Back on the Trail

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 3684

After Rift's precautionary diversion, he, Astra and Fred had rejoined the road that Astra and Fred felt they now knew only too well. This was their fourth time on it, twice in each direction. Rift was on his horse, and had provided ponies for the other two. These were perhaps something of a come-down from their mighty warcharger, but at least they didn't have to share.

As they rode, Astra had her mind brought back to her pregnancy by the realisation that her belt was beginning to feel slightly tight on its usual setting since she had regained human form, and let it out a notch. In her pre-demifox days she had had a twentyfour inch waist; now she guessed it was two or three inches more than that.

Fred was wondering whether Rift still had the Crystallic in his possession. It seemed unlikely that he would have had time to sell it in Walants. As it happened, Rift was also thinking about the Crystallic. Perhaps it wasn't a question of his not being versed enough in magic to use it? After all, it had transformed Fred and Astra back to human form readily enough, and they weren't mages. Perhaps it couldn't be used to take life? Would he have had more luck with it if he had simply wished the bandits transported a thousand miles away rather than killed? Perhaps he would try another test of its powers before too long. After all, if nothing happened again then no harm would have been done. And he had a couple of unwitting test subjects at his disposal. Just so long as he didn't do anything drastic enough that it would prevent them leading him to the dragon's lair. On second thoughts, perhaps he should stick to Astra as a subject. She was securely under his thumb, whilst Fred might still be dangerous if angered. Just in case Notch might yet prove troublesome, changing Astra's appearance might be advantageous.

They stopped for their mid-day meal. Rift was beginning to feel a little worried that Tarin had not yet caught up with them. Could he have run into trouble in dealing with Notch?

  1. Back in Walants it had occurred to Notch that, though Tarin seemed very loyal to Rift, dwarfs were traditionally greedy for gold. If Tarin couldn't be evaded, could he be bribed to change allegiance?

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JH

8/14/1999 1:17:00 PM

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