Epilogue by Jane Chirgwin

Posted by Darwin - 12/10/09 at 11:10 am

Epilogue Illustration by Marge Simon“So we have defeated the evil wizard after fighting out way through the bugbears, trolls, orcs, and rabid sheep, thus freeing these human children from the evil spell that was draining their souls in order to open a demon gate. I guess we’re done, then.” Fenris the dwarf finished tying off his bandage and gulped down a healing tonic, throwing down the glass vial to smash next to some part of a bugbear that could not be readily identified.

“Not so fast,” Kursiff the monk said as Fenris turned to leave. “What about the little ones? We have to get them back to their village.”

There were six- two babies and four walkers, blocked off in the corner of the wizard’s rooms, huddled together and whimpering. Kursiff was aware of their eyes following him and his fellow adventurers as they moved around the wizard’s rooms. looting.

“Oh, aye, I’m sure that you can handle that yerself,” Fenris said as he stuffed jewelry and coins into a sack. “Or mayhap our wizard here?”

“Me?” asked Podha with a squeak in his voice. The elf put down the book he was hefting. “No, no no, that is far beneath the dignity of a-”

“You still here?” boomed a big voice. Rollin the warrior poked his head in from the hallway. “Let’s shake a shank. I hear that there’s trouble in the foothills.”

“What about the wee ones?” Kursiff asked, pulling his dagger out of the sorcerer’s skull.

“Pixies?” Rollin looked around wildly, drawing his sword.

“No, you dolt!” Kursiff straightened and pointed to the children barricaded behind a makeshift corral made out of spears and chairs. “The villager’s children, the ones the wizard stole.”

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Written by Jane Chirgwin.  Illustration by Marge Simon.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 11:18 am and is filed under Stories, Uncategorized. The entry is tagged under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Epilogue by Jane Chirgwin”

  1. Darwin says:
    October 12th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    The joy of this story, for me, is how Ms. Chirgwin leverages the tropes for laughs while connecting with a very human inclination to protect and nurture. That made this story much more than a shallow “dungeon adventure”.

  2. Jane says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 11:14 am

    This illustration is inaccurate, but funny. I did not have friar tuck or one of Santa’s elves in my story.

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