Not So Sweet Dreams
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 8704
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Astra shook her head to try to clear it. It had to have been just a
nightmare, she thought, for Simon would
surely not have abandoned Aethir MacFionn. "I see," she replied. "Then
we'd best be
off after her. But how are we going to find her in this enormous
forest?" "Why, that
will be no trouble, lass. We'll use my wolfhound. He'll soon pick up her
scent." And indeed Simon had an enormous
wolfhound on a lead. How could I have forgotten the wolfhound?
Astra wondered.
It looked a ferocious creature. "Don't let it hurt her," Astra said. "Or
me," she
added as an afterthought, for the creature was looking at her steadily and
emitting
a low growl. Simon seemed to have the beast fully under control however.
They packed their belongings, then let the hound lead them deep into the forest. "How did Andrea manage to escape after attacking you?" Astra asked Frederigo. "She's just a girl. Surely you could have restrained her?" "She took me by surprise and threw her cloak over my head, temporarily blinding me," he replied. And when he said that, Astra remembered that Andrea's cloak had indeed been lying on the ground close to Frederigo when they left their campsite. "She'll need her cloak when we find her," she said. "Well, you can go back and get it if you like - if you think you can find your way back to our camp." Astra realised that she had no hope of doing that. The thick forest surrounded them in all directions, and there was no way that she could retrace her steps or, even if she somehow did so, subsequently find the others again. "I'll give her my own cloak when we find her," she said. "She'll need it more than me." "What cloak?" asked Frederigo, sounding puzzled. "The one Belboz gave me, of course." "But Belboz didn't give you a cloak. He said he was sorry that he only had the one. Don't you remember?" "Oh, yes, of course. How silly of me. It's lucky it's so warm in the Wood that I don't feel at all cold." As they continued through the forest, the trees seemed gradually to become taller. The same applied to the undergrowth too. Or was it, it suddenly occurred to Astra, that they themselves were slowly shrinking? Were they the victims of some faerie magic? That must be it, for not only did the vegetation seem taller but the leaves seemed proportionately larger. Before long they would be as small as the faeries themselves (who were rumoured to be about two feet tall, as the one she had seen in her dream had been). Maybe they would become smaller still. Either way, they would be very vulnerable. Perhaps the wolfhound would protect them, though it was shrinking at the same rate as they were. She wondered whether Andrea was shrinking too. Astra became dimly aware of someone shouting: "Wake up!"
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JH
4/8/2000 1:28:59 PM
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