Swallow offered a petite tray of chocolate coated crabapples and sparkling wine. She advised, “My hero, do not over exert yourself. Although, for a human, you recuperate very quickly, I beg you to consider more rest. I can be very pleasing to you while we recline. I would enjoy that.”
“Aieee! Aieee! Father, mother, my brothers and sisters, cousins and companions are vanished! My only duty is revenge!! Sorry.”
“Your family is not dead. The Demon in the Wall has them. I can take you to him.”
Zende stopped for a moment, then realized aloud, “No! I must aid Grandmother first. Combining her magic and my ax, we are unstoppable. Where is your father?”
“Not far.” Swallow stepped to a velvet cord and tugged hard.
“Which direction?” demanded Zende as his senses prickled. Something was amiss. His grandmother’s last instructions came quickly to mind.
Swallow yelled angrily. “We could have spent pleasant time together, you witless idiot! You would have enjoyed your last few hours alive. Instead you will suffer.” She turned her head back further than naturally possible and uttered a rapid series of high-pitched clicking noises. “You and your species will no longer be rulers of this planet. We will take back our home.”
Heavy, clawed feet pounded up a hidden stairwell. Growls and clicks echoed as Swallow began to shed her human skin. She screeched, “I chose the name Swallow not because of a pitiful bird. It describes most accurately what I do to food animals like you.”
Amazed by the slow transformation, Zende asked, “What are you?”
“An ancient creature from the bowels of the earth. The God in the Wall promised our resurgence if we did his bidding.”
Zende frowned, “Glad I didn’t kiss you! Grandmother again was correct in her assumptions! She is a far better sorceress than you.” He attacked his adversaries.
In her long service to the Demon in the Wall, this was the first time Swallow had experienced fear as she witnessed Zende crash into her reptilian children like a whirlwind blade of death. He slipped between, over and under them with far greater speed and precision than she had ever witness in a battle before. Zende’s weapons cut through her scaly brood as if they were plucked chickens on a butcher block. Grinning ferociously, standing knee deep in blood and guts, Zende screamed, “AIEEE!! Grandmother! I sense you. Your powers have returned! I will be there quickly.”
Swallow had nearly finished shedding her human skin. She raged, “Behold! I am one of the transformed, a combination of animal species. In a moment, I will utterly destroy you!” She strained to finish her metamorphosis from frail human to towering ancient killer.
“Moment’s over!” said Zende as he dissected a stunned Swallow into many small chunks of flesh and bone then dodged past her. In a blur of arms and legs, he sped deep down the dark corridors eager to locate and destroy the nest where the vicious predators had emerged.
Fabu the Fabulous was extremely pleased with the dance. Never before had he been so thoroughly aroused by a woman who playfully pranced and tickled his belly as he sucked down gallons of bubbling wine. She taunted him in countless ways so that he had dismissed the other girls, sent the musicians away and told all but one of his personal guards to pleasure themselves elsewhere. He made himself more comfortable in his mass of silk pillows chewing greedily into a shank of roast lamb as the final act was concluding and Makhulu was down to her last veil, a shimmering gold strip of cloth that only wrapped twice around her body.
He burped loudly, “Encore, Encore, my succulent brown queen! If only there was more time. Quickly, let me remove my pantaloon and we may still be able to consummate your freedom.”
Makhulu’s eyes glowed with renewed awareness. “Of course, my fat king. Let me help you with those bindings.”
Fabu drooled in utter happiness as she snuggled up close beside him. He eagerly wrapped his flabby arms around her slender waist.
A guard’s head bloodily bounced across the stage and slid to a messy stop nears Fabu’s padded slippers. Fabu again felt the icy caress of his own blade pressed tightly against his tender windpipe under his chin.
She hissed, “I want my family back, NOW!”
The sharp edge of the knife on Fabu’s throat threatened to end his days of breathing forever. He wheezed painfully, “My queen, you wrong me.”
“Grandson!”
“Grandmother!” He hurriedly crossed the dancing platform. “Your clothing?!” exclaimed Zende who was covered from head to toe with the messy life fluids of his foes.
“I got a little too involved with the spirit of the dance,” his grandmother confessed.
Fabu’s eyes were wide with fright as Zende approached dripping blood and gore with every step.
Makhulu said again to Fabu, “You and your demon stole my family! I want them BACK!” She eased the pressure just a tiny bit on his throat allowing him to speak clearly.
Fabu croaked, “I can explain. There is no need for more killing.”
“SPEAK, slug!!” Zende shook the blood from his war axes in preparation for action.
Fabu coughed and said, “They are alive! Please, don’t kill me! But only Swallow can break the spell!”
Zende rumbled, “Swallow is in tiny little pieces.”
Fabu exclaimed incredulously, “But the Demon in the Wall—”
“Is powerless against us. Someone on this side of the barrier must act for him,” revealed Makhulu. “Grandson, perhaps you could trim a little of the fat off Fabu, the Fabulous.”
“Gladly!!”
“Wait! Please! If Swallow is dead, all we have to do is smash the crystal.” He slid his hand under a pillow and produced the bag with the amber block.
Zende snatched the crystal away from Fabu and peered closely at it. “I can hear voices, calling my name. Grandmother, what should I do?”
Makhulu said grimly to Fabu, “If you are lying and any of my family is slightly harmed . . .”
“I know, I know. But I have done this many times. Shatter the crystal and the souls and bodies will be
