People exploded out ofthe Inn from all doors and windows and went screaming off into thenight or else huddled in corners, cringing with fear and crying.Erastius then had Jaz fly back to the boars and cats to talk tothem. The newmans were their enemies and wanted to hurt them. Thenewmans were scared of them in the dark. Now was an idealopportunity to go and hurt the newmans first. The boars all stoodup and trotted down towards the town, and the cats followed behind.Erastius then had Jaz fly down to the roof of the Ugly Bear Inn towatch.
Zephira was sitting inthe bar area of the Inn listening and singing along with Chantalotwhen the first trooper came in to alert them about the fire. Sheand a dozen officers and men quickly left the Inn heading for thefire, but found someone defending the building while it burned,which didn’t make much sense.
Featherdown teleportedin and asked why weren’t they putting the fire out, only to be hitsquare in the chest by a stream of magic missiles. They had noeffect on him; his normal body protections absorbed the lot ofthem. He immediately turned and cast a word of power to stunwhoever had shot at him, then hastened over to apprehend thevillain only to find that one of his own wizards was responsible.He ordered his troops to put out the fire and teleported thestunned young wizard away to his tower to find out what hadhappened.
Zephira decided thatthe excitement was over and there were more than enough people toput out the fire, so went back to the Inn only to see peoplescreaming and scrambling out of its every opening. Then somethingmuch worse became apparent. There were wild boars everywhereattacking people, knocking them down and goring them whilst theylay helpless on the ground. Then the cats appeared, leaping andtearing at fear-struck people. Grown men lay crying on the groundwhile the cats tore into them.
‘Where is Chantalot?’she thought. While she didn’t have any armour on she was stillwearing the new armour belt, given to her by her grandfather justbefore she came here. She removed her dagger and dropped it on theground to prevent it being covered, activated the belt and wasimmediately hidden by a black cloud of mist. Seconds later she wascompletely covered, apart from her eyes, in black cloth-likearmour. She retrieved her dagger and ran into the fray, diving ontoa cat that perched atop a man, and grasping it around the neck shestabbed it in the heart.
The cat rolled over andtried to get up but fell over dead. Zephira jumped to her feet andran towards the Inn, only to be hit from the side by a great boar.The power of the blow was immense. It knocked her several paces sothat she landed awkwardly hurting her arm, but otherwise doinglittle damage other than winding her. The boar then attacked her,trying to gore her in the side and stomach, but the black armourresisted any damage. She started slashing back at it with herdagger and it decided that there were easier targets, and ran offafter someone else.
She made it to the Innand ran into the room to see several people lying hurt. Chantalothad been knocked unconscious in the stampede to get out. Shegrabbed an ice bucket and poured it over him, and he woke with aterrified look on his face, which she realized had probably beencaused by her action.
‘Chantalot, it’s me,Zephira. We’re under attack by animals, but I think someone hasused fear-inducing magic on the people. I’ve seen its effectsbefore. Can you counter it?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ hesaid climbing to his feet.
‘Quickly then, I’lldefend you,’ and they raced outside the Inn into the mayhem.Chantalot stood in the doorway and began to sing into the night anheroic song laced strongly with magic. It had the effect ofremoving fear and instilling courage in all his friends, whiledoing the opposite for the animal attackers. Zephira stood threepaces in front of him watching for anything that might attack him.A cat stopped raking some poor victim on the ground and headed forChantalot. Zephira saw it coming and blocked its passage, so itattacked her instead.
She grabbed it withboth arms as it leapt at her and she went down with its weight ontop of her, as it raked her legs and lower body with its hind clawsand tried to bite into her neck with its teeth. Fortunately thearmour held. She hung on tightly while the two of them rolled andjostled and kicked at each other. The cat couldn’t understand whyit couldn’t damage her, and began to panic. It stopped trying toinjure her and tried to break away, but she held on. It dragged herseveral paces and finally she let go, and it ran off into thenight.
She regained her feetonly to be knocked over by another boar. Chantalot’s moraleboosting song had finally started having an effect. Several men raninto the Inn to get weapons, and others ran off purposefully withsomewhere safe in mind. The song had a second effect. It alertedthe gate guards that something was wrong, and they came down to theinn clad in armour with weapons in hand. Soon there was a group ofarmed people attacking the boars, and one by one the injuredanimals broke and headed off into the night.
Quab finally turned upafter all the fighting was over and guards were walking aroundholding lanterns in one hand and weapons in the other, looking forinjured people. He was jeered by some and abused by others for notkeeping the animals under control. Some of the guards were not surewhat to make of Zephira. No one had ever seen full body armour likehers and several challenged her, thinking that she was an enemy.Eventually she dispelled it as it was causing
