Two Prisoners

Throwing back the bedclothes, he found that he was wearing only shorts and a sleeveless singlet, neither of them his own. They were tight- fitting, and made of some textile that was unfamiliar to him; it was lighter than wool, linen or velvet, but heavier than silk, and was a brilliant white rather than the rather greyish shade that he was more familiar with in nominally white garments.

The shortage of furniture made it easy for Fred to see that his own clothes, his armour, and indeed all his other possessions were missing. That inclined him to think that he had been kidnapped rather than rescued, though he could not be sure.

The bed was up against one wall, and it was through that wall that he could hear sounds of someone or something moving about. There must be another room beyond, and since there was a door in the wall he did the natural thing. That is he got out of bed, walked over and opened it.

Through the door he could see a room apparently identical to his own. But more significantly he found himself looking at a beautiful young woman, identically attired to himself. When she saw him, her face took on a fierce expression. "Are you my captor, intending to ravish me?" she asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question - only without the 'ravish' bit."

The damsel's expression softened and then, to his surprise, she laughed. "You must excuse me," she said. "As you can imagine, being imprisoned for some unknown purpose has put me rather on edge, and that was made worse when I saw the door opening."

"Sorry for startling you. I should have knocked. You were making a fair bit of noise, so I was coming to investigate."

"I was dragging my bed across the floor, in case there was anything hidden underneath it. Other than a chamberpot there wasn't, though."

Names and stories were exchanged.

1. The woman turns out to be Princess Astra of Aqualaria.
2. Remarkably, the woman turns out to be someone else.

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