Alex Conall, social justice bard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexconall) wrote2013-03-25 03:05 pm
alexconall) wrote2013-03-25 03:05 pm
Entry tags:
dragon hoard
"Minor glitch in the plan, folks," Shelena announced. "The spell didn't take."
Dalia and Magda glanced at each other. "What'd I do wrong?" Magda asked.
"I don't know that you did anything wrong," Shelena said. "It's possible that the dragon simply has too much protective magic on that gold."
"Good thing we found that out beforehand," Dalia said. "Now what?"
Magda pulled out one of zir magical instruments, a telescope-like contraption, and aimed it up the mountain at the dragon's cave. (Dalia still didn't like that the dragon had the high ground, but there wasn't anything she could do about the geography.) The telescope thing projected a spinning ball of threads in multiple colors, meaningless to Dalia; Magda poked the threads with a gold pencil-like instrument, and some of the colors shifted. "No, there's something else going on," ze said. "Nothing's interfering with my magic."
"The dragon saw me coming," Shelena insisted. "That isn't supposed to be possible with your spell active."
Dalia flinched. Bad enough they were going to lose the element of surprise halfway up the mountain anyway. Now they had none at all?
But then, in chess, there was never an element of surprise. Every move was always visible.
(War isn't like chess.)
"Okay, subtle isn't working," Dalia said. "What about blatant?"
Shelena and Magda eyed her.
"There's only three of us," Shelena said pointedly. "That is one sneaky old dragon up there."
"And those are going to be some awfully hungry people down there, if nobody comes up with a way to pay for importing food before the stored food runs out," Dalia reminded her. "Remember why we're up here to begin with?"
"I remember," said Shelena. She looked up the mountain. "So. Frontal assault?"
dragon hoard by Elizabeth Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Dalia and Magda glanced at each other. "What'd I do wrong?" Magda asked.
"I don't know that you did anything wrong," Shelena said. "It's possible that the dragon simply has too much protective magic on that gold."
"Good thing we found that out beforehand," Dalia said. "Now what?"
Magda pulled out one of zir magical instruments, a telescope-like contraption, and aimed it up the mountain at the dragon's cave. (Dalia still didn't like that the dragon had the high ground, but there wasn't anything she could do about the geography.) The telescope thing projected a spinning ball of threads in multiple colors, meaningless to Dalia; Magda poked the threads with a gold pencil-like instrument, and some of the colors shifted. "No, there's something else going on," ze said. "Nothing's interfering with my magic."
"The dragon saw me coming," Shelena insisted. "That isn't supposed to be possible with your spell active."
Dalia flinched. Bad enough they were going to lose the element of surprise halfway up the mountain anyway. Now they had none at all?
But then, in chess, there was never an element of surprise. Every move was always visible.
(War isn't like chess.)
"Okay, subtle isn't working," Dalia said. "What about blatant?"
Shelena and Magda eyed her.
"There's only three of us," Shelena said pointedly. "That is one sneaky old dragon up there."
"And those are going to be some awfully hungry people down there, if nobody comes up with a way to pay for importing food before the stored food runs out," Dalia reminded her. "Remember why we're up here to begin with?"
"I remember," said Shelena. She looked up the mountain. "So. Frontal assault?"
dragon hoard by Elizabeth Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.