To the City
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 64248
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In the morning, the great iron tower and the city that it dominated were
far more easily visible than they had been in the moonlight. Sara, Sofia
and Imelda could not help but see them. They crowded round Fred, whom they
seemed to view as their natural leader - to Diana's annoyance - asking
questions and all talking at once. At least it was a good sign that none
of them any longer seemed withdrawn after yesterday's traumatic events,
she supposed.
Fred held up his hand for silence. "One at a time, please," he said. "You first, Lady Sara." "Just Sara, please. I don't feel very much like a member of the nobility right now, and I sure as Hell don't look like one." That applied to all of the girls, of course. Some of them were bandaged, but that was all the clothing that any of them had. Their faces were haggard with fear and weariness, their hair was unkempt, they were dirty, and the bodies of most of them were streaked with dried blood. No, Fred thought, they did not look like noblewomen nor, in spite of their nakedness, the slightest bit erotic. Sara went on: "That city: what's it doing here? I thought that we were supposed to be many leagues from the nearest settlement, never mind any place as big as that." "You are right. Something very odd has happened, I don't know how or precisely when. Exotica noticed last night that the constellations were wrong." "Wrong?" Sofia frowned. "What do you mean?" "They are completely unrecognisable. Not only are we no longer in the foothills of the Shreken, we are no longer even on our own world. No doubt that explains how that city comes to be there." It took some doing, but with support from Diana and Exotica he eventually convinced the other three girls that the impossible had happened. "So what do we do now?" Sara eventually said. "Make our way to that city as quickly as we can," Diana said. "We need food and clothes and rest and medical attention. We should be able to find those things there. We ought to start at once. It will probably take us some hours to walk there." "What if the people are hostile?" Imelda asked. "We'll just have to take that chance," Fred said. "We can't survive indefinitely without help." In fact, he himself and Diana probably could, but he felt that it would not have been tactful for him to say so. Exotica frowned, perhaps thinking about her idea of a weapons training programme. Now that civilisation appeared to be close at hand, that would no longer be necessary, it seemed. Fred thought that was probably just as well. In the cold light of day, it no longer seemed quite as practical as it had done last night. In any case, even if the girls could be trained to become formidable fighters, living in the wild long-term wasn't a very appealing prospect, even for him. They set off towards the city. That involved passing through the forest, so that they lost sight of the city and even of the tower. When they reached a sizeable clearing:
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JH
12/11/2006 1:08:02 PM
Extending Enabled
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