“I don’t like it,” Bert shook his head. “We should go around.”

“Ugh!” Bell grunted. “Why?”

“The last time I went into the mists….” He trailed off. “Well, you know.”

“You met some red-haired psycho so hot for you that she ripped your head off?” Bell asked with a smirk. “You really think there are armies of all-powerful immortals so desperate for your affections they hide in the mists?”

“Just one,” Bert shrugged. “I am pretty gorgeous, tho!” He winked at Bell, who looked away suddenly.

“Yeah, yeah,” She laughed strangely.

“I just think, why risk going in there?” Bert added. “The mist is dangerous.”

“We haven’t seen that nutcase in a LONG time.” Bell countered. “I think Gwen took care of the issue.”

“How long would it take us to go around it?” Bert asked.

“Who cares? We aren’t in a hurry or anything.” Bell said flippantly. “But are we just going to avoid all the future misty spots in the world?”

“Oh, I’m gonna go with a yes.” Bert nodded emphatically.

“Bert?” Bell sighed. “We can’t do that.” She flittered across the control room and landed on his shoulder. “If we run now… we always will be. It’s just mist.”

“There’s nothing in the mist?” Bert sighed, remembering his old mantra from back on Earth.

“No, there’s probably lots of stuff in it… and if it fucks with us, we’ll beat the shit out of it!” She giggled. “Maybe even add it to the menu!”

Bert looked at the swirling mists of the valley for a long time before sighing and nodding.

“Okay, but I want to make sure everyone is ready.”

“Good man!” Bell clapped excitedly. “It couldn’t be worse than the grasslands, and we got a daughter out of that!”

Bert laughed as they headed for the elevating platform to get everyone ready.

“Bert, everything is going to be fine, I promise!” Bell patted him companionably on the top of the head.

The platform settled at the tower's base just in time to hear Bud yelling…

Bert burst out the door of the tower, expecting something…

Bud looked up from where he was telling off Mic and Ric’ali.

“Need something, boss?” Bud asked.

“Uh, no… everything okay?” Bert tried to cover his overreaction while Bell giggled behind him.

“Fine, just these two trying to get into the stores again.” Bud glared down at the two orcs. No one can glare like an undead.

“We were just going to….” Mic ran out of ideas and trailed off.

“Inventory!” Ric almost yelled. “Yeah, inventory it!”

“Definitely,” Mic nodded, “And not steal the beer at all!”

Ric slapped his brother.

Mic punched him back, and in seconds, they were rolling back and forth, brawling.

“Are you not going to tell them to stop?” Tru’nal looked disgusted at the two brothers.

“No, the punishment will be much worse if they are already… tenderized,” Bud said menacingly.

“It’ll have to wait,” Bert said. “Knock it off!” He roared at the two brothers.

Mic and Ric paused, looking over at Bert. Ric’s fist was still raised for the next punch.

“What’s up?” Bud asked, all business as usual.

“Valley of the Mists is creeping him out,” Bell sighed. “So it’s time to make a plan.”

“Guys?” Dee called from a spot on the wall she had been using to watch the orc’s antics. “That mist is coming this way.”

“What?” Bert’s head snapped around.

“The mist is flowing towards us,” Dee said as she backed away from the wall. “Quite fast, actually.”

“Okay, everyone, get off the walls and get inside!” Bert’s voice was tense.

The orcs scrambled for the gatehouse, along with Bud, while Dee blurred, vanishing inside the Bear’s Fall in seconds.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Wendy called as she came out of the barn with two plates of food.

“Something’s coming in the mist!” Bert yelled. “Get inside!”

Wendy’s eyes widened, and she dropped the plates as she sprinted for the bridge to Trailer One.

“Wendy!” Bert yelled after her.

“I have to warn Scruff!” She yelled as she vanished over the bridge.

Bert saw the dwarf, Gavin, struggling in Slothy’s jaws as she vanished into the barn.

“Well, come on then,” Bell waved him back over the bridge and into the control tower. “Let’s go see what’s going on!”

Bert and Bell watched from the top of the tower as the mist flowed out from the mouth of the Valley of the Mists and surrounded the Waystation.

Slowly, it rose and flowed over the walls, hiding everything within the walls in soft, grey mist that moved with strange eddies and pooled in the space between the walls.

Bert and Bell could sense nothing moving on the grounds beside the Waystationers. It seemed to be just the mist itself, so far.

“Go on then,” Bell grumped.

“What?” Bert asked, sounding distracted as his eyes scanned for shapes in the grey/white flows below him.

“This is where you say I told you so.” Bell kicked the back of her chair in frustration.

“Actually, I didn’t.” Bert chuckled tensely. “I said we shouldn’t go in, not that it would come to us.”

“That is kind of freaky,” Bell admitted. “So what do we do now?”

“No idea,” Bert tried to roll the stiffness from his shoulders. “We could try and head back, but would it make any difference?”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Bell asked.

Bert pointed ahead of the Waystation.

A figure in a long grey cloak was floating in the air before them. The mist gathered and pulsed around them as they floated there. A large, deep hood hid the face completely, but there was a familiar feeling that both Bert and Bell recognized.

A single pale hand reached up and pulled back the hood. Red hair fell in a tumble.

“Ah, fuck!” Bell swore.

The light caught Felicia’s face, and they both winced at the sight. Scars covered her face, both shallow ones and deep ones. Her nose looked off-center, and one of her eyes showed only an empty socket.

A crooked, hate-filled smile was stretched across her face.

“You will all die here!” Her voice was a rough whisper that sounded from the mist all around and within the Waystation.

Felicia pulled up her hood and drifted back, vanishing into the mist again.

“I fuckin knew it!” Bert yelled. “And I fuckin told you!”

Bell gave him a scandalized look. “You actually said it!”

“I’m not a perfect person.” Bert shrugged.

================

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Wendy sat in the Express, chewing her nails as she tried to keep calm. She had never made it to Scruff’s.

The mist had come up so fast!

Glancing out the windows showed her nothing but blank whiteness. Occasionally, she thought she saw a shape in there, but she couldn’t be sure.

“You will all die here!” A woman’s voice, croaky and hate-filled, echoed out of the mist around her. Wendy swallowed hard. She knew that voice from her Dad’s memories. She had never met Felicia, but she knew the voice.

It was changed from the one she remembered, but it was still the same voice. She felt her muscles cramping and tried to breathe deeply, making herself relax.

There was a tapping at the window next to her, and she screamed, twisting to look out the window in time to see a figure disappear into the mists again.

She scrambled into the back of the cab, throwing herself into her bone armor and feeling it close reassuringly about her.

Another tap on the window and a mishappen face with golden curls pressed against the glass. Gone before she could get a clear look.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Wendy said over and over again.

“Come out and play!” A young girl’s high-pitched laugh out in the mists.

“Ignore it!” Wendy told herself.

There were more taps on the windows, more half-seen glimpses of a warped young girl’s figure before it dashed away again.

“Let'sss play!” a lispy voice called from the roof above her as what sounded like claws raked along it.

Wendy concentrated as hard as she could but couldn’t sense anything other than the claws themselves, which left score marks on the roof.

Wendy remembered leaving a Pretty outside near the stairs down to Trailer One as an early warning system if anyone disturbed her and Scruff last night.

Was it still there?”

She reached out to it, finding it still in its sleeping form. She connected to it, seeing nothing but mist a few inches out from the mob. Wendy ignored that, navigating by instinct as she moved it down the stairs to Trailer One. She was going to ignore the creepy bitch outside and check on Scruff instead.

She took more calming breaths, still feeling her heart pumping way too fast and trying not to gasp for air.

The Pretty struggled over the fields, finding the plants still and healthy.

Wendy saw the open front door of the cottage, and a pit opened in her stomach. She sent the Pretty scrambling through the house, finding nothing but a few tipped-over bits of furniture.

The Pretty just couldn’t see enough dammit!

She looked out the window again, feeling ice water in her veins.

“I want to play!” The face at the window again, “Your friend played!” the half-child, half-teen face drooled as it grinned horribly. “I broke her, so I need a new toy!”

Wendy told herself it wasn’t true, that it was just trying to get her to come out.

A high-pitched giggle and it waved something with one tiny hand.

Peering forward, Wendy could just make out a bloody strip of cloth.

It was from the shirt Scruff was wearing that morning.

She could recognize the awful pattern of leaves that her girl loved so much.

Something snapped in Wendy, fury replacing sense as she scrambled out of the express, reaching for the demonic thing holding Scruff’s scrap of shirt.

“Playtime!” The girl yelled, and mist swirled.

When it cleared, Wendy found herself in a stand of trees, the ground under her rocky and broken.

================

Slothy was happy to leave whatever it was to her people. She was a pet owner. It was her job to look after her charges until the danger passed. She happily pulled the fuming dwarf closer to her and started to settle down for a nap.

“Let go, ya daft creature!” Gavin pushed fruitlessly against the mighty paw. “There’s sommat happenin’!”

Slothy ignored her pet and started to drift off.

“You will all die here!” The voice came from the mist surrounding the barn, and Slothy promptly ignored it.

Her people would sort it.

“The fuck was that, eh?” Gavin grumbled.

Slothy patted him gently and went back to dozing.

A thump at the door made her open one eye.

Another thump, and she huffed in irritation.

A third came, and she roared a warning. Slothy was a princess, and she needed her sleep.

An answering roar came, igniting a memory. Slothy saw images in her mind of a barely remembered past. A giant of a bear slapping her aside and snarling at her for sleeping in the wrong spot. She had just wanted to sleep somewhere that smelled of… her mother.

A thump that shook the barn. Another roar from outside made Slothy shiver.

It couldn’t be. Another memory surfaced. Slothy was just a cub, and she tried to eat a bit of the animal her mother had caught.

Her mother roared at her, putting a paw over little Slothy and pushing sooo hard.

Slothy shook her head.

She wasn’t little Slothy anymore.

She was Big Slothy!

She roared a challenge, standing and shouldering open the door.

The answering roar came from a mouth that was rotting away, the undead form of her mother shambling away while roaring back at her.

Slothy would not let her mother challenge her and run!

Slothy would show her mother!

Slothy changed out into the mist after the retreating form.

“Don’t chase it, ya daftie!” Gavin called. “It’s a trap, ye ken?”

The mist began to swirl around Slothy, making her snarl in confusion.

“Ah, bugger it!” Gavin kicked at the ground. “The bloody thing isnae yer problem!”

The mist thickened as Slothy bellowed and fought to hold on.

“It kidnapped ye, aye!” Gavin said, his body quivering. “Wha’ do you care if’n it gets napped!”

Slothy began to slip. She roared in anger at the mist, which swirled on regardless.

“You’re a daftie, aye!” Gavin swore at himself as she launched himself out of the barn and latched onto Slothy’s tail.

“Go on, ya bastards!” He yelled as the mists closed around them. “This ere lass is bringin’ a friend!”

The mist closed completely, and for a moment, Slothy felt weightless.

Her paws settled on a dry sandy surface, her long claws digging deep into the soft soil. A faint smell of water suggested it was a dry river bed.

She felt her pet climbing up onto her back.

“I got ya, Lass,” Gavin patted her back. “Ol’ Gavin’ll nae let yer down!”

============

Bud kept everyone away from the windows, standing with his back to them as taps, whispers, and worse sounded on the gatehouse all around them.

“Biggun!” Tim pointed. “Biggun!”

Bud patted the little gnork skeleton, trying to calm him down.

“Just ignore it,” Bud said soothingly.

“Biggun in trouble!” Tim insisted, and Bud finally turned as a roar shook the gatehouse.

Faintly, he could see some large shape slamming into the barn. He tilted his head, wishing he could frown. Slothy was in the Barn…

“Should we get ready to go out there, Boss?” Gor’tal asked.

Bud hesitated. Bert had told them to stay indoors, but… it was Slothy.

“Get ready!” He gave the order. “And tie a rope between you, just in case.”

He watched the creature run off as Slothy burst from the barn in fury. For a moment, his shoulders slumped in relief, but seconds later, he was watching the mist drag the poor creature away.

“Slothy!” He yelled, kicking open the door and running out just in time for his bony fingers to close on empty mist.

“Get back inside!” He yelled, turning to see the orcs, and little Tim followed him out. “Hurry.”

They tried to run back, only to find their feet kicking at air as the mist closed around them.

When it cleared, they found themselves on an old, cracked road, the way ahead still clouded with mist. The cracked and broken cobblestones beneath them showed extensive plant growth.

Bud cursed himself for a fool. It was such an obvious trap… but even if he could go back, he would have tried. It was Slothy, after all.

“Baddies!” Tim pointed.

Bud turned, seeing a line of figures emerging from the mist. In the lead was a tall skeleton in full plate armor. Behind him, a line of sneering elves, hunched and stinking. They drew their weapons and looked at the tall skeleton.

Flames erupted at the hands of the plate-wearing leader.

“Form Up!” Bud called, shrugging his shoulder and dropping his bow into his hands.

===============

Scruff pushed against the door with everything she had. Something outside pushed back.

She winced as her torn shoulder brushed against the stone wall. She had no idea what was going on, but she was a bit out of patience at this point.

A few minutes ago, she had been out behind her cottage, working on some of her more lethal plants. She kept them back here after an incident with an unexpectedly ranged variant of her spike plant she grew to make ammo for Bert. It had suddenly fired off a spike, pinning little Tim to the wall.

The little bugger had only been coming over to say hi.

The next thing she knew, the mist was flowing around her, and her farm was gone. Instead, she found herself in this stone tunnel. Something had swiped at her from the darkness, tearing a strip from her favorite shirt and opening her shoulder at the same time.

She had reached for the local plants… and there were none. Whatever this place was, it was desolate. Not a living plant in range. All she could sense was stone.

Above, below, to either side… stone.

She had searched for any dirt to grow a few seeds in… but there was nothing.

And then the noises started. She had seen the figures lurching towards her… and run.

Now, she pressed her back more firmly against the stone door and pushed.

“Who the hell did we piss off this time?” She growled to herself.

=============

Bert and Bell burst out of the tower and into the mist. Their veins were glowing like twin suns as their fury drove them. They felt their people taken one by one, and by the time they made it down the tower… Wendy, Slothy, Bud and the orcs, even Scruff… were gone.

“I can sense Wendy,” Bell pointed to the east. “That way.

“Slothy is to the west,” Burt nodded. “Bud is south. Hopefully, the orcs are with him.”

The mist pressed against the light, pushing to swallow them up.

“Let’s take the Express and round them up!” Bert yelled as the winds began to howl. They pressed on, pushing through the mist as they closed on the Express.

When they fought their way up the steps to the bridge, Bert looked at the empty space where the Express used to be.

“Bert!” Bell yelled, drawing his attention to the wall of the Waystation.

Three figures hovered above it.

The mist pressed tighter against them. Bert and Bell pushed back, staring defiantly at the trio.

“Enough!” Felicia’s voice pierced the winds around them. “We finish this!”

“Then stop pissing about and do it!” Bert yelled back.

The mist slowed and pulled back, settling down and giving way to their light.

“No,” Felicia shook her head. “I will not do that.” She laughed. “My champions will come for you.” She waved to her companions. “I have a chosen for each of you.”

A blur shot from the wall, landing on Felicia as she screamed. She dropped from sight, the little form of Dee attached to her neck. The mists began dissipating a little, and the figures who had come with her became visible.

“A FUCKING FAIRY!” Bell’s voice shook with rage. “SHE CHOSE A FAIRY TO FACE ME!”

Bell shot towards the hovering figure as the man with the fairy smiled and stepped onto the walls, staring directly at Bert.

“I think it is time you were taught some manners!” The man’s tones were posh, clipped, and precise. “I, Lord Troy, shall be your teacher.”

“Get fucked, you posh git!” Bert grinned savagely as he summoned his shield. “I’m gonna kick your fuckin’ head in!”