Atriarch Community Story Event

Atriarch Stratics Chain Story

A red glow floated about the darkness as Devar, the Moon of Fire,

eclipsed Altoos.

The dark shadows in the forest advanced on the city during the darkness.

Many of the smaller creatures in the forest, sensing that something was

wrong, ran, and took shelter where they could.

The shadows stopped at the edge of the forest near the town, and all

fell silent.

Miboli, the Cavolon farmer, looked up from his plants, and wondered.

The shadows waited for the guards to look away, and in the height of the

eclipse, charged the town from all sides, seeking revenge for their

fallen leader.

Through the shimmering red light granted by the haunting eclipse, Miboli

could see visages of anger and desperation in the dismally dark clouds.

Great fangs, shattered shards of night, appeared in the rapidly

advancing clouds, open maws screaming a deadly madness as they descended

on the hapless guards.

The villagers were slain, the houses were burning like the rage among

the shadows.

Peering with fright-filled eyes through a chink in the wall, a young

Unarra spawn huddles, shuddering as the lightning punctuates the drone

of the deluge pouring from the savage deep red clouds.

Miboli noted that those visibly consumed by the shadowy menace were

neither Cavolon nor Unarra, but made no advance to the decimated village

to test the theory.

Once the destruction of the village was complete, the dark menace turned

from the ruins of the former settlement and charged out into the

countryside, eager to find new prey.

The few survivors of the event, shocked by the horror that they had

witnessed, huddled in the ruins of the village meeting hall.

They knew they had to warn the other settlements of this threat, before

they too fell prey to this menace, but how?

And more importantly, where should they send the warning?

Then, just as suddenly as the storm began its onslaught, the villagers

had an idea; they joined round in a circle and, using sacred traditions

passed down from generation to generation, used an ancient collaborative

technique to telepathically warn their distant cousins of the dangers to

come.

Through the broken walls, one Unarra youngling saw strange beasts.

As the frightened villagers and the Unarra youngling huddled in the

shattered town hall, evil beasts from the shadows slowly advanced on

them, grinning wickedly at the slaughter about to take place.

Suddenly a stream of fire lit through the air and came crashing down on

the shadowy figures with a terrifying thud.

the shadows melted against the onslaught, many of their kind fell in a

fiery death.

*Whoomp* The thuds came slowly at first, and then faster; *Whoomp* the

sky was alight with the fire of hundreds of small meteors.

The shadows rallied, gleaming jaws slavering black ichor, night's legion

reuniting in a song of vengeance and slaughter.

The young Unarra, angered by the Shadow's attack on his home, bravely

advanced toward the encroaching horde.

An older Unarra soldier grasps the arm of the youngling. "Now is not the

time.. come with me if you really want to destory them."

The young Unarra followed the old soldier through the back of the Town

Hall to a large boulder.

As they motioned toward the bolder, a large shadow figure busted through

the window and landed in front of them, blocking their path.

"Now! Call with your mind NOW!" the elder Unarra cried out to the

younger; together their minds stretched, and flexed, called and summoned

until they came.

The shadowy creature advanced slowly, thinking that its new victims were

well in hand when suddenly it stopped and sniffed the air, smelling the

presence of another creature nearby, it cast its head about searching

for this new threat until it saw it, the "boulders" uncurling and

standing up to form the shapes of giant heavilly armored beasts, ready

to defend the Unarra.

A rain of rock and dirt, fell in a cloud around teh younling Unarra, and

through it the young one saw the shadow of a creature even larger than

that that had blocked their way.

The creature's head reached down upon the shadowy beasts trying to harm

the unaran and roar a great roar with a stench that made the plants

around it rot away.

Black ichor splashed and splattered upon the rock-beasts, upon the tall,

gangly armed creature, and upon the Unarra as the way was cleared; the

elder Unarra nodded and with its charge walked into the chaos of the

Night things, the shadowy creatures.

The task was a grim one, but they had to seek out the origin of the

shadow creatures, and get help to destroy them.

The two Unarra descended into a tunnel beneath where the creature had

been sitting, and went down into the seemingly endless dark.

They traveled in the dark for what seemed like an eternity, until a

reddish glow on the rocks ahead caught their attention.

The reddish glow of the stone slowly faded, as its power was being

absorbed by the shadows evil presence on Atriana.

Entranced by the strange rocks shift in color, the young Unarra suddenly

notices that the elder Unarra's hand is trembling in fear, its knees

shaking sporadicly.

The older Unarran soldier shakily produced a bright glow-plant from

within its tunic so that the tunnel walls could be seen clearly.

Insects scurried from the light and disappeared into the darkness beyond

as the young Unarran looked around curiously.

"We must be brave." said the older Unarran pulling himself together; a

renewed confidence entering his voice and reassuring the spawn.

"Where are we?" the youngling asked, looking around at the

strangely-painted walls, the blood-red dirt on the floor, and the pale

mounds (bones? he wondered) at the base of the walls.

The older Unarran looked at the pantings on the wall, remembering what

his teacher had taught him, knew the time was drawing near.

Within the temples the Unnara grew uneasy, waiting for further reports

from the stargazers.

Unknown to the two unarrans, as the power of the crystal faded, the

temperature began to rise.

A hissing, crackling sound reaches the Unarra; a reddish glow again

lights the rocks around the Unarra.

The older Unarra glances at the rocks for a moment, then whirls himself

and the younger Unarra around, and they give a small cry of fear at what

they see.

Sourceless dark flames lick in eerie silence along the painted walls and

across the floor the Unarrans so recently walked; behind the flames,

shadows clot, moaning and writhing - held back by the flames, or

summoned by them?

Through the flames I ventured, following the endless screams of help and

plea...

As the unarra proceeded forward, they noticed what the shadows were

trying to protect, it was an ancient burial cave of the Tyrusin Trinaath

caste.

The young, naive Unarra wonders silently why the shadows protect the

empty husks of Tyrusins long past, what secrets the the red light holds,

and why on this night the dark flames of death chose to rise in horrible

vengeance.

The answer to that question came as the older Unarra moved the light of

its glow-plant to show an opened burial-creche with the mumified Tyrusin

inside stripped of its death gold; Desecration!

A gasp of horror seeps out of the elder's mouth as he sees a heavily

armored Eshlar slowly sipping Glech Guk.

The Eshlar stood tall in front of the Unarra, like a dark mountain with

ice cold eyes, and then he spoke in a booming voice.

The eshlar boomed incriminating the town, "Citizens, your leaders have

committed atrocious criminal acts against the world, it is our purpose

here to see that these crimes do not go unpunished."

Shock fell over the unarrans as they took in his monstrous armor,

segmented symbiants writhing in an unnatural dance, oozing forth hellish

black mist that birthed a biting, shivering mass of night's children at

his feet.

The elder Unarra wonders what the Eshlar is speaking of, and why is he

concerned about a Tyrusin grave?

As the elder Unarran peers at the corpse... he scoffs back in horror,

for he notices the bruises on the lower backside and knows that this

corpse belongs to the dreaded Reg-eeta, the eshlar feared for his

gruesome design and all around mongoloidal appearance

Shaking his head to dispell the strange thoughts in its mind, the elder

Unarra realized the Eshlar was the saidi of revenge, the deity of

vengeance!

The creature gave a shriek that was of a pain like the unarra had never

heard before, the creature fell to the ground, and behind it a dark

figure in a robe removed it's Life-Staff from the corpse.

The creature lies on the ground with blood all across the ground, then

finaly it's eyes close and it can rest in peace.

The young unarra looked over at the shriveld plants and wondered what he

was to do next.

The robed figure moved forwards into the cavern with the Unarra, pulling

back the robe's hood revealed the features of an ancient Lokai, whose

eyes gleemed with the wisdom of the ancients.

His name was SoTToto, famous explorer, discoverer and classifier of many

famous plants.. some such as important as the Soffo plant.

"So," the old Unarran said, "you have come - just in time, as usual."

The Unarran and the Lokai smiled and clasped forearms, obviously old

friends.

"I was just about to tell the young one here about the grave we were

guarding, but look what has ben done!" the Unarra said as he gestured

towards the desecrated corpse.

Unknown to the two, there was a figure watching them, waiting for them

to move.

As soon as they fixed their eyes on the shadows, they became engulfed in

a grey swirling mist.

the unarra and the lokai look around frantically for the strange set of

eye; wondering it has done this to them

In the fog, a cry of anguish started, and echoed throughout the city,

bouncing off the walls, a dying wail that seems to never stop.

The young Unarran, Zeil Ta, was shaking and about to lose his last

thread of courgage.

Unarra looked in the direction of the howl but when they looked the

Lokia was gone just as quickly as he came,

"you knew him?" asked the young Unarra,

"I know SoTToto, but that was not him",

"Then who?",

"I don't know"

"It is time we leave this sacred place", whispered the old Unarra

"But we cannot leave quite yet, There us one more thing I must do before

we go", the unrra said softly as he bent over a set of loose tile work

in the floor.

The old Unarra seeing the loose tile, tried to grab Zeil Ta "Don't touch

that!"

Not heeding the older Unarra's warning, Zeil Ta touches the tile.

Quickly the you Unarra slipped the strange tile he had noticed into a

puch, and dashed out of the dangerous place with the elder in tow.

As they ran out, the little one's pounch started to glow with a dull red

light and an almost unnoticable humming filled the air.

The old Unnara knew the omnious legends of the peereesee-tah-uh stone-

what to do now?

The pouch ripped open as the 'tile' revealed its true nature, a

parasitic symbiote, it greedily attached itself to the young Unarran,

sucking the color out of his skin.

The unarran dropped to the ground, pale face emotionless.

The Unarra, its skin turned from its normal orange to a faintly glowing

white color by the symbiotic creature, stood up slowly and began to

speak in soft yet somehow menacing tones.

The frail unarra glanced quickly at his surroundings, lightly waving his

hand about while muttering a soft phrase, echoing ever so slightly in

the minds of the observers; "Crowning the sky in a menacing red glow...

bringing balance to the world once again, we see the sign, and heed its

warning..."

The elder Unarra was visibly disturbed when it looked at the other

Unarra and saw what was happening.

He knew the youngling was going mad from the paracite sucking the life

out of him

As the older Unarra tries to back away, the younger one grasps him in a

grip as strong as a war-hardened Tyrusin.

The younger Unarra whispers something into the older Unarra's ear.

The young unarra's apperance changed... his soft playful face becoming

the athoritative mass of a bold tyrusian war chief.

The younger Unarra turned towards the elder with a look of malicious

intent.

The young unaran then jumps at the elder but in reflex the elder hits

him back with the end of his lifestaff!

The younger Unarra regards the older Unarra as if it is playing with

him, laughs for a moment, then grabs the elder's lifestaff and breaks it

in two, tossing it aside.

the now transformed elder, reaches out swiftly and without a second

thought snaps the young unarra's neck, leaving the corpse on the floor

as the elder walks away with bloodlust, and revenge burning inside from

the alien creature that inhabits him.

As the Unarra walks out the door with an un-natural dark red twinkle in

his eye, his follwers waiting for him throw his ceremonial robe around

his shoulders and walk by his side towards the high council building.

The Unarra looks around and feels power from the deep red glow

everywhere, as the dark red twinkle in it's eye flares brighter for a

moment.

He surveys the destruction on the surface before glancing down at his

puny Unarran form, "This isn't good enough," he says to the most senior

follower, "Find me a Tryusin body at once!"

Upon recieving an unwilling tyrusin subject, the ceramony takes place.

The necasary ceramony commences as the tyrusin resists many unarran

struggle to keep him down, and the unarran finally trades places with

the tyrusin until the caster no longer has enough strength to hold the

spell.

The Tyrusin threw off the Unarra like rag dolls, rose up, and proclaimed

with outstretched arms, "I live again!"

After the Tyrusin had ran away the Unarran were wondering what to do

until the old one had a brillitant idea, "Lets's go back and save all

those people getting killed by those shadowy monsters!"

The Tyrusin looked annoyed for a moment, but then a grin spread across

it's face, "Yes, let's go back to where the shadows are", but not for

the reason this old Unarra thought.

On their way to save the people, they ran into a band of Tyrusin

warriors.

As the Cavolon StoryTeller paused to relight one of Kuj Lab's finest,the

young cavolon who were gathered around the fire politely noded afraid to

upset the elder dispite that fact that the story had taken on so many

bizzare plot twists as to make it almost unbelievable; smiling amoungst

themselves they sat back under a full Devar moon and enjoyed the evening

's story long into the night because..well.. heck, it beat going to bed

early...

The band of Tyrusin warriors (most from the trinaath caste) came up to

the unarrans and said "Hello, you look like your in a hurry. Where are

you going?"

Not one Unnara person spoke up.

Smiling at the StoryTeller's increasingly slurred speech, and seemingly

random halucinogen-induced tentacle twitches during the telling of the

bizaare tale, several of the young Cavolon snuck away from the fire into

the dark woods.

Suddently, when things couldn't seem to get any wronger, a veritable

army of shaps flew in from the north, hoping to make sense of the

ongoing tale by making loud noises and flapping about.

Seeing how out of it the old man was several of the youngsters decided

to pay a trick on him....

The old man was wise enough to realize the youngsters' tricks

beforehand.

His intellect and cunning had assistted this sage again.

And so the kids ended up with a bowl full of curif jelly down each of

their pants.

Then they started to finish the story.

The old Cavalon blinked his eyes and began to whisper, drawing back the

attention of the young ones, "The possessed Tyrusin with a glint of fire

in his eyes walked back to the burning settlement in a prefectly

straight line as if he knew instinctively the direction of such

destruction."

Mibole, a charactor seemingly completely forgotten about, saw the

Tyrusin striding toward the ruined town and decided that it should be

warned of the great peril it was daring.

The telepathic alarum had reached the neighboring villages, and its

intensity frightened their inhabitants.

The elder Cavolon stopped to take a hit of hallucinogenic spores before

he continued...

The elder accidently had taken to many "hallucinogenic spores" and is

now in a land of mystical fairies and leprechauns.

The elder, under the influence of waay too many spores, began speaking

in a trance, "The reborn was the embodiment of destruction, a being that

had been trapped since it could not be destroyed."

Mibole ran down the hillside, shouting at the Tyrusin to stop, when the

shadows leapt from the ruins and rushed at the hulking stranger.

The Tyrusin let out a fiendish bellowing laugh as the shadows rushed

towards him, "My pets come to me!"

As animals seemed to rush out of the shadows towards the Tyrusin, the

elder, still under the influence of too many spores, rushed to see what

the animals were.

The tyrusin also took too many spores and thought they were his pet.

Since everyone knows that most tyrusin arnt evil and that they can't

navigate pets like the UNARA can.

The possessed Tyrusin stopped short of entering the ruins of the small

Unarran town, the shadow creatures continued circling the warrior at

such a frenzied speed that they appeared to be nothing but vague blurs

of blackness swirling around the dark figure.

The survivors of the decimated village stood uneasy guard, watching as

this strange Tyrusin approached, why had the shadows returned to this

town already in ruins...hadn't they done enough already, why did they

come back, what more could they want of us now?

Seeing the evil swirl around the Tyrusin and in near desperation after

realizing he had made an almost certainly deadly mistake, Mibole took

his stave and lunged at the warrior.

Without even a glance, the enslaved Tyrusin produced an icy barrier that

met Mibole's desperate advance...

Mibole miraculously managed to pass through the barrier of swirling

shadows, only to have his staff shatter on the Tyrusin's ice barrier.

There was a deadly pause, where even the shadows seemed to be paying

close attention, as the possessed Tyrusin slowly turned his gaze upon

Mibole.

Mibole squeaked and backed away under the Tyrusin's penetrating gaze.

The Tyrusin turned around and slashed Mibole, severely injuring him.

Mibole, the farmer, remembered he has been farming cerrots when he had

seen the tyrusin, and still had some in his bag.

He began throwing carrots at the Tyrusin hopeing to hit him in the eye.

One of the carrots had a random mutation and exploded wipeing out the

tyrusin, the shadows and poor farmer Mibole

But wait, this is not the end of our brave hero, for Mibole surely had

some farmer's trick to use in such an emergency...right?

As was evident of the days events, not everything was behaving as they

should, soon the plants that resembled carrots started to shake and

wiggle, and soon tiny appendages sprouted from the mutated plant form

along with vicous looking teeth and scurried off in search of prey.

Then, one of the carrots stood up, grew a hundred times its size, and

split open, revealing none other than...Mibole!

Then Mibole had a heart-attack and died; Mibole was the carrier of the

universe, and as he died, the world imploded and everyone died.

Then Mibole miraculously rose from the dead and created another

universe.

The universe, just being created, experienced a Big Bang, and knocked

Mibole unconcious again.

The big bang created bacteria which then began to eat away at the

unconcious body of Mibole.

As mobile lay there dead and the Unaran cheering that he sacrificed

himself to save them they gave him a very honorable funeral.

"and now the moral of the story which is to run into oncomeing trafic

with your genitalia exposed" said the old storyteller who was now so far

gone on the loco weed he passed out

The joint of loco weed slipped out of the storyteller's fingers, with a

snort the young lokai Ashresth picks it up inhales and stares out into

the night, wondering..

The Spirit of Mibole, mostly pleased with how the story had

concluded(about 10 posts ago) shook his head in shame at all the people

just trying to fit in one last post for the contest's sake..."Shame on

you,"he said. "Shame on you all who would elongate a barely feasible

plotline by even more ridiculous action!" and then he ate his own foot.

Suddenly a figure apeared before the stoned elder in a vision.

It was like a bright light, but as the lights started to dim he could

slowly make out the outline of the figure.

The figure spoke in a soft voice, but the words seemed to echo in the

elders head like an eshlar hammering his house.

Before it could speak, everyone ran away, and only the elder sat there,

too confused to move..

But suddenly something happened; the fresh scent of the ihla flower was

being caressed by the gentle sea breeze, and floated easily through the

air's currents to the campfire where the Cavalon story-telling session

was taking place; the flowers were of a pure nature, with healing

remedies good and true; the calming sensation one gains from their

inhilation cured the elder Cavalon of his intoxicated state, and he saw

fit to resume the story properly from where he had truly left off; he

began when poor Mibilo came into contact with the posessed Tyrusin.

Miboli tried to warn the Tyrusin of the dangers ahead; he tried

desperately to convince the man standing before him that un unspeakable

evil had consumed the villaige ahead; he sought desperately to resist

the urge building within him to attack the Tyrusin for he represented

all that was negative and repressed within himself; the feelings of

remorse, guilt, despair, helplesness and utter frustration; the feelings

of anger at the sheer stupidity of this virtual stranger who would risk

his life to wander into a villaige of darkness; the sudden fear of a

stranger who may survive in one such place; the regret that the only

thing he could ever have done was to reinforce the shrieks and pleas of

help that he had heard from the terrified voices of not long ago; that

he could not stand to hear the suffering any longer and thus would not

relay their message; perhaps it was his secret fear above all, that this

Tyrusin who stood forever before him might become the towns savior - the

one thing he himself could have been but was too afraid to be - or

become the towns final and complete destruction - the one thing he could

stop, if he weren't so afraid; and so when the Tyrusin refused to heed

his initial warnings, Miboli ran away in the darkness of the night,

never to return to his native farmland again.

As Miboli rushed through the darkness, a Lokai darts out, life staff

held high; across the heavens, a flare from sun Atrios bursts out

through the ether, striking the ionisphere which sends a surge down

through the atmosphere, charring Miboli to the consistancy of chicken

skin.

Miboli views the Lokai from afar, gently lofting up into the light when

a voice says to him "If you go into the light, you cannot return, do you

wish to continue?" and Miboli agrees, sacrificing his mortal life for

the unknown.

Then Flubub, mighty Cavalon explorer, woke up in his tent from this

horrific dream thinking to himself "Are these events portents of the

future, or just my mind wandering again?"

Flubub stepped out of his tent into the dry moonless desert night.

The elder storyteller realized that with his storie's many twists,

turns, loco wed induced craziness and that final wierd plot twist he had

tottaly lost the young ones whom he was telling the story to, and

started to walk home.

However, before he could, the eclipse (remember the eclipse?) finished,

bringing light to the town, the light gave the influenced elder such a

headache, he forgot what he was doing.

For never was there any story more crazy,

Than this, of the triple eclipse, and Miboli.

Then everyone smoked some crazy weed and then all got in fights and

Miboli got shot in a bar fight. The rest of the world then cheered as

they all burned themselfs alive to be ressurected 5 years later by the

legendary dragon balls but then the death star came and a Lokai named

Loot Skiwaker destroyed it and they all cheered with the animal pals

from funhouse.

Meanwhile, a crowd of Atrianese mumble disgruntingly about the state of

society; one could be heard yelling, "Everyone come and destroy with

me."

The crowd was disrupted by a young Lokai spinning and dancing yelling

"Ee-tah ees tah-huh uhm ohf tah-huh wohr-m ees wuh kohw ee-tah!"

The young being watching tv is bored of flipping channels, and turns off

the tv for a nice long nap in silence.

Then Serafina woke up from her psychotic nightmare and said, "Woh...this

is going to be one Hell of a game!"

She rose to her feet and heard the telephone ringing, and ran to pick it

up; "Serafina, mistress is all that is good, I have something that will

please you..please don't hold my pay check, this month." Iimz said.

The Elder Lokai Astronomist, observing all of his life and past memories

floating into his mind, was engulfed in a column of fire from the sky as

his last thought was still running through his head (How will I tell the

people of my discovery?).

The elder coughed a couple times, trying to clear his head, it didn't

help, so he ate a bit of Tergh root, well known for helping those who

had a little too much...

Soffo plant ice tea. That really gives the Atrios people major diarrhea

of the mouth.

In the nearby town of Ala'mur, an Unarra named Ja'kulan felt the twinge

in his mind of a telepathic message.

The signal was faint, but as he concentrated it became clearer until he

could make out the message.

It was odd; he hadn't talked to this... friend in a long time.

A discovery of this nature was amazing: it was completely unprecedented

Truly, a discovery of the like had never been seen before. They had to

be careful now, if anyone else found out, they'd likely panic. Who knew

that a combination of Soffo tea, Tergh root, and Halu (abr.) spores made

a Cavalon...

A disease then caught on quickly from Mobili's corpse that have been

revived so many times to the Soffo plant killing all of the existing

plants exept one..........one soffo plant left.....in the hands of....

Kraithicus, who immediately devours it and continues his never-ending

search for more food.

Then Rossane appears and Kraithicus is outstaged and runs away as fast

as he can.

Meanwhile, the dreaded storie-tallers and master spallers from teh

Atrainic community rip up the corpse of a storyline to no end.

As well, it seems Rossane has had too many hallucinogen spores and

merely imagines Kraithicus was around, seeing as he had already buggered

off, looking for food, far away from anything Regeta could possibly

think up - no ifs, ands, or buts.

The heat continued to build with every footstep.

Unfortunately, Kraithicus dies from heat exhaustion; lying on the floor

of a desert valley, the lone wanderer Kraithicus is struck with

flashbacks about its life and the memories within...

One of these flashbacks happened to be about when he was a kid, a young

spawnling sitting around the campfire listening to an old man tell

stories while smoking a pipe, but right in the middle of one of his

stories...

...a beast came out of the darkness and began attacking him.

Kraithicus remembers not being able to to make out the dark beasts

features but that it was of the likes of nothing hed ever seen before.

With skin darker then the night and eyes of glowing red, the beast came

upon Kraithicus and the old man, who in seeing the approaching creature

jumped to their feet...

With creature almost opon them, the old man pulled a small glowing egg

shaped object from a pouch on his belt and threw it at the ground before

the dark creature.....

A flash of light powerful enough to knock Kraithicus to the ground

flashed from the shattered egg, the dark beast let out a roar of pain,

the old man grabbed Kraithicus's hand and pulled him away....

As the dark creature slid back into the shadows, the old man whispered

to Kraithicus, "we should be more careful in these woods, our fire is

not strong enough, the shadows have drawn in too close," Kraithicus and

the old man began to rebuild their fire...

But as they begin a roar comes out from behind, they spin around only to

be confronted with a hideous creature from the depths of their deepest

dreams.

But back at the pirate ship, 'Arghhh, diarghh arghh arghh' Screeched the

now imbecilic slave.

BUT, Kraithicus and the old man were stuck solid by what they faced, for

they faced the dreaded, and infamous, MONG-BAT.

However Kraithicus acting all the while like a pansie-girl runs

screaming into the night, leaving the old man alone to face the demon of

the night.

But fortunate favored the elderly cavalon, for as he scrabbled in the

soil for a weapon that he might use to defend himself, he found an

ancient text, and a small round object; and he knew at once that these

were the Book of Armaments, and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

Then the aged creature held aloft the Book of Armaments, and consulted

chapter 2, versus 9 to 21, for instructions on the usage of the grenade,

and it did say:

"'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to

three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and

the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count,

neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five

is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached,

then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who

being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'"

"One... two... four"

"Three sir three"

"Three"

He threw the weapon at the dark beast before him, the grenade exploded

in a mass of vines that entangled the beast until he could not move a

limb.

just as he begins to lower his guard, and rest. The ground around him

begins to shake, as if something was right beneth him.

He attempted to steady himself with his staff, but to no avail; he fell

flat on his face, and remember no more.

awaken over top of cold sand (which had broken his fall), he looked up

only to realize he had fallen 15 feet into a dark, cold unknown cave.

He hears a faint sound, a growl. Three unknown figures surround him. All

he has is a gnarled staff. He then swings at the figures.

One of the figures grasps his gnarled staff. "Who are you?" the old man

said. All the figures did was point their thin bony fingers toward the

east. And he went.

Kraithicus runs for miles until he's far away from where he was. "I

can't leave him there to die." He then runs back only to be confronted

by mong-bats again. He goes "Whats that" and points to his left. The

bats then get fooled. He then runs to where the old man was.

He reaches where the old man WAS, and relizes the old man is gone...dun

dun dun!

He stands there wondering what to do then hears a strange noise, perhaps

snoring from around the corner of a building.

Out of his undissmisable curiosity he walks around the building, amazed

at what he finds, he stops dead in his tracks and falls to his knees.

The sleeping creature was none other than the mystical and much sought

after Fragty!

This was it; this was his ticket to the easy life.

****

"The Red Black Twilight" was the elder Cavalon's favorite story; for

though he was not an Unarran himself, he always believed that the

hardships of others should never be forgotten. Indeed it was many moons

before he was brought into this world that the events of the tale had

taken place, but every time Devar eclipsed Altoos, he told the story

feverishly. His name was Kraithicus. His story was one that most had

forgotten in his time; most were not noble like he - they did not wish

to remember the horrific, the scary, the violent.

Though Kraithicus had thought it rude of the children to leave him

whilst amid a story - his favorite story no less - it turned out that

they had done him a service which had changed his life forever. It

allowed him to meet Fragty, who made his tale known. It is out of the

respect taught to us by Kraithicus that we all now repeat his fantastic

tale, and the story of wise Kraithicus himself whenever we sit under the

soft red glow amidst the dark skies as Devar, our moon of fire, eclipses

Altoos.