Broken Dreams
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 8614
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The verdant glen about the lakeshore seemed to grow colder as they stood
over the sleeping hero. A chill breeze whipped through the trees, and the
whole grove shuddered. Overhead, dark clouds blotted out the sun, and the
peaceful scene before their eyes wavered and twisted. Within mere moments, Lord Frederigo D'Honaire, Simon the Anchorite, Princess Astra of Aquilaria, and Lady Andrea Croix, huddled over the inert form of the legendary Aethir MacFionn, saw quite a different scene. The trees were now ruined, twisted, nightmarish things. The lake had gone stagnant. The sun was gone, replaced with brooding stormclouds. The grass was dried and dead. "What's happening?" Astra asked, crouching into a defensive stance. "I don't know," the hermit answered, a look of genuine worry crossing his face. An answer came from an unexpected source. "Oh, you don't know? You've really done it now..." They looked up to see what looked to be a strange little man, perched on one of the gnarled tree branches above them. He was naked, save where twining ivy served to preserve modesty. His frame was slim and elfin, and he seemed to be all angles, roughly two feet tall. He was hairy, and his beard was knotted and matted, hanging lank down to his knees. His face had a gleeful grin, its appearance made unnerving by his eyes, which seemed twin pools of impenetrable blackness. "A faerie," Simon said, and made a folk gesture meant to ward against evil. The tiny man winced, visibly shaken. "I do wish you wouldn't do that. Not after I actually made the effort to come here and tell you this," he said, regaining his composure. "But why should we trust you?" Astra retorted, her hand already on the pommel of her sword. "Well, frankly, you shouldn't. However, it's worth saying that I'm not one of the ones who wants to kill you for what you've done," he replied. "Which is?" Andrea cut in anxiously. "Pretty simple really. You've just removed the man whose dreams formed the heart of the Faerie Rath. Now that he's no longer in the tree, the illusions coaxed from his sleep are gone, and none of my erstwhile relatives want that..."
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The Traveler
3/30/2000 5:37:42 PM
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