Chronicler Venno was gratified to find his audience already waiting for him. No need for introductions this time.
"As I was saying, the devourer was approaching Lenny with its jaws open wide. But as it did so, Katin drew her bow and loosed an arrow into it, while Zippo shouted and waved to draw its attention. The monster turned its attention away from Lenny to chase Zippo, who was able to fend off its enormous teeth with his chitinous carapace. Lenny crawled his way to Silas, who gave him a quite massage to get him back on his feet. Seeing Katin in danger, Lenny charged in with his spiked bat, but it bounced off, dealing more damage to him than to the devourer. Silas's attempt to punch it was completely ineffective, but finally another of Katin's arrows found its mark and felled the foul beast."
The release of tension in the room was audible, as everyone who'd been holding their breath exhaled in unison.
"What to do next? It would be dark soon, and they were all injured after the fight. Should they stop and make camp in the forest, or should they push on to their intended destination of Alexandra's Tower in the hope of finding shelter? Not knowing if there were more devourers in the forest, they decided to continue.
"Katin lead the way once more, and found them a route out of the trees. The remains of the old city buildings once again appeared before them, and much to their surprise, as they approached the building, voices called out to them. They seemed friendly, and invited them to join them for dinner. Having foregone eating the devourer, suspecting it to be rot contaminated, they were all hungry.
"Silas was suspicious, however. There seemed to be something not quite right about this. Their motivations in inviting them to a meal seemed less than wholesome. He shared his suspicions. Boss Johammed wouldn't be that friendly if strange people came to the Seven Sisters ark. But before they could turn around, there was a sudden smell of metal in the air, and their hair stood on end. Moments later, lightning began to strike, and they all ran for the only source of shelter - the building before them.
"Inside they found themselves in a great hall. It had once been full of chairs, and had a raised platform at one ended, but the centre had been cleared of chairs and a firepit built in the middle. Four people sat around the fire, where they were cooking some kind of food. Katin couldn't help but notice that one of them held a weapon that was clearly an ancient artefact like her own, but of a very different style.
"Lenny suspected that these might be trolls, and they wondered if the meat stew they were given might in fact be hobbit. Not that this stopped the very hungry Zippo from eating. Once the strangers assured them that the meat was from some animals they'd found here and killed, and that one of them had cooked the rot out of it, everyone tucked in.
"The strangers wanted to know where they came from. Silas, still suspicious, claimed they came from Zanzibar. The strangers said they came from the ark, which was confusing, as they clearly weren't from the Seven Sisters. Their ark was a boat, but it must have been a much bigger one than Zippo's canoe. Zippo asked them if they'd seen a big red cross on a building anywhere, and they not only had seen one, but said they could take them there in the morning.
"With everyone tired and injured, they decided to get some sleep. Still a little suspicious, Silas stayed awake to stay on watch and chat with the strangers. He spun a long tale about the wonderful sunny land of Zanzibar. And it was lucky he did stay awake, for he suddenly realised that their leader was about to attack. The truth had come out. The strangers were cannibals, and were planning on making Silas and the others their next meal.
"Silas loosed an arrow into the leader, but as he did so the end of the bow shattered, rendering it unusable. The bolt from the leader's bow slammed into him, and the other strangers stood up - they'd only been pretending to sleep. Silas threw himself out of the way, waking up the others, who joined the fight.
"The battle was brutal. Katin loaned her spare bow to Silas, but it wasn't long before a desparate attempt to help a seriously injured Lenny caused her to break her own bow. Silas took out one of their attackers, but knocked himself out in the process. But it was Zippo who was the hero of the fight, sacrificing precious bullets to kill one of them, and when the remaining attackers decided to flee, taking down the leader so that his precious artefact bow could be retrieved."
Another sigh of relief from the audience. While the group were hardly out of danger, at least for the moment they could rest easy.
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