The Red Strand (28 Jun 2001) After school, the "court" discusses strange happenings.

Siege des Anges
Just across from the Ainigton Grade School, this little square has been kept as greenery since the old days of the town. A low brick wall, four feet high, surrounds the square, through which paths enter on west and south sides, forming semi-circles which intersect a circle, paved with an irregular pattern of tight-fitting white and black slabs of stones. Trees overshadow the paths and line the edges of this square, all but hiding the center square, in which four benches look onto a bronze statue of an angel facing east, hand drawing (or sheathing, some argue) a sword. Houses border the north and east side, some of a colonial style, others built where older buildings once stood.

After school, the children meet once again on the way out of their buildings.

Tom walks along slowly. He looks toward Simon and grumbles, "Aw man, I just realized, I guess I'm gonna have to actually read that stupid algebra book. I shoulda paid attention in class today. I hope your classes were more interesting than mine were."

"Not really, we had PE," Simon says, looking a bit exhausted. "And then social studies, and it was a real sleeper of a class."

"Boy, I know how that goes. I nearly fell asleep in algebra class. I imagined exploring the cave to keep myself awake. What a yawner. If you can avoid him, don't ever get stuck in a Mr. Pettifog class. I bet PE was fun, though," says Thomas as he pauses to look around the park.

A giddy-looking Rebecca floats down the steps of the school and skips towards the others. "You'll never imagine what the principal told me!" she says, breathless with excitement.

Thomas grins and looks toward Rebecca, joking, "That you're really a lost princess and your real parents have come for you?"

Yawning, Agatha stretches once she's outdoors to work out the cramp she got from her desk, and looks to the others. Maybe Alice will like the doodle of the unicorn I drew, she thinks. "Did you get an award or something, Rebecca?" she guesses.

The small blonde haired girl in the blue dress scurries around older students as she makes her way at a quick pace to the sidewalk. Such is her hurry she doesn't notice the others. In fact, she doesn't seem to be looking anywhere other than the road that blocks her way to the Siege de Anges.

"Yeah, real fun, having everyone try to pelt you with the dodge ball hard as they can," Simon says. He looks up curiously to Rebecca. "Your long lost relatives passed away and left you a tidy inheritance?"

Rebecca shakes her head energetically. "No! Even better," she replies to Agatha, then rolls her eyes at Tom. "No, not that," she tells Simon, waving her free hand, other arm full of her book bag.

Over by the roadway the young Westfield waits for a car to pass by, then in a crowd of students makes her way across the street towards the Siege de Anges.

"I knew you couldn't imagine it! I," she pauses dramatically, tossing her curly haired, "have been accepted by the Jacob Grimm Program for Linguistically Talented Children." The girl tilts her chin down slightly. "Go on, ask me what that means!"

Tom grins widely. "That you have a big mouth? Kidding! I'm guessing it means your speaking skills are good or some such, right?"

Agatha thinks a bit, and asks, "Does it have to do with being able to read Shakespeare as if it were written in actual English?"

"Wow! Does that mean you're really good at speaking foreign languages?" Simon guesses.

"No! Well, not just that, anyway," Rebecca says to Simon. She grins hugely. "It means I'm going to Ruritania for the summer! It's a program that lets kids from different countries trade places for a summer, so they can get total immersion in a foreign language. Isn't that incredible?"

Darting in and out of big kids and little kids alike the youngest of the group of friends finally makes gets across the street. Without the obstacle to slow her down she looks across the park once, then hurries on towards its center. When her backpack becomes a hassle to her movement she takes it off as she goes and clutches it to her chest so she can walk faster.

"Where's Ruritania?" Agatha finally asks. "Is that like Transylvania?"

Tom blinks then says in a somewhat upset tone, "Whoa. You mean you won't be around to go adventuring this summer?" He catches himself and grins. "Congrats on the trip, though. Explore some castles or dark forests for me, 'kay?"

Simon looks impressed. "Wow! I've heard Europe has lots of beautiful places in it. And a lot of history, too."

"Isn't that incredible? It's a little country in Europe, Agatha. Northwest of Italy. They speak Italian there." She catches Tom's words, and nods a little. "Yeah, I won't be around this summer. But -- I'm sure you'll have a great time without me," she adds, regaining her excitement. "And you'll get to meet the girl from Ruritania who'll be part of the same program, only she'll be here, to learn English." She beams again, looking around at all her friends' faces, then frowns. "Hey, where's Alice?"

Tom frowns a bit. "Well, not as much as if you were here, but..." He then looks around and says, "Hey, you're right. Where is Alice?"

With some difficulty Alice can be spotted across the street moving quickly deeper in to the park. She's taking the southern path that should take her past the flag poll and out of sight soon.

Agatha looks around for the little blonde. "Maybe she stopped to use the bathroom? Do you already speak any Italian, Rebecca? What do they wear in Ruritania any-- Oh, was that Alice there?" She points towards the flag pole.

The little boy with the page-cut brown hair looks around, one hand behind his head. "Hey! That's right. She looks like she's in a hurry."

Tom turns and looks toward the flagpole. He squints and mutters, "Looks like her, yeah. Want me to try and catch up to her? Simon, you can run fast, right?"

"And tell her what?" Simon asks.

"I wonder what for..." Rebecca starts towards the girl, forgetting about the other for the moment. "Hey, Alice, wait up! I've got great news!" she calls.

Tom says uncertainly, "Er ... that, I suppose." He grins.

Alice pauses across the street and looks over her shoulder. She frowns, then points energetically towards something on the ground before dashing further in to the park.

Shrugging to the boys, Agatha picks up her book bag and follows Rebecca.

Tom looks at Simon. "Shall we?"

Simon looks curious. "Now I'm wondering what she's up to..." He hurries to catch up with the others, shouldering his backpack again.

Tom shrugs lightly and follows after Simon.

"Is someone following her?" Agatha asks Rebecca as she catches up, wondering who Alice was looking over her shoulder at.

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" shouts Thomas as he and Simon close in on Agatha and Rebecca.

After a few moments, the other children join the blond girl by the statue. "Alice, what's gotten into you?" Rebecca asks as they draw up to the young girl, who seems to be squinting at the angel's upraised left hand.

"Ah, the Princess of Mirari must have espied some vital clue as to the whereabouts of her earrings," Simon guesses. "Tally-ho, good Explorer, the chase is on and the hounds are hot on the trail!"

Thomas shrugs slightly and grins. "That may very well be the case. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a princess?"

"I saw him, I saw him!" exclaims Alice excitedly. She drops her backpack to the ground and begins to scramble up the statue to try and reach at its hand.

"Hey, be careful!" Agatha says, and gets in position to catch the smaller girl if she slips.

Thomas blinks and asks, "Saw who? And hey! Careful! You shouldn't be climbing that! You might fall and get hurt."

Alice doesn't listen. Something in the hand of the statue has her attention and despite the worries of her friends she seems intent on getting to it. "He's real! I saw him! He was right here!" she continues, her expression full of wide-eyed wonder.

"The missing King?" Simon guesses.

"Lord Mel?" guesses Thomas.

"Alice! You could break the statue, too," Rebecca says, aghast.

Even standing on the pedestal, Alice's arm isn't long enough to reach the end of the angel's outstretched hand. That appears to be her object, and now the other children can see something fluttering around its stone fingers, like a piece of red thread.

"Lord Mel!" answers the blonde girl enthusiastically. She plants one foot just so, reaches a hand to hold on, and reaches. But she can't quite manage it. "Tommy! Can you get it? It's a piece of his hair!"

Agatha tries stretching to reach the strand herself.

Tom paces back and forth for a short bit. "Hey," he starts to say, "er, that. I was going to ask if you wanted me to try and reach it." Thomas climbs up onto the pedestal of the statue and reaches out toward the hand.

Statue and pedestal combine to place the extended hand at least eight feet above the ground -- out of even Agatha's "reach the high shelf" grasp.

Simon stands back and looks at the reaching going on. "Careful, milord Explorer," he says, watching the goings-on dubiously.

Alice relents and lets her hand fall, pulling herself back to a safer position on the pedestal. "I can't reach it," the girl tells Thomas disappointedly as she watches him try.

Agatha checks looks around to see if any grown-ups are about to see them. "Be careful, Tom."

Likewise, while Tom's hand, standing on the crowded pedestal, comes closer to extending to the same point, he can't quite manage it. In leaning out to grab for it, he unbalances himself and nearly falls, but manages to turn the fall into a heavy jump to the ground instead, with no harm done.

Across the street, Agatha sees a couple of teachers walking, but they don't seem to be looking this way.

With a sigh, Agatha kneels down at the base of the pedestal. "I'll hold you up on my shoulders, Alice. Maybe you can reach then. We don't want to be caught actually climbing on the statue now."

Tom grunts and lands on the ground. He grumbles and looks up at the statue. "Crud. Lost my balance. Let me try again." Thomas starts to climb up onto the pedestal again and says, "Keep a lookout. I'll give it another shot."

Simon looks at Alice. "What happened, anyway? How'd you know there was some kind of red string tied onto the Guarding Angel?"

Tom stops himself, belatedly registering Agatha's suggestion. "Or let's try that. Good idea."

With a little trouble, Alice manages to scramble up onto Agatha, and once the athletic redhead straightens, the blonde manages, straining, to tug the red strand from the angel's careless "grasp".

"I got it!" Alice squeals happily. She clutches the string in one hand and holds it to her heart, while she uses the other hand to balance herself so that Agatha can put her down easier.

Agatha carefully kneels down again to let Alice off. "How'd you spot it?"

"A feat fit for the finest acrobat!" Simon says, applauding with a grin.

Rebecca watches all of this with a puzzled look on her face, waiting for the younger girl to explain.

Once down, Alice cups the string in both hands as if it were a golden treasure, protecting it from the wind that might steal it from her. "I saw him! Lord Mel came here! He went from there," she points at the flagpole, "to here! He pointed to the statue and cut it with his horn! Look!"

Tom raises an eyebrow and asks, "You saw Lord Mel. Here. A unicorn, here?"

Agatha blinks and looks towards the statue's hand again. "Cut it where, exactly?" she asks. "Can I see the hair too?" She figures she'll be able to tell if it's real horse-hair ... which she realizes is silly because there are no red-maned horses.

Simon cranes his neck to look too.

The girl nods a few times, answering, "YES!". The string is cupped again so Alice can point with both hands at the base of the statue before she opens her hands and shows Agatha the hair. "I saw his foot print too! Over by the statue! He's real! He is!"

The blond child misspeaks -- the statue has not been cut, though the concrete slab beside the pedestal shows a gash where she points. It looks like someone scraped it with some hard implement.

Agatha kneels down again to examine the hair out of the wind.

Tom glances worriedly toward Rebecca and whispers, "I'm getting worried about Alice. I mean, unicorns don't exist. We're just playing after all, right?"

It's not really coarse enough to be a horsehair, and it's definitely the wrong color for it -- a hue of red brighter than Agatha's own hair.

Returning the fine strand of hair, Agatha stands up and quietly walks over to the flagpole to look for a hoof print.

"Oh, like you've never daydreamed in class?" Rebecca whispers back to Tom. "She's just got a good imagination."

Just as Alice said, there's a hoof print -- plainly not a horse's, though, as it is cloven. It's a bit larger than the spread of Agatha's hand.

Simon looks a little concerned too. "Someone's going to be upset about having to fill this up, when a grown-up notices it," he says. "What do you think Lord Mel wanted to tell you, Princess?"

"Oh, I've daydreamed. That's not the point. She's actually believing it, Rebecca. That worries me, is all," responds Tom. He then kneels down and inspects the scratch in the pedestal, looking for flecks of metal or some such.

Just as quietly as she left, Agatha walks back to the statue and looks at the scrape. "What is he warning us about, Alice? It is a warning, isn't it?"

"Maybe she's just getting more into the spirit." Rebecca crouches next to Tom. There's nothing in the scratch to suggest what left the gouge. "I've, well, I've yelled at her a lot for breaking the mood before."

Alice holds the string in her left hand very tightly. With her right hand she begins fishing out her angel necklace, and while doing so, turns to smile a little at Simon. "I don't know," she answers truthfully. "I just saw him come from there to here and point at the statue. I ... I think I saw another shadow too. They met by the flagpole and I couldn't see them very well. Maybe we should look around more?"

"Huh," Simon says. "Another shadow? Did you see what it looked like?" He obligingly cranes around, exaggerating the role so that he puts his hand over his eyes like some comic version of a Royal Explorer surveying a far-off wilderness.

Tom nods slightly to Rebecca and says, "I hope that's the case. Still. Something's bothering me about this. Man, I should go back and check that cave out completely." He grins slightly. "Though, if the cave is like I imagined in Algebra class, I think I might run screaming. I imagined finding her earrings down there."

"The growler," Agatha says, looking back towards the flagpole. "The other shadow would have been the growler, I bet. It didn't leave a footprint, though."

"It had a tail, and it was shadowy black and it was on the statue ... and ... " the girl pauses suddenly, eyes widening, "it was here. The first shadow was weird. It had a tail in the wrong place, flat, and ... well /weird/. Then Lord Mel jumped out. There's a cut here, too. Maybe ... he attacked it?"

Tom looks at Alice and asks, "Did the shadow have any teeth? Did it kinda look like a wild dog, only eviler? Hard to make out?"

"A growler?" Simon almost visibly droops, resuming his usual mousy look.

Alice continues to try and pull her necklace out, at last drawing it forth and then fiddling with the clasp. "It was flat and had a funny tail. Not like Lord Mel, smaller. It was trying to hide from me I think," she answers.

As Simon droops, he notices a couple of dusty, smudged paw prints, on the east side of the statue.

Agatha nods to Simon. "The thing from the cave. Lord Mel attacked it before, in the woods." I'm going crazy, but unicorns don't wear shoes and have cloven hooves, and where did Alice get a black unicorn doll?

"Hey..." Simon tugs on Tom's sleeve and points to the paw prints.

Tom looks at Simon and starts to say something. When he notices what he's pointing at, his jaw shuts quickly. Tom moves over to the prints and carefully kneels down beside them. He spreads his hand and holds it above the ground next to the print to judge the size.

With her pendant and the red string now in hand, the blonde haired girl begins trying to tie the string around the angel, looping it as many times as she can and attempting to make the best knot she knows how. "The tail was too high, and ... too long ... too flat maybe, to be a dog's," she offers.

Simon whispers into Tom's ears while they're convenient, "I was thinking maybe Alice got someone to put the string up there ... but this is seeming like a bit much work to go to. And have you been feeling watched lately?"

Agatha sits down next to Alice and asks her, "Where did you get Lord Mel from, Alice?"

"I don't know about watched, but something has felt a bit odd lately. Like my daydream in algebra class. Part of it seemed so real. I mean, I was actually afraid in part of it," says Thomas. "I keep trying to convince myself this is just a game, but..."

The paw prints aren't that large -- maybe the size of a medium dog, smaller than the palm of Tom's hand. Now that he's looking, he can see scuff marks on the concrete from other dusty prints, though only a couple are distinct.

Tom digs in his backpack and pulls out a piece of paper. Carefully, he sketches the print, trying to get the size and shape as close as possible.

"Daddy gave me Lord Mel when I was very little," explains Alice. She's not terribly big now actually, so very little might mean when she was very young. Meanwhile she finishes tying the string to the angel pendant and begins making sure it will hold.

The thread, or hair, is pretty hard to work with -- coarser than true thread, and somewhat slippery. It doesn't knot well at all.

Simon shakes his head. "Now, don't you go around the bend on me," he whispers to Tom. "I'll tell you what: we still have to look for those earrings. If the cave looks exactly like you daydreamed, then you can get all worried on me."

"Oh," Agatha says, seemingly not hearing as she tries to remember the fairy stories her mother told her when she was little.

"It'll take more than a bit of thread and a few dog prints to drive me over the edge, Simon," says Tom, grinning. "Never'less, I want to go in that cave soon and settle this."

The girl screws her face up as her knot comes undone soon after she made it. "Fooey," she says. Not quite certain what to do with it now, she just clutches both it and the pendant in one hand and begins circling the statue. "Did you guys see anything during class?" she asks as she searches.

Agatha blinks at the question. "What do you mean, Alice?" she asks, and then reaches for her book bag to fish out her English notebook.

"Not much except people trying to bowl me over with a dodge ball," Simon says cheerily.

"I daydreamed finding your earrings in the lower part of the cave. Also daydreamed of a monster down there," says Thomas absently as he continues to inspect the prints.

"I saw the shadows from the window in my class. Didn't you guys see anything? Shadows maybe?" explains Alice. She continues to circle the statue in search of, well, anything abnormal -- abnormal to her, anyway.

Alice blinks and stops to lean around the statue. "Monsters? What kind of monsters, Tommy?" she inquires.

Finding the right page, Agatha holds her notebook out to Alice. "I drew this," she says, pointing the black unicorn doodle. "It ... sort of talked to me."

Tom shrugs. "Couldn't make it out. Soft, growling sounds. Thought I saw its eyes once. Later, thought I saw its teeth. Never really saw it enough to even prove there was such a thing. Was kinda odd to be freaked out in a daydream."

The girl behind the statue disappears for a moment as she moves to lean around the other side of the statue. "What did it say, Agatha?" She smiles hopefully, obviously not the least bit concerned her drawing talked at all.

"Nothing specific," the taller girl admits, feeling suddenly foolish. "Just the impression that it was something urgent, a warning. And that he didn't wear shoes."

"A daymare," Simon quips, "is the daughter of a daydream and a nightmare, in that it comes while one is all but sleeping, and it pleases not the one who has it."

Agatha blinks at Simon. "Do you ever write that stuff down?" she asks the erstwhile Court Jester.

Rebecca doesn't seem to hear the other children as their conversation continues. Suddenly, she speaks. "In my minds' eye," she says, staring off into the distance, "I saw Lord Melchizedek, with his mane and tail on fire, and his horn gleaming orange and silver in the light, rising to do battle against the Year's End. The Princess sought her father, while two warriors flanked the unicorn in his defense. And the Sorceress ... and the Jester ... had vanished."

"Whyever for, it's just nons--" Simon gulps. "Vanished?"

Tom looks up, eyebrows raised. "Say what?" is all he manages to say.

"A warning ..? What could it be a warning about?" The girl behind the statue circles around again and returns to the others, string and pendant in hand. She frowns as she hears the end of Rebecca's vision and repeats, "Vanished?".

"Maybe warning about that," Agatha says after Rebecca speaks.

The little boy tugs on his collar. "I hope it wasn't because he was sentenced to Tom's Dungeon Cave for a bad joke here or there. I mean, I can come up with some pretty rough puns, but they're not worth varnishing me for, right?"

The Lady Sorceress Nymuae turns back to look at them with steady green eyes. "You needed our aid, but we were not there, either. The forces of good were losing, one by one, disappearing. It is up to you to find where they have gone."

Tom shakes his head. "Wait a moment. Two warriors? We have one, Agatha. Where does the other come from? How did the others vanish?"

"Maybe that's the warning. Those ... Growlers are coming taking people away maybe?" suggests Alice, sounding more than a little nervous at the idea.

"Faeries steal children and take them Under the Hill," Agatha says, pronouncing the capital letters. "At least, that's what my mother told me when I was little. That's what happens back in the Old Country."

She closes her eyes for a second, then Rebecca opens them again. "I'm sorry. Alice asked what I saw during class, and that was all. I don't know what the rest of the story is, Thomas."

Tom swallows and stammers quietly to himself, "And what happened to me?"

Alice turns and smiles a little to Tom. "If I make you a knight, would that mean you won't disappear?" offers the girl.

Simon blinks. "Whoa, Nellie. That's some daydream."

Tom blinks and says, "Um, I suppose. But I'm an explorer, not a fighter. I travel and learn. I don't know how to use a sword or anything like that."

"I didn't think -- I mean, it's just a daydream, Thomas," Rebecca offers. "I have them lots. That's how I knew the King was missing, too. You weren't frightened when I told you that."

"That sounds more like a ... like a prophecy than a daydream," Agatha says. "You should have been daydreaming about Ruritania after all, Rebecca."

"Maybe we should write this down," Simon suggests. "I mean, that's the rule, right? It tells you how the game should go next. Er, it foretells the future. With great and clankingly dark omens, it does."

Tom holds up his paper and pencil to Simon. "Go to town," he says quietly.

"Ruritania doesn't seem as real," the girl says automatically, then looks guilty. "I mean, I've never been -- well -- I've not had as much time thinking about Ruritania, yet."

"Maybe you could be a ... a ranger-guy, with bows and arrows, like Robin Hood." The princess smiles a little more and turns back to face the others. "Writing everything down is a good idea I think. Maybe we could make a big book about it, and copy everything in to that, like a ..," she considers for a moment as she tries to find the word, " ... a tome?""

Simon starts scribbling. "In the Year of Our Lord, mmf..," he scratches away busily, "did the Lady Sorceress Nymuae pronounce a most dire prophecy, that the Lord Melchizedek should do battle with the dark shadow Year's End... Hey, I don't have enough paper here for a tome!"

Tom grins. "Sorry, I don't carry that much around with me. You could use my algebra book for a tome if you want to. It's arcane enough."

Simon shoots Tom a "yeah right" look, grinning.

"Oh, honestly," Rebecca says, exasperated. "We can get you more paper. Here," she digs through her book bag, pushing aside several pamphlets and a map of Ruritania before she fishes out her notebook. "I've got lots of blank pages."

"Well, okay. It could be a scroll, then. Important magical stuff always comes on ar- ... arcane things. Like tomes, and scrolls, and magic books," says Alice. The girl then eases herself down next to her backpack and opens it, then searches through its contents with her free hand. Of course, Lord Mel is there waiting, and she picks him up to rest him on her knee while she searches.

"I'll start keeping records then," Simon offers. Looking around at people, he adds, "I can tell there's going to be a lot of them."

Tom looks directly at Lord Mel. "Look at all the trouble you've caused!" he exclaims, grinning. "Why can't you just tell us what is going.... Wait a moment, I'm shouting at a doll." He slumps and mutters, "Now I'm losing it."

"Yeah, just a doll," Agatha agrees, sounding like she's trying to convince herself.

Alice picks up Lord Mel again and holds him in her folded arms so he faces outward. She hugs him and turns to stick her tongue out at Thomas while doing so. "He's real!" she protests.

Lord Mel's disapproving stare falls upon Thomas, the fearsomely plush Knight Defender of the Princess obviously displeased by being called "just a doll" -- evident in his icy silence, of course. He then turns to regard everyone -- that is he moves back and forth as Alice hugs him tightly, regarding them all with his dark eyes, perhaps warning them of troubles to come.

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This site serves as a chronicle of sessions in an online roleplaying campaign moderated by Conrad "Lynx" Wong and May "Rowan" Wasserman. The contents of this site are (c) 2001, 2002 by Conrad Wong and May Wasserman except where stated otherwise. Despite the "children's fantasy" theme of this campaign, this site is not intended for young readership, due to mild language and violence.