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"Damnit all to the Netherlande and back!" growled Lord Dred as he slammed his fist onto the table which stood in the center of the barracks which they had been given. "This is madness and you all know it!"

"Yes, yes it is," agreed the others.

"AIGH!" screamed Lord Dred. "Don’t be condescending to me!" He glared at his adjutants, his soldiers, his servants. "Know you me not after so much time together? I am not some haughty courtesan who wishes to be agreed with at all costs. I am noble, but not stupid! Give me your true thoughts, tell me your assessments."

"Sir," said Thom Hawke. "Without ill-meaning, I say I do agree with your first estimate: this must be the work of some mad mage who desires to sabotage any treaty between our peoples and those of the southern Matriarchy."

"Sisters and daughters," hissed the Queen of Aqualaria. "Could this indeed be the work of the Son of Zerm?"

"It smacks of his nature," answered the warrior-woman Equui. "Obviously talk of future-years is absurd—"

"And yet that wraith who claimed to come from the future knows of Astra," murmured Tianna. "We cannot ignore such hidden knowledge, for even the spawn of our hated enemy Zerm cannot have encroached so deep into our protected lands… could he?"

"That is the question, dearest one," answered the Queen.

"Let’s start over then," pronounced Hitcher.

"drab; drabble; drachma; draconis; draft—" began the troupe of trappers.

"By the Gods I’d like a draft o’ beer!" cheered a dry-mouthed trapper. "Here! Here! Huzzah!" came various responses.

"No!" quipped Hitcher. "I don’ wanna lose count…. again. Back t’ the Ds."

"drag; dragnet; dragon; dragonfly; dragoon; drag queen—"

"Yeah," interrupted another of the trappers. "I bet them there fancy- dandy Allars have a bunch o’ them drag queens in them their court!" This was followed by bellows of laughter and then Hitcher scolding them… again.

"drail; drain; drainage; drainboard; drainer; drake; dram; drama—"

"As if we didn’t need no more damn drama in our part o’ th’ Mountain," grumbled a third trapper. "Queer bunch of womenfolk who hates men and menfolk who’re more interested in trade than bedding women! Ain’t natural I tell ya."

And yet again Hitcher brought them back to the issue at hand. "drank, drape, drapery, drastic; drat; draw; drawback; drawbridge--"

"That’s got to be it!" squealed a rather petite trapper-girl. "Don’t kill the last drawbridge!"

The others stared at her for a moment. "Th’ last drawbridge?" "How can ya kill a drawbridge?" "I once heard m’ papa say’n that he saw a bunch o’ trolls kill a drawbridge… once." "Ya sure?" "Sures I’m sure!" "I mean, smash a drawbridge, splinter it, burn it, bash it, crash it, stomp it, hit it, rake it… but kill it?" "I think Benny’s right… drawbridge can’t be the right word."

And so the trappers continued spitting out as many words that had 'dra' in them as they knew. Unlike the Allarians and the Aqualarians who were so used to treachery and lies and treaty saboteurs, the trappers figured that a man who appears in a flash of light and fades away into nothingness would do nothing but tell the truth. Go figure.

All by himself, except for the one bodyguard, Fred lay within a hammock thinking about the mysterious stranger who claimed to be his older self.

~~wow, I’m gonna grow up to be a soldier, a true warrior! I can’t wait to grow up!~~

All by himself, completely ignored by anyone in the outpost, a coincidental witness to the bizarre apparition sat under a huckberry tree and thought deeply about the consequences of the message given.

~~if truly a Shade from tomorrow’s tomorrow then he has already accomplished something: change. This day would have gone one way, perhaps those nobles would’ve done whatever it was they came here to do, but now… they have minds only for the apparition. Already one day has been altered, and from one shall come others, day begetting day begetting day, change begetting change begetting change.~~

1. the day, and the discussions, drag on...

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