a Man on a Ship in the middle of a Fog
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 17751
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"So it is set," said Rowena. "We shall ride from this place to meet our
cousins in the Fiefdoms. Their messengers have found us here... how I do
not fathom, and they ask us to contribute men to their aid in fighting a
beast. We shall aid them with what little we have - I shall send news to
Bannok if need be and make a call to arms to our loyal soldiers. Yes, we
shall give aid to our cousins, and then they shall aid us in
holding my father's legacy. But first we must seek out these barbarians
from the sea. We must find out more of what is said about this blind
man. ~~Can he really be my brother?~~
The man had seen this before. Too many times had he seen this. The man gritted his teeth and swore to whatever gods he deemed worthy of his worship. He stood on the bow of the Zerkogin Cevilie and held onto a sturdy rope to keep his feet as the ship bobbed upon the waves. The fog had come upon this bay quite some time ago and it had the habit of surging and retreating and surging again, and many of the seafolk had been cursing it for days now. They did not comprehend what it was, they did not understand that it was already cursed. But the man did. He knew it all too well. He also knew that the seafolk and the sea-filth and the landlubbers alike did not yet realize what was happening. It was many weeks travel by land and a third that by sea to reach the so-called Smuggler's Cove from this bay; yet only days after the place was visited upon by monsters and fire, the rulers of Hespan had raged at a perceived slight... yet in only days the King of this land heard the reports of refugees, yet in only days people arrived in places that were far too far and news reached ears that were much too distant, and yet in only days a midget by the name of Tools arrived at Collins from that place which no longer was. In only days... not weeks, nor months as was natural. Soon the more intelligent of these citizens would figure that something was odd, but by then who knows what the consequences would be? Not the man; he never could foretell the outcome though he tried to piece the patterns as best he could. The man thought of what he had heard while traveling aboard this ship: the seamen said that Hespan was threatening embargo and demanding extradition of privateers. The man concentrated on the pattern: a war between nations? an upset of powers? one little incident that would fade away into the shadows of history? How many lives changed from their present course? How many would fare better? worse? The puzzle was too big, the pieces too many and not yet distinct. The man remembered his little mission: find Tools. The man had never met the midget, he never had laid eyes on the misshapen bloke, yet he knew that the little man was going to be a big piece in whatever was coming.
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YY
11/27/2001 6:20:27 PM
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