| "How unfortunate!"
he says. "I must take the high road."
The two of you bid each other farewell and start along your respective paths. However, it's not long before you hear a rumble from above. You climb the hillside and join the high road. You see that there has been a landslide. The knight, your former companion of just a moment ago, lies almost entirely buried beneath the rubble. "Don't bother digging me out, I'm done for," the knight sighs with his dying breath. Then he closes his eyes and his body becomes still. "Alas!" you cry. "He is gone!" Moved nearly to tears, you rise and turn away. "Booby-trap!" You nearly jump out of your skin. "I should have known, Goofdaln warned me!" the knight sighs. It turns out he had another dying breath. The knight closes his eyes and lies perfectly still. You don't want to be tricked again, so you wait a moment. He doesn't move. You get up slowly and walk away. "Do you want my cloak?" the knight calls. "What?" You turn around. He's holding his cloak, neatly folded. It's a nice blue color but has a strange curving emblem on it, and above the emblem there is a name. "N-I-K-E," you say. "Is that your name?" "Er, no," he says. "Your kingdom then?" "Look, do you want the cloak or not? It's got magical powers." "Like what?" "Well, it can be washed in cold water without shrinking." "Anything else?" "Bullet proof. Not much call for that these days, being the Dark Ages and all that -- but still, you never know." You know he's not feeling his best, so you take his cloak. He immediately gasps, convulses, shuts his eyes, and perishes (maybe). |