| Hours latter, still heading north, the adventurers can see Fred's father
is still riding his horse full out! Their quarry shows no signs of having
seen Fred and the others, shows no signs at all that he even knows that
the humanoid animals and human appearing creature with red, glowing eyes
is following him. Fred's sharp fox eyes can see that the horse is lathering.
His father is riding this poor creature to death! So swift is the horse,
due to the repeated whipping of the frantic man on the stallions back,
that all pretenses of stealth have been abandoned by the adventurers. Now
was a time for speed!
Well, at least I get to enjoy the feel of the speeding wind on my
pelt. Fred sighs.
"I don't get it!" shouts Ananka as she runs next to Alicia. "It first
looked like Dred was just running from the fight. But the man could have
taken dozens of easier paths to towns or forts he could have found some
type of safety, but he's heading for the mountains!"
"I recognize where he's going!" shouts Astra (or more accurately, yips)
as she races alongside the manimals in her full fox form.
"I always heard of a criminal heading back to the seen of the crime,"
Willian says from the left, also in fox form (so as to better keep up the
manimals' frantic pace). "The bloody fools heading for Minestus' lair!
We'll be to bag the SOB and search the layer at the same time for a cure
for Fred and the rest of us.....who want it!"
Fred bites his lip. The idea of a cure for his furry condition....doesn't
seem as appealing as it did when Minestus forced him into this shape. He
really didn't look bad as a manfox.....at odd times he even admired how
handsome he looked! And there were other…..perks things about this form
(visions of his wedding night made his heart beat a little faster). And
the Truenames! He and Alicia shared a bond deeper than what was possible
for mere humans to have because of Truenames. But.....he was born human.
That should count for something.....right? And the benefits of sharing
the soul through Truenames should…… transfer…… right?
Could it be that Alicia was right about me being ashamed of what
I had become? Fred asks himself. I have come to believe that I'm
not a monster.....Lord knows that the term has changed for me because of
what I've seen! If I'm not a monster.......I really have nothing to be
ashamed about? Yet still Fred wanted to be human, because of the p........
The adventurers see that Drederigo D'Honaire has stopped. He leaps of
his horse, who stumbles over to a unseasonably brown patch of grass.....Fred
notices that there are many odd things about this place. The trees and
shrubs seem....stunted and dead around a certain area by the cliff here.
Fred's father ignores shouts from Fred and the others to stop and face
them. He even keeps running as Probe snaps off a few bolts from his sidearm.....that
come so near as to singe the old man's hair!
Dred dives behind some ragged (and weirdly growing) ferns, and vanishes.
Fred and the others, after a seconds hesitations, dive through ready
to face anything.....
|
