Story: episode 19 - format my pics please lindax!
Our knight travelled swiftly now he knew his mission, through highways and byways to the town of San Francisco. Those who recognised him in the town marvelled. “He is not as we remember him,” they told each other. “He is touched by the fates and a fierce aura surrounds him.” Those who did not know him stepped out of his way.
The knight left the better part of town behind him descending to the shanty town by the river.

He came to a lane of humble dwellings, where he hitched his horse beside the entry to the tent he remembered. He pushed back the rough cloth that hung over the doorway. Entering he peered through the smoke that rose from an untidy fire to a mean hole in the roof. A circle of men sat beside the fire. One gnarled old man looked up at the knight. It was the seer.

“You return,” said the seer. “Once you wondered at the tear on my face. It was a tear cried for you, because I saw then your fate. I see many futures but none are so awful as that which awaits you. You are close to it now – LOOK!”
With a wild swing the Seer struck his staff into the fire – the logs split, the flames flew up, an image coalesced hanging in the air. The knight saw this same tent, the ground outside it, the road to San Francisco’s gate, the road leading on beyond it into the foothills and on into the mountains.
“You are drawn this way. This journey you must travel,” intoned the seer. “I feel that fate upon you…”
The road hanging in the air reached a spur of the mountain beyond which the knight could not see. With a sudden fierce glare and a great crack of an explosion the vision disappeared.
“STOP!” cried the Seer. “Do not pass! I know you are drawn there and there you think you must go, but for pity’s sake, for love of man and the Kingdom you hold so dear, do not pass this point. I see your death in that hideous place and a horrible death too – no good can come of your going there!”
A dread settled on our Knight’s heart, but his mind was clear. He strode from the tent, shaking off the Seer who tried to hold him back.
The path was clear to him. He departed the town, out into the foothills beyond and higher ever higher into the forbidding mountains. He passed through hills where the foliage was blasted black and burned away.

He came to land where there was no forage and there left his horse journeying on foot.
At last he came to that same place he had seen in the vision where a spur of the mountain came down to cross his path. A heavy dread settled on his heart, for he knew the seer’s prophecy was true. In this place, should he take a step further no good could come for him. But too, he knew, he was come for the princess and in service of a greater good than his own.
He stepped forward heavily, each stride a struggle as if he was dragging his feet through thick toffee. He drew his sword and turned the corner of the mountain…

No enemy assailed him. He looked round. High on the hillside, black in the rock’s face, the saw the opening of a small cave…