From: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Nicarra)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Callahan's chronicles: More on Nicarra's travels
Summary: story
Date: 7 Nov 92 16:54:18 GMT
Reply-To: lalford@fsu1.cc.fsu.edu
Organization: James Cook University

(When last seen, Nicarra was searching for Lythe, the green firelizard,
who had suddenly disappeared.)

Nicarra finally found the place that Lythe must have gone.  An old
trapdoor, partly obscured by a sack, with a hole in just large enough
for the lizard to slip through.  She opened the door.  "Wonder how many
grues one finds in this dungeon, she thought to herself.  "Only one way
to find out..."

The small shaky ladder into the darkness was quite short.  Nicarra
breathed a small sigh of relief when she reached the bottom.  Then she
noticed that not all the light she could see was coming from the room
above.  Some of it was coming from the somewhere further in.  "So much
for grues.  Thank heavens, I wasn't properly prepared for them anyway."
Nor did the trap door suddenly slam shut.

She waited until her eyes were adjusted to the gloom.  Then she quietly
made her way down the tunnel, toward the light.  She could hear water
dripping in the distance.  The tunnel was cool, and she shivered.  "Why
did that triple dratted lizard come down a hole like this?  Weird."

Minutes streched to ages as Nicarra continued through the tunnel.  The
light, which had been faint and flickering, was now strong and steady.
She still heard the water, dripping slowly, but was there something
else?  As she rounded the last corner, she could separate another noise,
that of a person quietly talking.

"Witches and heathens will not rule this night.  I have them now."

Nicarra rounded a last bend in the tunnel to spot a tall man, bent over
a stone table.  Lythe was on that table.  The lizard looked completely
limp.  Nicarra tryed a small mental command, but the firelizard made no
response.  Then Nicarra saw the fist-sized black gem, close to Lythe.

"Ye gods and goddesses, I don't know what it is, but that thing has
power.  Must have been what Lythe was after."  Nicarra risked a small
mental stab at the black gem, to see what more she could discover of it.
At her first touch, the tall man whirled around.

"Ha, I knew that if I could get the familiar, I would get the witch."

Nicarra realised that perhaps this was not a good night to be in
all-black outfit.  It was too late now, and besides, it did not seem
likely that she could convince this one of innocence.  Especially not
with Lythe there.

"Play it up to the hilt," thought Nicarra.  "Aye, you have summoned the
witch.  But now what wilt thou do with her?  A witch is not to be
trifled with."

"I plan not to trifle with anything.  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
live, and so thee and thy kind must die."

"Thou hast but one witch.  How thinkest you to get more?  Not all of
mine have familiars."

"Nay, but I have you and you will tell all, before this night is
through," said the man.

Nicarra felt a strong mental jab.  Pain raced through her mind.  The
source of the pain was the black gem, she could feel the man pull power
from it.  "How dare he think I a witch when he uses something like that!"

After the first mental shock, Nicarra started to fight back.  First, she
forced the pain to one side.  Then she began to fight for possesion of
the gem.  The man was strong though, very strong.

"Now tell me about thy coven, which meets here tonight," demanded the
man.

Nicarra, reminded of her allies close by separated her effort to two
parts.  One concentrated on keeping the pain at bay, while the other
searched for telepaths to help.  One by one, she found those who could
assist her, only asking to use some of their power, explanations to
follow.  "If this works, that is," she thought.

With the borrowed power, Nicarra used the gem to lash out at the man.
His concentration broke, he fell to the floor and Lythe revived.  "Grab 
the crystal and over to me," commanded Nicarra.

"The witches will still die this night, even if we must burn thy coven
to the ground."

"Think you on this, my friend.  A witch can use this crystal.  What dost
that make thou?"

Nicarra left the man on the floor, still stunned by the power of that
last mental blow.  She traveled swiftly back thorugh the tunnel, up and
into the house.  In the kitchen, she found the Callahans party, some still
shaken by other adventures that occured through the night.  

"I have a prize, though I don't know what it is.  And a tale to tell,
after giving my thanks to those who helped.  We also should send a party
down into the root cellar.  There is one there who should be watched
carefully."

But the party to the root cellar was too late, he was gone into the
night. Nicarra offered the black gem to any who could find its use.

Nicarra (email about the possiblities of the gem wwelcome)
-- 
Ross A. Alford
Department of Zoology                      Internet: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au
James Cook University                      Phone:    +61 77 81 4732
Townsville, Qld 4811 Australia