Three Full Moons

„Der Mond war aber gar zu kalt und auch grausig und bös, und als er das Kind merkte, sprach er: ‚Ich rieche, rieche Menschenfleisch.' "

— Die Gebrüder Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: Die Sieben Raben

"Ohhhh," Hank gasped, the silver drops splashing between his toes as he ran down the icy course of the stream. Three full moons hung low over the tangle of black forest, tracing the course of the water before him in a line of silver. The heat burning in his flesh like molten gold was deliciously cooled by the moonlit water and the whispering of the midnight air past his naked body. Downstream, downstream, he would find her.

Sheila. She stood naked like the silver image of a goddess in a pool of black streaked with silver. He took her hungrily in his arms, to hold her, keep her safe, pressing her cool flesh to his burning chest, kissing, kissing — her breasts, her cheeks, her throat, kissing, nipping, biting. Her body shuddered against his and was still; a warm wetness ran down their flesh and dripped into the silver water and ran red …

"HANK!" shouted a voice, high and thin like a peevish oboe, "Stop dreaming and hold your end up, can'tcha?!"

The Ranger started a bit, and stared vaguely up at the face scowling from the front end of the make-shift stretcher, and vaguely down at the blanched face of the patient, who groaned faintly. The Young Ones were carrying two boys not much older than themselves, whose torn bodies they were taking down the mountain to be mended. The snow that drifted around them was not much paler, and the Ranger shivered as he huddled into the fur cloak that they had bought to ward off the frost of the mountain path. Eric's face was nearly as red as the fox-fur mantle he wore.

"You're the one that insisted on us bringing back these two jerks," continued the Cavalier. "Personally I think we shoulda left 'em on the other side of that portal!"

"Eric, be serious!" snapped Diana from the head of the other stretcher — her lithe figure, it must be said, well suited by a sleek otter-skin cloak — the other end was carried jointly by Presto and Sheila, in brown stoat and silvery-blue squirrel, respectively. "You know Hank couldn't leave them out in the rain to bleed to death, after they had been attacked by that monster Whatever-it-was!"

"It sounds like it might have been a Worg," interrupted Presto, in an attempt to change the subject and keep the peace. "Hank, tell us again how it all happened."

"I'll tell you!" huffed Eric, before the still-bemused Ranger could answer, "when we left you guys sitting safely in camp —"

"Watch it, Eric!" broke in Bobby, marching along after Diana (in a bear-skin), and Uni, marching alongside Bobby (in a unicorn-skin), echoed, "Myeeahhhh, myahtchidddd!"

"Whatever — we headed up to that Cavern of the Three Moons Dungeon Master told us about — too bad he didn't tell us that the portal wouldn't take us home!"

"But he did warn us, Eric!" protested Sheila. "He said that the portal would take us to AN Earth, but that he couldn't guarantee that it would be OUR Earth. That's why — "

"An Earth! Our Earth! What's the difference? Earth is Earth!"

"That's why," Sheila insisted, "Hank wouldn't let us all go through the portal — isn't that right, Hank?" She turned to him with appeal in the blue pools of her eyes.

"Uhhh — yeaahh," gulped the Ranger. "I have to hold you — I mean, keep you safe … you guys …" he trailed off lamely."

Diana and Bobby glanced at each other and grinned, while Presto gazed off and whistled softly. Sheila and Hank flushed red. Eric scowled yet more sourly.

" 'Isn't that right, Hank?' " he falsettoed nastily, "Oh, keep us SAFE, Great Leader! Huh! The first thing the Great Leader did was to lead ME right into the middle of a howling rain-storm!"

"That should have suited you perfectly, Eric," shot back Diana, "since you're such a Big Drip!"

"Ha-ha. 'Funny as a crutch, Rich.' "

"But NOT as funny as your face!"

"Oh, I'm DYING laughing at that one!" barked the Cavalier angrily, when a loud groan from the young man in the first stretcher, his ragged face and neck swathed in the blood-soaked strips of Eric's own T-shirt, reminded him that a more-than-rhetorical death might be very close to him indeed. "I'm sorry — I'm sorry — I'm sorry — I'm sorry," he whimpered … and really, he was. Eric had never seen a person die before — not a real person person — and his heart revolted at the idea. Hence his easy anger, and easy repentance of anger.

After a pallid moment of silence, Presto spoke in a small sort of voice: "Well, and then what happened?"

In an even smaller voice, Eric inquired, "Hank … ?"

"Yeah," said Hank, quietly. "Well, we couldn't see very well on account of the rain — but we HEARD this awful kind of howl, like a freight-train caught in a trap. And it was coming nearer and nearer, but each time from a different direction — like it was circling us."

"Gnaaaaarly!" voiced Bobby, but softly. Sheila shuddered.

"I think it would have gone for us, but just then, we heard these two loud voices, singing — "

" 'Santa Lucia,' " muttered Eric, disgustedly, "I heard it once when my mom took me to Venice — "

" — and I guess whatever-it-was decided to leave us alone and attack these two guys."

He looked down at the inert form he was carrying. This one was not as badly hurt — a slight tear on his cheek, a long scratch down his chest — but they both looked ill and feverish. Maybe there was some kind of poison in the monster's bite, like when Bobby … He glanced down a bit nervously at his own hand.

"And so we decided that we'd better go help out whoever they were … "

"You mean you decided; I was only along for the ride."

"Yeah, Eric," grinned the Ranger, "but it's funny how you were the first to go charging off in the direction of the voices … "

"I just lost my sense of direction," hissed the Cavalier, "I couldn't see my hand in front of my face!"

"Well, anyway," Hank continued, "the rain had let up by then, and there was enough moonlight to show us these two guys hiking ahead of us. By the time we got up fairly close to them, the howls had stopped — but there were these growls. The thing had them on the run."

"I saw it," said Eric, with a green face.

Diana whispered, "What did it look like?"

"Like a great big barrel with fangs and fur bristling all over it. It just stood there, swelling and growling."

"Mehhhhhh," bleated the unicorn softly, huddling close to the Barbarian.

"And then," said Hank, "one of them, the one Eric and I have here … "

"The bigger one," moaned Eric.

" … he must have seen it, because he gave a shout and dropped down on the ground. And the other one kept shouting, too, even while he was helping his friend up, and then — "

"It just launched into them like a Saturn V, and knocked the little guy over and started tearing at him, and we ran up, and Hank shot at it, and it jumped aside, and then came back — "

"And Eric flung himself right in its face with his shield out in front of him — "

"It had the most awful breath — "

"And it dodged down underneath the shield and attacked this one— "

"And Hank kept shooting at it and shooting at it, and it just kept coming back — "

"And Eric made a swipe at it with his shield — "

"And it jumped CLEAR OVER my head, and made a snap at Hank — "

"And then I guess," pronounced the Ranger conclusively, "that it decided it had had enough, because it just ran off into the dark. That's all."

"That's NOT all," said Eric, "because later we heard an explosion like half a dozen shotguns going off. I betcha that thing met a wizard that zapped him one — and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy!"

"Wowwww!" uttered Bobby ("Myeahhh, mwowwww!" echoed Uni), and Presto nodded sagely and said, "Yup — definitely a worg."

"We couldn't leave these two lying there in the wet and cold, with a wizard, maybe, and a monster definitely roaming around, so after we did some basic first aid — "

"And that guy absolutely owes me some new underwear — "

"We managed to carry them through the portal on our cloaks … and here we are!"

"Yeah — and THERE we have to go!"

And the Cavalier nodded down the mountain-path, where, some few miles beneath them, rose the shining, silver-white city of Plenilune.

Hank, by the way, was wearing a wolf-skin.