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The gates of Woorof are always a friendly sight to me. Home of the mighty Wolfhounds and there breed leader, the bearer of the Onyx of Strength, Whoric. In our honor the mighty Whoric had lined the road from city gate to castle proper with doggs who carried shields of pure gold. The well polished nature of the shields allowed them to direct the fading sun upon the ground before us with dazzling brillance while those farther ahead of us allowed the sunlight to dance upon their shields to show off their splender. Our arrival from out of nowhere had caused quite an initial stir amoung the crowd, but they quickly collected themselves to light our path to the castle. As we stepped upon the bridge seven gold strewn horses with seven gold armoured riders aproached us from the castle proper. (author's note:: normal Wolfhounds ride sheep, but because of the weight of the gold, they were force to use wolfhound horses instead. Average height of such steeds is twenty-four hands high for the most runty of runts, and these that approached were most certainly not runts) Seeing that we no longer had mounts, Whoric had rightly guessed that some kind of evil had befallen on us during our journey to his city. As such, he had sent General Murdac and six others to pick us up and hurry us back to meet with him with all due speed. Thus being the case, the seven riders reached us quickly and Murdac asked Scottie to elevate my band upon the horses as Murdac had not had time to bring with him ladders with which to help us mount the mighty Wolfhound steeds. Within a matter of minutes were were finished riding to the castle proper, hurried into the elevationer, and then escorted into chambers of Whoric who looked most upset at the thought of someone trying to cause us evil on a journey to his city. When he saw us enter his chambers his eyes raised to meet mine and I could see them blazing with a cold, black fire when he spoke and his entire body twitched with fury, "What happened! Who dared to threaten the son of my oldest friends and most valued allies! Tell me young one...that I may soon reek my vengence against them." Whoric's rage continued to build as told him what had befallen on my band during our trek to his fine city. When I finished my telling his rage was so far beyond boiling that he was utterly quiet and calm in his anger at an attack on friends that were coming to see him so close to his city, "My patrols are well known throughout the land of Doggainia, and they will find these rogues who attacked you. And if they do not, I will pay a visit to the Eastern lands myself, and we shall soon see if they remain so bold when I am in there midst. As Griffons they may be able to hide themselves from me, but they cannot hide forever, rest assured comrade, they will pay for this outrage." Up until this point my brother had been silent, but now he stepped forward and spoke with a quiet passion, "No, you must not leave your city. Send out patrols if you must, but do not leave Woorif. I know some of what is unfolding now in the East, there is a delicate balance of power now between the Griffons of Stalt and the Airdales of Aerion. The old Griffon breed leader, Erik died under mysterious circumstances, and it is suspected by some of the Griffon court that Erik died by Airdale treachery. I can say nothing more at this time, because it could jepordize the peace talks that my sire is trying to conduct. And it is for this reason you cannot attack the Griffons good Whoric. There are many who want these talks to fail and if you came East with anger in your heart, it would garuntee their failure. So, great Whoric, I beseech thee, do not let your displeasure get the better of you, for if war breaks out in the East, then it may soon spread to the North, South, and West as the Airdales and Griffons call to their allies." Though Whoric was not happy with my brother's words, he could not but admit that the reasoning was sound, and agreed to stay his patrols inside his lands. He dismissed us to allow himself some time to recompose himself. As soon as we were clear of Whoric's door I asked my brother if it was for these peace talks that he could not leave with us for Borwane, to which he nodded his head in agreement, "I was supposed to tell you of this later, when we reached the port city of Fannox, so that you would have time to formulate a speech to present before the assembled doggs in the meeting camp our sire is currently building between Aerion and Stalt. We were to skip over our scheduled stop in Keit and sail straight from Fannox to the meeting camp. I was not to say anything about this until Fannox because we needed to keep you acting like there was no problem, since I am only the second born, and a failed mage, no one would notice if I acted a bit nervous and edgy, especially since I have reputation of not liking crowds. So our sire choose me to tell this news. We could not tell Scottie, because if Scottie knew he would insist on joining our sire at the camp, and then he would not have been with us on this journey, and our sire rightly forsaw that we might be attacked in an attempt to destroy the peace talks. Now that you all know what has been going on, I hope you understand the importance of continuing as though nothing as happened. If the other breeds find out about these problems, they will start taking sides and the could cause an all-out civil war in our land. I know Whoric will keep quiet, for he was one of the Invincible Four, and as such he will know what repeating any of what I have told him will lead to." Having now learned what I needed to know, I retired to the chambers so graciously provided for us by Breed Leader Whoric. I sat down on the chamber's expansive bed and mulled over the information I just received. A civil war on the verge of breaking out in Doggainia!?! The very thought of such a thing was enough to throughly overwell my tired mind and body. Within a few minutes I was sprawled out on the bed sleeping soundly. Thus, when a page from Whoric was sent up to announce dinner, he was torn between waking me and dispatching his errand. After a few moments consideration, he decided on the former at let me rest in peace. This, as it turned out, was what the other pages who were sent to summon the rest of my band also ended up doing, so Whoric could not find fault in their behaviour. The following morning, when we convened to break fast together, Whoric announced that in the evening the annual Strong Dogg event would continue as planned. And to the victor would go the same prize as every year, the Onyx of Strength. Whoric had won the contest for so many years that it was quickly becoming a simple affirment of his strength, but this year many suspect that Butch may finally over come the now aging warrior and lay claim to the Onyx. Thus the timing of our arrival was not entirely conensidenal as Butch was expected to appear in contest for the Onyx. When the competition commenced, the first four rounds went as predicted. The first round was the hurling of quarter ton rocks. Whoric out threw a dogg from Zulan, while Butch set a new distance mark while defeating a Keiv dogg. The second round was the Bone-War in which the two contestants grabbed opposing ends of gaint bones, and attempted to wrest control of the bone from the other. Whoric set a new time with fifteen second dismissal of a scoundrel from Fannox, while Butch finally over-powered a huge Wolfhound after a record two hour struggle. Round three was Skull Bashing, an event in which the two contested had to turn five large boulders into dust in the shortest possible time. Whoric choose the locations of his punches carefully, and was able to complete the task using only five punches...and setting another record time. Butch applied Bear Hugs to his boulders and easily outpaced his rival. The fourth round was the second to last round, and was the traditional weight lift. Whoric beat his personal best while Butch out-lifted the record by fifteen stones. Thus the fifth and final round was between Butch and Whoric...the event, as always, wrestling. It was an epic struggle, Whoric having the edge in quickness made in nearly impossible for Butch to gain a firm hold, while Butch's superior raw strength broke every hold Whoric used. Finaly, it all came down to age. Despite Butch's earlier two hour struggle, his youthful stamina was still greater than that of the aging Whoric. After fifty grueling minutes, Whoric was pinned and Butch granted victory. Whoric stood and removed the Onyx from around his thick neck and placed around the larger neck of Butch Prince of Bulldogs. The crowd chanted loudly "BUTCH THE BULLDOG!" until they were hoarse in the throat, then huge wine casks and beer kegs were wheeled into the vast arena while harpers started the music. Alexis and I fevorishly danced the night away, my mind completely forgetting the brewing war in the East. Butch, meanwhile, drank more than enough to put any other dogg in a drunken stupor, yet showed no signs of being anything but sober. He gave the traditional hourly bellows of a newly crowned champion as he lived up his greatest (to that point) achievement. Ace Dogg of Doggainia |