Monday's race

[AuroraKiye]

Despite her double vision, she finds Logo who has come to life when she falls on him. She is stunned when he stands, and then shocked when he roars. There seem to be a lot more going on outside her head than inside, and inside all she hears are questions. What in the world is possessing Logo? What kind of Majik has been awakened? Who is this? Where are they?
She has never seen a display of magik like this in her life. However, the majority of her mind is reeling around the fact that she seems to be back on the ground, having been dumped by Logo (or who she thinks is Logo) as he stands upright.
BLUE LIGHTENING?? And who is the Destroyer of All?? Arkie is stunned and outraged to think that she's been relegated to Minion and Worshipper, though First Witness sounds rather successful.
"No, wait," a thought wriggles through the cloud in her mind. "Something about this just isn't right! Blue lightening usually means not only power, but a cold power, like something that precedes ice, snow, or hail. Which is NOT an Earth majik, but rather of the air. I think. Logo's Powers are Earth, mostly, I think." Her eyes are not focusing yet but suddenly she realizes she is seeing what looks to be a wreathing snaky form around Logo's body, blue and cold as Space. It turns and faces her, the serpent tongue licks the air in her direction and she is chilled. It stares at her, bobbing it's head, weaving a pattern, which she finds compelling. "NO, I'll not fall for that. YOU, stop!! BE GONE, you vile serpent!! LEAVE LOGO and leave this earth to return to your place!
She finds a will inside her to stand and somehow forces her body to comply. Her eyes seem to be focused over Logo's shoulder but they're working together to follow something that isn't visible. She forces herself to stand tall, and wills strength and conviction in her voice. "YOU, Viperous Dragon, Whose Name is Not to be Named, BE GONE!! Return to your home, your lodging, your domicile, your course NOW! COME BACK NOT!!"
With a grand sweep of her hand and arm, she tracks an arc from Logo's shoulder to the sky, but the Blue Dragon tilts it's head and seems to laugh. She points again, at the head of the Blue and repeats herself, with all her power and strength, making a grand gesture before falling, failing not from lack of will but from lack of strength. Weakly, before she passes out again, she whispers, "Oh that Adonair could see you as I do! this I wish!"
Her brain, addled by the first accident and still reeling under the effects of a concussion, can't make her stand any more..
Maybe if she just sits quietly and watches, the darkness creeping around the edges of her vision will disappear.

[Logo]

When he heard Adonair's answer, booming laughter drowned the sound of the agonizing wind.

WHAT CARE HAVE I FOR ORPHANS, I WHO SOW AND HARVEST GALAXIES LIKE DUST?

He raised his head. The sky became gray. Whorls of dark clouds spiraled and curled into spheres of utter blackness. When they formed, jets of intense plasma streamed from their poles. With deafening booms the world rippled in waves as if stones were dropping into its center.

He looked at AuroraKiye and thought, Did she say 'leave this earth' before she fainted? The other one called the place 'keebler.'
Weakness and frailty. My awakener will make no worthy witness in this state. She must be invigorated and inspired. "
Strumming talons through the air, he plucked threads from the fabric of existence and whispered into them immutable strength, cosmic power and nihilistic thirst. Releasing them with a wave, the threads delivered his gift weaving around and through AuroraKiye.

When the threads had done their work with her, they floated outward as missionaries, pushed through the town and beyond on the rippling influence of the utterly black spheres.

PLANET KEEBLER, EMBRACE YOUR OBLIVION!"

[Adonair]

Adonair gets a glimpse of the dragon being that arkie had spied, a hazy mental picture, but enough to help him understand the sort of possession this was, if indeed it was a possession, which was a theory that was gaining more credence all the time.

Adonair's staff glows white as it deflects the energy from the waves. Adonair decides that it would be a good idea to continue to spread disinformation so that the spellcasting of the Possessing agent would be subtly misdirected.

"So you seek to oblivionate Planet Keebler do you? I as the guardian of Keebler and its sacred forests cannot allow this."

Planting his staff in the ground in front of the crater he uses a line from a novel he read once.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS."

[thistletumbler]

thistle was lying down in a temple somewhere recuperating. he wasn't sure..he laid back and relaxed, feeling safe. he was totally oblivious to what was happening back at the race course.

[AuroraKiye]

Through the smell of the dust in the air, Arkie tastes cold, evil, and anger, but not from anything she's witnessed before. Her eyes fly open of their own volition and she finds the energy to sit and then to stand. Double vision is still on her, but she sees the Blue Dragon, and sees the lightening and power from all around the mass that surrounds Logo. A stray thought saunters across her mind, like a black cat crossing a deserted street. "Logo, do you hear? Can you hear me? Snack is wondering where you are? I think he's ok, maybe sore and bruised, but he is needing you. There was a terrible accident, I'm no physicianer, he could be seriously hurt. Snack and I were just conversating, and he's about to be in some real pain when the spell wears off. He's looking for you, Logo, Snack needs to see you."
She returns the stare of the Dragon, and continues, "YOU, oh Unnamed One, WILL LEAVE!! GO back to your course, return to your exile, come no more here, YOU have NO power over us!! You found the wrong place to try to take. Do you think that a little atmospheric display would frighten us??? The Power in you is laughable, petty, puny, pitiful. I am nothing here but a footservant, and if I CAN SEE YOU in your real form, you KNOW there is power in us. I COMMAND YOU, I COMPEL YOU, to LEAVE here, be bound to your wandering state, to follow the same path you were bound to from before time. The Powers of this place are greater than you! YOU are nothing but an overgrown, prehistoric bit of ice, that MIGHT cool a drink on a hot day! Your SHAPE is nothing more than what I've killed before many times! AND IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE NOW, you force me to use extreme measures!"
Arkie watches and sees no sign of departure from the Blue Dragon, and after a short time she begins a series of motions with her hands. She seems to scoop air from side to side from around Logo's body, and then it looks as if she were tying a knot in it. Then, she proceeds to tie yet another knot after that one. It appears that she is pulling something from Logo's shoulders and from around his body. And tying yet another knot in it.
She can barely stand to look in the Eyes of the Dragon, for when she does she finds herself tempted to slide into a subjugation to the Beast. Having spent so much time under the spell of her former master, she is NOT going to fall for it. Sweat has begun to appear on her brow, even though nothing is visible to the mortal eyes, she is tugging on an oversized Dragon, tying knots into its body, holding it away from Logo so he might have a chance to regain his senses. The immense weight of the Dragon is almost more than she can hold, but with the distance she is putting between It and Logo she hopes that he will regain himself.

[Adonair]

Adonair is amazed at Aurora Kiye's courage in the face of what could very well be a supernatural creature. He had been trying to figure out how to get her out of the hole without exposing both of them to a deadly strike, but decides now that if she is still alive after such a boast that she can hold her own. He begins to circumnavigate the crater dragging his staff along and intoning, 'you shall not pass'.

[AuroraKiye]

As the weight of the Dragon weighs more and more on her, she's beginning to think she's bit off more than she can chew. She again speaks in a normal voice, "Logo, can you hear me, guy? Snack is hurt, he's in some real pain! He needs you! The physicianer put a spell on him to help him, but he might be having broken bones. Logo! Logo!"
Unsure still of how deep Logo is under the Beast's spell, she shouts, LOGO! Awaken! Logo! Hear my voice, come to me! Shut out the Dragon from your mind! You can do it! Logo! Snack is in trouble!The sweat on her brow is freezing where the Dragon is breathing. She must decide how to throw the Dragon and where and soon, when all she can seem to do is to be able to barely stand. She hopes Logo snaps from this entrancement or possession soon, for she really needs his help right now.

[Logo]

Having never really had a dream before, Logo was fascinated. Arkie and the maestro were battling that dragon from the nursery rhyme the giant's sang. It was very dramatic. Thistletumbler and Snack were injured, the expressionless missionary treating them with strange magicks ... the cork-folk were there, "Everyone is in my dream but me. It's a shame. All the talk of Snack and cookies; I'm not there for a single bite."

Opening his eyes wide at the chaos, he smiled. His awakener was altogether invigorated and inspired; his would-be minion was downright feisty as she ripped, tore and caterwauled. He let her; it was an entertaining display. "What is this emblem you call? Do you not recognize Kragnok, the creator reborn as final doom?
Do not fret, child. It really is inevitable. Circle of life .. hakuna-potato and all that," he chuckled.

She continued to fight. " You are quite the unstoppable jewel, aren't you, little one?
Of course, your dissolution will be the last." he whispered. Shifting space he moved around her knots. With access to his own power, he was intrigued to see the 'extreme measures' by which she might surprise him, and herself.
A dark sphere descended from above and he lifted her physically onto it, saying "Your sedan-carriage, honored witness."

The magician had avoided the power-infusing threads; the ripples of reality deformed around and past him. "Pity." he thought. "Enhanced with Kragnok's own power, he might have been as entertaining as the feisty one. Perhaps others in their wake will provide a surprise."
The bearded one was circling the crater with his stick and chanting.
Once more, he sneered and bellowed,
I SHALL NOT PASS? YOUR WARDS ARE HOLLOW AS KEEBLER'S SACRED TREES.
ALL SHALL PASS. ONLY KRAGNOK, THE HEART OF THE MAELSTROM, SHALL REMAIN.

He looked down. The ground swelled and exploded into expanding waves to carry the magician away like driftwood.
He looked overhead, the sky itself condensed and fell swirling into the spinning pools of blackness. One of the spheres blocked the sun throwing the world into chilly night.
He cast his gaze toward the structures and fields of the town and the mountains on the horizon.

[AuroraKiye]

Arkie feels herself being lifted and placed into a sphere of.... AIR? No longer straining under the weight of the Dragon, she is amazed at the relief and strength she now feels. Sensing that she had been touched by threads of "immutable strength, cosmic power and nihilistic thirst," she decides that she's had enough and played long enough.
"Hear me, Winds of the Air! Hear me, Warmth of the Sun! Come here to me now! I ask a boon of you, that all might return to it's normal and natural shape and form. O Universe, and True Baker of All, hear this my humble plea! I call on the great Betty Crocker and All the Elves! Listen to that One's pitiful boast! Send him back to roam in space between the stars, never landing nor hearing even the sound of his own petulent, pitiful, laughable cry! Remove this Dragon from here! Save Keebler! Save Oreo! Yes, even save Fig Newton and Pecan Sandies!! Remove this being from this plane and from us! Place him back into his Spatial Track to never be on any Cookie EVER again! Touch him with the heat of the Cosmic Cookie Oven if he lingers here another moment!"
In one moment, the breezes change from swirling with ice crystals to waves of heat. The Warmth coming in waves, the heat began to change the cystals into droplets of water. The heat rises, clearing the darkness to let the light of the sun back through to the earth, seeming to center on the crater in the center of Cork. A smell of freshly baked goods comes with the warmed air, spicy and nutty, chocolatey, fruity, and shortbready. The heat centers around the Blue Dragon, penetrating the wards he's been placing around himself.
Rather than staying stationary, Arkie finds her "carriage" rising in the heat. Realizing that she might not want to get too far from the action, she states, "I wish I would remain here, close to Logo and the Mage!" The bubble bobbles and hovers, then lowers to almost the second story of the court house. The uncertainty of the ride makes her wish she had a safety net under her.
Arkie sees the vapors wafting up from the cold body of the Dragon into the warm air. He seems to be shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller, as the crater begins to be filled with water. She smiles, and calls one more time, "Logo! Logo! Come to the sound of my voice! Lift your eyes to see Snack! Poor Snack! Hurt! How bad? How badly is he hurt? Does he have any broken bones? Will he live? Poor little Snack, who'll make sure he eats his broccolies if Logo isn't here to feed him? Logo! Logo! Do you see him? He's bound!! Is Snack tied up? Do you hear him crying for you? Logo! Listen! He is crying!! Logo!"

[Logo]

As the dark spheres evaporated, AuroraKiye's ride became less and less secure.
When it finally failed altogether, she was directly over Logo's crater.

The sky was dull blue beyond the gray clouds. As he looked toward the distant mountains something crashed into his head.
...
...
Logo stretched his arms against the muddy wet crater.
"Is it morning already? ... Too early. ... Sleep." he yawned to the disheveled colleague perched on his chest who was yelling angrily at ... someone.
Echos of ideas flitted through his mind. " ... insolent minion ... DESTROY KEEBLER ... oblivion ... no broccolies, than'kyou ... stupid pixies ... " he mumbled.

There was a jolt upon his head and he awoke in ... a pond? ... with AuroraKiye?

"Lady AuroraKiye! We were landing fast, the birds were fighting. We crashed. Are you OK?" he asked rapidly.
Then, more slowly, "Ummm... How'd we get here?"