From: z_falkrg@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: K&J The story continues (new thread)
Message-ID: <1993Mar9.004109.3403@ccsvax.sfasu.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 93 00:41:09 CST

        Killian shuddered at what his brother had done to him.  Remembering
each face of those terrified sailors he had killed while being controlled by
his brother, Killian steeled himself for the road ahead, and strode forward.

        (* many months pass *)  does he ever think us Jen ????

        The bard awoke hung over in some town he didn't even know the name of.
Typical.  He hauled himself off of the bed he had passed out in last night . .
at least, he thought it was last night, and paused to look at the polished
metal mirror.  His once bright red hair was tangled, disheveled, and filthy.
He looked like he hadn't shaved in a week, and he stunk.
        "Gods!  Even a human could smell me from twenty paces!", he said with
disgust.
        Killian pulled a tunic over his body and grabbed various bits of
equipment he needed to bathe.  He stumbled out of the inn where he was staying
and down to the river that ran close to the town.  Being fairly far north, the
river was quite cold, but Killian decided that is what he needed to get his
head straight again.  The tall man stripped and layed his tunic on the shore,
braced himself and walked in slowly.  Each step was chilling, but he eventually
managed to get all the way in.
        As he splashed around in the icy river, he paused to think of what had
happend to him since he left the group he found in the Dragon's Inn.  Tarsis
had been very quiet after his inital assault on Killian.  In fact, he hadn't
seen or heard anything of his magus brother since the Argus.  Killian had
decided to go to his homeland to find out what the clan knew about Tarsis, but
this was a slim hope as Tarsis had been exiled from the clan because of his
black practices.  He wondered if he did the right thing in telling his father
about Tarsis.  Killian shuddered as he rememberd the spell that was being cast
that day he peeked into his brothers workroom.
        "I had no choice, brother.  You left me none.", Killian said to nobody
in particular.
        He was only about a week's travel on foot before he reached his clan.
        "Maybe father can help me on what I should do.", he thought.
        His thoughts then wandered to his adventuring companions that he left
back on the ship so many months ago.  The strange character Shade, the centaur
Helios, and most of all, the fair Jenever.  A faint smile crossed his lips as
he remembered when they first met.  Back in a shady inn that had an impossible
number of corners for one building.  He laid back in the water and floated on 
his back as he lovingly recalled the scent of her hair and the grace with which
she danced as music and mead flowed over them both like a warm river.

        There was a snap of a twig and Killian was at immediate readyness.
Killian realized it was probably some two-bit thief trying to get a few loose
coins from his bundle on the shore, but Killian decided to teach him a lesson
this day.
        The movement came closer as Killian changed.  Bones and muscles
stretch and reshape, bright orange and black fur that matches his hair sprouted
from all over his body.  The delicate hands that could pull gold from a harp
shortened and claws extended from the tips.  Once where a man once swam, a
tiger now crouched . . . waiting.
        In his tiger shape, Killian could easily determine where the visitor
was coming from.  He sniffed the air and wondered for a moment.  The scent was
very familiar, but he could not remember where he had smelled it before.
What? shook his head and tensed for a spring as the intruder was about to
come into sight.
        The reeds parted and Killian sprung, putting the fury of his passion
into a deafining roar.  He intentionally landed short of his prey for he was
not in the mood for a kill, he just wanted to scare the man.  The tiger looked
up at the intruder and all the anger droped like a sack of grain.

    "My!  Aren't we fierce today, Kitty-Kat," she scorned, and threw her
 arms around the furry neck.  "You stink!" she cried and wrestled the
furry mass back to the waters edge.
     Shifting back to his human form, Killian held his lover close and
gave her a deep and passionate kiss.
     After much scrubbing and even more frolicking, Jenever began berating
her lover for abandoning her at the ship, to which he replied...

     "Mi'lady, at the time I felt I had no choice," Killian responded,
looking rather sheepishly down into the water.  "I feared Tarsis might
strike again at me through the people around me.  Understand me . . .
the last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you.  I have yet to meet
any human as open-minded as yourself, and although leaving you hurt deeply,
the thought of you coming to harm because of me hurt even more."
     Killian's emerald green eyes peered down into her deep violet
ones for a moment and he embraced the warrior maiden, holding her closely for
what seemed like an eternity.
                    Daddy,
                    I think I need to be rude and tell him that
                    she's having twins in about 4 months?