The Age and Country Hotel - Part III; Evolution from the Glitch | Forums

[Zander Nyrond]

The officer's growl suddenly catches in his throat. He looks in momentary bewilderment at his hand, whose fingernails are long, chipped and filthy, but by no stretch of the imagination claws. He shakes his head, and an instant later the beast is back, but Tully has noticed the lapse.

"Feeling a little under the weather, are we?" he says. "Dear oh dear, it looks as if we're looking at stage two."

"Stage two of what?" the cop growls.

"Why, lycan lichen, of course," Tully says. "The fungus itself is just an irritation, but in a tiny percentage of cases it can carry a virus which is far more dangerous. As I was telling your priester--"

"Alpha," the cop corrects him.

"Your, ah, Alpha, of course, forgive me. Failure to treat with the appropriate remedy can lead to...all kinds of complications." Tully shakes his head. "I wish he had listened to me." He gazes sympathetically at the cop, who is looking increasingly worried. "Headache? Tense, nervous headache? Feeling blocked in your sinuses? Digestive system starting to act up?"

"Gotta...gotta call in..." The cop releases Tully and fumbles for his phone. Meanwhile, the fairy has unhooked the cloth from the statue and is holding it in mid-air nearby. Tully touches the paw design, and the fairy returns the cloth to its place.

"Something very odd is going on here," Tully says. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?"

The fairy opens her eyes wide, crosses her forefingers in front of her lips and shakes her head, then flits away.

"Oh well," Tully says to the world in general. "One to go. I hope I'm on the right side here."

[jahura]

Thud...clunk!

"Hey Mom, look what I got!"

"What did you catch this time, sweetie?"

"Look!"

The fairy comes out of her shock, and with throbbing face comes to find she is captured in a Mason jar by a little boy. The mother of the boy gazes in at her in horror.

"Oh, my dear Artemis! We need to get some bread!" She exclaims as she nudges the boy down the street into a restaurant. The hostess at the podium greets them with a smile.

"Hi, there! Table for two?"

"We need some bread if you have it." The mother says confidentially to her, "it's an emergency."

The hostess looks at her with a puzzled expression then down at the jar the boy proudly displays. She gasps.
"Yes, ma'am! Right away! Don't move!" She rushes toward the back and brings out a small loaf of bread along with the entire kitchen staff, the manager, and a couple of servers all wanting to get a look at the captive fairy.

Bread. The smell of dead, burnt yeast makes fairies violently ill and too dizzy to fly. The fairy in the jar flies up to the lid and desperately tries to push and twist at it.

"I don't believe it!" The manager says.

"How did she get in?" One of the servers asks no one in particular.

"No!" The chef cries, "Don't open it! I have an idea!" He runs back to the kitchen and returns with a hand strainer and a can of bread crumbs. He hands the can to his sous.

"Okay, on the count of three, I want you to carefully twist off the lid and I'll put this over it." He says to the boy, "can you do that?"

The little boy nods, not really understanding the cause of the commotion, and looks up to his mother. She nods reassuringly to him. He places his hand over the lid.

"Ready?" The chef asks, "One...

Two...

Three!"

The boy twists off the lid and the chef clamps the strainer down over the opening. The sous shakes a considerable amount of bread crumbs into the jar. The fairy lets out a high-pitched scream too high for humans to hear, but the whole population of the restaurant claps their hands to their ears. Quickly the chef takes the strainer away and the boy claps the lid back on to the jar.

The fairy lays down in the bed of crumbs, retching and heaving.

"I'm going to call Champ." The manager announces, "be right back!"

---

"There's the cave!"

"Ohmigods, there's two of them in there!"

Squeeeeeeeeeeee!

"What's that on their feet?"

"Who cares? Let's go!"

Squeeeeeeeeeee!

The two remaining hooded wolves in the cave look to one another.

"You go get help." One of them says, "I'll try to fight them off."

"No way! I'm not leaving you here alone!"

"Don't be stupid, Dave! Now GO!"

Dave bolts up the tunnel, hearing screaming and tearing of fabric behind him in the midst of that horrendous squeeeee.

[T.O.O.O.]

The Captain beat his fist against the wall. "Nothing! We've been searching these caves for hours, and still nothing!"
Hiram, Bertram and Ingram could only look at each other. Bertram stepped forward. "Do we go back?"

[Zander Nyrond]

"Frod!" Tully claps his hands to his ears. "What was that?"

A fairy hovers in front of him, her face contorted with anguish. "They are trapping us with bread."

"Bread? Bread hurts you?" Tully shakes his head. "Maybe this is a fight you'd be better off not continuing, if you see what I mean."

"We must reclaim our territory," the fairy states. "Only then can we return you and your friends to your rightful home."

"And what's happening to the wolves...the technological thing...you're doing that?"

"Not my group," the fairy whispers. "Extremists...they seek to cut the wolves off from their magic selves so that they can no longer see us. Then they will kill..."

"Kill?" Tully sets his jaw. "Nobody's getting killed here. Not you, not them." A flash of crosstalk blinds him for a moment; lying at the bottom of a thirty-foot pit...awful crushing weight of responsibility squeezing the air from his lungs... He shakes himself. "Now listen, young Mustardseed or whatever your name is," he says, and his voice and his gaze carry a freight of sincerity that would convince a two-weeks-dead political journalist. "I want you to call every single fairy to this square, right now. All of them. Extremists, moderates, radicals, liberals, greens, blues, sky-pink with polka dots, all of them. I'm going to call the wolves. We're going to deal peace, and then you're going to let us go home."

And such is the force of his charisma that the fairy zooms off at once to do his bidding. Behind her she hears his voice raised in an ear-splitting AYYOOOOOAAAAHHHHH that raises the hackles of every lycan in the land.

[T.O.O.O.]

The four swordsmen looked up. "What was that?" the Captain asked.
Betram pointed with his drawn sword. "I think it came from that direction."

And off they went.

---

"Nice castle you have here, Cannax," TOOO noted. "To the victor go the spoils, eh?"
She shook her head. "Oh, no, TOOO," she explained. "We've been using the Baron's riches to bring more escaped slaves here."
He nodded. "So they can pick up their lives again, right?"
She shook her head again. "You still don't understand. These are gladiators - trained fighters! They're more than just peasants."
He stopped. "Wait a minute. I don't think I like where this is going, Cannax."

[jahura]

Yea, the Call shall not come from canin kind, but from a stranger in their midst, like a thief in the night....[36]

Draped with the dust and shame of the fallen and the infidel. [39]

Take ye up claw and tooth, and wisdom, for no whelp be exempt [40]

Ye who hunts shall now be the hunted[41]


For a long minute, there is silence.

That was no Lycan. The prophecy, the prophecy, the prophecy has come to pass...



At the cafe, the woman who steps in for Champ stands up, eyes glowing red, as well as all about her.

squeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....

The nymphs burst through the still open gateway, carrying aloft a terrified and wolfed-out guard, stripped to the fur and yelping. The pollen from the deadly wolfsbane flowers invades his nose, and the yelping cuts away into silence with a single cough. The nymphs holding him up throw him to the ground - he is no use to them dead. They branch out in search of live prey that will satisfy their desires.

The fairy accompanying Tully flits to the tip of his nose and slaps it with her tiny hand. Hard.

"You idiot!" She squeaks, "We weren't ready!"

Rue Bee appears behind her.
"What's going on? Did he touch all the cloths? Did he just sound the Call?"

"Still one left, Lieutenant." The other fairy replies, "we need to get him to the bakery!"

A swarm of lights swoops over the square, led by Captain Anderanae with wand outstretched.
"Tabhair ruathar!" Her command to the battalion thunders as her wand glows bright red, ready to strike.

Everywhere in the fortress, every man and woman began to turn - noses growing longer, teeth growing sharper, thick hair growing from every pore on their backs, legs, and faces - children following in suit with the adults. Around the square, the turned citizens look to the stranger in the fountain, who has not turned, and who consorts with the Enemy, with the abominations, and up to the skies at the glowing, singing fireswarm descending upon them.

[T.O.O.O.]

It took a while, but Murinna successfully pulled herself out of the stream. Spitting out as much of the contaminated water as possible, she finally recognized the taste.
Copper!

---

"I swear that gate wasn't there before, Captain!" Bertram told him.

---

"What do you mean by that?" Cannax asked.
"You're trying to raise an army here, aren't you?" TOOO replied. "Or at least a raiding party. Cannax, do you know anything about military discipline?"
"You know how important this is to me, TOOO! We all supported Yeesha in freeing the bahro!" She looked meaningfully at Carlota.
"She didn't use an army!"
"But she's fighting with one now!"
TOOO sighed. "Cannax, look. I came back hoping to say goodbye on better terms. But you've really Lost It! Every bone in my body says to get out now - but I can't let you go through with this Crusade of yours! Please, don't go through with this madness!"
She shook her head angrily. "I've been waiting five years for this, TOOO! Five years! I'm going to do this! I can put an end to slavery for once and for all!"
"And how many innocents along the way?"
She fell silent.
"I'm sorry, TOOO. But it's too late to stop, now."

[jahura]

One Eye stops and listens to the distant non-lycan howl. He pivots on foot as he feels every nerve in his body tingle in reaction. He turns to the drawing room of the Manor, where the secret door to the passage to the Door is kept from even the citizens.

He pulls down the switch on a candle sconce, and the wall opens before him. He can see through his good eye his snout stretching out before him. He follows the tunnel behind to its end, he stops and looks at the paw print seal that holds shut the door.

The paw's fingers are glowing. Only the pad is left.

Behind the door, he can just make out an infernal buzzing sound.

---

Rue Bee pings herself on her head with her wand. In a flash of sparkles, she grows and morphs into a large red-haired mastodon.

"What are you doing?" The other fairy asks.

"There's no time! We must find that last Cloth!" Rue Bee trumpets in response. She picks up Tully around the waist with her trunk and carries him down the road. Several werewolves jump in her and start biting and scratching on her back and legs with furious snarls.

---

One-eye turns and runs full sprint up to the second floor, to the attic, to the ladder and the trap door that lead to the roof. Once outside, he lets out a chilling howl of his own to his pack:

AROOOOOOOOOOOO-WOOO-WOOO-WOOOO!!!

---

OT: Sorry, guys. This is where I'm going to have to leave off.

Will Dorian and Boppy find the tech they need to get them home?
Will Tully trick his way out of his abduction?
Will the others at the cafe take action?

I can't answer these questions. Those aren't my decisions to make.

Shorah.

[T.O.O.O.]

OT: Reminds me of a line from an old Monty Python skit:

"Will Charles ever play football again?
Does Ascrith really know what is happening to the chaps in France?
And is Belinda such a good (buzzer) as everyone says?
Don’t miss next weeks exciting episode."

---

BOT:

Murinna's ears perked up as she heard a strange rumbling sound coming her way. But even in the gloom, she could see a familiar face pushing a familiar wheelbarrow.
"Sven!" she cried. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"
"I search caves for pretty lady!" he said. "I want to find you a shirt to wear!"
She giggled. "Oh, honestly, Sven," she said. "But you're sweet. Help me get into the wheelbarrow."

[Zander Nyrond]

Oh well...so much for dealing peace. Sorry, everyone, I got conned. Sorry, Marae. I wish i could have seen you again.

Tully, helpless in the grip of the mastodon, awaits the war and inevitable deaths that must follow as a consequence of his actions. His eyes slowly drift closed.

**********

Back at the A & C, Zander sits bolt upright in bed, a cry erupting from his lips.

Jahura eventually manages to soothe him back to sleep. "It was just a dream. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere. We're all safe."

We. Are. All. Safe.


***********

Tully falls to the floor with a thud, winded. Around him, Marae and the others look around in bewilderment at the familiar surroundings of the Age and Country's lobby.

"Tully, you did it!" exclaims Marae in delight.

"I...wha...buh?" Tully blinks. "The wolves...the fairies..."

"Who cares?" Boppy says. "We're home! That's all that matters!"

And since I can't now touch the final cloth...the war won't happen. Nobody will die because of me. Tully draws in a long, grateful breath. I don't know what happened...but thank you, Whoever.

"I didn't do it," he confesses to Marae. "I got hopelessly frodded up. Somebody saved us. Somebody brought us home."

Marae looks up, whether to heaven or somewhere a little closer even she is not sure.

"What about TOOO?" Tora says. "I don't see him here."

"Well, he wasn't in the mess I got us into, was he?" Tully says. "Marae, sweetheart, if ever I start improvising again, hit me on the head with a frying pan. Hard."

"Excuse me," Sven says. "Pretty water-lady here needing a bath or something!"

OT: Sorry I messed everything up, guys. I hope you can take it from here.