Red Hand Heights (Location A)

[Max Dirks]

This mountainous area is reminiscent of the former Red Hand's base within the mountains of southern Corone. The area is connected to the Treslizn River Valley to the south.

This is Twisted Infinitum's starting location.

Round two begins at 3:00 PM CST. Good luck to everyone involved.

[Twisted Infinitum]

“Combat, previous to this point, has been inconclusive,” lectured The Astounding Relativologist to his group of a hundred students. “Undoubtedly, the danger will increase. Don’t allow yourselves to be hampered by pride for advancing this far.”

Many of the students, dressed in bulbous metal helmets and shiny vests like their instructor, looked at him as if the brown noonday light filtering through the tent’s ceiling was muddying his image, or his mind. “He’s telling us not to be prideful?” was the unspoken question passed about by their eyes.

The Astounding Relativologist appeared not to notice. With the wide array of devices stuck to or holstered upon his belt and vest glittering like party favors, he continued unabashed in his studious, never faltering voice. “If you must enter combat, follow the directions of our… associates.” He glanced about the massive tent to find the other section of the army.

It was sparsely thin, the group of hares that milled about with their hands full of medical supplies or trappings of afternoon tea. The professor stepped over to the nearest few, a group sitting still upon their haunches and nibbling small cakes. As he came within earshot of their whispers, he caught the word “greasy” in a disgusted tone. Clearly, they weren’t talking about their lunch.

When they noticed him watching, they clapped their little rabbit mouths shut and stared back. Their ears twitched worried. The Astounding Relativologist let his mouth curl into a smug smile. Despite the fact that these snow white beings were taller than him and built of muscle with silver armor upon their torsos and weapons at their sides, they still felt uneasy around him. It was enough of an honor for him to let the comment about his skin slide. They wouldn’t understand, anyway, that he had the “greasy” lotion upon his face to protect him from the harsh rays of this world’s sun. Perhaps their own world was more like Althanas than his was, for they seemed to fit quite naturally into the environment. You just had to suspend your sense of disbelief to appreciate a regiment of humanoid rabbits with a curious tilt to their dialect.

“Very sorry, but you and your chillins missed afternoon tea,” said one of them with his nose bravely aloft. “Some of them seem to not fancy a good cup, anyway. Jolly bizarre, that.” The nearby hares made high-pitched sounds in the back of their throats, likely the rabbit equivalent to chuckling.

The Astounding Relativologist sniffed indignantly, but he went on with what he had planned to say, lest the encounter prove longer than expected. “I need to speak with your commander. Direct me to him,” he said curtly.

Another hare took a long, noisy sip to finish off his cup of the strong liquid, then responded. “I’ll be a lucky charm if he isn’t outside. The lot of our brothers should be with him. He said they were moving out on the Queen’s orders, may she live eternal forthwit!” The last words, he pronounced grandly as if they needed to reach the heavens. Then, with a sly hunch forward, he said, “I’m thinking TAR and TAR’s minions slept too late again.” Every hare within earshot, which is quite a few with those ears, burst out laughing.

The professor had to hold himself back from a scathing retort that probably would contain words beyond the intellectual capacity of the hares. Instead, he stomped away from them with his heavy metal boots leaving angry prints in the earthen floor. “My name should not be shortened to an acronym,” he said bitterly to himself as he thought of this “Queen” of theirs, the one who had given him and his students those names. As a figure of royal prestige, she was a disgrace. As a tactical leader, she seemed to be similarly inept. He and his class were not supplies to be stored in the tent. They were soldiers capable of combat maneuvers that still went beyond the understanding of the hares. Or, at least, he envisioned his students as soldiers someday. That day would never come if they were left in the home base at every opportunity.

Wordlessly, the young men and women followed The Astounding Relativologist out of the tent. Immediately, the sun hit them with its full force, which can be very uncomfortable with the heavy clothing and equipment they all bore. The students in the lead were already sweating by the time the last filed through the small canvas opening. More than a few eyes glanced around for cover. But, a sheltering shadow would have been an alien element in this landscape. Beneath them was nothing but barren rock. Occasionally, it bulged up in the shape of a small boulder, but those shadows wouldn’t be enough to hide one of their helmets in.

Eventually, all the metal heads turned to face one direction. Around the side of the tent, there lay a truly alien element. It was the vehicle the humans had brought with them, a cunning contraption of metal and anti-gravity thrusters that looked like a huge, blocky insect. Making it look even more alien was the metal plates that stuck from the body on numerous arms as if the transport lay within the core of a tank tread. Sadly, that modification was necessary in a world that had not fully grasped the concept of straight, level roads, and it was because of such inconvenience that pushing the transport to this rocky location was a point of pride. To all the students, it was also a blessing. Of one mind, they swarmed toward the vehicle and piled either into its innards or under its shadow. Their helmets clanked so close together that they appeared to be human legs supporting a metal forest.

The Astounding Relativologist felt the quivering of the ground and the sudden rush of air behind him as his students bolted for the transport. He didn’t bother to turn around, though. The hares he was looking for weren’t visible on the barren rolls of rock that stretched to the horizon in the north, or toward the river valley to the southeast. If the pace of this day was any indication, the students would have time to find comfort before they were thrust into combat.

Only one creature other than his class was visible. To the other side of the tent, far enough away so as to appear aloof, stood a grey feline humanoid in foreign garb. As far as The Astounding Relativologist had surmised, this creature was definitely not the hares’ queen, but was related in some way. She certainly looked royal in her robes of white, blue, and gold with an assortment of charms both around her neck and up the length of her staff. Her head was topped with a hat so high and ornamental that it could be nothing less than a status symbol.

The professor started toward her purposely. She, however, didn’t seem to notice as he drew nearly upon her. Her hands were wrung tightly around her staff as she used it to draw patterns and symbols in the dust that lay atop the rocky ground. The lines were barely distinguishable, but she put so much effort into each stroke that she clearly expected to scrape away the ages-old rock with a wooden rod. The Astounding Relativologist took a moment to study her work as he stopped at the border of it. Some of the symbols looked familiar. One was a bird, though he couldn’t specify any more detail. Another was an eye, and yet more were distinctly reminiscent of an alphabet. It would be an interesting pursuit to learn this creature’s language. She, however, still didn’t acknowledge his presence.

“Tortured Mau,” he stated to get her attention. There was a hint of a question in his voice as if he wasn’t sure he was remembering her name correctly.

She nodded her head slowly and quirked her feline mouth into a little smile. “Thank you for not stepping on them,” she said with only the barest hint of gratitude. Then, her tense face of concentration returned and she etched another symbol ineffectually into the ground. “What do you need?” she asked.

The Astounding Relativologist looked up from studying the newest symbol. “Have you seen where the majority of the Leporidae ranks have moved?” he asked. Then, he opened his mouth again to specify in language she might better understand.

She answered before he could rephrase. “The cottontails,” she said with sad amusement in her eyes, “They followed the one with the monocle down to the valley there.” She gestured dismissively toward the southeast.

“Thank you,” the human professor said hastily as if caught off guard. Not all of the bizarre creatures here were as simple as the hares, apparently. He quickly remembered his goal, though, and looked in the indicated direction with annoyance heavy on his shadowed face. “I’ll have to send the eyes to pinpoint them,” he mused to himself. With a crash like bricks falling, he let his large metal backpack fall to the earth and pulled a strange device from within. It looked like the end of a plunger, a rather deep one, with a piston-like handle sticking from the top. “I hope you are not bothered,” said quickly to Mau, knowing that she seemed to like her space.

Her answer was another wave of her hand and the barest flicker of humor in her face. The Astounding Relativologist paused for a moment, and then decided that was the only answer he would get. It seemed to be affirmative.

Alongside the obsessive artwork of Tortured Mau, he went to work as well. He placed the open end of the device upon the ground and braced himself over it. With visible exertion, he pressed the piston down amid the loud hiss of a sudden pressure change. Then, with a pop, he pulled it from the earth and revealed a newly-created object. The front half was that of an eyeball, and the back was a dome of metal and flashing wires. The entire body of the object was the size of a bowling ball, yet it hovered easily upward until it was many times his height above the ground. Without watching its graceful ascent, he pressurized the device against the ground once more. Determinedly, he kept up a rhythm of creation next to the frantic scratching of Mau’s shrine.

*~*

In the Dream World, a place beyond the petty laws of physics and order, the one who had summoned The Astounding Relativologist and his students to Althanas waited. It wasn’t long until, against the formless multi-colored fog of thought, rifts began to open up. Each showed a similar view of the rocky earth with the helmeted man and the reclusive cat-woman at the center.

With a contemplative sigh, Amethyst Possum lifted one fuzzy white hand to his pointed snout and straightened his spectacles. The purple gem in his forehead sparkled with studious intent, matching the gleam of his blue robes with silver stars and moons from the hem to the top of the pointed hat. An enigma, he mused with his eyes locked on the image of the feline figure as rift after rift opened to show the same scene.

Omega what? asked a chipper voice behind him, and he turned to see the hovering form of another feline figure. This one was far less regal in short shorts and a fishnet shawl, her long white hair and tail fanning out behind her brown-furred body. An onyx was embedded in her forehead, a dark feature in an otherwise sweet face. However, despite her appearance, this was none other than the Queen that the hares wished to live eternal forthwit. Onyx Calico was her true name, though, as appropriate as Possum’s own name.

It’s not important, he muttered over his shoulder as he turned his eyes back to the scenes of Althanas landscape. They each began to change under his gaze; some moving around the tent where the one hundred hares came hopping out to patrol the surrounding area, and the rest heading toward the different horizons. With a total of twenty screens to watch and control, he might have been excused in ignoring Calico.

Of course, Calico was forever able to find the insult in acceptable actions. Also, in a very Calico-esque manner, she always found interesting ways to repay such insults. Now now. Don’t be a gloomy possum, she said as she drifted behind him. With preemptive giggles, she reached forward and covered his eyes.

It was a scene that was nearly unheard of in the Dream World. Normal dream demons would have exploded from their auras interacting too closely. It was only because of their strangeness that the two involved did not, for Calico had lost her aura long ago in the presence of reality invading the Dream World, and Possum had voluntarily mutilated his to the point where it no longer could interact with matter from any plane. Despite such safe measures, it was not a comfortable position for Possum. He had heard about the first time Calico had tested her aura-less body on another named Ruby Lynx, who still carried the mental scars of the incident. Perhaps due to his inquisitive nature, Possum was not disturbed to that extent. He even allowed it to continue, letting it stir the rudimentary tactile senses of a thought-form creature. There was the distinct sensation of an interchange of energy where her hands touched his face, and an even stronger interchange where her chest pressed against his back. Curiosity begged him to delve deeper into the sensation. But, Possum wasn’t one to put his existence on the line for an experiment… at least, not often.

That’s enough, he said sternly as he shoved Calico’s arms away from him. There was a different sensation when he pushed against her matter, but he relegated it to the back of his mind as an interesting note.

Calico slowly drifted back from him, her arms hugging her torso as a wide grin split her face. The expression in her eyes and the lines around them showed a mix of revulsion and excitement as if she had partaken of exotic cuisine, the kind that could kill while tasting delicious. Before she could lend voice to the sensation, though, another voice piped up behind her. She turned quickly and looked at her own window to Althanas, a large red bubble with an organic frame. It looked like a man would if you erased his entire left side, stole his skin, made his muscle translucent, and bend him into a hoop. The frame’s large orange eye quivered at the attention and the mouth wobbled open, letting a stream of drool run down the bubble that it hugged with its whole body.

The voices came not from the creature, but from the bubble that showed a view of Althanas as it was seen by this dissected creature’s other half on the mortal plane.

*~*

Edgar wobbled along the rocky earth as he starred into the back of the hare commander. The rest of the hares followed behind in two lines two hundred men long. The line on the left bore spears and shields that glittered as brightly as their armor and the right line held crossbows that could rip a human’s arm off if he managed to pull the thick line back. Despite the floppy ears and cotton tails, they were an intimidating group. It was evident that they didn’t follow Edgar, but rather the hare in front of Calico’s puppet.

Sergeant Puddles Butterworth may not have been much more intimidating than the average hare, but he was certainly the shiniest in gold-gilded armor and monocle, and the heaviest in both haunches and belly. Edgar, comparatively, was a diminutive contraption of jelly-like flesh and a mannequin half replacing what had been left in the Dream World. A too-large black cloak spared them the sight of his organs, and over it lay a mismatched collection of armor and decoration. The puppet wore a hare’s chest and back plate upside down like a massive armored kilt, and he bore a shield on his back the way a turtle carries its shell. Wrapped around his one-eyed head was a bandana emblazoned with the whimsical symbol of a smiling cat. He struck a marginally better pose now that he had figured out which end of his pilfered spear to point up, but it wasn’t much help. Not caring for public opinion, though, the puppet toddled after the supreme hare and listened as he led them in a marching song.

“Wot wot. Jolly good day to break some baddies’ heads,” Sergeant Puddles sang in a deep voice that bounced off the rise and fall of the boulder strewn terrain. The double line of hares sang the line after him, each in perfect time as they descended from the heights and wound between the large, shady outcroppings that marked the border of the mountain range.

“Marchy march fo’ the eternal Queen,
May she shine on us forthwit,
As we kick them bloomin’buggers,
In the spot with which they sit.

“Wot wot. Jolly good day to break some baddies’ heads.”

The troops emphatically repeated the last line as Butterworth twisted his head about and gestured to the rocks with grand sweeps of his spear and shield.

“Hidey hide behind the rocks,
A stick and shot for each,
So we can jump the lollygags,
When our camp, they try to reach.

“Wot wot. Jolly good day to break some baddies’ heads.”

Each pair of hares, starting from the front of the line, let their voices leave the song as they broke off to take positions in any crevice or shadow that would afford them cover from the valley below. Those behind them moved forward against Edgar’s back and continued to sing until they too found suitable dips in the rock.

“Snoopy snoop o’er the rocks,
But only two ears at once,
Let the other nap the day away,
So we can always see to pounce.

“Wot wot. Jolly good day to break some baddies’ heads.”

By the time the verse was finished, nearly every hare had disappeared into the rocks. Butterworth turned grandly, almost knocking Edgar back with his shield, to observe nothing more than the occasional pair of ears sticking up from the terrain. “Jolly good,” he said as he hopped backward into the shadow of the closest boulder to the grass of the valley. Edgar stepped over the lip of rock, and he was promptly facedown next to Sergeant Puddles.

“Sweet song hoppy,” said the puppet with a click of his wooden jaw as he righted himself.

Butterworth had spent enough time with his Queen’s ambassador to know that the words were a sloppy translation of what she had actually said in whatever world she resided in. So, he filled in the gaps and took it as a compliment. “Tell her thank you, my good man,” he said quietly as he stuck his head over the boulder and looked at the empty expanse before him. Grasslands spread out to the earthy rise to his right, and the area to his left was slow moving water until it, too, met a rise in the earth. In order to approach their camp without crossing a mountain range, an army would have to move through that funnel of earth and up the jagged, winding path the hares had used to come down.

Satisfied with their position, Sergant Puddles sat down next to Edgar in the boulder’s shadow. His monocled face turned to the puppet, then quickly away. However much respect was due to the Queen’s messenger, it was still hard to look him in the eyes, one bright orange and bulbous, the other an empty wooden socket. Edgar just stared straight ahead, perfectly content to ignore everything until some new stimulus got his attention.

The only visible movement came in the form of The Astounding Relativologist’s inventions. “Bloomin’ nutter if he’s going to run those chillins out into danger,” muttered Butterworth as he watched a group of the flying eyeballs move overhead. They quickly made their way like a flock of sparrows out over the valley.

Then, something else followed them into the air. In the distance, where the tent was barely visible if you knew where to look, four projectiles shot into the air. Two appeared to land behind the camp and rather widely spaced from it. The other two screamed over the hare-filled rocks like shrieking bats. Startled into silence, Butterworth popped his head over the rock to watch as they landed. One disappeared with a small splash into the water, and the other became nothing but a puff of dust in the nearby grassland. “What’s he doin’?” the hare commander muttered to himself.

After a few moments, Edgar spoke on behalf of the Queen. “Sandbox.”

[Twisted Infinitum]

Possum studied the rifts with such intent that his head was craned forward and his shoulders hunched. At least five of the eyes had a good view of the army that had moved into the valley, and one, in particular, held a very interesting scene. Such a superfluous use of the allotted time, he mused haughtily with his eyes fixed upon the diminutive bathing figures.

Possy-poo! gasped his companion, her head hovering over his shoulder, I had no idea you were into voyeurism! You’re just full of surprises today. She gave him a playful poke on the shoulder, and he inched away from her hand as the exchange of energy sent a ripple through his form. Another hint of curiosity burned in his bespectacled eyes, but he tucked it away for later.

Simple reconnaissance, he responded, not embarrassed in the least. His attention stayed focused on the screens and their patchwork masses, species indeterminable from the All-Seeing Eyes’ vantage point.

Awww… isn’t that romantic? Calico cooed. Possum turned to see that she was studying the images as well. That one, she said and pointed when she noticed his raised brow, Blondie-girl and black hair guy are bathing together… in front of an audience. I think it’s kinky!

You can determine gender with such low detail? Possum asked with his raised brow as still as if it would become a permanent feature.

Of course! she responded sweetly. Then, her voice became sultry. It’s all in the curves of the shoulders and hips, honey. She stroked her hands down her sides to emphasize her body’s own gentle curves, and she couldn’t help but giggle when Possum’s brows climbed higher.

To her chagrin, dream demons didn’t equip themselves with anything else that would climb higher in such a situation.

*~*

Patience was not a job requirement for a professor of such high standing. If a student was late, they had to deal with locked doors and sentry automatons in ‘silence please’ mode. The Astounding Relativologist would have traded a month’s salary to have a few of those sentries with him. Contrary to the implied gentleness, ‘silence please’ mode would be forceful enough to put some sense into the thick skulls of the hares.

When news came from Father Brain that the enemy had been sighted, he gave up those wishes. He and his students had only their wits and centuries worth of technology with which to prove their skill, both to the hares and to themselves.

“Assemble behind me as per teleportation protocols,” he said to the nearest of the students. They had emerged from their cool haven now that sunset was nearing, but they suddenly seemed to want to crawl back into it. Without any apparent notice of their hesitation, The Astounding Relativologist pulled a device from his numerous belt holsters that looked like a large metal letter ‘T’ with a glass eye in the middle. Teleportation devices were standard in their world, but he knew that this homebrewed design would serve them better here, where there was no teleportation grid to guide them. It was very representative of their descent into a barbaric world that such a basic technological convenience would be guided by only his hard work and steady hand.

Sweating more than usual, the students formed a tight mass directly behind him. Many of them braced themselves. With a prideful glow to his greasy face, The Astounding Relativologist held the device up so that the eye gazed upon him and his students. “I will transport us to the base of the mountains. Our… comrades will be waiting. Let’s show them what Canunbrium stands for,” he said without a shred of the peppy enthusiasm that would have fit the sentiment.

His eyes glimmered, and some students behind him cringed, as he pushed the button under his thumb. The eye began to glow like a small star, from red to white as it gathered energy. Then, the head of the device creaked to the side, welds popping noisily. At the last moment in which the head was connected to the base, a beam of white energy shot out like an arrow’s trail. It went wide of the professor’s shoulder and flew, unhindered, through the opening of the tent. A second of silence passed among the students, some horrified, others relieved.

Then, a hare-sized bubble of the energy ripped a hole in the tent wall and shot out toward the valley like a long drive up the fairway. The Astounding Relativologist followed the blistering flight with dull eyes as his device fell brokenly from his hand. “It appears to have functioned appropriately,” he said quietly, a hollow analysis, as he watched the ramifications of the Canunbrium Instructional Facility’s extraordinary science, and the shoddy construction it was wrapped in.

Amid the rising bustle within the tent, a single hare emerged from the open flaps. “Binky?” he asked incredulously as he looked around at nothing more than rocks and a group of guilty looking humans.

[Twisted Infinitum]

It took Possum a moment to realize what the white creature was that had appeared in the bathing scene. When he did, his mouth twisted into an amused smirk. How improb-

Oh no! My sweet Binky! screamed Calico as she hovered behind Possum’s shoulder. Despite his lack of eardrums, he winched at the volume. Don’t let them eat you! Aaaaaah! They got him! They’re going to eat him! she continued with the hysteria of ten distraught soccer moms. As the enemy army pushed and nipped him along, Calico’s cries became, at times, as unintelligible as Binky’s own wails that drifted clearly up to the All-Seeing Eye.

That one is a very unfit warrior. Why did you include it in your force? Possum asked coldly and with a hint of disgust. Apparently, the constant shrieking was getting on his nerves.

Instead of being offended, Calico answered him matter-of-factly. Her face went from wild and dramatically weepy to calm and dry in a split second. Well, I’ve found in my research, she stressed the word as if it were from a foreign language, that bunnies work best when they have an underdog with them. Or an underbunny… Anyway, the underbunny makes them feel good about themselves because they can never be as bad as the underbunny. When the underbunny does good, they get all proud and happy and really good at killing things. I think this is option A that’s going on right now.

Possum looked at her blankly for a solid minute. Then, he sighed and shook his head as if the information before him was too contradictory to understand and too unimportant to be worth the effort. You are full of surprises as well, Calico, he said with his face once again pointed at the rifts, but there was the slightest hint of something in his voice. It might have been respect, or perhaps just pleasant surprise. Calico didn’t notice, though, because she was busy giggling at the image of Binky getting a reversed Mohawk.

*~*

As much as he strained his beady eyes, Sergeant Puddles Butterworth couldn’t make out the white bubble’s destination in the fading light. He thought it was a white bubble, at least. Its flight was so fast that it could have been dismissed as imagination if a gasp of surprise hadn’t rippled up the rabbity ranks in its wake. Baring a mass hallucination, it had to be something real and potentially advantageous. Butterworth noted that it came from the direction of their camp, which would suggest that the affectionately name TAR had gotten of his sleepy metal behind and done something to help.

With a heavy grunt, the hare sat down behind his and Edgar’s rock once more. He could only play guessing games in his head for so long before his ears got tied in a knot. “What just popped on by us?” he asked slowly, speaking through Edgar instead of to him.

In the required delay between question and response, Edgar worked his jaw as if to loosen its creaky joints. Then, he blurted out, “Poor Binky-boo flew away. Captured by mean nakey girls.”

It became clear, then, that the hare regiment was truly born and bred from their Queen’s tutelage. They laughed. The mountain shook with it as word spread up the craggy path and more hares rolled in hysterical convulsions. “Maybe… maybe,” Butterworth gasped through his high pitched laughter, “Maybe this’ll put some punch into the boy. By the Queen’s light, may she live eternal forthwit, he needs it.”

The few ears that were visible along the path bobbed as their owners agreed. Quickly, the laughter died down. The nearest concealed hare lifted his face over the rock and, with a big grin still on his face, asked, “So, Sergeant, we gonna rescue the bugger?” Chuckles ran up the ranks in response.

Butterworth took a moment to straighten his monocle thoughtfully. “I’d say not,” he said dryly, “They’re likely headed this way, anyway.”

“Yep,” Edgar said, “Drivin’ over.”

“Good good,” the sergeant chirped, “let’s keep our cottons under cover until they’re right on top of us. That’ll give us enough surprise to poke ‘em in the rumps.” He waved his spear high, and dozens of spears waved over the rocks in salute. The last rays of sunlight made them glitter prettily. “It’ll give them nakey girls time to play with good ol’ Binky,” he added, causing another chorus of chuckles to run round as the ears and spears ducked behind the rocks.

[RumpleGrumblePuss]

From my customary nighttime position of sitting on top of the truck, anchored down by a Shadow, I pounded on the roof. The loud punk rock that poured out of the windows abruptly stopped. Leaning over as far as I could I yelled into the window.

“Turn the high beams on! I want us to have a clear view of what’s coming up.” The sight of one of the two solders we had captured earlier moving in a near by truck snapped my attention over to that truck. I chuckled as the man slumped down, obviously unconscious. Several Mandas took the opportunity to use him as a foot stool. I winched in sympathy for the man when the booted feet laid on him were less than gentle. He’ll be sore when he wakes up.

I shrieked when, beneath me, the truck came to abrupt halt. Behind us, the other trucks also slammed on their brakes. Several trucks veered out of line to avoid a collision.

“What are you doing?!” Punching the roof of the truck angrily, I yelled down at them. I could hear both the General and Kelly barking orders behind me, at the moment, I ignored them.

“Hey genius, look ahead of us, the trucks can’t go over that type of terrain.” The Manda driving leaned her head out the window and glared at me. Shooting a look at the rocky, pitted ground a yard or so in front of the truck I scowled. Great. Directing the Shadow that held me to slide off the top of the truck and take me with it. I stood a moment later, my body from the waist down encased in the Shadow as it flowed over the ground faster than I could hope to clamber over the rocks. I wandered the area a little, looking for a way through. Hearing some one shouting my name I looked up, the General waved at me to come back in.

“One of the girl’s spotted what might be an army coming up behind us.” The General murmured. I held back the curse that burned on the end of my tongue. Perfect, what else can happen? We’re trapped in this area unless we decide to ditch the trucks.

“Right. What are the girl’s doing?” I asked, my gaze following several Mandas hurrying back the way we came from, their arms laden with bottles, both empty and full.

“Normal orders so far. I have the Mandas putting the bottles to use, they will make following us on foot hard. I’ve also told the girls to kick dirt over the broken glass so it doesn’t shine as much. Eddie is placing several crates around the area and soaking the wood with more alcohol.”

“You realize that also blocks our potential attack with the trucks. We cannot replace blown out tires. Have the trucks moved... never mind, I’ll move the trucks and you handle the normal preparations.”

“What about the man we captured earlier?”

"I saw a few of the Mandas knock out the other earlier.” I stopped and thought about what to do with the man for a moment, finally I shrugged.

“Have him stripped down to his skivvies and tie him up to the rabbit. Remember to bind the rabbit’s feet. Leave them in the center of everything that way everyone can keep an eye on them.’ Directing the Shadow to release me I gave it orders to spread to the others of its kind, before returning to me with four others. They were to spread out into the shadows, head back towards the army coming up behind us and kill any humans they encountered. The red wolves I directed to spread out along the perimeters, especially along the shore and the far side of the group. I was leery of being attacked from the sides.

The trucks I moved so they were spread out in a large half circle. The bright beams of each truck were kept on to illuminate the night between us and the approaching army. A last minute serving of liquor to the Mandas and we were as ready as we could possibly be. As a Shadow enveloped me from the waist down and hoisted me up off the ground a few inches I could not help but feel like I was missing something very important.

[Twisted Infinitum]

Why isn’t there any light? Calico asked as she once again hovered over Possum’s shoulder like a parrot on a sugar trip.

He turned his head and looked at her over the edge of his glasses. It’s night, he said, his annoyance crystal clear.

Calico made a petulant face and crossed her arms. Edgar and Puddles are coverting, so it’s boring, she explained, And I know it’s night. Why don’t you turn the eyeballer’s lights on?

Because, he gestured to one of the rifts, There is clearly a second force approaching. I cannot make out the number or species, but they will likely encounter the force that has your… underbunny. We can defeat them when they have weakened each other.

Calico nodded slowly to herself, then she smiled prettily. You’re so smart, she cooed as she pulled a gold star sticker from the nothingness and pressed it to his forehead.

Possum instinctively crossed his eyes in an attempt to follow it. The sensation of such a small foreign thought-form on him wasn’t unpleasant, just different. It felt very similar to what the mortals called a tickle. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of the whole situation. Calico responded with her own ditzy giggle.

*~*

If Calico hadn’t been distracted, she would have noticed that the view from Edgar’s eye was getting a bit more interesting.

“Let’s keep our mouths zippered,” Butterworth whispered to him as if Edgar might be tempted to do otherwise. He didn’t seem to be alive, at the moment. His gaze was pointed straight into the ground as if his batteries had run out. The hare commander decided to write off the oddity as one of many, and he listened to the sounds beyond his hiding place. There had been numerous beams of light moving above him, but their sources were too noisy to be the floating eyeballs. If the enemy had contraptions similar to what that human professor kept in his pockets, this battle would be a true test of his regiment’s mettle. “Better to be the first to pop it off, then” he mused quietly to himself after someone had shouted the name ‘Kahlina’ and, hopefully, drawn the attention of all away from the base of the mountains.

Edgar snapped out of his daze and looked to his hiding companion. But, Sergeant Puddles had already bounded on top of the boulder. The hare took a second to analyze the situation. In the red glare from the back end of their contraptions, he could see a large mass of men, women, and stranger shapes that were indistinguishable in the low light.

With a quick thump of his spear against the rock, he bellowed the cry of all righteous and noble hares. “For the glory of the Queen!”

“May she live eternal forthwit,” echoed every single soldier. From the nearest hidey-holes, the crossbow-wielding hares bounded to a position similar to their commander’s. The large bows creaked almost in unison as they were drawn tight, and then a racket of dancing strings filled the air. The hares danced with them, each vaulting backwards from the force of their own weapons, and landing squarely in their hiding spots.

Butterworth felt the air throb on both sides of him as about one hundred thick steel bolts shot forward. In such low light, even his soldiers’ aim would be compromised. But, there were many bolts for many targets, and nothing was as satisfying as the first volley.

*~*

Both of the dream demons turned to the Edgar bubble as the sound of the first attack reached them.

This places us in an unpleasant situation, Possum grumbled darkly. He didn’t seem surprised, but still annoyed.

Weeeee! Calico screamed as she hopped around like a cricket. Turn the lights on so we can see what happened.

The view from the Edgar bubble shifted as the puppet stood and looked over his concealing boulder. Butterworth’s feet were at the side of his vision as, alone, the commander stood in plain view with his shield ready and his legs tense.

“The lead hare never stands down when the bloomin’ raucous gets going!” he belted out when he noticed Edgar’s orange eye, dreadfully bright in the darkness, staring at him.

The eye focused on the enemy, and Calico inched closer to the bubble as if nervous. Possum sighed behind her and gave a quick mental command. Suddenly, the scene was lit magnificently as five of the eyes lowered close to the enemy formation and turned on their high beams.

Kahlina? Calico asked, oblivious to the fact that the name should have already come to her attention. What’s she doing here?

Possum made a sound as if he had a question ready, but Calico already had her fuzzy hand pressed against the Edgar bubble and became deaf to him as her presence reached to the lower plane.

*~*

Edgar jolted backward as if he had taken a battering ram to the throat. Then, just as suddenly, he popped up behind the rock and waved his gummy and wooden arms wildly. “Kahlina!” he shrieked in a voice that was more coherent than his own, and definitely more feminine.

The possessed puppet’s eye was locked on the woman riding upon darkness. But, there was something else that caught Calico’s attention. She turned her borrowed head a fraction to see a strange procession forcing its way out of the confused army. “Underbunny!” she called. Binky didn’t seem to notice as he, naked as the day he was born, hopped frantically forward and bowled humans out of his way as best he could with his legs tied together and a man dragging behind him limply like a ball and chain. A wolf, pursuing hungrily, latched onto the unconscious man’s foot, and he wasn't unconscious anymore. The man's scream increased the volume, but the bizarre parade didn’t slow.

Butterworth made a strangled gurgling sound until he could remember how to speak. “I say, that’s a bloody barbaric way to handle prisoners! Run, Binky boy!”

[Amaril Torrun]

((Two adolescent dragons and 100 Faoi have entered area A from area D. The rest of the army arrives in area A from area D about an hour or two later.))

Jerichol and Laverne watched from the end of the final stream of the river valley, fresh beads of water falling down the sides of their faces. They had not caught up with the retreating army like Kataneen had ordered. The metal contraptions on wheels that the army used were much too fast to keep up with. The only reason they could watch the army of drunken women, shadow figures and wolves was because the retreat seemed to have stopped. Many of the Faoi closest to the edge of the water eyed the army hungrily. It took almost all of dragons’ mental strength to keep them from attacking.

“What do we do? Mother told us to come back if there was any sign of trouble.” Laverne quivered for only a moment, but it was enough for Jerichol to see she was scared.

He turned to the enemy again, studying their every move. The day had turned to night, but he could still see, and more importantly hear, what was going on due to his dragon senses. “We can’t just desert our instructions. Can’t you hear them breaking glass and yelling orders at each other. They aren’t running anymore, so they must be ready for a fight.”

Laverne’s voice strengthened in resolve. “Then we can’t just sit here and let our mother and our siblings run into a trap. We must go back and warn them about our enemy’s defenses.”

Jerichol couldn’t help admitting his sister’s wisdom. The rest of the army needed to know what was going on. Yet, he also couldn’t help hearing his mother’s words about bravery. “Alright, you go and take half of our Faoi back with you. I don’t think I could hold all of them under my control. I’ll stay here with the other fifty and we’ll continue to keep watch.”

Laverne didn’t say a word, but she was obviously troubled by the idea of leaving her brother behind. Her brother was a stubborn one though, and she didn’t have time to waste on arguing any further. He’d stay no matter what. Brushing her cheek across one of his was the only goodbye needed before she took off with fifty Faoi following closely behind.

Jerichol turned his attention back to the enemy. Besides, this is too good of a position to lose. When they start fighting against our main force, I’ll be able to get in from the side. There was hardly any light now and he didn’t see the defenses that were also being placed on the side flanks of his enemy.

-----------

By the time Laverne returned to the main force of the Split Breeds, the army had already detected a halt in the enemy’s movement. Not wanting to run straight into a trap, they had made a makeshift camp while planning the best way to attack. Kataneen remained silent during the plans, thinking about her son, left all alone against an entire army. Darith was absent from the meeting completely, keeping the diminishing morale of his draconian troops up by explaining that the time for honor and glory was near. This left Hector with almost complete control of the battle plans. Only the inexperienced leader of the entire army stood in his way.

“I still think the Faoi would be the best first wave…” he muttered.

Amaril shook his head. “We don’t know the full extent of our enemy’s power.” Hector’s constant idea of sacrificing anything but his own men was agitating the Split Breed leader. “We need to use a different tactic than a head on attack. Hector, I know you don’t want to lose anymore of your men, but you have a trained force that could attack in many different ways. This is what I think would work best…”

The half-dragon’s plan went into effect immediately, though Hector still disliked it. The Faoi would travel in front, controlled by five of Kataneen’s children, with Hector’s archers right behind. Rather than starting a melee battle right away though, the archers would unload volley after volley of arrows on the enemy until the battle went into much closer quarters. Then, and only then, would the Faoi go into battle. Hector’s soldiers, mingled with Darith’s small battalion of draconians would follow the Faoi. Hector’s rogues would use the advantage of night to sneak around to the side opposite of Jerichol. There, they would meticulously take out as many foes as they could without getting caught.

((Rumple, I’m leaving you to post before my army’s actions take place, since you were prepared, ready to defend and then got attacked from behind first. This post merely got my army into their positions.))

[RumpleGrumblePuss]

Standing, held aloft by the Shadow, I looked back the way we had come. Watching for the group of Mandas that had gone back to litter the path with broken glass. I watched several of the Mandas drag the over sized rabbit into the open and tie the man to it. I shook my head, wondering just when the damned thing would stop blubbering. Briefly, I entertained the thought of using the man’s jockeys as a gag for the rabbit.

A low snarl drew my attention to the wolves; several of them stared out into the river. I stared at the dark water for several minutes yet I was unable to see anything. Beckoning over several of the Mandas I passed a quiet order for them to pepper the other side of the bank with a couple of the molotov cocktails.

The first bottle broke on the far side of the bank, fire spreading and lighting the dryer of the vegetation on fire. A sound I had never heard before warned me a half a second before I heard the thud of something impacting. Around the camp, several Mandas screamed. I blinked, more than a little surprised to find myself suddenly pressed to the ground, my shadow covering me.

I could hear the General, Kelly and Eddie yelling at the Mandas and DDP’s, trying to get them settled and back in order. I looked down at the shadow and noticed the large bolt from a cross bow embedded in the Shadow and the ground, a scant inch from my side. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the rabbit struggling to run away. I scrambled out from under my Shadow.

“Stop the rabbit! Fall into ranks and use the trucks for cover. Use the cross bows. After the first volley I want the half of the ranks to charge. Use the rocks for cover.” I was caught up by the Shadow that shuddered and pulled itself up off of the cross bow. My stomach did a flip at the sight of the hole in the Shadow closing over.

The sharp pinging sound of the cross bows firing filled the air. I followed the flight of the bolts as best as I could. I spotted a rabbit, one far bigger than the one I had captured, standing proudly on one of the rocks. I could dimly see a figure behind him, waving its arms. It almost looked like it was dancing behind the huge rabbit, a single glowing orange eye gleamed brightly in the darkness. I started to take a step forward then remembered that I was enveloped by the Shadow.

“What are you waiting for? Come on let’s go!” The Shadow and I hurried after the group of two hundred Mandas. It was not until I had crossed half of the space between me and the large rabbit that I realized that the figure was Edgar. The Shadow slowed and stopped at the sudden jolt of my body jumping. Small tendrils extended up from the main body of the Shadow and gently felt me over, as if checking for a wound.

“What in the hell?” I said just loud enough for my voice to carry over the sounds of a skirmish.

~~~~~~~~~~~
The General watched Kahlina follow after the attacking force of the Mandas and checked the impulse to yell at her. Instead, she turned to the pile of Mandas that covered the rabbit and the unconscious man. She looked on in surprise when she noticed one Mandas held on with hands and teeth. The long velvety appendage was firmly clenched between the Manda’s teeth. Shaking her head, she turned to look at the preparations Kelly and Eddie was setting up.

Kelly had groups of Mandas re-setting the cross bows and lining up bottles to be used as moltov cocktails. Many were stationed near or behind trucks to keep an eye on the other army. The sight of the dark elves helping willingly was an unexpected one.

“Ladies, let the rabbit up. Make sure you tie him up firmly this time so he cannot get away. After wards, I want four of you to watch him. If he moves, shave him.” The General walked over to one of the dark elves.

“I have a job for you to do. We need people out there, with more intelligence than the Shadows have. I trust you and your fellows to keep out of sight well enough. The orders are the same as the Shadows. If you can, kill, but don’t get caught.”

~~~~~~~~
Halfway between their camp and the enemy’s army the Shadows sank into the ground to hide from the light of the trucks and any light that would come from the enemy army. Unperturbed by the slower movement through the earth, they continued on their mission.

[Twisted Infinitum]

Calico watched the crushing end to Binky’s escape attempt with as much of a frown as Edgar’s face would allow. “Poor underbunny,” she whimpered, “He did try hard, though- Aaaah!” She saw the throng of women raise their own crossbows and take aim at the only target available, her dear Sergeant Puddles. With a mother’s gooey yet skillful hand, she pulls the hare’s legs out from under him. Before he could even gasp, he was laid out on the boulder at a speed that threatened to squish away his potbelly. The gasp, finally released, came out like the air in a squeaky toy. Wheezing, he slid behind the boulder as bolts flew overhead and bounced, harmlessly, off the mountain’s lower teeth.

“Thank you, my Queen,” he said in a voice like escaping steam, “Sometimes, I do get a bit too excited.” With the agonizing wince that followed, it was clear that he only thanked her out of loyalty.

“You’re very welcome, my dear,” Calico told him sweetly. Then, she leaned her disturbing head close and said sternly, “We need to protect my daughter in law.”

Butterworth lost what little air he had left as his eyes ballooned dramatically. The only response he could manage was a squeak of, “Da-i-law?”

Calico clapped her hands together as she set he legs elegantly under her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but Edgar only got married to her very recently. She’s that pretty blonde girl who was riding around on the ink blob. Don’t go shooting her, now.”

Butterworth shook with regret, his eyes closing and his breath returning in a whimper that said nothing less than “Too late”. However, before he could present a proper confession, a tide of angry women with razor-laced paintbrushes swept around their hiding place. With a powerful, yet painful shove, he righted himself to keep her borrowed body between him and the boulder. “Through my bloody belly first!” he wheezed as he took a wide swipe at the bodies. His spear’s golden details sparkled in the radiant light of the eyeballs, dazzling the dream demon into silence as she crouched behind his arm.

The bodies flowed wide from them for a moment, then came crashing back with weapons thrusting and curses thick as molasses. Butterworth hefted his shield to block the assault, taking numerous small wounds on his upper arm as a result. Recoiling with gritted teeth, he shouted up the rocky path that could no longer be seen. “For the Queen!”

The ocean of women and blades readied for another press when four spear points came into view. “May she live eternal forthwit!” chorused the hares that had thrust forward from their hiding spots. With frantic pokes and shields twitching to deflect razor strikes, they parted the sea to reveal, for the barest of moments, a view of the land not yet washed over by the enemy.

Calico squawked as her long-eared champion grabbed her with his shield hand and hopped for freedom. The force of his bouncing, whipping her behind like a streamer, was too much stimulation, and the prospect of those flickering blades finding her physical body filled her with dread. So, with a concentrated effort and a violent jolt that went unnoticed in the frantic flight, the dream demon left Edgar, once again, to weather the storm.

Butterworth, oblivious to the change, bounded a fair distance from the crush of humans before bringing Edgar to a gentle halt. The puppet stared blankly at him with his jaw limp as if it had unhinged. “Tell ‘er we’ll be fine as flowers,” he said when the sad realization hit him. Then, he turned back to the fight. The masses of identical female faces were spotted with hares visible from the shoulder and up. Others were completely visible as they leapt onto the boulders and dove back into the current with spear points leading. The hare commander smiled proudly as he bounded forward to rejoin them. “Wot wot. Jolly good night to break them lasses’ heads!” he sang as both his voice and his bloodied body were swallowed in the maelstrom.

*~*

From his vantage point in front of the tent, The Astounding Relativologist watched the scene with wide eyes. It had exploded so suddenly, from the noisy approach of vehicles to the loud, eyeball-lit crash of bodies and blades.

“I guess something is finally happening,” Tortured Mau said with cold disinterest.

“They need assistance,” the human responded, his voice more urgent than it had been in his whole visit to Althanas.

Mau shrugged and leaned lazily against her staff. “Yours, not mine,” she said flatly, “I will do what I do.”

The Astounding Relativologist raised an eyebrow for a moment before he turned and called for his students. “Ready the transport!” he instructed to the teenagers who were nothing but shiny patches in the night. “Father Brain,” he said in a softer voice as he adjusted a microphone in his helmet, “Please help us move quickly before the hares find themselves extinct.”

Mau watch his retreating back with a hint of amusement in her smile, but not in her eyes. “We dance the dance again,” she said bitterly to herself as she extended her staff in front of her, “And try to fight the steps.” The charms jingled as, under them, the night grew thicker. A shape formed there, the color of obsidian emptiness and dense stars. “You shall have a name when your work is done,” she told the sleek leopard that seemed to have been born from a constellation. Immediately, the beast shot out into the pitch black night and the radiant struggle at its core.

*~*

Daughter in law? Possum asked, forming, with just as much surprise, the question that Butterworth had choked on.

Calico didn’t respond as she jerked her hand away from the bubble and clung to herself as if to keep her chest from exploding. Despite the fact that she was a lung-less being in an airless world, she panted wildly. I hate it, she hissed, So cold. So… cutty. She cringed at the made up word, imagining the pain she would have endured if she inhabited a puppet full of razors.

Possum drifted from his usual spot before the rifts. That plane is not for us, he said in what was almost a soothing voice.

Calico nodded forcefully. It’s too small, she agreed as she wrung her hands together emphatically. Everything is too close. Then, she shook off her fear the way an animal does rainwater. I want to play with the ground, she said excitedly, her face pleading.

Possum, taken aback at the sudden change, took a moment to comprehend what she was saying. Well, my minion did request a secure transportation route, he said with a wave of his hand.

The nothingness below their feet became real, in a miniaturized way. Like the scenery to a model train set, the mountain stretched under them from the tent to the middle of the nearest army’s ranks. Over it all, ethereal bodies waged war. The path up to the tent was a mess of color as hares and women clashed, their small semi-transparent representations nothing more than a pointy fog over the relatively solid image of the terrain. Giggling, Calico drifted onto her stomach and poked at the people. Her clawed finger passed through without even shifting the image.

You can only affect the topography. Mortals are too insubstantial to give us a solid reading, Possum instructed blandly, Now, if you could make a road, of sorts, from the tent to the combat area, my forces can move into the-

He kept talking, but Calico wasn’t listening. I’ll make a half pipe! she squealed as she dug a hand into the earth near the tent and dragged it right down to the base of the mountain.

*~*

“Half pipe!” Edgar clicked in mock excitement. The ground suddenly dropped under him, and it continued to drop in a line from his position to the fight going on below. In an instant, the battle that had been breaking around the boulders became a short fall for every fighter. A moment of surprise stilled the shouts and blood as they all realized that the ground under them had been punched down and now rose in high, curved walls on either side. One breath later, the fighting resumed as the lack of cover left everyone open and vulnerable. Spears and brushes met in equal proportions as crossbows snapped and rocketed their wielders onto their rumps.

Then, a new sound caught Edgar’s attention. He turned to see the source of a shrill, throbbing hum, and was greeted by the now-legless vehicle of the humans. It looked even more like a bug now with domed windshields and a glittering shell as the eyeballs from the camp tracked it with their lights on. At least twenty students clung to the sides of the hovering craft with their oversized guns at the ready like twitching feelers. Atop it, a squat platform sat and held aloft a weapon much like a cannon.

In the seat behind that cannon was The Astounding Relativologist himself. He waved frantically, his voice muted by the hum of the vehicle’s anti-gravity thrusters. Every ounce of Edgar’s self-preservation came into play as he interpreted the gesture as, “Get out of the way!” Unhurriedly, he hobbled to the side just in time to keep from being anti-gravititated into the rocky ground. The first of the students caught his arm and pulled him with them. Edgar flapped limpy in the air for a moment before many hands pushed him through a door. He fell inside the craft to join thirty shocked, yet excited, students.

Speeding along like a horse at full gallop, they were quickly approaching the battle. Edgar could see it through the cloudy window as he lurched toward the front of the craft. All around him, from the helmet speakers of every student, the voice of their professor rang. “Draw at the horizontal,” he commanded. The delighted hoots and shrieks of the students on the outer hull were almost as loud as the hovering engines as every thrill seeking bone in their bodies vibrated.

The air crackled with invisible energy as every gun sent a pulse toward the walls of their makeshift roadway. An instant later, the vehicle would have mowed down friend and foe alike, but for the fact that they were no longer in the way. Every hare and human not of the students’ world was plastered to the walls as the beams twisted gravity to point at either rock face. Untouched, the humming craft shot through the parting sea of bodies. Occasionally, someone would find a position directly between the two surfaces and get trapped in the worse place possible. That was when The Astounding Relativologist powered up his own anti-gravity turret. Like the eye of a great buzzing beast, he swept the transparent beam left and right so that its forceful push quickly sent any stragglers into the murals of hare and human and blood. In the vehicle’s wake, the other seventy students jogged and let their beams fly at the walls to slow the rate at which the writhing, shouting bodies slid back to meet the true direction of gravity.

The gravitopographers were almost near the end of the battleground when they came upon the group led by a bloodied Butterworth. Everyone there had plenty of time to witness the vehicle’s approach through the parting sea, and most of them had become more preoccupied with running than fighting each other. “Jump for it!” the hare commander bellowed to his remaining, non-gravitated soldiers. Their powerful legs pushed them high above the carpet of running humans, allowing most of them to grab onto the upper lip of the half pipe and haul their heavy, fuzzy behinds over before the bodies below them were shoved aside. The craft came to a gradual halt, every gravity gun still humming and students spilling out, at the location where the smooth road led into the enemy-filled grasslands.

“Halt!” came the shrill shriek from Butterworth as he stood upon the newly created rock wall. His eyes were locked on the woman that the Queen had indicated as she moved about and gave orders. Clearly, she was a superior within those forces. “Bloody halt!” he shouted again, and the screaming wall below him quieted slightly as the last of the students filed through the half pipe and let the living walls slide to a ginger landing in the base of it. “That army’s led by our princess!” he continued just as loudly, gesturing so forcefully that his steadfast monocle fell from his face and dangled on its chain.

Most of the hares within earshot voiced a question in unison. “We have a princess?!”

“Bloomin’ right! So stop the raucous!” howled their commander with a slight air of pleading toward the drunken, razor wielding forces.

[RumpleGrumblePuss]

A quick check in with Kelly and Eddie confirmed that the enemy army was getting ready for some form of attack. The General looked around at the girl’s as they readied to fight. On the faces of several, she found fear yet as many looked scared more looked furious, their face’s pinched with anger.

The General knew with out a doubt that all had their eyes turned towards those advancing on us but kept their ears tuned to the fighting on our rear. The sounds of screams, shouting and the metallic ring of metal on stone vibrated though the air. She looked around and made a split second judgment. Running over to Kelly, she pulled her aside.

“Change of plans. I want all light doused. Turn the trucks off and move the girls out of the way.”

“We’ll need light to fight.”

“Do you honestly think this army is ready to fight a two sided battle? Hell, none of our troops are battle ready. If we set up a ambush we stand a higher chance for surviving this damned battle. Get moving and talk to the Mandas let them know what we are doing. Also, see if any are willing to stay here to create a distraction so the rest can slip around to attack from the back and sides.” The General hurried towards Eddie as Kelly went to speak to the Mandas

“Eddie, in a minute the lights are going to go out. I want you to dip into the emergency crates and place three of them in the center of the circle, about four yards behind the closest truck. Don’t forget to douse the wood and place a couple of strips of cloth.” The General smiled as Eddie simply nodded and waited.

A few moments later, nearly as one, every truck was turned off and the lights turned off. The General had to strain her hearing to catch the quiet sound of footsteps. A light touch on her shoulder made her jump.

“Forty Mandas have agreed to stay. Several of them are in hiding within the camp, the rest are waiting by the crates Eddie just dropped.” Kelly drifted off, both of them noticed the sudden lack in the sound of the fighting going on in the rocks behind them. The shouts and screams were there though they sounded distinctly angry and disgruntled now.

“You go and wait with the DDP’s and the Mandas. Don’t worry about the wolves. They can handle things one their own.” The General felt another light touch then heard Kelly’s soft footsteps heading away. The general placed herself by the crates, finding one of the alcohol soaked strips of cloth by feel. She patted the lighter in her pocket and knelt on the ground, waiting for the enemy to appear.

~~~~~~~~~~

The sudden reforming of the ground coupled along with the shock of my troops plastered to the walls was more than enough to have me stand stupidly in one place for several minutes. I was glad that the Shadow had more presence of mind that I did. Once I stopped giving it orders, it continued to move me out of harm's way. The huge rabbit’s words, the commander rabbit I guess, finally sank in.

“Princess?” I echoed, my words drowned out by the indignant howls from my angry and injured Mandas. Not willing to look the gift horse in the mouth, I started yelling at my girl’s to shut up and settle down. A army of rabbits and Edgar. Where did he go?

Ordering the Shadow to move we, made our way up closer to the writhing mass of Mandas that were slowly sliding down the walls. I looked up at the head rabbit.

“Where is Edgar? I want to talk to him and Calico right now. I don’t have a lot of time, there is another army approaching from the other side.”

[Amaril Torrun]

Jerichol watched fearfully as some of the enemy women threw fire onto the river. His first thought had been that the flames would die upon impact with the water, but he was mistaken. Several fires were now spreading all over the river, burning away at the living things above the surface, while the things below started to boil. The young dragon and his small force was trapped. In front of him was an entire enemy army, perfectly capable of destroying his precious life. Behind was an insatiable wall of flame, consuming everything on its heated path toward the group of Faoi.

If I am going to die, I will die doing as much as I can for Mother.

Just as he was sending a telepathic instruction to attack the enemy, chaos ensued. His foes were scattering, yelling and he even heard a few rattling death cries. With no option to travel through the flame, he gave the command to attack the now vulnerable enemy. His small number of Faoi came short of meeting up with the angry, feminine army, instead running into what appeared to be an organized force of wolves. The adolescent dragon wished he could be back in the water, where the Faoi were more much more agile. On the hard ground, he knew they would be in for a difficult battle. There was nothing else he could do however, and he allowed his reptilian allies to crawl and slither toward the canine beasts. The Faoi were, after all, quite hungry.

---------------

“We forgot our cannons!” Hector punched one of his soldiers square in the back, hardly attempting to hold back his anger. Ready to get into the battle, he rushed his men into place and yelled at the The Drakes for being so slow. There was a battle going on and he didn’t even know who his enemies were yet. A few men turned, including the newly battered one, seemingly to retrieve the forgotten weaponry. “Forget it you fools! Don’t you see we don’t have time for stalling! We need to get in there while our foes are weakened and distracted!”

Darith shook his head in distaste. Hector was an annoying leader with hardly enough respect to go around. The draconians were meant to mingle with Hector’s soldiers to re-enforce the ranks, but they stayed to one side nonetheless. The entire force was an odd sight, strained with biased opinions toward each other. If Amaril had been there, he would have dealt with the matter, but none of his advising generals would hear of such an “amateur” move. To go into battle, he would be a prime target of the opposing forces, they explained. The half-dragon listened to them, though he made it perfectly clear that he would fight with the army at some point during the tournament.

Darith’s thought about the nobility of his leader was ended abruptly with the shrill cry of one of the Faoi. The sound traveled in a wave until the entire front of the army was screaming wildly. Too dark to see, Darith whispered to his own men, “Be ready to retreat.”

At that same moment, one of Kataneen’s children yelled toward the rest of the Split Breeds. “We’re being attacked by oily, shadowy things! They’re trying to wrap around anything they…” The voice was cut off, followed by a roar as one of the shadows tried to absorb the young dragon. The adolescent wouldn’t allow it though, swiping his claws and tail repetitively. The unnatural being didn't stop moving however, and the dragon was dumbfounded. "They can't be killed by normal means!"

Just then, several more of the shadowy figures came, seemingly from the ground.

“Cut them down. Don’t stop our advance!” Hector urged his men to move forward, regardless of the unnatural forms of their enemy and their inability to see properly. He didn't even care if the creatures couldn't be killed. That only increased the importance of getting out of the area and attacking the rest of the enemy instead.

Beyond the battle with the shadows, the unseen battle between the Split Breeds’ two enemies could be easily be heard. Hector perked up at the sound of more foes. “Footmen, come to the front and push these creatures back to the depths of Hell, in which they came! Archers, prepare to fire on the rest of our enemy!”

Hector only needed them to get a little bit closer.

--------------

The rogues found their plan immediately foiled.

The noise of the battle seemed to have just started diminishing when they heard Hector’s commands. Within minutes, they learned why the level of sound on the battlefield was quieting. The sound of hundreds of footsteps was all they could hear, but the situation was obvious. Their enemy was on the move.

“We’ve only got forty six of us. We can’t hold them off with such small numbers.” A rogue turned and started to dart back toward Amaril and Kataneen. “We’ve gotta warn our leaders.” Eight others nodded in agreement and followed.

Just before the rest joined the few runners, a second rogue spoke his mind. “What about Hector? He’s our true leader and deserves our loyalty more than that half-dragon beast.” The rogue’s statement met much more enthusiasm than the first and the rest of the rogues ran as silently as possible toward where they had heard Hector last.

---------------

“I should have gone with them…” Amaril paced back and forth restlessly. The sounds of warriors screaming their battle cries could be heard easily.

Kataneen shook her head. “You know why you need to stay behind. This is our first true test of companionship between our three separate forces. We don not know how it will work out and it would have been foolish to send our leader into what could possibly turn into a mess.”

“That’s exactly why I need to be there!” Amaril quickly toned down his voice. “I should be with the main force of the army, to lead them and show them that we are all in this together. How can I earn their trust by staying behind?”

“Even so, you can not change the past. You must deal with the fact that you will not be a part of this initial battle. There will be more opportunities if you are so willing to risk your life. I will not advise against your decision to fight again.” The elderly dragon turned to join her children, who were watching the cailpis and mearogs trapped behind their cages.

Amaril looked in the direction of the battle longingly and caught the faint outline of several figures in the moonlight. He grabbed the hilt of his sword, but quickly realized the approaching people were Hector’s rogues.

“Men, why are you here? You were sent to weaken the enemy from the side.” He sent a piercing stare into the foremost rogue, intent of showing them that he was indeed a leader.

“Sir, the enemy seems to have similar plans. We heard a significantly large force traveling in the same manner as us. They seem to be on a path directly between ourselves and Hector’s force. I think they mean to attack him from behind. If they do, they’ll be forced to fight the battle from both sides.” The rogue’s eyes and those of his comrades showed great fear at the thought of losing their general.

Amaril turned and ran toward the group of sibling dragons and their mother. “Hector and Darith are going to be caught between two armies. I don’t think we have time to reach them before the enemy does, but we can attack from behind as well. I think now is the time to send our angry friends here loose.”

The speed in which the dragons reacted startled Amaril. In a mere minute, they had every single horse that was connected to the cages under their telepathic control and had them start pulling the Dheathain beasts forward. The half-dragon quickly remembered that some of Kataneen’s children were in the same danger as Hector and Darith. His thought about the dedication to family was interrupted by an anxious statement by his elderly dragon general.

“When we release these creatures, we must get away as fast as possible. My children and I will not be able to control them like we do the Faoi.”

[Twisted Infinitum]

Butterworth struck a dignified pose, one that unfortunately showed off his bloodied potbelly, when the blonde woman addressed him. He seemed to debate a moment, then he replaced his monocle and made a starchy bow. “If that is your name for the Queen, may she live eternal forthwit, I will see to it that you have a chat with her,” he shouted down to her. “But first, if I may suggest… princess, I would like to see the wounded tended to.” He bit his tongue before mentioning that he felt guilty for the whole situation. It was clear enough in his voice.

Without waiting for a response, he turned from her. “Every hare who needs a good salving, return to the tent,” he ordered, “Take one with you who’s laid too low to walk.” The command traveled through his ranks in crisp shouts, and the carpet of bodies quickly began breaking away. “Take the… ladies, also,” he added, glad that he had caught himself from calling them “she-devils” or something else inflammatory. They certainly didn’t need any more motivation.

As the wounded made their way up the earthen trough, the blood streaked hares offering their hands to blood streaked women, Butterworth was able to tally the numbers of combat. Though his forces had been twice as many as the women, they had been spread thin. The throng of attackers had been able to attack a few hares at a time, which made the contest of spear versus razor blades a fair fight. However, it was clear where the endurance lay. About twenty hares lay still on the ground, their brethren lifting them experimentally. Most of them still cradled the broken crossbows they had used to defend themselves. Twice that number of women lay dead. With the tide of battle slowly turning against them, it might have been a slaughter if their wounded hadn’t fallen from the front line of their bludgeoning formation.

It was a sobering sight, the dead and the large groups of wounded who walked up the lighted path. The adrenaline that had fueled Butterworth’s shouts quickly seeped out of him when he realized that a full half of either force was heading that way.

With his commanding presence muted, the lead hare slide down the wall to where his able-bodies brothers waited. No matter what excuses he made, that they couldn’t have expected such an uncivilized tactic, or that the darkness had hindered their measure of the enemy’s forces, the outcome was the same. They were handicapped, and the fault lay squarely at his feet. It was only the expectant eyes of his subordinates that forced his spirits up. Necessity before regret, after all. With a quick command, he got them moving toward the grasslands.

*~*

Halfway up the formation of pressed earth, Mau’s lone servant ran. Its footfalls were nearly silent upon the lip of the northeasterly wall. Below it was the dry, packed earth born of godly intervention, devoid of life. That quickly changed as the cat came upon a thick flow of creatures.

They approached in a few groups, then suddenly filled the path from one side to the other. Humans and hares leaned on each other for support, forgetting their momentary rivalry as only one thought rose up and united them. They were vulnerable.

The cat stopped as the bulk of them staggered past. Then, it turned and walked with them. A few of the hares recognized it and spread the word that they had someone watching over them. Many eyes looked up and nodded thankfully. The cat looked back and licked its starlit lips.

*~*

The students froze right outside of the transport’s single door, trapping Edgar inside. Loud, disappointed grumbles filled the air as their youthful excitement found nothing but a stable, if bloodied, truce in the making. Their helmets radiated a quiet voice in unison, one so low that Edgar could just barely hear it.

“Hostilities have ceased,” The Astounding Relativologist told his students. He sounded calm and composed, as if he had been expecting it, but they all suspected that he was as confused as they were. Some of them whispered as such. “Report your power levels,” the voice continued, and the whispering stopped as they looked at the displays on their guns and rattled off a torrent of numbers. The voice came to them again, dazed and annoyed. “One from each unit, in sequence.” The students all looked at each other worriedly. That mistake was going to affect their final percentage; they just knew it. Those who hovered at the loathsome bottom end of A+ seemed nauseous, and it wasn’t because of the carnage behind them, which seemed too cartoony and distant to be real.

Eventually, the numbers were all sorted, and their professor spoke to them again. Edgar had just managed to wobble his way into the night air when the speakers sounded around him. “Every unit that acted during the approach is left with negligible power reserves. Form a line to recharge at the stations. The thirty units that traveled within the vehicle will await further orders. The transmission cut off, but their professor’s last words were still barely audible from the top of the vehicle. “Conservative use should have only drained them to half,” he muttered. The students around Edgar cast their eyes down. The reprimand wasn’t directed at them, but none of them wanted to tell the others the bad news.

Suddenly, Edgar spouted out words the way a drunk belches fumes. “Tea party,” was the phrase, spoken with mock excitement. The human youths stepped back in bewilderment as they relayed the strange occurrence to those who were too far away to hear. Eventually, the words reached the edge of their ranks and were audible to the approaching group of hares. There, it became an excited whisper, the kind that could perk any hare’s ears and put the life back into them.

Past the end of the half pipe, where the gathering of eye-beams marked the grassy earth like a flying saucer’s tractor beam, a wide peg of earth suddenly lifted inches in front of Kahlina. Three smaller stumps of rock popped up around the improvised table.

Edgar jolted where he stood, and students moved even farther away incase it was contagious. Those who were approaching the vehicle for a recharge froze and muttered questions to those who were already there. Most responses were nothing but a distraught shrug.

Then, Edgar’s head snapped back into its stable and upright position, and a feline voice exploded from him. “Tea party!” cried Calico in a welcoming tone. The students politely declined as they scrambled out of the puppet’s way. Calico burst from the crowd, albeit hindered by her form’s lopsided stride, and plopped down in the seat across from Kahlina.

From the mouth of the half pipe, Butterworth’s voice rose. “Tea party?” he shouted in a hurried frenzy that took him around the body of the army, only to emerge, puffing, on the grassy plain. “Sorry to keep you waiting, my Queen,” he gasped, “Can’t have a tea party without me, wot. Shall it be Earl Grey today?” With a wave of both hands, he summoned forth the party’s namesake. Steaming cups on dainty saucers appeared at every seat, their delicate porcelain leafwork glowing in the eerie light. Butterworth quickly took one of the two remaining seats and was the first to savor a long sip.

“There’s a spot for you too, TAR dear,” Calico called with a wave of her gooey hand.

“I’m quite comfortable here,” was the prompt reply, shouted from the roof of his bug-like contraption.

From the depths of Kahlina’s army, a familiar figure emerged and fell into the remaining seat. Butterworth was the first to greet him with, “Well, you’re looking worse for wear, boy. Nothing like a good capture to toughen up the hide, I say! How’s the tea?”

The naked and shaking Binky took a sip, though his jittery hand spilled about half the cup. “It’s wonderful, sir,” he said, his voice hoarse and weepy. Whether or not the rough treatment had toughened him up was a subject for debate, but it certainly left him looking more downtrodden with a furless streak going between his ears and his tail shredded to tatters. His armor was tossed from somewhere behind him and landed loudly at his side, causing him to jump and spill the remaining tea down his arm. Once he regained his composure, he stood and bent over to pick it up.

“Might want to cover what’s left of the puff, lad. It’s not very stately,” Butterworth noted around his cup as he pointed at Binky’s back end. The hare yelped and slapped his armor pieces to the area. Then, he scurried off to join the rest of his brethren, concealing himself so forcefully that the armor was likely to bruise his rump.

When Calico finished laughing, she took her saucer and cup in hand and struck a courtly pose. “Edgar has missed you, my dear daughter in law,” she said diplomatically. “You should write more often. We didn’t even know you would be here.” She tried to take a sip, only to have it run out the side of Edgar’s mouth as the half-wooden jaw grated on the porcelain. “I know! We should work together,” she quipped wetly, “Wouldn’t that be sweet for a husband and wife to lead their armies to victory? We even have fireworks to celebrate.”

[RumpleGrumblePuss]

“Kelly, we heard voices up ahead.” A Manda whispered to her as she ran up to her. Kelly gestured for her to be quiet. Then realizing that the Manda probably could not see the gesture hissed at her in a low tone.

“Keep your voice down. Spread the word out that I want the Mandas to stop here and stay with Eddie. He’ll be directing you from now on.” Kelly patted the Manda on the shoulder and crept forward, around her many voices whispered her new command. The tall thin shadowy form of Eddie stood out again the shorter shadows of the Mandas.

“Eddie, you wait here with the girl’s. I am taking the DDP’s ahead. I need you to have the girl’s ready every cross bow we have. I want half of them to have rags tied on them. Also where is the nearest crate you’ve dropped around here?” for a long moment Eddie looked at the dark land around them before he turned to look back at the trucks that were just barely visible.

“The nearest crate is about six yards ahead of us; well it’s off to the left a bit.”

“Good, how many crates did you drop total?”

“Only three others out in this area. I have three crates left in the void. It will take me a while to refill the void.”

“Okay, you’re in charge of the Mandas. I’m heading out now.” Calling for the DDP’s to follow her she backtracked a bit to avoid the glass littered ground and came up the other side. Beside them, the water from the stream glittered in the soft light of the stars. Kelly though about pulling her 9 mil from its holster then though better about it. After a brief debate, she pulled out the flash grenade.

Waving the DDP’s back and to wait a moment she slowly crept forward. Making use of her stealth abilities and moving from shadow to shadow, she moved within a yard of the front lines of the enemy army before she threw the flash grenade. Spinning, she ran back towards the DDP’s abandoning all attempts at stealth for speed. Behind her, the bright flash of the grenade lit the area up in stark relief for a moment.

~~~~~~~
Eddie jumped, startled as the light flared, showing him exactly where the enemy army was. Around him, howls from the blinded Mandas filled the air. For a moment, Eddie blinked away the bright spots in the vision, his heart pounding in his chest, threatening to break free.

“Fire! If you can see, then fire!” Eddie shouted. Around him, a dozen crossbows were fired, a moment later several more were fired. Upon hearing the crunch of wood and glass Eddie snatched a cross bow from a Manda. Ignoring her protests, he set the cloth wrapped around the bolt on fire and aimed for where he knew the closest crate would be. A moment later blue flames slowly spread in the darkness and Eddie smiled.

“Spread the word quickly, that crate is going to explode in a minute. After it does, I want everyone to charge.” Eddie hunkered down behind large rock, mentally ticking down the time it would take for the fire to cause the alcohol in the bottles to explode.
~~~~~~~~

The small group of dark elves lurked near the rear of the enemy army. Using the shadows of trees and bushes to hide they waited for an attack to begin. The bright flash of light blinded them for a moment. One dark elf stood, making ready to attack. The others waved him down.

“Now is not the time, we wait. This army is full of foolish measures.”

“Then why assist them?” Another voice near by hissed.

“We are not honorless. Foolish measures can be effective with the right tactics.”

~~~~~~
The Shadows, realizing that their tentacles where under attack, began to retreat into the earth. They shifted positions as swiftly as they could within the ground and extended more tentacles to grasp at the ankles and legs of those above them. Any unlucky enough to fall where immediately pulled underground and smothered.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked on in astonishment as the ground reformed to make tables and a seating for Calico’s tea party. The large rabbit that I had mentally dubbed the ‘Fat Rabbit’ materialized the settings for tea. My eyes followed the wounded Mandas, as they were help up to Calico’s camp. I wondered just how many I had lost and how many more I would lose from wounds.

Directing the Shadow that held me over to the table, I nodded politely to Edgar and the Fat Rabbit. Noticing my fidgeting, the Shadow quivered around me. I glanced back at my base camp. The fact that every light was turned off and I saw no movement worried me.

“Calico, it’s great to see you and Edgar again but I really, really need to get back to my camp. Something is going on down there.” I shouted at the nearest able-bodied Manda to find the others and bring them to me.

“Perhaps if we have time, if we survive that is. I can introduce you to the General and Kelly. They are this world’s clones of my mother. I’m sure you would love them.” I silently apologized to the General and Kelly, knowing that Calico would most likely drive them insane. At the bright flash of light form behind me, I turned as best as I could, the slower moving Shadow caught up with me.

“Calico, any help you could extend would be most welcome. I’m sorry but I’ve got to go.” I called as I urged the Shadow to hurry down the half-pipe to my camp. Just as I reached level ground. Several Mandas caught up with me.

“I want two others to take a truck. Everyone else pile in back of them. Where going to run down anyone not with us. I want everyone in the back of truck to make sure you have a weapon and several empty bottles.”

“You are not doing that. If you die then the battle is over for us.” I jumped startled when the General appeared out of seemingly nowhere. I glared at her for a moment looked around; several more Mandas were popping up from hiding places and gravitating towards us.

“I’m going, don’t worry I have no intention of dying.’ I said as the Shadow released me. ‘Keep her here and keep her safe.” I shouted back at the Shadow over the General’s shouts as I slid into the closest truck. I smiled at the protesting squawk that came from behind me as I started the truck.

[Amaril Torrun]

“Where’s that army you were talking about?” Amaril glared at the rogue he now deemed the leader of the others.

“I swear, they were coming. I… I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe they heard the others that we left behind.” The undesirable rogue leader stood a few feet back, head bowed.

Ahead, the battle could be heard perfectly and if there was some form of light, the half-dragon knew that he would see strained muscles, blood-stained metal, and countless bodies on the earthen floor. Even his imaginary battle brought on sorrow and sickness from all of the violent deaths that were taking place. He was glad to not have the ability to see in the dark, like his dragon allies. His mind wandered to Kataneen and all the things she must have seen in her long life.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure your children out there will be safe. They are one of the few that can actually see what’s going on, not to mention they’ve been raised by one such as yourself.” The words didn’t seem to make an impact on the fearful mother.

“War doesn’t only take the weakest from the pile. My children are just like any other creature or warrior in that mess.” The elder dragon sighed.

Amaril nodded knowing that he couldn’t give such a wise creature a false glimpse of hope. “We aren’t doing any good just standing here. I don’t think we should rush in, since we apparently don’t know where the main army is, but we can set a few things up.” He turned to the rogues. “Men, set up the cannons. If our enemy does come up behind our main force, we’ll be ready for them.”

---------------
Darith and his squad flew high up into the air, carrying those draconians without the blessing of wings. Fighting was pointless if the strange creatures couldn’t be killed and the draconian general wasn’t going to let any of his men die for no reason.

“Return to Amaril and Kataneen. Staying here will do us no good and we need to let our leader know what is going on.” The draconians gave a shout of praise as Darith instructed them to leave the death trap.

Down below, Hector roared as he spun his dual swords in arcs around his body, keeping the shadows at bay. The mythril blades cut down two of the oily creatures trying to cover him, but did no real harm. They merely picked themselves back up and returned to their advance on the general. The ex-Radasanthian lieutenant started to feel the same fear as the rest of his men, but quickly pushed it to the back of his mind.

“These things are nothing! Keep them off of you and keep on moving.” He quickly shot two bursts of invisible energy through his swords and at the shadows, knocking them backwards. “They’re nothing!” He continued to shout that final phrase over and over again, running to aide any of his men that sounded like they were in trouble.

At some point during the terrifying battle, a sudden burst of light revealed the entire area. Almost everyone involved in the battle shielded their eyes, but some wiser soldiers took that brief moment to take in as much of their surroundings as possible. At that same instant, the shadows disappeared, taking several warriors and faoi with them.

“There’s an army to the left of us!” The entire army turned to face in that direction.

“There’s an army to the right of us too!” The right side of the army turned to face that direction

“We’re doomed! There’s people up ahead too! We’re being attacked from three sides!”

Before Hector had the chance to give any orders, a strange whistling sound came from the right. He quickly recognized the sound and yelled, “Bow fire from the right!” The soldiers, trained to obey their leader’s warning instinctively, threw their iron shields over their heads. The archers, thinking that Hector was issuing a command to attack, released their readied arrows in the same direction that the crossbow bolts were coming from. Completely undefended, almost half of them began to drop to the ground either wounded or dead after the second volley of bolts.

The Faoi were just as defenseless as the archers and began to fall in the same manner. Crying out for their lesser-dragon comrades, Kataneen’s five children stood there as bolt after bolt glanced off of their scaled bodies harmlessly.

Just as the remaining force was recovering from the shadow and ranged attack, an explosion sent a few of the front line soldiers flying. At that same moment, the thunderous sound of the right side enemies approaching was all the Split Breeds needed to bring their morale down a peg.

“Men! Don’t lose hope now! Charge!” Hector charged forward, leading the way toward the oncoming enemy. Hope slightly rekindled by the sight of their courageous general, the soldiers began charging as well. Hector’s archers quickly let another volley of arrows loose upon their enemies before Hector got too close.

One of Kataneen’s children called out to the archers. “We need your help on this side too! Don’t forget that we have enemies on our left!”

Losing no time, the remaining archers readied themselves and let two volleys of arrows fly into the air.

---------------------

Jerichol’s battle against the wolves was temporarily halted by the bright flash of light. As the darkness of night returned, both sides continued to kill each other in what could only be described as a single-minded, brutal brawl.

On the ground lay the dead bodies of half the Faoi and half the wolves. If nothing changed, neither side would come out victorious.

[Twisted Infinitum]

“Okees!” Calico called after her shadow-borne daughter-in-law, “Bye bye for now.” Then, Calico left and Edgar convulsed forward in a manner reminiscent of a plane crash. His head struck a pit into the earthen table. The teacup disappeared, amid a horrendous cracking sound, between the two clashing surfaces. Earl Grey formed a puddle around his skull, though it really looked a lot like blood.

Butterworth squawked and nearly dropped his own tea. “How’s the head, my Queen… or Sir Edgar?” he asked as he craned his head to the side for a profile view of the ruination.

Wordlessly, Edgar popped up and stared back at the hare. His face seemed undamaged except for the chipped porcelain sticking out of his forehead like prehistoric spines. The hare winced and made a quick motion over the table. “I say tea time’s over, wot,” he said nervously. The chips disappeared from the gooey flesh, and the holes began to close slowly and sloppily.

*~*

Calico hadn’t been separate from Edgar’s control device for three seconds before she launched into the joyous tirades. Edgar’s mother-in-law. My family feels like its getting so big! she said with her arms spread wide. Her gummy half of Edgar squirmed as if startled. I guess that makes her my sister-in-law? No, sister-in-law-in-law. That’s sounds strange, though. With a hand to her chin contemplatively, she turned and paced away from the bubble. Immediately, she froze at the sight of Possum. He was once again lost in study. However, he wasn’t looking at the rifts. He was staring at her. What? she asked suspiciously.

You are actively engaging mortals… in many ways, he mused while looking through her.

Calico scrunched up her face, though it could have meant anything from offense taken to a strenuous bout of thought. You do the same thing with that Father Brain Doodle, she said blankly as she pointed to an invisible microphone at the side of her mouth.

No, he quickly stated as his eyes focused on her and he pushed his glasses further up his snout. Your interactions are more familial, and yield no productive results. It’s unheard of. He said it in a tone reserved for children eating off the floor. … For our kind, he added pointedly, as if she needed to be reminded of her nature.

Calico cocked her head to the side as her eyes widened with slow surprise. Then, she snapped her head back up and gave him a winning smile. Oh, Possy-Poo, you’re trying to make me angry, she scolded mockingly. I could never get angry at you! He began to ask her why, but she interrupted him. Cause you’re my favorite out of everyone here! She gestured grandly to the farthest expanses of their realm.

Possum’s eyebrows tried to crawl underneath his hat. Granted, the population of stable dream demons was small these days, going so low that Ruby Lynx was the only other one they could account for. But, even a mind as analytical as Possum’s could read between the lines of that statement. With an unnecessary cough, he turned back to the rifts and pretended to care about what was happening on Althanas.

*~*

The Astounding Relativologist tapped his fingers briskly along the metal arm of the turret seat. The tea party panned out before him, looking much like an elementary school play. A glance over the railing showed the teetering helmets of students who weren’t very impressed either. He was tempted to ask Father Brain for orders, but a short contemplation of the idea made him shake his head. Soldiers were dependant upon their superiors for guidance. He was a professor, a far more independent being, though also more uncomfortable in the rumbling vacuum of suspense between skirmishes.

It was this new, and equally unorthodox, ally that gave him an excuse to end the stagnation. The first blast of light filled the grasslands ahead. From his vantage, he could see the troops it revealed. Some were shaped within human guidelines. Others were reptilian shapes that flickered with scales in the momentary burst of radiance. Before he could make out the more precise details, the scene returned to starlight and a growing, though still comparatively faint, burst of fire. With his eyes shining in the firelight and an excited smile on his face, The Astounding Relativologist activated his microphone and was about to order the hovering contraption forward. However, a quick calculation of the DMT markers’ landing points told him that there would be no heavenly hand to flatten the ground should he head out, and it was far too dark to leave the craft’s stability to the driver’s reflexes. None of these students had a proper operator’s license, after all.

His voice carried a bitter resignation as he spoke to the thirty students who waited with energy and nerves both at maximum. “Join the friendly forces on their vehicles and aid them,” he ordered. Some of the teens hesitated, their eyes casting over an army that looked odd in the light of the eyes, let along what it might contain in the darkness. The low drone of the vehicles reached them as faint points of light appeared. “Be punctual,” the voice in their helmets chided them, and they were off running.

Wheezing and flailing, they threw themselves into the beds of the trucks and braced themselves on their knees as the world lurched around them. Anti-gravity technology must have pampered them, for most of them clung to everything in sight to keep their balance. “You are dealing with a flat expanse, so redirect 45 below horizontal,” their helmets hummed. Some tried to laugh, remembering that technique’s test run and the hare it had popped in the behind with a piston of earth, but the laughter didn’t catch. With each surrounded by strangers and jostling about on archaic vehicles, everything about this war felt far too real. Some of the students readied their gravity grenades, non-lethal but useful, just in case.