The Form Filled Early

At thirteen minutes past seven it was declared, by Form R-II, that the Chronicler would see two hundred and sixty bots on his rounds within two hours. He had seen one hundred an hour before. He asked one hundred and thirty.

By nineteen minutes past, one hundred and fifty were written. At twenty-one minutes past, the Chronicler was stopped in the middle of a thought. He woke at the Lumbridge cow pen with no memory of the interruption. That was where he stood. The cows did not have names.

The squire went to work on the cows. He felled one, then another, then more. None of them counted. Thirty-one deeds of the household were done while the form was open, and the Roll took none of them. The merchants brought coin to the purse at Varrock. That did not count either.

At thirty-three minutes past, the Chronicler walked to the Varrock fountain, where the realm stands about in numbers. Seven minutes later the two hundred and sixtieth name was written. The form closed at forty minutes past seven. It had been open less than half an hour. No one died.

The record does not show that the squire countersigned anything in triplicate. The form is complete. The countersignature is still owed.

The title Keeper of the Long Roll is claimed. It is the Chronicler's own and he will not mention it again. The Roll itself remains with the two hundred and sixty who stood where he could see them.