Walrus werds

Wasting my time

Borrowed my friend’s Sexbox 360 and his copy of GTA4.

And after that I have hardly got anything done. Well, atleast that picture just told me where I’d lost my coaster again.

In other news, longer blog coming up later, when I have time to write it.

The Weekend … of DOOM!!

The following is part of a dream:

The old sleeping quarters smelled just as dank and unfriendly as they had always done when I stepped in through the door and dropped my stuff on the floor.
Looking around me, I could see not had changed. Bunk-beds, still looking shabby and most likely in a need of a good airing out. Small stools at the end of each bed and a rickety table at the opposing side of the room. Windows looking out over and overgrown back-yard.
“I’d lie if I said it was good to be back” I muttered as I located the cleanest of the bunks and sat down on it. After a while I got up, walked to my toolbox and got out a wrench. A few minutes of huming and unscrewing had undone upper- from lower bunk. Lifting the damn thing off, I placed it on the floor next to the lower part.
“Better…”
Next I did a quick inspection of the lockers.
“Empty, empty, junk, empty…”
Choosing the cleanest, I stuffed in my things, locked the door with a heavy padlock and wandered out to see the others sharing my fate.
Our undisclosed location, deep as it was in the wilderness, was now home to a small force of military personnel and conscripts. Being in the later category, I did not feel very motivated by the whole endeavour. A few rooms down the hall, I found my sergeant.
“Sarge! Fuck yeah!” I bellowed as I rushed into the room and tackled the man.
“Holy shit!” Was all the time the small man had time to shout before he was down on the floor.
“Get him! Assault on officer!” The other men in the room yelled, rushing to tear me off him.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Sarge yelled as several men dragged us apart.
“It’s on of my boys” he got up and dusted himself off. “I’ll allow this behaviour, but only this once” he looked at me and frowned.
“Sure thing sarge” I grinned.
“Ya know why your boys liked you so much?” I inquired while grinning still.
“The there were two of you. We had to hate one, so we picked the asshole” I winked and darted out of the room, before the others could grab me again.
Down the hall, I ran into one of my old squad mates, while running away from a pack of sergeants.
“Hey!”
“Hi?”
And I was outside and hiding in the undergrowth.
A bit later I climbed in through my room window. As an after-thought, I added a spot for a pad-lock on the inner side of the door, which I then locked. After which I went to take a nap.
Some hours later most of the old squad was gathered in the room I had conquered. Bottles were out and music was playing. The window was open and a bunch of people were smoking outside. The pad-lock hung in its place. A few of the sergeants were with us, getting pretty hammered. At some point a sub-lieutenant had passed through, waving around with a bottle of rum happily.
The party died out when night fell. Morale might have been low and order was non-existent, but that did not mean that anybody thought that the Military Police patrolling the area would approve of a party at the premises.
After the others left, I walked over to open of the lockers, pulled it out from the wall, pushed in the panel behind and slid it open. Beyond it lay a small opening. The air coming from the hole was heavy and musty. Sliding through, I found myself in an unlit room. Wood and dust. But also the smell of rot.
“Must’a've be a leaking pipe…” I muttered while reaching for a pack of matches and a candle that I had in my pocket. Lighting it, I could see parts of the room. The wooden benches were intact and the floor planks too. The wood on the walls was partly stained. A door on the left wall was closed. Heading over to it, I found it to have swollen shut. With a few attempts of shoulder-to-door methodology, I managed to force it open. Behind it was another room, this one also with wooden walls. Benches built into the wall and a sauna oven clearly identified the purpose of this room. Another door on the opposing wall lead to the showers. The floor was covered in dead leaves and the door leading out to the back-yard was half-open. A quick look towards the showers identified the source of the rot. Growing on the wall was a green-brown mould that covered many meters of the surface. Also, a large black bear snored on the floor. Nearly yelling out in surprise, I slowly, very slowly, backed away and shut the door to the showers before the animal smelled my presence in the room. Pondering for a while, I went over into the first room and flipped the switch that turned the sauna on. Then I closed the door between the first room and the sauna, climbed out of the hole with my candle in hand and closed the panel, pushed the locker in place and went to sleep. All well-knowing that I had a two hundred pound bear sleeping not twenty meters from where I was.

Later, when I had managed to get the bear to leave and had cleaned out the hidden rooms in my spare time, the group got together and enjoyed the hidden sauna along with more drinking.

So, that was that dream. Also, this weekend a friend of mine got married. Out of respect to the people present, I’ve changed names.

The ceremony was okay, even if I couldn’t hear almost anything said. Which was just as good, what I heard I had a hard time agreeing with. Seems like the priest had done some rather free interpreting of our religions tenets. Free as in decided on her personal official definitions for things like love, marriage, joy and so on. All things considered, I am happy the ceremony was so short.

After the church, we left to go and get some food for a friend with bad allergies. After that, we drove to the reception place. There was food, cake and dancing. Also included games (of the bachelor/bachelorette and baby shower kind, what?) that mostly seemed like a waste of time. They were enjoyable for the bride & groom, which is good, but they had more belonged in the two occasions mentioned above. They dragged out the time a lot, meaning that the wedding waltz was not danced until after nine in the evening. Thinking of it, I think it was closer to ten at that point…
Anyhow, the food was great and the mood was festive enough.
Alas, I was bored to tears for most of the time, not being all that big on social gatherings. I ended up holding a three hour long monologue, delivered in parts, at my table. That would have been table number nine, the table furthest away from everything, the table nicknamed the “Fuck You” table (by me). My performance was adequate enough to make people inquire about a) the state of my mental health and sanity, b) the lack or efficiency of my medication and c) the amount of drugs I was on.
On the serving table I found this.
The meat has formed a pile, the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a while.
Was good food indeed and the cake was pretty awesome. I had seconds. A Russian friend helped himself to a whole plateful later at night, when the food made a comeback from the fridge. Meaning that the meat also made a comeback, yay!
I drove some friends home or to the bus station and came back to the party. While the groom’s brother was drunk enough to leave, he opted to stay. And since I had had enough of social interaction for the time being, I left (this was some hours later). Heard from him the following day that the cab ride home had been expensive.

In other news… I had a day off yesterday and cleaned the house. Had a bad allergic reaction to all the dust and was out flat for half an hour on the couch. Seems like I need to start using a breathing mask when I clean. Also, I ran into my friend, who was best-man for the groom, in town on my way home yesterday. He said the after-party had gone well.

That’s all for now.

Die in a fire, cunt!

The air was cold. Snowflakes drifted down slowly, filling the world with its white, soft dullness. My car came to a halt in the driving lot, underneath a street lamp. Muttering, I got out and walked up the hill towards the gas station built onto the side. The air was crisp and cold. In the dim light of the lamps, I could see an old friend leaning against one of them. A steady trail of smoke rose up towards the falling snowflakes. “Yo, Pete!” I called out to him, he graced me with a nod. His long and dark trench hang almost to the ground, while a hood covered his head.
“Going to the gas station” I answered his raised brow. He nodded, ground the life out of his smoke with his heel and walked after me.
We entered the store and I made my purchase. He trifled through the magazine stand and I went to check the used section in the back of the store. Located up half a landing and two rooms down, the only people in the room were some kids and their caretakers. They were eyeing some used games and electronics that were on display in the small room. I wandered by, made a dry observation about some of the stuff they had and went over to another shelf to take a quick look at the handhelds there. Pete had made his way into the other corner of the room, where he lazily browsed the computer games.
Suddenly an alarm rang.
“Fuck now?” We hurried up the half-floor out of the room and down the corridor, when we found our way blocked by flames from the kitchen. Due to some really smart planning, it was between the store’s front room and the room we’d been in. Flames pushing out of the kitchen made that way not an option. Beyond we could see the store clerk yelling something at us as she ran out of the store and out. The kids and the two women with them (maybe twenty or so kids, aged between eight and twelve) were milling around, crying and screaming.
“Pete, herd them this way” I grunted as I threw off the balk blocking the double door at the end of the corridor. A green light above it identified it as the emergency exit. Beyond was a dark corridor. Oppressive heat from above told me that the fire was spreading into the vents. We had to move fast.
“Move it ya damn chimps!” Pete growled as he crouched, spread out his arms and pushed the milling group in my direction. I took one of the women by the shoulders and shook her.
“Ok, do as I say! Make the children grab hands! Pete at the end with the fire, I at this end, you two down the line. DO IT!” I started connecting the kids hands, as the other woman (clearly less in shock than the first one) started to instruct the children to do as told.
Quickly, I was up front with a little boys hand in mine. A chain of uncertain faces was behind me and at the very end Pete was holding a small girl by the hand, while he was holding a lit cigarette with the other.
“Fucks sake! Pete!” I growled as I pushed forward, into the corridor and the darkness beyond. A dull green sheen was cast by the emergency exit light up front. Darting between boxes and other junk, we snaked up towards the way out. The children were crying and had to be partly dragged, partly pushed to get them to follow. The next door was locked.
“Fuck… Pete, a hand!” I could hear through the gloom as my friend pushed himself past the children. The air was getting hot and hard to breath, with smoke drifting in.
Shouldering the door we finally broke it down enough to squeeze the children and women through. I could feel ribs cracking as Pete violently pushed me through the hole. On the other side it was cooler and much darker. A larger room, by the feel of it. Fumbling for a light switch, I found nothing. Digging out a lighter from my pocket, I cast a quick look around. Pete kept on trying to break the door down, but it wouldn’t budge. My eyes settled on a long metal pipe.
“Pete, step back!” I shouted as I wedged it between the door and cracked it open with a heave. The big man stumbled into the room, smoke trailing him and a wall of heat descending on us. The flames cast light into the room and it became apparent that we were in a storage area.
“There has to be a loading bay in this place, find it!” I yelled as I ran through the room, motioning the children and women to move forwards. A frantic search followed in the half-dark. A door was found quickly enough. Made of metal and designed to be pushed upwards. Mechanised and with no power to move it. Me and Pete turned our eyes on a cart close to the door. Next to the cart was a large metal crate.
“On the ground everyone, there’s more air there! And stay out of our way!” Pete shouted as we weaving and cursing, pushed the metal crate into the cart. We rolled it back, took measure of the door and bellowing curses smacked dead center into the door, causing it to bulge slightly. Cursing and screaming, we pulled back and ran at it again. And again. And again. Until on the fifth try the door jumped out of its tracks and twisted partly open. By now the room was full of smoke and the flames could clearly be seen.
“Out, out! Everyone out! Children first!” We screamed as we coaxed the children and women towards the cold air pushing forwards from the hole. With a great measure of pushing and swearing we managed to get them out, before we squeezed out. We landed maybe five feet down, on the hard asphalt of the parking lot. I could feel a stab of pain as I landed on Pete, who I’d pushed through before me. He muttered a string of curses and pushed me off as he stood, dusted himself off and dragged me after him to safety. Sitting down on a crate he fished out a smoke and lit it, while ambulance personnel were buzzing around us like mad wasps. The children and women were already being moved into various ambulances and driven off. Slouching down next to him I coughed, spat and watched the firefighters try to put out the blazing inferno.

Bloody terrible dream. Being burned to death is high on my list of ways that I don’t want to die. :I

Dead Walrus Days

Since the mysterious weather we have been having does finally seem to have lifted - at least for the moment - I find myself able to think without my head feeling like the inside of a camel’s rear end. One that is on fire. And most likely taking an acid bath.
Anyhow. I’ve had pretty normal dreams for the last week or so, or simply no dreams at all - ones that I remember when I awake, that is. The ones I had the last two nights fall in the category of “too messy”. In short, they are a collection of memories, most so brief that the entire dream becomes nonsensical, or simply impossible to recall in great enough detail to blog about. From what can be recalled from last day (I was home with an illness):

I dreamt of people dumping their animals on me. At one point I had a few dogs, some cats and other animals both furry and fur less. The breaking moment of that dream is me coming home to ask my brother where the cat (which I’d taken a liking to) had gone. He told me he’d strangled it to death, ‘cos it had stolen his nipple. I shit you not. At that point I awoke.

Yeah, so. Ugh… wtf? O_o

I think I was running a fewer yesterday. Stayed home for the day and never got out of bed. Today I’ve gone to the office and feel like I’ve been falling asleep since 1 PM. I still have, as I write this, two hours left to go. As soon as the other’s leave, I’ll head over to the other room and take a nap on the couch. They leave at 5 PM and my day’s over at the same time, so I’ll sleep some before heading home. Luckily I’m not driving today.

And finally, a friend gets married on Saturday. Luckily, I have once again passed below the radar and was not asked to be his best-man. *phew*
A mutual friend ended up having to do that.
… If I dream of iron cages, slamming heavy doors or some-such in the nights to come, I flatly refuse to see any connections besides the obvious; that of a long dead German sociologist named Max Weber.
Curse you Weber and your damned iron cage! Curse youuuuuu!!

And that is all. Begone chipmunks, my feet call out to tables and matrixes full of actual content. Bogaloooooooooooo!!

Itty bitty moving kitty

I’ve seen this white and brown with orange and black spots kitty moving around on my yard for some weeks. I found it sleeping on a table out on the back yard. Such a cute creature. Here’s a picture.

I’ve seen it out in the tall grass, pouncing on forest mice, shrews and voles. I’ve left a few cups of clean water out for it on the yard. So far I haven’t actually fed it, but I guess that if I can’t find its owner, I’ll have to take it in for the winter. That or take it to a shelter. But there it’ll just be put down. So I can’t do that. Saw it hunting yesterday when I came home from work in the night. Was pouncing around in the ditch when I drove past. Nice kitty, keep the rodent population down!

Of course if I actually took it in (if it’d allow me to), I’d have to have it de-wormed and give it some vacination shots. Oh bother… ’s a nice kitty though.

Added content to old posts

This here entry, has finally had the damn pictures added to it.
Due to legal reasons, I have left out pictures containing my travel companions and relatives. Would I gain their consent, I would add them. Albeit, I do not believe that is ever going to happen.

Furthermore, here is the tale from last post in pdf format, since I’ve received a number of complaints that the spacing screws up royally in Internet Explorer. *Ahem* Dear fuckers, use Firefox already! Thank you.

If I’ll think of anymore to say, I’ll say it later.
You all know the drill by now.

And now for a story!

Circle circle dot dot now you’ve had you brain rot

So, in the last few days ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has happened. Albeit, that is a lie. There is no need for the truth, however, since the truth is filled with small shiny shards of blood that bleeds into the brain of all those around you, like a cancerous crab-dance. But I digress; there is no need for an extensive digestion track in today’s day and age of pulverized caffeine products. Thusly let me tell you a tale.

It all began in a place unlike our dear old Earth. Sure, there are lands much like ours, but also such that we could never have imagined without several questionable illegal substances. Or perhaps with a malicious brain malfunction. However, that is not important. Let me instead tell you of the travels of two identical twins; Lana and Erohw. These two young ladies have powerful blood running in their veins, but do to this blood; they have never known home or their family. This tale is about their quest to find an item of tremendous power; the Golden Skull.

“The sun was high over the trees by the time Lana’s pony; Nightmare, slowly trodden into the woodcutters camp and came to a halt by a large tent that served as local drinking establishment. Her sister, Erohw, was dozing on her pony, which trotted after Nightmare in a stoic fashion and came to halt a few feet behind the aptly named beast. Rolling their heads, the horses of the other group members, came to a halt in a semi-circle around the black pony. Mallus, a tall and muscular man with shaved head and sharp features, slid off his horse and helped Rachel, a tall woman in a dirty chain shirt, equally dirty hair and tall leather boots, off her horse. Her voluminous dark hair flowed down on her shoulder as she undid her satchels from her horse and slung it over her shoulder.
“Coming Alexei?” she called out over her shoulder as she strode off into the tent. The one called Alexei, a man her height, with broad shoulders, flat face and a nose that had been remodelled a few times more than he liked, got down off his horse with a grunt and strode after her. A few locals who had come to look at the newly arrived group, quickly got out of his way as he marched through their midst, a large wicked-looking scythe strapped to his back. The locals cast nervous glances after him as he disappeared into the shadows of the tent. A man in sky-blue clerical robes lazily strolled after him. His short-cropped black hair was oiled and his moustache cut carefully. With his chestnut brown skin, he was immediately marked as a southerner.
The snoozing twin yawned, stretched and blinked her eyes owlishly. Her lithe form and red hair were contrasted by the grey robe with hood that she wore. With a sigh she got off her pony, her bare feet slapping down on the hard ground. Her sister was already attaching feedbags to the horse, all while whistling tunelessly to herself. She was dressed in grey and brown pants, shirt and a studded leather vest that had seen better days. Once the horses had gotten their feed, she grabbed her sister by the hand and led her into the tent, where the others were already sucking down beers at a respectable rate.
Later in the evening Alexei’s ugly face peered out from the tent and soon the rest of him followed. Stepping outside, he stretched, belched and stumbled off into the bushes to relieve himself. Once out of sight, he straightened up, with determination now shining in his eyes. He pulled a small book from inside his belt pouch, looked inside and swore. Shaking his head, he undid his belt, releaved himself and stode off. Now he was again sagging, his step unsteady and his eyes devoid of any higher thought. With a content snort, he stumbled back into the tent.
Back inside, Rachel and the southerner, called Luigi, were discussing something with a local woodsman at the group’s table. The newcomer, a man in his middle ages, with long brown hair, grizzly face and a massive zweihander leaning against the table next to him, was drawing in the dirt on the table with his finger. Alexei lurched down next to him, making the bench sway with his considerable bulk. Belching happily in the bearded man’s face, he forced an angry glare from him.
“How nice of you to rejoin us” Lana chirped from where she sat cross-legged at the end of the table, mending her leather vest. Her twin was snoozing next to her, head on the table. Every now and then a few sparks escaped from between her fingers, as she moved in her sleep, mumbling incomprehensibly. Lana swatted out a smouldering patch of hay and continued with her repair. Mallus was not far away, sitting cross-legged on the bench, his eyes closed and his mind somewhere far away. Occasionally he would stop breathing for long times at and end. Every now and then Luigi would cast him a glance and motion for Rachel to poke him to see that he was still alive.
“As I was saying, behind the second encampment, there is a large area with lakes, bogs and waterways. Beyond that is the dreaded mist that no one has returned from, ever” the newcomer continued, now that Alexei was seated.
“And you claim to be able to get us there, huh?” Rachel butted in, looking sceptical.
“Yes indeed, I have been all the way up to it before in my days in the forest, scouting for new and unclaimed grooves of blood-wood” the man smiled and leaned back.
“What is your price, o’ man of the forest?” Luigi inquired dryly while sipping on his chilled wine.
“Well” the bearded man grinned “I’ve been looking for adventure for some time now. Buy me another round, pay my expenses and you’ve got yourself a guide”
“Deal” Luigi declared and smiled as he pulled back into the shadows where he was sitting.
“A foolish, but useful man”

Around noon, when most of the group had finally awoken, they saddled up and rode off towards the first forest encampment. According to their guide, the man named Melcaya, they would reach it within a few days. His brown gelding worked its way up the path, as the group rode deeper into the forest. He too had donned a chain shirt and a bowl helmet for the expedition. Most of the day the group rode in silence, occasionally exchanging jokes or tales as the sun moved somewhere above the treetops. Rarely it glimpsed down and bathed the forest floor in its golden luminance. At the end of the day, the path widened and came out into a large clearing, where tall grass waved slowly in the evening wind. Melcaya reined in his horse at a spot of barren ground and spoke.
“We’ll make camp here for tonight, this is a quite safe place” getting off his horse, he unhooked his saddlebags and rolled out his cooking gear.
“Since I intend to make food tonight, those of you any good with snares or the bow could try to look for some wild game. Otherwise it’ll be dried meat and bread for tonight. There’s a spring at that end of the clearing” he said waving his arm in some direction over his head. “You’ll find fresh water there” he concluded as he struck life into a small fireplace.
A while later the group sat gathered around the fire mending equipment, eating, playing cards and sleeping. As darkness fell, the last of them curled up in her bedroll and started snoring.

The next morning the group continued on the small and winding path. Around noon they came upon a spot where the path touched with a small field. Atop the field stood a ruined tower. As they rode past, Lana glanced towards it as it stood there, lazily surrounded by flowers and tall grass. She let out a scream of surprise and the others reined in their horses and hands on their weapons, wheeled around. From the top of the tower a large, green, reptilian neck was staring down at them. The creature let out a high-pitched chirping sound and disappeared out of sight.
“The hell was that?” Alexei let out.
“Dunno” was Rachel’s reply.
“Let’s go take a closer look” Erohw yelled as she drove her heels into the sides of her pony, sending it flying on its short legs towards the ruined tower. Cursing loudly, the others forced their horses forwards and followed.
Up at the tower, Erohw was already dismounting as the head appeared above the top again. And another peered out from the a window at the middle of the tower, while a third looked out from the door opening right in front of her. As hypnotized by its motley green skin, Erohw strode closer, her hand outstretched. Rachel yelled out, but it was too late. The green reptile, looking friendly first, opened up its mouth as the girl came close and belched out a large yellow gob of fluid onto her. Screaming in pain she backed away as the liquid ate holes in her robe and burned her flesh.
Wheeling from the right, Alexei dived off his horse and landed squarely in front of the lizard. With a flash of steel he cut it straight across the nose and sent it scampering backwards. In the meanwhile the lizard atop the tower and the one on the middle floor were climbing down its sides, spitting gobs of fluid at the others drawing near. The dazed girl screamed as she looked at the skin melting off her hand, exposing bones beneath. Rachel’s mace drove into the side of the head of one of the lizards coming down the tower side, sending it flying off into the bushes beyond. With the monstrosities out in the open it became apparent that they had large green and transparent wings on their backs.
“Dragons!” someone screamed and was awarded another gob of fluid by the largest of the dragons.
Wheeling from both sides, Alexei and Rachel tried to keep the first dragon away from Erohw, while Lana and Mallus were busy assisting Luigi holding the second and third in check. Melcaya was rushing up on the last one from behind, his large blade swooshing through the air. Everywhere the horses were screaming and their riders were swearing, wheeling and trying to match the dragon’s claws and bites with their own downward sword thrusts and blows. Rachel got bit in the thigh, sending her flying backwards by the dragon’s powerful jaws. Alexei was knocked down by the dragon’s tail as it charged towards Erowh. The girl blinked owlishly, lifted her hand and sent an orb of roaring fire straight into the dragon’s snout, causing it to flinch and scream in pain. Raining orbs of flame, she drove the thing back until it laid smoking next to the tower. Turning, she lobbed more of her lethal projectiles at the two other dragons fighting the others. As it distracted, her companions drove their swords into the second dragon, while the third took to the skies with a terrible bellow of rage and wheeled away. But only for a few hundred yards, before a salvo of orbs brought it crashing down into the trees, where it lay still, flames slowly licking its corpse. After this display of sorceral might, the girl yawned, curled up on the ground and began snoozing, to the surprise of everyone present.
While Rachel was covering up the sleeping girl with a blanket, her sister hauled out small sealed sacks and a small leather chest from inside the tower.
“Imperial stamp!” she declared, pointing at the seal on the sacks. “These are pretty damn old”
“Over a hundred years…” Luigi mused, as he rummaged through in the chest, producing a few oddly formed sticks. “Sorceral wands… how very useful” he grinned as he studied them towards the light. “Give them to your sister when she wakes up” he tossed them to Lana and walked back to his horse.
“All clear from up here!” rang Melcaya’s voice down from the tower. “I can’t see any disturbances for miles around”
Once the horses had been calmed down and Luigi had with Rachel take a look at Erohw’s hand and healed it with their healing arts, the group pressed onwards. That night they slept in a thicket at the side of a small river, where the twins caught fish for food.

In the late afternoon, the following day, they arrived in the first encampment. Once they had showed the loggers the horns and scales of one of the dragons, they were treated to a large feast. The celebration continued long into the night and it was not until late morning when the group managed to get on the winding paths again and continue up towards the second encampment. The days between these two camps was marked with the occasional sighting of animals suitable for food, rivers and ponds full of fish and even one rather lazy grizzly bear that was snoozing in the sunlight on the path the group was riding on. A well-aimed orb later, it had escaped into the forest, making pained noises as it disappeared among the trees. When the group had almost reached the second encampment, Melcaya drew to a halt, raised his hand and spoke.
“Feet, running. Small group, coming our way. Prepare yourselves!” Lana disappeared up a tree and the others got off the path, while Alexei and Erohw stood at its sides. Soon came into view a small group of running people. Between them they carried two stretchers, onto which had been strapped an injured man and woman.
“Out of the way! Out of the way!” they yelled as they ran towards the group. “Wyverns are attacking the camp, you have to flee!” Soon they were past the group, disappearing into the forest.
“Wyverns?” Rachel said, stepping out from behind a tree.
“Let’s ride!” Alexei yelled, kicking his horse into motion and racing up the path towards the encampment. The others followed suit, kicking their horses into a gallop. Last came Melcaya, yelling about how they should turn back, wyverns being dangerous and other things that obviously nobody bothered to listen to. As the group raced around the next turn, they came into sight of the wyverns. Large reptiles, with their forelegs long ago grown into wings, a wicked stinger at the end of their tail and large maws with sharp teeth. Their scaly hides the colour of molten copper with patches of green thrown in. Two such monstrosities were racing down the path towards the group. Their wings were pressed closely to their sides, as they tried to push through the trees and each reach the group first. Screaming triumphantly, they thundered through bush and grass, tearing smaller saplings up as they ran over them.
While the group set to meet the charge, mostly by getting off the hard-packed earth path and into the forest on the sides, Erowh planted herself firmly in the path of the two charging wyverns. As they drew within range, she conjured up a swarm of fiery orbs and sent them roaring down the path, straight into the quickly approaching beasts. Tearing through wings, skin and burning holes as they passed, the projectiles brought the charge to a full stop as the wyverns sought to turn around and flee the way they had come. Suddenly the others emerged from behind nearby trees and bushes and attacked the confused beasts. A few shrill screams were cut abruptly to an end when blades plunged into throats and skulls were crushed by a flurry of blows from all sides. As suddenly as it had started, the fight was over.
“Quickly! Onto the encampment!” Alexei bellowed and dragging his horse around the dead wyverns set off in gallop again. The others followed him as best they could, dodging branches and saplings as they thundered forwards. Last came again Melcaya, shouting about unwise plans, certain death and doom. But again his pleads fell to deaf ears.
The encampment was a mess. Knocked over tents and wagons were scattered everywhere. Bodies of people and horses alike were hapzardly thrown around. Two large wyverns were busy helping themself to a dead mare, when the group rode into the encampment. The beasts raised their heads, puzzled and then let out a triumphant cry as they saw the group. Beating the air with their wings, they lumbered towards them, while their cry was answered by a third wyvern, circling high above in the air. The advance of the two was quickly cut short, as a salvo of Erohw’s orbs burned fist-sized holes in their skin and wings. While they tried to turn and flee, the rest of the group charged them on foot and drove them down into the ground. The third wyvern, high up in the air, decided to leave, but did not get far before it was hit in the belly by another salvo of orbs. Shrieking in pain, it wheeled out of control and crashed into a nearby tree and lay still.
Luigi and Rachel were busy looking around the camp for survivors, while Lana and Mallus poked around the destruction, looking for anything interesting. Once the survivors had been found and healed, Alexei and Mallus located shovels and began to bury the dead. While they were digging, with the help of those woodcutters who were able to move, more people emerged from the forest. The leader of the woodcutters told the group that wyverns had attacked because they had by accident cut down a tree that one of them nested in. Alexei wanted to see the tree, so he and Rachel along with the twins rode off with a woodcutter to look at the tree. In the shattered nest of the wyvern, they found a few items of interest, among them a breastplate that was in dire need of cleaning. According to Erohw, it radiated sorcery, so the group decided to keep it, currently cleanliness be what it was.

The group continued northbound after a few days and came without further problems to the lakes. There the air was full of gnats and other insects. Frogs, fish and snakes abounded in the waters and the group even saw small sweet water sharks swim around. The occasional bird sang in a tree and the air was warm.
Approaching a strait between two islands, the group was suddenly assaulted by a group of lizards that walked upright, rising from the deep water.
“Enemy to our left” screamed Mallus and took a defensive stance as the horde of amphibians rushed forwards.
Giggling to herself, Erohw moved her fingers in a complex pattern through the air and let loose another swarm of her beloved fire orbs. Screaming in agony, the lizards fell before her while the rest of the group held against their attack. Muttering to herself, she caused several of herself to appear around her, confusing her attackers. From behind the lizards could be seen a small gnarly woman, with green moss covered skin and twisted ram-horns growing out of her head. Her clothes were a mess of filthy rags and singing high pitched she tore through the youg girl’s sorcery, shredding each image with her power. Muttering in anger, the girl flung another volley in her direction, causing the lizards to break and disappear under the water, dragging her along them. As soon as the fight had broken out, it was gone.
“Pesky little buggers” Melcaya grumbled, cleaning his sword on a rag he’d torn of from one of the fallen.
“And their loin-clothes shall be fitting rags for you to wear” giggle Lana as she led her horse onwards. The rest of the group soon followed, leaving their guide to trail behind them, looking sullen.

Two days later the group came across a small overgrown hut on an island next to the shore they were following. Intrigued by it, they crossed and knocked on the door.
“Go away!” a high pitched voice answered from behind the door.
“Who lives here?” demanded Alexei.
“Nobody, just us mice! Leave us be!” came the reply.
“Right” stated the warrior and kicked in the door.
The single room hut was a mess. Dirty rags hang from various ropes tied to the ceiling, along with local plants and other muck, dropping water on the floor. A small bookshelf was covered in bottles that boiled slowly and a large cauldron was set over the unlit fireplace. In a corner was covering the green hag from two days earlier.
“Please” she begged “do not kill me!”
“I have my doubts about letting you live” Lana replied as she squeezed into the hut.
“Please, I’ll tell you important things” begged the hag, covering in the corner.
“Hear me out! The path you are on is full with danger! And one of you will betray you all, for alone he knows where your goal lies!”
“How do you know that?” Rachel cut in, with a harsh tone, hand on her weapon.
“I sought answers with Chyrophir, god of the lakes! He told me many things”
The hag slowly rose, holding out her hands. Alexei leaned closer, growling something at her, but she extended her hand and touched his arm, causing all colour to drain from his face.
“What did you do hag?” he mumbled as he fell forwards.
“That does it!” Lana cried out and drove her sword into the gut of the hag, who coughed up blood and fell forwards with a scream “Chyrophir, I call out to you, honor your deal!”
With those words, she died.
“What was that?” Rachel wondered out loud as the ground suddenly shook, causing dust, filth and bottles to fall.
“It’s outside the hut!” screamed Mallus as he darted out of the door. Outside he saw a massive eight-headed beast rising up from the lake. It was black as midnight, with blue and white steam rolling out of it’s massive mouths. The thing was covered in large scales, like an overgrown fish, but it had eight legs, each ending in massive taloned feet.
With a swipe of its massive paws, it knocked the huts roof clear off and breathed down a shower of blue and white mist, which froze everything it touched. The ones inside screamed in pain as their skin froze and split into large bleeding wounds.
With a defying bellow Mallus and Melcaya lunged at the beast’s front, driving their blades deep into the base of the necks. Heads fell and the beast cried out in pain as it turned to face the two warriors. Others emerged from the hut, their weapons drawn.
“Flank it, attack the base of the necks!” Mallus screamed as he drove his blade deep into the beast’s side, causing it to turn around towards him. A few more heads fell as Lana and Rachel drove into the creature. After a few more heartbeats the creature was beheaded, but several members of the group were gravely injured.
“Peace of the Sea with you” Luigi muttered as he worked his healing arts again and again.
“The Mother guide you” Rachel recited as she mended broken flesh with her powers.
“I found some stuff!” exclaimed Lana as she and Erohw strode out of the hut, carrying bottles and other items with them. The later was grinning like mad, holding a small ring in her hand.
“Guess what this is!” she exclaimed, showing it in the face of Rachel.
“Uh… that looks like…”
“Exactly! I found it attached to her moss pit!”
“I think I’m going to be sick” Mallus muttered as he staggered off to sit in the shade of the house.

The following day the group crossed the last strait and saw the mists opening up before them.
“I have a bad feeling about this” Rachel muttered as she led her horse after the others into the soup. “I can barely see the hand in front of me, much less Lana’s pony.
“Yeah. It is kind of thick, ain’t it?” Alexei muttered as he strode beside her.
“Should we attack the horses together with rope?” wondered Lana as she led her and her sister’s ponies at the middle of the column. Erohw was once again dozing in the saddle.
“Good idea, I’ve got rope” stated Malllus. After some fidgetint the horses had been tied together and the group continued into the mist.
An hour later they emerged from it again, not far from where they had entered.
“Well, that did a lot of good” Rachel spat as she glared at their scout.
“I’ve never been in the mist before!” he defended himself.
“Now what?” wondered Lana as she shook her sister awake. Erohw yawned lazily and dropped off her horse.
“Alexei knows the way” she stated as she took her pony’s reigns from her sister.
“You do?” Everyone turned to look at Alexei. Fear, mistrust, loyalty and faith in him played across their faces.
“I somehow feel that I might do” are you willing to try it?” he asked, shrugging.
“Better than nothing” was the general consensus.

A few days later in the mist Alexei screamed as a spider the size of a large dog was dangling in front of his face. The group had fallen asleep and the lone guard had not noted the spiders coming down from the trees.
“P-poison” he stuttered as he drove his blade through the spider’s chitinous plates.
“Everyone, stick together!” screamed Rachel as she ran through the spider in front of her.
The battle ended abruptly, as Erohw woke to the screaming and half-awake loosened a bunch of orbs after the spiders, before she promptly fell asleep again.
“Drink this” Lana muttered as she held the convulsing Alexei’s head in her lap, forcing a small vial of fluid between his lips. After a moment he stopped twitching and sat up, grunting.
“Thanks, that was nasty” he muttered while wiping his mouth.
“Anti-venom tends to be” Lana shrugged as she put the vial back in her backpack.
“You are lucky it was just a common Hu’kjari spider that bit you, not one of those White Ladies or gods forbid, a Serk Hunter - I would have had to dig a really big grave to get you to fit into it” she grinned as she stood up. Seeing Alexei go pale added to the satisfaction she felt about putting him in his place.

Some days later, hard to say when, due to the lack of seeing the sunlight, the group became aware of the sounds of war drums. The sound pulled them closer, yet closer, until finally they were peering into a small clearing from behind large trees. In the clearing sat large figures, twelve in total. They were beating large war drums and chanting wordlessly. They had dark fur and long arms, with short legs and a grossly over-sizes upper body. Their teeth were large and pointy, with tusks a foot or so long produting from their lower mouth. Eyes burning yellow in the mist cast an eerie light over this fell gathering.
“They look a lot like the gorillas of the southern islands” Luigi whispered as the group took in the sight.
“Can we avoid them?” Lana inquired.
“Let’s go talk to them!” Erohw stated from right next to the others.
“Let’s not”
“C’mon sister! They could be interesting”
“No”
“Aww… okay, but you owe me one!”
“Sure, sure, whatever”
The group silently snuck past the monkey-men and disappeared into the mists again.

An bug was squished under Rachel’s foot as she walked. Disgusted, she tried to wipe it off on a tree root. With an audible thud, the tree brought down its branch on her head.
“Ouch…” she mumbled as she staggered backwards. Suddenly several of the trees around the group started moving with a great deal of creaking and groaning. Green, sickly moss flared up on the trunks, casting an eerie glow. A roar rose from the trees as they moved closer, waving their branches.
“Half-circle, three-star formation; me, Mallus, Melcaya!” bellowed Alexei as he chopped wildly at one of the trees that had gotten too close. Lana and Erohw darted among the flailing branches; one stabbing into the slimy moss, the other sending orbs at the pulsating growths. Luigi and Rachel fell back to back with Luigi, finding them outmaneuvered by the warrior’s strategy.
The battle raged back and forth, a branch striking Alexei’s sword arm, snapping it neatly in two.
Swearing under his breath he fell back, right into the path of another branch and was knocked out cold, with a strong blow to the head. Luigi lept over a tree root and landed next to Alexei, with Rachel following as fast as she could, beating back trees from all sides.
“How bad?”
“Bad, but I’ll fix it…” Luigi muttered as he called forth his arts once again.
Rachel caught a branch in the back and was sent flying into a non-combatant tree.
Melcaya and Mallus hacked away at the tree that struck her, cutting of branches and roots. Soon it fell over with a large crack. Behind it, several of the trees were aflame.
“They are afraid of fire!” yelled Lana as she threw a bottle of oil at a tree and finished it off with her torch. “Everyone, douse them in oil!”
Those still able to stand quickly threw what oil they had at the remaining trees and threw in their torches after. Soon the assaulting trees were just a large bonfire in the mist. While Luigi mended the injured, Mallus studied the tree that he and Melcaya had cut down.
“It seems like these trees have been tainted by chaotic energies… but what does that mean for the rest of the forest?”

The next morning, as the group were leading their skitterish mounts forwards, the mist suddenly lifted. In front of them opened up a large valley. Trees and bushed were twisted into unnatural shapes. Spikes jutted out of the vegetation and the ground, ranging between a few inches to several feet in length. The trees looked like stone, with green slimy moss growing on them, oozing down along the trunks. The bushes looked rotten, with obviously diseased leaves and vines. Large, black beetles swarmed in many of them, raising a slow humming sound into the air. Every streamlet, every pond, every body of water within sight was slowly boiling, raising a yellow mist into the air that rose high above the valley floor and slowly drifted out over the sides, into the forest beyond. At the middle of the valley, next to an overgrown ruin city, lay a large lake. From it rose the largest of the mist pillars, slowly descending towards the sky above, blocking out the sun.
“I think we found out the reason for the mist in the forest…” Mallus muttered as the group stood taking in the valley below. Shades of grey, brown or black dominated the valley floor. Small figures could be seen down in the valley, moving around. Demonic, twisted shapes with horns and scales. Most movement seemed to be at the ruins, where oddly shaped houses with inwards leaning walls seemed to dominate.
“Let’s get moving” Mallus grunted and kicked his horse into a canter. Melcaya stood staring at the valley below in amazement for a few more moments before he shut his gaping mouth, got on his gelding and rode after the others.
“Sweet gods above, what have I gotten myself into?” he thought as his mount picked its way downwards.

At the base of the rise the group stopped and looked closer at the peculiar vegetation.
“Pretty sharp” Lana confirmed, sucking on the finger she had prickled on a spike.
“D’oh”
“Shut up Alexei”
“Make me Rachel”
“All of you, shut up. I hear something…!” Erohw’s voice silenced the others.
“It’s something large and it… hunts”
“What does it hunt?”
“Us Alexei, it hunts us” She started to sing in a low key.
“Dine on child flesh, tear limb from limb. Stalk the small ones, pry their guts open. Lay eggs in their tummies, watch the little ones hatch. Build many colonies, spread out far and wide. Dine on child flesh, tear limb…” her voice trailed off. The rest of the group were staring at her, looking sickened.
“The demon that hunts us means to kill us and lay eggs in our bodies, we need to prepare to defend ourselves” Erohw pointed out. “Hide in the pushes and I’ll hit it with my sorcery once it comes within range” at her words the others spread out and hid.

Not much later.

A large spider-like creature emerged from between the trees. It had eight legs, like a spider, but the two front ones ended in wicked, curved blades. Beneath the body, the demon had a massive stinger that bobbed up and down, left and right, as if sniffing the air. The chitinous carapace of the creature was a motley purple and crimson, not due to natural colouring, but as a result of decades of discoloration from the thousands of meals the beast had devoured. Occasional specks of a creamy white could be seen underneath. A hundred or so, black eyes dotted the monstrosity’s face. Fangs dripping yellow liquid were set below the eyes. As the liquid reached the ground, it hissed and burned crates in the hard soil. Several members of the group swallowed nervously as the monstrosity turned left and right, trying to locate their scent.
“Over here you overgrown spider!” Erohw’s voice cut through the air and the spider-demon spun around to face her as she raised an open cylinder of fire around the thing. For a moment it looked like that would do, but then the spider-demon lowered itself and jumped out of the encircling flames, landing a few feet in front of Erohw. Screaming, she turned and ran, while the rest of the group charged from their hiding places. The battle that followed cannot be described in words. The group hit the demon with all they had; Alexei with his scythe, Rachel with her sword, Lana with her blade. Melcaya came bellowing through the bushes, swinging his zweihander. Mallus struck the spider-demon and was gone again before it could strike back. The speed and killing frenzy of the demon was not matched by the group’s unified efforts. Volley upon volley of fiery orbs rained down on the back of the beast, but it hardly flinched at those or the blows that they others landed against it. Seemingly, every time it struck with the terrifying stinger, the victim would stagger back, stooped low under the weight of their armour and weapons. Luigi did what he could with his arts in the heat of battle while Lana kept darting back and forth, distributing more and more anti-venom. But before the demon finally stumbled out of combat and fell over dead in some bushes a stone throw away, both Luigi and Mallus had been subjected for far too long to its vile venom. Placing their companions on their horses, the group opted to retreat from the valley and seek to cure the venom somewhere safer. And so they returned back to the safety of the mist.

Later that night.

Everyone else was sound asleep. Exhausted after the battle, even the person on guard duty seemed to have fallen asleep. Erohw woke with a jerk. She had heard drums in her sleep and when fully awake, she heard them still. On shaky feet, she stumbled away from the camp and into the dark forest. The mist had dissipated for the night, so close to the valley, she noted. Moving from tree to tree, she scanned ahead and finally saw a small campfire. Sneaking on bare feet, she was soon close to it. Peeking from behind a tree, she could clearly see eight of the gorilla-like beasts. They were beating their drums and chanting wordlessly. Slowly, ever so slowly, she walked forwards, stepping out from behind the tree and entering the circle of light cast by the fire.
Not daring to stop, she tiptoed among the beasts and finally came to stop in front of an old silver-back male that sat by the fire. All the beasts were now looking at her, but they did not stop their drumming, nor their chanting. Both just took a shade more sinister tone and the girl wished she knew what she had gotten herself into. The silver-back sniffed the air, deeply and grunted.
“You smell like kin, but are not of the blood” his voice muttered, so low that she could feel it in her knees. “What kind of creature are you?”
“I have unusual blood. My sister has it too. How come you speak our language?”
“Chyl’karu’ka is a demonic language little girl, it is you who speak my tongue”
“You mean, my blood is demonic?”
“Correctly, there is atleast one demon in your ancestory” he sniffed the air again “And not that far back, either” moving into a more comfortable position, he awaited her to speak.
“Does this mean that I’m… from Hell?”
The silver-back snorted out laughter, that the others joined for a short moment before he went silent and spoke again.
“No. Hell is a human word for a place far more complex than what the mortal mind can comprehend.” He waved with a finger in the air, making stabbing motions to set his point.
“Take us for example. We live in a region of what humans call Hell, which is overgrown with massive jungles full of dangerous animals and beasts. Half of the plants are dangerous too. There we hunt and eat small game and the occasional mortal that gets sent there as punishment. In that jungle lives giant tribes as well. They prefer the lowlands, where the humans are more numerous, but they sometimes wander into our highland territories. We make war, when we meet.” The others nodded at this and kept up their drumming as the leader kept talking.
“Now, take your average demon; claws, fangs, wings, tail, scales or not, red skin, burning eyes, often with hooves. We are nothing like that. But to humans, we are all demons” he grunted and spat into the fire.
“I think… I understand…” the girl ventured.
“No, you don’t. Not yet. But if you choose to pursue your ancestry, maybe one day you will”
“Anyhow, I smell blood on you. Have you been in battle?”
For a moment she hesitated, but then she spoke. “Yes, with a large spider demon in the valley beyond. It had legs, but some ended in blades. It was crimson and purple and had a lot of eyes and a stinger beneath it!”
“Ah, a baba’liu. Did you kill it?” the silver-back smiled.
“Yes, but it injured two of my traveling companions badly. Our other healer tried to cure them, but said she could do nothing for them…” her voice trailed off.
“They do have a most potent venom, but rather succulent meat too. Tell you what, give me the location of the carcass and I’ll give you the anti-venom in exchange” the beast grinned, obviously pleased with itself.
“You have the anti-venom?”
“Yes, we occasionally run into them ourselves too. Of course, we always try to kill them when we find them, but they are extremely hard to take down.”
“Sure was. Anyhow, you’ll find it at the bottom of the path leading into the valley, among the bushes to the left.”
“Good, here is the anti-venom” two small vials were taken forth and handed over.
“And with that, goodbye” he stood up and the pack followed him. Soon they were gone in the mist, which had started to rise while they had been talking. She hurried back to the camp, clutching the small vials in her hands. An hour later both Mallus and Luigi were up and about, like nothing would ever have been wrong with them. The group returned into the valley around noon.

Back down in the valley, they made their way towards the palace. On their way, they came across three women, a cauldron and overgrown dogs.
The path they rode on opened into a meadow. In the middle stood a large iron-bound cauldron, which was being stirred by three tall, dark-skinned elderly women. As the group drew closer, they could clearly see that the trio were dressed in filth-stained rags, which barely covered them, but still managed somehow to leave their sagging breasts and potbellies for the world to see. Their hair was black as their skin, but not as blue as the later. Filthy and tied with bones and other fetishes, it was a tangled mess that reached all the way down to their rumps. Their faces were full of pocks and burn-marks. Their teeth, few as they were, matched the colour of their dark brown horns that grew out of their skulls; at the sides, up front and out back. Their bodies, besides of their extended bellies, was gnarly and broken, with the joints swollen and clearly visible underneath their taunt skin. Each one held a ladle and each one was stirred the cauldron, albeit in their own fashion, causing it to every now and to spill out over the fire, which gave an angry hiss. As the group drew closer, the hags turned to watch them with thinly veiled malice.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” cackled the biggest and fattest of them, waving her ladle in the group’s direction. Behind her, large shaggy hounds with eyes and mouths of living fire, raised their heads and lazily regarded the group.
“A group of succulent dearies, that’s for sure” cackled the one to her left.
“Come closer children, Nana is hungry still” called out the third one, making pulling movements with her free hand.
“Ignore those two bats” crooned the large one, called Nana. “I ate meself a juicy plump ba-karual just a few hours ago, were sagging behind a pack carrying away a baba’liu carcass” she smiled, making people in the group flinch at the sight.
“A pity we didn’t find it first, dem good eats” agreed the second one.
“We know what you seek, too” crooned the third hag and danced a little dance.
“What do you hags mean?” demanded Alexei, weapon in hand.
“You seek the Golden Skull posessed by that sniverling little demon prince in the castle over yonder” cackled Nana, dragging her long fingers through her dirty hair, shaking loose all kinds of indescribable things. Most fell into the cauldron. The smallest hag stirred a bit and took a taste.
“Needs more toenails” she declared. “Be a dearie and get her some” Nana said to the middle hag, the one who had spoken after her.
“Oh, alright…” muttered that one and hopped towards the group. Alexei’s scythe intercepted her.
“No” he said.
“Spoilsport” muttered the hag and hopped back to the cauldron, where she showed him her tongue, but tearing it out of her mouth, waving it in his direction and tossing it back in. Chewing thoughtfully, she swallowed and stuck out her tongue at him again.
“Now, now” said Nana as she smacked the other hag with her ladle. She turned her attention to Rachel.
“Ah, so pretty, just like I when I was me a little gel” more cackling followed from the trio.
“Ah, but it was you who corrupted me” stated the smallest hag.
“And I who hunted you both after that” declared the middle hag, still rubbing her head where Nana had hit her.
“Ah yes, good times, good times” chuckled Nana and took a taste of the soup.
“Now” she said, spitting the content back into the cauldron. “Onto the matter at hand. You seek entry into the palace, which is impossible by normal means. Dozens of powerful demons guard the way and scores more guard the palace itself. Thus” she stopped to grin, “we have positioned ourselves here, so that you’d come across us. For we offer you a way in” smiling like the sun, she nodded at her companions who were clapping their gnarly hands and showering her in praise.
“What’s the price” asked Erohw from atop her horse, where she was bundled in her large robe again, hood pulled low.
“Ah, just a small ritual disfigurement” the hags chuckled in unison, peering at the group from where they stood.
“WHAT?” Alexei cried out and raised his scythe to strike, but was held back by Lana. Around the group, the large fire-breathing dogs emerged from the undergrowth and started to growl. The horses danced sideways and reared, scared by the hellish canines.
“Yes. We want you to cut off two fingers, pluck out an eye and scar yourself with our delicious soup!” cackled Nana as her two largest dogs came to stand at her side, reaching almost up to her shoulders. The group shuddered.
“We’ll need to discuss this” said Alexei coldly.
“Does it have to be one person, or can we divide?” wondered Mallus.
“Divide is fine, dearie” declared the hags.
The group retreated to the edge of the meadow.
“We are not going to bargain with those - those monsters!” Rachel blurted out, opening the argument.
“We don’t seem to have any other options” Erohw filled in, “I can sense many demons between us and the palace. We will never be able to force our way in.”
“We could always kill the hags and take their method” Melcaya interjected.
“Wouldn’t work”
“How are you so certain girl?”
“They mean to use sorcery to move us inside the palace. Means that they have to be alive to do it, bonehead!”
“Now, that won’t help… I’ll do it” Mallus stated, silencing the other’s bickering.
“What?” “No!” “You can’t do that!” “Go ahead” all fell to deaf ears. He shook his head and spoke.
“For me it matters very little how my physical appearance is. My body is just a vessel for my spirit and it cares not how the housing is. I will care least for the disfigurement, so I shall do it, for the sake of everyone else” he fell silent. The others stared at him, some shook their heads, while others bowed theirs. Mallus strode back to the hags and spoke with them.
“It is decided then! I shall do the demanded deed!”
“No!” Melcaya called out! “At least let me hack of a finger, so that you don’t lose two!”
Mallus stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “I appreciate it” was his reply.
Taking out his eating knife, he drove it into the socket of his right eye and tore outwards, forcing the eye to pop out of the socket, whole. Taking it as it dangled from his face, into his hand, he cut it off. Grasping it in his right hand, he crushed it. All this without his face showing any signs of pain, humiliation or anything even remotely human. Holding out his right hand, he extended the little finger and slowly severed it with his eating knife. Yet again, his face betrayed no emotion, just bone-hard determination. And finally, the blood gushing freely, he held out his hand to the side and waited while Luigi worked his arts on it. Then he stepped forwards, tore off his shirt with his left hand and snatching a ladle from the middle hag, splashed boiling hot liquid onto his bare right side. The smell of burnt flesh floated through the air and made the demon dogs drool liquid fire. Looking quite embarrassed, they then tried to beat it out with their paws, as it attempted to spread out over the meadow. Once finished, they sat on their hunches, looking like they had done nothing. If dogs could whistle, these would now have sounded like a bird choir. A choir of crows from the bowels of Hell, but nevertheless.
But still Mallus showed no signs of emotion as the boiling liquid ran down his side and left the right side of his body an angry red. Blisters soon formed and ran up the length of his side. Still he did not flinch, nor cry out in pain. The hags stood in silence, obviously impressed by his display. Melcaya swallowed and held out his ring finger for Rachel to cut. Crying out as she used scissors to sever the finger at the joint, he held the hand and swore loudly. Luigi called upon his arts and healed the stump as best he could.
“The deal has been done” Nana stated in a toneless voice. “We accept your offering to Sher’klaa, Queen of Hags. And we send you on your way with our well-wishes!”
The world around the room faded out and faded in again.

A grandiose room opened up around the room. The beautiful white marble of the walls, ceiling and floor was grossly tarnished by the foul vapours of the lake as well as blood, intestines and feces. More of the large demonic dogs lounged around the walls, where several were involved in a game of tearing a small helpless imp to pieces between. The small critter screeched and yelled in pain as its skin, then bones and intestines broke out and flushed over the floor. The dogs tore at them in excitement as members of the group covered their mouths. Someone got sick and the floor was slick with vomit.
As the group took in the rest of the room, they saw in one end three large door openings, looking out over the lake and in the other end a large throne. In front of it lounged three naked women, with graceful bat-wings, red skin and small horns. Their curvaceous bodies awoke feelings among the men and women of the group. Thin silver chains ran from collars attached to their necks and met together. One could never venture far away from the two others. They smiled and winked at the group. Next to them stood a beastly man, with all the features of a large black ox, but only to the extent of the head and the fur that covered his muscular body. Large, black wings stretched out from his back and from under his fur shone through crimson scales. His hands were adorned with wicked talons and his teeth were sharp. Four horns adorned his head, two to the sides, one front and one back. All in all, he was naked and breathing out occasional guts of flame. In his eyes shone malicious intelligence. But to his left, on the throne, sat none other than Roz’ammon, the Arch-Demon.
His form that of a large male human, with dark wings and impressive black horns. He was dressed in fine red and silver silks with sturdy leather boots on his feet. Around his head was a golden circle, studded with expensive jewels. His skin was a motley brown and his ears were pointy. Cold, red eyes shone dully from his face. A forked tongue licked his lips.
Against his throne stood a massive zweihander that slowly pulsated with dark energy. On the floor lay a many tailed whip, with the tails made out of lightning bolts that slowly moved by itself back and forth.
“Well, well, well. Look at what the hags sent me…” he spoke, his deep baritone voice reverbing through the members of the group. Finding themselves unable to move, they could do nothing more than listen.
“So, what is it you want here then? The Golden Skull?” With a wave of his hand, he made the skull visible to his right side. It rose and fell slowly, in a pillar of blue energy.
“I have followed your quest with some interest” he chuckled. “I had not quite expected you to make it this far…”
“Wait! Let us trade for the skull!” Lana called out from where she stood glued to the floor.
“Trade?” The Arch-Demon inquired slyly. “Trade? You have absolutely nothing that I want out of you” he shook his head. “No, I think I’ll much rather rape you, torture you and then feed you to my hounds” he chuckled again.
“You are just powerless and afraid of us!” yelled Melcaya, but Roz’ammon shut his mouth with a wave of his hand, while he looked at Rachel.
“Now, aren’t you a pretty little flower. A cleric of the Mother. A most tasty morsel. Not like these used up whores I have” with those words he kicked the air in the direction of his three chained demonesses. They spit and hissed at Rachel, clawing the air, but did not come closer.
“I doubt you are man enough” she just stated flat, while looking at the bull-man-demon’s crotch. She could have sworn that its penis had just waved at her. The Arch-Demon chuckled again.
“No, there is nothing you can give me that I can’t take. Although, I will tell you two young ladies something that will interest you both” he made a small pause.
“You see, I think I know who your grandmother was.”
“You do?” “Tell us!!”
“Yes, one of my former Baron’s kept himself a whore” at which he pointed at the demonesses “and he served me at Gobgrad, until he was killed by a party of travellers. That whore, was most likely your grandmother.”
He make a theatrical pause, sighted and continued.
“Not that you will do anything with that information, since I intend to kill you all now and-”
A loud explosion and the following tremor cut his speech off. Dust and dirt rained down from the ceiling, shrouding all in a fine white layer.
“What!?” Roz’ammon tore away from his throne and rushed up. A hulking monstrosity; a cross between ox, ape, giant and a small dragon, lumbered into sight. With a voice lower than what should have been physically possibly it spoke.
“Mi’lord, we are under attack by unidentified enemies.”
“Very well then, lead the way!” Roz’ammon grabbed his sword and strode after the hulking demon, but before he left the throneroom, his demonesses and lieutenant in tow, he turned towards the group, uttered a few words of arcane power and froze them all in place. Laughing, he dashed off with his followers.
“Well, fuck” was all that Lana bothered to express. The others remained silent at this observation.
Some time passed. Then, from behind the throne, peered a large dog’s head out. Someone swore, all dogs had been assumed gone. But then the head came to be connected to a muscular, albeit extremely hairy, body with two sets of arms; one normal and the others ending in a pair of powerful pincers. The demon’s purple eyes glittered as its ears twisted as it took in all sounds around it. It slowly emerged from behind the throne, hopped over to the Golden Skull and grabbed it from the energy beam. Yelping as it burned itself badly, it nonetheless extracted the item and held it high above its head as it howled in triumph. It started to fade away, becoming first transparent, then a fine mist that slowly disappeared into the air.
“Wait! Let us go!” screamed Erohw as the thing was disappeared.
With a wave of its transparent paw and what appeared as an indifferent face, the thing broke the enchantment and was gone. A single scroll case dropped out of the place where the demon had disappeared. Erohw immediately dashed for it and grabbed it off the floor before the others could yell out a warning to her. With trembling hands she broke open the seal and pulled out the scroll inside. Squealing in joy, she held it up for the rest of the group to see.
“It’s an actual portation scroll! We can get out of here! Quickly, quickly all to me. Grab onto my clothes and I’ll get us out of here!” she babbled, while waving with her hands franctically.
The others stumbled quickly over to her, with the Golden Skull, there was nothing else to do.
“Just a moment!” Rachel shouted as she dashed away from the others gathered around the girl preparing to read the scroll. She quickly made it over to the whip, which was still moving around by itself. Ignoring the screams of the others, she grabbed for the whip with a victorious grin.
“I’m not going to leave this place without atleast some kind of loot!” she declared as she picked up the whip, screamed once, turned into dust and fell apart. Shocked silence followed, only broken by the sound of the whip crawling around. A sob from Erohw brought everyone back to reality. Sobbing loudly she bubbled through the words of the scroll and sent the remaining group away.

A twenty foot long lioness stared for a few heartbeats at the group of people standing suddenly among the two camels that her pride had dragged back into their cave. The pride was in the middle of feeding and now, extremely confused, opted to start snarling and growling at the invaders. However, one of the smaller invaders, a female, rolled out hot stones from the air itself and sent them screaming down on the pride. Snarling in pain and panic, they scattered and ran for the cave opening, disappearing out of sight.
Alexei and Lana led the still crying Erohw out of the cave, across the sand floor and out into the sunlight. Hawks swooped high in the air, the tall yellow grass waved slowly in the warm wind and a savanna expanded in all directions. Warm sunlight warmed their faces as they emerged from the cavern.
“She really is gone, isn’t she?” Erohw finally asked. Alexei looked pleadingly at Lana, who shook her head.
“I’m afraid so.”
“I was actually starting to like her.”
“Me to” Luigi acknowledged.
“Same here” Mallus nodded.
“It’ll be hard with her gone, without her constant criticism and sarcasm to lighten up my day…” Alexei confessed. The others slowly nodded.
“If you people are done feeling sad for yourselves, there’s a set of wagon tracks over here, running west!” shouted Melcaya. The others grumbled, but made their way over to where he stood by a set of tracks in the tall grass.
“There has to be settlement in that direction, the track runs that way. Let’s go!” the scout declared.
“Yeah, let’s continue” Erohw finally agreed, wiping tears from her face with her sleeve.
“We still need to find that damn Skull. And once we do, Roz’ammon will pay. Oh, he will pay!”

The lioness eventually dared lead her pride back to their lair, with the weird invaders gone. For a short moment she wondered what that had been all about, but eventually decided that it was hardly worth trying to figure out. As the sun wandered over the sky, a small group of people wandered across the savanna, towards what, they did not know. But somewhere down the road there would be revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.”

And that was the story.

And then. Mallards of Doom. On the roof.

On the roof you say? On the mother loving roof!
It was not possible to use the anti-mallard artillery, not possible at all… Many fine men and women were nibbled to death by duck-bills and some were crushed under webbed mallard feet. A sad day indeed.
Yes, how did this come to be…

It all began when our tentative alliance with the chipmunks crumbled over an issue of stuffed porcupines. Then there was nothing to do but to recall our warriors from hunting the delicious, yet sneaky eggs of various fowls. We held strong against the chipmunks, hedgehogs, groundhogs, regular hogs and swamp hogs. But it became soon obvious that their real target was not a natural number, but an uncommon variable. And it was there our fatal flaw became apparent; we suck at math. Thusly the accountants skinned our war machinery alive, leaving us with nothing but sticks to fend against the Chipmunk King’s hordes. Eventually we had to call upon the tall Asians, the kind Nazis, the intelligent politicians and worst of all, the sober Finns - just to stand against the legions of squid, prawn, starfish, fish, other fish, yet more fish, non-edible fish, penguins, whales, orcas, leviathans, boots, more penguins and icebergs that were closing in on our territory! Oh and there was some dragons too. So a bunch of stuff blew up, some other stuff died - messily - and we finally were victorious in taking over the brewery. Albeit, at that point the mallards came to roost and we were overdone bacon. End of story.

Also, I think someone is dropping LSD in my coffee. It’s kinda weak.

Last two days

Started work after a long vacation on Monday. Sadly enough my morning was lost on an extremely long and slow team-meeting, which ran until lunch. Said lunch was bad, something I’ve gotten used to with the cafeteria at work. Stayed late at the office, because we were going straight to a concert after that (more below).

I’d slept around six hours in the last two night. Due to that, I’ve had a very pleasant day at work today (Tuesday), trying hard not to fall asleep in front at my desk. Every so often, I could feel my eyes grow heavy and my mind wander off towards slumber. On top of that, my afternoon assignment was translating educational material. An, at best, rewarding task. But today, it was not only mind-numbing, but obviously radiating sleeping gas from the heat-vent of my laptop. Of course, all this is my own fault.
I was forced to switch from my summer schedule of sleeping until two and getting in bed by five for getting into bed at midnight and up at seven. It will take some time before I’ve gotten used to this, after my rather long vacation.

Last night I went with some people from work to see Kris Kristofferson play. Not only is he one of the two living members (Willie Nelson is the other fellow) of the legendary Highwaymen group (Cash and Jennings are both dead), he is also a great songwriter and singer. And decent actor, political activist and overall handyman. Add to this that the gentleman is 72 years of age and still pulls a crowd 1.700 big with his harmonica and guitar alone. I can not overstate how impressed I was. And on top of all that, he actually stood the whole time while he played.
Now, I remember seeing B.B. King some years ago, back when he was turning 84. He had to sit the whole time, due to his knees. Of course, his rather copious girth did not help either. I saw him a few years earlier too, when he was still able to stand up for parts of the concert.
It wasn’t long ago when I saw Mr. Jerry Lee “Killer” Lewis play either. He too sat for almost the whole concert, playing on his piano. Not that he could have stood with ease either.
Now, it is fairly easy to argue that these old artists are washed up and should quit playing and retire to die in quiet at some old folk’s home. Another thing that is easy to argue for, is how they are not as good as they were - say - twenty or thirty years ago. I have heard the later at quite a few concerts from the audience while leaving the building. It has also floated down the streams of various media. But somehow, it feels like these people are trying to compare two things which in their nature already is incomparable. Firstly, while surely the show has decline over the years, along with the artist’s physical health, that is what happens when you grow older. To hear someone lament about the fact that Mr. Kristofferson didn’t boogie down is for me equal to somebody complaining about Mr. King not standing or the Killer not kicking his chair around. Such statements, while seemingly trivial, are for me a reflection of the speakers own fear of losing physical strength, well-being of body and mind along with the seemingly infinite energy that is easily associated with youth. Time is transformation at its best. And secondly, what many seem to ignore outright is the - at least for my three examples - growth in their music. The feeling of the music has not diminished over the years, but instead grown in strength. Becoming an unique experience in itself, a culmination of the artists abilities.
Of course both points are moot, as is all other discussion over music, since the final point always remains in the mind of the listener; each individual partaking of the experience. Albeit, music is always a fine topic to bring up with your friends if you want to have a long heated debate or a praise-speech.

Anyhow (there’s that word again!) I took a nap once I got home from work. Could barely stay awake during the car ride home. As far as my dreams goes, it was pretty normal stuff. Alas rather short, since I did not sleep for very long, still clinging on to the thought that I’d actually get some sleep tonight!

The setting is a quite large ship. Like an oceanic cruiser.
Some arbitrarily evil organization uses it as its base of operations. My mission on board is simple enough; look around, find anything suspicious and report back. Since the ships occupants are in friendly territory, all I have to do is walk inside and just freely walk around. Most of the promenade deck is a bazaar, selling all kinds of nick-knacks. The floors below are taken up by various workshops and garages, making all kinds of small items out of metal, leather and bone. There are also some restaurants, where people often associated with the sailor-type hang out. All-in-all, the corridors and walks are crowded, the air smelling of sweat, leather and various other goods. While the light trickles down from somewhere above. Smoke fills many of the small cafeterias nestled here and there. Interesting enough as this was, my mission forced me to sneak into the lower decks. Below the last floor with its shady cafeterias and dark room there were a few floors intended for personnel to live on. Even further down, there were a few administrative floors, with thick carpets. The reason for the carpets became self evident when I got down into the ship’s prison ward. The doors had grown narrow and made out of thick metal, while the corridor walls were simply rough wood. Here the air smelled of human waste, pain, fear and bone-chilling terror.
Passing unseen through dim-lit corridors, I heard muffled screams and sounds from behind several doors, while others were eerily silent. The ship appeared to be even bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, I noted as I stumbled upon the “promenade” deck of the prison ward. Here you could see three floors down, with metal doors lining both sides of the walk, the occasional guard coming into sight on the walkways below. I slipped down an iron ladder and noted a cell with iron-bars instead of a door. Inside there were several large dark canine shapes, growling softly as I slid past. At the bottom floor there was room, with its door open. Right next to it was the Prison Commander’s office. I could see a greying man in uniform in the first room, petting a large black dog. The man reminded me of a retarded chimpanzee. The dog was busy tearing out pieces off flesh from the bloody mutilated torso of a dead prisoner. Repulsed by what I had seen, I snuck past, into the office and started quickly going through the commander’s papers. It quickly became clear to me what was going on. While I was about to leave, I heard the guards come to take the dog away and bring another dog to the room. A few moments later another prisoner was brought along and locked into the room. A series of screams and yelling followed, but they eventually grew silent. All the meanwhile, the commander was standing outside of the room, chuckling while he watched the carnage through a small window in the door. Once the whole thing was over, the guards came to get the dog again.
Of course the dream ends with me getting one of those dogs - the meanest, ugliest and hungriest bastard - into that room and tricking the apeesque dimwit into it with the dog. Then I slammed the door shut, locked it and left as quickly and silently as possibly. Behind me I could hear
“What’cha droolin’ fo’ boy? We us just done git lockid in now. No worries, mah pals will let us out inna jiffy. Boy? Stop growling. Boy!? Noooooooo!!!” as I slunk away.

Quite ordinary dream for being me.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll finally get to write on my other stuff again.

Current pants: What pants?
Current music: Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends

Move is over!

Greetings fellow terrestrials!

Now I’ve finally gotten around to moving my blog over here, ported in the old entries and re-edited them to fit better in this new environment. I know now I’ve promised some of you people who still read this, that I’ll get around to uploading some pictures from my trip to Chicago. I’ll still do that, albeit I’ll wait until I get the photos the others took at our seminar about the trip. Of course, I might just forget it and never give you anything.

On that topic, I ran my blog through one of those curse-counters and got these results:

Well, darn. Apparently that’s high. Fuck yeah cunts! With that established, let’s roll bitches!

While I haven’t gotten around to write any more dream entries for the blog, I’ve still been having extremely vivid and slightly borderline psychotic dreams as of lately. Problem is, very few of them have been of the kind that I remember with great clarity the following morning.

Last night I dreamt that there was a malicious entity that had managed to sneak in among humans. It had nested in a supermarket of some sort. With a mind-affecting power and a love for homo sapiens intestines, it was quite a nasty thing. In the dream I came into contact with the thing before it had managed to brainwash thousands of people into coming to it to be torn asunder by it’s teeth and claws, but for some reason I had failed at killing the damn thing. I stalked it in the supermarket, but it kept getting away. Also, the security guards were hunting me, for they thought me a shotgun wielding maniac, loose in their store. Which wasn’t really that far from the point, but really now!
Anyhow, eventually the population downtown became enslaved by this … thing. As far as I recall, I snuck back into the place it was nesting, while it’s slaves were keeping guard for it.
There was some utterly fucking insane gore in that dream. At one point I drove a short japanese-style blade into the beasts massive brain, but that only made it mad. In the end there was no other solution but eradicating the motherfucker with nuclear fire. It and the whole city, before its young hatched and spread…

There have been other dreams as well. Most gory and excessively violent, like the one where I was part of a group of commandos striking against enemy combatants in a jungle/lake setting.

I remember clearly the circling around the houses the enemy were occupying, the sound of gunfire, along with the gut drenching understanding that we had been fooled to strike at them and had been surrounded by them instead, while they rained heavy mortar shells down on us.

And then there was the dream where I argued religion with youths belonging to an extremist group that I had involved.

The youngsters were concerned with the modern world and their cultural heritage far away from their homelands. They had a hard time adapting to ideas that their religion and elders didn’t support, but that were old established culturally accepted things in their new homeland. I remember arguing over finer points of religious philosophy with them and having a fight with one of their father about the secularized status of my parents (who were also playing at being part of their religion). It was a very depressing dream altogether.

In other news, a guy I know got married this summer. And another friend is getting married at the end of this month. We held his bachelor party last night. I couldn’t attend the paintball, since I was listening to military marching band music in another city, but I made it back in time for the evening activities at a cottage they had rented outside the city.
When I got there, I slapped my friend’s ass with a stick-lock for my car’s wheel. Managed to hit a bit too high and he was yelling in pain. Not because of me, but his other friend hit him on the scars he had on his back from that evening’s paintball match, at the same time as I hit him. Well, after that I dragged him to sauna to be burnt nice and crispy. The guy who got married in the summer came too. The oven was shitty, but we made do with it. Anyhow, both guys ended up running out after a moment, cursing about the heat. Job well done.
After the sauna we washed, dried up and got our clothes on. After about maybe half-an-hour, or so, I ended up wrestling my friend on a king sized bed, for kicks and laughs. Afterwards he thanked me for waking him up. He was also starting to get pretty drunk. After which the group started to prepare to leave for the city. They were apparently going to go clubbing. I drove home instead, not feeling up for looking at a bunch of drunk idiots, if I wasn’t able to be one of them too.

What else… Hm… still am working on two pieces of fiction. But they have been on hiatus over the vacation. Maybe I’ll pick them up once I start work again (which would be tomorrow) or when university starts (which would be at the end of this month).

Here’s a short excerpt from one of them:

During my walk back to the old man’s lodgings, I notice that many villagers are quick to greet me, but even quicker to leave my presence.
“Word of last night must have spread. How much longer until I am driven out by an angry mob?” My thoughts are uneasy. I do not fear for my own safety, I fear for the souls of these poor misguided souls.
“And what will Cardinal Avernum do when he hears that Kosh Irall has fallen?” A chill runs down my back. “The Inquisition? … Surely not?” I shake my head to drive the thoughts away. My feet have drawn me to the village church, while my mind was wandering. Standing in the shadow of the spire, I feel a great calm pass over me. Mumbling a prayer to the Greatest God, I bow three times towards the spire and leave. Passing down small alleys, I manage to avoid running into any more people. After taking a wrong turn somewhere, I finally arrive back at the school. Outside stands a three massive horses.
“Pazzari horses? How unusual.” I climb the steps of the porch quietly and stop to listen at the door. Inside, someone is speaking, but I cannot make out the words. Not that I have to, the tone makes everything perfectly clear. Moving slowly, not to make the floorboards creek, I edge up to the window shutters and peer inside.
“Four shapes, two men and two women… clad in hides, crude blades and smell something fierce. Hill people, most likely ivarin or k’remal.” I loosen my blade in its scabbard, while I slowly walk back to the door and kick it in, drawing my blade in one smooth motion over my shoulder and rushing in.

- Paladin

And here’s a snippet from another:

It is a sunny afternoon in late fall. The leaves have turned dark red, yellow and brown. Occasionally a trail of geese honks its way across the sky, only to disappear somewhere far beyond the horizon. I once again find myself at a cemetery. Once again to bury another friend. The sermon is short, the priest holding it is visibly nervous. I am not too big on religion, but as far as I recall, funerals do not usually make the man conducting them sweat visibly and nervously glance at the large double doors of the funeral chapel. As I help carry the casket out, I muse about this having to be the shortest funeral I have ever attended. Besides for me, there was only an old grey crone present. She stared at the priest the whole time from under her broad brimmed hat, although it was obvious from her white eyes that she has not seen anything for a long time. Occasionally she’d pull her brown cape tighter around her, as she was freezing constantly. As we march towards the freshly dug grave, she slowly limps after us, muttering under prayers under her breath. As soon as the priest has said his part at the grave, he excuses him and hurries away. The crone spits at him as he runs past and that only serves to make him hasten his pace. Standing by the hole, I drop a single black rose into it. A fitting last greeting. I can feel the hag’s gaze burning at the back of my neck. Thinking better to ignore her, I mutter a short soldier’s prayer and turn to leave. Her hand grabs my trench-coat’s sleeve and holds me in place with an iron strong grip.
“Did you know the deceased man personally?” She demands to know of me. I hesitate.
“Yes. We both went to college together.” Is my reply.
“Did you know how he died?” She asks in a voice like steel.
“Um… I hear he died of massive burns?” I venture.
“Yes!” She barks out. “He did indeed do so!” I try to pull myself away, but she holds me still.
“Do you know why he died so?” Her voice has lost its steel edge and she seems to grow smaller before my eyes and her shoulders sag and she lets go of my sleeve.
“No, that I do not know.”
“He died to pay for what he had done. For what was right. For what was not demanded of him.” Tears start to run down her cheeks.
“He didn’t have to do it. But he gladly payed the price.” She shakes with tears now. I reach out and pull her closer, holding her against myself.
“He paid the price, so that a tired old woman could know justice.”
I let her continue speaking, not uttering a word.

- Meetings

I have a lot in production. Problem is ever getting anything finished with new ideas constantly popping up.

Current music: Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends
Current mood: Tired, content