The year is 1382. You have been working as a waiter in a pub in the small town of Dunstan for two months. The work is hard, and your pay is less than a penny per day, but you have to work because your family is too poor to buy food for all of your brothers and sisters.The pub is named the Blue Bear. The food is bad, your boss is mean and ugly, and the worst thing is that the people who come there are all dangerous men. They come to drink cheap beer and make dangerous plans. Every night you try to give them their bad beer and bad food without talking to them or looking at them.
It's late at night, and the usual group of thieves and killers has already drunk a lot of the beer you brought to them. You know all of their faces and their names - even though you always try not to look at them. Tonight, however, there are two men sitting in the corner whom you've never seen before. One of them has a long red scar on his face - it looks like he was in a knife fight long ago and was cut very severely. For some reason you feel afraid. This is the worst time - after they all have had many glasses of cheap beer. Sometimes you are afraid that something very bad will happen.
The door opens, and a cold wind blows into the room. As usual, you don't even look at the person who walks in. This time, however, the voices of all the men suddenly become quiet. This is strange. You look up.
The person who has just entered is a boy of about sixteen years old - about the same age as you. His blond hair shines like the sun in the dark and dirty pub, and his clothes look expensive. He looks around the room. He looks at you for a moment, then he smiles at you. He looks very nice and friendly, and his smile makes you feel happy. However, he turns away from you and walks to the middle of the room.
" My name is Damian, and I'm looking for a man named Caprar Dragos" he says. "I have something important to speak to him about. I will pay money to the person who will tell me where I can find this man."
Two men who have been sitting in the corner of the room look up. One of them stands up, says "I'm going home now," and walks toward the door. The other man sitting at the table in the corner says, "I am Caprar Dragos. Let me see your money."
The boy holds up a heavy bag. "If that bag is full of money," you think, "then Damian must be as rich as a king."
"Don't worry about the money. I have it all here. Now, how do I know that you are Caprar Dragos? I was told that he has something to give me."The man called Caprar Dragos smiles. Although smiles are usually pleasant things to look at, on his face it somehow looks ugly. "Oh yes -- I have something to give you," he says, and he reaches below the table.
Damian smiles. His face is as bright as the sun. "Then let's go somewhere to talk. The thing you have is very important."
"Yes, for you it is very important," Caprar Dragos says. From under the table he pulls a long knife, "because it is the last thing you will ever see."
"You aren't Caprar Dragos! Where is he?" shouts Damian.
Suddenly the man with the scar who was walking toward the door turns around. He has a large knife in his hand. "Caprar Dragos is dead!" he says, "and now so are you!" He is going to kill the boy and take his money!
What will you do?
1) Run away
2) Shout "Help! Help!"
3) Try to help the man with the knife take the boy's money
4) Try to help the boy fight the man with the knife
Copyright (c) 1997, 1998
Timothy M. Nall. All rights reserved.