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"What? I'm not a predator," I protested, "I've never preyed on anyone! I'm one of the least predatory people I know!"
"Are you truly?" the Wild Hunt Buffy asked me, and then she pointed one massive finger in the general direction of my face. Suddenly memories sprang up in my head. The memories seemed random at first, but I soon detected a very identifiable theme.
The first memory was when I used a levitation spell to float a pencil, and used it to stake a vampire right through the heart.
The second memory was when I used a sunlight spell to rip a hole in the fabric of reality on Thanksgiving night and let in enough sunlight to cause a vampire to burst into flames.
The other memories were all like that. They were all memories of when I used magic to kill vampires, or other beings that were a threat. I had never sought out vampires, or other foes, but when they confronted me, it seems I had a talent for killing them, before they had a chance to kill me.
"Okay, maybe I'm a little predatory," I admitted.
Then Buffy let out a booming, mirthful laugh and shouted, "Join me, Lady Willow! Join me, Sir Rupert! Join me, one and all, and tonight we hunt the minions of Dovregubben!!"
Elisedd and Giles agreed to join almost immediately. Agent Mulder took a few more seconds to agree to joining, but eventually we all accepted Buffy's invitation to join the Wild Hunt.
Once we all agreed, we were transformed in a manner somewhat similar to Buffy's transformation. Agent Mulder instantly became taller and became decked out in leather and chainmail. Giles became taller and became decked out in leather and chainmail.
I became taller and became decked out in leather and chainmail.
Suddenly, there was a presence in my head, a practitioner of magic, that had ridden with the Wild Hunt before, a being who had hunted trolls and goblins before, a being who understood the creatures, and the traditions of the faerie.
It was weird. I was basically two beings at the same time. I was Willow Rosenberg, but I was somebody else too. I was hoping this merging of personalities didn't last too long. I could probably handle this if it only lasted a short period of time, however, in the long term, reconciling two different sets of memories, and two different sets of preferences and emotions and biases, would probably drive me insane.
Oh, God! Was Buffy going through this too? I hoped she didn't suffer any psychological damage! And what about Giles, and Agent Mulder? What sort of grab-bag of psychological problems were they having to deal with?
The bull-men transformed into bulls with saddles. The goat-men transformed into massive goats with saddles. The goats changed in size as well as shape. When they became quadrupeds, they grew in size, becoming as large as quarter horses.
Everybody picked a steed to ride. The lord of the Wild Hunt chose a giant bull. I chose a giant goat, and our leader rode off after her prey with impressive speed, and a deafening thunder of hooves. The rest of us followed her on steeds that were just as loud and just as fast.
"Where are we going?" I called out, and I realized that my voice didn't sound like my voice anymore. The voice that came out of my throat sounded rough, demanding and passionate. It sounded like the voice of a strong and self-confident warrior.
"We're going to the abandoned zoo," the lord of the Wild Hunt called back, "The minions of Dovregubben have ensconced themselves there!"
This was definitely a mixing of Buffy and the lord of the Wild Hunt in the same body. Buffy knew the location of Sunnydale's abandoned zoo, however she never used words like ensconce. She didn't even know the meaning of the words like ensconce. Buffy and the lord of the Wild Hunt were sharing the same brain, and I wasn't sure how happy I was about that. Mixing brains together sounded like the sort of thing that could cause a lot of psychological damage.
Sunnydale's abandoned zoo was something that the lord of the Wild Hunt wouldn't have known about, but Buffy would. It had gone bankrupt back in 1998, and was now owned by the Bank of Southern California. Multiple attempts to sell the land had failed, and now the old abandoned zoo was a place where high school kids went to engage in underage drinking, have make out parties or indulge in drugs like ecstasy.
Although, probably not tonight, not if scores of trolls had turned the place into their secret lair.
As the sun went down, Buffy/the lord of the Wild Hunt led us through Wilkins Park. Wilkins Park wasn't really designed for hooved quadrupeds to race through at full-gallop, but we were at a point where we didn't care about social conventions. We were just making up our own rules as we went along.
As we galloped through Wilkins Park, we noticed three vampires chasing after a teenage female. Now, Buffy's normal reaction to seeing predatory vampires in Sunnydale was to drive a wooden stake through their hearts, however, the lord of the Wild Hunt did things a little bit differently.
The lord of the Wild Hunt charged down the field, forced her steed in between the vampires and the female and then brought her bovine steed to a full stop. The she unsheathed her sword and pointed it threateningly at the vampires.
"Join or die, hemophages" the lord of the Wild Hunt insisted.
The vampires looked confused.
Then another rider pulled up alongside the lord of the Wild Hunt, and in a manly voice that sounded a lot like Giles, the rider said, "Vampires, ride with us, or you die."
It didn't take the vampires long to decide.
Using similar tactics, we managed to recruit twelve more vampires to join the Wild Hunt. We also pressured six Serparvo demons, eight Polgara demons, ten Lei-Ach demons, six Fyarl demons and seven Rapax demons into joining. Much to my surprise, we also managed to recruit one of the bouncers at Eye Candy, a woman named Marianne. I'm not entirely certain what Marianne is, but she isn't human. She's as strong as a vampire, but she still casts a reflection, and she can go out into the sunlight without bursting into flames. Whatever she is, she's way stronger than any normal human being.
Also, something that looked very much like a Rottweiler decided to join us, and followed us wherever we rode. However, there was no way this was a real canine from our reality. For one thing it must have weighed over 900 pounds, and was easily the size of a horse.
My guess was that it was some sort of hellhound.
By the time we had reached the abandoned Sunnydale zoo, we must have had about fifty predators on our side.
"Our prey is in there," shouted the lord of the Wild Hunt as we closed in on the old Sunnydale Zoo, "Prepare to destroy them!!"
Now, when the high school kids hung out at the old Sunnydale Zoo, they gained entrance by squeezing through the gap where the chain-link fence had been sliced up years ago. I had somehow assumed that the riders of the Wild Hunt would do the same thing.
The lord of the Wild Hunt had other ideas. She urged her steed to gallop faster as she approached the front gate, and then her bull leaped over the gate.
The gate was about seven-feet tall, and I gasped in amazement at that incredible leap, and then the creature I was riding sped up and jumped over the gate as well.
"No way," I exclaimed as hooves smashed down on pavement, and my steed landed on the other side of the seven-foot tall barrier.
"Our prey is here," the lord of the Wild Hunt insisted, not willing to let me take time to gape in awe at that amazing jump, "Find them and destroy them!!"
We were making a ton of noise as we fanned out and searched for Dovregubben's thugs. An ambush was out of the question. They certainly knew we were there, what with all the noise we were making.
We split into three groups. The lord of the Wild Hunt led one group, Giles led the second group, and Agent Mulder led the third group.
I ended up in Agent Mulder's group, which I thought was odd. If Buffy weren't merged with one of the oldest and deadliest beings of Faerie, I'm sure she would have insisted that I be included in her group. However, the Lord of the Wild Hunt had different priorities than my girlfriend.
Agent Mulder was wearing a chainmail shirt, and a battle helm and carrying a shield that looked like it was made during the tenth century, but he still carried his semi-automatic handgun in his right hand. It seemed out of place for him to have a modern weapon. Everybody else was carrying swords, spears and other primitive weapons. Wasn't there some sort of Wild Hunt rule that forbade the use of any weapons invented after the Crusades?
"Over here," Agent Mulder called out, "I found someone!"
I didn't so much ride my goat, as I just remained seated in the saddle and allowed it to follow the sound of Mulder's voice. I didn't really know anything about riding, but the body I was currently inhabiting seemed to get it, and the goat I was riding was part of the Wild Hunt, and would do whatever the leaders of the Wild Hunt wanted. I didn't really have to give the goat orders. It went wherever the Hunt went.
And where it went, was to a habitat that had once lions, or some sort of big cats. There were no longer any animals inside, and all of the bars had been smashed or bent out of the way, however, we had discovered a trio of trolls.
I had never been educated on what trolls looked like, but the being from the Faerie that I was merged with knew all about trolls. He (or she) had killed plenty of trolls, and knew what they looked like, smelled like and fought like. These big, ugly guys were trolls.
They were each about seven-feet tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular, with arms as thick as tree-trunks. Their faces were ugly, with uneven teeth, heavy brows, wide noses, and dull, belligerent eyes, that seemed to broadcast crude emotions and malignant intent.
One of them was wearing a crude, leather loincloth, the other two were naked.
I swear, if I hadn't already given up on men, the sight of these ugly, slack-jawed, unkept, filthy, detestable thugs swaggering around, bare-ass naked would probably have been enough to turn me off from men forever. They were disgusting in a way that I didn't even know was possible.
"They're armed," one of the people in my group called out, and almost simultaneously I noticed one of them swinging a long chain over his head, with a spiked-ball attached to the end.
Wielding a weapon like that couldn't be easy. A metal ball at the end of a long chain wouldn't be easy to control. It would take a lot of time, training and hand-eye coordination to control a weapon like that, and make the metal ball go where you want it to go. It would be easy to lose control of an ungainly weapon like that.
Instead of losing control, the troll swung his chain-weapon wide, and his spiked ball hit one of my Wild Hunt Partners in the face, causing a spray of blood, and knocking him off his goat. His helmet stayed on, so his skull wasn't crushed, but even with head protection, getting hit with a spiked, metal ball like that had to hurt.
Somebody in my group called out, "Destroy them," and then we counterattacked.
Now, trolls are huge, but when you're riding goats that are the size of quarter-horses, trampling them is always an option. And these goats seemed to be battle-ready. They charged into battle with an eagerness that made me wonder if giant-goats had some sort of ancient traditional animosity towards trolls. I mean, the Three Billy Goats Gruff was just a Grimm Brother Fairy Tale, but maybe it was based on a true story.
The trolls were tough, and they fought vigorously, but when it was all over, the trolls had broken arms and crushed skulls, while the giant goats seemed to be unscathed.
"There's got to be more here," Agent Mulder called out, "Keep searching!"
We galloped through the zoo, and Agent Mulder turned out to be right. There were definitely more than just three trolls there.
When the Sunnydale Zoo was still a going concern, the howler monkey exhibit was the least popular location in the entire zoo. Those things were just too loud and annoying. And because the howler monkeys were so unpopular, they were located way in the back. That's where we found most of the trolls, way in the back.
When my group got there, at least a dozen trolls were already dead. The ones that were alive had morning stars, flails and cudgels. The trolls were bigger than any of the vampires, demons or humans that we had on our teams, but the Wild Hunt had enthusiasm and a passionate zeal on its side. We refused to be intimidated by the size of our opponents. Somehow being part of the Wild Hunt gave us more confidence and more spirit. No matter how the odds we stacked against us, we felt as if we were guaranteed a win.
I saw a troll smash a vampire in the head with a cudgel. There was a crunching sound, a spray of blood, and the vampire went down, but instead of being intimidated by the sight of a massive troll striking down one of our fighters, another vampire jumped on the troll, joined by four Serparvo demons. Using teamwork and overzealous, brutal violence, the guys on my team quickly beat the troll to death.
Trolls were large, but the predators of the Wild Hunt were brutal and determined. They would never back down. They'd keep fighting until they were either dead, or victorious.
I could see why all the monarchs of the faerie wanted those Gauntlets.
"Charge," screamed Agent Mulder, and his troops charged directly into the trolls. I was mostly a spell-caster, so I remained in the back of the group, while the frontline fighters vigorously assaulted the trolls. Agent Mulder still had his handgun, and when one of the trolls swung his morning star in preparation for an attack, Agent Mulder shot it in the head.
Bullets were great for killing trolls, especially if you had excellent marksmanship, however there were a lot of trolls, and Mulder didn't have a great deal of bullets. Most of this battle was going to be fought with primitive weaponry.
As the lord of the Wild Hunt, Buffy was now more than eight feet tall, and she smashed into the trolls like a bull smashing into a display case of Waterford crystal.
Trolls were beheaded, gutted and impaled. Screaming and bloodshed followed the lord of the Wild Hunt everywhere she went. Trolls are huge, but so was the lord of the Wild Hunt, and they couldn't match her for strength or viciousness. That massive sword of hers cut through muscle and bone, like she was cutting through butter. And while a lot of the trolls wore breastplates, and segmented armor, her sword cut through those too.
The lord of the Wild Hunt seemed to be invincible, and our victory seemed assured.
Yeah, I know. Whenever it looks like an easy victory is in your grasp, you've probably overlooked an important detail somewhere.
It came from out of the sky, held aloft on massive wings that must have stretched sixty feet from end to end. It looked reptilian, but not really like any reptile I'd ever seen before. The shape of the head was similar in some ways to a snake or a Komodo Dragon, although the size was far larger than either. It had a long snakelike neck and a long snakelike tail, and from its nose to the tip of its tail, was probably about forty feet long.
It had claws, that strongly resembled the claws of a water monitor in shape, however they were much greater in size. You could probably grab a full-grown human, and crush their ribcage with claws that huge.
It took my brain a few seconds to realize I was seeing a dragon flying above the city of Sunnydale, and it was huge!
My brain tried to calculate how much something that huge would weigh. I came up with a conservative estimate of ten thousand pounds, and yet it was flying! How could something that big, and that heavy actually fly?
Nobody else in my group had noticed it yet. There was an almighty massive dragon on an intercept course with us, and nobody else had noticed it, so I pointed up into the sky, and in a rough cry of alarm, shouted, "Dragon!"
Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked up. Somewhere in the mass of bloodshed, corpses and warriors, I heard a very British voice exclaim, "Bloody hell!"
The dragon swooped down gracefully, much more gracefully than something that heavy should be able to swoop. The thing was about the size of a school bus, and had to weigh at least five tons, and yet it glided with the skill and grace of an eagle. How did it do that?
"This isn't right," I heard someone complain, "Dragons hate trolls! Dragons hate all of the other races! How could the trolls recruit a dragon for their schemes?"
The question was rhetorical. There was no way we could successfully interrogate a dragon.
Somebody shouted, "Kill it", and our archers immediately began to fire arrows and crossbow bolts at the dragon. Marianne produced a handgun and fired several rounds of high-caliber ammo at the massive, winged lizard.
Metal projectiles and wooden crossbow bolts just bounced off the dragon's hide. It was like we were shooting at an armored car. I had never seen a dragon before, but apparently, they were very tough, much tougher than trolls.
When it landed, vampires, Serparvo demons, Polgara demons, Lei-Ach demons, Fyarl demons and Rapax demons all rushed the dragon. They were fearless in the face of a much larger opponent, and I actually felt a certain amount of respect for them. They seemed fearless and kind of heroic in this battle.
And then, the dragon opened its massive jaws wide, and a lance of blue-white flame erupted directly into the charging demons and vampires. I could feel the intense heat of the dragon's flame, even though I was standing more than thirty yards away.
The vampires were incinerated almost instantly. The Polgara demons, Rapax demons, Fyarl demons, and Lei-Ach demons lasted slightly longer. They had time to scream before they died, but the white-hot flames still killed them.
The Serparvo demons didn't die. Apparently, they're impervious to fire. I was surprised to find that out. Their clothing and weapons were burnt to a crisp, but the Serparvo demons were alive and kicking.
Unfortunately, the Serparvo demons were utterly ineffective at killing the dragon. They rushed the dragon and attempted to kill it with their bare hands and their impressively long, sharp fangs, however, their attacks didn't accomplish anything other than distract the dragon and make certain he was annoyed.
The Hellhound attempted to attack the dragon from the rear, however the dragon neutralized the hellhound with one swift flick of its long, mighty tail. One moment the Hellhound was galloping toward the dragon's haunches and barking menacingly. Then there was a swish of the dragon's powerful tail, the sound of a meaty impact, and suddenly the Hellhound was helplessly flying through the air.
"You fight valiantly, little demons," the lord of the Wild Hunt bellowed, "but the dragon is too imposing a beast for the likes of you! To slay a dragon requires a warrior of immense size and prodigious strength!"
The lord of the Wild Hunt proceeded to charge the dragon, and I was so hoping that she would take that massive sword and cleave the dragon's skull in two, but it didn't work out that way. Cutting through the dragon's hide, was like cutting through a brick wall. The sound of the impacts reverberated across the entire area whenever her sword smashed into the dragon's thick hide, however the sword just couldn't slice the dragon open. The best she could do was make the dragon flinch or stagger back slightly.
