affame_le_geant_the_mandrill_will_live fyn gula dity mictus scrambled through the various implements of his leather camera bag, pushing past various zoom lenses, rolls of kodachrome and b+w film, and his treasured nikon, fumbling with snaps and latches, quickly pulling open zippers, until he found what he was looking for: a fully charged infolithium battery. cayris foxglove had employed dity's freelance services to digitally document this attack on "let us eat lettuce farm" as a video message that could be emailed directly to boffden the beardless gnome and proina. play by play evidence that the "insufferable hunger of the damned" were dead serious in their revolutionary thrust and that opposition or deception, which were both present at this particular farm, would not be tolerated and would receive severe retribution. dity popped the spent battery out of his sony8 and quickly replaced it. the camcorder whirred to life and beeped its readiness, enabling him to continue his filming. he put the viewfinder up to his eye, zooming in to capture the mandrill, grimacing, her teeth stained yellow from daily coffee drinking and the fact that she hadn't been to the dentist in over twenty years. she was flanked by poj linent on her left and keggi truus on her right, the two who had tracked her to her hiding place inside a hollowed out log with a pair of blood-hound warthogs. she had managed to put on her wool coat when she attempted to escape, which fortunately prevented the freezing steel of the chain, placed around her neck as a restraint, from touching her skin. it was hooked to long iron bars that poj and keggi both held, pulling from time to time to accentuate the success of their capture, for each time they yanked on the mandrill's neck she cringed with the sharp pian. cayris beamed. before he spoke, he looked out over his mob. satisfied by tukid's pommeling of thora, who stood with what was left of her face dripping blood to the snow below her, he flashed him a thumb's up. he saw praayli silenced in the aftermath of her shock, twinkletoes bound and gagged, and the dead body of couge splayed upon a cross. and now, here was the mandrill who they had come for. "no better than this," cayris thought to himself. when he first brought his band of revolutionaries to couge's farm with his cart pulled by a team of ostriches, having been fed information from his network of spies about the presence of the mandrill and the brothers' involvement with boffden's "revolution that will not be televised," cayris had his wolfmen carve "the mandrill must die" into the snow with the snouts of his warthogs and then lit it with gasoline. however, his intention was never to kill ignet blackfire. the cryptic message served only as an initial threat, like thunder before a devastating strike of lightning, for everyone is afraid of having their life stolen from them. mandrills, as previously mentioned, run the black market in kemulya and are highly coveted for their surgical ability. they always work solo, maintain a continuously low profile, and lead esoteric lives, far removed from society. cayris foxglove, well respected by the governing leaders of kemulya for his insidious, militaristic, iron-fisted rule chose well by planning on sparing the mandrill's life. this crafty and sly decision revealed an added resoucefulness to his undertaking. the mandrill would become an extremely useful tool. with these thoughts of the immediate future swirling in his clever mind he addressed his followers... "congratulations, beloved wolffolx, the insufferable hunger of the damned have fed themselves with the entrails of both proina and boffden!" cayris lifted his arms and the crowd erupted with explosive roars of affirmation. he brought his hands down and the mob quieted again. "behold..." and here he motioned with his right hand, "the mandrill we have come for....... the mandrill we will take with us.......... AS OUR PRISONER!" again the mob swelled with racuous self-adulation. "she will serve to aid our cause, she will lead us back to where puppertwinkle's flesh is hidden, she will guide us back to where she left puppertwinkle's skeleton, and then will reattach muscle and body to bone, restoring puppertwinkle to his former glory..........." tumultuous cheering and applause. "and then, faithful brothers and sisters of the revolution of the self, together we will lead the chosen dog along his path of purpose, protecting him form proina, until he unites with baeroun. and here, in this monumental meeting, when magic, fantasy, reality and dreams become one, we will overcome.........." wild, exhuberant chanting.... "w -e w -i- l- l o- v- e- r -c- o- m- e !" "dennis browne will be our leader!" "d- e -n -n- i -s b- r -o -w -n- e!" "we will live alone!" "a-l-o-n-e-!" "we will need nobody!" "N- O- B-O-D-Y----!!!!!!!" 030218 what's it to you? who go blather from