Lost, and Found

The goblins were lead by a brutish goblin named Idlefever, named from the fact that he had little use for hard work, and alot of time to loaf about thinking of his next robbery. He has a whole head taller than the other goblins, standing some four and one half feet tall. He was a brute, a fat brute if you asked any of his lackeys. Total there where five goblins, Idlefever, Coppernoggin, Tinteeth, Nicklenick, and Rosepurse. Rosepurse was the most intelligent and least respected in the band, but that pretty much describes all of goblindome. Coppernoggin had placed an old copper pot on his head as a child, and never took it off again. Today his skin, and patches of hair, have grown over alot of the pot, this gave him his name. Tinteeth never brushed his teeth and had them all replaced with tin copies. Other than a bit of rust he no longer has sever dental problems. Nicklenick has never owned more than one nickle of weath at any given time. Rosepurse now she was a she-goblin. Barely three feet tall, and she carries rose petals in her purse. However she is probally the most dangerous of the group.

Now these five goblins had discovered an old inn, and an old road. The road lead down to a newer road where passer-byes now frequented, and no one rememberd the old inn any longer. First they made came, and later they made Rosepurse weave a thached roof for the building. Then the riads began, and the coins poured in, as well as a few sheeps, and cows. For a time all was well, no one knew where the goblin band came from, and no one knew to where they would escape. All any one knew was that there was a band of robbers about, and no one was safe on the road. Well, almost everyone did not know about the goblins secret road and hide-out. A tiny pair of brown eyes watched the goings on from in the trees. Silently he followed, and one day he sensed the lost coin. One that day he began making his plan.

Lost, and Found

Night had begun to fall when three of the goblins came tracking back to the old inn. Woody sat in the top of an old oak, not far from the inn, and rested. As the three walked under the tree Woody rolled from one side of the branch to the other while watching. It was just as he leaned back to hide again, one of the brigans looked up.

He didn't see me! I know he didn't see me! Woody thought. The three goblins now walked to the old inn, while talking. When they got within a few yards of the inn, they bolted. Woodys heart sank. "They saw me" he mumbled to himself. Woody took flight into the air, he would go somewhere and rethink his plan.

High above the trees the tiny tree sprite flew. The wind whipped through his wild tangle of hair, and the coolness of night began to settle on him. Though naked he never really got cold, it was one of those things that being a tree sprite meant, not getting cold even in winter. Woody looked up and saw a star, the first star of the evening. He stopped and hovered to watch the stars come out. Far below, he knew the goblins were making plans now about him. If only he was bigger, "If only I was...." Woodys eyes grew and his lips became a smile. "I KNOW WHAT TO DO! YOU HEAR ME YOU GOBBLEY GOBLINS!" Woody shouted down towards the ground. He knew he was far above out of hearing range for the goblins.

With that Woody whipped around and took off at a speed that even a dragon would marvel at. Tree sprites flew by manipulating gravity, this gave them greater speeds than their winged kin. And now, Woody flew so hard the wind hurt his face, but he had to get there, get there before...

Lost, and Found

"AAAHHHHHHHH".....Woody yelled as he flew right at the frying pan. Rosepurse had swung with all her might at the small flying target, and Woody simply flew right at the pan. However, there was no thud when the tiny sprite hit the frying pan. Instead he passed right through the metal. The pans body rippled somelike when a stone is dropped in water, and Woody went right through. Thus it is with tree sprites, they can pass through any material save two, living flesh, and glass. "HA!" Woody shouted in triumph as he passed through the frying pan, and he pulled the pan with his wake. This pulled the pan up suddenly right behind Woody, much to the surprise of Rosepurse. Woody passed right over her left shoulder, as the pan made contact with the female goblins face, 'PANG'. Out she went down, knocked out cold by her own frying pan. Flying backwards, Woody laughed as he watched the entire short event play out. Then with out warning Woody smacked right into the hand of Idlefever.

Woody had been paying attention to Rosepurse and had not seen the other four goblins return. Woody came to a dead halt as Idlefevers beefy fist suddenly closed tightly on his small frame. "What thinks yous gonna do's now, my lil fellow?" Idlefever grinned as he brought Woody up close to his face. "Ack, your breath..." Woody tried to twist around to escape the smell of Idlefevers rancid breath. "Eat some mint once in a while"

Idelfever grinned even wider, "I thinks I'll have some funs wit yous first lil thief. Coming intos our home and robbing us?"

"You really are dumb I ack..." Woody choked as Idlefever tightened his grip even more. "I mean, I'm not here for your gold" Woody rasped.

"Maybes yous not, but now yous are in big trouble of a kind. I thinks we are gonna pull offs yous arms first, then yous legs, then yous head. And you can'ts get aways now. I knows your kinds tricky tricks" Idlefever grinned even more. His face looked as if it where going to split in two from his grin.

"Oh yeah?" Woody asked, then with a sudden ferocity he bit Idlefevers finger.

Idlefever suddenly broke into a strange dance and screamed, as the other goblins watched in a new fear. They had not seen Woody bite the fat leaders finger, instead all they saw was Idlefever threaten the tiny sprite, and then fall under some strange tree sprite spell. Idlefever held out his arm, his hand now open. Woody was attached to the index finger by his teeth. And Idlefever danced and bellowed "Shoot him....SHOOT HIM!"

Goblin intelligence, talk about an oxymoron, or rather let us talk about just the morons. Woody is a small target, Idlefever a rather large target, and Coppernoggin, Tinteeth, and Nicklenick not the greatest archers in the world. In anticipation of the tree sprites visit, all the goblins had armed themselves with glass tipped arrows, and now three of the band drew out those sharp pointed arrows at their leads demand, and loosed them at him. A flurry of arrows followed, and Idlefever dropped dead.

They stared in disbelief as Idlefever fell. Woody hoovered above the body, he too stunned at the fact that not one of the four stopped to think about any of this. "Y'all are stupid" Woody told the other three. Then Woody let out a high piched whistle.

"What'r yous doing?" Coppernoggin qiuckly notched another glass tipped arrow. With Woody not moving he had a dead on beed on the small sprite. It took Tinteeth and Nicklenick a few seconds to follow suit but they too notched arrows and took aim. Woody laughed "Ha, y'all better run"

"Shuddap, and do's nots move abouts. You killed Idlefever and nows we's gonna killed you?

"I killed Idlefever" I don't even have a bow, and besides, the arrows are bigger than me, and y'all loosed them" Woody pointed out.

"Yeap, but you hads us under a spells" Tinteeth interject.

"Did not, besides y'all better run" out of the corner of his eye he saw Rosepurse beginning to stir.

"What's tha noise?" She asked as she sat up "Idlefever!" Rose suddenly sobbed as she saw the fallen leader. Then she stopped before she could begin mourning over Idlefevers body, she again asked, "What's tha noise, don cha hears it' It be's some kinda buzzzzing sounds"

Woody smiled as the three remaining males lowed their bows and listened, they now could hear the buzzing sound. "Run" piped in Woody, and without warning the room was filled with bees. Woody had promised them he would stay out of their winter honey stores if they helped him on this adventure, and they agreed. and now the stung the enemies of the tree sptite with a fury untold. Coppernoggin, Tinteeth and Nicklenick dropped their arrows and swung at the bees uslessly with their bows, Rosepurse also swung maddly with her frying pan but in vane. Within half a minute all four scrammbled for the door and ran into the woods chased by mad bees.

Woody rolled in the air laughing at the sight. It took several minutes for him to regain composure, and after he did he went right back to the pointed stick he had left hammered in the crack in the floor boards. Usuing a little tree sprite magic, Woody made the stick sprout and take root, the suddenly the stick grew into an oak sapling, parting the floor boards and exposing the coin.

With great glee Woody lifted the coin and flew out the window into the late morning sky, his prize in hand.

On another note, four goblins being chased by bees where captured by the city guard later in the day. Three where recognized as being part of a band of highwaymen that had been troubling the area as of late. All four where quickly dispatched to the gallows. Before they where hanged all four blamed a sprite for their capture, though no creature had been seen when the capture had taken place.

The Rose...

"You scared me!" Woody spit the words out, almost in a yelp. "Don't you know your not suppose to be here?"

"I want the flower, for mommy. I try to pick it, but I'm too small, and the thorns stick me." the small apparition said, her voice sounded as if it was spoken in long away and yet there was a bit of an echo. "I've tried and tried. Could you help me?"

Woody gulped, "You want me to help?" He knew that some spirits are trapped because the seek to finish some task. "Don't you remember?" he asked gently as he hoovered above the gossamer waif, "your accident?"

The girl sniffed as if she was going to cry, "I did not mean too, she pulled me in. I fought but she was too strong....trong..ong..." Her voice faded as she did as well.

Woody looked on, ...she pulled me in....Woodys eyes fell on a dry stream bed. He flew over and sensed. Long ago a water spirit lived here, a water hag. The child did not just die she had been murdered, drowned by an evil faery. And now whenever the rose bloomed, the childs spirit returned to pick the gift of a rose for her long dead mother. "I'll find the Spirit of the Wood. I'll tell him about you." Woody promised the air about him. And then he head for what he knew would be the forests heart.

A few more hours had passed, Woody was lost as lost can get. He rounded a rock, which he had rounded three times already. Woody looked back at the rock as he flew "Stupid Rock" he grumbled as he ran right into a stone throne. Woody recovered, on his back on the ground looking up at the clouded sky. "I wonder where that thing came from?"

"It's is mine" the voice was slow and sounded as if it had been laced with poison, with a hint of evil. Woody sat up and turned to see a spriggan walking to the stone chair."I was wondering when you'd finally arrive. I have been following you for hours now. " The beast sat on the chair of rock.

Spriggans are a type of fairy (sprite at that) that have gone bad. Their lower half is like a saytr, but that of a bull. There upper body is human and very muscular but they have a demonic face. Horns crown their heads and claws grace thier finger tips. They are the woodland spirits that lead children, and adults astray in the woods and finally kills the lost soul, and traps it's spirit for it's self. A spriggan stands only three feet tall.]

Into the darkening sky flew Woody. The wind whipped through his wild hair, making it even wilder. A million thought passed through his small mind, and they were all laced with revenge, and rescue. Woody stopped and hovered, to the west the sun was sinking below the horizon, while on the east the moon was rising. Woody looked down at the misty woods below, a small stream ran through the woods, from northeast to the soutwest. Woody grinned, as now he would have a way to navigate against the spriggans magical hold over the dying forest. He did a little roll in the air, zipped around and headed towards the troll caves.

Bob the troll was a miserable, hulking, mean, nasty smelling brute, and he loathed Woody. Bob took great pleasure in tormenting the tiny sprite when ever he could, besides the sprite was the cause of many of Bobs problems, and often he made Bob the butt of some outlandish sprite prank. Woody had even once stole fourty barrels of Bobs gold, and that really hurt Bob. But he could be bought easily, and Woody knew that. In fact Woody had hired Bob once to move heavy stones into a ring, so Woody could have a ring of standing stones. So their relationship was on a hate base, but with a mercantile understanding. "I'll pay Bob to smack that stupid excuse for a dark faery" Woody grinned like a mad man, or rather a an insane tree sprite. Besides Bob had something of a sweet tooth for spriggan, and if things got outta hand, the spriggian would get his up commence.

It was past noon before Woody and Bob left for the haunted woods. The travel was slow as Bob lumbered through the forest stopping frequently to eat some mushroom or other fungi along the way. "Oh, How I should have broughts some meat" Bob would lament as he chewed on the mushrooms. And the poisonous ones where Bobs favorites, and he would stop and sit to eat these, savoring the toxic flavor. "We'll never GET there at this speed, Bob." Woody would gripe.

"Oie, but we's will get there Woodsie. How long the ghost of this wee human been trapped there?" Bob asked as he smacked and chewed.

"Years, maybe hundreds, why?" Woody eyed the troll suspiciously

"Wells the way I see it a day or two more won't really matter then" and Bob continued to eat.

In all it took two days for the duo to reach the boarders of the haunted wood. The forest they traveled in went from autumn colors to a dull gray in the matter of a few steps. To the wild life ceased to thrive. Squirrels, birds, deer, rabbits, all sightings and traces of these animals just stopped.

"I do say, Woodsie, this is a dread place" Bob knocked over a rotten hazel tree with no difficulty at all. The crashing of the tree was the only noise in the woods now. Bob gawfed a laugh "Hey Woodsie, if a tree falls in the haunted woods, and there is no one around to hear it crash to the ground, does anyone give a damn?"

"Funny Bob," Woody grinned at the pun, Bob had actually been funny. It was the first time the troll had ever shown Woody a side softer than just spiteful. "Ya know Bob we really should do this more, we make a pretty good team."

"You know Woodsie, your right!"

"I AM" This answer surprised Woody, he was louder than he had intended to be.

"Yeah, you need to give me gold and find a new place for me to live more often" Bob gawfed "You really should" The trolls laughter could be heard all over the woods. Had any living thing been close by to hear it....well you get the idea.

"You know, we do need some stealth, BOB. Noise like that will only alert that cocky spriggan.."

"It knows we are here Woodsie" Bob cut Woody off in mid sentence. "So being quiet is only an option."

"I guess your right, he knew I was here before. So then speed it, we still have a little ways to go." Woody chided the slow moving hulk.

"I'm coming, I'm coming" was Bobs grumbling reply.

And on the two went into the darkening haunted forest. The tiny naked sprite on a mission, and the lumbering troll.

The forest opened into the clearing, there in the center was the ancient rose bush, and staring up at the opened flower was the child's ghostly form. An almost inaudible weeping came from the thin apparition. She stopped and turn towards the wide eyed Woody and Bob. "It's been sooooo looonngg. and I still cannoooottt reach the rooooose. I'll never sssseeeeee Moooommmy again." Her voice was as thin as she was.

Bob went to move forward, his hand outstretched, but Woody stopped him. "No, if you pick the rose, it will hold her here even longer." Bob looked at Woody, It was evident that he did not understand. "We have to get rid of the spriggan first. He holds her soul here. If we pick the rose, it will be years before it might bloom again." Bob nodded slowly, he understood, and Woody saw a look in his eyes he had never seen before. Bob felt sorry for the small ghost.

"Come on Woodsie, let go meet this runt of a faery." Bob started off deeper in the woods, he moved with a new determination.

"Follow the dried up stream" Woody called after him. "We'll be back, soon" Woody told the little ghost, and he took off after Bob.

And upon that chair sat the vile one, the wide grin on his face had caused him to bare his needle like teeth. Slowly he dragged the the claws of his left hand over the arm of the stone throne, while his right am simply rested on the other. "Re enforcements,,, or should I say re enforcement, how clever of you." it spoke in slow venous tones. "And a troll at that. I wonder should I be scared. I told you not to return, and not only have you returned. You brought others!" hiss the the spriggan.

"Yeah, and he is gonna kick your fuzzy butt" Woody boasted. is small chest was stuck out and he was oh so confident. "So left the spirit of the lil girl go, and we won't hurt you."

"Or eat you? added the massive troll. Bobs head had lower, as he had assumed a very aggressive posture. His hands where great knots, tightly closed. "But, I must admit, it has been awhile since I had spriggan"

The vile one did not flinch, he smirked, but did not flinch. "Do you both think that I alone have held these woods, alone" I rule these woods, true, oh so true." his voice dropped in volume, to almost a whisper "But I have had help."

From the forest behind the throne came two figures from the darkness of the shadows. One was a Water Hag, Woody figured it was she that had drown the small girl in the beginning, as Woody remember her words "She was to strong". The hag was big, bigger than Bob, and like her her kind she smelled like rotting flesh. Her color was like that of a corpse, and there were two empty sockets where eyes should have been. She was dressed only in putrid water grass that clung to her. The other was not more than a shadow itself, a Shade, the essence of an evil being in which the body had succommed to corruption long long ago. A shade sucked life from the living, and in some cases they took hold of a beings body, so they could once again feel, and perform evil deeds in the land of the living. So there were three, a spriggan, a hag, and a shade.

Woodys mouth just hung open as he looked on these new creatures of darkness, and he could feel fear beginning to climb up his small body, starting at his toes, it worked its way up, until it hit his heart causing it to beat ever quickly. Bob seemed unfazed by any of it, though without taking his eyes off the foe, he spoke in a whisper to Woody "I thought you saids there was only the spriggan."

"Yeah, well....there was....I dunno who these others are, Maybe they are just lost?" Woody tried to make light of the danger at hand.

"You know Woodsie, if we get out of this alive?" Bob said softly

"Yeah?" was Woodys only reply.

Bob replied, without taking his eyes off the enemy, "You'll owes me two more bricks of gold."

Bob and the Hag were locked together, blood ran from Bobs shoulder, and his nose were the Hag had hit him. The Hag was bleeding dark ichor from her mouth and left eye socket. Together they had locked tight grips on each others arms and battled by pushing and smashing each other into trees around the clearing. The frail trees splintered and fell in the wake of the two monstrous creatures engaged in their battle of shear brawn. Nothing stood where they danced their dance of battle. Suddenly without warning the Hags head lunged forward and she sank her teeth into Bobs left forearm.

Venom passed from the Hags saliva into Bobs blood, venom caused by the filth and decay of the Hags flesh, and the fetid waters where she dwelt. Not to be out done, Bob too thrust his head forward, making contact with the hags forehead. His iron like skull smashed into the softer water logged skull, it was like a maul hitting a melon. The hag slowly fell to Bobs feet. He stood over the defeated body his foe, and wiped the grume from his face. Already the hags poison began to numb his arm, though he did not worry, it would take a poison much stronger than hers to kill him. Then he heard Woody cry out.

The spriggan saw Woody cripple the Shade with rocks, of all things rocks. His ire got the better of him. When the tree sprite went for more rocks, the spriggan leaped at the smaller creature. Woody saw the attack coming and like a bullet flew out of the way. The spriggan muttered dark words, and suddenly Woody felt as if he had been struck in the back with a piercing blow, it took his breath away. That's new, thought the pained little sprite as he fell to the ground.

Like a cat on wounded prey the spriggan was on Woody, he picked the fallen sprite off the ground, and held him aloft and held him upside down by one of his tiny legs, "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW? YOU ANNOYING....LITTLE....PIECE....OF....SH...." The blow to the spriggan was like a million needles stabbing every part of his being, it was pain beyond pain, and he did not die, nor did he pass out. The pain drew from him the strength to even breath. Woody was flung from his hand, and he was trapped in a world of pain.

The Shade had recovered from the blows delivered to him by the tree sprite. As he looked over he saw that the spriggan had the wee vermin. Damn the spriggan thought the Shade, besides it cared only for it's self, and nothing else. It had brought pain to the Shade, it had out lived its usefulness to the Shade. The Shade lunged at the spriggan, trapping it within its inner being. Now it would feed off the essence of the corrupt faery, and assume a corporeal form, and it would kill the sprite.

Bob picked Woody up off the ground, and held him in the palm of his hand. The sprite was alive. ?"Woodsie,,, Woodsie wake up." Bob shook his hand a little to jostle Woody. It worked, Woody woke up.

He laid there on his back in Bobs palm. "So..." he asked weakly "Do I owe you two more bricks of gold, or am I in hell?"

Bob laughed his loud gawfing laugh, tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at the wee sprite, and as he wiped the tears away he looked at Woody and said "No Woodsie, you don't owe me anything....your in Hell" and he laughed some more.

"Very funny" Woody slowly sat up in Bobs hand, he did not sound amused. "What about him?" Woody motioned to the spriggan which lay on the ground not far from them. It seemed aged, and weak, though it was awake, it did not have the strength or energy to flee.

"Ive got a plan for him" Bob said with an evil grin.

Woody rode on Bobs shoulder back to the rose bush, while Bob carried the drained spriggan. The rose bloom was full and beautiful. The small ghost stood near by, weeping. The ghost almost fled when she saw the spriggan, but stayed when she saw that he could not harm her. Bob reached up and pulled the thick vine down. The thorns merely rubbed his thick leathery skin. Soon the bloom was low enough for the small ghost to reach it. Gently her hand reached out and plucked the rose. In his other hand Bob held the spriggan, he tighten his grip on that hand and said to the retched faery, "Let her go"

The spriggan sighed, and there was a sudden rush of a warm breeze. The small ghost turned and smiled, seeing something the others could not. Then in jubilation she called out "MOMMY,....mommy, look what I have for you." She held the rose out as she ran forward to the unseen loving arms for an embrace that she had longed for, for hundreds of years. She had but ran a few steps, and she faded, upon that spot, the mist above broke, and a shaft of light fell, it was morning, and her soul was reunited with her loved ones, she was at peace.

Bob looked at the withered creature in his hand. "Mercy" it weakly begged. Bob snorted in disgust, and tossed it into the rose bush. It cried out softly as two of the great thorns had pierced it's flesh. The wounds were not life threatening, but they were painful.

"Think he'll be able to hurt anyone else?" Bob asked Woody

"Nope, the Shade drained his magical energy off first, and he has lost a few hundred years or so of life. I doubt he'll ever be strong enough again to bother anyone." Woody observed, he had felt what the shade had done to the spriggan, he was sure that this bad faery was no longer a threat to anyone.

"Lets go home then, I have some gold to bury" Bob said, and then he turned, and with Woody on his shoulder, he started back to his cave.

Flo was a magnificent creature, she could appear in one of three forms. As a vapor, or fog, as a transparent watery apparition, or as a nude young woman with light blue skin, and snow white hair. Her hair actually lacked any color, and there for appeared white, but if one would look closely at a strand or two of her fine hair, they would see that her hair was as transparent as water. Like the tree sprites, water faeries had little use for clothing, as they lived in an environment where clothing slowed them down. Today Flo was in her watery form, and she cascaded lazily on a rock in the sun, Upon seeing Woody she waved to him, she could sense his presence before she she saw him. With a fluid movement, she moved from the rock and into the water, where she became one with the liquid. She moved with great speed in the water, and popped up next to Woodys rock.

"Good afternoon, Woody," her voice was like that of a babbling little brook when she was in this form. "How do you fair on this day?" she asked in her bubbly voice.

"Im's good" Woody smiled, "Say Flo, ya know it's autumn right?"

She gracefully nodded at the question.

"What do ya do when the water freezes?" Woody asked. Woody had cousins that were water faeries, but he had never seen them in cold weather, as they had all lived in an area that never froze.

Flo laughed, "Silly tree dweller, I add a form of ice to the shapes I may assume. But I can only do this when the water where I dwell begins to freeze"

"So you get all icy?" Woody asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

Again she nodded, "In that form, I shall tend the frozen waters of my home.' With that said she splashed Woody, and laughed, and disappeared into the water.

"An ice faery." Woody pondered on this for a moment. He had never heard of an ice faery, but then again there where faeries for everything in nature. And faeries for somethings not natural.

Woody shrugged off the confused state, and took off in flight. The cool noon air whipped across his wet body, drying him quickly as he flew through the woods. The colors of the leaves were already changing, the maples had bright red, and orange leaves, and their sap was falling. Woody zipped past the maples, he was headed into town. There he could find some maple sap, which had been cooked into syrup, and he loved the sweet sticky syrup, especially over what the tall folk called pancakes. If he was lucky, someone would have a few left over pancakes from breakfast, and Woody would sneak one or two with some maple syrup.

The rift opened up and spat the creature out. Not so gentle was this rift either, as it simply dropped the creature from several feet off the ground. The drop was not so far as to cause any significant damage, and the ground was soft. It stood, to figure out where it was, to gain its bearings, but something was wrong. The scenery was wrong, the crystal plains where gone, and strange forms lay all across the land. Also the light here was wrong, the creatures home world had been near a neutron star, the radiant colors the creature was used to was just not there. This was a world devoid of color as the creature knew color, and it was darker than the creatures world. It thought for a moment, something must have gone wrong with the rift. A rift journey which was only suppose to have transported it a few hundred miles, it had stretched beyond the prescribed range, and power feed, and dropped the creature off here.

A quick check, the body armor was still on, but power to it had nearly diminished. The armor was magnificent to behold, as hundreds of thousands of tiny crystals lay over a dark metallic suit . The crystals had a function, they absorbed energy and powered the armor. This armor was both protection, and the creatures weapon, and now it was critically low on power, and the creature was in an alien environment. The creature took a small handheld instrument from a hip storage unit, and turned it on, it had power. The creature held the device and allowed it to read atmospheric conditions, and scan the strange forms that covered the landscape. The air was breathable, low in oxygen, but it still had plenty of nitrogen, either could be used by it's metabolism. But the readings for the shapes were confusing, the device stated that they were alive, this made no sense to the creature, even more so was that the basic component was carbon. The silicon based creature shook its head in disbelief, it was stranded on a world in which there might not be anything to eat.

((The events of the arrival of this creature have to do with Woodys recent encounter with what he called a demon. I have no plans to play the creature in the RDI, but for sake of a minor Story Line, I am filling in some details. So this is kinda like a backstage peek into what went on, leading up to the attack on Woody, and why he was attacked))

The creature lay in wait in one of the taller life forms which dotted the landscape. A plan for much needed energy had come to light when two days earlier the creature had discovered an incredibly large source of energy as it flew by. Quickly scanning the source showed energy spikes off the scale of the hand heal computer. This could be promising, it could supply enough energy to open a rift, allowing the creature to attempt escape from this world. It would have to be soon, the creature was getting weak, hunger gnawed at it's being, and the day to day recharging of the armors power had yet to amount to enough power to run weapons on the armor. Even now the creature kept the recharge on constant.

The creature watched and again the energy source flew by the next day, more scans showed that it was some kind of carbon life form, however the energy it emitted was far beyond anything the creature had ever seen before on this planter, or its own world. It had to have this power source, if only for a few seconds, this could be a way out, a way home. Thus the plan was simple, grab the creature as it flew by, receptors in the palm of the armors hand area would pull off energy, when the suit would be re charged, the creature would let the smaller being go, it was a simple plan.

Woody flew from the Red Dragon Inn back to his forest, it was a few miles outside of RhyDin, but he could travel fast if he needed. The stars were out so he flew at a speed which allowed him to enjoy the night air, it was getting cooler, and soon winter would grip the land. As usual Woody flew the same path home, this let him glide with little care as he could make the way blindfolded since he passed this way so often. He was just a few hundred yards outside the city when it happened. With out warning, something grabbed him.

Searing pain flooded his tiny body, not to mention a grip that was like steel held him in place. Woody knew struggling would do no good, the hold was too tight. Something was pulling on his life force, his very spirit, he had to get away. He would phase through.....Pain racked his small body as he went out of phase with the world around him. Being out of phase allowed him to pass through anything solid, inorganic, or organic, dead, or alive. The pain should have ended when he phased, but it got worse. Still he fought to get out of the grip, but the flesh of what ever it was that had him also gripped him. It was like being shredded as he slowly began to pass through the material that made up his captors being. His tiny body burned with pain, and suddenly he was free.....Woody made no time to see what had caught him, he turned tail and headed back for the inn.

The creature lunged and caught the small being, just as it planned, and when it did, the armor pulled energy from it. The suit grew even darker sucking even what visible light it could out of the very atmosphere. The tiny thing struggled, and suddenly to the creatures surprise, the tiny thing fought back. It's physical structure dipped into hyperspace, and the tiny being went inside the creatures hand. Normally the armor protected the creature from the destructive forces of hyperspace, but this creature was inside the armor, with the creature, and damage was being done. The experience was far from pleasant it was painful. Bone, muscle, tendons, flesh even blood was pulled into hyperspace, and as the tiny being moved, more damage was done. The creature tried to let go, but the thing was inside its arm. It shook the are in a frantic motion the hopes that gravity would toss the tiny being free, but it did not. Instead the tiny being seemed to scurry to and fro in the creatures arm. Then the tiny thing broke free, and flew away. The creature fell to the ground, its simple plan had left it with a now ravaged forearm, the pain was almost to much to endure. But, the armors power levels where up, maxed out, the attack had worked. Slowly the creature pulled out the handheld computer from the storage unit on its hip. With some difficulty, now that only one arm worked, it punched in the commands to active the armors trans-hyper jumping ability. With any luck, it would land home. The rift opened, and and surrounded the alien being, and within seconds, it pulled it free of RhyDin.