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Before I begin today I feel I must clarify something. At the current point in my tail, I am blind from the curse of the witch. This would seem to conflict with my seeing Scottie's face covered with fear and foreboding. All that seems, however, is not always what it is. I have known Scottie all my life, and thus I can tell what is on his face, even without actually seeing it. I felt I must clarify this point, or I may confuse some of you in the future parts of the story. With that said, allow me to take you back to Castle Rover from whence my band will soon depart... As the new leader of the Lab and Retriever Breeds, my band looked to me for leadership. Though I could not see them, I knew that they were watching me and waiting for some new course of action. First things first, my Sire had always said, and what we needed more that anything was information. And there is only one place in all of Doggainia to go if you truly need information: Yapap. Though I do grant you that Yapap was also my destination of choice as it would be only there could we find magic strong enough to cure my sight. As I was about to give the command to move out towards Yapap, Scottie spoke out, as though reading my mind. He said that perhaps, we should split up, saying that half our group should go with Butch and Scottie to find out if every town had suffered the same strange fate as Rover and Borwane. My thoughts were thus forced to war. Separating our band for a period of two, perhaps even three, fortnights could prove risky with only twenty able warriors to begin with. Yet, perhaps knowing the fate of the other Breeds and of there towns, could aid us in quest. I probably would have decided to keep the whole band together in the interests of safety, and gone out to visit the other towns had my first thought not been of heading to Yapap. For any other town's fate matters little by comparison to that of Yapap. The magic of the entire land comes from Yapap, and there too is all our knowledge. If the mages of Yapap were destroyed, then what hope had we of avenging our loss against the Summoner and his undead druids. No where in all of Doggainia could we find enough spare mages adequate to do the job. Then it struck me, the Summoner was to return before the Dawn of the Awakening to call for the greatest mages in the land to aid the Giver and the original druids in the fight against the Awakening. The GREATEST mages in the land were in Yapap. So they should have been there already when the Summons was made. But if the Summons had been successful...why did he attack Borwane and Rover with only his druids. Perhaps because the mages that were Summoned were no in Yapap. They were here in Rover and Borwane. But who, other than Scottie, would have been a powerful enough mage to have been called....Wait, why not Scottie? Scottie wasn't in Doggainia at the time, so he failed to accept the Summons as the Summons only affected those mages who WERE in Doggainia. The Summoner must have tried to find him, and when he failed, must have thought we were trying to keep Scottie from answering the Summons. *Myself and Scottie held a whispering session.* "Scottie!" I asked. "Yes my Leigh?" came his reply. "The Summons, you don't suppose it was meant for you do you?" Scottie puzzled for a moment, "It was my thought, yes. And yes, my Leigh, it would mean that the whole of Doggainia would have been placed under great peril if the Summoner continued to try to find me. That is what I wish to find out by taking Butch and a small party with me. If it is as we fear, we may be all that remains of our kind. Perhaps there are still some realms that the Summoner has not gotten to, and I may be able to find him before it is too late." I nodded worriedly, "I hate to break up our group, but perhaps we are right, where will you go first?" A breif moment of thought clouded my mentor's face, "The lands of Bayark are far to the south it may be that the Summoner has not reached them yet. I will head there first. If I arrive to late, I will cross the Gulf of Groule to Fannox. It is the furthest of our lands in the West." Sighing, I replied, "Very well, barring and problems on either our parts, I should be able to reach Fannox from the North about the same time as you reach it from the South." A curt nod from Scottie, "Agreed, my Leigh." *We stopped whispering* I then told my loyal band that I agreed with Scottie, and that we would split up, Butch and Scottie to Southern town of Bayark, and the rest of us the Yapap in the North. And with those words we separated, perhaps never to meet again. And now I shall take my leave of you, and continue my tail at some later date. Ace Dogg of Doggainia |
