NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="brujahbunny2" data-source="post: 1285416" data-attributes="member: 15197">HI Guys! Glad you're enjoying the story.This installment is not very dramatic. More of an exposition why the characters are fighting the bad guys. Merry Christmas to all.Chapter 6: Way to the Red RogersA grim voice rumbles out of the darkness.            “You’re free to go.” Swordsman Jack stared into the abysmal darkness ahead in stunned silence but recovered briefly to mummer a prayer of thanks to Pelor, the shinning god and took his sudden release from captivity as divine providence for his quest to restore his Lord.“You’re really lucky to get out of here kafir! Spared of the death penalty, no imprisonment…” the jailer caustically remarked as he opened the cell door rather unwillingly and stamping away the other miserable prisoners who tried to drag themselves out of the cell. “You must have friends in really high places.”Swordsman Jack thought of his Lord Pelor gleaming in the sky and said, “Naturally.”Outside, away from the piteous moans and pleas of the gulag, Swordsman Jack met his erstwhile ally, Archon Maxamillian Grey who was examining a poster that was stained yellow with age detailing the hierarchy of the prison staff.“I suppose that I have to thank you for my release.” Swordsman Jack asked.“Not me,” the Archon replied with a warm smile, “But the Church of Tyr. The Consular General was concerned by your revelation that the accursed House Belarus still exists and has ordered me to give you whatever aid necessary to uncover the truth of the matter.”“What of Putra? Would he be released as well?”“I’m afraid that Putra’s fate lies beyond the jurisdiction of the Magistrate. We will simply have to await his fate.”There was an unmistakable finality to those words. Unable to do anything meaningful, the two knights stood outside the prison in uncomfortable silence and waited for the outcome of their comrade’s judgment.Many terrible moments later, Putra Suryavharman stumbled out of the prison. His clothes were disheveled and his skin as pale as corpse. Putra struggled to stand as his knees threaten to buckle and his body shivered and quaked with and admixture of emotion and a proud warriors pride as he sought to hide his weakness from his friends. Only the immeasurable grief in his soulful eyes bore witness to the sundering of his spirit.  Grey opened his mouth to speak, to offer words of encouragement, anything to allay the grief of his friend. A bad joke or one of his old crime stories. Anything.But he was met by Putra’s outstretched hand. Putra was grieving but the last thing he wanted was for the pity of another.The three then made their way to the inn. These were dark days to be a hero in the desert. The three warriors strode through smoke-filled den of dereliction that sold a roof over the cold desert night for two coppers. “Ghafur’s Palace” was by no means the dwelling for the wealthy.  The inn keeper who was wiping glasses over the counter gave the good-looking gentlemen a toothy grin and raised the glass in salutations. The other men stared hushed silence at the nonchalant warriors and several feminine heartbeats raced in mute admiration. Only when they were out of sight did their merrymaking resume.Upstairs, Archon Grey took out the keys and unlocked the door. As the rickety door swung open, someone opened the door from the inside. It was Lian Wu Hai.“Greetings, my friends.”“Lian, by Tyr’s uninjured right arm, you’re… alive!” Grey burst out flabbergasted. “We thought that you were done in by those dammed demon assassin puffer fishes.""I guess, my detective friend that the rumors of my death have often been exaggerated. After all, I am able to reassume the forms of my past karmic existences." "Well, old chap, I don’t know how to put this and I don’t want to sound bloody rude but…what happened to the lower half of your body?”Lian was missing the lower half of his body and his face as well as one of his arms was encapsulated with shiny obsidian rock.Lian floated effortlessly in mid-air and started to relate the events that transpired in the lake and his brief encounter with the iniquity of House Belahrus. When he had awoken from his meeting with the Goddess of Mercy he had found himself deep in the Under Sea in his current condition and his lungs half filled with briny water. The rest of his body, still in its colossal serpentine form was severed from his torso and lay shattered, half submerged in the murky sea bed in spiral shaped pieces. The construct that bested him had wanted to ensure that Lian’s demise was terminal and the option of resurrection impossible.“Mehket’s gone. I’m sorry. But I have vowed to find him and rescue him from his captors. He left me this.” Holding up a luminous pearl of sheer exquisiteness, magic began to congregate around it casting sublime shafts of light to illuminate the room with buoyant splendor. Mehket’s voice, clear as the morning dew, sparkled from the gem, “Lian, you must not try to find Mehket no more. Mehket sorry not to be able to restore Lian fully. It is too far from the sun. Mehket… Mehket is … dying, Lian... Very Cold...  Hungry. No pearls to eat. Mehket is with very, very bad men. Many demons.  Mehket no want you to die. Not for Mehket’s sake. Please,if Mehket must die, Mehket die alone. The Red Rogers points the way to death. Mehket give you this pearl with a Wish in it. May you use it wisely and make the world a better place.You help Mehket tell Peter that Mehket loves him very much. Tell him, that Mehket is sorry for stealing things from greedy merchants and getting him into many trouble. Ask him to get new mount. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> A better horsey mount or maybe a cutie pony mount who listens to him. Ask him to help Mehket say goodbye to Darius and all those back at the dojo. Mehket will miss all of you, my friends. All of Mehket’s Magnificent Seven.”Swordsman Jack who had been listening intently to all of this while clenching the head rest of a chair snapped it in half as the missive ended. Was there no end to his father’s evil? Putra sat in the corner, lost in the maddening visions of his own purgatory. Rage, anger and sadness swelled around the room in dizzying levels. Only an aura of calm radiating from Lian brought a prescient moment of clarity to the party. It was Lian who asked, “Where is Canter?”</blockquote>

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