Please Note! Important!: Once I completed Learning it the Hard Way, it was time for a new Musketeers story, but I couldn't decide which idea to tackle next. In the original version of Choose Your Own Adventure, I asked for readers to use the reviews to vote for their two favorite options amongst the six presented. Many participated, and I thank you for your votes.

However, after the results chapter was posted, I was informed/reminded, via a guest review, that the format I used was not allowed by the content policy of this site. So, I decided to reformat/rework it instead of completely deleting the story, keeping the original chapter titles and adding in new content to the first and last chapters. If you'd like to see detailed results of the voting, please check out my profile page on this site. Thanks, and apologies for any confusion.

Spoiler: Warning…There's a spoiler to the epilogue of Learning it the Hard Way in the first chapter.

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"Every day brings new choices" ~~~ Martha Beck.

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The Explanation

Aramis, Athos, d'Artagnan, and Porthos were exhausted after successfully completing the latest mission they had been assigned by Captain Tréville. The day after the soirée celebrating the King's birthday, they were assigned to escort and guard a small caravan of nobles returning to their homes.

The four Musketeers had not had much sleep the past few days, and were barely able to sit upright in their saddles. Athos suggested they rest for a couple of hours before resuming their trek back to Paris.

Agreeing with the idea, d'Artagnan led the way to a secluded spot he'd accidentally discovered during one of his first solo missions. Porthos, noting the odd, almost hesitant way d'Artagnan had mentioned the place, laughed and asked if the younger man's definition of accident included the words "I got lost" in it. D'Artagnan ducked his head in embarrassment instead of answering, basically telling the other three that Porthos's theory was absolutely correct. They all laughed, but Porthos and Aramis kept needling the younger man about it while d'Artagnan kept trying to explain things by saying it was because he had been still relatively new to the area at the time.

Athos, knowing how devious his younger brother could be, had long ago ceased in joining Porthos and Aramis in making fun of d'Artagnan. At one point, he thought he heard some mumbling from d'Artagnan, and felt sorry for his two other brothers. It seemed d'Artagnan was once again thinking of revenge. He shuddered to think what could be worse revenge than having to be on guard at the public latrines at the palace during a heavily-attended soirée.

When the four arrived at the secluded spot, Aramis was the first to note how the trees formed a near-perfect circle, which was interspersed with odd shaped boulders. The other three shrugged off Aramis's comment, and made a minimal camp, relaxing under the heavy canopy of branches and leaves the surrounding trees provided. Conversation, as they settled down to rest, revolved around what their next adventure would be.

One by one the four men slipped off into sleep.

Not long after, a rolling fog covered the Musketeers and filled in the circle created by the trees.

The four men began to dream…

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Many thanks to Celticgal1041 for proofing this entire story all over again! Remaining mistakes are my fault.

Thanks for reading!