Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!apple.com!olivea!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!msuinfo!cookg From: cookg@cps.msu.edu (Gregory Cook) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [INN] Mitchell sits Down Date: 26 Sep 1993 20:52:29 GMT Organization: Michigan State University Lines: 30 Message-ID: <284ved$o9o@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: parsley.cps.msu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0] "My good sir," replied the elf, "Any story you would like to tell, for the art of the story lies in the telling. Speak of magic and mystery, of common men, of kings and queens, or of faeries and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Or speak instead of someone you met in your travels, or of a legend you have encountered, or a flight of fancy no one has ever heard of before." Mitchell considers this a moment. "Well perhaps I could dredge up a story on one of those topics", he says at last. "Perhaps I shall tell you of the reason I happened to end up here." "Where I come from we have one leader and he is our Ancestor, he is powerful and ancient beyond compare. And my people loved him dearly. Perhaps a little too dearly I always thought. He didn't encourage their blind devotion however, but that only seemed to make them love him more. Any who spoke ill of him or of the society he formed for us were ostracized from our society at best, at worst was banishment or death for those who were most vocal. This was NOT the policy of the Ancestor however, but while he may rule over us he did not govern everyday society. We considered ourselves lucky if he made his location known to us every few thousand years. I was very headstrong and foolish perhaps. I spoke out against blind devotion, I argued for thinking things through. That is not to say that I was ever able to prove that the Ancestor had ever made a bad judgement, which severely undermined my positon." Mitchell stops talking for a moment and sips his wine before continuing. "I was first ostracized, then I was ordered banished. I didn't want to leave, but I had no real choice. If I hadn't then I would have been killed. And so now I am on my own in the multiverse. Actually, I hadn't intended to go here at all but I suppose that its as good a place as any. Oh well, thats my story. What of you two?"