Rhiannon the Scorchio stood at the window of the tallest tower of the castle
she was imprisoned in. She sang a beautiful and sad song of lost hope and broken
dreams. Her words were carried by the wind and birds from the nearby forest
flew to the window to listen. She was just reaching the chorus when there was
a loud bang on the wooden door of Rhiannon's small room. She stopped singing,
and the birds immediately scattered. From just outside the door someone yelled,
"Stop that infernal racket!" Heavy footsteps could then be heard stomping away
and down a flight of stairs.
Rhiannon sighed. This is how her life had been for the past three years, ever
since she had been kidnapped by the evil knight Sir Krawker. He had heard rumours
of Rhiannon, the fairest maiden in the land, and had decided to take her as
his own. She had of course resisted, but it turned out he was conspiring against
her with her parents. Rhiannon's parents wanted her to marry Sir Krawker, insisting
he would be good for her "attitude." She had flat-out refused, so the angry
Krawk dragged her out to his castle and locked her in the tallest tower. Not
without a fight, of course. Sir Krawker bore a scar across his right arm for
that. Rhiannon smiled when she thought of this.
Rhiannon's thoughts were shattered when she once again heard a bang on the
door. Sir Krawker's harsh voice yelled, "Breakfast!" and there was heard the
jangling of keys, a click, and the creek of the door opening. Sir Krawker dropped
a heavy metal tray on the floor of Rhiannon's room. She shook her head at him.
"Why don't you just hire a maid to bring me my meals?" Rhiannon inquired,
"You can certainly afford it."
Sir Krawker snorted. "Why should I? So you can convince her to unlock the
door and let you free? I think not, my sweet."
"Fine, fine, I know you'll never change! Just leave me in peace then!"
Sir Krawker looked as if he was going to say something else, but instead shrugged
it off and left, slamming the door and locking it behind him.
Rhiannon turned back to the window and was surprised to see a Beekadoodle
sitting there, having stayed even after her song. Rhiannon picked up the creature
and held it for a moment, whispered something about wishing she could just fly
away, and then released it. The Beekadoodle rapidly flapped its little wings
and was soon on its way, darting into the forest.
***
Sir Scorchious, the fire Scorchio, was roaming the Secret Forest on Princess,
his white Uni. He stopped to rest under the shade of a tree. He was lying down,
resting his eyes, when he heard something buzzing around his head. He looked
up and saw a Beekadoodle flitting about. It circled Princess' head three times,
then darted away. Princess neighed and chased after it. Scorchious yelled after
her, "Wait, come back!" but it was too late. Both Beekadoodle and Uni were out
of sight.
Scorchious sighed. He didn't particularly feel like a chase today. But since
he didn't have much of a choice, he ran in the direction Princess had gone.
***
Rhiannon was staring idly out her window when she heard an angry exclamation
from Sir Krawker. She looked down and saw him chasing a white Uni with his Fire
Sword. The terrified creature had apparently gotten too close to Sir Krawker's
castle. A scared little Beekadoodle was dashing away in the opposite direction.
The white Uni flew away over the flaming fire bushes surrounding Sir Krawker's
castle. Sir Krawker yelled one more warning after her before stomping back into
the castle, muttering to himself. Rhiannon sighed and once again began to sing,
having nothing better to do.
***
Scorchious finally found Princess, panting and looking as though she had run
for her life. He began leading her back towards the exit of the forest, when
he suddenly heard singing carried by the wind. Enchanted by the beautiful voice,
he headed deeper into the forest, to the displeasure of Princess.
It wasn't long before Scorchious came to a hedge of fire bushes. It was a
rather hot day, so they were in full blaze. Princess seemed to object to being
there, and tried in vain to run away. But Scorchious was compelled by the voice,
and determined to go forward.
Scorchious tried to find a way around the bushes, but discovered they grew
in a circle completely surrounding a huge, ghastly castle. The singing came
from somewhere in the castle, Scorchious was sure of it.
***
Rhiannon could've sworn she saw something move near the bushes. A flash of
white, and maybe black. She shrugged it off. Her eyes were probably just playing
tricks on her. She stopped singing, feeling bored of even that. She wandered
over to the door to her room, and for no apparent reason decided to try the
handle. To her astonishment, it was unlocked. Sir Krawker must have forgotten
to lock it the last time he came to complain about her singing. A little nervous,
she stepped out and began to creep down the staircase.
***
Scorchious was standing by the fire bushes for quite some time, pondering
what to do. Princess, who had finally recovered from her fear and stopped trying
to run away, turned to Scorchious and said, "Um, why don't you just walk through
the bushes? Scorchios like heat, and after all, you're pained fire. And you
don't even have to do that. You can fly over."
Scorchious just stood for a moment, then smacked himself. "Man, that wasn't
very smart... OK then, here it goes!" He spread his wings and easily glided
over the bushes. Princess followed, still a little reluctant. The two approached
the castle, the nervous little Beekadoodle following them from a distance without
them knowing.
***
Rhiannon crept down flight of stairs after flight of stairs. She never had
any idea the tower was so tall! At long last she reached the bottom, where there
was a door. Rhiannon slowly reached out, pulled the handle... and discovered
it was locked. With a great sigh of disappointment, she began to head back,
when she tripped over something. She reached down to pick up whatever it was,
and discovered it was a small bronze key. It fit perfectly in the keyhole of
the door. Rhiannon shook her head; Sir Krawker certainly wasn't the smartest
Krawk in Neopia.
Rhiannon opened the door to find herself in a relatively small room with three
passages leading away from it. The one to her right seemed to be some kind of
living room, and the one to her left was the kitchen. She couldn't see the room
just in front of her because the passage turned a corner.
Rhiannon crept slowly forward into the middle passage and peered around the
corner. She immediately shrank back. It was the parlour, and Sir Krawker was
there, asleep on his blue velvet chair in front of the fireplace.
Rhiannon tiptoed back into the main passage and went into the kitchen. She
looked around. There really wasn't much there. A table, a cupboard, a few chairs.
Awww, there in the corner. A window.
Rhiannon looked out the window. The view was much different on the ground
floor. She reached out to open the window, but discovered to her dismay that
there was no handle. Not being one to give up, she pick up one of the chairs
and hurled it at the window. CRASH! Glass went everywhere! So much
for a quiet exit, Rhiannon thought to herself. Not wanting to wait around
and see if Sir Krawker had waken, Rhiannon hopped out the window. She found
herself in the back. Just beyond the fire bushes was the forest; freedom. Rhiannon
spread her wings, something she hadn't done in three years, and flew to her
salvation.
***
Scorchious came to the door, a rusted grate closed in front of it. He was
just pondering how to open it when there was an awful scraping sound. The grate
was opening on it's own!
Well, not on it's own. Sir Krawker walked out, looking mad as ever. He hated
nothing more than trespassers.
"Get out of here!" Sir Krawker yelled. He readied his Fire Sword.
"No!" Scorchious yelled back, "I refuse to leave until you free the maiden
you hold captive here! I will--"
"Wait!"
"What?"
"I never said I was holding anyone captive."
"Well... I... uh... are you?"
"As a matter of fact I am. But why should it concern you?"
"Because! She is in distress, and I must save her! Prepare for battle!"
Scorchious drew his ice sword. Sir Krawker shook his head and got in battle
stance. SLASH! CLANG! The two duked it out, ice verses fire, Scorchio
verses Krawk, good verses evil-
(Krawk in the audience: "Hey! What are you implying?!" Narrator: "Uh... nothing!
Back to the story!")
It looked as though Sir Krawker would win! He held his sword above his head,
ready to strike - when Scorchious jumped up and ran past him, straight into
the castle!
"Hey!" Sir Krawker yelled after him, "Get back here!" And so he ran after
him.
Scorchious ran through the castle, up and down stairs, around corners, through
hallways, Sir Krawker always right behind him yelling and screaming. Finally
he came to the tower, the tallest tower in the castle. Scorchious didn't know
why, but he was sure that was her prison.
As he dashed up the stairs, he heard Sir Krawker just behind him yell, "What
do you think you're going to do when you find her?! It's a dead end you moron!"
Scorchious gulped nervously. He hadn't thought of that. Either way, it was
too late now. He had to at least see her... Ah-hah! Finally, he reached the
top! He opened the large wooden door, walked in, and yelled, "I have come to
save y-" Then stopped and looked around in bewilderment. There was nobody there!
Sir Krawker, still running up the stairs, was now saying, "Even though you
found her, I still l--huh? Blast! She must have escaped!"
Scorchious took advantage of Sir Krawker's rage and leapt out the window.
He glided down and landed softly. Princess was waiting for him at the bottom.
The two of them flew over the bushes into the woods to look for the maiden.
The entire time they could hear Sir Krawker's angry outbursts from the window.
"I'll get you for this, you hear?!" And so that was the last they heard of him.
For three hours Scorchious and Princess wandered, looking for some sign that
someone had passed through. It was getting late in the evening; the sun was
setting. Scorchious was just about to give up and head back to his castle when
he heard singing.
"It's her!" Scorchious cried out. He ran in the direction of the singing and
sure enough, there was Rhiannon sitting by the river. She stopped when she saw
Scorchious.
"Why, hello there!" she said, "I'm Rhiannon. And you are?"
It took Scorchious a moment to recover and find his tongue. When he did, he
said, "Um, I'm Scorchious! Prince of the Kingdom of... uh... I... forgot what
it was called! But, anyway, do you want to..."
"Yes?"
"Would you like to... ah... go out with me on Saturday?"
"Sure! I've got nothing else to do, having just freed myself from imprisonment
and all. Well, shall we be heading off?"
"Of course! Come, let's ride!"
And so Scorchious and Rhiannon road Princess off into the sunset, the little
Beekadoodle buzzing merrily behind them.
The End | 
