King Emry Appears

Fred recognised the King immediately, even though he naturally looked much younger. "Your Majesty," he said, bowing.

"Do I know you?" the King asked. (In fact Fred had not even been born in the time that he had come from.) Without waiting for an answer, he went on: "What is this place and how did I get here? And what's that tiny, amazingly lifelike, naked doll doing in what is obviously a library?"

"I am not a doll," Astra said angrily. "I am Princess Astra of Aqualaria, and I was shrunk down to this size by a potion that I was unwise enough to quaff."

"Why are potions always quaffed rather than drunk? But I have heard of no such princess, and as King of Allaria I surely would have done."

"That's because it's more than twenty years later than you think, Your Majesty," Fred said, who had spotted the King's diary. Though he did not dare to touch it, in case it still held some residual magic, he could see that embossed on the cover in gold leaf was: King Emry's Personal Diary for Year One of his Reign.

"Huh?"

So Fred explained, with plenty of interjections from Astra. When he had finished, the King said:

1. "I see. So how are you going to return me to my rightful time and place?"
2. "I see. So what are we going to do now?"
3. "I don't understand." He may have been King, but he was none too bright.

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