------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is early morning in Kussos now and appears that it is going to be
 another beautiful day. The sun is peeking up over the water, a light
 misting of dew covered the grass. There were sounds of the town slowly
 starting to wake and start the day. Also in the air was the haunting
 melody of the PiPis...or at least haunting to one person.

Darrow sat atop a PiPi glaring at Hans, who was currently feeding a
 fiffle fish to his PiPi and patting it on the head. The PiPi cooed
 appreciatively to Hans. Darrow shook his head at this display. He
 really couldn't understand Hans's fascination for these pink creatures.
 Ever since the discovery of the PiPis Hans insisted on riding the PiPi
 everywhere. Not only did the PiPis make an annoying sound wherever they
 went, but the only way to get them to stay was to feed them fiffle
 fish, which Hans had plenty of. Now a barbarian has a fairly unique
 aroma as it is, add to that the smell of three week old fish and it
 doesn't get much more pleasant. 

"I don't see why we have to ride these things, horses would be less
 annoying and less smelly. These PiPis were only necessary to get the
 the Grand Druid."

"I like ze PiPis, they are friendly and..."

"Pink, they are pink Hans!" Darrow's rant was interrupted by the arrival
 of Julian and Arica. Darrow leapt off the back of his PiPi causing it
 to run off. When the other PiPi saw his friend take off, it ran off as
 well, along with the bag of fiffle fish that Hans had just finished
 strapping onto the PiPi.

"Oh no, there goes all ze fiffle fish." Hans cried.

'What a shame," Darrow said smiling, then turning to Julian and Arica he
 said, "So I see you've decided to join us."

Julian looked a little embarrassed and said, "Yes, I think I am ready to
stop moping and feeling sorry for myself. It's time to be a hero again.
Hans, I'd like to thank you for bringing me to my senses and I also
wanted to apologize for my outburst."

Hans clapped Julian on the shoulder, almost knocking him over. "No
problem Julian, zat iz what fiends are for."

Julian smiled and then looked around. "I see that Aquila isn't here. The
last time I saw her she was being dragged off to jail. It appears that a jail break is in order."

============================================
Saving the World Again

Chapter 20: Together Again

Started by Thomas Wilde
This Chapter by Jennifer Gatlin
============================================

"No no no, don't pour it yet Julian." Darrow snapped.

"Why not?" Julian asked straining under the weight of a large bag of
black powder.

Darrow sighed and explained again, "If you pour too much before I have
the mixture right, the boom will be too big."

"I don't see why you had to get such a large bag if you only needed a
little bit Darrow." Julian said, adjusting his grip on the huge bag.

"Vell there was a sale and it seemed a shame to get ze smaller bag."
Hans said.

"That is the last time I take Hans shopping with me for supplies."
Darrow muttered and went back to work at the powders he was mixing.

Julian felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned, causing the bag
to slip a little and begin to leak black powder out slowly. Aquila was
standing there with a bemused look on her face.

"Why hello guys, what do you think you are doing?"

"Oh, hi Aquila. Well we were...uh...kind of trying to break you out of
jail. So when did you get out?"

"How sweet of you, I thought you had forgotten all about me. You should
have checked inside though, I got out about 15 minutes ago. I've been
standing here watching you for about 10 minutes."

"Yeah, guess we can cancel the jail break. Hey, Aquila, I'd like to
apologize..."

"Julian," Darrow said, watching the black powder start to smoke as it
came in contact with the powders he had mixed, "I think you should save
your apologies for later."

Darrow jumped up and pushed Julian and Aquila out of the way just in
time to avoid getting hit with rubble as the back wall of the jail blew
apart. From the hole in the wall a figure dressed in black robes jumped
out. "The fates have set me free to be able to help my great master
Damane." He cackled madly and then ran down the street shouting, "Damane
lives!"

Aquila broke the shocked silence, "Oh, that's Bob. We should probably go
after him. I'm not sure how sane he is, but the entire time I was in
jail he kept babbling about how him and some other followers of Damane
were going to reunite Damane's soul with his body."

"Sounds like a pretty good reason to catch up with him." Julian said and
started off after Bob.

==========
Damane walked down the red carpet to the throne where Herald was seated.
He seemed right aat home sitting there on the throne with four scantily
clad women surrounding him. Two of them were currently fanning him using
huge feathers, one was rubbing his feet and the fourth woman was feeding
Herald grapes. The throne room itself was filled with people drinking,
eating and basically having a good time. Herald smiled at Damane as he
approached the throne.

"Hello there Damane. Ah, life is good." Herald paused to eat a grape
offered to him by the beautiful red head fawning over him. "I really
don't see why you bother yourself with world domination. I don't think
you realize what you were missing with all of these beauties right here
with you." 

"Nice to see you are enjoying yourself Herald, but as you can probably
see by my ghostly state that I am once again without a body. So I am
here to claim what is mine."

Herald was currently occupying himself by sucking on the fingers of the
red head feeding him grapes. Damane cleared his throat. 

"Yes Damane?"

"Well as I stated I am here for my body."

"Ah yes, well sorry, no can do." Herald went back to flirting with the
red head.

"I think I misheard you, were you actually refusing me?"

"You heard right Damane. I have been using this body while you were off
doing whatever it was you were doing to conquer the world and quite
frankly I am enjoying my self here." Herald winked at the blonde rubbing
his feet and she blushed. 

"I'm not asking Herald, I'm commanding you to give me my body now!"

"Tut, tut. Now you can't just force me out. You know the only way to
force your way back into your body is if a hundred of you followers
perform some out of date ritual on the night of the lunar eclipse."
Herald gestured with his arm to the happy party goers in the throne
room. "And what's the chance of that happening?"

==========
"Bob is the hundredth member of some weird Damane cult that is getting
ready to perform a ritual on the night of the lunar eclipse that is
coming up in three weeks. This ritual is to reunite Damane's soul with
his body or something like that. It was kind of hard to follow what he
was saying, between the shoutings of 'Damane lives' and 'I am the lord
of the pickle', I was trying my best to ignore him." 

The party stopped as they realized that they had lost the silly little
man in the black robes in the maze of alleys.

"Why was he telling you all of this anyways Aquila?" Julian asked as he
looked around hoping to catch a glimpse of Bob.

"He was frustrated because his sentence was for four weeks, so he was
going to miss the ceremony, well that is until he got released early."

Julian blushed, "Well we were just trying to break you out."

"I know, don't worry about it. I'm sure we'll catch up with him." Aquila
snapped her fingers. "Wait, Bob mentioned that there was some secret
portal that would take him to a city about a week from where the
ceremony was going to be held. That's probably why we can't find him. He
did tell me where the ceremony was going to be though, it's about two
and a half weeks travel from here."

"Well that's going to be cutting it close, we better get ready and leave
tonight." Julian said. "Aquila, did Bob happen to tell you where this
portal was?"

"No he didn't, something about women not being able to travel through
the portal. He only told me where the ceremony was going to be because
he wanted me to impersonate him when he heard I was getting out today."

"I vill get ze fiffle fish..."

"Sorry Hans, no PiPis this time, we don't have time to wait for the full
moon." Julian said gently. "Arica and I will go get some horses, Hans
why don't you go with Darrow and get some supplies ok?"

Darrow shot Julian a nasty look, which Julian chose to ignore. "Let's
meet back at the Smiling Manticore in one hour."

==========
An image of Davyyd sleeping with his arms wrapped around a long bow,
shimmered above a group of shadowy figures. A door opened and someone
said, "Damane is here to see you."

One of the figures waved a hand over a shining stone and the image of
Davyyd disappeared. "Please, send him in."

Damane stepped into the room and bowed deeply. "Oh Great Masters, I
beseech..."

"Please Damane, I am not really in the mood for your ass kissing right
now. I believe that you are here to complain about the fact that Herald
is refusing to give you your body back, and you would like us to arrange
to have the Dance of a Hundred Damanes to be preformed"

"Umm..yes, that is why I'm here."

"We will help you this one last time Damane, but only because Herald
seems to be content to sit around your castle. We need someone who has,
shall we say, higher aspirations." 

Even though Damane couldn't see the figure due to the shadows covering
the group, he was sure that it was smiling. Damane bowed deeply again,
"I am grateful to you my Masters." He turned to leave the room.

"Oh and Damane, don't think of trying to betray us again, there will be
no third chances."

Damane bowed again and hurried out.

"Shouldn't we do something about those heroes? The Heroes Guild was
supposed to keep them out of our hair after we let them take out
Brandomere, but that doesn't seem to be going as planned." Someone in
the group asked after Damane was gone.

"I have thought of a little complication for our...heroes." He waved his
hand across the sphere again. A scene shimmered before the group, but
instead of showing an image of Davyyd, they saw King Edward Gallant
sitting on his throne. A messenger came up to the king. 

"Sire, there has been word of your missing daughter. She was last seen
with those heroes that traveled through here a few months ago. The group
led by Julian Kestrel."

"I remember them, I want word sent out immediately that there will be a
handsome reward for the capture of my daughter's kidnappers. My daughter
is to be brought back safely, of course. As for her kidnappers, they may
be brought in dead or alive."

The image was shut off and there were approving murmurs from the group.

"Shouldn't we have warned Damane about Davyyd?" 

"What and give away that he didn't completely destroy Tyler? No, I think
that we need to keep that to ourselves for now. I believe that Damane
may prove to be another failure and we will need a way to rid ourselves
of him if that happens."

==========
Julian and Arica were standing in front of the Smiling Manticore with
five horses. Arica was pacing impatiently. "Where are they?"

"Don't worry, my love. They still have a few more minutes."

Just then Darrow and Hans came around the corner. Hans was carrying two
large bags of supplies. Darrow looked as if he had a headache.

"I told you guys not to send Hans with me to get supplies."

"Zhey were havink goot sales today. Look five pounds of Gysahl Greens
for only two copper pieces." Hans started rummaging through the bags.
Arica placed a hand on Hans's arm.

"That's ok Hans, we don't need to go through everything right now. We're
running on a tight schedule. Let's get this stuff loaded onto the
horses, Aquila should be here shortly.

Aquila showed up as they were loading the horses. She was carrying a
piece of paper in her hand.

"Guys, we have a problem." She announced to the group.

"*A* problem?" Darrow asked, eyebrow raised.

"An additional problem then. Look." She held the paper up for everyone
to read. It stated:

     Wanted Dead or Alive
       Julian and Arica Kestrel
       Aquila Clearwater
       Hans von Gotrek
       Darrow (last name unknown)
     In connection with the kidnapping of Catherine Gallant.
     Reward of 100,000 gold for the return of my daughter safely.

     Signed,
     King Edward Gallant

"I told you that girl was trouble." Julian said. "Unfortunately we don't
have time to find here right now, we're cutting it close as it is."

"She is a goot kid, I'm sure she can take care of herself. After ve stop
these Damane followers, we vill go to ze village of summoned monsters
and take her back home." Hans said, trying to comfort Julian.

"Village of summoned monsters? What are you talking about Hans?" 

"That iz vhere Catherine vent to try to get Mewly healed since nothink
in town was helpink."

"You let her go by herself Hans?"

"Vell you upset her greatly, she wasn't wantink anyone's help." Hans
said quietly.

"That's ok Hans, it's not your fault. At least we know where she is and
she would have snuck off on her own anyways. We'll just have to wait
until we get back from stopping this ritual, then we will take her back
home."

==========
Catherine stoop atop a hill overlooking the forest. "This town of
summoned monsters is a lot harder to find then I thought it would be."
She thought to herself. Catherine was tired and hungry and just about to
call it quits.

"Wait right there you Mewly hater you!" A voice shouted at her.
Catherine whirled around and saw Jerry come stalking up to her with a
little pink furball in his arms.

"I'm not a Mewly hater, you are!" Catherine summoned her Mewly. The two
Mewlys looked at each other and smiled weakly. Now, without the
influence of Brandomere and Damane, Evil Mewly had changed back to its
former shape. While Catherine and Jerry were fighting the two Mewlys
reached out and grasped hands. Then they merged back into one again.

'Hey, what are you doing to Mewly?" Jerry demanded.

"I'm not doing anything." Catherine said.

"Hey Jerry, it's nice to see you back to normal." Mewly said weakly, it
turned to Catherine. "I'm afraid I'm still not feeling well though, I
think you should still take me to the village of summoned monster to see
if they can help me there."

Jerry grabbed Mewly out of Catherine's arms, "My Mewly, you can't take
Mewly away from me."

"I'm not trying to take Mewly from you, I'm trying to help Mewly."

"Jerry, I am your familiar, but while you were stone I made new friends
because I was lonely. No one took me from you silly. Now please stop
fighting with Catherine, she is just trying to help." With that said
Mewly snuggled closer to Jerry and fell asleep.

Jerry shuffled his feet and looked down, "Well, I'll help you, but only
because Mewly asked me to. Not because I like you or anything."

Catherine looked at him, "Ok, you can help me since Mewly asked you to.
Not because I was getting tired of traveling alone or anything."

With that settled they set off for the village of summoned monsters.
After a few moments of walking silently, Jerry reached over and tugged
one of Catherine's pigtails. Catherine looked over at him and giggled.

==========
Jason Stewart was getting bored standing at the gates waiting for his
targets to arrive. He learned that they were going to be heading out of
town this way and he was beginning to be afraid that he missed them.
Just then he saw Julian leading a horse out through the gates followed
by Arica. Jason pulled out a nasty looking dagger and started to make
his way through the crowd to the couple. He stopped short when he saw
Darrow step up next to Arica and ask her something.

"Well well well. If it isn't my long lost cousin Darrow. I haven't seen
him in quite some time." Jason thought to himself. He put his dagger
back into the folds of robe. "I think finishing this job can wait until
I have a chance to have a word with my dear cousin. Maybe he can shed
some light onto why the Heroes Guild wants to have two people who saved
the world killed."

==========
Bob went running into the room panting. A man in black robes and a long,
white, bushy beard turned to him. "You're late!" he shouted at Bob.

"But Papa Damane..."

"No time for your excuses, now get into line we only have a week and a
half to practice." Papa Damane handed Bob a mask in the likeness of
Damane. Bob stepped into the front line. There were currently 10 rows of
10 figures all dressed in black robes and Damane masks. Papa Damane
stepped up to the podium placed in front of the group. "All right, now
that we are all here we can begin our practice. We have to have
everything perfect by the time the lunar eclipse takes place if we want
to be able to help our Great Master Damane's spirit back into his body." 

"Yes Papa Damane." A hundred voices said simultaneously. 

Papa Damane tapped the podium with his baton and the music began. Then
they began to dance.

==========
Author's notes

Sorry for being so late with this chapter, it's the Dugan's fault.

Thanks to Freedom for proofreading.

Jennifer Gatlin