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A Tale of Two Persons, Parts 1 and 2 / Ah, it's a wizard's life!
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<blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 1024459" data-attributes="member: 2020"><p><strong>A Tale of Two Persons, part two</strong></p><p></p><p>Chapter One</p><p></p><p> Once upon a time, Yours Truly was enjoying a walk in the local park, when lo and behold, he came upon a warrior.</p><p> Now, this was not some actor or SCA person trying out for the Pennzic War, but a real honest to goodness warrior from the world of Faerun, magically transported to our world and plopped right down in the neighborhood of Yours Truly as he walked in the park.</p><p> The warrior was dressed in the finest ornate plate armor, and by means of it's marvellous magical properties it was completely weightless. The same was true of the warrior's helm and his shield, and he could walk across the roughest terrain at the highest speed as easily as you and I could saunter down the sidewalk.</p><p> The warrior ran up to Yours Truly before he could do much more than gape, and grabbed him by the shoulder.</p><p> 'Hey, what are you doing?' said Yours Truly, rather afraid of this stranger.</p><p> 'I am a Purple Dragon Knight of Cormyr' replied the warrior, and indeed his surcoat of the Purple Dragons proclaimed it rightly so. 'Where am I, and how do I get home?'</p><p> For some reason, Yours Truly was inclined to believe the warrior, having heard of such phoenomenon in scientific books recently published, so Yours Truly relaxed. He was a bit awed and honored to be in the presence of such an august defender of the Steel Regent of Cormyr, and before her, the valiant King Azoun IV.</p><p> 'Why, if you will just follow me' said Yours Truly, 'I will take you home, and we shall discuss this. For you are in a strange world, and I must explain all of it's customs to you, if you are to avoid real trouble prior to our discovering the magic necessary to return you to your native land!'</p><p> This was true enough.</p><p> </p><p> Chapter 2</p><p></p><p> 'Well, which way to your home?' asked the Purple Dragon of Cormyr to Yours Truly.</p><p> Yours Truly considered this; 'Well, those railroad tracks are the most direct way, but since it is illegal to walk along them, we shall walk down the road, in the park, until we reach my house.'</p><p> However, the Purple Dragon Knight was, apparently, rather arrogant, for he said: 'I think we should take the most direct route. And since walking through yonder trees seems difficult, and those railroad tracks look like easy walking, we shall take those.'</p><p> Yours Truly protested. 'But it is a felony to tresspass on the railroad tracks. You must understand that. You should obey the laws of our land, since you are here.'</p><p> But the Purple Dragon replied: 'I honor the laws of my native Cormyr, and I think such a law, as the one you describe, is totally unreasonable; the law you proclaim concerning those railroad tracks. In Cormyr, we would not deny you use of the King's Roads. So, why should I be denied the use of yonder Railroad Tracks?'</p><p> Yours Truly protested again, but it was no use. The Purple Dragon would not have it, that they take the road (and the paved biketrail that ran alongside it) but would only have the railroad tracks, so up they scrambled and climbed until they reached the high way with it's twin steel rails.</p><p> Yours Truly then saw the signal lights were green, and commented: 'A train is coming soon. When it does, we must stand aside.'</p><p> 'What is a train?' asked the Purple Dragon.</p><p> 'It is a machine of our land designed to carry bulk freight' commented Yours Truly. 'They are enormous and impressive things, and their horns are very loud, but it is pleasant to hear them going by in the distance, on a summer night when your windows are open.'</p><p> The Purple Dragon considered this, then commented 'We must wait and see one of these trains.'</p><p> Yours Truly protested. 'If the police see us here, we will be arrested! The sooner we are through with our journey and off these railroad tracks, the happier I will be!'</p><p> But the Purple Dragon was having none of it. He decided to wait for the train. He decided to wait for the train, standing right on the tracks themselves.</p><p> Soon the train, a real monster of a coal train, fully loaded, and travelling at 40 miles per hour, came roaring up (you know, the kind that you are glad is going fast, as you sit annoyed in your automobile, and even then it takes 20 minutes for the durn thing to pass by?)</p><p> The Purple Dragon Knight did not move aside, did not step off the tracks as the train approached, so the engineer of the train gave a thunderous pull on the air horn. Yours Truly, seeing the Purple Dragon - standing their slack jawed in amazement - was about to be squashed, heroically leaped on him, and bore them both rolling down the embankment, as the four engines of the train roared by, and the very earth shook with the rumble of the great coal cars, and the air was filled with the metallic noise.</p><p> The Purple Dragon Knight just stared and stared, his eyes standing out, the veins on his forehead visible, and he was trembling violently. He was at an utter loss for words, and Yours Truly could do nothing but wait while the warrior crouched in abject terror in the underbrush, watching the train go by.</p><p> Yours Truly was shaking too, but not from the train passing by. He was shaking from nearly having been killed by the train, because he had had to save the Purple Dragon from being killed, because he had not moved out of the train's way. 3 seconds more, and that would have been that.</p><p></p><p> Chapter 3</p><p></p><p> Yours Truly decided then and there to get the warrior home and keep him there, less the terrors of this world prove to be too much for the Purple Dragon, and he got himself killed in some foolish way. Yours Truly looked at the overhead high tension lines, in which 13,000 volts of electricity were carried, and decided then and there that a long lecture was going to be needed to this knightly fellow, worthy though he was, about survival in this strange, strange world.</p><p> However, Yours Truly was not to have that chance.</p><p> The engineer of the train had radioed the news of the near collision to the railroad authorities, and they had radioed the police, who now showed up in two squad cars.</p><p> Four police came out, carrying their flashlights, and spotting Yours Truly and the Purple Dragon Knight, they called out: 'You there. Come down here at once.'</p><p> The tone was not friendly or unfriendly. It was absolute, as is typical when the police are doing their job.</p><p> Yours Truly immediately moved to comply, with a 'yes, sir.' added. However, the Purple Dragon instantly bolted into the woods, thinking himself able to elude the Watch of this apparently hostile land.</p><p> Yours Truly turned around in protest, even as shouts of 'halt!' and 'freeze!' were heard from below.</p><p> Yours Truly put up his hands and did not move. One of the police came up, swiftly clapped a hand over his shoulder, and walked him down to the squad cars. Not roughly, nor gently either, but swiftly and with the precision of long training.</p><p> One of the officers of the police called for backup, while the other two gave chase to the Purple Dragon Knight.</p><p> The Purple Dragon found his way encumbered by brush, thorny vines, and fences, and he did not know the way. The police knew all the ways, and were not encumbered by heavy armor, bulky weapons, shields, and helms that allowed limited sight vision. The outcome was inevitable.</p><p> 'Freeze right there!' shouted the two officers, having pulled night sticks out, and advancing on the Purple Dragon, who had pulled out his sword.</p><p> The Purple Dragon protested 'I am a stranger in your land. What kind of treatment is this? Does your Watch always treat strangers so? I throw down my weapon, see ...' And the honorable and good man threw down his sword.</p><p> The officers regarded him with the stony faces they employ when dealing with suspects, and they called out 'Lay down on the ground. Hands out. Do it now!'</p><p> The Purple Dragon would not comply. He shook a fist at the police. 'I have done nothing to you or yours. I will not cooperate. I will not tolerate this kind of treatment!'</p><p> Yours Truly, sitting in the squad car, overheard this, and groaned, but there was nothing he could do.</p><p></p><p> Chapter 4</p><p></p><p> The officers waited for their backup, and soon four more police cars came up, and eight officers of the law leapt out, and ran up to surround the warrior from Faerun.</p><p> With such odds, the outcome was a given. The officers took the warrior down. The Purple Dragon Knight struggled, injuring several officers. The officers piled on the man and held him until he could be cuffed, then manhandled him down the slope and into the rear of a police car.</p><p> The Purple Dragon Knight was looking someone bruised and battered for wear, but Yours Truly thought he was rather lucky. The police had exercised incredible restraint, considering the circumstances. The warrior should have been dead, and might have been dead had he tried those stunts in most other police precincts.</p><p> Now the officer continued questioning Yours Truly, who commented that he did not know the fellow, and he had not intended to break the law, and that the stranger had been entirely unreasonable, and that he had saved the stranger's life.</p><p> Yours Truly was not a bad person, but he did not want to go to prison because a stranger from another world had shown up, behaved stupidly, and turned the kindness of Yours Truly into a trap that caused him to get into trouble with the authorities.</p><p> Yours Truly even agreed to a polygraph lie detector test, in order to verify his story.</p><p> In the end, Yours Truly was let off with a Warning. It was considered he was an innocent dragged into the situation, by the Judge.</p><p> The unfortunate Purple Dragon of Cormyr, was determined to be unfit for trial, declared legally insane, and sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. He would, eventually, find the magic to return home, and he would complain bitterly of his treatment on our world to the Steel Regent.</p><p> But the Steel Regent of Cormyr would pronounce him a clown and a fool, and have him put in the stocks for public ridicule.</p><p> She would also inform him that she was being merciful, and that if he again embarrassed Cormyr by flaunting the laws and authorities of a foreign land, and behaving stupidly, she would have him beheaded.</p><p></p><p> Epilogue</p><p></p><p> Once again, we see a hypothetical meeting of Reality and Fantasy, when truly the twain should not (and, actually, do not) ever meet.</p><p> However, this time Yours Truly was the one who could cope, and the valiant warrior of the fantasy world, could not cope at all.</p><p> Thus, these are events that are the absolute reverse of the events that occurred in the first story, given in the first post of this thread.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Edena_of_Neith, post: 1024459, member: 2020"] [b]A Tale of Two Persons, part two[/b] Chapter One Once upon a time, Yours Truly was enjoying a walk in the local park, when lo and behold, he came upon a warrior. Now, this was not some actor or SCA person trying out for the Pennzic War, but a real honest to goodness warrior from the world of Faerun, magically transported to our world and plopped right down in the neighborhood of Yours Truly as he walked in the park. The warrior was dressed in the finest ornate plate armor, and by means of it's marvellous magical properties it was completely weightless. The same was true of the warrior's helm and his shield, and he could walk across the roughest terrain at the highest speed as easily as you and I could saunter down the sidewalk. The warrior ran up to Yours Truly before he could do much more than gape, and grabbed him by the shoulder. 'Hey, what are you doing?' said Yours Truly, rather afraid of this stranger. 'I am a Purple Dragon Knight of Cormyr' replied the warrior, and indeed his surcoat of the Purple Dragons proclaimed it rightly so. 'Where am I, and how do I get home?' For some reason, Yours Truly was inclined to believe the warrior, having heard of such phoenomenon in scientific books recently published, so Yours Truly relaxed. He was a bit awed and honored to be in the presence of such an august defender of the Steel Regent of Cormyr, and before her, the valiant King Azoun IV. 'Why, if you will just follow me' said Yours Truly, 'I will take you home, and we shall discuss this. For you are in a strange world, and I must explain all of it's customs to you, if you are to avoid real trouble prior to our discovering the magic necessary to return you to your native land!' This was true enough. Chapter 2 'Well, which way to your home?' asked the Purple Dragon of Cormyr to Yours Truly. Yours Truly considered this; 'Well, those railroad tracks are the most direct way, but since it is illegal to walk along them, we shall walk down the road, in the park, until we reach my house.' However, the Purple Dragon Knight was, apparently, rather arrogant, for he said: 'I think we should take the most direct route. And since walking through yonder trees seems difficult, and those railroad tracks look like easy walking, we shall take those.' Yours Truly protested. 'But it is a felony to tresspass on the railroad tracks. You must understand that. You should obey the laws of our land, since you are here.' But the Purple Dragon replied: 'I honor the laws of my native Cormyr, and I think such a law, as the one you describe, is totally unreasonable; the law you proclaim concerning those railroad tracks. In Cormyr, we would not deny you use of the King's Roads. So, why should I be denied the use of yonder Railroad Tracks?' Yours Truly protested again, but it was no use. The Purple Dragon would not have it, that they take the road (and the paved biketrail that ran alongside it) but would only have the railroad tracks, so up they scrambled and climbed until they reached the high way with it's twin steel rails. Yours Truly then saw the signal lights were green, and commented: 'A train is coming soon. When it does, we must stand aside.' 'What is a train?' asked the Purple Dragon. 'It is a machine of our land designed to carry bulk freight' commented Yours Truly. 'They are enormous and impressive things, and their horns are very loud, but it is pleasant to hear them going by in the distance, on a summer night when your windows are open.' The Purple Dragon considered this, then commented 'We must wait and see one of these trains.' Yours Truly protested. 'If the police see us here, we will be arrested! The sooner we are through with our journey and off these railroad tracks, the happier I will be!' But the Purple Dragon was having none of it. He decided to wait for the train. He decided to wait for the train, standing right on the tracks themselves. Soon the train, a real monster of a coal train, fully loaded, and travelling at 40 miles per hour, came roaring up (you know, the kind that you are glad is going fast, as you sit annoyed in your automobile, and even then it takes 20 minutes for the durn thing to pass by?) The Purple Dragon Knight did not move aside, did not step off the tracks as the train approached, so the engineer of the train gave a thunderous pull on the air horn. Yours Truly, seeing the Purple Dragon - standing their slack jawed in amazement - was about to be squashed, heroically leaped on him, and bore them both rolling down the embankment, as the four engines of the train roared by, and the very earth shook with the rumble of the great coal cars, and the air was filled with the metallic noise. The Purple Dragon Knight just stared and stared, his eyes standing out, the veins on his forehead visible, and he was trembling violently. He was at an utter loss for words, and Yours Truly could do nothing but wait while the warrior crouched in abject terror in the underbrush, watching the train go by. Yours Truly was shaking too, but not from the train passing by. He was shaking from nearly having been killed by the train, because he had had to save the Purple Dragon from being killed, because he had not moved out of the train's way. 3 seconds more, and that would have been that. Chapter 3 Yours Truly decided then and there to get the warrior home and keep him there, less the terrors of this world prove to be too much for the Purple Dragon, and he got himself killed in some foolish way. Yours Truly looked at the overhead high tension lines, in which 13,000 volts of electricity were carried, and decided then and there that a long lecture was going to be needed to this knightly fellow, worthy though he was, about survival in this strange, strange world. However, Yours Truly was not to have that chance. The engineer of the train had radioed the news of the near collision to the railroad authorities, and they had radioed the police, who now showed up in two squad cars. Four police came out, carrying their flashlights, and spotting Yours Truly and the Purple Dragon Knight, they called out: 'You there. Come down here at once.' The tone was not friendly or unfriendly. It was absolute, as is typical when the police are doing their job. Yours Truly immediately moved to comply, with a 'yes, sir.' added. However, the Purple Dragon instantly bolted into the woods, thinking himself able to elude the Watch of this apparently hostile land. Yours Truly turned around in protest, even as shouts of 'halt!' and 'freeze!' were heard from below. Yours Truly put up his hands and did not move. One of the police came up, swiftly clapped a hand over his shoulder, and walked him down to the squad cars. Not roughly, nor gently either, but swiftly and with the precision of long training. One of the officers of the police called for backup, while the other two gave chase to the Purple Dragon Knight. The Purple Dragon found his way encumbered by brush, thorny vines, and fences, and he did not know the way. The police knew all the ways, and were not encumbered by heavy armor, bulky weapons, shields, and helms that allowed limited sight vision. The outcome was inevitable. 'Freeze right there!' shouted the two officers, having pulled night sticks out, and advancing on the Purple Dragon, who had pulled out his sword. The Purple Dragon protested 'I am a stranger in your land. What kind of treatment is this? Does your Watch always treat strangers so? I throw down my weapon, see ...' And the honorable and good man threw down his sword. The officers regarded him with the stony faces they employ when dealing with suspects, and they called out 'Lay down on the ground. Hands out. Do it now!' The Purple Dragon would not comply. He shook a fist at the police. 'I have done nothing to you or yours. I will not cooperate. I will not tolerate this kind of treatment!' Yours Truly, sitting in the squad car, overheard this, and groaned, but there was nothing he could do. Chapter 4 The officers waited for their backup, and soon four more police cars came up, and eight officers of the law leapt out, and ran up to surround the warrior from Faerun. With such odds, the outcome was a given. The officers took the warrior down. The Purple Dragon Knight struggled, injuring several officers. The officers piled on the man and held him until he could be cuffed, then manhandled him down the slope and into the rear of a police car. The Purple Dragon Knight was looking someone bruised and battered for wear, but Yours Truly thought he was rather lucky. The police had exercised incredible restraint, considering the circumstances. The warrior should have been dead, and might have been dead had he tried those stunts in most other police precincts. Now the officer continued questioning Yours Truly, who commented that he did not know the fellow, and he had not intended to break the law, and that the stranger had been entirely unreasonable, and that he had saved the stranger's life. Yours Truly was not a bad person, but he did not want to go to prison because a stranger from another world had shown up, behaved stupidly, and turned the kindness of Yours Truly into a trap that caused him to get into trouble with the authorities. Yours Truly even agreed to a polygraph lie detector test, in order to verify his story. In the end, Yours Truly was let off with a Warning. It was considered he was an innocent dragged into the situation, by the Judge. The unfortunate Purple Dragon of Cormyr, was determined to be unfit for trial, declared legally insane, and sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. He would, eventually, find the magic to return home, and he would complain bitterly of his treatment on our world to the Steel Regent. But the Steel Regent of Cormyr would pronounce him a clown and a fool, and have him put in the stocks for public ridicule. She would also inform him that she was being merciful, and that if he again embarrassed Cormyr by flaunting the laws and authorities of a foreign land, and behaving stupidly, she would have him beheaded. Epilogue Once again, we see a hypothetical meeting of Reality and Fantasy, when truly the twain should not (and, actually, do not) ever meet. However, this time Yours Truly was the one who could cope, and the valiant warrior of the fantasy world, could not cope at all. Thus, these are events that are the absolute reverse of the events that occurred in the first story, given in the first post of this thread. [/QUOTE]
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