Date:         Sat, 15 Jun 1996 02:53:36 GMT
From: Christopher Vaughan <space.cowboy@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject:      INT: The Adventurers: Arturo

Reserved:       Arturo

        Arturo kicked the skull away and wriggled as far from it as he
could.  It rolled down the bank and bounced over a small ledge, landing on a
sandy slip of beach.  It's golden teeth glistened in the full moon.
        Arturo's heart finally began to slow down.  He heaved a heavy sigh
and stood up, dusting the sand and dirt from his wet clothes.  He looked
back towards town.  There was unfinished business for him, there.  He
started back towards the flickering torch light of the docks, then paused
and looked back at the skull.
        Slowly he began to walk back to it, his heart pounding in his chest,
again.  He was ready to race away should the dead man's ghost rise from his
cranium.  When nothing happened he knelt down and looked at the skull more
closely.  A long crack ran across the skull cap, indicating he had been
bludgeoned to death, then thrown in the water.
        Rafiki had told him that there were millions of dead people in the
harbor of Dragon's Tooth.  The reef acted as a wall, keeping the remains in
the harbor until they eventually rotted to dust.
        Rafiki.  His face haunted Arturo.  His brother, the only family he'd
ever known. Him - and the Guild of Thieves.  By their law, Don Lionne was
their father.  They owed their allegience to him.  Before that morning,
Arturo would gladly have given his life for the Guild.  Now, his eyes were
opened to its corruption for the first time.
        He scrounged around for a sharp stone, then turned back to the
skull.  If he could have talked he would have apologized, but he needed the
money.  Carfully, he pried the gold teeth from the skull and slipped them
into his vest.  When he was done the skull looked up at him with a
gap-toothed grin.  Then something moved in it.  He jumped, dropping the
skull.  It rolled to the edge of the water and a small hermit crab raced out.
        Arturo realized he was holding his breath.  He let it out, then
started back to Dragon's Tooth.  He swore to himself that either he or Don
Lionne would not live out the night.

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        Chris Vaughan                                ||
        space.cowboy@worldnet.att.net               rrnn
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