"I'm going to wait until someone comes out," Chris muttered, staring at the stream not far from the hut.
For once, his conscious was silent. And Chris breathed a sigh of relief.
I'm just being nice.
"Well, you're not. It's because of you I'm here."
Someone's coming so you might want to stop talking to yourself.
Chris opened his mouth to reply. Then he heard footstpes through the underbrush and someone appeared in the clearing around the stream.
Chris jumped out from behind the tree he was hiding behind. "Hello?"
Within sceonds he was trapped in someone's arms and there was a blade pressing into his neck.
"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" Sam asked.
"I'm just a wandering minstrel. I need somewhere to stay and some food," Chris hastily explained, thanking his lucky stars he had made up an excuse before he had started on this damn journey. And was wearing simple garb- brown woolen trousers, a coarse brown tunic.
Sam released him. "Sorry. My friends and I were attacked yesterday. You gotta be careful, you know, with all of these damn mauraders running around nowadays."
Chris rubbed his neck and turned to look at Sam. "Yeah, I understand."
"So, where are you headed, Bard?"
"My name's Chris," he told her. "Nowhere in particular. I was just wandering."
Sam looked at him with her dark blue eyes, taking in his appearence. He looked elf-ish, or at least what she thought an elf would look like. He was short, with spiky black hair and deep brown eyes that glinted with a mechievous light. "Would you like to stay with us for a few days? We could use some entertainment."
"Who's us?" Chris asked, even though he knew who they were.
"My friends and some people we picked up last night. I was trying to steal from two of them we were kidnapped by those bandits. Two other guys had been kidnapped earlier."
"Sure you have enough room?"
"We can make it." Sam's eyes twinkled. The hut was under an illusion spell that had been placed my her grandmother. It was actually a sall castle, with more than enough room for their visitors.***
"Who are you?" Willow asked Josh, as she handed him a cup of steaming tea.
"Um... uh..." Josh stumbled over his words. He hadn't been prepared for people questioning him about who he was.
"He's the king," Kaylyn muttered.
"Really?" Willow asked. "What are you doing outside of your castle? And with no guards?"
"I'm on a quest," Josh told her.
"What for?"
"Well, I've told everyone it's to find a bride, but really it's to find out if the rumors are true and I do have a sister."
"What if they are true?"
"Then I want to take her back to the castle and hope she can rule. I don't want to anymore."
"Why not?"
"I don't have time to do what I like, painting," Josh told her.
Willow nodded her head, understanding perfectly. She was about to ask Josh another question when she heard a bloodcurling scream coming from the hall.
Willow and Josh rushed out to find Lance and Justin staring at Nyx. The great black cat was sitting in the middle of the hallway, lickingh her chops while staring intently at Lance and Justin.
"Nyx!" Willow said. "Don't scare them like that. You know that's not nice." Nyx looked at her and yawned, then looked back at Justin and Lance. "Go find Sam," Willow told her.
With that, Nyx smirked at the two men and sauntered off, heading out the open doors in the hall.
"Don't mind Nyx. She's really a push over, until you mess with Sam. Then she gets mad. But she won't hurt you." Willow looked at Lance and Justin. "She was just playing with you."
"She gave me a heart attack," Justin said, placing his hand over his chest. "I walked out of my room and saw her standing there with Lance in front of her, slwoly backing away, and I just screamed."
Willow looked at Josh and they started laughing. "Yeah, we know," Josh said. "We heard you."
"You scream like a girl," Lance told him, laughing along with Willow and Josh.
"I do not," Justin pouted.
"Hey, that's an insult to girls," Willow exclaimed. "I don't even scream like that."
"What's going on out here?" Joey asked, walking out of his room.
"Sam's cat frightened them," Willow explained, waving at Lance and Justin.
"Who's Sam?" Lance asked.
"The girl who was with you last night."
"There were two of them."
"The other one," Kaylyn said, walking out of the kitchen and into the hall.
"I wanted to talk to you and the other one, Sam, I supose," Justin began, glaring at Kaylyn. "What the hell were you doing last night, trying to rob us?"
"Trying to rob you," Kaylyn told him.
"What's your name?" Joey asked. "We're going to put you in jail."
"You should be glad we were there last night," Kaylyn told him, her brown eyes turning gold with anger. "We got your asses out of that dungeon."
"We would have found a way out."
"Sure," Willow mocked. "How? With what tools? How would you have gotten past the guys? None of you even realized that there was an illusion spell on the place."
"Speaking of illusion spells, is that what you have on this place?" Lance asked, trying to stop the fighting.
"Yes." Willow looked at him. "Sam's grandmother placed it on the castle for reasons unknown. It's lasted a long time."
"She must have been a powerful woman. Is she dead now?"
"Yes, Willow said. "Come, I think we cold all use breakfast now."***
"So, what are you doing out here?" Chris asked.
"I came to get some water and to get some flowers for my grandmother's grave." Sam gathered a handful of wild violets growing on the bank of the stream.
"I'm sorry about her death. Was it recent?"
Sam shook her head. "Four years ago."
"And you still place flowers on her grave? You must really have loved her."
"Yes, I did. She wasn't my real grandmother, but she raised me like I was her own chid from the time I was five. She taught me all she knew, although I didn't pick up on all the herbal stuff she taught me." Sam laughed. "That was so boring. She told me I had a great destiny. And at times I'd catch her looking at me with sorrow in her eyes. She loved me, too." Sam blinked her eyes before an ocean of the tears that had built up could escape. "I think I'd be a disappointment to her if she could see me now."
Oh, that's it Chris. She thinks she's a disappointment. If things aren't put right soon, I'll drive you crazy.
"You already do," Chris mumbled under his breath.
Sam looked at him. "Did you say something?"
"I don't think you'd be a disappointment to anyone." Chris smiled at her. "Do you have any pixies around here? I love pixies. They're so much fun to play with."
Sam looked at him with a strange statement, then laughed. "Yeah, the forest is full of them. And fairies, leprechans, trolls- watch out for them, they're nasty- and all sorts of creatures."
Chris' eyes got big. "Do you have dragons? Please say you do. I've always wanted to see a dragon."
Sam shook her head. "Nope, sorry. I don't know of any dragons in the forest."
Chris pouted. "I wanted to see one. I'm gonna see one. If it's the last thing, I do, I'm gonna see a dragon."
Don't plan on seeing a dragon before this is corrected.
But if I see one while I'm correcting it, everythingll be ok, Chris told his mind.
Chapter Seven
The Quest Index