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] [Pitzar] A Meeting, and Flight! Date: Tue, 11 May 93 17:30:20 CDT Organization: Nat'l Assn for the Prevention of Cruelty to Unicorns Lines: 281 Message-ID: <16BCBF62C.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] [Pitzar] Andrea Sheryl unicorn Jake Pitzar transition X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 ADMIN: Little chronological notice here. The party that is going to take place, with all the demons and odd happenstances, takes place the night after Kardia has completed the breaking of Sheryl's curse. This post takes the [AU] thread up to that night. Just wanted to make that clear. The sun was as high as the average buffer street kid when Jake set out for the pasture where the unicorns had been sighted. He maintained a steady pace, knapsack on his back, and ere long he'd left the small town behind him. The edge of the Mill Stream pasture was trampled over a hundred times by footprints of all shapes and descriptions. He knelt and looked at the mud, rubbed a dirt clod through his fingers. His shadow was dark on the black mud. It wasn't long before he heard someone shout, "Hey!" and turned to see the leader of a small band of men, women, and children, dressed in peasants' clothes, coming toward him from the north. He turned, keeping his hands visible (you never could tell, people could be rather touchy sometimes). "Yeah?" Jake asked. "You seen any unicorns around?" the man asked. "No..." Jake said. "I was rather hoping you had. I'd heard you were out looking for them and I thought I'd join you." The man shrugged. "Look all you want. Young Howarth saw two of them running through this pasture. We haven't found sign of 'em yet..." "Hey, hey, over here!" one of the men yelled. "Look--tracks!" "All right! Let's go!" The man turned, and they moved off along the newly-found trail. Jake Pitzar just watched them go, noticing the ropes and nets some of them were carrying, and shook his head. On the off-chance that they were able to sneak up on the unicorns (as if a party that size could sneak up on a stone wall), he doubted that they would be able to catch them or keep them with ordinary means. At least, he secretly hoped not. He looked in that direction and found a set of hoofprints that had been flanked rather than trampled on. This was what they were hunting. Jake walked up to the tracks, knelt beside them. Chuckled wryly. "I wonder when unicorns started wearing size double-ought horseshoes." He straightened up again, shouldered his pack, moved on. By an hour or so later, he had covered a lot of ground, and no more tracks had he seen. He'd crossed over a small brook (he wondered if it was the same one that the barkeep had mentioned?) and continued onward, and he was beginning to wonder if the unicorns had really been here at all. But then he stumbled onto the tracks. A trail of them, two sets, spaced far enough apart that it looked like they had been at a dead gallop. No shoes, but no deformities either...the hooves seemed perfectly formed, both large and small. This was it. The air smelled of sweet green grass. The tracks stretched out like the arc of an overshot arrow, falling, curving, bending away into the distance. He shifted the pack on his back and started running, following them. He only hoped that he got there before the hunting party did. Sheryl stood bolt upright, hearing the footfalls an instant before Andrea, who was then on her own feet as well, grabbing her crossbow and taking aim at the stranger who was running toward them. "Hold it!" Andrea called out. "Just hold on a minute." The man pulled up short, hands in the air. His voice was raspy and dry. "Godsdammit! Don't shoot! I'm a friend!" "Right," Andrea said. "What do YOU think, Sheryl?" The little 'corn peered at him, then snorted. It was obvious that she believed him. "Well, all right..." Andrea said, lowering the weapon. "Sheryl seems to trust you." Jake lowered his hands. "The name's Jake Pitzar." The brook was clean and clear, and the sun filtered through the treetops onto the grass that swayed slightly in the breeze. "Out on a picnic?" he said. Andrea shrugged. "Seemed like a nice enough place to eat lunch." Jake nodded. "Sure. Nice for you and me. But, er..." He indicated Sheryl with one hand. "It seems that some of the local hicks thought they saw a unicorn. They took all the ropes and nets in the surrounding twelve fifes to come after you." With a sigh, Andrea started making sure her equipment was together (never quite turning her back on Jake). "Never fails. Someone sights Sheryl and bingo, the whole area is after her." "Isn't there another 'corn around?" Jake asked. "The locals said they sighted two." Andrea shook her head. "Must have been a trick of the light or something...Sheryl here is the only unicorn I know about around here." Yet her answer seemed strangely subdued... Jake's face narrowed. He could follow the tracks up to the creekbank, back over to the tree, and...hmm. The larger 'corn's tracks went up to the tree, but didn't lead away from it. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. And he noticed that the small unicorn, Sheryl, the woman had called her, was watching him very closely. Jake looked the woman over. She was fairly tall, attractive, and had dark hair that fell to about the middle of her back. She was wearing a dark suit of leather, and carried some daggers, a shortsword, and a crossbow...probably a thief, he thought. "I'm Jake Pitzar," he said again. This time she took the hint. "Andrea." She closed her pack and looked Jake up and down. He had a grimy, stained doublet pulled over him, a threadbare short cloak thrown over his shoulder, and a belt that had been patched in so many places it looked as if it had been made that way. But his eyes were dark brown and his face was distressingly focussed. He only had four fingers on his left hand, but he seemed to move it away instinctively when she noticed it. "Nice to meet you, Jake. What are you doing way out here?" He shrugged. "Same as you...out for a walk." Sheryl snorted. Jake raised an eyebrow. Andrea turned to face him, hand on the hilt of her shortsword. "I think that Sheryl says there's something you're not telling us." Her eyes flashed a stunning deep blue for a moment, as blue as the small 'corn's eyes, which startled Jake. He shrugged. "Okay, so I'm not just wandering around. I saw the locals headed this way and I thought I might do you a..." Andrea and Sheryl did not move. Something in the air changed, some tension was released, something had broken, and for a moment, Jake stood straight up. He dropped back into his habitual slouch almost immediately. "And, I've got a professional interest in 'corns. I'm with the EXAMINER." "A reporter." Andrea said. It wasn't a question. "Yeah, that's what it is." Jake said. Andrea nodded. "All right." She glanced from Jake to Sheryl. "And you wouldn't have any...designs upon her yourself, would you?" "Only as a story." A half-smile flickered across Jake Pitzar's face. "Unicorns are big news, bigger now that there are so few left. And everyone likes to read about a unicorn. Everybody wants to hear that everything's going to be all right, and unicorns say that to them." Sheryl snorted again, but this time it was more in disgust than in suspicion. Andrea laughed. "Okay," she said, "you can tag along if you want, and you can have your story. But I get a veto on anything that gets put into it--there are enough interesting facts about us without getting personal. And I would appreciate it if you would hold off on publishing it for a time." Jake shrugged. "I don't even know if it'll get published at all. Hell, another storm hits, we're page 12 news. But yeah, whatever you say." He shrugged. "I guess that's an offer I can't refuse. Come on, let's get out of here." He pointed north, across the brook. "There's a small town near here, where we could find food and shelter..." Andrea shook her head. "No...not a town. Not now, not for a few days." "Why?" Jake asked. Andrea faltered. "I--I don't know why. I just know that I can't stay in or near a town. I need a few days...time out here under the open sky. Time to...to adapt." "Adapt to what?" Jake asked. His eyes turned to the deep blue sky and the single grey cloud that rested now far to the east. Andrea shook her head. "I don't know." Sheryl nickered, looking back in the direction opposite the creek. "What? What is it, girl?" Andrea asked. "Someone coming?" "Hold on...I'll check." Jake pulled himself up into one of the trees looked around. "Uh-oh." He slid back down again and shouldered his pack, leaves drifting down around his hasty descent. "What is it?" Andrea asked, sword half-drawn. Jake's voice was low, barely over the noise of the burbling brook, which, unconscious of the tension, was filling the air with plops and rippling noises. "It's the people who were looking for the unicorns. They're perhaps a mile or two back--only the tall grasses in the way have prevented them from seeing you already." Jake shook his head. "We've got to go. There are maybe twenty of them, and they have ropes, nets, and maybe some weapons." Andrea swore, her eyes flashing bluer than ever. "We've got to run...got to escape..." She shook her head nervously, grabbed her backpack and slung it on. "Sheryl, let's run!" Sheryl nickered shrilly. They turned, started to run, and Jake was right behind them. They splashed across the stream, started running up the bank...Jake swore as he stumbled over a rock and pitched right into Andrea, landing on her back and bearing her to the ground. Then Jake wasn't lying on Andrea's back, he was lying across the back of a unicorn who was struggling to her feet! Rather than fall off, Jake swore silently and grabbed the mane, a long double handful. "This is crazy," he muttered, pulling himself up to a sitting position as the unicorn pulled itself up. They cast a long shadow back over the brook. Both unicorns broke into a sudden gallop! Jake swore to himself. There HAD been a second unicorn...and he was on her back. The landscape sped by. Jake stopped glancing around with eyes narrowed like a crazed paranoiac noble out on the town, but didn't stop looking around. The last time he had ridden bareback was longer than he liked to remember, but he remembered it as being much more uncomfortable than this. The unicorns floated across the hilly countryside like silk on glass. Jake marvelled at Sheryl's speed as well--even though the larger 'corn was going so fast she was almost flying, somehow the smaller one was keeping up. He shook his head. "You never can tell with magic," he muttered, and almost smiled. Jake woke up. The sun was low in the sky, turning red as it slanted down behind the hills. He had fallen asleep sometime in the warm afternoon. He shook his head. "Hell of a place to take a nap." he muttered. The shadow of the forest had passed by and the grassland was now flat and even. They had come a long way north and east, and were now approaching some kind of house or small building. Jake sat up, blinked a couple of times, and groaned as he felt muscles protesting from their enforced durance in one position for a long period of time. He groaned, and slid from the unicorn's back as she came to a stop in front of the building, spine crackling. "Arr..." he growled, trying to unkink his back. The unicorn snorted, peered at him. "Oh, uh, right...I'm okay," he said. "Uh, hmm, why don't I just go check out this place." He turned to walk toward it, and then heard a groan behind him. He turned back, and saw Andrea slump to the ground where the unicorn had been moments before. "Unnhhh..." she groaned, getting to her feet. "I feel sore all over..." She looked around. "What--? How the hell did we get here?" "I don't understand it either. But it looks like it's getting on towards dark." The house glowed orange in the rays of the dying sun. Jake looked at Andrea very carefully. He looked as if he were going to speak, then turned and readjusted his knapsack painfully. Sheryl snorted, but Andrea was too tired to pay her heed. "Gah...I ache in places I didn't know I had. It was that way this morning, too..." "Wherever we are, there's some sort of house here...I wonder what it is?" "Let's find out." Andrea did some stretching exercises to limber up, then drew her shortsword. "Come on." She walked up to the house, pushed on the door. It was a small farmhouse, Jake saw. It had one story and perhaps an attic, and there was a dilapidated barn with an old split-log-fenced corral standing nearby. It didn't look like it had seen use for years. After a cursory inspection, Andrea and Jake concluded that the house had been deserted several years before. There were no signs of violence, or human remains, and the place was not in too much disarray--it was simply as though the previous occupants had just packed up and left. There was only a bit of furniture remaining, and no provisions or tools of any kind. "I guess we'll stay here for the night," Andrea said. "It ought to be nice and dry. In places, anyway; I imagine that the roof would leak some in a storm...but there is a nice fireplace here." Jake nodded. "I'll go outside and see about getting some of that old fence for use as firewood. I don't think whoever built this place will mind." Andrea nodded. "Sounds like a good idea, go for it." She sat down on one of the two or three rough wooden chairs that remained. "I'll be right here, with Sheryl." Once outside, Jake went over to the fence, pulled out a piece of parchment, and held it against the flat top of one of the fenceposts. He began to write... ---------- Mr. Heartwell, Well, I found the unicorns. I said I would and ye gods I have. I'm with them now, and their human companion too. A shady type, but looks to have gone fairly straight, I don't think we can get a gossip piece out of this one. No, this one is real, I think. Hope this is coming through all right, we traveled a long way today. We're staying in some sort of abandoned farmstead several hours' fast gallop northeast of Generica--probably several days' normal travel. Well, say hello to the boys in the back room for me and I will write more when I can. Jake ---------- The stars came out, one by one, bright pinpricks of light in their familiar patterns, a wildly blazing array of tiny glowing white specks. Andrea looked out at Jake tugging at another fencepost, watched him stop, lean back, and look into the sky as if looking into the face of an old friend, one thought long dead. -- Chris Meadows || NOTICE: I will be gone for two CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || or three weeks, starting on Fri- CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || day, May 14 and ending in early CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || June. Sorry for any inconvenience. Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx!cmeadows From: cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) Subject: Re: [AU] [Pitzar] A Meeting, and Flight! Message-ID: <1993May12.100216.17817@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver for the Denver community. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users. Keywords: [AU] [Pitzar] Andrea Sheryl unicorn Jake Pitzar transition Sender: usenet@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (netnews admin account) Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. References: <16BCBF62C.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> Date: Wed, 12 May 93 10:02:16 GMT Lines: 11 Something I forgot to include in the previous post: acknowledgements. That post was co-written by myself and by Jake Pitzar's author, Jason D. Corley (corleyj@gas.uug.arizona.edu). And it was a whole lot of fun to write, too! -- Chris Meadows | Robotech/RIFTS/Palladium fanfic author/editor CHM173S@SMSVMA | They Might Be Giants about Star Trek aliens: CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU | "Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU | on their real heads!" Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!uunet!news!news.world.net!connected.com!mvb.saic.com !zippy.Telcom.Arizona.EDU!arizona.edu!noao!amethyst!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!h elium!corleyj Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: Re: [AU] [Pitzar] A Meeting, and Flight! Message-ID: <1993May12.180523.26752@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> From: corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley ) Date: 12 May 93 18:05:23 GMT Sender: news@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu References: <16BCBF62C.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> <1993May12.100216.17817@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson Keywords: [AU] [Pitzar] Andrea Sheryl unicorn Jake Pitzar transition Lines: 21 In article <1993May12.100216.17817@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes: > >Something I forgot to include in the previous post: acknowledgements. >That post was co-written by myself and by Jake Pitzar's author, >Jason D. Corley (corleyj@gas.uug.arizona.edu). And it was a whole >lot of fun to write, too! > >-- Right, and the music was by Danny Elfman, and post-production editing by V.I. Enterprises. Special effects by Studio 27, makeup by Claire De L'eau, and very few animals were hurt in the making of this post. ;-) [roll credits, boys. Cut to the Di-Gel spot.] -- (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. Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!wupost!CSM560.smsu.edu!vma.smsu.edu!CHM173S From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu (Chris Meadows) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [AU] [Pitzar] Night Moves (Ignore Previous Post!!!) Date: Fri, 14 May 93 12:36:01 CDT Organization: SouthWest Mo State Univ Lines: 219 Message-ID: <16BCEB131.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: vma.smsu.edu Keywords: [AU] [Pitzar] Andrea Sheryl Jake transition CORRECTION X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2 ADMIN: Jake Pitzar is owned by corleyj@GAS.uug.Arizona.EDU (Jason D. Corley) Andrea and Sheryl are owned by CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET (Chris Meadows) This is a collaborative post written together by both of us. And, as it happens, both of us are going to be away for a while. (Hey, Andrea, you and Sheryl all packed? "Yeah, Chris...we're ready to go...") In fact, you probably won't see either of us again until early June. However, I hope to do a bit of writing while I'm gone, so maybe when I get back you'll see a few posts hit the scene within the first day or so. And maybe I'll be able to do some work on a story called Robotech: The Misfold that I started aeons ago but never finished. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this bit, 'cause it's the last [AU] you'll be seeing for a while. Okay, lights, cameras, ACTION! ---Chris Meadows The smoke rose from the chimney of the house, billowing into vague patterns above the wooden roof. Inside, the fire crackled and leapt upwards toward the chimney. The fence wood had been dry and seasoned, and burned well. Jake had sliced chunks of bread, cheese and sausage with a long-handled knife. He skewered them on the end of a poker and held them over the fire. When he bit into it, he grimaced. "Not a bit like home," he said. Sheryl had grazed outside as the sun went down, under Andrea's watchful eye, the setting sun burnishing her brilliant white flanks with shining gold. In the flickering firelight, she appeared to fade in and out, shadows running down her body. Andrea rested her aching bones on the remains of a straw mattress and wearily consumed some of the provisions in her pack. After eating, she appeared much more alert. "Don't know how I got so hungry," she said. The fire burned on. The wood shifted, sending a shower of sparks upward. "Hey," Andrea said. "Do you know where we are, Jake?" Jake was leaning his head back against a wall, staring into the fire. It was reflected in his eyes. He didn't answer for a long time. "Jake! Hey, wake up!" Jake shook his head and turned his face away from the fire for a moment. "Yeah, wha...oh. I think we're pretty much due northeast of where we were before." Andrea was on a blanket near the fire, on her stomach, Sheryl curled up in front of her. She played idly with Sheryl's mane. "Oh, okay." Andrea said. She seemed to be trying to remember something. "So tell me...how did we..." Jake interrupted her. "How did you come to find Sheryl?" he asked. Andrea smiled. "It's a long story, but we've always been together." "I've got time to hear it, or at least I think I do. Always is a long time." Andrea's smile faded a little bit. "Yeah, I guess it is." There was a long pause. Outside, the smoke swirled upwards. Andrea finally said "You really want to know, don't you?" Jake nodded slowly. Andrea grinned maliciously: "Then lets cut a deal. I'll tell you how I know Sheryl, if you'll tell me something." "What?" "How did we get here?" Jake rolled his head back against the wall. "All right, I'll tell you. You brought us here. You panicked and ran. You ran very fast, faster than the people chasing us." "No, I don't buy that, Jake. If it were just running, I'd remember it. I'd remember running. No, it was something else. Tell me." "You really don't remember?" Jake asked. His face was lost in shadow. "No, I don't remember, for the last time, now will you please tell me?" Sheryl snorted in her sleep. "Your arms hurt today, didn't they?" Jake said dully. "Your arms and legs hurt like you had been lifting things, and running a long way. Your back hurt too. But it hurt like you had been carrying something heavy on your back, it didn't hurt like you had lifted something. You were carrying something on your back." "All right, then what was I carrying?" Andrea asked sarcastically. Jake stood up, the sudden motion bringing Sheryl out of her sleep, the small round blue eyes following Jake's walk to the woodpile, putting another log into the fire. "It was me. You were carrying me." "You aren't talking sense, Jake." Andrea said, "I couldn't have carried you all that far." Jake thrust the wood around in the fire, the poker dimly glowing red near the tip, the fire flaring. Sheryl's eyes watched him very carefully. He turned, still on his knees, to look at the pair. Sheryl's head gave an imperceptible nod. Jake looked into Andrea's eyes, clear and blue, with a little white fire dancing merrily in the center. Silhouetted in the light of the fire, Jake was a shadow, a dark figure sitting in red and orange light. "You want the whole truth, fine. Here it is. We started running, there was a shout. The shout panicked both of us, I fell and tripped you up. You stood up again, but you stood up on all fours. You ran faster than the mob because you were running faster than a horse. You carried me because I hung on for dear life. You had turned into a unicorn. Got that? A unicorn. The rednecks said they saw two unicorns because there WERE two unicorns. I followed the tracks of two unicorns but only saw Sheryl, because you were the other unicorn. It wasn't any trick of the light. It was you." Andrea sat silent, stunned. Sheryl nuzzled her hand, but she continued to sit there, staring into the fire. "It's impossible..." she said after a while. Jake gestured to Sheryl. "Ask her," he suggested. "She'll tell you it's true." Sheryl nodded, and nickered. Andrea just stared back at her, and then at him. As Andrea sat lost in thought, Jake added some more wood to the fire and adjusted the damper. He knew that if she wanted to talk about it, she would, so there wasn't any point in adding more words. And then with a WHZZZZT-THUNK! an arrow pinned one corner of his cloak to the side of the fireplace. Swearing, Jake turned to see Andrea snatch up her crossbow and lunge across the floor to the window, standing up against the wall beside it. There was some wild yelling and whooping from outside, and Jake could make out some movement beyond the window, but not much or what it was. "Damn fools we are, staring into the fire like that," he muttered, yanking the arrow out of his cloak and dropping to the floor. He grabbed a nearby rusty pail that was full of water and dashed it onto the fire, putting it out with a loud hiss. Then he crawled across the floor to the opposite side of the window from Andrea, gripped the haft of the knife stuck in his belt, and looked up. "Sheryl!" Andrea hissed, "get under that bed and stay there. Now!" The little 'corn obeyed without any resistance. Jake blinked as his eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness. He peered up over the windowsill...and nearly got an arrow in the face for his trouble. But in the brief glimpse he got before ducking back he had seen several riders carrying torches racing around the house, yelling and carrying on. "Shit," Jake swore. "Brigands." Andrea nodded, jaw clenched. "And they've got torches. This old house will burn like kindling if it's torched." "Tell me something I don't know," Jake rasped. "Any suggestions?" "I assume giving up isn't an option," Andrea joked. Her attempt at humor fell rather flat as Jake ignored it. "Right," she continued. "We can't run...we'd be cut down before we made ten yards. Hmm, maybe we can bluff them." Just then, one of them yelled out, "Come on out of there! We have you surrounded, and we'll just torch the place if you don't show your faces!" Jake opened his mouth to shoot back a suitable insult, but Andrea beat him to it. "You don't know who you're messing with, buster!" she called back. "I'm a powerful wizard, and if you make me mad I can strike you down without even lifting a finger!" Jake looked at Andrea as though she were half-crazy, then a smile began to creep across his face as she reached into a pocket and brought out a handful of small marble-sized globes. "Lady, I don't like the look on your face..." He grinned and put a crack in his voice, yelling "Look out, she's crazy, she'll kill you all!" "Yeah, right!" one of the brigands yelled back. "And I'm the king of Specifica of the Gems!" "All right, we warned you!" Andrea stepped in front of the window, started waving her hands, muttering. Then she hurled the globes outward, covering the throw with a sweeping arm gesture, and ducked back into cover. As the globes hit the ground, they exploded, with bright flashes and loud reports! Andrea and Jake heard shrill, panicked whinnies and loud swearing from without. Andrea chuckled. "That'll teach 'em..." "Boss! Let's get out of here! She's a mage, she can kill us!" "Shut up, you twit. It's a trick!" "But what if it isn't?" another voice said. "What if he's right? Let's go find some caravan to pick on or somethin'." "You lily-livered cow--AUWK! ARRRGLE!" The lead brigand fell from his horse, a crossbow bolt sticking through his neck. Andrea ducked back again, before more arrows could fly. "That's it, I'm getting out of here!" "Me, too--but don't forget Jorkir's purse!" "Oh, yeah, right..." There was a jingle of coins as the brigands looted their former leader's still-warm corpse. Then the sound of hooves as they rode off into the night. Jake and Andrea looked at each other. "Think they're really gone?" Andrea asked. Jake shrugged noncommittally. "We'd better set up watches for tonight," Andrea decided. "I'll take first--" Then Andrea yawned, betraying her exhaustion. Jake shook his head. "No...the condition you're in, you'd nod off after five minutes. Get some shuteye, I'll take the first watch." "But--" "No buts, I slept on the way here." Seeing her expression, he added, "Look, you're gonna have to trust me sooner or later. Might as well be now." Andrea shrugged. "I guess you're right..." She moved over to the fireplace, restarted the fire burning, and then climbed onto the straw mattress. She yawned once more, and was asleep within a few seconds of hitting the bed. Jake walked over, looked at her for a few moments. In the flickering firelight, her face had returned to a kind of child-like innocence. An unreadable expression flickered across Jake's face, and he turned away. As Sheryl curled up next to the fire once more, Jake picked up a chair and took it over next to the window, ready to begin the first watch. As he sat down, it occurred to him that he never had heard Andrea's tale. But that didn't matter right now. The moon was setting, near the horizon, a bloated yellow mass swiveling downwards through the blackness. The wide flat plains were still and quiet, the weeds thick, muffling the noise of the evening birds. From time to time, Jake would turn and look back at the guttering fire, its last feeble glow flickering across the wooden floor, a wide field, stretching back to a sleeping woman and a unicorn, picture-perfect, unreal. -- Chris Meadows || NOTICE: I will be gone for two CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET || or three weeks, starting on Fri- CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU || day, May 14 and ending in early CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU || June. Sorry for any inconvenience. Seeya June 7th! Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!wupost!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!c aen!usenet.cis.ufl.edu!usenet.ufl.edu!cybernet!news From: wolvie@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (christopher motherway) Subject: [AU] Raykor takes a soul... Message-ID: <1FJR4B3w165w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> Sender: news@cybernet.cse.fau.edu Organization: Cybernet BBS, Boca Raton, Florida Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 20:43:59 GMT Lines: 119 ADMIN: I decided to throw a slight twist into the [AU] thread. But this will not directly alter it. It will just make it a tad more interesting for the [Housestroming]. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Evening had long settled over Generica. In the Dragon's Inn, the patrons were having their usual blast, singing, drinking, an occasional jig or two. Lance Wolf would usually love to get involved with such a wonderful time. But, tonight, he was dredfully tired. He and Blaze had traveled far for the day's bounty, and the horse-lag and saddle sores had made him weak. So, he and his mate decided to call it a day early; they had been sleeping for a good three hours now, despite the growing noises downstairs. Blaze slept, but not in the normal sense. This night, like many nights before, she more than let her mind wander in dreams. Tonight, she let her _soul_ wander as well.... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *High above Generica, the city she has grown to love. Blaze was completely at ease. Although she was not matured enough to travel far as her soul-self, she was able to get high enough to see the horizons. The crystal blue sea, the ever-rolling hills, the forests far off. On clear nights, she could ever seen the mountains, and perhaps a glimpse of the Diamond Gate. This was how she had figured out were Kassandra was located. She could not see it, but from clues she was able to pinpoint the city and to recall it back in consciousness. She slowly floated down, locating Andrea's house. She stopped right in front of the front gate. She pondered a moment. Perhaps, if she searched the house as her soul-self, perhaps the "housestorming" would become more successful. She decided to give it a try. Suddenly, she began to get drawn into the house, by some strange force...an EVIL force! She recognized the evil immediately and tried to escape. She was drawn into one of the upper stories of the house, phasing through walls and doors, ceilings and floors.... All was dark. Much, much darker than the world Blaze sees whenever she lets her soul-self out. She felt evil all around her, concentrated right behind her. She turned around fast, and gasped at the face she saw. It was not too dissimilar from Raoh the Late Conqueror, but yet it was different. Blaze knew this was the face of the person's mind. And an evil mind it was. A deep voice came from the near-hooded face, snickering at first, the saying, "Well, well, m'lady. At last we meet!" "Who are you?" screamed Blaze. "Not important, my dear. I have been eyeing you for quite some time now!" "What do you WANT?!?" "You. More specifically, your power. You see, I sensed a strong magic around somewhere, and as soon as I felt it close enough, I nabbed it. Truth be known, I was not expecting a lady, but magic is magic." "Why have you done this? Why are you keeping me here, in your mind?" "Because your magical powers can help me destroy my enemies!" "And who are they?" "You need not know that, either. I will keep you here. You will, eventually get weak. After that, I will sap your power and force you to use it against my foes. Do not worry, my dear. I will keep you alive...for NOW!" Blaze grew scared. Her soul-self could not last very long outside its body. She had to find a way out fast. "Try to escape if you can. It will only make the wait for you to weaken shorter! HA-HA-HA-HA!" Blaze screamed. "That's what YOU think!" Then she let him have it! She concentrated on the strange face and blasted it with psycho-kinetic pain. She wished it would not come to this (she hated hurting anyone), but this was for survival! The effect was instantanious! The face screamed with agony, winced with pain. Blaze felt the magical "restraints" on her weaken. She kept it up until they slacked enough for her to try an escape. "NO!" the face screamed, "NO! I WILL _NOT_ BE DENIED YOUR POWER...AARRRRRGGGH!" Blaze bolted, not caring which direction. She did not see where she was going, but, as luck would have it, weak as she was, she arrived back at her host body.....* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Blaze awoke with a gasp and a start. She was sweating a lot, and her heart was pounding a mile a minute. When Blaze awoke and sat upright, it awoke Lance just as fast. He saw his love panting and sweating. He quickly got up and said, "Blaze? Blaze! What happened? Are you all right?" Blaze said nothing. She started to cry and she embraced Lance fiercely, sobbing into his chest. Lance understood. She had seen her awake this way several times. He simply stroked her hair and said, calmly, "It is all right, beloved. It is all right." She continued to sob for quite some time. Lance could do nothing but confort her. He knew she would tell him in due time what had happened.