Fran's View ( a comparitive study in eptitude & ineptitude Scroll One)

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway thought to herself that she had had a strange life up to the point she met the two police officers, Bob & Laura it felt odd for her to be on first names terms with the police even after all she had been through & that she had lived in Heaven for forty odd years. Unbelievably it had got stranger yet since especially now they had seemingly done the impossible & travelled back in time to the dawn ages of creation. This of course was impossible but as the man said when you have eliminated every thing else what remains no mater how bizarre must be the case & it certainly felt right.

The travel through the desert had been horrible thought she had suffered less from it than the others  & she was more than grateful that they had been rescued & it was nice to be rescued by a friend even if he did not know her it was sort of comforting. That Evocative thought wanted something did not surprise her she was used to the ways of gods and he had been her neighbour for years & given splendid parties so she knew him well. That it nearly ended very badly was a shock, that the problem was an exiled & demoted storm mother was a bigger shock it was just fortunate that the stupid creature had not been bothered to actually wear the splendid jade 3/4 plate she manifested in & had go for intimidating the puny mortals except they weren't & it failed, which wouldn't have mattered to a Storm Mother at full power but she wasn't & it did and so she was dead but it was too close run for Fran's liking.

Laura had been saved only by the blessings of Morning  the small god of dew in the Glistering desert & the enhanced resilience of the chosen of the Dragons what had saved Bob she was not so sure off but he was no mere mortal Fran guessed or had been much less hurt when the impact of the dart flung him into the cliffs around the water hole.

Still onwards and upwards as they say.....

to be continued.....

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway was out of her depth & becoming more painfully aware of the fact the more time they spent in the Dawn age, She had thought she knew the true history of creation when it was not important & now she was living in that history things seemed to be a whole lot more messy. She had known that there generally that their where severe troubles in creation in the Dawn age & these had been ended by the  intervention & the appointment of Dancer as Viceroy, she knew that the start of these troubles had been the gods usurping the makes of creation, She knew that her kind & the other mortal chosen of the gods had played a part in this in general terms but how it related to the specific local situation they where in God, the omniscient one she had never met & perhaps Dancer only knew, & neither where available for comment it would seem

to be continued.....



 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway had seen battle & she didn't know how Dancer could do it the woman was as hard as adamant, it wasn't like fighting supernatural creatures she was one she could handle that it was killing people ordinary people & so easily that got to her & for what to survive in a stupid fight that need never have happened caused by the foul alchemy of greed foolishness and ambition. She could see the same in Laura's and Bobs eyes but they seemed to be taking it better than she. She who would have gone mad she did not doubt had not Miyoxi Tiholu & Laura been so kind to her afterwards. She liked him he was nice wise & kind, he could it seemed also hack it without falling in love with it as others especially Mennemon Jaxut had.


Mennemon Jaxut now the was a man for all his charm his smiles and his good looks She could come to hate quite easily she feared & he was a supernatural creature & she had no trouble with fighting and even killing those.......


To be continued........


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway Was not sure that she liked the dawn age, true having the power to use ones abilities to the full and the feel of the essence flowing trough you and around you was invigorating was good about it, as was the fact that she seemed to have found another outsider in Miyoxi Tiholu & company was always a pleasure & one she had not often experienced,  but the down sides seemed to her to far to outweigh them. The heat of the south the dust lets not forget that, the thirst  & the lack of good beer, the barbarous  social practices, slavery mass animal sacrifice & war and the prospect of war & petty violence ever present something that she was reminded of by the weight of the sword she now wore at the left hip & that even nice seeming people like Tiholu and Kayoba seemed to accept all of this as normal.  Then there was the whole nonsense with Nellens Rache the woman was obsessed Tiholu  was nice approachable and very good company but he was also married & young enough to be her her own sons age if she had had one & where she came from which seemed to be a very long way and time away one didn't well go there she thought was the current phrase. All in all she wanted her old life back her palace in heaven even if it was a rather modest one with its cool breezes and pleasant airs good tea & better beer after all the god across the road was ZUN who had been the northern god of fermented grain products long ago & Negrit who had made her boots a road goddess with the biggest collection of fast cars you ever did see.

Francis Stannway gritted her teeth to suppress the tears which where welling up at her thoughts of home, and grimly marched along with the others into the unknown future.

To be continued......



 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway decided she hated the dawn age & needed to get very drunk & to stay very drunk, true there where good things about it but so many negatives  too many to count & worse Laura & bob had gone native and actually agreed to start a damned war. how had the forgotten the battle in the desert when the anathema attacked had they forgotten the blood the horror & the pointless death & suffering so soon that they would go along with it. She could forgive the others they where barbarians form this evil age but Bob & Laura, what would happen when she finally got them home. The battle in the desert was a small one, little more than a skirmish for all it was horrible. The one the planed gloating over a cup of wine, would pit thousands against thousands and be so much worse & go on for so much longer. Fran broke the seal on the small amphora of Chiaroscuro brandy & drank it messily. some time later well into the second amphora Laura came in and tried to talk to her but by that time the brandy was Francis Stannway only friend

In the morning Francis Stannway was horrified to find Laura had acquired a slave, though she later discuvered on the dreadful march back to Ifonaris & the day of blood & horror that the girl saw herself as Laura's servant having been rescued from a beating in the bath houses.

Perhaps Francis Stannway thought there was some hope for Laura.....


To be continued.....


  Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway woke early on the morning of the battle and for the first time in weeks decided not to have a drink but went to the soldiers kitchens to eat then she returned to he tent and systematically and thoroughly checked all her gear after all even if she didn't want any part of this bloody stupid battle it did not mean it would not force her hand. Besides who would protect the camp followers if  not her as she remembered the unarmed slaves butchered on the sand after the battle with the Anathema all to well. They did not ask to be involved even as much as she had & she was  chosen of the dragons so more likely to survive attempts at such violence than them.

After that Francis Stannway went towards the command tents as she needed to make her peace with her friends even if she though them terribly wrong.....


To be continued


 ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway,stood with the camp followers & waited trying not to listen to the sounds of battle though some of them like the bloody great explosion where impossible to ignore. She thought it must be Bobs plan going off though she tried not to think of Bob torn asunder by the huge explosion and was revealed when a bloody & slightly wounded Alixdar Etreniankor arrived with his handful of men from the gate raid and told her that it had not. The thing that shocked her most where not the wounded coming back to the crude field hospital but the children, mostly from Alixdar Etreniankor's company,  all of whom including Pig had volunteered  to be water carriers and a who where treating the battle as a great game. Pig Fran had made it absolutely clear was not going up to the battle line even if Fran had to tie her to a spear driven into the ground to half its length to stop her. Pig sulked a bit until Fran let her take water to the wounded because Laura would like that.

Then as the water carriers where reporting the retreat of the war aurochs and the wavering of the rebel battle line on of Susain or Alruiz horsemen who had been acting as pickets to the rear and flanks came galloping in on a frothed mount screaming that King Akled's Impis where on the march and would be hitting the Realm rear and right flank with in minutes. Alixdar Etreniankor started shouting orders and Francis Stannway realised that she could not stand out of this battle after all


To be continued.....


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway was alive and she was shocked. Yes  even days latter it hurt to breathe and the army surgeon was still pulling fragments of jade alloy ring out of the wound that seemed to have obliterated the whole of the left side of her chest and she felt as if she had been hit by a truck not a spear but she was alive even if she had not tried walking yet or doing more than allowing Miyoxi Tiholu to lift her out of bed into a chair when the Surgeon had fed her enough pain killing potion. She was alive and would recover she was she was truly grateful much tougher than she looked. Even if she would have to get some new and better armour if she was going to have to walk through hostile armies again.

Not that she was planing to do anything like that but she couldn't have watched as Akled's men slaughtered all the camp followers slowed only by the handful of guards and she had promised Laura to protect Pig



 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Francis Stannway had almost forgiven Tiholu for not telling her about the twins, though how could a man father children and never mention them and then act all surprised when you where properly shocked because he hadn't. I seemed just when one thought you knew people they did things like that. Indeed the only one who had not had been Dancer who was Fran remembered utterly and ruthlessly honest from the first day they had met at her friends basement flat in London when the world was just going mad rather than being totally insane as it had been mostly since.

Fran thought about Dancer who had been born in this age and had seen the world indeed the universe change and change again and yet had held to the course steadfastly and unwearingly despite setbacks and the meddling of others such as Mr Smith. Fran wondered quite what it took do that to be what she was and wondered if any one else would have done it if there had been no Dancer to guide Creation into the Universe.



 Ginger