Chapter 6: Eriphyle

Eriphyle 

        The Animal Talker 

  

"Feeding the animals again?", Eriphyle's dad inquired. 

"I couldn't help it, they come up to me and beg for food", Eriphyle replied. 

"Come here son, you have chores to do instead of feeding the animals." 

"Alright, coming dad." 

"Thank you son." 

Eriphyle was an animal talker and 14 years old. He could talk to any animal he saw, and they could talk to him. The trouble is that his dad didn't approve of this because he wanted his son to help around the house. There 

was plenty of stuff to be done because they lived in the middle of the woods with no one around. There were dishes to be washed, wood to be chopped, the house always needed a sweeping and you can't forget 

the garden and washing clothes. But Eriphyle just wanted to talk to the animals as they would tell him  grand storys about kings and queens, dragons and heros, knights and mages, about adventures like 

King George of the arc and the crusades that he  fought in, of mythical mages that weaved the  very fabric of reality to their will, of far off lands rich with gems and silver. 

He also named all his animals that came to visit him a lot. There was a two deer, one was named Bambo, 

the other was named Stantler, a whole family 

of hedgehogs named Prick, Prickly, Prickier, 

Prickiest and Pricklest, three squirels named 

Acorn, Nut and Coconut, a bear named Baloo and  

a few birds named Pidgey, Tailow, Pigeot, Swellow 

and Yanama. The ones that just came by for a few 

days, he didn't name. 

One day, Bambo came running  

over to Eriphyle. 
"Eriphyle, Eriphyle, come quick, 

its horrible!!",
 Bambo shouted as she ran. 
"What is 

it Bambo, what happened, I'm here?",
 Eriphyle said, 

dropping his logs that he had just split for the  

fireplace. 
"There's these big things and their cutting 

down the trees! As one of the trees fell, it landed 

on Baloo and he's stuck! Please, Eriphyle, come help!" 

"Where is he?" 
"Follow me",
 Bambo said as she darted  

away. Grabbing the axe that was right by him that he  

was using to split wood, he swiftly followed Bambo.  

Running over to a fallen tree that Stantler and the  

other animals were standing by, he saw that Baloo was 

under the fallen tree. All of a sudden, a big 

machine started coming their way. 
"Everyone, hide!",  

Eriphyle shouted. As they all darted away, the machine 

closed in on them. Eriphyle started to run but his feet 

were being entwined in vines. The machine stopped and a  

bunch of people got out of it. 
"Well, well, well, what 

have we here", 
a young boy said. 
I'm Prowling Hawk and  

your trespassing on private property. The state of Indinda  

owns this forest, and they certainly didn't let you into here. 

Who even are you? You don't dress like any boy I've seen.  

You look like your from the caveman era." 
"Hi Prowling Hawk, 

I'm Eriphyle and what is Indinda and the caveman era? Never  

heard of those. Now would you please remove these vines from  

me at once." 
"Oh, now your a downright liar, is it?". 
One of  

the men saw the bear and exclaimed 
"Hey Prowling Hawk, theres  

a bear stuck under here." 
"And? Does it look like I care?",  

Prowling Hawk responded. Casting his hand out, he caused vines 

to entangle and choke Baloo. As he breathed his last breath,  

he looked straight at Eriphyle and said 
"Avenge... Me...", 

then breathed his last breath. 
"NOOOOO",
 Eriphyle screamed. 

He cast out his hands and shouted 
"ATTACK!!".
 As the animals 

swarmed out of hiding, they mutated and transformed. 

The hedgehogs quills became longer and they gained the power 

to shoot the quills and regenarte them. Bambo and Stantlers 

horns grew longer and sharper, and the deer become a bit bigger. 

Acorn, Nut and Coconuts nuts became sharper and weapons that  

they could throw and their paws had small blades come out of  

them. The birds gained the ability to create and hurl mini 

hurricanes through their wings. Charging at them, the 

deer took out the first two people as the hedgehogs started 

firing quills at them. The birds and the squirells joined in  

the firing and destroyed Prowling Hawk's men. As Prowling Hawks 

men fell around him, dropping their chainsaws, he ran for his  

life, releasing the spell he had on Eriphyle. Falling to the 

ground on his knees, Eriphyle gasped for breath after the  

mutating. 
"What happened to us"
, Prick inquired. "I think 

Eriphyle is a shaman",
 Prickiest replied. All of a sudden, 

a huge multicolored portal showed up and a boy dropped out 

of it with a staff in his hands. As the animals prepared to 

attack him, Eriphyle got on his legs and said 
"Wait! Don't attack 

him yet." 
As the boy looked around, he said 
"Where am I? What 

is this place?"
 Looking over at Eriphyle and the animals, he  

said 
"Who are you guys?"
, and went into a fighting stance.  

"Wait, wait, wait, don't attack us",
 Eriphyle quickly 

replied.
 "Give me one reason not too."
 "Because behind you 

are five birds ready to attack. To your right and left 

are two deer and in front of you are four hedgehogs. I don't 

think you can take on all of them."
 "Fine, you win."
 "Ok, 

since you dropped out of a portal and have a staff, I'm guessing 

you know about magic." 
"I am the descendant of the god Poisdeion, 

lord of the sea. I have control over water so you could say I know 

about magic." 
"Have you heard of Prowling Hawk?" 
"Yes, he's a friend 

to the professer, a wicked twisted old man, who deals in magic." 
"So 

we have a common enemy then." 
"Yes, I guess we do." 
"Would you be able  

to teach me how to control my magic?" 
"What kind of magic do you have?" 

"I think I'm a shaman, I could be wrong." 
"Alright, I can teach you." 

A month went by and at the end of it, Eriphyle could summon vines to 

entrap and insnare enemys, make leaves do whatever he wanted, mutate  

the animals into attack form at will (their mutation wore off after a 

while) and it didn't make him nearly pass out either. At this time 

Prowling Hawk decicided to make a comeback and returned to the woods 

with a friend. One day, as they were training to make sure he was ready, 

vines started to surround them. 
"What are you doing, Eriphyle?"
, Xanthus 

asked. 
"I swear, its not me, its someone else." 
"And that someone else would 

be me, Prowling Hawk, ready to make a comeback with me pal, Flim the Flame." 

"I'm ready to heat things up!"
, Flim said. Jumping down into the flat area that 

Xanthus and Eriphyle were training at, Flim made fireballs hover over his hands. 

"Ooooo, well if it isn't Xanthus, the great and almight water mage, who went  

MISSING for decades." 
"Wait, decades? That can't be possible, I'm not decades old." 

"Why yes, yes you are. See when you fought the professer, he sent you decades ahead in 

time so that we have even more time to prepare agaisnt you. Evil, right? Isn't it Nick, 

huh?" 
"Who's this Nick your talking about",
 Xanthus inquired.
 "Oh, nobody. FLIM, ATTACK!". 

As Flim launched his fireballs, Xanthus made a wall of water appear and melt them. Eriphyle 

let out a loud cry and his animals appeared from around the clearing.
 "Oh no you don't", 

Prowling Hawk said and he conjured thousands of vines and inclosed the area in a vine  

bubble, so the animals couldn't get in. 
"You take him, I'll take Flim"
, Xanthus whispered 

to Eriphyle.
"Ok", 
Eriphyle replied. Summoning vines, he whipped Prowling hawk with them, then 

he cast his hands into the earth. Reaching deep within, he called all the grass, leaves and vines 

to him then cast it all at Prowling Hawk. Slamming him into the other side of the arena, the 

grass, leaves and vines combined and wrapped around Prowling Hawks arms, legs and neck. Shouting 

he said, 
"THIS IS FOR BALOO"
, then using all his might, he caused the vines to crush Prowling Hawks 

bones and squeeze him to death then Eriphyle collapsed of exhastion. Meanwhile on the other half 

of the arena, Xanthus and Flim kept blasting each other with jets of fire and water. Summoning a ice 

snake and launching it at Flim, Flim melted it with a fire jet. Spinning his staff like a bow staff, 

Xanthus swept Flim then brought the staff to his neck.
 "I want answers and I want them NOW", 
Xanthus 

growled at Flim
. "Ok, ok, what do you want to know?"
, Flim whimpered.
 "All of your plans, everything  

NOW!"
 "Ok, so when the professer heard about you and Kun, he wanted to study you instantly. Kun was one 

of his projects that he had released on the world. He sent you ahead in time by decades and gave us time 

serum that made us not age so that he could come up with a plan to capture and experiment on you. I swear 

on my life thats all I know." 
Causing a drowning bubble to appear around Flim's head and drown him, Xanthus went over to Eriphyle. "You alright?",
 Xanthus inquired
. "No, doing that required a lot of power." 
"Well, I think I'm going to need your help again. The professer is expecting me to come fight him but he's not expecting you." "Alright, I'm in." As the vines faded from around them, they went back to their hut that they had created during the month to train and prepare.... BUT THATS JUST A STORY! A AWESOME STORY! (I blame you, Nick, for telling me about game theory. Pretty sure you did.)