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A good deal of hammering went on before the curtain rose again, but when it became evident what a masterpiece of stage carpentering had been got up, no one murmured at the delay. It was truly superb! A tower rose to the ceiling; halfway up appeared a window with a lamp burning at it, and behind the white curtain appeared Zara in a lovely blue and silver dress, waiting for Roderigo. He came in gorgeous array, with plumed cap, red cloak, chestnut lovelocks, a guitar, and the boots, of course. Kneeling at the foot of the tower, he sang a serenade in melting tones. Zara replied and, after a musical dialogue, consented to fly. Then came the grand effect of the play. Roderigo produced a rope ladder, with five steps to it, threw up one end, and invited Zara to descend. Timidly she crept from her lattice, put her hand on Roderigo's shoulder, and was about to leap gracefully down when "Alas! alas for Zara!" she forgot her train—it caught in the window, the tower tottered, leaned forward, fell with a crash, and buried the unhappy lovers in the ruins!
A universal shriek arose as the russet boots waved wildly from the wreck and a golden head emerged, exclaiming, "I told you so! I told you so!" With wonderful presence of mind, Don Pedro, the cruel sire, rushed in, dragged out his daughter, with a hasty aside—
"Don't laugh! Act as if it was all right!"—and, ordering Roderigo up, banished him from the kingdom with wrath and scorn. Though decidedly shaken by the fall of the tower upon him, Roderigo defied the old gentleman and refused to stir.
Nevertheless we mustn't forget that our villains are sometimes related to the hero or heroine. Tricky balance here because we are all aware of hereditary factors in human beings. The danger can be that doubt is built about the hero or heroine's ability to be heroic when they have such "bad" blood flowing in their veins.
It was king of dinosaurs against king of dinosaurs! Roars tore through the peace of the night like it was so much tissue paper, followed by the first splinter of wood as a lance shattered against the hide of the old bull.
With a jerk of his massive gnarled head, the old bull got his teeth into the throat of the younger t-rex and applied sudden, deadly pressure. An inhuman almost undinosaur cry rang out and then the smaller t-rex fell, body twitching with dying spasms. Character 2 barely had time to roll off her dead steed to safety when the old bull slammed his foot down on top of his dead opponent in triumph.
"You've lost, Character 2," said Character 1 calmly as she looked down at Character 2. "Accept it with grace and abandon your mad mission. Give me the red diamond."
"You don't understand!" screamed Character 2. "You never did! Not in school, not when we were together, and certainly not now!"
"What didn't I understand, Character 2? Your knavery? You're right, I never did." Character 1 put steel in her voice, but she blinked back tears.
Character 1 lifted her sword. It weighed nearly nothing. Instead of cold steel it consisted of generated hard light, with an edge as small as an atom. Character 1 didn't know if it would be enough to stop Character 2.
Character 3, in all his wisdom, had told Character 1 that the Star Cleaver, as the sword was known, could take any enemy. Even one that was a eighteen foot killer android.
Character 1 sighed. It was one thing to tear that android apart, but it was another to face yourself after you'd torn it apart knowing that it was programmed with the brain engrams of your dead mother. And... deep inside, Character 1 suspected she was just as likely to slice herself in half with the damned sword as actually do injury to Character 2's metal carapace.
Character 1 nodded to her opponent. Character 2 had stuck to her word and now sat on the back of her mighty steed on the other side of the jousting field, waiting for Character 1 to issue the opening challenge. Both women had chosen their tyrannosaurus rexes for the traits they found most useful in a mount.
Character 2 had stuck to her nature, choosing a rex that while it wasn't the largest of the herd, was clearly fast and agile. The t-rex, Character 1 narrowed her eyes as she looked at it, realizing it was a male, was a fine specimen, with long wiry legs that never seemed still, yet never unbalanced. Character 2 was stroking its neck the way t-rexes enjoyed, and whispering to it.
Strength, however, was Character 1's forte, as it were, and her t-rex displayed this trait in spades. It snorted and pawed the ground, its little arms waggling menacingly in the air. It was a huge bull, covered in scars, the veteran of many fights... of which it had been the winner.
"Character 2!" barked Character 1. The other woman's head snapped up to look at Character 1.
Character 1 continued: "We can end this now, you know. Give me the red diamond and this can be all over." She kept her voice even, but it was hard. "We'll never return to our world if you keep it out of some selfish desire to see your family. It won't be them, Character 2. It will just be shades that drive you mad."
"If you want it, princess, you'll have to take it from me!" yelled Character 2, dropping her helmet's mask down, readying her lance and charging!
The unicorn appeared in early Mesopotamian artworks, and it also was referred to in the ancient myths of India and China. The earliest description in Greek literature of a single-horned (Greek monokerōs, Latin unicornis) animal was by the historian Ctesias (c. 400 bce), who related that the Indian wild ass was the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, and on its forehead was a cubit-long horn coloured red at the pointed tip, black in the middle, and white at the base. Those who drank from its horn were thought to be protected from stomach trouble, epilepsy, and poison.
