The bone dragon loomed over Kahli as she held tightly onto Sahdi, lightly kicking off her summoned rock in order to suspend them in the air. Its countenance was rightly terrifying, but indeed when it mind spoke to them Kahli felt that it was not the biggest threat to her presently. All the same, Froufrou did her best to make herself as small as possible within her fluffy purse. The way she saw it was that she'd already been in the [checkpoint] for long enough that she was

"Alright, what in the flying fuck is going on over here?!" spat Omar as he zoomed up with his flaming flatulence.

"The dragon is mind speaking to us, Omar," said Kahli with a bit of a pout.

Indeed, proceeded the dragon. You see, I have grave information to bestow upon you puny taumans that I believe will-

"Kahli, I oughta smite you out of the fucking sky for ruining all of Gifflenberg!" Omar raised his flaming left arm with fury. "Why, do you know that the New Curr you unleashed has consumed a good three quarters of the city at this point?"

"There's three quarters of the city left?" Kahli asked incredulously. This prompted Sahdi to chuckle, Froufrou to squelch, and even the bone dragon to growl in a deep yet jovial manner.

"How can you be so lighthearted about this?!" Omar was seething. "New Curr, unchecked, threatens to take over all of Nomachiato - just as Curr did way back when!"

"Look, Omar, I wish you wouldn't keep throwing me under the bus on the whole New Curr deal," said Kahli with a wink. After all, Omar had activated the doomsday scroll. Froufrou's doomsday scroll - the Harbinger of Doom scroll, precisely. And indeed, this wink was enough to get Omar to relent, which in turn allowed the bone dragon to continue its thought.

It is with grave expectations that I tell you-

"Wait a second!" said Omar. "Is the dragon saying grave expectations because it's a bone dragon? You know, because it's undead? Grave? Undead? Anyone?"

Everyone groaned in unison, and the dragon shook its head.

Now is not the time for tired, unfunny attempts at hilarity, thought spoke the bone dragon. Please, by the gods themselves, allow me to thought speak my piece.

Omar hung his head and sighed.

What I have to tell you is of the utmost seriousness. This is something that cannot be rightly overstated, please allow me to stress that for all of you that seem to think this is less of a time for listening and more of a time for arguing, or for odd remarks that may have intended to tickle someone's sense of humor and yet abysmally failed. The thing of it is, is that - OH MY GODS! What on Nomachiato is that wretched stench?

Kahli looked down into her purse. Froufrou squelched out a meager apology and waved one of her wriggling tendrils.

What... what even is that thing?

"Don't call her a thing! Her name is Froufrou, and she's the Harbinger of Doom," said Kahli proudly.

I'm... sorry I asked. The bone dragon let loose a lackadaisical roar. Anyways... What did I have to tell you? Oh, yes, I remember, it was that thing that had to do with the fate of Nomachiato in its entirety. You see, it has to do with that dreadful entity known to taumans as Drafuska.

Omar chortled. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. That old kid's story? Quantimidas' evil twin?"

Kahli shot Omar a deathly glare. He was, first of all, completely misrepresenting the story of Quantimidas and Drafuska. They were brothers, not twins necessarily, and additionally it was more of an old debated legend than a kid's story. At least it was in her opinion. Plus, it'd been sticking in her head an awful since Lloyd the evil alien brought it up in passing.

Froufrou squelched lightly and cowered further in her purse, not necessarily because of the mention of Drafuska as much as at the mention of evil twin. She couldn't rightly tell whether the time Kahli had spent with alternative Froufrou had damaged their relationship as [paired] companions at all, but regardless the mention of ill-behaved doppelgängers made her feel quite self conscious.

Yes, you could say that, except in the fact that Drafuska looks nothing like Quantimidas in all recorded histories. Regardless, I must apologize for attacking you, your party, and of course G'athoong, Kahli, thought spoke the bone dragon. You see, oftentimes we bone dragons are not necessarily evil or malicious. We are generally just undead dragons, much like undead skeletons in the answer to taumans in the afterlife. However, a cruel entity found its way into one of our realms fairly recently... About a week ago, I think, in your time. It is all kind of muddied for me, as I was one of those poor bone dragons that fell near irreversibly under the entity's spell. I'm just fortunate that G'athoong was able to use her water dragon [skills] to heal my psyche before I was entirely too far gone. Indeed, many of my brethren most likely are - the entity's power was and indeed still is unrivaled. They have some sort of a [skill] that allowed them to slither like a snake into our mind's ear and speak to us in place of our own thoughts, filling us with bile and hatred and the need to destroy all that anyone ever held dear... Indeed, whatever the entity's plans were, they surely seemed hellbent on destroying the world. And with that, once myself and all of the other surrounding bone dragons in Sub terrain 6.9 - we divide our bone dragon nests into sub terrains, you see - the entity cackled their evil cackle and then let us loose like raging bulls into the gate with one dread command: DESTROY ALL YOU SEE. And so, well, you see, I was just obeying those orders. Had I had even the modicum of understanding of what it was that I was doing, any awareness at all, I would not - but of course that was just not in the cards, I was caught under the mighty thumb of that sinister [skill]. G'athoong told me that it was actually eating away at my inner psyche, almost like a worm burrowed deep in my brain. Anyways, I'm fine now, but many other bone dragons - as well as countless other bone entities - you may note will most likely be so far gone that indeed the only way to deal with them is to kill them.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"So, uh," Kahli cleared her throat. "Where does Drafuska fit into all this?"

Ah, well, this is more of a hunch than anything... but I'd say it's a bit of an educated hunch, that is. See, the entity was large, almost formless - like an entity made of light. However, and this is the kicker, when the entity entered our realm and let out its wretched cackles of glee, sending its slithering [skill] into our psyches, it hissed out something so sinister to me that it stuck in my mind through the turmoil of possession. 'By the hands of my envoys I will duly ensure that my brother shall never rise again' was the phrase that stuck, although there was also a very long monologue the hissing voice whispered about how exhausting possessing people was and indeed that he hated being in the spirit realm and wanted to go home and have a few cocktails. I will say, I had no idea what the voice was on about in regards to the envoys. Who even talks about envoys these days, anyways?

Kahli shot Froufrou a suspicious look, and from what she squelched it was clear they were on the same wavelength. It couldn't be that the Supreme Time Protector was embroiled in all this somehow? They were the only person either Kahli or Froufrou knew of that had envoys, or at least that talked about having envoys. Were they envoys? Were they somehow serving Drafuska? Kahli would have to ask next time she found herself in a [checkpoint].

Anyways, it was a weird thing to talk about. But, who else would talk about keeping their brother from rising in such a dastardly fashion but Drafuska? Some might say he is the ruler of all dastardliness. Or is it, the ruler of all bastard-ness? Guess the jury's still out on that. Regardless, I feel very strongly that this information bears repeating.

"Yea, well, I have a strong feeling that it's honey bunches of bullshit!" spat Omar with a chuckle. "Drafuska? More like... more... like..."

"What's happening to Omar?" Kahli asked as she watched her old mentor's glowing eyes grow suddenly pale white as his head shook and his limbs twitched like an electrocuted insect.

You know how I can mind speak? asked the bone dragon. I can mind visualize, too. And I figured I'd give Omar a taste of what I saw in the spirit realm.

Kahli shuddered, and Froufrou squelched. Then, with a high pitched shriek, Omar's eyes returned to normal. He looked at everyone with a twitching scowl.

"That... was... fucking... cool as shit!"

...What?

"That was so fucking cool! I mean, wow, whatever the entity was, it was towering over you. And you're dragons! And, and, yea, it looked like it was made out of light, but not normal light. It was made out of some sort of strange, electric blue light, with huge, red slits for eyes. I will admit it looked pure evil, and the thing's voice sounded like a Nomachiatoquake, but you had to admit it was cool. Well, I had to admit it. Anyways, if that thing is legitimately going around and possessing bone dragons, then we need to get our asses in gear like yesterday?"

"Get our assets in gear?" Kahli asked. "Sorry, I don't have any investments."

"Only apologize to yourself for bad financial decisions, Kahli," replied Omar with a sneer. "What I'm saying is that the whole of the living land of Nomachiato needs to militarize, and fast."

Wait, Omar. I'm not sure that jumping immediately and indeed headlong into conflict is the most prudent-

"You were possessed by a monster a few minutes ago! To hell with what you think! I'm going down there to get the robot! He'll understand!"

Before anyone could argue further, Omar blasted a huge burst of flatulent fire out of his rump and shot down through the sky.

"So Unit 5a23 really is down there," said Sahdi as she tussled her hair a little.

"Wow, Sahdi, I forgot you were here in my arms!" said Kahli with a chuckle.

"Rude," Sahdi said with a sigh.

Hey, Boney, are you finished telling them what's going on in the spirit world? inquired G'athoong as she swooped down from the clouds.

Um, yes, replied the bone dragon.

"Your name is Boney?" asked Kahli and Sahdi in unison.

Yes... A bit of an unfortunate holdover from when I was alive. Believe me, you're not the first and I'm sure you won't be the last to mention it, unless I get annihilated or something.

And with that, a small beam of red energy shot out from a cloud and vaporized Boney in a flash.

[Boney is double dead]

"BONEY!!" cried Kahli.

I tried to warn them, thought spoke G'athoong with a heaving groan. But now, as you undoubtedly see, we've got much bigger problems to deal with, and one less strong fighter to help us.

Kahli frowned and Froufrou squelched as a tinny yet familiar voice crackled and echoed through the air.

"Like, oh my gods, it's totally time to fight, Kahli!"

Kahli squinted and looked for the source. "...Taubitha?"