courteously “My name is Machvell, and my companions are Prince Timor and Sir Abscon. We – “
“Oh, I know who you are sirs and it’s a great pleasure to meet you! You’ve brung welcome news with the talk of a King’s Highway coming through here. Do you think that maybe perhaps, once the highway is done of course, that perhaps, well that the King himself might come down it?” Mary was fond of such things and it had always been a fantasy of hers to meet the King.
The wizard laughed merrily “Anything is possible my dear woman.” At this the old lady chuckled and waved her hand in the air; she knew she was foolish for thinking such things and that it would not likely happen in her lifetime but still a person can dream. At that moment an old man came around the corner of the house followed by a very attractive young lady carrying a basket of eggs. The old woman introduced them “This is my husband, Laydon Fare and our dear daughter Maydon.” The wizard smiled politely to both, being careful not to let his attention pause too long on the young woman. The girl, not surprisingly was completely captivated by the group. Imagine suddenly meeting a wizard and a prince and a knight all at the same time! It was if they had just walked out of a fairy tale. The look on her face was not lost on the others, including her parents. The other two companions, like the wizard were at least sharp witted enough not to acknowledge her overly much though they were impressed with how pretty she really was. The parents found their daughter’s reaction amusing and assuming these to be fine upstanding gentlemen in the King’s service who would never take advantage of a young woman such as her, had no more thought of their child’s behaviour. The old couple invited the gentlemen to have some water and they talked for a bit. Laydon showed them his little farm and they discussed minor things such as strangers were wont to talk about. They discussed weather, the planting and hunting seasons, and the affairs of the kingdom which was a very short conversation. The wizard said the kingdom was doing well and that’s all they were interested in hearing.
They did not stay too long and excusing themselves mounted their horses and continued down the western road. This confused the easily confused prince. “We met them, why are we not going back to the village?” he asked when they had ridden beyond earshot. “And make it look like we came only to see them?" replied the wizard. "Did you not hear me tell the old man that we are going to go riding a bit to check out the current road? It wouldn’t look too good to say that and then suddenly turn around and go back!” Besides, the wizard thought to himself, they may be simple villagers but that didn’t mean they were as slow witted as his companions. “Now did you see the basket the girl carried?” he asked, appearing to change the subject.
“You mean the eggs?” asked the knight somewhat confused “They were just eggs!” thinking that the wizard was daft.
“A full basket of eggs, my friend. More eggs than those three could eat.”
“So, you were hoping to join them for dinner?” asked the knight still trying to guess what eggs had to do with anything.
“Farmers do not just throw away extra eggs. They usually take them to town and try to sell or trade them.”
“Oh, so now you want to buy their eggs.” continued the knight “If you wanted eggs so much, why didn’t you just ask them?”
The wizard was quickly losing his patience but he had accepted a long time ago that he was the only one that had any real intelligence among them and they needed things more clearly laid out before they understood. “I do not want to buy their eggs.” he growled, trying not to let out a tirade on the fools. “The extra eggs will be taken to the village and sold or traded and the girl will be the one to take them.”
“And how do you know she will and not the old man or the old woman, or all three of them for that matter?” It was now the princes turn to parade his ignorance.
“Do you people not pay attention to anything? The old woman barely walked a few feet before she had to stop and rest and the old man was little better with his bad limp.”
“Oh yeah, well what about a horse and cart?” retorted the knight, trying to catch the wizard on something he had not thought of. The knight hated it when the wizard treated them like simpletons. Though the other two thought the wizard was a great deal smarter then they, he was in actuality only slightly smarter. He was however more devious and his mind worked especially well when plotting misfortune toward others. “You obviously were not paying attention. The only beast around that could pull a cart was a fat old nag and the only cart had a broken wheel. Mark my words, the girl will go and she will go alone.”
“Are we going to take her then?” asked the prince.
“NO! You idiot!” he paused and recomposed himself before continuing. “No, we are going to try to talk to her.”
“And say what?” asked the prince.
The wizard glared at him “If you will let me finish, I will explain. Did you notice how she looked at us?” The other two chortled, yes they noticed the awe struck look in her eyes.
“A girl like that has only ever heard of people like us.”
“You mean thieves and rogues?” laughed the knight.
“No - a powerful wizard, a handsome prince, and a noble knight.” There was a pause and then all three laughed at the irony. “Now how easy do you think it would be to convince the lass to come with us on an adventure that could make her poor old parents rich and happy just like in the stories people such as these are inclined to tell?” Suddenly the other two caught on and smiled at the ingenious plan.
Continuing on with their ride, Machvell soon led them off the road and up a nearby hill where they dismounted and ate the lunch the innkeeper had provided. From this vantage point they had a clear view of the farmstead and the road yet they themselves could not be seen among the trees. About an hour later, they saw what they had been waiting for. Maydon left the farm with a basket tucked under her arm. They did not however leave right away. After all, the wizard pointed out, they said they would be gone for a least a few hours and calculating the amount of time it would take her to reach the village by foot then time spent visiting and getting supplies and so on he knew to wait a bit before heading back to town. So they sat and waited.
They picked a rather pleasant spot to settle in and wait, for the most part in silence. This for some might not seem very unusual but if you knew the wizard, this was not the norm. The wizard loved to talk, so much so, that the others suspected it was the sound of his own voice that he liked to hear more than the subject he happened to be talking about at any given time. As nice as the silence was however, it was not long before the knight’s curiosity got the best of him. He could tell by the deep contemplating look on the wizards face that he was planning or rather scheming something.
“Ahhh,” replied the wizard, pleased to be talking once again and of course on his favourite subject – another ingenious idea of his. “While you two esteemed gentlemen were busy with your respite I was debating with myself as to the best way to broach the delicate matter of the dragon with our fair maiden, when an absolutely wonderful idea came to me.” At this he looked deviously to his friends. “And do you know what brilliant idea I have come up?” Of course this was a rhetorical question used for dramatic effect and of course the prince could not help but provide an answer. “How to get the maiden’s eggs?” he asked referring to the mornings conversation of egg baskets. He was joking of course to which the wizard glared at him and continued on.
“At first I thought about playing on the most obvious; you no doubt noticed how the young Maydon Fare’s attention was captured by you dolts, with particular attention to you.” looking at Timor. Abscon piped in “Well, no accounting for taste is there?” The prince just grinned, yes he had seen though he himself had no particular interest in her considering her no more than a child in his eyes.
“I think it’s also reasonable to assume that this village’s main form of entertainment is in telling tales of great adventure and what better offer to a wonder lust young person then to become part
of one of those great adventures involving a handsome prince and a fair maiden and of course dragon gold!”
“But what if she isn’t interested in helping us to get the dragon’s gold; and even if she were, how would you get her to agree to be dragon bait?” asked Abscon.
“Do you remember me telling you about the innkeeper and how he said that though there had been rumour of a dragon, no one had ever seen it?” They both nodded not interrupting for that would make his story all that much longer. “Now imagine if we really were the Kings men scouting to build the new highway. And imagine if it really were going to cross through the village and if there really were a dragon residing nearby. What decision do you think we, as the Kings men and looking out only for the best interest of the kingdom, would make?” No one answered at first, then the knight being slightly quicker to thought than the prince said “Well I suppose we would not pick this way for the road as it would be too dangerous.” “Ah ha!” said the wizard “and that would be horrible news for the village. So horrible that some there might be willing to do anything to help rid the land of this dragon. Someone perhaps such as the maiden?” With this all three smiled devious smiles as they realized that