attacked! Hairy blazed into them with streaming bursts of rapid-fire. Blood sprayed and droves withered... but more women kept coming! “This way!” the Oracle led... but they ran into another wave of attackers!
Hairy could still escape, but he would not flee without Shrubby and the Oracle. The plant fairies were trapped! Hairy stayed and fought for them, his stormgun blazing. Concubines were dropping, but more kept coming!
Everyone heard an unheard laugh. The silent voice addressed the Oracle, “Surrender and I shall spare your companions.”
The Oracle had the power to know truth from lies. The voice meant what it offered. The Oracle responded, “We surrender!”
Hairy gunned down the onrushing wave of Concubines... but the many more stopped coming. The Oracle told him, “We cannot win. You know we cannot. Hairy, you have done well to protect us, but cannot prevail. Please lay down your weapon that Shrubby may live.”
Hairy peered into the woods. Beyond the many sprawled bodies were hundreds more ready to attack. Hairy whimpered, bowed his head... then laid down his big gun. The voice commanded the mortal women, “Bring them to me.”
The Concubine Sentinels escorted their prisoners through a teleportal and into a room made of metal, plastic and glass. The windows gave a good view of the surrounding forest below. Everyone was now in the edifice. Another group of Girls in Red was already there to greet them. They took custody of the prisoners and dismissed the others. Shrubby wondered, “How many of them are there?”
A Concubine snapped, “No talking!” The little zoophyte cringed.
Hairy and the Oracle were bound with shackles. “What about this one?” a Sentinel asked concerning Shrubby. The zoophyte was in the form of a bush standing on articulate roots.
“No,” the one who snapped answered. “It would be extraneous and is probably unnecessary.”
The Sentinels brought their prisoners before the barely material presence of Lady Thulu. The demon’s vague but eerily beautiful face seemed to be smiling at the Oracle. Her cool, melodic voice asked the fairy, “Are you the Oracle of Telluria?”
“I am your prisoner.”
“Not if I kill you.” The Sentinels raised their weapons, ready to shoot.
The Oracle spoke, “If you wish us dead, then why did you stop your women from killing us?”
“Peace,” the demon commanded the guards. The human Concubines lowered their weapons. The demon laughed. “I see your power,” she told the Oracle. “It is the power to see and to know... but not to harm. You are wise but a weakling.”
A Sentinel gestured at Hairy and claimed, “This is a soldier of the Army of Four.”
“Yes,” the demon looked at him. “This one is strong but a fool.”
The Oracle asked the demon, “Who are you?”
“I am Thulu. I shall be your mistress.” Thulu dissipated, as if smoke, and faded from the room. Her disembodied voice told the Sentinels, “Take them to their cell.”
The Tellurians were taken to a small, metal chamber with a sliding door of thick, clear plexiglass. The guards unshackled Hairy and the Oracle. “Thank you,” the Oracle actually told them. The Concubine Sentinels then departed, the door sealing shut after them.
Shrubby commented, “At least we are together.”
“Yes,” the Oracle smiled. Knowing that Concubine eavesdropping devices were listening in, she uttered, “Let us oblige our captors whatever they ask of us, for we are at their mercy.” The prisoners were restless for what seemed like a long while, until the Oracle started singing! Hairy smiled and clapped. Shrubby joined in the song!
Naydeen, the Concubine in purple, entered the presence of Lady Thulu. She reported, “The prisoners are singing.”
“Yes, I know.”
The Concubine Priestess voiced, “We must presume that a rescue shall be attempted.”
Thulu snickered. “Adam’s doings and whereabouts are known to us. Neither he nor his other two soldiers shall be coming.”
Naydeen mentioned, “We lost ninety-eight of my sisters.”
“Only ninety-eight? We have captured the Oracle of Telluria. I would have sacrificed you and your entire command for such a prize.”
Naydeen was not offended. A Concubine lived or died for the pleasure of her master. She could not argue that the taking of such a prisoner was not worth the cost in lives. “Naydeen,” the demon knew the human’s thoughts and feelings, “Mistress Umbra is proud of you and your women. You serve her father well.” Thulu could feel the mortal’s heart warm and swell. The demon smirked.
Shrubby wondered, “What are they going to do with us?”
“Whatever they want,” the Oracle thought aloud. Feeling and seeing Shrubby’s concern, she added, “Yield to them and you shall not be harmed.”
“What of you and Hairy?”
“We shall do what we must.”
The tall, virtually amorphous demon came. She stood at the cell’s transparent door, two Sentinels behind her. She stared at the Oracle before telling her, “You should not be my prisoner.” She looked at Hairy and claimed, “If you were wiser, you would not be here, either.” She stared at Shrubby and scowled, “It is your fault they are prisoners.”
Hairy growled. The Oracle blurted, “She is not to blame for your transgression!”
“Oh? Tell her if I am lying.”
The Oracle assured the littler fairy, “You are not to blame for our capture.”
The demon insisted, “She is to blame. You could not escape because she was with you. If only you had forsaken her.”
“Peace!” the Oracle pled. “Why should one of your power be so cruel to one so helpless?”
“Why not? All that I have told her is true.”
“Truth without justice? How can such a thing be justified?”
Thulu peered into Shrubby’s eyes and accused, “It is all your fault. You are to blame.”
Shrubby sobbed. Hairy snarled... then lunged! He smacked into the thick, plexiglass door! The two Sentinels shrank back! Thulu merely stood there, unflinching. She taunted, “You want to get a hold of me?” She opened the door! The sasquatch lunged... but the demon flung him back as if she were a strong gust. She left the door open, challenging him to try again. He lunged, but was again flung back into the cell.
“No!” the Oracle stopped him from trying again. “You cannot help her this way.”
The demon snickered. “Mindless brute.”
Shrubby sobbed, “Why are you doing this?!”
“Why not?” The door slid back closed. The demon stared at her prisoners, but said nothing else.
“Oh, Hairy,” Shrubby hugged him with her articulate branches. The sasquatch cooed and snuggled. The Oracle joined the embrace.
Thulu watched, but waited before saying unto the Oracle, “You know the power of this land otherwise I would not have found you here. My arrival interrupted whatever you were doing. Tell me what you were doing.” The Oracle did not answer. The demon threatened, “If you do not tell me,” she then looked at Shrubby, “then she will.”
“No!” the Oracle feared.
“Yes,” the demon smirked. “One of you shall tell me.”
Shrubby blurted, “Our ritual was not against you! We were trying to find a way to make peace with the Concubines!”
“Peace with the Concubines?” The demon looked at the two women behind herself (at the same time, but with one face!). The Concubines returned the glance, but said nothing. Thulu told Shrubby, “These women are not their own. If you wish to make peace with them, then you must make peace with their master.”
“Sacrilege!” the Oracle decried. “These women are human beings! Your master has no right to lay claim to them!”
Thulu shrugged. “The Great Shadow has them, thus, they are his.”
There was a long, tense moment as the Oracle and the demon peered into each other’s eyes. Thulu broke the silence, “I have come to dra
w my master from the bowels of your world. I shall create a vacuum within this land– that he may rise and fill it. He shall then return to his Temple... and feed. Your world and all its energy shall be his, for he shall have it all.”
“No!” the Oracle refused. Hairy growled.
Shrubby cried, “Adam will stop you!”
“Oh?” Thulu feigned concern. “Your mortal king shall stop me? Then why is he walking into a trap? I shall ask Mistress Umbra, daughter of the Great Seen Unseen, if your human monarch had any last words for you.”
Shrubby insisted, “He defeated the Great Shadow! He will defeat you too!”
“He vanquished the one who is to rise again. Adam’s victory shall prove a vainglory. That is why I am here.” Thulu told the Oracle, “I have no use for your companions. Serve my design and I shall release them, unharmed. Defy me and they shall suffer my wrath.”
The Oracle could feel the cold, stinging cruelty that was imagined against Hairy and Shrubby. If she yielded to the demon, Hairy and Shrubby would be released... but the land... then the world, would die and they would die with it. What could be done? Was all lost? The Oracle thought aloud, “Let us bend in the wind, for today was a tomorrow and shall be a yesterday. Only the beginning and the end are true.”
The demon smirked. She knew the Oracle was bending. She drifted out of the detention ward, the two Concubine Sentinels following after her.
Thulu went to her private quarters and allowed herself to fade from the material plane. Her mind drifted, seeking Mistress Umbra, daughter of the Great Shadow, Devourer
The Oracle's Dilemma Page 2