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Old 01-13-2003, 04:16 PM   #20
Child of the 7th Age
Spirit of the Lonely Star
 
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Sting

Pettygast's donkey had run fiercely for 1.3 leagues and had then slowed down to his normal plodding pace. In fact, he now dragged his feet even more than he usually did. Hummus placed one hoof in front of the other quite deliberately, as if she was determined to bear the wizard as slowly as possible. Pettygast sighed and wondered if the dumb creature was somehow in league with the Shadow. He wouldn't put anything past the beast.

Then the great headache came, like an arrow through the dark, and with it a piercing vision of all that was happening. They were squabbing. The silly fools at the meeting were squabbling with each other. He expected them to come to blows at any second.

Ah, no, this was not the way. Could they not hear the little cups and broken chair legs crying? Reassemble us. Make us whole again. Burning that poor Bow would achieve nothing, and even kiling the Orcs would do but half a job. The Bow was but one tiny part of a magical whole, and even if it should perish, the broomsticks and spoons and matchsticks would unite, and again put forth their ceaseless clamor. Every single splinter must be laid bare and rescued.

Drastic situations call for drastic means. Pettygast knew he really shouldn't do what he was considering doing. This was one of those matters carefully spelled out in the fine print of his contract.

If Fruit-Giver saw this, or, even worse, Hurler of Lightning Bolts, he would be in hot water. But the Mighty were far away in the Place beyond the Great Rift and the Bent Seas which no one can get to but where everyone wants to go. What did they know of the perils that he faced out here in the darkness?

As a feeling of frustration theatened to overcome him, he reached for his trusted sapling and sat down on top of it, bidding his donkey Hummus do the same. Then he told the staff to lift off into the air, with the speed and power of a great eagle. If it ran true and straight, he would be there in but a few moments. The green sapling took off true and straight in the exact opposite direction that he had told it to go.

[ January 14, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]
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