<HTML> See as it's been a while between part 62 & 63 being sent to the list I'm resending part 62 to hel prefresh your memories    ****** ***    "Where's my Dad?" a young voice said interrupting the story teller.    Looking around at his audience he found a small otter girl of around ten years old standing up and waving her arms about.    "SWOOSH!" she cried, swinging her arms about as if wielding an imaginary weapon. "And he'd cut all they're heads off."    The story teller simply laughed and gave the little girl a pat on the head. "Definitely her fathers daughter," he thought to himself.    "We will come to your father in due time. He did not fight the battle all alone you know. He had some help."    The little lady slowly sat down, obviously disappointed.    "But we're coming to his part soon," he said in way of solace.    "Is uncle Ricky next?" A bright faced little girl asked.    "I want to hear about how my Daddy killed the evil villain," a energetic little ferret boy announced loudly. "No!" another child countered. "I want to hear about the Duke again."    "Where was uncle George!" a third said as the whole group chimed in with the favorites. All of them shouting to be heard over the others    "Where was my mommy?"    "YEAH! Where was auntie Kimberly?"    "What about Raven?"    "We want to know what happened to Matt."    The story teller just let the children's voices flow over him. He knew what was next and let the excitement build before he began speaking.    Suddenly a small child touched him on the knee. "What about you Daddy?" she asked in a voice as soft as a cloud.    For the first time all night the story teller lost him calm demeanor. He looked out the window and didn't speak for a moment. The children grew silent.    Finally he turned back to the crowd. His old warmth and calm was back. Looking down at his young daughter. "We'll come back to me soon enough. Now Let me continue with the story." *** Rickkter sauntered into the room where Raven and the others were gathered. Kayla had made it there before him, and he gave her a perfunctory nod before his gaze met with that of the high priestess.           "Our main concern now, however, is information," Raven said coldly. "Then you've not managed to take a prisoner?" Rickkter asked. "We have not, but Misha has sent a message that he did. He's managed to take a prisoner, a trusted slave of the Moranasi. We would have retrieved her sooner, but, as you're quite aware, we're no longer able to travel through Metamor as easily as before. Messenger are risky enough, but a prisoner escort I feel would be far too risky." Rickkter nodded during the last bit, his gaze drifting and head cocking off to the left, all telling Raven he didn't think much of her statement. "But if you did have the prisoner, and they were able to tell you about the spell, do you feel you could reverse or undo it?" "This slave can tell us where the Moranasi are and we kill them in one fast strike," Daria explained. Raven crossed her arms and grumbled at the raccoon. "And with the Moranasi dead their spell will fail." "I assume you have no... objections about how the information is extracted?" Rickkter had his ears fully perked up, leering at her in a challenging way. Raven's expression darkened and she refused to meet the looks of the others assembled. "Damn Rickkter", she thought. He was testing her, seeing if she would condone torture of another human being. She had no choice. Too much was at stake. "As long as the information is accurate," she finally managed through grit teeth. His head bobbing, Rickkter turned away from the Lightbringer, his gaze wandering the room. "Then I shall see to it she is brought." He looked over at Raven and smiled. "Do you have anything in white?" *********************************** "You know, this never really was my colour," Rick commented as he adjusted the long fur cloak. "Oh, I think you look dashing," Kayla protested as she adjusted his collar. Like the overcoat he had previous, the cloak, too, was made of arctic fox fur. The main difference was that this fur was clean. Kayla reflected that whomever Raven had purloined the cloak from, they must have been wealthy. Not only was the fur itself a reflection of this, but the cut and the light trimming of added blue fur around the neck really did wonders to set it off, especially against Rickkter's darker grey. Of course all Rickkter wanted it for was to help him blend in with the snow outside. "Hm, perhaps in your opinion. I just never favoured it. Black was always to my tastes," he said, alluding to the coloured ranking system of southern mages. "Perhaps. But you look best in grey, or so I think," Kayla concluded with a wink. "There, all done. Those Lutin's shouldn't be able to spot you too easily in that. Now be careful my love," she told him, adding a kiss on his muzzle. "I want you to come back to me in one piece." Rubbing her arm, Rickkter murred and told her, "I intend to, my dear." "Ready here?" asked a voice to their side. Turning Rickkter saw it was David, as expected. The insect morph was wrapped in more furs than Rick himself, but in David's case it was a matter of survival. While David would use magic to preserve needed warmth, when one's life was at state, having some kind of a backup was always a good idea. About the only things that poked out from David's covering were his eyes; even his claws had been wrapped in cloth to keep them warm. "All ready, yes." The course of the two mages took them straight up through the levels of Metamor. It was Rickkter's belief that they were safest travelling through the only part of the Keep that the invaders were confident no one would be; the roof. Or at least the upper walls and catwalks. Of course the invaders wouldn't be expecting anyone there; nothing could fly in the blizzard and the freezing temperatures and extreme blowing snow would keep the rest of the keepers cooped up below. Besides, no one in their right mind would dare consider guard duty in such conditions. The other reason was that the blizzard had frozen the doors almost shut. "Damn it!" Rick grunted as he threw his shoulder against it again. "Let me have a shot at it," David said, gently moving the raccoon to the side. "I have an idea that just might work. The ant then turned around, crouching down a bit, and aimed a good, solid kick at the door. The first kick splintered the frozen wood, the second broke it open around the lock. Rick nodded. "Nice." Of course the snow still presented a problem. It had blow up into a drift a few feet high against the door and it took the combined efforts of Rick and David to force it open. "How long do you figure you can take this?" Rick yelled back over the howling wind. It tore at both their cloaks and drove stinging bits of ice into Rick's fur. He had to hold the thick fox fur cloak in front of his face to shield his eyes. David was trudging backwards through the snow to keep it out of his sensitive eyes, drawing a light cloth over as much of them as he could risk. "Not long. I didn't expect it to be this bad. No more than five minutes without running into problems." "Okay, good," Rick hollered. "We're going to go along the battlements to the southern section of the Keep and down from there. I need to get some things from my room for the prisoner. We're stopping there first, then going to the Long House to get the prisoner. All we have to do is hope we don't run into anything in the meantime." Of course just as Rick put his foot down in what was supposed to be another soft snow bank, the snow gave way with a loud crunch, throwing him totally off balance and face down into the snow.  He came up sputtering it away from his muzzle, rolling over and looking at what the hell tripped it. Frowning, he got to his feet and went to uncover it, David hovering over him. "Oh, great maker," Rickkter swore, his lips drawing up in disgust. What he had uncovered was a dead body. A dead body whose chest he had put his foot through. From the look of things, it had been a defender who had died in the initial assault and lay there until he was brittle as ice. Most of the chest was intact still, including several organs visible through the ragged hole. "Did you know they could do that?!" "I had... heard of such things," David admitted with a shrug. "But never saw it myself." Rickkter hitched his cloak close around himself once more and began a quick trot, his head tilted against the wind, along the battlements. David could just make him out muttering. "The one thing I didn't miss about war was stepping in all the damned bodies." ***    End part 62 </HTML>