Trial and Tribulation Copyright 1997 by Renee a.k.a. Alethea All "NiGHTS" characters and related indica mentioned herein are copyright and TM by one or more of the following: Sega Enterprises, and/or Sega of America. Used without permission Etienne or "Eti" and related characters and indica, copyright Jeanette Merrell. Used without permission Dunamis, Alethea, Frost, Aldwyn, Nettle, Tarragon, Salpinx, Rhian and related characters and indica, copyright Renee (KoustodiaofMer@juno.com). (Boy, my list of characters just keeps getting longer.) ^~.0^ Kudos and thanks to God yet again. This document may be freely distributed as long as it is not modified in any way. Trial and Tribulation (Part 1) Nettle glided down one of the long dark central hallways in the castle of Nightmare. No one was nearby, and that was not surprising considering that this particular hallway led to a small circular area where a number of other hallways also ended, right in front of wizeman's throne room. Almost all beings kept far away from this area, and these halls were almost always abandoned, except for the beings that wizeman called to his throne room and a few brave individuals. This was a very good short cut through the castle however, and Nettle was not afraid to use it. She was a physician, and in Nightmare, that was not a job that got one a lot of official attention. She had only been called into wizeman's presence once. Nettle glanced at a few Minions racing down the hallway as fast as they could move. *** Reala flinched as wizeman roared in anger. The other officials cowered and backed up. wizeman hit Reala, and Reala was slammed into the marble wall, and fell to the floor, landing sideways on his ankle. Reala screamed. wizeman knocked him into the doors of the throne room with such force that the gigantic brass doors opened. *** A few moments later a loud not too distant scream startled Nettle. She started and flew a little faster in the direction of the scream, and stopped as she reached the small central rotunda. Nettle leaned against the = wall of the hallway and looked toward the two massive doors that led in wizeman's throne room. wizeman was the largest being in Nightmare, and he towered over everyone else in a way that was more than a little intimidating. A normal 'maren was not close to a sixth of wizeman's size. Then, the fact that he looked so absolutely terrifying did not make things any better, not to mention that he was cruel and merciless. Something was slammed into the doors from the inside and the doors were knocked open. Reala was trying to pick himself up from the doorway and several high officials left the room in a hurry. Nettle flew over to one of them. " What happened?" Gillwing looked at her. " wizeman was angry with Reala because......" the 'maren saur looked back and spoke in a whisper " wizeman's plan failed, and he would never admit that it was his plan that was the problem and not Reala, so he knocked Reala around." Nettle looked back and saw Reala, who was heading for one of the hallways that no one else was going down, slip as he tried to put weight on one of his ankles. She frowned and looked back at Gillwing. " I think his ankle has been hurt again." Nettle nodded. " Thank you." She turned and flew toward Reala who had just picked himself ever so carefully up. The other officials left and Reala glance upward as Nettle flew over to him. The side of his face that had been slammed into the door was starting to show that it had been bruised. " Are you alright, Reala?" " Yes." A streak of stubbornness and pride in his voice was obvious. " Don't lie to me. How badly are you hurt?" " Only my ankle is injured, I think." " You had better let me look at it. You might need it put in a brace." Nettle inspected his ankle, and Reala sighed impatiently. " It's not broken again, but it is sprained. You need to stay off of it for a few days. I wish he hadn't injured it again so soon after the cast was removed." Reala glided upward and toward the hall. Nettle thought quickly for a way to convince him to let her put it in a brace before he injured himself more. Having a high threshold for pain had its advantages, but it also meant that he tended to ignore injuries that could be serious or make a mild one worse. " I don't have time to rest. I have to be at the battle in Stick Canyon tomorrow; Gulpo's strategy is falling apart." " You had better let me put it in a brace or you'll be slipping a lot more." Reala stopped and turned around to look at her. " How long will that take?" " Not long." She stood up and glided over to the hallway closest to her infirmary. " I really don't think you'll be able to stand on it if I don't" For a minute, it looked like Reala was simply going to leave. Then he sighed in disgust. " Alright, the last thing I need is to be falling in the middle of the battle tomorrow." Reala followed after her and the two of them headed for the infirmary. Nettle smiled to herself. She had learned long ago how to deal with stubborn patients. Tarragon glanced over his shoulder as Nettle and Reala entered the= infirmary. He blinked in alarm. " What happened?" " I just need to put a bandage on Reala's ankle." " What did he do to it?" Neither Nettle nor Reala answered, and the 'maren cat turned his attention to the small Hollow sitting in front of him " You can go now." The Hollow thanked him and flew out of the room. Tarragon turned in puzzlement and watched the two. Reala was not some one to walk into the infirmary for a slight injury. " So why aren't you already at the battle?" Reala frowned at Nettle's question. " Because I was at the other battle. Gulpo was supposed to be leading this one." Reala tried to stand up as Nettle backed up and looked at the bandage. " Be careful. If you put very much weight on it you'll probably fall." " I can't fight like this." Reala mumbled. " I told you that you needed to rest." Reala gritted his teeth. " I'm not going to be able to go tomorrow." " It's not your fault." Reala didn't say anything for several minutes then stood up. " Thank you." Reala turned and left, and Tarragon grinned. " Is he always in such a good humor?" " I wouldn't say anything if I were you." " I'm not that bad, am I?" Nettle smirked. " Let's just get everything ready for tomorrow. I dislike having to go......clean up on a dusty field. It's so much better to have a clean infirmary to work in." Nettle frowned pessimistically. She also disliked having to go out on the field, mountain, or anywhere else after the battle to patch up the troops. She was not always the one to be picked, but unfortunately this time she was selected, and where she went Tarragon had to go also. She had been instructing him for at least seven months as a physician, and even though she would liked it to have been a little longer before she brought him to the field, she always needed help. Soldiers were fair help, but an assistant who already knew what she knew was much better. She often found, humorously enough, that soldiers got very squeamish when you asked them to help you during surgery. " Not every place that a physician has to go to is going to be clean, Tarragon." *** Colonel Salpinx found himself crawling on his hands and knees through a rain gutter on one of the lower roofs of the Castle of Nightmare, and wondering why he had decided to volunteer to go on this mission. Alethea was too busy in the infirmary to go, and if the battle kept raging as it had for several days, she was going to be needed back at the field. He paused in the elbow deep water and glanced irritably at his boots, which were filled with water. " I hate wet boots." he mumbled dully. Aldwyn who was behind him paused and looked around. They were inside a carved rain gutter that was one of the entrances to the castle that only a spy, or a very desperate being would find. Though the castle was in a very desert like region, it did rain occasionally, and when it did rain, it was usually a flood. The fact that it was winter and the rain was very cold with a tendency to freeze only made it more unpleasant. " It could be worse; it might have still been raining when we got here Besides, you could have mud in your boots like I do instead of water. " Aldwyn grinned. Salpinx started crawling again. He was a very serious being, who took his work seriously and was usually very matter of fact about it. This was, in his mind, an important mission as well as a very dangerous one. Aldwyn on the other hand did this sort of thing all the time. He had an almost reckless sort of quiet humor that came out during these situations, which could be very irritating, and seemed to view the whole situation as some sort of game. Salpinx looked at down at the water. " How come the water just stays in the gutters? Isn't it supposed to drain out?" " It's not built very well. What do you expect when the builders were building in a desert?" Salpinx glanced up as he saw what looked like a very obvious hole in the side of the gutter. " When it rains, how could they not notice this hole?" Aldwyn grinned playfully. " How much time did you spend staring up toward the ceiling?" Aldwyn squeezed through into an old abandoned room. " Hey, at least there's no mud in here." Salpinx climb through after him. Aldwyn flew to the door and cracked it open. " No ones in here." The two of them flew through the castle. *** "WHAT!" wizeman's voice boomed with enough force to knock over the terrified Kircle in front of him. All six eyes glared down at the Kircle. " He's injured, sir." It whispered in pure terror. wizeman fumed and shouted at the Kircle, who looked like he was about to faint. " SEND FOR CLAWZ IMMEDIATLY!" *** Nettle waited impatiently outside of the castle for Tarragon to show up. The high officials were almost ready to leave, and the troops from the nearby bases were standing and glancing at the castle. She gazed up at the sky. The clouds were covering the ground with as much intensity as usual. They were usually thicker during the day than they were at night. " Nettle." She whirled around at the sound of her name. Tarragon came up behind her. " I was hoping you would get here before we had to leave. Are you sure you have everything that you need to bring?" Tarragon nodded then yawned " Why do they have to leave so early in the morning? The troops will be stumbling all over the field." Nettle smiled. It was almost afternoon. 'Maren cats were renowned for their love of napping. Once the officials came out it didn't take long to start moving. She felt the cold breezes of winter. It was probably snowing in Nightopia. The long barren land stretched out for miles. It was almost all rock and sand with a few plants scattered around. There was not enough sun light for very many plants to grow. Dark pools of water dotted the landscape. In other parts of Nightmare there were swamps, long tracks of frozen land, and other harsh environments, but the desert like lands were surrounded by various quarries of black marble that had been used to build the Castle of Nightmare. She wondered how long this particular battle was going to be. *** Aldwyn slid around a corner and let out his breath. Several high officials had just flown by and Aldwyn was in no hurry to run into any more. Salpnix had moved down the hall and was listening to a conversation going on in one of the nearby rooms. Aldwyn flew up to him. The voices were quiet, but given the subject of conversation, not as quiet as they should have been. " Yes, well, what do you expect?" " He must have a worse temper than I thought." " Anyway, Clawz is going instead, and Gulpo wont like that. I'm glad I didn't have to go." " Who would want to go? Tramping across, or even flying over a desert is miserable." Aldwyn glanced at Salpinx who was grinning. Salpinx strolled far enough away from the beings, that he could talk to Aldwyn without whispering. " It looks like Reala isn't going to the battle after all." Aldwyn frowned. " Why not?" " Apparently he's hurt. The conversation got very quiet, and I couldn't really tell what they were saying." " Well let's get out of here before someone sees us." The two 'maren flew into the room from which they had come. There were only a few guards visible and Aldwyn flew out of the gutter and headed for a boulder. Salpinx waited until Aldwyn was hidden before he to headed for the same boulder. The guards were talking and didn't seem to notice either of the 'maren. Suddenly, a Party who was about to join the guards flew in the direction of the boulder. The two rebels held their breath. The Party flew right over their heads, and saw Aldwyn and Salpinx. " Hey, what are you doing!" They dashed off at top speed staying low to the ground. The Party called to the others, who took off toward them at top speed. Salpinx glanced back at the guards. " Seven, not too bad." Four more flew from the other sides of the castle to join in the chase. Aldwyn looked back. " We had better split up." " Alright." Aldwyn headed for the right, and Salpinx went left. *** Aldwyn flew over several jagged rocks and down the side of a quarry. He glanced back at the five four guards who were following him. Salpinx was going to have trouble if he had to fight off the others alone. Aldwyn jerked back and made a small paraloop. *** Salpinx glanced at the guards again. He had unfortunately taken a path that seemed to have very few obstacles, and that made things difficult. Salpinx sped up and dived toward the ground; then flew straight up to the clouds, hoping that no other guards would see him. The guards followed behind him. Salpinx headed for Spring Valley where there was more cover. He dived through a cloud and stopped, hoping that he could remain hidden long enough that some of the guards would leave. Something bright hit Salpinx with an intense shock of pain. He let out a scream of agony, and felt the tingling pain characteristic of electricity. He flew out of the cloud at top speed and nearly ran into a 'maren fish. The creature hit him with its fin, which being nearly as big as Salpinx, sent him sailing through the sky. Salpinx caught his breath and winced as he felt a sharp pain in his side. " Everything is going wrong today. I should have stayed in bed." He mumbled. Salpinx usually never had this kind of trouble. He flew into a different cloud, and caught a glimpse of the 'maren fish grinning like a shark. That was not difficult since 'maren fish tended to have huge, sharp teeth like a shark. *** Aldwyn heard one of the guards let out a cry, and skid to the ground. He grinned and glanced up. He could see trees in the distance. " Well, I've done this before." He thought grinning. He turned, slowed down and kicked a 'maren behind him. Then flew in a flat circle. The other 'maren flew high enough up to avoid the paraloop. *** Salpinx hit the ground and gasped. The pain in his side, which had been hurting since the 'maren fish hit him, doubled in intensity. Salpinx tried to get to his feet and felt something sharp between his shoulder blades. A cold voice spoke from behind him. " Don't move." *** Nettle glanced at the field. The troops had quit fighting for awhile, and she had work to do. Nettle hoped that she had enough supplies while she was here. Tarragon was already busy working on one side of camp. She glanced across the camp. " They need to call more than a few physicians here." She sighed and started on the soldiers who were more seriously injured than the others. " It's going to be a long day." *** Aldwyn flew toward Stick Canyon. The soldiers followed behind him tenaciously. As he got close to where the encampment for the Nightopian army was the lookouts began to close a circle around the Nightmaren troops as well as Aldwyn. Aldwyn saw this out of the corner of his eye and grinned. It had been very difficult to get into the castle, but they had managed to get into it, they had found out who wizeman was going to send. Now Aldwyn had to get back before the fighting started again. Trees faded, slowly replaced by rock and mesas. The Nightopian lookouts flew out in front of the Nightmaren troops. Aldwyn stopped flying and hovered in the air. The Nightmaren guards stopped and backed up in alarm. Aldwyn smiled pleasantly, and flew up to the Nightopian troops. They glanced at him and let him pass beyond them. The Nightmaren troops paused uncertainly, not knowing whether to attack or retreat. They watched Aldwyn leave, infuriated at him.