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, Talitha, and related characters and indica, copyright Renee. This document may be freely distributed as long as it is not modified in any way. Trial and Tribulation (Part 13) Alethea paced nervously. It was habit that she had for almost as long as she could remember. The door opened and a Talitha stepped inside carrying Aldwyn. Alethea started. " What happened to him!" Talitha shrugged. " We found him, apparently washed up on the river bank." " Wait, what about the 'maren Frost was talking about?" " One of the soldiers is bringing her." Alethea motioned to the adjoining room, and Talitha walked inside. She laid Aldwyn on a bed. " It doesn't look like he has any broken bones, maybe just a concussion. He should be fine in a few days." The door opened again and the soldier came inside carrying a limp 'maren. " I'll be with her in a minute. I don't think this will take long." *** Gulpo watched Jackle with interest. He was slightly pale and had not said anything since Gulpo had run into the others. Clawz was tired, Puffy was angry, and Gulpo was discouraged. They had not found Nights, and it was fairly obvious that they were not going to find him. " This is ludicrous! We aren't going to find him now, Thanks to the rest of you!" Puffy huffed at Gulpo. " Let's go back. I'm tired, cold, and wet." " Sure Puffy, then we can all get blasted when we tell wizeman we don't have Nights." She glared at Clawz " You're the one who he's going to blast, Clawz. You were supposed to be leading." " It wasn't my fault Jackle took off after some obscure rebel." The others glanced at Jackle out of the corner of their eyes. He did not respond to them. That was unusual. " Well, I'm not going to keep this up any more. We aren't making any progress." Gulpo turned and Puffy followed him. The troops that worked under them followed lethargically. Clawz sighed and joined them. They stopped and looked at Jackle. He looked around wretchedly and turned to follow the others. *** Aldwyn opened his eyes. His head ached. Alethea, Talitha, Frost, and a few others were sitting around a table talking, and he glanced at them, then sat up. " Ooh, my head." The others looked at him. Aldwyn tried standing up, and the room started spinning. He leaned against the wall. " How long have I been out?" Talitha glanced out the window. " I have no idea. Frost found you about an hour ago." Aldwyn glanced at the Snip, who hid shyly behind Talitha's leg. Frost hated being the center of attention. " What happened?" " I ran into a huge group of Nightmaren troops, a bunch the high ranking ones." Alethea gave him a pitying look. " You must have come right by us. They were tracking us." " Did you find Salpinx or Nights?" The others grinned. " Turn around." Aldwyn did so and jumped. Nights was fast asleep in the bed next to his. " Is he going to be alright?" " He should be, though it's going to take awhile. We had to drag him all over the place, poor thing. I wish we hadn't had to do that." Aldwyn's eyes widened, and he suddenly remembered Rhian. " Did you find the other 'maren that was with me?" " Yes, but she's in pitiful condition. What happened to her anyway?" " I'm not sure, but I found her in the prison just like that. They don't bother taking care of there own prisoners, so I didn't want to leave her there." " It looks like someone beat the stuffing out of her. She's a bruised wreck. A number of her ribs are broken, her leg is broken, she has dangerously high fever, and to top it all off, she's hypothermic." " It wouldn't surprise me. You should have seen her after she came around; I don't think I've ever seen someone so scared, or at least so pitiable. It took about twenty minutes for her to calm down. What about Salpinx?" Alethea glanced at the ground, and told Aldwyn what happened. *** Clawz walked into the dark room with the others skulking in behind him. wizeman open all six eyes and looked down at them. Clawz shuddered. " Where is Nights?" The restrained fury was so obvious that all of them shrank closer to the door. Clawz started giving the excuse for their inability to bring Nights back. wizeman scowled at them. Jackle of course was getting the blame. Jackle started grinning. " Not now! Please don't start!" Jackle thought fiercely. He had the incredibly bad habit of laughing under stress, which in this situation was almost the worse possible reaction. Jackle started tittering. Puffy glanced at him. He held his breath and started turning red. Gulpo glanced at him. Jackle started giggling again. The others glanced at him out of the corner of their eyes. Jackle bit his lip, and wizeman glowered at him. " JACKLE!" Jackle snickered helplessly. " Help me!" He thought and burst into laughter. wizeman immediately knocked him into the floor. Jackle tried fiercely to stop chuckling, which with a little encouragement from wizeman, was not as hard as it might have been. " Why did you disobey my orders!" *** Reala was sitting on a table, impatiently watching Nettle take the bandage off of his ankle. She stood up still looking at it. " Try to stand on it CAREFULLY." Reala stood up slowly. " Walk around." Reala did so painstakingly. " I think you're alright. You should be able to stand without any trouble by tomorrow." " FINALLY!" " Really Reala, I don't understand why you hate being still. There are times that you need to rest." " Yes, well,..thank you." Reala took off at top speed out of the infirmary. Tarragon, shaking his head, watched Reala leave. " What is his problem? He can't handle taking help from anyone, and as far as thanks go, he nearly chokes on them. Sometimes I think he would rather go on suffering than accept help from anybody." " Reala is fiercely proud. You know that." Tarragon glanced at the 'maren sleeping across the room. " I have a hard time believing when he has to go back, that you're not going to argue." Nettle sighed. " We don't have a choice. When he gets a little better we have to send him back to the prison. I twisted Gillwing's metaphorical arm to get him this far." " What is this we stuff? I'm talking about you, and your gushing, zealous, conscience." Nettle glared at Tarragon who frowned back at her. " Don't give me that annoyed look. You know I'm right." Salpinx moaned and the two of them looked at him. *** " Do we have any idea what we're going to do?" Alethea nodded. " We have to get Salpinx out of the castle before they kill him." Dunamis groaned and leaned back. " Oh, great, my back didn't even wait for tomorrow." Frost perched on Talitha's shoulder. Talitha swatted at him. " Watch it with those talons." " Sorry." Alethea tapped her fingers on the table. " We need to leave now." Aldwyn, who had been staring out the window, suddenly stomped his foot on the floor. " Wonderful! I think this storm is turning into a blizzard! Now we have to fight the weather also." The others stared at the heavily falling snow. " Aldwyn, I would rather you stay here. You still aren't back to normal yet." " Neither are you or Dunamis." Talitha interrupted them. " Well one of the physicians needs to stay here, so I guess since you want to go I'll stay, Alethea." " Fine." Talitha sighed and Aldwyn turned from the window. " Alright, do we have everyone who's going?" " I think." " Then let's go before this storm turns into a blizzard."