You want a diplomat? Take 2

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 2769

"You want me to be an ambassador?" Astra 1 asks Alicia skeptically. "Me, a warrior princess, that's hardly the type of......"

Alicia, smiles and looks patiently on the young woman before her. Brave though the Astras are, sometimes even the bravest, most capable and intelligent of warriors faces something in his or her life that scares the Bejesus out of them. This Astra still was frightened by all that had a happened, and apparently was desperate to try to cling to a past.....that could no longer be hers. Allowances can be made in behavior because of that. Hopefully, Astra 1 won't storm off, affronted, by what Alicia has to tell her. The vixen gets the feeling that the warrior princess needs....to be anchored better in the reality that is now.....

Astra then blinks and then suddenly makes some....rather belated connections.

It isn't like the job will be dull considering who I'll probably be dealing with out there, Astra chides herself. And after that stupidity in the conference room.....me complaining about how this job doesn't agree with my desires.....where anyone else out in this desperate world would jump at a chance at a position that offered the means for room and board.....a chance to eat on a regular basis. If nothing else, the Pack sees to the needs of those who are it's friends....witness them putting me and the others up without any questions about remuneration or the like. Still.....

"It isn't that I'm not grateful, Alicia," the amazon goes on. "But considering the.....gaff I did back awhile earlier.......?"

Alicia sighs and motions with a furry hand for Alicia to sit, and then the vixen's ears twitch before she explains just WHY the Pack wants Astra 1.

"Ah, where to begin," the vixen chuckles mirthlessly. "First, let me be totally honest in saying......you weren't my or my husbands first choice." She holds up a cautioning hand as Astra 1 turns red in anger.

"Now here me out, young one," Alicia snaps, clearly wanting no back talk from the warrior princess. "I'm not saying that you aren't worthy of the position, but frankly.....several of the other's were of more even temperament than you. I know as a princess, you at least have the rudiments of the inner workings of diplomacy.....if only knowing how to handle yourself in political situations. However......

The red whiskered 5'8" vixen pauses and looks down at Astra with a trace of....pity?....in her green eyes.

"First, I must be frank in saying that we need a human face for initial meetings with what is left with human civilization," the vixen sighs. "What is left of humanity is probably desperate.....fearful people who have pulled together into groups that would be fearful of anything NOT human....until the nonhuman proves to them that they have something to offer. The Pack needs you to open the door....to allow us the chance we can offer them thing in trade. Dragonsbane, still has some very USEFUL purposes that could make for wonderful....powerful tools against any supernatural threats beckoning."

"The Pack has grown to like the....comforts of what humanity can make and offer....and the things that trade.....finished goods......raw materials......things we'd have difficulty making by ourselves." Alicia continues. "As I said, we need you to open the door so trade can be established for this....and perhaps aid in the future for our more....friendly partners if the need arises. Who knows what these interesting times will bring......"

"The second reason comes up because of something about YOU, dear Astra," Alicia says sadly.

"The one thing that struck me as more than a little odd,....'princess' is the fact that one of your high station would go forth adventuring in the first place," the vixen says in a dead...flat voice. "Yes, you went forth to do battle with the 'Dragon of the Northern Cavern.' But you did it for the wrong reasons. You did it for the glory.....the adrenal rush.....of the thought of mortal combat with the lizard.....what it would do for you. That was.....poor policy, Astra 1. A princess is born with vast privileges....but with vast responsibilities. The only reason why I was out 'adventuring' was I was on a quest to retrieve the Glibson Cross.....a holy relic that supposedly would have given the possessor's army a decided edge in battle. Well, it turned out that the relic was a hoax planted by Minestus, who promptly fell upon me and changed me into the lovely shape before you now. If I had been captured by say, the Muslims that had surrounded my beloved homeland, what do you think could have happened....considering that I.....was..... a princess?"

"You could have been used possibly in an attempt to get your father to surrender......or tortured to reveal what you may know.....what secrets you may reveal....like how to sneak in and out of the palace?" Astra 1 asks quietly.....getting a sinking sensation on where this conversation is going. "You're hinting at that I was.....being irresponsible by trying to kill the dragon by myself?!" As much as she wanted to scream denial, a small voice inside her.....said it was true. Aqualaria was not at war with her neighbors like Alicia's Ethiopia had been....but there were still those in other lands who would just LOVE to have gotten their hands on her....for the political and strategic and tactical value she represented.....

  1. "So....what would YOU have done in my position?" Astra 1 spits out, angered and uncomfortable at what was happening here.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree


MSG

7/15/1999 3:00:30 AM

Linking Enabled

Extending Enabled

The Never Ending Quest Home

Extend-A-Story Home

21386100 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.

Do not click me.