Titans of Chaos

A column of fire fell down from heaven. It was a pillar, a turning inferno fifty yards high and sixyards in diameter, surrounded by a whirlwind of smoke and ash. It landed in the midst of thedancing maenads and exploded. Long ropes and tendrils of flame surged out in each direction,taking up the half-naked girls and throwing them against the cliffside.

The maenads shrilled their horrid war cry and rushed into the fire, stabbing and swinging theirspears and tree trunks. The column vomited fire across the spears and trees and ignited them.

Then the column shrank, grew brighter, stiffened, and exploded outward in each direction withmind-numbing violence. The flash dazzled me; the report deafened me. In the afterimage, I sawthe silhouettes of women spinning end over end, against rolling clouds of red and black smokeshot through with tongues of fire.

Good thing Amazons built their armor to be fireproof. Or maybe the column of fire had donesomething particular to save me. Because when the swirling fires died down, there, in the midst ofthe smoking crater, surrounded by smoking ropes and helixes of dying flame, was Colin.

"You look good in that outfit, Dark Mistress," were the first words out of his mouth.

"Yeah, so do you," I whispered. He was in his classy black tuxedo, with a large gold ring shiningon his finger. "Kind of hurt, here..." I finished.

All the rapid healing the maenads had been doing must have peopled the area with a lot ofhealing energies, because all Colin did was lean down and kiss me on the thigh, and my leg wasfixed. Once again, there was no transition, no logic to his power. One moment: broken leg, pain...

the next: no pain.

Maenads scattered to each side of us were groaning and giggling and climbing to their feet,shaking ashes from long (utterly unburned) hair.

Colin put his arm around me, picked me up, hugging me tightly to his chest, and he kissed mefiercely on the lips. With his thumb, he turned the collet of his ring inward. Maenads blinked, theireyes blank, and began looking left and right, making little murmurs of annoyance and wonder.

The fire and ash had made the maenads take their crazed eyes off us for an eyeblink, and that wasall the ring of Gyges needed.

A swarm of black feathers erupted from Colin's back as ten-feet-wide hawk wings expanded intoview. And then I was in the arms of a dark-winged angel in a tux, and we were flying away,skimming the trees.

Behind us, disappointed maenads whined and stamped their feet.

Nymphs