Chapter 32 Furry Fear
Lord Darkmantlelevitated up from his table and created the illusion of a smallgreen wyvern that flew in circles around him puffing out littleclouds of green smoke to capture everyone’s attention.
‘Your Majesty,Fellow Lords and Ladies, with Her Majesty’s approval I would liketo introduce my entry in the entertainment competition this year. Iwish to introduce a new game that I call ‘Furry Fear’ that I’m surewill stimulate your imaginations for the rest of the night andperhaps well into the future.’
‘Imagine youare a rodent. You are hungry. You venture out of the safety of yourhole at night looking for some tasty lichen or moss to eat butknowing full well that there is a fox around, watching and waitingto eat you. Imagine the insecurity you feel at every little soundyou hear. Every shadow hides the enemy. Imagine what it must belike when you hear the rapid approach of paws, the fear as you runfull stretch back to the safety of your hole, the terror as youfeel the jaws close around your neck, the agony as the jaw snapsyour neck.’
‘Now imagineyou’re the fox, you’re hungry, your stomach aches, you haven’teaten for three days. You suddenly smell rodent, your favouritefood. Your heart pounds, you begin salivating, all your senses tryto detect the prize. You must make this kill if you are to survive.You carefully, soundlessly edge forward. Your muscles are taunt.You’re afraid to breathe. You see it. It’s nervous and skittish.You’re close enough. You run, it runs, you snatch a quick breath,you’re faster, you reach it and just as you close your jaws aroundit, something hits you from the side, knocking you over.
Dazed, youquickly look around. It’s a leer cat. They eat foxes. Your elationat catching the rodent suddenly turns to fear. You are now themeal. You scramble up and try to run. It’s on your back, jawsbiting through your neck trying to cut off your breathing and chokeyou to death. You struggle, it’s too heavy, you can’t break itsgrip. You’re suffocating. Your muscles weaken. Your visiondarkens.’
‘Now imaginethat we could feel the feelings of those animals, the fear, andterror of the victim, the elation of the victor. In this new gameyou can, and for some of you tonight the experience might well adda new thrill to your life.’
‘I earlierasked for six volunteers from amongst my friends to try out thisthrilling new game. You may witness its effect on them then othersmay try it if they wish. I can assure you that there is just asmuch fun watching the players as the animals.’
‘There arethree main components in the game, the arena, the animals and theplayers. The arena consists of the flat playing area you can seebelow with a few obstacles and a small transparent bee hive shapedsafe area in the centre that will fit two rabbits, or a single foxbut is too small for a leer cat.
In the arena wehave six Newman slaves each with a different coloured patch paintedon their backs and wearing an amulet of polymorph. These are theanimals. When the game starts each ten seconds these slaves aresequentially shape changed into one of three animal types, therodent, the fox and the leer cat in that order.’
‘We might forinstance start with one fox and five rabbits, then ten secondslater, the fox turns into a leer cat and the five rabbits to foxes,then a further ten seconds later the single leer cat turns into arabbit and the five foxes turn into leer cats.’
‘Now theplayers are six members of the audience. They each wear a braceletof emotions that allows them to feel the emotions of one of theanimals. On each bracelet are two buttons. The red one allows theplayer to instantly change his animal to the next in sequence andthe green one to make his animal invisible for two seconds. Afterpressing either button there will be a ten second delay before thebuttons can be pressed again to allow time for the amulet torecharge.’
‘The winner ofthe game is the player whose animal is the final survivor. Almostas an afterthought he added that since the bracelets wouldn’t workthrough a force field there would be no cover over the arena andthat people should be careful to stay clear of the edge.’
As the sixslaves were herded into the arena and six of Darkmantle’s friendsqueued for a bracelet, Aquitain said to Terrin.
‘You’re notseriously going to let this game continue are you? Five of theslaves are going to get killed. You know I’m not happy about peoplegetting killed.’
‘Of course Iam. Slaves get killed all the time in Moonmist. Besides if it’s inyour dream they’re not real. Let’s see what happens.’
Aquitain wasn’tat all happy about Terrin’s cold attitude to the Newman slaves butwas powerless to do anything. Miranda wasn’t happy either and askedif Llalorax could help the slaves or stop the game. His reply was‘Only the Queen can do that.’ So the game continued.
The game was aninstant hit. The animals chased each other trying to tear theweakest apart. The players screamed in fear one moment or exultedin the glory of the chase and occasionally the kill. The rest ofthe audience was entranced not sure whether the antics of theplayers or the animals were more exciting. The game lasted lessthan three minutes but the players were lathered in sweat andexhausted.
At the end ofthe first game Lord Darkmantle offered a second and there was arush and scuffle to be one of the six players. The second gameproceeded much as the first but this time there were countless betsamong the Lords as to who might win and great applause when one ofthe popular northern Lords won.
Darkmantle thenannounced that he only had enough slaves for one more game thenthey would have to settle for the more traditional animals games.He suggested that the Queen Aurora be allowed to play in the finalgame as one of the players if she so wished. Most savoured thethought of watching her face as her animal was killed by one of theothers. She declined. So Darkmantle said
