Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [KQ] Nirvan[Low City]: A Hummingbird and Information
Message-ID: <1992Aug13.155314.18237@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:53:14 GMT

Nirvan lay sleeping on the couch, and Jacinthe was watching out the window.
Agoust and Hercli should be back by now.  But that Tvarne seemed nice enough,
and he wouldn't have put them in any danger.  She couldn't help worrying,
though...

What was that?  She saw a flash in the air, and delicate coloured wings.  A
hummingbird!  She hadn't seen a hummingbird since they left Ydoine.  What was
it doing in Low City?  There weren't a lot of flowers here, and certainly not
enough to sustain a hummingbird.  It must have flown down from Merchant's
Hill.

It flew away suddenly down the street, and she saw it dropping down into a
sewer great.  Her brow furrowed.  Why would it do that?  It must have dropped
from fatigue, having expended its energy in the absence of sustenance.  She'd
have to go after it!  But it was broad daylight, and Nirvan would be here
alone.  And he was hurt too.  She was torn.

Then she saw Hercli come dashing down the street.  She threw open the window
and yelled, "Hercli!  A hummingbird flew down that sewer grate!  Could you go
get it?  I think it's hurt!"

"Yes, Jacinthe," Hercli said.  He was tired from dashing over town looking for
some sign of a big black man--he'd found one, but it had just turned out to be
Queriche from the Scrappy Ram--but his sister's commands, especially when it
came to rescuing small creatures from certain peril, were not to be ignored.
So he dashed over to the sewer grate and peered down it.  He could see no sign
of a hummingbird, but then it was quite dark down there.  He slithered through
the grating and hung there.  He could hear some kind of agitation among the
T-crocs, hissing and thrashing.  He shuddered and pulled himself back up.  He
looked over to where his sister was watching, and shook his head.  A momentary
tear ran down Jacinthe's face.

Then Agoust dashed into the house.  "I found him!  Them!  There was about eight
of them, and one of them was the big black guy, and one of them was Kron.  They
ran into a gang, and beat them up, and then they went over to some warehouse. I
don't know what they were doing there, but they looked like they expected
trouble, so I didn't think I'd stick around."

"You found Maleiu?" Nirvan was sitting up, and Jacinthe remembered she was
supposed to give him another of Tvarne's herbal concoctions at noon.  She
rushed over to the stove to start boiling some water.

Agoust nodded.  "You said he was with Kron, and he was with Kron and a lizard
man and a bunch of others."

Nirvan sighed.  "Great work, guy.  Now--we should send word to Tvarne.  Is he
still at the Morning Breeze?"

Agoust looked uncertain.  "Somebody said that the Morning Breeze might be
about to leave port."

"Well, you better dash then."

"Right!"  Agoust dashed back out of the house.

Jacinthe's kettle boiled and she poured the water into a bowl with the herbs
Tvarne had left.  Nirvan sighed.  "That time again, is it?"

Jacinthe giggled.  "You sound just like Agoust."

Maybe when Tvarne gets back here he'll pronounce me fit to move around again,
Nirvan thought.  I mean, it's been >almost< a day, hasn't it?  It was about
midnight when I fell, and it's after noon now...  He sighed.  Being wounded did
not agree with him.  Of course, he couldn't have asked for a better nurse...

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Aaron V. Humphrey)
"So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
 what's so amazing about really deep thoughts"  -- Tori Amos
Current Album--The Iron Man Soundtrack
Current Read--Henry David Thoreau:Walden and Other Writings