With the cruel scene of a dragon’s undoing still in progress Anthrax the evil formorian sorcerer spun about on his flying toilet-seat and the goblins praised him. The Fomorian demon soaked up the adulation like the sucking parasite he was. In accordance with the laws of evil sorcery he drained energy from the things around him like a vampire drains blood.
As the goblins danced and sang Anthrax quietly vowed that he and he alone would take credit for the dragon’s death! The goblins jigged, screamed, gibbered, howled and hooted! When Anthrax felt his energy levels were at their peak he stopped the toilet seat dead in it’s airborne tracks and held his arms out from his sides. Electricity crackled in his hair as he summoned up the most destructive spell he could muster. The goblins stopped in sudden shock at his actions and before any of them could ask what he was doing he held out both his hands towards them and unleashed a giant ball of fire. It landed amongst the goblins and scattered them dead! He then held his Macmurderers pendant up, kissed it and screamed.
“By all the forces of destruction and greed. I pledge a vow of allegiance to the concept of genocide! Make me The Lord of Death and give me that scythe to cut through the branches of The Tree Of Life! I will not stop until I am Overlord of Cain! From there I will not stop until I am Overlord of the Desolation of all Eden!”
Anthrax hovered over the giant purple dragon’s body and gloated at the ruination he had caused around him. Suddenly he could hear the distant sound of galloping and grinned. He knew it was the sound of creatures from Eden who would find the dragon’s death an agony. He chuckled as he skitted off on his flying toilet seat. He came to rest on a nearby hill and slid down one of its sides dragging the seat behind him. He lodged the seat on an outcrop of rock and clambered up to the crest of the hill. He peered over the ridge and watched.
Suddenly he saw something on the horizon.
Mere shadows gained substance as a cloud grew. As it rushed towards the dragon it gradually revealed the shape of a hoard of galloping tribes-people. Their full form then became evident. They were centaurs. Half horse and half-human. Above the waist they had the bodies, arms, hands and heads of human beings and below the waist they had the bodies, four legs, tails and the genitalia of horses.
The markings on the equine parts of their bodies were matched by the patterns across their human skin. They thus had fantastic natural tattoos that followed their muscular curves. Shield bearing arms and spear bearing hands revealed random plates of silver armour. Horned helmets decorated with swirling mandalas of silver and black gave their rugged faces a grim countenance. As they stopped in front of the dragon’s body some reared up on their hind legs as their tails flayed this way and that. Circling above their heads was Sydny Smith the cherub.
Since they were largely a matriarchal people, a proud female centaur approached the body of the purple dragon first. She instantly wept at the sight of him. Her outburst heralded a symphony of wailing, whinnying and weeping. It had been Sydny Smith the little red cherub who had informed them of the dragon’s plight and they had immediately rushed to help.
Bobby found himself circling above the female centaur’s head. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
“Oh Sydny! This is awful!” she cried.
“I remember now,” thought Bobby. “It was in one of the recent drug trips I had! I saw that forces from Cain had got Plato the dragon into this horrific bed and planned to poison him! My knowledge of it must have filtered through to the brain of the body I’m in now.”
Sydny scratched his head wondering why he felt there was someone else’s voice in it. At length he said.... “I rushed to get help but it doesn’t look like I was quick enough!”
The centaur closest to the dragon was called Surjeet and she looked up and put out a silver-plated hand. Sydny spun around in mid-air and turned to face the centaur. He put his little red hand in hers.
“It’s not your fault Sydny. You tried your best.” Surjeet said, doing her best to console him. When the centaurs grew less vociferous in their grief Surjeet turned to face them.
“We will avenge the death of this noble creature! We will find the sorcerer and end his plague of destruction in this fair land!”
Suddenly Plato sat up in his bed and urgently enquired, “Who’s died?”
Sydny and the centaurs gasped in shock!
Anthrax screamed in horror and at once gave his position away!
Anthrax had waited until he could see the looks on the centaur’s faces. That was what his personal triumph was all about. It was about gloating. He imagined that some “do-gooder” must had seen his plan in action and rushed off to get them. That was all right, at first, because it gave him a chance to gloat. Now the dragon seemed to be alive his plans were shot to fuck.
The expanse of barren land that Anthrax had created caused dust and sand where earth and grass had once been so the centaurs caused great clouds of it as they circled Plato’s body in panic and anger. Now it was clear that the dragon was alive and that Anthrax was nearby. The clouds of dust expanded towards the sorcerer as he began his retreat from the scene. As Anthrax quickly backed away he could see forms becoming visible in the spray of parched gravel. Bodies covered in armour glinted in the sun and hooves clattered in a rhythmic cacophony of movement as they sped towards him. Anthrax began to run but it was too late. The centaurs had reached him.
“GET HIM!” shouted Surjeet and with that Plato immediately broke the incapacity spell Anthrax had put him under and was in the air in the blink of an eye!
Anthrax hopped on his toilet seat and sped off while Plato’s sudden movement distracted the centaurs. They charged after the demon and Sydny the cherub slipstreamed Plato as he also sped after the sorcerer.
The dragon beat his huge purple, blue, mauve and turquoise wings as Anthrax scudded along on his toilet seat. Anthrax spun around and hurled a few modest thunderbolts at the dragon for that was all he could muster. The thunderbolts bounced off Plato like sparks off of an anvil. Arid dust bowl became grassy tundra as the chase left the evil sorcerer’s theatre of hate. They were now flying over the green belt of land near the border of Cain. Anthrax knew that if he could reach the desolation before the dragon caught him he might escape.
Anthrax had built his tower outside of the boundaries of Cain as a show of strength when he had infiltrated Eden. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t.
The dragon drew close to the Fomorian demon and opened his huge mouth. With the border of Cain in sight Plato plucked Anthrax off his flying toilet seat with his giant teeth. The seat dived down and splashed into a pond. With a loud gulp the dragon swallowed the evil sorcerer whole!
Surjeet and the centaurs charged down a grassy slope to the edge of the pond.
“Where’s Anthrax?” asked Surjeet as she panted with anticipation. Plato hovered in the air and let out a loud belch.
“You haven’t....” she said looking mildly disgusted.
“We’re not all vegetarians, dear.” replied the dragon grinning.
Sydny landed on Plato’s head.
“Most dragons only eat evil things Surjeet. Some won’t even eat vegetation.” Sydny said.
“How come you’re alive?” she asked as she couldn’t help but smile at Plato.
“Well Anthrax had got me in a real mental cul-de-sac. I kept saying to myself, Plato, this demon threatens to poison you and then I’d say, Plato, this demon may be able to cure you. I had a terrible illness you see. He said he could help. I realise now that he was the illness. I then accepted the pill and the lights went out. I then came around but could not move and realised that he had used his Magick in the construction of the tablet.
As you know Magick rarely works on dragons because we are Magickal anyway. The only other ingredients in his poison were a sedative and an immobilising agent. I awoke when he killed his goblin helpers. It was the horrific speech I then heard that made my mind up as to what to do if I caught him. The sedative then kicked in again and I fell asleep. I woke up when you said someone had been killed. So who was it?”
“Who was what?” asked Surjeet.
“Who’s been killed?”
“We thought it was you!” she said as all the centaurs laughed.
“Oh....” said Plato.
Sydny Smith found himself taking off again and circled above their heads. He then said. “These Fomorians must be pretty stupid. I mean, if Anthrax forgot that his Magick wouldn’t work on you...”
“Oh I don’t know,” cut in the dragon. “Perhaps in his arrogance he thought he was that powerful, or in his excitement took a short cut in the pill’s preparation.”
“Either way, we’ll probably never know because he’s now in your belly.” said Surjeet poking the dragon’s stomach with her finger as he hovered directly in front of her. Plato belched again.
“I say the after-taste of evil sorcerer is not at all unpleasant.” he said. The centaurs all laughed. The dragon turned to the circling Sydny. “Thank you Sydny. If you hadn’t fetched these noble centaurs I may have stayed asleep and Anthrax might have made a bonfire out of me. You may very well have saved my life!”
As far as a red cherub can blush, Sydny blushed.
“That’s O.K. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me. Anyway I had some sort of vision. I think it had something to do with humans and bats.” he said.
“Humans!” said Surgeet and Plato in unison.
“Yes humans. It all seems connected to the goblin infestation of Able. Rosa is holding a conference at the moment in an attempt to develop some sort of strategy for dealing with it. I think Anthrax was supposed to get Plato out of the way as part of a plan to destroy Abel. I think we should head for The Forest of Id and Rosa’s conference.
They all agreed and made ready to leave.
As they were leaving a giant swarm of bats arrived on the scene. Billy the bat had seen what Anthrax had got in mind for Plato and had rushed off to get help. Bobby Rewind had temporarily entered Billy’s body when he’d seen the dragon’s plight. Bobby had briefly entered Billy’s body while he was blipping in and out of Eden in the run up to his full transportation there. Bobby had therefore caught a glimpse of Plato’s misfortune and this had been immediately broadcast telepathically to Sydny the cherub. It seemed from this and other episodes in Bobby’s interdimensional hopping that Bobby and Sydny had developed some kind of subconscious link.
Billy the bat told Surgeet what he had seen and Sydny and Billy enthused at the similarity between Billy’s experience and Sydny’s vision. The Bats were delighted to find Plato alive and he, in turn, thanked them for rallying and coming to his aid - albeit minutes after the arrival of the centaurs. Sydny then told Plato that he felt he was experiencing a link with a particular human from time to time. Plato advised him to bring it up at the conference they were going to.
Plato picked something out of his teeth. He dangled it from one of his claws and inspected it. It was the Macmurderers medallion that Anthrax had been wearing. When he saw what it was he flipped it up in the air and spat a ball of white-hot saliva at it. It immediately turned to molten metal and by the time it hit the ground it had turned into a solid silver raindrop. The letter “M” for “Macmurderers” had disappeared.