~o0o~ Chapter 2 ~o0o~


    A group of Thullid cultists slithered and slunk their way through the rubble. They spoke to one another in hush whispers of their native Demon tongue with its squishy sounding words made up mostly of ''L''s, ''i''s, and break clattering clicks.


    The squid headed cultists in their long orange robes, contrasting with the brilliant purple tentacles, dragged between them another Thullid, dressed in vivid pink robes embroidered with glittering bubblegum pink jelly fish - the distinctive regalia of a Di''Jinn priest, worshiper of The Sacred Pink Jelly Fish.


    The orange robed cultists were young, as could be told by their vividly purple hued tentacles, glistening with slick slime. The pink robed priest they dragged with them was exceedingly ancient, his tentacles aged to a dull dusty pink, dry and wrinkled, no longer protected by their slime coat that had long since worn away.


    The cultists chattered excitedly about the coming of change and good fortune, but the old priest coward between them in fear. The Cult of the Sacred Pink Jelly Fish had search high and low for the last of Her Ladyship''s disciples. Long feared dead, ZooLock the Great had finally been found.


    For centuries ZooLock had stood as the personal bodyguard of a tiny pink jelly fish, kept imprisoned in a glass bowl, where she was worshiped by Demons from all points of the galaxy.


    For centuries the tiny pink jelly fish had begged for her freedom, but trapped she was in a tiny glass bowl.


    Then the Humans came, like a plague upon the planet the Humans spread quickly and with them they brought a God of blood, lust and war. A God who murdered his only son, then demanded the Humans eat his flesh and blood every week, over and over again for centuries. An angry God who hated Demons and demanded the Humans slaughter them all.


    And so the reign of Demons on Earth fell, as the Humans rose to power. One by one the Demon temples were shattered and the priests murdered.


    When only one temple remained, The Temple of the Di''Jinn, the Thullids had gone en masse, to protect their Goddess, but their numbers were too few, and the like so many before them, the Di''Jin priests were slaughtered...


    ...save one...


    ZooLock.


    A plain simple priest with only one job: stand beside the Pink Jelly Fish and make sure no one touches her glass bowl. A lonely job he did for centuries.


    When the Human Army attacked, ZooLock grabbed the bowl and ran into the desert, never to be seen again. Seen by many as a coward, news soon spread to Demon ears, of the horror of what ZooLock had done...


    ...Desperate to save Her Ladyship, ZooLock did the unthinkable and implanted the Sacred Pink Jelly Fish inside the body of an Elf. The only Thullid never implanted, now lived inside a host, like the rest.


    ZooLock had done what he had sworn to do... protect the Goddess at any cost. And thus he became known as ZooLock the Great, the only Demon brave enough to save Her Ladyship from the onslaught of the Humans and their Demon murdering ways.


    But that was nearly 500 years ago, and ZooLock now found himself in chains, dragged a long by members of a new religion. A group calling themselves The Cult of the Sacred Pink Jelly Fish.


    The ancient priest had no strength to fight his captors, and was dragged along with chains on his arms and legs, his once purple tentacles, now faded to a dull mauve, hung limp before him.


    ZooLock knew not what the cultists had in mind for him, and his pleco pupiled fish eyes searched desperately for any means of escape.


    At last they stopped, standing before the remains of a once large stone church, that was now nothing but broken up bits of wall scattered about. The leader of the cultists, took their prisoner and stood staring up at one particularly dangerous looking stone wall.


    "It''ll fall over at any minute," ZooLock said in his timid frightened voice.


    "You''ll be safe here," the squid headed Elder said to his chained and shackled prisoner.


    "Safe?" ZooLock squealed as he looked around the vast ruins. "How is this safe? Humans have razed this place. They''ll be back..."


    "They won''t come back. Their army has moved on."


    The cult elder took ZooLock''s chains and secured them to a stone wall.


    "What are you doing?" The frightened Di''Jinn priest asked.


    "You are the last of the Di''Jinn. Saved from Her wrath only because you are a coward. When death came for the rest, you had already fled."


    "Her Ladyship was protecting the horses. You know how She loves horses. You should not have killed Her horses. You should not have angered Her."


    "She likes you."


    "She hates me."


    "She won''t kill you."


    "Only because I did not help you kill Her horses."


    "She''ll be here soon."


    "What?" ZooLock looked around franticly, curling his tentacles nervously as he did. "She''s here?"


    "You''ll not have long to wait."


    "Wait for what? What is going on?"


    "If you live, you will lead Her to us."


    "If I live? What do you mean? What is going on?"


    "Her Ladyship is pregnant."


    "Pregnant? That is not possible. I put her in a male Elf."


    "You must protect the eggs until the time of hatching."


    "How do I do that?"


    "You''ll think of something."


    "But She does not like me! I am a Di''Jinn. She killed us all! I am the last Di''Jinn. You are right, I lived because I am a coward. She''ll kill me soon as She sees me!"


    "She won''t kill a wounded animal."


    "I am not wounded."


    "That is easily fixed."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Before the ancient Demon priest had time to respond the other Demons pushed the stone wall over on top of him.


    The squid-headed beasts quickly made their way back to the road, leaving old ZooLock crushed and injured, buried beneath the rubble.


    Furry paws and glistening eyes watched from the shadows, keeping notes on everything they saw and heard.


    ~o0o~


    Meanwhile, in a coastal fishing village not far away, there sat a massive lighthouse, built out of smooth black river stones. Vastly bigger on the inside, then it''s outward appearance, the tower housed a band of half-Elf thieves, who fancied themselves wizards, though in truth, they were barely mages. This band of magic wielding thieves was lead by an ancient old, one armed half-Elf, whom called himself HellBorne the Evil.


    "We''ve found him!" HellBorne said excitedly as he ran into the room.


    The other half-Elves stopped what they were doing to listen to what their leader had to say.


    "The Darkness is upon us," the ancient one armed Half-Elf continued. "We must begin preparations. Every thing must be ready before he arrives."


    HellBorne spent the next hour explaining in great detail what the Darkness was, why it was imperative they welcome it, and what must be done to prepare for it''s arrival.


    HellBorne began listing off the items he needed and barking out orders, giving each of the other half-Elves their instructions on what to get.


    One by one the half Elves scurried off to carry out their orders.


    All but one.


    HellBorne looked across the room. GhoulSpawn, was once again not following orders. The Sun Elf was sitting in the corner with his nose in a book.


    A pair of gleaming green eyes peered through the window, watching the scene unfold. Whiskers twitched as tiny grey paws took notes of what they saw.


    "GhoulSpawn!" HellBorne yelled angrily.


    "What?" The young Sun Elf jumped from his seat, looking around and wondering which way to run. The poor half Elf was scared of everything and the slightest sound sent his heart racing in terror.


    "I need more sheep," HellBorne said. "Go get me more sheep."


    "Sheep?" GhoulSpawn had not been paying attention to anything the old half Elf had said to him and only heard this last part, commanding him to get sheep. "Why do you need sheep?"


    "The Darkness is upon us!"


    "The Darkness?"


    "Haven''t you been listening to me?"


    "Uhm... I... I was reading."


    "You and your books."


    "I want to learn..."


    "You don''t learn by reading. You learn by doing."


    "I''m not good at doing... uhm... anything," GhoulSpawn admitted.


    HellBorne grabbed the book away from GhoulSpawn and threw it across the room.


    "I said, go get me more sheep!"


    "Sheep?"


    "Yes! Sheep!"


    "Why?"


    "I''ve a sacrifice to prepare!"


    "Sacrifice? With blood?"


    "Of course with blood."


    "Can''t you do a non blood sacrifice?"


    "You whimpering pussy! The Darkness is coming and we need blood to bring it closer! Before it gets out of range."


    "But I don''t like killing things..."


    "You don''t like killing? What kind of a wizard are you?"


    "Not an evil one. My father..."


    "You''re father was one of the greatest wizards of all time."


    "He was evil."


    GhoulSpawn was ashamed of the things his father had done.


    "How did a snivelling coward like you come from the loins of a great sorcerer like him?"


    "My mother was an Elf. I was raised with her people, not his. Elves are mostly peaceful."


    "Only to other Elves. What Elf ever treated a half-Elf with respect and dignity?"


    "We don''t have to kill things to..."


    "GhoulSpawn, you are young. You haven''t seen enough of the world to know how shitty it treats us half-Elves. You are still innocent to the ways of the world and it''s hatred for our kind. But that''s going to end soon. The Darkness will be here soon, and with it, our salvation."


    "But do we have to kill sheep?"


    "The sheep make way for the sacrifices."


    "Aren''t the sheep the sacrifices?"


    "You really weren''t listening to anything I said were you?"


    "I guess not."


    "The ritual takes seven days to complete. We need seven sacrifices, one each night for seven days. The sheep blood is to purify the tools that we will use to kill the sacrifices."


    "But..."


    "GO!"


    GhoulSpawn quickly scurried out of the room. A couple of the other half-Elves chided him, but he didn''t stick around long enough to hear what they had said. While living with HellBorne wasn''t ideal, at least GhoulSpawn was no longer alone.


    HellBorne was wrong. GhoulSpawn did know far too well, the hatred the world had for half-Elves. He''d grown up with High Elves. And they never let him forget, he wasn''t worthy to be alive. From the time he was old enough to walk, his days were spent running from bullies. Constantly beaten and publicly humiliated, the young half-Elf now live in mortal terror of every shadow.


    Loneliness was a major issue for the Sun Elf. It was the thing that kept him working for HellBorne. GhoulSpawn had no friends. His family, his people, his village were dead. He had a few wives here and there, but he admittedly didn''t love any of them and had a difficult time being faithful to any one.


    GhoulSpawn had a wife in nearly every town he''d ever walked through, most of which he never returned to, many of which he''d left to raise alone children he didn''t even know he had. A bigger problem for GhoulSpawn was the trail of pregnant prostitutes he left behind every where he went.


    While he hated being alone, he also shied away from any sort of commitment. The more commitment a situation required, the faster he ran away from it and thus GhoulSpawn found himself bedding every female he meet within a few hours of meeting her, then disappearing from her life within a week of meeting her.


    GhoulSpawn had come across the one armed half-Elf HellBorne a few months ago. HellBorne had opened his home up to other half-Elves and now quite a large number of half-Elves were living with the ancient wizard, doing his bidding in exchange for free room and board and protection from the Elves and Humans who hunted half-Elves.


    The half-Elves living with HellBorne had all been treated poorly by Elves and Humans alike and all of them had grown bitter and vengeful and thus were quick to help HellBorne in his questionable experiments and rituals.


    GhoulSpawn had questioned HellBorne many times and each time was meet with the wrong side of HellBorne''s frightful temper. But still, GhoulSpawn stayed because he was accepted by the half-Elves here and had not found acceptance among Elves or Humans, was too scatterbrained and flighty to raise a family of his own and could not bear to live alone.


    Escaping to the outdoors to run errands for HellBorne gave GhoulSpawn the breathing room he needed.


    GhoulSpawn soon found himself sitting alone on a rock in a field, watching a herd of sheep, waiting for the lazy Human shepherd to fall asleep and hoping he could find an excuse for coming back without any sheep. His reached into his pocket and pulled out a big red arm chair to sit in.


    GhoulSpawn wished he could set up a TV here, but it was the 1400s and electricity had not yet been invented. He tried to remember not to have items from the future that would be questioned by others. This arm chair was definitely out of its time period, but a chair was a chair and he could at least explain it should someone question it. And it was more comfortable than a rock.


    Of course, if anyone did question the chair, their more probable question would have been how the hell did he get it all the way out here in the middle of a field, but GhoulSpawn hadn''t thought of that. He could of course tell them the truth, that he was a wizard and was wearing a coat that was lined with dozens of pockets, each pocket bigger on the inside then the outside with plenty of room to carry a few cities worth of houses around with him.


    But GhoulSpawn was not a member of the Guild which meant he was practicing magic illegally and should any one ask to see his papers, he had none to give and would be quickly tossed in a dungeon and his coat of many pockets filled with items from the future confiscated and burned.


    GhoulSpawn was not known for thinking logically of such things so did not hide the fact that he was a wizard from any one.


    And so, there GhoulSpawn sat in a big red arm chair, in the middle of a field of sheep, his hair and eyes glowing a blinding shade of yellow, wondering if there was a way for him to stay in the future permanently never again having to return back here to his own time, wishing he was in the 1970s watching Saturday morning cartoons, and pulling dozens of books out of the pockets of his dark green velvet coat, trying to decide which book he should read next, in a time period before books were invented.


    Reading took his mind off HellBorne and his father and the shitty way Elves and Humans treated him.


    GhoulSpawn worried that HellBorne would tell the others that his father was a Chaos Demon and not a Human as everyone believed. All of the other half Elves were half Human.


    In addition to being the only half Demon among them, he was also the only one who had High Elf blood. The others were various races of Common, Wild, or Feral Elves, most of them Wood Elves. GhoulSpawn''s spaced out day dreamer attitude was attributed to his being the bastard of an aristocratic.


    The other half Elves picked on GhoulSpawn because HellBorne coddled him, giving him assignments that were easy and allowing him to sit around doing nothing. Most of the half Elves could neither read nor write, and it being a century before Gutenberg invented the printing press, they did not know what those strange blocks of paper squished between boards were, that GhoulSpawn was constantly carrying around and so did not understand why GhoulSpawn was allowed to sit all day doing nothing but staring at squares of paper.


    GhoulSpawn found a book to read and soon the absent minded half-Elf forgot about sheep and was lost in trying to translate an orange spined spell book he''d brought back from the future: Unearthed Arcana by Gary Gygax.


    A pair of yellow eyes peered out from the bushes at the edge of the pasture. Whiskers twitched and tail stood tall as small black paws jotted down more notes.