It was then that our party was informed of the dark prescense to the east, and it's binding power over the west, we were told to examine a well just out side of town, it was apparent that any man sent out to fetch water never came back alive. Brillig decided to test the well's depth by tossing a brand down the dark abyss. What bubbled up from it was an image that is haunting every one of our number with knightmares to this day.
-Chapter 3
the spiders...
They were called into the mayor's shack immediatley...
"Ah so you are back from your fighn excursion I see..."
"yes mister mayor..."
"did you find anything? I notice someone new with you... I try to keep tabs on all of the mercenaries around here... I keep them in a notebook... I selected these three to go keep an eye on the army of the easts activities for me... so tell me... how did it go?"
"everything was fine... but then some dark troops attacked us?"
"really why? Does this mean there will be further conflict?"
"No we doubt there will be any further conflict, thought some Orks did try to jump us as well..."
"You don't say... well i've heard worse stories, I'm just glad that you're all back in one peice... so tell me young man... who might you be?"
"I'd prefer to not give out my name..."
The mayor, a fat stubby man with short hair atop his head and what looked liek three knecks let the pipe in his mouth dangle a little...
"why won't you tell him you're name De..."
"Don't say it... he doesn't want it heard by my ears... I understand chaotics like him... he's just another mercenary... OH did you do anything else while youw ere out there you were gone a while?"
"well umm... we did go treasure hunting..."
"AH you rambunceouse youngsters... I suppose I don't need to give you a reward then..."
"Well actually we didn't find anything but him..." Flare pointed at death with his thumb... Death kept his back turned at all times... he shuddered a bit...
"where did you find him...exactly?"
"I'd rather you not know..." death said lightly... and everyone shut up for a good few minutes... finally the mayor turned to kimagure, the only one still faking her smile...
"ok i'll be blunt... the well outside of town... umm it's had a history of housing something evil... and well after hearing that you got away from Dark troops unharmed i've decided that you're more fit that anyone else in this town to examine its contents... do so and you will be handsomeley rewarded..."
"WE'LL DO IT!"
Kimagure stood up and grabbed her 'two old freinds' by the shoulders... "Let's go to the local tavern and chill out, then we can get up at darn and examine the little well thing and get PAYED!"
"is the well just down the street straight forward?"
"why yes... how did you know?"
"it's made of a metal which you consider stronger than steel but not poisonouse like lead...adn the water from is always seems to become magically refilled?"
"how... what? Have you been to willow creek before young lad..."
Death turned and looked the mayor in the eye... his stare was cold it made him shiver as he spoke "NO but I know that an Irrigation controll unit looks like, you're lucky that water isn't tainted... calling it a well, that's supposed to be for the feilds! oh well, drink all you want, it constantly fillters ocean water..."
"ocean water? where from? we are nowehre near the..."
"then it's from underground water supplies or a nearby lake or river, who cares, the fact is that if you were'nt carefull you could be drinking air conditioning fluid and dying from amonia..."
"Dying from what? Air con- what?"
"NEVER MIND!" death flew out the door and began trampling the ground, he stepped on the grass so hard that it died beneath his feet and instantly turned brown... he looked at the well and squinted...
"What could be dangerouse about YOU..."
the metal pipe read a company logo... "these memories are coming back far too quickly for me to make sense of them.." he thought... "but I seem to be making sense of them myself.."
Kimagure caught up with death.. "you know, Before I thought that you were a kind young gentleman... but now I realize that you're as dark as the deepest part of that well! You're ill, you rant on about nothing for hours and then you STORM out of offices and DEMAND to not have your history repeated to GOOD people! THe mayor is on OUR SIDE!!!"
"I work for noone..."
"THEN YOU MAY AS WELL NOT WORK WITH US ANY MORE EITHER!"
Kima turned and ran right into Flare... flare touched his hand to her shoulder...
"Calm down, Kimagure!"
"How can you DEFEND HIM after the way he acted in there! He bloody insulted us!"
"listen... he's of a differint alliance that us... plus he's been through alot.... we can't just leave him now, he's obviously confused about this new world... like a child, he has to re-learn everything..."
"how can you look at him like that!!"
"I think you're just upset that he wasn't the prince charming you thought him to be..."
Kimagure pushed herself back from the knight...
She stared at him wide eyed...
@_@ "Auh... AH... ACK YOU BASTARD!"
she kicked him as hard as she could between his legs...
There was a sound of metal hitting metal...
"heh..." he smirked at her...
She scowled with viens bursting on her forehead and headed for the tavern with Alice at her side...
A tear fell from Flare's eye...
"YYJuST GoTTA TAKE IT LIKE A MaNNN Aeeeeeeooooo God it hUuuUurt"
having a bizare mood swing the knight placed his arm around death...
"say... do you want to know where a man can have a good time in willow creek? I know about all the secret places they try to write off the map hehe heh..."
Death turned his head slowly... his eyes never blinked... and his gaze was constant and almost frozen... he looked at Flare for five straight minutes without moving or saying a word...
Flare blinked... "ok fine I'll go alone..."
Death looked at the warrior as he walked off...
he stared at the steel pipe...
"hmm so fine i'll call it a well..." he said standing alone by himself...
"i wonder if they're having any fun in there..."
he crossed his arms...
"it would be more impressive if i just stood here until dawn..."
he loosened his jaw a bit...
"AWWW HELL!"
He kicked one leg up and began walking toward the tavern, the lights in the windows were on, there was joyouse music playing... all seemed fare and well inside... death shrugged as he opened the door... he walked in... he saw his two female cauligues sitting in the dark corner, trying to stay unnoticed from the raunchy men who were already being entertained by a couple of dancers... he looked up the stairwell to the second story.... he saw Flare talking to a lady who placed her arms around him and they walked toward a small wooden door which they entered quietly... death then looked at the bar, there was an empty seat in between two barbarians with spikey helmets on... he sat down...
"OY ladie! who do ya tink ya tink yar sittin in da seeet ova me freind wallice!"
Death looked around... "I don't see wallice anywhere..."
"AY laddie! he went out dis mornin to examin dee oder siyeed ova da cloudspine and he never come back now!"
"you don't say..,"
"Oy you'd best leave the man his seat should he come back HRARHAR!" the other viking-like brute laughed and talked with his mouth full...
"well, If you must know, I saw his courpse not too long ago, so I can asure you that you're freind isn't comming back.."
"AUND HOW DEED YOU DO THAT LADIE!"
"Well I either just stumbled on his courpse or I killed him... but in reality i did neither..."
"WHAT DOO YA MEAN!"
"Word spreads quickly around this place you know... it's not to hard to get a little information when you need it..."
"AYULL CUTCHUR THROAT IF YA DON TELL ME WHUTCHA DEED TO WALLICE!"
The large brute yanked out a sword which wobbled in his hand...
he was drunk...
everyone in the tavern ghasped at the brute's threat... then all eyes were on death...
Death decided it was fit to do an impersonation... "WEYULL I DUNNOT SEEN HEEM IN DAYS BUUT I GOT WURD FROMA RUNNAH! HE DUNNA LIE DA RUNNAH!"
"How Deed he DIYEE!"
"By Da hands of a RANGA dey say he was Chaooteek Gud!"
"...CHAOTEEK GUD YA SAY?"
"YEEE DATS WHAT DEY SAYEE!"
"NAW YOUR SPEEKIN MAH LANGUEEGE!"
everyone laughed hysterically, one man even fell out of his seat...
Death smiled... then turned toward the bar...
"What can these twenty gold thingies get me..."
"...well hell son that could buy you the bar!"
"Ill pay it all for a glass of water and some sake for those two ladies in the dark corner..."
"Freind's of yours?"
"well we kind of just met..."
"Two of our finest drinks for the ladies and... a glass of water for our freind?"
"Yeah you'd better make that FIRE WATER" he guffawed at his insult to the lack of modernization...
Nobody else laughed...
"son it don't take an elementalist to know that FIRE and WATER don't mix..."
"oh... what'say we put a little wager on that..."
"oh really?"
"yeah... ill bet you all this gold here and the BAR that i can make this here glass of water you give me taste like fire!"
"... you've got to be kidding me..."
"oh no it can be done!"
"heh FINE then its a bet!"
... even the bar tender must've been drunk...
Death took the glass and pressed it between his hands...
He began to shake it furiously...
He had secretly slipped a slice of dried ice into the glass and the acceleration was causing the water to become carbonated while his grip was litterally hermetic... he lifted his hand off and it made a poping sound that got everyone's attention..
"and no magic required..."
the bartender took the water from his hand... the pressed it to his lips and then dropped the glass... death caught it and then handed it to the barbarian... "why don't you give us you're opinion since the bartender's given his..."
"WHAT THE HELL MANNER OF MAGIC IS THAT!!"
"no magic... just science... "
"You're crazy, lad!"
the barbarian let out a belch... "WHOAH NELLY DAT BE SOME FUNKEEEY WATA!"
Death twidled his thumbs... "looks like I won the bet..."
"I... I..."
"i was just kidding about the bar... now about the gold..."
"I'll GO BROKE if i produce as much! that stuffs worth 24 thousand!!"
"waitaminut!!" the barbarian looked at the gold then at death... "24 tousand be da numba of gold dat WALICE HAD ON HIM!!"
Death smiled...
"I didn't kill him though..."
The door swung open... a large dark figure stood at the opening...
"Wallice? is that you..."
death's eyes stayed fixed on the figure... it grunted and then walked away... Some swore that it's eyes were glowing...
"Walice! You be alive! HAR! SO DIS MAN TELLS TALL TALES! HAR HAR! STORY TELLER! LETS GO CRUNIAC! WALLCE LOOKS INJURED! HE MAGHT NEEDUS!"
The two lumbering barbarians left the tavern... they were never seen or heard from again... nor was wallice...
Death turned back to the bartender.. he lifted a finger... "i'll be back...these two seats are reseverd though..."
He went over to the table where the two ladies were sitting...
"What the hell kind of stunt are you pulling now?"
"I realized that life's too short to spend without company! come sit at the bar with me!"
"I don''t need any bizare men looking me over!"
"oh trust me, they wont even let their eyes wander to you..."
Death and the two ladies sat down at the bar, Kima ordered a fine red wine in turn for the cash that death had actually won over, and Alice ordered a glass of tea.... death decided to drink his water contently, after adding sodium, sugar, and a variety of other things from his odd coat that turned the water a dark color... he sipped it and then added some ice... it wasn't Dr. Pepper... but it was 'fire water', all the same...
The hours flew by, and sudddenly there was a sharp screech.. it was followed by a male screaming.... then the door which Flare had gone through earlier burst open and flare fell out in nothign but his underwear, a pair of armor and pants with his cape and the large daunting axe along with a sword and haliburt struck the ground next to him... "eyaah!"
he rolled out of the way as the large axe struck right about where his head would have been...
"MEEP!!"
he gathered up his belongings and retreated to a back room...
The woman he went in came out screaming with messed up hair and a tear in her dress "AND DON'T YOU EVER PULL THAT FAKE ROMANTIC CRAP ON ME AGAIN YOU BASTARD! I SWEAR! I AM NOT JUST ANYBODY'S GIRL YOU KNOW! I THOGUTH YOU WANTED TO MARRY ME! YOU JERK! TRY A ONE NIGHT STAND WITH ME AGAIN AND ILL KILL YOU!! WHERED HE GO!!!"
"flare shure knows how to make an exit...."
"yeesh..."
The furiouse woman then looked at death who had the two ladies sitting next to him, with their tails happily moving to and fro...
"AND YOU!! YOU MISTER ARE PATHETIC!!"
Death pointed to himself what a "me?" expression on his face...
"YES YOU! PEOPLE LIKE YOU MAKE ME SICK! UUGH! IM OUT OF THIS TOWN!!"
She slammed the wooden door behind her... death looked at the girls around him... Kima was red in the face from drinking and she was resting her chin on her hand....
"that's the most perverted i think i've ever seen you sit Kima..."
"WHa WHAHWHAAT!" she suddenly jumped up and looked at hereslf in a vanity mirror, she immediatley began applying some powdery substance to her face... Death turned around... he saw a warrior staring at Alice... he narrowed his eyes.... the warrior quickly turned his head back to his freind and shivered...
"I told you nobody would look at you two...
The girls looked around the bar... all heads were turned 180 degrees AWAY from them...
"I dont think i've ever seen the backs of so many heads!"
"wow alot of people have back hair..."
Death chuckled and pounded his fist on the table... "oh you two are just too much hahaha! Seriously ladies, are we going to scope out this well now or what?"
"ARE YOU KIDDING WE NEED TO GET TO SLEEP !"
"I know im already weary!"
"then what's the point of staying awake in a place like this for you?"
"well we.... just... ya know... umm..."
"come to think of it... there is no real purpose to staying in a bar all night if what you need is rest..."
"SHHH if you two keep talking like this you'll ruin my business" the bartended whispered...
"check please!"
"I beg your pardon..."
"OH JUST TAKE THE BLOODY GOLD!"
The bartended handeled the coins and filled his pockets greedily..
"IM RICH! RICH I TELLS YA!"
Kima, alice, and death started walking toward a nearby inn, they saw Flare jump out a back window and crawl across the ground... once out of proper distance he stood up and joined his freinds...
"Getting out too eh? that place was too wild for me!"
"AAAAAH!!!"
"what was that?"
Death started running in the direction of the well.. he stood and looked... what he saw was unimaginable...
The Luered barbarians from the bar earlier were covered head to toe with dark creatures which sheiked and scurried all about them,. they were then lifted and carried down the well... death ran up to the entrance... he could heard the sounds of hundreds of scurrying legs... and then there was only silence...
The others caught up...
"what was that?"
"nothing... I just wanted to test the well..."
"can you tell us what's in there..."
"It is actually more easily solvable than you think..."
Death pulled out a pesticide grenade...
"I always knew that ONE DAY i'd encounder Masakara's spider army! but here! hoo! who'da thunk it..."
He pulled the pin on it and dropped it down the well...
"there" he said wiping his hands together... "problem solved!"
They all stared at him oddly...
"we'll come back in the morning to clean up the remains, don't you worry it's all taken care of..."
the three walked into the inn and checked in, one night's board was free for those who could prove their bravery, Flare's axe and sword proved to be usefull after all...
the four knights were given a single room... with... one... bed...
Flare spoke up... "ok, Death and I will sleep on the couch and you two ladies can have the bed... it's just courteouse..."
Kima ran for the bathroom "OH GOD I'VE BEEN NEEDING A BATH!"
She ran around past a door... "YES! THEY HAVE WARM WATER!" the sound of a flowing spiket was heard and her Kimono was quickly thrown onto a hook... Flare's eyebrows raised for a bit but quickly shot back down... he narrowed his brow... "alrigth then I'm just gonna go to sleep on the couch..."
"but wait..." Alice interupted... "Where will Death sleep tonight?"
"I- i can just stand..."
"YEAH... HE NEVER seems to need to sleep!"
"nyo.... I just can't let you do that... Death... since you stayed out last night... let me watch the door tonight.. it won't be that hard, and you need some rest after not sleeping at all last night...
"but really i don't need slee-"
"I insist!" Death took his jacket off and layed it onto a rack, the rack snapped under the jackets heavy weight...
"well you know ma' always said pockets were for filling heh...eheh..."
Death just layed the jacket on the ground... he decided to keep his pants on but he rested his boots under his heavy jacket...
"Nobody's gonna pick those up hehe..."
He layed the jacket over them which made the sound of an anvil as it struck...
"wow..." alice said looking at it,..
"I never travel light... EVER...."
Death jumped onto the matress... it didn't bounce or squeak, rather it conformed to his shape...
"oh my god it's a water bed..."
"EY! how come I don't get to sleep on the water bed!"
"Oh Flare! you know you'd never fit in that small thing!"
Flare grunted... A half an hour passed and Kimagure stepped out of the shower... droplets of water slid down her skin as she stepped out in full form... she made sure to only step through the darkness.. her body dried quickly as she then pu on the towel and figured that since only 'ALICE' was in the bed she'd jump on in in the towel...
everything was quiet,... dark...
Death had his eyes closed when he heard a voice... "hmm i'll never understand these boys will you?"
She placed two thin arms around death's waiste... he jerked a bit in the bed... she pulled herself closer to him...
she was still warm from the bath water... he felt her body heat irradiate onto him...
"oh my god I hope she's not just wearing a towel..."
He turned his head... he saw through the darkness something which he never expected to see...
"ok so maybe less than a towel... ok Death-ol' chap.. just ... slide... out of the grip... that's it... now maybe y ou can roll onto the floor and free.. yoursel..."
there was a scratching at the door... and the window...
"WHATS THAT NOISE!"
alice shot up and unsheithed her daggers...
"hmm alice?"
The set of hands started feeling death's stomach... "you're not..." the hands came to a flat chest... "EEYAAAH FLARE YOU PERVERT!"
Shooting up Kimagure stepped out of the bead... the towel slowly hit the floor...
She lit a light with a quick fire spell and death stared for about two seconds... kima could only stare back... before lifting and arm, lowering a hand and hitting the ground, death's nose exploded with blood...
"AAAH GOD I'M SORRY IT WAS ALICE'S IDEA I SWEAR!"
"YOU PERVER--"
"SHHH GUYS!!! LISTEN!!"
Kima looked up at the window wide eyed... death did too... flare shot up and his head hit the low ceiling... rubbing it he looked at the door... it was wobling... Kima ran back into the darkness of the bathroom area and slipped on her clothing...she walked out of the darkness and death stood as well....
"what do you suppose that is?"
"I don't think my plan worked..."
"KIMA do you have an Anti-Bug tecnhnique?"
"ILL ANTI-BUG YOU BUDY YOU'RE LOWER THAN AN INSECT!"
"Listen there's no time! just tell me if you have something against arachnids!"
"well yeah but it was a small spell I learned as a child.."
"well wtih all of your experience i'm sure you can use it powerfully enough to handel GIANT SPIDERS right?"
Everyone looked at death.. "GIANT SPIDERS?!"
"yes..." he said wiping his bloody nose... "listen.." he panted... "Cast it on any crevices or openings... Im going to charge an attack that will rid this problem once and for all!"
Death gripped his hands tightlyt... a force grew in side of them that forced them apart, they bent almost mechanically at the joints and began twisting his arms and legs at odd angles..
"THIS IS THE ONE!!! TELEPORTAY!!!"
Death dissapeared from the room...
"THAT DISERTER!!"
"I'm sure he's going ot help form the outside..."
Death decided to assess the situation.... the spiders were overrunning the town... luckily no windows were open due to it being a cold night... he held his arms as far apart as he could...
"this is gonna be a big one...."
A voice echoed through the town...
"GATHER UNTO ME CHILDREN OF THE DAAAAAAARK!"
The spiders ceased their movement...all left the well... all was silent now though... the overrun town was covered every inch on the outside by spiders, they ran into the hilsides, and now they were moving again... inward... toward the center of town... where death was hovering above the street....
"THATS IT YOU LITTLE BASTARDS! HERE! COME HERE!"
They began forming a mountain to catch up with him... he hovered higher as the spiders grew higher on the mountain...
"it's taking too much power to summon them!! KIMA PLEASE HURRY WITH THAT SPELL!!!"
"Spiders... spiders.. go... AWAY... COME AGAIN... ANOTHER DAAAAYEE!"
Kima was out in the street, she shouted and a burst of white light left her hands... "MY GOD thats the first level 16 spell i've ever CAST!"
"good thing you practiced it since childhood!" death yelled down to her.. the spiders suddenly turned white... and then blew away like dust int he wind... everywhere in the town lights were lighting up, candels, tortches, anything and everyone began walking out of their houses, they saw Death, standing in the air, with the spider remains blowing away intot he wind... he fell into the pile of ash and then held his breath, once all the ash had blown away he inhaled and then coughed, panting furriously.... "that took Way too much energy... i need... i need abrosia... if i don't get a hound then ill have to... sle- sleep... zzzz...
Death fell unconseouse in the street...
that was when suddenly the well began to vibrate... everyone in the town was now out... the well exploded upward... the steel pipe shot out of the ground with a "TA-THUNK" sound... it landed on the small outhouse out side of the mayors office and someone who was inside started screaming for their life.. then it fell over comically...
From the hole emerged a single gigantic spider...
"HOW ARE WE GOING TO DEAL WITH THAT!!"
"The only way that we can" flare shouted...
"WE MUST FIGHT IT!"
"someone needs to protect death!"
"he's done his job in getting the little ones... this one will be up to us..."
"wa...wait..." death said in a parched voice... get me close to the spider..."
"you're crazy!"
"i know his weakpoint... if you don't get me close to him, I won't tell you what it is..."
"what other choice do we have?"
Flare picked up the limp doll-like 'ranger' and started running toward the spider at top speed...
he threw death directly onto it's back, past its gaping jaws... a pair of legs went to the back of it to deal with him... death with his last ounce of strenghte dug his teeth into the spiders back.. he began to suckle on the hole he'd torn...
"auugh god that's discusting..."
he suckled some more... "but this is the queen! its quite invigerating! ehahAHAH!"
He erected a beam saber and then jammed it into the spiders back... he twisted it around in the shape of an hour glass... this crteated a surface spell that fried the spider from the inside out... it fell limp... death then pulled out a glass jaw, he popped th elid on it and began letting some ooze from the creature's mouth pour into it... he collected three jars of the stuff and then finally turned toward the mayor who was in his robe and night-cap still...
"I... don't know what to say young man..."
"listen... it's all in a days work... and I couldn't have done it without the help of my freidns... Especially kimagure... she deserves the most gold of us all..."
"IF YOU THINK THAT'S GOING TO WORK AS AN APPOLOGY..."
"I don't care any more... I need some rest.... *yawn*... I think we should all get to sleep and we'll sleep easily tonight... knowing that this place is truley safe..."
Death layed down on the couch... Alice managed to fit there with him... while Flare slept on the cold hard floor and Kimagure got the whole bed to herself...
Hours past... flare spoke up..."i think we need to re-think this situation..."
"SHUT UP!" everyone in town barked...
sleep well heroes...
I love comedy episodes