Pan, before his subconscious had even set the stage for any kind of dream to take place, was gently woken by the sound of a tree being felled in one go. This had the complete effect a cold bucket of water would have had, including wetting the ground he had been sleeping on.

There was, currently, a huge and tattooed cyclops treading on their little campfire. He was trying to swat Athena with one of his fists the size of Pan’s cubicle back home.

Pan screamed, every part of his body trying to retreat at the same time. He watched in blood-freezing terror as one of the cyclops’ – cyclopses? – fists came down on her a split second before she had moved. The calculating part of his mind, taking in details for examination by the more rational parts which were as of now indisposed, noticed she held a bright and shining spear in her hands, with which she jabbed at the creature in a smart riposte, stabbing five, ten, twenty…. A staggering twenty-five times.

Pan didn’t see if this had any effect on the giant creature, as his attention at that very moment was pulled upwards. He had retreated, crawling and sliding without bothering to stand, until his back had touched something. The thing he saw above him – the something in question – seemed to be a face of a beautiful woman. Except when she grinned down at him, she had no teeth but sharp canines where most people would have a variety of teeth, like incisors and molars. The light was low now that the campfire had been extinguished, but her skin seemed to have a pallid tone, almost lilac.

She reached down and picked him up in what looked like a well-manicured hand, but which felt to his throat like a talon. She grinned at him as she held him up, choking, and her tongue lolled. It was more like a whip tentacle than a proper tongue.

A card flashed, showing Pan briefly the face of a wretched and shriveled man, his life force being drawn into a black vortex. The title of the card read Life Drain.

He immediately felt like a Capri-Sun, the strength of his body being drawn outward, quelling his struggle against the wife of Dracula. He could see dark red fire in the pits of her irises as he stared at her.

And as he stared, a horizontal lightning bolt struck her, throwing Pan back through the air, end over end. He had himself another scream, if only for the look of the thing.

When he stopped, he was at the feet of another figure, this one less immediately worrying. Apollo, not looking down at him, helped him to his feet.

“When we yell at you to wake up,” he said coldly, quietly, “we need you to wake up, Pan.”

A card appeared and vanished in front of Apollo’s outstretched hand. A close-up of a forked lightning bolt against a field of dark blue. The title was simply Lightning.

A twin of the bolt that had exploded behind him burst forth, exploding some other poor sap off in the distance. Pan didn’t see what Apollo had hit, but he heard the cyclops bellow.

“And that’s my second action,” Apollo sighed. “Do you have anything to contribute?” As one, they searched for Athena. The cyclops was still standing, but with Athena leading his attention in a dizzying circle around his feet. A card appeared in front of the creature, big as a billboard. Pan could easily see a picture of a huge hand crushing some hapless furry creature, the head poking out in the crook of the thumb and index finger, eyes comically bulging. It was titled Squeeze.

The hands of the cyclops began to sparkle, filled with power from the card. Pan could tell, if she let him grab her, she’d be in a for a world of hurt.

She weaved through the trees, her attacker making steady progress slapping them away. Their trail didn’t wind too far into the woods, merely clearing a bit of space in fat, lazy curves at the edge of where they had been camping.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She’s looking for something, Pan thought. She’s trying to set him up.

She activated a card that Pan couldn’t read as she made another pass around the giant’s feet, and a second spear appeared in her hands.

Carrying her momentum to a tree, she narrowly dodged a blind grab by her large opponent, and kicked off from the trunk.

As time seemed to slow down for the faun, Athena spun in mid-air, cocking back the spear, the weapon casting off flames as its wielder bellowed a war cry. The creature’s one eye, already the size of one of those fancy world globes, grew wider and rounder, its grimace drooping in lazy surprise.

The creature fell, the spear gently smoldering as it stuck out of its eye-socket, Athena landing and rolling just behind it. The creature and the weapon effervesced and dissolved.

Athena, standing now, shouted at their twin stares. “There’s still two more! Let’s move it!” She was facing down the sharp-toothed woman. Now that he could see her properly, she looked a bit like a vampire, a red cloak with intricate lace designs was strung across her back from wristlet to wristlet, like a shower curtain behind her leotard. Her dark hair hung in gothic arches, framing her red lips. She was standing in a light purple mist that Pan was just now recollecting had accompanied the cyclops. A chain wrapped many times about her middle like a belt.

Apollo, shrugging with his arms spread, shouted back, “I’m out of actions, what more do you want?”

“Pan!” Athena replied, having not missed a beat, “I know you’ve got something!”

“It’s a succubus,” Apollo leaned down to whisper, “but I haven’t seen one in these woods. Do you have anything for that?”

Pan reviewed his cards. They were the same as last time.

Voodoo, Fumble, Rose Thorn, Trigger Trap, and Extinguish.

“What works against a succubus?” he asked idly.

“They prefer non-physical attacks, instead going straight for the throat. So to speak. Most games balance out strong magic with weak defense, and so far this one doesn’t seem much different.”

Fumble, he recalled, didn’t do much but replenish his hand, so that one was out. He needed to deal some damage.

Selecting Voodoo, Rose Thorn, and Trigger Trap, he discarded the rest.

“I don’t really know what my abilities do yet-“ he called out, but Athena cut him off.

“If you spend an action, I get another action this turn. You’re in my party. I’m a Hoplite, Pan, it’s a perk of the class. Now just pick something and do it now. I’ve got another good one up at bat and I don’t want to waste it.”

Sensing there was a time element at play here that was usually absent in turn-based games, he selected Voodoo without reading it. Instead of disappearing into his discard, the thing just vanished.

Moments passed and nothing happened. He shared a look with Athena and shrugged.

She looked at her left bracer. One of the action gems was lit up again.

Pan checked his, and one was extinguished. He noticed for the first time that the gems of these bracers were red.

Athena, not wanting to wait, activated a card which, again, Pan was too far away to see. From the point in the air where the card had activated, a red shape flew out towards the succubus, hitting her in the head. A red X latched itself across her mouth.

“Oh! Silence! She’ll be useless for a turn,” Apollo said. He couldn’t restrain the fascination. “And my new hand, right on cue,” he added, not that Pan could see the cards Apollo was looking at.

And at that moment, a curious realization overcame Pan. It was something Athena had said. There were supposed to be three monsters.

He elbowed Apollo in the hip to get his attention, to ask what the third monster had been, but he found he couldn’t speak.

“Did you get anything good, Pan? All I got are kicks and blocks.”

Pan couldn’t open his mouth. He could work his jaw, but his lips wouldn’t come apart. He felt with his hands, to try and peel them open, stumbling across the clearing in the effort.

He almost tripped over the shattered stump of the tree the cyclops had felled.

“Pan?” Apollo asked, concern in his voice.

Similarly, the succubus was tugging at the red X on her own mouth, unable to defend herself from a strike to the mid-section from Athena, sending her to the ground.

Pan was immediately racked with pain about his mid-section. He curled up, his mute status forgotten temporarily. This time he almost ran into a vase as large as him. He wallowed , trying to shake off the random pain, not even seeing the faint purple haze that seemed to emanate from beneath the vase.

“Athena, stop!” Apollo shouted. It didn’t stop her from kicking the monster in the back of the knee.

Pan recoiled as it felt like his leg exploded.

“I think you’re hurting Pan!” he said, “Stop hitting the succubus!”

She gave him a baffled look over the sprawling monster.

While the siblings talked, Pan felt rubbery tendrils wrap around him, stifling movement before he could fight them off.