He he he! (Rubs hands together mischievously.) Time for the next chapter of this baby!

Last chapter, our hero, Zhon te Fee'air simply sung Blood Raven away from evil! How did he do it? Well read and see!

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"How did you ever manage to just sing Blood Raven to her own destruction?" Warriv laughed.

"It wasn't the song." Zhon began

"Even though I just about wanted to die at that horrible song." Ki-Ki added.

Zhon pushed her behind him. "It was really the enchanted flute that Ki-Ki played."

"I wish to hear this flute playing." Warriv announced.

"Me too." Gheed said from behind them. "Ah yes, Gheed!" Zhon acknowledge. "I'm sure you'd love to hear any woman tute her. . ."

But Gheed had already disappeared into his caravan wagon to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

"Anyway." Zhon continued. "It would not be a good idea for you to hear it."

"Why not?" Warriv questioned.

"Because it is enchanted. It does make the evil become good. But sometimes it makes the good go evil. You can never tell when it will happen. Therefore we only use the flute as a last resort. It doesn't always work though. But when we do use it, we must use extreme caution so that nobody turns evil who is already good."

"Ah!" Warriv realized.

"So you have completed my quest, have you?" Kashya said behind them. She had her arms crossed proudly across her chest and leaned against a tent post as if modeling for some magazine.

"Yes, unfortunately I lost Willy in the battle." Zhon said showing Kashya a box full of skeleton bones. "Perhaps Akara can heal him." Zhon mused.

"Um, yes." Kashya said almost falling from her leaning position.

"But since you have completed the quest I will give you a mercenary free of charge."

"Charsi." Zhon immediately said.

"Huh?" Kashya asked.


"I want Charsi to be my mercenary. I can choose any Rogue can't I?"

"Um, I'm sorry Charsi can't be a mercenary because she is the only blacksmith we have. And we, uh, need her here."

"OK." Zhon thought thinking how many Rogues he knew.

"I choose you then." He said turning toward her.

"Me?" Kashya squeaked. "You can't choose me. I have an important duty to do here." She continued indicating her job of standing in the rain with her arms crossed all day.

"But I don't know any of the other Rogues."

"Then I will choose one for you."

She went in a tent and pulled one out. They all looked pretty much the same so he didn't know which one it was.

She stood in front of him stiffly with her eyes looking forward as if in the military. (Well technically I guess she was.)

"My name is Elsabonajanefeemarybritginamaytanya." She said. Zhon shook his head in amazement. 'Who would name their child that?' he wondered.

"And I will be your new mercenary!" She announced merrily.

"Well I won't be calling you Elvabon...whatever! How about Rouge?"

"Excuse me sir?" The Rogue asked.

"Instead of calling you that long name, I'll simply nickname you Rouge. Get it? Rouge the Rogue?"

Nobody laughed.

"Never mind." Zhon said.

"Whatever you wish to call me sir, I am your servant."

"Really now?" Zhon said mischievously. But Ki-Ki punched him in the arm.

"Now be nice to our Rouge, I mean Rogue!" Ki-Ki scolded.

"Of course." Zhon said smoothing his hair back. "Right this way madam." He said taking the mercenary's elbow. "We are off to see Akara."


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"And poor Willy here got caught up in the zombie frenzy and nearly got chopped in half. Eventually he did get wounded. When I looked over, he had simply fallen apart. He's still alive though. He must be some sort of special monster because I saw his eye twitch."

"He doesn't even have any eyes." Ki-Ki said examining the skeleton head. "More like holes."

"Well something twitched! Can you heal him Akara? Please?"

Akara looked from Zhon to the skeleton skeptically.

"I don't know. I've never healed a skeleton before. But if he is your minion then I suppose I can do it."

She waved her hand over the scattered skeleton bones. And sure enough the bones floated into the air and assembled themselves.

"Willy!" Zhon said patting the skeleton on the back. "Welcome back to the land of the living. Oh wait. You're probably still dead. Or undead anyway." Zhon said confusing himself. Willy walked to the side of the encampment to await his master's orders.

"I have a new quest for you." Akara announced.

"Woo Hoo!" Ki-Ki cheered jumping up in the air with glee.

"It is clear we are facing an evil even greater than imagined. And there is only one person who could help us. Deckard Cain. But I fear Deckard Cain is in need of our help first. I fear there isn't much time." Akara continued. "You will find the portal in the Wilderness, but you need the bark of the tree of Inifus in order to open it."

"So we look for this tree of Inifus, strip it of its bark, go to the portal, open it, go into the portal, and rescue Deckard Cain? Got it!" Zhon said and strode gallantly off with his lovely assistant Ki-Ki behind him along with their new mercenary, Rouge.

But first, Zhon needed to talk to Willy.

"I'd like to introduce you to a knew member of our party." Zhon said to the skeleton as if talking to a child. He brought the skeleton over to their new mercenary.

"Willy, this is Rouge the Rogue. Rouge, this is Willy the skeleton archer. You two actually have a lot in common except for the internal organs and skin part."

Rouge the Rogue looked at the skeleton wearily and shook his bony fingers. Willy seemed to turn a slight shade of red.


"He likes you Rouge." Zhon said.

"How do you know?" The Rogue asked.

"Because me and Willy have some sort of telepathic connection or bond. It is hard to explain. But he comments your shoes."

The Rogue looked down at her muddy boots. "Well I did tie them extra tight today." She said flattered.

"Am I good or what?" Zhon whispered to Ki-Ki. "You're not trying to..." Ki-Ki realized. "Oh no! You're not trying to set these two up are you? They have nothing in common."

Rouge and Willy went to go sit on a log talking, well Rouge did most, if not all the talking.

"Yep!" Zhon said proudly looking at them as if they were a piece of his art work.

"I'm good."

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"How will we know what the tree looks like?" Ki-Ki asked.

"I don't know." Zhon answered. "I guess we'll just have to use our intuition."

Then they came upon a bunch of Fallen dancing around a dying tree. "Rach-a-knee-shu!" They sang linking hands and jumping merrily around the tree as if it were a maypole.

"Um, excuse me?" Zhon interrupted. They all looked at the intruder.

"Is this the tree of Inifus?" He asked. They looked at him, but didn't say anything but Rach-a-knee-shu because that seemed to be the only word in their vocabulary.

"Um, Ok then." Zhon said not knowing what to do.

"Can we join your little dance?" Ki-Ki cooed. "They look so cute!" She said sideways to Zhon.

"Don't let their looks deceive you." He warned.

And with that said they immediately started running after them with their swords raised.

"Um does this mean we will actually have to fight?" Ki-Ki asked.


"I think so." Zhon said taking out his magic wand. A fireball nearly hit them from a nearby shaman. "Whoa! Neat trick!" Zhon commented. "I can do that too." He said and sure enough a fireball blasted out of his magic wand and burnt the Shaman's grass skirt.

"It didn't look that good anyway!" Ki-Ki yelled at the Shaman and kicked at one of the faster Fallen who had caught up to them.

Rouge and Willy stood a little ways off shooting at occasional Fallen.

Suddenly a man in metal came to their rescue. Riding on a horse, he leaned down to slice at the Fallen with a shiny sword. Upon impact the monsters fell over poisoned with green foam coming out of their mouth. The man moved quickly and before any other of the Fallen could reach the magician and assistant, and soon all the Shaman and Fallen lay dead or scattered.

He rode up to them and stood before them. His helmet covered most of his face so he took it off and revealed the manliest face Ki-Ki had ever seen. His face was cleanly shaven and his shoulder length hair was covered in sweat making him seem more handsome. 'His eyes were light blue and his smile was like a half moon.' Ki-Ki thought poetically to herself.

"It is nice to finally make your acquaintance Mr. Magician. Ma'am!" He said shaking his head in her direction. He slid down his horse. "I am Drusabon from the house of Light and Paladin of the New Order. I have been following you for quite sometime and am impressed by your deeds magician."

"You have, eh?" Zhon answered not knowing what else to say. "Why have you been following me?"

"To see the great magician of course, and to save the Rogue encampment as well."

"Well as you can see, I have already got that under control. I have already completed two quests for the poor town's souls and I have gotten to know them as if they were my own family."

"Oh stop it!" Ki-Ki interrupted never taking her eyes off the man. "He can help us. You won't mind joining us, will you?" She said in a honeyed voice to Drusabon.

"I would be honored to serve a lady." He answered politely.

"He called me a lady!" Ki-Ki said with glee to Zhon. Zhon looked annoyed at the man.

"Then it is settled then. I will humbly help you in anyway I know how, using my Paladin training to the best of my knowledge, to protect the innocent and fight against corruption. By this oath, I swear it!" The paladin said getting on one knee and sticking his sword in the ground.

"Whoa!" Ki-Ki commented dreamily. "Soo knightly!"


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I hope I don't get in too much trouble for calling the Rogue mercenary Rouge. That will get you confused. But I remember when someone got SOOOO aggravated in a review because someone kept putting Rouge instead of Rogue. Rouge is a reddish blush color for makeup I believe. Though whenever I think of the word, I always think of Baton Rouge, Louisiana! (The Red Boat right? Cajun anyone?)

Also I hope I don't confuse anyone with the Paladin. He is a Paladin, but his name is Drusabon and his nickname is Dru. I just love playing with you people's minds! (Heh heh! I am evil! EVIL I tell you!)

Oh yes. Thanks to my three reviewers too. I love you even though you don't know me!!!

: )