"Keep you guard up we have to get though. Keep an eye out for anything weird."
"Like that?" One of the guards reply.
In front of them stands a ... it looks like a block of beautiful marble, sparkling like the stars. On top of this strange monolith, sunning itself is some sort of fae.
"What the? It's a stupid faerie! Move out of the way."
The fae leaps down from the monolith. One of the guard shutter. The fae's wings are bat-like and on her head is a pair of horns. The guard is almost sure its demonic.
He is positive of� this as with a wave of her hand he is hurled 20 feet away.
"DAMN! Attack!"
Two more guards charge forward. The fae dodges behind the monolith. As the guards approach the monolith topples over, knocking two of them out.� The monolith straightens itself and levitates one foot off the ground and starts rotating.
"Oh shit."
The battle was not bloody but it was brutal. Two individuals come out off the woods.� An assassin and his assistant.
The fae smiles. A face appears in the monolith and it smiles.
"Well done kids. Colt," the assassin speaks to his assisstant "take these two back to the ranch."
"Yes, Sir."
**********
On the other side of the forest a convoy rushes to Daharahn.
"Did you hear that?"
"Shut up and keep riding."
They ride as if their lives depend on it. The suddenly they stop, that is to say the horses and the wagon stop. The fly off. They turn around to see an army of pixies.
"What? What do you fairies want?"
"What do we want? That's rich. What we want is some quiet. That neurotic king's forces have been tramping through the woods disturbing everything. The elves are ignoring you but the changelings and us commoner fae are not. This is getting tedious. Family, SHOOT THEM!
�
***********
"Jordie?"
"Yeah."
"Remind me to hurt your father and Changeling when I see them later."
"Ok."
I know Grandfather Coyote finds this funny. A coyote babysitting wolf cubs. Well I hope they learn something. Trey is pulling at my clothes.
"What is it little stubborn one?"
Trey point up to a tree. I see a whole lot of the kings guards tied to it.
"Brother Oak. You seem to have a human infestation."
"Hey you? Cut us free."
"What do we say boys?"
"How much?" They all reply.
"Come one, We don't have any money."
"Then you don't get untied. Come on boys. Your father would be proud."
I lead the boys back to there home. When the king hears about what happen to him, I hope he tells one of the kingdom bards. I would love to hear what happen too.
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It had taken him days, but Lord Qintahr, High Druid of Eryn Lasgalen, was sure that he had almost completed his endeavor.
� Bent low over the work desk in his home, Qintahr manipulated a bright-red, gleaming stone, polished so that� it could be mistaken for a jewel from afar.
Gold filigree bordered its oval shape, and it reflected the light in an odd�way.
After he had awakened from his long slumber, the first thing he had done was to return to the Forest Artemesia to report to Kahl Methwyn, the ancient Vampyre Lord for whom he acted as Warder.� Things were due for a change, and Qintahr knew he should waste no time in the telling.
He had forgotten that the forest lay in ruins.
Seeing the huge, blasted crater where once stood the ominous and menacing Fortress Methwyn, more memories had flooded into his mind.� In a panic, he had followed the gargantuan trench that led from the crater straight to what was� once his sacred grove ? now nothing more than desolation and ruin.
� Kahl was nowhere to be seen, and he could not�"sense" the Artemesian Patriarch anywhere.
Vaguely, Qintahr recalled that his only sure method of contacting Kahl had been the Messenger Stone which he had
worn 'round his neck, a blood-red polished stone which had allowed for instant communication between he and the Master.
Unfortunately, Qintahr also recalled having destroyed the thing not long before the siege at the Bone Castle, and now he was toiling away, trying desperately to
somehow recreate it.
The Messenger Stone had been crafted from an Artemesian mineral, of that he was certain, and it had taken him two
weeks to find one that seemed to have the same properties.� Now, leaning over the work desk, he thought that he might� have completed it.� He held it up to the light,
proud of his accomplishment.
Now, for the test, he thought to himself.
Placing the stone around his neck, Qintahr slowly traced its form with his fingers, concentrating the way he
always had.� He could feel his mind, his thoughts, reach out,
out, traveling further and further away from his body...
...for nothing.� Kahlanth was nowhere to be found ? not on this plane, anyway, nor any others nearby.� The Messenger� Stone should be able to connect the
thoughts of any two individuals, no matter how far separated, but he came away with� no contact at all.� Could Kahlanth actually be dead?� The thought was unsettling, but not altogether unpleasant.� There had always been a certain level of animosity within the Druid, from having to serve a creature like Kahl.� Still, his duty required him to exhaust all channels to find him.
*�� *�� *�� *�� *��
*
"Are you coming to bed?" Stormdancer asked, looking at Qintahr questioningly.�
The Druid had prepared himself for slumber almost an hour ago, but something had
been tugging at his consciousness for longer than that, and it was driving� him crazy.� How could he sleep with that nagging "buzz" constantly going in the back of his head?
"Yes..." he began, "In a moment."� Stormdancer rolled her eyes, and heaved a huge sigh.
" 'In a moment, in a moment..." Always this from you, and yet a moment in your mind is an eternity in mine!� Have��� you even
given thought to our wedding yet?"
Qintahr turned to gaze upon his betrothed, surprised at her vehemence.
Their wedding was scheduled sometime in the near future, he knew, and things had gotten very hectic here in the Courts.
Surely, she understood that?
Seeing his face, Stormdancer gave a great, exasperated breath and turned over.� "Never mind!� I can see you have�other
things occupying your thoughts. Come to
bed when you're ready."
Qintahr turned back to gaze out the window of his home.� The moon, thin and crescent shaped, seemed weak and
sickly.� It had always seemed such a grand and glorious sight
to him, but now, ever since the siege at the Bone Castle, he could no longer find anything more
appealing about the moon than anything else in Adonia's glories...�
Had the Hunter forsaken him?� The moon was his icon.
Questions aplenty, and no answers forthcoming.� With a heavy sigh, he adjourned to sleep.
Quietly, softly, after the betrothed couple's breathing became a heavy, rythimic pattern, a tiny figure alit from a shadowed corner of the room
and flitted out the
window, traveling deep into the elven forest, headed straight for the
Tow'land area.
*�� *�� *�� *�� *��
*
The fortress stood in gleaming, polished moonlight ? a towering, menacing monument to an ancient evil that defied human understanding.� The green light of Artemesia�fs moon cascaded down upon the tops of the trees, which hungrily devoured the light of all wholesome traces, leaving sickly shadow to touch the ground.� The Breeze That Never Changed moved his hair, and Qintahr quickly caught his breath.� Strange bat-like things seemed to swarm in the night sky.
What are those? he thought wonderingly. There should be no animal life here.
All at once, a rumbling began in the ground, and Qintahr watched in shock as the great Fortress Methwyn uprooted itself.� He quickly moved for more stable footing, but as abruptly as it began, the heaving of the earth stopped.� The fortress began to shrink, compress, and its dark frame collapsed in upon itself, until the figure of a tall, cloaked man walked before him.
"It's about time," Kahlanth Methwyn said.� "Some Warder you turned out to be."
"Where are we," Qintahr asked.� "This is not Artemesia.� The Great Forest lay in ruin, and the castle is gone."
"Yes, well..." the Vampyre Lord replied. "Much has changed.� As best as I can figure, we are in the Dreaming ? or at least, a dark corner of it."� He stretched his hand, and the trees parted for him, revealing a shining city off in the distance.� "They call that place Kadath," he said, "And there in the distance, are the Mountains of Madness.� Those creatures flying above us are called nightgaunts."
"I don't understand," Qintahr said.
"You're not meant to.� We trespass upon Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.� The Daemon Sultan will be sending his Mighty Messenger for me soon, and I intend to be far-gone before that happens.� That means that YOU have a task."
"I seem to be the popular choice for tasks these days," the Druid replied irritably.� "First Maeve, and now you."
"Maeve?� You do not mean...?"
"No," Qintahr replied, "I mean the Faerie Queen.� She has geased me to perform a duty regarding our brothers in the Templars."
"Ah!" replied Kahl, "Then you are in luck, for I, too, require you to have dealings with them.� You may be able to accomplish both tasks at the same time."
"Oh, so? What would you have me do then?"
Qintahr listened as Kahl detailed his plan of how he could escape the Dreamlands, and the druid could not help but smile at the cleverness of the plan.� What seemed like hours later, the druid finally presented his questions.
"Will not Sean Carlton and King Ewen suspect something?"
"Probably, but I trust your ability to remain an enigma.� The
bottom line is that I must get out of here, and this is the only way to do it.� The Templars will forgive us the deception you must do ? and if not, well, they can take their grievances
to me.
"It really is for the good all concerned, Qintahr," he finished.
"Aye, that," the druid replied, but how will this affect the balance, he silently finished.� His dreams were troubled for the rest of the night.
�
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