Chapter 11

Sheldor stared at a monumental trailer with two large handles on both sides of it that had two enormous birds perched on each of them. The trailer had two windows on the side that they faced with a glorious jade framed in the center of it, but no handles a sign of a door there. The rest of the trailer seemed to be made of gold with the traces of jade in them.

Onar and Wolowix stared slack jaw as they slipped beside Sheldor.

Onar's telepathy reached both of them, "You never know how bad you got it until you see how a princess travels." As he shared that thought, the three turned their heads to the left to watch Pryna, her nose snobbishly in the air, walk towards the golden door framed with jade. She placed a single hand in the center of the space between the jade frame and begun to sing an Indian folk song. Her bindi began to glow. The glow's waves made swirls of maroon markings upon her body and they seemingly multiplied from her head, to her neck, then finally down to her hand that was upon the door. From her hand, there was a series of henna markings bleeding into a circle and spreading. From their point of view, it looked like it was forming into a sun shape design, it was very beautiful.

Within a few seconds, the art burned into the door with a deep red pulse and she stepped away. The space between the jade with the sun burned into it… evaporated and left an opening. She turned and smiled and swept her hand, "This will take you to your castle."

Sheldor looked at both his companions then pushed forward, the other two not far behind.

The inside was almost as rich as the outside. There was a large diamond shaped rug that sprawled across the entirety of the floor where only a few bits of floor underneath were visible. There were intricate designed chairs encircling a low, flat, slate rock topped table. The chairs had no back, but did have arm rests. Sheldor only quipped that it had to be hard to sit in a chair with a back if you had wings. The floors and walls were plain cream and there didn't seem to be much else within the trailer.

Pryna asked them all to sit and they obliged. Onar sat on his haunches beside Sheldor and his chair.

It was hard for Sheldor to sit in the small little cushioned chair since it was so low to the ground, but he didn't complain. He did, however, had to narrow his eyes at the short innovagygr as he snorted a laugh. Pryna snapped her fingers and there was a lurch in their stomachs as the huge birds took flight with the trailer secured in their talons. She called out, "Venkatesh!" A male Garuda swooped inside from one of the windows and landed with a bit of a stumble.

The man had an arm full of scrolls and books and he walked towards the table. Pryna rolled her eyes at the male and looked at Sheldor, "This is my cousin, Venkatesh. Though he is as useless as the wings of a peacock on an elephant… he is very good at reversing curses. Venkatesh believes he knows how to change my brother back."

Sheldor's eyes glowed interest. He could feel the demon inside him moving, but his thoughts of Penelope were keeping it at bay. His thoughts were on the infertility curse on Penelope's belly. He wondered if this man could find a remedy for the brand. He would make note to ask him once they had rescued Rajesh, but he had an inquiry, "Pryna… tell us a little bit about your brother and his current situation. How did he end up in the witch's castle?"

Pryna started by explaining a little bit about their family, "My mommy and daddy are Dusara, or 'Beta', of the Garuda Jhunda, or flock. It is safe to say that our particular family is rich, powerful, and second in command under the Pahale, or Alpha. My brother Rajesh, when he was only a hatchling just learning to fly in his humanoid form, hurt his wing and fell to the land. He was lost for three days. A little human girl, no more than 7 human years, had helped him mend his hurt wing and would stay with him at night. Well, Rajesh was far too shy to speak, but the girl was more than happy to talk. Her father was an astrologist and she spoke to him about the stars. That's what got him started with his obsession of the human world. When he turned 18, he snuck out of our sanctum and down to the land. He found an old keep owned by an aged magus where he found a book on astrology. Though he loved the human world, he was not quite as knowledgeable as he needed to be. He walked out of the keep with the book, knowing that he could easily go get an egregious amount of money for the old man, but didn't pay for it. The magus did not take kindly to my brother's thievery and attacked him with spells. The magus's spells had not effect for Garuda are impervious to jinxes and attack spells, but not curses. The magus had become very irritated and prepared a curse, but first he asked my brother 'why did you steal from me?'. Instead of Rajesh explaining who he is or what he was, he just said 'for knowledge'. The magus was furious at this and the man snorted 'you want knowledge, huh? Well, you GOT it freak'. The curse hit him and twisted his body into that of a worn out, dirty, burned out Book of Knowledge. My brother's incessant need of knowing everything got him what he desired. The old magus put him on the shelf and left him there for a year and a half before the Blood Witch and her daughter came to the keep. The man didn't answer the witch's questions, so she ripped his heart out and left him AND his heart on the floor as she set the store on fire. It was Lady Fowler who sensed my brother's aura and took him off the shelf. I have witnesses who saw the woman clasping the book to her chest. My brother is in that castle… he's the one who tells her who has the purest hearts. He is a good person, but he has been confiscated by an evil woman. My job is to retrieve him."

Sheldor pursed his lips, "What is your exact plan in retrieving your brother? Lady Fowler is a master of black magic, which happens to be mostly made up OF curses. Let's say that we do find your brother… what if he refuses to leave with you? Are you prepared to take him by force?"

Pryna, Wolowix, Venkatesh, and Onar all looked at him, then all eyes went to Pryna. She looked stern and steadfast, "Garuda are not just birds of prey, Sir Sheldor… I am what your youth would call a 'pied piper'. I am what is called a Jadu Bansurivadaka in our village." She took out a honey tanned bansuri and demonstrated her ability. It was a deep, melodic, and almost ethereal sound as she played no particular song. It was beautiful to Sheldor's ears and he barely noticed that he and his friends were no longer within the confines of the trailer, but were now underwater and surrounded by fish and sea creatures alike.

The music had engulfed them within a mirage of magic. He looked dubious as he spoke and bubbles floated from his mouth with every word, "You are what my mentor would call a Cadence Conjuror. You sing and song your victims till they hurt themselves. You're magic is but a parlor trick, madam. Lady Fowler will see right through it."

Pyrna scowled and she played her bansuri furiously. Sheldor felt something tighten in his chest as everything went out of his sight except the mirrors that surrounded him. He felt himself rip out of his own body to be within one of the mirror's that circled his new body. Sheldor watched in horror as his current self covered in black ooze and shifted into a 7 foot tall, completely blackened form of a were lion form with ram horns that circled around his head and his jolted out lion ears, and a cloven-hoofed lower body. His teeth were jagged like a shark's mouth and his tail was an enormous king cobra. Sheldor didn't have any proof that the creature before him was actually him, but, yet, he knew it WAS him.

The creature's eyes were entirely crimson red and that's what color it bled down the side of the eyes at a constant drip. The creature floated and laughed and gave a ghostly growl towards him. Sheldor could hear the music of the bansuri pause, but nothing disappeared. The demon him paused as well, yet he could still move. That's when Chrsnyght slipped beside him and made him nearly jump out of his tailor made pants.

She was looking at the demon him for a few seconds before she finally talked, "What do you think of the new you? Stylish… right? Figures a song bird would be the one to finally show you the 'Bad News' of our liaison."

Sheldor looked at her with his brows furrowed, "Preposterous! This is just a figment of that retched bird woman's magic to try and scare me… nothing more."

Chrsnyght gave a little light laugh and finally looked at him with those blacked out eyes and white pupils, "You are SO CUTE when you're wrong. Sheldor, I've told you that Demon Magic is unpredictable… at least a bazillion times! THIS is the side effect… You become a demon yourself. This particular form that you see here is called your Bazinga form. It is a mock form of your inner demon… which seems to be that of a Chimera."

She huffed a sigh and looked at him, "Sort of like an animal spirit… totem thing, but it's... you know... evil. There's not much you can do once you're in Bazinga mode. It's like a werewolf on a full moon. You're a beast on the hunt and anything that moves is on your list of slaughter. The reason you get this way is not determined, but I can tell you this… it's you at your most lowest."

Sheldor turned his head towards the demonic him and he felt his lungs tighten, "Bazinga... mode? What? You speak as if I will have no choice in the matter of becoming...THAT thing! And… you say that there is a chance that I will hurt the people I care for? This is not something I agreed to, DEMON! I must ask that you relieve yourself from my persons IMMEDIATELY!"

She turned her eyes towards the demon him and had a stern face, "It's too late. My demon essence is already in your veins. Even if I leave… you'll still have the demon present. There is a darkness in us all Sheldor and the Demon Magic has a tendancy of finding that little speck of insanity, that strand of vulgarity, and that cloudiness of evil that builds itself stronger the further we press it back into our minds and turns it into a real live monster. This… This creature… is you at your most sadistic… when everything in that big honking brain of yours just shuts down and the beast goes viral within your whole body. This isn't some bedtime story, Sheldor. This is reality. YOUR reality."

Sheldor swallows and turns to Chrsnyght, "Am I powerful enough to kill Lady Fowler in this form?"

The demon turns her head then her whole body towards him and floats a little bit to come eye to eye with him, "In that form… you are powerful enough to rip time and space apart like a piece of tissue paper."

Sheldor's emotional facial expressions quell and he turns back to the creature with a dubious plan in his head, yet he only spoke, "I see…"

Chrsnyght gave a smile and snorted a laugh, "Humans… will you EVER learn?"

Sheldor looked over at the demon as the bansuri's music began to play again but she had disappeared. The music of the bansuri seemed to stop and he and his two companions were back in the Garuda's trailer as Pryna pulled the flute off her lips with a cocky grin. Sheldor was nowhere near impressed, but he kept his mouth shut for he was now aware of what he truly was. There was a scream of a bird from outside and Pryna jumped up with Venkatesh slowly rising up. Pryna looked down at Sheldor, "We're HERE! Get ready!"

Sheldor gave a very unsettling side grin and a row of jagged fangs appeared in the small opening, his eyes burning black at the thought of battle. He could feel the witch's magic from here and it was delicious. He would soon get his chance to save Penelope and avenge his family and the retrieve his heart and those thoughts made him deliriously hungry for action. The demon inside of him purred as he missed the strange looks that Onar was giving him. Onar's ears pinned to the back of his head and gave a growl and Wolowix shared a worried look with him.

Lady Fowler stepped from the darkness towards the battered blonde that hung. Her eyes were a soft blue as she traced all the wounds upon her minion. She had thought that the beatings would flare the old Penelope out and she'd retaliate, but instead… she took the beatings as if she deserved them. Is this really the power of love? Is this what the women of this pathetic world LIVE for? Love had gotten THIS particular specimen a one way ticket to watching her family burn… watch as every male she laid with get their throats cut… and now… beaten and tortured. Love… was it really worth all THIS? She wanted to know.

She wanted to cut this fool down and examine her brain, but a voice boomed into the darkness, "My Lady, the Garuda carriage is approaching. Would you like me to send some of the quetzalcoatls out to intercept them? Or would you like me to inform the Skaldjilk Grex to begin firing?"

Lady Fowler's eyes burned red from being interrupted and she watched as the swollen eyes of Penelope opened a little to stare at her. Lady Fowler's eyes burned white before started back pedaling. She never took her eyes off Penelope until her back hit the wall and she blinked and smoked out of the dungeon and reappeared in front of Rakooth. Her eyes burned blue again as she addressed the book, "Yes! And please instruct Dennikim to station himself on the inside of the main entrance. I want to make sure if they make it to the front door then that's pretty much as far as they'll get. Station Althea with Penelope… no one is allowed to take her without my permission."

"Yes My Lady!"

The trailer was under attack. Rocks flew by the window and headed towards the birds that kept them in the air. Onar growled and got into the zone to where he could telepathically speak to Pryna, "Forgive me for being so bold as to barge into your mind, but… we need to land this thing before they shoot us out of the sky… SOME of us don't have wings!"

Pryna nodded in agreement and squawked orders up above. Venkatesh flapped his wings and darted out one of the windows, obviously running away. They felt like they were descending, but a violent rumble shook the trailer and had everyone stumbling to their backsides. One of the rocks suddenly impacted through a side and the rock rolled to a stop leaving a gaping, crumbling hole.

Sheldor narrowed his eyes at the rock and they popped open wide, "Oh Drat… SOFT KITTIES!"

The two tailed, sabertooth armadillo cats, known as Soft Kitties, were creatures that were devastatingly unstoppable. They traveled in clowders and could destroy a large village in under an hour. Their shell-like armor were thick concaved bone that covered their entire bodies. When they bowed into a ball, each piece fit like a perfect puzzle and there would never be one iota of an opening. They resembled a bowling ball but were solid and covered in a weird type of fuzz. No one knew how they were given the name Soft Kitty, but it was definitely a humorless joke!

The Soft Kitty popped and landed on its feet and roared loudly. It was roughly 5 inches shorter than Onar and its sabertoothed fangs were half the size of its own front arm. The creature's skin was a deep purple and its eyes were a haunting jade green. It looked from one individual to another until its eyes fell to Pryna. It sprung into action with no warning and rushed towards the Garuda. She couldn't put the bansuri to her mouth in time as it lunged in the air towards her.

She screamed, covering her face. She had missed the daring tackle of the Soft Kitty by the nerkanine at the last minute. Onar rolled around with the beast until he was on top and pinned the creature. It scratched four lines against his muzzle and Onar snarled and quickly used his massive jaws to snap the Soft Kitty's neck. Wolowix waved his hand at the demolished wall and it almost healed itself.

Onar jumped off the dead creature and stood beside the distraught Gaurda, "Are… are you alright?" As she buried her face into his furry shoulder and nodded yes… the trailer jerked violently as it hit solid ground.

Sheldor stood at the faux door with his left arm almost waving like a snake then it straightened out into a grotesque blade. His eyes burned black and he gave a jagged smile as his voice returned to the deep rasping demonic voice, "Better get your flute ready, Princess…" He turned his head towards Pryna and Onar, snarling at her with a little bit of a southern slang, "This ain't no tea party we're about to go to. There are more of those out there…" he pointed to the Soft Kitty, "… and there are creatures that would gladly rape you and eat your flesh at the same time. This here's a war. You want your brother back… you better keep up."

He snarled his sharpened teeth and turned back around and sliced at the faux door with his left arm. There was a delay in showing the slice marks, but slowly it collapsed and revealed a horde of Skaldjilks with bows and flaming arrows pointed towards them.