-story start-
"Onward, ho!"
Sir Reele, the knight you have sworn to serve loyally until death, seems to have managed to catch his feet in the stirrups yet again. Sighing heavily, you head towards the mass of knight and horse that has resulted. You manage to minimize the damage to the horse and knight, although unfortunately his left stirrup seems to have torn slightly. That's going to be a good hour's worth of repair tonight. Joy.
You honestly have no idea how Sir Reele managed to make it to knighthood much less survive this long, but he was the only knight without a squire at the time of your desire to join the ranks of knighthood. However, seeing Sir Reele at work, you're beginning to have serious second thoughts about becoming a knight. Admittedly you haven't seen _too_ many knights, but those you have have definitely had less common sense then their squires.
Anyway, Sir Reele seems to have taken it into his head to charge off northwest towards the wastelands in the hopes of defeating a mighty enemy and being ennobled by the King. Knowing Sir Reele's skills and the fact that the King is senile or dying or both, you don't have a whole lot of confidence in this endeavor. However, you _are_ sworn to serve him (which you find yourself reminding yourself of way too often recently), and you weren't able to talk him out of it, so here you are, riding northwest.
A few hours pass, and you're still riding northwest. You're not sure exactly what Sir Reele is hunting for, but he's very determined to find it. So determined, in fact, that you almost had to haul him off his horse just to let the horses take a drink at a nearby stream. Sir Reele seems bound to fill the silences with stories of his past adventures and moral stories to uplift your spirits and propel you to knighthood. You suspect he'd have more success if you didn't know all his adventures are stolen from tales. The fact that he forgets the endings to more than half the tales doesn't help, either.
You've just gotten into ignoring his story of how he fought off three giants single-handly when a screech and a "whump" ahead cuts him off.
Oh, my. A dragon.
You come to the immediate conclusion that the only chance for you and the knight to survive is to run away, very fast. Unfortunately, Sir Reele's already charging.
The next few moments are a tad blurry. Next you can remember you're hiding behind a large outcropping, having dived off the horse to avoid a short burst of flame. Panting heavily, you're just about to pull your sword and attempt to foolishly rush in to defend your knight and likely die doing so when you realize that all's quiet.
Peeking over the rock, you see a very messy Sir Reele and the dragon flying off with your two horses, one in each claw. Apparently the dragon decided they'd make a better meal then the knight. And knowing his sanitary habits, you're forced to admit it probably has a point.
A few moments of examination and care has revealed a few things:
1) Sir Reele's not quite dead. 2) Sir Reele's very unconscious, and is likely to stay that way for quite some time. 3) You have no supplies. 4) The outcropping you were hiding in also happens to hide a vaguely cave-shaped entrance. You can probably stash Sir Reele in there with a few large branches covering the entrance and he should be safe enough until you can get better help than you can give him. He should certainly pull through (you do know how to do first-aid, after all), and he's got enough food and water that you've managed to scrape together that he should be okay for a few days, but finding some more supplies for yourself and perhaps a healer would certainly be useful.
So that's how you've found yourself walking back southeast. It's been an hour or two, and you find yourself wondering how your family is doing back home. They certainly aren't attempting to hike cross-country with few supplies. Ah, well. Life of adventure and all that.
Suddenly, a person appears almost directly in front of you. Being completely surprised, you run smack into him, and you both fall to the ground. On closer examination, you see that he's wearing wizard's robes (bright blue with white stars), a leather pouch on his belt, and a pointy hat matching his robes on it. He looks quite confused.
Well, if nothing else, you certainly can't say your life is boring.
The man you just ran into somewhat dazedly pushes himself into a sitting position, snatches his hat up off the ground, brushes the grass from it and clasps it firmly back on his head.
Looking still quite confused, the wizard (it seems reasonable to assume he's a wizard, considering the matter of meeting him and his clothing) starts fumbling through his pockets. "Excuse me a moment," he says. In a few seconds he's pulled out a pen, a bottle of ink, and a small book, which he proceeds to spread out on the ground and start writing. He mumbles as he writes, "Upon... reaching... the... thirty-eigth... word, ... I was hit by... an unidentified object, ... knocked over, ... and transported to... an unfamiliar grassy plain, ... in front of..."
The young man pauses for a moment, looks you over, and continues, "... a well-armed individual, ... of distinguished appearance, ... in fine leather armor. As he... is watching me... I can only surmise... I am not, ... in fact, ... invisible. I attribute... these results to... defective... material... components."
He snaps the book shut, stuffs the various objects back into his pockets, and nods politely to you. "Good day to you, sir! Could you direct me to the road to Syolleine?"
You've never heard of the city name in your life.
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