Fred's Move

Fred was quite taken aback, too. He'd better be careful if he made any advances on this woman. Trying desperately not to stare at Astra's noticeable feminine attributes, he emerged from the clearing.

Astra looked quite pleasantly surprised, and a little relieved, to see him. "Fred?" she said. "How did you get here?"

Fred was shocked. This woman knew him? What with all the strange things that had happened to him, the volcano control room and the lizard and the trap door that led into a jungle, he should have suspected something like this. But it caught him completely off guard. "Erm," he said, "I, um, we, um, I er, I don't know. I mean..."

"Are you alright?"

"Er, no. I have no idea. I mean... it's been a long day. I need to rest. Is there any place we can set up camp?"

"This would be a good place," said Astra, "except that the ape-men who attacked me earlier might return. We should go somewhere else."

"Alright..." said Fred. He tried to remember the name she had given to Zantar, which he had overheard. "Astra."

Suddenly, Fred realized. This was the Astra. The legendary warrior princess of Aqualaria! Not only did he know her, but they were on first name terms!

At this point, Fred was feeling a strange and disorienting mix of emotions. He had only known Astra for a short time, and already didn't know what to make of her. She was like no woman Fred had ever met before. She was very beautiful, but didn't fit the standards of beauty from the courts of the Great Kingdom. S he was independent, much more so than the women of the Great Kingdom, and Fred could never picture any woman from his Kingdom doing something like slapping Zantar. He found her somewhat off-putting, and at the same time very attractive.

And somehow, she knew him without him ever having met her before. What if she fell in love with him? Defeating the dreaded Dragon of the Southern Caves, who no knight had ever survived except the great Sir Marek Thatcher, who drew the map that Fred had (And which he now knew was quite outdated), and winning the hand of Astra would bring him fame and glory. He would now be respected by everyone in the ranks of the Dragon Hunters. At 17, he was the youngest member of that knightly order, and this was both a blessing and a curse. People respected him for being able to get into the order so young, and yet people also looked down on him for his youth and his inexperience. And if he managed to win the heart of the Princess of Aqualaria, he would be free of the shadow of his evil father once and for all, which, after all, was part of the reason he came here in the first place. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he managed to secure an advantageous alliance with Aqualaria without any of the political machinations and schemes of his father, by doing the right thing?

And then, of course, there was this great succession of confusing events. He'd thought that killing the Dragon would be relatively straightforward. That was before he'd entered that arcane room in the volcano. Everything just seemed to get stranger and stranger. Besides being confused, he also felt angry and frustrated that all these bizarre things kept happening. Why did everything have to be so confusing?

Fred's ruminations were suddenly stopped by...

1. The sudden appearance of an old man, clad in strange robes.
2. A sudden change of scenery. They were no longer in the jungle. Instead, they were in a parking lot in front of a mall and Zantar was wearing a business suit.
3. Hooting and grunting sounds. The apes were returning to the clearing, in much larger numbers than before.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree