the Library
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 63471
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While Astra had begun her explorations heading down into the depths of the
caves, Fred had chosen to go upwards. While she had died at the hands of
a mysterious stranger (unbeknownst to the knight) he headed up a path that
a sign had
said led towards a library. Mind you, Fred had not chosen this
because he
enjoyed reading. No. In fact, Fred was functionally
illiterate. The knights of Allaria needed to know the arte of fighting,
not of reading. In fact, the written word - as opposed to the spoken
word, the sung word, and the somewhat forbidden oral word - made Fred a
little nervous. The written word belonged to the field of tax collectors
and of wizards (either of whom could use the hidden knowledge, ie written
words, to take land and wealth from nobility).
No, Fred did not choose this path because he enjoyed books, rather, he was afraid of fights. Well, not exactly afraid, that would not be fair. Fred could fight, and he damn well would defend himself. But he knew that he wasn't the best fighter. His gift was in the arte of the bluff. He knew how to puff himself up in front of others and so make himself bigger. That's what got him to where he was now, a respected Lord in the land - but also the newest Dragon-Hunter. His lifetime of bluffs had finally gotten to biting him in his own ass. He finally made it to the tunnel's end - an end with a door. He opened it and looked inside. "Wow." He inhaled as he gazed up: shelves shot into the heights, shelves taller than the highest mountains he had ever seen (well, not really, but they were tall!). The place was filled with all sorts of books and of every description. Catwalks surrounded the shelves like spiderwebbing, granting access to each book. Fred wandered the randomly-placed stacks (all the while memorizing the steps he took so he could find the way out). Suddenly a book slammed to the ground a few feet from Fred. It was a black book, with big red runes. It had fallen open and he stared at the exposed page. It was an incomprehensible script with lots of pretty pictures in the margins. Fred figured that whoever had made the book favoured pictures of birds and flowers. He skipped over to the twenty-sixth page, it had no text. Instead, Fred saw a woodcut imprint of:
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Y. (with a nod to Lots #160 & Anableps #30356)
11/18/2006 4:38:43 PM
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