Category: Hunter

Eavesdropping...

8/9/2022

"Grrrrr..." growled Ffion as she paced the tiles in the castle throne room. "I have got to find out what this is all about," she muttered to herself. "Dad is still down in the library and Dulbbe still has not returned!" Just then one of the cook's helpers entered the room carrying a tray of food for the King. Realizing this was her chance, Ffion took the tray and offered to deliver the meal herself. "He is currently unavailable," she told the server. "I will take it in to him."

Shortly Ffion was in the library and at the door to room 101. "I don't know how they do it. This tray is heavy," thought the princess.

On her way to the library she had to set the tray down several times both to open closed doors and to give her arms a rest. "How heavy could a sandwich be?" she had asked herself again. She was about to set the tray down again to open the door to room 101 when she noticed that it was already slightly ajar. "I think I will peak in just to make sure I don't disturb him," she decided. Looking into the partially open doorway she could see her father was standing with his back to her and was surprised to hear him arguing with someone else. "Who could be with him?" she thought. Deciding not to interrupt them, she continued to stand in the doorway, not realizing that she still was holding the heavy tray with his lunch.

"I told you already, I must know where the tablet is and who has read it!" shouted the King. "And don't tell me my question is incomplete. That is the knowledge I seek!" As her father started pacing in front of the table he had been standing by, Ffion realized that he was yelling at a crystal ball. Normally this would not surprise the princess as crystal balls were a common thing in a magical land, but she had never seen one with a Dragon in it!

In response to the king, the crystal replied, "The Dragon tablet in question contains the History of the Nyte Shades and the Enlightenment of the Dragons. It also contains knowledge of Dragon magic and it's transformations. As all the Dragon tablets knowledge is contained in this crystal sphere, the location of the tablet is known but not who may have accessed that information," continued the crystal ball. "Now that is something," thought Ffion, but before she could say anything to let her father know she was there, the crystal continued. "The tablet is in a pocket."

"What do you mean - in a pocket? I know that a Borrower has the tablet and that it is probably carrying it!" growled the King as he slammed his hand on the table making the crystal shake. "But where is it at is what I need to know!" The only response the King received was "Your question is incomplete. What knowledge do you seek?"

Realizing that she was not going to overhear anything new about the Dragon tablet other than what she had already heard through her father's yelling, Ffion decided she had better let him know that lunch was served...

The Royals and their Minions...

8/2/2022

While Dulbbe is following up with the address tag on the key he found in the tunnel to see who this Arnie is, Drat, with his connections, has already figured out who has the Dragon book and is waiting at Arnie's home. "Oh no! There is Dulbbe. Why is he coming here?" Drat thinks to himself. "Is the Shadows' King now involved too? This tablet is moving up to how important it really is," sighs Drat.

Meanwhile, Druzzy, the Troll King, and Hir'aeth, the Gooblin King, are both in their throne rooms wondering why they have not heard back from their minions. "I must have that tablet," mutters Druzzy to himself and not for the first time grumbles about replacing Drat if he doesn't show up soon. Hir'aeth, on the other hand, is thinking of ways to embarrass Druzzy by getting the book first. "I can picture the look on that stupid Druzzy's face when I get that Dragon tablet. Wonder what would happen if I was to then give it away to that little Wish Dragon, Hungry?" chuckles the Gooblin King. "It will be bad enough for me to get it first, but even worse to give it away... old Troll face will be burning red!"

As the others are out looking for the Borrower with the Dragon tablet, still others are stuck waiting for answers and some of them were not waiting very patently with their tempers fraying just a little...

"This is driving me crazy," growls Ffion as she paces the throne room waiting for Dulbbe to return with some news. "Dad has gone and locked himself up in the library with some stupid crystal ball and I have to stay here waiting for anyone to return with news. I might just have to start training some minions myself since Dulbbe is one of Dad's."

While Ffion is wearing out the tiles from her pacing, Hunter, the Shadows' King, is in room 101 of the library seeking the crystal ball that Dulbbe had just recently discovered. Hunter is so concern about losing the Dragon tablet and that a Borrower is now involved, that he is distracted enough not to realize that the green cloth that normally covered the crystal is now laying on a nearby table. "Where is that tablet?" the King muttered to himself. Since the crystal was uncovered it responded with "Your question is incomplete. What knowledge to you seek?"...

Speaking of Dulbbe, he found his way to the address that he discovered on the back of the key tag and was now waiting at the door after knocking several times. "The Borrower must not have returned yet," he realized. Soon he decided to hide behind a bunch of bushes to wait for the Borrowers so he could catch Arnie when she returned. Little did he realize that close-by another minion had also been watching the Borrower's cottage and was now watching Dulbbe too.

"Hmmm. Now it appears another is in the game. The problem is do I tell Druzzy?" pondered Drat, the Troll King's minion. "At first I thought the King only wanted the book to brag about, but lately he has been acting stranger than usual." As Drat was used to waiting for a King, waiting for a Borrower to return home was not a problem. Taking a small sandwich out of his knapsack, he ate silently while watching both the cottage and the rock troll hiding in the bushes. "I must remember next time to pack cheese sandwiches instead of sticky jelly ones," he idly thought before taking another bite.

While Drat sat and ate, the Troll King was plotting what he would do when the Dragon tablet was finally delivered to him. "That stupid Gooblin King's eyes will bulge when he sees that I have the tablet. Finally I will have the power to destroy him!" laughed Druzzy. "The power it will give me will make me the ruler over all of these realms as I know one thing that Hir'aeth doesn't. The tablet is supposed to be the secret of Dragon magic and with that, I will be Ruler Supreme," Druzzy said as he smiled. "I am a busy troll as I have an Empire to create and pillars to topple."

Summer School... Really???

6/28/2022

The King had ordered Dulbbe to follow whomever had been in the tunnels behind the waterfall in their garden. "If it is the mysterious Borrower with the Dragon tablet, bring both to me at the castle. No, change that, whomever you find, bring to me. I have some questions that need to be answered," the King had ordered.

While Dulbbe was searching the tunnel, Arnie, the Borrower, was feeling pretty gloomy. She wasn't getting any help finding out what it was that she had found and felt like she was just running around in circles... or actually very long tunnels. She realized that she needed to find someone, and soon, who could get her out of this mess she was slowly finding herself in.

In the meantime Hunter, the Shadows' King, after revealing to his daughter, Ffion, what he knew of the book that was in the tunnel before the Borrower had removed it, thought maybe it was time for her to meet the Sleeping Sisters. (That story was available to subscribers only - but it is never too late to sign-up or by sending me an email to read it).

Hunter then sent out his messenger, Meen, the Pkysee, to summon Awena of the Sleeping Sisters for an audience at his castle. "Tell her to hurry!" he had told Meen as he sent her off on the mission.

The problem was that Awena was busy with the Dowager and her son, the Baron, trying to figure out what they could about the Borrower who had the Dragon tablet. Plus, who did Hunter think he was "summoning" her to show up. "Humpf!" she thought as she heard the message.

Even annoyed about the message, Awena did know of her responsibility as a Sleeping Sister to teach Ffion of her heritage. While Meen waited in the receiving room for her response, Awena started pulling out books and scrolls to send back with Meen until she could come to Hunter's castle herself to meet with Ffion. "This will have to do until I arrive," she decided after putting another book in the small pile. Realizing that there might be too many books and scrolls for Meen to carry, Awena sent for a small satchel to put them in for the trip back to the castle. Now if Hunter had been more willing to communicate with her or if Awena hadn't felt like she could solve the problem of the Borrower on her own, a lot of confusion could have certainly been avoided, but then that would have shortened the story (*smiling*).

Meen found that the satchel she received from Awena slowed down her hopping and jumping, especially after she accidently ripped the bag hopping over a tree stump. But she also knew that the King was waiting for her return and did not seem to be in the best of moods. For once, she headed (mostly) straight back to the castle.

When Meen entered the King's waiting room with all the books and lessons she received from Awena for Ffion to start studying, Ffion walked out to hear the message from the Sleeping Sisters. Poor Meen was trying to hold on to all of the books, lessons & scrolls since the satchel had finally ripped all the way open, that some of the scrolls fell to the floor and started to unroll.

Ffion picked up the one that fell closest to her which was titled 'Awena's Primary on the Language of Flowers'. Now this could be interesting.

Then she heard Meen tell the King, "Sire. The Sleeping Sisters are not available to come now, but sent these books and scrolls so that Princess Ffion may start her schooling immediately until they are available to come to answer your summons."

"Schooling! It was "summer" - who wanted to be doing schoolwork when there was fun to be had out in the Realm!" screamed Ffion in her mind. She watched to see what her father's reaction from the Sisters message would be. When he jumped up from his throne, a small smile escaped her lips... that was until she realized that the King was demanding Meen to find the Royal Tutor to begin her lessons. "Oh no. There goes summer!"

Dulbbe looks deep ? ? ?

6/7/2022

Doing as the King commanded, Dulbbee pulled his shades down on his glasses. First one, then the other as they were what helped him see that which was hidden. Each lens had a special magical purpose, but when both were used, he could see further and clearer than any normal pair of glasses would allow.

As he peered through the lenses towards the waterfall, he could see past the falling water and into the cave behind it. He wasn't sure but he thought he could just glimpse seeing something purple leaving the tunnel but that was all he could make out before it disappeared. Following the tunnel in the cave, he noticed something moving! Off in the higher part of the cave he realized there was a Wysp hovering in the air. "Your Highness, something has left the cave but there is still a Wysp in the tunnel," Dulbbe told the King as they made their way towards the waterfall.

The King commanded the water to part for him so all of them could enter and at the same time he used his magic to freeze the Wysp in mid-air. Wysps are quick and think themselves to be quite clever, but the King was in no mood to have to track it down when he knew that the Wysp would disappear.

As they approached the Wysp, still hanging in the air trying to figure out why it could not fly away, Dulbbe started asking it questions. "Was there a Borrower in the cave with you? Who was it?"

"I don't know," answered the Wysp. "Now my question, why can't I move?" Dulbbe responded by telling the Wysp that it would be able to move if it answered his questions. When the little blue imp realized that this was only temporary, it decided to stall for some more time and have a little fun with the funny looking troll before it would be able to disappear. "What are those glasses for?" it asked.

Dulbbe knew that Wysp's thought themselves quite clever and this one was no exception.

Realizing this tactic was not working, decided a different approach. Turning to the Shadows' King, he said, "Your Highness, this Wysp is just a dumb imp who doesn't know anything. I think we will have to search out the cave for ourselves since it probably is just lost in this cave."

"Lost in this cave am I," screamed the Wysp! "I would have you know that I outsmarted that stupid Borrower, tricked her into following me, and then left her in the dark at the end of the cave where all the water was. I even know her name!"

"Nevermind this one, your Majesty, it is only talking to try and get some attention," Dulbbe told the King. "Do you want me to begin the search for the Borrower or a smarter Wysp?"

Ffion, standing behind the King, had never seen a Wysp so upset. Later she would almost swear that the blue imp had turned bright red - it was that mad!

The imp was so upset that it had not even realized that the King's magic was no longer holding it frozen as it flew right up to within inches of Dulbbe's nose as it answered. "Her name was Arnie because I heard it through the trees as some nutty squirrel was shouting at her before she entered the cave. He kept squeeking away with 'Arnie, you need to put that back!' because he told her that whatever she had found would be trouble."

Hearing the Wysp's answer, immediately the King started towards the end of the cave in a run, leaving behind both a confused Ffion and Dulbbe. It was at that moment the Wysp realized that it could move and in a puff of blue smoke, vanished. "Good riddance," muttered Dulbbe.

"Dulbbe, what do you think has gotten into Dad? I have never seen him this nervous before..." Dulbbe could only shrug his shoulders before they both turned to start down the tunnel to follow the King.

Did the Borrower find IT???

5/31/2022

As Dulbbe left his small room down in the lower levels (and luckily next to the library) of the Shadows' King castle to answer the King's summon, his head was still going around and around about learning Ancient Dragon thanks to the Dragon Crystal ball.

He was almost to the gardens when he thought "I better focus on what could the King possibly want, especially since he said not to forget to bring my glasses."

Meanwhile, when Dulbbe had been still questioning the crystal ball about Dragon Lore, the Borrower in question had finished exploring Ffion's garden (finding nothing worth borrowing) and was stepping back through the waterfall into the tunnel.

"Well, this was a dud," thought Arnie. As her eyes adjusted to the dark tunnel, she realized that the Wysp who had led her to the falls was no where to be seen. "At least that's something," sighing with relief. "I will get even with that little troublemaker when I have more time," she vowed, remembering how it had abandoned her in the dark cave earlier.

"Why is it always me?" she thought. Looking upward for answers (that never seemed to appear), she decided to light one of the small candles she stashed in one of her many pockets. Still getting no answer, Arnie soon started the trek up the tunnel back to the hole she had entered into the cave. It did not take long before Arnie's temper had risen another level higher at the Wysp!

"Here is a smoother and even trail the Wysp could have taken me on instead of the winding and rock covered trail it had lead me over!" Arnie whispered to herself "Grrrr - I will find the time to get even with that Wysp," she growled.

As Arnie was walking in the tunnel and Hunter, the Shadows' King, who was pacing back and forth while waiting for Dulbbe to show up, asked Ffion, his daughter "Where did you see this stranger?"

"It was over by the waterfall. Actually, it had come out of the waterfall," replied Ffion.

Startled, Hunter stopped pacing and turned to look at his daughter. "What are you talking about?" Having to skid to a stop since the King had been going so fast that she had been practically running to keep by his side, it took a second to answer. "I was looking at the pond and the flowers around it, when all of a sudden a hand appeared and then an arm started poking out of the waterfall. Finally, it disappeared and then the stranger came through completely," she told him. "That's when I decided I should let you know that someone was in my garden."

Hunter, ignoring her reference to it being 'her garden', started walking even faster now towards the waterfall. "Has someone found it?" he wondered to himself. "It is one thing to be curious what a Borrower had found, but if it was MY dragon tablet that I have been guarding, then I need to find that Borrower NOW!" the King was shouting in his head.

Ffion was running to catch up with her father as he was walking faster now than he did before. About this time Dulbbe was crossing over the garden to meet them. Before he could say anything the King shouted "About time. Did you bring your glasses? Look at the waterfall and tell me what you see with them!"

Who is in the Garden???

3/22/2022

As Ffion watched the strange creature in her special garden (well, it wasn't really 'just hers' - but she was in it the most so in her mind it was 'hers'), she knew she needed to go home and tell her father so he could do something about it. "After all," she thought, "it wasn't like she invited the creature in the first place." Seeing her father sitting in his chair, she started to tell him what was happening "Father, father, there is..." but before she could finish, Hunter, the Shadows' King, stopped her.

"Ffion, that is no way for a faery princess to enter a room."

"But Father, there is a stranger in the garden!" Ffion wailed. "It came out of the water and is walking over my flowers!"

"Are you sure it isn't just Scarlet gathering moonflowers for the Nytemares?" he asked. "Or maybe even Sneefle as he showed up to deliver a message from the Dowager and might be picking a few flowers?"

"I know what Scarlet and Sneefle look like father!" Ffion said as she stamped her foot. "I have never seen this stranger before."

Now the Shadows' King knew that it couldn't be Druzzy, the Troll King, or Hir'aeth, the Gooblin King, or even one of their minions as Meen had just updated him of their whereabouts after telling him what happened at the weekly COGS meeting.

"Could it be the Baron and Dowager?" he wondered, as his observers lost them after they entered the forest of the Sleeping Sisters. He thought that only for a second as he knew that they had been walking when they entered the forest and it would be very difficult for them to have reached the garden from where they were last seen. "Besides," he thought, "they are probably still wandering in the forest trying to find the Sisters".

He also knew that Hewy, Efem, Parsley and Cornelia were busy helping Hungry, the young Wish Dragon, to learn his lessons. "So it wouldn't be one of them," he reasoned.

"What are you going to do about it?" he heard his daughter ask while he was mulling over who it could be. Vaguely he heard her saying something about the stranger looked like it had a tail...

If it had a tail then it didn't sound like Dewin's Spite either. "I need to remember to call her Sprigg'n from now on," he reminded himself, "besides she is never very far from the wizard, Dewin, or The CAT and Hunter knew that Ffion would have mentioned The CAT if it was in the garden.

"It's dressed up funny too," said Ffion. "It's wearing a jacket with lots of pockets on it and has a funny looking hood that looked like it has two pointy ears".

Jumping to his feet he started towards the garden while his startled daughter followed him close behind. "What is it? What was the going on?" Ffion asked.

"Show me this stranger," was all that the King would tell her as she tried to keep up with him. As they started to leave the throne room, the King told one of his retainers to summon Dulbbe and send him to the garden as soon as possible. "And tell him to bring his special looking glass too."

Where is Arnie???

3/1/2022

As Arnie was heading to the hole by the old oak she had fallen into when she found the Dragon tablet, she was totally unaware that at that moment she was the most popular being in all of the realms. Everyone (and every thing) was looking for the Borrower with the Dragon tablet.

High above in the sky was the Gooblin King's mechanical birdseye viewer, Rave, searching the realms in search of any Borrower it could find and hoping it would lead him to the one holding the tablet. The Troll King's minion, Drat, was also busy trying to talk to a Borrower - any Borrower - but they all seemed to have disappeared. When normally they were trying to avoid Borrowers, now when they wanted one, there just wasn't any to be found.

Even C.O.G. (Cooperation of Organized Grunts) had called a special meeting to see if anyone knew where a Borrower could be found. It was all very frustrating and not just a few tempers were short...

"Haven't you found any of them yet," grumbled Hunter at Meen. "Are you telling me that they just up and vanished? Usually we can't get rid of them as we try to keep them out of the good silverware. Where did they go? And you checked with your friends and none of them have seen a Borrower?" Meen only shook her head from side-to-side and waited to see if the Shadows' King had other instructions for her...

And across the Realm, two more of the searchers were on a mission of their own.

"Tell me again why you think the Sleeping Sisters will help us? I mean, they usually don't get involved in any of the events of the realms. Why this one?" asked the Baron as he and his mother, the Dowager Griselda, were walking to the Sleeping Sisters house. "Also, I would like to know how you know where they live. Hewey, Efem, and the others had to be lead there by a bird."

"There is a lot you don't know my son, so don't let it fret you. Let's just say that the Sisters and I go back a long way and leave it at that," answered Griselda. The Baron knew he would not get anything further when his mother decided it was none of his business so he decided on a different approach. "I wonder if I can get my fortune told. I heard they were great at predicting the future," he mumbled, knowing he was loud enough for her to hear.

Stopping in her tracks, the Dowager turned to face her son. "They don't do that," she growled at him with irritation in her voice. "The Sleeping Sisters have been guardians of the realms as long as I can remember and they know of many secrets and prophecies which they study and explore to keep all of us safe. Now, if you would be quiet for a while as I think on how to approach them, it would be appreciated!" Getting a nod from her son who decided it was best not to say another word for a while, they both started back down the trail.

While on another hillside overlooking the waterfall, something was watching Arnie as she stepped through the water and started exploring around the pool. "How dare someone come into my garden," it thought. "Something must be done about this..."

For little did it know or care that at that moment it was the only one who knew where the Borrower was ~ even though it didn't know it was a Borrower. It just knew someone was in it's garden!

Break'n the Rules...

1/4/2022

The party was over without the Borrowers showing up and all that was left to do now was to send the few that always have to be told that it was time for them to go home to leave. That... and of course the cleaning up.

As the Dowager, Griselda, and the Baron said their goodbyes to Hungry and the Shadows' King, Griselda was thinking about all that Hunter had told her about what he knew of the tablet. "Not much," she thought. "I probably know more about Dragon tablets than he does." This thought disturbed her because she knew that the Baron and Hunter were correct in their concerns about the troubles this tablet could bring.

Dragons have a very long memory. Some people think that an elephant does, but in comparison to a Dragon, the elephant is just a passing thought. Part of this goes back to Dragons living to very old ages. Where 'Outies' measure events in years, the Dragons measure in eons. Few of the fae live to be as old as a Dragon and it has been a long time since the Dragons left the realms, but Griselda remembers. She was after all a Dragon Clan member and talked to Dragons more than any other fae and that is why the discovery of a Dragon tablet bothered her so much.

Griselda knew that Dragons only wrote down something on a tablet so it would not be forgotten. That usually meant that tablets were for a secret not to be shared freely or something so important that no Dragon should ever forget it!

So, as her and the Baron entered the coach, she was thinking about what to do...

"Hunter, dear, do you mind if your Nytemare takes me on a couple of errands before we return home?" she asked the Shadows' King. "It won't be much out of the way to the Baron's Mansion and these old bones are not up to much more exercise today."

As the Baron forced back a smile, knowing that his mother could still work circles around him, he knew she was up to something and added, "We would appreciate it."

Not wanting to appear uncourteous, he whispered instructions to the Nytemare to be available for them for the night and to take them where ever they requested and soon they were on their way.

The Winter Solstice Party...

12/21/2021

"Leave it to Hunter to be unpredictable. Here we should be having a little tea party and he turns it into the event of the season," growled the Dowager as she rode in a coach on the way to the Winter Solstice event. "Discussing the finding of a Dragon tablet doesn't make this meeting with Hungry any easier either. Now everyone will want to see him!

At least the King sent one of his Nytemares to pull my coach." As horses are few in the Realms, when a Nytemare is willing to take you somewhere - it is only because they wanted to or the Shadows' Realm King commands them to. Griselda was being given an extra treat, being able to ride in one of the King's coaches. "It is nice not to have to walk," she thought. "But he still is going to get an earful about this!"

As the Dowager traveled and was going over in her mind what she was going to say to the Shadows' King, little did she realize that the coach was being watched. Actually, all approaches to the King's castle were being watched! But by whom (or what) is the real question.

Each of the other Kings had their minions out scouting for any clues to the secrets of the Dragon tablet but as of yet, no one had seen the Borrowers. Drat had several of the Troll King's minions watching the trails through the forest (and of course following the Gooblin King's minions) while the Gooblin King had his minions watching the Troll King's minions. He had even put his mechanical bird to the task as it was to continuously fly over Hunter's castle to watch for any unexpected arrivals.

But with all of these minions on the lose, no one thought to check with Meen to see the invited guest list. Of all the guests she had delivered an invitation to, one was skipped over... No, it was not Hungry (as he had already arrived the day before the party so he could visit with Meen and see the Nytemares). It wasn't Snoop who already was sitting next to the entrance doors to the ballroom so he could keep a list of all of the attendees for the morning edition of the Bellwether.

Neither was it The Gooblin King and Troll King who were trying to be polite to each other (and it was killing both of them).

Nor was it the Baron who was presenting the Dowager to the Shadows' King while trying to hide his grin since he knew how mad she was that her little private tea party plan had become a huge event. It seemed everyone who was someone was there except... the Borrowers!

Now, why Meen had not added them to the invitation list would probably be based on the Borrower's history. Anytime a Borrower showed up anywhere, they had the habit of 'borrowing' something. It was worse at parties! So much bling and things to see, that they just could not keep their hands in their own pockets. Forks, knives, spoons, small furry animals, even shoes were known to have disappeared when the Borrowers appeared. (Most instances the items were returned eventually and in some cases even something better had been left behind as in the one instance when a glass of milk had disappeared but in its place was left a milk cow - even if the cow was someone else's, the fact that something better had been left cannot be overlooked.)

It didn't take long before everyone realized (as nothing had gone missing still) that one of the main reasons they had decided to show up for the party wasn't there! No Borrowers which meant no Dragon tablet. Yes, there was a real Dragon, and usually that would have been something of a spectacle, but this group wanted to see what all the hullabaloo was about regarding this newest find... or at least what the latest gossip was about. Since it wasn't here soon the guests started to make excuses as to why they needed to leave (but not until after filling their pockets with food from the buffet tables).

As the party dwindled down to just the minion staff and the few guests who had really wanted to just attend a party, Hunter lead Griselda, Hungry, and the Baron into a small sitting room for a quick private discussion. "It appears that the race is now on for who finds out what is on the Dragon tablet first," said the Shadows' King to the others as they sat. "I know this is not what you were expecting Griselda but I needed to know what you know about it."

"What tablet?" Hungry asked, but before Hunter could answer the Baron said, "This tablet that might have untold power." As he continued, Hunter only nodded his head affirming the Barons chilling words. "Hungry, some rulers are benevolent and just, while some are looking to expand their treasury or reputation. There are some who quest for more knowledge or power and some want to change things to be the way they want them to be. Several here tonight attended so they could see the Dragon tablet and had hoped to learn something that the others did not know. Since the tablet wasn't here, each is now heading to their realm to start the race to see who can find the Borrower with the tablet and get it for themself."

"A race you say? asked Hungry looking at the Shadows' King. "Are we in it?"

Minions, Mushrooms and Meetings...

11/30/2021

Everyone in the Realms know that the Mushroom Line is the fastest way news travels. As quick as a wink, if one mushroom hears something, it speeds through the line clear to the Telegraph Master, Parsley. Though it is a guarded secret (as not everyone is suppose to know), that there is another communication line that runs even faster than the Mushrooms. It is the Minion Chain!

The only problem with the Minion Chain is that each link is only as good as each Minion who carried the message. That, and how good the next in line is at figuring out the message's meaning before repeating it. There was once a message that started out on the Minion Chain as a simple request for a cup of sugar and ended up becoming a life or death plea for a chocolate cake (apparently one of the Minions was hungry when it spread the message). This issue has been researched by the wisest in the realms and it was finally determined that the clearest messages were in the shortest chains. Which is another reason that Meen's reports to the Shadows' King was so accurate - she was the only one in the chain. Nothing like keeping a message short and sweet.

The emergency meeting of C.O.G. (Cooperation of Organized Grunts) had just ended and Meen, being a member outstanding (that is she was standing out by the food tables trying to put some into her pockets for later), had heard about the Borrowers and the tablet they had found. The excitement of a Dragon tablet had her hopping faster than she had ever hopped before. Leaping over mushrooms and logs, just barely missing falling into a pool of water on the other side, she hurried to get back to the Shadows' King's castle to tell him the news!

Upon entering the castle, she went straight to the King's Audience Chamber, hoping to find him there so she would not have to search for him out in the forest. It was his daily habit to be available in the chamber for anyone to present themselves about this time. But in her hurry to go the emergency C.O.G. meeting she had left her timepiece behind when she was called to it. "Hopefully he has not finished yet", gasped Meen as she was still trying to catch her breath. Her luck was still with her as she saw that the King was there. The last of his subjects had just left and he was reading a letter that had just been delivered.

Quickly she kneeled at the base of his throne and awaited his notice. "What is it you are wanting to see me about," he asked Meen without looking up from the letter he was still reading. She did not immediately respond as she was still trying to catch her breath ("One too many sweets at the meeting," thought Meen). This pause caused the King to look over the letter and at her, wondering about the delay.

"Your majesty, I have important news that I just heard that you should know about," Meen finally was able to tell Hunter. "Hopefully it is better than the chocolate cake incident," was the King's reply.

Blushing slightly, the little Pyksee continued, "Sire, I have just returned from a meeting of my fellow Minions and it has been reported that a tablet has been found." As the King looked at her, trying to understand the importance of what she was saying, it finally struck Meen that she had forgotten to tell him the most important part. "It is a Dragon tablet from before they left the Realms," she said.

Now that was interesting thought the King. It also further explained the letter he was reading from the Dowager Griselda and her desire to have tea with him and wouldn't it be nice if he invited Hungry, the Wish Dragon, to be there too.

"Very good Meen. Well done! Now it appears we must prepare for a little party. Gather the staff and we will start the planning. I think it is past the time to find out who are all of the players of this drama," as he reread the Dowager's letter. "Besides no one 'summons' me," mumbled the Shadows' King to himself, "even if she is a Dragon Clan Counselor."