:: http://www.geocities.com/dragynmistress :: :: By Jennifer Vromant :: :: jen_vromant@yahoo.com :: ---------------------------------------------- Spoof - Chapter 14 Scarsher led his white horse out of the stable and squinted in the bright sunlight. He mounted it and noticed that the stableboy had trimmed its mane to hide the charred ends courtesy of the large red dragon they had encountered before. He shook his head and sighed, then urged the horse onto the road. He travelled through the little town surrounding the palace and soon came to the wall that encircled the town. He rode up to the main gate and was stopped by a soldier. Scarsher pushed back his hood so the guard could recognize him. "Where are you going, sir?" the guard asked him cautiously, "You of all people would know that I can't just let anybody and everybody through these gates. Once you're in this lovely town of Drea, you're safe from the evil serpents, and the princess doesn't like letting people go off to their deaths so easily." Scarsher nodded and handed him a scroll with the princess' seal on it. The guard scanned it, nodded and yelled to the men at the gate that they should let the man through. Then he nodded, did a slight bow, and walked back to the little hut from which he had come. After going through the gate, Scarsher headed towards the Megaera pass, which was slightly east of the Joflyn pass where they had met the dragons before. Drea, the town he had just left, had the three largest mountains in the chain encircling it on three sides. There were only two ways to reach it. The Joflyn pass led into and through the mountains to the active volcanoes on the other side, where most of the dragons lived. The Maegara pass led around the mountains to a village called Keena, which is where he was headed. From Keena the pass continued on to the plains, forests, and cliffs. The Maegara pass had been declared reasonably safe for travelling, but it was still highly unrecommended. Scarsher travelled on this pass. He tried not to make any unnecessary breaks, but his old bones didn't agree with horseback riding as much as they had used to. When he finally arrived at Keena, the sun was just dipping behind the mountains near Drea. He rode up to the gates of Keena and was welcomed inside almost instantly. He made his way to the local inn and let a young boy take his horse. He quickly rented a room and fell asleep once his head touched the pillow.