[color:"00cccc"] Following Jurak's idea I went and had a bath myself. The inn had a nice tub, which Jessica dutifully fulled with steaming hot water. I relaxed to the first time in days. Hot water soothing every aching bone and stiff muscle. After a good scrub I went downstairs again. Everybody seemed upset.
"What's going on?"
"It's DQueene..." said Viper, a sorrowful look on his face. "She's been kidnapped!"
How could this have happened? Our motions were tracked so closely it was far beyond luck. And how could DQueene, on of our best fighters, let herself be taken?
I checked out the spot where Viper had seen her message. Two sets of footprints lead away from there. Not very widely spaced, not very deep. So she was taken by 2 short to average sized asailants. There were no signs of a struggle either.
"It looks to me like she allowed herself to be captured"
"What? Never!" Viper yelled.
"How do you explain the signs then?"
"Er...."
"I think we should keep a lookout for other messages on the way. This may be an opportunity to get to Aganeth."
"Viper nodded in agreement" I could see the concern on his face.
"She'll be fine matey, trust me!"
"We'd better leave" I said.
"Oh yeah. One more thing," beamed Viper slyly, "we need to speed jurak up a bit."
"Just give him some of the special 'spicy beans' they serve here. Worked last night!"
Jurak roared with laughter. "Oh yeah, dey worked ok!"
"No!" Viper snapped, "I mean this."
He gave me the plans he'd found. My eyes widened. A project to work on!
"Ok, someone get some wheels, something for a metal axle, and, and.....I have to go see the blacksmith."
"Just tell him I sent you!" yelled Jolie. I nodded and rushed off excitedly.
The parts took little time to find. What the blacksmith didn't have I could find at the other merchant's shacks. We took Jurak's Sled and unloaded it. I attached the axle and a simple set of cogs for a gear system. Willow fashioned the wheels amazingly! Then she fainted, however her power was improving...
I concetrated on the machine itself. It had a lot of inticate parts but they were fashioned from everyday things. The bulbs confused me. What were they for? Dwarves worked mostly with steam power for non-animal transportation. This was just bizarre.
It was getting to late afternoon when I put the whole thing together. Viper was pacing back and forth anxiously.
"Ok Jurak, just pull that rope there.... got it! Now lets test it!"
"Woohoo!" Jurak yelled, bouncing into his seat. "Ok, just flip that switch there..." I said.
The bulbs started to glow. What was this? They got brighter and bighter and suddenly the 'sled' moved, fast.....[/color]
