Wandering Knights

Preamble...

Once in a dark and rainy forest, the droplets hanging off the tips of the sea-green leaves dripped and plopped into the moss and onto the petals of flowers as big and ferocious as leeches. Eyes of all colors, with pupils in all the terrifying shapes glared and hissed. The light of the Moon shined through the cracks between the trees, the holes in the leaves, through the glints of the water drops. Bats with eyes as red as blood hissed and fluttered through the forests, their bloody fangs gleaming in the moonlight!

Herds of dog-sized, thorny beetles scuttled through the mossy meadows, lizards waited in the bushes, their tongues flicking in anticipation, snakes hung sleepily on the branches of trees, and slept, hissing and snoring quietly. At the very center of the steamy forest, the glint of a black machete nearly blinded a passing bat! Vines were cut, leaves were diced, ferns were pushed aside, and flowers were sliced!

The owner of the machete stepped forward and saw a large, golden tomb sitting in the cool light of the Moon, adorned with all kinds of gemstones embedded into its stone exterior. A large, blue monitor lizard sat on the lid, its tongue wriggling as it slept, subconsciously scratching its fat belly while dreaming of bothersome ticks tickling her. The machete-wielding adventurer took a deep breath and put their slicer away. Gently, they picked up the lizard by its arms and carefully put her on the ground, letting her sleep on the soft, wriggling moss.

The gorgeous tomb was now unoccupied, and the adventurer knew it was theirs for the taking! They grabbed the heavy, brick lid and tried with all their might to lift or push or at least pick it up! With a hardy push, it slid right off the tomb and thumped onto the grass. Inside, the adventurer saw a lifeless, bandaged corpse, the arms crossed upon its chest. The adventurer carefully undid the bandages on the face and gasped! It was a woman, with skin so soft and blue you could swear she was either dead or a newborn Siren.

Her lips were thin, yet a glistening azure, and her eyes were closed peacefully. Whoever's job it was to put her to rest, they did a darn good job. Around her bandaged neck was a fabulous, golden necklace. hanging from it were several, small, red, triangular gems embedded in golden molds holding onto them. Tempted to steal the necklace, the adventurer took a deep breath and said, their hands clasped together and their eyes closed, "Oh, great and amorous Queen Dellahurabba, mistress of the Dulhatrab Tribe, hear my humble request..."

The sky-blue corpse lied still. The adventurer continued, "I've come bearing a burden as heavy as a mule's load. You see, my companion is gravely ill, and I've no way of curing him. All I request is a cure for his sickness." They sat there in silence, their head bowed and their eyes closed tight and pleading. A shadow loomed over them and a cold, slender hand rested on the humble traveler's shoulder.  They opened their eyes and saw the lady standing there in the light, her gorgeous, teal hair flowing majestically in the wind.

Shocked and humbled, they bowed lower, sitting on their knees, and said, "Oh, dear Chieftess of the jungle, won't you grant me and my dear companion this cure? For this ailment is otherworldly, and we've no way to cure him. I beg of you, your majesty." The lady in bandages and blue skin smiled, her azure lips curling across her cheeks, then she clenched her fingers and nails as sharp as knives emerged from her fingertips, tearing the fabric over the traveler's shoulder! A nail grazed their shoulder and the traveler groaned quietly in pain! 

The late and great chieftess took her hand back and held up her now bloodied fingernail and sighed slowly. She licked the nail with her black, forked tongue clean, then took the crimson juices into her fanged maw. The traveler sat there, hat in hand, and bowed, awaiting an answer. Finally, the lady spoke with a grin adorned with shining, jagged fangs, "Sure, I'll help you out. Just get me more of this red stuff and you've got a deal!" The traveler's eyes opened and blinked in confusion. They lifted their bowing head up and asked, "W-Wait, what?"

"I said I'll help you out, dude," the lady replied, smiling sweetly. Confused, the traveler felt like something was wrong, but they didn't question it, and so they asked, "Where shall I retrieve the blood you crave, Mistress?" "I dunno, dude, just whatever's around, I guess," she replied, shrugging and smiling casually, flipping her cobwebbed hair away from her black, starry eyes. The traveler looked around, still feeling a little confused, then just shrugged and headed off into the jungles to retrieve something that would bleed red.

A bird with feathers black as coal watched from afar on a branch covered in fungi and squawked loud and hoarsely, awakening his flock. The many black birds, their beaks crooked, bent, and sharp, all looked at their colleague and asked in unison, "What now, Hob?" "Hob" squawked again, urgently this time, and all his flockmates gasped in shock! Immediately, just as they all left in a black, feathery swarm, the tree they perched on was stripped naked of its leaves, turning into a jagged, spiky mass only a owl would call home!

The millions of crows set off into the sky and kissed the Moon good morning, grazing the stars above  with their dirty, coal feathers, all squawking and urgently flapping their way onwards! Below, a colossal pond covered in teeny lily pads and lotuses rippled upon the surfacing of three large, bulgy eyeballs staring at the sky. The eyes were pink like a lizard's stomach and moist like a mudskipper's gizzard. The eyes ducked into the water, then a colossal, toad-like creature covered in moss and fungi emerged, a couple confused turtles resting on its back toppled over and splashed into the water, luckily missing the gulping jaws of a man-sized bass.

The amphibian opened its mouth wide, showing rows and rows and rows of small teeth resembling broken shards of glass. IN the very back of the toad's throat was its symbiotic companion, Jululuk, a flytrap-like creature with tentacles and a mouth full of sticky, tooth-like appendages perfect for snatching unsuspecting victims. "What in the world is that hideous noise," Jululuk whined, rubbing his squinting, red eyes. The toad grumbled and gurgled and croaked, creating a stirring and burning pit in Jululuk's stomach. He knew exactly what that noise was now, and it was those goody-two-shoes birds, off tattling to who knows what about some kind of "urgent matter."

He hated birds with a passion, including crows, those staring, shadowy creeps. He couldn't ever ignore their raspy cries and squawks, how they echoed in the night and rattled around in his scrawny, knife-like ears. He gently yanked the toad's tongue and said, "Go back to bed, my friend, we have a lot of catching to do tomorrow. Those birds won't perch upon another branch to sing their hoarse songs if it's the last thing I do." The toad grumbled and gulped and blubbered. He hated birds just as much as Jululuk, but he didn't like eating them very much. The thin and sharp bones always poked and cut his gums. He knew Jululuk wouldn't let the bones hurt him though.

The toad closed his cavernous and slimy maw, then submerged himself slowly into the brackish and grimy water, his pink eyes dripping with muck and sleepy tears. As the pond rippled and jostled with his resting dive, the Moon still glistened and shined upon the water, accompanied by the sparkling glints of the stars. Meanwhile, the crowd of crying crows flew over an immense village inhabited by people with scaly skin tougher than stone, tongues sharp like arrows, and tempers short like bomb fuses. Adjacent from the town was a giant cavern with a lantern standing tall and brightly in front of it.

The light barely did anything to exterminate the darkness, unfortunately, and the crows were a little nervous to go in, but then Hob fluttered to the front and called so loudly that it echoed over the grassy billows and over the tree-infested horizon... You could say it was a poor choice of words... Huffing and growling like a wolf after a wounded, bleeding rabbit, something emerged from the cave and pounced! In mere minutes, the grass was decorated with bloody, black feathers, and only one living crow remained. For a second, he figured that Hob may have led them to the wrong cave. Weakly, he tilted his head up and saw a fat, red scaly tail slither into the shadows, leaving a trail of feathers and blood behind...