Name of Terror

Similarly, the bookworm did not notice the Butterfly flying past his window, as he continued to sort and translate the papers before him. He was wearing a tightly fitted helmet, so he was in no danger of being controlled at the very least. After his previous experience with a butterfly, he had no interest in repeating history.

Hrmph… while the damage DID accidentally lead me to the Knight (no matter what that Clown said) they sure did make things as difficult as possible.

He carefully read through more of the notes, doing all that he could to salvage scraps. Scraps which, by most sane metrics, were completely unusable, but he still gave the old college try to parse.

Hmmm… nope, nothing I can get from this.

As it happened, the sane metrics were right on the money. Perhaps it is a consistent though boring part of life… the most obvious and popular answer is usually the right one. Though this is not always the case.

“Hey man, could you pass me those notes there?”

“Uhh, sure thing sir.”

The No-Longer-Possessed Officer was standing nearby, due to the aforementioned spread thin workforce he was kept busy despite his injuries, though only as an assistant.

“Hmph… I guess that depicts some of the monsters the Dragon could supposedly make? Looks like a living lava puddle… it looks pretty weak.”

“If it’s anything like the butterfly, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t jinx us, sir.”

To avoid thinking anymore about the torturous experience, the Bookworm quickly changed the subject.

“I’m not a commander, just call me by my name.”

“No no no, I’m acting as your assistant here remember? I need to be respectful.”

“And I don’t feel comfortable being talked at like an oligarch or noble. It’s quite alright, I may enjoy the more intellectual side of life, but I am by no means a mere bookworm.”

The Bookworm chuckled as he read through the absurdly advanced and difficult to read through documents.

“Right…”

“Exactly! So call me by my name!”

“Ok…”

“...”

“...”

“So…?”

“...”

“Did you forget my name?”

As it happened, the No-Longer-Possessed Officer was quite terrible with names, and usually did all he could to avoid having to say them in the service of not being rude. Ironically this usually meant he forgot them more easily, but he was unaware of this correlation.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Was all that stuff about ‘being respectful’ a lie?”

The No-Longer-Possessed Officer only needed a moment to escape the hole he had just dug for himself.

“No.”

And immediately chose to dig deeper.

“No to what? Not knowing my name or to the ‘being respectful’ thing being a lie?”

“Uhhh…”

Technically, he was telling the truth somewhat. Respect is considered an important aspect of speaking to your superiors.

“Look I get it ok? It’s embarrassing to forget people's names! My name is-”

“It’s not because of that, really!”

“Ok. Then what’s my name?”

“Uhhh, do you not know your own name?”

“Do I not- It’s my name?! How could I forget it?!”

“Well YOU asked sir.”

“I asked to see if YOU knew it! You didn’t say it earlier after all!”

“That was because… because of respect! It’s awkward for me! I care quite a bit about being a good officer and being promoted, you know!”

“Then say my name!”

“Man… I didn’t think you were so egomaniacal…”

“WHAT?!”

“I mean wanting someone in a servile position to announce your name? Talk about lofty! So you want me to do it from the rooftops? Did calling you ‘sir’ give you a big head?”

“I just want you to prove you know who I am! There's no other reason!”

“Well of course I know who you are! You’re the expert the chief hired to help deal with the Dragon!”

“Yes, that’s WHAT I am, but not WHO I am.”

“I am a firm believer that our external persona and internal idiosyncrasies, while in some aspects diverging, are inherently intertwined."

“One: I’m pretty sure my external persona includes my name; Two: Idiosyncrasies are traits which separate us from others, so while I understand your meaning I don’t think your use of the term works there; Three: All that is fine, but for the love of all just SAY MY NAME!”

“Could you say mine?”

“...”

“...”

“It sure is busy outside huh?”

“Yeah, I guess festival preparations are going strong.”

Huh…?

I thought the Chief had established a quarantine?

The No-Longer-Possessed Officer thought aloud after a moment.

“Maybe people are ignoring the quarantine?”

“This seems a bit too organized to be as simple as disregarding the order. I mean if it were wouldn’t your fellow officers be telling them to get back inside…?”

“Yeah, besides that it hasn’t even been that LONG at this point, so I doubt people would be getting out in large numbers unless they were made to think they could.”

As they looked out, the Bookworm and No-Longer-Possessed Officer both came to a sudden realization.

“You don’t think… the board of directors canceled the quarantine?”

“The Chief DID say he was going to talk with them, maybe they didn’t believe him? I mean he didn’t believe us until we got evidence and support from-”

“From the Quack?”

“Thats not her name, but yeah. The point is I guess it WOULD be hard to believe unless you had real proof.”

“Honestly, I thought the old Chief had gone nuts until that butterfly possessed me.”

The Bookworms body shivered a bit remembering his own experience.

“Well what happens now? Have you gotten any messages?”

“No, strangely enough. You’d think the chief would let us all know right?”

“Yeah… say… if you were on the board of directors, and you thought your Chief Officer went nuts… What would you do with him?”

“Well I’d… I’d probably have him put away asap.”

The chill was absolutely palpable through the air. Both men looked nervously between themselves as they considered the scenario carefully.

“Maybe… what are the chances the Chief chose to keep you in the dark purposefully?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if the Chief DID communicate with you at this point, the board of directors would be made aware of you, and could then force you to take me away.”

“Why you…?”

“Well I did tell the Chief about the Dragon in the first place, so I wouldn’t be shocked if I were labeled a co-conspirator.”

The No-Longer-Possessed Officer looked at his cast, what were the chances he would be labeled a co-conspirator as well?

“Even if it sounded nuts surely… I mean SURELY they at least should have heard him out right?!”

“I guess they didn’t, once again to reiterate, it sounds totally nuts when you say it aloud.”

“Yeah but still! What sort of cliche is this?! At the worst possible time the authorities don’t believe the warnings and allow things to get worse? How could that happen?!”

“Well it’s cliche for a reason you know? I mean arrogance leads folks to being pretty set on their ways, even if it only makes things worse. Besides…”

The No-Longer-Possessed looked to the Bookworm, unsure what other reason there could be.

“Besides…?”

“Well the old order is pretty hated around here, especially by authorities… for some good reasons too. I mean a majority of the time the ‘traditions’ enforced by the old order were a huge pain apparently, and the order itself was so incompetent it only ever made things worse. Traditions and myths are pretty often the cause of pain if you aren’t careful.”

“It just happens this one time, the myth happens to be not only true, but a warning of something dangerous.”

The Bookworm smiled a bit sardonically.

“Exactly, sadly.”

The No-Longer-Possessed Officer helped the Bookworm stand up. Before looking out the office door.

“Uh oh… I think I hear footsteps.”

“Already?”

It was true, already both of them could hear movement below, and the sounds of what may have been arguing.

“How did they know about this…?”

“Well I doubt the Chief would purposefully blab, maybe some officer squealed to the board?”

“Maybe they were pressured into it?! Those dirtbags!”

Actually it was a simple screwup on the Chief’s part, and while the board was certainly not morally good by any stretch, they did not perform that particular evil.

“Well, I think I’m gonna be a wee bit proactive if you don’t mind.”

“As an officer I oughta tell you that's a bad idea, but considering I’m probably next on the ol’ chopping block, we’ll just say I was too weak to stop you.”

The Bookworm chuckled as he locked the door. Twas not a moment too soon, as they quickly heard a furious knocking and rushed whispers.

“That isn’t going to hold them for long.”

“Better lock the windows too.”

“Couldn’t you do that?”

“Hey man, I’m already ‘indisposed’, remember? When this all gets to court I don’t wanna go to prison.”

“Whatever happened to that whole ‘respectful’ routine?”

Despite the complaints, the Bookworm still made his way to the window and locked it. After doing so he began bringing down the blinds as well.

“Well if my cover story has anything to go by, you basically just captured me when I tried to stop you from escaping the law. Don’t know why you expected respect from a hostage.”

“You sure are quick to throw people under the bus.”

While the No-Longer-Possessed Officer shrugged a bit, the Bookworm finished putting down the blinds. After this task was completed he stuck by the window and lifted one of the blinds up slightly to monitor the situation.

“It’s mostly a joke, I guess the idea of prison makes me nervous.”

“Hmph… I guess I made peace with those risks after I helped wake the Dragon up.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better, I bet top dollar the Dragon appreciates it.”

“Of course, and when he chews me to ground meat I’ll be sure to say your welcome.”

The banging on the door became much harder, to the point where one would suspect tools were being used to make the job easier.

“So what happens now? I don’t think I could fight off a hyperactive toddler, much less a couple officers called to take us away.”

The Bookworm did not have time to respond, because as he considered the situation for all it was, the ground shook, and a certain something could be heard.

\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /\. . . . . . /
.\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /..\. . . . . /
. \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /. . \. . . . /
. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /. .. .\. . . /
. . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /. . . . \. . /
. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /. . .. . .\. /
. . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/. . .. . . \/. . . . . . \/. . . . . . \/

“What was that?!”

“I think I know.”

Horror filled the No-Longer-Possessed-But-Still-Thouroughly-Frightened Officer, as he realized all that they feared had come to pass.

“Oh don’t tell me-”

“Ah wait my bad, it’s not that thing yet.”

“Huh?”

The No-Longer-Possessed-But-Still-Thouroughly-Frightened Officer could not see out the window on account of the closed blinds, so the Bookworm had to lift them up to show what he saw.

There is something slightly irksome about the work I spent the past while on being made almost immediately unnecessary.

It took the No-Longer-Possessed-But-Still-Thouroughly-Frightened Officer a moment to parse just what he was looking at, as it appeared to be almost oozing out the cave. He knew for a fact he had never seen anything like it in real life yet, he could not help but find it somewhat familiar.

“It’s that thing… you were looking at a picture of it earlier.”

“Yup, I figure if the Dragon was well and truly free, it’d be flying out the cave and doing something personally. At least that's the sort of picture I got of its personality based on the documents.”

The creature was large and a mix of red, orange and black. It appeared at first glance like a simple flow of lava, but closer inspection showed a large number of clear and large eyes atop its body. It would look comical if it were not huge, on fire and getting closer.

“Hmmm, the picture only shows TWO eyes, but that thing has at LEAST ten. Either the picture is inaccurate, that thing is actually multiple things, or there is something more going on with this creature that makes it different from the one in the notes.”

The No-Longer-Possessed-But-Still-Thouroughly-Frightened Officer could not help but panic at the sight before him.

“I know I’m repeating myself here, but seriously, what do we do?!”

“Well considering the circumstances, I’m sure the chief can guess what's going… though I doubt the members of the board have figured it out yet. In fact I bet they assume it’s some sort of earthquake. Even if they see that monster they’ll probably assume a volcano erupted.”

“So?!”

“So they're not going to be bothering us for a while.”

It was true, the banging on the door had ceased.

The Bookworm grabbed all the usable notes he had found, and placed them in a bag before walking towards the entrance.

“We can’t do much… physically. But I sure can READ and I sure can drive well enough.”

He then opened the door, and found a few officers standing before him, all of whom were looking out the hallway window at the horror before them. Many with their mouths agape.

“Hello ladies and gentleman, I’m afraid that creature over there is exactly what we and the Chief were worried about. As you can see here-”

The Bookworm held out the piece of paper showing the monster. The officer all looked between the picture and the monster, noting the clear similarity. As this all occurred the No-Longer-Possessed-But-Still-Somewhat-Frightened Officer

“-It has been written about to some extent. Unfortunately until just now we had no idea whether the root cause of these problems could actually make these things or if they were just legends, so information on them is scant. Fortunately I can guarantee two things… mostly. They aren’t quite as dangerous as actual lava and, perhaps most importantly, they can die.”

The officers looked to the Bookworm, clearly expecting some sort of direction now that he had given them hope. The Bookworm himself was not quite sure what to say, and had little experience with commanding others, so the No-Longer-Possessed-And-No-Longer-Frightened Officer took charge.

“You three? Go get the chief, I’m sure he can think of something, but he can’t do anything if he’s in a cell. You two? Go get the fire department, half should stick around town, half we’ll need for the forest. Rest of yall? Come with us, we gotta help my buddy here with whatever he’s thinking to kill these things.”

I really do hope they can be killed, cause it would be reeeeeal bad if they can’t… or maybe the Knight could kill them?

The Knight, that hero he knew next to nothing about, even with all the documents. The Bookworms views on the Knight was frankly more based on the stories of knights he had heard as a child, and not on the actual notes on the individual. But this was just as much due to bias as it was due to the scant writings on the man.

Speaking of the Knight… speaking of the Knight, are they ok? I mean those three are in the cave right now…

The Bookworm knew there was little he could do, the way things were he couldn’t even get close to the caves to check. So he pushed the worry to the back of his mind as best he could, hoping against hope his friends were safe… or at least alive.