[b]Tristan[/b]

The ground laps up the beer you offered. It is dry and cracked, the soil greedy, and the beer sinks into it seemingly leaving it no better than before. The air is still and a feeling of pressure makes your ears feel as though stuffed with cotton. Something ought to happen here. You've never done this kind of augury and received no result before!

As you stare intently at the ground where your beer soaked through, it seems almost as though it was dryer than a moment before. In fact, you're sure that the dusty cracks in the soil are widening. An owl hoots, once and flies into the air, and as you turn suddenly, you feel your balance thrown. You look back down at the earth that has betrayed you and have no doubt that the cracks are widening. The ground before you is splintering and beginning to shake. A deep rumble like thunder from below rises to the surface and the cracks race outwards as the world beneath your feet rolls. 

You are caught in the midst of an earthquake, as is all of Southhaven and the lands around! People rush from their homes and from the keep at this most dire portent. And there, visible to all as she takes stock of the situation and scans the horizon for her prey, is King Pellinor and her knights on the road between keep village.

What do you do as the ground tries to throw you from its back?

[b]Robena[/b]

"I am as full of life as ever, Robena" Sandsfern says, beaming with confidence and turning upon you a stern look that chides you for notholding yourself up straight as a knight ought to behave. "And twice as skilled as when you last saw me, you boor. Don't think that because you're still a mountain in a wresting match that it gives you a leg up on me."

Sandsfern seems determined to fill the silence that you've left for her with the anger and the ache that hangs so heavily over you. But, before you can launch into anything further, her head snaps to the side, and it seems that fate has mercifully spared you the need for inaction as a loud rumbling sound leads to an earthquake that shakes the rafters and causes a fine layer of built up dirt and dust to rain down on everyone inside. The inhabitants of the Fox and Stag rush doors, and when you and Sandsfern do likewise, you see there upon the road between town and keep King Pellinor and a handful of knights from her household, arrayed in fine steel with tabards depicting the King's azure cross upon a field of or. 

Tristan stands in the fields at a little distance, obviously interrupted in his offering. Could this, too, be Uther's doing somehow? The Lady Sandsfern stands ready to support you should you ride forth and declare a challenge.

What will you do?

[b]Constance[/b]
Merlin looks you in the eye set as you are and, for all his ageless wisdom, depth, and roguish mischief, he blinks first, and you see sorrow in those eyes. "You know her, the mistress of that fire-ruined keep that once you roamed in youth. Do not think this is the first I've seen of you or your family, Constance Nim, Daughter of the Bristol Avon. The dragon you seek is the lady of your knight Robena who you sent off with such haste. Sandsfern is no more human than I am, and wears the guise less well than I for her inexperience."

Merlin sighs and the way his face creases with worry, you'd think he'd just aged twenty years. Or two hundred. "She's hardly got any destiny. More of a curse, I've gathered, she traveled quite far away and I don't know all the details, but it's something demonic in nature. I doubt she's at all interested in stealing your sword or being slain by a heroic knight, nor do I think your oh so gallant knight is up to doing the slaying. Frankly, I'd be more impressed if you freed her and gained her aid in your quest than if you walked up to her with a sword and a request for a believable kidnapping only to get laughed out of whatever hole you find her in."

Merlin sighs again, this one in a sort of surrender, running a hand through his hair again and straightening up his hat back on his head and for a moment he looks again like a regular farmer just giving you directions. "Well, she's been see in the area at any rate, try Southaven and maybe from there..."

Merlin scowls and his eyes darken as he drops his farmer guise entirely to looks towards the horizon. Though he does not change his clothes or move his hat yet again, for a moment, you see him as he really is. Strong and old, at once gnarled as the great oak and ageless as the mountains. His face is dark and fae and his eyes are looking away, always looking away to times long past and times to come, to the storms always in the distance. 

In the distance now, you hear a low rumbling, more vibration than sound, and the pebbles upon the ground near you shake and rattle like merry little dice. "Run to Southaven! Keep your friends alive, child, and stage your dragon trial if you think it wise. Take the cat with you, she might just keep you alive."