Characters
The Forces of Good
The Light
The Fox (leader)
The Hare (the fastest)
The Boy
The Cat ( warrior)
The Turtle ( artillery)
The Bird ( scout)
The mouse ( spy)
Chaos Council
The Acidic Snail - Timonic (lives in fungus)
The Siren - Lilith (the muse)
The Tasmanian Devil - Danus (the lie)
The Snake - DeeJal (leader)
The Swarm - Legion (spy)
FOREWARD In the ancient heart of evil lies the corpse of a being. In that being lies a still-beating heart that continuously pumps black blood. Created before time could be recorded and sealed in an icy tomb to contain the darkness. Only the occasional drip of frozen blood shattering on the floor can be heard from this dark place. "If anything is possible, then the impossible is merely the statistical inevitability," The Rabbit. As the frozen blood fell toward the ground, before it could hit and shatter harmlessly, it was struck by lightning, bringing the horned serpent to life. He landed in a coil at the foot of the icy tomb. His eyes were electric with the drive to bring about the destruction of good. His name was DeeJal, and the good deeds throughout the universe fueled his creation. Every time someone helped another, the opposite energy swirled in the darkness, waiting to amass strength. For every action, there was an opposite and equal reaction. The Snake was the first and only of his kind; he was the destructive reaction. Part 1 - The Breakthrough
The world was dark, and the sky was cloudy. There was the sweet smell of blood in the air. DeeJal flicked his tail *ssssss*, a warning of his impending rage. He was listening to his generals inform him how their effort of doom-forming* the planet was failing. "Ssssssss, Doom-forming, what a silly name? What happened to my plan to kill everyone and strangle the life from the Fox?" Silence fell over the room as the two missing members of the council were by far the wisest. Lacking their lead, the Siren cooed to DeeJal, "There will be no stopping us once we've figured out how to beat their front lines..." the Siren's song continually smoothed the Snake's scales. The Siren, Lilith, sat on the gnarled stump that formed their council table. The stump looked as if it had congealed on the spot. Surrounding the table, each general sat in the most pleasant environment. Lilith's tail swirled in her infinitely deep pool as she droned on in her sweet lullaby of a briefing, "The Forces of Good will not hold out once we reclaim the book. You are the evilest and most cunning. Surely we will succeed..." Danus, the Tasmanian Devil, sensed Lilith was buying time for the Swarm Queen they called Legion and the Snail named Timonic. The two had been working endlessly to develop a magic toxin they could coat the land with and conquer or destroy in the name of DeeJal's empire. Danus was the old keeper of the book of knowledge, and his family alone could read some of the most remote parts. Danus hazarded a word, "Sir... if I might... "Hisss" SPLAT The part of the table Danus had been leaning on dissolved from the evil slime that DeeJal spits at him. Danus recoiled, shifted positions, and under the gaze of DeeJal, remained silent. *sssssss, rattle." DeeJal's plan was simple. Since his creation, his only wish was that the world was precisely in the conditions in which he thrived. Volcanic, arid, harsh, devoid of life, and full of heat. However, when his forces of darkness laid siege to the life-giving environments, a resistance formed. Life was harder to stamp out than he expected. The resistance was strong, and they had the support of the trees. The only headway they had made in the struggle to weaken the forest was that Timonic developed a fungus that had slowly crept in and blended with life and other fungi. Throughout the woods, strange mushrooms could be sprouting up here and there. The mushrooms themselves were harmless if eaten; if you destroyed them, more would grow from the pieces. The birds controlled the sky and had kept the council's minions in check for millennia before the Snake was born. DeeJal sat coiled in his throne at the head of the gnarled stump table, listening to the generals he was waiting for. The snail was quiet, but his acid was so putrid that there was always the slight hiss of things dissolving. The Swarm Queen, Legion, was the most unnerving of DeeJal's council. Legion spoke through a queen insect-like none other. However, her hive mind allowed her to be anywhere her insects were. There were always several of her crawling in the hive that made up her seat at the table. They typically did not speak and awaited their Queen. A pointless charade, as the council knew Legion could speak and see through all her insects, but a formality Legion stuck to. Finally, the dissolving hiss could be heard, and DeeJal perked his horns up and rattled his tail with anticipation. Timonic rolled up to the table with the Queen perched on his shell. His acidic slime trail bubbled and popped regularly, but today each pop seemed to contain tiny spores that left a black cloud in his wake. "DeeJal, my sincerest apologies for being late. Legion and I have made the breakthrough we needed. Today I come before you, a changed snail. My acid now contains the spores we need to weave our web on the world and strangle life from it. I have mixed the forces of darkness into the fungus and acid I ooze. Combined with Legion's Larve, I could use the mycorrhizal networks to deposit spore mites throughout our web." "Explain, Tim… What exactly does this mean?" "Sir, this means that once our mites have reached the mushrooms in the forest, any living thing that has eaten our mushrooms will carry our mites. Every mushroom will act as a tunnel network for our mites to spread through the forest." "You mean to tell me you were late because you figured out how to make the resistance itchy?" *sssssss* DeeJal was becoming irritated at the snail's pace in relaying the critical parts of the story. "Bzzzzz DeeJal, our dark lord, my mites do not make people itchy. Instead, these peons allow us to destroy or control their mind as they spread a fungus that infects the brain bzzzzzz." Ssssss* "Ah, finally, the part I care about!" DeeJal was electric with excitement. "When does the first wave of mites land in the mushrooms?" "Sir, there will only be one wave. The cost of the mites and the dark magic required was too great." "What did it cost? Life?" the Snake mused. "Sir, it required the beating hearts of innocent souls. We captured so few, used them all, and the fungus corrupts even the soul. It was created from your venom." "Fine! Get moving! The assault begins at dawn! Release the mites!" With that, DeeJal flicked his tail and sped off down the hill through the tall grass. The tall grass surrounded the table like four walls in the swamp they called home. Danus bounded off in chase with Legion perched on his back. Timonic smeared slime across the table that acted as his dark scrying glass. From here, he could control the forces of darkness. The Siren dove into her throne and swam to the ocean to ready her soldiers. Lilith preferred to kill via proxy. A good poison, a convincing lie, a well-timed accident, these were her favorite things and using these tactics, and she had become the Queen of the ocean abyss. Monsters and creatures the sun-dependent surface dwellers only had nightmares of were amassing and waiting for her signal. Part 2 - The Struggle The Forces of Good were led by the Fox and his general, the Hare. They held fast in their resistance headquarters on the top of the highest tree in the middle of the forest. The forest was vast. The trees that made it were ancient, strong, and proud. They provided and protected the living. The trees drew their strength from the soil and the water falling from the sky. When evil reared its ugly head, the trees formed the first defenses. They wove thorned branches into a wall 10 feet thick around the forest, claiming the sanctuary for the living. It was the only time recorded that the trees have moved with such speed, and they have not moved since. The Turtle took charge of guarding the wall; having the thickest shell, his army stood watch. Slow and armored, they stood guard. The Bird covered all the land and held dominion over the sky. He flew and felt free and was the eyes of the entire resistance. The Cat was not the bravest but was by far the fiercest warrior. The Cat preferred a lovely sunny day to snooze and lounge; however, when forced into a corner, the blur of her razor-sharp fangs and claws would be the last thing her enemies would see. The Mouse was a fine soldier and did as the Cat told it. The Cat would toy with the Mouse for hours, but when it came to fighting together, they were no match. Anything too small for the Cat, the Mouse took care of. The Turtle
Turtle stood on the wall of thorns, watching the strange spotted mushrooms take hold of the trees that made the thorns. He shouted to his turtles to prepare for the worst; the battle was near. He did not know what would happen next, but surely there could be nothing good happening with white-spotted red mushrooms. "Don't eat that!" He yelled to a nearby soldier nibbling on the mushrooms. "Captain, sir, the men have been eating them for weeks. They are sweet and delicious, and you should try one, Sir?" The Turtle moved to the edge to look down the wall at his phalanx of turtles. It was true he could see the mushrooms all over, and his men were eating them like candy. Before he could formulate the words to tell them to stop, they all froze. "St… wha?" The turtles all stood as if their veins had turned to ice and held them perfectly still. Every one of the soldier turtles had consumed them, and who knew how many other animals throughout the forest destroyed them as well. His mind raced, "what do I do?" As he moved to raise the alarm, the wall he stood on dissolved. The tree-woven wall began to sink toward the ground. He fell toward the floor with the wall. The alarm bell mounted to the tree was getting further and further away. He tried to summon his weapons, but his mind could not focus on them. It was as though he was losing consciousness, but his eyes were open, and he felt like he was moving as fast as they could, yet he could not look at his feet. He could not even move his head, which was fixed, looking straight ahead. As the wall sank, the Turtle saw a shadow pass over him. The Bird
The Bird was flying by when he noticed something strange, several of his birds had begun falling out of the sky. Unexpectedly he watched a bird freeze up and plummeted straight toward the ground. Not an unusual sight for a bird of prey to do this. Most likely, he found a tasty morsel to devour; however, there were all types of his birds. He flew to check the perimeter, worrying that some black magic was afoot.
When he flew over the Turtle Captain, everything appeared normal until he realized everything was frozen, and a black fog surrounded the forest. The fog pressed right up to the wall but did not pass through.
Bird swooped down for a closer look, "Light, give me sight!" Beneath the fog bird could see glimpses of the dark army underneath the black fog. Led by the Snake, they had amassed all around the forest. The siege had begun!
He knew he needed to tell the Fox and the Hare, but as the lone scout, he felt the need to save Turtle. Turtle had protected him many times from all sorts of danger; he could not let Turtle go down without a fight.
Bird landed on top of Turtle as he had already begun to freeze. And the wall sank into the black fog. Bird hooked his talons onto Turtle's shell and took off toward the main tree. The headquarters were not far, and they could make it.
Bird began to climb and could feel his wings Mnpump hard with Turtle's dead weight. They were soon above the trees, and their destination was in sight.
Turtle begged his mouth to work. He tried to say, "no, Bird, save yourself, I did not eat the mushrooms, and yet still I will perish like the rest of my army. I was not fast enough to prevent this, but you are. Do not let me infect you!" But Turtle was stuck in his mind, his body was no longer his, and the spore mites that infected him were now crawling up Bird's legs.
Bird's heartbeat quickened as the tallest tree at the forest's center slowly approached. He was almost there, but he could feel his body stiffen. His lungs struggled to take full breaths, and yet he worked. Fox would know what to do if he could only make it to him.
It dawned on Bird that whatever affected Turtle was now acting him. This was no fatigue he had felt before, and he saw the turtles standing at attention still as stone. He began muttering his spell of sight. "Light, give me sight!"
To be continued...
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