From: tomscud@ruf.rice.edu (Thomas Reid Scudder)
Subject: Young William plays it safe...
Organization: Rice University
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 19:53:14 GMT

     Dougl was in his room, reading up on some of the more obscure laws of
Generica for a test the next day, when there was a knock at his door.  Hoping
to god that it wasn't yet another room search for banned paraphenalia (alcohol,
poison, evil or chaotic texts, more than ten magic items...), he got up and
opened the door.  Standing outside was a man of maybe two or three more years
than himself, clad in a worn suit of leather armor over which he wore a dark
brown body cloak.  The unshaven face, under its layer of freshly-acquired scars,
seemed vaguely familar...
     "Is that YOU, William?" said Dougl, shocked by the transformation.
     "Yes it is, cousin," said William.  "Life seems to have been somewhat
kinder to you than to me since we last parted.  So how goes your school,
anyway?"
     "All right.  I'm on probation right now, though, for getting into a fight
with Abdul, our Rameshander exchange student.  It seems that he took offense
at some offhand remarks I made about Rameshanders."
      "Did you win?"
      "Well, I gave him 2 black eyes and knocked out one of his teeth, and all
he managed to do was to sprain my left wrist, so I'd say i did," said Dougl,
a bit sheepishly, but with a certain pride in his eyes, too.
      "Good for you.  Still, you'd better watch out and make sure any other
fights you pick are outside school grounds, or at least unobserved..."
      Dougl shrugged.  "That's enough of school.  School is boring.  Tell me
about what you did.  Karl told me that you were up there in Uncle William's
army!  That must have been exciting.  I hope I can find as worthy a cause
when I graduate..."
      William snorted.  "Dougl, you still have a fair amount to learn of
the real world.  I've seen far more of fighting than I ever wish to see again,
but I fear that there isn't much other place for me now.  Oh well, you wish
to hear the tale of my days, eh?  Hmm... where to start...
      "I'm sure Karl has told you of my earlier adventures, and how I arrived
at Vascondy and came to be a part of Uncle William's "army".  So I suppose
I'll pick up the story where Karl left it.
      "You see, I'd attained a position of some importance in Uncle William's
army by that time, both by virtue of having brought my own troop of mercenaries
to the fight, and because we had had some success at battle, and, probably,
because Uncle William saw how loyal I was to him, even though I doubt if he
ever figured out who I really was.  I never worked up the courage to tell him,
either, and after he sold out to the Alasyrians, I no longer particularly cared
to.
      "When the Alasyrians invaded, we were pretty deeply split over who we
should support.  Uncle William was tired, I think, after all the time he had
fought the Baron, and he saw the Alasyrians and their offer to him as a real
chance at peace, under a power who would at least be better than the Baron, and
so he took their offer of a position of nobility, at least partially so that
he could temper their administration of Vascondy, and help out the masses he
once led.
      "But there were many among us who hated the thought of an Alasyrian
overlord sitting over us, some even more than the Baron.  I was the leader
of the group who decided to ally ourselves to the Baron, while his power held.
THAT was not an easy decision to make, I tell you, and it was a difficult thing
to discuss strategy with the same man who once had had an apple rested on my
head, for Uncle William to shoot off.  But I had to make my choice, and while
he may not have been the lesser of two evils, he certainly was the weaker.
So we went to his aid, the third or so of the great revolutionary army that
decided to throw in with our old enemy.
      "Others, of course, decided to follow neither my lead nor Uncle William's.
Many of our members returned to the woods, and resumed the random banditry
which they had engaged in before coming together under William of Tell's banner.
And that was my fate, too, eventually, when the Alasyrian hordes overwhelmed
our forces and those of the Baron, and cast down the Baron from his throne,
only to put another despot in his place.  So I remained with my band, bandits,
striking out against the Alasyrian patrols instead of those of the Baron,
until eventually we were caught.  The only way I escaped was to appeal to my
newly noble blood.  I revealed myself to Uncle William, and he managed to get
me pardoned.  My friend the mage, Percival, also had enough connections to
get himself free, and the two of us, exiled from Vascondy, decided to go our
separate ways.  He is now off in the distant east, wandering and selling
spells to pay his way.  I came back to Generica, to see you, and perhaps Karl
also, although he seems to be gone, and no one knows just when he will return.
And I now feel restless here, as this place reminds me too much, perhaps, of
how I once was, before I became involved in the revolution up north, and how
I probably will never be again.  So fare thee well, cousin Dougl, and perhaps
we shall meet again some day, when my restlessness has left me and I feel ready
to stop my wandering."
      William hugged Dougl warmly, before slipping back out the door, leaving
Dougl staring mutely after him for a few minutes before he shook his head and
returned to his task.
-- 
Tom Scudder                    tomscud@ruf.rice.edu
"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, a half pack of
cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."
"Hit it."
-The Blues Brothers