View source for BNN: Excerpt from Jordan's Tale

__NOTOC__
'''As recorded by Lyra the Bard''' ''Sep 1 2006 10:32PM''


"And then?" I pressed in, eager to hear.
<br />
"Aye lass, that’s when it happened, it did," Jordan replied. The crowd had hushed, some leaning in, as he took a swig of ale and then punctuated his last words with a hard thump as he set down the mug.
<br />
"It wailed, aye, like a banshee! Flames were rushing towards me and I knew I was a dead man."
<br />
He eyed us all for a moment, and leaned back. "’Twas though time herself stood still, that awful keening," he paused, "but low... low and dark."
<br />
"That’s when you were all blown back, eh?" called a fellow to the side, having already heard the first rendition of the tale.
<br />
Jordan jumped up, surprising a few. "Ha! Not I!" He thumped his chest and gazed over their heads. "But quite a few, yes. It was a fury I will never forget, ‘twas then that I saw it."
<br />
He set his hands down on the table and leaned forward a bit, staring intently at the throng. "Hundreds of them. Must’ve been hundreds. That pillar shattered like glass! That’s when I saw it, a chunk the size of my fist heading straight for me!"
<br />
A collective gasp broke out abruptly as he snatched suddenly at his tunic.
<br />
"Right here! It hit me right here, and nary a mark!"
<br />
The tense moment exploded into a flurry of questions, all asking the same thing.
<br />
"But how?"
<br />
Jordan took another drink from his mug, still standing, and continued.
<br />
"’Tis hard to believe, but I tell you true. Those rocks were like ghosts! Passed through me, my friends, our beasts, the walls, e’en the ceiling!"
<br />
"But ye picked some up, did ye not!" someone asked loudly.
<br />
He sat down and clasped his hands with a grin.
<br />
"Aye, we did indeed find some littered about on the ground. By then they’d become hard to the touch."
<br />
"Well," the tavernkeeper interjected, "how many were there?"
<br />
"A few dozen, I suppose..."
<br />
Some nodded slowly and I figured they wanted to see the small stones for themselves. Jordan was still grinning when he spoke again, challenging the crowd, "I say again, a few dozen we found there, yet that pillar was a man’s height and more!"
<br />
I saw the sudden realization dawning and more than one lip parted to ask the burgeoning question, but Jordan himself beat us to it.
<br />
"Where be the rest?" he wondered aloud.

==See Also==
* [[List of BNN Articles (2006)]]

[[Category:Britannia News Network]]