Looking for the culprit (Andrew/Blue Opal)

[DoF Archive]

Date: 9/24/1998 7:15 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Menlie

As nights progressed from his attack, his ankle became better and he began to duel again. Walking into the arena with a limp and a cane had attracted no attention but ones. Sarana. He had began to walk from the Arena one night due to his not wanting to see others fight when he couldn't. He was jealous in that way. Sara had followed him out of the Arena and asked him what was wrong. He told her nothing of what had
happened and she accepted it as he walked into the night.
Continuing down the road Andrew walked into the Outback where he decided he was going to fight there and forget about his ankle. And that is what he did. Although he came out with 1 Loss over Win that night, he did very well for his ankle being hurt.

He walked down the streets of Rhydin towards that old familiar dusty road to his house and he continued walking. Looking ahead of him into the pitch blank night all he could see was the dusty road and the tracks of a carriage... A carriage?! They were new tracks. Within the day. He followed the tracks which led straight to his house. Then made a U turn and continued back down the dusty road again. He looked around where the tracks had reached
his house and found faint footprints. Someone had been at his house that day. Slowly, he walked up the path to his doorway keeping watch for any motion around the house. He kept his eye on the path as he looked around also. Suddenly he saw something.
A paper. There was a paper that was crumpled up on the side of the pathway. Andrew could tell it had been worn and torn due to it's yellowish color and tears about the sides. He picked the crumpled paper up and began to unfold it. As he did so he recognized the writing. It was Khorien's writing. He continued to unfold it and stared blankly at it with his mouth dropped. It was the letter that Khorien had given Jordan less than a month ago.
But how did it get here? Jordan couldn't have attacked Andrew. They were practically best friends and Jordan was to small to have hit him so hard.
Andrew thought about how the paper could have gotten there. He went through the silliest of ideas. Such things as the paper had flewn out of Jordan's pocket and had drifted onto his front yard. Or things like Jordan had lost it and someone had known where he lived and dropped it off. He had decided he better ask Jordan about it and he went inside the house to put it in a safe drawer.

As Andrew entered the house he noticed something strange. He turned on the light and took a look around. There in the corner of his living room was a broken window. It had been busted to the fullest point and pieces of glass were everywhere on the floor. He stood still at the front door and then heard something. Someone was in the house. He moved closer into the house grabbing for the stick that he had been attacked with and had used as a cane
that evening.

He called out, "I'm ready for ya this time! Come out!"

His eyes moved around the room like bullets looking at every little square inch all at the same time. Darting around the room his eyes caught onto a figure running from the upstairs hallway into his room. He dashed upstairs and pulled himself through his doorway and looked into the room where the balcony doors had been pushed wide open. He could hear footsteps rushing down the balcony steps and he continued to dash after the stranger. Moving
with what he considered the speed of sound crashed onto the balcony and jumped off flipping onto the ground. He turned and called out for his lion who immediatly approached and began running after the stranger.
Andrew quickly followed the lion as he tripped on a stair leading from his backyard to the front of his house. He fell to the ground with a bang and a howl rubbing his ankle which he had now twisted.

"Damn it!"

The lion could tell that Andrew was hurt and faced the man who was running down the road and ran back to Andrew to help him up. Andrew looked at the lion and smiled petting him.

"We'll get 'im next time."

He could tell the lion was grinning as he moved onto his ankle, which for some reason was feeling instantly better, and walked up the stairs into his bedroom. He took a look around and noticed that his journal was gone from his nightstand.

"Hrmph. That's everything I have in there..."

Andrew sighed and moved to his bed and knew that this ordeal was not over yet. He fell asleep quickly this night with a thought of his mother, once again.