Adventures in the Dragons Realm  
                               chapter one
                          "First Night in Town"
                              by Lord Dizzy           
                             edited by Eric42
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     The moon was in its first quarter the night that I came into town.  A
  dead quiet was a wash, a strange thing for any town to have, for I had
  been to many towns before in my quest for fame and adventure.  I had gone
  to the local healer to look after a wound that I had recived on the
  outskirts of town by a creature that I had never come across before in my
  life.  What I mean is that I have heard of them in folklore told by the
  elders of my clan to children who had sneaked out to listen to the talk
  of the  warriors who had returned earlier in the day.  They told stories
  of rats the size of bears, the creatures shook the ground around them as
  they walked and of dragons of all sizes.  But nothing  had prepared me for
  the carnage I found outside  this town.  Skeletons of men and monsters lay
  skatered, picked clean of weapons, armour, and gold.

     I made my way to the bank to put the gold I had earned from the other
  village that I had just traveled from.  The healers had told me that it
  would be safe from the scurge that came to this town to try their luck
  and life in the forest around the town.  When I walked over to the Inn,
  I was weary of entering the place, for just as I got to the door I saw
  the bartender pat someone on the back as two guys carried the lifeless
  body of some poor soul out the door with a priest in tow.  I had been 
  told that the forest was not a safe place to call it a night in, but I
  wondered if the Inn was any more safe.

     The Inn was dark and dingy, drunks bickering across the tables.  Each
  trying to tell a larger story then the last.  I made my way over to the
  corner of the bar where I could have my back against the wall and see
  everyone who was in the place.  Felling a little safer, I called for the
  barmaid.  She slowly made her way over to me thru the crowd of men trying
  to grope her, sit her on their laps and any other form of flirting that
  they knew, but when she finaly got over to to my table and moved into the
  candle light, I saw what all the commotion was about.  She had to have
  been the lovelist thing in the entire world.  I would have never imagened 
  to find a woman so beautiful in a town or bar like this.  My mouth ran dry
  just trying to ask for a mug of wine, while my tounge felt as if it had
  hit the table.  She ask for some gold to pay for the drink and turned and
  walked to the bar to go retrive the order I asked for.

     As I ate the bread and mutton and drank the wine I ordered, the
  bartender made his round of the place telling the drunks to pay for a
  room or to get out of his place.  As he walked by me, he told me that he
  had never seen me here before and that he didn't like strangers in his Inn,
  thou I felt that he didn't mind strange gold to inhabit his pockets. I
  asked how much gold it would cost to get a room, but he just gruffed and
  said that untill I had trained under one of the town trainers that he
  would say no more to me till then.  As I made my way to the door, I saw
  one man pick up the barmaid and take her up the main stairs, while at the 
  same time I saw the bartender take more gold from someone with a half 
  drawn sword at the stairway behind the bar.  I had a strange feeling that
  the scene I saw on my way into the bar was going to happen again before
  the night was over.

     As I walked down the center of the town, I saw that all the shops were
  closed for the night and that I was not going to get anything done tonight
  so I went to find a tree just past the last house to try to get some sleep
  under, hopeing that being close to town I could hear if anything important
  had happened I could be there to get in to the action, yet not have anyone
  come slit my neck in the cover of darkness.


     The end for now.

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     Look for
     Adventuers in the Dragons Realm  
     Chapter Two - "Learning the way"
     by Lord Dizzy