Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: kring@physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring) Subject: [Welcome] BT: Getting To Know The Generality Part 1 of 2 Message-ID: <1993Sep19.214521.27423@rhrk.uni-kl.de> Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1993 21:45:21 GMT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bakr's Tales: Getting To Know The Generality Part 1 of 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I entered the main room the next morning, Compass, Tarik, and Ormgwen sat at a table eating. Compass was chatting with the innkeeper's daughter. "Good morning Bakr. Thelma tells me that the horned brigand didn't have those horns for long." "Yes, he got them a few years ago." "How?" She shrugged. "Ask him." "Do you have much contact with the brigands?" "Oh no. Very seldom they come into the village. Sometimes one meets them in the woods. Beuaark has molested me in the past when I were out there, but I can defend myself." "Beuaark?" "The horned one. I call him that because he makes me puke. Beuaark!" "A good name." "The chief's name is Magrondar. I heard he's from Rawindra." "There are many non-Chryseians here, right?" "Only a few." She counted with her fingers. "My father's from Moravod..." "Oh! I'm from there too! Where is he?" "In the stable, feeding the horses." "I'll have to talk to him some time. How did he get planted here?" "My mother caught him, she's from here." "Bateia, right?" "Yes, Bateia Yabak." She continued counting. "Then the healer, Jockel Rytold. He's from Waeland. He settled here a few years ago. He doesn't have much contact to the people in the village, except Preg and me. He says he wanted a quiet spot for his experiments." "Aha." "Sundron Kanthariol's grandfather was from Alba, but he himself is born here, so he doesn't count. And nobody knows where the hermit comes from." "He is said to be strange." "Oh, he's just different. The peasants don't understand him." "You do?" "More or less." "And?" "He simply likes the forest more than human society. He thinks humans are strange. I guess he has a point. Look at the mayor." "I like that," said Compass. "I hope I'll meet him." "You said the mayor's grandfather was from Alba. So foreigners can get high posts here." "Everybody voted for him because he was the only candidate. No-one wanted the job." (Chryseians tend to have rather complex government rules, by the way. Their rulers are chosen by the public! I guess that a philosopher had that idea.) "What did he do before?" "He's a cattle-dealer. But he deals in other things too. Since his wife died the maid keeps the shop. He himself doesn't do much. Sometimes he leaves the village for deals, but he mainly uses doves to contact his partners, and Preg." "Ah, Preg. We met him only shortly." "His father uses him as a messenger. He doesn't like it. He wants to go adventuring." "Oh yes, one of the peasants mentioned that he wanted to go with us, but his father forbids it." "Right. I think he'll go anyway." "Oh, good. One more fighter. By the way, did you see Ziemi?" "He returned late in the night. He's sleeping." "And Fulfur?" "Sleeping." When we had finished breakfast, Compass went into the stable to talk with Seriel, and the rest of us stayed with his daughter. When he returned we decided to follow the mayor's invitation. On the way I had to clear up a question that had plagued me. "Ormgwen, why didn't you speak a single word? Normally you get active when women are around. Don't you like Thelma?" Compass grinned. "She laid him flat on the floor." "What? With you present?" "Huh? Oh, no, I mean, he touched her and she knocked him out. As she said, she can defend herself." "Bah, if she hadn't surprised me she would have had no chance." Ormgwen was the strongest person I had met up till then... ----- "Ah, there you are." The mayor put a dove into its cage. "This night I got news from Ikonium where Almes the priest has been sent for help, as you surely know. And I am proud to be able to inform you that his efforts have not stayed unrewarded." "Could you please repeat that?" asked Ormgwen. "Three more heroes, all coming from the beautiful land of Alba, have agreed to bless this lucky village with their presence. They will arrive three days from now. One of them, let me add that, is the famous dragon fighter known as Sir Arni." "Sir Arni!" "We heard a ballad about him in Mythros!" "And the others?" "His knave, and a powerful priest of the mighty Xan. There is no doubt in my mind that the days of the vile beast are counted." "What sort of a vile beast is the Xan?" "No, I was talking of the dragon. Xan is an Alban god." "Aha." "If you don't mind we will now take a look at the fields." We didn't mind. ----- "This was Astron's wheat field once. As one can see, it is no more. And I saw how it happened, nine days ago." "Pray tell." The plants were thoroughly burnt down in a large area. Compass squatted and fingered the ground. "It sure has big feet. But these are fresh traces!" "Oh? Then the monster must have been here once more since then." "It has rained since, right? Three days ago for instance." "Three days ago, six, and eight." "The traces aren't older than the rain. The dragon must have been here yesterday or the day before that." "Myrkdag! The Dark Day." "Possible." "I forbade the peasants to come near the fields as long as the dragon is around." "Was that necessary? I mean, would they?" "There are quite a few stubborn ones. You know how peasants are. They are safer in the village but they wouldn't listen." "Are they really safer there?" "The dragon hasn't been there yet." "That doesn't mean anything, Mayor." "But I'd rather not be on an open field with nowhere to hide. I would feel safer if we returned to the village now..." "Can't I read a few more traces? I'd like to know what exactly it did do here." "Why risk a premature meeting with the dragon? Let's go." We started to approach the village. "But you'll tell us how it looked, and all?" "Of course I am aware that you must know that." He stopped for a second and pointed to a bunch of trees before us that had somehow survived the clearing that had led to the fields being there. "That's where I stood. The monster came from there," he pointed somewhere to the west, "and landed there," he pointed to where we had seen the traces. "You saw it fly?" "Let me say it that way: It wasn't there, and when I turned around, it was." "That means no." He looked wounded and defensive. "That would be the opposition's viewpoint." "Sorry mayor." "It was big and yellow, and..." "YELLOW?" "YELLOW?" "YELLOW?" "YELLOW?" "Yes, yellow. Is something wrong? Why are you so upset?" "Oh, it's just... we heard about a yellow dragon, and how it destroyed a party of heroes..." "...and Sir Arni was the only survivor..." "...and it didn't breathe fire but acid..." "...and I have a heat protection pendant! Ui ui!" "Yes, we are well prepared for a fire-breather..." "...and..." "...if this thing breathes something else..." "...we're in the soup!" "Rather, it will eat us raw!" "Gentlemen, really! Firstly, the field is burnt, as you can see. Secondly, Sir Arni will be with you, thirdly, I saw it emit fumes, and fourthly, that's not how heroes should behave. But now let's return to the village before it comes back!" I had a serious case of the creeps that ebbed down only when the houses were near. Of course a house wouldn't protect one from a dragon's breath that well but it was better than nothing. The way back took us half the time of the way there. -- Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, apprentice mage aka Lifilis Kloote, conjurer and artist aka Thomas Kettenring