/Okay, everything below the Keep is mine though the minions themselves are all Rare's intellectual property. The Gruntling Messenger – indeed, any concept of Gruntling hierarchy as placed at any point in this fic – is mine. This applies to any other hierarchy I implement, and this statement covers the WHOLE fic. Uh, I guess that covers everything in this chapter. This chapter I do dedicate to NintendoNut1 in honour of the outstanding Amethyst Shamans fic, now complete. Not for any particular reason, no hidden message, I just felt like dedicating a chapter to somebody. Read… and review. Or else./

Grunty Restored

"How did you get here?", asked Grunty

"That dumb bear and bird and that idiot Jingaling have the Keep under heavy guard between them".

This was quite true; she had caught a glimpse or two through the folds of her undignified prison on the way to the kickball game, and there were always sentries. Just in case.

"Hur, hur, hur", laughed Klungo, gently tipping Grunty's head out of the brightly coloured sack, "hur, hur, hur! Ssssstupid bear and bird not know about main entransssse! Clever Klungo came through basssement!"

"I thought you'd given up opposing that dumb bird and bear when Mrs. Klungo dumped you for someone less bruised. Last I heard you were in the games industry,"

So they still only knew about the secret exit? The fools! Only the topmost tower of Cauldron Keep was visible from the Quagmire – the basement where the B.O.B was constructed, the barracks, the control room and all of the other facilities (along with enough dried and tinned goods to see out a four-year siege) were still presumably intact, and her forces awaiting her command. The Keep was practically a self-contained city!

"Ssssstupid programmersss made fun of poor Klungo. They called Klungo ssstupid! Klungo got his own back though – ssstupid programmersss from Rareware work for Microsssoft now!"

"Ha!", cried Grunty. "You're almost as evil as me! So what is your plan? We have tonight and three days. Then they will want a kick-around with my head; before then I want them dead!"

"Klungo thought Misssstresss had stopped rhyming".

"That was to please my sisters before they were flattened", said Grunty. "It's become a habit. That rhyme was too good to miss, I'm sure you'll agree; now what is your plan? Tell me!"

"That wassss terrible. Klungo will take DNA from ssskull. Then Klungo will clone new body for missstressss. Finally Klungo will transfer life essssence from Misssstresss' skull to missstresss' new body."

"A clone of me will still be ugly", said Grunty. Her ultimate ambition was to become the most beautiful being alive.

"Missstressss' life esssence will not inhabit another body. Missstresss mussst sssettle for sssskin and blood before missstresss can chassse rainbowssss."

"Very well", replied Grunty, "how long will this take? The bear and bird must be beaten; they have kicked my head too long!"

"Klungo will take missstressss to basssement. Missstressss will have new body in an hour."

An hour! And then she could resume her evil plots. To think that the day of her greatest humiliation would also be the day of her restoration. She dared to hope again.

Klungo held her out in plain view with both hands as he would a trophy. He would make it plain to the denizens of the lower floors of the keep that HE restored their mistress. They reached the bottom of the turret, and Klungo paused; the secret staircase had, of course, closed up again.

"Purple with yellow ssspotssss!", said Klungo. The staircase at the entrance opened up like a flower unfolding, if there are flowers so dark and loathsome. A putrid stench wafted from the depths.

"Breathe it in, Klungo", said Grunty. "The smell of home!" If she'd had eyelids she'd have closed them; she settled for just relishing the moment.

They descended into the darksome depths. The Gruntlings on guard snapped to attention; one of them, wearing the speeding broom of a messenger on its left breast, sped through the passages with the news of Grunty's arrival. They descended lower and lower, through the guest bedrooms, below the Gruntydactyls' eyries, beneath the Great Hall of the keep, and always to the sound of Gruntlings saluting.

They finally descended into the storerooms and down into Klungo's lab.

Klungo donned his much-stained white cloak for the look of the thing and set Grunty on a worktable. He took a pair of tongs and wrenched one of her teeth out.

"YAAARRRGGH!"

"Ssssorry, Missstressss. Klungo can't grow missstressss a new body without a ssssample!"

He then put the tooth into a tank arrangement; a pipe connected the top of the tank the tooth was in to the one next to it. The tank the tooth was in was filled with water; the other was not, holding only a cushion.

The next hour, watching her new body growing slowly from her tooth, was torture for Grunty. Slowly the body took shape; when it was almost ready, Klungo assembled her second-best suit of clothes on a stool. Her best set had, of course, been burnt to cinders with the HAG1. Grunty vaguely wondered if she'd really been as fat four years ago as the body that was forming.

Once the body was done, the water drained from the tank and Klungo placed her head on the cushion in the empty tank. Finally he set a screen around the apparatus so that Grunty could dress in privacy.

If anyone had been behind the screen, they would have seen the tanks running with lighting. A green glow formed around Grunty's head. It was sucked up the pipe and settled into her new body.

Grunty stood up from where her new body had settled on the floor and coughed the last of the fluid from her new lungs, and then clothed herself.

Her hands rose to stomach height as though she were holding a ball. She concentrated and a murky green ball of light, the power of the Void, coalesced betwixt her hands.

Gruntilda Winkybunion had risen again.

/Which is where things get interesting, of course. Enjoy! Read and review! Tell me your innermost thoughts and emotions about this fic in the reviews page, and do so now/