From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Subject: Re: [KQ] Maleiu: [ScrRam->DrInn] Back To The Inn
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 05:15:15 GMT

CHARACTERS:  Kronquestors, 'Raelf, Kadrys.  With the time set, I am
assuming that those persons who sleep are sleeping.
TIME: After the events of week2part3 (two days after the riots, if
my count is corret) but also for the Kronquest, a mere five hours
after the riot.  Time is warping badly around our little Inn.
'Raelf is getting simultaneous headaches ;-)

= Eventually they all stood outside the Scrappy Ram--Maleiu, Kron, Colin, Thk
= (being held up by Maleiu and Colin), Fenris, HighFlyer, and Marcel Delacroix.
= The eastern sky was turning grey with pre-dawn light, and Kron suddenly let
= out a mighty yawn.  "Not as young as I used to be," he muttered.  "Let's move
= out," he said in a louder voice.

= 'Raelf?  You probably share a language or two with Marcel...maybe you can
= encounter him in the Inn tomorrow morning(a day or so ago, [DQ] time...)and
= have a chat...and I seem to recall Michael saying you wanted a look at Thk's
= hand...

[OK... pardon my interpolations]

On entering the Inn, at this incredibly early hour, there are still a
few who will help with the injured, but still very heavy lizard man.
Two of these are 'Raelf.

Colin sighs with relief as they take the weight, leading the groggy
reptilian to a table near the smaller fireplace.

"Fisssh.  Water.  Pleass."  the lizardman slurs, when he notices
Serena moving about cleaning the first of the tables for the early
morning shift.  She hurries to the back room, bringing out a large
empty bucket, a few basins, and some clean cloths for bandages.
A small bowl of fish broth follows in moments.

Malieu goes up to the desk.  Rowan LittleFair, somehow knowing,
has come in from the private quarters, and is preparing room
keys.  He takes the cash from the tired adventurers, and they
retire to their rooms, leaving Colin below helping Thk to clean
his injuries.  The two identical men are assisting, exchanging 
very few words.  After a while the lizard man waves him off
to bed.

"I musst eat fisshhh now.  You sssleep."

After a half hour, the lizard man begins to breathe in a stentorous
rasp, gill slits chaffering stickily, and he seems to be staring
blankly into the fire.  'Raelf, his voidsuit pulled down around his
waist in the warmth, nods to 'Raelf in the poncho.  The latter goes
up to the rooms, gently awakening Kron (and, accidentally, Marcel).

"Thk is having problems.  You're needed," he says, then steps back
as the door to Marcel's room opens and the CyberKnight steps out.

[ADMIN: For those of us who don't speak French, I will represent it
 herein with +" et "+ for your non-translation-requiring convenience.]

"'Allo, mon frere,"  'Raelf says, guiding him to a table and signalling
Serene to bring food and drink.  +"... welcome to the house of fun."+

Marcel is relieved to hear someone speaking a civilized tongue.
+"What is happening? You said something about the tall lizard?"+

+"Thk is ill.  Severe concussion, but he'll be fine.  Come to break
fast with me, I need to speak with you."+

They moved to a table.  'Raelf signaled Serene to bring bread and water.
As it arrived, he studied the garb of the stranger.

+"So, how does a knight of the CyberPope of Avignon, come to be in a world
of magic like this one?"+

+"I was fighting the filthy invaders, having destroyed most of the undead
scum with which they surrounded themselves.  We had gotten close, but
one of their stormers pulled out an Eternity Shard, and somehow called
up the vortex.  That's all I recall of it."+

+"You come from the quarantined places?  The TORG? ..."+  the discussion
became very quiet but intense (and the subject of a separate post).

Meanwhile, Kron has found his way to Thk at his table.  The huge
reptilian has become semi-conscious again.  He sees Kron approach.

Thk tries again to stand - enough of this foolish coddling, a warrior
does not yield to weakness - but then the room spun around him, and
he collapses back into the (dangerously creaking) chair.  Shudders and
spasms run over his scaly body.

'Raelf stands nearby, watching.  His gaze is thoughtful, his eyes
an abstract flicker of color as he stares at the injured Lizard Prince.

He turns to Kron, who is preparing a fresh bandage for the once more
leaking stump.

"Lizard man is dying.  Head, has bones into brain, blood goes where
not wanted, has poison in scratches on back, has rot growing on gills
where beer went, has rot-flesh growing up from stump along bone."

Kron scowls.  "I don't know a healer can fix that kind of a mess."

"Maybe.  I can fix things, he just more, how say, complex."

Kron looks dubiously at the kid standing before him.  Too young, can't
be more than twenty, naive.  Has the frame of a fighter, or a gymnast,
but he hasn't got a callous or a scar or a wrinkle anywhere on him.
Coddled for sure and certain.  Wide eyed innocent.  Except those eyes,
they look innocent enough, but there's something there, that looks a
lot more - he looks away, not sure he wants to see what was looking back.

"You save him if you can, we'll square the costs later.  Kill him and
you're a dead man."

'Raelf smiled.  "Maybe true, dude."

He turns and touches Thk on the shoulder, above the stump.

"Hey, wake up.  I talk to you needing."

Sssssss - what was in that beer? - oh, not beer.  Beer elemental.
Thk tries not to laugh - it hurts his throat and makes his gills itch.
He tries to focus his will to call on the Sea God, and the room spins
around him, and his stomach tries to crawl up out his mouth.  Sideways.
But someone is talking to him, sounds like waves on a beach.
"SSsssillith?" he asks, rolling his head - OW, don't DO that - to
look at the source of the voice.  A short yellow-furred mammal.  Lunch,
on a better day.  It is still talking.

"Lizard man.  You die if I not help, but might hurt, might die anyway."

Thk takes inventory of himself, as best as he can.  Very bad pain in head.
Stump hurting like fire.  Gills feel like breathing vinegar.  Horribly weak.
Yes, he was probably dying.  He has a moment of detached disappointment.
He has made too many promises to die now.  But this mammal might be lying
about helping.

"Ss.  Prove your power, mammal."

'Raelf looks, impatiently, around.  Kron had a number of small scratches
and injuries, left over from the battle at the Scrappy Ram.

"Pardon," he says, and reaches *fast*, and Kron's flinch back puts him
securely in the blond youth's grasp.  There is a momentary sense of heat,
of motion, of weightlessness and rigidity, and 'Raelf lets go and steps
back.  All the minor injuries, the scrapes, the cut below the left eye
from flying bits of sword, are gone.  No scars.  As if they were never
there.  The dead feeling of exhaustion is even lessened.  Kron tries to
decide if he should be angry and decides against it, this time.  He's
suddenly hungry.  'Raelf turns back to Thk.

"See.  I can do.  You know is danger, you more hard to fix, but
can do.  Not die, dude, but it hurt you like same."

"Schah-thak.  Pain is nothing to a warrior.  Try your magic."  He lets
his eyes close, not wanting to focus on the too-bright lights any more.

"I need room.  He maybe fight back, hurt someone.  Clear off."  The area
around the two is emptied of all but the chair Thk sits in, and the two
of them.  'Raelf sighs, gently, and regulates his breathing and focusses
his attention, breathe to the center, spiral in ki, extend ki out, focus.
He begins to flicker.  First his eyes, then suddenly his entire body,
are * * flame * deluge ** molten rock * whirlwind * spinning, faster and
faster, a somewhat human-like outline, reaches for Thk.

The lizard-man screams, a rattling hiss, and is engulfed by the vortex
of dissociated elements.  His body flashes, suddenly breaks apart into
more fire and water, air and earth.

---

Thk looks around himself.  He is on a seashore.  The sun is filtered
by the trees.  The air is hot and moist.  There is a strange creature,
looking something like a swamp-cougar, but with fewer legs and a more
humanoid body, yellow-furred, kneeling on the sand nearby.  It is
sculpting the sand, which is somehow staying where it is put.  He
realizes that he is standing on a pedestal, holding a very strange
pose, arms flexed and his body tensed.  He jumps down.

"S-CHA! You!  What are you doing?"  He is suddenly back on the pedestal.

"Hey, you moved.  Come on, I can't sculpt you right if you won't
hold still, man."  The creature's eyes swirl at him.

"SS. s." Thk snaps his teeth.  The creature looks at him impatiently.

"Look, Thk, if you don't hold the pose, I'll screw up the work, and you'll
never be able to win a contest again.  See, I have to put the hand back,
and the tail is too short, and the teeth would be blunt.  Besides, the
proportions are wrong.  You need longer legs."

Thk sighs, and resumes the strange pose, flexing hard.  "Better?" he
hisses.

"Yeah, I've almost got it.  You wanna keep the tats?"

"Of courssse.  They are marksss of rank and valor."

"Oh, wild."  The creature sprinkles colored sand over the statue, and
it arranges itself into the remembered patterns.

** YOU OUGHT TO ADJUST THE ENDOCRINES WHILE YOU ARE AT IT **  comes
a familiar voice from behind Thk.  A golden fish drifts past his head
and over the statue.  The cat-creature looks up, teeth bared in a snarl.

"As if I wanted help from the peanut gallery.  Look, you want to make
changes, you do it yourself.  I'm not gonna try to improve on perfection,"
and the creature steps back from the statue.  Thk tries to speak but
finds himself held motionless.

** NOT PERFECTION - HE HASN'T SENT ME MY SHIP WITH SAILORS YET. **

"I don't wanna hear it.  Not my job."

The golden fish swirls a fin, releasing a drop of water to fall on the statue.
It sinks in, not even leaving a damp spot on the sandy stone.

** THAT WILL DO FOR NOW **

It vanishes like a wave on the shore.  Thk suddenly finds himself able
to move again.  He looks down at the cat-creature.

"Now what?"

"I think it's done.  Get in"  ... the statue looms in his vision ...

---

The vortex flashes, suddenly splitting into two equal-sized masses, which
shape themselves to a seven-foot reptilian outline, then coalesce, in an
instant, into Thk and someone who looks just like him.  Thk, uninjured,
and with both hands, and ravenously hungry.

"Hey, not bad, I like it," says one of them, eyes flickering.  It suddenly
flashes again, and is replaced by the much shorter, blond human form.

"Are you hungry, cause I could eat a lot of fish,"  he says in the momentary
silence.  And grins.

[ADMIN: ALL these characters except Colin are used by permission, all
   appropriate copyrights are retained by their respective owners, etc.]