Monkey Moon

A hard rain beat down as the sky overhead crackled with thunder and the dirt of the ground turned to thick, soupy mud underfoot. Fred's horse whinnied laboriously and bucked wildly, frothing at the mouth. Behind him he heard his sage companion, the young wizard Cal shout out "Nature is playing tricks on us! Did not the ancient peoples of this land call this season Monkey Moon? And the moon is to be full in a few days too! What foul mischance! Will we ever even reach the Caves in one piece?"

"Shut it, Master Cal!" growled Tennifex the man-at-arms. "I've had enough of your portents of doom and gloom! But he's right about one thing, my lord - the horses cant take much more of this! We should stop and give them a break!"

"Look," Fred said suddenly. "Over there!"

Through the thick rain they beheld an unbelievable sight - a ramshackle peasant village spread out in the valley below consumed in flames. Screams could be heard over the crackle of thunder as panicking villagers scurried to and fro trying to flee or rescue their possessions from the flames, and dark shapes danced among them, cutting them down.

"Curses!!" Tennifex cursed. "What kind of flame does not go out even in rain this strong?"

"Dragonsflame," Cal said silently, mouthing the word like an oath.

"How dare the wyrm do this!" Fred spat. "That is the King's village! Those are the King's villagers! He has no right to plunder this land like his own personal dukedom!"

"The Dragon has been around far longer than even the King himself," Cal laughed. "I doubt he acknowledges the right of the crown to this land, and for that fact neither do these villagers themselves. They live too far away in land too harsh and rugged for the crown to hold much sway here. Many of them still hold to the pagan traditions too. It would be fascinating to speak to some of them - assuming any of them live through the night."

Suddenly men emerged from the woods and surrounded the party. They were dressed in tattered peasant clothes and bore improvised weapons of every variety. One of them sprang forward roaring, swinging a spiked club at Tennifex, who drew his sword in a flash and cut the man in half, his remnants flying everywhere to loll about in the mud. "Hold!" Tennifex barked. "What is the meaning of this? Are you accosting the noble Lord Fred on his journey to slay the Dragon?"

The peasants parted ranks and a woman stepped forward - no, Fred decided not a woman, still a child, barely one of childbearing age. More remarkably, she was naked, yet showed not a sign of discomfort in the driving rain and cold. "The noble lord Fred?" the girl laughed. "Is this the hero they send us? To slay the Dragon? How absolutely adorable. How heartbreakingly heroic. How utterly futile."

"What the hell?" Tennifex laughed. "You bandits are led by a wench? And a naked one at that? Brave fools, I'll give you that, but you best scatter before I send you all to Hell for threatening my Lord!"

"Watch it Ten, something is amiss here!" Cal yelled, but the man-at-arms wasnt paying attention and neither was Fred. Something about the girl made him freeze in his tracks. She reminded him of someone - his own younger sister in fact, with the same noble bearing and angry gaze, but this girl's eyes reflected something he couldnt quite fathom - a lurid madness, hatred and desperation that filled him with fear for perhaps the first time in his life.

"Fools," the girl hissed. "Your Lord is nothing here. Your weapons are nothing here. This is the domain of the Wyrm, who has come to reclaim that which was stolen from him long ago. You, who so boldly lay claim to all that you see, did not protect us from the avenging Wyrm's rage when we needed that protection, and now it is too late. If you know what is best for you, crawl back to your King and tell him who this land belongs to now. Yes crawl back and take your pathetic lordling with you!"

"I've heard enough!" Tennifex roared, spurring his horse forward through the mud. The men who moved to block his path were cut down in a spinning blur of steel, heads and limbs flying. He reached the girl and his horse reared as Tennifex raised his sword to strike - and suddenly the girl burst into blood red flames that raged around her naked frame without burning her. "Alethe innuris halarith," the girl intoned, raising her hand up and Tennifex exploded in a shower of blood and gore, his horse falling into a whinnying mass of flailing hooves in the mud.

Fred was frozen in place as the burning girl started moving toward him slowly, chanting in the heathen tongue. "Look out, Lord Fred!" Cal yelled, leaping from his horse to block the girl's path. "Alaris cathen salen dalu zinthala sanayan hindo!" The girl raised her hand again and a ball of flame shot forward to be deflected by an invisible shield around Cal's upraised arms. "Run my Lord!" Cal gasped. "This is magic too powerful to stand against!"

More of the peasant men came surging from the woods from all sides of them. Suddenly regaining his wits Fred drew his sword and chopped out to either side of him, beheading one man and disemboweling another. Still more of them continued forward, one hurling a rock that knocked Cal to a kneeling position. A peasant came out of nowhere to drive a spear into the flank of Fred's horse, which shrieked in agony and went down, Fred still slashing wildly at anything within reach as he climbed to his feet.

The girl was within paces of Cal now. Her eyes now seemed utterly inhuman, formed of the same monstrous flame that burned around her body. "I wont let you hurt Lord Fred!" Cal groaned, blood streaming down his face from the awful gash. "Alendelu yamun taramala hajindo~ Alfanzula! Kathis!"

His hands, still outstretched forward now flew out to either side and walls of ice crackled up from the ground surrounding them. But then the girl stood right in front of Cal as if she has appeared there and embraced him. "Help me," she whispered as Cal screamed, his body bursting into flames and swifly disintegrating into a flaming skeleton. Thinking fast Fred lunged forward, driving his sword into Cal's back and through the girl's stomach coming out the other side. She gasped and for a second her eyes returned to normal, looking up at Fred with a pleading expression that reminded him of his sister again when her foul moods had passed and she wanted something done her way. "Help us," she whispered, and Fred realized she was speaking not with just her own voice, but with thousand voices speaking at once, men women and children trapped in some infernal abyss beyond his comprehension.

And then everything exploded in a shower of fire and ice and Fred was flung through the air, whipping through tree branches and rolling down a hill into dizzy oblivion.

Fred shook his head. Why did these visions torment him? He had already said a prayer for his lost companions and for the unfortunates caught in the sway of the wyrm's power. His mission was clear - to kill. He had no more cause to concern himself with the suffering of others. But something about the girl still haunted him, some nightmare subconsciously seen in her eyes before everything went dark and he woke up the next day in a ditch. He had no idea what it could be, but thinking of his hallucination - of all those souls in torment - that's all it could be a hallucination - he decided he didnt want to know. One thing was clear, the answer lay deeper in the caves, resided in the very lair of the wyrm that ravaged this land and tormented its peoples.

Fred leapt over a bottomless opening in the cave floor and sprang up to cling to a stalagtite. Feeling a bit hungry, he reached in his backpack for a banana and peeled it with one hand, proceeding to chew thoughtfully. Suddenly he heard voices further down in the cave, and laughter. Fred blinked. Who could possibly sound like they were having a party in a dark and lifeless place like this?

1. Fred scampers off to investigate the voices.
2. Fred takes a different passageway to avoid running into trouble.
3. The monkey from two episodes before comes out of nowhere and starts kicking Fred's ass again.

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