Sai allowed herself to be moved around, needing every brain cell she had to try and figure out how she was going to keep the TV crew occupied for 30 minutes. Her life certainly wasn’t interesting enough to fill that time slot, and even if it were she wasn’t about to tell it to the whole world. She could usually think up a lie at the drop of a hat, but she seemed to be experiencing a brain freeze that was making it hard for her to do so. All too soon she was sat facing a kamura, and a man stepped in front of her and began to count down.
“3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . and we are live with Sai Onara, one of the 7 members of the Offending Party who had kindly agreed to tell us her life story. Over to you Sai.”
Suddenly he moved aside, leaving Sai in direct line of sight of the kamura. Terrified she sat in silence for a moment and then, seeing the looks of impatience on the faces of those around her she took hold of the lie that while not the most convincing was definitely one she could spin out for a reasonable length of time, and began to tell her ‘life story’. She just hoped that no one who saw the programme had ever been able to stomach Shakespeare or the old fairy tales!
"Well, I suppose it all began when my parents ànne Urotîk and Carb Onara met. Their courtship and marriage were both rather clandestine affairs, as their parents were rival families and would never have condoned the relationship. My mother carried me in secret for 9 months, but the truth was discovered when I was born and a trap was set to prove it. My father was followed to where my mother lay recuperating, and he was told that she had died from the stress of childbirth. Distraught my father tried to throw himself upon his dagger, but he missed and fell through the door into my mother’s bedroom, finally cracking his head open on my crib. Hearing the noise my mother awoke and got up to see what the commotion was, but she was weak and disoriented and slipped in a nasty puddle cause by a dog that couldn't be housebroken , falling forwards and impaling herself on the very dagger my father had used to try and kill himself. And so it was that they both died, just hours after my birth. I’m not sure I’ve ever really stopped blaming myself!"
Here Sai took a moment to collect herself, knowing that she needed now to show ‘appropriate’ emotions. Her tears weren’t entirely fake, as she was having to bite her cheek hard to keep her laughter in check. Still, they weren’t bad enough that she needed the used hanky that was passed to her. Looking up again she made a show of setting her shoulders and carried on.
"I was an orphan, alone and helpless. My father's brother took me in, and for a while I was happy for he was a good and kind man. But soon after my 8th birthday he married a woman who was neither good nor kind, but cruel and wicked, as were the two daughters she brought with her – Uglià Sin and Mary. Between the three of them they made my life a misery."
And Sai began to regale them with tales of the 'bullying' she had received at the hands of these three women, wondering just how long she was going to have to keep talking because she was running out of ideas! Just as she thought she was going to have to start making up some ridiculous story about fairy godmothers and the like, she saw Mardil out of the corner of her eye and quickly wrapped up the interview.
"Anway, to cut a long story short, my uncle finally saw the error of his ways and divorced my evil stepmother and we all lived happily ever after."
Jumping up she quickly crossed over to Mardil and hopped into the rather flash new car. After a small detour back to the starting point for Mardil's cloak they were on their way. Mardil had wanted to stop for some food, an idea Sai was certainly not adverse to, but there seemed to be no service stations along the road. There were plenty of signs but every time they reached the mile limit specified there was nothing there. The sleet that had begun to fall was making it difficult to even see the signs anymore, so Mardil began to drive as close to the edge as possible so Sai could see better. She was just straining her eyes to see the next sign when she saw a moving shadow. As they got closer she could make out the figure a little better, and caught sight of a distinctive looking chignon.
"Mardil! Stop the car - it's Alli!"
"What? Where?" came his reply. (And there was a "Who?" from the back as well.)
"Over on the side of the road, pull over. If her car's broken down we can give her a lift."
For a moment it looked to Sai as though Mardil was going to keep on driving, and leave Alli where she was, but a quick glance at the orc in the backseat seemed to convince him to stop, and he pulled over next to the still shadowy figure.
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