl's chest. Kardia had to be very careful not to tie the Sheryl's mane into the ties that secured the neck piece as the cream white of the thread blended in fairly well with the sea foam white of the mane. The whole proceedure took enough time for the head section to dry. Then, very gently, Kardia slipped the lacy face section over the pearl shell beauty of Sheryl's horn and used the fact that knitting stretches to pull it over Sheryl's nose. Kardia carefully smoothed the mask around Sheryl's eyes and face to fit the contours of the black lines. Once the ties under Sheryl's chin were in place, Kardia stepped back to take a look. She grinned a little wryly. It looked very strange to see a unicorn dressed in anything. Then Kardia realized that she'd done the job she'd intended as the suit was almost a second skin to the little unicorn, moving as she moved and breathing with each breath. The unicorn took a step or two forward and then shook herself once. Kardia's magic sight, for just an instant, saw all the white lines of her work line up even with the black lines of the curse on and within Sheryl; and then the black lines were gone. Unspectacular as everything else Kardia had done to break the curse, the magic of the cover was done. Kardia stepped forward and started taking Sheryl out of the cover. A blue eye rolled in Kardia's direction as if to say, "Is that all?" Kardia laughed, blinked and then swallowed and said, huskily, "That's it, Sheryl. That's all there is." Sitting on the floor, crosslegged next to the little unicorn, Kardia went through the rather faster task of taking her contruction apart, to free the 'corn of the cloth. When Sheryl was completely free of it, she danced a movement so beautiful that it brought an ache to Kardia's throat. Kardia sat and just smiled, a little light-headed with lack of food and sleep. She was completely unprepared for Sheryl's frantic whinny of distress and could only stare as Sheryl galloped out of Kardia's room. Karda leaped to her feet and had to stop as her hunger and tiredness made the world shift and sway. She caught her balance on the chair, and then realized that her leg had fallen asleep while she sat to take off the cover. Feeling rather better now that she could swear at her leg, she swore at it as she followed the rattle of hooves to the room Andrea shared with Sheryl. What Kardia saw there silenced her. ---- [ADMIN: The conclusion of this is in Chris Meadows' piece titled _The Curse_ in the [AU] line. Much thanks to Chris for something cool to play off of, and I'm sorry that this all is later than it might be...] -- Liralen Li | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are li@inigo.Data-IO.com | the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real." aka Phyllis Rostykus | - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!CSM560.smsu .edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Andrea and Sheryl/Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] Callus Plots Revenge--And Someone Else Plots With Him Date: Wed, 05 May 93 13:23:33 CDT Organization: SouthWest Mo State Univ Lines: 110 Message-ID: <16BC5BC56.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] Callus Andrea Sheryl Dragon's Inn X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 [ADMIN: Hi! Andrea & Sheryl here again! It's been WAAAAY too long since our last post here, and rather than hang around, we're planning to throw this into the pot. The timeframe is during Kardia's work with Sheryl on breaking the curse...] Callus stood in a dark alley, gazing darkly at the doorway to the Dragon's Inn across the Plaza of Glittering Steel. He kept a silent vigil there, not for any real reason, but because he knew that SHE was in there. That--that BITCH who had humiliated him in front of the whole floating market. Callus had completely forgotten, or more correctly chosen not to remember, that he had been trying to mug her at the time. What was foremost in his mind was that she had held him at knifepoint and paraded him around the market, in the nude. That was something he could never forgive. Not that he was a very forgiving person to begin with. He had asked around about her after she had gone, and those who hadn't laughed at him said that she was currently staying at the Dragon's Inn. And that she had a unicorn with her. (Those who had laughed were no longer in a position to laugh about anything else.) So, now he stood there and watched the inn, seething inside. He knew that she was better than he was, and that he'd have no chance against her in a fair fight. Of course, thieves hardly ever fought fair, but then, she was a thief also, so they were sort of even. He was considering going down to Low Town and rounding up a gang, but then he recalled that they were all helping with rebuilding in the wake of the storm, so it was unlikely that there would be anyone who would help him. As he stood there watching the inn, Callus had no idea that he was himself being watched. But not watched as he was watching the inn; he was being observed through magic. A darkly-robed man stood in a dark room in a dark house, holding a greenly glowing orb that projected an image onto the wall. The image of Callus, along with some shifting runes beneath him and to the side. "Excellent," the man intoned. "This one will do nicely." He touched a red rune on the green orb, and a green pulse shot from the orb into the image, centering itself on the roguish thief. The man began to chant in some unknown tongue. Callus felt strange--lightheaded all of a sudden. Then he looked down, saw himself fading. "Hey, what the--?" Then he blinked out completely When Callus came to again, he was standing in the middle of a dark room. "What--who are you?" he asked the man who was standing not far away from him, clad in dark robes with a hood over his face. "Who I am is not important," the man intoned in a deep, reverberating voice. "What is important is this--you wish revenge on the thief who made you look like a fool in the floating market the other day." "I--yes, yes I do!" Callus said. "But how do you know that?" "I know many things," the man said. "And as it turns out, I wish for you to have that revenge." "You--you do?" Callus found this a little hard to believe. "But what am I to you?" A tool, the man thought. A fool to do my bidding. "Never mind that," the man said. "I will give you the means with which to have your revenge if you will do what I tell you to. Is that clear?" Callus just stood there, his jaw sort of hanging open. The dark man could almost see the gears in his foolish little mind working. What an idiot, he thought. What a simple fool. He'll do anything to have his revenge on Andrea, and he thinks I might help him. Yes, he'll do it. I know he will. "I--I'll do it. Tell me what I have to do." "Ah, I knew you would not fail me. Take this." He opened his gloved hand and something sparkled in it. Then it floated up and over to Callus, hovering in front of his face. "This ring is filled with a deadly poison. Prick the thief with the needle contained within, and she will die. You MUST kill her that way, not with any other means, is that understood? Or is that beyond your abilities and I must find another?" Callus set his jaw, his pride stung. "I can do it." He reached out and grabbed the ring. "Is that it?" "No, that is not. With the thief is a small unicorn. She must not be harmed, she must be brought to me, is that quite clear? If you accomplish that, there will be much gold in it for you." Not that he COULD, but it would provide the diversion he needed. "I will do it," Callus said. Then, "But wait," he added as a thought struck him. "What about that magical restriction against violence in the inn? I won't be able to do the deed if that--" "No, no, the restriction is only on the common room," the dark man said. "Otherwise, some of the guests might have problems with...certain forms of entertainment in their rooms at night. Just wait until she is in the corridor, or in her room, and you will be able to do it." "But--" "Oh, here, if it makes you feel any better..." Another trinket floated across the room. "This amulet will protect you from the prohibition's effects." Actually it wouldn't; it was just a trinket he'd picked up on the street, but Callus didn't have to know that. "Ah, thank you. Now I can do the job." "Yes, do it. Do it now. And do it the way I told you or it will be hard on you." The magician's voice carried sinister overtones, and Callus swallowed hard, not wanting to face a mage's wrath. "I promise you I will do just as you said." "Good." Then reality flickered, and Callus was back in the alley again. The dark man watched him, laughing inwardly. The "poison" was really a sleeping potion, which would put Andrea in a deep sleep for a time while HE went about HIS business. The man watched, and waited... -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!CSM560.smsu .edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] Callus' Revenge, and Magic Rears its Ugly Head Date: Wed, 05 May 93 14:20:59 CDT Organization: The Dragon's Inn, Generica (a corridor) Lines: 88 Message-ID: <16BC5C9CB.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] Callus Raykor Andrea Sheryl curse X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 [ADMIN: Hi, Andrea and Sheryl here! This post involves, I'm afraid, a little violence that must needs take place inside the Inn. However, I'm explaining this by saying that the magic that prevents violence only works in the common room of the inn. If that doesn't hold true, then let's assume that Raykor's magic is powerful enough to override it temporarily, or SOMETHING. Due to plot restrictions, this can't happen anywhere else, it's extremely vital to the plot, and it's only one of my characters doing violence to one of my other characters (NPCs) so no one else should be affected, so even if there's no possible way to explain it, please look the other way, okay? Thanks...] Callus snuck into the inn through a side door, and up back into one of the corridors, stealthy as a shadow. All that was in his mind was Andrea...how he would prick her with that ring, and she would die. That would finally make up for the humiliation she had caused him. Only, in his mind, other plans presented themselves. Perhaps he would rape her, first, and knock her around a little. Yeeees, that sounded more the thing...he would utterly and completely humiliate her, and THEN he would kill her. That dark man would never know. Yes... His mind was so awash in his dirty little fantasies that he almost failed to notice Andrea herself, sitting outside the room, that dark cat in her lap. But the cat noticed him. It looked up, spat, caused Andrea to look up, too. Callus was wearing a cloak and a hood, so she probably wouldn't recognize him. He advanced on Andrea. Andrea stood, and the cat ran away. "Who are you?" she asked. Inside the cloak, Callus grasped his cosh. "I have a message for you..." he said in an old and infirm voice, coming closer...closer...almost there...NOW! He whipped his cosh out and swung at Andrea even as he tackled her. The cosh missed (Andrea had ducked out of its way), but the tackle succeeded, bearing her roughly to the floor and knocking her head against it, slightly stunning her. Callus pushed back his hood. "Do you recognize me now, Andrea?" He spat in her face. She blinked, coming around. "You humiliated me. You cost me dearly. Now I'm going to have my way with you, and I'm going to take that precious unicorn of yours and--EYAAAUGH!" Blood came pouring out of Callus' mouth, his body stiffened. Andrea stood up, wiping the spittle off her face, then removed her death knife from Callus' heart and rolled his body aside. "At last...I finally got to USE this thing." Quite by chance, as Callus' body rolled aside, the ring on his hand that the dark mage had given him scratched Andrea along the arm. "What in the world...? Oh no..." Andrea was getting very sleepy, and she knew why--the ring had been drugged! Andrea stumbled over to her backpack, and fumbled through it for the antidote she always kept...almost...she almost had it...there. She brought the glass vial out of the pack carefully, carefully...pulled the cork out...raised it to her lips...and sank to the floor, unconscious, before she could drink it. Then a dark, shimmering cloud formed nearby, and gradually coalesced into a humanoid shape. "Ah, Andrea..." Raykor said, grinning, hands beginning to weave back and forth in an intricate motion. "Long have I waited for this moment...in a very short time you shall plague me no more." Then the door burst open behind Andrea, and Sheryl came racing out, whinnying frantically. She glared at Raykor, who continued to work his intricate motions, as blue lighting formed between his hands, and gradually spread to the rest of his body as the dark chants gained power. Sheryl nudged Andrea frantically. Why won't she wake up?! Then she noticed the weal along her arm, and the vial of potion on the floor. Sleeping poison! There was no time to get Kardia...she'd have to do this herself. Raykor was too involved in his chant to cause her any harm. Sheryl reached down carefully with her mouth, and picked up the vial between her lips, being careful to keep it level so as not to spill any. She carefully lifted it over Andrea's open mouth, and then tipped it to the side, letting the fluid held therein run out of the tube, and go into Andrea's mouth. Andrea blinked, coughed, shook her head. "What the...?" Then Raykor completed his chant! The lighting he'd been gathering all around him leaped the gap from his outstretched arms to encompass Andrea in all its lethal glory. As the magical energy leaped and crackled around her, she sank, gradually, torturedly to the ground. [ADMIN: Uh-oh. What do we do now?] -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!CSM560.smsu .edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [ADMIN] [AU] [HouseStorming] Date: Wed, 05 May 93 14:39:31 CDT Organization: Dragon's Inn Authorial Society Lines: 11 Message-ID: <16BC5CE23.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: Okay, so it will be a while... X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 I would just like to mention that previously, we thought the HouseStorming would be over by May 14, the time when I will lose net access for approx. 3 weeks. However, the way things are looking now, we probably won't get STARTED by that time. Just thought I should let everybody know that there's no rush or anything... -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin .sura.net!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: Re: [AU] Raykor's Curse Date: Thu, 06 May 93 18:04:35 CDT Organization: The Dragon's Inn--a dark corridor Lines: 189 Message-ID: <16BC6FE34.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] Andrea Sheryl Raykor Kardia Enn Piecy X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 ADMIN: "What are we going to do now that--Hey, wait, why am I back in quotes?" Because I'm back in control, that's why. "Chris!" >Whinny!< >Snort!< "We didn't know you were back!" It appears you've written yourselves into a corner. "Uh, yeah..." >footshuffle< I suppose you'll want me to get you out of this jam you've found yourselves in now, huh? "You'll do that?" >Nicker?< Yep. But I want certain conditions to be met first. "Uh...like what?" Like no more putting me in the hospital because you don't like the way I'm writing you. I have to admit, that was a cute nurse, though...I want you to stand behind me, and not so you can stab me in the back either. "Uh...okay." I want your word. "You'd trust the word of a thief?" I wrote you, I know you inside and out. Once you give your word, you usually keep it. Now promise. "All right, I promise. I suppose you want me to put my right hand on the Bible or something?" No...that's good enough. Okay. And if you have a gripe about the way I'm writing, you'll bring it to me, okay? "That's one thing you won't have to worry about." >Nicker!< Good. Now, let me look back over your past posts, see what I can do about getting you out of this jam. Let's see...hm...you certainly wrote Raykor back in in a hurry. "We wanted to find him and kill him, and we couldn't do that if he wasn't around, now could we?" Yeah, but...oh well...hmm, Enn Piecy's ring...Kardia's cursebreaking...meeting Azariah...Callus' revenge...Geez, when you write, you pull out all the stops. Well, okay. I think I can do something with it. Now stand back, and let me work. Ahem. Let's start this note all over again, now... ADMIN: Hi! This is Chris Meadows. I'm back again, after being...ahem, inconvenienced for awhile. Now that I'm back, I'm going to get this story in motion--I hope. Better see about getting rid of whatever Raykor thinks he's up to first... Raykor cackled and laughed maniacally as Andrea sank to her knees, the blue lightning crackling like Saint Elmo's Fire all around her. There was a gasp of horror from the open door from which Sheryl had emerged, as Kardia stepped out to view the horrible sight. It seemed that already Andrea's shape was twisting, reforming itself... ["Ahem, uh, Chris...?" Hey, stop reading over my shoulder before I write you into a newt or something!] "No!" Andrea screamed out, struggling to rise. "No, I won't let you! Not THIS time..." She staggered to her feet, her right arm raised above her head, hand clenched into a fist. And something on that fist was shining--it was the ring that Enn Piecy had given her a few days ago into the bar--it was giving off a silver light that was almost blinding! Sheryl nickered, and thrust her horn forward, into Andrea's left hand. It, too, began to glow, and the blue lighting lessened, stopping its dancing around Andrea and instead being sucked into the ring, and into Sheryl's horn. As the lightning died away, Andrea's shifting form reverted to its normal human shape. "What? No! It can't be, it just can't! My curse can't have fizzled--And you!" Raykor pointed at Sheryl. "The last traces of my magic are gone from you. But how--why--?" "Die, you foul wizard..." As one, Andrea and Sheryl pointed fist and horn at Raykor, and the selfsame lightning that he had cast blasted forth from them to engulf the evil archmage. "What--no! No! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" The wizard screamed hideously as the lightning engulfed him, and his figure shaded to black, then split apart and shrank into nothingness. The lightning then faded out as Raykor's scream reverberated down the corridor. A couple of doors down the corridor were flung open and various comments yelled out. "Hey, cantcha keep it down?! Some of us are trying to SLEEP in here..." Andrea sank to the floor, against the wall. She groaned. "Ooooh, I feel like I've just been put through a blender." Then she looked up at Sheryl, and blinked. It was odd, but it was as though the small 'corn were a good order of magnitude brighter than before, from her white coat to her bright blue eyes. "What--how? The curse--it's lifted?" Kardia nodded. "Yes," she said, her voice dry and scratchy from not having spoken in three days. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes, the curse is indeed lifted. And just in time, too, or so it would seem. Here, let me have a look at you." She knelt in front of Andrea to examine her. That had been a most powerful curse the mage had hit her with--she had seen more than just an amazing light show when Raykor had cast his spell--she had seen immense magical lines of force that people on her homeworld would never have dreamed possible. Even by the scale of this world (which she wasn't sure she had down completely yet) it seemed huge. Yet as she looked carefully over Andrea, she saw no trace of the enchantment whatsoever--no magic at all except that little bit common to the amateur student of magic, and the delicate tracery that had come from Andrea's close contact with and relation to the unicorn Sheryl. It was as though she had redirected the curse right back at Raykor, leaving none of it behind within herself. Yet there was something else, some difference that she couldn't quite grasp... "This is odd..." Kardia said, puzzled. "I can find no traces of the curse at all..." She glanced over at the unicorn, but Sheryl's own magic traceries, with which she had become intimately acquainted over the last three days, were also unaltered. "...on you, OR on Sheryl." "Well, good," Andrea managed. "That way I don't have to pay you another ten gold coins or so plus room and board for work on ME." It took Kardia a moment to realize that this was only a joke. I must be more tired than I thought, she told herself. "And yet there's something different about you..." Kardia contined. "I would advise having 'Raelf scan you both right away." She shook her head. "How could you have completely deflected the curse like that?" "It was this ring..." Andrea held up her right hand. "Enn Piecy gave it to...huh?" The ring had vanished--there was only a small, gradually-fading silver patch encircling her finger to show that it had ever been there. "It's gone--it's like it's just melted into my hand or something..." "Let me see..." Kardia took her hand, gazed at it. "There was an extremely fine tracery of magic lines around it...if she could just look a little closer...then her vision blurred, and she nearly ended up on the floor. "Whoa. I must REALLY be more tired than I thought. I have to get something to eat and get in bed right away." Then Kardia felt something touch her hand. She looked down--it was Sheryl's horn. And suddenly Kardia was wide awake again, temporarily revitalized by the magical energies that coursed through that horn. She knew that this would not last for long, however. "Thank you, Sheryl...now I feel half-human again. I'd better get some food in me before this wears off." "Thanks, Kardia...right now I'm just a little tired as well..." Andrea got unsteadily to her feet. Sheryl touched her once again with her horn. "Thanks, Sheryl," Andrea said, drawing strength from the touch. "Help me to my room, and I'll feel better in the morning..." Bemused, Kardia watched the two of them go. Her leg felt numb, and she realized she hadn't been exercising it enough. "Well, come on, then..." she spoke, enjoying the luxury of being able to speak aloud to herself for the first time in three days. "Let's go get something to eat..." In a dark corner of the corridor [Yes, there are so many dark corners in the inn's common room that a few of them have started overflowing into the corridors], a darkly-robed man, though not as ominous a man as that which had turned out to be Raykor, looked on. It was a pet peeve of his that he WASN'T more ominous...he TRIED to be ominous, it just never worked out that way somehow. It wasn't good for business. Ominous or not, Enn Piecy smiled beneath his hood as he watched them go. Being a seer was all well and good, but just because one predicted the future didn't mean that one couldn't take an active part in it. At least that was what HE believed--the oldsters probably had some other ideas, but they were too old to do anything anyway. Enn got a real kick out of doing someone some good once in a while... "I predict that your future is going to be very exciting..." Enn murmured to the departed Andrea and Sheryl. "And I predict that it's going to be very fun to watch it unfold." Then he retreated further back into the shadows, and disappeared. ADMIN: Okay, so how was that? "Chris...we'll never doubt you again." See that you don't. And try to keep out of my admin notes the next few entries, okay? Too much of this "breaking the fourth wall" and it's going to start turning our readers off. "Uh, right, Chris. In that case...goodbye for a while. Sheryl and I are going to go start packing for when you lose net access for a few weeks on the 14th and we have to go with you." Oh, yeah, that's right. I'd better mention this one more time. I have to go home for Summer Intercession this month, May 14th, and will be temporarily unavailable from then until early June. I hope to get in a few more posts between now and then, however. Anyway...from all of us here to all of you out there, thanks for reading! And there's more interesting stuff to come, very shortly! -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!dar win.sura.net!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM1 73S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] [HouseStorming] The Morning After Date: Fri, 07 May 93 16:02:19 CDT Organization: Dragon's Inn, Generica Lines: 118 Message-ID: <16BC7E18C.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] [HouseStorming] Andrea Sheryl Mary Kardia 'Raelf Raykor X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 The day dawned bright and early over Generica, a day which held portents of mystery and awe, though only to Enn Piecy and others who, like him, were able to see it. Those men scurried about their business when they saw what the day held in store, scurrying around like worried rats told that their ship was about to go down. But to Andrea the thief, and Sheryl the unicorn, the day held no such portents at all, except perhaps a feeling of foreboding on Andrea's part, but she was not to feel that until much later on. Right now, she was still asleep, dreaming of we know not what. Whatever it was that she WAS dreaming, if at all, it had to be a peaceful dream, for she showed no signs of restless sleep or disturbance. Indeed, how COULD she have aught but peaceful dreams with her younger sister and good friend Sheryl sleeping by her side? The young 'corn was now completely free of Raykor's curse, and her full powers had begun to manifest, though by no means would they fully appear for many years to come. With Sheryl's magic presence by her side, Andrea was protected from restless sleep--at least for the nonce. Now the sunlight shining through the windows seemed to brighten up the room, and Andrea's eyelids flickered. She blinked, rubbing her eyes. "Well, it's about time...I'm hungry!" Half-asleep, Andrea said, "Oh, okay...give me a minute, I'll get you breakfast..." Then, thirty seconds later as she pulled on her breeches, she did a doubletake. "What--?" Sheryl nickered plaintively. She was hungry, and wanted Andrea to know about it! Andrea shook her head. "Must have been dreaming." She finished dressing, stood up. "Gods, my head aches..." She walked over in front of the mirror, and caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye. She turned, gazed into the looking glass, and her jaw dropped. There she saw the image of a large, beautiful white unicorn, with a long, softly glowing horn, big blue eyes, and flowing mane--similar to Sheryl, only larger--staring back at her from where her own reflection should have been. Her mouth wide open in shock, Andrea looked down at herself to see a perfectly normal, perfectly human body, her hands held trembling in front of her. She looked back up at the mirror...and saw her own reflection once more. "Gods..." Andrea said. Sheryl cocked her head and nickered an interrogative. Was Andrea going crazy? "I think Kardia was right...maybe I SHOULD have 'Raelf scan me..." She shook her head. "But for now...to breakfast." Andrea stepped down the short flight of stairs to the Dragon's Inn common room, Sheryl right behind her. They took a seat at the bar. "What'll it be?" Mary Littlefair asked. "Bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and hash browns," Andrea decided. "And orange juice. I'm feeling hungry today." Sheryl nickered. "And I think she'll have, um, a bowl of oatmeal. Right, Sheryl?" Sheryl nickered. Oatmeal was fine with her. She was a unicorn; she couldn't afford to be picky. As Mary put the dishes out, and Andrea set hers down in front of Sheryl, she couldn't help but wish she could make herself understood, though. Sometimes it got to be a real pain being misunderstood, especially by her own sister. After breakfast, Andrea stepped outside, sniffed the breeze. Odd...it smelled...different. Fresher...cleaner...clearer... She looked around, and Sheryl followed suit, nickering gently. Royal scribes were putting up some sort of signs, but she didn't pay any attention to them. There was something in the air...a feeling of foreboding that she couldn't shake. And the walls--they seemed to be closing in on her. She shook her head. "I've got to get out of here..." she muttered. "I have to get out of town...that's what I need. I want to run free in the wide open plains...this town is just too...enclosed." Sheryl glanced nervously at Andrea. What was happening to her? SOMETHING was...she could tell that. But not the cause, or the effect. Andrea dashed back inside, and placed several gold pieces on the counter. "Mary," she said hurriedly, "Could you hold my room for me for the next several days? This should cover the fee..." Mary Littlefair nodded. "I can do that, no problem. Will there be anything el--" "Yes, yes..." Andrea was shifting her balance from one foot to the other, as if she desperately needed to attend to some natural function but was holding it back through force of will. "I need paper and pen. Please hurry." "All right," Mary said, bringing out several slips of paper and a stylus, being well-used to rushed adventurers. Andrea hurriedly scribbled out, in a shaky hand, notes to Kardia and 'Raelf. They read: Kardia: I really have to get out of here. I don't know what it is, but I just can't stay in this town a moment longer! If you want to meet me, come to the plains north of town, and I'll be there somewhere. I'll be back in a few days. I hope. Andrea Then she put a note up on the bulletin board. It read: ------ TO THOSE WHO'VE VOLUNTEERED FOR THE HOUSESTORMING I will be out of town for the next several days...I'm not sure when I'll be back but it should be very soon. Leave notes and messages for me at the bar and I'll be by to pick them up when I get back. We'll start the housestorming then. Thanks, and may the gods be with you. Andrea ------ With that, Andrea ran back into her room to get her pack and things, then she shouldered the burden and ran out, then started running to the north as fast as she could, with Sheryl right behind her. She didn't know why--she just knew that she had to get out of town before she suffocated! -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!uunet!wupost!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] The Wide Open Spaces Date: Sun, 09 May 93 18:07:07 CDT Organization: Under a Tree Near a Brook Lines: 92 Message-ID: <16BC9FECB.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] Andrea Sheryl unicorn gallop transition X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 Andrea only stopped when she was on a hill overlooking the city. She turned, looked back, and Sheryl plopped down on the ground to rest. "Yes, this is much better..." Andrea muttered. "The air is clear, the grass is green...and it somehow feels SAFER." Sheryl nickered, slightly out of breath. Andrea sat down beside her, set the pack aside, then lay on her back, looking at clouds. Together they rested for a time, then Andrea stood. "Come on..." she said. "I want to get a little farther away from the city." She shouldered the pack and started running north. Sheryl followed. And then something happened. At first, Andrea's right hand felt oddly cool. Then her load felt lighter all of a sudden, and she felt strangely light-headed. Then all she wanted to do was RUN. Two unicorns galloped silently across the plain, manes and tails streaming behind them. Both were the purest white of all unicorns of legend, with bright blue eyes, shining silvery-white horns, and a stride the envy of most horses. Across the plains they raced, over hill, through forest, as the sun grew higher in the morning sky. In the lead was a tall mare--her eyes reflected the sun's fire as her hooves struck sparks from the occasional pebble on the ground. Behind her, struggling to keep up, was a young filly who looked much like a smaller version of the other one. As she raced after her larger companion, there was at once a look of happiness and yet also of worry on her equine face. Toward noon, the two 'corns came to a halt near a small stream, and stepped forward to drink. After they drank their fill, they trotted over to a stand of trees to rest in the shade. The larger 'corn dozed off, while the smaller one watched her nervously. Andrea slowly woke up, feeling sore in every muscle of her body. There was a cool throbbing sensation around her right hand that was rapidly fading, and her back ached too. Opening her eyes, she noticed that she was lying on her back, and her backpack was pressing into it something fierce. "I must have fallen over..." she thought, standing up. "Now where..." Then she gasped. She let the pack slip from her back, and then collapsed back onto the ground. "Where the hell are we?" Andrea looked around. Generica was nowhere in sight. She was lying under a tree near a brook, in the middle of a vast open plain. Tall grasses waved back and forth in the gentle breeze, and fluffy white clouds floated overhead in an azure sky. There was a nicker from beside her, and Andrea looked over at Sheryl. The young 'corn looked pretty lathered, as from a long run, and her mane and tail were in disarray. She also looked rather worried. Andrea realized that she was soaked in sweat herself. "What's going on here...?" Andrea shook her head. "Oh, gods, I ache! And these sweaty clothes feel awful." She grinned. "At least there's a brook nearby..." So Andrea took a bath in the brook. Sheryl kept a lookout for any strangers coming near, and Andrea kept her Dagger of Resource strapped to her wrist, as well as her other weapons on the bank closeby. As it turned out, Andrea's ablutions were uninterrupted, and after washing her clothes, she felt more human once more. Then Andrea unceremoniously dumped Sheryl in the creek and scrubbed her ("It's been too long since you had a bath, girl."), then went over her with a currycomb and brush. Sheryl nickered softly under the treatment, and when Andrea was finished, she found that she'd worked out most of the soreness in her muscles. With nothing else to do, Andrea gathered some deadwood and made a small cookfire, of the nearly smokeless variety (from habit). She got out some rations from her backpack and fixed herself a meal, while Sheryl grazed nearby. "I don't know why I'm so hungry," Andrea said to herself. "I had such a big breakfast today..." After lunch, for lack of anything better to do, Andrea and Sheryl sat under the biggest tree in the small copse, a sturdy oak, and gazed off into the distance for lack of anything better to do. Andrea sat against the trunk, legs flat on the ground, and Sheryl lay down at her left side, so Andrea could pet her while she sat. "How did we get here?" Andrea asked, half-closing her eyes. "Too bad you can't talk, or you could tell me." Sheryl nickered. Andrea blinked. Within that nicker, she was sure she'd heard the word "gallop". She opened her eyes wide, snapping back to full awareness and sitting bolt upright. "Huh?" Sheryl nickered again, but this time it didn't make any sense. "Huh," Andrea said, leaning back against the tree once more. "Must have been my imagination." -- Chris Meadows || Andrea & Sheryl CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || [AU] thread, alt.pub.dragons-inn CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || -------------------------------- CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || A supporter of rec.arts.creative Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!mvb.saic .com!zippy.Telcom.Arizona.EDU!arizona.edu!noao!amethyst!organpipe.uug.arizona.e du!argon!corleyj Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [Pitzar][yes,again] Foreign Correspondant Message-ID: <1993May10.005954.16136@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> From: corleyj@argon.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley ) Date: 10 May 93 00:59:54 GMT Sender: news@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson Keywords: Chandler Raymond Maltese Falcon Samuel Spade Lines: 81 [ADMIN: Yes, I got net access back. Yes I am back to do newspaper articles...if you want an article or advertisement (expensive!) in the _Generican Examiner_, mail me at corleyj@gas.uug.arizona.edu. When we last left Jake Pitzar he was riding a wave of despair out of town.] The storm hadn't made it up here, up north near little towns like Muddy Flats and Edgewater. The stones on the road jabbed up through the worn soles of my boots like knives into a luckless victim. The fields were long, even rows on either side. The crops were golden rippling waves shining bright in the blazing hot sun. I stopped in Poultice, clomped heavily into the only pub in town, the room dark and cool after the hot dry air outside. There was nobody there but the barkeep. "Hello, stranger!" he said. "Hello. I said. "How about a wine?" "Three silver. Brewed it m'self, mister." He set a wide-rimmed mug on the table. I handed him my last coin. "Give me some food too. For the road." He pocketed it and walked out, back into the kitchen. I was alone in the dark, I couldn't hardly see a thing, slouched on a hard worn wooden stool sipping the sweetly harsh taste of the blackberry wine slide down my throat like a blazing fire. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, leaning my arms onto the moist damp wood of the bar. I thought I heard a voice outside, but before I even turned my head I knew it had just been my imagination. The barkeep sauntered back in carrying a cloth package. "There's a hunk of cheese, some bread and some sausage in there. Ought to last ya a couple of days anyway." He put it on the counter next to me. "Thanks," I said. "Hey, where is everyone?" The barkeep snorted. "Off hunting. Some idiot thinks he sees a unicorn and suddenly everyone's dropping everything to look for it." I knew what I should do. I should have nodded, maybe chuckled a little, picked up my bag and kept walking, getting as far away from the city, and the paper, and her, and me, as far as I could go, all the way to the edge of the world, and then over the edge, just get up and walk away. But I didn't do that. "Where'd they see it?" I asked. Before he could answer, I knew I would be finding it. I knew I would find the unicorn. I knew I would write about it. And I knew I would be going back, someday. The city loomed in my future like a blazing bonfire of torchlight. The barkeep said "Off west of here, off by the Mill Stream. Actually, out on the edge of the pasture right next to the mill." Under his voice, I thought I heard another voice, low and sweet, from outside, but there wasn't anybody outside. I knew that without looking. The blackberry wine slid down as smoothly as a sword into a sheath. ------------------------- Mr. Heartwell, Just wanted to let you know I am fine and on the trail of something interesting. There's been another unicorn sighting, up here near Poultice. Maybe it is related to the ones in the city. I will write more as I find it. I'm sorry I walked out so quickly but I had to leave in a hurry. Do not worry about the Guard, it was not a legal matter (this time ha ha). I guess that is all. Jake ------------------------- -- (1) Ignorance of your profession is best concealed by solemnity and silence, which pass for profound knowledge upon the generality of mankind. -------"Advice to Officers of the British Army", 1783 Jason "corleyj@gas.uug.arizona.edu" Corley is thought to be armed and stupid.