Disclaimer: I do not own King of the Hill.
(Arlen Park 12:30 a.m.)
Clouds filled the night sky which left the park in complete darkness; except for a medium sized fire that was burning in the middle of the park. Surrounding the fire were five figured donned in purple robes.
"As I have foreseen, brothers, the prosecution of our kind is nigh." A figure revealed to be Ward Rackley declared
"You foresaw our rise to power." Mitchell Jefferson stated
"Mitchell, please, I'm trying to be dramatic here."
Mitchell rolled his eyes as Ward continued talking.
"Question is, who will be responsible, Mayor Vergil Min or the Arlen Werewolf?"
"The mayor?" guessed Brother Vaughn
"No, you idiot, its only a matter of time before that werewolf gets us." Noram Woodbender disagreed
"What about that Gribble guy?" Pan the Soothsayer mentioned
"He is no threat to us," Ward promised before holding up a book, "nor will any other mortal, for with this book I bought today we shall call upon our powerful goddess of magick."
Ward opened the book and began reading out loud the list of ingredients that was needed for the spell. Each member of the coven tossed an item into the fire as Ward called it out.
"Finally, the last ingredient," Ward said as he held out an arrowhead, "this arrowhead that had been stained with the blood of a stag."
"Where did you get that?" Noram asked
"My uncle is staying with us for the holiday," Ward answered, "let's just say he should not only clean his arrows, but also lock them up better."
He tossed the arrow head into the fire; He then began chanting in an ancient dialect which caused the flames to turn to an eerie white. Seconds later the flames returned to normal; each member looked around and became disappointed to see that they were the only ones there.
"You sure your uncle didn't kill a doe." Mitchell mocked
"Perhaps the source of the maiden sweat wasn't pure."
"My niece is seven years old, can't get any purer than that, Ward."
"They have to be over twelve years old."
The coven all faced towards the direction of Pan where they saw a woman with light brown hair standing behind him.
"You see in many cultures a girl becomes a woman anytime between the ages of twelve and eighteen."
"Who dares trespass upon the sacred rituals of The Coven of Artemis." Ward shouted as he held up the book and waved it around
The woman smiled as she raised both arms and then in a flash of light materialized a bow and arrow. The coven was spellbound by this feat of magick. They watched as the woman quickly loaded the bow then fired; the arrow struck the book and impaled it on a nearby tree.
"Answering your question; I'm Artemis."
"Please, just because you can use a bow and arrow doesn't make you the goddess of magick." Mitchell said with disbelief
"First off, I'm the Goddess of the Hunt, Wilderness, Chasity, and sometimes the moon," Artemis corrected, "secondly your summoning spell is a joke."
"Yet, you're here." Ward corrected
"She's right, there's no such spell to call upon Artemis." said Apollo as he stepped out from behind a tree next to Ward
"Who in the name of Merlin are you?"
"Apollo, God of the Sun, Music, and a bunch of other stuff," Apollo introduced himself, "Oh, and I'm Artemis's more attractive brother."
The coven members were all confused; these to individuals claimed to be gods of ancient Greece, but they appeared as people you would simply walk by on the streets.
"Okay, if our spell did not summon you then why are you here?" a still skeptical Ward questioned
"I need your help to draw out the Arlen Werewolf." Artemis answered
"Why us?" asked Noram
"You five goofballs are the closest things this town has to sorcerers."
"We are sorcerers"
"No, you're five dorks who've taken Dungeons and Dragons to a new level." Apollo stated
Artemis could tell that Ward was leaning towards not accepting her offer. She decided it was time to bring out her trump card. As she did with her bow and arrow, she conjured up a book; she tossed it at Ward, who to not only his surprise, but the others as well, caught it. The book appeared old, with Greek letters etched into the brown leather. He opened it up and was amazed to see that the words written in Greek magically transformed into English.
"Where did you find this resplendent tome?" Ward asked
"A friend," quickly replied Artemis, "like you I too purchased a book at the wizard's chamber, not only did it tell me how to track a werewolf it also told me that magic like silver can harm it."
The other members of the Coven gathered around Ward as they all gazed upon the pages of the book. A pleased smiled appeared on Ward's face as he looked up at Artemis.
"So, what would the Goddess of the Hunt like us to do?"
(Hill Residence the day of Thanksgiving)
It was finally the big day. Everyone in the house had got up early, dressed in nice yet comfortable clothing, and all set out to prepare for the big meal. Tilly and Allison despite some culinary disagreements were able to complete the meal and were now putting on some last-minute touches. Hank was out on the patio cooking up the traditional turkey in his efficient propane powered smoker. As for Bobby, Cameron, and Sarah they were all sitting in the living room watching the annual Thanksgiving parade.
"You sure they don't need are help?" Sarah who was sitting in Hank's chair asked
"Dinner is pretty much ready and its never a good idea to come between my dad and that turkey." Bobby explained from his spot next to Cameron on the couch
"Well it smells delicious."
Bobby agreed which made Cameron jealous for she lacked the supernatural enhanced sense of smell.
(A/N: Sarah had told Cameron that she was a werewolf like Bobby)
"At least your dad isn't one of those idiots who tries to fry his turkey." Cameron stated
"When I was five my dad tried that," Sarah said, "he nearly destroyed our whole backyard and the neighbor's."
Bobby noticed Sarah eyes were watering up a bit as she recalled his happy memory of her father. He also noticed that she was gently playing with a small blue stone at the end of her necklace.
"Nice necklace." Bobby said changing the subject
"Thank you, Ollie got it for me."
"Whose Ollie?" an intrigued Cameron asked
"Nobody special."
Both Bobby and Cameron could tell Sarah was lying by the slight redness of her face.
"Sarah, please, a guy doesn't give a girl a necklace if he doesn't have some sort of feelings for her.
"Funny, you should say that for…."
Sarah's sentence was cut short for Allison had entered the room.
"Bobby, I hate to do this to you, but could you do me a huge favor and go to the store," she asked, "we need more milk and butter for the mashed potatoes."
"Sure, the Pink & White usually stays open until noon on Thanksgiving." Bobby replied
Bobby got up from the couch, grabbed his coat and car keys, and headed out to the garage. Cameron and Sarah decided to accompany him to the store for they figured they had nothing better to occupy their time. The trip to the store took fifteen minutes plus another ten to grab the milk and butter and go through the checkout line. The Cadillac had approached the last intersection before they would arrive on their block. Normally on Thanksgiving the roads would almost be free of vehicles. This Thanksgiving however the opposite was true; parked in front of the Cadillac were dozens of other cars including ones belonging to Channel 84 and the Arlen Police Department. Bobby stopped the car before he along with Cameron and Sarah got out; their ears were immediately filled with the sounds of drivers honking their horns and shouting. The trio made their way through the small fleet of vehicles; when they approached the front, they saw that other people had gathered to see what was holding up the road.
"Was there a crash?" Sarah wondered
"I don't see an ambulance anywhere." Bobby said
"Maybe no one was injured." Cameron assumed
They maneuvered their way through the crowd where once they were up front, they saw the source of the commotion. Standing in the middle of the intersection dressed in purple robes was Ward Rackley and the rest of the Coven.
"Isn't that the weird bloke from the bookstore?" Cameron asked
"Yeah, but why are they blocking traffic?"
That moment one of the officers approached Ward.
"Look, gentlemen," the officer addressed them, "you're too late for Halloween, it's Thanksgiving and these people want to get back to their families."
"Silence," Ward shouted, "The Coven of Artemis has come to save this village from the terror that is the Arlen Werewolf."
"The Arlen werewolf is a hoax," the officer corrected, "but if it was real then the police would handle it."
"Typical mortals, you show them evidence of a monster and yet they dismissed it as fantasy."
"Sir, you and your friends need to come with us."
The officer cautiously approached Ward, who glared at him as he stepped back.
"The true saviors of Arlen will not surrender to you pigs." Ward shouted after pulling out a silver dagger
Bobby, Sarah, and Cameron watched as each of the officers pulled out a taser gun and aimed it at the coven.
"Put down the knife," ordered the officer, "place it gently onto the ground."
Suddenly as if he was coming out of a trance; Ward dropped the knife to the ground.
"I'm sorry, I got carried away." He apologized
The head officer lowered his taser as he walked towards Ward.
"It's alright, son, just come with us and we can sort this mess out."
A menacing grinned appeared on Ward's face as he raised both of his arms straight up to chest level.
"I'm sorry I called you pigs when clearly you're not," Ward said with false empathy, "allow me to make my statement accurate."
The crowd watched as Ward began chanting in a foreign dialect. Suddenly his hands began to glow with an ominous black light. This baffled the officers until the same light surrounded them; the next thing people saw were several small pigs sitting on what were the officer's uniforms.
"She can't be alive." Bobby said with panic in his voice
"Who?" Sarah asked
"I've seen this magic before, it was used by a goddess named Circe."
"You mean from the Odyssey?" Cameron guessed
"Yeah, but Berry and I killed her months ago."
"Okay, then how did a dork like Ward obtain her magic?"
"No clue, but I need to stop them."
Bobby looked around for a place to transform until he noticed an alleyway. Sneaking away from the crowd Bobby entered the alley and wasting no time and not caring about his outfit transformed.
"You going to help him?" Cameron said to Sarah
"I don't have my transformation clothes." Sarah informed
"You're what?"
"When I want to transform or on every full moon, I put on clothes twice my size," Sarah explained, "I do that to save money on clothes and other obvious reasons."
"So that's why Bobby wears larger pants."
They turned their attention back to the Coven who were now speaking to the reporter from Channel 84 and demanding on live TV that the Arlen Werewolf shows up or they would literally turn Arlen into a zoo. Ward got his wish for Bobby jumped over the crowd and landed a few feet from the coven, scaring the officers turned pigs in the process.
"The Arlen Werewolf, you're less threatening in person," Ward mocked, "the bullies in high school were scarier than you."
"Listen, I don't know how you came across this form of magic, but you need to stop."
"I'm afraid that the woman who helped us unlock these new powers would as easily take them away if we didn't capture you."
"What woman?"
"You'll meet her soon enough," Ward stated before turning to the rest of the coven, "Noram, you're up."
Bobby watched as Noram stepped forward and began chanting in the same foreign language. To his surprise a fireball appeared in each of Noram's hands.
"Time to turn up the heat." Noram said before hurling a fire ball that Bobby easily dodged
The fireball struck the ground near some of the onlookers who then began to flee from the scene. Bobby managed to dodge the second fireball, but Noram had created two more and like before hurled them at Bobby. He dodged the first, but unlike last time the second fireball struck his leg. Bobby fell to the ground groaning as he felt his fur and skin burning.
"Excellent, Woodbender, "Ward praised, "Brother Vaughn, Mitchell, Pan, time to keep our promise to our goddess."
"Can Circe actually be alive?" Bobby thought as he struggled to get up
The five coven members surrounded him as they began casting a new spell. Bobby once again collapsed to the ground as a band of black light wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and mouth.
"I can't believe we did it." A surprised Ward said after they quit chanting
"What do we do now, Ward." Asked Mitchell
"We deliver this beast to our goddess."
"How do we do that?"
Ward pinched his brow in frustration.
"Just grab his legs, Mitchell."
Before any of them could grab Bobby; Sarah appeared in her wolf form dressed in what appeared to be Bobby's gym clothes. The coven was startled by her sudden appearance.
"Another one?" Pan gasped
"I thought there was only one Arlen Werewolf." Mitchell said
"Come on, Brothers, we defeated one werewolf, a second one shouldn't be any trouble." Ward promised
Noram began to conjure up another set of fireballs but was blindsided by a mask figure.
"For the love of Mordecai, do I have to do this myself."
Ward began chanting and a massive storm cloud appeared overhead.
"Experience the power of a true Master of Magick." Ward shouted
Lightning emerged from the cloud striking random spots on the ground. Sarah managed to get Cameron (who was in the mask) to safety as the lightning bolts became stronger and more erratic. Unaware to Ward and the other coven members; the restraints on Bobby slowly weakened to the point that Bobby easily broke them apart. While his leg had greatly healed, the pain was still present. Brother Vaughn had noticed this and went to warn Ward. As he got closer, he was struck by a bolt of lighting that left behind a chard corpse. The others gazed in horror at the remains of their brother.
"Ward, this is getting too dangerous, you have to stop." Mitchell pleaded
Ward refused to listen as he created a powerful vortex of wind. The vortex surrounding them reminded of Bobby and his battle with the wind god Fujin. He made his way over to Sarah and Cameron which even with in his wolf form was difficult.
"How are we going to stop him?" Cameron asked shouting through the howling wind
"I got something in my trunk that might help, but I need you to distract him." Bobby said
"No problem, leave this dork to me." Sarah said
Bobby grinned as he made his way to the Cadillac. Sarah ran over to a nearby bus bench which she ripped out and hurled it at Ward. To her surprise, Ward redirected a lightning bolt that obliterated the bench. Ward chuckled sinisterly as he began floating away from the ground.
"No one can match me, for I am Manolgar, Dark Lord of Magick
"This is nuts," Noram exclaimed, "I'm getting out of here."
He along with Pan and Mitchell ran off leaving alone the evil wizard once known as Ward.
"My power is infinite, I am a god."
"Hey, Manolgar, catch."
Ward turned his head just as a wooden club struck his chest knocking him to the ground. The lightning came to an end as the storm cloud cleared and the wind died down. Bobby approached an injured Ward, he grabbed him by the collar of his robe and held him up to his face.
"Who gave you that spell?" Bobby demanded
"I told you our goddess." Ward weakly replied
"Which goddess, Circe?"
"The goddess for whom our coven bears her name."
Bobby let go of Ward who stumbled back holding his chest.
"Artemis is a goddess, I thought she was a witch or something."
Ward was about to say more when an arrow struck him in the back. Bobby, Sarah, and Cameron watched as the arrow ignited resulting in Ward being consumed by flames. When Ward collapsed their attention was drawn to a man that Bobby recognized from the airport. He was wearing the same outfit, but the thing that really got their attention was the golden archery bow in his hand.
"Artemis?" Bobby asked guessing the man's identity
"Wrong, I'm Apollo, God of the Sun and Artemis's brother." Apollo corrected
Bobby suddenly felt three sudden sharp objects entering his back. He fell to his knees; in between the surges of pain he heard someone walk by him and went towards Apollo. He looked up and was shocked to see the woman from the bookstore standing there with a silver bow in her hands.
"This woman right here, she's Artemis."
She glanced spitefully at the charred corpse of Ward Rackley.
"Never trust a mortal to do a deities' job."
Bobby stood up despite the burning pain in his back from which he figured the arrowheads were made from silver.
"Why did you give Ward and the others the ability to do real magic?" Bobby asked
"I told them to use only three of the spells." Artemis confessed
"Yeah, the book that those spells originated from weren't met to be welded by humans," Apollo added, "the turning people into animals, the fireballs, and the binding spell were the safest ones."
"Then like all humans Ward craved power, thus becoming a reliability."
Bobby tried to pull out one of the arrows, but they were out of his reach. Artemis loaded her bow and then aimed it at Bobby's heart.
"Its time for you to pay for Circe's death."