The Story So Far ...
Somewhere in a drafty castle in southern Trimaris, a duchess sits enjoying well deserved peace and quiet as she ponders weighty duchess-like matters. She is interrupted.
“Your Grace!”
Elena’s head jerks up, and her eyes snap open.
“Wonderful news your Grace! The King has announced his winter progress and he plans to stop here.”
“Oh ….” Elena blinks as her brain clears. “The King … here.” She thinks back on the last royal visit, the expensive redecorating to accommodate royal tastes, the usurpation of her stables, her grounds, her hall … her best most regal chair ….and the hordes of hungry courtiers eating her out of house and home. “Damn.”
The messenger stares.
“Great, great news,” she loudly corrects herself. “How wonderful. Do tell, to what auspicious occasion do I owe this royal visit?”
“A hunt. The King has announced he wishes to hunt here in the fertile woodlands of the south.”
“Ah,” the duchess muses, “La chasse royale.” She turns back to the messenger. “I have fertile woodlands?”
“Well, since you liberated that tract of land from evil Duke Mittion last spring … yes, Your Grace.”
“Oh yes … yes,” the duchess chortles in remembered delight. “Those are rather fertile, aren’t they?” She smiles thinking of the fine fat deer running straight from the woods to her table… and then frowns as she envisions them being carted far way by those hungry royal courtiers. “Hmmmmm. Yes, a hunt …” Quickly she runs through her options to keep the King and her deer separate. “But it is not really worth all the trouble of coming here just for a hunt. And Queen will no doubt be in attendance as well ….” Elena strokes her chin as she thinks. “I have it!”
The messenger jumps, startled.
“An Arts and Sciences festival … a quest … a … a passage of arms … a ball … that should keep everyone busy enough.”
“Well, yes, Your Grace.”
“Summon my cook … we shall prepare a great feast using all the bounty of my forest.”
“All the bounty of your forest, your Grace? But what will the King hunt?”
Elena shrugs. “I am sure that he will find something.”
"Come save My OUR Deer!"
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