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After a fully exciting, physically exhausting trip to the planet which would be known as the Dragon Rider's planet, we were informed that we were to take a trip to another planet, and that Devlin once more would come with us. Now, officially, six was a number to big for a properly efficient team, but we didn't care about the official reasons. It was really only a guideline, a sort of 'this far and no further' line in the sand. And, besides, Devlin was a very excellent, capable sixth.

I arrived on Central at ten to the hour of six, one hour early, and found Devlin sitting on a bench, reading. Silverine was speaking to another early group. I sat down beside the Hell fire dragon, and asked him a question.

"Does he actually sleep?"

"Who, Silverine? Supposedly." he smiled," I think he's too afraid of going to sleep, in case one of us ties him up and rapes him."

"Hey, I've fucked him anally, he didn't seem to mind."

He was wearing a very nice pair of trousers that went magnificently with his scaled skin, and was naked on his top half.

Brendan entered the hall in a storm of worriedness, and ran directly up to Silverine. He started speaking in hushed tones to the Lupogriff, and I saw Silverine's face rearrange into confusion.

"Are you sure?" he said.

"Certain. He's just vanished, we have no idea where he is."

I started to think who the dragon was talking about, and knew instantly it had to be Alex. I stood, and joined the two.

"Doesn't he have a locator?"

"He appears to have taken it off." Brendan replied." It looks like he's urgently had to go somewhere, or someone took him."

Brendan teleported before either me or Silverine could reply, and we looked around in silence. Alex had disappeared? Not likely, unless something incredible had happened to him. I knew he used his pendant occasionally to muck around with his and other people's memories, although Kohana's, eh hem, interaction with me, made me immune due to the amount of her power to any thing else. Draco was likewise. I went back to Devlin, and we spoke for a few minutes on what this meant, that Alex had vanished.

Salbar came into the hall about half an hour after me, and came over to us. He gave me a light kiss on the cheek in greetings, and I did so in return. He sat next to us, facing the other way. The bench was right next to the wall, and his feet rested against the stone.

"Had a good sleep then, Salbar?"

"It was classic. Went to bed, slept several hours, woke up."

"It is classic, but not a good sleep."

"Why not?"

"Where's the sleeping hours straight as a result of making merry for half an hour?" I grinned.

"Javid was asleep, still is." Salbar replied, as I shuffled closer." While I wanted it, I wasn't about to wake a sleeping wolf and ask."

"What made Javid so tired?"

"No idea." Salbar shrugged." And Draco and Simba were both to bed early. Is it a thing to practise the night before an adventure,go to bed early and cherry intact?"

"The week Draco goes cherry intact will be the week I die from over sex." I replied, smiling." But Draco must have been busy yesterday." While Salbar was checking his swords, I gently thrust my hand down his pants, suddenly holding his cock. He almost jumped in surprise, and shouted, but he did neither, and I quickly stroked him a few times.

The beautiful thing is that no one in the hall, save for Devlin, was aware of this. I was so close I could have been reading something across his shoulder, so no one could see my arm as my hand worked his cock. His face rearranged in a smile in my childish fun, and I smiled back.

"You should really be relaxed when you start an adventure."

"I'm not that relaxed. Besides, we have to go soon, you won't have time."

He was right, and I removed my hand, and casually checked my rifle for dirt. Salbar checked some of his Centralite equipment, and then sighed.

"Damn you, Alduin, I want you to now."

Me and Devlin erupted in laughter.My Eryx slipped off my shoulder as I bent over double on the bench, for fear stretching while laughing this hard would break my ribs. Devlin put a scaly claw in front of his mouth as he tried to turn the torrent into a suppressed chuckle. Salbar laughed too. Everyone looked over our direction.

"That had better not be a joke about me." Draco said as he came through the main door.

"No, no, just something Salbar said,"I remedied," but where's the others?"

"They're coming." Javid said, as he and Simba walked through the door together.

Time, Winslo and Takori walked through the hall with Orion not long after. I waved to him, and he waved back.

"First adventure today, Orion?" I called.

"Time won't say where, but apparently we're off to some planet or the other this evening." the fox replied. A few in the Hall hadn't met Orion, and he was promptly introduced to an elf and Valmeero, who entered a few seconds after they did.

At two minutes to the hour of seven, we stood in front of Silverine, received his blessing, and teleported.

We landed, and looked around.

"Transylvania?" I said aloud.

"It would help, Alduin, if you refrained from making Earth comparisons." Simba said sternly, although we all felt the same thing.

We were in a murky forest, at a late hour, and the sky was dark. The trees were all gnarly and dead, and branches hung down in exhaustion. The grass was sharp and wild, and prospered. A thick mist hung amidst the trees, making everything dim and hard to see. I spoke into my microphone.

"Thermal imaging."

This helped. The mist was no longer a problem. The trees and grass were all identifiable, and we walked through the forest. Simba's scanner said there was a solitary life form in one direction, and we headed there. For five minutes we trekked through the undergrowth. I had changed to my bionic form, because there was a variant of bush lawyer that curled and latched onto any clothes or flesh that brushed it, and it hung in abundance. This particularly annoyed Simba and Javid, because their fur made it that bit more difficult. As we stumbled through some bushes, we saw something that sent my blood cold.

In front of us was a town, but not like anything I had seen. The houses were all ruined, something that had once been a tavern was now missing a wall, and we could see directly into the bar, where broken glass and rotted tables lay everywhere. But this wasn't what sent the fears through my shoulders.

It was the figures. Pearly white, like ghosts, they wandered across the town, into various houses and bars. They were vaguely humanoid, and they showed not on my thermal imaging, so I disengaged it.

They seemed to be doing fairly routine things, but it was by far the queerest thing I had ever seen. They were carrying invisible boxes, one was riding an invisible cart being pulled by two larger ghost figures, which resembled horses. Two men were carrying an invisible plank, and they were all doing this in a perfectly natural way, although each person was wearing a look of despair and misery on their countenance. None looked at us. I drew my rifle, and loaded a round into the breech.

"Aim it at the tavern, if anywhere. These buildings look like images as well." Draco suggested. I lined up what had once been a dart board that hung crookedly from it's peg, and fired. The bullet zinged across the turf, through one pearly figure that walked in front of me at the wrong time, and split the dart board in two. It crashed to the ground with a crack, but no one noticed it. The barkeep, serving invisible drinks, didn't even flinch. The creature I shot likewise never noticed he was floating across with a large hole in his side. Then the hole healed itself, and the creature went around the corner.

"Ghosts?" Javid said, with a tremor in his voice.

"Something's alive here.We got the readings." Simba replied. We walked through the town, making sure not to walk into any spirits, heading towards the life reading.

"The place is cheery as a grave yard." Devlin muttered, and added," Why would he stay here?"

"You just had to ask that." I cursed," I'm just praying it's not an undead creature."

"I highly doubt a zombie would show up on a life sign reader." Salbar replied, although he walking with swords drawn.

We came to a decrepit building. The life signs came from inside the building, on the second floor. As we entered, everything was cold and damp, the smell of decay in the air, thick and pungent.A set of creaky old stairs led upstairs, where, against all belief, a light shone down. A ghostly old man was sweeping the floor, passing an invisible broom through rotted timbers.He walked straight past us, and outside.

"Do you think that stair case is good to walk on?" the hell fire dragon asked.

"No, but I'm going to try." I said, shouldering my rifle and taking a tentative step on the first rotting plank.

There was an agonizing creak, as the wood sagged beneath my weight. I held my hands together in prayer, just as the wood groaned to a silence.

"Well, that should have woken the dead up, let alone the guy upstairs." Draco said, trying to muster some good cheer in this pit of desolation. I put all my weight on the stair, and then tried the second one. It was like walking on a nightingale floor. Ever step was a terrible creaking noise, there was more creak then wood. I kept to the sides, for fear the middle would be more splinters than plank, and I finally made it to the top stair, opening my link through the glasses, so everyone else could see.

There was a single candle, burning low in a saucer of light. It sat on a very drooped table, one leg had completely rotted through. On the floor beside it was a mattress, stained and faded with age, and on it was a creature. It was solid, alive, and currently asleep.

This figure was a sight to behold. His head and upper torso was that of a dragon, his arms draconic, and his dark black scales glinted in the faint light from the candle. But his bottom half was the abdomen of a great spider, with eight spindly legs folded back underneath him. As I eased my weight onto the landing of the stair, the sleeping behemoth stirred, his sleep disturbed. He merely sat in sleep, his torso vertical, and his arms around himself in protection.

I stood, not wishing to come any closer to this being. My brain had fused, and I didn't dare move. Draco spoke in my head set, very quietly.

"Not the prettiest thing in the universe, but you had best approach him."

"Not for all the gold in Fort Knox." I whispered shortly, but nevertheless took a tentative step towards the hybrid. The warning creak was loud, and the creature was disturbed again. He flicked irritably in his sleep, and his eyes flickered open.

He didn't move, neither did I. There was a long pause while we surveyed one another.Then I spoke.

"Sorry if I've woken you, but you're the only thing here." I said, my voice trembling.The spider being twitched it's head, regarding me.Then it spoke, and it's voice was soft.

"Ah, you speak of the spirits." it said, and sighed," Such a terrible end to what had once been a prosperous town."

"What did happen?" I asked, not breaking the eye contact. It sighed again, mournful.

"It was some time ago now. You can tell by the filth that grows over everything. This town was a fine little town, and the river not two hundred metres down the road provided ample trade with the ports further down and up. The populace were cheerful and friendly folk, and I was privileged to live among them."

He wove this story well, like he no doubt would with a web.

"But one day, there was a ship that came up the river, and amongst it were dozens of bushels of grain. They were all stored in the hold,and in grain coloured bags. What the ship men had failed to notice was the rats that swarmed in the hold. I can only assume they got into the bags, and contaminated the grain with their foul living."

I sat, listening to the sad tale. The others downstairs likewise sat, listening. The hybrid seemed to not know of their presence, lost in his memories.

"So there was a great party, as there was with the arrival of a boat full of goods. A banquet was made, and some of the most exquisite dishes were served, including, I am sorry to say, a dish containing some of the grain from the ship. As everyone sat, they partook in the meal, and after ten minutes, the sickness started affecting them. They convulsed as the virus crippled their systems, and breathed out air that was foul, the poison soon became airborne, spreading like wildfire across the area. The entire town was soon struck by the curse, and the ship's crew that saw what was happening before it struck them took off in their boat."

"I presume they quarantined this place, for no ship has ever come back up here. But I was unaffected by this virus, maybe because of my strange abilities and looks. The party turned into a morgue, and death hung heavy in the air. The mist closed in, rolling over the dead. Those who weren't dead, they numbered few, did not dare come out from their hiding places, and they died from starvation rather than look for even a morsel of despoiled food.I took all the food I could find, and put it in my cool room downstairs, and it is still eatable, to me. But the taste is foul, and I cannot eat without the taste of death lingering, knowing this food killed all those citizens.I have been here for three years now, and my food is running low." he finished.

I sat in silence.

"And so why do they still walk?"

"There's the unexplained part of the riddle," the spider replied, nodding at my insight," I would guess that something of the disease killed the body, but left the spirit to wander in twilight forever, or that wherever people go after death refused these creatures entry, so they came back here with nowhere to go. I believe the first suggestion myself, except it would have to be something awful to separate the soul from the body."

I stood, the floor wincing in protest. The dragon/spider hybrid rose also, all eight legs lifting it's bulk up. He laughed slightly at my fear.

"I am not nice to look at, am I? That's what the villagers thought too. But I never harmed a single person, physically or mentally, in this town." he stood a good foot over me, and he made to come towards me. I looked at the floor he was about to stand on.

"Is this stable?"

"No, but it bears my weight." he replied.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"I am called Drason,"he said, "Drason the wanderer.You are?"

"Alduin, Alduin Raptormaster." I replied, although still not going to shake hands with him.

"Your friends I can hear downstairs, what are they doing?" he said. He must have phenomenal hearing.

"Alduin is the lightest one of us, he volunteered to go up there, in case the stairs couldn't hold our weight." Draco replied courteously.

"And fair enough. I can distribute my weight to many stairs at once, but if I stood on one stair at once, it would collapse." Drason called down.

I let Drason pass, and he clicked down the stairs, a groan escaping from each tired plank as he did so. I just vaulted the bannister, landing heavily on the ground. The wood underneath me cracked. Drason turned to my friends, who were standing. No one seemed sure about this hybrid, Salbar's face was one of mixed terror and sympathy.

Well, those Ghan Vrie were pretty terrible, and spindly over here looks like them. I thought, and then reprimanded myself for being mean to this poor creature.

As we walked out into the street, Drason looked around.

"Needs a bit of a fixer upper. Three years of subjection to the ravages of Time, I doubt any of this would stand up to a decent storm."

"I doubt any of this would stand up to a dead calm." I replied, watching a very rusted sign creak back and forth. It hung from one rusted chain, and as I ran a finger over the metal, it splintered away. I caught the sign before it hit the ground, and held the chain gently in my hand. Where I held it, it broke, if I made the slightest pressure on the fragile iron, it tore. I clenched my hand around the chain, and as I opened it, all the iron was powder in my hands.

As I brushed the iron off my own steel alloy, Devlin made an intelligent and executive decision.

"This place is giving me the creeps, we're leaving."

"Seconded." I said, shouldering everything, and making to take Salbar's hand. Drason looked around in alarm.

"Where are you going?"

"We are going back where we came from." I replied shortly."Nothing we can do can change this place, and we want to go before we are influenced."

Drason held his hands together tightly. "Please take me, wherever you are going! I can't stay here!"

I stood there, my hand an inch over my teleport. Was it fair to leave this hybrid in this deserted and dead town? What honest reasons could I find to actually abandon him? I couldn't base it on looks, for I was in the same boat, albeit I could disguise myself.I couldn't say it was because he was evil, because while he might be, he hadn't done anything to harm us. And any disease he might have, Arachno could fix in little time. I couldn't bring myself to press the button, and I glanced at Devlin and Draco, standing together. I could see the debate going in their own minds. Simba and Javid were looking at the two dragons, Salbar was looking at Drason's intensely panicked look.

Then Dev and Draco relented, and I saw them sag as the decision was made.

"Very well, Drason. Take my hand." Draco said, offering his left hand to the being. It was as he clicked over that something else clicked in my mind. I could put a name to something that looked like Drason. It was a being in one of my D+D games, a half elf, half spider creature that was boringly named Drider, the blend of Drow elf and spider. What name we could come up for Drason would be somewhat more difficult. Drason walked over, looking very relieved, and gently took Draco's left hand. He seemed to be so delicately built, the way he took the dragon's hand seemed almost child like.

"We are out of here!" I shouted, hitting my teleporter, and vanishing. Everyone else followed suit.

We arrived on Central, on one of the many circular arrival rooms, and was almost immediately confronted by a glower.

"You are back early, Alduin. You have only been away a couple of hours."

"I think Drason and Simba should explain that." I replied, as my friends arrived. The glower radiated interest at Drason. I sidled past with Salbar, and headed to the food store. Javid and Devlin followed, leaving Draco and Simba to give their accounts. The four of them walked one direction, while we walked the other.

"Hey, Alduin, how do you know how to get around here?" Salbar asked, echoing one of my own questions months ago.

"That's hard to explain, Salbar. After a while, you'll get the hang of it. The glowers, when they built this, didn't have interesting in mind, but there are ways that come with familiarity."

Salbar nodded, and after a few minutes walking, we arrived at the food store. People looked up, and Silverine spoke first.

"Oi, you're supposed to be on a planet."

"We were, it's dead, haunted, infested, in short not a holiday destination." I replied.

"That didn't take long to find out."

"There was one sole survivor. He told us the history of the place."

"Really?" Silverine replied, interested."What's he look like?"

"Well," I began, thinking how to explain the bone numbing fear Drason sent out," take the top half of Draco, put it on the lower half of Arachno, if you want it basic. The closest name I know for him is called Drider."

"And what is his name?"

"Drason."

"Interesting name. Where is he?"

"Currently in a talk with a glower, Draco and Simba." Devlin replied, sitting down.

Devlin told the story of the encounter, and a few comments were thrown at us.As he finished, Time spoke.

"If there's one thing I don't understand, it's how he survived when the disease was so potent to the original citizens."

"I know, although he looks nothing like them. He was an outsider, and he might have some very special talents." Valmeero suggested.

Thomas Nagoya spun a pistol idly." There is that. I mean, Alduin's resistant to mental harm, due to his passionate meeting with the goddess on the winter..."

"Summer..." I interrupted.

"Summer world." Thomas remedied, rolling his eyes." Furthermore his body is latticed with metal so he can change into mechanical forms. And magic users can repel practically anything as long as they can cast the right spell."

"The only thing is having the right spell at the right time." Winslo replied."I only know so many spells, and when I learn a new one, I forget how to perform another of my choice. The wizard, O'eola, on that world we visited, he had a huge spell book of spells, but could only know so many per day."

"So it's not really surprising, in this universe that a creature could survive a terrible plague that effected a different species and genetic class."

"I'm wondering what sort of disease forces the soul into the twilight world." I said.

"A very potent one." Doran replied.

Too potent.I thought briefly, and then shook my head inwardly.The Black Death had vaporised a huge percentage of Europe, and it was carried on the backs of rats and fleas, this must have just been something like that.Just at that moment, Draco entered.

We all turned, just as Drason shifted in. He seemed very nervous, the centre of all this attention.

"You did say basically, didn't you." Brendan said, looking hard at the Drider.

"I did." I replied." This is Drason, everyone."

Absolute silence met my words. One of the G'zara was actually hiding behind his chair at the sight of Drason.

It was just the temporary shock and horror of looking at something so twisted. I remember the first glimpse of Silverine, I had almost jumped in shock. I had with Arachno. Drason was slightly worse for wear than either, but already I had got over it, and I spoke.

"Are you guys going to sit down any time before Christmas?"

"Christmas is a human holiday, we don't celebrate it." Draco smiled.

"That's not fair. It's the time of peace and goodwill, and the chance to give each other presents." I replied.

"Because it was the birthday of a person who was hailed as the Redeemer, supposedly did a few magical tricks, preached to the masses, and came back from the dead?" Simba replied, trying to antagonize me.

"You make it sound petty the way you say it." I shot back." I trust you have no spiritual holiday to think about your immortal soul, to forgive those who you love and hate of the most trivial deeds. I don't believe in gods, but even so I acknowledge that it's an ideal time to love fellow man and beast."

"Does that include making love to fellow man and beast?" Devlin said, smirking.

"If you want to fuck me, all you have to do is ask." I dismissed his attempt with a wave of my hand.

There was a laugh around the store.

"How many people are you going out with, Alduin?" an elf asked, sitting a few tables along.

"None." I replied firmly."How many creatures I'm going out with, well, I'll make a list, and give it to you when I have the time." Another laugh.

"In all seriousness." the elf replied. I thought about this.

"Definition of the words 'going out'." I suggested, trying to mentally fit this.

Drason smiled.

"Well, I'll guess making love counts. I suppose that's how it works around here."

"In that case, the number goes into the dozens, Drason. Have you ever had sex before?"

"Once or twice." the spider admitted.

"Because Alduin has to be going out with a fair few."Draco smiled."There's me."

"Gareth, Alecto, Tufty,"I added,"although I haven't seen them here today."

"Arachno, me," Simba interjected.

"Silverine!" Thomas called.

"Thomas." Silverine retaliated.

"Me."Thomas ignored the Lupogriff, and there was a laugh from everyone.

"All of the Hunted," Brendan laughed.

"Most of the newcomers." Orion said, making sure we didn't forget him.

"Half the food store." I leaned back, folding my arms,"And not half what Draco's doing. I spend four days of the week on my planet, having sex with only Gareth on the odd occasion, and he spends his entire week here, having it off with anyone in reach."

"True, although Alduin has his priorities in bed too." Draco sniped.

"Not half as much as you do, mate." Devlin argued.

"Ah, I wanted some back up in this argument." I said, rubbing my hands."If there was any two people I really want as permanent bed fellows, it's Dev and Gareth."

"Owch." Simba winced. Draco merely ignored it.

" I'm a third."

"There's your problem. We're drawing up scales of things. Numbers, numbers. For Christ sake, leave the bloody thing alone and let's talk about something sensible." I was now sick of the argument.

Valmeero called from his table.

"Seconded."

Drason laughed.

"I can see we're all best friends here. That's the biggest argument I've ever seen, and you're all still smiling."

"Oh, they just live for knocking sparks off one another." Alecto said.

"I wondered where you had got to. Has your fortnight finished?" I turned to him.

"Three days to go."

"Bugger." I sighed.

But the spell had been broken, and Drason sat down at out table, joining in the cheerful conversation. We spoke about many trivial things, and Drason was keen to learn about Central and the way it ran.

"Of course, Silverine's the Chief Scout, so it's his duty to keep us all in check." Draco teased the Lupogriff.

"So you actually have leaders on Central?"

"Of course. Silverine been in charge for the last seven Central Years, no one will dare challenge him."

Drason looked intrigued.

"So how would this challenge work?"

I laughed, "Been here ten minutes and he already rates himself. Are you sure?"

Drason made a face at me. "I'm not that stupid, I was just interested."

"Well, it's a simple challenge. You just have to say you want to." Silverine crossed his legs in contentment.

"So even if I had beaten you, it wouldn't have made any difference?" I said, recalling the fight between us.

"No, because it was I who challenged you." Silverine replied.

"Was I actually going to gain anything from that?"

"No."