| As Ajax tells Tisbitt about the newest Freds and such.....
”……I don’t like this,” the leader of the group of towns guardsman mutters
yet again.
”Why? It’s only one dwarf.” A young Amazon protest, laughing. “By Hera,
with these new revolvers, it should be easy enough to kill him if he resists!”
”Unless it turns out to be another creature like what attacked Duchess Astra2 and Duke Fred 2,” another Amazon muttered darkly. “I trust my bow and arrows more than these new fangled guns!” A hoot of derisive laughter meets the last part of the Amazon’s statement.
”You jest, surly.” Laughs the first Amazon. “I’ve been using the bow
for years as a Ranger scout, and never though I’d see the day I’d see something
finer than my bow…..but by the gods…..I can fire something like three times
faster with this revolver, at a greater distance…..and deadlier results!”
”And I don’t think that your arrows would have been any more effective
as Sahara’s and Dana’s arrows,” the leader of the town guards said. “I
interviewed them when they awoke and got eyewitness accounts of what happened
with that witch imitating the Prophet of your lands……”
Ears listened as alert eyes probed the shadows and other sights for
possible a hidden dwarf.
”What worries me is the state of mind this other dwarf is in,” the leader
finally says. “See, since this is supposed to be somebody like ‘our’ Tarin,
but terribly insane…..he might be on a permanent berserker rage!”
”Shit,” mutter several of the guards, making warding signs and drawing
revolvers, halfway expecting a dwarf to come flying out of the shadows.
The leader of the guards explained to the puzzled looking Amazons.
”See, our Tarin used to be….different,” the leader sighs. “He used to
be on a holy mission to prove to the world that he was a dwarf, all dwarf,
and nothing but a dwarf by doing everything to excess that I’ve seen dwarves
do. Frankly, I considered him insane because he went into a berserker rage,
a state where he felt no pain and able to perform amazing feats of strength
and combat skill…..but in that state he couldn’t tell friend from foe.
I always hated to work with him because I feared my wife and children would
soon find out I died on a patrol or something due to ‘causes other than
hostile attack.’
”Then a few years ago, Tarin disappears for a few months.” The leader
continues. “Rumor was that somebody stabbed the dwarf in the back, while
he wasn’t looking. I hear that Master Rifts saved the dwarfs life, and
they become buddies. I also heard that Tarin also really took up dwarven
religion during his recovery. Whatever the case, he’s not the same any
more.”
“And thank God for that,” a guard says from the back as they reach Tarin’s
modest dwelling. A few minutes later, the ashen faced guards and Amazons
come back out, and spread word to kill Tarin’s twin on sight…..
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