This took a long time to write. I hope this was worth the wait!

Monster Brains!

Part 7: Grell Brains, Part 2

Among the ruined buildings near the edge of Greycleft, the town guards milled about anxiously as Okari and Kiera waited for Mr. Gerwar and Gnarla to arrive.

In a few short moments, the griffon came swooping out of the sky, the gnoll trying to keep her skullcap on her head while struggling to keep from hurling all over Gerwar’s brain. As soon as Mr. Gerwar landed, the gnoll ran off, somehow green under her coat of fur.

As retching could be heard behind a nearby building, the griffon scritched his exposed brain. The wrinkly surface twitched as he looked around. “I may assume this was a grell attack?” he asked, as he moved and prodded one of the dead brain monsters with a talon.

The guard sergeant on duty, a Doberman lupin, took off his helmet and squashed around his mind in frustration. “We were completely taken by surprise. Monster attacks don’t normally occur in broad daylight- there were only a few market guards out.”

He gestured to a brainless town guard- a saytr- lying on the ground, helmet removed, head empty and tongue lolling out. “Poor Kryn tried to take them all on. He gave as well as he got- but, well, he didn't end up too well." Indeed, there were several dead grell around him, next to a discarded glaive coated in brain fluid.

“Hey, get someone over here!” a minotaur guard yelled, gesturing to a collapsed house. “There are still people down here!”

Mr. Gerwar strode over and threw back the beam, displaying his griffon body’s strength. Underneath there were at least five men and women- all with welts on them where the grell tentacles had held them fast, all still alive and breathing- but like the guard, all brainless, faces frozen in a mindless expression of fear.

Gnarla returned, the gnoll wiping her mouth as she looked closer at the scene. “What brain things?”

“These monsters are grells,” the griffon replied. Unlike other monsters, they aren’t their own species per se, they’re more like a... virus or disease. They reproduce by removing brains- monster or animal- then swallowing them and laying them in eggs. Inside, the brains are transformed over the course of a week into a grell, losing almost all memories of their prior selves.”

He coughed and scritched his wrinkly brain, then continued. “If you don't wipe out a nest as soon as you get the chance, soon you'll get overrun by them. But they don't generally attack in broad daylight. The sun gives them bad burns."

Kiera stepped over to one of the dead monsters and prodded it with a foot. "If that’s true, we need to get a move on,” she replied, as her slimy brain wriggled with thought. “It can’t be long before those brains are transformed."

The Doberman captain squelched his brain around pensively. "You're right, young lady. We're already deputizing volunteers to help find where their lair is. If any of you folks would like to help in the search, that would be fantastic."

Gnarla smiled, and began to rub the rear of her exposed brain. "Me would... um... love to help... hunt for monsters! Where sign up?"

The captain looked down at her in appraisal, eventually nodding to himself after taking note of her muscular physique. "You're in. No need to sign up, you look like you'd make a good hunter." The Doberman lupin put his helmet back on his brain, and barked orders at a group of guards trying to lift some debris from a collapsed house.

Okari turned to the group. "I don't know about you, but I'm joining up. I don't want those monsters to turn those innocent brains into more of them."

Mr. Gerwar chuckled. "I'm already an honorary deputy in the town watch. Having a griffon body and a magical mind makes me pretty ideal for keeping law and order."

Kiera nodded. "I'm in too. I don't want my family to become the grells' next meal- plus I want to study the monsters in their lair first-hand.""So it's settled then," the griffon announced, clapping his talons together. "We're all joining up with the town watch." He paused, as if forgetting something. "When are we going to start the search?"

Later that day, as the sun went over the horizon, a small gathering of guards and well-armed townsfolk clustered by the north gate. All were wearing loosely fitting, dark clothing, and their armor was carefully tarnished to avoid giving off their presence. All had helmets and skullcaps at the ready, for in a few moments they would be out of the village, searching for the grells’ lair. The guard captain addressed the group. "Alright, everyone," he said, his voice quiet but easily hearable. "Is everyone ready?"

Kiera, Okari, and Gnarla nodded, their breaths visible in the night air. They all wore black, the better to blend in with the shadows. Right now, they were on a scouting mission, to find out where the monsters were laired- both to find the brains they had taken, and to wipe them out. Gnarla scratched her back with a claw. "Ugh.... clothes too hot!" she whispered. Nearly all of the gnoll, save her face, was covered in cloth. A quiver of javelins was slung on her back, and she held her axe at the ready, eager to swing it into a monster.

Okari elbowed her. "Be quiet- the watch captain's going to speak!" Of his armor, the winter wolfman only wore his breastplate and bracers on his arms, though like Gnarla almost every inch of him was covered in dark fabric. He had borrowed a longbow from the Watch, and it along with his greatsword were stowed on the outside of his outfit, ready to be drawn.

“Alright. I know some of you are worried. It seems like madness to go out when those monsters are at their most active, and I know it's too cold to keep your brains uncovered for too long,” the Doberman lupin said. “But it’s imperative that we find out where the grells are laired up- they float, so we can’t track them by scent. We’re going to have to try to follow one back to the lair.” He took off his helmet and coughed- then scratching his exposed, pulsing brain, he continued. “We’ll be splitting up into teams of three. I trust you’ve already covered up your brains- don't want the grells to sense your minds- and you've paired up...”

Kiera looked around. Aside from being black, her outfit was almost identical to her normal one. She could see Mr. Gerwar and her dad next to Sparky and Okari’s mom. She nodded to them and they nodded back- they were ready.

Silently, they filed out of the town- three at a time, scattering in all directions. After Mr. Gerwar and his party had flown off, it came time for Kiera’s group to set off. They followed a path south of town, but five minutes in they veered off to the right and picked their way through the woods. They were on their own now.

After about an hour, Kiera opened up her map and brought the group to a halt. They were south of Greycleft, about two miles out from where they had started- right on target, next to a meadow. “We’re in the right spot,” Kiera whispered, brain throbbing uncomfortably against the inside of her cranium. “Now let’s set up an observation post.”

Okari dragged over some fallen branches and made a small little shelter for them to sit in, Gnarla and Kiera piling leaves and debris on top of it to conceal themselves. In a few moments, the three were nice and snug inside, waiting.

Now concealed from any monsters that might want to eat their brains, and slightly warmer, the party shifted and waited, peering through the gaps for a glimpse of a monster. “Ugh! Move out of way, wolf!” Gnarla snarled, as she tried to open up the top of her head. “Brains too squished in there!”

Okari shifted away from the gnoll and snuggled closer to Kiera. “Sorry there, Gnarla,” he replied, as he took off his helmet and exposed his brain. But just as he was about to scratch his itchy lobes, Kiera’s expression changed.

“Wait- is that what I think it is?” Kiera whispered, as she pulled out a pair of binoculars and peered into the distance. She could see what looked like a floating, giant brain, a wicked-looking beak protruding from its surface. Dangling from its underside were a squirming mass of barbed tentacles, and tangled up in them was a deer’s carcass... it flew off, further south.

“It is! It’s a grell!” Kiera hurriedly shouted, as she picked her way free of the blind.

“Gah!” Okari winced, as one of the branches squelched against his exposed brain. “Don’t get too excited, okay?” He stood up, knocking down the hastily assembled structure, then put his helmet back on. “Well, we might as well follow...”

After Gnarla managed to pick the leaves off her brain, Okari once again went down on all fours, and Kiera held onto the fur on his neck. The wolfman galloped off, Gnarla following close behind, until they reached a copse of trees near the side of a hill. The grell, still carrying the deer, floated inside what looked to be a small cave. They couldn’t see anything else from outside, but from what they could tell, there wasn’t anything there, monster or animal.

“Hey, Okari, think we should check out that cave?” Kiera asked, as she popped off the top of her head. Her brain shivered and steamed in the night air until she put her skullcap back on, wincing. “Man, it’s cold...”

Okari shook his head. “No, definitely not. There’s the distinct chance there’s more than one grell in there- and besides, the Captain told us to report back so we can assault the place during the day.”

“Wait... what is Gnarla doing?” Kiera asked, as Gnarla bounded, somehow noiselessly, toward the entrance of the cave. "Is she crazy?" the mage snapped, as she disappeared inside.

"Well, we can't stay here while she gets her brain eaten," the wolfman replied, as he began to stand up from his hiding place. "We need to get her to go back!"

As the two grumbled, making their way into the cave, they heard a screech, a snarl, then a wet thwack. Kiera raced for the sound, Okari close behind- after their eyes adjusted to the dark, they could see Gnarla standing above a dead grell, teeth bared and eyes narrowed with a savage rage, holding an axe dripping with brain fluid and matter. "Gnarla! Gnarla..." Okari said. "Snap out of it!"

Gnarla blinked a few times, shaking her head. Her eyes went back to their usual wide-eyed and curious look, and she stopped baring her teeth. "Ugh... friends? I found grell! Hunted and killed it! We go further, and kill more!"

Kiera went closer and whispered into her ear. "Gnarla! We're not going to stay- we need to go back and find the others! We’re just doing recon, remember?”

The hair on Gnarla’s neck stood up suddenly, and she raised her axe. Okari sniffed the air and whipped around- to their horror, two more grells floated into the cave, screeching and hissing at them as they whipped their barbed tentacles around. Gnarla threw her axe at them, muscles straining; but she missed, and hit a crack in the ceiling.

Suddenly, the ceiling started to crack and collapse. Chunks of granite rained down as the grells backed out of the cave, squawking and ineffectually waving their tentacles, debris bouncing off their pulsating, undulating brains. Kiera, Okari, and Gnarla ran further into the cave to avoid the debris, but to their frustration, the cave mouth crumbled shut- leaving them stranded in the now sealed-off cave, in the pitch-black dark.

“Gnarla! What the heck?” Kiera snapped, as they sat, unable to see.

“I... um... missed. Sorry...” Gnarla whispered, as she scratched her brain sheepishly. "Me missed with axe, no meant to make cave collapse."

A bluish-green light started to shine through the darkness as Kiera whispered a light spell. Her pulsing brain glowed as she stepped forward into the cave. "Well, it isn't as abad as it looks. We've got air and there's even an exit out back." Indeed, there was a small tunnel, looking very much like it was carved out of the solid rock by barbed tentacles...

Gnarla pushed past Kiera, growling. She drew her axe and sprinted down the corridor, her skullcap brushing off against the ceiling and exposing her battered and squished gnoll brain.

"Wait! Gnarla!" Kiera shouted, as she ran to follow the hyenawoman. But as she stumbled into the monster-carved tunnel, she saw that there were multiple passageways heading into the darkness- and that she couldn’t see Gnarla anymore. All she could hear was growling and the padding of the gnoll’s feet.

“She left her top behind...” Okari sighed, as he flipped open his head and tickled his cerebellum. He went on all fours, flipping his head closed again. "Get on my back. I'll run after her.""But we'll just get lost!"

Okari took a paw off the ground and tapped his wet nose, smiling. "Just trust my nose and it'll be alright. Did you forget that I had a winter wolf body?""Yeah, I suppose." Kiera climbed onto the wolfman's back and held on tight, fur between her knuckles. "Oh, by the way, do you want me to keep my top off so you can see?"Okari chuckled. "Yeah, that would be nice. But if I accidentally crash into something, I hope you have a healing potion or something for your brain."Nose sniffing wildly, Okari bounded down the corridor, the only source of light Kiera's twitching, glowing brain. Stopping only at forks in the tunnel to sniff where Gnarla had gone, he kept going and going until he reached a strange iron door- and Gnarla, who was trying to pry it open with her claws. "Okari! Kiera!" the hyena-brained barbarian yawped, as her monster brain twitched and jerked. "Can't get door open!"

Kiera barely held onto the winter wolf when he skid to a stop, her brain shooting forward before her stem stretched it back into her skull. "Ak!" she said under her breath, as she stepped off of Okari. "What was that, running off into these caves without us? There could have been a monster in the darkness or something!" She handed the gnoll her skullcap back. "Besides, why did you run off like that?"

"Me gnoll- me protecting territory! Town territory of you, and you part of my pack, so town my territory!" Holding her skullcap in her left paw, Gnarla continued to squelch and paw at her now very misshapen and abused brain. She grinned sheepishly. "Me still having trouble with... um.. instincts. Sorry for giving you trouble."

Okari stood up all the way and looked at the door. It was made out of black iron, and eight indentations were stamped on the doors, eight door latches within. On the surface was a crudely carved yet menacing carving of a brain, barbed tentacles curling down against each one of the dents and a cruel, curved beak open in a screech. "Looks like this door was intended for grells," he remarked, scratching his chin in contemplation. "Eight slots for tentacles. Eight handles. Hell, even the decoration screams it.”

“Yes, but who brought it down here? Who carved it? Who designed it? This is giving me the creeps...” Kiera shuddered, her glowing, twitching brain shivering in worry. “And what’s worse, I didn’t remember seeing any other way out in that maze- there wasn’t an exit so far as I could see! We’re going to have to go through that door...”


At that, Gnarla proceeded to leap on the door, turning and twisitng the handles frantically in an attempt to get the door open. “Packmates!” she yapped, as she tried in vain to twist four at the same time. “All handles need turn at same time!”

Okari sighed and walked right up to the door, reaching for a handle. Just before he could touch it, though, eight glowing, spectral tentacles wrapped around the handles and unlatched them simultaneously. He turned to a smiling Kiera, the tendrils sprouting from her outstretched hand.

“Showoff...” he said, grinning, as the door abruptly opened.

As the group readied their weapons (and Gnarla put her skullcap on to protect her brain) they slowly stepped beyond the doorway into a large, open space. Pods containing brains of all sizes glowed with a faint green light near the edges of the underground chamber. To Kiera’s horror, she could see human brains in some of the pods, some beginning to sprout the beginnings of beaks and tentacles. “Guys! We’ve found the missing brains!” she whispered.

But as they stepped further into the chamber they began to see a ghastly sight on the ceiling. They could see at least twenty tentacled, beaked brains clinging to the ceiling, pulsing slowly in thought. And further into the chamber, obscured by dust in the air, they could see something large, something intimidating- a giant brain, pulsing and undulating upon a makeshift dais in the center of the cavern. To the group’s fear, they saw that it had a beak and tentacles, writhing and clacking at their approach.

It turned to the dumbstruck party. "Ahh. Some convenient and tasty morsels..." it thought, it's mental voice echoing through the space. It chuckled and began to shift its tentacles towards them, the grells on the ceiling turning towards them as they readied their weapons. But the monsters didn’t attack. They just floated there, licking their beaks and pulsating as the monster faced them.

“So you’re the brains behind the attack on Graycleft!” Kiera shouted, as Okari groaned at the terrible pun.

“That’s right, my tasty little bite. I’ve been commanding the monsters.” The brain made a rasping screech, then continued. “Before, I was but a humble specimen in Gerwar’s lab. Floating in a jar. Unable to go out and consume all I wanted.”

“But the fire…” Okari said, trailing off as the brain cackled.

“In the confusion I managed to escape. That griffon managed to account for all his specimens but one. Me. I escaped and began to make more and more grells out of the brains of the local wildlife- but now I’ve set my sights on something greater!”

“And what is that?” Kiera asked, trying to draw out the conversation as long as possible. Okari patted Gnarla on the shoulder, trying to calm her down as she bared her teeth in a snarl.

“Why, my tasty young morsel, I want to eat the world! I want to eat the brains of everything on this planet- and turn them into my slaves. These animal brains I’ve been eating make fine minions- but they are driven by instinct only. By turning human brains into grells, I plan to create an army, one that can follow orders. Use tactics! Soon, the entire world will be in my grasp!”

The massive brain chortled as the grells on the ceiling descended. “And you and your friends will be my minions! When you hatch from your eggs, please tell me how you felt when I ate your brains. I'll be happy to tell you how your bodies tasted!"

The grells on the ceiling descended, screeching and drooling as they stretched their tentacles towards the party's craniums.

Okari, Gnarla, and Kiera dashed away from the swarm, trying desperately to make for the door that they had come in from. Okari looked it over, then cursed. "Crap!" he spat. "I can't see any latches!"

As Gnarla snarled and growled, her crocotta brain barely restraining itself from charging into the mass of monsters, Kiera took off her skullcap and unleashed a torrent of lightning from her hand towards the beaked, tentacled brains. "What do you mean you can't see anything?" she shouted, as the grells spasmed and fell to the ground, screeching and smoking. "We just came through that door a moment ago!"

Just then, a grell lashed out with a tentacle, its barbed tip heading straight for Kiera's brain. With a feral yell, Gnarla swiped with a claw, and the tentacle fell to the ground, gushing green goo from the stump- and with her other hand, she swung her axe into the monster brain's frontal lobes. It fell to the ground, its cry suddenly cut short.

"Thanks!" Kiera shouted, as her brain started to glow wildly and thrash about in her cranium. She took a deep breath and put her hands on Gnarla's shoulders, channeling the magic of her brain through the gnoll's body.

Gnarla cackled as she could feel the magic surge through her muscles, relieving her aches and pains as it empowered her muscles. She could feel the magic traveling upwards, to her brain- and cackled, even louder, as she felt the organ in her head throb and strain against the walls of her cranium. "Me feel goood!" she laughed, drool dripping from her mouth as she turned towards another group of grells that were floating down from the ceiling. "Me hunt-me kill!" she shouted, as she sprinted to the monsters.

The next seconds of the fight were a blur. As Okari slowly but surely pried the door open, his winter wolf muscles bending the metal with a low creak, Kiera kept the grells off of him with blasts of lightning. Gnarla laughed hysterically as she wildly swung her axe around her, painting her surroundings with brain matter and green goo.

But unnoticed by the group, the head grell started to undulate and pulse wildly, glowing green with pure magical energy. "ENOUGH!" it screeched, as the last grell fell to the ground in pieces. The three adventurers started to float off the ground, held fast by the head grell's magical energy- then started to float towards its open maw.

"You tender little morsels have quite the attitude there," the monster hissed, trying to disguise its frustration. "You've cost me quite a lot in these past few seconds." It reached out with its tentacles, entangling each one of the heroes before flicking their skullcaps off. “But if you were so proficient as my enemies, imagine how skilled you’d be as my minions! It slowly dragged Kiera towards its open beak…

Just then, Mr.Gerwar smashed through the ceiling, snarling and screeching, ripping and tearing. He landed right on the head grell's soft, flabby lobes and began to hack and slash with his claws and beak. Gobbets of brain matter flew around the room as the head grell’s thoughts grew panicked- then gradually more and more idiotic, as Gerwar slashed and clawed wildly at the brain.

The monster’s telepathic and physical hold on them broke, and they fell to the ground. Kiera scrabbled around for the top of her head and plonked it on her fearfully jiggling brain, as she stood to her feet. As Gerwar disengaged, the entire group watched as the brain monsters floated away through the hole that the griffon had made, screeching in fear. The head grell, most of its brain matter mashed and on the ground around the dais, happily babbled and drooled as Gerwar wiped his claws on his robes.

“Ah, my students. I didn’t expect to see you here so early,” Gerwar said, sheepishly, as the now-lobotomized brain squawked and waved its tentacles around.

“Mr. Gerwar? How did you know where we were?” Okari asked, as he looked around to try and find the top of his head. He spotted it a few feet away and crawled over to retrieve it.

“Oh, it wasn't too hard,” the griffon replied. “There's quite a large cave network that the grells made as they were building their nest. I found where the caves were clustered around, but I wasn't able to pinpoint their location until you started fighting. I could hear it, even aboveground- a simple fireball was sufficient to get underground with you.”

“But before we started fighting, the head grell told us something. He told us that you were responsible for all this. You had it as a specimen but it escaped!” Kiera accused, annoyedly.

The griffon rubbed the back of his head. "Ah. That was... erm... from the fire. Several of my specimens went missing, and I assumed that it was just destroyed in the blaze, so I didn’t know it had escaped in the confusion. Will you forgive me?”

Kiera sighed, flicking a bit of brain matter off her cloak. “I will, Mr. Gerwar. But you’d better help the town rebuild,” she said, turning her head to the grell eggs with the brains of the townsfolk bobbing in them, “and help the people that got transformed.”

Okari sighed. “Figures that a mad scientist like yourself would be responsible for this...” he snarked, as he moved towards an egg. “Now, someone help me bust these things open, okay? Don’t want the townsfolk to lose their memories.”

A few days later...

It was a bright and sunny day as Okari and Kiera were about to take their leave from their hometown. Their families were there with them; birdmen and harpies were flying, centaurs and satyrs were galloping out in the fields, and the center of town was bustling with activity again.

Something was different this time around, though. Beaked, floating brains with tentacles hanging from them were bobbing clumsily through the town, unaccustomed to their new forms. They greeted, and were greeted by, their loved ones and friends. Even if they were now monsters, the victims of the grell attacks earlier on were still treated as if nothing had changed.

And observing it all were the winter wolf warrior and the human mage, skullcaps off and sipping coffee at an outside cafe table. “Gee, it sure has been weird the past few days,” Okari commented, slurping up his cappuchino with his long tongue. “You've got us helping teach Mr. Gerwar's class, stopping a monster attack, and helping rebuild the stuff the monsters destroyed.” He stopped to rub his back. “I'm still sore from all that lifting!”

“Just be glad that you weren't spending the rest of our visit trying to track down those escaped grells,” Kiera groaned, as she took a giant gulp from her iced coffee. “Days walking through the woods, and not a single one to be found.” She rubbed her frontal lobes in annoyance, wiping her cerebrospinal fluid on her napkin. “At least we were able to get the word out to the surrounding kingdoms. It'd be a shame if those monsters attacked somewhere else.”

Just then, one of the winged shadows flying above came closer, and they could see that it was wearing a robe. It was Mr. Gerwar, with Gnarla on his back! “Gnoll-friends!” Gnarla shouted, jumping off and rushing towards the table. “Gnarla is sad to have you go...”

“Wait- you're not coming?” Okari replied, tilting his head. His brain sloshed to one side of his skull. “I thought you...”

“I stay here,” she replied, nervously. “Me want brain filled up with... know-ledge?” She looked at Mr. Gerwar, beaming at her expanding vocabulary. “So me stay to learn things. Me hunt monsters and keep town safe, and fill up brain when resting!” She opened up her cloak to reveal a Greycleft Academy uniform, giving a big toothy smile.

Kiera smiled back, squelching a finger near her corpus callossum. “That's great, Gnarla! I'm happy for you. But where are you staying?”

“Me staying at Gerwar-home! I stay in guest room, and I pay by letting him do brain-things! He poke and squish for knowledge!”

“Erm... I've never gotten my claws on a crocotta brain before,” the griffon said, blushing. “She's an amazing specimen... uh.. person to work with.”

“Just don't turn her brain into some sort of giant monster or anything,” Okari groaned, as he put his skullcap on again with a clop. “But all and all, it's been nice to see you again, Mr. Gerwar.”

“I heartily concur,” Mr. Gerwar replied, as Gnarla dragged them all together in a hug. They held it for a few seconds, then they let go, smiling.

“So where shall I take you two?” the griffon asked, offering his back for Okari and Kiera to climb on. “Don't grab the top of my head, it's loose!”

“Well, we should probably meet up with the rest of the gang. We said we would meet in Cranion,” Kiera said, putting back the top of her head.

“Tell rat-boy, horse-girl and doggy lady I learning now!” Gnarla yapped, as the two adventurers grabbed ahold of the griffon's back.

“Don't worry, Gnarla,” Kiera replied. “We'll tell them all about what happened here.”

And with that, Mr. Gerwar took off, the gnoll waving goodbye at the group flying away.

“So what do you think Rhett and Ceres have been doing?” Kiera asked Okari, nuzzling in his warm fur.

“Knowing them, probably overthrowing... like a king or something,” the lupine giggled. “All I know is that they probably have a surprise waiting for us!”