[Note: This takes place within the context of a Play-by-Email game run by Drakkon. Elisabeth and Raist were in Origon and got caught up with a mixed group of Gallain, mostly were-creatures and the odd Mage. At this point in the story, Elisabeth and several others were helping the few remaining refugees in the nearby town to withstand a storm that was destroying their homes. There are two Alexes. One is Alexander Solomon, a teenage Gurahl, and the other is Alexanderu, a Dreamspeaker Mage.]

Alex nods, gets his coffee and Candi's hot chocolate and walks back over to Candi's table. He sets the chocolate down in front of her and puts a hand on her shoulder encouragingly. "You oughta be ok. That'll help warm you up." He then dumps enough cream and sugar into his coffee to turn it white and walks over to Elisabeth. "Anything I can help with? You said you were gonna tell a story."
Alexander Solomon

Alexanderu perks up at the mention of 'story.' "Who's going to tell a story? Elisabeth? Oh, this sounds interesting... mind if I listen?"

"No problem." She smiles kindly.

Alex is already sitting more or less in rapt attention, waiting for her to continue, all duties involving actually helping quiet the kids on hold.

Elisabeth smiles at Alex. "Yeah, I was waiting for all these little ones to calm down and provide some sort of suggestion as to what kind of story they want to hear. I sort of specialize in Faerie Tales and ballads of epic struggles, but those aren't the only kind of stories to tell."

Alex looks at Elisabeth curiously as she says this. "Quite true, quite true. If I was the sort of person with storytelling capabilities, I'd have some stories that would keep these children awake for many nights. Unfortunately, even though I *am* a Dreamspeaker, I cannot tell stories very well."

"Well, I make a living from stories, so I suppose that it fits that I have some ability with telling them."

One of the children tugs on his sleeve. "What's a Dreamspeaker?"

"That's a good question, but let Elisabeth finish the story before we hear that one. It'll let him think of a good response." Alex grins.

One of the older children tugs on her shirtsleeve. "I wouldn't mind one of those fairy tales, if you want to tell us one." She seems rather hesitant, as if she's afraid of being rebuffed.

Elisabeth smiles gently at the girl. "Okay, how about if I tell you a story about a faerie princess, how about that?

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess, the only daughter of a handsome king and a beautiful queen. The princess was good, and kind, and gentle, and all those things that princesses are supposed to be. She was also valiant, and a warrior when she had to be, and a protector of those smaller and weaker than herself.

"The princess was out riding one day on her white horse when she came upon a lowly village. The houses were burning and there were bodies lying all around her. While she tried to help the survivors recover, helping to heal wounds and reunite families, she was attacked from behind and knocked unconcious.

"When she awoke, she was in a tower, the prisoner of her father's enemy, the King of a neighboring country. . ."

Alexanderu sighs as she finishes. "Beautiful. It's a bit overdone, what with the princess and all, but it's still a good story." He then looks at the younger Alex and grins. "What did you think, Alex?"

Elisabeth grins. "But the story's only half done. I merely paused for listener responses, as is appropriate." She smiles a knowing smile. "There are stories and then there are stories, are you certain you are able to tell the true ones from the false?"

She turns back to the children. "So here she was, a prisoner of her father's enemy and locked in a tower. There was one window for her to look out of and there she was able to see the rising and the setting of the sun. She was kept there for many days before her captor revealed to her his plan. It is the custom among families of that day and time of a certain rank to arrange marriages for their children as a way of making alliances. It's really confusing sometimes. Anyway, the princess' father had left up to her the choosing of a husband, and her father's enemy wanted to be that husband, because whoever married her would also be heir to her father's land.

"The princess, of course, refused his suit, and was locked away in the tower for more days. Every so often he would come to her again, and every time she would refuse him.

"Meanwhile, news of her disappearance had reached the farthest corners of the land, because she was so very well liked by all who knew her. The tale even reached an old childhood friend of hers who was not exactly the most welcome in the courts of the land because he had been allied with someone who was very mean. He had left the alliance, and had been cursed for it, but no one trusted him anymore. No one, that is, except the princess.

"The friend went searching for her, taking with him his deadly hounds, and his hunting hawk, and wherever he rode people bolted their doors and kept their loved ones close, for it was said that his was a look of death.

"The princess managed, one night, to escape from the tower. She had not been too proud to learn lockpicking in her spare time, and she crept through the enemy's house, to escape from his lands and return home. But she was seen, and her enemy and his men started chasing her. She ran into the countryside, and they followed her. They were on horses and she was on foot, but she was not afraid. The princess knew determination, worry, all emotions except fear. Her persuers had almost caught her, in fact, they had her surrounded by their horses when a terrible horn sounded that struck fear in the hearts of the princess' persuers. The horses shied in fear and the princess took the opportunity to break through the ring, and run straight to where the horn was heard, just on the top of the next hill.

"Standing there, lit by a full moon, was her friend on his night-colored horse, with his hawk and his hounds, and the princess knew the sound of his horn. Her enemy and his men ran from the Hunter, and he let them run. They were not what he had been seeking.

"The princess ran straight to him and he slid off his horse and took her into his arms. She was dear to him even if he could never admit it. He took her to his secret home for a time and then she returned to her father's house and told the tale of her abduction, but she never spoke of the week she spent with her hunter friend, or even that he had been the one to rescue her."

Elisabeth looks around at the enraptured children. One little boy looked confused. "Why didn't she tell them that her friend had found her?"

Elisabeth smiles. "You see, her friend was not well liked by the nobles. They both thought it best that her father and the other nobles not know that she had spent a week with the Hunter." Her voice hesitates on the word "hunter", almost as if she were going to say some other word, but did not.

Alex looks down for a second, then back up at Elisabeth. He thinks a moment, glances over at Raist, then looks back at her. "So, how much of this one is fact, and how much is fiction?" He smiles slightly, then stands back up. "Thanks, Elisabeth. I better see how Candi's doing, though." He picks up his coffee cup and walks back over to the table where she's sitting. "You doing ok?"

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