1 Dragons and a Show

The darkness slowly lifted as the dragon began to gain altitude and departed the valley. It wasn’t until I was sure that she…he…it—oh, whatever—was gone that I started moving again. I stood, shaking rubble off of me, and had to lean on my staff as a violent wave of coughing overtook me as my body tried to expel the dust from my lungs. Sure, I may have grown up in the caves of the Academy, but crashing a flying castle is going to stir up a bit more dust than even I’m used to.

            “Vier! Aelveran! Ix!” I coughed out. “Elaris! Is everyone alive?”

            I heard more coughing to my right, intermixed with some rather creative colorful metaphors.

            “You idiot, Azrael! Why did you have to go and do tha—” Vier’s rant suddenly cut off. I glanced in his direction, wondering what could possibly get that loudmouth to stop mid-sentence, when I saw it myself.

            The castle had landed directly on top of the Old City, walled off long ago to keep the stuff of Tyranna’s nightmares trapped after the fall of the Empire.

            As for what had risen up since…the newer city was gone. Just gone. Bits of rubble and half standing walls, scorched or still burning as far as the eye could see…everything was smashed until any faint possibility that this had recently been a thriving civilization was completely ludicrous. The mountains we’d crossed earlier in the week were themselves soot-blackened, shattered remnants of their former selves.

            “Stars…” I breathed. All of this to get at…I shook myself, trying to tear away from the horrible magnitude of it all. “Bob.” My voice was still a faint echo of its usual quality. Must have been the shock.

            A tiny robed imp, no more than six inches high, appeared less than two feet in front of my nose. “Yes?” He squeaked.

            “Find the others. Anyone not a known ally, burn first and ask questions later.”

            Bob, ever oblivious to the situation, giggle in delight and made like a tiny comet across the ruins.

            I turned to where I’d heard Vier, and went to help him, my mind still trying to grasp what had happened.

            Ganus was back.

           

            We never did find the bodies of Elaris and Gideon. We never found anyone, or for that matter anything of value. Don’t look at me like that. It wasn’t like there was anyone left to use or claim anything.

            There was no point to sticking around, and there was no time in any case. We had to keep moving.

            Just before we headed out, though, I swear I heard a vaguely flamboyant “Whoops!”, immediately followed by the sound of something clattering against the rubble nearby. I looked around, and saw a faintly glowing orb coming to stop on the ground not two feet from us.

            It couldn’t be.

            It was just too easy.

            After years of looking, two in a single… “Vier.”

            He looked over, and I motioned for him to follow me as I picked my way around the rubble to get a proper look at it.

            The fire orb rested on a cracked stone, casing flickering light across it. I glanced back at the bard, the same mix of shock and excitement on my face, I’m sure, as was on his.

            Earth, Air, and Fire. It almost sounded like a bad band name. “How do we go about carrying this one around?”

            (To be filled in more later—the above was not recorded, and I must consult with my fellow players for the rest of this bit.)

            Barsaive. According to Vier, one of the few places that hadn’t been overrun by the Kalaxian Empire. It was also about the only place we’d find a rift into the Faewild. Kalaxia beign what it was now, neither Aelveran nor I would be able to get there from here, despite our fae nature. Without a stronger magical connection, Tyranna wouldn’t be able to help either. Ishtar would also be a consideration, being one of the more magical locations on this continent, but the last I’d heard it had been overrun by demons working to keep Shardaxis’ bloody claws off of it.

            Not the safest place to be.

            “So. How do we get there?” Despite the two years that had passed since I found myself in Dorolla, geography was still not my best subject. That was Vier’s job.

            “It’s a separate continent. We’ll need to find a port city with a ship headed our way.  Farron’s probably our best bet for that.”

            “Wait, why are we going there again?” Aelveran asked.

            With a bizarre amount of patience, Vier explained. “It’s where the rakshasa told us to go. Human representation in Ilsur Valley will allow Humanity to take its place in this world as a race with power.”

            Wolf boy fingered the points of his ears. “Why do I care?”

            “Because if you get left here you’re going to die.” As if to underline Ix’s statement, a dragon roared in the not-too-distant distance. “Also, Farron isn’t a port city. It’s just probably the closest thing to a city that hasn’t been destroyed.”

            “Still, probably a good place to go and figure out what’s still standing.” Vier shrugged.

            “Well then. Let’s get moving.” Cassandra, it seemed, was getting tired of hanging around. She set off, heading northeast, not waiting for us to get our gear in order. We hurried to catch up to the, as the bard put it, sexy fire elf.

            Vier was actually about to start skipping after her, that ridiculous smitten look on his face, when Ix grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him back. “She’s married, Vier, and you don’t want to get on her husband’s bad side.” He cast a sideways glance at me. “We’ve actually met him, Azrael, come to think of it.”

            “Oh?”

            “Do you remember M?”

            “…No?”

            “Then you don’t remember M.”

            “Oh, come on.”  

            Ix smiled, and I wound up spending the next hour or so trying to talk him into reminding me. Finally, he capitulated.

            “Alright, alright, fine. Do you remember a kinda decrepit, life-sucked-out-of-him humanoid with a fake eye and hand?”

            “She’s married to that?” Vier exclaimed.

            “Is he mortal?” Tyranna asked.

            “The journey over was not kind to him.” We’d caught up to Cassandra. Elven hearing being what it is, she’d probably overheard most of the conversation anyway and had finally decided to participate.

            “From where?” I queried.

            “Not too far from where you’re from, actually.”       

            “Sorry?”

            “You are from Darkstar, correct?” She tilted her head. “Well, ‘not too far’ may not be all that accurate though anything is close by when you travel through hyperspace.”

            I blinked. She was from…but…the possibilities were too fantastic, and I started peppering her with questions.

            As we walked, we occasionally heard the screeching of dragons. They started getting closer after awhile, putting us on edge enough that we all dove for cover whenever they sounded.

            Except Vier. We had to pull him after us, or he would have continued moseying around in the open. Thankfully, all we ever saw was a shadow or two cast from something flying overhead pass very quickly. Once they were gone, we contined as normal.

            About the third time this happened, Aelveran demanded of Vier, “Why aren’t you hiding?!”

            “I’ve been distracted by the drama-heaviness of the air.” The bard stated primly.

            Aelveran gaped at him in exasperation. “Get over it!”

            Vier returned the favor. “A billion gajillion people just died!”

            “Yes.”

            “I am depressed.”

            “And they’re dead. There is nothing to be gained by dwelling on it. They’re dead.”

            They kept bickering like that until I broke in with what was on everyone else’s mind. “I’m hungry.”

            Vier flicked his head in a gesture that would have translated as ‘So there!’, no matter what realm you were from, and checked his pack. “I don’t think we’ve got quite enough to get us to Farron. We should probably see if we can find anything.”

            He had to be kidding. We were still in the middle of the huge scorch mark Shardaxis…Ganus…Shardaxonus…had left behind. Where were we…I shook my head and joined the hunt.

            Someone must have been smiling down on us. Before too long, we found clean water and a few roots that had somehow managed to survive the razing. The landscape around us was utterly depressing. After we left the rubble of Kalaxia behind there’d been nothing but leveled, blackened earth for several day’s journey in all directions. Entire mountains that had ounce stood proudly against the heavens were simply gone.

            “What happened here?” Vier breathed shades of mourning still coloring his tone. I raised an eyebrow. He saw it, and defensively added, “I mean, I know what happened—“

            “An angry dragon. We were there.”

            Vier sighed and shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the destruction.

           

            Over the course of the next day, the landscape became a bit less level, though still completely ruined.  We found ourselves walking through a deep canyon. Judging by some of the rocks, what we were walking on had recently been a riverbed—and my suspicions said ‘recently’ in this case meant ‘yesterday’.

            The day passed uneventfully. In favor or speed we decided against stopping for the night, taking occasional short rests instead. Sometime long after dark, we heard the sound of countless footfalls coming from behind us. Intermixed was the sound of what may have been horses.

            “A stampede?” Tyranna suggested.

            “Maybe…”Aelveran frowned, watching the last bend we’d taken.

            “Sounds like it, but it’s enough moving to make it hard to know for sure.” Ix’s hand went to his sword, his eyes also scanning the trail.

            We were standing between a series of large standing stones that would have once made a great path across the surface of the river and now provided perfect cover.  Vier, who had been aparantly listening to the scolding he’d gotten yesterday, moved quickly out of sight by sliding behind one of them.

            Tyranna, for some strange reason, climbed on top of the tallest menhir, crossing her harms and putting on a decidedly grumpy expression. Or maybe that was just her face as usual. Whatever.

            Ix watched her climb and shook his head before he, Cassandra, and I followed Vier with at muttered, “Your funeral”

            After a few minutes, Tyranna called down to us, “Dragonkin. An army of them. I think they’ve got a few full dragons with them as mounts. We’ll be surrounded. “

            Surrounded? What on—I peeked out from the shadow I’d taken refuge in to see what she meant. There was nothing coming towards us down the canyon. A thought hit me, and I sucked in a breath before looking up at the edge of the canyon. Along both sides, glaring down at us, were Dragonkin in full battle armor. I ducked back and started to relay what I’d seen to the others, but apparently the bard had done as I had and beaten me to the punch. They shushed me as some deep-throated soldier started roaring in Draconic.

            Ix whispered, “I think they’re looking for us.”

            It’s a good thing we had him along, or else all I’d be getting out of this was a headache. I hate headaches.

            “Why would they be looking for us?” Vier whispered back.

            I nudged Ix and motioned to the ridge. There were more Dragonkin watching, quite unmistakably, us. “I don’t think they’re looking for us anymore.”

            Vier swore, and we stepped out to face today’s rather tardy trial.

             A few soldiers were already making their way down the sides of the cliff. I could see that their armor was decorated with the bones and skulls of various species. A wave of nausea swept over me, seeing that, probably backed by everything I’d seen yesterday and was still trying to ignore. Vier groaned in panic beside me, and I knew I wasn’t the only one with issues.

            Tyranna clambered back down to join us, and we regrouped to quickly discuss our options.

            “I don’t see a way out of this without a fight—do we approach them or fall back to a better defensive position?” Demon girl asked, battle-hunger already in her eyes.

            Ix shook his head. “They outnumber us, they’d more than likely outrun us, so…”

            “We’re going to have to fight.” Grimaced Vier, finishing the thought.
            “Can we open a portal?” Aelveran interjected

            “Not here—this place is way too dead.” Cassandra didn’t look like she was liking our options to much either.

            “We need life.” Vier reminded him, pitting emphasis on the last word.

            “Well, we could use them—”

            “That’s not enough—”

            ‘Remember the skulls their wearing?! That’s not giving off a good life kind of vibe!” Ix and subtlety…nope. Still not happening. “We need, like, a rainforest.”

            “Does it kill the rainforest?” asked Aelveran, tilting his head.

            “No, places like that just have a stronger connection—but that’s not the point.”

            “Right. Let’s thrash these guys.” The amnesiac dog started shifting into a fighting stance when he blinked and looked around at us, suddenly uncertain. “Um…how?”

            The bodyguard gave him a flat look. “I think we should try ot talk our way out of this first…”

            Funny he should say that, seeing as he had his sword out.

            “Can you be our diplomat, as you’re the only one that speaks Draconic?” appealed Tyranna.

            Ix laughed nervously. “You’re kidding right?”

            “If you want to translate, I can try getting us out of here.” The bard offered.

            Tyranna held up a hand, running the other along one of her horns. “Wait, what about scaring them into letting us go?”

            “No.”

            By now, enough Dragonkin had made it down to the canyon floor and were advancing on us, coming to a stop about five feet away, swords and spears drawn and pointed at us menacingly.

            One…gentleman, his slightly more ornate armor, swagger, and five or so of his fellows screaming ‘self-important’ made his way over to us and roared something. I don’t claim to understand Draconic, and quite honestly it all sounds to me like you’re going to need something for your throat later, but something about the leader’s tone seemed a bit more rude than necessary.

            “They want to know who we are.” Translated Ix, keeping a wary eye on our surroundings. Knowing him, there was probably a teleportation scramble spell forming in the back of his mind.

            “We’re…” Vier floundered for a story. It wasn’t like he could tell them that we were hunting dragons. Cromar may have been off doing that, but he wasn’t exactly the best example of a normal Dragonkin. “We’re just travelers passing through the area. We’re trying to get to the next town.”

            Ix repeated the message, paused, and added in Common, “I think I got that right.”

            Tyranna blanched. Couldn’t blame her.

            The speaker gave Ix and Vier and odd look, turned, and shouted something up to the soldiers still looking over the cliff. Several more of them started making their way down.

            We gave our bodyguard a collective look of desperation, fright, and a demand for answers. “I think they’re getting a translator.”

            A Dragonkin mounted on a rather ferocious looking lizard that walked on its hind legs, wearing less armor than the others and only bearing a sword on his hip came forward and stared speaking with Vier in Common.

            “Ix, what did you say?” Aelveran’s gaze flickered around nervously. “What did he say?!”

            The rider ignored him, and with a note of simple, straightforward authority, asked, “Who are you?”

            “We’re refugees from a town recently destroyed by the recent calamities.” Vier held up his hands and continued reassuringly, “We don’t want any trouble or any harm, nor do we mean any. We’re just trying to make it to Farron, however far away that might be.”

            “What sort of calamity?”

            “Well…our entire city was scorched and we just barely managed to escape it. We don’t know exactly what caused—”

            “Which city?”

            “Ilstan.”

            See? Geography.

            The rider made a noise like he didn’t quite believe us. “That’s a bit far, and you don’t look like you’re from Ilstan, either.”

            “We were just passing through. We’re a troupe of performers. I’m the head bard and each one of us does a different trick.”

            Say what?

            “Well then, how about I make a deal with you. You give us a show, tonight, and we’ll let you go tomorrow…relatively peacefully.”

            Vier turned around to face us, and he was wearing a grin I’d seen on used ship dealers. “So, team—what do you think? Sound like a good deal to you?”

            Ix glared at the bard and said flatly, “I hate you.”

            Couldn’t agree more. But, there was no other way out. Vier faced the rider again.

            “Well, we haven’t done a show in a while, so if you’ll give us a little time to get our acts together for you tonight we will put on the best show that we can for you under the circumstances.”

            As soon as the translator was gone and had taken most of the soldiers that had the business end of their weapons pointed at us with him, Veir’s smile disappeared. “Alright. It’s almost dawn. We have a day to prepare.”

            “We have a day to get out of here.” Ix disagreed.

            Vier sighed. “You said it yourself. They’d probably catch us if we ran and I don’t think that they’re going to just let us leave. We don’t have much of a chance to escape, the best we can do is see if we can work something up tonight and…kinda go from there. We can do this, okay?”

            I, and clearly Ix as well, still didn’t like where this was going, but nobody could gainsay him, so...well. The show, as they say, must go on.

            We were directed by several guards towards a wagon covered in spikes and yet more bones. We piled in, and as we did I heard Tyranna mutter something appreciative of the décor. I glanced back at her, and caught sight of wolf-boy contemplating the bones like he wanted to start chewing on one.

            Oh boy.

            As soon as we were all settled, we jumped right into planning.

            “Tyranna, how good a dancer are you?”

            She smiled in a way that showed her fangs. “Pretty good.”

            “Yeah?”
            “Give me a pole and I’m great.”

            There was a sudden pause in the conversation before our illustrious leader continued. “Something tells me we’ll be able to scrounge something up from all the spears around here. Think you could do something like a fire dance?”

            “Oh yes, easily. I could probably do one of those shows where the spinning ball on the end of the rope is on fire as well.”

            “If you wanted to, you could probably juggle Bob.” I threw in.
            “Would Bob be alright with that?”

            Bob, who I had summoned at the start of the conversation, blushed a deep crimson and hid behind my shoulder. The imp had a huge crush on Tyranna, and we all knew it. It was far too much fun to watch him squirm.

            Aelveran shook his head, looking a bit uncomfortable with the whole idea. “These are Dragonkin. They usually don’t like Tieflings.”

            Tyranna shrugged. “Well, what do they like? Fire, right?”

            “They should. Not only are they Dragonkin, but they’re the Niholt Raiders. I recognized their insignia.” He paused and gave me and Ix a significant look. “They’re servants of Nidon.”

            I blinked. That was a name I hadn’t heard in a while. Nidon was a peer of Shardaxis. We’d never met, but the last time Ix and I had tangled with one of his minion it had been in Ankeg, just after we’d met Vier. It hadn’t been pretty. We didn’t even get to properly kill Janith, as she was a lich and her phylactery was held several thousand miles away in Nidon’s hoard. Everything we’d heard about the dragon himself said that he was one grumpy, miserly, obviously evil and ridiculously powerful old dragon with a nasty habit of using the bones of his fallen enemies as a decorating scheme.

When we’d destroyed Jannus, we’d essentially sent what was left of her back to her owner. Which meant there was a half-decent chance he’d heard of us. We were going to have to be careful, and hope that the fact a night elf was traveling with the band that removed Nidon’s sorceress from the field had been missed. Not to be conceited or anything, but I was a rather singular marker. I was once again thankful for my long established habit of not going anywhere without my cloak on and hood up. They hadn’t seen my face.

I shook my head. Worry later, plan now. “So. We’re a traveling freak show…”

Vier gave me another one of his trademark flatly unamused expressions. “And you’re going to be putting together an electric light-and-shadow dance piece.”

I gave him my most obnoxious, sunny grin, partially to cover the nervous feeling in my gut. “You show a great amount of faith in my abilities. Thank you!”

“I’m the bodyguard.” Ix clearly didn’t want anything to do with the stage.

I smiled, and Aelveran asked the bard, “And what are you going to be doing?”

“Werewolf puppet show.” He said promptly.

Aelveran stiffened. “Say what?”

Tyranna fought to conceal a giggle as Vier explained, “You are going to turn into a werewolf and I am going to use one of my spells to control you.”

“I don’t like this idea.”

            “And in the interim, there will be some songs and…we need to work out a plan. Are we going to try and escape during the show or…” He shook his head. “They’re not going to let us out of here alive. E need to figure out how we’re going to make this work to our advantage.”

            “Well, if you’re really going to us my…wolf to your advantage…you could push me over the edge and cause me to run off in a certain direction, and then there’d be mass mayhem and chaos and you might be able to get out.” Suggested Aelveran, looking grim. “I might die in the process.”

            Tyranna jumped in. “Or you could attack them in your werewolf form and—”

            “Die after being overwhelmed. Bad plan, Tyranna.”  I finished.

            Aelveran raised a hand, trying to keep the peace. “Either way, I’m probably not going to survive.”

            I shot him an exasperated look. “We’d rather not have you die, Aelveran, or deal with the horrible odds that present themselves when it comes to saving your tail. Once was enough for me.”

            Thankfully, Vier seemed to have an idea that did not include someone dying. “What if we did a sort of finale piece where we take all of our efforts and put them together? While doing so, we’ll throw the biggest combined blast of energy we can into their camp, grab some mounts, and get the Hell out of here. You too—“, he motioned to me and Tyranna, “are going to have to be the major powerhouses behind this, the rest of us don’t really blast much. I can add a little bit of fire to it, but I can’t do a whole lot. The best I can do is a little bit of mind control on their chief or somebody to throw a bit of extra panic in there so we can get some mounts and get out.”

            I sat back for a moment, considering. It wasn’t a bad plan—your standard smash-and-grab, really. But how much, I wondered, could Tyranna and I really do?

            Aelveran tilted his head again in a way that made sure you knew he was about to derail the conversation again. “Wait. How do Shardaxis and Nidon feel about each other?”

            “Lore says they’re negatively neutral. They’re competitive, but never at war.” As usual, Vier seemed to have more patience with him than I did.

            “So it’s feasible that they’re currently on the same side.”

            “They’re not necessarily on the same side, but they’re not fighting each other, either.”

            “Dragons are on one side.” Ix stated firmly. “Their side.”

            “But if Gannus….Shradaxis…Gannaxis…”

            “Shardaxonnus” Ix supplied. So I hadn’t been the only one. Good.

            Aelveran nodded to him. “If Shardaxonnus suddenly decides to recruit Nidon…”

            I finished the thought. “Would Nidon go along with it.”

            The half-elf shook his head. “The Great Dragons only work for themselves.”
            “So…no.”

            “No. That’s how the Dragon Empire fell. The older ones got bored and decided to have the adult and adolescent dragons fight for fun.”

            “Alright, so, can we do anything with that to our advantage?” He really wasn’t going to let this go, was he?

            “Probably not.”

            There was a moment of silence, and we looked at each other nervously.

            “So, the finale, then?” Vier prompted.

            “We all hate you so much right now.” I bared my teeth at him in a grin.

            “Well, either we go through with this or we don’t.”

            “I’m up for it.” Said Tyranna. “I think the finale, if we can pull that off…see, what I’m thinking is get an orb of sorts of light and fire going between Azrael and me and toss it out over them and get the lighting to arch around stunning everyone. Mix in a rain of fire, and it might work.”

            I studied one of the ribs holding the canvas of the wagon up, feeling none too confident. It was a nice idea, and if we could pull it off it’d be all kinds of pretty, but that kind of control wasn’t easy for me.

            Aelveran had gotten distracted before Tyranna had even started explaining her idea, and was busy talking to Ix and Vier. It sounded like he was trying to get out of being a puppet and into something more acrobatic.

            “We might just have to do a sort of tamer act,” Vier said, “where I won’t have to control you directly, I’ll just lead you like a puppy to do some things. I’ll want to save my mind control to make them attack each other, anyway.”

            “And what if the moon is out tonight? Then what?”

            Ix shook his head. “The moon is only mostly full, and it looks like there will be plenty of cloud cover.”

            “Okay, and if so, and I can’t go wolf, I’ll just…throw my sword in the air.” Aelveran stated massaging his temples, looking a bit tired.

            Vier tried to be encouraging, clearly giving the idea some credit. “Play around with your sword. That’s all you have to do, just…” Vier brightened. “You and Ix could have a duel.”

            Aelveran smiled slightly, and cast a glance at the half-elf. “That’d be fun, Ix.”

            Ix grinned back, challenge coloring his expression. “Bring it.”

            “Right, just be careful not to hurt each other.” Vier cautioned. “Make it look real, but don’t hurt each other.” He paused, then added, “And make it look fancy, like, you know…crouching rabbit, hidden kitty?”

            Say what?
            “Vier. I can walk. Through. Walls.” Reassured Aelveran, adding stress to the last three words. “It’ll be fancy.”

            “Okay. Oh, and remember not to use all of your tricks at once—we’ll need something up your sleeves in order to get out of this.”

            “I’ll use some smoke bombs then.”

            “Can you be sneaky?” Ix asked Aelveran.

            Aelveran looked amused. “Is the sky blue?”

            “Well, no, actually.”

            “Okay, fine. Is the sky grey?”

            “Yes.”

            “Yes, I can be sneaky.”

            “Alright. Can you, once they break camp, figure out where the better mounts are?”

            “Sure.”

            “When I say better mounts, I mean a combination between ‘faster’, and ‘easy to get to’.”

            “And not dragons.”

            “I am not picky right now.”

            “Well, a dragon isn’t going to take you anywhere.”

            “Mounts are mounts.” Said Vier.

            “Mounts are mounts.” Ix nodded in agreement.

            A thought hit me, a hope I’d given up on a long time ago, just after we’d left Ishtar. It brought an uncontrollable grin to my face. “And if we find a drake, I call it.”

            “Well, it’s a good thing they have some drakes for mounts—we’ll need your firepower.” Something in Ix’s tone said ‘Not that we’re going to let you keep it.’

            Not that I cared. I’d find a way.

            I sat there, grinning like a mad woman, and everyone seemed to decide to deal with me later.

            “Well, people, it sounds like we have a plan.” Vier started rubbing his hands together nervously. “Are we ready for this?”

            We were all in agreement, and fell into flushing out further details.

            “Okay. Tyranna. We’re going to start out with your fire dance—we’ll want something titillating, something to get their attention, and make them more interested in the show than killing us, and I think you’ll be the perfect way to do that.”

            The demon-girl nodded her understanding.

            "Indeed, as you have a tail,” Ix confirmed, looking at Tyranna, “And she doesn’t.” He pointed at me.

            “If the moon does happen—don’t let me see that.” Aelveran warned.

            “What do you mean?” Vier looked at him questioningly, then realized what wolf-boy meant. His eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh my. Um. You will be muzzled and leashed if that happens. Well, leashed…”
            “I can put him in a lighting cage!” I volunteered.

            “Having had hugs from you, I’m not sure how much I like this idea. You’re scary.”

            Vier asked, “Ix, can you help me put together a harness just in case wolfishness does happen?”

            The bodyguard shrugged. “I was thinking of just a headlock.”

            Vier pursed his lips. “That would actually be really cool. Aelveran?”

            “Sure.” The elf assented, “but Ix, do you want have me in a headlock that long?”

            “I can.”

            “And run?”

            “I can.”

            Okay, so that was them, Tyranna, me…”Vier, what are you going to be doing, a ballad?”

            “I’m going to sing…a variation of one of our most productive hits back in Ankeg. I’ll have to make some slight changes to it, as I don’t think they’ll enjoy all of the lyrics. ‘Kill the dragon over there’ wouldn’t go over well with Dragonkin.” Vier drew a deep breath and sighed, trying to maintain his composure.”

44:50/2:41:00

(?) Zombie Poppies

Without a word, Gideon went charging into the underbrush after Ix and Jorhis with the kind of speed one would not have expected form someone his size (and let’s be honest here—one heck of a fighter Gideon might be, but he was still Malakan’s brother), leaving a trail in his wake that would be easy enough to follow.

I don’t know where he got the energy. There was no way I was running off again that quickly, not after that fight.

Deciding that it was time to let that fool of a bard have a breather of his own, I opened the bottomless bag and pulled him out.  We tried standing him on his feet, but he started wobbling dangerously almost immediately.

“How’re you doing, Veir?” Aelveron asked.

“I’ve…been better.” He was looking rather green. “I imagine this is what being carriage sick is like. I’m—”

“You sound drunk.” I told him.

“—going to go throw up now.” He spun on one foot and stumbled towards the bushes, retching all the way.

Aelveron went over to him and stared patting him on the back.

There were further sounds of retching and sick splattering on the ground. “Sorry about your shoes.” Vier said weakly.

“Okay.” The wolf-boy didn’t sound like he was enjoying the smell. “I’m…fortunately not having any drive to eat that.”

Tyranna/I was ignoring all of this. “Before we go into the Faewild, we may want to re-enforce the enchantments on the orbs of power that we do have.”

“Right.” Vier was finally catching his breath, but it sounded like it was still going to take him a minute.

Aelveron looked back at us. “So…two of us just got carried off--”

“Three.” Tyranna and I corrected him.
            “For all intents and purposes three, as Gideon’s chased after them, though I guess we know where he is as he’s left a very distinctive trail through the jungle!” Vier whined as he came back over.

“So do we want to run after Ix before they get hurt?” Aelveron asked.

Vier and I gave him a look. “We kind of need Ix.”
            “Do you really think it’s safe to go into the Faewild without him?”
            “We really can’t get into the Faewild without him.” I corrected.

            Aelveron started nodding as Tyranna grimaced in agreement. “Yes, we do need him.”

            “Okay. So…let’s go follow him.” Vier still looked a bit shaky, but he was clearly steeling himself for what lay ahead. “I trust Gideon’s senses to follow, I think he probably has the best idea of being able to follow that…following…ness. Yeah.”

            “You’re still not with it.” Aelveron was barely hiding a smile.
            “Hey, you try riding around in a bottomless bag for half a week, it’s not fu—“

            “Bacon.”
            Stars above, Vier had nothing to say to that.

            “He can’t keep bacon down, I’m sure.” Tyranna was also trying not to…dare I say it, giggle.

            “Bacon can’t cure everything, Aelveron.” And I’ll admit, I wasn’t working to hide anything.

            “But it’s special bacon. It’s stegosaurus bacon.”
            Vier was still grasping wildly for something to say, and wound up with “Spiky.”

            Not that anything was about to stop Aelveron. “Mixed with caffeine!”

            There was a pause, and then we all started talking at once.
            “Caffinated…bacon.”

            “Okay, so now I’m buzzed and I have a jitter AND I’m nauseous, thanks!”

            “Why is this a good idea?”

            “I’m trying to get him back with the living.” Aelveron defended.

            We do try to remember that he’s an amnesiac, and was probably dropped a few times as a baby.  Really, we do. As proof, we just decided to ignore this newest bout of insanity.

            “So. Off we go?” I asked brightly.
            “Are you sure we don’t have time to rest a moment?” Aelveron asked.

            “We really don’t, not if we want to catch up.” Wasn’t like I wanted to go for a skip through the woods either, but—suck it up.
            We shouldered our gear and started running. It’s a good thing we did, as the path was already starting to grow over—which, considering that divide from this world and the Faewild was fairly thin in this area, was not that surprising.

The way was strewn with hundreds of brightly colored, faintly glowing flowers. Vier must have gotten a second wind, as he started moving like he was one of the Fae himself, dancing back and forth along the trail, grabbing a few blossoms and trying to stick them in our hair.
            I swear, even now, years later, I don’t exactly know where this all came from.

It was probably easier for him to come after me—outside of still being worn out from the fight, I’d never been a fantastic runner. I could keep up well enough, sure, and tripping was the last thing I was worried about, but I still had to slow down a bit and catch my breath every few minutes.

The path was certainly growing back quickly. Tyranna nearly tripped a few times as roots sprung up faster than she could move to avoid them. Fortunately for her, Aelveron was always there to catch her.

            You’d think that he’d move a bit slower, considering all that bacon.

            I watched him catch her again—blast, I’d have loved to see her flop into the mud---and it struck me as odd that he was always so near at hand for her. I’m no saint, but something about that woman was just…wrong. There was more to her motives than she was letting on. Don’t get me wrong, I love explosions as much as the next girl ( and maybe a little more), but something about her wasn’t all boom-and-fin. It was…dark. Really, really dark—and I’m a night elf.

            Aelveron’s no saint either, but…I’d have figured that he’d have picked up on that vibe. I’d have thought he’d want nothing to do with it either, considering how much time he spent restraining me.

            Speak of the devil, I was jarred out of my musing by Aelveron suddenly appearing next to me and trying to jokingly trip me up. I glared at him, and a few minutes later he did it again.

            And again.

            That time, I was ready for him. I called up the cloud of sparks I so loved using to zip around the battle field, allowing the sparks to dance along my skin. The next time he made contact, the charge I’d built up was enough to send him flying face first into a nearby tree.
            I laughed gleefully over my shoulder at him as I continued running forward. He wouldn’t be trying that again any time soon.
            Then again, neither would I.

            While I was busy admiring my handwork, as luck would have it, I tripped—over my own feet, of all things—and landed in the mud.

            Tyranna and Vier ran past me, the latter not bothering to hide a smug smile.

            Curse him.

            There were more brightly colored flowers beginning to blossom out of the mud. They were actually rather pretty, but there was no time to stop and smell them, as the saying goes. I kept moving, but I couldn’t help but notice there were a lot more of them than one might ordinarily expect, even at their rapid growth rate.

            The bard must have thought they were just pretty enough, though. He managed to pick a few as he made his way past. Once again, he tried putting one in everybody’s hair, though to his credit he must have remembered who he was with as he moved rather faster than before.

            I was about to chase after him and tell him, politely of course, where he could stick the flowers, when I heard something.

            It was faint, even to me, but it struck me as something that didn’t belong in a fae-related jungle.

            Aelveron must have heard it as well, I could see him looking around for the source ahead. He motioned for everyone to stop so he could try and make it out. We did, and then I remembered—

            I’m not exactly a hard target to go after. I took cover, blending quickly into the shadows.
            “Did you hear that?” Aelveron asked the others.

            They started to shake their heads, but then it sounded again.

            It was this crackling sort of moan, echoing through the trees.
            “Where is that coming from?”

            A few seconds later it sounded again. It was defiantly getting closer, though slowly. Good, right? Not so much, as it was also coming from behind.

            “It sounds like something choking.” I could almost see the sparks dancing around Tyranna’s hands as she clenched them into fists, worry beginning to show on her face.

            I considered climbing the nearest tree and trying to see what was coming, but somehow I didn’t think the dense foliage would allow it.

            The sound came again, and while it was still beind us, seemed to be coming from a slightly different direction this time—to the right instead of just behind us.

            I started to worry that whatever it was had found us and was now circling around, when it sounded again from the opposite side, left instead of right, closer than ever.

            “Azrael, where are you?” Vier asked, his voice tense.
            “Don’t worry, I can see her.” Aelveron had his back to me as he reassured the bard. I stifled a nervous laugh. My skin is pitch black, it was twilight, and I was safely tucked into the shadows of the underbrush. Even if he’d been looking right at me, he wouldn’t have seen me.
            Again the crackling sounded, strangely from a bit further this fine, before sounding closer again.

            A pack. It was the only explanation.

            “That doesn’t sound very friendly or faerie-like.” Vier moaned. Apparently even after meeting me, the fabled night elf, he still believed in the good faerie. “It doesn’t sound like faeries and gnomes and pit bulls.”
            Pit bulls? Whatever. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling antsy myself. A pack coming after us, no matter what it was comprised of, couldn’t have been good, especially this close to the Faewild. I started summoning the energy I’d need to power my trademark bouncing lighting.

            “I think we need to run.” Tyranna said cautiously, her eyes focused on the forest we’d just run through.

            “What is it?” Asked Aelveron.
            “I’m not sure…nothing good, but I’m not quite sure exact—”

            The croaking came again, louder thane ever before, seeming to come from right behind us, in our ears.

            We ran for our lives.

Tyranna and I blazed ahead, leaving the boys far behind, trying to put as much distance between ourselves and that horrible croaking as possible.

If there was any squeaking in terror, Demon-girl and I deny it to this day.

We could hear Aelveron catching up, stumbling slightly and presumably dragging a terrified bard behind him. The croaking continued to follow us, always right on our tails, when suddenly the trees ended and we burst into a clearing and were almost blinded by the sheer amount of light.

            I’d been wrong. The sun wasn’t going down at all, it was midday.

            The shock of the light hitting our eyes caused us to slow to a stop before we wound up tripping and falling flat on our faces.

            I spun around, scythe and lightning at the ready, blinking furiously to try and adjust to the daylight and see what was coming after us. The awful noise of whatever had been chasing us was no longer audible. I glanced behind me to see what the others thought. They were standing slack-jawed, staring at something…and then I saw it myself.

            The clearing was absolutely covered in the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen, in ever color imaginable. They completely carpeted everything in sight, save for the bayou tree in the middle of the meadow. The tree stood some forty feet high, about two hundred paces away. The flowers that populated the area had started to not only grow around but up the tree as well.

            I didn’t like it.

            Behind the tree, there was a small girl in a white dress with long dark hair watching us. She smiled at me and ran back out of sight behind the tree. I could hear laughter.

            I glanced at the others, wondering if I’d been the only one to notice her. Little girl, big random tree, field of crazy flowers….I really wasn’t liking this.

            Vier must not have seen the runt, as he suddenly started forward across the meadow. Suddenly, he collapsed. Aelveron, I hadn’t seen him move, also blacked out and sank to the ground. Tyranna passed out almost immediately after, landing on top of him

            My eyes went wide, even greater panic than what I’d felt while charging through the forest sized my breath. It had to be the girl. I ran forward before whatever invisible giant had whacked my friends with a pillow from his bed could get me as well—but it was too late. I stumbled, feeling suddenly woozy, my legs collapsing on my own beneath me.  I hit the ground, and before my eyes could close I could see the girl walking towards me. I blinked, and suddenly she was to the left and less than 20 paces away. I blinked again, and suddenly she was five paces away and to the right.

            It hadn’t been a pack at all, had it?

            I woke to one Holy Raven Queen of a headache. I sat up and looked around. I was in the school’s medical bay, instruments of the get-well club all over. What kind of party had I…wait. School? And what on earth were some of these tools? For medical purposes, obviously, but…barbaric.

            There was a loud banging sound, and I whirled to see the door to this place where someone was obviously trying to get in. Several someones, actually, and good luck to them--there was all manner of desks, cabinets, beds, and chairs shoved up against it.

            I rolled off the bed I’d been laying on and onto my feet, moving to look out the nearby window. There was something covering it, making it hard to see out of. I opened it, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

            Smoke and the acrid smell of burning flesh came pouring in. With it came the sounds of groaning, more of the moaning crackling that had chased us into the meadow, and through it all pain filled, terrified screams.

            What in the realms…

            Suddenly, it occurred to me how dark it was in that room.

            And that mattered to me.

            There was a mirror on a nearby counter. I snatched it up, and looked at myself. I thought there must have been some kind of head trauma from when I’d passed out, but there weren’t any injuries that I could see. The only other question was what in the worlds was I wearing? Some sort of thin shirt with unfamiliar lettering across the chest, and short pants of a curiously sturdy…tee shirt and jeans, came the thought. I had no idea where from, as I’d never heard the words before, but…what else could they be? I again looked down at the shirt, and was able to read “SDHS”. It must have been an acronym, somehow ‘sids’, the only pronunciation I could come up with, felt very wrong.

            And there was a bow in my hair.

            …Vier. I’d deal with him later.

            I looked for my companions, and saw Aelveron on the other side of the room. He was wearing a ripped shirt on with a …tank…underneath, jeans, and what appeared to be only one…sneaker.

            Words. I’d have to deal with them later too.

            Tyranna was wearing a leather jacket that had clearly been torn in a not-so-artful way, and was otherwise normally dressed, compared to me and Aelveron—jeans, shirt, and the like.

            Again, I was struck by how little I could see in the growing darkness. That really, really couldn’t be right.

            Looking around the room—definitely an unfamiliar style of building—I heard more screams, more pounding on the doors…and the sound of running footsteps down the hallway outside and the voice of a young man screaming “Help! HELP! HE-“ the cry dissolved into incoherent screams as whoever that had been was dragged away.

            The beatings on the door died down slightly, and we could hear shuffling feet more towards the dying screams.

            I felt sick. This, whatever it was, couldn’t be happening.

            Aelveron moved to pull out his sword, a smooth and practiced motion even a genie’s spell couldn’t make him forget, and instead drew a length of smooth, weighted wood.

            “What’s this?” He seemed too confused to sound surprised.

            “It looks like a blunt instrument.” Always helpful, that’s me.

            “I don’t like it.”

            “I…um…” I reached for my scythe, suddenly worried about what a missing sword could mean, and instead found myself holding a very small, pocket sized knife. I looked down at it in shock, and let out a very small squeak of…well, terror.

            Aelveron began to search the room. Who knows for what—who cared? My scythe was GONE.

            “Azrael, come look at this.”

            I looked up at him, panic, I’m sure, still clear across my face. The banging on the door continued. Moaning, creaking, and screaming still echoed through the window and from what ever was trying to gain access to the room. I looked back down at the knife, swallowed forcefully the swirl of emotions that were threatening to have me reprise Vier after we’d pulled him from the bag. A knife was better than nothing, and now was not the time to panic.

            Aelveron was standing over a human woman in a medical uniform. Her face had been bashed in, and her brains had started to come through a large crack at the back of her skull.

            “Aelveron, what did you do?” Sass. Okay. Maybe I could handle this.

            “I didn’t do anything.” He motioned with the bat, which was free of incriminating fluids, to the crowbar wedged into her torso. He then reached forward with his other hand to yank it free. Any shelter in a storm, any weapon in a fight, right?

            Tyranna, demon girl of ancient beauty treatments and evil, looked uncomfortable. “This really can’t be right.”
            I glanced over to her, and something struck me as odd. Something about her was…missing. My gaze landed on her hair, and I must have been looking a little too intently as she reached up and felt the headband she was wearing, exactly where her horns should have been. She went white, and she reached behind herself to where her tail should have been, and found a sort of sash or fashion belt instead. She whimpered, staring at it.

            She’d deal.

            Now that Aelveron was back to dual-wielding capacity, I went looking for the longest, sharpest weapon I could find so I could attach it to a pole and make my own make-shift scythe.

            Unfortunately, all I could find were some hypodermic needles. Useless. Apparently the mutt already had the sharpest thing around.

            With Aelveron’s help, Tyranna managed to collect herself and get into the spirit of arming ourselves. She made use of a pile of broken glass and a strip of leather she’d torn from a sleeve of her jacket, wrapping some of the shards into place to the effect of make-shift claws.

            Told you.

            “What’s going on?!? Came a panicked squeal. 

            Vier. Knew I’d forgotten something. He was sitting in the corner, jittery with terror. He must have just woken up. Why hadn’t I…
            “Do you have any weapons?” Good ol’ Aelveron, taking the lead.

            Vier looked around, presumably for his bottomless bag. “Let me check, I might have something in—it’s gone! My bag is—”

            “WHAT?!?” No. No. Stars and gods above, no.

            Vier had in his hands a back pack, small and filled with paper, pencils, a few bouncy balls, and clearly nothing of ours.
            “Where are the orbs?!” I demanded.
            “I don’t know! These don’t look like orbs!” He took one of the small rubber balls and chucked it at the wall, and it shout back at him before ricocheting off the wall behind him and continued to bounce around the room. He shrieked an started cowering again.

            “Okay, this is extraordinarily trippy, but something else is going on here, in case you didn’t notice, and—” Aelveron was trying to regain control of the situation. I cut him off.

            “Yes, great. One quick other check--”

            They ignored me. Aelveron handed Vier a little box that read My Little Pony. The bard opened it up to find some sort of sandwich.

            The box and food both looked bizarre, and that plus being interrupted and what I still needed to check…. “CHAOS STRIKE!”

           

            Nothing happened.

           

            Oh. Cth---.

            “But, you can’t…” Tyranna murmured, also shocked. She waved her hands trying summon one of her trademark fireballs.

            Nothing.

            The warlock and I looked at each other, our expressions of shocked panic perfectly mirrored.

            No magic?!

            Then something else clicked into place. We were all human.

            “Bob?! BOB?!?”

            A series of chimes sounded from the pocket of my jeans. I pulled out a dying cell phone with a waiting text message. According to the display, it was from Bob, and several hours old. I opened it, hoping for I don’t know what.

            “Hey Babe, just wanted to make sure we’re still good to meet up after class under the bleachers. Give me a call when you get this.”

            I stared at it blankly for a moment. “WHAT?!?!” I threw the phone at Tyranna. “I think this belongs to you.”

            Tyranna caught it, and the motion dislodged something small from her pocket and clattered to the floor. She picked it up and started to fiddle with it.

            Aelveron handed Vier the bat, who then went to look out the window. He started shaking again. “Guys…the courtyard…there’s a lot of zombies everywhere.”

            I stiffened. “Scythe. I need a scythe. Now.”

            Aelveron tried to take the lead again. “What do we have to work with?” 32:50

            Way ahead of him. There was a stand IV’s were typically attached, perfect for a blunt instrument, if only for a few blows—enough to get away.  I claimed it immediately and began looking for something sharp to attach.

            Meanwhile, Vier found a few simple medical supplies in the ruins, and started placing them into his pack. The dead nurse appeared to have been bitten multiple times, but was still holding a syringe in one hand, filled with some sort of yellowish fluid. Vier snagged and capped it, placing it in his bag as well.

            Aelveron eyed the corpse warily. “What are the chances of her coming back?”

            I shook my head. “None. There’s nothing left to come back.”

            “We need to get out of here. I don’t know where we are, but we need to get out of here…”Vier, having nothing left to do, seemed to have gone back to panicking. I ignored him, and found some glass and medical tape, and started to try and fashion at least some sort of spear. I was scared—scratch that, I was terrified. I’d lost everything I’d depended on, and the cataclysm around us was on a level that in all my years I’d never known. But like Grimkol was I going to let it keep me from getting out alive. I gave the ‘spear’ a few trial swings, and the glass started to fall off almost immediately. Useless.

            “Stop making so much noise—they’re going to know we’re here!” Aelveron ordered.

            “Like they don’t already know we’re here!” I snapped back. “My suggestion—we go through the ceiling.”

            “That may not be plausible.—about as sensical as jumping out the window.”

            “Are you seeing another way out of here? We can’t exactly take the front door!”

            “There is a ledge outside the window to the other rooms on the floor.” Vier offered.

            “How high up are we?” I asked. I remembered some distance between us and the ground from before, but I couldn’t have said how far.

            “We’re on the third floor, with two more above us.”

            “There’s no one at the door—why can’t we just use it?” Aelveron was getting impatient.

            “Are you sure there’s no one there? I can’t see out that window from here.” I pointed to just such a glass-covered opening in the door.

            He grimaced. “It’s worth checking. Be ready.” He started shifting some of the blockade. He got to the door and called back, “There’s too much blood on the other side, I can’t see. I’m going to open the door.”

            “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I started twisting the pole in my hands.

            “Nothing sounds close by.”

            “Is there an echo to it?”

            “Slightly, why?”

            “They’re by a stair case.”

            “How could you possibly know that?

            “Night elf. A staircase probably isn’t a bad idea, but I don’t think we should chance charging through, not without more weapons.” I motioned to some cleaning supplies I found. “Tyranna, I assume that thing you’re fiddling with is a lighter?”

            She nodded, still flicking her thumb at it.

            “We’re making some bombs.”

            “I…I can’t get it to work. I know fire can come out of this thing. I can smell the gas but…” Desperation crept into her voice.

            “Let me see.” Vier took the lighter and flicked at it. Lo and behold, a flame ignited.

            “Fire!” Demon girl cried. “My precious…” She actually did sound like she was going to start weeping at any moment as she cradled the tiny device.

            “ Careful, we don’t know how long that’ll last—I don’t think it’s magical. Azrael,” he hefted a bottle of ammonia. “You said we can make bombs out of these?”

            “Shouldn’t be much different than mixing potions.”

            “You know how to make potions?”

            “It wasn’t my favorite subject in the Academy, but I can do it.” I grabbed some medicine bottles, emptied them, and started mixing.  We soon wound up with a number of small, Molotov-cocktail styled mixtures.  I didn’t think they’d do too much damage, but they’d still come in useful.

            While Vier and I worked on that, Aelveron had re-blocked the door and started looking for another way out.  “Okay, we’ve got a window and a door.” He looked up that the tiled ceiling. “Going up might be our best option.”
            “Something tells me we’d get more attention going that way.” Vier obviously didn’t like the idea. “I think our only option is the ledge.”

            Aelveron nodded. “I’ll go check it out.” He clambered out onto the ledge. I leaned out to keep an eye on him.

            “There’s a window about ten feet down, and another a bit further.  First one’s closed, second’s open.” He edged out to the first window. “I can’t see anything, there’s dust and some kind of fluid all over it. I don’t like how this looks.”

            Vier, standing behind me, was starting to get antsy. “Hang on, let me catch up.” I moved out of the way so he could clamber out to join Aelveron.

            They started to move past the window when a hand slammed against the glass. From my vantage point I could make out the face of a girl looking up at Aelveron. There was a pause, and suddenly she went rabid, beating the glass and trying frantically to get to him. It startled the elf enough to unbalance him, and he began to tumble backwards.

            In a surprisingly cool motion, Vier caught Aelveron by the arm. “Don’t you dare fall now—there’s more of them down there.”

            We glanced down at the courtyard. It seemed our escape route was not going unnoticed. There was a small horde of zombies clambering over each other at the base of the building. More of them were distracted by their high school student meals, but that wouldn’t last long if someone fell.

            My ears perked at the sound of shuffling footsteps making their way back towards our door. It seemed the girl next door was drawing the party back towards us. I looked nervously at the door, and then glanced out the window again. The guys were continuing to edge their way to the second window.

            “Tyranna, it looks like we’ve either got to follow the boys or stay put and chance finding another route. What do you think?”

            She came over, and took her own glance out the window before turning green. “I…I can’t do this…” she sank to the floor and started hugging her knees, real panic starting to set in. She stared to whimper and shake. 

            Oh, the realms for a camera. There wasn’t time for this. I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and hauled her to her feet. Then I slapped her hard across the face, which really would have been more gratifying under different circumstances. With a grunt of effort, I then threw her hard against the nearest wall.
            That did it. Fire ignited behind her eyes, and she came at me snarling. Were magic possible, I’m sure she might have actually singed me. As it was, she had to try throwing a clumsy punch at my face, but I slipped out of the way, got behind her, and got my knife to her throat.
            “That’s better. We don’t have time for you to freak out. Keep it together, or I’ll throw you to the zombies myself. Am I clear?”
            She nodded, and I withdrew. “I’ll do you the kindness of getting on the ledge first. Don’t fall behind.”

            We caught up to the boys, crouching beneath the first window as Vier had done, and we saw that the second window as actually broken, and there was some blood on the remaining edges.  I hazarded a glance down and saw a young man lying on the ground. He must have been thrown out.

            Aelveron led the way into the classroom. It seemed pretty safe, there were a few dead students in varying states of ‘eaten’, but nothing immediately deadly.

            Just then something moved, and we whirled around to see a girl with short hair and glasses crawling towards us, tears in her eyes.

            “Please.” She sobbed. “Please, please help me.” Below the hem of her skirt, I could see that part of her calf was missing, and I honestly couldn’t tell if it had been bitten or torn off.

            Of course, that’s when we noticed the clearly brain-dead linebacker inching after her.

            “Help me! Please! HELP!” She started screaming.
            Aelveron moved swiftly, smashing the jock’s head in with a crowbar, and the zombie fell back with a bloody finality.

            I looked away, feeling sick.

            “Uh, guys?” Vier’s voice was shaking again. “The door’s open.

            Tyranna and I stiffened, our eyes wide as we turned to the door. Aelveran went to close it, and I saw his own shoulders tighten before he spun around, panic in his expression.
            “They’re coming. Shut her up—hurry!”

            Tyranna locked an arm around the still creaming girl’s shoulders and sealed a hand over her mouth. The girls started coughing up blood between wails, and blood spurted from between the old hag’s fingers.
            “She’s dying.” Tyranna said in disgust, clearly willing to put the student out of her misery.
            “Tyranna,” I ordered, voice low and heavy with warning as I snatched her hand away from the girl’s mouth. “Let go—now.”
            The girl snapped at Tyranna’s hand, and demon-girl shoved her away. As she slid away, the teenager twisted around and started coming at us with surprising speed.

            Tyranna took one of her glass incrusted fists and stabbed her in the face as I let go myself and twisted out of the way.  A moment later, Vier and I were the only ones not splattered in blood.
            I faced the old warlock, feeling strangely calm. “You can get that off if you do it now.”

            “I don’t know how.” She shot back.

            I turned to focus on the door again. “How stained are you?”

            “Well, just my hands…”
            “Then wipe them off on something. Believe me, you do not want this stuff staying on you. Zombies are not uncommon where I’m from.”

            Aelveran must have been listening as he stared wiping off his exposed skin as well as he could. “Yeah, well, these zombies are coming, guys.”

            He risked another look into the hallway as I muttered to myself,
            “They’re just not so eat-your-brains, the ones I’m used to.”
            “Okay.” The pale elf waved us forward. “They’re distracted. Let’s go.”
            I went first, followed by Tyranna and Aelveran, Vier bringing up the rear as we tried to use our gods-given stealth to get past the horde in the hallway. Thankfully, the student they were tearing into seemed to occupy the whole of their attention, for now at least.

            As we snuck by, I had a hard time controlling my breathing. Like I said, these undead weren’t quite what I was familiar with, and as much as I didn’t like to admit it, they had me on edge. The unlikely pair after me were holding it together well enough though, thank the night.

            The violence here and the sheer gore of everything was taking its toll on all of us. The level of brutality here was something even we, after everything, weren’t used to. I couldn’t remember the party, in any of its various formations, ever coming across anything like this.

            It was right then, of course, that Vier decided to freeze, his breath coming in short, barely concealed gasps. I went to snap him back to his senses, but it was too late. The zombies had noticed us.

            “RUN!” Vier screamed.

            We flew down the hallway, zombies bursting out of classrooms as we passed and coming after us. Vier screamed again, and I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and saw that a zombie had caught up to us and was dragging the bard back by his back and towards the swarming horde.

            “GUYS! HELP ME! HELP!”

            Blast it. Aelveran and I spun around on our heels. The elf knocked away one of the arms holding Vier with his crowbar, and I took out the other one with my pole. The zombie fell back, and we grabbed Vier by the arms and stared pulling him after us again.

            We reached the now closed doors of the stairway. The lights were flickering on and off, and we couldn’t see through the window to the stairwell enough to know who or what would be on the other side. Screw it. We tugged open the door and ran through, and thankfully nothing was waiting for us.

            We needed light. Tyranna fumbled with her lighter and brought it to life. I stripped the cloth belt from her waist before she could protest, and rapped it around the banister. Vier, getting the idea, pulled some rubbing alcohol from his pack and poured it on the cloth. Tyranna grimaced and touched the flame to it, igniting it.

            Aelveran jammed and locked the door as best as he could to keep the hard from coming through immediately, and we took a little more of the disinfectant to try an d clean ourselves off a little. It was a miracle, but nobody had been injured yet.
            I saw Aelveran examine his hands, which looked a little raw. I guess along with my hears and scythe, and Tyranna’s horns and tail, his calluses were missing. “What would I give for my sword, or claws…”
            I shot him a light glare. “I cannot cast Chaos Bolt. And Bob’s not here. Bob’s some weird guy waiting for me under a stadium—and that’s her job!” I motioned at Tyranna.

            Zombies banging on the door we’d just come through interrupted our mourning.

            “Right. So. Up or down?” Vier asked quickly.

            “We go down, we’ll wind up on the ground floor and we’ll have to fight our way through the courtyard. That seems stupid.” I stated.
            Aelveran shook his head. “Head to the roof, we’ll get trapped there.”

            “But it’ll offer high ground advantage.” Wait, was Tyranna agreeing with me?

            Gah. Later. “We do have bombs.” I nodded.

            “But they’re not very powerful—who knows how much damage they’ll do?”

            That’s better. “you want to go charging through that horde?!”

            Wolf-boy interrupted. “Were there any other buildings we could get to?”

            “I think I saw a skywalk to another building on the map.” Said Vier, pulling out the document.

            The sound of a door slamming open and I don’t know how many stumbling feet rushing from the ground floor up towards us cut off any further discussion. We froze, still undecided.

            “What are we doing, guys? I’m trying to read this map here, are we going up or down?!”

            Aelveran, Tyranna, and I peered down at the lower flights of stairs. There was a zombie or two crawling towards us from the first floor, but more from the second had noticed us and started shambling up the stairs. They’d reach us in about a minute.
            I turned, snagged a bomb from a pocket in Vier’s pack, and tossed it to Tyranna. She lit it, and threw it down at the oncoming company.

            It was more portent than I thought it would be. The zombies were forced back, some of them burning. Some of the fluids had traced back as Tyranna had thrown the bomb, though, and burned her hand.

            “Bandages! NOW!” Aelveran tossed me a roll and I wrapped her hand swiftly to prevent anything from getting into the wound. “We got a few of them. If we run down a story we might be able to find some supplies.”

            Aelveran ignored me and tied off the bandages on his worn hands. “Let’s go up.”

            “Okay! Great! Let’s go!” Vier rocked up the stairs in a panic, the rest of us on his heels. 

            We poured through the door to the fourth floor. The only lights shining on that floor were at the other end of the hall, hanging and swinging from it’s cord. Outside of that, there was an occasional spark from torn fixtures on the walls.

            “Okay, the skywalk’s on this floor, and there’s a storage space and the map said something about an antenna above—“
            “I think we’re going up to the roof.” Aelveran interjected.

            “We should still check this floor for any suppose or other weapons.” Running into a dead end only works when you have firepower enough to deter what’s following you.

            “Can you see?” he asked.

            “No, I can’t. and believe me, that’s frustrating right now!” Did those ears of his work?

            The creaking groans of the zombies suddenly sounded a lot closer. They’d caught up.

            Aelveran whirled to shut and lock the door. As he did, the hand of an abomination that must have been crawling reached through and left a long bloody scrach on the elf’s exposed foot. Yelling in surprise and pain, he shut the door on the hand so hard tsome of the fingers fell off. He bolted the door as Vier pulled out more bandages and started wrapping Aelveran’s foot.

            “Can’t that wait until we get to higher ground?” Tyranna demanded?

            “I don’t know…um…let’s just run, just run!”

            They were beating on the door now, and suddenly the window on the door shattered and hands started reaching through. One caught Aelveran’s hand and he got another scratch. He managed to get free, and not a moment too soon.

            “GET DOWN!” I shouted and hurled a few lit bombs through the window. They punched a hole in the horde and zombies started falling back down the stairs. Aelveran took the opportunity to rush the door, trample the still-burning remains, and fly up the stairs, the rest of us right behind him.

            We reached the fifth floor, and Aelveran kept right on going.
            “Hey! Stop! There’s a maintenance walkway to that other building here!”  Vier called. We came to a halt, Aelveran leaping back down to join us. We glanced nervously at the flight of stairs below.  Vier tried the door, and found it locked from the other side. He and I looked in through the window, and saw that it was also barricade shut, as was every classroom on this floor. Apparently this floor had done a lot better than the others in defending itself.

            In yet another wave of panic, Vier started banging on the door and calling out, “Hey! Somebody! Let us in, we’re still alive! Somebody help us!”
            A young man came into view, bursting through a classroom door, shouting, “No! NO! NO!”

            A zombie followed him out of the classroom and defenestrated the kid out onto courtyard below. The zombie’s momentum was enough that it fell out the window as well.

            There was the briefest moment of shocked silence.

            “Uh, that’s not safe.” Vier breathed. “To the roof. To the roof!”

            We ran up the last flight of stairs. Again, the door was shut and locked.

            Vier continued whining. “What are we going to do? They’re coming!”

            I pulled out another small bomb. “Stop panicking and tape this thing to the doorknob. We’ll blow the lock. Everybody, duck and cover!” Vier did as requested, I used Tyranna’s lighter, and we dove out of the way.

            The bomb exploded, and as the smoke cleared I looked up. It seemed I’d gotten the mix a bit wrong on this one, it wasn’t as effective as the others had been—but it was enough for Vier to jimmy what was left of the lock and get the door open.

            We rushed through, and as our luck would have it, there were another five or six zombies shambling around on the roof. How…

             A croaking from behind sounded, alerting us to the fact that the zombies we’d dealt with earlier had almost caught up. I glanced back, and saw that they’d reached the fourth floor, and would be at our backs in less than five minutes.          

            The undead ahead of us didn’t look particularly eaten, except for the corpse of one girl leaning up against the communications station on the other end of the roof. She probably didn’t have the chance to turn.

            Aelveran started trying to find a way to block the door behind us. “There’s got to be a way to keep this thing shut at least.”

            “Not really—there’s no door handle, we blew it off.” Vier clamored.

            “Unless you want to use my staff, which would deprive me of a weapon—”

            “That wouldn’t work on this door anyway!”

            Ah. Yes. That’s why we keep him around.

            “The roof was enclosed by a fence, presumably to keep people from jumping off. Our best chance would probably be to get onto the enclosed communications outpost. There was a ladder leaning against one wall that we could up to get to the higher ground. The thing was, the the building was just far enough away to make getting to it a mite troublesome.

            “Alright,” Aelveran said quietly. “Vier, you and I are going to run ahead, take out every zombie we can, and make out way to that spot of high ground, got it?”

            Vier clutched at his bad and nodded. My pole only looked to have one good hit left in it anyway.

            There were two zombies directly in out path. They would defiantly reach Vier and Aelveran at least before any of the others. The assassin rolled his shoulders with some discomfort, and the pair charged ahead.

            Vier took out he first monster to reach them. Aelveran swung his crowbar at another one and somehow managed to not quite kill it, while lodging the weapon in the creature’s eye socket.

            Tyranna and I, not wanting to get eaten, ran after the boys. There was another two zombies coming at us, one about ten feet in front of us, another 15 feet to the side.

            As we met the first, I swung my pole and connected with its head, sending it flying towards the fence. In the process, the staff broke in half.  I dropped the half I was still holding and pulled out my pocket knife. It was something.

            Tyranna threw shards of glass into the other zombie’s face so forcefully that it stumbled back and fell over.

            Aelveran was still trying to get his crowbar out of the second zombie’s skull.  He gave the weapon a sharp pull, and the creature came forward as well. It latched on to the elf, and threw him down, pinning him to the ground before it started biting and clawing at him.

            Tyranna came running and placed a well-aimed stiletto heeled boot through the zombie’s weakened eye, and the creature fell away, dead. Enough damaged appeared to have been done that the crowbar also came free.

            It seemed as though Aelveran had taken most of the bites through his clothing. He was bleeding and shaking pretty badly, though with any luck that last bit was out of shock

            “Aelveran, don’t you dare die on us—the last thing we need is a zombie werewolf.” I called to him.

            The mass of zombies from the stairwell was now trying to clamber through the doorway behind us, putting them about twenty feet behind me, forty feet from everybody else.

            Needless to say, I ran to catch up. By the time I did, Vier and Tyranna had gotten Aelveran to his feet and were supporting him. I reached down to claim the crowbar, and we got moving again.

            We reached the ladder. Tyranna started helping Aelveran up to the higher level while Vier, armed with the bat, and I waited for the three still moving zombies to advance a bit closer. Back at the door to the stairs, the horde had been bottlenecking and they were starting to come break through, though they had to climb over one another to do it.

            I took the crowbar and smashed it into the head of the zombie that was closest to me—incidentally the same one that I’d sent flying earlier, and I hit the same spot as before. Brains spurted out the other side of the abomination’s head, and I quickly wedged the crowbar back out of the zombie’s head.

            Vier swung the bat at the second zombie, and his grip slipped slightly in his sweaty palms. He managed to knock the zombie over a bit, but it was still moving. I whirled around and struck it with the crowbar as well, and it hit the floor for the last time.

            There was a clattering sound, and I glanced quickly at the odd couple and saw that Aelveran had apparently stumbled and Tyranna was holding on to him, trying to drag him back up the ladder. They made it, though barely, over the lip and onto the roof.

            “Vier!” Tyranna called down. “What’s that stuff in the syringe from earlier?”

            “Oh, I have no idea….Take the bag, take the bag!”  Vier threw it up to her, and she caught it.

            “Vier! Little help!” The third zombie had closed in and I spun to the right, crowbar outstretched and aiming for the head. The bard came in from the left, and we connected simultaneously, creating a horrible pulpy mess.

            The horde was now about 20 feet shy of us.

            “Should I go ahead and use the syringe now, or…” Demon girl called down.

            I could barely hear Aelveran tell her, “Just do it.”

            “We don’t know what it is!” Vier warned.

            “Well, how are we going to—“

            Oh, for crying out… “There’s no time for this! Neither of us can check for magic and there’s no time to examine it! Vier! Let’s MOVE!”

            We made it up the ladder. Aelveran looked like he’d been dragged through Hell—he was barely holing on to consciousness as he dealt with the physical shock of what was happening. He started coughing up blood.

            “Tyranna, what—”

            “He bit the inside of his cheek earlier. It’s probably just that.” She didn’t sound too confident.

            The horde reached us and stared clambering around at the base of the post. Thankfully, they didn’t seem able to use a ladder.

            There wasn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver, though, between the four of us and the satellite dish.

            A though hit me, and I moved to the dish, waving for Vier to follow. Two birds, one stone, right?

            “Help me break this thing off—we’ll try to crush a few zombies while we’re at it, at least until we figure something else out.”

            Tyranna saw what we were up to and busied herself trying to help the wolf boy. She’d found some meds in Vier’s pack and was busy rubbing it into his wounds before wrapping them. Aelveran’s face, however, had lost all color, and he started screaming.

            “Have you used the syringe yet?” I shouted to her while trying to move the dish.

            “Not yet, I’m—”

            “Do it!” I ordered.

            “We don’t know what it is!” Vier was starting to sound like a broken record.

            “Well, it’s either going to kill or save him!”

            Vier and I were having a hard time with moving the satellite dish. It was pretty well fastened to the roof.

            “I’ve stopped the bleeding!” Tyranna called over. She sounded a bit queasy, and there was the sound of retching as she heaved whatever had been in her stomach over the side.

            A hand grabbed my foot. I shrieked as a zombie that had climbed over a few of its companions started to drag me over the side. Vier caught my wrist an started pulling me back. I went to swing the crowbar at the hand of the creature holding me, but I’d put it down hen I’d set to work on the dish, and it was out of reach.  I started struggling harder against the zombie , and managed to kick it off. I’d been squirming too much for Vier, though, and I slipped from his grasp.

            I fell, somehow catching the ledge at the last second, my feet about four feet from the ground. I tried pulling myself up, and with Vier’s help managed to get back up onto the roof with the others.

            Tyranna was dry-heaving by now, and scrambling for some water. Vier dashed over to her help her, and pulled out a few pills, instructing her, “Take these, and hold on. We’re going to take care of you guys. It’s going to be okay.” He pulled out the syringe and gulped audibly, obviously trying to talk himself into using it. “Aelveran, how do you feel?”

            Aelveran didn’t respond.

            “Tyranna? How are you doing?”

            “I…I can’t puke anymore.” She limped out.

            The bard looked at me in desperation. “Azrael, I don’t know what this does.”

            Without a word or second though, I took the syringe from Vier and stabbed Aelveran in the thigh with it. Aelveran lurched forward for a second before passing out.

            Tyranna started to get frantic.

            Vier gaped at me before shoving it all away and glancing over the side. “Azrael, we need to get that dish off now. They’re starting to stack up!”

            I moved to help him, and by some miracle the one good shove we gave it was enough to work it free, but it looked like we’d need one more set of hands, even if it was Tyranna’s, to lift it over the edge.

            We coaxed her over, and threw it over onto the starving undead below. We must have put just a little too much into it, as Vier went over the side with the dish.

            By sheer luck he landed in the dish in such a way that the zombies that weren’t crushed couldn’t’ immediately get to him.

            “Azrael! HELP!” He screamed, scrambling to try and get back up. I grabbed one hand, Tyranna grabbed the other, and we tried to pull him back. One of Vier’s shoes managed to grip enough onto the side of the dish and he started climbing when Tyranna’s sweaty hand slipped. Stars help me, I wasn’t ready to hold him on my own.  

            Vier fell back into the waiting arms of an undead, who promptly bit down on the muscles of his calf and started hauling him back towards the horde.

            Vier screamed.

            I hooked a leg around the ledge of the roof and lunged forward, barely managing to snag Vier’s hands. Let no one tell you the limits of adrenaline. I somehow managed to drag him away from the zombie and help him get back to safety.

            I quickly checked on Aelveran—he had completely passed out.

            There as the sound of more retching behind me. Vier has started to vomit a mix of bile and blood, but there was no time for me to see to any of them. I scrambled around, looking for something—anything—to continue defending our position. The crowbar had been knocked off the roof at some point; I could see it…of all places sticking out of the skull of another now-real-dead zombie. Convenient.

            That left me with the bat. The zombies looked like they’d be able to reach us in a minute. Vier, seeing this as well, started to freak out. Tyranna, looking at him, reached all new levels of panic on her own and passed out, collapsing next to Aelveran.  Soon after, Vier joined them.

            I looked around again, desperate for any other tool. If I had to fight alone, I’d need something else to fight with than just a wooden bat.

            There was some cabling and a smaller antenna that I might be able to sue. I broke it off, and considering how little effort I put into the motion knew instantly that it’d be useless.

            Well then. I took the bat firmly in hand and went to town.  

            “Azrael, help…it hurts…”
            Vier. I hated it, but I blocked him out and kept knocking the enemy back.

            A zombie roared and tried to take a swing at me. I broke its arm with an upwards swing of the bat, connected with it’s jaw, shattered it, and snapped the neck as I forced it’s chin farther back than it was ever meant to go. It fell back, and I returned to giving a warm welcome to its companions.

            A burning hot hand suddenly came to rest on my shoulder. I glanced back at the owner. It was Aelveran,. Blood was started to drip from one of his eyes and was drooling out of his mouth. He lunched in at my throat, jaws snapping. I barely managed to twist out of the way, and his momentum carried him over the roof and into the horde.

            I dance out of the reach of the oncoming undead, and as I did, my eyes landed on Tyranna. She was crawling towards Vier, who was curled in a corner, fumbling through the pack for some supplies to bind up his still bleeding leg.

            I had a choice. A really, really easy one.

            “Tyranna, I’ve always wanted to do this.” I took a few bounding leaps to build my momentum and brought the bat swinging down onto her head.

            Blood splattered everywhere. Some of it got onto my face and I stared blinking furiously. I managed to get enough of it out that I could see properly again. Vier was coming towards me, panic etched onto every part of his face.

            "Azrael! Behind you!"

            I looked, and saw the zombies had gained the ledge and were headed right for us. I turned back to Vier, and he pushed me unto them.

            Hands reached out and grabbed me, pulling me back into the hoard.

            Wait. This couldn't be right.

            A zombie stared gnawing on my leg.

            This couldn't be happening.

            Vier came forward and stared to bite down on my neck. I struggled, and managed to shake off everyone. I stared to back away, scrambling for the bat.

            Where was...

            Vier lunged at my face, and everything went black.

            We woke up in the field of flowers. It wasn't so pretty anymore. they had all turned a dead and wilted brown. The entire area felt desecrated. From the banyan tree hung the dried out corpse of a young girl. The jungle around us was fine, though I could see the path we'd taken to the meadow. Where the same poppies that littered the path as had carpeted the meadow, there were now dead brown patches.

            Suddenly it all came back. I sprang to my feet, the familiar weight of my scythe in my hand. I held it at the ready, waiting for something to come at me again.

            Tyranna rolled to a kneeling position, looked up at me, and promptly threw up again.