K is for Kevin

A very good evening to you! I’m Kevin. I work for Maggie at the Tipsy Hedgehog, who was called Aggie in ‘Every Thom, Dick, and Harry Has Got a Story’. I think she’ll revert back to being Maggie, since that story wasn’t accepted. The Tipsy Hedgehog has shown up in Omphalos, Caerac Keep, as well as a small, Eirish village. In the latter, the residents of that village was deathly afraid of magic. The Serpent can sniff out magic users, you see. At least, that’s what my gran always warned me. You had to cast out magic users, leaving them in a circle of stones outside the village, when they were still infants. If you did that, the Serpent would swallow just the infants, lying in the circle, leaving everyone else alone. If you didn’t, the Serpent would come, swallowing everyone. It would take a hero like Padraig, to drive the Serpent out, and heroes like him are rare. Or so my gran says. Daerec the Sorcerer has been living in that tower nearby, and the Serpent hasn’t come for him, or anyone else. Some say the Serpent is too scared of Daerec to come near him. Who could blame the Serpent? The ivy covering Daerec’s tower has the will of a hundred serpents itself, sliding around and crushing intruders. If you live to enter the tower, the tower itself is filled with books, whose characters will come to life, if you’re unwise enough to open them. One marvels that a gentle, beautiful boy like Rhoddry can stand to live in such a place. However, Rhoddry is fairly odd himself, given some of the strange things he says and does. It’s an innocent kind of oddness. I can’t help worrying about him, when he comes to meet those friends of his at the Tipsy Hedgehog, particularly Thom and Varwyth. Thom is a bit of a rake, who’s with a different lass or lad, every time I see him. I can tell he’s itching to add Rhoddry to his list of conquests. Varwyth is even scarier. Such a cold, odd fellow, for all his good looks, who makes the skin crawl, every time you catch his eye. I should warn Rhoddry about his friends. Maybe I should strike up a conversation with him, the next time he enters the Tipsy Hedgehog. Just to warn him, of course.