This is going to be a collection of the stories I write for people mostly, though I will probably post some of my other compositions up here as well.  I just don't think I have the room to put all one thousand and one up here.  Well here they are, I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed telling them.

Garrock and the Two Timberwolves

One faithful day, past Tiamat they walked,
Cutting down beasts as they bragged and they talked.
"I've taken on three dozen bears!" Cyllarus boasted.
"I've been to dragon's lairs and almost been toasted!"
"That, friend, is nothing!" Garrock exclaimed.
"I slew four gray dragons, none of the tamed!"
"I went into the wilds with only a rock,"
"Came back with enough skins to clothe a city block!"

They turned the next corner and their eyes shot open wide,
They nearly lost their swords along with their pride.
In front of the road two giant timberwolves lay,
They turned their heads and they sized up their prey.
The two men knew they had no time to run,
So they stood back to back, each taking on one.
The wolves circled them and began to close in,
The men knew there was no way in Tartarus they'd win.

And then the wolves charged as they snarled and they drooled,
Garrock feinted to the left but the wolf wasn't fooled.
It came in fast and bit down hard on his thigh,
He howled in pain as he rose his sword high.
He then brought it down hard, taking off the wolf's head,
And turned to see that Cyllarus' wolf, too, was dead.
They slumped down together in an exhausted pile,
"Well maybe not four dragons." Garrock said with a smile.

Rampion and the Maenads

It was a lovely spring day when a young man suddenly came bolting through the Peiraic Gate, his clothes dis-shelved and his armor dented so badly that he had to be cut out of it. He began screaming incoherently and babbling about Dionysus bringing down his wrath upon man, it was the end of the world he claimed. Rampion, unruffled by the man's cries, told him to settle down and tell him exactly what was going on. He replied panting, "The maenads...they are on the hunt again...near the coastal road." Rampion was up and out of the gate almost before the man finished speaking.

As he neared the area where the maenads were spotted he began to slow, not wanting to let them get the jump on him. He had heard stories of these vile women and knew they were not to be taken lightly. He took a turn in the path and then he heard it...dozens of voices rising in song, it was the maenads.

Oh, sweet upon the mountain
The dancing and the singing,
The maddening rushing flight.
Oh, sweet to sink to earth outworn
When the wild goat has been hunted and caught,
Oh, the joy of the blood and the raw red flesh!

This song, he knew was the song that they sang when they were out to kill, they were out to hunt down anything and everything that got in their way. That man was very lucky to have even gotten away, he thought to himself as he continued on, his step not faltering a bit when he heard the sounds of ripping flesh and snapping tendons...the sounds of something large being devoured by something even bigger.

Before I go on, you must understand what the maenads are...Dionysus, the god of wine, while usually very kind has a mean streak in him. The maenads are female followers of Dionysus, their worship of him centered on two basic ideals....one of freedom and ecstatic joy, the other of savage brutality. Many of them left the cities they resided in to live in the wilderness and woodlands. There Dionysus gives them food and drink, they make their beds in soft meadows and bathe in clear brooks. But every once in a while these women, pleasant by nature, are turned mad, frenzied with the wine of Dionysus. They rush through forests and over mountains uttering sharp cries and waving pine-cone tipped wands wildly about. Nothing can stop them when they are in this frenzy, every creature they meet is torn to pieces and then devoured as they make their way across the lands.

Well Rampion, knowing full well of this, still went on with his original plan to try and keep the maenads from his fair city of Athens. If they were to get to the gates, he knew there would be destruction and strife like nothing we'd seen in ages. The sounds of their song were getting louder in his ears, and as he pulled aside a low lying branch blocking his path he spotted one. She was alone and hunched over their latest victim, it was mutilated too badly to tell what it was but he could tell it wasn't human which prompted a sigh of relief. Slowly he drew the sword from his scabbard and began to sneak up behind her.

Just as he was about to strike she jerked her head around with a hiss, her teeth bared and her eyes red with contempt. The song of the others began to rise in his ears as it grew in volume, his heart beating in rhythm with their rhyme. She spotted his sword and her eyes widened as he swung it at her, the sword tip whistling through the air as she shrieked and howled with rage. There was a wet thwack like the sound of a ripe melon hitting the ground, the top half of her body tumbled as her legs collapsed. It was dead silent, the song had stopped, he could not even here the twitter of a single bird from the canopy above.

As suddenly as the quiet came, it went. Dozens of maenads came running, their voices raised as they shrieked and howled at the loss of their sister. Rampion looked behind him and saw, to his relief, that the others from town had finally caught up. He turned to face the oncoming mass of women with a grin as he held his sword out in a defensive stance. The first two ran right by him, their howls deafening him, and then one was upon him. He jabbed quickly and caught the sword in her gut, then he twisted and drug it up until the blade hit her heart...she fell with a thud to the forest floor.

No sooner was she down than two more were upon him, clawing and scratching at his face, trying to take him down so that he might have the same fate as their sister. He stuck his sword to one of their throats and drove it home. As she fell to her knees clutching at the blade and gagging on her own blood, his hoof came up into the other's jaw. He could feel it shatter under his hoof like a crystal amphora on a marble floor, her teeth severing her tongue. The maenad fell over on the ground, a red pool spreading under her and soaking into the moss beneath.

Panting, he looked up and saw that they were gone. His friends had taken out most of the others and the ones that they hadn't killed had run away. With a muttered curse for Dionysus he turned and began his way back to town so that he might get his injuries taken care of. He had taken no more than ten steps when an arrow whizzed by his ear and lodged itself into an old oak. As he turned to face whoever it was shooting at him he heard another arrow being released and a wet thunk as it drove home into the fleshy covering surrounding it's victim's skull. The maenad behind him fell to the ground motionless with the arrow's flethcings decorating the back of her head. Agrimony lowered the bow, gave him a wink and a pat on the withers and they turned to make their way back to Athens, crisis averted...or so they thought.

A few days later Rampion and Agrimony were in the palace gardens foraging for herbs so that they might better provide the citizens of Athens with elixirs and the like. It was a beautiful morning, a soft breeze causing the leaves to rustle slightly, the birds chirping and bees buzzing...everything was right in the world. But not for long...a bush near them suddenly began to tremble more violently than the others, obviously not something caused by the wind. The foliage of the bush suddenly burst open to reveal a band of maenads, a good dozen of them all reeking of wine and brandishing ropes tied at the end into intricately knotted lassos.

Agrimony let out a cry of alarm as Rampion leapt to his hooves to do his best to protect her, but it was him they were after. One of the maenads looped her lasso around Rampion's neck and held him with the strength of a giant, all his struggling was for naught as it was doing nothing but tiring him. Then another maenad ran behind Rampion in an attempt to subdue him but he gave her a mighty kick with his back hooves, she went flying through the air and into a fountain, her blood turning the water an ominous pink. Before he could get his rear hooves on the ground he found that his back legs had been tied together causing him to lose his balance and fall onto his side with a loud thump.

Well this was all the maenads needed. In a flurry of women, ropes, and centaur, they soon had Rampion trussed and were dragging him away from garden, not bothering to avoid the large rocks that got in their path or anything else for that matter. Agrimony was now on her hooves and galloping after the women who had her beloved Rampion. It looked as if she were gaining on them and Rampion's hopes lifted, that is until his head smashed into a rather large rock and everything went black, his last sight was that of Agrimony's face, full of grim determination as she pursued his captors.

Rampion regained consciousness some time later, how long he wasn't sure but the sun was still bright behind the lids of his eyes. He could feel that he was still being drug by the ropes, his limbs and body ached and he could feel the dirt stinging in at least two dozen different cuts and scratches on various parts of his body. The cruel laughter and chattering of the drunken women filled his ears as darkness blotted out the sun and the dragging came to an abrupt stop. Rampion slowly opened his eyes, as his head began to clear from the knock it took, and saw that he was in a dark cave.

The dark cave was strangely quiet despite the sounds of dancing feet and the soft whispers of seemingly gossiping women. Light flickered in the dark corners of the cave casting shadows all over the place and sometimes illuminating the shapes of the women inhabiting them, usually cavorting or dancing to some strange whispered tune carried by the others. One of the maenads was sitting directly in front of him, he would have jumped when he saw her had he not been bound so tightly.

She rose and drew a large knife and walked over to Rampion, glancing down at him and caressing the blade drawing her own blood as she did so. She smiled quietly to herself, slapping the hilt of the huge blade over and over in the now bloody palm of her hand as she shook her head and gave Rampion an almost apologetic look.
"So the historian awakes?" she asked in a slurred raspy voice as she chuckled and brought the knife dangerously close to his face. "I did want to be certain that the largest mouth in Athens could carry a message to the ones who call themselves 'heroes'." the maenad smirked.
Rampion grumbled and shot her a fierce glance, "I thought your kind only liked women?"
The maenad cackled, ignoring his witty retort. "I am sure you are all concerned that the recent fights have thinned our ranks."
"We are stricken." Rampion smirked.

The maenad exclaimed in a mockingly consoling tone, "I wanted to provide you with the comforting assurance that you have only purged the weak, leaving the strong behind to prepare to utilize the skill and cunning of our newest sister to bring all of Greece to fall under the glory of Dionysus!"
Rampion's curiosity now piqued turned his head painfully around to glance at the maenad and asked, "Newest sister?"
The maenad threw her head back in a maniacal cackle that was echoed by the dark shapes cavorting in the back of the cave. She smiled at Rampion and gave him a nod, "Yes, well, soon to be. She knows in her heart that she is already one of us in spirit. It is only a matter of time before she joins us in the flesh."
Rampion understood what she was driving at and snarled, "Harm Fox, maenad, and I'll personally see the lot of you buried deeply. I was cleaning the gore of your sisters off my blade and out of my armor for some time."

The maenad suddenly lunged for Rampion with the knife, the blade whistling in the air as it sped toward his face. At the last moment she expertly gave the knife a quick twist and with a flick of her wrist snapped the ropes restraining him. Content with the look of sudden dread on his face she gave him a wry smile, "I'm sure you'd love to...But for now, our use for you is done." The maenad takes on another mocking tone, this time of gratitude and says, "We thank you for helping free them to Dionysus' breast."
Rampion laughed at her and said, "They're toiling for Hephaestus now, fiend."
"Whatever brings your poor soul comfort. We will see you soon join them in Dionysus' grace..." the maenad said with a cruel smile.
Rampion spat at the maenad, "I'll be comforted well enough when the last of you are burned and the ashes scattered."
"I do like your spirit!" the maenad chuckled as she brought her pine wand down hard on his head knocking him once again unconscious.

Rampion slowly regained conscious again to find himself still in the cave with the maenad. She glanced over him and coughed, "Do try and stay with us? The message from our mistress is at an end, you are free to return to your petty little life. Unfortunately, as a male, you are not worthy to join our order."
Rampion smirked and said, "As a centaur I'd not sully myself by cavorting in your two-legged order."
The maenad glanced at Rampion, "For now..." and brought the wand down once more painfully on his head knocking him out yet again.

Rampion awoke this time at the Peiraic Gate with a few dozen more scratches and matching lumps on his head.
"Seven Hells!" he spat.
Darion ran over to him, a worried look on his face, "There ya are..."
Melodone, noticing Rampion's poor state, asked worriedly, "What's going on?"
Rampion rubbed his head and glanced out the gates toward the forest where the vile women were plotting the downfall of Athens, "Nothing good...Nothing good at all."

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