Date: Saturday, April 28, 2001 9:49 AM Subject: FW: Scene at Dalmar's Hill

Jaden has come with the party to pay his respects to Ledi. As the fire burns and the tales are told, he stands and tells his own tale. "Once there was a maiden, delicate and strong, like the silver maple sapling. Fair she was, and wise. Always she had a kind word, a helping hand. She befriended those who others would dismiss and never gave a thought to the gossip of idle busybodies. She was warm as a day in June, and sweet as summer berries. One day the maiden, Genny, as she was called, was beside a lake with her childhood sweetheart, a feckless and weak sort he was, but she loved him, when there was a strange roaring sound in the distance. It was like nothing the lovers had ever heard before. Genny began to pack their basket to make away, but suddenly, before them was a horrid beast, a red dragon. Genny's sweetheart ran for his sword, which he had foolishly left some feet away, and admonished the beast to leave. The dragon laughed and said, "Little man, I came in search of a maiden, and here is the finest I have seen. I am taking her. Do what you can to stop me." The young man did what he could, but he had little battle experience and was ineffective in his attack. He managed to cut the leathery left wing of the beast, and was rewarded with a slash from it's claw. The dragon then grasped the maiden in it's claws and flew up into the air and disappeared. The young man, beaten and broken, heard only the scream of his love cut short before everything went dark." Jaden stops, sits, and in the fire's glow, the others see that he is crying...