Groovy!

Moving blindly through the maze of the mausoleum to head out into the open and warn her generals, Derinoe looked from one path to the other, trying to remember the path she took to get to the temple of the oracles.

“I must WARN them! Warn them of this treachery, the fiend has ensnared the oracles, who KNOWS who else he has ensorcelled to his cause.” She spoke to herself, clambering her way down a passageway and grinning a crooked smile when she found herself in the catacombs of the honoured dead.

The moment she stepped deeper into the rows of plinths and tombs, a rumbling to her left caused her to pause when she thought she heard movement. A knock could be heard from the stone coffin of one of the island’s past queens… Until the stone slab was launched off its moorings and landed in a crumbling heap to the side of the burial site. Falling to the ground in shock and dropping her torch to the ground, Derinoe looked up to the horrifying sight of Penthesilea; the first queen of the Amazons stand up as a skeletal horror, her bare skull matted with dust and petrified hair as she looked around and sniffed the air like an animal, before snapping her eyeless gaze down at the terrified amazon.

“Ssssomeone’s in my mosuleum… Someone with a fressssh soooUUUUuuulllll.”

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Derinoe grabbed the nearby torch and ran for dear life. Panicked, she ducked around a corner and clutched at her chest to catch her breath, her eyes wide with fright. That is until a pair of skeletal arms burst from the wall behind her. Screaming again and turning to see her attacker, the hag was met with another undead queen of the amazons. Her skin dry as paper and cracking to form a smile as the hollow caverns of her eyes sockets bore into her eyes.

“We are thosssse that were and sssshall be again! We want what you have… LIFE!”

Screaming in utter horror, Derinoe tossed the skeleton off of her and ran for dear life, no longer caring she was blind in the dark as she ran for her life. Too terrified to look behind her as she heard a growing chorus of raspy voices calling out to her from behind. And the random burst of stone and shale as a skeletal hand broke through to grab at her arm or leg.

“Join us…”

Tears streaking her haggard face, Derinoe looked up ahead to find sunlight, marking the entrance she took to enter the caverns. With a glimmer of hope, the woman raced out the entrance where she found the horse she took to ride up to the mountains. Mounting the startled animal, she snapped at the reigns to bring it into a dash, fleeing the mausoleum with all the speed she could muster. By the time she was down the mountain to the grass and tree lines of the orchards and fields did the woman stop her horse and herself to calm her booming heart in her chest.

“This! This is worse than I thought, I must…”

Sitting straight and looking behind her, she thought she felt… Something. A presence, a motion in the wind as it changed, blowing her direction. Narrowing her eyes back to the mountain. She didn’t know how or why… But she could FEEL something coming, something otherworldly heading her way, parting tall grass and shrubs out of its way, yet unseen to the naked eye. Panic consuming her again, she whipped at the reigns again, calling out for her horse to go into a run.

“Yah!”

Looking over her shoulder, she could still feel the presence, following her, CHASING her! It was the demon, it had to have been.

“Yah! YAH!”

Ignoring the whining of the horse, Derinoe continued to demand more speed, cutting through the shrubs and trees to make a short cut to the forests where her people’s forces camped. Looking behind her, she couldn’t see Boston, but she knew he was there, following her. When she turned her head to look ahead, she gasped and crossed her arms in front of her to guard against the tree branch head her way. Too fast to stop and already too late, the amazon warrior was knocked off her saddle and landed head first into a mud puddle.

Clawing her way out and spitting up dirty water and mud, Derinoe looked around her in a maddened panic, girding herself for Boston’s attack… Only to see nothing. Wheezing and still spitting up dirt, she wiped the mud off her face, she found her horse had trotted back to where she was wiping dirt off her clothes and face as she grabbed the reigns and regained her calm.

“Stupid animal! You should have stopped when I told you to!”

Nickering back, the horse snorted. “Who-hohoho… Can’t blame me for HORSING around.”

Seeing the horse smile and wink back at her, Derinoe screamed and fell to her knees, scrambling to run for her life while her possessed steed casually chased her on in the woods.

“Whe-he-he-hell, FINE! Maybe next time I’ll let YOU hoof it!”

Out of breath, tears in her eyes and colliding into one tree branch after another to escape the demon, Derinoe spotted the orchard keeper’s storage shed, wild eyed in desperation, she fled for her life while still hearing her horse mock her from behind. Jumping into the shed and kicking the door shut, Derinoe looked around and grabbed a rake off the wall to prop the door closed just as she heard and felt the horse head butt the door. Pressing her back against the door, the woman looked around.

“Hurruh hur hur hur hur… An old lady in a shed running from a horse, sounds like the title of a sitcom!”

Pulling her knees up to her chin, the elderly looking woman rocked back and forth, the toll of the last hour taking effect. “I… I can’t TAKE this madness anymore! I’m viable to go insane if this keeps up.”

The thumping against the door finally stopped, leaving the amazon on edge as she was left in silence, her eyes shifting from one wall to the other, paranoid of even the slightest shift of movement outside. A creak of wood, the shift and rustling of branches, her head darted to each slight noise, shivering like a mouse. Then nothing. Slowing her breathing, Derinoe slumped her head down, deflated of any strength to keep her head up.

A sudden crash startled the woman as she found the possessed horse’s head barge through the window, smiling back at her and flapping his lips.

“Hi Wilbur! Ha heh heh heh HA ha heh ha…”

Seeing the horse laugh at her, Derinoe’s eye twitched, slowly getting to her feet. Then she heard laughter from the rakes and tools, the lot taking on the shapes of laughing faces that rattled and jingled as they laughed from their hooks. Barrels and cannisters nearby danced and laughed, bumping into each other like a crowd of hecklers. A smile cracked her lips as the insanity of the moment finally took its toll.

Clutching at her head and pulling at her hair, the elderly amazon broke down into laughter, her eyes staring off into nowhere as the entire shed and its contents laughed at her. Breaking through the shed door and making a run for it, the woman was still laughing maniacally as she ran and fell to her hands and knees trying to escape. Her laughter breaking into whimpering sobs, the woman stood back up and turned around, just in time to sense Boston leave her horse… And enter HER. The impact threw her off her feet as she was propelled through the air, hitting tree branches left and right, her cries of panic still echoing out over the trees before she finally collided into an apple tree and fell face first back into the muddy ditch she fell into earlier.

Still and motionless, Derinoe laid face down in the mud, air bubbles escaping to the surface of the muddy water the entire time. Pulling herself up from the mud and spitting out dirt and grim, the woman looked herself over and rolled her shoulder, cricking her neck as she smacked her filthy lips.

“Sorry doll face, I’d rather the boys NOT be dead by dawn.” Heading back to the shed where the confused horse pulled his head free of the window, Boston pulled himself up to ride the animal who complained and nickered. “Yeah, yeah, I get it, your Mister Ed performance is better than mine, so sue me!”

Snapping the reigns, Boston made his way deeper into the woods where Derinoe was heading to meet the Generals of the Amazonian forces.