Failure and Revelation
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 7247
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She had failed. She had reached Astra for the briefest of moments there, she knew it, but she had failed. The beast in her was ascendant, and the Princess of Aquilaria bared her fangs in a snarl, crouching back to pounce. Lady Andrea Croix closed her eyes and braced for impact, knowing what was coming. A taut, thickly-furred form slammed into Andrea, bowling her over and knocking her to the ground. She felt clawed hands gripping her, followed by a sharp stabbing pain in her thigh. Frantically, she opened her eyes to see Astra's wolfish jaws locked about her leg. A figure in mud-spattered armor sprang from the forest and grappled with Astra, pulling her off of the young noblewoman. Andrea gathered her wits about her, and saw that it was Lord Frederigo D'Honaire, saving her again. It was strange, but after the second time her death had been averted by the King's knight, her doubts and fears about him were beginning to disperse. He had secrets, true, but what nobleman in the kingdom didn't? Frederigo continued wrestling with the werewolf, Astra's jaws snapping wildly. Suddenly, someone spoke. "Stop this instant." Three heads snapped to see the source. It was an old man, clad in the rags and tatters of a hermit. Somehow, his words held power, as Astra and Frederigo froze. The old hermit took a step closer, and the werewolf panicked, shoving the knight off of her and fleeing into the forest again. Frederigo stood where he was for a few moments, stunned by the happening, then he spoke. "Well I'll be...Simon D'Chrétien...the whole kingdom thought you were dead..." "Well," the spry old hermit answered, "when the Sicarii have a contract out on you, sometimes it's neccesary to let people think that, lad." "Who is he?" Andrea asked, looking insistently at Frederigo, reeling slightly from her wound, feeling faint. "That," the knight said, "Is a legend in the flesh. Simon D'Chrétien, called the Lightbringer. He was a member of the famous Four Winds, the greatest heroes the kingdom has ever known. Simon D'Chrétien, Belboz the Archmage, Aethir MacFionn, and..." Frederigo seemed to grow wistful for a moment, then took a deep breath, "Charles D'Honaire...my father..." "Right ye are, lad. Right ye are." "Belboz went on to study the dark arts, my Father to take the land grant offered to him by the King, Aethir disappeared in the lands of the faerie, and you... you just seemed to grow more and more like a living saint, right until the Sicarii said the contract on you had been fulfilled..." "Now you're not goin' and believin' everything the Sicarii asassins say, are ye, lad? Come now, the young lady has a wound to tend to. We can make it to my hut fairly easily, and find your friend with the curse in the morning..."
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The Traveler
2/20/2000 12:21:02 PM
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