The Stone Of Anidem - Part 4 - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/emilysrealm/The_Stone_Of_Anidem_Part

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When we came out, Mendal looked at us approvingly and we headed down the same passageways we came through before and stopped at the Great Zameri’s room. He knocked on the door and the Great Zameri opened it. He was wearing a black suit and his hair was damp and slicked back, it wasn’t very becoming. To nobody’s surprise, he started complaining the minute he came out-
“That wardrobe would only give me peasants clothes! The other diners will mistake me for a peasant instead of who I really am, the Great Zameri! I insist on having a royaler wardrobe.”
“Can you order those out of a catalog?” I asked.
“Please refrain from giving us anymore of your peasant comments miss,” the Great Zameri said. “We have no time to listen to your unimportant peasant conversation when I, the Great Zameri, is here. Now, as I was saying-“ It went like that the whole way down to the Dining Hall.

The Dining Hall was the most magnificent room in the Palace On The Island. It was as large as the whole downstairs of a large house and the ceiling was at least three stories high. The lights were candles hanging upside down from the ceiling, with no visible thing holding them up there. The large wood table covered most of the room and left only enough space for the chairs to be put around it and a narrow path around the chairs. There must have been at least five hundred chairs around that table.
Mendal led us to a corner of the table where the only members of our group were already seated. He saw us into our seats and then left, he said to find Lakem. The seven of us sat there, alone and quiet, in that large Dining Hall for ten minutes, then other people began to arrive. There were women in the exact same style of dresses Beth and I were wearing, although they were the most beautiful dresses I ever hope to see (Although they did get monotonous after about fifty women came in as the only way the dresses varied was in the color,) and men dressed in the same style suits as the Great Zameri. None looked very good in them, I might add.
In only fifteen minutes every chair around that table was filled except for the one at the very head of the table. After a moment Mendal and Lakem came into the room again. Mendal blew a trumpet and Lakem announced, “His Majesty the Great King Nadroj.”
Everyone clapped and Nadroj came into the room, wearing the same outfit he’d been wearing earlier. He nodded to everyone, sat down in the head chair, and clapped his hands twice. Food appeared suddenly on plates that weren’t there a second ago. Everyone had a steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, French fries, a hamburger, and a glass of milk. It definetly wasn’t the kind of meal I was expecting, but I was starving so I dug right in. It was better then I expected it would be. As soon as he took one bite, the Great Zameri began to complain.
“This food is the worst I’ve ever tasted! It’s only fit for, for peasants! I expected a better meal at the Palace On The Island. King Nadroj has definetly gone down in my opinion. He’s treating me like a, like a peasant! I’ll not take this I tell you! No, I shall-“
“SHUT UP!” yelled Beth so loudly I was sure everyone was going to stare at us, but no one even looked our way.
“Why you little brat!” the Great Zameri thundered. “How dare you talk to me that way! I am the Great Zameri and you are nothing but a, but a peasant! I can’t believe the King put me on a team with you, you peasants! I hate the thought of going on a quest with you, you-“
“Well that’s just fine!” I snapped at him. “Because we don’t want to go on a quest with you either!”
“You cannot talk to me in this way!” the Great Zameri roared. “I am the Great Zameri and all of you are nothing but, but-“
“PEASANTS!” yelled Camri angrily, “We know! PEASANTS, PEASANTS, PEASANTS, PEASANTS, PEASANTS! We GET it! Just stop your whining for half a minute and let us eat in peace!” Camri yelled all this at the very top of her voice and this time everyone in the hall did look our way.
They all stared at our small group with the greatest astonishment written on their faces.
“Wonderful!” cried the King jovially. “I am so glad you all are getting on so nicely.” Now everyone was staring at him in amazement.
“WE’RE NOT GETTING ON NICELY!” I yelled, losing my temper. “DON’T BE AN IDIOT! CAN’T YOU SEE WE’RE FIGHTING?!” Now all eyes were turned on me in bewilderment.
“Thank you so much for the compliment,” said the King happily. “I always knew I’d shown good judgement when I put you all in a group!”
“SHE DIDN’T COMPLIMENT YOU!” Beth yelled. “IT WAS AN INSULT!” This may seem a very stupid thing to you, Beth, Camri, the Great Zameri, and I had all lost our tempers and it seemed quite logical to us. It didn’t seem so to Maude and Yelhsa though. They tried to shush us all but we couldn’t be shushed.
“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE KING!” yelled Camri.
“Your Majesty,” said the Great Zameri. “It angers me to have to lower myself to agree with these, these peasants (The three of us glared at him) but I’m afraid I shall have to do it, you have no leadership qualities at all.
“Of course I don’t,” said the King merrily. “That is why you are going to go on the quest to find the Stone of Anidem for me, so I can become a better leader.
There was an instant uproar at his words. Everyone at the table stood up and started talking to us all at once-
“Wow! A real Quest!”
“How brave you all must be!”
“Thank Kings you’re brave enough to try it! King Nadroj is in great need of that stone.”
“When are you starting?”
“Can I join your group?”
The Great Zameri was in his element now. “SILENCE!” he called out, and the crowd instantly hushed. “Thank you lords and ladies. Yes, I will be retrieving the Stone of Anidem for our honorable king. These, these peasants are coming along to carry my supplies and equipment, but I will be doing the actual work. I, the Great Zameri will retrieve the stone that will save our Kingdom. I could do it by myself, but the King has insisted that I bring along some, some peasants to carry my supplies because-“
“SHUT UP!!” Our entire group yelled.

The next morning, at 4:30, Beth and I were woken up by a girl who looked about fourteen. She wore a blue dress that came down to her knees and whose sleeves came down to her elbows. Over her dress was a white apron which had a name tag pinned to it that read, “Katarin.” Her hair was strawberry blond and she had a cheerful smile on her face.
“Up and at ‘em misses,” she said happily.
“What time is it?” Beth mumbled sleepily.
“4:30,” Katarin said brightly. When I groaned she turned to me and spoke reprovingly, “Come on then! You must get up or your group will leave without you.”
“Good, we don’t want to go,” said Beth.
“We can’t be having any of that! Come on! It’s only 4:30!”
“Only?!”
“Now, now, no more grumbling. Up you get! Come on!” And she turned on the lights and laid our clothes at the ends of our bed. “Mendal will be up in thirty minutes to show you down to the Dining Hall for breakfast.” And with that she left and headed down the corridor.
Reluctantly, Beth and I got up and dressed. Katarin had given us both matching outfits. They didn’t look much like clothes you should wear on a quest. We both had red pleated skirts that came down to a couple inches above our knees, white shirts with red lettering on them saying “The Kingdom Of Aeslehc,” white socks, and white shoes. It struck me that this was the exact same outfit that Siri had been wearing yesterday, then I remembered the law that the King had passed saying what people could wear. I also wondered how the maid had known our sizes. Beth came into my room, wearing her skirt, and said-
“This is ridiculous! How are supposed to go on a quest in skirts and shoes that’ll wear out in an hour?”
“Got me. Maybe we should ask the King if we can have different outfits.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that. But do you think he’ll-“ Beth didn’t finish her sentence because Mendal had knocked on the door and said that we needed to hurry if we were going to make it to breakfast on time.
We followed Mendal down corridors and down steps and through hidden passageways and came to the Great Zameri’s room. He came out wearing Khaki pants and a white shirt that had “The Kingdom Of Aeslehc” written in red. He started complaining as soon as his door opened and kept on once we started for the Dining Hall.
“That room wasn’t fit for a, a peasant! And these clothes! They’re not fit for a, a peasant! The Great Zameri deserves the most royal clothes the King has to offer. I am not a, a peasant! I am the Great Zameri and I-“
“Can’t you ever be quiet?” I asked crossly.
“I seriously doubt it,” said Beth in answer.
“Why you, you-“
“Here we are!” said Mendal with strained cheerfulness. We had reached the Dining Hall none too soon. The rest of our group was already there. Camri and Siri were wearing the same outfits we had on and Maude and Yelhsa had on the same shirts and their skirts were red but came down to their ankles. I noticed then that Mendal and Lakem were wearing the same outfits as the Great Zameri. The King was also in the room, sitting at the head of the table again in a blue outfit exactly like the green one he had been wearing yesterday. There was also another person there that I’d never seen before. He looked about eighteen, with jet black hair and blue eyes. He looked like a very young professor to me, and by that I mean that he looked very intelligent.
“Good Morning!” Camri said cheerfully when we sat down, and I saw that the table was already set for breakfast with every breakfast food you could imagine and some you couldn’t.
“How can you call it a good morning when I’m stuck in this, this peasant castle when I’m used to-“
“Excuse me, was I talking to you?”
“Why you-“
“Don’t get into another fight,” said Lakem desperately. “Can’t you all just get along?”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” said Beth, while putting sausages on her plate.
“Yes, it is,” said the Great Zameri. “These people are just, just peasants! How can you expect me to get along with them? I am of a higher order then these, these peasants. I am the Great-“
“Stop whining and let me eat in peace,” I snapped at Zameri.
“You can’t talk to me this way you, you-“
“Shut up!” said Beth.
“Why you little-“
“You know, Katherine’s mother always says you should keep quiet unless you can improve the silence.” Said Camri, calmly eating her scrambled eggs.
“Why you little, you little peasants! I will not be talked to in this fashion! I am the Great Zameri and you are just, just peasants! You have no right to-“
But the Great Zameri never finished his sentence. Nobody told him to shut up or that he wasn’t improving the silence, in fact, it wasn’t someone from our group that stopped him. It was the strange young man who was sitting by the King and at this point he started laughing. We all stared at him and he seemed to be trying to choke back his laughter but was unsuccessful. After about a minute he turned to the King and said-
“Well Your Highness, you certainly did your usual good job in picking groups!” He had managed to stop laughing now but he was still smiling.
“Thank you Menkarden,” said the King jovially. “I did do a good job, didn’t I?”
“You sure did Your Majesty. Not that there could be any doubt that you wouldn’t.”
“Of course, of course.”
“Your Majesty? If I could, I’d like to go over and meet the group, since I’m going to be traveling with them.”
“Of course, of course. Go ahead boy!”
Menkarden got up from his seat and headed down the long table, (we were at the very end). When he reached us he bowed to each of us in turn, smiled and said-
“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”
“It’s very nice to-“ eight of us started, but the Great Zameri interrupted us.
“It’s very nice to meet you Menkarden. You’re the King’s best wizard, are you not? Ah, I thought so. Now my dear boy, I’m sure you’ve been brought up to be polite but it really isn’t necessary to be polite to, to peasants. It’s just a waste of time, you see? You and I are a higher order then they are and there is no need to be polite to them. They are just, just-“
The Great Zameri cut off at this point. Menkarden was shaking with silent laughter.
“Are you laughing at me young man?” the Great Zameri asked solemly.
“Yes, I’m afraid I am. I’m so sorry!” Menkarden managed to choke out.
“Well you certaintly don’t act it,” said the Great Zameri, who looked like he had been highly affronted. “Why, you’re acting just like a, a peasant when you’re-“ but the Great Zameri broke off again because as soon as he heard the word peasant, Menkarden started laughing harder then ever.
“Well I never!” exclaimed Maude. “You don’t talk to your elders like that young man. We never did that when I was young. We all obeyed our elders and you young people today would do good to act like we did. They know far more then you do and it wouldn’t do you any harm to listen to what they have to say.”
“I guess old people are the same wherever you go, huh?” Beth muttered to me while the Great Zameri said-
“I do not need to be defended by you! You are just a, a peasant and I am the Great Zameri! I can defend myself, thank you very much!”
“Well you weren’t doing a very good job at it,” said Maude shrewdly. “All you can do is call people peasants and complain about everything. You aren’t that great young man, and you would do well to remember that.”
“Why you, you peasant! I will not be talked to like that! I am the Great-“
But nobody heard the rest of the Great Zameri’s speech, as we all burst into peals of laughter.

It took us quite a while to sober ourselves, with the Great Zameri with the utmost indignation on his face. Menkarden was the first one to recover himself and spoke to the Great Zameri.
“I’m afraid we’ve offended you,” he told the Great Zameri with in an apologetic voice. “We are very sorry, we really didn’t mean to affront you. I apologize.”
“You are forgiven,” said the Great Zameri, pretty reluctantly I thought. It didn’t seem like he wanted to forgive Menkarden at all. We were all silent a moment and then I realized that both Menkarden and the Great Zameri were waiting for the rest of us to apologize.
“I apologize,” Beth and I said together.
“I apologize,” said Siri.
“I apologize,” said the rest of the group.
“Well,” said Menkarden. “Now that that’s all settled, we really should be going. We’re late already.”
“Oh, are you coming too?” I asked.
“Yeah, the King thought it might be useful for you to have a wizard with you.”
“A wizard!” I exclaimed.
“Wow!” said Beth. “Can you do magic?”
”Yes,” said Menkarden.
“Will you do some?” Beth asked, as I nodded excitedly.
“Well,” said Menkarden slowly, “I’m really not supposed to, you know.”
“PLEASE?”
“I guess it couldn’t hurt anything.”
He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a ten inch wand that I was sure couldn’t possibly have fit in anyone’s pocket and raised it. He waved it twice and said, “Appearus Rabbititus.”
And there, right in front of us, appeared a white rabbit. He had a watch on and kept looking at it and saying, “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!” And with that, the rabbit ran out of the room at top speed.
Beth and I were absolutely delighted, but the others didn’t think it was very impressive. Maude, Yelhsa, Camri, Siri, Lakem, and Mendal said that it was high time we were going and the Great Zameri, to no one’s surprise, said that it was just a peasant trick.
“They’re right,” said Menkarden. “We have to be going. The King said to go to the stables to get our things,” he added to Mendal and Lakem.
“Okay then, follow me,” said Lakem, and we all headed off to the stables.

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Page Updated Sat Sep 30, 2000 2:16am EDT