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Old 05-21-2006, 05:41 PM   #839
littlemanpoet
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littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.littlemanpoet is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Day Five Ends

Most of those left in the village were gathered in the graveyard, burying the corpse of Nearly Headless Nilpaurion. They did a lot of talking, most of it past each other.

"Oh dreadful day," said Spawn. "My husband is dead! How shall I manage with my children all by myself!"

Lalaith shook her head, other issues on her mind. "Another night without a seer-dream. Oh great. Gurthang, what ideas have you got?"

"Sorry for no dream, it may have been my fault," said Gurthang. "I am currently consulting my gifteds about toDay's list the Evil Wizard needs to be found, and soon. But do not give up hope!"

"I've started to seriously suspect Diamond," said Roa.

"I simply can't believe Eomer's still alive," Feanor commented absently. "Surely he must be evil."

"What is it with the carnage that's been visited on my family?" Diamond wondered.

Lalaith glanced at Roa through narrowed eyes. "I'm still worried about you, Roa. Your track record is the best of any of us, you've either attacked, or been attacked by, wolves in the most ostentatious fashion, so that no-one could possibly suspect you.... you see what I mean?"

"I see exactly what you mean," Roa replied evenly, "and it makes me wonder if it's supposed to be that way."

Caranlondien said, "Valier's attack on Roa seems to me like the sort of thing a Roa who was an Evil wizard would tell Valier to do. So Roa is by no means cleared in my mind."

"If you want to know who worries me a bit," Diamond offered, "it's Lalaith because I'd want her if I was the Evil Wizard. Do you think Valier was an original or turned?"

"Valier nearly did get me lynched yesterday, something that I would never want to risk if I were the Evil Wizard," Roa pointed out.

"Mind you, Diamond, I'd have thought the evil wizard would want you, too, even more," Lalaith commented.

Mormegil spoke up, unwilling to let the women do all the talking. "We have two chances each night of finding the evil wizard and we are only using one consistently. This is not good. Why is that seer not dreaming?"

"I don't trust Zali," - Gurthang interjected.

"Kath," continued Mormegil, "is guilty and should die. Feanor is so mauderous that I have difficulty assessing her."

"My list of doom is Alcarillo, Azaelia, Feanor, and Kitanna," Gurthang announced.

"Morm, what does mauderous mean?" asked Feanor.

"It means you're vague, incoherent, and aimless," Mormegil replied.

Little Oddwen spoke up, sounding not at all insane, which made some of the villagers wonder if it was all an act. "I'm most inclined to think that Zali is innocent. Do you really like that word, Morm, or is it a broad hint?"

"I don't quite follow how this could be a hint," Mormegil answered, "but I actually enjoy the word and I believe it is fitting of Fea."

Eonwe walked up from no-one knew where. "Sorry to be gone so much."

Ignoring him, Roa said, "I think Feanor's the most suspicious from Gurthang's list."

"I think Zali's a werewolf," Mormegil said.

"I'm an artful dodger and Mormegil's right, I'm a mauderer. Deal with it," said Feanor.

"Hey, maybe all four on Gurthang's list of doom are werewolves!" Caranlondien cried. The others looked at her with thinly veiled ridicule ready to be unleashed from their tongues. "Okay. Probably not."

"I agree with morm about Zali," said Gurthang. "I will likely vote for her toDay."

"I need to sleep on it," said Kitanna, and promptly lay down on the grass. Then she got up. "Okay, I couldn't sleep. After much analyzzz... never mind, I'm going to bed." She lay down again.

"Lalaith has been very busy but has largely escaped notice," Diamond observed.

"The list of doom in inadequate," Lalaith pronounced.

"I'm still wary of Caranlondien, too," said Spawn. "She seems unnaturally careful with her statements." Some of the villagers looked at Spawn as if she was cracked, after the silly thing Caranlondien had just uttered.

"Fea Fea Bo-Bea Bonana-Fana-Fo-Fea!" Diamond suddenly blurted. The others looked at her as if she was cracking, and really they couldn't blame her since she had lost so many family members. But they waited out of sheer curiosity for what banalities regarding Feanor might be forthcoming. Diamond was ready to supply. "I think she's innocent. Is there any specific reason why the list has to be limited to only four people? Are we, or are we not, looking for the Evil Wizard?"

"Truthfully, no," Gurthang answered. "Keep the werewolf numbers down. If we find the evil wizard while we're at it, that's good luck"

"A few days ago Feanor said that she wants to hunt out the Good Wizard because he's meant do die anyway - before he's had a chance to give us any gifteds. What's that all about?"

"I was joking!" Feanor cried.

"Oh."

"I think I could scream!" cried Lommy, unable to hold back any longer as the adults had hogged all the conversation until now (excepting Oddwen, of course). "Scream! Yes, that is the word. I'm sorry, honourable Gurthang, but I think your list is h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. I think we should get the evil wizard, and soon. Our chances to get a wolf every day to stop them from increasing are minimal. We really should focus on the evil wizard."

"Zali and Kitanna are innocent," Oddwen announced. "Alcarillo, I think, is acting weird for Alcarillo. Feanor is acting pretty normal for Feanor."

"THE USUAL SIGNS AREN'T THERE!!!!" screamed Jenny suddenly. "And I don't trust Kitanna."

Lalaith waited for the effects of this outburst to dissipate, then said carefully into the tense silence, "The lorebooks say that when someone like Alcarillo is innocent, he's lynched or eaten early. When he's not, he survives until late or almost till the end. Make of that what you wish."

As if she had not heard, Diamond suddenly blurted, "I think Roa's being mean. She keeps suspecting me."

"Diamond," Roa answered, "if you don't like being suspected, don't stay in the village. Or are you just mad because I'm on to you?"

Glirdan walked up from no-one knew where. "Hi, I'm back, but I'll be gone again soon."

"I really think that catching the evil wizard would be most useful now," Spawn intoned.

"Don't you think it would be worth lynching our females to get the Evil Wizard?" Eomer asked.

"Feanor and Evil are synonymous," Sleepy threw in.

At this point the voting began, and the votes against Feanor piled up in a hurry.

As if to counter that very notion, and as if she had not heard it, Feanor said, "What does the village need done right now that I can do to help?"

"I feel like I'm under attack, rather than just under criticism," said Zali.

"Alcarillo has also been very defensive, often a wolvish trait," Kath added.

"I don't think the gender of the evil wizard is relevant," Lalaith said, looking squarely at Eomer, "and your focus on it is actually one of the few suspicious things about you. And Feanor, if you'd like to be useful, come up with some evil wizard theories."

"Okay!"

"There's a dear!"

"Somebody has to keep down the wolf population, right?" Caranlondien asked.

"Eomer is clearly a woman hater," Roa accused.

"Lalaith, you would make a great evil wizard," Eomer said. "And Feanor's not my minion." The other villagers wondered why he had thrown that last bit in.

"I get it now, Gurthang," Lommy said suddenly after having been in quiet thought for a while. "The village hunts wolves. Good Wizard and the seer hunt the evil wizard."

"That's right, Lommy-girl!" Gurthang smiled and patted the child on her head.

"Eomer's theory isn't that much of a crackpot theory as it first sounds," Glirdan said.

"Eomer, that's an odd choice of wording, that not my minion thing," said Sleepy. "And Feanor, you're a frisky villager and I never know what to make of you."

"Frisky, now?" Feanor shot back.

"Odd choice of wording, Sleepy? What are you talking about?" asked Eomer.

"Never mind, Eomer, what you said made me believe you're innocent," Sleepy answered.

"Gurthang," said Feanor, "I have a question. Why haven't I been scried or dreamt of?"

"Well, there was always someone who I felt more urgent to know about."

"Oh."

"I'm not pusillanimous, and Loki was stroppy," Lalaith suddenly blurted. Lommy and Oddwen sniggered into their hands, grinning at each other, saying 'stroppy' and giggling.

Diamond raised her head as high as she could, trying to regain that élan she had had before the Curse had ever come. "I just find the idea that it's so unlikely that we'll catch the evil wizard that we shouldn't even bother looking, to be a bit narrow minded. And Roa, you're being rude, calling me a twaddlehead."

"Diamond, you're being snide and I never called you a twaddlehead."

"Tea? Biscuits? Change of subject? Let's be nice, shall we?" said Feanor, though there were none of these luxuries anywhere to be seen around the graveyard.

Alcarillo ran to the graveyard from who knew where and cast a quick vote for Feanor, said "Toodles!" then hustled out of town again. This singular behavior drew the suspicions of lots of those who had yet to vote. It was singular bad timing on his part, as there were still enough voters left to undo the likely lynching of Feanor, and Alcarillo received the deciding votes.

Alcarillo's name had come from a fisherman and his wife, both of whom had passed on. They had never been away from Sealville. It was considered of the greatest likelihood that they had made up the name out of fragments they had heard from others about town, as they were not educated themselves. No one even knew what the name meant, or if it was supposed to have a meaning. Regardless, Alcarillo followed his father's footsteps and became a very good fisherman. So good, in fact, that he became captain of his own boat. Over the years he was so successful in the fish trade that he replaced one boat with another, and another, each one bigger and grander and faster than the last. He began to bring more home than fish, and was gone to sea for months at a time. Cailín, his wife, would get lonely, but as the years passed, the two sons Alcarillo gave her, Theph Antom, and Eomer, took up all her time, and she waited patiently for his return.

One summer, after his eldest boy had returned a strong and confident young man renamed the phantom, and both his sons had started to make their way in life, finding beauteous darlings for to glorify their elbows, he retired from the sea. For good. He bought a very fine house and made it up to Cailín for all his years of months away at sea. Everything was getting only better in their Autumn years. Until the Curse.

Now Cailín had been murdered and the phantom had been killed while killing a vicious werewolf, leaving only Eomer and Alcarillo to live in that emptying house. The shadows seemed to lengthen there, though no-one paid great heed to that, for the same was true everywhere else in Sealville.

So when the voting was complete, and Feanor wiped the sweat from her nervous brow at having barely escaped a lynching, Mormegil ordered Alcarillo to be tied up and drowned at sea, as a way of paying final respects for his profession. They tied him to the mast of the ship that he still called his own, and with a number of rowboats, they pulled the ship out to deep enough waters to sink it, then cut a hole in the bottom of the steerage, and the boat began filling with water fast. They cut the ropes and watched Alcarillo's boat begin to sink. He stared mournfully at them all as the boat sank lower and lower. The sun dipped to just above the horizon in the west when Alcarillo changed before their eyes. His eyes turned red and malicous. His face became animal. His arms and legs thickened, and he howled as he broke his bonds. It was too late, though. The boat sank with the werewolf aboard, and he drowned.

The remaining villagers rowed back to shore, feeling like they had accomplished something useful this day. Having stayed in the graveyard all day talking, they were very hungry and thirsty. They went to the Salty Seal and raided Saucy's and Celuien's pantries before going to bed.

~ The Tally ~ (7)

One evil wizard
One good wizard
Three werewolves
One seer
One hunter

~ The Dead ~ (13)

Elempi, father of Diamond of the Battledore, killed on Night One
Loki the leech collector, lynched on Day One: innocent
The Saucepan Man the barkeep, killed on Night Two: innocent
Nogrod the retired jester, lynched on Day Two: werewolf
the phantom the loud, unpredictable, adventurer: hunter
Naria the servant who empties and cleans chamber pots: werewolf
Celuien the Healer and Cupper, lynched on Day Three: innocent
Lhunardawen the jeweler, committed suicide on Day Three: innocent
Cailín the match maker, mauled by werewolves on Night Four: innocent
Valier the gardener, planted and stoned in her garden on Day Four: werewolf
Firefoot the artist, frenziedly eaten on Night Five: innocent
Nilpaurion the ne'er do well hubby of Dancing Spawn, head almost ripped off by werewolves: innocent
Alcarillo the old retired sea captain, drowned on his boat on Day Five: werewolf

~ The Living ~ (18)

Diamond of the Battledore
Caranlondien the Sled-Team Driver
Roa Aoife the weaver
Dancing Spawn of Ungoliant the Baker
Kath the minstrel
Lommy the little girl who steals other children's candy
Glirdan with the giant crush on Kath
Sleepy Ranger the former wanderer
Kitanna the beloved of Eomer
Oddwen the filthy, insane street urchin who steals chickens
mormegil the retired mariner and current mayor
Feanor the shepherdess with a love of alliteration
Zali the seamstress and beloved of the phantom
Jenny Hallu the unmarried maiden & aunt
Lalaith the frivolous aunt and guardian of Oddwen
Eonwe the freeloading husband of Lhunardawen
Eomer the adventurer & lover of Kitanna
Gurthang the stable-hand
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