Chapter 20: Fire! (or lack thereof)

The Lord Fredrigo of Suffex, son of Duke Dredrick and loyalman to the LiegeKing Exultaine sallied forth unto the Southern Caves within the treacherous hills and vales and passes of the mighty Shreken Mountains. Upon discovering that the cursed caves held not one, but two entrances he chose the left – it was, he knew, his lucky direction. [3] Upon entering, however, he encountered a very big bear and in his attempt to flee the creature he smacked himself into a cave wall and lost consciousness, unfortunately the aforementioned smacking also dislodged a boulder which speedily fell atop the Knight, killing him. [40] Undaunted even by death, Fred returned to the quarters of his LiegeKing and explained his own demise. The King immediately set in process that which was necessary to send forth another young knight, another Dragon-Hunter.

Sir Joshua was the chosen hunter and all was made ready. He too was sent forth with great hurrah, he too made his way to the Shreken, he too found two entrances to the Southern Caves. damn the ghost of Lord Fred, he didn’t mention two entrances! Without even knowing what Fred had previously done, he too entered the left-sided entrance. Yet he did not find any bear (not that he was expecting to), rather he entered into a bizarre hallucination – one caused possibly by the Dragon or by one if its minions: the Black Knight. Regardless of the origin of the strange spell, at its conclusion Sir Josh found himself hog-tied to an ox-cart headed down one of the mountain paths of the Shreken. He had been beaten by the Black Knight, bruised, battered, and humiliated.

Rather than keep our attention on the further travails of Sir Joshua, we turned our sights on a Lady of the Court – Andrea of Croix. She was a simple lass, full of the giggles and gossip common to the rich and uneducated. She had time with which she could spend away from her homeland and she chose to spend that time on a ship –the Marie Celeste. Instead of finding herself in a land of foreign foods and expensive purses, however, she found herself alone on the ship, adrift at sea. Where was the Captain? Where were the sailors? She had no clue. [4613]

And so, on her twentieth day alone, on the fifteenth day since leaving the grand wharfs of Collinsport in Allaria, she spotted a tropical island. It seemed to be many miles in length with two mountains on each end. She was able to anchor the Marie Celeste and use the rowboat to get herself to the island. But in her exhaustion she feinted into a sleep before securing the rowboat to any log or tree or rock; upon waking the skiff was gone, the sun had slipped below the horizon, and fierce animal noises were emanating from the inner jungle of the island.

And so here she was, the Lady Andrea, collecting sticks and logs and rocks and putting them into a decent enough looking pile. But she had no flint, she had no wool, she had nothing with which to start the fire she so very much wanted. And the animal noises were only getting louder.

1. Sticks and Stones...

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