First published Winter Cloak 164
It was on such a night she started exploring the ship, trying to find out about the cargo it was holding. As she made her way through the dark, her heart in her throat, peering through the chinks of doors and listening at hatchways, she chanced upon one that was locked with a big iron padlock. Listening real hard she was certain noices came from down there. She could not make out what noices it was, but it had to be from some living thing.
She waited in the shadows the entire night, and in the morning, as she had almost fallen asleep, loud voices was heard approaching in her direction. Holding her breath, trying not to make any sound, she waited and watched as two of the sailors appeared, carrying a big cauldron between them. The sailors unlocked the hatch, and as it slowly was opened, revealing what was beneath it, the sprite fell to her knees, hid her face in her hands, and let the tears flow down her face...>
* * *
<Slaves! The ship was carrying slaves! Hundreds of gnomes chained together inside that dark hold. What loathsome destiny awaited them at their destination one could only imagine.
Upon hearing the sprite crying, the sailors instantly turned, drew their blades and rushed toward her. Brutally they pulled her out of her hiding-place and quickly chained her hands and feet. After throwing the contents of the cauldron into the hold, the sailors returned to the deck, tossing the helpless sprite between them.
"What! We have an intruder? On my ship?", the captain cried as the sprite was delivered to him in his quarters. A wicked smile started to play on his face, "So that is who that knight was looking for". The captain laughed. "Now let us see...what to do with such a tiny creature? Yes...that's it...Hang her from the yard-arm! And let the men have some fun with her". Laughing the captain waved his hand for the sailors to leave.
Bruised and battered the sprite was hangin there. Her arms not to be felt anymore after several days in the scorching sun, and as many nights in the beating rain. Her wings badly bruised as the sailors had amused themselves by picking her feathers off, one by one...>
* * *
<The sprite had lost count of the days by now. Fatigued and famished she was hanging from the yard-arm...barely conscious. Her once pretty wings now reduced to a few useless feathers from the sailors treatment. The days had turned to weeks when the ship sailed into the storm. And what storm...it was as if the gods of the ocean had decided to sink the mighty ship and forever send its evil to the bottom of the sea. The wind was howling, and one could not tell what was the rain pouring down and what was the ocean sweeping up at the deck. The ship was deserted, save one tiny sprite, left out to the mercy of the storm.
But no, there was mercy to be found at that ship...through swollen eyes the sprite saw a dark figure moving toward her with great strain, inch by inch against the wind. One of the sailors, more compassionate than the rest of the crew, had defied the weather to cut her loose, to at least temporarily save her from her dark fate. The sailor freed her legs with his knife, then moved to cut her down from the yard-arm. At the exact moment the knife cut through the rope, an enormous wave hit the ship and covered the deck with foamy sea water. The sailor fell over and dropped the sprite who at great speed slid down the deck and was washed over the side and into the dark waters.
The sprite managed to grab hold of a bundle of wood that was ripped from the side of the ship, and as she saw the ship disappear from her...there was nothing to do but pray to the grace of Kali...then await whatever was to come...>
* * *
<Someone must have prayed for the little sprite that night, for when the storm cleared she was still hanging on to that piece of wood, still keeping her head above the water. But how much longer could she. She was on the middle of the ocean, not able to swim, and her wings in such bad shape she could not even move them. Slowly the little powers she had left faded away, she did not think she would make it to the morning...
But when the sun started to set in the east she was still alive, and it was a beautiful sun...almost as big and bright as the one she remembered from her homelands. Peering toward the sun halfway up over the horizon, the sprite could see a black shadow against it...something moving in her direction with great speed, flying. The heart of the sprite started beating faster, was it? Could it be?
"Gwairhir!", yes it was Alexander's brave eagle. The giant eagle dived from the sky so the little sprite could grab onto it and climb up on its back, "You remembered me Gwairhir!" Holding onto the eagle as hard as she could, the sprite soon fell asleep exhausted, feeling safe for the first time since she left the docks of Moorgate.
When the sprite woke up, and she must have slept for many days, she was lying on the ground in a forest, the giant eagle next to her. She looked around and realized it was just outside the north gate, and a tear rolled from her eyes when she remembered the joy she had experienced here, sitting around the fire with her friends in the middle of the winter. "Home", said the sprite, "This is my home". The sprite kissed the eagle and watched it take off again, then turned and walked toward the gates, anxious to see them all again, and to feel the warm embrace of one particular knight...>
Bordelaise leaned over to Acctel and prodded him in the side, "Umm...you arent sleeping are you? Well, anyway, you asked and that is what happened during the months I was away". A sigh was heard coming from Bordelaise, "I never did find my sisters though, and I so wish to see them"
* * *
Acctel wakes up "Me sleeping?...no....." he grins at Bordelaise and asks if she could tell him the end of the story.