March 9, 2012

Purple Prose:
Chapter 1:

Will is eating dinner at Halt and Lady Pauline's house. He tells them bothhis speech, although it is a little... shall we say poetic. After hearing the first few lines of Will's speech, Lady Pauline proposes a change: just speek from your heart, like you did at our wedding [hers and Halt's.] He replied that he would think about it- simplifying his speech so that Halt could understand the flourid language heard in his speech.

Chapter 2:

After an unsuccessful day hunting for Jenny's restaurant, Will decided to give his speech another go by reading it to both his dog, Ebony, and his horse, Tug. They responded like all pets do when they are bored- they went to sleep.

Chapter 3:

Will was in the middle of rating Redmont's Battlescholl in the annual report to the King when Halt walked in to his cabing. Halt went on, saying that we [Halt and Will] have a mission: track down and defeat the Moondarkers. The Moondarkers are ship wrekers who lay false beacon fires to make the ship's captain think that he has reached port. Will brought his speech with him on his journey so that he could work on it in the evening. On the ride,  Halt and will made a plan of action. They would scout around and look for signs that the Moondarkers are getting ready for an assault. The Moondarkers would need to build a beacon fire to grasp the attention of ships passing by. This fire would need to be prepared days  in advance, so there would be a good chance that would be located outside in the open.

Chapter 4:

The pair of rangers first went to see the actual beacon in the town of Hambley. But, the tall headland behind it hides the beacon from the view of any ship coming down the coast from the north. Beyond that headland  hill is a beach. Halt thinks that is where the Moondarkers will build the false beacon. During the first war agains Morgarath, the army was too preoccupied with winning the war that they did not focus on capturing criminals. After Morgarath was defeated, Halt and Crowley drove them out of Araulen. But they are back again. It took Halt less than two hours to find the Moondarkers' campsite. There were a sixteen people that Halt could see, all of them men, working tirelessly to pitch their tents before the evening meal. A delicious aroma of meat roasting over a fire filled Halt's nostrils. He thought that he had done enough recon for tonight, and headed back to Will.

Chapter 5:

Halt decided that he might need to get some help from the local villagers. Since Will will be attending to the beacon fire, Halt will single handedly take on the sixteen Moondarkers. Will will throw a packet filled with colored dye into the fire, producing a change in color of the flames, either a deep red or yellow. The ship captain will see the flames change color, realize that this is not the real beacon, and head back out too sea. The next day, the Moondarkers went to work building the false beacon. A messenger arrived saying that he spotted a ship a geat distance away. There was shouting as the already-cut firewood was stacked into the beacon, ready to be lit at a moment's notice.

Chapter 6:

Will could see a ship in the distance. Halt reasoned that since the wind was blowing against the ship, it would take approximately two hours for the ship to get level to the false beacon. Then he left to go rouse the Watch from the village to combat the Moondarkers. He left it late so that, unlikely as it may sound, the villagers would have no time to warn the Moondarkers of the Rangers' presence in the area. Will then started to move into position. Some time later, Will was about a hundred meters away from the beacon. He looked seaward and was startled about how quickly the ship had traveled. Will proceeded towards the false beacon, only to be confronted by the words, "What the blazes are you up to," and the wind of a battleax as it whipped past his face, missing him by mere centimeters.

Chapter 7:

Instinctively, Will's saxe knife leaped from his scabbard into his hand, startled by the sudden appearance of the large man wielding the battleax. Will drew a striker out of his satchel; Gilian had advised him to jump off a cliff if you ever have to face a battleax with just two knives. te threw The striker, knocking the man out. Will had only seconds to act, as the ship was coming close to beaching. He threw his satchel containg the pouch of dye into the fire, and a blinding pillar of vivid purple flame shot seven meters into the air. The ship at sea turned back to safe waters, recognizing the beacon on the beach as a fake. Will dashed over to Halt and the Watch, aware of fierce fighting going on around the beach.

When they rode home a few days later, Will was in a gloomy mood. First, his bow was ruined in the fight with the ax-man. Also, when he threw his satchel into the fire, his speech was in that satchel, Will's only copy of the speech. He had made notes about the speech... but they were also in the satchel. And Will could not even remember a single word of the speech. Halt prompted Will, by asking who the speech was written for, and then went on to ask other questions. The answers to Halt's questions became the foundation for Will's speech, words from the bottom of his heart. The fact that Will's speech was in the satchel did clarify one detail. It was why the flames turned purple- it was not hte dye, it was Will's speech.