I started writing this and never did finish it properly. But here we are at Halloween again and I'm once again inspired. So here's the next chapter that I actually had all planned out to write then. You might want to read the original chapters to bring you up to speed. I hope that the style hasn't changed too much and that it fits.

Chapter 4

Teenagers

"Why are kebabs so good?" Ayla broke the reverential hush that surrounded them as they munched on their kebabs.

"It's the mixture of exotic spices the meat has been marinated in prior to cooking. I suspect the chef has been studying Thavian cuisine. Not that it can compare, but one can appreciate the effort."

"It's meat and bread and not too much annoying green stuff, what's not to like?" Branwen asked before taking another large bite.

"The rat, the meat is predominantly rat, not sure what else. The city is an example of man's excesses. I wish we would be gone from this miserable place".

The group paused and as one rolled their eyes, you could always trust Kivan to put a dampner on the mood. Then they looked at their food, shrugged, and carried on eating. All except for Korgan.

"Until ye have been starving and crawling on ye hand and knees for days begging the Gods to end ye misery, ye don't know how lucky ye are to have good rat."

He finished with a glare, daring anybody to disagree.

"Well at least rat has eyes. In the Underdark, that's considered something of a rarity for foodstuffs." Virconia saw their looks of confusion, "No light, food tends to be more fungal...things tend to ooze."

Ayla saw Kivan opening his mouth to say something derogatory about the Drow (as he usually did), but was saved from having to shut him up by the sound of pitiful mewing coming towards them. A small cat ran into the center and proceeded to make it's way from person to person, pawing at their legs and looking up at them with large green eyes. Korgan bent down and offered it some meat but she ignored the offering and carried on mewing plaintively at him,

"What's that you say Skippy? Strewth, yer saying the kids have gone to the ravine and fallen down a mineshaft? Waltzing Matilda, we've got to rescue them."

"Korgan, what are you talking about and what's with the strange accent? That's Petrine's cat Angel, not Skippy, and we're in the middle of the city..."

"It be animal talk yer numbskull." He addressed the cat again, who seemed to be following the conversation, "Ignore the drongo, she's just a Sheila. So Skippy, can you show us the way?"

With a final loud mew, Angel ran off a little way then looked back at them, clearly waiting for them to follow her. The group hurridly finished their kebabs and with Korgan leading, headed after the cat along the street from the Market Place past the Three Old Kegs. There she darted into an alley then came out followed by two miserable looking children.

"Where's the ravine?"

"Or the mineshaft?"

"Ach, must have lost something in the translation, ne'er mind, we found them didn't we?"

It turned out the two children, Petrine and Euric, had been out Trick or Treating and had then been set upon by a group to teenagers who had stolen all their sweets and money. Even the evil members of the party thought that was a step too far, so with the children and Angel, set out to find the culprits. It didn't take long as they were hanging around the square surrounding Ramazith's Tower drinking beers, smoking and making a lot of noise. Telling Kivan to take a hold of Korgan, he'd been muttering about "introducing the thieving scumbags to his axe", we approached.

"Blimey, what we got ere then? Ain't you a bit old to be dressing up?"

The leader lazily pushed himself up from the bench he was sprawled on and glanced around at the rest of the gang enjoying the laughter that greeted his wit. He was wearing one of the long robes covered in silver stars and moons Ayla had seen in the costume shop. Tossing his cigarette butt to the side he saunted over flanked by a large, hulking spotty youth, his girlfriend and a few of the other louts.

"These kids say you stole their sweets and money," Ayla stated bluntly.

"Nah weren't us, must have made a mistake, they give them to us. Didn't you?"

More laughter came from behind as he stared at Petrine and Euric who shrank back behind Viconia and Branwen. Angel darted forward and started hissing at the lout with her fur all puffed out and standing on end.

"Well they said you took them."

"Yeah, is that right? And what you gonna to do about it?"

Ayla was completely lost for words, since they had cleared the bandit camp and the mines, nobody threatened them. But then she remembered she was wearing a low cut, slinky black dress and had no weapons, Branwen was carrying an obviously wooden shield that hid her hammer and was wearing little more than underwear, Edwin was wearing a silly hat and a red gown, Korgan had pixie ears and striped tights and pointy shoes, Viconia was just a dark shadow and Kivan looked like a monk with his brown cloak and hood. And they were outnumbered at least two to one and not exactly sober. She heard Branwen mutter something to Viconia about needing to teach them a lesson and they shared a nod. Korgan was trying to escape from Kivan who had lifted him completely off the ground to stop him charging forward.

Before she could recover and warn them of the big mistake they were making, Edwin stepped forward and applied his usual brand of Thavian diplomacy.

"Shut up you insufferable baboon (though I doubt even a baboon would be this stupid). Now hand over what you have stolen else I will turn you into a pile of ash."

The leader laughed in his face and was joined by the rest of the gang.

"Did you hear that? Ooo I'm scared, what you gonna do, turn us into frogs? Think you're some kind of wizard then? Been too much on the beer?"

"What! how dare you. I am a Red Wizard of Thay, can you not see my robes? (and I never drink the swill they call beer, wine only...unless it's an emergency)."

"Yeah, yeah, sure you are, Grandad. Red in the face, maybe...that dressing gown ain't even got any stars on it."

Observing the incandescent fury that rendered Edwin speechless at this insult might have made Ayla giggle under different circumstances. It wasn't that he didn't have the right to be affronted, and in fact she'd back him up. It was seeing the tables turned so effectively on somebody who always insulted everybody, all the time, by a mere teenager. Was it possible that they had come across somebody who was even ruder, surely not. But then she saw him pulling out a wand from his pocket and was reminded that he was an evil wizard and she needed to stop him before he slaughtered them all. They maybe obnoxious but instant death was a bit too much of a punishment and there would be far too many questions afterwards from the guard.

She grabbed his arm as the bolt of lightning flew from the wand, causing it to miss the assembled youths and fly up high across the square. It struck the roof of the tall tower with a tremendous explosion and a few loosened tiles crashed down on the cobbles. As she grappled with him, she caught sight of the leader of the gang and he didn't look at all confident anymore. But he did look very young, and she had the fleeting thought that he wouldn't get much older at this rate. Edwin was already chanting, and she grabbed his other arm and misdirected the stream of magical missiles that left his hand away from the rapidly reversing, mouthy leader.

The display was enough for the rest of the gang as well, and they turned as one and started running across the square. Only to be met with the sight of a couple of glowing eyed, armed skeletons climbing out of the ground in front of them. As usual, the skeletons were very cheerful about being disturbed from their eternal slumber, and the sound of manic laughter made an interesting contrast to the horrified screams from the teenagers. Branwen thankfully, had prevailed on Viconia to keep the damage to a minimum and the skeletons contented themselves with merely giving chase and loudly banging their swords against their shields.

Korgan had managed to escape from Kivan, but the sight of the teenagers fleeing in terror he found comical enough to sooth his indignation at not being allowed to chop them into little pieces. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Petrine and Euric darted about the square picking up the bags of sweets and money that the panicked teenagers begged them to accept if only they would call off the undead horrors. Meanwhile Edwin was still determined to kill everything that moved and in an effort to distract him, Ayla did the only thing one could when Edwin was trying to blow something up. Thrusting her body suggestively against him, she encircled his neck and dragged his head down and kissed him.

"When you two have quite finished? We should move away from here, the locals have noticed our presence and are beginning to realise the skeletons are not people in costumes"

Viconia's sarcastic tone cut through the snog they were enjoying and Ayla, somewhat reluctantly, pulled herself away from Edwin. It seemed that some time had passed as there were no more teenagers in sight and concerned citizens were congregating in the square.

"Err, right we are then. So the Helm and Cloak it is," she replied, hurridly rebuttoning her dress as she noticed the round eyed stare of the two children.

Branwen and Viconia called over the skeletons who were still roaming around checking for teenagers and Kivan went to placate some bystanders who were watching them very suspiciously. He wasn't very good at it but as usual, people assumed he was a monk in his long, brown cloak and hood and by the doom laden tone of his voice, and thought better of inadvertantly upsetting some deity or the other by arguing.

Euric said he'd take Petrine home to his mother and she could stay with them. Adding that with another child around she wouldn't bother him so much about staying out. Petrine was delighted, and the two of them headed off laden with the bags of sweets and money that had been abandoned by the teenagers in their panic. With a final loud miow (that Korgan translated as G'day Cobber) Angel followed after them and the group headed to the next watering hole.

N.B

As I said, it's been a year since writing this so not sure if I got the tone right. There are another couple of chapters planned (I really should have started this earlier) so let me know what you think.