GREEN THUNDER

I felt fine, but I was still a little shaky after my encounter with what I'm gonna be calling the dream phantoms. Dimentio had rushed to our aid, but once he entered the fear fog, it had cleared. Relieved, we had continued, with our bird companions soaring high in the sky.

I wanted to join them, but Dimentio was nagging me to stay on the ground.

"You cannot go up there," he said. "It is like a rabbit going to sleep in the middle of a clearing with a red-tailed hawk hunting above. It would make you an easy target."

"I don't need to be nagged by a fake-faced loser," I snapped. "I'm going up there."

Raven stopped me. "L, you've been injured more than anyone else on this journey. You aren't going up there until we get our friends back."

I glared at her, but I couldn't formulate a retort. I contented myself with asking about Raven's dagger.

"I probably aren't getting it back," reflected the forest girl sadly. "The fear fog took it."

"What a pity," yawned Dimentio.

After a few hours walking, we stopped to rest in a nifty little cave we stumbled upon. Raven offered to go and scout the perimeter with the other birds, and transformd before flying off. This left me with the jester.

The atmosphere was extremely awkward. Dimentio was toying with a leaf on the ground, leaving me content to stare out at the moon. After a while, Raven came back and announced something interesting.

"The forest ends a few minutes away," she told us. "Afterwards it's just barren wasteland."

"Didja see when it ends?" I asked.

"I didn't have time," she said blithely.

The rustling of feathers declared the return of the two X birds.

"Oh, good," I muttered, catching sight of the three apples the birds were carrying. "I'm freaking starving."

I took an apple, and so did Dimentio, but Raven waved hers away with her wing.

"I already ate," she said shortly, then looked at me and Dimentio. "I should mention something else. I saw the silhouette of a fortress, or castle, on the horizon. It looked a good couple of hours away at least."

"We should check it out," I said, after swallowing my mouthfull of apple.

"In the morning, though," interrupted Xena. "Grambi, I'm tired."

"Yeah," said X. "That fight with Eevill was tiring."

"Who's Eevill?" chorused me and Dimentio.

"That dolphin thing we fought the other day," said Raven, preening herself. "Dimentio, you didn't see him."

"I have a faint idea," smirked the jester, and started drawing in the dust.

When he was finished, we could see the clear outline of the dolphin thing.

"A Direel, I believe," he said smoothly.

"Wow," grinned Raven. "Since when did YOU know anything about other species?"

"Since forever," replied Dimentio bluntly. I laughed at the sucky retort.

"Well, that's agreed," said X. "We're scoping out the mystery castle tomorrow, huh?"

"Agreed!" The rest of us smiled at the thought of storming a mystery castle.

The next day was a real doss. Raven led us through the path she had taken, and we emerged in what was definitely a barren wasteland. The ground was greyish and the only plants were the twisted bare remains of trees. In the distance loomed a giant spiky castle.

"Like a black blot against a grey piece of paper," remarked Dimentio, talking about the castle.

I looked up at the sky. The dark-grey clouds obscured the blue.

"I don't like the feel of that place," said Xena.

Somehow, I could feel it too. The castle gave off a feeling of depression, murder, torture and plain, black evil. I felt my tongue form a single word.

"Ex."