Creatures of the Moons

I sat by the gaslight and read a letter Duke Chirss had received from mercenary 2nd admiral a few months back on the topic of advances in naval warfare. I checked my chronograph to see that it was nearly midnight. All three moons were in the sky. This was the time that The Visions from the Anterior of the Mind had told me I would receive an aggressive visitor unlike anything in this world. I set down the letter and held a charm in my left hand. Besides the gaslight and the letter I had placed several Coins on the table before me. Everything was ready. I waited. Time passed slowly and uneventfully until finally I heard a hissing sound to my left. As I turned to face it smoke, steam, and copious quantities of darkness mixed to form a hulking creature with eyes the shade of Tethys.

"Speak Welsh!" I answered and then switched to Welsh myself. "I will converse no longer in your tongue."

"Very well. I have little use for conversation, but to inform you of your fate..." but I cut him off.

"There will be no match today. You have come too early. I know nothing of how to battle you, and so if you assault me I will simply evade and elude you. I have laid out an elegant escape." The creature took a step back in hesitation. "I trust you would be left with a rather unsatisfied feeling were that to occur, so I suggest you leave now and return when I have learned and prepared for our battle."

The creature stood there, growling and perhaps thinking, for minutes before it shouted something in its own language that I could not understand. It let off a great cloud of steam and disappeared, but not before my spells had read its motives, emotions, and a few of its secrets. The 2nd admiral's letter was erased now, replaced by the results of my spells. I tucked away the sheets.

I knew not to read those sheets tonight for I could not handle what they would tell me.

I have not been bothered since by the Creatures of the Moons, but Aurthur did kill one of their spies a few months later. That, however, is a whole different story.