Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!gatech!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!not-for-mail From: Guido Roessling Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: STORY: Qelrik part 79 Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc Date: 24 Jul 1995 09:45:50 -0400 Organization: TU Darmstadt Lines: 168 Sender: smm@uunet.uu.net Approved: smm@uunet.uu.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <3v086e$ga7@rodan.UU.NET> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------------------14758493113315795521570944601 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii *** Check out the Qelrik WWW Page at http://www.pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/dida/qelrik.html *** ---------------------------------14758493113315795521570944601 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waiting ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You have some strange friends," Gernodt remarked, watching the bright spectacle of Percy disappearing into the corridors. Fox snorted softly under her breath and sat against a wall. She glanced up at him, regarding him with one eye. "One thing about me which doesn't change," she said sourly. Gernodt set down Kyle carefully, his leg obviously troubling him more than he would let on. The boy stirred slightly and moaned, then seemed to slip more deeply into unconsciousness. Dahlarin sighed and leaned against a wall. Heavy black rings smudged under his eyes. "I don't know about staying here," the mage said dubiously. The panther padded near him, looking back the way they had come and flicking her tail. "I don't see what damned choice we have," Fox retorted. "I'm tired, I'm hungry and my face hurts. I'd rather throw in my lot with this Percy fellow. He seems honest enough." She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. For several minutes, they waited in silence. Fox looked asleep, but her head was tipped slightly with her hair brushed away from one softly pointed ear, in an attitude of listening. Gernodt shifted his attention from where they had come to where the strange Sir Percy had disappeared. "I don't trust him," Gernodt muttered at last. "You strike me as the type who wouldn't trust his own grandmother," Fox snapped irritably, still not opening her eyes. "His aura is clear. He's honest. And I wouldn't trust my grandmother, either, if I ever knew who she was." Gernodt sat down next to Kyle with great difficulty and leaned against the rock wall. "I'm afraid to close my eyes," he muttered. "I know how you feel," Dahlarin said softly. He fingered the edge of his sleeve nervously. "I'm afraid to sit down. I'd fall asleep right there, and you wouldn't be able to move me for hours." Fox opened her pale eyes and gently touched the cut on her face. Her neck was sticky with blood. The gash had stopped bleeding but the cut was not closed correctly. "I hope one of you or friend Percy can do a neat stitch," she murmured. "I have some healing talents," Gernodt told her. "Small cut like that shouldn't be a problem." Fox smiled grimly. "Don't waste them on me. Use your strength for the boy," she said, his name suddenly slipping from her memory. She eyed the blood caking Gernodt's leg. "And yourself." Gernodt shook his head. "It's not a large wound. It won't take much of any trouble." "I'm not being noble," Fox argued. "If your healing uses magic, you'd probably be wasting your time. Because of my . . . nature, my body isn't easily affected by magic, for ill or, unfortunately, for good. Only particular types of healing magic help, and I'm afraid you probably don't have it. Such healing magic I require is of a very specialized order." She shrugged. "If you don't have silk thread for stitching, I have some in my saddlebags. I'll have to go after my horse after I get something to eat, anyway." "You're not going back out there!" Dahlarin exclaimed. "Everything I own is in those saddlebags," Fox said. "I'm not leaving it out there. It's still back there where I found Finn." "You still haven't told us where Finn is," Gernodt muttered. "You know where Finn is?" Dahlarin asked with quiet urgency. Fox closed her eyes painfully. "Unfortunately, yes. She's gone. I allowed it to happen." "What do you mean? Where is she? Where did she go?" Dahlarin demanded. Gernodt's wide brow furrowed, creasing his scarred skin. "I found her. I'd been following her for a day --" "Why? Do you know her?" "Not until last night. I assure you I meant her no harm. I wanted to help her, protect her." Fox waved one hand in dismissal. "It's too complex to explain right now. I got here, and she was preparing to find where you had been taken." Her face tightened. "Until Qelrik showed up, that is--" "Qelrik!" Dahlarin cried. Gernodt was struck speechless. "He was here?" Fox nodded miserably. "He was. Finn tried to attack him, but he'd thrown a shield between him and her. I tried, and he threw some strange spell around me to keep me where I was. But I got out while he was distracted with Finn." She opened her eyes, and frowned. "It had strange energy, and was like a double spiral --" "I know the spell you're referring to. How in the world did you get out of it?" Dahlarin frowned. "I went over it." She smiled grimly. "I'm not without resources." "So we've seen. Go on." Gernodt urged. "He began . . . drawing out her energy. Pulling out her life-force." She shuddered a little. "She was withering before my very eyes. I had to do something, so I attacked." She sighed. "Unfortunately, he reacted too quickly, and instead of beheading him as I'd intended, I only managed to score a gash on his side. I lost the surprise, the advantage. He used it against me. By the time I realized what was happening, he had managed to draw almost all of Finn's energy and he . . . gathered it all and threw it at me." "By the Gods!" Dahlarin was thunderstruck, eyes wide. "You survived that?" "Well, you aren't the only one who was surprised," Fox said weakly. "I told you I wasn't much affected by magic, but it wasn't . . . entirely magic. Qelrik was surprised, too . . . but not more than me. It threw me the entire length of the clearing. I got up, and --" Dahlarin was shaking his head in disbelief. "You shouldn't even be corporeal, after that spell, much less rising after it," he murmured, as much to himself as to Fox. "You should be a pile of ash." "I got up," Fox said with a touch of impatience, "and before I could reach them, he'd taken her. He took her." She looked bleak. "And I was helpless to stop him." "You should be ashes. By all rights, you should be helpless to anything, particularly a broom and dust-pan," Dahlarin said dryly. "Did he say anyth--" "What ho, all!" a cheerful voice suddenly shouted from the distance. Tuck's on the boil. More than enough for a proper bean-feast, I daresay. Then we'll see about giving you a brush-up and making sure all your gubbins are in place, what? Come straight through -- but mind you, don't step on the Newts!" "Bugger the damned Newts," Fox muttered under her breath, as she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet and headed down the corridor. "'Bean-feast'?" she heard Gernodt mutter behind her. "And what in all hell is a gubbin?" ---------------------------------14758493113315795521570944601--