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- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!asuacad!azlmh
- Organization: Arizona State University
- Date: Sunday, 15 Nov 1992 20:07:19 MST
- From: Lisa Mae <AZLMH@ASUACAD.BITNET>
- Message-ID: <92320.200719AZLMH@ASUACAD.BITNET>
- Newsgroups: alt.romance.chat
- Subject: Re: CASTLE The Minstrel Comes Home
- Distribution: world
- References: <1dp7ntINNm8s@agate.berkeley.edu>
- Lines: 77
-
- In article <1dp7ntINNm8s@agate.berkeley.edu>, scoger@ocf.berkeley.edu (Scott
- Gier) says:
- >
- >After playing his lute for awhile in the darkened ballroom the Minstrel gets
- >up
- >and walks out into the hallway. He heads towards his old quaters to see if
- >they still hold his posessions. He walks through the door to find that
- >nothing
- >has changed. (Well, except for the fact that castle staff leaves less dust
- >after cleaning his room than he does.) Quickly, he finds his pack and set of
- >lockpicks. "I wonder if the Lady Elizabeth is still in residence here.", he
- >mutters. "Only one way to find out."
- >He moves through the torchlit halls to Lady Elizabeth's chambers and checks
- >the
- >door. Locked. THe Minstrel whispers, "This is unlike her." Her quickly and
- >quietly picks the lock and moves into the room. His breath cacthes when his
- >eyes make out the form sleeping on the bed. It is her, the Lady Elizabeth.
- >His eyes also find the necklace and charm he gave her as a token of the love
- >they share.
- >He softly move across the room and picks up the chain. The charm slides off e
- >th
- >table and makes a small clink when it hits the hilt of his wrist knife. The
- >Minstrel looks over at the bed and see the Lady roll towards him and stay p
- >aslee
- >Moving quietly his footsteps whisper across the floor as he leaves the room.
- >He lets the door close noisily and steps back into the shadows to await the
- >Lady's emergence from her room.
- >-----
- ********************************
- It was the music that awoke her. The Minstrel must be in strange mood,
- she thought. She turned over in her bed and stared out the window at the
- stars glistening in the night sky. Her forhead wrinkled in thought, as the
- music continued to invade her senses. It wasn't the Minstrel playing, it
- sounded different. She did have an impulse to go down and see what was
- bothering the Minstrel, but if it was someone else...she didn't want to
- invade in someone else's privacy.
- That is why her door was locked this night. She usually left it unlocked,
- but she wanted some solid sleep, where she didn't have to worry about any
- intruders. She was just falling asleep when she heard a sound. Lady Elizabeth
- had no weapon near her, so she decided to play like she was asleep. She turned
- toward the intruder, but kept her breathing even and did not open her eyes.
- Then the intruder was gone, he had closed the door so loudly it was a wonder
- he didn't wake up the whole castle.
- Looking around, she tried to see what was missing. Lady Elizabeth quickly
- picked out the missing object, it was her pendant. Anger was her key emotion,
- she would kill the thief that had pilfered her belonging. As thoughts of
- "different methods she could use to torture the sniviling(or he would be soon)
- unintellegent maggot of an...." ran through her mind, she put her shoes on
- and grabbed the dagger from her end table. When Lady Elizabeth got to the
- door, she peeked out first(to make sure it wasn't a trap) before exiting to
- find the misbegotten foul who swipped her pendant.
- Just as she received a feeling that someone was staring at her, she saw
- a hand appear out of one of the darkened corners, holding her pendant.
- "Looking for this?" he asked.
- It was the Minstrel's voice. Her steps where so quick, she literaly flew
- down the corridor and landed with in the warmth of his arms. She had missed
- him. A familar charge of what could only be discribed as sparks transfered
- between them. Mmmmm....yes, there was no doubt, he was the Minstrel.
- As if just remembering herself, she seperated herself from him and avoided
- looking at him directly. "And where have you been? And WHAT do you think
- you are doing, picking my lock!! I mean really. Do I come to your room
- and pick your lock?" Lady Elizabeth was happy he had returned, but he had
- no right to pick her lock, it was like an unwritten agreement between them.
- She was very agitated at him.
- "Now Elizabeth..." he started to say, only to be interupted by Lady Elizabeth.
- "Don't you now Elizabeth me, Mark..." she stated as she turned toward him,
- pointing her finger at him. Her words broke off, as she looked directly into
- his face.
- He was no longer hidden in the shadows, the light from the torches on the
- wall, clearly outlined his now matured features. His once boyishly youthful
- face seemed aged now. She caressed his cheek, as she stared into his eyes.
- It was in his eyes that she could see a secret was hidden. What was he hidding
- behind those eyes of his? There was a distinct age difference in his appear-
- ence, that had not been there before. Staring into his eyes and caressing his
- cheek, she almost whispered her question, "what happened?"
- ***************
- Lady Elizabeth
-