Greetings, sorry for no story yesterday and its a bit late today. The trip to the VA took more out of me then I thought. Mainly because I didn't realize no one would be open for me to go in and buy something to eat, even if I ate it outside. So I ended up fasting about 20 hours. Stupid Corona-19. Anyway I hope this finds you all well still and not going stir crazy! Scorplingintraining, thank you for being a hero! I can't imagine what all our healthcare professionals are going through during this insanity! To the Adventure! -Tim


Paige woke up happy, and she stretched before looking at Walter as he still slumbered. She kissed his cheek as she slipped out from under the blanket. As she grabbed her leathers she saw two pots just inside of the tent and she stepped over and saw they both had warmish water in them. Paige smiled at Allie's gesture. She also found two towels, washcloths and soap. She took a moment to clean up before she got dressed. She smiled back at Walter before she opened the flap and stepped outside. Paige saw everyone sitting around the campfire as it was a little cool this morning. "Good morning everyone," she smiled at them.

Ralph looked up and ran over and hugged her, "Morning Mom."

"Morning our Lady," Sir Cabe greeted her.

Paige smiled as she walked over and started to get a cup of coffee and Allie stopped her, "Don't tell me you forgot coffee is off the menu for you with all of this. It will impact you negatively and counteract the supplement."

Paige pouted, "Just a few sips?"

Allie smiled and nodded and then said, "No."

Everyone laughed as Paige put the cup down, "You're all mean to me. I need to speak with Toby anyway. Take a walk with me Toby."

Toby looked around and swallowed before he stood up and followed after her. After they'd gotten a good distance away, "Tell me Toby, how many more horrible things am I going to find out about you?"

Toby looked puzzled, "My Lady?"

"My first introduction to your actions was when you were hiding in Happy's smithy, spying on her. Then you reveal you were spying on Walter and I at the lake. Then you tried to force him to wake up when you knew it really wasn't a good idea. Remember?" Paige said softly.

"I do my Lady, not my best foot I admit," Toby looked around.

Paige turned and glared at him, "Can you explain to me why you would tease Walter and make him feel insecure about the size of his manhood?"

Toby looked at her almost stunned, "I'm sorry my Lady, I-I never knew he took me seriously."

Paige smacked his shoulder, "Do you not remember the talk we had my first night at the Keep?"

Toby thought hard but wasn't coming up with anything, "Sorry, but I say so many things. Sometimes they just run over each other."

Paige shook her head, "You basically told me Walter had zero experience when it came to things about sex. So if he had zero experience with it, why would you tease him about his size? He was so insecure he wasn't willing to let Allie examine him to ensure he was okay after that explosion. Do you realize how serious that is? Plus you're a Dr, you should know better. I truly hope this is the last of your shenanigans."

Toby nodded, "You're right my Lady. That was wrong. I am sorry. Do you want me to apologize to him?"

"Absolutely not, Allie and I have dealt with the issue. But I do want you to think back and if there is anything else you've done you need to be upfront before they become a problem like last night. Understand?" Paige poked him hard in the chest.

Toby nodded his head rapidly.

Paige turned and walked back to the campfire. As Paige got to the campfire, "Do you want me to cook breakfast Allie?"

Allie shook her head, "I've got it, my Lady. Is Walter doing okay?"

Paige shook her head as she smiled, "He was still sound asleep when I came out.


Lord Walter slowly started to regain consciousness, he frowned not feeling the weight of Paige upon him and he felt around. Not feeling Paige he opened his eyes but didn't see her. As he started to pull the covers back he saw the two pots of water Paige had moved over next to him. He smiled as he took a moment to clean up. Getting up he pulled his leathers on before putting on his boots. His throat still hurt a bit and his arms and legs were aching significantly. Just as he started to pick up the pots to take them out of the tent he paused. He slowly thought over the last twenty or so hours, going through his memories as something was irritating him. Then suddenly his eyes opened wide and he scowled as he stormed out of the tent.

Everyone was busying eating breakfast when Lord Walter stepped outside of the tent. "Good morning my Lord," Sir Cabe said before he saw the look on his face. Sir Cabe cringed inwardly, he knew that look and it was never a good look.

"Walter," Paige smiled and then frowned.

"You," he roared as he pointed his finger, Toby fell over and scrambled away. "How dare you," he screamed. He stopped next to Ralph and grabbed Ralph by the front of his tunic and yanked him up into the air, Ralph's breakfast spilling all over the ground.

"Walter," Paige yelled as Ralph flew up before Lord Walter pulled him in and hugged him tightly against his chest.

"I am so mad at you, I could beat your ass until you couldn't sit down for a week." Lord Walter yelled as he continued to hug and cradle him with Ralph's head pressed into the crook of his neck. "I've got half a mind to make you walk for the next week instead of riding your horse."

Paige jumped up but stopped as she saw tears run down Lord Walter's cheeks.

Lord Walter pulled him back away and stared into Ralph's face, "Do you have any idea how much you would have hurt your Mother if something had happened to you by disobeying me? Do you know how much you would have hurt me? As your Lord, you will not get any lunch today and you will only eat bread and water for dinner. Is that understood?"

Ralph slowly nodded as he watched the tears slide out of Lord Walter's eyes.

Lord Walter was barely able to rein his anger in as he saw matching tears slide down Ralph's face. Lord Walter brought him back in and hugged him fiercely, "But I am also so very proud of you Ralph. I know fully trained Paladins that couldn't have done what you did. But by the wise Lady, if you disobey me like that again, you will be scrubbing every single stone in the Keep with a toothbrush. Do I make myself clear?"

"You're very clear Dad, I'm sorry. I didn't want to disobey you, but I had to do something." Ralph told him.

Lord Walter struggled for a moment before he kissed Ralph's forehead and gently sat him back down before he turned and stormed off. After about ten yard he drew his sword and screaming with rage he threw it. They all watched shocked as his sword flew through the air spinning end over end as Lord Walter began walking adjusting his steps to follow after the sword's path.


Very hesitantly, Paige slowly followed behind him. Since meeting Walter this was the first time she was actually a little intimidated.

Happy watched as Paige followed after him. "You know, if he damages that sword I'm of a mind not to repair it."

Allie got up and fixed Ralph another plate of food to replace what Lord Walter had knocked to the ground. Ralph shook his head out of fear. Allie smiled, "He said no lunch, he didn't say you couldn't eat your breakfast. And since he spilled it, you get more."

Ralph looked out at Lord Walter and over to Sir Cabe and Sir Cabe smiled and nodded, "Go ahead son, Allie's right. It's breakfast still."

Ralph slowly nodded as he picked up the fork and took a tentative bite.


Paige saw him bend over from time to time as he walked after his sword and picked up a rock and flung it through the air. She saw him bend over and pick up his sword finally. He stood staring at it and the back of his hand. "Walter, don't you dare hurt yourself," Paige called out to him.

"I need to feel something else, I would welcome the pain," Walter told her as he continued to stare at his hand.

Paige stepped up and placed her hand over his, "Then feel your blade cutting into my flesh, because it wouldn't hurt me half as bad as watching you hurt yourself, however minorly."

Walter shook his head, "I could never harm you intentionally."

Paige smiled, "Then sheath your sword my Love." Walter drew in a deep breath and slowly slid the sword into its scabbard. Paige wrapped her arms around him as she hugged him. She looked at him, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Walter wrapped his arms around her, "Should you be out here in all of this with your susceptibility?"

"I'm fine, this is fine, if it wasn't Allie would have stopped me. I'd really like to talk about what happened," Paige told him.

Walter took her hand as he turned and kept walking away from the camp. Paige willingly followed along. "If I had awakened even two seconds later, Ralph could have been killed by my hammer. You could have been physically harmed as well. Neither of us would have been okay if he had been killed or seriously harmed. The stress of his death on you would have caused you to lash out at me because it would have been my fault. To lose Ralph and then you, I wouldn't survive that."

Paige tugged at his hand to get Walter to stop. As he faced her she took his other hand, "Walter, I can't say how I would respond to such a situation. But I know I wouldn't truly blame you. It is possible I could lash out at you, just because we are married doesn't mean everything is going to be roses and rainbows all the time. But you wouldn't have lost me. Do you not recall Sir Cabe's words at our wedding?"

Walter nodded.

Paige smiled, "We are husband and wife in the sight of Athena and through out time. I take that very serious. Do you remember that Athena came to us last night?"

Walter shook his head.

Paige brushed her hand through his hair, "Sir Cabe was going off on Ralph for what he did with your hammer and she took over your body and told him to leave her child alone. It was pretty amazing. I still can't believe you ran out of the tent without any clothes on."

Walter blushed, "I didn't even realize it, I just heard a voice saying I had to wake up to save you guys."

"Are you ready to come back to camp?" Paige asked.

Walter shook his head, "I have all this, energy, in me, and I need to expel it. I figured I could walk it off."

Paige smiled, "You could always come back and exercise it off. Or we could retire to our tent and work it off that way." She grinned mischievously at him.

Walter smiled and he scooped Paige up into his arms. Paige let out an excited whoop as he turned and carried her back towards camp.

They were all watching as Walter carried Paige in his arms toward them. "You don't suppose something happen to our Lady do you?" Sylvester asked.

Sir Cabe stood up as they drew closer, "Are you ready for some breakfast my Lord?"

Allie just smiled wickedly.

Walter kissed Paige while ignoring the question and pushed into their tent with Paige still in his arms.

"I guess not," Toby said with a grin.


Happy leaned over and whispered into Sylvester's ear and his eyes opened wide and he nodded as he opened the cylindrical tube he carried and pulled the scrolls out. He read through until he found the one he wanted. He put the others back in the tube and sealed it. He looked at the writing and concentrating he began reading it. As he finished the writing glowed and then faded off the paper as the paper then crumbled and fell apart. "It's done," Sylvester told Happy.

Sir Cabe looked over, "What's done?"

Sylvester's eyes opened real wide as he realized he'd said it out loud. "Uh, well, I just put up a wall of silence around their tent."

Sir Cabe kind of laughed as he nodded his head, "Well, I guess we'll just plan to stay here another night. I doubt that we'll have time to get very far now."

As Happy was finished with her breakfast she put her tray in the tub and got up, "I'm going to go see if I can find as much of Lord Walter's hammer. Not sure how we're going to fix it this time. We still haven't succeeded in repaying that elemental for fixing it last time."

"Why doesn't our Lord carry a spare?" Allie asked.

"The Dwarves are the only ones who can make them. And they are very selective about who they give or sell them to. I've never heard of anyone getting their hands on more than one unless maybe they get a second one off someone else. Typically when someone gets one, they remain a family heirloom. Sometimes someone runs into trouble and will sell one. But that's rarer than seeing your goddess speaking through your friend's mouth," Happy told her.

"I could always ride out and summon that," Allie looked around and made a face, "woman's hammer out of the ground."

"Oh hell no, I'd slap O'Brien silly if he even considered using that thing," Happy told her.

Sir Cabe thought about that, "Well actually, when we pass by there, we probably should recover those items. I don't think she had any family but I am sure the church would want them for another follower."

Happy shook her head as she turned and walked off to recover whatever she could of Lord Walter's stone head hammer.

Ralph looked up, "I don't understand, are they arguing? Is that why Sylvester had to cast that spell? Are they arguing about what I did?"

Sir Cabe quickly raised his mug up and took a drink of coffee.

Allie smiled as she shook her head looking at Sir Cabe, "No Ralph. They aren't arguing about you or anything. They just needed some time alone with each other where no one would disturb them."

Sir Cabe reached out and squeezed Allie's hand as he smiled at her.


Happy walked around the area they found Lord Walter laying first and picked up a few pieces of his hammer and put them in a sack before moving in a straight line towards where the sword had been lying. She picked up a number of pieces but she was having a hard time finding some of them, including the handle. Toby stepped up, "Can I offer you a hand?"

Happy looked back at him, "Sure, if you want too. I was going to start walking around a spiral to try and see what I am missing, still can't find the handle either."

Toby nodded, "Doesn't sound too hard, is there anything special that separates the stone from normal rocks?"

Happy smirked, "Yea, its white granite. Nothing around here is going to be that color."

Toby nodded as they began to make several passes in circles spiraling outwardly.

After about an hour they had gathered as much of the head as she felt they'd ever would and then finally they found the handle almost thirty yards the opposite direction. As she stood up and started to turn she stopped dead and stared, "No way. Toby, check it out."

Toby stood there staring, "I see it, but, I don't quite believe it."

Happy looked at him, "Well, what are you doing standing there?"

"What do you mean?" Toby looked at Happy.

"You're a Dr, go check her out," Happy pushed him.

Toby looked at her before he slowly stepped over another twenty yards. He slowly knelt down and reached down and put his fingers to her neck. "She's got a pulse," Toby yelled back up.

Happy turned towards the camp, "Sir Cabe, get down here, now."


Sir Cabe was in the middle of kissing Allie when they heard Happy. Sir Cabe sighed, "Sylvester, stay with Ralph. I'll be back."

Sylvester and Ralph had both washed the morning dishes and were putting them away. "Okay," Sylvester said simply.

Ralph looked up at Sylvester, "Can I ask you something Sylvester?"

Sylvester smiled, "Of course."

Ralph looked at him, "That Bethany woman, she called Mom some names yesterday, what's a slutty whore?"

Sylvester's eyes went wide and Ralph saw sweat bead up on his forehead. Sylvester swallowed as he thought fast, "W-w-well you se-see Ralph, a whore, well a whore is what they call someone who sells some of their time to someone else." Sylvester wiped at his forehead.

Ralph nodded, "So what's the slutty mean?"

Sylvester felt light headed, "Is the sky spinning?"

Ralph looked up and around, "No, so what does it mean?"

"Hey, did you understand how I empowered those runes on your parent's rings?" Sylvester asked.

Ralph shook his head, "You know, this might seem a little weird, but after last night. While I am still interested in the process of making rings and enchanting them, it felt so amazing fighting that Amatan I think I'm going to go ahead and become a Paladin."

Sylvester smiled, "Ralph, that's amazing. Did I ever tell you about Simon?"

Allie walked with Sir Cabe as they made their way to Happy and they both stared in disbelief and slowly moved on up to where Toby stood. Sir Cabe stared, "She's alive?"

Toby nodded, "There's no sign of where Ralph shoved that blade into her neck and Lord Walter used it to cut her head off either."

Allie knelt down and put a hand to her shoulder and her eyes went white, "I don't detect any of that energy left in her body."

"Is someone messing with us? The last Amatan was completely destroyed," Happy said after moving up.

Sir Cabe shook his head, "No clue, the question now is what do we do with her?"

Happy smiled, "Give me your sword."

Sir Cabe glared at Happy.

Happy shrugged, "You asked."

Allie stood up, "We could bind her and put her a little bit away from the camp and wait to see what Lord Walter wants to do with her."

Sir Cabe nodded, "Might be best."


Ralph shook his head as he looked at Sylvester.

Sylvester nodded, "I was fresh from my mentor in Alchemy and Sorcery and I had stopped in an inn in Los Angeles. Something no one knows about me. I had ran away from home because my Dad wanted me to follow after him into military service and I knew I would never be able to fight like he did. So I ran away and I managed to steal the coin I needed to get my training with my mentor. Lord Walter had tracked me down for the bounty on my head. Don't ask me how he knew it was me, no one knew it was me. After he sat down and talked with me, he agreed to make things right with the person I stole from and I would come here to work for him."

"Anyway Simon had just received his ring of knighthood. He was kind of like Lady Bethany, he was arrogant, rude, thought higher of himself than he really was. I'm in the inn, I had bought an ale and Simon was in there running his mouth. Some fighter took offense and challenged him to a duel. Simon tried to power his hammer and couldn't do it. He was almost ten years older than you and couldn't do it. That threw him off so bad, that fighter beat him to almost within an inch of his life. That's one reason Lord Walter was so proud of what you did. With just a little training and mostly by example you did an amazing thing."

Ralph smiled as he nodded and then looked over, "Hey, is that that Bethany woman?"