Once More, Unto the Breach

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 3

Draz shot out of his chair as the messenger approached him.
"Why have you returned so soon?"

The messenger stopped a few feet from him. "I encountered a
messenger from Krege, he gave me this and said to bring it
to you." He healed the scroll in front of him, as if it
could shield him from his Kings anger.

Draz took the scroll. "You may leave." The messenger relaxed
slightly then scurried out of the room.

"A final ultimatum?" Fox asked as Draz broke the seal the
scroll.

Draz quickly read over it, his eyes bouncing over the
parchment. He then gave a short nod. "Yes, it orders me to
send a Royal Envoy tomorrow at dawn to discuss terms of our
surrender. It also says that if I do not, he will starts his
march to battle."

Fox frowned, "so what should we do?"

Thrysten clicked her beak lightly. "I would suggest exactly
what they ask."

I shot a stare at her. "Right, good idea, and who ever goes
is also a convenient hostage. Sounds like an idiot plan to
me."

She twisted her wings a bit. "No, it is not. I've seen
exactly what kind of enhancements he has. We won't stand a
day when he finally does decide to attack. A reprieve of a
few hours will greatly aid us in planning some kind of
defense. Maybe even avoid the battle intently with out
losing the castle."

"But who ever you send probably won't get back alive, and if
it's a Royal Envoy that will be the King losing his life.
Not to mention--"

Fox cut me off by clearing his throat, I looked over at him.
He frowned at me, and said, almost to calmly, "Oriana, do
shut up."

I felt like a slap accost my muzzle. He had never told me to
shut up before, he always said he disliked using the phrase.
Felt it was to crude. The fact the he had said it meant that
I had gotten him mad at me. It hurt.

Looking down at my paws, I started to stand up, only to feel
Kalie's paw on my shoulder. "Stay here for now." She
whispered, pushing me back down.

I sat back down and took a drink of my wine glass, which had
been refilled outside of my notice.

Fox shook his head a bit, then looked at Thrysten. "What are
his enhancements? What should we expect to be hit with?"

She frowned, her flexible beak twisting a bit. "To many, you
can see how much man power he has just by looking in that
direction. It's over the hill that is what we need to worry
about. He has a dozen battalions of dragons poised and ready
to attack, half of them big enough to drop boulders on top
of us, while the other have is burning us."

Draz looked surprised. "He would destroy the castle to get
this land back. That is not something he would normally do.
If he is willing, it maybe much harder to try and end this
peacefully then we had though."

Thrysten smiled at him, and took his paw. "I expect that I
can do a good job of it."

Draz shook his head. "No, I can not allow you to go into
this."

"We've had this discussion before. I am not like the other
women in this world--"

He cut her argument short. "No, of course not, but you are
my Queen," I jumped at this announcement, I suppose it was
obvious, but I didn't see it. Neither did anyone else from
the way they all jumped as well.

Draz continued. "The Queen can not be the Envoy, and neither
can the King. Someone has to be selected to carry the Royal
seal with them to be the Envoy."

She sighed a bit. "Who then?"

There was a pause, that grew longer. Slowly everyone's eyes,
even mine, turned to Fox. He must have been thinking the
same thing because he started to shake his head.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." He said, raising
his hands in his defense. "Ken or Kalie would be better, of
even one of your guards, not me."

"I can't go," Ken said, "I need to be here, to go though
there old wizard's lab. To try and find something that may
help us now. Kalie needs to stay here and plan for the
defenses of the castle. You though are perfectly suited for
this type of negotiations."

"I'll go with him," I said, "seeing the two of us together
may shock him enough to try and settle things a bit closer
to how we want."

Draz nodded. "Agreed," he then turned to look at Thrysten.
"Would you keep an eye on them from above and report back
the if anything untold happens to them?"

She reached up and clenched her Gem in her talons, and
though for a moment. "Yes, I believe that should not be a
problem."

"Actually it should," Fox said, "Your not unnoticeable in
thr air." He stopped, and shook his head. "What am I doing,
I haven't even agreed to this yet.

We all looked at him again.

He let out a pained groan and ran his hands over his head.
"I guess I have then."

The King smiled. "Very well then, the servants will escort
you to your rooms. It is night now and we need to rest,
things will be getting hectic in the morning."

Fox sighed a bit, but pushed away from the table, we all
followed him. One of the castle servers appeared out of
nowhere and took my arm, starting to lead me to one of the
side doors in the Hall.

"Wait," Thrysten said, suddenly beside me. "I wish it speak
to her for a second."

The servant nodded, and was instantly gone again.

"You said your name was Oriana?" She asked.

I nodded, suddenly getting nervous as my eyes darted around
the dinning hall, which was empty of all but a servant by
the door, me and the gryphoness.

"Well then Oriana," She said, hooking one of her talons on
the collar of my shirt. "I am the Captain of the Guard for a
reason, and it's not because I'm the Queen. I had to fight
long and hard to achieve this position. So if I have a plan,
by all means make suggestions on how to improve it, but do
not say it's a fool's idea. Do I make myself clear?" She
said pulling me closer to her.

I felt a growl starting at the bottom of my throat, I healed
it back though the best that I could. This was not the best
of times to be getting her mad at me, that could wait till
later.

"Yes." I finally said with distaste.

She let go of my shirt. "Good." She said, smiling a bit,
then turned around and walked out of the room, her lion's
tail bobbing as she went.

I felt myself deflate, shaking my head a bit. Instantly the
servant was back at my arm, leading my out of the hall. I
let him, suddenly finding myself very tired.

He led up a flight of stone steps, down a couple of touch
lit halls, and into a small room. He left me there, closing
the thick wooden door as he left.

I sat down on the bed with a thump, and rubbed my wrist arm,
which was starting to hurt. I was about to strip as much as
I dared (the bedding looking rather bug infested) and go to
sleep when there was a knock on my door.

I sighed, walking over to the door and pulling the massive
thing open. Fox was standing outside, his jacket off and
looking disappointed.

As he saw me, he strained up a bit. "What the hell was
that?"

I turned away.

"Why did you try and make Thrysten look like a fool? You
have never done anything like that before. This is not like
you. So what exactly was that?"

I though about it for a few seconds. "I don't know." It may
have been a flat answer, but it was the truth.

"Think about it then," He snapped, "because this is not a
time to be at each others throats. Wait until this is all
over then jab as much as you want, then I won't care as much
as I do now."

I started to blush, I was actually embarrassed that Fox had
to tell me this. I hopped he couldn't see it in the
flickering light from the torches on the wall. "If this is
over, I don't exactly think it's safe to sleep in there
tonight." I said, motioned back into my room.

He smiled a bit. "Don't worry Oria, we are not going to be
attacked during then night." He answered, not understanding
that I meant the bedding in the room.

I didn't have to time explain myself because, almost as if
cued by his statement a shadow separated it self from the
rest of the wall. It formed it self into one of the local
people dressed all in black.

He sweep his arms down in a flash, and was suddenly tightly
holding something thin and black against Fox's throat,
choking him.

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This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.