From alt.pub.dragons-inn Tue Mar 15 23:16:31 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7118 Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!pacbell.com!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!galaxy.ucr.edu!library.ucla.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!po.CWRU.Edu!rev2 From: rev2@po.CWRU.Edu (Robert E. Vogel) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: REPOST: [Azend/Zjiria] Farewell Date: 15 Mar 1994 02:11:07 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Lines: 102 Message-ID: <2m35fr$nt0@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> References: <2m34or$mr6@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> Reply-To: rev2@po.CWRU.Edu (Robert E. Vogel) NNTP-Posting-Host: owl.ins.cwru.edu ADMIN: The following a reposting of a story a while back. This thread runs parallel to the [Zjiria/Azend] thread. *** > "Is there anything else the condemn wishes to say?" > "No, Your Supremcy," I said, "the condemned has nothing more to say." A small smile crept up the Serpent Lord's face. He would have what he wanted. I silently gave a prayer to the gods that he would not bring ruin to Inansta. He turned to one of the honor guards and ordered the royal sorceror summoned. A moment later, a small man in dark, but not deep, purple robes hustled in with the honor guard. Unknown to His Awfulness was that the royal sorceror and I were friends and had made plans earlier. In a dry, quick tongue, the royal sorceror rattled off, "Yes, yes, I know, I was watching." "The condemned has been exiled from Inansta. Far from Inansta. You are to send him to someplace far and dangerous," His Awfulness stated anyway. "One moment, then, just a moment." The royal sorceror searched through his robes and finally removed some strange mirror from a pocket. He tapped it, shifted it from side to side, tilted it, and finally nodded. "A star gate... it is possible to be opened. It leads to a place that you would find suitable for your purposes. The spell will take a little time. I will need to tell the condemned some instructions." "Whatever for?" His Awfulness was suspicous. "You ever open a star gate before? No, I didn't think so. Well, I'd like to keep things as easy as possible for me and this here condemned can help me." The Serpent Lord nodded, reluctantly, and the sorceror crouched down to speak to me in a low whisper. "Very clever, Azend, you get to keep your turban. I am sorry, I cannot send you to a place of safety, but I can tell you that if you escape the immediately realm of a place to be. It's called the Dragon's Inn. It's located in an area called Generica. You will probably have to get there by boat. Good luck." He said all of that before I had a chance to blink. Then he stood up and said in a louder voice for the Serpent Lord's benefit, "You must remember, keep your eyes closed, or the affect of the transport will drive you, and quite possibly me, insane." He then turned to face the Serpent Lord. "One minute, Your Supremcy." The last sight I saw was His Awfulness' cruel smile, then I closed my eyes. One minute. Inansta, my country and my life, how I love you! Then I felt a disorientating shift and my eyes flew open. I have stepped often between fields of magic sorcerors have created and the real world. Barriers of warmth against the cold, cool winds enclosed on a hot and dry day. But this change was far too much different. Cool comfortable settled on my skin, but my eyes burned and the air was too thin. A pounding in my head and a shaking of my vision caused me great pain. But even as these sensations settled in, they lessened, unwound, and slowly departed, leaving only a slight feeling of nausea and the comfortably coolness. I was in a high valley of sorts, with moutain peaks looming so close. A forest was gathered around, but it was unlike any forest I have seen before. I could not see that it had individual leaves, but rather a green growth in a conelike shape. They stood tall but so narrow compared to the trees of the desert, or even the cooler lands. Yet the worst was the sky. Large, ominous and gray, it frowned, but stayed, if the phrase may be excused, aloft. It was neither sun alive blue that so often I would see in Inansta skies, nor god-fearing and respected black storms that bought the rains. It was gloomy, unhappy, and cool. A stream ran through the strange and soft grass field I was in. I reached down and touched a blade, letting it slide through my fingers. So soft, so moisture, so yielding. I thought of the desert grass, tall, sharp, harsh, a survivor. Yet I could not help but think that such a warrior plant would be drowned in a place of such wetness. The thought of being away from my home came again, bitter and sharp. I moved to the stream. I did not know if the gods were the same here, whether they could hear me, but it made little sense to pick new gods now. My hands dipped in the stream; it was so cold! Refreshing and alive, but the water was so cold! Cupping my hands, I bathed my face in water, letting the chill go down my chest and back, so cool and so refreshing. Accepting this as a sign from the gods, I prayed quietly for a time. When I opened my eyes, I gazed at myself in quiet part of the stream. What would the people here think of me? How was I different from them? My skin was a healthy sun brown, my body mostly hairless, my head totally bald. The cold landers I had seen had skin pale, bodies hairy, especially the head. I paused to wonder if they could consider their females with their long brown hair as attractive as Inansta's women of the shadow, dark, rushing and strong black hair. I touched my red turban and thanked the gods that it no harm had befallen it. My white pants and soft shoes were unmarked as well, but they were not as important as my turban. Then I became aware of the sounds in the distance. It was so very quiet when I arrived, the change was deafening. I had quickly grown used to the far off bird singing, but these sounds were not of birds, but men. I have been many places and seen many things, and that sound was all too clear in my memory. Fighting. Men, and maybe even women, taking up arms against each other, willing to shead the blood of another. *** ADMIN: Comments, questions, flames, all wished for and respected! -- I would think that I was dead but for the pain... ---Rabied Rat's Revenge