‘Hello. I’m Aquitain.’ he said ‘I’m looking for the HighWizard. Is he around?’
‘Aquitain. It’s Aquitain. Our champion is here. He’ll save thetown,’ yelled one of the townspeople.
Featherdownchanged to a bear and started sniffing the air and looking in thedirection of the invisible wizard and watched him teleport away.But just to be sure he walked over and smelled the magic residue.Yes, there was teleport magic there and a range of other protectionmagic smells. He changed back to his naked Newman formre-established his loin cloth and asked
‘Is there anyone in charge here?’
The townspeoplecrowded around him.
Moments laterone of the trees turned into a druid.
‘I am.’ said the druid. ‘Are you really Aquitain?’
‘Please people can you give us some room. I’ll try and savethe town if I can but I’ve heard the invaders have a lot ofcaptives. I’ve come here to help get them released.’
‘Yay.’ They all shouted.
‘Quiet please. In fact please stand in a circle and holdhands.’
He was amazedat how quickly they obeyed his instructions.
‘I’ll send you to Templegate now.’ Then used a mass teleporton them and they were gone.
‘It’s nice to meet you, Captain Brown Bear, Sir. How can Ihelp.’
‘Call the others I need to talk to you all.’ saidFeatherdown.
The druid wassuddenly suspicious.
‘How did you know there were more of us?’ he asked.
Featherdown wastempted to tell them who he really was but decided to continue onwith the deception.
‘Because I’m a mind wizard, I can detect theirminds.’
‘Oh. Of course sir.’ said the druid and calledthem.
Just thenGranwell appeared.
‘Do I know you?’ he asked.’
‘I’m Aquitain.’ said Featherdown beginning to enjoyhimself.
‘Oh the little spider gnome fellow with the golden collar.Where’s your
collar? Iwould have recognized you if you wore that.’
‘I left it with Princess Miranda.’ repliedFeatherdown.
The otherdruids joined him and were told by the druid in charge that he wasAquitain the famous mind wizard. They were suddenly veryinterested.
‘Ok this is what I want you to do,’ and he explained the threejobs he wanted them to do. When he stated that he wanted one tomimic Princess Miranda. They were quiet for a moment.
‘Er, Captain Brown Bear we’re not supposed to do that. It’sagainst the rules.’
‘Well she’s my girlfriend. If she finds out about it justblame me. She will probably carry on a bit but after all what canshe do?’
Suddenly allseven volunteered.
Featherdownsuggested they change form to her and suddenly he had seven Mirandalook-alikes. None were perfect but good enough to suggest they musthave tried it before. He selected a winner and told the otherstheir jobs. One pair had to release the townspeople, a second pairthe guards and the remaining two secure this position whileAquitain and Miranda provided the diversion. They would then attackthe commercial teleporter and retire to the northern beach.
He gave themthe teleport marker coordinates and four of them disappeared totake up their positions. Two went to the secret underground areanext to the Gateway building and two to an underground tunnel thatled to the customs buildings basements. They were to wait until thesignal came then activate a mechanism that rotated a part of thewall up so the people inside could escape down the tunnels.
To ensurethings happened fast they would play the game Run Dragon Run. Thiswas a game that the children played and all knew quite well as theywere drilled with it three times a year. In the game the childrensat on the floor and when the teacher yelled Run Dragon Run theyall ran to the green room which was usually a basement paintedgreen. The first few arriving were given prizes of sweets and thelast to arrive was called the dragon’s breakfast.
‘What would you like me to do?’ asked Granwell.
‘You are going to conjure me some beasts.’ repliedFeatherdown.
‘Oh is that all. I was hoping you had something exciting inmind.’ said Granwell.
‘I have.’ replied Featherdown. ‘It will be the most excitingthing you and I have done for a while. A granddeception.’
‘I don’t remember us doing anything together before.’ saidGranwell thinking carefully.
‘What about that time on Rembro.’ repliedFeatherdown.
‘Oh but that wasn’t you that was …is it really you? I don’tthink I’ve seen you naked before.’
Featherdowngrinned and nodded.
‘By the Powers, We nearly died on Rembro.’ replied Granwell alot more serious.
‘And we might die here unless we can pull this off properly.’said Featherdown.
’Do you think you can control that dragon you were telling meabout earlier.’
‘Ahh. Perhaps. She owes me a favour but she is rathertemperamental. She likes fighting and destroying things. We couldlose the town.’ replied Granwell a little uncertain now.
‘Perhaps if we throw in a couple of magic items.’ saidFeatherdown.
‘You’re not going to call a real dragon are you?’ said thedruid suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.
‘Yes. Just do your job. Look pretty and when the fightingstarts dive for the ground and meld in. We’ll do thefighting.’
‘Okay this is how I envisage it playing out. Just keep an eyeon Archwizard Firestorm. He’s the most likely to wake up that it’sa deception. There are also a couple of wizard hunters around. Theywill be invisible and unlikely to bother the dragon but they couldworry us if they get close enough.’
***
Back at theGateway Building a wizard hunter was reporting to High PriestKelnor.
‘I went to check on the western teleport area and discoveredthat the members of our patrol sent there were dead. There weresigns of magic use and there were a few civilians there. Isuspected that it might be a trap and there might be hidden magicusers so I waited patiently to try and detect them. While waiting ayoung Newman naked except for a glamour teleported in announcing hewas a person called Aquitain. He was recognized and greeted withgreat enthusiasm by the civilians. I recalled that we were not toharm him. He changed to a bear and sniffed around as if trying todetect any hidden people like myself. When he started to approachmy position I left to come here to report.’
‘This is interesting!’ said Firestorm. ‘The last report I hadon him said he was in Moonmist. Are you sure it wasn’t someoneposing as him?’
‘I don’t think so, My Lord. He was naked. Nobody would come toa war zone naked unless they were idiots or extremely
