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FM was standing in a simple square room, with four braziers, one in each corner, all burning different colours. These weren’t normal flames however, as they did not give off coloured light, and the room remained smokeless, with a white light seeming to emanate from the walls and floor, with no shadows forming. In the middle of the room were two pedestals, about four feet apart. On top of them was a box. In it was FM’s father. FM turned as the guard stopped, bowing.
“Master.” Said Sniper, raising his head, looking into FM’s cold, hard eyes.
“You have your mission? You are ready to leave?”
“Yes Master.”
“Good.” FM turned back to look at the coffin, licking his fingers and rubbings his eyebrows again as he spoke. “This is just the first part my friend. I will have my revenge, I do not know when, but I will/”
“Yes Master.” There was an edge of concern in Snipers voice.
“What is wrong, my friend?”
“I do not know, Master. I think I am worrying with no reason.”
“Ah. You are concerned about the book, yes?” Sniper lowered his eyes. “Do not fear. I will find the book. MY magic grows with each passing month, soon I will have the power needed to find the book. Then, when it is mine, I will have unimaginable power!” FM felt a shiver run up his spine as he closed his eyes, imagining the power he would wield. He looked at Sniper. “You have your orders.”
“Yes Master Meister.”
“Go. Be swift, and do not fail me.” Sniper turned and left the room.
FM turned back to the coffin. As he walked around it, his fingers traced the inscription carved into the stone. He knew them all, word for word, but their feel comforted him. They were instructions on how to travel the underworld.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Wrath exploded through Meka’s mind. He screamed “No!” in a murderous rage as he leapt off the rock. With both hands he brought the sword up while still in mid-air. When he hit the ground he recoiled, swinging it around from behind in an arc. The sword whistled with its speed. The man had turned as Meka hit the ground. Seeing Meka coming, he brought his own sword up defensively, with lightning speed.
Meka watched as if in a dream as his sword come around. Every ounce of his strength went into trying to make the sword go truer, go faster. Be deadlier. The magic raged with his need. Meka looked from the mans sword, hard into the steel blue eyes. Mekas sword followed the track of his eyes, he heard himself still screaming. The man held his sword straight up, to deflect the blow.
Everything else around the man dissolved in Mekas vision. His anger, the magic, was unleashed like never before. No power on earth could deny him the mans blood.
He finished his arc, the sword coming round at eye height to the side of the mans head. It shattered through the mans sword, and exploded through his chainmail hood, bits of molten twisted metal flying off into the undergrowth. The sword continued its journey, making contact with the mans skull, and continuing through, out the other side of his head.
Bits of bone blood and brain flew up into the air as the early morning air was filled with a cloud of red mist. Steaks of blood covered Meka, dripped down his body, dribbled off his sword as he slowly lowered the point to the ground.
The mans body crumpled slowly to the ground, blood pumping out over the ground, mixing with the puddles already there. Meka could feel the cold mist help cool his body.
“Meka!” Meka awoke, a sheen of sweat over his whole body. “Meka, my brother, are you alright?” asked Grix.
“It was that dream.”
“Again?” Meka nodded in reply.
“Come on, get up, we have to meet the others soon.”
“Who?”
“You know, the others from the village. Dan2K1, Venombyte and Ant.”
“What about er-no, and YH?”
“They said they had something to do. They will meet us later.” Grix helped his brother to sit up.
“Ok, give me a few minutes." Grix nodded and left the room. Meka put his head in his hands as he thought about the dream.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Master Meister?” FM looked around.
“Yes?”
“I have some bad news Lord, about Sniper.”
“He hasn’t dies again has he?”
“Yes Lord, he fell off his horse.”
“How did that kill him?”
“Into the moat.”
“He can swim.”
“Yes Lord, but as he tried to climb out, he must have pulled the lever, the one you ordered put in?”
“I vaguely remember.”
“That let the piranhas in.”
“Ah. I should have expected something like this. He has a whole bloody palace to have his accidents in. I put all that sponge about so he wouldn’t hurt himself, and yet he falls into the piranha moat. Amazing. Nevermind, he will be back by now. Tell him to continue with his task. Tell him to be more careful next time.”
Everyone was in a small, dark room. There was nothing in the room, apart from a few blankets, on which the pygmies and our posse sat on.
"I guess so...well, it's not exciting, but it's calm and relaxing, and gives me time to think about the good things in my life," Ant said proudly.
FM looked interested, "Really?? What are they then?"
"I can't think of any at the moment."
"Ah."
“Wha you wan?” he said, still half asleep and desperate to get back there.
“Look Grix, “ replied FM sternly. “We all have to go to the old pygmy bloke in the tent over there, he wants to see all of us to determine whether we are honest and just.”
“Is Sniper going then?” asked Grix.
“Of course, he’s up already, come on.” FM turned to leave, paused for a minute and then turned back to face a slowly rising Grix. “What did you mean by that last comment?”
“Nothing.” Said Grix candidly.
- - -
They had eventually all gathered outside the tent of the old pygmy. The other pygmies stood in the distance, pointing and discussing the future of their traveller friends, not making it sound like they had a long one either. Pb and FM walked into the tent first, followed by the rest of them. It was a surprisingly spacious tent and they all found room inside.
“I particularly like the sunroof…” started YH before M16 nudged him in the ribs.
Pb cleared his throat. “Ahem. Wise pigmy man thing…” not the best of starts, but there it was, “um. We’re all here, just to let you know we only bring good intentions for the Grail.”
The pygmy lifted his head and looked directly at them all, seemingly staring each one of them in the eyes at the same time.
“Nice trick!” said YH suddenly. “Ever thought of working on TV?”
“Silence!” ordered the pygmy. “I have made my decision.” He stood up slowly, using his stick to balance, pb noticed that it had a small goat’s skull on the top. “Your souls tell me that you are to be trusted.” There was a sigh of relief from all present. “But, “ continued the old man, “there is one among you that would have this power for themselves and squander it…..and it may not be who you expect.”
As if by magic, a map unfolded in front of them. It had some old writing scribbled on the top and a big red x in the left hand corner. FM guessed this was where the grail was to be found. They took the map and walked out of the tent, as they left, the old pygmy fished around in a cylindrical container and revealed 5 more identical maps.
“I should start selling these…” he said to himself.
- - -
Sniper was busy chatting to several of the pygmies as the rest of the gang gathered up their stuff. He came back to the group and told them that 4 pygmies had volunteered to go with them on their dangerous quest for the grail. They had told him that tonight the pygmies would hold a farewell party in their honour, giving them luck for the journey.
"Good." Pb smiled to himself.
"But do I want to?"
"What?"
"Do I want to help you? How to I know that your intentions are honest and just? How do I know that you won't use the grail for evil and harm?"
"Well, I er, uh. Hang on." Pb walked outsied to FM and Venombyte. "Ok lads, there may be a problem."
"Why?"
"Well, he knew we are after the grail, without me telling him, and he knows where it is."
"Excellent! Whats the problem?"
"Well, he doesn't know whether he's going to help us or not."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he said 'Do I want to help you? How to I know that your intentions are honest and just? How do I know that you won't use the grail for evil and harm?' to me.
"Really? You remembered it word for word?" FM looked impressed.
"No, I copied and pasted it from earlier."
"Oh." FM looked crestfallen.
"So what are we going to do?"
"I think wait 'til everyone is awake and all go and see him in the morning."
"Do.. you... speak... English?" pb asked one of the pygmies
The pgymy looked at him blankly.
"We" said pb, pointing in turn to himself, FM, and VenomByte
"looking for" he continued, pointing to his eyes, then out to the distance.
"holy grail" he said, drawing an outline of the grail in the dirt.
"We.. looking for... holy grail" pb summarised.
The group looked at the pygmy, awaiting his reply.
The pgymy pointed to a tent on the far side of the camp. For some reason there weren't any others near it, almost as if they were afraid of the dweller who lay within.
The pygmy led them to the tent, and bid they enter.
FM bidded the others enter first.
VenomByte then bidded pb enter before him.
"bah" said pb
He looked at his feet for a moment, steeling himself, and then entered the tent, whilst pb and VenomByte waited outside, and the other pygmy ran off, looking like he'd seen a ghost.
Animal skulls hung on strings at the walls, and incence burners lay in the corners, filling the room with an unknown smell. In the center of the room was an elderly bearded pygmy, sat in the lotus position, meditating in the pentagram in the middle of the tent.
"Welcome" he said.
Or did he? pb knew he'd said it, but he wasn't entirely sure he'd actually spoken. It was vey disorientating.
"I know why you are here" pb distinctly thought he heard the mystic say.
"You speak English?" pb asked
"I.. speak your language." pb became aware the mystic had just said to him.
"Can you help us?" pb asked
He lay back, starring at the stars.
He decided to go for a walk. He danced along the cliffs, and looked down onto the sharp rocks below him.
"That would hurt, if he landed on those spikes..." Was the last thing that passed through his mind before the rocky spikes did.
--------------
NEWSFLASH
"Turbonutter, writer of the recent Fog Story, the swords and stuff one, has plunged to his death. It's believed he committed suicide after realising how pathetic his film was."
*Camera changes to another newsreader*
"Yup."
"Hang on!" said Sniper, and to the surprise of the rest of the gang, he started talking to them in a hitherto unknown language. "It seems," he said to the rest of the group, "that they heard we were coming and wanted to help us out."
"But they look so....hungry..." said FM with a gulp.
"Well, they've prepared a feast for us, but they expected us to appear from the tunnel a long time ago." explained Sniper. "They thought, from the many stories they've heard about our famed adventures, that this would be no problem to navigate."
"Well, I'm pretty hungry too." said Grix. "I suggest we follow them."
They worked their way through the massively overgrown forest of plants and followed the pigmies to a clearing where they saw a whole village of wooden huts and an inviting bbq in front of them.
"Great!" exclaimed M16, "I'm starved." and he ran ahead to get some of the succulent smelling food that was being cooked on the spit.
- - - -
The party went on throughout the night, there was a lot of dancing (which er-no claimed he could pick up quite well, but landed in the fire after spinning around once too often) and fireside storytelling as well. What amused them however, was how they treated Sniper. The stories that the pigmies had been told about the gang obviously mentioned Sniper as the main hero, considering his miraculous 'escapes' from death, so they considered him to be important enough to be heralded as a hero and almost treated as a king. Sniper loved every minute of it, especially after all the accidents that had befallen him daily.
pb, venombyte pulled FM off into a darkened corner. "We mustn't forget why we're really here..." said venombyte to the other two. "perhaps the pigmies could help us..."
Meanwhile, Mongoose man was exciting the crowd by balancing 10 of the pigmies on his shoulders while jumping over a hot fire and er-no was getting more and more drunk by the minute and coming up with some ‘original’ camp fire songs which he had allegedly composed himself.
“…turned into something ‘hic’ beautifooool….and you know, you knooooow I luv ya sooooooo…..” he sung as he swigged some more thistle wine.
The night drew in and eventually, as all the revelry died away, they all made their way to the guest huts that the pigmies had prepared for them.
Suddenly, and completely unexpectedly (although quite why it was unexpected I don't know as bits like this ALWAYS hapens in the films), Snipers head went out. They were left in the dark, bright after images in their eyes making in impossible to see for a few minutes.
They stood there in the dark, wondering what was going to happen next. Meka whirled round as he thought he heard something.
"Sorry." Said Grix, "It was the curry I had last night." The smell followed.
"Urgghhh! That stinks! What curry was it?"
"Brussel Sprout and Garlic. My favourite."
"Well, any bad things that were hanging around will have been killed of by the pong, so lets go outside and look at the map Tonys got." Said FM.
"Good thinking batman." Said YH. Everyone looked at him.
"You what?"
"Nevemind, lets go."
So they walked out. For some reason it took them a long time, and as they emerged out of the tunnel, the sun was just setting.
Also, there was a ring of torches at the cave entrance....
However, this Snake, is Solid Snake, ala Metal Gear Solid. However, he is not really Solid Snake, he's just some insane man who thinks he is Snake. And for no apparent reason is hanging around with us, and appears to hold no threat to anyone. He seems pretty harmless to me, actually.
"Damn."