little old man

"STOP!" cried out a voice. "Are you NUTS!"

The voice came from a short man wearing flowing robes and a skull cap. The princess turned, giving the man a full view of her bounty; he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Who are you?" asked the princess. "And what are you staring at?"

"Uh, uh, uh," responded the man a bit feebly. "My name is Belbin ibn ebl. And what, what fine...toes you have."

The princess looked at her toes, no one had ever given her a compliment on those before. Then she turned to the business at hand. "Is this part of the dragon's lair, do you slave for the creature, will you help me, and have you any other clothing?"

Belbin ibn ebl blinked twice and then motioned her to follow him. He walked down a short path that led to a small room which held a tiny set of drawers. "There you go," he said.

"There I go what?" asked the princess.

"You will find clothes, a map, and my latest pay stubb."

Indeed, as she opened each tiny drawer, they contained more than enough things to fill her needs. After getting dressed she realized that the dressing room was cooler than the open cavern that held the rod. She sat upon a chair, eyeing the small man who had stayed the whole time while she freshened up. He didn't always look at her...most of the time he spent staring at her toes.

After some amount of silence the little man spoke up. "Like I said, I'm Belbin ibn ebl and no, I am no slave of the Dragon. The map you have will show you the various paths throughout the western section of the lower eastern quadrant of the Southern Caves of the Kingdom. And my favorite color is turquoise."

The princess didn't say a word. She stared at the map. Her eyes bulged as she traced the path that took her into that very corner of the caverns; she saw the entrance to the outer world; she saw the slinking trails that led her into the arms of Lord Fred; she saw the fork where she had said goodbye to Fred; and she saw a tiny hand-drawn picture of a library with a stick figure labeled "Fred" - and from out of the mouth of the stick- figure-Fred was a cartoon bubble with the two words: "Help Me!"

The princess looked up at the little man but saw only the chair with a sack of small stones and a sling; the man was gone!

1. Following the directions from the map, Astra hurried through the steamy cavern into the cooler upper sections - her goal was nothing more nor less than to save Lord Fred!

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