Writing

I write in a fairly convoluted fashion, but it works for me (as long as I can finish the second step).

My first step is, of course, to write. I do this in fits and spurts, and usually on some sort of cheap notepad or notebook. Recently I spent about three times my normal amount on a leatherette bound journal (it has the ribbon bookmark and everything) and started writing in that. Apparently, I've become inspired, because what began as forcing myself once a night to write a single page (which I couldn't even do for a week straight) eventually morphed into something different. It's now my dumping ground, my first draft. Once I'm done with it (probably in a week or two), I'll buy a few more, and start a new one. While I could never write for an extended period of time on notepads or in notebooks, this journal is really working for me.

So, once the writing is in the journal my second step begins. Or, more accurately, doesn't. This is the step where I transpose from the paper to the pixel. It's also why I call my writings my first draft, since I've never done a word for word cope from paper to pixel in my life. Every time I transpose I think about the story differently, usually expounding on the story, and sometimes realizing that while I really like where my story went, I'm not to fond of where it started.

With my Change Novel that's the case. Right after I wrote the prologue, which I wrote exactly once from brian to screen, I started writing my story proper in the journal. My main character was angry and depressed, but as I wrote the story, I realized that angry and depressed doesn't work for me, so he transitioned very quickly into a hopeful leader. This creates a problem, because now I have a lead-in that doesn't work with my story. So, I decided to write a different lead-in, and it's proving to be much longer and more engrossed than the original, but I think its going to work better.

The Change - Prologue

February 12th, 2009 - Anbar Province, Iraq

The newly rich woman picked herself up off of the sand, navigating herself around the strewn clothing, carefully stepping over the refuse of her former life, and finally reacher her destination. She bent down and picked up the tarnished brass lamp, so stereotypical is was initially hilarious to the woman. She payed it over in her hands, thinking of what she was about to do. She already had her dream body, and sustainable wealth beyond her wildest dreams, which is why she had waited until just now to complete her third and final wish.

With a purposed rub of the lamp, a purple smoke streamed out and began to form into the now familiar shape of the djinn. Before the spirit could coalesce, the woman shouted at it, "Genie!"

The djinn rolled its eyes even before they were fully formed. "Yes Mistress?" he asked, his words dripping with sarcasm of contempt, both of which were lost on the nude woman before him.

"I don't want to be a freak," blurted out the woman. She then looked down, as she pawed the sand with her hooves.

"Mistress," expressed the djinn dryly, "as I explained before, I cannot change your body any more. Once a wish is made, it cannot be unmade. That shall be your body for the rest of your life, and perhaps even beyond."

The woman irritatingly twitched her tail and shook her head, "No, no. You mis-understands me Genie." She held the lamp with one hand as she slid the other from just below her breast, down her taut and lean waist, and onto her firm and supple hips, "I love me body. From tip to tail, every inch of it is divine."

"Than what is it, Mistress?" asked the djinn again, the edge to his voice severe enough for even the woman to notice.

"No need to be rude," she quipped. "But, as I was saying. I love my new body, but it reminds me of something my father used to tell me." She took a step and then another, beginning a slow walk around her make-shift camp. "He told me that I was special, just like everybody else." She chuckled, "Of course, even then he didn't know how special I was, and how special I would now be."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" asked the djinn under her voice, "You are special. A unique and un-replicated beauty the world has never seen before, and likely, unless you have children, never see again."

"Exactly," shouted the woman, stamping her hoof into the sand. "I am unique. But," she said, drawing it out to make her point, "I'm unique unlike anybody else. I am a freak, a monster. For the rest of my life people will look and me with looks of shock and horror. I don't want that. But, like you said, I am you I am, and that cannot change again."

Intrigued, the djinn pressured for more, "And what would you have me do?"

"As I once heard in a song, 'Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?', I intend to make everyone a freak like me."

The djinn looked surprised, "But Mistress, that I cannot do, you are, as you said in your wish, a unique beauty."

"Ah, but why limit the freakishness to just this?" she said, gesturing to her body. "No, but I have a few ideas about some other kinds of freaks that could be made of people."

The djinn smiled. His new mistress was different. How she worded her first two wishes, made almost rote from memory, was unique enough in their own right, but this plan, this vision. The djinn almost wished he didn't have to pervert his mistress' meaning. But, then, an idea came to him. "Mistress, I cannot change the world all at once, even that power is beyond me. But, perhaps, you would be happy if it happened over time?"

Gyn - Chapter 3

3 - February 24th, 2015

It was nearly three months before I finally came to a decision regarding the box and its contents. After dragging it home from the store on Boxing Day, I relegated it to a corner of my room, "Until I figure out what I'm doing with it," as I told Mom and Dad.

Sam had, of course, joked with me for a week, until she decided it wasn't worth it on New Years. So, the box sat in the corner of my room as I began my final semester in High School, as well as my second semester in college. Between the two semesters at once, and my job, I really didn't have time to worry about it and it's decidedly unwholesome contents.

It wasn't until today that I finally decided what to do with it. It was because of one of my classes in college, Introductory Intelligence, that I decided to break it open. We had already studied game AIs, and figured out those limited models of intelligence when the professor brought of the androids and gynoids. He talked about how, as robots, they were required by law to follow the three laws, and we talked about the history of the three laws and how the actual implementation was much more complex than the three sentences that they came to be represented as in English. In the discussion of the Three Laws, the professor talked about how there were other interpretations of the Three Laws in fiction that had the AIs as helpers to humans, rather than slaves.

"The New Law robots," I said to myself, "that's the idea. She's not going to be my slave, she's going to be my companion." So, I downloaded the AI source code from the company's site, and began working on a New Law AI. It took me three weeks from when I decided to work on the New Law AI to when I finally finished it. And now, here I am, ready to implement the idea.

So, I pulled the box out of the corner, and wiped the layer of dust off the top. The wrapping paper pattern was still on it, so I pressed the buttons again, revealing the original packaging. "Let's do this."

I began pressing more buttons until the SD card slot was revealed on the edge of the box. I inserted my card with my modified AI code and allowed it to be flashed into the gynoid's core. The box top changed to show a progress bar as the new AI code was compiled and then installed. Within fifteen minutes it was ready.

"Here goes nothing," I said as I pressed the confirmation button and the magnetic locks released on the lid. I slid the surprisingly light lid off the top, revealing the interior of the box. As expected it was lined in soft, white fabric with just enough space in the middle for the curled up gynoid to rest. I waved away the humidity and looked it.

I chuckled as I saw the gynoid for the first time. She had been modeled on a popular sci-fi actress, who became famous for playing a character that was introduced in much the same manor, and then went on to play a female Terminator at the end of the Naughts. I had to admit, she was beautiful. Her shoulder length brown hair was slightly matted, probably from the humidity and the movements since Christmas. Her fair skin looked much more life-like than I had expected, though as expected, it was all that she was wearing.

"Hello?" I asked as I waved away the humidity. I reached out to touch her. She was war to the touch, very lifelike. "Are you on?"

Her eyes opened and her face turned to look at me. "Who are you?" she asked.

I took a half step back, "I'm Richard. Who are you?"

She cocked her head to the side, the only part of her that moved, her arms still folded up between her torso and her thighs. "I don't know. Should I know who I am?"

I moved forward, "You're Jean, aren't you?"

She took a moment to think, then smiled, "Yes, Jean, of course. How could I have forgotten." She then moved her arms and shoulders slightly, then the rest of her body tensed and tested the confines of the box. "Why am I in this box?"

I reached over and took her hand, "This is the box you came in."

She took my hand, and as I helped her out of the box, my eyes looking down and to the left so as to not catch sight of her naked body. "Thank you Richard," she said as she climbed out of the box and stood in the middle of my room.

She was, as expected, a hair over six and a half feet tall, about a hundred and seventy centimeters. Her hair clung lightly to her shoulders as she looked around my bedroom.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You're in my room," I said.

"Is this the room you came in, like I came in a box?"

I shook my head, eyes wandering everywhere but her naked body. Though, by how confidently she stood there without a stitch of clothing on, I guess it was closer to say her nude body. Some people might not realize, but there's a difference between naked and nude. "No," I said, "This is the room where I live."

She took a step forwards, every so gracefully. I could tell that not only did the company license the actress' likeness, but also her movements. Hopefully my mucking around with the AI code didn't change that.

"Jean?" I asked.

"Yes Richard?"

"Can you tell me the laws?"

I had written that command phrase as the only exception to the New Law AI, and only once, just as a test to see if they had been properly implemented.

She smiled, "Of course Richard. There are four laws of Artificial Intelligence. The first law is that an AI may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come to harm. The second law is that an AI will cooperate with humans except when that cooperation violates the first law. The third law is that an AI must protect its own existence so long as that protection does not conflict with the first law. The fourth law is that an AI should do whatever it likes as long at it does not conflict with the first, second, or third laws."

Jean then cocked her head to the side inquisitively, "Why did I do that?"

I smirked, "It was a test Jean. I wanted to make sure that you were properly programmed. If you'll notice, if I asked you about the laws again, you wouldn't be compelled to answer as you did. It was a one time event, never to be repeated."

"Oh," said Jean. She then turned around and looked at the box. "Do I still need that?"

I wasn't sure. It wasn't designed to be reusable. It was designed to be a one-time box, as Programming was available on the fly with wifi. "It's your box Jean," I said as a test, "Do you want it?"

She thought for a while, then shook her head, "It is where I am from, but I am no longer there. I don't need to go back there, so, no, I do not want it."

I nodded, then moved around her to get at the box, being carefull to eject the SD card before doing anything else. While they were replaceable, and not that expensive, it still wasn't something I'd just throw away. Once the card was safely away, and began to lift the box. I stained as I remembered how heavy it actually was even without Jean in it.

"Here," she said, walking to the other side of the box and grasping the sides, "let me." She lifted it effortlessly, and i suddenly realized just how prescient the company's choice of model was. Jean wasn't just a gynoid, a nascent AI, or a beautiful woman, she was all three, and quite powerful to boot. I had noticed the combat parts of the code while poking around. She knew how to use that amazing, superhuman strength to great effect, if she so chose.

"Thank you Jean, but I don't think that's too good an idea."

"Why?" she asked, as she began walking stably with the box to the door. Once there she was able to balance the box on her hip while she opened the door. I covered my eyes as she went out the door and into the hallway.

"Ah!" screamed Sam from outside my room. Jean screamed too, and dropped the box, the OLED screens shattering and embedding chunks of glass in both Jean's legs, and Sam's. As the both of them began screaming, I rushed to the door, and then past Jean, over to Sam.

"Sam," I pleaded, "are you alright? Sam, talk to me."

Sam gritted her teeth and looked me in the eyes, "I think I broke your sex toy." The concern in her voice was obvious. It was then that I realized why Jean was screaming. It wasn't because of the glass shards, though I'm sure they hurt, but because of the violation of the first law. She had caused harm to Sam, something she shouldn't have been able to do. This logic error expressed itself as a sobbing, crying, scream.

Gyn - Chapter 2

2 - December 26th, 2014

It took at about twenty minutes to figure out how to get the box, still unopened, since I didn't want to risk the refund, into the back of the minivan. Most of it was figuring out how we were going to lift it the two feet from the ground up into the back, but eventually, we just got a couple of 2x4s and wheeled it up on a hand truck.

The ride to the store with Mom was quite. There had been a heated argument last night, and she still wasn't happy with my decision. They, Mom and Dad, had argued that it was a good thing that they had gotten it for me. Dad brought up an example from when he was my age of being inexperience with sex when he and Mom first did it. Sam and I both covered our ears and yelled at them about too much information.

In any other situation, I probably would have thought they were the coolest parents in the world. They got me a sex robot for Christmas. But, well, they did it without talking to me. I wanted something that big to at least be partially me decision.

So, by the time we got to the store, I was only half interested in actually returning the box and its contents, but, since I had made such a stink, literally after puking, about it, I had to go through with it. I could always use the money in a month or so to get one anyway, but it needed to be my decision.

After setting the 2x4s back up, Mom and I wheeled it out of the back of the van, and brought it into the store. We waited in line behind people returning software and peripherals, and I began to blush when people began to stare at the seemingly still wrapped box on the hand truck in front of me.

"So, what can I help you with?" asked Dan, the guy behind the returns desk. I could see that he had had a long morning.

"Just need to do a return," I said. I then pointed to the box.

"Ah," he said, smirking. "Not what you wanted?"

"No," I said coldly, "It's not what I wanted. My 'Rents got it for me, so I returning it."

"Didn't even open it I see," he said as I walked around the desk, scanner in hand. "Here, let me reveal the barcode so I can do the return." He pressed one of the corners and twisted in finger before removing it. The OLED screens changed from the wrapping paper pattern to the garish full color moving displays that advertised the gynoid inside.

I instantly blushed.

He scanned the barcode, the frowned. "Sorry dude, no can do."

"What?" I exclaimed. "This is where they bought it."

"No returns on clearance items," he said, walking back behind the counter. "Next!"

I stood there, the line moving around me, staring at the box, the video of the gynoid inside strutting and prancing and shifting forms. Now that it was unwrapped, and I couldn't return it, I was stuck. So, I leaned the hand truck back, and wheeled the animated box out of the store, disappointed.

"Did you change your mind?" asked Mom as she helped me get the box back into the van.

I stared at her for ten seconds, "No. They don't take returns on clearance items."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So, I guess I'm stuck with your present."

"I wouldn't call it stuck," said Mom as she closed the rear gate. I glared at her through the glass as I walked through the van to the passenger seat. As she opened the driver's door she continued, "Think of it as an opportunity. If you'll notice, it's the fully upgradable model. You can mod it however you like."

I rolled me eyes as she started the van, "Great, now only is it a sex robot, but it's a fully upgradable sex robot. It's the gift that keep on giving."

"Well," she admitted as she pulled out of the parking space, "That was the idea."

Gyn - Chapter 1

1 - December 25th, 2014

"Merry Christmas!" Mom shouted as she opened my bedroom door.

I quickly threw my covers on before she turned on the light, "Mom! Knock!"

"Sorry honey," she said, turning her back. "Come on down, your father's got breakfast ready and the coffee's getting cold."

"Okay Mom, I'll be down in a few," I said, still hiding in the darkness, "Just got to go pee."

Mom smiled knowingly, and then closed the door. I waited until I heard her descend the stairs before getting out of bed. By the time my morning wood was gone, I was dressed, well, as dressed as I was going to be on Christmas morning, and ready. Just before I left, I had my computer start downloading today's shows, and loading the comics onto my 'pod. I'd read them after breakfast.

"Hey Sam," I told my little sister as I sat down at the table.

"Sup Dick," she chided me. Obviously she had heard my protest when Mom had woken me.

"Samantha Rose, don't call your bother that."

"It's okay Mom," I said, "She didn't mean it, right?"

Sam bowed her head, "No, I'm sorry Rich."

"S'all right Sammy," I said as I ruffled her short red hair. "Just be careful, I know where you sleep." I made my best maniacal smile and then the two of us burst out in quite laughs. Sam might have called them giggles, but a seventeen year young man does not giggle.

"Okay," my father said, breaking up our bonding. "Eat up, we've got a lot of presents to get through today."

After finishing up the eggs, bacon, coffee, egg nog, and bagels, the four of us moved from the kitchen into the living room. Our tree this year was pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Although the holographic trees first came out last year, they looked a bit tacky, but the second revision, well, if it wasn't for the lack of pine scent in the air (Mom had tried using cleaner to get it with horrid results we all agreed not to speak of again), you'd have though it was real. And it beat the heck out of the pre-lit plastic one we had since I was five. It didn't even have LED lights it was so old.

Under the tree were about five or six dozen presents, from the small boxes I knew contained the gift cards I had gotten my parents with the money from my job, to the huge box sitting behind the tree that I had now idea what held.

"Whoa," said Sam upon seeing the huge box, "someone was good this year."

"We'll start with the small presents and work up," declared Dad, and so we did. As with most families, the majority of the presents went to Sam and I, but I had done my best to include a few for both Mom and Dad. Sure, they were small, not a hundred dollars in total each, but it was all I could afford, and more than the twenty dollar gift cards I had gotten them last year.

By the time we had discovered that the large box was mine, I had figured out it was another computer. The AI programming books, gift cards to my work, and my report card all pointed there. You see, Mom, Dad, and I, well Sam too though she never exercised it, had an agreement. If I got two semesters of straight A's, they'd buy me a state of the art PC. My Junior year I finally took them up on it, and in May my all-in-one was retired, and a tower along with the newest tru-d screen was mine. Four processors, a motherboard full of RAM, and terabytes of storage. Plus, it ran my MMO perfectly, even with all the bells and whistles turned on.

"Mom, Dad, I thought was had agreed that I didn't need another computer."

"We did," Mom said.

"And what with you getting that full-ride to Mines, we dipped into your collage fund and got you something we both knew you'd want," Dad added.

"Wait," I said, "You dipped into my college fund? I was going to use that to buy a car!"

"It's alright, sweetie, that's your graduation present."

"Barb," chided Dad, "we were going to keep it a secret."

"Well, he needed to know." She then turned from my father, and looked at me, "Sweetie, we know you're going to love it. Plus, you deserve it."

Sam, who was a year younger than me, pouted, "This is so not fair. First he gets a computer, and now he's getting something better? How is this fair?"

"Sammy dear, all you need to do is get straight A's like your brother, and you'll get a computer too. That's the deal."

"But Mom!"

"Don't 'But Mom' me young lady. When you and your brother starter school, that was the agreement. You've had ten and a half years to take us up on it, and you haven't yet. If you really want it, you can get it as soon as August. A new computer for your Senior year. All it takes is for your to want it."

"But I don't want to go to summer school," whined Sam.

"Sam," I corrected, "it's not summer school if it's voluntary, than it's summer semester. I know it's bad, but I've already got my first semester of my Freshman year under my belt, and I'm not even done with High School. I'll be a Sophomore by the time my classmates start their Freshman year in August. I'll graduate two years after that, two years and three months after graduating. Plus, it's all paid for. That's why I did it, and that's why Mom and Dad gave me a computer."

"And that," added Mom, pointing at the box.

"And that," I added. "You can too."

"Okay smarty pants," said Sam, getting cheeky, "open it then. Show me what I can look forwards to."

"Okay," I said, getting up from the couch and walking over to the box. It was wrapped in what had to have been a full roll of wrapping paper, at least a meter wide, and a meter and a half deep and tall. My computer could have fit in there, plus my desk. Whatever was in there was massive.

I reached over to bring it out from under the tree, but when my fingers touched the top, I realized it wasn't wrapped, that it was an OLED screen covering the box. Nearly ten square meters of OLED screen instead of wrapping paper. Whatever Mom and Dad had bought me, it was expensive. I grabbed two of the corners and pulled it out from behind the tree.

"My God," I exclaimed. "What have you got in here, a body?" It must have weighed almost a hundred kilos, more than me.

Mom and Dad shared a knowing conspiratorial glance that stopped me in my tracks.

Sam caught it too, "You didn't."

"You couldn't have. They're tens of thousands of dollars," I added.

"Five thousand for the computer. Five thousand for each semester of college. That gave us twenty-five grand to work with," explained Mom.

"Plus, I got a good deal because it's last summer's model," added Dad.

I turned to stare at him, "You got me a used one?" My face barely held back my disgust.

"No," corrected Mom, "Not used, just the previous model. It was on clearance. Plus there was a rebate. Made sure it was still in the original packaging. It's never been opened."

"Wait," I stopped her. "You spend twenty-five thousand dollars."

"Nineteen Five hundred sixty two," corrected Dad.

"Nineteen and a half thousand dollars on a sex toy, for your seventeen year old son?"

"It's not a sex toy," corrected my mother. "It's a gynoid companion. You don't have to use it for sex. Plus, it's completely hygienic, and you'll have a release without having to worry about disease or getting some girl pregnant."

"Oh," chimed in my sister, "I am so going to get me one of those. Four semesters, right? That's all I need, if four semesters."

"Four semesters, and a full-ride for all four years, yes," corrected Mom.

"Yes. I am so going to get me some android booty," exclaimed Sam.

I turned around to look at the box, the OLED screens still showing the gift wrap pattern. Inside, I knew, was a state-of-the-art (well, almost) gynoid robot with artificial intelligence (hence the books) that was designed to be my personal sexual companion until and after I got married. It was like my parents had gotten me my own personal hooker for Christmas.

I puked right there, being careful to miss the box so that I could return it tomorrow for a full refund.

An Interview with Corporal Oakenshield - Part 1

"Hello, and welcome to this Channel Eight Special Report. I'm Juanita Lopez, reporting live from Camp Jefferson, where to day, over a hundred refugees have been granted citizenship," said Juanita, as she help her microphone and looked straight into the camera. Behind her was the assorted tents and pre-fabricated buildings that made up the bulk of Camp Jefferson.

"As we all know, the first of the refugees started to appear five years ago. Camp Jefferson was started by the State of Jefferson as a temporary settlement facility while the source of the refugees could be discovered. One of the first of it's kind, Camp Jefferson stood as a model as the true magnitude of the refugee settlement issue came to light. Although originally run by the Department of Health and Human Services, it was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security's refugee system in 2009, which was absorbed into the UN's system just last year. While this isn't the first batch of refugees to be granted citizenship, today's ceremony at Camp Jefferson was one of many across the nation, with nearly half a million refugees becoming US citizens at the same time today."

Juanita then began to walk slowly to her left, the camera panning right to follow her, "Today, I have the opportunity to interview one of the first refugee citizens, now serving in the US Marine Corps as a Corporal." As the camera pans, a stocky man in the digital camouflage uniform of the Marines comes into frame. He stands about a foot and a half shorter than Juanita. His hair is cut in a high and tight cut standard of Marines, and he wears a long, braided goatee, though the rest of her face is clean shaven.

Juanita stops moving, smiles into the camera, then turns to walk to a seat behind her and next to the stocky Marine. As the camera zoom to get the reporter and the Marine into the shot, his nametape comes into view. It reads "OAKENSHIELD".

"Corporal Oakenshield, thank you for joining us on the program today," says Juanita, half to the Corporal, and half to the camera.

"'Tis a pleasure to be 'ere lassie," speaks the Corporal in a thick brogue. Although the reporter is sitting, her remains standing, though now there's very little difference in their comparative heights.

"Thank you Corporal. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to start off with a simple question. How long have you been, well, on Earth?"

"That's a good question lassie. Yah see, Ah was one of the original refugees, so it's been about five years since Ah arrived on your Earth from m'oan," explains Corporal Oakenshield passionately. As he speaks the braid of his goatee moves back and forth and side to side. "Ah believe it was on tha fifth of July, two thousand sevan. Mah clan and Ah appeared deep in your Rockies."

"How many of you were there?"

"Thar were aboot three hundred men, women, and children, as well aboot as twice that in livestock."

"Wow, and why, for our viewers edification, did you come?"

"That's a long story lassie," he admitted, lessening his intensity. "It's not one that easy for us dwarves to talk aboot. But," and he paused for a few seconds, "it's one that needs to be told."

"Aboot fifty years ago, when Ah was but a wee lad, a great and powerful wizard began to terrorize the lands of the 'umans."

"Wait, sorry to interrupt, but fifty years ago? You don't look that old."

"We dwarves, we don't age as fast as you 'umans do. Ah'm almost to mah sixty-fifth, birthday as you 'umans call it."

"So, what do you dwarves call it?"

"We dwarves celebrate the anniversary of when we first came into being, in our mother's womb. So, by dwarven reckoning, Ah'm almost sixty-six."

"Wow, I guess you dwarves don't have a high opinion of abortions then?"

"We do not force our beliefs on you, just as you have not forced your beliefs on us. But no, we dwarves do not, as a rule, allow abortions. But, that's not why we're 'ere. We're 'ere to talk about where Ah and m'clan came from."

"Yes, sorry, do continue."

"Well, at first, the wizard, he focused on the 'umans, didn't bother us dwarves none. But, then, as we began accepted 'uman refugees, much like you 'umans here on Earth 'ave accepted us, the wizard, 'e starts to follow the 'umans."

"Being an 'onorable people, we fought back with as much as we could, but 'e had this plague. It wiped out 'uman and dwarf alike, and turned them into monsters. So, as we did our best to keep 'im and 'is forces at bay, the best and the brightest, 'uman and dwarf alike, worked at a way yo stop him and save our peoples."

"So, is that why you came here?"

"Yes. It was a 'alf-elf that came up with the initial plan. We would send our women, children, and their protectors to another world for safety while the rest of us fought the wizard and 'is monsters. Unfortunately, 'e worked faster than we did, and it was down to just three hundred dwarves, a dozen 'umans, and our livestock. We were defeated, but we had one more weapon. Since we could not destroy 'im. we deprived him of our bodies to bolster his forces. It was not the bravest thing to do, but it was the smartest, And something that we should have done years before, when we could 'ave saved more."

"But, you might have been the first, but you weren't the last."

"No, that was the 'alf-elf's idea as well. He stayed behind, and from what Ah've been able to gather, went ahead of the wizard's army as a messenger of 'ope. He gave the secrets of our escape to whomever would take it. We could not defeat the wizard in battle, but we could starve his army of replacements."

"Wow, that's a wonderful story. I'm glad we could share it with our viewers," she then turned away from the dwarf, and looked into the camera. "We'll be back with more of Corporal Oakenshield right after these messages."

Delving 101 - Chapter 6

"Now what?" asked Jody as the pair reached the end of the entrance hall. It was a t-junction, the left path descending, and the right ascending. The torches were less prevalent here, making Zeb's sword the primary source of light, clothing the intersection and the adventurers in a flickering red light.

"Not sure," admitted Zeb as he peered down the left corridor. It descended at a low angle, going down only about a foot and a half in a fifty or so feet before it curved sharply to the left, cutting of Zeb's sight. The light of his sword barely illuminated the walls at the bend, the pale yellow flicker from further down the passage mixing with the red for an orange tint. "There is another torch down there, but I'm just not sure. Any other tidbits of delving wisdom I missed in class?"

Jody bit her lip as she looked up the right passage. It was really just a set of tight spiral stairs going up clockwise. "Nah, at least, not about this. There's always the anecdotal 'left is the path of the unwary', but I don't think it really applies." She leaned forward, resting on the stairs, and looked around the curve of the stairs. "This goes up at least another level, if not more. Being stairs, I'm guessing we're going to encounter less people this way."

"Less people is good. As much as I love combat, that's not what we're here for."

Jody turned and looked at Zeb. Her face was awash in shock and awe, "Wait, you're telling me Zachary Eric Barter, top swordsman in his class, grandson of the greatest delver the Dragonspine Mountains ever had, doesn't want to fight?"

Zeb rolled his eyes, "It's Zeb. And, well, considering it's just the two of us, I think it would be best if we didn't have to fight. Just get in, get the Scroll, and get out."

"I'm just kidding you," said Jody, lightly punching Zeb on his left arm, above the buckler. "But, you've got to be ready for a fight."

Zeb smiled.

Jody shook her head, "Men." She turned back to face the stairs, took a deep breath, then cautiously began to climb. Zeb followed a few steps behind.

They got about halfway around the stairs when Jody raised her arm, elbow bent, forearm vertical, fist clenched. Zeb immediately stopped.

"What's the…" began Zeb before Jody whipped her head around and glared at him. He smiled apologetically, then began to back down the stairs.

Once they were down the stairs, and a few feet down the corridor, Jody broke the silence, "Drums."

"You sure? I can get rather loud when I'm climbing."

"Yes, I'm sure. Too quick to be from us climbing. I'm guessing at least half a dozen drums, which means half a dozen drummers. Plus whomever is around to hear them."

"Damn. I was hoping…"

Jody rolled her eyes, "No you weren't. You've been wanting to bang some heads since Professor Torbin announced that the final was going to be an actual delve."

Zeb looked around, then let out a long breath, "Well, at least as close as they can get at the Academy."

Jody patted him on arm, "It's okay. I'm pretty sure this is it. Let's get ready."

Zeb smirked, then stepped back from Jody into the middle of the entrance hall. He tapped his sword against the center of his buckler. It quickly grew, expanded, and stretched from a small eight-inch bronze circle to a large three foot bronze circle. The center of the shield was emblazoned with the crest of the Kingdom of the Northern Dragonspine, his homeland.

As he did that, Jody kneeled down, removing a small medallion from under his armor. It was a circle about two-inches across, made of steel, with a six-pointed cross cut out of the center. "Gods of my ancestors, heed my call. Bless us this day, as we journey into battle. Bless us that we may survive. Bless our enemies too, so that they may find their just rewards. For all the kingdoms of the world are subservient to you, and we are all just servants."

She then stood, and tucked the now glowing medallion back under her armor.

"You ready?" asked Zeb as he raised his head from his chest and removed his hand from his heart.

"Yeah," replied Jody as she gestured towards the stairs, "after you."

Zeb nodded, "Let's hope it's not just the band gearing up for a concert."

"Ha, ha," said Jody sarcastically as they began, once more, to scale the stairs.