The midget, clad as he was in only a kilt, had thus far done a juggling routine, a few card tricks, some slight-of-hand coin effects, and a series of physical feats that included numerous cartwheels and back-flips. The audience politely applauded.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he then announced. “I am Ken the Magic Midget and I would like to welcome you all to the Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Fair, right here today in beautiful Orange, Connecticut! We have many great and wonderful acts for you here today, including our upcoming joust!”
The audience then applauded rather louder than before. Forsooth, it is indeed an unfortunate truth that there is nothing like the promise of upcoming violence -- fake though it may be -- in order to invoke enthusiasm from a gathered group of what amounts to otherwise nice, normal people.
The self-proclaimed Ken the Magic Midget, smoothing back his hair and beard with his hands, then raised his voice to an higher pitch than before and continued with his carnival-style spiel:
“Yes, we have many performers for you here today at the fair, but our next one is really a special one indeed. In fact, it is completely because of her that I am wearing this kilt, you see. That is because our next performer, ladies and gentlemen, is none other than a great Celtic magician! In fact, she is the greatest in the world, because in her is the power of the most ancient gods and spirits of the Emerald Isle, and she is here today to amaze and astound you with her incredible feats of legendary legerdemain! Ladies and gentlemen, please join me right now in welcoming the one and only -- that great mistress of Celtic wizardry -- Aurelie Greenwolf!!”
With this, the next act indeed slinked out onto the stage. She was a dark haired girl or young woman, small built and clad in a green dress. As she walked out onstage that warm summer day, only a few in the audience -- those who were particularly observant, you might say -- indeed noticed an oddity about her. It was an oddity that showed the performer known as Aurelie Greenwolf to be in actuality something other than merely a stage illusionist. It was something bizarre and eldritch and otherworldly. It was a strange scarlet glow that shone forth eerily from deep in her eyes. …
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. I carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the legendary Watchers of Algol, the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it often appears to be miraculous to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an operative for an organisation known as the KOSMIKOS. Assisted by the beautiful Miss Millie Drake, I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star!!! …
Millie Drake, Kit-10, and I watched these proceedings from behind a large standing sign promoting the upcoming fake jousting tourney. I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, velvet suit, panama hat, sunspecs, jungle boots, and one of my favourite opera capes.
Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, sun kissed skin, and lovely violet eyes. The purple dress she wore only served to highlight the soft lines of her slender adolescent figure.
We had travelled to Connecticut to in our private aeroplane, The Lolita Express, in order to investigate the strange happening at the “renaissance fair”, having ascertained that something odd indeed was transpiring there due to the readings picked up by the highly-advanced equipment at our headquarters back in our headquarters.
“So, Daniel,” said Millie Drake, “what relation is this Aurelie person to the late Danny Greenwolf?”
“There is no blood relation between them,” I answered. “Aurelie -- her original surname was Briodagh -- is the daughter of the woman that Greenwolf was living with, and he appears to have passed some magical ability on to the young girl through illicit sexual contact, hmmm?”
“But Danny Greenwolf is dead, and you said the Celtic spirits went away forever with him.”
“Quite so. The Cernunnos swarm he had conjured forth has been exorcised forever, but Aurelie Greenwolf seems to be the vessel for something else -- indeed something that was apparently not affected by the banishing of the extraterrestrial entities empowering the elder Greenwolf.”
I then turned to Kit-10, our mobile personal computer that resembles nothing more or less than a small mechanical cat.
“Kit-10,” I said, “do your close-range scanners pick up more about the subject than we were able to ascertain back at headquarters?”
“Accessing, s--,” replied the robot in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice. “Sensors show the subject to be under the influence of an alien entity, but the exact level of power contained in the entity is shielded.”
(It should be noted here that Kit-10, along with her other feline characteristics, is possessed of the total inability to openly show respect to anyone. In fact, the closest she ever comes to it is by referring to me by a slight “s--” sound -- for “sir” -- and to Millie Drake by “m--” -- for “ma’am”.)
“Interesting,” said I. “The entity or force possessing Aurelie Greenwolf would have to be quite powerful in order to thus shield itself, but its very nature would have to be rather secretive as well. I wonder if…”
“Daniel, listen,” suddenly interrupted Millie. “Listen to the things she’s saying.”
I turned back to once again look to-wards the stage where the strange Aurelie Greenwolf was making her presentation.
“I want to thank everyone for coming to our festival today,” she said. “Now you are going to experience something truly amazing, because right now I am going to show you something like you have never seen before. Right now I am going to show you -- real magic!”
With this pronouncement, Aurelie Greenwolf raised her arms upwards and suddenly manifested an eerie glow about her entire person. It was an eldritch scarlet and black effulgence that soon permeated the entire stage area.
“What you now see is my power,” Aurelie continued. “It is the power will use to devastate this world. It is the power of an ancient Celtic goddess who now returns to this world through me, for I, Aurelie Greenwolf, am her vessel and manifestation. Witness now my power! Witness now the power of Morrigan, the Phantom Queen!”
“By the Five Stars of Daemai!” I swore. “She has indeed brought forth the power of the Morrigan!”
“But what is it, Daniel?” enquired Millie Drake. “I’ve read the legends of the Celtic goddess called Morrigan, but what is the power really?”
“The Morrigan is an alien force entity related to, but separate from, the Cernunnos swarm,” I explained. “It is a truly dark power with no positive characteristics whatsoever. Its worship kept the people of the British Isles in spiritual bondage until it was broken around the time of King Arthur.”
“So how has it now returned, here in Connecticut?”
“The Morrigan force must have indeed been passed into Aurelie by her sexual contact with Danny Greenwolf. Safely stored within her, it was then not banished when he died, as was the Cernunnos swarm.”
“Can you exorcise the Morrigan like you did Cernunnos?” queried Millie Drake.
“It will not be nearly as easy,” I admitted. “The Morrigan is a more elusive force that that which was evoked by the late human perversion known as Danny Greenwolf.”
“But what does the Morrigan actually do?”
“It is a destroyer of worlds. A bringer of death. If the Morrigan is allowed to fully manifest through Aurelie Greenwolf, life on Earth will cease to exist.”
“So we will have to find some way to… Oh my gosh! Daniel, look out!”
I turned to see what had so upset Millie and beheld something oddly grotesque indeed. It was the kilted midget known as Ken, running to-wards me. Then, before I could even react, he took a sudden leap and kicked me full in the face with both of his bare feet.
The sudden impact caused me to lose my balance, and I fell backwards onto the ground. The mad midget then jumped upon me and began pummelling my face with blows!
Ken the Magic Midget was surprisingly strong for his size, but I nevertheless soon managed to return his blows, my fist to his face sending him flying off and away from me.
“Kit-10!” I called whilst regaining my feet. “Stun him!”
The robotic cat then sent a blast of her nose laser at the midget. It hit him square in his midsection and he fell unconscious to the ground.
Millie Drake then ran into my arms.
“Are you all right, Daniel?” she enquired.
“I am fine now, love,” I assured her. “Thanks to Kit-10 here.”
“Of course, s--,” replied the mechanical puss.
“But why did he attack you?” asked Millie, looking at the unconscious Ken.
“The midget was likely beguiled by Aurelie Greenwolf,” I pondered. “When he awakens he will likely have no memory of it.”
Just then, we heard the voice of Aurelie Greenwolf from the stage.
“We know of your presence here, Doctor Rumanos!” she announced. “I am the vessel of the Morrigan, and she knows and tells all!”
Millie Drake, Kit-10, and I walked out to-wards the stage, facing the possessed girl directly.
“You have been deceived, Miss Greenwolf,” I said. “The Morrigan is an heathen force of horror and death. She is not your friend, and only seeks to bring destruction upon this world and all others.”
“I am the Morrigan and the Morrigan is me,” replied Aurelie. “Together we will indeed ravage this planet. We will show our supreme power by destroying all life upon it. The human race will die, as will all animal and plant life on Earth!”
Millie whispered to me, “So she is truly and completely possessed by the Morrigan.”
“Quite so,” I replied. “She is beyond help, and is indeed an extreme and potent danger to this entire world.”
“Now, Doctor Rumanos and Miss Drake,” said Aurelie Greenwolf, “I will begin my reign of death upon this world. I will begin by killing you both!”
“Kit-10!” I called. “Blast her!”
The robotic cat then shot several rounds of her laser directly at Aurelie Greenwolf, but it was to no avail. The pulsating power of the Morrigan easily deflected them.
“You will now die, Algolites!” screeched the insane and alien-possessed young woman. “Die! Die! Die!”
With this, Aurelie Greenwolf then let loose an huge surge of the deadly scarlet and black energies directly at Millie and me!!
My dear friends and most loyal readers, do you recognise and comprehend the supreme unhallowed horror of this situation? There we were, Miss Millie Drake, Kit-10, and me -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos -- in the presence of the possessed girl known as Aurelie Greenwolf (nee Briodagh). There we were, as she sent an incredible surge of the deadly extraterrestrial energy known as that of Morrigan the Phantom Queen directly at us! There we were, the only thing standing in the way of that terrible otherworldly power that could indeed bring the end to all that lives on planet Earth!!
“Now, you will die, Daniel Rumanos!” shrieked Aurelie Greenwolf. “You will die under the power of the Morrigan!”
Then, just as the horrid scarlet and black force of the Morrigan was almost upon us, I felt a change. I noticed a certain energy, a power that seemed to be rising up from within me. Within a very few moments, a certain bright orange and blue radiance had burst forth around me, an incredibly powerful force that sparkled all around my form.
“Merlin!” shouted Aurelie Greenwolf in horror. “No! No, Merlin, it cannot be! How could it be you after all this time?!!”
The radiance suddenly shot forth from my person directly at the possessed Aurelie Greenwolf. In its presence, the alien force of the pagan "goddess" Morrigan just vanished without a trace, and Aurelie herself followed soon after, her body decaying into dust before even that disappeared entirely.
There was what amounted to a brief smattering of applause from the audience, who still thought that all that had transpired was merely an entertainment presented for their amusement, before they began wandering off to the festival’s other attractions.
“Daniel, what happened?” asked Millie Drake. “Wasn’t that… Algolitish energy?!”
“Indeed so,“ I affirmed, the energy now having faded from me. “It was a special power held in storage by the Kosmikos against the day that the Morrigan would again appear and threaten to bring death upon the planet Earth.”
“But Daniel, what exactly was it? I heard her call you Merlin!”
“It was in truth the power utilised by the legendary Merlin the Magician in order to cleanse the British Isles of heathenism and the horrid ‘Celtic spirits’ all those centuries ago. It was activated within me this one time, in order to defeat the horror of that which possessed Aurelie Greenwolf.
“Kit-10,” I said, turning to the robot, “can you confirm that the Morrigan power has indeed been thoroughly banished?”
“Affirmative, s--” replied Kit-10. “Systems are detecting no residual traces of the invading energy.”
“So you’re saying that Merlin was a Kosmikos agent?” wondered Millie Drake. “Daniel, do you mean that you were actually…”
“I am certain there will be no further trouble here, hmmm?” said I, changing the subject whilst twiddling my frills. “I see the fairgoers have already moved on to watch the fake ‘jousting tournament’, and will no doubt forget that Aurelie Greenwolf ever even existed. As for us, we should return to the airport. We should just be able to enjoy the buffet there before taking our flight back to Headquarters.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
