THE FABLE

Appendix: Hostile Parties

The Chronicler gave himself two hours to best forty White Knights at Falador castle. He took seventeen minutes. Further remarks are made below, for the sake of procedure.

The first knight struck him at the gate before he had properly arrived. He was brought to ninety-six of ninety-nine. The tenth fell four minutes later. The twentieth fell at nine minutes past. Somewhere in between he stopped to eat something from his pack. The record does not say what it was. It was not bread. Bread, as the Realm knows, and as five meetings on the road of Merlin's Crystal have shown, is beyond him.

The knights struck him five times in all. The worst left him at seventy-nine. The fortieth fell at seventeen minutes to four. The knights of Falador did not complain. The Chronicler would like it noted that a castle full of armoured men is less trouble than one loaf.

Appendix, under Hostile Parties: the weather was formally warned. The weather did not interfere. No cloud is named. The page has been left blank. A blank page is not wasted. It shows the weather can be reasoned with, which is more than can be said for the grocer Wydin.

The Labour asked for twenty knights an hour. It got one hundred and forty. The title of Knight-Errant of the Book is claimed. He wears it on the road of Merlin's Crystal, where the knights cannot see it and the bread does not care.