"This inspires some memories for me."


    "Eh?"


    "The Swamp of Death."


    "Aye. Ya does nae want to be going back there."


    "I killed BeaLuna."


    "I know."


    "She was a ghost all this time."


    "Aye."


    "And Bullgaar?"


    "Him were a nzambie. It why him never talked."


    "I didn''t mean to kill BeLuna. She showed up after I killed the Moon Elves. I... I ... she walked up behind me and ... I don''t know what happened. I can''t remember. She was my best friend. I never would have hurt her. Gnomes don''t live that long. I didn''t notice. Three centuries went by. Gnomes only live two or three hundred years. They''re not long lived like Elves. I got there. Back in the Deep North, a few days after leaving the Screaming Unicorn Tavern, and there''s a Human village built up there now. It''s like the Moon Elves never existed. And BeLuna was there. Still there, right where she had been when... I ... I ... killed her. But I didn''t notice. She was a ghost. And she started following me. Followed me every where. I couldn''t get rid of her. Why didn''t I know she was a ghost?"


    "Ya was in shock."


    "But I''m a Necromancer."


    "Aye. And that be why ya could see her when, most no one else could."


    "Did you see her?"


    "Aye. I is dead too, remember?"


    "Do people see you?"


    Unicorn stopped chewing grass. Quaraun was asking hard questions now. Looking at a truth that he didn''t want to see. A truth Unicorn knew eventually the poor Elf would have to face.


    "Ya talk to people no one else sees, Quaraun. It why they think ya insane."


    "People couldn''t see BeLuna and Bullgaar, could they?"


    "No."


    "Do people see you?"


    "No. Not many."


    "Why do I see you?"


    "Does it matter?"


    "People talk to you."


    "Do they?"


    Quaraun stared at the Phooka.


    "Don''t they?"


    "Quaraun, the world ya see... it ain''t the world every one else sees. Yis one what found me when I died."


    "You killed yourself."


    "I know. I did. Un ya loved me a lot more dan I knew. Drugs killed me un damaged you. I does no tinks ya realized how much ya has changed. Yis were quite different when I was alive. Ya was no a drug addict when I was alive."


    "I needed to bury the pain."


    "I know. I should no have done that to ya. Ye should no have been de one to find me like that."


    "You took so much poison. It dissolved your organs. You drowned in your own blood."


    "I know."


    "I wanted to die with you."


    "Something happen to ya when I died. I had a lot of stuff in me candy shop. Ya took a lot of it day I died. Ya took too much of too many tings all at once. I does no tink ya remember. Ya tried to kill yaself, day I died. Ya head not right no more. People ya see, they ain''t always there. People ya talk to, they ain''t always saying what ya t''inks they is. Ya is insane, Quaraun."


    "I''m not insane."


    "Ya has a Thullid in ya head, eating ya brain. It making ya see un hear t''ings no one else does. ZooLock there, him understand. Him were Elf once. Him real. He can help. I t''ink he wants to help. He really does like ya Quaraun."


    "Are you real?"


    "I is a golem ya built."


    "Why did I do that?"


    "Because yis was very lonely. Ya people did bad t''ings to ya. They tortured ya un then they wounded the Phooka that protected ya from them. His wound did no heal. Him suffered many months. Then killed himself when him could take de pain no more. Ya could no face his death. He was the only one who loved ya. Some t''ing broke inside ya head when he died. Ya ain''t been right since."


    "Are you real?"


    "Aye."


    "How can I tell?"


    "We are soul bound, remember? Ya poor, sad little Elf. Ya bound ya soul to a Phooka."


    "You died."


    "I know, but ya brought me back. Some of me. My soul is broken. I is Lich. Emotions be fleeting. I is only one part of what is left of ya Phooka. His soul is cut up and put in 13 bottles all across de world."Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    "If I found all of the phylacteries and put the pieces of your soul back together... would that restore you back to who you was?"


    "Maybe. I does no know."


    The trio stayed on the hill overlooking the swampy pond for more time then any of them kept track of. Neither Quaraun nor Unicorn knew how to count, and ZooLock just wasn''t paying attention to the sunsets. He was too busy eyeing the sick Elf and worrying about the damage that might have been done to the JellyFish eggs he was sent to guard.


    And yet, not one of them knew, what it was that had caused the Elf to become so ill that day on the road to Witch Pond. Oh why, he grew sick again, worse then the first time, a few days later, preventing them from continuing on their way.


    The poor Elf was wracked with hallucinations that grew ever more frightening with each passing day. His inability to tell reality from illusion grew worse.


    But all was planned... back in the future, many centuries away from 1458, Gremlin knew... as horrible a thought as it was... GhoulSpawn must die, if Gremlin was to ever be born... and to do that, Quaraun must no longer be fully aware, of what he was doing, where he was, or what e was seeing.


    Gremlin sat in 1974, in his red armchair, patting his sheep with one hand, and staring down and the pink sugar cubes he held in his other hand. He knew the danger he had put Quaraun in, when he handed the sugar loving Elf, the box of drug laced candy. Gremlin ate one of the sugar cubes and closed his eyes. He knew all too well what LSD did to one''s mind.


    And so back in 1458, the days passed as one long blended horrific nightmare, for Quaraun and his friends who watched in horror as the Elf lost full control of his senses and were clueless as to how to help him.


    As days not counted passed, the Elf finally began to recover.


    "This is a nice place," Quaraun said quietly, looking around at the area around Witch Pond, seeing it clearly for the first time since they had arrived.


    "It is," Unicorn agreed.


    "So quiet," Quaraun said dreamily. "And peaceful and relaxing and..."


    The Elf suddenly stood up, his long thin ear perked up high over his head, listening for danger.


    "What ya hearing?" Unicorn asked.


    "People. A wagon''s coming."


    Unicorn sniffed the air. "Humans. I can smell tem."


    "There''s a turtle in the road."


    "Is there?"


    "They''ll kill it."


    Quaraun jumped up and started running down the glade back to the road.


    "Hey! Where is ya off to?"


    "Got to move the turtle out of the way of the wagons," Quaraun called back.


    "Ya crazy Elf. Get back here!"


    Unicorn stood up and followed the Elf. He wasn''t in any hurry, so by the time he reached the road, Quaraun was standing in the middle of the road, yelling at the band of Humans and refusing to let them pass until the giant snapping turtle had finished crossing the road.


    "Thought ya was gonna move the turtle?" Unicorn asked.


    "It''s too heavy, I can''t lift it and it''s a snapping turtle. Pick it up wrong it''ll bite your hands off."


    "That a damn big turtle," Unicorn said, looking at the giant snapper. "Would take five people to lift her."


    Quaraun went back to arguing with the Humans while Unicorn watched the turtle slowly make its way across the dirt road, towards the swampy Witch Pond. The turtle was so big that it wasn''t possible for the wagons to fit by without hitting it.


    "I does no remember an island in the pond earlier," Unicorn said. But no one was listening.


    The Humans with the wagons were in a hurry to get to where ever they were going before nightfall and did not want to wait for the turtle and suggested the turtle would make a good stew for tonight''s super, which in turn sent the vegetarian Elf into a fit of hysterics.


    "Quaraun..." Unicorn tried to talk to the Elf.


    Quaraun now had his wand pulled out and was threatening to kill the Humans if they killed the turtle.


    "Quaraun?"


    "Not now."


    "Now is good time."


    "I''m busy!"


    "Un I is hallucinating with ya now."


    "What?"


    "Uhm," Unicorn said, trying to get Quaraun''s attention. "The island is moving."


    "Islands don''t move," Quaraun sputtered, not paying attention to Unicorn as he glared at the closest Human and pointed his wand in their face.


    Unicorn took a few steps back, staring up high above them.


    "Ya right, it no island."


    A large shadow went across the road.


    "Quaraun. We needs to run."


    "What? Why?"


    Quaraun turned to face the pond, just in time to see a giant turtle, big as a house, rising up out of the water, on her way to the shore to protect her baby.


    "Oh dear!"


    Quaraun didn''t have a chance to say any more, before Unicorn grabbed his arm and ran off the road towards the forest.


    "We needs to get to da trees, it too big to pass t''rough ''em."


    The Humans were screaming and yelling and instead of running, drawing swords and arrows to battle the beast. Quaraun looked back into to see the massive turtle open it''s mouth wide and scoop up a wagon filled with Humans and swallow it whole.


    "It just ate them!"


    "Yeah, well let''s get out of here before it eat us."


    ZooLock, who had been watching all of this from the meadow ran into the forest to catch up with Quaraun and Unicorn. The Elf stopped to catch his breath.


    "What if the Humans follow us," ZooLock asked.


    "What if they do?" Quaraun said, gasping for air. "I am so out of shape."


    "They was pretty mad at you for making them stop, if any of them survive that turtle beast, they''ll blame the deaths of the others on you."


    "Good point."


    Quaraun stared at the swamp''s deadwood trees towering above him.


    "Don''t let them follow us," the Necromancer said to the trees.


    Instantly every dead tree in the forest, uprooted itself and went marching off towards the Humans. The Humans worked frantically to drag their wounded from the pond''s edge and avoid being eaten by the turtle, as the forest began to eat their dead.


    "Great!" Unicorn said sarcastically. "And now if any survive they will just kill ya no questions asked."


    "Come on," Quaraun said as he turned and walked deeper into the forest. "The more distance we put between us and them the better."


    "What if some of them Humans survive?"


    "They won''t."


    "What if they do?"


    "They won''t. The trees will eat them if they try to follow us."


    "So what happened to all ya, live and let live, harm none crap?"


    Quaraun shrugged.


    "I''m a Necromancer. Besides, they''re Humans. I''m an Elf. My job is to protect nature from Humans." Quaraun stopped walking and stood thinking for a moment.


    "Thought Humans was part of the nature ya Elves was supposed to be protecting?"


    "You''re right. What happened to me? I''m evil. I didn''t used to be evil. I don''t want to be evil. What''s wrong with me? I just sent dead trees to eat people. I shouldn''t have done that. Why did I do that?"


    "Because they was heavily armed highway men who would have hunted us down and slit our throats had ya not done it."


    "That doesn''t make it right, what I did. I shouldn''t have done it. Let''s go."


    "Is ya feeling better?"


    "No."


    "I does nay, know how to help. Iffy I knews what ya took. I maybe could gives ya something to counteract it."


    "I told you, I didn''t take anything."


    "I know. But ya got something in ya system somehow. Maybe ya touch something. Ya know how ya always picking flowers. Maybe one were super toxic."


    "Or maybe ZooLock poisoned me."


    "Oh no, My Ladyship!" ZooLock immediately answered. "I was sent to protect my Ladyship, not hurt her."


    "I''m not a ''her'' or a ''she'', will you stop calling me that!"


    "Yes my Ladyship."


    "Stop calling me that too! You''re annoying me, ZooLock."


    ZooLock went back to his sullen silence.


    "Would him hurt ya?" Unicorn asked.


    "He''s a Thullid. They can''t be trusted."


    "Yis a Thullid."


    "I''m a Spawnling. That''s different."


    "Is it?"


    "Yes."


    "Perhaps we can figure out what ya eats.I first notice ya acting off in de field of poppies. But it had to be in ya long enough to do dat tos ya. Sos ya could not has eaten anything there to done it. When dids ya first start not feeling good?"


    "I don''t know. I can''t remember. The last few days are all melted together. I can''t differentiate one from another. I can''t tell what actually happened and what didn''t."


    "Well, de turtle actually happened. I saw that hallucination with ya. Unless what happening to ya, now happening to me too."


    "Could it?"


    Unicorn shrugged.


    "We Fae, tings toxic to most others, is no toxic to us. Or, it take longer to has effect."


    "Great. So ZooLock could have poisoned both of us and it would effect me days ago and only just start affecting you."


    "Aye. Or de turtle is real."


    "It was as big as a house."