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Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
- Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
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Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
VickiSilverwolf > October 24th, 2005, 02:13 AM
Not long after the woman husband entered the house, his wife joyfully introduced the explorers to him. He seemed surprised, but not completely shocked. Perhaps other normal-sized persons from other universes had found their way to this one. (But who could say what was "normal" any more?) Maybe a certain Captain Gulliver had been one of them . . .
At any rate, their hosts -- Wilhelmina and Cuthbert Throckmorton -- seemed friendly enough. They were careful to keep the playful but dangerous kitten (whose name seemed to be either "Precious" or "That rotten little cat," depending on who was speaking) out of the way. The voyagers feasted on a few breadcrumbs and a single blueberry kindly provided by the giants, along with a thimbleful of water that slaked their thirst.
The Throckmortons seemed like a nice couple. Wilhelmina ("Call me Willy") was pale, red-haired, blue-eyed, and smiled often from a face that was covered with freckles the size of hubcaps. Cuthbert seemed quieter and more thoughtful, and studied the strange visitors through a pair of spectacles that made his dark eyes seem like two black swimming pools.
"I suppose this 'wicked imp' you're talking about must be our little boy Vernon," he said.
"No offense meant, to be sure," Rhadamanthus answered, in what he hoped was a royal tone of voice.
"None taken. I often think of him in the same way."
"Really, dear," Willy said. "What will they think of us in Fairyland?"
"Oh, we just love humans," Elf Girl answered quickly. "Why, some of my best friends are humans."
"Nicely spoken, Your Majesty," Cuthbert said. "Well, let's go about getting your silver nutshell back." He stood up from where he was seated at the kitchen table. It was like watching a mountain grow. "Vern! I want to see one of your toys."
"TOY!" came the squeaky yet thundering answer from another room.
While Cuthbert made his way to his son's room, Willy carefully helped the "fairies" back to the kitchen floor. She assured them that they would all be back home soon.
"But first we need to talk about that wish," she said brightly.
"Oh, yes, the wish," Victoria said. "Of course. Um, think about that carefully. You wouldn't want to waste it."
"Yeah, what about that darn wish, Mustardseed," Liriodendron said in a whisper.
"I'm working on it," Victoria answered.
Meanwhile, a loud crash came from Vernon's room. Willy rushed to see what was wrong, while the explorers followed behind, trying to avoid being impaled by her high heels.
Inside the toddler's room, all was chaos. Cuthbert was rubbing his head and muttering something impolite. The little boy was running around giggling.
"I tripped on one of his toys and bumped my head on the wall," Cuthbert explained.
"TOY!" Vernon screamed again.
"Let me put something on it," Willy said. She led her husband out of the room, probably to find him a Band-Aid the size of a blanket.
"Hey!" Athena shouted. "What about us?"
"Let's just try to find that lifeboat and get out of here," Niphredil suggested.
They soon spotted the vehicle, battered but apparently not seriously damaged, on the carpet among Vernon's other playthings. They rushed to it, but apparently Vernon had other ideas.
With a chubby hand he picked up Tancred and placed him at the wheel of a toy car. The others found theselves trapped within the coils of a gigantic Slinky.
"VROOM!" Vernon growled as he pushed the tiny car around and around in circles. Tancred began to feel a little carsick.
Victoria managed to squeeze through the gaps in the Slinky, which reminded her unpleasantly of barbed wire. She looked desperately through Vernon's jumble of toys, hoping to find something which would help them escape. Not far away was one of those talking toys that had been so popular in her own world not long ago. It took all her might to press down the huge buttons.
"The cow says 'Moo'," the toy said in its mechanical voice. "MOOOOOO!"
The sound was enough to distact the little boy from his toy car. Tancred took the opportunity to leap out of the vehicle and head for the others. By the time he was able to help them escape, Willy and Cuthbert had returned, and Vernon was shrieking and crying in the way that only a frustrated three-year-old can do.
"Oh, you poor, poor baby," Willy said to her son. "Mommy wishes those mean old fairies would leave her sweet snookums alone."
"You have your wish!" Victoria shouted as she hopped into the lifeboat. The other soon followed, and the lifeboat vanished from sight.
"What a day," Cuthbert sighed. "What's for dinner, anyway?" -
Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
Rhadamanthus > October 24th, 2005, 10:19 AM
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Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
Rhadamanthus > October 26th, 2005, 06:02 PM
After a brief but chaotic scramble the others joined Tancred on top of the boulder. From there they stared with dismay at what they saw. Their vantagepoint was near the edge of a field some forty or fifty yards across. It was completely covered with rocks and huge boulders. Hundreds of the hideous tree-things had by now completely surrounded it. Fortunately for the travelers, the monsters seemed unable to actually enter the rock-field, although those closest to the edge continually uncoiled and extended their tendrils, as if trying to reach the travelers.
"Well, we seem safe enough for the moment. They can't reach us up here, anyway." Tancred said.
Nilphy gazed at their distant lifeboat, its silvery hull sparkling in the pale sunlight. "But how are we going to get through them?" she asked.
Tancred looked at the slim rapier in his hand. "I doubt that this will be much use against them." he said, sadly, "If only we had an ax."
Turning to the girls Rhad said, "I don't suppose any of you has a flame-thrower tucked away in your bodice?" All the ladies managed to produce however, was an assortment of tiny, jeweled daggers and a small crossbow that Elfy had hanging on her belt. "We can't run and we can't fight … maybe if we can find someplace to hide they'll get tired and go away."
****************************************
Leaving their exposed place on top of the boulder, the travelers carefully picked their way towards the center of the rock-strewn field, examining the largest stones for any gap, crevice or fissure in which to hide from the sight (or whatever sense they used) of the columnar monsters. At last, in the very center of the field, Athena and Liri discovered a wide gap at in the base of a house-sized boulder. The travelers quickly squeezed through and were delighted to find themselves in a large, gently sloping cave.
Enough light filtered through several cracks in the ceiling for them to see that the walls of the cave were covered with huge, colorfully painted murals. The life-like images seemed to depict strange life forms and bizarre mechanical artifacts.
Staring up at one of the murals, Victoria exclaimed, "This must be the Record of a Lost Civilization. The History of the Rise and Fall a Great Civilization."
"Exactly," Rhad said, "They were always doing that, you know. The last panels always show their End… either they achieve some sort of Incorporeal Existence Among The Stars, or they are all Destroyed by Their Former Slaves."
"Maybe the tree things are the Former Slaves." Elfy said.
"That could very well be. Doesn't help us get back to the boat, though." Victoria said.
"I don't know about that. In situations like this there's always another way out… usually behind an Altar or something." Rhad said.
"You mean like this thing here?" They turned to see Liri seated on a large, square stone.
As they approached the curiously carved stone, Tanc pointed at its base, "Here's something," he said, and pulled on a large metal ring set into the floor. A trapdoor came up, revealing a downward sloping passageway and stairs that were clearly not designed for human feet. And it was very dark.
"No one has matches, right?" Rhad asked, with a sigh, "I can remember a time, you know, when almost everyone carried a book of matches. There was a whole social protocol revolved around asking someone for a light. Now no one smokes anymore. Flint and steel, maybe?"
"I can see some light down there, though," Elfy said, "A kind of bluish glow."
"Hmm… probably a phosphorescent fungus, or some sort of luminescent, subterranean slime," Vicki said, "So… who's going to lead the way, Then? Rhad? Tanc?" -
Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
tancred > October 28th, 2005, 02:47 PM
"Why don't you lead the way, Vicki" laughed Rhadamanthus, as he himself stepped on to the first step downwards.
With the steps seemingly carved for non-humans, it was an awkward descent for the companions to make. They held their arms out to their sides, steadying themselves against the walls as they went. Both the walls and the floor were rather smooth and slick, so there were a few slips and stumbles.
The adventurers finally made their way to the bottom of the stairs. A cavernous chamber opened up before them, and the bluish glow was quite bright now. As Vicki had expected, the glow was indeed coming from a fungus; there were vast patches of quite large mushrooms all about the cave. Strangely enough, they seemed to be in straight and well-tended patches, almost as if grown in a garden. Despite that, there were no signs of humanoid life in the cave.
Tired as they were, everyone sat down on the ground. Tancred lamented his choice of a rapier over a broadsword; with the latter, he could have slashed through the attacking tree vines earlier. He would have to see if the clothes closet in the lifeboat had one once he got back. If they could even find the lifeboat again. Eager for this to occur, Tancred began searching the walls of the cave for a way out (other than the way they had entered).
Vicki was grumbling to herself. For every new world they had gone to and reported on, Captain Nemo had never once sounded appreciative. He was always commanding and stern. Vicki knew that Nemo was the one in a position of power here, as he was the one who could return them to their former time. But still, Nemo's lack of concern for their safety, his abbrassive character, his greed for the knowledge they had gathered, and his thanklessness was really getting on Vicki's nerves. She grumbled some more, and cracked her knuckles.
"I think I've found another tunnel," called Tancred.
It was good timing, too. At that moment, there was the sound as of footsteps coming down the stairs the travellers had traversed not so long before, and the glowing light from the mushrooms began to pulse and grow brighter. -
Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
Rhadamanthus > November 1st, 2005, 09:46 PM
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Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
VickiSilverwolf > November 2nd, 2005, 04:36 AM
They waited for the lifeboat to launch itself into some other place. And waited. And waited.
"I don't like this a bit," Rhadamanthus said. "We've never had to sit around like this."
"I cannot, yet I must," Victoria said.
"Huh?" Athena asked. "What are you talking about?"
"To laugh, feel, want! Why are these things not in the plan?" Victoria seemed dazed. "At what point on the graph do 'must' and 'cannot' meet?"
Liriodendron knelt to feel her forehead. "She's burning up. Vicki, honey, you're talking crazy. Do you feel OK?"
Niphredil searched through the lifeboat's supply for something that might help, and found some aspirin and wet cloths. With the efficient help of Elf Girl, they were able to calm Victoria down to the point where she was sitting quietly.
"In some strange way, the mind of the Ro-Man has taken over poor Vicki," Rhadamanthus explained. "I suppose because she's a devotee of the worst in cinematic entertainment."
"I don't understand," Tancred said.
"It's rather complicated, and completely insane," Rhadamanthus began. "See, way back in 1953 --"
Before he could continue, a loud thump rang through the lifeboat, and the vehicle began to shake from side to side.
"What's going on?" Elf Girl fiddled with the lifeboat's control until the viewscreen faded from full opacity to translucence.
The tree-like creatures held the lifeboat firm in the grip of their tentacles. Several of them rocked the vehicle back and forth, in an apparent attempt to get at its inhabitants.
"Nemo, get us out of here!" Niphredil shouted.
A blurred image of the sinister captain appeared in the center of the lifeboat. It faded in and out, as if he was having trouble communicating with them. Nemo seemed alarmed, almost in a panic.
"The Arboreals!" His voice crackled and broke up, like a cell phone with a bad connection. "They're everywhere, in all the parallel universes. Even the Naughtily is under attack!" As if to confirm his message, a piercing scream was heard in the background.
"Tell us all you know about the Arboreals," Rhadamanthus said as calmly as possible. "Maybe we can do something."
Nemo sighed. "They travel from planet to planet -- and even from reality to reality -- in the form of spores. Once they reach a new world, they quickly develop into adults, and feed on any kind of animal life they can find. They're nearly impossible to stop -- guns, lasers; nothing works. Right now the United Nations is debating launching nuclear weapons at the Moon to destroy them before they can reach Earth!"
"All those people on the Moon," Liriodendron said softly.
"Isn't there some other way?" Tancred asked.
"I think so," Nemo said. "If my calculations are correct, you've stumbled onto the home universe of the Arboreals, far enough back in time that they had not yet reached any other world. If they can be stopped now, before they start to spore, you'll save an infinite number of worlds. If you are successful, I'll send you back to you own time, on my word of honor."
"That and three dollars will buy me a latte mocha," Rhadamanthus muttered, "but I suppose we have no choice. How can we fight those things?"
By this time, Victoria had become agitated again. Before any of the others were aware of what she was doing, she had pulled open the door of the lifeship, jumped outside, and slammed it shut behind her. Her friends watched in horror, expecting the Arboreals to attack her at once. Instead, they seemed to ignore her and continued to batter away at the lifeboat.
"Maybe they're not as dangerous as they look," Elf Girl said.
"I doubt it," Rhadamanthus said. "I'm making a lot of assumptions, but this is what's happening, I think. The Arboreals have no ordinary sense organs. They probably sense their prey through telepathy. As far as they can tell, Vicki,in her possessed state, is a Ro-Man -- a machine rather than a living being, even if it looks like a gorilla with a diving helmet. They don't think they can feed on her, so they won't attack her."
"Sounds goofy to me," Niprhedil said.
"Goofy or not, it gives me a plan." Rhadamanthus turned to Tancred, who gripped his sword tightly, as if he was eager to test its steel against the Arboreals. "You didn't see any kind of animal life out there, did you?"
"No," Tancred said absently. "Not unless you count that gorilla-thing. But you said it wasn't really an animal."
"Correct," Rhadamanthus answered. "No beasts, no birds, no bugs of any kind. Unlikely, to say the least. I believe that the Arboreals have wiped out all animal life on this planet. They are starving."
"How does that help us?" Athena asked. "Won't that just make them more dangerous?"
"Indeed. But it also suggests a possible plan." Rhadamanthus went over the details of his scheme in detial with the others. The plan required finding the right equipment among the lifeboat's medical supplies. Fortunately, everything they required was in stock.
"Let's see," Liriodendron said. "I've got a big metal bowl."
"I've got the bandages and wound-healing ointment," Niphredil said.
"And I've got the scalpel," Tancred said.
"You have the most experience with blades, old man, so it's up to you to do the honors. I'll go first." Rhadamanthus rolled up his sleeve and offered his arm.
Although they were prepared for what was coming, they all felt a little queasy while watching it. With great care, Tancred cut his friend's arm, while Liriodendron collected the blood. After a minute or two, Niphredil treated the wound with the ointment and wrapped a bandage around it.
"That wasn't so bad," Rhadamanthus said bravely, "and Nemo's healing medication is downright miraculous. I've stopped bleeding already. Who's next?"
One by one they went through the same procedure, like some ancient sacrificial rite. At last, Tancred offered his own blood to the mixture.
"You know what to do?" Rhadamanthus said to Elf Girl. She nodded. "Very well. On the count of three. One, two, THREE!"
As planned, Tancred pulled open the hatch quickly, and Elf Girl threw the bowl of fresh blood as hard as she could at the nearest Arboreal. Tancred shut the door shut firmly, barely stopping a tentacle from grabbing at the courageous Elf Girl.
They watched as the blood-splattered Arboreal, seemingly confused, stumbled back from the lifeboat. Another Arboreal standing near it extended a tentacle toward the blood. A hideous slurping sound followed.
Suddenly there was a frenzy among the Arboreals as they attacked the one covered with blood. Furiously it fought back with its tentacles, slashing open wounds in the bark of its fellows. Soon the Arboreals were in open warfare, each one attacking its fellows mindlessly.
"It's working," Rhadamanthus said. "We've turned them into cannibals."
Soon there were dead Arboreals scattered around the lifeboat. At last, the biggest and toughest of them stood alone, with Victoria staring at it.
"Is there a choice between a painless surrender death and the horror of resistance death?" she said.
As if in response, the Arboreal fell backwards to the ground, like any ordinary tree chopped down by a woodman's axe.
Tancred saw his opportunity. He opened the hatch, rushed outside, and pulled Victoria back inside. As soon as the hatch had been resealed, the lifeboat made its familiar whirring noise. It was not very long before it stopped, and a familiar place appeared through the viewscreen.
"This is Vicki's house," Niphredil said. "They way it looked back in 2005! He did it! That rotten old Captain Nemo really did it."
"And in this world," Liriodendron said, "he's just a character in a book, thank goodness."
"It's so good to be back home," Athena said.
"What a crazy adventure," Elf Girl said.
"And it's over at last," Tancred added.
"At least until next year," Rhadamanthus said. "Vicki does have a way of getting us into all kinds of messes. Don't you, my dear?"
She turned to face him, with a strange look in her eyes. "I am Ro-Man. You are Hu-Man."
It seemed that they still had a problem on their hands. -
RE: Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
Agaricus > October 30th, 2020, 10:44 AM
Innocent times revisited:
Now it is Hallowe'en again And the Horror is real.
So it goes.
.
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RE: Hallowe'en Party IV: Bad Moon Rising
badlands > November 4th, 2020, 09:57 PM
Trick or treat. Thanks for the treat.