"Are you ready to come back now, Walf?"
Turning, Walf saw Logen standing behind him. "Yes," Walf sighed. "Yes, I am."
Grid: J-10
Logen and Walf were on their way back to the inn when they suddenly happened upon Alex, leaving the yellow castle.
"Alex!" said Logen, surprised. "What are you doing h- Are you- Are you alright?"
Alex looked skeptically at Logen, as he staggered to the side. "Do you I know? You know I? Do I know you know you you know know you?"
"Alex, it's me, Logen."
"Logen? Ah, Logen! Well, fancy meeting you here Mr. Logenianianian. Ha ha ha hahaha."
Walf glanced, worriedly at Logen as Alex continued. "Hey, say now. Have you met my poochy? Here poochy."
Ugrun was at Alex's side, but you could tell he was rather miffed by Alex's actions.
"What's gotten into you, Alex?" Walf said, concerned. "Logen?"
"What's gotten into me? Six pints of a crusader brewn grog. That's what."
"Don't worry Walf." Logen said. "He's alright. Just drunk."
"Drunk?"
"Yep. Alright Alex, snap out of it!" said Logen slapping Alex across the face with his hand. It was a bad decision. Suddenly Logen found himself being tackled by Ugrun. The great grey wolf had him pinned before he could react.
"Oww! What'd you do that for?" Alex recoiled from the blow, massaging his cheek.
"Ugrun, get off!" Walf shouted, trying to pull the "poochy" off Logen. Suddenly Alex noticed the tussle and finally snapped out of his stupor.
"Ugrun stop!"
The wolf withdrew and Logen leapt to his feet. "Tyco Alex, what are trying to do? Your pet just tried to kill me!"
"Ahhhah. Not so loud, Logen. Oh my head." Alex tried to sit down but slipped and landed with a jolt. "Oof! Ugrun isn't my pet, Logen. He is an animal you know. Oh, I'm sorry guys. I thought I could handle the first glass, but he just refilled it... and refilled it... and refilled it again."
"What? Who refilled it?" Logen asked. "And what were you doing getting drunk anyway? I thought you were trying to find out about your friends."
"Dordrot refilled it. Him and Barbod. And I did find out about Aros and Reno. They're alive and... well, right now their probably back at the Drullen Bell. It's great news really."
"Wait a minute. You mean all this time you were drinking yourself senseless with the king of the Bulls?"
"Yep. You know, he wasn't what I would have expected. Being a king and all. Not that that's a bad thing."
"And what about the lone ranger? Did you find out about him?"
"Nope. I uh, I didn't ask. Sorry."
"Ugh, the Lone Ranger could be anywhere. He might have left with your friends or be here with the Bulls. He might even be in Falcon land by now. I've heard he has strong ties to them."
"You actually met Barbod!" Walf said, alarmed. "He was one of the misfits."
"Oh that's right," said Alex "You wanted to meet them didn't you?"
"Well, I used to."
"Well, come on Alex." said Logen. "We'd better get you back to the inn."
"Wait!" said Walf, suddenly. "I forgot about Dale."
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But Dale was already long gone. The girl with his sword was moving quickly as she made her way away from the inner city and down into the parts where the damage caused by the war was still, terribly evident.
The people of Orion were working feverishly to repair the damage to their city. Already, much of the central sectors had been restored. But winter was fast approaching and it was evident to most that some parts of city would have to remain unrepared until the spring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, under the shade of a half collapsed building, Two men sat, peering out through the door less archway.
"Well, what do you think? Winter's coming on quick and we're still in danger of being discovered."
"I think we'd better get out of here. When the cavaliers find out that they've still got two Dragon Masters hiding in their city and robbing their citizens, it's gonna get pretty hot for us here."
"So we'd better leave, eh?"
"Yup. But I think we'd better do another raid first. You need a new sword an- Wait, I think I hear som'ne coming."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The little orphan girl had made good progress. She wasn't far now from where she was headed. There, she knew she could get a couple trigs for her find. However, just at that moment she found her way blocked by two large Dragon Masters.
"Well hello there little lady. Fine day fer a robbery aint it. And look, you've brought me a sword. Just what my buddy here was needin."
The girl turned to run but was stopped suddenly by the long arm the Dragon Master. "Now now missy," Said the one who's name was Brugs. "We can't have you running off and telling the sheriff about our little hideout, now can we?" The second man grabbed her hand and wrenched the sword away.
"Please sir," said the little girl. "I wouldn't tell nobody. Honest! I was only taking the sword to the beggars market, to get some food. What with the nights getting colder sir, and longer too. Please let me go. I wont tell nobody."
"Oh I believe you deary, but I'm afraid my friend here doesn't. Finnish her off, Grubs."
"With pleasure." And Grubs raised Reno's sword to deliver the blow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From inside the sword Dale gasped. He had been watching the events unfold, not sure what to do. He didn't want to reveal himself, but he wasn't about to let the little girl get run through. Not while he could help it.
Grub's thrust stopped short. For a moment a desperate struggle took place for the life of the orphan. "Not again!" Dale thought, straining to keep control of the blade.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Grubs? Finnish her!"
"I-I can't!"
"You nilly! Alright fine, I'll do it."
Dale watched in horror as Brugs drew his sword.
Dale had been a pacifist all his life. He would never kill someone. But this was different. It was a matter of life and death. And Dale had less then a second to make up his mind. A moment of truth and then...
Dale swung into action. Reno's sword was buried in Brug's chest before he even knew what hit him.
"Grubs, you- you've killed me." The Dragon Master was in shock.
"I didn't mean t-" But Grubs never finished. His buddy Brugs, lopped his head off out of revenge. The two men fell over... dead.
Let us stop for a moment and ponder the signiture...
Ok, enough of that!