Hazati-tales

The transcript from Yevrag Sucram's discourse at the Platonic Symposium in Kibundush.

#### 9 Gul 578

In a time not too long ago, there was a place. Hazat, whose whereabouts are unbeknownst to us for now, is where this story takes place. It begins just like every other story, with a girl and a boy. Haley Jenisys is alone at home practicing her work and the spider in the den is a perfect excuse to invite her local crush, Kaulder IIX, over for a chance at heroism. As a pubescent teen he convinces his friends, Bob Olsen and Rockefeller Longbottom, to follow suit as "wingmen" (cannot find any information on meaning) and they scoured their houses for trinkets and armaments to make them seem as manly a man could be. Dressed in ill-fit armors and armed to the teeth these three kids marched off to take care of a spider.

Haley was astounded to see three boys burst in her door looking like they are to delve into a dungeon or slay a dragon. They immediately sought out the menacing little arachnid and headed up to the attic brandishing their weapons. Kaulder eagerly lunged forward piercing the estoc into the spiders nest. As one spider falls limp pinned by his blade they see another spider emerge from within the nest. In a frantic attempt to free his estoc from the web he managed to entangle himself further in the web. Fear quickly begins to grip Bob and he races to the den, grabs a piece of wood from the hearth, and as soon as he gets back he whips the flames right into nest. Rockefeller barely rips Kaulder out of the web when the fire streaks by and ignites the spiders' nest. The room fills with smoke as web and thatch are set ablaze. The kids stumble down the stairs out of the attic dazed and confused. Haley panics as she tries to find a way to stop her home from turning to a pile of embers and rubble. Rockefeller runs outside in search of the only person who has bailed him out of trouble in the past, Dad.

His father who was working at one of the neighboring houses came out when he heard the shouts of his son and instantly knew he had dug himself into a hole when he saw Rock had taken his old adventuring gear. He left telling his workers to finish up and followed his son to the Jenysis house where flames crawled along the thatch and smoke billowed out of the roof. A couple people had gathered and watched in horror as he dashed into the house within moments you could see parts of the roof torn from it's bindings and the thatch thrown down to the dirt.

Meanwhile, Haley had broken her father's only rule and attempted to find some sort of extinguisher of fires in the basement. Bolt after clasp after latch was unlocked to open up a dark, dank basement which reeked of stale air. After stepping down only 3 stairs the dilapidated staircase crumbles trapping her beneath it. Kaulder and Bob rush to her aid as soon as they hear the crash and scream. Kaulder jumps down to rescue her, Bob staying up ready to hoist her up, but as he lands he notices something is not right down there. Rubble and debris are strewn arcoss the room as they try to free her from beneath, all the while the sounds of little feet seem to have encircle them and are closing in quickly. As soon as she is freed Kaulder looks up to see the reflection of eyes, too many to count, surrounding him. He quickly tries to lift Haley up to Bob. At the same instant he feels them upon him and is barely able to raise her high enough for Bob to get a grip of her hand before he stumbles as bite by bite is sunk into his Achilles and knee. Bob yanks Haley out of the hole and she crawls back in horror as she hears him yell out in pain. Bob watches impotently from above as Kaulder collapses swinging wildly at his legs trying to rid himself of the little assassins. After a couple hits land smashing these little balls of fur against his thigh he realizes this is not a fight he will survive. Bob, leaning over the edge hands outstretched, screams for his best friend to get up and get out. Little feet begin to scamper along the walls and ceiling as the horde begins to close in on the open basement door.

Rockefeller who heard the frantic shouts of Bob begins to make his way outside after watching his father save the day and stomping out fires as they started on the ground. He walks in on Haley crying in the fetal position in the corner of the den and half of Bob stretched out on the ground, Bob's other half suspended over the pit that is a basement screaming. Rockefeller starts toward the madness as Bob drags a flailing Kaulder out of the hole and with him a swarm of rats. Kaulder is swinging at little lumps on the inside of his clothes smashing them left and right when he cries out in pain and grabs his groin. Rockefeller reaches out for his friends, but they are too far and he was never blessed with his father's speed. Then a force of blue-white energy erupts from his fingertips and streaks across the room striking the rats and splatters them against the wall. Everyone is dumbfounded by what just happened and Kaulder loses consciousness as a pool of crimson liquid begins to gather beneath him. With the rats temporarily at bay Bob runs past the stupefied Rock grabs the red hot fire iron and rips the clothes away from Kaulders skin and plunges it into the gushing wound on his thigh. Bob drags Kaulder out of the way and sprints for the basement door while brandishing his rapiers and rats spew wildly from it. Bob slays rats as fast he can but not fast enough so he dives for the door, trying to slam it shut with the rats beginning to swarm him. He forces door shut smashing rats in the process but there are already too many on him to handle. Rock comes to and realizes his best friend is in grave danger.

He closes his eyes, feels the energy and emotion coursing through him, and channels it into a huge blast which knocks him back. The entire room flashes as the white lightning zaps through the air and in a flash everything goes quiet. Rockefeller, blinded and disoriented, tries to get his bearings as he crawls around the room as is seems to slowly change from white to a multitude of colors which he cannot make out to be anything. Then he puts his hand down on a small, warm, and wet chunk of something. Realizing he had rid them of the rat problem he rolls over and lay on his back amidst the little chunks and excitedly calls for Bob until his vision finally restored. Only then did he realize what he had done.

He sees that the chuck he had first grabbed was Bob's "beauty mark", or so he called it, and the rest of his best friend lay scattered around him. Horrified and grief-stricken he grabs Kaulder and runs out of the building dragging him by the arm. As he does this Kaulder comes to seeing a huge explosion of blood and viscera coating the walls and Haley huddled in the corner, silent and still. Speechless as to what to say he tries to get his bearings, when he hears a thud and for a moment everything was eirily silent. The cry of a small child broke the silence and he realized what was going on ans shirked off Rock's grasp.

Kaulder rushed into the house remembering a hysterical Haley was abandoned in the den. Kaulder carried Haley out of the burning building to see a mob of frenzied stomps as the flames were creeping along the ground and at the heart of the inferno lay an unresponsive Carnegie.

He watched as Rock dashed through the fire and flames to retrieve his father. The motionless, smoldering body of Carnegie lay in his hands, tear after tear boiled away before falling upon the embers that were his clothing. The crowd fell silent as the