"Keep your wits about you. This city is damned."
Aves' membrane was trembling. He never had the same bravado of the more brawny battle-tentacles of The Grip. Why should he? He was a Wizard, and no self respecting wizard puts himself in harm's way if he can help it. So when his Emperor told him to keep his wits about him, his immediate response would have been that he'd rather keep his wits about a mile away, thanks very much.
Unfortunately he was also far too close to the Emperor to risk it.
They were slithering through the slums that lay at the base of the city, along the road that lead to the castle and more noble areas higher up. Progress was slow. Ash that still floated in the air kept sticking to their slimy bodies, making the tentacles feel gritty and uncomfortable. The slums themselves were charcoal. Aves thought that the shards of nondescript buildings looked like cracked bones sprouting from the skin of the earth, and... wait... bones...
"My Lord! Where are the bones?"
"Bones?"
"Yes, it may sound strange, but the fleshlings who lived here have a thing called a skeleton. Like a brittle frame on which their muscles grow."
"Ahh, like fish. Well, don't trouble yourself, my wise wizard. Perhaps dragons eat bones too."
But Aves was troubled. From his own experiments on scavenged drowned humans, the bones seemed too tough for even a dragon to enjoy. He nervously wiped ash off his top-sucker, and followed the team up the hill.
Being the crusader, rob77dp tended to lead the way in uncharted territory. Emperor JonathanCrazyJ was going in second, preferring to take a little more time to survey the environment, while his great mind assessed if there was anything worth plundering, subjugating, or otherwise claiming as his.
The wizard watched the noble crusader with a mixture of awe and derision. On the one tendril, it was quite impressive seeing how he cut his way through the landscape, occasionally thudding his axe into a scorched tree or stray dog that looked at him funnily. On the other, this brutal approach to exploration seemed rather heavy handed to Aves. What if that tree was rare, and could be saved once the city was theirs? Perhaps harvested for unique ingredients? What if that dog had been able to direct them and act as a guide? Aves had no idea whether dogs were capable of speech or not, but it seemed churlish to chop it in half before asking.
It was therefore no surprise to Aves when rob77dp charged over a ridge, and started screaming, loudly.
The Emperor reached the top of the ridge first.
"Tentacles! The bones! They are here! They live! Charge!"
The rest of The Grip slithered as fast as they could (almost at a mighty sea-snail's pace) down into the pit, while Aves stayed at the top of the hill and prepared to sling spells at the animated skeletons. Yet something strange was happening... as the skeletons crowded around rob77dp, and each in turn tore another limb or sucker from his body, they then crumpled to the ground in a seated position, clutching their meaty prize. Once the rest of the team had reached the bottom, the skeletons were all silent once more, as if they had never risen to perform their grizzly task.
"What sorcery is this?" Espithel demanded of Aves. Wizards always seem to get shouted at for other people's wizardry.
"It seems the Dragon tried to bewitch the bones to act as defenders of the upper levels of the city... but magic like this requires fueling. I know not how, but whatever it is that fuels these cursed bones seems to hae run out after they killed the first of us to reach them."
"If only we could go back and stop dear rob77dp from going first... I shall write a song about him" sobbed Krzysiekxd.
"Hang the damn song" rumbled the Emperor, "That tentacle was our best fighter! How could we have let this happen?"
Aves coughed and cleared his gills.
"Actually, sir, there is a way we can let it not have happened. Or rather, we can make something else have happened instead." The wizard was not quite sure which tense he should be using. "I have with me reagents for one Time-Rend spell. All we need do is step back an hour, and send another into the pit instead of rob."
Everyone stared at him.
"Send who?" The Emperor spoke slowly, choosing to gloss over the revelation his Wizard posessed the power of time travel. "We have not seen another living soul since we left the shore."
"There was a dog, before rob killed it. I was going to pain a picture with the blood..." uttered the bard, wistfully.
Aves smiled. He knew that dog could have been useful for something. He resolved to make a point to rob about this, once they will have had saved his life.
