The lay there for an eternity it seemed, although, quite unbelievabley, it was only an hour. A huge, lumbering demon strode up to them and spoke in a loud, commanding voice. "Time to rise and shine, dunderheads. Be ready to be split into groups."
From there, the next fifteen minutes were a blurr. The six were split into three groups of two. Geogin and Dawe, being the smallest two of the group, were placed in poison extraction duty. Fernly and Leelo got to be snake hunters, perhaps the most dangerous job out of three. Celesty and Lest, being the largest and tallest of them, were sized up to be a pair of guards patrolling the castle.
Now, I must take the time to explain that all the following will be happening as Kort hunted all sorts of greenery while the six went about just blending in. They had no espically hard manual labor, just sitting around and waiting.
Lest and Celesty were the only two that got a horn dipping, since they were meant to be defense for any intruders. They stood in a long line and dipped thier steel-like horns into the gooey sap until it was throughly poisoned and ready for battle. Then they went out side the castle and endlessly circled around it like vultures, thier ears perked forwards, eyes alert, and always tensed for any sign of something strange.
The most eventful thing that day was a histerical mare made a break from the tireless, repeating work. The small form bolted out of the doors past Lest. He hesitated, and then a harsh voice behind him spoke. "Go after her, you idiot."
Lest whipped around to see a unicorns about as tall as Dawe, perhaps a bit taller. His was lean and had an arch about his neck. He carried his head proudly, and was escorted by two of the titan sized generals that gave out jobs. There was no mistaking that arch though. It was exactly the same as Korts. It was the terrible king, Yolise.
Lest knew if he didn't act, thier jig would be up. Turning on his heel as quick as a flash, he bolted towards the dot in the distance, running as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. He easily caught the run away. He halted her by leaping in her path. The mare reared up and struck at him with hoof and horn. He parried easily and spoke reassuring words, telling her it would be all right. Lest lead the quaking unicorn back to the waiting Yolise.
Yolise spoke but three words. "To the dungeons." And with that, the mare was lead off to the pits below the fortress to her doom.
Meanwhile, Fernly and Leelo were having thier own delima out in the misty, crack plains, searching for the ever elusive serpants of the land. They unearthed one that Leelo quickly killed with a swift blow with her hoof. However, one they found a second one, trouble arose.
Fernly sighed as she stepped over a sucken log, bored out of her mind as she continued her neverending search for the poisonous snakes of the terrian. She was just about to turn and tell Leelo that they should go look elsewhere where she heard a rattle and a menacing hiss. Looking down in suprise, a serpant lunged from under the log and bit her!
It was pure luck that the snake just grazed her hoof so as no poison was inserted. With that a good hard stomp knocked the life out of it. Ferly wrinkled her nose at the limp form, before, with a shudder of disgust, she picked it up by the tail and carried it off towards the castle.
Perhaps the most boring and horrifying job of them all was squishing the snakes for poison. It was all a repeating process, squish, remove body, pass on bowel, repeat. Geogin and Dawe were perhaps the only two who had nothing too frightening happen to them, for thier job was the one where most of the horses went nuts with bordom.
Silently, after they were told they could leave and work was done, they went to the main court and met up with Leelo, Fernly, Lest, and Celesty. Each told about thier experiences, although they all agreed Lests run in with the frightening Yolise was the most disturbing.
Soon, the moon hung high above and most everyone was asleep. That was when they rose and exited through the secret passage once the guards back was turned. It was time to begin the mayham.