#3149  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     The species of the attacking pack registered in a distant part of Penthesilea’s mind. They were extinct in their native reality -- as she knew from her Keyholder studies -- where their fossilized remains had been given the the name velociraptor.  Unfortunately, at some point, a Reality Breach had allowed enough of them to enter the world to establish a breeding population in the dense jungles of the sparsely inhabited Southern Continent.  They were vicious and hard to capture but someone had managed it. There was no way that they could have gotten so far north on their own.
     Even as these thoughts were running through Penthesilea’s mind, she was fighting for their lives. MoonCat and Spirit were cutting a swath through the raptors in their powered armor. While the beasts could swarm them and bring them down, they lacked the jaw power to bite through the armor.  They were also too small to overcome the vastly superior strength that the armor gave the girls.  “Head’s UP!” Spirit bellowed and Penthesilea hit the dirt as a raptor, already dead from the force of Spirit’s blow, flew through the space she had been occupying to collide with another raptor that was about to jump her from behind. She rolled, fired her blaster into the chest of the stunned animal and then rolled clear as both bodies toppled onto the spot where she had dropped. As she came up, she heard a scream and looked in time to see Daemon, wielding a blaster rifle in one hand and his sword in another, split the skull of a raptor that was about to jump Satira. 
     MoonCat! Get Satira to one of the sleds! She can do more good up there! MoonCat didn’t answer. She simply grabbed the larger woman and leaped for the nearest supply sled that the gremlins were using as a gun platform to pick off stray raptors. She deposited Satira safely on the sled and then dropped back into the fray, landing in a clutch of raptors with her blasters blazing.  For her part, Satira quickly recovered from her abrupt change in location, grabbed a gun and joined in the sharp shooting. On the ground, the weres were more than holding their own. Their grief and rage gave them strength beyond the norm for their kind and the raptors would certainly do to vent their feelings on until the cause of their grief came into their hands.
     The raptors weren’t unintelligent. The survivors quickly realized that safely from the airborne snipers could be found in the press of the fight so they closed with the weres in savage tooth and claw fighting which suited the Wolfkin just fine.  The clearing where they had made camp became a sea of snarling, roaring chaos. The gremlins and Satira were unable to find targets in the clear and so ceased firing although they kept watch for any additional raptors or anything else that might be incoming!
     MoonCat and Spirit were fighting tooth and nail, keeping the raptors away from several badly wounded weres. For their part, Daemon and Penthesilea had holstered their energy weapons and were fighting with swords which, in the hands of the Divinely descended siblings, were proving highly effective.  And then, it was over. All the raptors were dead. The weres that were still standing looked around them and saw that they had won. Nightdeath lifted her snout to the sky and howled in victory, her tribemates a few seconds behind her.  Penthesilea rushed to the spot where her girls had gathered and protected the wounded. The Wolfkin would have no one new to mourn if she had anything to say about it! The girls knew their mother’s mind and quickly directed her to the most seriously wounded. Penthesilea’s hands glowed with the healing spell that she had so often used on Kodiak and all the wounded were healed within five minutes of the beginning of the attack.

#3151  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     A few minutes later Lord Stephan and his rescue party roared into the clearing on their airbikes. Much to their surprise, the clearing was quiet and empty, except for the carcasses of the slain raptors. The outriders immediately began to circle the clearing to secure it while Lord Stephan and the others looked for some sign of the Wolfkin and the other members of the party. Finding none, Lord Stephan signaled for everyone to power down their bikes and, as one, the bikes settled to the ground and idled. None of them noticed the small noise that was Nightdeath’s signal to her people. They sprang from cover and knocked Lord Stephan’s men from their seats, pining them to the ground. In the hasty conference in which the ambush was planned, Daemon had claimed the lord for his own and his lordship found himself being manhandled by the much larger Daemon as if he were a child.  Lord Stephan looked up from the ground where Daemon had thrown him and was keeping him with a booted foot. Penthesilea looked down at him with a slightly amused expression on her face.
     “Lord Stephan, fancy running into you way out here. Since these lands are not part of Paradise Valley and are part of the lands that I claim, I must ask you to explain why you are out here,” she held up one of the heavy weapons carried by his men. “and obviously expecting a considerable amount of trouble in my peaceful lands.”
     Before Lord Stephan could begin to frame a lie, the air was suddenly filled with harsh, terrified screams. As one Penthesilea and Daemon turned to see a scene from nightmare....

#3153  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     “Report!” Penthesilea snapped. The gremlin leader did so, giving her report in rapid fire gremlinese that the Keyholder understood perfectly well. The fight had been short and to the point. The scorpion-men had been armed with blaster rifles too and had come near to bringing the sleds down. Daemon and Lord Stephan had been taken alive. Lord Stephan’s men had been killed and as far as the gremlins could tell, all of the Wolfkin had escaped and were following the retreating scorpion-men at a safe distance. “We need to get back to the clearing. We need the airbikes.”  Penthesilea climbed on one of the sleds while MoonCat and Spirit bounded back to the clearing to be sure it was secure before their basically unarmored mother and the gremlins arrived. While in transit, Penthesilea went to the equipment locker on the sled that held her armor and she pulled it out. It wasn’t mobile armor like what the girls were wearing but despite its appearance it was extremely high tech. It would certainly protect her from the creatures’ claws should one of them try to crush her. She quickly pulled it on and was ready for action when they reached the clearing and while the sled carrying Satira stayed airborne, the other with Penthesilea aboard descended into the clearing. MoonCat had already checked out a number of the airbikes.
     “ A few of them are damaged but there are enough left for us and some of the Wolfkin.”
     “Good,” Penthesilea said as she mounted up.  “We need to be able to outmaneuver those things. They waited until everyone was on foot before they attacked.” MoonCat and Spirit mounted up as well, they would save the power in their suits for the coming battle, and gremlins mounted the remaining bikes. The sled rose silently and, after setting the air bikes to “stealth mode”, they headed out with the Keyholder in the lead.
     The gremlins had no trouble spotting the scorpion-men from the air. They were traveling at speed and making no effort to hide.  Penthesilea, MoonCat and Spirit quickly closed with them and located the Wolfkin. Several of them opted to ride the airbikes in order to harry the scorpion-men more easily while others stayed in wolf form to take advantage of the concealment the forest offered. The gremlins who had ridden the bikes returned to the sleds and took up their former positions as gunners and spotters.
     Mom, I can’t raise Uncle Daemon, Mooncat said over the inspeaking.
     I know. He’s unconscious. I can’t tell yet how badly he’s hurt or if he’s hurt at all but so far, it doesn’t “feel” like he is. Penthesilea replied.  Just then a crackle of gremlinese came over the headsets they had donned before beginning the pursuit. The scorpion-men were slowing down....

#3155  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     The Wolfkin who were following the scorpion-men while in wolf-form were able to evade all attempts to detect them. They quickly came to the conclusion that while the creatures might have, in part, the form of humans, they were considerably less intelligent. This information was relayed to their packmates who, in turn, informed Penthesilea who greeted that conclusion with relief. She had feared that they were as intelligent as centaurs or minotaurs. MoonCat put forth the opinion that trying to achieve a successful cross between mammalian human and an arachnid -- even a giant one -- was not likely to produce a species that was either particularly intelligent or sustainable.
     “Define ‘sustainable,’” Penthesilea demanded.
     “They aren’t likely to be fertile with each other. They would need humans to breed the next generation,” MoonCat replied. Or at least to keep their gene pool fresh. Either way, I wouldn’t want to be a captive.
     Penthesilea thought of her brother in the creatures’ hands and increased her airbike’s speed.

#3156  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     Daemon came awake slowly, every inch of his muscular body screaming. The pain helped to clear his head so he didn’t complain. “Pain is good,” his father always said.  “It means that Uncle Hades isn’t your new landlord.”  Daemon was aware of movement, being carried. He’d be captured. Big surprise. He concentrated on retrieving his last memory. Surrounded. Fighting. Killing. Taking a penetrating, stabbing blow in the back. Burning. Numbness. Darkness....
     Daemon cautiously opened his eyes a bit. It took him a moment to realize that he was bound across the back of one of the creatures. They all seemed to be rapidly scuttling toward something, much faster than a horse could run. Probably their nest or whatever they called their home base. Daemon didn’t particularly care for the idea of being in a nest/colony/whatever full of these things but a quick test told him that he was still too much under the effects of whatever they had dosed him with to fight his way free. He didn’t even bother testing his bonds.  He knew that even if his muscles did respond, he was still too weak to break them. He closed is eyes to slits and played unconscious.
     A few moments later, he heard the faint sound of mental voices calling him and recognized the mind voices of Penthesilea, MoonCat and SpiritFire. The sound itself was faint but he got the sense from them that they were still free and attempting to locate him. He repressed the urge to grin at that. This sister, her girls and the gremlins would be in hot pursuit of him and would deal messy, violent death to anyone or anything that got in the way. The Wolfkin might come as well if he was any judge although he would certainly understand if Nightdeath kept her savaged packtribe out of this particular fight. Still, even preadolescent Wolfkin were known to take on ridiculous odds just for the hell of it so it wasn’t out of the question.  Daemon tried focussing his thoughts enough for the inspeaking without success. Whatever his captors had hit him with was still interfering with his thought processes but he did not despair. His sister and nieces were out there, free and tracking him. He would concentrate on regaining motor control and be ready to break free and fight when they found him.

#3158  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     Penthesilea and Nightdeath returned to the waiting group of Wolfkin and gremlins. Penthesilea was already thinking furiously. “Kafindel, you will take one of the sleds back to the Castle and report to Sir Michael.” The female gremlin chattered back to her in gremlinese and Penthesilea replied. “I don’t want to use the coms. Those things might be able to listen in if they have somehow tapped into Paradise Valley’s communications grid. I’ll send Sir Michael written instructions so you will not have to explain, only lead him back here.” The gremlin nodded and Penthesilea looked toward Satira. “Satira. I want you to go back with them, in case Sir Michael has any questions that my note doesn’t cover. He doesn’t understand gremlinese and Kafindel has a bit of an accent.”  Penthesilea had noticed that the other woman was a shade of “pale” rarely seen even on women as blond as she and Penthesilea really had no desire to take her on such a mission if she was likely to lose her nerve at an inopportune moment. Things were likely to be hairy enough without that!
     While Penthesilea talked to the gremlins and Satira, Nightdeath briefed her people. As she expected all of them volunteered to go underground with the Keyholder. In short order, one of the supply sleds lifted off, heading for the Castle with a skeleton crew and Satira aboard. The rest of the gremlins, armed to the fangs, and the Wolfkin gathered around Penthesilea and Nightdeath.
     “MoonCat and Spirit have scanned the tunnel as far as their sensors can reach. It goes in straight and level for about 300 feet. Then it turns to the left and that is as far as they can see,” Penthesilea began. “They will go into the tunnel first, in stealth mode, with the first squad of gremlins in support.” The gremlins of the first squad grinned toothily and gripped their weapons tighter. “The Wolfkin and I will follow with the second squad of gremlins. I don’t need to tell you to stay alert for anything. We don’t know what these creatures can do and I’m betting that underground lairs are their natural habitat.”
     “Moondark, I want you, SummerRain, AmberEyes, RedDeath and MorningStar in full wolf form,” Nightdeath said, “you will take the point right behind the Keyholder’s daughters. The rest of you take the transitional form.” She changed herself with her packtribe transforming only seconds behind her. Confident that they were as prepared as they could be in the time that they had, Penthesilea nodded and led the way back to the tunnel entrance.

#3160  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     Daemon managed to feign unconsciousness for the entire journey into the creatures’ stronghold. He was even able to suppress a grin when Lord Stephan came around and began a tirade that made it abundantly clear to Daemon that the Lord of Paradise Valley was very well acquainted with their captors. He had a harder time maintaining his composure when the man’s furious outburst turned first to outrage and then to terrified screaming. Daemon opened his eyes a slit and watched at the struggling man was dragged from the chamber.
     With Lord Stephan and the creatures out of sight, Daemon surveyed his surroundings as best he could without giving away the fact that he was conscious.  The chamber appeared to be large and hewn from solid rock. It was lit, although dimly and he surmised that the creatures did not really care for bright light.  Carefully, Daemon shifted his form just enough to affect his eyes. Now, he could see in the dark as well or better than the creatures. He continued to survey the room and wait for his strength to return.

#3162  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     The death scream of a gremlin was the only warning that they had. Penthesilea turned at the sound to see sections of the tunnel wall behind them collapse and a dozen of the creatures pour out of the openings.
     MOM!! The Keyholder didn’t need an explanation. What was happening behind them was also happening in front. They were surrounded. She dove toward the center of the tunnel to get a clear field of fire and opened fire with her blaster even as she heard the girls open up on the foes that faced them.  The Wolfkin howled challenges and charged into the fray.
     With both the Wolfkin and the gremlins in the midst of the scorpion-men, Penthesilea and her girls had to pick their shots carefully. Suddenly there was a loud pop behind her and a moment later, a spell flowed into Penthesilea’s mind, courtesy of her younger daughter.  Without hesitation, Penthesilea focussed her attention on a target and cast the spell. In mid-scream and as he about to impale one of the Wolfkin, the scorpion-man that was Penthesilea’s target exploded. The Keyholder found the result extremely messy but given the lack of “soft spots” on their opponents, she was not in a  position to be fastidious!   She heard two pops behind her in quick succession and knew that MoonCat was covering her more magickally adept sister while SpiritFire cast the spell. Penthesilea hurried to catch up with her daughter’s “confirmed kill” count. They all knew that every moment that they were delayed was a moment during which enemy reinforcements could arrive. They could be overwhelmed by simple numbers.

#3164  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     “They just keep coming!” Someone screamed and Penthesilea had to agree. It was doubtful that the Gods Themselves knew how long these things had been breeding under the valley. There could be millions of them against a handful of humans, Wolfkin and gremlins.  Even as she fought like the Amazon she was, Penthesilea had to consider the option of an area transport spell to get her people to safety, even if it meant leaving her brother behind.  It would do Daemon no good if they were all killed or captured. Reinforcements would be coming from the Castle but without the advantage of surprise, they would likely suffer unacceptable losses if they went underground even to the point of being wiped out. That would leave the Castle and its people defenseless and that Penthesilea could not allow. The situation was becoming more dire by the second.  Three gremlins had been crushed when the creatures had broken into the tunnel but everyone else was still alive but Penthesilea couldn’t expect that circumstance to remain unchanged. Some of the Wolfkin had been injured and it was only a matter of time before one of them was a fraction too slow.
     Mother, I can’t get a reading on our location, Spirit reported with a confirmation coming from her sister a moment later. Penthesilea was too busy killing to swear. Without an exact location, a teleport was suicidal and the situation was getting more dire by the second. They had to get out of the trap. And fast.
     “Incoming!” One of the Wolfkin screamed and Penthesilea made up her mind. She called up a spell, a simple energy blast of devastating power, picked a target and released it. The clean hole that it created sloped upward.  Penthesilea didn’t know how far they were from the surface. She hoped that it wasn’t far. MoonCat launched a bomb and covered her sister as SpiritFire charged into the newly made escape tunnel. She would get to the end of it, calculate as best she could the proper angle to get them to the surface and let fly with the appropriate spell.  Penthesilea provided cover as they began to fall back. Having another escape route at hand, she collapsed the tunnel that scorpion-men had used to reach the forest, also  closing the side tunnel that they were using to come in behind them and crushing more than a dozen of them in the process. That left her with only one direction to watch as they continued their retreat. She didn’t know what would happen once they broke into the open air but they would be out of the trap and would have more options. Paradise Valley had a sizable Guard and she suspected that the sudden appearance of the scorpion creatures in the midst of their hedonistic enclave would spur them to action. If it didn’t, well... Jasmine had made it clear that Paradise Valley was not Penthesilea’s problem.
     All of the gremlins and most of the Wolfkin were in the tunnel and heading upward when Penthesilea heard a familiar sound above the din of battle. She dispatched the foe in front of her and looked in the only direction from which it could be coming. The sound came again, closer this time, and Penthesilea smiled as her brother in his transitional form between man and lion tore through the ranks of the opposition leaving twitching monster parts in his wake. When a final leap brought him to her side, she saw that he had Lord Stephan strapped to his muscular back and nodded. Mission Accomplished she said to herself and then inspoke to Daemon. Into the tunnel, we’re getting out of here! Daemon didn’t answer as he followed the last of the Wolfkin into the tunnel. Penthesilea let loose with a blinding flash of energy, turned and ran.  She could tell from the sounds behind her that at least some of the monsters had avoided being dazzled by her light blast but she didn’t stop to correct that oversight. She charged into the tunnel and right past the Wolfkin and gremlins who opened fire with blaster rifles as soon as she dove past them.  She kept on running. The sooner that they were out of the dead-end tunnel and back in the open air, the better their chances of survival were.
     Report! Penthesilea’s order to her daughters was answered by MoonCat.
     We’ve added three hundred feet to the tunnel but we haven’t broken through yet. We can’t get a fix on the surface, something is interfering with our sensors.
     Penthesilea allowed herself a mild curse as she skidded to a stop beside her daughters. To judge from the sounds coming up the tunnel, they were out of time and trapped unless Penthesilea could open a way to the surface. She quickly sorted through the spells available to her and selected one. It was a transformation spell and she would have to hold her concentration until she broke through to the surface. As the sounds of battle grew louder, she set the parameters of the spell, gathered her power and turned it on the ceiling. Instantly a hole appeared over her head and a rush of air flowed down as the earth was changed to air. Ten feet. Twenty feet. One hundred feet....
     Penthesilea held firm, holding her concentration and forcing the spell ever upward. even as the strain began to tell on her. The spell was not intended to be used in this manner but it was the best one for their situation. Three hundred feet.. and with a sigh, Penthesilea grayed out, slumping to the tunnel floor.  Spirit immediately began a restorative spell as the gremlins swarmed up the sides of the “escape hatch.” They reached the top of the shaft and quickly placed their remaining bombs, set the timers and dropped back down the shaft, yelling at MoonCat in gremlinese. The second that the last gremlin had landed beside her, MoonCat extended her battlesuit’s force field into the shaft as far as it would go. She hardened it just as the bombs the gremlins had planted went off..   

#3166  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     The ground sensors in MoonCat and SpiritFire’s battle suits gave them a few seconds warning. Both of them were canny enough to realize what was happening. They clicked open the external speakers on their suits and screamed a warning as the ground started to give way in a dozen places.  The sudden appearance of dozens of the scorpion-men threw most of the Valley’s defenders into a panic. In the near distance, Penthesilea could hear the screams of the dying and knew that Paradise Valley was no longer “paradise” - - if had ever been. The much ballyhooed “Shield Against Evil” had proven inadequate to the task and now the complacent inhabitants would die in the claws of their attackers if Penthesilea and her forces could not stop them.
     We need air support! Penthesilea inspoke to her daughters.
     They’re incoming, Mother,” Spirit replied as she dove into battle, blasting a scorpion-man apart as he lunged toward a clot of fear frozen Valley “warriors.” We just have to hold these things until they get here.
     MoonCat chimed in as she leaped upward to avoid blaster fire that missed her and hit one of her foes instead. Do you have an ETA on that air support, sister? We’re outnumbered if you haven’t noticed.
     I’ve noticed, Spirit replied. Sir Michael is incoming with the first wave. ETA is five minutes. The second wave is scrambling now.
     Five minutes is a very long time, Penthesilea observed as she covered the “retreat” of the Commander of the Valley’s guard and the men she had brought with her. The rout in progress confirmed the Keyholder’s opinion that the woman was a base coward and had likely gotten her position based on her friendship with Jasmine rather than any skill at fighting or leadership. Now that she was fighting out in the open with room to move and much fewer worries about hitting allies, Penthesilea pulled out the “big guns” in her magickal arsenal and Spirit was following her lead. MoonCat wasn’t as adept at magick as her sister but she more than made up for it in other ways. The three of them headed for the greatest concentrations of the scorpion-men and waded into them. As they had hoped, this action resulted in a high body count among their foes.  They also attracted considerable attention from them which they considered a good thing as well. The more of the creatures that came after them, the fewer there were for Daemon, the Wolfkin and the gremlins to handle as the Valley’s residents fled for their lives. There was no sign of Jasmine which didn’t surprise Penthesilea. Kodiak wasn’t there to impress or seduce so it stood to reason that Jasmine would be no where to be found. For all her claims of warriorhood, Lord Stephan’s daughter was nothing more than a little girl playing Amazon who, when there was serious fighting to be done, ran and hid behind the nearest real male warrior. Unfortunately, most of the people of Paradise Valley had believed Jasmine’s claims of battle prowess and magickal accomplishment and now, as a result, they were dying under the claws of monsters Jasmine’s “magick” had been unable to keep out. 
     Penthesilea looked for more foes and saw a sight that filled her with horror. A dozen of the scorpion-men were surrounding a group of screaming children while a dozen yards in the opposite direction, Alea and her men were being overwhelmed. The Keyholder did not hesitate. She cast a “line of sight” teleportation spell to put herself between the children and the monsters. Alea and her men were on their own. The sudden appearance of the Keyholder in their midst, her hands blazing with power as she arrived, startled the scorpion-men and she took the initiative. She threw a fast shield around the children and released the power charge in her right hand. Four scorpion men ceased to exist even as she released the charge in her left and more died. The survivors fell back and Penthesilea  used the precious seconds to teleport the children to safety in the Castle’s Main Courtyard.  She heard screaming and looked toward the sound in time to see Alea cut in half by a scorpion-man’s claw. The screaming continued for some seconds after the pieces of her body fell from its claw. The bodies of the Guard Commander’s unit were being pulled apart by the monsters and when there was nothing left but bloody shreds, the monsters looked toward the Keyholder. Penthesilea summoned power, so much that her hair stirred in the upwelling of it, loaded it into her spell and released it!  The flash was blinding, the shockwave enough to knock a wild bull off of its feet and when it was gone, Penthesilea stood alone in a circle of devastation twenty yards wide. With the immediate area cleared, she ran toward the sound of conflict. Innocents were still in danger!
     A tremendous explosion that nearly knocked her off of her feet, followed by a shower of unidentifiable body parts signaled the breech and ignition of one of the Valley’s gas lines. An enormous pillar of flame roared upwards from the crater and Penthesilea could see larger bits of scorpion-men being incinerated around the edge. She had no time to wonder how the line had been breached or to deal with it. More of the creatures were pouring out of the holes that they had made and they were near to overrunning the Valley.  Penthesilea focussed on a mass of creatures exiting one of the sinkholes and cut loose with her most powerful magickal energy blast, killing scores with one shot. She had to make every blast count. She was strong in her magick and feats that would put other adepts on their backs for weeks, she performed without breaking a sweat. But even she had her limits and there seemed to be no end to their foes. Even as the smoke cleared from her blast, more creatures clawed their way past the dead into the Valley and Penthesilea prepared another blast.
     “Time to go, Mom!” Penthesilea suddenly found herself swept up and away by her oldest daughter as MoonCat grabbed her and, taking leaps that covered twenty feet at a time, carried her clear of the area of greatest enemy concentration. Before Penthesilea could ask what was up, she got her answer as rockets began to roar down, targeting the sinkholes and blowing them, and those coming out of them, to hell.
Sir Michael and the calvary had arrived....

#3168 Rewritten by Penthesilea

     Penthesilea had immediately established contact with Sir Michael upon his arrival and within minutes, the scorpion men were on the run. In addition to the gunships, troops mounted on airbikes were pursuing the creatures wherever they went and destroying them out of hand. Heavily armored ground troops began to clear and secure what remained of Paradise Valley and getting what was left of the inhabitants to safety. Once Penthesilea was sure that all the inhabitants of the valley that were still within its confines and alive were safe, she and Daemon donned the heavy armor that had been brought for them and with MoonCat and SpiritFire, they led the assault down into the creatures’ lair below the valley.
     The fighting was bloody and vicious but so many of the scorpion men had taken part in the surface assault and had died there that there were relatively few adult warriors left to defend the nest. Those that remained where no match for the heavily armed Castle troops that had been outfitted based on the recommendations sent back by the Keyholder and firmly reenforced by the gremlins and Satira. No quarter was given nor was it asked. It was Daemon’s opinion that the creatures were incapable of asking for mercy and his sister shared his opinion. While they might have, at least in part, the form of human beings they were as alien -- if not moreso -- than anything that had ever come through a Reality Breach. Finally, the Keyholder’s forces could find no living scorpion-men on the surface or in the tunnels. The fact that no sign of a reproducing caste had been found worried Penthesilea, Daemon and the girls but despite vigorous searching, no trace of them or where they could have gone could be found. Reluctantly, they left the underground lair and returned to the surface. Fresh troops would go back down the next day and scour the place clean but for the moment, everything was quiet and it had been a long day and night.  Sir Michael took command and while Penthesilea, Daemon and the rest of their expedition made a secure camp in a reasonably undamaged part of the valley and slept.

#3170  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     As was her custom, Penthesilea arose at dawn to sing for Apollo. As was not her custom, she returned immediately to her bedroll since the brief sleep she had enjoyed between the time she laid down and the dawn had been decidedly insufficient to erase the fatigue that resulted from the activities of the previous evening. It was nearly noon before she rose again in the company of the Wolfkin, gremlins and her family.  One of the gremlins brought her a plate of hot breakfast that Penthesilea proceeded to consume with the singlemindeness of an old campaigner. She was virtually certain that no monsters were going to jump out of the bushes and disrupt her meal. But if they did she wanted most of it inside of her and not still on the plate!  Once she had a full meal tucked away along with several cups of strong tea, she was ready to face the day and sought out Sir Michael.  She found Sir Kevin instead who informed her that Lord Stephan had regained his senses enough to order that he and his surviving people be given transport to another of his palaces until such time as he had the strength to restore Paradise Valley to its proper glory. Sir Michael, anticipating that Penthesilea would be thrilled to have the annoying nobleman out of her hair and having no valid reason to hold them in what had become a disaster area and likely breeding ground for disease, had agreed and was even then leading the airlift that was taking the evacuees to said far distant palace. As much as she would have liked to question Lord Stephan more closely about the raptor attack, Penthesilea knew that she really had no solid evidence of his involvement. Not yet anyway. She fully intended to take advantage of the opportunity to thoroughly search the valley and find out exactly what Lord Stephan’s intentions were!

#3172  Rewritten by Penthesilea 

     A loud squawk over the command channel caused Penthesilea to look up in time to see a transport bearing the markings of Lord Stephan’s fleet spin out of control as it passed over the ruins of the settlement. It managed to get beyond the already devastated area before crashing. Penthesilea sprinted for her airbike.  She didn’t know who was aboard the transport -- she thought that everyone who wished evacuation had already left -- but any survivors would need help. She zoomed out of the settlement heading for the crash site while behind her, her people scrambled to follow her with assistance for the injured. Penthesilea was quickly in the forest and headed up the mountainside, a thick plume of smoke marking the crash site for her. She reported the location over her comunit and continued to the site while hoping that there were survivors.
     Penthesilea roared into the clearing in time to see the Wendigo tear a chunk of flesh from Coral’s side. Fortunately, the woman was already dead and Penthesilea fired her airbike’s forward cannons, hitting him squarely, while yelling into her comunit. She flashed past him before he could grab her and she pulled the airbike into a hard turn to make another pass at him.  She knew that the Wolfkin had a prior claim but she figured that they would not object too much if she managed to kill him before he could escape again. The Wendigo moved with astonishing speed. He dropped his prey and ran, disappearing into the forest with Penthesilea in pursuit.
     Penth! Don’t let it grab you! Daemon yelled in the inspeaking.
     I have no intention of letting that happen. she replied. But I AM going to keep that damned thing in sight! She increased her speed accordingly. Get your butt up here! It’s trying to give me the slip!
     The next several minutes were consumed by Penthesilea’s relentless pursuit of the Wendigo. She knew that if she lost sight of it she might not be able to find it again, given its supernatural nature, and she did not want such a creature running loose in her lands. Suddenly, a Portal opened ahead of her and to the left and the transformed Wolfkin, led by Daemon in his lion form, charged through followed by MoonCat and finally FireSpirit who collapsed her Portal spell behind her. The last thing she wanted was for the Wendigo to use her Portal to get back to the settlement.
     Sir Kevin is establishing a force perimeter around the area with us as the centerpoint Spirit reported. He knows that the Wolfkin have First Claim and won’t bring reinforcements inside the perimeter unless one of us calls for them.
     Good Penthesilea replied and, with her daughters, supplied support for the vengeful Wolfkin as they closed on their quarry which finally turned to fight. Some of the Wolfkin shifted from full wolf to the transitional form to take full advantage of their gifts now that the prey had been brought to bay. The scene froze for a split second, then the Wolfkin leaped to the attack and Penthesilea and her daughters could see nothing but a swirling, snarling mass that screamed and roared in voices that were a mixture of animal and human and in the midst of it was Daemon in his transitional lion form attacking with as much savagery as the Wolfkin, his mind swirling with grief and rage. The beast yowled his defiance but, despite his savagery and his own gifts, he was, in the end,  no match for the maddened Pack. He went down and when Nightdeath tore his beating heart from his chest and held it aloft, they lifted their voices in howls of victory -- and one voice that roared.  With contempt, Nightdeath dropped the dead heart back into the chest cavity.
     “You are meat to be wasted..” she began the ancient curse and the others repeated it after her.  Daemon spoke it as well, his voice strong even though his family could feel his grief through the inspeaking. Vengeance had been had, his grief was purged and healing could begin. It was, finally, over.