Misty Rose

UP: Great Lakes

    I�ve lived in Britain all my life, but I must say it�s been a while since I saw the kind of carnage I saw just last Thursday night. Seems the town criers were all hollering for help at the banks, something about ogres taking the pass to the west. So I hopped onto my horse, grabbed my crossbow and went to have a look see. When I arrived, there were a few miners screaming for the guards and I could smell that peculiar scent that ogres tend to give off. Sure enough, the town guards were there whacking at some wandering ogres, so I wondered to myself what all the fuss was about.

Now, I think to myself, if the town guards were handling it, why were the criers calling out for help? So I kicked my horse forward and rode on through the pass. The next few moments could have been hours long or minutes long, I�ve no clue. I could hear folk screaming and yelling and there were ogre bodies everywhere. Apparently the guards were only concerned with the few strays that were making it through the pass.

I was setting my sights on one ugly ogre when I heard someone start screaming �Ogre Lords!� Now I was wondering how smart it was of me to come out here and take a look around. Still, I stuck it out and took my shots. One arrow found an ogre�s eye and down he went like an avalanche. No time to pat myself on the back though. It seemed as if, for every ogre that went down, two more would come stomping out of the woods.

Then I saw a dragon and really got worried. Fortunately, it was a tame one and fighting on our side. The battle raged on, ogre bodies littered the ground and there were fighters and mages all over the woods now. There were daemons and elementals guarding their masters and still folk screaming about a new wave of Ogre Lords and Ogres. One poor healer lad was wandering around trying to help folk. Amazingly I didn�t see lots of folk lying dead on the ground. Oh sure, there were some dead, but not nearly as many as one might think with the number of ogres running around.

A group of us had formed up and pressed towards the crossroads. Seemed like the fighting was heaviest there. I was burning through bolts like an ice cube in the desert, but at least the ogres were going down. Then suddenly it got real quiet around us. We all sort of paused and looked around and saw only a couple ogres in the area. We�d won! Even as I was thinking that, one fellow was shouting it out. I must have had a huge grin on my face because folk were laughing and slapping me on the back or the leg and grinning over at me.

We all rode back in to town and sure enough the crier was telling folk that the ogres had been taken out. They even said thank you to those who�d helped. That was me! I made a point of telling some folk that I�d been there and that the crier was talking about me. Guess the ogre blood on me and my horse did more to convince folk than my words.

It was good to see so many folk rally to protect Britain. We may be the city of Compassion, but when push comes to shove, we stand and fight back to back. Ain�t no ogres going to be taking our town any time soon.

From the Town Cryer - The Journal of Ultima Online, Tuesday, June 20th 2000