Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: andsol@screech.owlnet.rice.edu (Andrew J. Solberg)
Subject: Kron: [Low City]: Pattycake, Pattycake
Message-ID: <1992Jun18.134654.5997@rice.edu>
Keywords: Kron, Natter, Creft, murder, locket
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1992 13:46:54 GMT

Natter sees the group of strange-looking persons approach the scene of the
crime.  He does his best to keep quiet, mumbling into his chest, but he spots
something glinting that catches his eye.  He gives a low squawk and practically
falls over the miniature barricade of boxes that he has been using as a hidey-
hole.  Looking up, he sees that he has gotten their attention.  One of them
shouts, "SOMEBODY!  CATCH THAT MAN!"

Natter may not be a brain surgeon, but he understands Troublespeak, and that
translates as 'RUN!'  He does so, scrambling madly to beat feet down the
alleyway.

Looking back over his shoulder, Natter sees a huge dark-skinned man gaining
on him.  Panic inspires an extra burst of speed, and he wriggles just ahead
of the warrior.....

.....and into the arms of an elf who has mysteriously appeared in front of
him.  Natter loudly curses all wizards as he and his pursuers all go down in
a tangle of limbs.  There is an extremely brief scuffle, and in a short time
Maleiu and HighFlyer trot back up the alley with a very limp-looking Natter
in tow.  They deposit him to the ground gently.  Natter notes everything with
detatched interest, but it's as if he's a spectator and not really a direct
participant.....

***************************************************************************

Maleiu has left for a prior appointment, and the rest must solve the problem
of how to interrogate this pathetic-looking person.  The indigent still lies
face down on the alley floor where he was deposited.  Kron rolls him over,
shakes him.  There is a glazed look in his eyes, and he is mumbling something:

"...Duke's ..... Calvary........ standin inna.....row....."

Kron shakes him again.  "HEY!  Snap out of it!"

"....Alla....Duke's Calvary.....  puttin onna show....."

Kron sets him down.  "Autistic.  Seen it before.  He's withdrawn from the 
real world; it'll be hard to punch through."

"....Clip!....left....Clip-Clop.....th' right....."

"...but we must get through to him!  Street people like this are always
around but rarely noticed.  He may have seen something important."

"....Tickety-tack....Tickety-tack.....inta th' night....."

"....and any clues we can get will be welcome.  Say, what's that he's saying
    anyhow?"

"...an' ON COME TH' NEXT ROW! ON COME TH' NEXT ROW...."

"What the....wait a second!  I recognize this.  Gods, I was a kid.... we
would sit facing each other.....we'd say this silly rhyme....."

"....Alla.......Calvary.......standin inna row...."

".... 'All the Duke's Calvary, putting on a show!'  I got it!"

"....Clip! T' th' left...."

"Clip-clop! to the right!"

"Tickety-tack...tickety-tack...."

"...off into the night!  and then we repeat...."

"...an' ON COME TH' NEXT ROW!  ON COME TH' NEXT ROW...."

"Yeah!  Only faster next time!  And we clapped hands together!  Lessee..."

Kron sits down across from Natter, whose eyes have a little more perkiness
in them.  He picks up Natter's hands and claps them with his own in a certain
pattern, to the time of the speeding-up nursery rhyme:

     All the Duke's Calvary, Standing in a Row/
     All the Duke's Calvary, Putting on a Show/
     Clip! to the left, Clip-clop! to the right,/
     Tickety-tack! Tickety-tack! off into the night!/
     [and ON COMES THE NEXT ROW, ON COMES THE NEXT ROW...]

     [repeat]

Natter unglazes and begins to respond.  Soon he is moving his own hands as
he recognizes the ancient pattern.  A broad smile spreads across Natters face
as he remembers a time when he was young, when there was a little joy in his
life.  The bum and the ex-Watchman sit crosslegged in the back alley of 
Ratty's playing a pattycake-variant, until they speed up too fast and lose
the beat.  Natter collapses in laughter on Kron, who looks a little surprised,
but nevertheless pleased.  Natter slowly stifles his giggles, then begins 
fingering the locket around Kron's neck.  "...seen it.....Natter seen it..."

Kron starts, but is very careful to react slowly and gently, so as to avoid
sending Natter off again.  "Natter, where did you see it?  When?"

Natter scratches his nose.  ".....wuz here.....yeh.....week? No?  Two? .....
....mebbe two....dunno.....locket.....onna neck.....Killed him!"

Kron turns white.  Has he found a witness to the murder?

Kron peers intently at Natter.  "Natter, do you know who killed him?  Can you
tell me what the murderer looked like?  The bad person?"

For a moment Kron thinks Natter is retreating into his own mind again, but he
is only dredging up memories.  He returns: "...two guys...robes.....wizards!"

"Two Wizards?" asks Kron.  "Casting spells?"

".....spells....knife!...blood!....run.....nope.....then, POP!"

"Pop?"  Kron is certain that this should tell him something, but he can't
put his finger on anything.  "Anything else?"

Natter scrunches up his brow in thought.  ".....knife....no throat!  Seen
him.....where? Oh, lemmethink.... ah, Scrappyum!  Scrappyum!"

"Scrappyum? What's -- oh!  The Scrappy Ram?  Inn about five blocks from here?"

Natter nods his head proudly.  "Scrappyum!"

"And that's where we'll find the wizard with no throat?"

"Scrappyum!"

Kron stands up and scratches his head.  "Well, gentlebeings, it would seem
that we have a clue....."

A dark shadowy figure taps Kron on the shoulder.  "Sir....."

"Not now, servant.  Now, we must protect this witness from any harm.  Where
can we....."

All, including Kron and Natter, boggle as a sword mysteriously manifests
itself in Natter's chest.  Kron whirls to seek the assassin and is surprised
to find an impossibly elastic arm stretched around the corner.  The arm
retreats as the owner steps into view.

Slythe, Thrugg and Scorpion stand at the mouth of the alley.  Scorpion hisses:

"Good friendsssss, it isssss sssso nice to ssssee you all, but I fearsss
that only Kron isssss to be our guesssst today.  Ssssso will you all be sssso
good asssss to leave ussssss to a small dissssscusssssion....."
-- 
Andrew Solberg		|"Moving faster than a speeding bullet isn't 
andsol@owlnet.rice.edu	| much use if you and it are headed straight
Phone:713-529-8627	| for each other."	John Brunner
bridge-sleep-eat-sex-bridge-sleep-eat-sex-bridge-sleep-I'M STUCK!!!!