Unexpected Aid

You can still win this fight, you remind yourself. There are only two soldiers now and they're both rather drunk. But after days and days of fighting battles, running around, being captured and escaping you're starting to get very tired. You try to punch the soldier in the throat, but he backhands you and you slam into the floor. You start to get dizzy. You see the innkeeper grab a chair and try to hit the other soldier with it, but he trips over a fallen bottle and falls on the floor. Your head is spinning and you're not quite sure what you're seeing. The fire in the inn crackles in the distance and you wonder if there's some way you can reach them before it's too late. But in your heart, you know it's too late.

Then, you think you see a mockingbird swoop into the room and dive at the soldier. It pecks at his neck with its sharp beak. He screams and swings his sword ineptly at the bird, but his arm strikes his partner's head and he flls to hte gorund, unconscious. You don't know why that bird is here, but you know it's bought you time. You pull yourself up and, while the man is still gaping at what just happened, you punch him in the face and he joins his comrade.

The world around you is a blur of sensations--the crackling of the distant fire, the groaning of the beaten soldiers and the innkeeper, and the whirring of the mockingbird's wings in front of your face. The whirring grows faster and faster, almost like a hummingbird, and then in that blur you see hands unclasping a cloak. The bird shifts and flows into the form of woman wearing a cloak made of bird's feathers, and drifts gently to the ground. Though her clothing is refined, of a kind you dimly recognize, her form is clearly that of a warrior. Her hair is as bright red as the distant fire. She is strong and beautiful and you instinctively admire her. And you feel a strange connection with her too, the kind of connection you didn't feel with anyone you knew from before you lost your memory, except Aaron.

You stare at the woman and try to say something, but before you can, Aaron and Sarah burst into the room. "Karen! You're all right!" said Aaron. "We managed to rescue the people in the inn. Were those three louts the ones who set the fire?"

"Yes," you tell him, panting. "They're soldiers for King Samuel, and set that fire as a diversion to rob the store. The innkeeper helped me, and he said he is sympathetic to the New Amazons, and--"

"Who's that?" said Aaron. "I thought I saw a bird in there--and then--" He and Sarah were both gaping at the red-haired woman, utterly awed. You try to answer, but realize you can't make any sort of sense out of what just happened.

The woman answers in your stead. "I am Princess Astra of Aqualaria," she says, seeming remarkably calm. "I somehow found myself in a strange, dismal room with teal couches and a staircase..." You twitch. Somehow, you remember the room she's talking about, remember it more vividly than anything anyone has told you about your life before the battle... but how is that possible? "And then, I read a nursery rhyme in a book, and found myself in the form of a bird, and then I rescued your friend. And now I am here. Who are you?"

"I am Prince Aaron of Zendara, and they are Karen and Sarah, survivors of the New Amazons. Probably the last, apart from Karen's sister Alyssa, who's resting in an abbey." Before Aaron can go further, you breathlessly tell Astra your whole story. You tell her about how you and your sister Alyssa ran away to join the New Amazons and fight for better treament of women, how the New Amazons were all but destroyed, how you woke up on the battlefield with no memory of who you were, how you were found by Prince Aaron, whose sister had been a New Amazon, and joined with him to avenge them, how he had suggested going to the neighboring kingdom of Daria and seeking aid from his friend King Eric, how Eric had been overthrown by his brother Prince Samuel who had set a trap for him, how she rescued her sister and Prince Aaron, how they'd spent days running from Samuel's men and being trapped and escaping and they found another survivor, Sarah...

You don't tell her about your memories of another life, or the feelings for Aaron you don't quite understand, or how you remember the Staircase Room.

Astra nods sadly. "I hope there is some way I can return home, but until then, I will join your cause." She frowns. "Have you heard of me or my homeland at all?"

Sarah answers, "Of course we have! You have been an inspiration to us all in the New Amazons."

1. "Your homeland is very far to the south, and I don't think even Aaron has ever been there."
2. "But you're just a legend! There's no such kingdom as Aqualaria--if only there were..."
3. "But your kingdom fell centuries ago! And that cloak--no magic has worked for a hundred years!

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