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@joelle-stone @this-is-not-an-alien @jasmine

Yes; they should stay together! But I would like to do greatest fears, if that is alright with y’all 😉

Cathy, it’s so sad that no one takes Ehud seriously! And a glow-in-the-dark pink pony…. you are hysterical!

Also, everyone, this post is SOOOO long cause I was trying to fit everything in like the perfectionist I am, *sigh*….

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KIARK

I glimpse a blur rapidly buzzing toward me, and suddenly I hear a whirr and see a flash of blue light. The blob on my head loosens, and immediately I am wresting it from my scalp and throwing it to the ground, stomping on it and watching it spread out in a floppy, icky mess. I glance up and see the fellow who saved me. He’s a tiny fellow; a flying fellow… like one of the silver-fables, I think. Then he’s gone, and I fall back against the wall with a gasp. I moved too quickly, and I am terribly light-headed.

I take deep breaths, and glance toward Wylo. He’s still battling the insect-creature, but at that moment a metal bullet hits it in the side in an explosion of sickening green blood. The Princess Liorah is wounded, but still fighting. Ehud is riding a flaming ball of fire, and it only makes sense that he is. The girl with the bow is bravely keeping off the beasts with her sword. She seems like a good character.

But they are a part of the distance, far away. I only see my sword. My head is calmer; I have a feeling that the blob was sucking my blood, because I’m no longer bleeding very much and the pounding has stopped. Still, I swagger forward like a drunkard before snatching my steel from the floor.

I stand there, amidst all the chaos, a bloody mess, head still burning. But I feel my heart pumping strong, and I know I’ll be alright if only I can kill before I am killed. Yes. I set my goal for at least five of those deranged monsters. I lurch toward Wylo, who has sheathed his sword and is rapidly firing on the creatures with a strange new weapon that I can’t even register properly in my brain right now. He sees me and nods.

I put my back against his, partly to support myself a bit, partly because of the fighting advantage it gives. I wait till an animal leaps, a grotesque ball of dagger-like points with the ears and nose of an elephant; then I angle my blade so it skewers its own body. One down, four to go. My adrenaline is pushing away my dizziness and pain; if only temporarily. I hear the small explosions of Wylo’s gun.

Suddenly he whirls around and decimates another charging dogbear beast with a lucky shot, and I’m standing alone, but I don’t care. I search for something else to kill; I’m bloodthirsty. I have vengeance to take. Oh, yes. No one gets away with wounding the Heir of Banerow.

“Fall back to the second row and support us as best you can. Everyone get out of the cave now! Rilyn and Konyar the both of you can seal it, everyone else focus on getting the beasts out here, Wen and Eltar shield the dragons.”

I hear Rosario, and it rekindles my anger. Then I see Liorah, and there’s a vile creature inches from her face. How dare it try to kill one of us, even if it is her. Besides, I never miss a chance to be heroic.

I start toward her, but that is when I hear a very out of place sound: laughter. Riure. She is chortling uncontrollably, and like every other creature, human and otherwise, I turn to look up at her, sitting on the ledge and giggling like a veyna. “Hey everyone, laugh as loud as you can!” She stands up and waves something small in her hand. “It hurts them!”

I laugh just thinking about how ridiculous that sounds when I see the creature in front of Liorah snarl and growl. She is struggling, but before I can get to her, an arrow whizzes out of the air and thuds into the beast. Liorah finishes it off with a knife. I see Gwen, standing with a bloodied shoulder, and I can’t believe she just did that. Wow. That takes some strength.

All the creatures are wailing and screeching, in terrible pain. I see one of the dragons rush to help Riure. So laughter does work. But I can’t get my own throat to laugh; in fact, I can’t get myself to do anything. I can’t move.

The cries and laughs, bouncing off the walls, reverberate in my head. I feel all the energy drain from my body, and my limbs feel like jelly. Riure’s laughter rings in my ears like a clear, shining bell, and then another laugh joins in in a slightly lower tone. But soon the cackles are tormenting, filling and thundering in my whole consciousness so that all I know is unending giggling, in different tones, different styles, ringing in and out, loud then soft….

“Stop,” I cry before I can think. “Stop it now! Stop, stop!” 

I get my body to work and put my hands over my ears, staggering backwards. Everything is starting to darken, my vision is going blurry. I clench my jaw and squeeze my eyes shut against the pain.

My head burns.

***

WYLO

The creature drops at my feet and I look up to see the new girl whirling her sling. Thank you, I think, but I know she only did it because she doesn’t know what I’ve done or could do. I turn to see Kiark, and he’s got a sword in his hand and a fierce scowl on his face. He walks like he’s sailing on a rolling ship, but I know he’ll be fine.

Back to back for a minute, we fight, and I feel exhilarated. It’s like how I used to partner up with Waynot when we were brothers. Then, suddenly, I have to turn to kill another creature and I’m along again. I’ve been wasting a lot of bullets; I’m only lucky this one hit its mark at all.

That’s when Riure starts laughing, clear as a bell, saving me from another hideous creature who cowers at my feet. But I don’t understand. What is she doing? Does she even know what is going on? That people are getting wounded? Maybe even killed?

Then she shouts, between giggles, that laughter hurts the animals. Indeed, I see them falling, hear them wailing; I hope that girl can laugh for a good long while before going hoarse, because there is no way I can find it in me to even chuckle.

I glance around the room and see Gwen stiffly hoist her bow, then aim, and shoot. She’s good. My head turns toward the grunt of the hit creature. It’s on top of Liorah, who quickly stabs it. I hear other blasts, and it must be another vice… Konyar, the male dragon, lifts up his neck to help Riure while Rilyn swipes at the disgusting beasts. Without those dragons, we’d probably all be dead right now.

That’s when I hear Kiark yell: “Stop! Stop it now! Stop, stop!”

I dart forward and catch him in a trust fall just as he collapses backwards toward the stone floor. I see, around his scalp under the gold band, and in his skin where the hair parts, tiny round puncture marks from tiny-needle claws.

Poison. 

His face is streaked with dried blood, and is red and slightly purple-ish. It looks like Waynot’s face that time so long ago when he defended me in the school yard….

I shake my head to clear my mind, and slide my arms further under his. Then, I yelp in pain and surprise, nearly dropping Kiark to the floor. Indeed, I have to lower him and bend back to grab my vice, which I had dropped, and fire at the furry little beast tearing my leg in a last attempt before it succumbs to the laughter. I’m lucky I don’t hit my foot with the bullet.

“Ahh,” I hiss under my breath. I check my wound, and at least there are no major arteries snapped. But my calf is mauled, and bleeding pretty bad. I grab Kiark again, and start dragging him.

“Everyone get inside! ” I hear Gwen shout, “Hurry!”

I don’t even second guess getting into that place with all those people, because I would like to live. And my brother — no, my nephew. He needs help. He may be annoying and brash at times, but so were we. He’s all I have left of the Waynot I used to know.

Dragging him into the corridor, I don’t glance at any of the others. A strange pink glow fills the space, and I hear Ehud and Rosario murmuring. I keep dragging Kiark farther back, farther back, as far as possible, until I have to stop. I lower him gently to the ground.

I have to attend to my wound, so I tear off one of my silver coat-tails and wrap it tightly around my calf. I pray, though I don’t know who I’m praying to, that Kiark will be fine. You may say I am an expert with poison; I’ve been tangling with it for year after year, making it, trying to find a cure for it, traveling all over Varai (name of their world) to find it. But I’m not.

“Do we have any water supply, guys?”

It’s Ehud, and I realize in disgust that, of all things, I didn’t grab the canteen off of my desk. I’ll just have to make do; I’m pretty sure I can, so long as it isn’t infected. Besides, I realize with a bit of excitement, I have my vial.