Anarchist Knight:Apprentice

This time he was the one that cut the gray robe and shortened it to become a tunic. He remembered his own Clansman initiation and felt satisfaction as he cut away the fabric of the tunic. It was the first time he had cut a tunic and it was kind of ragged in spots and high. He might have cut the tunic a little short but she was good looking and had nice legs. The shortened tunic looked good on her.

There were eight candidates and later the new clansmen were taken to the sweat lodge for purification and left to meditate. It was a long day and the eight initiations seemed to drag on forever.

After the last initiate was gone he headed toward the circle and noticed that both Melanie's and Becca's students had returned from their solos. They were hanging out by the beer barrel but he still didn't see Melanie or Becca. He walked over to congratulate both of them on their solos and asked where the girls were. The look on both of their faces told him immediately that something was wrong. They were surprised he hadn't heard. Yesterday rogues had attacked both Melanie and Becca. Becca had been raped and badly beaten. Medics had taken her to sanctuary. Melanie had gone with her to make sure she was all right.

There was a hollow sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and he felt like he was going to throw up. He was shaken to his very core by the news and his face turned a pasty gray. He looked for one of the medics to ask for more information and made a beeline in the dark to the nearest red cloaked figure he saw. The medic was busy putting some things in his pack. His back was to Tobal as he walked up.

"Excuse me." He began. "I need some information."

"Rafe!" He shouted.

"Rafe, what about Becca?" He asked urgently. "Is she all right?"

Rafe turned a troubled gaze on him.

"Becca's pretty bad. Near as we can figure four rogues jumped the two of them with clubs while they were climbing half way up the cliff on a ledge by the waterfall. Becca got taken by surprise at the top. They grabbed her and were holding her down and tearing her clothes off. She was fighting back when she was knocked unconscious. Melanie managed to slice one of them pretty bad with a blade before being pushed over the ledge. Becca was already unconscious when Melanie fell over the ledge. She wasn't able to help Becca and prevent the beating. She really blames herself for that. She's lucky she wasn't hurt in the fall."

Rafe continued. " As soon as Becca was unconscious alarms went off on our air sleds and we responded immediately. The rogues left Becca with a couple cracked ribs and took off running when three medics came flying in on air sleds. Tobal, she was raped. " He looked at Tobal before continuing.

"We felt she might have internal injuries and took her to the city for specialized medical attention. Melanie went along as a witness and to fill out the reports."

That was all Rafe knew except they were both at sanctuary now and Becca was in stable condition.

"I don't know who the rogues were. They don't seem to be anyone that is a part of our camp. But they know about us, that's for sure. They didn't wear med-bracelets, so they didn't show up on our screens."

"They don't wear med-bracelets?" Tobal said grimly. "That means they are General Grants' men."

"The air sleds showed up suddenly." Tobal asked violently. "How did the rogues get away?"

"We don't know yet. That's our new camp remember." Rafe continued. "As soon as Becca was knocked unconscious alarms went off on our air sleds. What I can't believe is that rogues would be so close to our camp."

"I know where they were climbing." Tobal said suddenly. "If they were on the ledge they would have been trapped. The only way down was hand and foot holes and the only way up was through a rock chimney. They didn't run away. The medics let them get away!"

He turned to Rafe in a rage. "The first medics there let them get away. They didn't have time to climb the rock chimney or go down the cliff to the lake. How could they just vanish like that?"

Rafe turned white as understanding dawned. "It wasn't our Medics. The rogues were teleported there and out again. They must have a teleporting station set up right there on that ledge. We've got to find it and destroy it."

"What did these rogues look like? What kind of tunics did they wear?" Tobal asked savagely already knowing the answer. "They knew the girls were going to climb the cliff and waited for them on the ledge. The girls were deliberately ambushed!"

"They were dressed as Journeymen in black tunics." Rafe told him. "That's all we know at this time. Ellen's looking into it further and making a complaint to the City Council."

There was a lump in his throat and a heavy feeling in his heart. He had left the girls at the lake alone and unprotected. Part of what happened to them was his fault. He had even suggested they go there in the first place. Tobal took up his pack and asked Rafe to give him a ride to sanctuary. The trip was a little over an hour with the air sled. The full moon made night travel fairly easy anyway. It was his first air sled ride but he was too emotional to enjoy it.

As they traveled he wondered about the rogues. Were they really acting under orders from General Grant and did they have the ability to teleport in and out at will? What was so important about the cave under the waterfall? They needed to really check it out before the enemy got to it and took everything. He told Rafe that they needed to check the cave out thoroughly and see what they could find. Rafe agreed and said he and Ellen would look into it immediately on his return. He dropped Tobal off at sanctuary and sped back toward the lake.

Tobal went inside and stopped at the door to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. Melanie saw him and came running with a glad cry.

(Don’t Panic! The entire book will be posted. I wouldn’t be that mean to anyone!)

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The Anarchist Knight:Apprentice Story continued

As time went on I settled down into a rythm but new concerns kept rearing their heads. As an affiliate for Dragon Door Products I began to place ads in the posts and links to the other serialadventures.

Then the computer problems began and I couldn't get online. Shortly after that the server crashed from internet terrorism. I lost all of my main webpages. One time I was almost two weeks before I could post new episodes. I struggled through it all juggling all six serialadventures somehow.

I began to see the same readership growth in the other serialadventures only slower since the episodes were posted much more slowly. That was exciting news for me. I was also impressed with the rss technology and wanted to ensure rss feeds were available if people wanted them.

There was a glitch in learning about rss feeds since some characters in word for windows don't show properly in a rss feed.