A young Cymrillian boy, shoeless and dressed in rags, slid out of the market crowds like a fish leaping from the surf. He knelt beside the blind beggar and whispered in his ear. "We've found him."

The battered lute disappeared. Qwill smiled and stood, his gaunt frame unfolding to nearly eight feet tall. The boy took his hand and together they disappeared into the market crowds.

In the shade of the wall, the still open chest snapped shut. It slid into the shadowed hollow where a stone had been pried away.

"You found him like this?" Qwill asked.

The Sindaran lay collapsed across a pile of rotting garbage in the back of the alley.

"Yes sir." Parrow, a heavyset Zandir boy of about ten, answered absently. His attention focused on trying to slip the bag off the sleeping Sindaran's shoulder without waking him.

"Asleep?"

"Uhuh."

"Hmmm. Lirri, fetch some water." Qwill held out a silver and felt it snatched away as the young Sarista girl darted out of the alley.

"Hok, go and tell the others that they can stop looking."

"Aww but Qwill." The Cymrillian boy protested.

"Go. You'll get your fair share for finding him."

The boy let go of Qwill's hand and sulked away, kicking at a rusty tin.

The Sindaran's suddenly sat bolt upright, coming face to face with the startled Parrow, and screamed like his soul was on fire.

"I think 'e's up." The boy noted sagely.

The Sindaran stopped screaming and lay back, his breath coming out as ragged tear. His large, terrified eyes transfixed on the tall blind beggar.

"Easy friend. We don't mean you any harm." soothed Qwill.

"Who? What?" The Sindaran gasped.

"My name is Qwill. This is Parrow."
The Sindaran's head jerked and stared at the young boy. Parrow held out the bag and smiled sheepishly.

"OW! He hit me!"

"Stay out of his stuff." Qwill advised. "Friend, we have been asked to find you."

"What for, by whom?"

"Follow me and see. Would it be presumptuous to ask your name?"

The Sindaran looked distant for a moment. "Josik, my name is Josik." He said carefully.

"Well the friend Josik, if you would just..."

"A moment please. " The Sindaran pulled himself to a sitting position, rubbed his hands across his face while mumbling and shaking his head. Parrow raised an eyebrow and looked skeptically at Qwill.

"Now then," Josik said. "You say you have been asked to find me and yet you did not know my name. It was not your direct intention to rob me as you would have done so and departed whilst I remained unconscious. And know you ask me accompany you to some undisclosed location without explanation."

"Yes."

"And what if I refuse?"

"Then I must go and tell them that you have chosen to become uncooperative. And I would tell them where to find you."

"If I hide?"

"You cannot hide from my charges. They know every knothole, pothole or bolt-hole in this city."

Parrow made a face and stuck out his tongue.

"OW! That ring's heavy!"

Josik ignored the complaint. "I deduced as much." He stood and smoothed out his robe. Flicking a viridia peel at Parrow.

Lirri came back into the alley, a look of intense concentration on her face as she tried to balance a large gourd on her head. Suddenly she tripped on a small stone and the gourd went sailing out of her grip. Inches from the ground it stopped, righted itself and hovered in midair without spilling a drop.

"Sorry." Lirri said in a small voice, twisting her toes in the dirt.

"No matter child." Qwill sighed. "In future, just try and pay attention."

The gourd floated to Josik and came to rest on the ground by his feet.

"My apologies. Please have a drink. "

The Sindaran picked up the gourd and studied it, pulling the cork and looking inside before taking a cautious sip.

"After you." He said.

"Please Qwill, we want to see the animals." Pleaded the children.

"It is nearly lunch, you three should be working."

"We'll work tonight, more tourists out at night anyway." Argued Hok. He'd returned just after they had left the alley.

"Very well." Qwill smiled and dropped three silvers. Not one hit the ground. "But I expect each of you to have made ten times that much by midnight or you don't get supper. Understood?"

"Yes, thank you!" the kids yelled and raced ahead to the gates.

Spice trees grew over the other side of the wall. A canopy of sharp, fragrant leaves hung down over their heads. The kids ran through the gates, throwing the coins at the startled guard and disappeared, laughing into the park.

As Qwill talked quietly to the guard, Josik read the sign over the gatehouse.

-Zandu Menagerie.-

The room had the sickly smell of wet fur and animal dung. A row of empty cages lined one long wall, and in the corner a neglected Arborvoir lay deflated and forgotten . The only furniture was a thick, battered desk. Josik could see claw marks ripped deep into the wood.
Behind the desk sat a man dressed in fine purple leather lined in soft yellow fur. Staring at the ceiling he rubbed his close cropped, white hair with one gloved hand and put his feet up,. "You may leave us now Qwill."

The beggar didn't move.

"It is not the money that concerns me Arimatas. Jerrum wants to know what's going on."

"I do not have to bow to the whims of the Sultan of Beggars." spat Arimatas.

"No? Shall I leave now and tell him this?"

Arimatas glared at Qwill before turning to the Sindaran.

"You stole something from me."

Josik's look was one of mild curiosity.

"I had some merchandise coming into the city. You set it loose."

"Did I?"

Arimatas took his feet off the desk. "You know bloody well you did. And you know where it is."

"I am sure I do not have the faintest notion about what you are talking about."

"The bane! The bloody bane that has been terrorizing the city for the past three days. Four people have turned up dead, five if you include my idiot driver, and each time a witness describes seeing you near by."

"There are many Sindaran in the city."

"Not ones who sleeps." Qwill said quietly.

Arimatas continued "We almost caught it last night, just after that fat washerwoman was ripped apart. One of my men thinks he snagged it with a capture bow but it ripped the line and got away. I want to know where it went."

"I'm afraid I really haven't a clue as to what..."

"Look I'm not angry. In fact if you help me capture it alive before the citywatch puts a bolt through it, I can make it worth your while. Could you imaging the draw if I had the infamous, beautiful bane that stalked the city streets on the eve of the Clash, alive and in a cage?"

Josik stiffened. "I do not think I can help you."

"You don't understand my spikey headed friend. I'm not offering a choice. I'm offering an ultimatum. I don't appreciate people who steal from me. Either you help me or my omnivrax will have your living flesh for dinner."

The Sindaran smiled.

"My name is Lirri."

"No its not. It is Rubblestump." Lirri dissolved into giggles. The little round faced peered at her curiously. "You're sick you are. Gots the quanese- flue you have. Go see a doctor or you'll die." It said. Lirri laughed harder.

"This is boring. Lets go see if we can see the exomorph." Parrow complained.

"You can't see an exomorph erd-head." Hok said. "They're invisibles. Lets go see the tundra-beasts."

"They're gone. Eaten by the Smokks."

"Yeah. Come on Lirri."

"I don't want to. This little mendakithes is funny."

"Mendaxites, Lirri." corrected Hok, "And we're bored of looking at them."

"Hey. You ever think maybe I get bored of looking at you?"

"You go. I'm fine by my self."

"You'll just get lost."

"No problem. I'll help."

The explosion shook the ground. The animals screamed in fear as a pillar of flame erupted into the air.

Parrow cried. "That's the building Qwill went into!"

"Hey wait! Come back! Its just a drill! Happens all the time! No cause for alarm. We're famous for our random detonations.... lousy kids."

"I found him." Parrow pulled back a smoldering plank to reveal the battered desk. Overturned, the desktop was burned to black ashes . Huddled behind sat Qwill and Arimatas, charred but unharmed. Qwill stood and took Hok's hand.

"I don't think he responds well to ultimatumes."

"Shut up Qwill." Arimatas said, dislodging himself from the rubble.

"At least he gave us a warning."

"Placing the canister on my desk - saying 'goodbye' and walking out, isn't my idea of a warning. If it wasn't for that imaginary friend of yours tipping the desk we'd be dead now."

"It is a Figment. And it is not my imaginary friend, it is my familiar."

"Whatever. It saved my life and so you just doubled your money. I'll double it again of you can find that son of a drac. I'm through playing games."

P.C.'s---
Josik
The Bane
Qwill - Blind Castabulanese Misfortunate Serparian
Hok (Cymrillian), Parrow (Zandir) and Lirri (Sarista) - Forsaken Serparians .

NPC's---
Arimatas- the owner of the Zandu Menagerie is from the WORLDBOOK. And hence is a protected NPC.
Jerrum - the current Sultan of Beggars

OTHER---
Mendaxities - are small humanoids incapable of telling the truth. Only two known to exist live in the Menagerie
Figment - from the THYSTRAM'S COLLECTANEA, invisible spirits from the Dream Dimension.

Part IHalf a Life
Part II A Long, Strange Day
NEXT: Part IV Blood in the Garden
Part V Memories and Fireworks

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