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Library: Silly adventures pt.1
Books
Author: dakir
Date:Feb 9 2004
I
Once upon a time in a small village called Beluria. There was a young lad who
wanted to be a real adventurer. His name was Paul, and his friends called him
Paul the Fool, because he always dreamed of exploring the world and doing
magnificient deeds and be a hero of great magnitude. But he never left his
home village, he still lives a normal life and does everyday chores like
everyone else. Paul even put his dreams aside and got himself a decent job, he
is a carpenter with quite skill. Everyone in the village appreciate his
craftmanship and have his work at home. Paul makes the best furniture they use
to say. One day Paul is busy in his workshop crafting a new table for the old
lady living in the neighbour. There's a knock on the door. Paul yells: 'It's
open!' The door opens up slowly and a small halfling walks into the workshop.
Paul asks suspiciously: 'What do you want little one?' Halfling clears his
throat and wipes some dust off of his tunica and then states with clear voice:
'I am the ambassador of the Barefoot Clan, we live far away from your village
in a village called Drom and I have come to ask for your help. We live very
dreadful times indeed, there's been several attacks against our village in the
past months, we do not know where it came from but we DO know that it lives up
in the mountains not far from our village. Should you be interested in helping
us or not, let me tell you something, our shaman saw a vision when he was
seeking help from our gods, the vision showed him that a carpenter of many
skills would be our saviour. We had some doubts about this vision of his, but
then the crazy old man living near the village babbled something else than the
incoherent gibberish that he has chanted for decades, he mentioned you Paul,
he spoke something about carpenter called Paul and he also mentioned
salvation. We doubted no more, I was sent to seek you out and to plead for
your aid.' Paul was startled but then his mind cleared and he just nodded and
said: 'Yes, this is my dreams come true. I have always wa
nted to be an adventurer, It'll be my pleasure to help you and your people.'
II
Paul packed his backpack and hurried out where the halfling was waiting for
him. Halfling nodded at Paul and asked: Are you ready for the journey? Paul
smiled and said: 'Ofcourse!' The halfling smiled and took a small rod from his
pocket, then he raised the rod high above his head and chanted some mysterious
words. A high pitched shriek filled the air and then another one! Two enormous
griffons circled above them, then those wild creatures started to descent and
landed near the halfling and Paul. Halfling said: 'Now we shall go with
haste.' Paul was amazed by these creatures but still he was wary and keeped
his distance to them. The ambassador encouraged him to climb on the griffons'
back and hold on tight. When they both got on the griffons the ambassador
mumbled silently and griffons jumped high into the air and spread their wings.
They flew several hours without any pauses and they only stopped for brief
moments to rest and eat, whole journey took several days. It was an early dawn
when they arrived to Drom and when they came closer, Paul could see that some
buildings were wrecked and burning. The ambassador sighed and said: 'I assume
there has been yet another attack last night.' Paul started to think what
could possibly cause this kind of havoc. Paul asked curiously: 'What is this
creature that has been plaguing your village?' The ambassador sighed and said:
'It is the great firedrake, it comes out at night and slaughters our animals
and sometimes even people, and the chaos doesn't stop there, it also burns our
houses and crops so we don't have anything to eat.' Paul looks startled and he
says: 'That is horrible, we must figure a way to defeat this monster as soon
as possible!'
III
Paul and the ambassador landed near a big building in the center of the
village. They jumped down from the griffons' backs and the ambassador mumbled
another mystical command word, the griffons arose high into the air and
disappeared. The ambassador says: 'This is our town hall. Now you'll meet our
beloved king.' Paul nods. They walk before the huge front door and the
ambassador knocks the door with his cane, the doors swing open and they walk
into the royal hall, they go straight to the end of the hall to meet the king.
The halfling king was small and wrinkled but his eyes looked very sharp and
wise, he looked at Paul with relieved smile on his face and says: 'I am King
Olmos of the people of Drom, and you must be Paul the Carpenter who is
prophecied to save our village. I am very pleased to meet you Paul. Paul bows
slightly and says: 'Thank you for your hospitality your highness. I am Paul
the Carpenter from village of Beluria, and I will help you any way I can.'
They went to a smaller conference room and started to discuss about the
attacks and how they could possibly slay the horrible beast. The king states:
'We could try a direct attack against the beast!' but Paul is thinking hard
how to use his skills to overcome this fierce monster. Then he figured out the
perfect solution! Paul jumps up from his seat and yells: 'I got it! We will
build a weapon that will match the size of this beast! A giant ballista!'
Everyone looked a bit puzzled, then the king asks: 'What is that? We have
never heard of such weapons.' Paul nods and starts to explain: 'You use
crossbows, right? The ballista is a giant sized crossbow, we will use that to
shoot whole tree trunks at this beast.' The king claps and says: 'Young man
you have some potential, we will build this ballista with your aid and use it
to slay the beast next time it attacks our village.'
To be continued...
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