rahve, sorry for disobeying your "don't rush" suggestion, but I had to get this out of my system
====part XII, a not-so-pleasant aside in which we follow the steps of the Two Black Spinoffs=====
Ormir and phyre left the Fellowship outside the Mines of Melon with more than a little relief: the y could finally walk the enchanted paths of the land singing in turn and with a straight face the verses to Deicide's "Satan spawn the cacodaemon".
"Sorry" said Ormir to his companion after two hours of repeatedly singing the same tune "Do you
have any idea of what exactly a cacodemon is?".
He was met by hostile silence on the part of phyre, except for the occasional clang of his leather jacket's mandatory metal spikes colliding with nearby boulders.
Having studied the Necronomicon in 27 languages and also having a multi-idiom copy of it handy, Ormir tried to evoke a number of spirits in order to force his mate to speak. He only obtained, upon his 75th attempt, an incomprehensible blurb in Italian that sounded like a recipe for something called "Pollo al forno". For a brief moment, he thought he could hear the voice of Thanatos shouting "Me! I want some", but he dismissed it as illusion.
After two hundred and thirty three rituals unsuccesfully performed, Ormir concluded that phyre had no intention of speaking to him whatsoever; the Unholy Book suggested a full-fledged evocation of a cacodaemon to put an end to such unexplained refusal to interact, but then again he had no idea of what a cacodeamon was.
Following Entombed's lead, he then proceeded to scrutinize his very soul: had he done something to alienate phyre? Of course guilt was a Christian concept and therefore it had to be shit, still also in the demonic outlook on life (tm) there were some no-no's and deviating from the wrong course could cost one dearly in term of appreciation on the part of his infernal peers.
Had it something to do with his corpsepaint? No, that looked alright if a little melted. Had he incidentally done anything nice towards anyone in the party? No way. Had he said anything out of line? He was rotting in his own angst - a very good title for a song, he thought - and finally it dusked (yeah, grim and necro people are like that) on him. Right before leaving the others, he had said: "There is an evil at work here that doesn't sleep or rest. I know it well. We must amass a mighty force to crush it...". Oh, no. Crushing evil. How in the world could he have said that?
"Listen, phyre, I swear on the head of my black goat, I didn't quite want to say that... I mean, it was just to make the others understand. You of course know that I am fully aware that evil is good - I mean, evil is evil, or good is ev- whatever, you get what I have in mind. I understand your subterranean, irreligious indignation and deep hate, but really, I'm not a traitor, you can speak to me now". No reaction.
Ormir pondered on the unfairness (fairness?) of life, then decided that phyre was a stuck-up bunnyhugger if he kept on acting like that. He watched him stride, unaffected by his friends' pleas, and decided to run after him and give him a violent kick in the ass. He let him gain some yards, then started to run, all the while preparing his deadly, morbid blow. Just as he was reaching phyre, he tripped over some plant or musk or lychen and managed to hit him with his full weight instead, sending him straight to the ground.
phyre thought he was being attacked by a Radiant Unicorn of Light or similarly scary being and prepared for the fight, but Ormir stared in disbelief at his dark-soul mate's portable headphone set scattered on the ground. In the exact moment phyre stabbed him in the left upper thigh, inches away from his gonads, he muttered "Satan help me. Sorry. I didn't see you were listening to.. let me check.. Malevolent Creation. I thought you had stopped talking to me".
phyre quickly recovered from the fighting stupor and regarded Ormir with a bemused expression. "Of course I had, do you ever talk to people while listening to your portable stereo? It was hard enough to sing a Deicide song while listening to another band. And anyway I don't see how this relates to attacking me from behind"
"I didn't. I tripped".
The voice of mousewings echoing "Spiffy! Me too, please!" echoed around them, with no possible explanation. phyre thought that the matter was better dismissed instantly, bandaged Ormir's leg with a sleeve ripped off his Impaled Nazarene t-shirt, and on they went, one singing "Coronation of Our Domain" to replace the now-broken musical equipment, the other limping behind at a safe distance. To their extreme contentment, darkness started to descend on them as they proceeded towards true and norwegian forests.
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this was my share. the next writer can either continue the black metal vignette or switch back to the rest of the fellowship, i guess both would work.
hyena