Randall

Glad you could join us for the next nervous episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

King Arnie sent one third of the Knights he’d brought to Fen to go with Prince Elliot to the Freelands. He ordered another third to keep Princess Cassandra safe in Fen. With his small remaining contingent, his Greatness swept unnoticed through Bog. He didn’t stop till they reached the jail.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked the prisoner who’d freed the Crone.

“Of course I do, your Greatness,” the jittery fellow twittered, bowing his head. “I was born and raised in the Cranberry Bog, same as you.”

“Really? No one here knows you.”

Blinking beneath the pointed protrusions shading his eyes, he looked away. “I left during the Great War. When I came of age to serve.”

The King paused to consider. “What’s your name, friend?”

“Randall,” he murmured, swallowing hard.

“Tell me, Randall, why did you free the Crone?”

“To protect my family in the Freelands.”

“From what?”

Randall’s voice broke into a thousand wounded pieces. “General Hai has my son! He promised to send him home if I helped the old woman escape.”

“Is the General a man of his word?”

“I don’t know… I hope so… I have to believe he’ll let my boy go.” Covering his eyes as though he could stop a vision, he shuddered. “I’ve seen what he does to people who fail him.”

“But you didn’t fail,” the King reminded him.

The prisoner confessed, “I was supposed to kill the guard but I just couldn’t do it. Then I got caught.”

“Why didn’t he send the Assassin?”

“You know about him? I’ve only heard stories, but the General said nobody would notice me when I entered Bog.” Randall studied the King’s face. “What’s going to happen to me?”

“That depends on whether or not you choose to serve your Kingdom now.”

“Your Greatness, I’m too old to become a soldier.”

“There are other ways to serve.”

To be continued. . .

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