Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: cam@mullet.gu.uwa.edu.au (Cameron Neylon)
Subject: [W] Williams story Part 2
Message-ID: <1992Aug12.005703.9310@mullet.gu.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 00:57:03 GMT

"I can't remember what the day was, or even what time of year it 
was, but I remember everything that happened vividly.  

I woke up early, I had to, to sweep the house before my master
woke, and got up, put the pot on the fire to heat water for
breakfast, and swept the house, only stopping at my masters room
to see if he was awake before entering.

More than once I had woken him while sweeping, and been sent to 
scrub out his pots. Not a plesant task considering what was in them.
But not today, he was obviously already awake, at least he wasn't
snoring, so I returned to the kitchen, made coffee, and returned to
his room. 

Except he wasn't there, at least his mind wasn't. His body was there
on the bed ( It was the only time I saw him unconscious and not snoring ),
but it was clear that _he_ was somewhere else, not dead, just not inside
his body. I didn't know what to do, I didn't even know that my master
was a mage, in fact I wasn't too sure what he was, something like a 
trivia collecter I suppose.

I put my hands on his head, and was dragged . . . I don't know where . . 
inside it I suppose, where I suddenly saw my master, not as an old man
but as a towering figure ( well towering compared to how he usually
looked anyway ) doing battle with strange figures that melted, and
reformed from the darkness of wherever we were. He was being dragged
 . . . down? . . into the void, and not knowing what to do, I rushed
towards him screaming, trying to think of anything that might help.

Suddenly everything clicked, I realized what I had been studying for
all those years, realized that _I_ was a mage, that I could rescue
him. What I had thought was a meaningless poem, snapped into place
in my mind, and as I turned the words over in my mind, the power
they held took form between my hands, and I hurled the magical 
missiles at the shadows.

They hit! And the beasts turned towards me and laughed. My masters
face drained of all colour as they turned towards me and began to slide
towards me. I tried to cast the spell again, but my head felt like
molten lead, only cold. I saw a huge flash . . . and fell stunned,
to the ground(?).

                  ---------------------------

Sometime later, much later, I woke in my master's bed with his face
peering concerned over mine.

"Ah, you're awake again", he said, "Thats good, I was a little 
worried for a while. No, don't ask any questions, I'm sure you
can figure out the answers anyway. Get some clothes on and go
down to the pub and have a drink, heres some money.", and with that
he turned on his heels and walked out of the room.

So I left the house, with the money and wandered down to the bar,
wondering what drinking would do to my already addled brains. Of
couse as it turned out, getting drunk was the least of my worries. . .

Admin: I'll stop here, it was getting too long and soppy anyway. 
-- 
Cameron Neylon  cam@gu.uwa.edu.au
I can't think of anything witty enough that people 
would really want to see it time after time after . .