by Josh Powell
“Come and help,” Arthur snarled towards the mysterious man in the cloak. The man walked forward and gestured. The Sphere seemed to move a bit faster — though a crawling baby could still have managed to avoid it, snails were likely to die in it’s path.
A glowing disc opened in the room next to Arthur. Melody leapt out of it. She scanned the room, saw Ohm, yelled a battle cry, and charged, “Yaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!” Ohm began to run around the room again.
Arthur shook his head. “This won’t do,” he said. “You’ve spoiled it, Maximina. This is no longer fun. We’ve a world-spanning portal to build and a world to conquer. Nihil Abire!” The Sphere of Annihilation winked out of existence.
“Ignis! Fulgur! Lux Trabem! Glaciem!” Arthur said, pointing at Gurken, then Maximina, then Pellonia, then Apocalypse. The orbs circling Arthur’s head stopped in midair, rotated towards their targets, and fired.
Fire roared, engulfing Gurken in flames. He screamed and sizzled, and died. Lightning crackled, striking Maximina in the chest and flinging her across the room. She convulsed and died. Light beamed, piercing Pellonia’s head between her eyes. She slumped over. Dead. Ice shot, knocking Apocalypse from Ohm’s shoulder. Melody stabbed the sword into the little dragon, who cried in pain and fell to the floor where Melody stepped on its neck, crushing it.
“No!” Ohm yelled, running to Apocalypse. Melody smiled down at him as he cried, cradling the dragon in his arms. Apocalypse blinked rapidly, unable to move, struggling for breath. Finally, he fell silent. Dead. “My baby!” Ohm looked at Melody, tears streaming down his face. He snarled and his skin rippled, taking on a leathery tone. He blinked and when his eyes opened they were reptilian and yellow. He let loose a terrible roar that shook the enormous cavern.
“Wyrm, please,” Arthur said, smashing his staff into the back of Ohm’s head. Ohm crumpled to the floor, his features morphing back to that of a human. “Get them — before — they transform. That’s the key!” Arthur said, pointing a finger up. “I do rather enjoy his music though. Rufus, Pellonias! Bring him along.”
Arthur conjured open a portal and stepped through. Rufus and the Pellonia’s picked up Ohm and carried him through the portal. Melody and the mysterious man in the silken robe followed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Berserker and the Clem
IT WAS DARK. It was also warm and very wet. Gurken opened his eyes. A very dim radiance lit his tight confines. It was like being in a sleep sack, but filled with warm porridge. Fluid filled his lungs and he panicked, thrashing about. The sleep sack started to crush him, but there was no room to fight. There was a great, crushing squeeze and the side of the sack ruptured and Gurken spurted out like a bar of soap from a wet hand.
Gurken looked up, and it was no sleep sack, it was an enormous pod at the top of a large plant. Gurken waved his hands, shaking off warm gelatin goo. “That’s disgusting,” he said, then noticed he was entirely naked.
At the bottom of the plant was a skeleton; next to the skeleton in a neat pile were Gurken’s armor and clothing, his belongings, and even his axe. The plant’s roots had grown into the body and apparently eaten its flesh. Gurken curled his lip. “What kind of foul sorcery is this?” he asked no one in particular.
He heard a sound like a cat regurgitating a meal, looked to his side, and saw several more plants, one of which was splitting open. Out slid Pellonia, striking the ground with a splat. “That’s not right,” she said, wiping goo from her eyes. She covered herself, and her cheeks flushed.
“Whaaaaaa-aa-aaa-aaahk,” came from another plant as Maximina burst out. She looked at her hands and shook like a dog, splattering goo everywhere, and yet was not entirely successful in reducing the amount clinging to her. She spotted one of the plant’s seeds and picked it up, examining it.
“Whua-hua-hua-uahk.” Apocalypse squirted out of another plant. He slid along the ground on a thick coating of slime, spinning in a circle. When he finally stopped, he sat up and began to lick himself clean.
They looked around and saw they were in the midst of strange and unfamiliar surroundings. It had the feel of the outdoors, with plants, the sound of a nearby stream, and a brightness not unlike that of the sun during the day, and yet high above them they could see a ceiling. The ceiling curved ever so slightly, giving the appearance of disappearing into the horizon.
“It’s my kind of foul sorcery,” said an eerily familiar yet not entirely recognizable woman’s voice. They turned and saw a woman with pointed ears and long flowing auburn hair, tied into two oversized pigtails and entwined with twigs. She wore a simple tunic spun from cotton and tight blue trousers. She was beautiful. “You seem to have had some sort of mishap, so I used my plants to clone…that is, I mean to say, to resurrect you.”
Pellonia cocked her head and looked at the elf, confused. Maximina looked at the elf, then at Pellonia. Gurken looked at the elf and said, “Pellonia?”
The elf smiled. “Yes, it’s me.”
“Wow, you’ve changed. The Awakening’s been good to you.” He nodded appreciatively.
She very nearly blushed. “Yes, well… thanks.”
“Where are we?” asked Pellonia.
“You’re on board the elven ship. A bathing pond is just over there to wash the goo off. Your things are next to the plants. I’ve missed you quite madly, my fierce dwarfen friend.” Her face went from smile to frown. “And Arthur, I miss him as well.”
Maximina’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “You miss Arthur? He’s the one that killed us! And you!” She looked at the elder Pellonia while pointing at the younger.
The elder Pellonia sighed. “Yes, I thought that might have been the case. But that’s not Arthur. Not completely. That’s the Phage controlling him. Mostly. They’re a rather fascinating creature; in their native form they’re a hive mind but when one of them melds with another being it incorporates some of that creatures characteristics and its connection to the hive is drastically reduced. I guess what I’m saying is that though it might seem like Arthur, it’s not.”
“Fascinating?” Gurken asked. “It seems vile to me!”
“They’re that as well,” Pellonia agreed. “Now, get dressed. I need your help. Oh, and welcome to the Awakening.”
Several hours later, a portal appeared in the cavern under Arendal where Arthur had left. Gurken, a fierce grin upon his visage, strode through. Tiwaz, the Dwarfen rune of victory and success, blazed upon its head. As Gurken walked into the room, there was a poof sound as the rune snuffed out.
“Awwww,” Gurken said, frowning. He shook the axe vigorously, but the rune did not reignite.
Pellonia, that is, the young Pellonia, stepped through the portal next. “That was amazing,” she said. “The All-Mother was certainly not what I expected.”
Maximina flew through the portal. She wore a skintight shimmering metallic bodysuit, a leather belt with two holsters holding two L-shaped magic wands, boots with cylinders on the sides emitting fire underneath, and a platinum tiara with a green jewel set into it. As she flew into the room, the flames coming from the boots sputtered and stopped. She fell to the floor with a crash.
Apocalypse flew through the portal next, no longer small enough to fit on a shoulder. He was now the size of a large dog with scales the color of elven steel.
The elder Pellonia stepped through the portal. “I’m sorry that I can’t stay and help you with Arthur. We may have gotten the ship turned around and pointed back here, but there is no guarantee it will remain that way, and every minute I spend here is a day there. I’ll be back with the elves as soon as I can.” The elder Pellonia hugged them farewell and stepped back through the portal. It closed behind her.
“My rocket boots aren’t working anymore,” Maximina said after elder Pellonia was gone.
“Boots of Levitation,” Pellonia corrected.
“You full-blood elves have your rules on what to call things down here. I think it’s stupid. They’re rocket boots. That’s a much better name,”
said Maximina. She pointed a wand at the ceiling, making the mystical gesture to release the beam of light. Then she tapped the gem in her tiara. “My force field and laser guns don’t seem to be working either.”
Pellonia’s lips puckered. “Shield spell and Wands of Light.”
Maximina rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“My axe stopped working too,” Gurken grumbled. He shook the axe once more.
“There’s something about this world preventing our magic from working,” Pellonia said. “I wonder what it is…”
“It’s not magic!” Maximina said. “It’s technology!”
“What’s the difference?” Pellonia asked.
Maximina started to say something, the she shrugged.
“That’s all fine and good,” Gurken said. “But where do we go from here?”
“We’ve got find Arthur, rescue Ohm and stop Melody and Arthur from opening the Portal to the Phage homeworld.”
“A good strategy, even if not yet a plan. Where should we start?” Gurken asked.
Maximina took off her now useless Boots of Levitation, Tiara of Shielding, and Wands of Light and shoved them into her magic sack.
“Where could Arthur be?” Pellonia asked.
“I’m not sure,” Gurken said. “The last time we saw Arthur before he resurfaced, was at the end of the Phage invasion. He was being repulsed by goblins and dwarves with some help from giant ants. He headed back towards the enormous rock the Phage came out of when they landed.”
“Seems like a logical place to start,” said Pellonia. “First things first; let’s get out of this dungeon.”
“There it is,” said Gurken. “The rock the Phage came to this world on.”
Gurken, Pellonia, Maximina, and Apocalypse stood on the edge of the cliff, looking out over the valley.
“This is the cliff where we watched the Phage land,” said Pellonia. “It was right over there that I — well, the other Pellonia — was transported to the elven ship,” she said pointing to a patch of otherwise unremarkable dirt.
“And right over there the portal opened, and I came through with the goblin horde,” said Gurken, pointing to another unremarkable patch of dirt.
“But I don’t remember that house,” Pellonia said, pointing to a house with a small picket fence around it. Gurken and Pellonia looked at each other and Gurken shrugged.
“Let’s see who’s home,” he said.
Pellonia opened the small gate and they walked up to the house. She knocked and they waited. The door opened. A man with the head of a large cat stood inside, wearing a pair of spectacles and a bathrobe, he had several sheets of paper with writing and pictures on them rolled and stuffed under one arm.
“Hello. Can I help you?” said the man.
Pellonia and Gurken looked at each other, then back at the man. “Hi, my name’s Pellonia. My friends and I were here several years ago, fighting off the Phage.”
“I see,” said the man. “That doesn’t really explain how I can help you.”
“We’re looking for a former friend of ours, Arthur Gimble, wizard of the tenth rank. Last we saw, he was headed back to that rock.” Pellonia pointed.
The man raised an eyebrow. “A former friend of yours, you say?”
“Well, he’s still a friend of ours, but his mind is now controlled by the Phage. He’s trying to open a portal to the Phage homeworld and we’d like to stop him.”
The man nodded. “Please, come in,” he said, stepping back and gesturing for them to enter. After everyone else was seated in the sitting room, the man sat in a comfortable chair, took out a pipe and filled it with some dried leaves. He lit it and took a few puffs.
“Would anyone like some tea?” he asked. Everyone nodded.
“Clem,” the man shouted into the back room. “Please bring us some tea.” The cottage began to shake as heavy footsteps thudded on the hardwood floors. Glassware rattled and clinked and everyone’s teeth rattled together as Clem ducked under a doorway and walked into the room.
Gurken jumped to his feet, drawing his axe. Pellonia hopped up behind her chair. Apocalypse perked up from his spot on the floor and cocked his head to the side. Maximina shoved a hand into her magic sack. Clem’s head was a humanoid amalgamation of several creatures sewn together with heavy leather cords. He was almost eight feet tall and wore tattered rags, remnants of outfits worn by the various creatures he had been stitched together from and reanimated.
“Hello, Risabh,” said Clem to the man, politely but slurring his words. “I bring tea. No. No. NO!” Clem yelled. “I brought tea. Yes, I brought you tea.” Clem seemed to calm down. “Clem brought tea.” Clem smacked himself in the head. “I brought you tea.”
“Thank you, Clem.” Risabh gestured for Clem to set the tea on the table, which he did.
Pellonia looked closely at Clem, seeing a grayish patch of hair that looked familiar, she said, “Moog? Are you in there?”
Clem nodded. “I’m not Moog. Moog. Who Moog? Who ‘is’ Moog?” Clem’s voice raised and lowered with each sentence.
“Arthur?” Gurken asked.
“Yes, it is I. Moog. Who Arthur?” asked Clem. Clem smacked the side of his head. “STOP! Ahhhh.”
“You recognize some of Clem’s components?” Risabh asked. “Interesting.”
“Components?” Pellonia asked. “What have you done?”
“What have I done? Isn’t it obvious? I took the remnants of corpses I came across, stitched them together, and imbued them with a new soul.”
“You created a flesh golem?” Maximina asked.
“I suppose that term could be used to describe it. I came to this world after discovering the Phage made their way here. Wherever the Phage go, carnage is sure to follow. Plenty of bodies to work with. Clem is my masterpiece. Finest flesh golem I’ve ever created. A few centaurs, goblins, lots of them. Lots of dwarves too. A few trolls, which provide the size and helpful regenerative capabilities, even an elf! Quite lucky there.”
“Clem not happy!” said Clem. “Clem -is- not happy!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Berserker and the Cube
“I BELIEVE THAT was one of the most vile creatures I’ve ever met,” Pellonia said.
“Clem is right here, he can hear you. That’s not very nice,” Maximina said.
“I meant Risabh,” Pellonia clarified.
“Risabh was very polite,” Gurken said. “An excellent host.”
“That’s part of what makes him so evil. It wouldn’t have been polite to kill him.”
“He did send Clem along with us to help us on our quest,” Maximina said.
“Yes,” said Pellonia. She squinted her eyes and looked up at Clem. “He did.”
Gurken, Pellonia, Maximina, Apocalypse, and Clem stood at the entrance to a cave in the side of the enormous rock that was once the Phage ship. The ground around the rock was scarred and burnt from the landing. Dirt had been thrown for miles. The land had since begun to heal, small trees had taken root, and bushes and grasses had grown.
They’d had to hike down an enormous crater to reach the entrance. It was sealed with a massive oaken door. There were no knobs on this side, nor any other indication of how to open it. A small barred window sat in the center, but wood covered the other side of it.
“Everyone stand back,” Gurken said, taking his axe off of his back. “I’ll get us in.” He glared at Uruz, the dwarfen rune of physical strength, speed, and masculine potency etched on the head of the axe. The rune glared back, but did not ignite, glimmer, or even smolder.
Pellonia looked perplexed. “Are you sure you want to break the door down with your axe, Gurken? You’ll have to sharpen it.”
“Stand aside, master thief,” Gurken said. “Your skills are useless here. As you can see, there is no lock for you to pick. The door is barred from the other side.”
“You haven’t even tried to open it yet,” Pellonia said. She walked up to the door and gave it a nudge. It did not open.
> “As I said,” said Gurken, “stand aside.” Gurken took an enormous swing at the door, his axe biting deeply and lodging into it. Gurken strained to pull the axe back out of the door.
The board behind the window slid aside and a face with bushy eyebrows and a bulbous nose looked out. “Did you just cut into my door with your axe?” the dwarf asked.
“Aye, I did,” Gurken agreed, turning red.
“Without knocking first? Just come cuttin’ your way in?”
“Well, the door was in our way.”
“I should hope so! That’s what doors are for. To keep some people in, some people out, and let others pass between. It wouldn’t be of much use if it didn’t get in folks’ way.”
“But we needed to get by,” Gurken said.
“Did you consider knocking?”
“I did try to push it open,” Pellonia said. “It didn’t budge.”
“Of course not! It’s locked! To. Keep. People. Out. You have seen a door before, have you not?”
“Well, yes.”
“Then let’s try this again. I’m going to close the window. You knock.”
“But we’ve already got your attention,” Pellonia said.
“It seems to me, that you need the practice,” said the dwarf, closing the wooden cover behind the window.
Gurken rolled his eyes, managed to free his axe from the door, and knocked. The window slid open once more, and the dwarf looked out.
“Who goes there?”
“It’s us,” said Gurken, “from just a moment before.”
“I can see that,” said the dwarf. “I didn’t know who you were then, still don’t know who you are now. All I know is that doors are quite challenging for you.”
“Very well. It is I, Gurken Stonebiter, avatar of Durstin Firebeard and templerager of the Stonebiter clan, lorekeeper of the goblin horde, slayer of elves.”
“Just the one elf,” said Clem, holding up one finger, then flicking his pointed ear with it.
“Slayer of elf,” Gurken concurred.
