From: CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu.Ext (Chris Meadows)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: šAUš Flashback: Andrea's Amazing Origin Story (Part 1 of 2)
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 93 22:20:44 CST
Message-ID: <16BA113A3C.CHM173S@vma.smsu.edu.Ext>
Keywords: [AU] Andrea Sheryl flashback origin Raykor Fujiko Phylus

ADMIN: There are some new characters introduced herein.  These are
mostly NPCs; please ask my permission for their use.  An exception
is Raoh, who (as I said in my previous message) belongs to Christopher
Motherway.
  New NPCs are:
 
Father Phylus: Priest of Issek
Raykor: Evil wizard, extremely powerful, one-time underling to Raoh
Fujiko: Female thief and martial arts expert
Father Sheraton: Head of the Temple of Issek in Selactica (high-level
  cleric)
Guildmaster Robinson: Master of the Selactican Thieves' Guild
 
Please email me if you want to use one or more of these characters.
Thanks...
 
Now, on with the story!
 
 
 
 
     Andrea could still remember that horrible day...if she just
let herself remember, it was like she was ten years back in time,
reliving that horrible incident without any power to change it...
 
     Andrea had been just a normal farm girl back then, the
daughter of a moderately successful wheat farmer, whose
responsibilities were to help with the annual harvest and to look
after her younger sister, Sheryl.  She'd led a relatively normal
existance, except for her constant quest for knowledge.  At the
age of ten, she'd somehow managed to get a nearby cleric to teach
her how to read, write, and work basic math.  After that, as
often as not, she'd be found in the hayloft reading a book or
scroll she'd borrowed from somewhere when she was supposed to be
working.  At first her parents objected ("She's just a farm girl.
She doesn't need an edjication, she needs to be working!") but
they finally acquiesced.
     As for her younger, blonde-haired sister Sheryl, the two of
them were nearly inseparable despite their age difference of
about 6 years.  They were constantly getting into trouble
together (and Andrea's high intelligence showed her ways of
getting into trouble that most kids her age wouldn't have dreamed
of) and sometimes their parents had their hands full.  One
summer a travelling carnival came to down, and Andrea spent the
ten copper pieces she'd saved from harvest work on two tiny color
portraits of herself and Sheryl, which she put in a silver locket
that her kindly cleric teacher had given her ("One of my
adventuring apprentices donated it, and the Church has no use for
such things...").  Little did Andrea know that this was to be the
last normal summer she and Sheryl would ever have...
     That fall, Andrea was 14 and Sheryl about 8.  It was
harvest-time, and she and her parents were working in the wheat
fields with their scythes, stacking up the sheaves of weat for
later threshing, when it happened.  There was a sound like a peal
of thunder, and when Andrea looked up, there was a huge cloud of
smoke coming from where the nearby village had used to be.
     "Quickly girls, you go and hide in the barn," Andrea's
father instructed.  "Your mother and I are going to go and see
what has happened."  As Andrea and Sheryl hid in the shed as
instructed, their father strapped on a sword.  The last thing
Andrea's mother said before they left, the last thing they ever
heard her say, was, "Always remember, that no matter what
happens, we'll always love you."  Then they were gone.
 
     After an hour had passed, Andrea was getting impatient.  So
cautioning Sheryl not to leave their hiding place, she ventured
outside to see what was going on.
     As she ventured toward the village, she began to see that
it, as well as all the neighbors' houses, lay in smouldering,
smoking ruins.  There were also bodies lying around--bodies of
people she KNEW!  Andrea clamped both hands over her mouth to
keep from vomiting.
     Then Andrea heard the rhythmic sound of horse hoofbeats.
Someone was coming!  She dived into the bushes by the side of the
road just in time...two horses rode up, stopped.  From where she
was, Andrea could only see the lower legs of the riders in their
stirrups.  One of the riders wore tanned deerskin boots; the
other black leather.  "Did you see something?" Black Leather
asked.
     "Nooooo, don't think so," Tanned Deerskin replied.
     "Maybe it was a squirrel," Black Leather thought.  "Or maybe
another one of those snivelling townspeople.  We've rounded up
most of them...most of the surviving ones, anyway."
     "So what if one or two gets away?  They'll have nowhere to
go," Tanned Deerskin said.
     "My sentiments exactly.  Let's go on to the camp and inspect
the latest arrivals.  Have we found anyone for our Master's
experiments yet?"
     "No...none that is suitable..."
     As Andrea had been listening to their talking, she became
aware of an itching in her nose.  Then she realized that she was
in the midst of a patch of wild dandelions, and their pollen was
getting in her nose.  She tried to grab her nose and stave off
the sneeze she felt coming, but it was too late.  KER-CHOO!
     "Hey, what was that?" Black Leather asked.
     "I think there's someone in these bushes!" Tan Deerskin
replied.  They climbed down off their horses.  Andrea tried to
escape but there was nowhere to run.  She was captured, and taken
to the enemy camp.
     There were only about fifteen people there--fifteen
survivors, from a town of two hundred.  One of them was Andrea's
father, and as soon as she was released into the prison pen she
ran up to him.  "Father, father!" she yelled, embracing him.  He
embraced her in return, and said simply, "I know, girl."  Looking
at him, she could see that he was bruised and bloody in places,
and his sword was gone.
     "Father, who are they?!"
     "The minions of an evil man named Raoh," Andrea's father
said.  "Not content with what he has, he's out to take over the
entire land.  And it looks like there's no one with the power to
stop him."
     "Her!  I want her!"  The voice came from a man wearing
magician's robes, standing a few feet away from the pen.  He
appeared to be in his forties, and his countenance, though
free of malice, appeared incredibly evil.  "Guards, get me the
black-haired girl.  I shall start with her, I think."
     "Daddy, who is that man?!" Andrea asked, fear showing in her
eyes.  "I don't wanna go with him!"
     "You won't have to," another man said, stepping in front of
the two.  It was Father Phylus, the cleric who'd taught Andrea
reading and writing.  "Raykor, I warn you, stay back."
     The mage laughed.  "Your powers are no match for mine, old
man."  He waved an arm, and Phylus was knocked back twenty feet
into the wall of the pen.  He slid slowly to the ground, a
rivulet of blood running out of the left corner of his mouth.
"Now, guards."
     Though Andrea's father attempted to fight back, he was
beaten down by the club-wielding guards.  They grabbed Andrea by
her arms and dragged her out to where the wizard was standing.
"Ah, good.  Release her."  The guards let go and stepped back.
Andrea tried to turn and run, but she found she could not--she
was held firm by the gaze of the wizard.
     "What is your name, little girl?" the mage asked.
     Andrea found herself answering against her will, "An-drea."
     "Ah, good.  That's a nice name, Andrea.  My name is Raykor,
and Raoh has put me in charge of this area while he goes on to
conquer more.  And he's said I can do my experiments here."  He
began making some gestures.  "I wonder how you'll look if
I...YOW!!!"
     The mage's control over Andrea had lapsed, and she gasped,
staggering backward then falling over to land on her rear end on
the ground.  Andrea immediately turned over and started crawling,
then running--she didn't know what happened, but she was going to
take advantage of it.
     What had happened was that a fist-sized rock had hit Raykor
in the side of the head, staggering him, breaking his
concentration.  As he began to bleed, he turned, vindictively
looking for whoever had DARED to strike him.  And he found
her--it was Sheryl, who had left her hiding place and crept into
camp, then thrown that stone to save her sister.  But who was
going to save her?
     Andrea, meanwhile, had run around the corner of the prison
pen, and was panting with her fear and exertion.  Then she
tripped over something.
     Picking herself up off the ground, she saw what it was--a
half-buried harvesting scythe, probably forgotten in last year's
harvest.  This area was farmland, after all.  She reached down,
pulled it out.  It was half-rusted, but it was still sharp.
While she didn't know how to use a sword or a bow, she had been
taught from a very young age how to cut with a scythe.
     Now one of the guards had seen her and was coming after her.
He didn't even have his club or sword out--how much trouble could
a little girl be?  Her back was to him, so he couldn't see the
blade she held in her hands.
     As his footsteps got closer and closer, Andrea told herself,
"You have to do this.  Everyone's going to die if you don't."  As
the guard came up behind her, she swallowed hard, then spun
around and swung the scythe as hard as she could at the
guardsman's neck.  Surprised, the man never had a chance.  The
blade embedded itself in his spinal column with a solid THUNK!
Blood began spurting out of his severed arteries, his eyes rolled
up into his head, and he collapsed.  Andrea just stood there and
retched.
     Then she got ahold of herself.  She unstrapped the guard's
dagger, club, and sword, and shoved them through the bars of the
prison pen, followed by the keys on his belt.  Her father, who
had come up just in time to witness the guard's death, took them.
"Thank you," he said.  "Now get out of here!"
     Andrea turned to run, then saw--the mage had Sheryl!
     "You insignificant little WORM," Raykor said to the young
girl, his voice oozing malice, as he held a cloth to his head to
stop the bleeding.  "I should KILL you for that..."  Sheryl stood
there, lower lip trembling, but she didn't cry.  She had an inner
strength that amazed even Andrea at times.  "...but no, I don't
think I will.  No, I have a better idea.  Yeeeessss.  I shall
make you wish you WERE dead.  I shall CHANGE you.  Not into a
hideous creature like a dragon or a goblin...no, that's been done
before.  Noooo, I shall make you the most beautiful creature that
ever was, so that you will be hunted the rest of your life.  That
will be a fitting sentence for you."
     Through Raykor's monologue, Andrea had been moving closer.
Meanwhile, her father had unlocked the gate of the prison pen and
he was leading the remaining villagers in a charge against the
guards.  Andrea was still about twenty feet away from the
mage...could she distract him somehow?  She looked around for a
rock, but it was no good...the ground was plain, smooth dirt, not
a pebble in sight.
     And Raykor was gesturing, pronouncing words that were never
meant to be uttered by human tongue.  The sky darkened, and
thunder sounded, and even the guards were awed enough by this
display of power to lose some ground.  The mage raised his arms
in supplication to the heavens, and the sky darkened still
further.  The earth shook.  Lightning lanced down to strike
Raykor, and he shaped it, bent it, and threw it at Sheryl.
     The static electricity played over the young girl, wrapped
itself around her body and absorbed itself into her.  Her hair
stood on end, her spine arched, and her eyes glowed pure and
blinding white.  Then she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The lightning vanished, and the skies returned to normal.
     Raykor cackled, then giggled.  "Now all that remains is to
see if it worked!" he said.
     Ignoring the danger, Andrea ran up to Sheryl.  "Oh, no!" she
cried, grabbing her by the shoulders.  "Are you all right,
Sheryl?  Say something!"  She looked up to see Raykor cackling.
     "Oh, no, she's not all right...but you'll find that out
soon, won't you?"  He giggled some more.  "And that will be part
of YOUR punishment as well.  Hee hee.  I'll look in on you from
time to time, see how you're doing.  Hee.  But now, I think I
shall leave before your stupid townspeople take it into their
heads to try to kill me.  Totally futile, of course.  Hee hee
hee. Farewell, Andrea.  I'll be watching you!"  He gestured, then
disappeared.
 
     Five minutes later, it was all over.  Raykor's guards had
been defeated by the villagers, albeit barely, and only with the
help of Father Phylus' healing magic.  Only five townspeople
still stood, Andrea's father and the cleric among them.
     "What are we going to do now?" her father asked, leaning
against the outer wall of the pen as one of the other villagers
bandaged his wounds.
     Father Phylus was busy binding the wounds of another of the
townspeople.  "We have to get the girls to Selactica, to the
Temple of Issek there.  Even though I am not of their faith, I
can readily see that they have the most chance of being able to
help young Sheryl."
     Andrea's father nodded.  "Agreed.  Let's--"  He grunted with
pain as he tried to stand back up.  "Let's go."
     Fortunately they found a wagon that hadn't been destroyed
along with the town, and a horse was running loose which they
could catch and harness to it.  As the wagon started moving out
of town, a gentle rain began to fall.
 
     As the others rode in the front of the cart, Andrea and
Sheryl huddled under a tarp in the back.  As Andrea looked on in
the dim light that filtered through from outside, she saw to her
horror that something was happening to Sheryl!  A fine white hair
was appearing all over her body, a bump was pushing up through
her forehead, and her fingers were growing shorter and melding
together.  Her eyes were growing larger, and the whites were
disappearing as the pupils and iris grew.  "Oh GODS, Sheryl,"
Andrea sobbed, "what's HAPPENING to you?!"  Even as she watched,
more hair appeared, Sheryl's blonde hair itself began to turn
white, and the bump pushed out a little further.
     Then the next thing Andrea knew, there was a horribly loud
BOOM!!!! then a CRRRRRRRRRASH!!!! and the entire wagon flipped
over.
     When Andrea came to, she and Sheryl were lying in a puddle
and the rain was falling into her face.  She looked around, her
head feeling as though someone had just been using it to break
rocks.
     They were in a clearing, surrounded by forest.  The acrid
smell of smoke was in the air, along with a tinge of ozone.  "Oh,
gods," Andrea screamed, her gorge rising.  "OH, GODS!!!"
     Lighting had struck a tree just as they had been passing
beneath it.  It had toppled over onto the front of the wagon,
killing her father and two of the other men instantly.  All
she could see was an arm and a leg sticking out from the ruins of
the wagon, with blood slowly seeping out to color the nearest
puddles a light pink.  As for the other two men, one of them had
been knocked off and apparently trampled underfoot by the horses
in their hurry to get away.  He was very obviously and
graphically dead.  But Father Phylus was nowhere to be found.
     Andrea didn't know what to do, so she just sat there crying.
In the space of a few hours, her entire life had been taken away.
Both parents gone, her entire village destroyed, her sister
magically cursed, cold and alone in the middle of a muddy road.
Then Andrea's crying stopped as she heard a groan from behind
her.  She turned.  It was Father Phylus!
     He had apparently been thrown off the wagon by the impact of
the tree, and briefly stunned by his impact with the ground.
Andrea hurried over to help him up.  He groaned.  "I'm not as
young as I used to be..."  Then he saw Andrea's face.  "What is
it, child?  Your father--?"  He saw the wreckage of the wagon,
and paled.  "This is a truly evil day," the aging cleric sighed.
"Help me stand, girl.  The least I can do is give them the last
rites."
     So Andrea helped Phylus hobble over to the wreckage of the
wagon.  As he saw Sheryl, he gasped and made the Issekian
equivalent to the Christian sign of the cross.  The changes had
progressed further, drawing the girl's little form into an eerie
contortion, looking halfway between anthropoid and--equine?  The
bump in her head was now several inches long, and her body
completely covered by white hair or fur.  "Oh, Issek, what has
been done to this one?" he breathed.  "I had thought I had seen
the worst that evil could do, but I guess I was sadly mistaken."
He sighed.  "Well, there's nothing I can do for her right now.
Help me over to the wagon."
     Andrea did.  As Father Phylus dragged the corpse of the
horse-trampled man over to the wagon, Andrea tried to ignore him
by looking at the pile of wood instead.  "Do you think I--should
I--?"
     He shook his head.  "No, girl.  Issek allows cremation
[ADMIN: At least, I HOPE he does], and I think that in this case
it would be better that way.  Let this be their funeral pyre."
     He stood over the wreckage and raised his arms in
supplication and began the Issek Last Rites.  Andrea watched,
tears in her eyes, sitting with the still-unconscious Sheryl.
"Oh, Sheryl, what are we going to do now?" she said.
     As Phylus came to the end of the rites, he pulled out his
tinderbox and set fire to a part of the wagon sheltered by the
rest from the rain.  It spread with almost preternatural
swiftness, and soon the entire pile of wood was ablaze. Andrea
and Father Phylus stood by it, watching.  Then they heard the
clip-clop of hooves coming up the road.
     Andrea looked around for cover and was about to bolt for a
nearby tree, but Phylus held her arm to stop her.  "Wait," he
said.  "It is only one horse, and its rider might be friendly.
Besides, I'm too old and frail to run now."
     So the rider came around the bend into the open.  Andrea's
first impression was of a dark rider on a dark horse.  Looking
closer, she could see that the horse was completely black with a
white star.  Its mane had been braided, and it was well-shod--it
seemed very well cared for.  The saddle and bridle were plain
leather, the only ornamentation being a gold medallion on the
bridle in the middle of the horse's forehead.  There was a sheath
on the saddle holding a bastard sword, and two shorter swords
were strapped across the rider's back.  In addition to the two
swords, there were daggers in each boot and a quiver strapped to
each leg.  The rider wore dark clothes--leather breeches and
jerkin, and a rather plain helm with a visor that was currently
down.
     The rider looked from right to left, pulled up the horse
(which snorted nervously at the fire), and stepped down, making
almost no sound.  Then the rider reached up to the helmet and
pulled it off, shaking out shoulder-length golden locks, and
Andrea realized that she was female.  She had a slight Oriental
cast, and she appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties or early
thirties.
     "That fire is going to bring every creature for ten miles,"
she said.
     Phylus shrugged.  "It couldn't be helped.  It is a funeral
pyre for four brave men from the village up the road.  Now we,
alas, are the only survivors, and that girl has been cursed by an
evil mage."
     The rider looked at Sheryl.  "That's a girl?" she gasped.
"It's certainly like nothing I've ever seen."
     Andrea started to sob.  Phylus put his arm around her.
"There, there, girl.  It'll be all right..."  He turned to the
rider.  "We need to get to Selactica.  Can you help us?"
     The woman sighed.  "My name's Fujiko.  I've been a number of
things, but just recently I was a lady spy.  I was, until the
people I was spying for were killed by a man called Raoh."
     Andrea tried to stop sobbing.  "He's the man--" she got out,
"--the man who destroyed our village!"
     Fujiko shook her head, a grim expression on her face.  "That
tears it.  I'll help you."  She helped Father Phylus up into the
saddle of the horse, then laid Sheryl across the saddle in front
of him like a sack of potatoes.  Then she lifted Andrea up onto
its hindquarters and put the reins over the horse's head.  "Come
on, Wolf, let's get out of here before trouble comes."  She led
him nervously around the smouldering fire, then they walked on
out of the clearing.
 
     As they rode along, the rhythm of the horse's steps proved
hypnotic and lulling to Andrea, and after the day's events, she
was only too ready to fall asleep.  And fall asleep she did,
leaning forward against Father Phylus's comforting back.  The
next thing she knew was when she woke up as they were making camp
for the night and Fujiko was helping her down from the horse.
     Andrea looked around...this didn't look like her bedroom and
she was horribly stiff...Then the events of the past day came
rushing back and she emitted a little cry.  "Sheryl--how is
Sheryl?!"
     "I think you'd better have a look at this, kid," she said,
lifting Sheryl down from the horse.  Andrea and Father Phylus
gasped, and Father Phylus once again crossed himself.  "Oh,
ISSEK!" he breathed.  "She's--she's--!"
     Sheryl was now a small, white unicorn, about nine hands high
at the withers.  She was not the "classic" unicorn, per se, but
the equine-with-horn kind, and she was beautiful in the way that
only a unicorn can be--a symbol of purity that almost seemed to
shine with its own inner light.  Andrea sobbed, both at its
beauty and the fact that it had been her sister.  "Gods,
Sheryl..." she said, then trailed off.
     Now Sheryl's eyes blinked open, and she got shakily to her
feet.  She looked around, taking in her surroundings, and Andrea
just had to run over to her.  "Sheryl...Sheryl...can you
understand me?  Can you?"
     Sheryl looked at Andrea and tried to say, "Of course I can!"
but only a whinny came out.  She tried again, but again only
managed to whinny.  "What's wrong with me?!" she tried to scream,
but only succeeded in whinnying highly and shrilly.
     Fujiko tossed something over to Andrea, who barely managed
to catch it out of midair.  It was a small hand-mirror.  Andrea
gasped, half-sobbed, and turned it so that Sheryl could see
herself.
     When she did, she rolled her eyes until the whites showed,
reared, then turned and tried to run for the forest.  Fujiko put
her fingers in her mouth and whistled shrilly.  Wolf took the
signal, galloping over and heading Sheryl off before she could
get anywhere.
     Andrea ran over to Sheryl and put her arms around her.
"Sheryl!  Don't run away!  You mustn't!"  Father Phylus walked
over too.  "Don't worry, girl," he said to the unicorn.  "We're
going to the Temple of Issek in Selactica.  The men of my faith
are skilled at reversing all sorts of ailments, including magical
malaise.  Surely one of them will be able to help you."
     This seemed to calm Sheryl, and together they walked back to
where Fujiko was building a small, smokeless fire.  "This does
put a whole new face on things," Fujiko remarked, sitting back
from the cozy blaze.  "Travelling with a 'corn is going to be
difficult.  You know how valuable to black magicians their horns
are, and the fact that this one used to be your little sister
doesn't make any difference in that."
     Andrea gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.  "But
you'll help protect her, won't you?"
     "Up to a point," Fujiko said.  "Once you're inside that
temple, you're on your own."
     "We shouldn't need protection after that," Phylus said.
"The Fathers..."
     Fujiko waved this aside.  "Oh, I know what you said about
your priests."  She lowered her voice and leaned close so Sheryl
wouldn't hear.  "But you and I both know that there may not be a
hell of a lot your Fathers can do.  And what then?  You can't
protect them forever."
     Andrea gasped.  "Then what can we do?"
     "Father Phylus, you may not like this suggestion, but here's
what I recommend."  She turned to Andrea.  "Apprentice yourself
to the Selactican Thieves' Guild in exchange for protection for
Sheryl.  It will work well for both of you--the Guild will gain
prestige from having a unicorn under its roof, she will be
protected extremely well (the Guild in Selactica is more powerful
even than its militia), and you will pick up some useful talents
in Guild training.  You seem to me to be a reasonably bright
kid."
     Father Phylus opened and closed his mouth.  "That's
blackmail!" he said.  "Out of the question!"
     Fujiko shook her head.  "No it's not...I'm just making a
suggestion.  A very eminently reasonable one, I might add."
     "The girl wouldn't steal.  That's immoral!" Phylus said.
     "I suggest you leave that choice up to her," Fujiko
suggested.  "Anyway, we can table the discussion until after you
see the clerics.  I don't know what will happen.  Neither do you.
We'll just have to wait and see, okay?"
     Sheryl had wandered off by herself, away from the campfire,
to where she could consider the situation.  She stepped
uncertainly, for she wasn't used to being a unicorn and actually
trotting around as one was strange.  She felt hungry, but the
thought of eating human food (especially MEAT) made her feel
slightly queasy.  She stood there wondering what to do, and then
noticed that Wolf had walked up beside her.
     The big, black horse put his head down to the ground and
ripped off a mouthful of grass, then chewed it placidly.  Sheryl,
uncertainly, followed his example, and found, to her surprise,
that grass actually tasted GOOD.  She wondered why she'd never
thought of eating grass before.  She was so absorbed in this
unique new experience that she forgot to worry, and was soon
grazing like an old hand (hoof?).
     That night, Andrea sat awake a long time, watching Sheryl
graze.  "She's a unicorn," Andrea said, for perhaps the twentieth
time that night.  "I guess that's what Raykor meant by making her
'the most beautiful creature possible,' so that she would be
'hunted the rest of her life.'  What am I going to do?"
     Fujiko came up behind her.  "Get some sleep, it's going to
be a long day tomorrow."
     "I'm not tired," Andrea said.  "I had a long nap today,
remember?"  She just sat there by the dying embers of the fire,
and Fujiko sat with her, sensing the comfort she needed.  Andrea
at last broke the silence.  "Fujiko...what is it like, being a
thief?"
     Fujiko got up and moved around to where Andrea was partially
facing her.  "It's great," she said.  "One of the most exciting
jobs in all the worlds."  Her eyes stared off into the distance
as she recalled some thrilling adventures.  "It's a job about
secrets, about finding out others' secrets.  Money isn't
everything, though it does pay the bills.  The real commodity is
what others know, and what they don't want you to know.  You can
go far with the right kind of information."
     "If I were going to become an apprentice, how long would it
take?  What would I learn?"  In spite of herself, Andrea's hunger
for knowledge was leading her on.
     Fujiko shrugged.  "For me, it was three years.  For
you...who knows?  You seem bright enough to me--you might learn
even faster.  And you would learn all the tricks of the thieves'
trade--fighting, picking locks and pockets, climbing walls and
opening windows--everything a thief needs to know.  Everything
YOU would need, to protect your sister Sheryl while at the same
time earning a decent living for yourself."
     Andrea hesitated.  "But--but isn't stealing wrong?"
     Fujiko shook her head.  "Not always."
     "But how can you tell?" Andrea pressed.
     "Several ways.  If you really need the money, or if the
person whom you'd be stealing from doesn't, or any combination of
the two, it's all right.  If it's in a good cause, it's all
right.  If the one you're stealing from deserves it, then it's
right.  The only way that it ever could be wrong would be for
greed alone."
     "But--but I don't know if Issek would--"
     "Forget Issek, child, there are other gods in the sky,"
Fujiko said, quoting a popular truism oft used after failed
courtships.
     Andrea was thunderstruck--she'd grown up worshipping Issek,
after all.  "But--"
     "Oh, hush, girl," Fujiko said.  "For all you know, Issek
might smile on your ventures as long as they're in a good cause.
You don't HAVE to steal from anybody, y'know.  Just go through
the training and pay your yearly dues."
     Andrea sat there, silent, for a few minutes, just watching
Sheryl.  The little unicorn looked so peaceful...Finally Andrea
said, "Tell me about the Guild."
     Fujiko nodded.  "Oh, they're wonderful," she said.  "The
best source of aid a thief could ever have.  They're famous for
the services they perform for their members.  They'll provide a
roof over your head, warm food, and a place to sleep.  If you get
in trouble, they'll get you out.  You can buy equipment, fence
stolen goods, get magical aid there.  And..." Fujiko paused for
emphasis "you can trade information there.  It's an amazing
place, like a great big surrogate family for thieves."
     Unfortunately, the word "family" reminded Andrea that she'd
just lost all of her family.  She looked over at Sheryl, sighed,
and pulled out the silver locket that held the pictures of
herself and her sister.  She looked at the pictures, and felt the
tears start to come.  She closed the locket and clutched it
tight, and bit her tongue to stop from crying.  The time for
crying was over, she told herself.  It was time for firm resolve,
and for planning what she was going to do.  She had her whole
life ahead of her, and it was looking rather empty without her
family.
     Fujiko watched Andrea silently, surreptitiously wiping away
the tear that glittered in her own eye from recalling when she'd
been told that her parents had been killed by an orcish raiding
party so many years before.  She really wanted to help this girl,
the way that she had been helped herself after that tragic time.
But that old fool of a cleric Father Phylus was getting in the
way! Well, perhaps after they got to Selactica...
 
     Finally Andrea got tired and went to bed.  She slept
restlessly for the first few hours, then she woke up and noticed
Sheryl lying curled up on the ground beside her, her back against
Andrea's.  After that she slept better, somehow calmed by the
close presence of the magical creature who was also her sister.
     The next day they set out once more.  Andrea declined to
ride this time, choosing instead to walk with Sheryl.  Sheryl
seemed quite upbeat today, for some reason--she was running ahead
and capering all around, causing Wolf to snort, undoubtedly in
disgust, at her antics.
     "Hey, what's gotten into you?" Andrea asked.  Sheryl just
nickered playfully in response.
     Fujiko chuckled.  "I'd say that she's decided as long as
she's going to be a unicorn, she might as well have a good time
at it."  All three of the humans had a good laugh at that, and
they proceeded on their way to Selactica.
     On the way, Andrea and Fujiko had a chance to talk further
(though Father Phylus didn't necessarily approve, he knew that he
had asked for her help and had to take the bad along with the
good).  They discussed many things, but Fujiko tried to keep the
discussion to neutral subjects.  She actually didn't have any
trouble in that respect, since Andrea mainly wanted to know all
she could about unicorns.  This was a subject Father Phylus could
provide some input on as well.
     "Basically all _I_ know about unicorns is that their horns
are much sought after as components for spells, and they're said
to be able to purify water," Fujiko said.  "There's also the old
legend about their being attracted to virgins or something, but I
tend to disbelieve that.  Mainly because our friend here hardly
has any reservations toward approaching me.  Do ya, girl?"
     Sheryl nickered and showed that she had absolutely no
reluctance at all to being approached by the lady thief and given
a good scratch behind the ears.  Then she pranced on ahead again,
and Andrea was torn between running after her to play and staying
to listen to the discussion.
     "It is sometimes hard to tell myth from fact in matters like
this, where the principals of the legend have not been, ahem,
available for close scrutiny," Father Phylus admitted.
"Personally, I tend to see the virginity idea as a sort of a
metaphor for purity of heart, or perhaps one's own intentions.
After all, if it were true, it would raise some interesting
questions--such as whether virginity is defined as actual--er,
um, or just--ahem."  Phylus had been getting a little carried
away before remembering that there was a child present.
     Andrea was disappointed.  She was FOURTEEN, for gods' sake,
her body was changing, and no one had told her precisely what she
was supposed to DO with it.  She sighed.  One of these days,
though, someone would let it slip.  Sooner or later.  Or maybe
she just hadn't found the right book yet...
     Fujiko just nodded.  "I take your meaning," she said.  "Tell
us, do you know of any other powers unicorns are said to
possess?"
     "One ascribed ability is that of teleportation once per day.
I've heard some people claim that they actually saw it.  Of
course, there's no way of knowing if our Sheryl actually has any
of these powers..."
     However, later that day they came to a small stream.  It was
full of silt caused by the recent rain.  Sheryl walked up to it,
put her nose to the water.  "Hey, Sheryl, don't drink that!"
Andrea said.  "That's all filthy!"
     But then Sheryl dipped her horn into the water, and there
was an odd sort of sparkling disturbance in it.  The shimmering
spread outward, and before she knew it, the stream was as clear
as glass.
     "Wow!" Andrea said.  "Sheryl, did you see what you just
did?!"  Sheryl nodded and nickered happily before putting her
head down to drink from it.  Andrea did likewise, and found it to
be the purest, most delicious-tasting water she'd ever sampled.
     "What is--well I'll be..."  It was Fujiko, leading Wolf with
Father Phylus sitting on his back.  "Did she just--?"
     "Yes, she did!" Andrea said proudly.  "If she has to be a
unicorn, it's at least a consolation to know that she's the real
thing, not just an imitation."  She hugged Sheryl, who snorted,
tossed her head, and then proceeded to roll in the creek, getting
all wet.  Everyone had a good laugh at this, then they continued
onward.
--
Chris Meadows           ||  "The Zetons look like beautiful
CHM173S@SMSVMA.BITNET   ||  women, but their tissues are made
CHM173S@VMA.SMSU.EDU    ||  of paper, so they burn, like paper."
CMEADOWS@NYX.CS.DU.EDU  ||  --Captain Harlock, Ziv's lame-o dub.