The young boy snatched it up and immediately realized he had not accounted for its weight. He struggled to keep balanced, stumbled forwards, reeled sideways and fell over a helmet on the floor. With a sickening cracking sound and a huge puff of dust, the shield landed on one edge, crashed to the floor and lay still. In horror, the boy inspected the shield. It was cracked along its length, but was still in one piece. No one would know he had caused it. Lifting it gingerly up to his shoulder, he staggered out of the room.
Gregor, the evening guard, was patrolling the courtyard, as was his job. His job was not strictly to sit on the edge of one of the fountains and hum, but it was nearly nightfall, and there did not seem to be much threat of an invasion at that moment. But suddenly, a dark figure ran past him, bearing a fearsome shield! The guard toppled backwards into the fountain with alarm, a-spluttering and a-yelling. The commotion brought over some other guards, just in time to see the soggy Gregor clamber back onto dry land.
“Oh it was terrible! An assassin as dark as night, and armed to the teeth!” he squawked. “I swung, I ducked, I riposted! I nearly stopped him, but he escaped behind his big shield.”
“A big shield? We must call Captain Rovin at once!” the other guards cried.
Moments later, they were clustered into the northwest tower, talking to their officer while a sullen Gregor dripped slowly onto the rug. No sooner had their story been told than Rovin himself sprang down the stone steps, sprinted through the palace, up a different staircase and along a corridor before stopping short at a dusty door. The door was ajar! The captain peered nervously into the gloom, but his worst fears were realised. The Shield of Arrav had gone!
~continued~
10-Aug-2007 04:11:33
- Last edited on
10-Jan-2008 18:29:13
by
Dreamweaver
