The Stone Of Anidem - Part 5 - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/emilysrealm/The_Stone_Of_Anidem_Part

Continued, continued, continued.....

The stables of the King of the Palace On The Island were quite extraordinary. The ceiling was at least three stories and high and domed. The stable itself was very large, with at least two hundred separate Horse Places, as Lakem called them. Each one of these “Horse Places” was fifty feet by fifty feet, making the stable as a whole larger then I would ever have imagined a stable to be.
And the horses! I’ve never seen such beautiful horses! Whites, Blacks, Chestnuts, all looking much finer then I’m sure any Earth horse could. A big sign over a door on the west end of the stable said, “King’s Quest Group Come Here.” After reading this message we all obediently went through the large wooden door and found ourselves in a small room. In this room were ten horses, one for each of us. All of them were more or less the same size except for one chestnut that towered above the others. The Great Zameri started toward it immediately but Beth said-
“Hey! That’s not your horse!”
“Of course it is you, you peasant! I am the Great Zameri! Who else would have that horse?”
“Menkarden. It says it’s horse right on the sign, see?” she said, pointing to a sign on the wall that said, “The large Chestnut is Menkarden’s, by royal decree.”
The Great Zameri gave a sniff and got onto what I guess he figured was the second largest horse. Menkarden got onto his chestnut, and the rest of us all climbed onto the other horses. Every horse had a pack of food and a bottle of water. Also blankets, matches, torches, and a change of clothes were thrown into a black bag that every horse had. It was then I realized Beth and I had forgotten to ask the King if we could wear pants instead of skirts. But I just sighed, figuring it was too late to do anything. We were obviously already late as it was.
Menkarden told his horse to “Giddap” and we all started to follow his example, when, starting to mount my horse, I noticed that my horse had a sidesaddle.
“Hey! I’m not riding with this,” I said, pointing to the saddle.
“Me neither,” said Beth.
“Oh, don’t be ridickulus!” said Camri impatiently. “All girls ride sidesaddle. Hurry up and get on.”
Beth and I threw an irritated glance Camri’s way, but mounted our horses, which was none to easy, I can tell you, and started out on the first leg of our quest.
We rode down a narrow dirt road for the entire day, going in a single file line. Menkarden at the front, (though he only got there after a very hard struggle in which the word “peasant” was used a lot) the Great Zameri behind him, Beth came next, then me. Camri and Siri came after me, then it was Mendal and Lakem, and finally Maude and Yelhsa.
It wasn’t a very enjoyable ride. Dust from the road kept getting in out faces, making it hard to see and breath. Even so, the Great Zameri was the only one that complained, saying that it was only a peasant road. But the scenery almost cancelled out the dust. The grass was blue and had white masses that looked suspiciously like clouds hanging a few inches above the blades of grass. The sky was green and was remarkably cloudless. I saw birds slithering along the ground like snakes and snakes were hanging as if suspended in mid-air. There were birds flying through the air and once I saw an eagle swimming in small pond.
At noon we stopped for lunch, which was much appreciated by everyone as we hadn’t had much breakfast. I dug into my food bag and found five ham sandwhiches, that, along with the bottle of water, were the only things we had for food.
“This isn’t going to last very long,” I commented, pointing at the food and water.
“Oh don’t worry,” said Menkarden, “The food bag and water bottle fill themselves up when you empty them.”
“Really?”
“Cool!”
”Awesome!” said Camri. Beth and I both looked at her, surprised.
“I thought you thought magic wasn’t a big deal,” said Beth wonderingly.
“Oh, that rabbit trick wasn’t anything,” said Camri. “Any magician at home could do that, but the bag thing is cool.”
”Magicians!” Menkarden sniffed.
“And what, pray tell, is wrong with magicians?” asked Camri.
“They’re only rabble that couldn’t make it as wizards.”
“That doesn’t make them any less interesting.”
“If you had seen much wizard magic you wouldn’t be saying that.”
“And how would you know what I’d say?” asked Camri angrily. “Are you a fortune teller?”
“No but I know what I’m talking about,” said Menkarden.
“Huh! Everyone knows your just a King’s pet!”
“What?! How-“ Menkardenn bagan angrily, but Mendal cut him off.
“Please don’t start fighting again,” he said. “Just finish your lunch so we can be off.”
“Stay out of this!” said Menkarden heatedly.
“Yeah, stay out of this!” Camri yelled.
“Please you two,” said Lakem. “Stop fighting, we need to get going again.”
“Well it just so happens that I’m not ready to go,” Camri said obstinately.
“Well that’s just too bad then, isn’t it?” said Menkarden.
“Don’t presume to tell me what to do, sir.”
“I’m not presuming anything. If you want to stay here go ahead, I don’t have any qualms about leaving you behind.”
“Then do it Mr. High And Mighty.”
”We will! Come on everybody!”
Menkarden went over to his horse and mounted. After a few seconds, the Great Zameri followed his lead and the two waited for fice minutes in silence before Menkarden said-
“Well, come on then. We’re already behind as it is.”
“But we can’t just leave Camri here by herself!” Siri exclaimed in horror. “Who knows what could happen to her?!”
“I can take care of myself, thank you very much,” said Camri, as Menkarden said-
“Good. It’ll serve her right if she does get killed.”
“How can you say that?!” said Maude in a shocked tone.
“I told you I can talk care of myself!” Camri yelled.
“See, she can take care of herself!” said Menkarden.
“I don’t need you to talk for me Mr. King’s Pet!”
“I’m not talking for you!”
“You are so!”
“I am no- oh just shut up!”
”Why don’t you shut up?”
“Because the things I say have at least some importance, unlike some other people’s comments I’ve heard.”
“Oh yeah, you’re comments affect the State of The Kingdom, don’t they?”
“Shut up!”
You!”
“You!”
”You!”
”YOU!”
“SILCENCE!” yelled the Great Zameri. “I will not lower myself to listen to this, this peasant talk! I am the Great Zameri and you are just, just peasants! I command everybody to get on their peasant horses so we can get going!”
“Can’t you ever say anything even remotely interesting?” I asked irritably.
“Why you little, you little peasant! I will not be talked to like this! I am the Great-“
“Look what you started Mr. King’s Pet!”
“Me?! It’s all your fault!”
”Mine?!”
”Yes, yours!”
“Zameri and I am above you, you peasants! You cannot-“
“Shut up!”
“I will not be talked to like-“
“It’s your fault!”
“Is not! It’s yours!”
“It’s yours!”
“Yours!”
“Yours!”
“Yours!”
“This! I am the Great Zameri and you are just a, a peasant!”
“Yours!”
“Yours!”
”YOURS!”

It went on like this for quite a while. Four of us argueing and the rest looking on and cheering on each of us by turn. I won’t tell the whole thing, but Camri ended up coming with us, though she said she did it under protest.
The Great Zameri was furious with me now. I’d talked back to him in front of the whole group. Of course, everyone did, but the man’s mind worked in very strange ways.
We all got back up on our horses at about two o’clock and started out again. We traveled along the same dirt road for about two hours. We came to a fork in the road then. We could go east, west, or north.
“Which way are we supposed to go?” Beth asked.
“East,” said Camri.
“West,” said Menkarden.
“North,” said Maude.
“Where are we supposed to be going anyway?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Search me.”
“How should I know?”
“Don’t any of you know anything?” asked Menkarden irritably. “We’re going to the Deadly Forest, that’s where the Stone was seen.”
“The Deadly Forest!”
“I’m not going in there!”
“That would be suicide!”
“You peasants shall go in there, but I will wait on the outskirts of the forest. Only peasants would go in there and I-“
“Now come on,” said Mendal. “This is a quest, you all must have known that there would be some kind of danger.”
“Danger, yes,” said Camri, “But going into the Deadly Forest would be like saying you want to die.”
“It would not,” said Lakem impatiently, “All those stories about it are just that, stories. None of them are real.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked Siri.
“Yes,” said Yelhsa, “Have you ever been in the forest?”
“Well, no,” Lakem admitted. “But I know they aren’t true.”
“You can’t be-“ started Camri, but Beth cut her off-
“Shouldn’t we be deciding which way to go?” she asked.
“We’re going East,” said Camri decidedly.
“We are not! We’re going West!” said Menkarden.
“I am the elder in this group, and I say we’re going North!” said Yelhsa emphatically.
“I am the Great Zameri and I say we’re going South!”
“We just came from the South!” I shouted. “We can’t turn around and go back!”
“How dare you contradict me! I am the Great Zameri and you are just a, a-“
“Peasant! We know!” I shouted.
“How dare you treat me in this way! I am the Great Zameri and you-“
“Shut up!” Camri yelled.
“Why you little-“
“Please shut your big mouth!” Maude hollered.
“Yeah, you’re not improving the silence,” I said irritably.
“How dare you-“
“So, which way are we going?” Lakem asked everyone.
“East,” said Camri decidedly.
“West,” said Menkarden emphatically.
North,” said Yelhsa.
Beth groaned, which is what I felt like doing. It didn’t seem as though we would ever get going, everyone wanted to go a different way. After a moment, I thought of something we could do.
“How about we do Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo?” I asked.
“Hey, yeah!” said Beth, “That’s a great idea!
“What on the King’s Throne is Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo?” asked Camri.
“It’s a sort of poem,” I said. “We use it where I come from to come up with a descision for things when everyone has a different idea of what we should do.”
“Why don’t we try it?” said Lakem.
“Why not?” said Camri.
“I will not take advice from a, a peasant! I am the Great-“
“Shut up,” said Beth calmly. “Why don’t you do it Katherine?”
“Okay,” I said. “Everyone put their foot in.”
“In what?” Siri asked.
“In a circle.” Said Beth.
Everyone complied with looks of confusion on their faces, they obviously didn’t see how putting their foot in a circle would help matters any.
“Okay,” I said, “The last person in gets to pick where we go, right?”
“Right,” said Beth.
“Okay, here it goes- Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo. Ketch a tiger by the toe. If it hollers let it go, Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo.”
My finger landed on the Maude’s foot. “You’re out,” I told her. She just stood there until I said, “That means you have to take your foot out.” She then did so, looking at me curiously all the while.

“Okay, here we go again,” I said. Looking around at everyone before I started, I noticed that they all had looks of confusion on their faces, which I chose to ignore. “Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo,” I started, “Ketch a tiger by the toe, If it hollers let it go, Ennie Meenie Mineie Mo.” My finger landed on Siri’s foot this time. “You’re out,” I told her. She complied without complaint.
I went on in this way and pretty soon only Menkarden, Camri, and the Great Zameri were left. After another recital of the familiar poem, Menkarden and the Great Zameri were left. And after another one- I groaned, my finger had landed on Menkarden’s foot.
“Well,” he said pompously. “I guess you’ll all see now that I am the Great Zameri and you are just, just peasants.”
“It has nothing to do with skill,” I said irritably. “It was just dumb luck.
“LUCK!” Camri screeched. “We put our direction on the line with LUCK! How dare you! The Great Zameri is not choosing our direction! If he does, I’m leaving!”
“Why would you even say if?” I asked. “I thought you said the Great Zameri is not choosing our direction.”
Camri looked at me furiously, but seemed to think that it was better to stay silent.
“Look,” said Beth, “We aren’t happy about the Great Zameri choosing the direction either, why would we be?”
“So what are we going to do?” Menkarden asked.
“We’re going south,” said the Great Zameri. Come on you, you peasants, we’re going south.”
“We just came from the south,” said Camri angrily.
“I know that! I AM the Great Zameri, you know.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard,” I said irritable, “About a million times.”
“Well you need to remember it. I am the Great Zameri and you are just, just peasants.”
“You know,” said Yelhsa, “That’s really getting old.”
“So which way are we going?” I asked.
“We’re going South!” the Great Zameri yelled.
“We’re not turning around and going the same way we came!” screamed Beth. “We’re supposed to be going forward, not backward!”
“How dare you contradict me! I am the Great Zameri and you are just, just-“
“KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT!” Camri screamed. “We’re not going south and that’s that!”
“Who chooses the direction now?” Siri asked.
“Menkarden,” I said, “He was the second to last one out.”
“Great!” said Menkarden, smiling, “We’re going West.”
“No,” Camri groaned. “We have to go East. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”
“We’re going west,” said Menkarden decidedly.
So we all got up onto our horses and headed up the westward path. When the Great Zameri saw what we were doing he yelled-
“Where are you, you peasants going? We’re going south!”
“No, YOU’RE going south,” said Beth.
“Yeah,” I said, “WE’RE going West.”
“What?!” said Camri in surprise, “We’re allowed to go different ways?! That’s great! I’m going-“
“Don’t start Camri,” Siri told her friend, which luckily shut her up.
We started off, leaving the Great Zameri by himself at the fork. But, to our intense disappointment, he caught up with us after about five minutes, saying that he was the Great Zameri and we were just peasants and he was only going west because it was the best way to go. He also said that he couldn’t believe we had wanted to go south, that was the way we had come, didn’t we realize that? I had to use all of my willpower to stop myself from throwing something into his face. But apparently, however, Camri wasn’t using her self-discipline at all because, after about five minutes of the Great Zameri’s speech, she threw her food bag into his face. It gave him a black eye and a tightly shut mouth.

We stopped at sunset to make camp at the base of a gigantic mountain. Everyone had squashy blue sleeping bags and pillows. They were actually quite comfortable, though not nearly as good as sleeping on a real bed.
We ate turkey sandwiches for dinner with a bottle of water. The Great Zameri complained that his sandwich wasn’t fit for a peasant, but no one listened to him.
“We should probably turn in early,” said Menkarden.
“I will not take orders from a, a peasant! I am the Great-“
“Yeah, we probably should,” said Siri.
“Well, I don’t know about everyone else,” Camri started, “But I’m not tired yet so I’m not going to go to sleep.”
“You’ll probably be tired tomorrow,” Beth told her.
“How dare you, you peasants speak to me this way! The Great Zameri is high above-“
“I won’t be tired,” said Camri, “I don’t need much sleep.”
“Why doesn’t Camri stand watch?” I asked, “Since sh’s not tired. Then, when she gets tired, she can wake someone else up.”
“What do we need someone to stand watch for? Our Kingdom is the safest place in the Seven Universes. We’ve gotten rid of all of the bad things that used to live here.”
“Really!” This really surprised me. “Hey, cool. How did you do it?”
“I don’t know,” said Menkarden, “It happened way before I was born.”
“Yeah,” said Camri , “Before I was born too.”
“Look everyone,” said Siri, “We should really get to sleep, we’ve got a long journey ahead of us.”
“Siri’s right,” said Menkarden, “We should get some sleep. ALL of us,” he added pointedly.
Camri seemed annoyed, but got into her sleeping bag without further comment. I got into my sleeping bag and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I guess I was more tired then I’d thought.

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