Princess and Gryphon- A summary of the story so far

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Jul 01, 2001 9:54 am

Well, I'm defying the aliens that ate Timmerryn by turning up as Metrobius. Here, finally, is the next P & G instalment:The werewolf woman re-entered the room as Jon and the Princess were finishing their meal.
"How was it?" she asked. "Did you enjoy the venison?"
"Very much, thank you," said the Princess and
"Please, sir, I want some more!" said Jon the Magnificent, who watched a few too many magic stories than was really suitable for his age.
"It's really good of you to let us stay with you," the Princess said.
"It's no problem. I'm glad to have you here," the werewolf replied. "I couldn't stand to think of you besieged in your tower by that horrible Prince. We beasts despise Princes, you know. I have never heard of one who was kind to beasts, not ever!"
"They all hate my art too," said the Princess. "They're such a bunch of prudes."
"Why? What is your art about?" the werewolf asked curiously.
"It often has..um..liasons between men and beasts," the Princess said cautiously. She wasn't sure if the werewolf woman would approve.
"It's really rude, Miss Werewolf!" put in Jon. "She put it up on our village for a whole week and there was a werewolf lady in it just like you, and she pounced on this man and they bonked! And they were laughing too."
"Really?" asked the werewolf woman with interest. "Would you draw one of your artworks for me, Princess?"
So the Princess drew and the werewolf watched and Jon peered over their shoulders and exclaimed about how brilliantly naughty it all was.
The werewolf put her new picture up on the wall. "Hrra!" she said. "I would love to meet a man like him in the woods! Mostly we just get these runty ugly little bandits and even uglier big fat merchants in litters. The wolves are a bit better looking, but they're all so rigid. They're afraid to be seen with me in case their pack leader thinks they're breeding. They're not allowed to, you know. It's very 'yes sir, no sir, let me lick your muzzle sir' with wolves. And I can't even chat to the pack leader without the alpha female smelling something. I hope, if our mission to the King succeeds, that werewolves will be able to safely live with humans."
"Who else will be coming?" asked the Princess.
"You, me, Jon here, your friend the selkie - though he'll have to wear tinted spectacles to hide his eyes - and a vampire who I've heard is very diplomatic. He once prevented a war between two bat tribes over a nesting cave."
"What about my friend, Sir Gryphon?" the Princess wanted to know. "Surely he should come."
"He may follow us, but it's not safe for him to be seen with us. It's as we were saying at the meeting - we may be able to pass as human when we're with you, but humans are so afraid of wild beasts that they'll try to shoot him on sight, and us too, if they suspect us."
"There's a bunch of Princes who come from around here who think I'm a sorceress," the Princess recalled. "They were afraid of me and they left Sir Gryphon alone when I told them to."
"They may have been afraid of you, where was it? On a beach where they had been playing cricket, where they were only a few, but I can promise you, get them up on a horse out of harm's way and put an angry mob at their back and they'll have you burned for witchcraft. I've seen this happen," said the werewolf soberly. "Our mission will be dangerous. Do you still want to go?"
"I have to help my friends," the Princess declared.
"Me too!" shouted Jon.
"Are you sure you want to risk your life so young?" queried the werewolf woman.
"Yeah, of course! I'm not a kid any more, I'm Liberated," cried Jon.
"Jon and I are going together," said the Princess. "We both want to stop the unfairness towards beasts."
"Very well then," said the werewolf. "I must thank you again, humans, for being willing to help us."
"Say no more," said the Princess, but Jon declared "I'm offended that you keep thanking us so often. If you want me to forgive you, you'll have to give me some more food!"
"You're a crafty young rascal," said the werewolf, offering him some bread and cheese, "you may be a great help on our quest."
After Jon had vacuumed up the food, she said:
"We'd better get some rest, humans. Our trip to the King's Seat begins tomorrow."Jon couldn't sleep, of course. He was too excited.(to be continued!)Timmerryn with a new name.

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Fri Jul 06, 2001 12:57 am

Early the next morning, the Princess, the werewolf woman and a yawning Jon the Magnificent made their way to the meeting place in the forest.
Waiting by the large stone in the centre of the clearing was the selkie, looking very uncomfortable in human clothes, and cleaning his spectacles.
"Good morning, Princess, my lady werewolf and the gallant Jon," he called to them as they approached.
"Good morning, Master Selkie," the werewolf woman replied. "Where is our friend the vampire?"
"I believe he and Sir Gryphon are flying here together," the selkie said. "This journey had better the worth the effort. How do you humans stand these ridiculous things?" He gestured at his boots.
"Shoes are instruments of torture made by grown-ups, you know," Jon informed him gravely.
"They do stop you cutting your feet," the Princess said, feeling that footwear deserved some sort of defence.
"Aou," the selkie barked grumpily.
There was the sound of wings overhead and Sir Gryphon landed in the clearing, followed by a fuzzy black bat who transformed into a pale, clean-shaven man carrying a leather bag, from which he fished out some clothes.
While the vampire was dressing, the Princess whispered to the werewolf woman: "How was he carrying that bag? I didn't see it when he came in."
"It's a magic bag that carries itself when the owner is in animal form," replied the werewolf. "It's probably the most useful invention ever for shape-shifters."
The vampire was introduced to them by the gryphon. He smiled, showing the big canine teeth for which vampires are famous.
"You are brave to accompany us on this undertaking," he said to the Princess. "If the humans we encounter on out journey discover we are beasts, they won't spare you."
"I'll take that chance," the Princess replied. "Sir Gryphon," she continued, turning to face him, "will you be accompanying us through the forest?"
"For a short way," he said. "Then I will have to keep my distance."The travellers set off.
"Will the King listen to us?" Jon wondered as they marched.
"We will make him listen," replied the Princess.
The vampire was thoughtful. "If human kings are anything like bat kings we will need to ensure that enforcing peace with the beasts is to his own advantage," he said. "Otherwise, why should he listen? And how are we to convince him that beasts are no danger to humans? The majority are not, certainly, but we are not all the same. As soon as one mad vampire attacks humans, all trust is lost."
"I fear," the selkie said, "that we will need to convince the King to change the laws, so that beasts are given the same rights and humans. That way, any criminal beast will be treated the same as a human murderer, but the rest of us will not be blamed."
The Princess was thoughtful. Their task had seemed simple - all they would have to do was go to the King's Seat and put their case forward and he would understand. Now, as she listened to the beasts' conversation, she began to wonder. The King would do what he thought best for his subjects. His subjects would take a lot of convincing that having a werewolf family next door, or a dragon in the cave near the village, was a positive thing.
Jon, who had been chatting to the selkie about what life was like in the sea, noticed the Princess' silence.
"Hey," he said, poking her, "What's up, Miss Princess? We're going on an Adventure. Don't look so worried."
The Princess tried not to worry. They had a long way to go and plenty of time to think over the problem. She shouldn't spoil the first day.
They were approaching the edge of the forest.
"I must leave you now," the gryphon said. "I can follow you at a distance, but it's not safe for me to be too close as you travel through human country."
The Princess hugged him. "I hope to see you again soon, Sir Gryphon," she told him. "You've been a good friend. We will reach the King and make him respect your people, depend on it."
The Gryphon turned back into the forest and the Princess, Jon, the werewolf, the selkie and the vampire stepped out on to the human road which lead towards the King's Seat.
Riders and chariot drivers overtook them every so often, looking with disdain at the foot party.
A litter, with a horse at each corner, took longer to pass them.
"That's one of those fat noblemen I was talking about," the werewolf observed.
It turned out, in fact to be a fat noblewoman, who must have been rather bored, because despite the frantic protestations of her snobby advisor, she opened her curtains and leaned out to chat to them.
"Good day, young peasants," she said, wafting a vast perfume cloud over them, "Where might you be travelling to on this fine day?"
"We're going to see the King, My Lady," announced Jon proudly.
The noblewoman laughed. "To see the King? How diverting! Oh, do be silent, Sneeves! May I ask for what purpose?"
The diplomatic vampire jumped in before Jon could give them away.
"We're ambassadors from a country far to the south, my Lady," he said. "Unfortunately, our country is not as rich as yours, so we have not a coach or litter to travel in as you do."
"Truly?" the noblewoman asked. "I hope you are well armed. There are many bandits on the road between here and the King's Seat. I carry a magical flame-thrower to ward off the rogues, you know. Many's the time a band of highwaymen have attacked my transport, only to be sent packing back into the forest clutching their bottoms." She smiled, red lips curving in her powdered face. "You cannot imagine the expressions on their faces! They think I am but a helpless lady until I brandish my fire-stick!"...(The conversation with the noblewoman continues soon!)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Jul 08, 2001 1:09 am

"So," the noblewoman continued, "are you travellers armed against bandits?"
The vampire produced a sword from his bag which was obviously too large to fit inside the bag normally.
The Princess had her rabbit knife. The selkie and the werewolf were reluctantly carrying knives. Normally they would change into their animal forms to defend themselves, of course, but their mission ruled out that option.
"I ain't got one, Lady," Jon said. "Me mum never let me have a knife."
"Oh!" the noblewoman exclaimed. "You must be able to defend yourself. Here, take this magical knife.."
She reached into a pocket in the wall of the litter and disputed briefly with Sneeves.
"No, Sneeves, I will give it to the boy. We have plenty more. I could not live with myself if that boy was killed by a band of rogues because I refused him this."
The knife had a golden blade which reflected the light. Jon was very impressed.(to be continued!)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Wed Jul 11, 2001 4:58 am

"Now that knife will be very useful to you, young man," the noblewoman told Jon. "It attunes itself to the person holding it, so they need not speak to command it. It can be lit up brightly to light the way or dazzle an opponent, or it can be made to burst into flame. You can also use it as a normal knife. The blade may appear to be made of gold, but it's actually as strong as steel. I give it to you because you seem a responsible lad, and you will need protection on your journey. I say! Leave off, Sneeves!"
Jon made the knife flash and burst into flame and decided not to mention to the Lady that he never ate his vegetables and sometimes didn't wear his shoes, in case she wanted to take it back from him.
"Well, we really must be getting on," the noblewoman conceded. "I do hope you have a safe journey, foreigners, and maybe we will meet again in the Capitol. No, I will do it this time, Sneeves. I seem to recall that last time you goaded my horses our pace was halved, not doubled."
She leaned out of her litter to pat the nearest horse on the rump.
"Gee up there, old chap," she encouraged it. "There'll be fresh grass for you and the others in your stables if you get us to Glyndyr before nightfall."
The horse liked the sound of this, and so did its fellows. The litter picked up pace and soon left the travellers behind."Hey, I thought all noblewomen were stuffy an' boring an' mean to peasants," Jon said. "But look at this brilliant knife she gave me!" He waved it around with vigour.
"She was very generous," the Princess agreed. "Snnnnffffhhh!" The werewolf woman sneezed. "Uhhh! Her perfume! I can't smell anything but that terrible perfume she was wearing!"
"Reckon we can get to Glyndyr before night too?" Jon asked, willing to race after the litter.
"No," the selkie replied. "I need to rest my feet. How do you land beasts just keep plodding on and on?"
They camped in the forest that night. Jon, with great pride, used his new knife to light the fire. No bandits assailed them that night, or the next, when they camped just past Glyndyr. The werewolf used her nose to track down a wild pig, which they killed for dinner. The vampire ate his part raw.
"I can't stand the way humans insist on burning good meat," he declared. "Completely changes the taste. Ruins it, in my opinion."The road eventually left the human-occupied lands and the forest grew up tall on both sides of the road.
And here, inevitably, were bandits.
"Ah hah!" cried the bandit chief, who looked suitably scoundrelly and rapscallionly and very much like bandits are supposed to look with his well-groomed moustache and long black hair tied back with a red kerchief.
"Good travellers, it pains me to employ a cliche, but this one is so delightfully succinct and suited to the task at hand:- Your money or your lives!"
The vampire attempted diplomacy: "Good sir bandit, we are only poor travellers from the south. We have no more money than you yourself."
The bandit considered this. Certainly the group before him did look less wealthy than Benson had implied. One was only a lad, the dark hairy one with the speactacles appeared footsore and weary and the women were wearing trousers. Was there ever a clearer indication of poverty than the presence of women who were not tripping over their own garments? He made a note to himself to give young Benson a good talking-to.
"You do indeed appear to be more hard-up than I expected," he conceded. "Perhaps, as you are no better off than we bandits, you would care to share our meal?"
It payed to be courteous to the odd traveller, the bandit chief knew. It got you a Reputation and if you were lucky, maybe even a place in the history books. A place in the annals of highway robbery was his greatest aim in life. Besides which, his bottom was still sore from a terribly embarrassing encounter with a fat be-powdered
noblewoman a few days earlier. Perhaps these travellers, too, were not what they seemed.The Princess and her companions concluded that a free lunch would them no harm. Jon's rumbling stomach was audible in the silence. They really did have very little money and the werewolf and the vampire would be able to perceive a coming attack in plenty of time for them to defend themselves.So they followed the bandit chief and his fellows into the forest.(next - luncheon with the bandits)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Fri Jul 27, 2001 5:01 am

Benson, making amends for his inability to distinguish between rich and poor, served out the venison. It seemed the bandits were good hunters.
"May I ask," the bandit chief began, "where you are bound, my friends?"
"Farther north," said the vampire, before Jon.
"Now why would any right-minded person wish to travel farther north than Glyndyrshire?" the bandit wondered.
"It is private business, sir, I'm sure you can understand," the Princess said, favouring him with her threatening Sorceress look.
"Very well." The bandit backed down. "I was only asking because, you see, the lands north of Glyndyr are the property of the King and are full of his men. They are not the place to be if you are, ah.. how shall I put this.. disreputable in any way. You find myself and my band at the northernmost tip of our range."
The travellers looked at each other. The bandit was implying that they were disreputable and would not be welcome in the King's lands. Was he referring to their clothing? Or did he know more? Was he threatening them?
The sound of a fine heavy carriage passing was audible from the road. Their chief commanded the other bandits, who were now finished eating, to return to their posts, berating them for missing that carriage. It had most likely been carrying gold.When they were gone, the bandit chief turned back to his guests. "My friends, we are alone and your secret is safe with me, I assure you." His wider grin revealed slightly overlarge eye-teeth and the werewolf woman inhaled suddenly. "You're a hybrid!" she cried, enlightened.
"Yes indeed," returned the bandit, "and an outcast because of it. But I've inherited a few things from my mother, one of which is a keener sense of smell than most humans enjoy. And my nose tells me that three of you are very definitely not human. I warn you again - do not go into the King's lands. They do not welcome monsters."
He pushed back one sleeve to reveal some ugly scars on his arm.
"We must go on," the selkie insisted. "We're the only hope for our people. We have to make a peace treaty with the King. Our days are numbered before humans find an excuse to wipe us all out."
"You're going to treat with the King? You're mad! You may fool most common humans into thinking you're foreigners, but among the King's court they have educated men who have studied beasts. They will see you for what you are. They will have you killed, no questions asked."
The Princess despaired. The way the bandit told it, they would be foolishly throwing their lives away if they continued. But what could be done?
Then it came to her. She and Jon would have to continue alone. It was senseless for the beasts to be killed for no gain. But she, a human, could make her way to the King's Seat and speak with him.
She told the beasts so.
They protested, of course, but she refused to listen. She and Jon would travel on alone and do what they could.
The bandit pointed out that a young woman and a boy (her little brother?) would also be in danger, especially from scoundrels and rogues.
The Princess, stressed and tired, found this Princely sentiment coming from the lips of a scoundrelly and rapscallionly rogue terribly funny and refused to stop laughing for some time.
While she chortled, the werewolf woman turned to the bandit, whose ears hand gone rather pink, and said "My dear fellow, this is much to ask, but I do believe you may pass as fully human in the King's lands. I understand that you have experienced terrible things there, and no doubt have no desire to return. But here is your chance to remedy all that - to teach people not to behave to all beasts as they have behaved to you. I did not realise you were hybrid - I doubt that any human, no matter how well-trained at spotting werewolves, will think you are anything other than human."
The bandit was reluctant - he had felt the anger of his townspeople in the silver knives they'd cut him with - but then, the Princess was travelling to the Seat, not to his town. He need not approach it.
And so it was that the Princess and Jon set out along the road with the bandit chief, who had reluctantly shaved off his moustache and bleached his hair with whiteroot, so as not to be identified, for he flattered himself that in the towns nearby there would be rewards of many pounds for his capture. He was quite put out when they passed through a town and, upon reading the village noticeboard, found no mention whatsoever of the handsome bandit chief who preyed on travellers to Glyndyr.
The Princess was not put out, and indeed was quite pleased by this state of affairs.Unnoticed, a bat followed their progress. The vampire was determined not to lose track of the Princess and her bold male escort. He was sure they would get into trouble sooner or later. Jon would say something inopportune, or the bandit would try to be heroic, or the King would throw the Princess into the Royal Dungeons for Giving Cheek.
He wanted to be able to alert the other beasts the instant misfortune befell the emissaries.In the forests surrounding the Kingdom, a wolf trotted, followed by a strange hairy young man with dark glasses and sore feet. They too wanted to be as near as they could to the only people capable of returning a certain future to beast-kind.Those three people marched on towards the King's Seat planning desperately what they would say.
Jon's "But Mr King, sir, beasts are really *cool*. You shouldn't kill them!" was rejected immediately. So they thought some more. What would they do when they reached the King?(to be continued!)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sat Aug 04, 2001 5:12 am

The final stage of the travellers' journey to the King's Seat was extremely uneventful. The bandit's gifts from the beast side of his family meant that they dined on meat rather more often than otherwise, but apart from that, nothing of particular importance occurred.
So it was that the Princess, Jon and the bandit came to the top of a hill one day and espied across the fields the King's Seat. It was a very nice castle indeed, surrounded by gardens. The town which one usually finds sheltering in the courtyard of castles had been politely relocated some distance to the west with its wall.
The abode of a civilised King, thought the Princess. She knew, of course, that appearances can be deceptive, but the castle was indeed very pleasant.
Jon remarked on the number of towers and turrets and guessed that a gazillion people must live in it.
The bandit said nothing.
Arriving at the castle's gate, the travellers donged a large bell with a rope on it. The bandit restrained Jon from donging it more often than was strictly necessary.
"We come to speak to the King on private business," the Princess told the guard.
"You are very welcome," responded the guard, "but you will have to wait a while for an audience."
He lowered the drawbridge and they entered. There was no sea monster in the moat.
The gate guard inspected them while pretending not to as they waited for one of the roomsmasters to arrive. How were they related? The woman seemed too young to be the mother of the boy, although the man with the bleached hair could be his father. Could she be his sister? Could they *all* be siblings? He entertained himself trying to guess their business. Something to do with a land claim from the south, a dispute even? Their parents had died and neighbours had taken over half their farm while the young man was away in the army. Now he was home and taking his action straight to the King. Yes, that was feasible. So when the roomsmaster arrived, the guard wished the man good luck in his suit.
"Thank you," he replied, looking a little puzzled.
Oh! Had he been wrong? The gate guard amused himself for the next hour inventing alternate scenarios, until the next group of travellers arrived.Meanwhile, Jon, the bandit and the Princess were being conducted by a chubby little roomsmaster with a curly moustache to the guest rooms for the King's petitioners.
"You may have to wait several days for an interview," he was telling them. "There are many visitors to the King and he tries to satisfy them all. I do hope you are not here over a petty land dispute. Although, of course, you have the right to come to him, I believe that the majority of such things are easily solved by the Mayor of your own town."
"Fear not, sir. Our cause is much more important than that," the Princess reassured him.
There were two rooms at the end of this corridor. There was a brief dispute.
"No, sir, I do not believe that I would be safer were you sleeping in my room," the Princess informed the bandit. "I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. *I* will take the room with the single beds and Jon may share it with me. *You* may have the double bed all to yourself."
Having established themselves, the Princess and Jon went through the adjoining door to the bandit's room where they sat on the bandit's double bed that he had all to himself to plan their next move.
"It would be best if we could speak to the King alone," the Princess said.
"Hah! How are we going to manage that?" scoffed the bandit. "'Excuse me good sirs, but we're persons of unknown origin that you've never seen before and we'd like you to leave us alone in a room with your head of state.' That'll be popular."
"Alone with some bodyguards, maybe," the Princess conceded. "But we need to talk to him as an equal. We need to sit down and say 'Your majesty, what is your view on beasts?' That's going to look pretty strange coming up from the floor while he's sitting in his throne surrounded by advisors."
"Right then, we need a private audience," the bandit said. "How in Mars' name are we going to convince *anyone* we're important enough for that?"
"I suppose I'll have to invoke my parents' names," said the Princess.
Jon and the bandit stared at her, speechless.
"Are you telling me," the bandit finally managed, "that you really *are* a Princess, as in 'the daughter of a king and queen' type Princess?"
"Yes," replied the Princess. "But I'm not popular back home."
"They're not going to believe you're a real Princess!" objected the bandit. "You're wearing pants and proper shoes! There's no way anyone well-born is going to believe you unless you go in there tripping over your skirt with one of those cones on your head."
"True," said the Princess.
Jon, tired of the talk, was looking out the window. "Hey!" he said. "Guess who I can see!"
"Who?" said the bandit.
"That fat lady we met on the road! The cool one that gave me my knife! I can see her down there in the courtyard. She's got ginormous skirts on."
The Princess came to the window to look. It was indeed that noble lady. Sneeves was following her around and she was waving her fan at him in an irritated fashion.
The bandit had now also approached the window. "Oh, by God!" he groaned. "It's *her*!"
The Princess recalled the magic flamethrower the noblewoman had mentioned.
"Did she..." she began.
"Yes," said the bandit, going rather pink and looking at the interesting tiles on the floor. "I don't wish to discuss it."
"I bet," Jon said, "that lady could help us. She must have so many pointy hats and skirts and who knows whats. She could dress you up like the Princess of Wherever and me as your boy-that-carries-stuff and you.." he considered the bandit.. "as her Sneeves."
The bandit considered the grovelling pestering Sneeves with distaste. If *he* was an Advisor, he'd be a hell of a lot more dignified than that useless twit."Jon," directed the Princess, "the Lady looks very bored. Go down to the courtyard and chat to her, would you? And ask her if she would care to meet with us."
Jon departed.
"You want me to meet *her* again?" the bandit objected. "She'll recognise me *and* she'll laugh. It's hard to maintain your dashing rogue image when your bottom's on fire."
"Maybe you shouldn't meet with her, then," the Princess mused. "After all, she knows you as a bandit. She won't trust me if she sees me with a highwayman."
The bandit was much relieved by this state of affairs and the two of them watched from the window as Jon approached the noblewoman. Sneeves was obviously very put out, the noblewoman overjoyed.
Thus it was not long afterwards that Jon and the Princess were making their way to a nice green part of that courtyard, in order to speak privately to the noblewoman who was full of surprises.(continued soon)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sat Aug 04, 2001 8:36 am

Under the trees by a very nice fishpond were seated a fat noblewoman, a young woman wearing trousers and a small boy with a shiny gold knife. Sneeves was not present. He had been invited to find himself amusement elsewhere.
"You see," the Princess was explaining, "in the south we have very little money. Now we have arrived here, we find that our clothing really isn't of the kind suitable for meeting a King in."
"It's fine for peasantry such as yourselves," the noblewoman objected.
The Princess sighed. "Ma'am, I know you won't believe me, but I actually am a Princess and have the right to speak as an equal to the King."
She prepared herself for the noblewoman to cry "Baulderdash!", rise to her feet and sail away. But the noblewoman's intelligent eyes were scrutinising the Princess' face with great interest.
"By Venus!" breathed that lady. "You're the daughter of King Harald and Queen Alessa of the Southern Kingdoms! The one who stole her own dowry money and ran away to the north!"
"Yes, that's me," conceded the Princess. "I couldn't stand another day of life in court with all those grovelling servants and ridiculous clothes. But now I find I actually *need* those ridiculous clothes in order to be believed a Princess. And although I can't reveal my cause to you, I can assure you it's very important and not the kind of thing a King would take seriously coming from a peasant woman on the floor in front of his throne."
The noblewoman appeared greatly diverted by the idea of a Princess in disguise, a secret cause, and indeed she was. Although being a noblewoman was vastly preferable to being a peasant woman, it did get terribly boring sometimes.
"Very well, Princess," she said. "I will help you find the clothing you require. I have a few beautiful dresses that I wore when I was your age that may even fit."The Princess, Jon and the noblewoman went to the noblewoman's beautifully-furnished chamber (much superior to those in which they were staying) and waited, while the noblewoman searched her trunks and wardrobes for suitable attire. She did indeed find suitable clothing for the Princess and a page's outfit for Jon.
"Now," she said, "the rest of your entourage..?"
The Princess explained that her fellow travellers (the young woman and the two men the Lady had last seen her with) were over in the town meeting with merchants and would not be present. She did, however, have an Advisor of similar stature to Sneeves who also required richer atttire.
The noblewoman "borrowed" some of her Advisor's clothing that barely fitted him these days - his belly having grown from attending too many castle banquets.
As they were leaving with their new clothes, the noblewoman said: "You will want a carriage of some sort to bring you in. A Princess would never sneak into the castle disguised and then reveal herself. She would announce her arrival at the front gate and expect only the best treatment."
The Princess had not considered that.
"Never fear," the noble lady continued, seeing the worried frown on the Princess' face. "I have been intending to buy a carriage while I am here in the North where they're cheaper. I will give you the means to buy a fine carriage in my name, which you may borrow for your entrance. Thereafter, you may leave it with me."
The Princess took the token she offered and thanked the noblewoman for her help.
"Not at all," replied the Lady. "I love to help people out."The Princess and Jon returned to their rooms where the bandit was waiting. His eyes grew hungry at the sight of the noblewoman's token.
"Think of what we could buy with that," he said.
"No," replied the Princess, "we're not going to abuse her trust. We're going to buy a carriage and that's all."
"What about the horses, then?" asked the bandit, as he looked distastefully at what Sneeves considered to be manly trousers.
"I assume we will need to buy them too," the Princess said. "The Lady didn't say we could use hers. Besides, how could we take them out of the Royal Stables and then bring them back in again on our carriage without attracting attention?"
The bandit cast the frilly trousers aside. He wasn't going to wear them! He would wear his own trousers, which were black and made of leather and much more dignified. The codpiece was interesting, though. He tied it on and Jon sniggered at him.
"Cease your foolish laughter, boy," the bandit cried, flapping a hand at him in a dandyish manner, "these are the height of fashion at the King's Seat!"
The Princess grinned, but she was still thinking about the horses.
As the bandit grinned at his reflection in the mirror, showing his large eye-teeth, Jon suddenly cried "Hey! I've got the *best* idea!"
"What?" asked his companions.
"Well, we're here to stick up for beasts, aren't we - to make people think they're okay and they won't hurt anyone. And we were going to bring a werewolf and a vampire and a selkie to talk to the King, only we couldn't. Well, now we're going to have a carriage and no horses. But what if we don't *use* horses? What if we had beasts to pull our carriage? That would show everyone that beasts are friendly to people and they like to help them."
This seemed like a good idea to the Princess - people wouldn't feel threatened by a beast masquerading as a horse - but would the beasts themselves be offended by the suggestion?
"We can only ask," concluded the bandit.So that night the Princess and the bandit snuck away into the gardens outside the castle walls and Jon was left behind to stroll about the castle casually questioning the gate guards on their shift arrangements. For it just wouldn't do to arrive at the gates again for the first time and be recognised by the guard who had admitted them when they were peasants. Soon, the Princess and the bandit came upon a fruit tree full of fruit bats. Hanging amongst the bigger foxy bats was a smaller short-nosed beast with large ears. Checking there was no-one nearby, the Princess hissed: "Ho! Sir Vampire!"
The vampire climbed down to a thicker branch where he changed to human form. His magical bag was slung over his back.
"What's happening?" he asked.
The Princess outlined their plan. "We need to get in touch with Sir Gryphon," she concluded. "Can you find him for us?"
"I can," the vampire said. "Wait here." He returned to his bat form and flew away towards the forests.
The Princess and the bandit sat underneath another tree, which wasn't inhabited by bats, and waited.
"Here we are, then," said the bandit, "attempting to change the course of history."
"Who says we won't succeed?" responded the Princess, irritated by his tone.
"I just know that when people believe in something strongly enough to kill for their cause they're going to resist change all the way."
The Princess looked at the bandit's face. He was staring across the moonlit garden, his jaw muscles tight.
"They tried to kill you," she said.
"They *did* kill my mother," said the bandit.
"I'm sorry." The Princess couldn't think of anything else to say.
"The world is full of stupid cruel people. I just can't see how anything we say to a King is going to change that."
"We have to try," the Princess argued. "What if we *do* make a difference in the end? We could be looking back to times like these and saying 'Thank God we didn't give in to our doubts then.' Or we could run away from it all now and then five years later there'll be a war against the beasts and they'll be wiped out. And you'll be sitting there on the Glyndyr road with your bandits and I'll be sitting in my tower with my dragons and we'll be thinking 'I could have prevented this. But I was too afraid to try.'"
"All I ever wanted was fame as a highwayman," said the bandit wryly. "Not as some great beast-saviour."
"They're your people," the Princess reminded him, "and well worth saving."
"I guess," said the bandit. He wished he shared the Princess' optimism.They were silent for what seemed a long time, leaning against the tree trunk in the shadowy garden. Once, the bandit's acute hearing picked up the sounds of a couple putting the garden to the use one would expect at this time of night. He grinned to himself.
"What is it?" asked the Princess.
"You can't hear them?" replied the bandit.
The Princess thought she could make out some animal-sounding noises, but only just.
"*They* certainly think no-one can hear them," the bandit said. "Hah! He's finished, she's not. She's telling him off.. 'wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied'.. What's that a quote from? He's leaving. Harr, stupid man!"
The Princess expected her companion to take this opportunity to attempt to seduce her, assuring her that he could do so much better than the blundering fool they'd overheard. But he didn't. This was odd.
They sat in silence a while longer and then the vampire returned.
"Sir Gryphon will meet you at the forest edge," he said, getting dressed. "I'll show you. It's about a forty-minute walk."
So they walked, and the Princess occasionally tripped over things. The bandit did not attempt to rescue her and guide her by the arm, as gentlemen sometimes did when assisting ladies, but instead offered her a hand, as he might do when a male friend had fallen. Sometimes she took it, sometimes not. But she approved anyway. She supposed that with his werewolf senses he could spot the hidden roots and holes which were giving her trouble. That he tripped over something almost at the same time as she was thinking this amused and reassured her. He wasn't perfect either!
The bandit, whose palms were stinging from impact with a large flat rock, was thinking resentful thoughts about the vampire, who didn't trip over anything at all. He could just hear the lower ranges of the vampire's echolocation system, which he was using to map out the ground in front of him.So it was that the Princess and the bandit, wearing more dirt and leaves and scratches than they had been when they started, arrived at the edge of the forest where the Gryphon was waiting for them.
"Good evening, Princess," he said. "Good evening, bandit. It's good of you to help our cause."
The bandit tried not to stare at the gryphon, though he had never met one before, and took the eagle-shaped forefoot that the beast offered to shake.
"This idea of Jon's," the gryphon continued. "It may indeed be a useful aid to our cause for people to see that large winged beasts are as docile as horses."
"You are not offended then?" asked the Princess.
"I find the idea of being harnessed to a carriage a little demeaning, maybe. But I will only be acting the part of a beast of burden, I'm not really one. If it does indeed help us.. well, I'm willing to try it."
"We will probably need two horse-sized beasts to pull our carriage," the Princess. "Do you have a friend you can call on to help?"
"I know a manticore who might. I will go and fetch her. Tomorrow you should buy the carriage and tomorrow night bring it to the edge of the forest. That way we can practise harnessing ourselves. And the next day, the Princess of the Southern Lands can arrive at the castle in her beast-drawn carriage."So the Princess and the bandit returned to the castle. Tomorrow they would be in the town buying a fine carriage.

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Sep 23, 2001 12:25 am

They stood at the gates of the carriage-yard and debated.
"The shiny black one," said the bandit.
"I reckon the white one," said Jon. "Matches that powder the Lady always wears. An' it's sort of Princess-coloured."
The Princess liked the black one too, but Princesses did not ride in black, manly carriages. But the white one was too curly and undignified for her tastes. There was a beautiful one in dark-brown wood with a golden shield on the door, just waiting to be engraved with the family arms..
"The plain-wood one," declared the Princess.
So in they went. Wearing their snobbiest servant expressions, they declared that Lady Helen of Amshire had sent them to buy the polished-wood carriage and here was her token. Charge it to her account, sir and be quick about it. And hire us two horses to drive it away.
They drove the carriage along the forest road until they found a clearing off to the side. Here they used a chain and padlock to secure their new purchase to some stout trees, to await nightfall. Then they returned the horses.They spent that fine afternoon in the gardens, awaiting nightfall, desperately trying to think of anything they hadn't already considered. They took a stroll in the maze and got rather lost. While the Princess stood at a crossroads waiting to see if Jon, who'd gone left, or the bandit, who'd gone right, were ever going to come back to her, she heard a fluttering and something landed on the hedge above her. Expecting to see the vampire, she was surprised indeed to look up and see one of her messenger dragons - the blue one with the gold edging - gazing back.
"Hassan!" she cried. "How did you find me here?"
Hassan blinked and scratched his chin casually. Messenger dragons were excellent at travelling long distances from a base and back again, but the Princess had never considered hers to be particuarly loyal to her as a person. Yet it seemed Hassan had made a special effort to find her after the Prince incident. He hopped off the hedge into her arms and purred.
The bandit came back after meeting a dead end. "What's that thing?" he demanded.
"It's one of my messenger dragons," the Princess said. "He seems to have been searching for me."
The bandit scratched Hassan under one ear and admired his shiny scales. "I've seen noblemen with bigger ones of these riding on their carriages," he said. "They can be dangerous if their master tells them to attack."
"Ah, hawk dragons," said the Princess. "I don't like them much. Too big and angry and they stink. But messenger dragons are okay."
Jon came back from his end of the maze. "I found the way out.." he began. Then: "Hassan!" he shouted.
The dragon evidently remembered him, because it took a flying leap out of the Princess' arms and into Jon's.
"Hey, Hassan," Jon was saying, "did you come here to help us see the king? I bet you did. I bet you know how rich snobby people use dragons to send messages while the rest of us have to use stinky old pigeons..."
Another good idea from Jon! How glad the Princess was that she had Liberated him.They smuggled the dragon indoors and sat him on the table whilst the Princess wrote to the King:
"To His Majesty of the North,
Greetings from your southern cousin.
I, Princess Hannah an-Harald am travelling northwards with the intention of paying Your Majesty a visit. I have an important matter, which is relevant to the future of both our kingdoms, to discuss. I am but a single day's travel from your seat. I hope this letter finds you well.
Hannah an-Harald of the Southern Kingdoms."
"Now," said the Princess to Hassan. "I want you to take this letter and fly to the south some distance. Then to turn around and fly back to the castle's dragon-room, where you will give up your message to the King's servants."
The dragon appeared to understand what was asked of him, so they smuggled him back into the gardens and released him. It was amusing to the travellers to watch the servants scurrying around making ready for the Princess of the South and her entourage. The Princess wished that she could tell them exactly how she wanted her rooms decorated, but alas, that would give her away.When night had finally fallen, the three snuck away through the gardens once more, collected the vampire from his tree and made the trek through the forest to the meeting point. There was the gryphon and beside him sat the manticora, large green eyes very out of place in her otherwise human face.
The bandit again found himself trying not to stare at the horse-sized beast, and the heavy lion-paw which she offered was even more intimidating than the gryphon's. These are my people, he told himself, these beasts. But he didn't feel like one of them.
"The carriage is near to here, in a clearing," the Princess was saying. So they walked again.
The beasts could be hooked up to the carriage-harness quite successfully, but there was the issue of where to attach the reins. Neither beast could wear the horse-bridles: they dangled ridiculously off the gryphon's beak and the manticora had no muzzle at all.
"Why do we need reins anyway?" she asked. "We know where to go - you just need to call out to us when to stop."
"We can, of course," the Princess replied, "but reins are a symbol of human control over horses. I know this is demeaning, but you need to be seen by humans as 'broken in' - completely docile and under our control. Otherwise you, and we, are in serious danger from the terrified and ignorant."
Jon found a spare ring on the shoulder-straps. "Here, tie 'em to these rings," he said.
So they did the best they could. The beasts pulled the carriage around the clearing. They couldn't move it as quickly as horses could, but with their leonine bodies and huge wings, they looked much more impressive.
"Tomorrow, late afternoon," declared the Princess, "we ride in."(continued)

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Oct 28, 2001 12:24 am

From her vantage point at the carriage window, the Princess could see the bulging eyes of the ceremonial guard. They had been stationed outside the castle gates to welcome Princess Hannah and had no doubt expected her to arrive in an extravagant coach with a whole tribe of hangers-on and servants in tow. But nothing had prepared them for the sight of the darkwood carriage which was making its way towards them. The driver was a well-proportioned young man whose long fair hair was revealing itself to be black at the base. He gave the guards the kind of mocking salute they had come to expect from bandits, not from members of royal retinues. But they didn't really have many braincells to spare on the man, because most of them were overloading at the sight of the horses.
(Arg! Daylight saving has caught me out!) I may continue this after dinner.

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Sun Nov 04, 2001 9:17 am

The gryphon and the manticora, doing their best impressions of docile beasts of burden, pulled the carriage over the drawbridge and across the courtyard to the foot of the royal stairs where the King and Queen of the North were awaiting their guest. If every single occupant of the castle was not gaping from some window or other, the Princess observed, then there were rather more rooms than she had thought. Jon was wiggling in his Page's outfit. "When d'we get to get out, Miss Princess?" he asked.
"Soon," replied the Princess. "When they blow the trumpets. And you must call me 'Your Majesty' or 'Lady Hannah' or they'll spot that something's up."
The trumpets were duly blown and the bandit appeared at the side to open the carriage door and put down the steps. He then stood back nervously while the King himself came forward to assist the Princess down the stairs. He doubted that any bandit had ever been this close to a king before without being in immediate peril of having either his head, his hands, or both, cut off by a man in black with a big axe. He held his hands behind his back in the accepted fashion, just in case.
The Princess fumed inwardly as she was guided down the tiny steps. It's all a conspiracy! the Liberated part of her mind was shouting. Look how they've made these steps so tiny and this dress so easy to trip over! Just so men can feel Superior, because Ladies need help climbing out of carriages. She had an image of herself hoicking her skirts up around her waist and leaping down from the carriage in a single bound. But she doubted this would advance her cause any, so she descended the carriage steps sedately on the arm of the king.
"Lady Hannah," he said. "It's a pleasure to see you here. I hope you will find our hospitality suitable."
"I'm sure I will, your Majesty," replied the Princess, remembering now why she'd run away from home. All those *manners*!
"Do come in and make yourselves comfortable," the King continued. "My Housemaster will show you to your rooms. Tomorrow we will discuss the matter your letter mentioned."
The Princess, halfway between trying to remember the accepted response and panicking in case the Housemaster was the same one they had already met, nearly forgot the gryphon and the manticora. There was a surreptitious poke from Jon.
"Oh, my beasts," she said. "They must have only the best stable quarters. I give you my word they will not eat the other horses." - she prayed the beasts would forgive her -"They eat meat, of course, and again, only the finest. Brandon will see to them."
Brandon was the bandit's real surname - being a name found in the north and the south there was no reason not to use it.
The bandit was looking quite eager to see to the beasts - criminals were never happy in the presence of kings, especially not those who were known to crack down heavily on highway robbery.
Jon followed the Princess inside and they were greeted by the Queen at the top of the royal stairs. As they made their way through the castle to meet the Housemaster (blessedly, the Royal Housemaster was a different man), the Princess noticed someone she recognised. He was a Prince; in fact he was *the* Prince, the one who had beseiged her tower and (acording to Jon) been seen in the barn with the milkmaids.
The look he gave her was not nice.
Apart from that, the Princess and Jon arrived in their quarters with no trouble and were joined soon afterwards by the bandit, who noted the difference between peasant and royal accomodation and decided to be royal more often. But without the codpiece. He liked it, but it was rather uncomfortable to wear for more than half an hour at a time.
"How are the beasts?" asked the Princess anxiously.
"Determined," replied the bandit.
"I was terribly worried I insulted them before," the Princess added.
"If they were offended they didn't say."The travellers spent yet another sleepless night planning what they would say tomorrow. Or what the Princess would say. Pages did not usually attend royal meetings. And though the Princess was permitted to have her Man there, he wasn't supposed to speak.
"Not that I could string two words together in the presence of a King, anyway," the bandit commented.But when the Princess and the bandit were admitted to the Royal Meeting Room the next morning, they were very surprised to see the Queen awaiting them on her own.
"His Majesty is walking in the gardens with Prince Andral of the Western Islands," the Queen explained. "The Prince invited him for a stroll early this morning, to discuss some private matter. I expect he has just forgotten the time, though I do apologise for his absence. In the meantime, perhaps we can begin to discuss the matter of importance to our kingdoms?"
That had been Andral of the Western Islands? The memory of his angry stare resurfaced as the Princess recalled that the Prince she had been destined to marry, whose dowry she had stolen when she eloped with herself, had been Andral of the West. Oops.
But she could deal with that jilted suitor later. The Queen was inviting her to speak. This was what she had come for."Your Majesty," she began, "you saw my unusual choice of horses as I entered this castle, and I'm sure every other resident did too."
"Indeed," replied the Queen. "I was amazed at how docile your beasts were. It takes a lot of work to break a monster."
"Your Majesty, this is what I have come to discuss. The gryphon and the manticora who drew my coach in yesterday were not 'broken', as you put it, but were present of their own free will. In fact it was they who asked me to come to you."
The Queen was looking dubious.
"Your Majesty, you do know that beasts are rational creatures like ourselves..?" the Princess asked.
"Of course, but they are cunning and not to be trusted," said the Queen.
"This is not true, your Majesty," argued the Princess. "I have met with a hundred beasts or more, of all kinds. They fear humans as much as humans fear them. More. They can see that humans' fear of them is sufficient to destroy them all were only one of their number to turn rogue. They can see this deep fear of beasts and know it will only be a matter of time before it turns to war. This is why I have come to you, to explain that beasts are no different from other people - to ask you to create new laws which treat beast criminals in the same way as human criminals. This is the only way to prevent a war, in the long term."
The Queen looked thoughtful. "You have met with beasts, you say? And they did not try to eat you?"
"No, Your Majesty. It's not in the nature of beasts to eat other rational beings. That's a myth, which I need your help to eradicate."
The Queen seemed intrigued by these new ideas, and rather more open-minded than the Princess had hoped.
"The beasts you brought with you," she said. "Will they tell me the same?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The Queen rose to her feet. "Perhaps We should visit them in their stable, then."
This Princess rose also and she and the bandit were turning towards the door when it burst open and the Prince of the Western Islands burst in.
"Forgive me, Your Majesty!" he cried. "The King has been kidnapped by beasts!"...

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 4:45 am

"How is this possible?" demanded the Queen.
"Your Majesty, his Highness and I were making our way back to the castle, for his Highness mentioned he had to attend a meeting with Lady Hannah here-" the Prince bowed to the Princess - "but we passed by the Royal Stables. His Highness expressed a desire to see the great beasts who had pulled Lady Hannah's coach. I attempted to discourage him, for everyone knows beasts cannot be trusted, but he was adamant. We entered the stable and his Highness approached the beasts. The next thing I knew, I was lying face-down in the hay, feeling as though I had awoken from a long sleep. The beasts and his Highness were gone, though there was evidence of a struggle. They cast a spell on me, your Majesty and abducted the king!"
The Queen turned to the Princess and gave her a very nasty stare indeed.
"Is this your doing, Lady Hannah?" she asked. "Do you seek to bring emnity between the North and the South with this crime?"
"No!" cried the Princess. "I have no wish to see our kingdoms go to war. My beasts would never do something so terrible, your Majesty. Prince Andral must be mistaken somehow."
"I am not mistaken," said Prince Andral coldly. "Your beasts have reverted to their true nature, as they always do. Indeed, considering who their mistress is, it is hardly surprising."
"Prince Andral!" snapped the Queen.
The Princess seized the chance while the Queen was on her side: "Your Majesty, I'm certain there is some mistake. My beasts, as I told you, seek peace with humans, not war. If we could just visit the stables and see for ourselves..?"
"Very well," said the Queen and they descended to the stables."What on earth could have happened?" the Princess whispered to the bandit as they followed the Prince and the Queen along a marble corridor.
"I don't know," replied the bandit, "but it's definitely worth looking over the stables. Something weird's going on"
"That Prince Andral, if he's not up to something... He brought a whole village to burn me in my tower as a sorceress once, you know."
"Why?"
"Because I put up naughty pictures in the village."
The bandit laughed. Then he stopped. "You're not joking, are you? If he's one of those.."
The Princess knew what he meant. There was nothing more dangerous than a violently intolerant bigot to an unusual person. Such as herself, such as the bandit, who was half a beast..
"By God!" she swore. "He's done something to the manticora and Sir Gryphon! And made it look like it's their fault.."
They hurried on, more eager than before to reach the stables.There were signs of a struggle here, in the hay. And even some blood on the floor.
The Queen knelt down. "Those murderous beasts!" she growled.
But the bandit knelt beside her. "Forgive me, your Majesty," he said, and inhaled.
And then he raised his head and turned to look at Prince Andral. "Your Highness, this is not human blood."
"The King must have fought valiantly against his attackers," replied the Prince, unfazed.
The bandit did not reply, because he was already half way out of the back stable door and running dagonally across the lawn.
"Lady Hannah," said the Prince, looking down his nose, "has your Man gone quite mad?"
"Most likely," responded the Princess with all the high-class snobbery she could muster. The bandit had come dangerously close to giving himself away. What was he doing?
"My lady!" she heard him shout urgently from the other side of the lawn.
"You will excuse me, Prince Andral, your Majesty," she said.
And she hitched her ridiculous dress and ran."Here!" said the bandit, and shoved his way back into the dense shrubbery.
The Princess followed, tearing her dress.
The bandit was on his knees, clearing dead leaves off something large and feathered and... by God!
"Sir Gryphon!" she cried, going to his head. There was a nasty wound on it, but the bandit had his hand pressed to the massive feathered chest.
"He's still breathing," he said.
"Sir Gryphon!" shouted the Princess again. "Wake up!"
His outer eyelids cracked open, the inner ones sliding slowly across.
"Princess..." he said.
"Sir Gryphon, who did this to you?" asked the Princess.
The gryphon lifted his head painfully and slowly focused his eyes on the young woman in front of him. Who had done this..?
"Humans," he said. "Human soldiers with a green crest bearing a sea-serpent's head.."
"That's the crest of the Western Isles," said the Princess to the bandit crouched beside her. "I think we know who's responsible."
She pushed her way back out of the bushes, leaving the bandit to care for the gryphon and encountered the Queen, striding alone across the lawn in a foul temper with her skirts hitched up.
"Your Majesty!" called the Princess. "Where is Prince Andral?"
"Why he's right behind me..." replied the Queen, turning as she spoke.
He was not.
"Brandon!" the Princess shouted, and the bandit shoved his way into the open. "Brandon, Prince Andral has left us. Go and find him for me, or at least find out which direction his coach was travelling in."
The bandit spoke not a word, but dashed back towards the stable. He was angry. Indeed the Princess wondered as she watched him whether she had been wise to send him. She feared for his safety if he attacked the Prince. But she could not follow a scent trail. She'd just have to trust him to use his better judgement.
So she turned to the Queen.
"Your Majesty, I have just found one of my beasts. From the state he is in, I'm sure you will agree that he could not have been an abductor, attempted or otherwise, of the King."
She showed the Queen to the fallen gryphon.
"Your Majesty," he said, "forgive me for not being able to greet you properly. I have taken quite a beating."
The Queen could hardly dispute this, though she questioned the gryphon closely until she was satisfied that he believed Prince Andral was to blame.
She turned to the Princess. "Lady Hannah, is there a vendetta of some sort taking place between yourself and the Prince of the Western Isles?"
"I fear so," the Princess replied and described their history. "Though I honestly did not know who he was until yesterday, your Majesty. I'm sorry to bring this upon you."
The bandit returned. "He has already left, my Lady, on a fast horse, headed to the east. The servants say his men took out his carriage earlier in the day and drove it around the western drive. Presumably the king and the manticora were dumped into that carriage and the Prince is riding now to catch up with it."
It seemed the Queen was convinced. "Guards!" she shouted, dashing back across the lawn as fast as her Queenly attire would allow. She nearly collided with Jon, who was coming the other way with Hassan balanced on his arm.
"They say our beasts have abducted the King!" he cried, dashing up to them. "Is it true?"
"No, it's not," said the bandit, "it's a plot by that bastard of a Prince to discredit both beasts and Lady Hannah."
But the Princess was looking at Hassan. She grabbed him from Jon's arm, eliciting a surprised squawk from both of them.
"Hassan," she said, "I need you to do something for me. There's a fast coach travelling along the eastern road towards the mountains. Go and find it and stay with it until you're certain of its destination. Then come back and find us."
She threw the messenger dragon into the air and watched him zoom away.
"Smart, Miss Princess!" said Jon.
"We need to catch that coach," the Princess said. She showed him to where the gryphon lay.
Jon gave a cry of sympathy and sat down beside the gryphon, laying his horse-sized head on his lap.
"You get better, Sir Gryphon," he said. "We'll catch that prince that did this to you and then you can eat his head off. I knew he was no good first time I saw him."It was a week before the gryphon was fit to travel again and even then he could not fly, as one of his wings had been broken by the Prince's men. The Queen ensured he had the best medical attention, though the vets that visited him were rather thrown by a patient that could tell them where it hurt.
Her guards had been unable to catch up with or determine the route of the Prince's coach. Either it was very fast indeed, or the Prince had magic of some sort at his disposal.
Hassan had not returned yet, though the Princess was confident that he would.
Sure enough, a few days later, the messenger dragon returned to the palace and the Princess went to see the Queen.
"Your Majesty," she said, "I sent my messenger dragon to follow Prince Andral's coach and to return to me once he knew its destination. As you see, he has returned, and I believe he can show me to where His Majesty is being held.
"I would ask a favour of you. I would like to prove to you the good nature of beasts by taking my beast companions with me in pursuit of Prince Andral. In addition to my gryphon, I have a vampire, a werewolf and a selkie, who are waiting for me at the edges of the kingdom. Their help would be invaluable. My Man, Brandon, is half werewolf himself, and you saw how easily his senses exposed the Prince's lie."
The Queen considered.
"Very well," she said, "but on condition you allow three of my best soldiers to accompany you. I wish this matter to be handled discreetly, mind you. I do not want the North to go to war with the Western Isles over the behaviour of one of their errant sons. On the other hand, we cannot allow him to go unpunished.
"I wish you Godspeed, Lady Hannah. But be sure to bring back Prince Andral alive."
The Princess returned to her friends. It seemed their quest was only just beginning....

Metrobius · Post by **Metrobius** » Mon Dec 31, 2001 9:32 am

The soldiers' names were Anton, Maxwell and Lucas. They rode fine black horses and wore the blue and gold crest of the Northern Kingdom on their uniforms. They didn't seem too keen on any of the Princess' companions, except Jon, who they gave turns on their horses as the party made its way to the east.
Jon spent a lot of his time, therefore, attempting to convince the soldiers of the innate coolness of beasts.
"But Sir Gryphon saved us once," he was saying to Maxwell. "There was this angry mob trying to get us because we were Liberated an' it was led by that Prince. An' they were going to starve us out an' everything, only Sir Gryphon came and rescued us. He got an arrow in his wing an' everything an' he still saved us."
The gryphon, trotting by the side of Maxwell's horse, nodded assent at this.
"So how can you say beasts're evil? Seems to me it's the Prince that's evil."
"Talking animals are not natural. And animals that can take human form..." Maxwell's eye went to the werewolf and the selkie, mounted on their borrowed horses.
"Forgive me, Sir Maxwell," the gryphon said, "but humans are only talking animals themselves."
"We are not!" retorted Maxwell, offended. "We have History, and are the chosen people of God."
"Beasts have history too," said the gryphon. "Perhaps we don't have kings, or go to war so often, but we remember our history."
"But you're godless."
"Some of us are. Some of us believe in your human gods - Luna, Mercury, Venus.. Some of us, like the merpeople, have different gods altogether."
"Werewolves, for example, are the chosen people of Luna," said the werewolf woman, turning her disconcertingly brown eyes upon the soldier. "Didn't you know?"
Maxwell seemed a little less sure of himself.
"It's true, Max," insisted Jon. "They're just people, like us."Meanwhile, Lucas was watching the bandit, a thoughtful look on his face.
"You seem very familiar to me, Brandon," he said, bringing his horse alongside the bandit's.
"Really?" said the bandit. "How can that be? Have you ever travelled to the court of the Southern Kingdoms?"
"No, I have not," said Lucas. "But I don't think that's where I know you from.."
"Then you mistake me for someone else," retorted the bandit, in his best Sneeves impersonation.
But Lucas wasn't to be shaken off.
"I remember a man named Brandon," he said. "Maybe five years back, over in Halden. He was thrown out of the town for mating with an animal. A beast. No-one knows where he went, nor did they care. But they tore the beast to pieces in the town square. I was there, I saw it.
"I seem to recall that old Brandon had a son. Early twenties, dark hair, dark eyes.."
The bandit was staring into the road ahead of them. "What has this to do with me, Lucas? There are Brandons with dark hair all over this continent. I find it offensive that you're trying to link me to this northern peasant. My family have been Royal Advisors for six generations."
"Look me in the eye and tell me that again, Alex Brandon," said Lucas.
The bandit turned to look at him, but could not speak. He saw his mother dying and faintly recalled the row of blue and gold uniforms standing at the edge of the square.
"I knew it was you. I remember you, too, from the day when your mother died. How they stripped the shirt from your back with their knives, how they called you a monster and an animal, like your mother. How they threw you bleeding into the forest. I remember you."
"So you've seen me before," said the bandit hoarsely. "Why is that relevant now?"
"Because, Alex Brandon," replied Lucas, "I would be interested to know what you've been doing in those years since I saw you in the town sqaure of Halden. Most specifically, how you came to be in the service of a Princess."
"That's none of your business, soldier."
"What have you been up to, half-breed?"
The bandit's sword was suddenly under his throat.
"I said," repeated the bandit, "that it's none of your business."
Lucas accepted this, and backed off. But he'd find out. He knew it.
A wolf-like growl rose involuntarily in the bandit's throat as he watched Lucas guide his horse over to Anton's.
"It's never easy," said the werewolf's voice on his other side and he turned to look at her.
"They're the beasts and the animals," she said. "And they won't let us forget it."
"What are we doing here?" he asked her. "First we were going to convince a king, who sends his soldiers to oversee the murder of a beast in broad daylight, that beasts are worthy of his protection. Now we're going to rescue him from another human who's just as bad. It's not going to achieve anything. I told Lady Hannah that weeks ago."
"We're never going to win the love of the common people," the werewolf said. "Or not right away. But it's the rulers and the lawmakers we need to convince. What we need is true legal protection. What better way to do that than by rescuing a king?"
The bandit did not reply, so the werewolf woman said no more.
She rode in silence at his side as they travelled towards the distant hills.