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Hear ye, hear ye! I have returned to continue my tail. When last I left, my home land was in an awful bind. The Silver Lady had destroyed the Giver, after her being cursed to remain mortal until she had learned of love. The Summoner had foretold that I was to become the Giver, but also that I would never become the Giver if I was blinded, which I was (er..am at this point of the tail, but not at the moment..Oh blast it all, you know what I mean don't you??? *laughter erupts in the Hall as Ace Dogg becomes agitated at his inability to master the correct tenses*). Anyhow, now my little band is ready to set off for Fannox where will meet with Scottie in an attempt to solve this dilemma. Though Whoric was wholly unconvinced that Scottie would have any idea as to how to go about preventing the Silver Lady from taking control of our land, he did agree to spare us ten of his renowned warriors to accompany us to Fannox, as well as some noble Rams and Ewes to serve as steeds. (Normally we ride horses, but Woorof sheep are taller than the average horse and don't tire as easily). I have never actually seen Fannox, never having had need to go there as a child, and being blind when I visited there, so I also no very little about what the road to Fannox looks likes, other than what El Perro told me, and he left soon after we departed from Woorof. (I'll get to that in due time) So, from my view the ride south was unceasingly boring, so let me switch views for the moment, and tell you about Bayark, where Scottie, Butch, and their eight men were heading. Butch, also now a Breed Leader due to the tragic destruction the Summoner caused in his rage, was leading this expedition. Though Rover was much closer to Bayark then his Borwane, Butch had spent a considerable more time in Bayark than I, and thus could have made the trip blindfolded. Assuming of course he was either utterly insane, or that every living thing along the route had been removed from existence. The first, and longest, phase of the journey is easy. All Butch and his men had to do was walk across vast plains and rolling hills. But once they reached the Southern mountain range of Barik, things got interesting. There is no overland pass through this range, so travelers have to exercise on of two options. Either they must take to the sea an sail South, risking the numerous moving whirlpools that frequently seem to appear out of thin air. Or they may try to sail down the Laplappy River. I usually suggest declaring the whole thing a moot point by making the residents of South of the Berik Mountains come North when I want to visit with them, but because of the circumstances Butch did not even know if there were any residents South of the Barik Mountains or not. So, like any sensible Dogg would didn't have a sea going ship with him at the time, he ordered his band to collect some wood, and made a raft to sail down the Laplappy River in. His band was bit hesitant to carry out these orders, as they knew full well that one has a 33% chance of making it to Bayark by sea, but only a 25% chance of making it by the Laplappy. The danger in the Laplappy is not that it too has whirlpools or is fast moving. In fact, the Laplappy is a very tame river that has no dangers on its own. It's just that there are so-o-o-o many things in or on the coast of the Laplappy that would like to kill you. In short, the Laplappy presents the traveler with many more ways to die than the sea. To the normal Dogg, the Laplappy was infinitely more dangerous, but Butch, as I have mentioned repeatedly, is not your ordinary Dogg. Butch prefers to not let his life be decided by fate, as going by sea would entail, but rather slugging it out on his own terms. Besides, as I already said, he didn't have ship with him. Once Butch had loaded his newly made raft with provisions, he set about attempting to coax the other warriors onto the raft. It seems that they were not at all sure that the raft was sufficient to survive the Laplappy. Even Scottie was rather doubtful that that the raft could bear the weight of ten Doggs and their provisions. In the end, everybody boarded the boat with due speed and shoved off hurriedly, overjoyed to be "safe" in the Laplappy. The reason for this is (occurring to Scottie who is not apt to exaggerate) that a monstrous Earth elemental some twenty feet tall, came charging through the underbrush looking as though it meant business. What business it meant, Butch and his band did not want to find out, so they boarded and commenced sailing immediately after sighting this beast. In the course of this frantic launch of their raft, some poor lad chanced to step into the Laplappy. This, dear heroes, is something one must never do because the entire river is filled to the brim with those pesky piranha fishes. And let me tell you, there is nothing more unpleasant then having your foot eaten off by twenty of these little buggers at one time. Luckily they lad only lost all four of his toes so that apart from the extreme and agonizing pain, he was all right. And the pain soon subsided when Scottie used his healing powers to stop the bleeding and draw out the pain from the wound. As the Laplappy wound the little band around various mountains, Butch always made sure that at least two of the crew were on the look out for goats. Goats, as we all know, cannot swim, and thus many who have lost their lives on the Laplappy owe their deaths to not watching out for goats. The goats of Berik do not like Doggs as a general rule, but since we Doggs are smarter, faster, and stronger, the goats can rarely do anything about it. But when we Doggs are confined to a slowly moving raft in the middle of a river full of piranhas, the goats get their chance. They start ramming giant boulders off the mountains in attempts to smash us or our rafts. When a large herd of goats (say twenty or so) happened to see ten Doggs on a tiny and unseaworthy looking vessel, they were overjoyed. They figured this band of Doggs to be an easy kill, and were soon hurling rocks at the little raft. Scottie started mesmerizing the goats one-by-one. While he was doing this, Butch attempted to take care of the incoming boulders. Showcasing his amazing strength, Butch managed to either reduce the flying boulders to rubble with on swing of his mighty fists, or else (if there was time between boulders) catch one, and hurl it back at the goats. Meanwhile the rest of the crew had pulled their shields from their backs and were using them to deflect whatever boulders Butch missed. By the time the last goat was mesmerized the only casualties were a few pouches of rabbit gruel that had been knocked off the raft during the excitement (though to this day Butch suspects that someone just ate the gruel and threw the pouch overboard when nobody was looking). Once clear of the mountains, the crew gave a collective sigh of relief. Butch and Scottie, however, knew that there was more to the danger of Laplappy then just some bickering nanny goats. The next major danger, besides that of rolling off the raft at night and being eaten alive, would not be reached until noon the following day, so they let the crew rest up for the moment. The next day, just after a noon meal of walnut and oat bars, the next "incident" occurred in a form of forty meters of solid muscle. This danger would be, of course, the dreaded anaconda of Laplappy. Normally the anaconda did not bother Butch, because it learned long ago that besting this fierce Dogg in combat was no easy task, and would probably not be worth the effort. This time, however, it just could not pass up this many scrumptious Doggs at once. Butch spotted the anaconda only after it had surfaced right in front of him. Thinking to finish off its biggest challenge in one quick bite, the anaconda opened its mouth and swallowed Butch in one gulp. This, however, would soon prove to be a mistake as Butch immediately started smashing his fists against the insides of the snake. The anaconda, momentarily shocked by this miscalculation, froze trying to decide what to do next. This allowed Butch's men to unsheathe there blades and to start hacking away at the beast's body. As the Doggs' blades bounced off the hard scales of the snake, the anaconda snapped into action swung its tail across the raft causing the Doggs to either duck under or leap over the tail or risk landing in the river. Seeing Scottie, and realizing that Scottie was attempting to mesmerize him, the anaconda spat Butch at Scottie, knocking the mage over and spoiling the spell. Now the anaconda developed a new plan of attack. It leaped over the raft, then coiled around all ten of the Doggs. Slowly the anaconda started to squeeze my friends in its coils. Scottie, could not use most of his powers with his arms firmly clamped to his sides, so he closed his eyes and sent out a telepathic cry for help. It reached me almost as soon as it was sent. Before I could react, I felt my brother's presence vanish from around me. Though the call was intended for me, it had to pass through my brother first. He recognized it for what it was and for once his magic did not fail him. Teleporting to the raft he saw Scottie and the rest being crushed by the anaconda. Again El Perro's magic did not fail him. He swept into the gaping mouth of the anaconda. Then El Perro released every piece of the magic that was binding him to this world. The resulting flood of magic inside the anaconda caused the snake to explode. Butch and his band landed safely on there raft. Then, as El Perro, no longer bound to this world, faded away for the final time he said, "This time brother, I have not failed you." In my mind and in my soul I felt these words, "Brother, you have never needed to prove a thing to me, and you have never failed me." Ace Dogg of Doggainia |
