| abstract | - "Denulth!" yelled a White Knight, at the Imperial Guard's Station in Burthorpe. "Oh. A White Knight. What do you damn idiots want now?" asked Denulth, loathingly. "Assistance. We need your Imperial Guard to help us in capturing 2 Zamorakians." Denulth's eyes lit up. "I'm always willing to help capture a couple of impudent fools." "Good. They were headed in the direction of Taverley about 2 and a half hours ago." "Excellent..." "Dancus!" yelled Raiah, back at the shop in Hemenster. "Yes, Rai?" I hollered back down. "The Verto Fabrica Nox is finally done!" "Really?" I yelled. I floated down to the basement, where a huge pot of bubbling, greenish-blue potion lay before me. Raiah was holding a phial full of it. "Alright, Dan. You ready for the moment of truth?" "Totally." I opened my ghostly mouth wide. Raiah tipped the phial into my mouth, and the teal liquid spewed forth. Glug, glug, glug, glug! I drank it like a madman. The phial was empty. Nothing happened. "Aww! Come on! Don't tell me that huge quest and 5 days of tending to this stupid potion were all for noth-" she was cut off. The entire room was filled with a sparkling, yellow light. I felt my weight return to me, my ghostly skin turning to a skin of flesh, and my feet touched the ground for the first time in over 2 months. I was human again. My flowing tawny hair spilled over my shoulders. I fell to the ground. "Dancus! You're human!" hollered the Master, "What do you have to say???" "Do you have any hair ties? My hair needs putting up." We all began to laugh, and joined in a group hug. "A-hem...on the matter of price, Dr. Frumac, after tallying the price for the other ingredients cubed, because you endangered our lives thrice, it comes to an astounding 834,668.569 gp!" exclaimed the Master. "Ugh." I pulled out my satchel, "1... 2... 3..." Denulth, with a squad of the Imperial Guard and 3 tracking dogs, was talking to Sir Vyvin over a Commorb as he left the city of Burthorpe. "So, how goes the search, Denulth?" asked Vyvin. "We had no success for the past couple days, but today the tracking dogs have definitely caught a scent. I got out of Burthorpe about 2 minutes ago and I'm already in Taverley!" Denulth replied. The 3 dogs all started barking at a tree just north of Taverley. "Uh-oh. Gotta go!" said Denulth, tapping the commorb thrice to turn it off. "Boys, I think our dogs have gone insane..." "Perhaps not, commander," said one of the squad members. "Perhaps the fools arrived here and teleported or something." Another soldier gave his 2 cents: "We know they were definitely going west, and the only thing to the west is..." "Kandarin!" shouted another soldier. The second soldier criticized, "What does that help us... they could be anywhere by now! It's been 5 days!" The two latter speaking soldiers began to fight on the ground. "We'll separate. One part of the squad will scour Yanille and Ardougne. My part will scour Catherby, Seer's, and Hemenster. You guys will take 1 of the dogs, we'll take 2. If either team finds them, we'll talk on commorbs and meet up to arrest them. Got it?" "Um...sure," sad a soldier. "Good. Southern Team, here's a teletab to Yanille. Okay, Northern Team, let's teleport!" Both teams were enveloped in purple light as they broke their teletabs. "Whoa. Being human again feels good! Except for gravity. That part sucks," I said, as Raiah was tying up my hair. "Well, Raiah, the Master, I guess it's time for me to leave." I exited the door. "Yep. Bye Dancus!" yelled the Master. "Visit any time!" Raiah hollered. "Sure will!" the spring-loaded door closed behind me. I walked into Seer's Village, to see if I could barter anything for a teletab. Those things ruled! As I walked through on the main road, I saw a paper boy in front of the bank. "EXTRA EXTRA! Mysterious blood-red mist envelopes eastern Varrock! Buy a paper for only 30 gold!" "Excuse me," I said, "I'll take one!" "Here ya goes, sir." I handed the boy my cash and began reading the article. -By Stacen Korrbathe What's red, omnipresent, and carnivorous? The answer would be: A mysterious red mist that has settled over Eastern Varrock, consuming people and basically anything in its path. Most of Varrock has been evacuated, and a makeshift wall has been built to keep this mysterious phenomenon from engulfing the entire city. Here's what King Roald had to say on the matter: "Everything will be absolutely fine. We will have this under control within a couple of days, and all the refugees will be welcomed back into the city." All of us at the Kandarin Daily hope only the best for our sister kingdom.- Well, It certainly seemed like my home was doomed. A man with 2 tracking dogs suddenly sped by me, a squad of Imperial Guardsmen quickly followed. That was weird. The Imperial Guard is Asgarnian. That, and they were heading towards Hemenster. This had to be serious. "Well, Raiah, how does it feel to have that guy out of your hair, finally?" asked the Master. "Semi-sweet." "Ah, so 'twas a bitter parting, my apprentice?" "No, it's just-" Raiah was cut off. Why does she keep getting cut off? "OPEN UP! It's the Asgarnian Imperial Guard!" The necromancy duo looked at each other. "You have three seconds to open the door!" "Quickly, Rai! Take the back exit and go find Dancus! He couldn't have gotten that far with no runes!" exclaimed The Master. "What will you do?" she asked. "Take care of this." Raiah nodded and ran out the back door. Just as she did so, Denulth kicked down the door. "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" he screamed. "Excuse me? Aren't you Asgarnian? I am an official Kandarian citizen, you have no right to arrest me." "Affairs of the religious sort no know boundaries, sir. Handcuff him, men." "This is preposterous! You wait until King Harmon hears about..." "...Hears about you being a Zamorakian after what they did to the world? Now tell me, where's your daughter?" "I don't have a daughter, fool!" "Okay then, your apprentice?" The Master thought over what to tell Denulth for a moment. "She went insane, jumped into Lake Hemenster after she taste-tested a potion we were developing!" "Then where's this potion?" "In the basement!" Denulth lead his dogs into the basement, which still contained the large pot of Verto Fabrica Nox. The dogs, by instinct, ran up and drank the potion. They immediately died. Looks like Verto Fabrica Nox has some bad side effects for the living. "You killed my dogs with your fake potion!" screamed Denulth. "No, sir. Your dogs drank the potion of their own free will." "I will prosecute you to the full extent of Asgarnian Law!" "Why so serious?" Denulth took out his Commorb and tapped it two times, paused, then once more. Immediately, the lead soldier of the Southern Team appeared on the screen. "Hello, Commander Denulth." "We've taken one of the Zamorakians into custody. The other has died in the intervening days. Teleport back to Falador, we'll meet up in White Knight Castle." "As you wish, commander." Denulth deactivated his Commorb. His men joined hands with the Master, who was forced to join hands with Denulth. He smashed a teletab on the floor, surrounding the Northern Team and their prisoner in purple light. I ran as fast as I could towards Seer's Village. I heard several screams coming from the shop. I had just reached Seer's Village when I saw a huge purple burst of light come from the shop. I saw Dancus up ahead; he was reading a paper on the main road. "Dancus!!" I yelled. "Raiah?" he yelled back. He started running to the edge of town. "What're you doing here?" "The Asgarnian Imperial Guardsmen came and arrested my Master!" "Yeah, I just saw them speed by. I have no place to go, Varrock's being eaten by a mist of some sort, Lumbridge is flooding and is in ruins, and and Asgarnia... well actually... nothing's wrong there-" "Except they've sent their idiot troops to arrest us!" "Good point. What do you suggest we do?" "They just teleported; probably back to Falador. We go there and demand a fair trial!" "The word 'trial' doesn't exist in Varze's vocabulary anymore. Asgarnia is under militant rule! I say we break your Master out!" "Not necessary, we just get backing from King Harmon and storm the castle, demanding a fair trial!" "What makes you think he'd back a Zamorakian? No offense and all but, he even said during the Battle of Ardougne that he 'shall stop the tyrant and all things Zamorakian'." "Fine. We break in. But If we get caught, it's on your head." Dancus smiled. "I'll go get some runes from the bank." The Imperial Guard arrived in Falador with the Master, in the courtyard of White Knight's Castle. "Wow, this is spectacular!" yelled one of the soldiers. "Take a good eyeful, boys. Probably the only chance you'll get to in your life," said Denulth. Sir Vyvin walked into the courtyard. "Why hello, Commander Denulth!" "GUARDSMEN! ATTENTION!" yelled Denulth, "Pleased, Sir Vyvin." "You like our castle?" "Very much indeed." "So you have the survivin' Zamorakian?" "Yes sir." "Good. Follow me to the dungeons." "MARCH!" Denulth barked at his troops. Sir Vyvin used his master key to unlock the door to a flight of stairs that lead to the dungeon. He opened another door. "You dirty Zamorakian will have a nice new life down here. Observe the multiple instruments of torture, tiny cells, and the hard labor area, where you chip rocks off a wall of runite until we stick you in the grave. Have a nice life!" Vyvin pushed the Master into the dungeon, and he fell onto the rocky floor. His knees and chin where ripped open by the concrete. "Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a key for you to open your cuffs with." "Aren't you going to unlock them for me?" "Are you kidding? You Zamorakians are dirty tricksters. you could snap back and strangle me at any second! Anyway, have fun down here, until we work you to death!" Vyvin laughed as he closed the door and locked it tight. "My idiot apprentice, I hope I taught you well..." the Master mumbled to himself. Raiah and I were teleported to Falador. "Okay, how're we going to break in?" she asked. "Well I think we could sneak across the bridge and get to the dungeon door," I replied "We'll be watched!" Raiah exclaimed. "Please, Rai. Do you think the White Knights take surveillance seriously?" "Good point." We walked calmly across the bridge and entered the Castle Courtyard. There, we saw a door with the word "DUNGEON" in golden letters across the top. I heard footsteps coming from around a corner. "Quickly Raiah! Hide somewhere!" I whispered. A White Knight rounded the corner. He passed, without noticing us. "Okay! The coast is clear!" "You working on telekinesising that lock's tumblers?" she asked. "Already done, let's go!" Raiah and I raced down at least 4 flights of stairs before coming to another locked door. I telekinesised the lock's tumblers again. We were in the dungeon. The desolate place was filled with torture devices. And there he was! The Master! "Dancus, Raiah! What're you doing here?" "Setting you free, Master," Raiah said. I leaned on the wall, trying to figure out what to do next. That brick suddenly moved, and moved a part of the entire wall! "It's a tunnel!" The Master was shocked, "I think I hear someone coming down the stairs; let's go! We jumped in the tunnel and started running. At that moment, Sir Vyvin came down the stairs and saw the discovered tunnel. "Oh, no he did not!" Vyvin hollered, running down the tunnel. We had ran for about a quarter of a mile before Vyvin caught up with us. "GET BACK HERE YOU DIRTY ZAMORAKIANS!" We could see the end of the tunnel, with Vyvin not far behind. There was a ladder leading to a hatch. We scrambled to the top and escaped. The hatch was only a few feet from Falador's East Wall. Before I closed the hatch, I tossed my adamant dagger down onto Vyvin. He collapsed on the floor; I had hit him in the heart. Sir Vyvin, the man who had escaped death for over 50 years, was finally dead. "Hey," Raiah said, "we'd better get to Hemenster fast, lest we miss Easter!" "Oh yeah! Easter's tomorrow!" I suddenly remembered. "Hey, guys. Can I um, stay with you? For a couple days? You see...my house got eaten-" "Eaten?" The Master asked. "Long story..." I replied. "But we've got time."
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