Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!reuter.cse.ogi.edu!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pipex!uunet!not-for-mail From: guido@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Guido Roessling) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: STORY: Qelrik part 53 Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc Date: 21 Nov 1994 12:47:56 -0500 Organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA Lines: 116 Sender: smm@uunet.uu.net Approved: smm@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <3aqmgc$l97@rodan.UU.NET> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Gernodt and Gladriel ==================== Sitting quietly on the stonefloor next to the mysterious woman, Gernodt kept one watchful, glaring eye fixed on the orc standing guard. Even though Gernodt did not say a single word or even frown at him, this stare was enough to completely unnerve the orc, so that he turned away after a while. He obviously was not bereft of all common sense, though, since he took care to put some distance between himself and the bars of the door, so that he now was out of Gernodt's reach. With a grin that was made quite hideous by his scarred face tissue, Gernodt turned his attention on the unconscious beauty lying next to him, watching for any sign of her awakening. A short while later, or at least that was the way it seemed to Gernodt, he suddenly came wide awake again. It seemed he had nodded off for a while, and judging by what his time sense as well as his stomach told him, it must now have been afternoon at least, so that he should have slept several hours. It seemed that this had not made any difference, though, since a quick glance showed him that he was still sitting in the same position, with his back turned to the gate - probably the orc guard had not even noticed that he had been sleeping the whole time... Now, what had been the reason for his awakening? He had long prided himself on his extremely light sleep - although there had also been times when he had heartily cursed this "gift", especially when sleepin in a forest. It had saved his life at least once, at the time when Qelrik had finally caught up with him and thrown the fireball at him and his party, annihilating his comrades and cruelly scarring Gernodt; but it had also been very often the reason for irritation - like the several dozen times when he had slept in a forest he didn't know for the first time, and awaken at the sound of some owl hooting or something similar. In fact, this gift of a sorts had also nearly cost him his life once, albeit only indirectly, when he had been in a city and had not managed to get more than 5 minutes of sleep for about three days due to the amount of noises coming up steadily from the streets. This had resulted in a certain lack of concentration the following day, and a sluggishness that nearly killed him when he was then set upon by some brigands. From that day on he had taken care not to sleep in cities for too long... and now he had been awake for more than two whole days, and it seemed that this had finally caught up with him, as well. Perhaps, he slowly reflected, perhaps it had really been good that he had fallen asleep - he now felt refreshed and, while still not completely his old self, was quite ready to take up any challenge that would show. Wrenching his mind back to the reason for awakening, he remembered hearing a low groan. like someone in pain, or someone just awakening from an unconscious- ness caused by a hard blow to the head. At the same time, the sound came again, this time definitely from the woman lying near him. She stirred a little, and Gernodt carefully stroked the hair out of her face, softly touching her cheek. He pondered whether he should stay at her side while she awakened, or whether that would be too much of a shock at that time - who knew how she might react to see his ruined face on awakening? In the end, however, he decided to stay nearby, and softly whispered to her. "Are you awake? Don't open your eyes... You were caught by some orcs, and are now in one of their prison cells. Don't worry, I do not intend to stay here for long, and I won't leave you behind. But I think it is best if you try to rest for a while more, and keep your eyes closed so that the orcs don't know you are awake and take you to some questioning... And, if you open your eyes, don't be afraid when you see me. I'm a normal human being, just a person who has had several bad runs of luck in his life, and I am no monster." Tilting his head a little to one side, Gernodt noted that the guard seemingly had not heard anything, which was as it should be, of course. The woman had obviously either heard and understood what he had said, or she had simply been too exhausted - she went limp again and started breathing softly. It seemed obvious that she was either asleep, starting to fall asleep or a very accomplished actor. With a slight groan, Gernodt started working carefully on the small chunk of wall still hanging on his handcuff. *************************************************************************** This story is a collaboration of seven people: one German, two Canadians and four Americans. Comments about particular characters should be forwarded to their character's "owners": Finn Ambrose - Sheryl Ann Galchutt* - fi48@sol.acs.unt.edu Gernodt - Guido Roessling - dida@pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Dahlarin - Brent Hughes - bhughes@student.business.uwo.ca Kyle - J.E. Mason - ** no current mail address ** Fox - Barbara French - bcfrench@mailbox.syr.edu Will appear in future chapters: Gladrial - Jennifer Immel - bhughes@julian.uwo.ca Sir Percy - Bret Rudnick - rudnick@cfatrw.harvard.edu If you have WWW access, you can also read the chapters there. The site is http://rbhp62.rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~guido/qelrik.html ************************************************************************** ************************************************************************** Legal stuff about Qelrik All characters contained in this story are the sole and exclusive property of their authors. They are the copyrighted property of the authors, and may not be used for any reason without the express written permission of the authors. Qelrik is (c) 1993, 1994 Guido Resszling, Brent G. Hughes, John E. Mason, Barbara C. French, Jennifer Immel, and Bret Ryan Rudnick. Gernodt T'Slorung -- Guido Roessling Dahlarin -- Brent G. Hughes Growler --