The Emperor Beluga sat on a lavish antique wicker chair beneath a large palm tree, a cool drink and a bowl of seedless grapes on the matching wicker table beside him. It was a fine sunny day, with just enough cloud cover and a gentle breeze to prevent it from becoming overly hot. The Emperor sighed happily and settled back in his seat, bringing the book he was reading before his eyes. With Lady Syrenna and Ivanova off playing in the woods somewhere, it was the perfect opportunity for him to get a little reading done.

He had hardly gone five pages, however, when a strange noise assaulted his ears. He gave an angry little huff, thinking that perhaps some sort of icky creature, or Ivanova and Lady Syrenna had come to bother him. He lowered his book slightly, peering about for the intruder, but he saw nothing. He heard something though, not coming from in front of him, but beside him.

"Oyoy!"

He turned about sharply, his eyes bulging. There, on his wicker table - drinking from his glass! - was what appeared to be a ball of snot!

"No! Away, filthy thing!" He cried, leaping to his feet and brandishing his book at the giant goober.

"Oyoy!" It replied, leaving his glass to slide down to the sand and gloop over to sit before him. The Emperor looked on with a mix of disgust and curiosity as from out of the gooey thing's body oozed a face, one that was very familiar.

Short, pale blonde hair framing a kind face, the lips turned up in a pleasant smile. Grey-green eyes blinked up at him from the face of someone he had only seen in his strange dreams.

"Moody!"

"So, um, what does it do?"

Ivanova and Lady Syrenna were lying on their bellies on the forest floor, staring at a pretty orange flower.

"You'll see in a moment," Syrenna said quietly, her head resting on her folded hands, "The bugs should start coming soon. It just released a scent to attract them."

From her position sprawled on the ground, her head tilted upon the grass, Ivanova gave a sniff. A sweet scent that had not been there a moment ago was filling the area. It smelled vaguely like fresh baked cookies, and Ivanova suddenly found herself hungry for something sugary.

"Ah, watch!" Syrenna giggled, pointing out as a small swarm of flies came buzzing towards the sweet scent. The two of them watched as the insects drew closer, ever closer, then WHAP! A dozen small, sticky tentacles shot out from the centre of the flower, catching the flies and pulling them inside. The petals closed around their newly acquired feast, and the flower started to purr.

"What the hell?!" Ivanova laughed, propping herself up on her elbows.

"It's called a Nelen flower," Lady Syrenna answered, rolling onto her side to face Ivanova, "But the silly thing about it is that it isn't a flower, but a lizard!"

"Wicked!" Ivanova giggled, petting the head of the flower, lizard, thing. Whatever, it was purring and making a happy sound.

"Oyoy!"

"Aw, it's making cute noises!" Ivanova said, but Syrenna wasn't looking at the flower lizard. She was looking at a green ball of goo, about the size of a tennis ball, about a foot off the ground where it was stuck to the trunk of a tree. "I think it was that thing that made the noise..."

As Ivanova turned to look at the thing in question, three other blobs came rolling out of the forest, coming to rest close by the first blob, which had dropped off the tree. With another chorus of "Oyoy!" the four goos began to quiver, each sprouting a face.

The face of Moody.

In the distance they heard the Emperor scream, and Lady Syrenna and Ivanova shared a look.

"Bloody hell!" Ivanova cried as she and Syrenna got up, "I wonder what's got his knickers in a twist?"

"Feeling British, are we?"

"Maybe a little..."

"Heh, well, we better go see what he's screaming about," the Lady said, "He probably got some dirt on his shoes, but it might be something dangerous just as easily!"

"Jolly good, lead on!" Ivanova giggled Britishly.

Unbeknownst to them, they were followed by the Moody blobs.

When they found the Emperor, he was standing in the middle of an empty field, whip in hand, and a wild look in his eyes. He was also covered in tiny bite marks.

"Did you see them? Did you see!" He cackled as the girls drew near.

"See what?" Lady Syrenna asked.

"THE BLOBS!!" Emperor Beluga screamed, looking mighty deranged.

"Oh yeah! We saw some that had Moody faces!" Ivanova replied.

"And here they come!" Syrenna added, pointing back to the way she and Ivanova had come. Out of the forest were bouncing the four Moody blobs, and bouncing after them were six others!

"Wow, looks like we're being invaded!" Ivanova laughed, pointing out the dozen or so other blobs that were bouncing towards them from all over the Island. Lady Syrenna and Ivanova were laughing at the sight of the gooey green balls with the face of Moody bounding rapidly towards them, but the Emperor was having an absolute fit, screaming and whipping his whip about like there was no tomorrow.

"What in the world is the matter with you?" Lady Syrenna demanded as she was struck accidentally by the whip.

"And why are you all bleeding and stuff?" Ivanova added.

"They attacked me! THEY BIT ME AND CHOMPED ME AND CHEWED ME! I DO NOT LIKE THEM!" He shouted, flicking his whip out to stop one of the blobs that got too close. It stopped with a little jiggle, and so did the rest of the blobs.

An eerie silence fell on the area as the Moody-faced goos just sat there, motionless, staring. The Emperor had stopped his whipping, and looked very much like an animal caught in a cage. Lady Syrenna and Ivanova, on the other hand, found the whole situation amusing.

But then something strange happened. The Moody faces on the blobs suddenly turned green and were absorbed back into the goo from whence they came, and the blobs themselves all glooped together, forming one big gooey ball, roughly the size of a large cat! A large, green, gooey round cat-sized ball!

Now all joined together, the blob quivered once more, and the face of Moody once again sprang forth from the goo, only now it wore an expression that the true Moody had never worn. Its mouth was open in a wide smile, and all of its teeth were pointed fangs! Its eyes were squinted evilly, and they seemed to glow red!

It was no longer cute.

The smiles fell from the faces of Ivanova and Lady Syrenna, and the Emperor resumed his whipping. The blob gave a growl and bounced towards them, and the women drew their swords. The two sides clashed, and it was soon revealed that the Moody Blob had the advantage. No matter how hard or how wildly the three Islanders hacked, sliced or whipped, the wounds to the blob instantly healed, and it was dealing out punishment of its own, biting at unprotected flesh, and whipping out deadly sharp tentacles it formed from its body.

"I think a tactical retreat is in order!" Syrenna panted. Ivanova nodded and together they grabbed the Emperor by the arms (he was too caught up in his whip-fest to hear them), and they ran back off to the forest, the Moody Blob bounding angrily behind them.

"Crap, so what are we going to do?" Ivanova asked, wrapping a bandage around a slash on her leg. Lady Syrenna was binding a wound on the Emperor's arm, while he drank a nice soothing tea. They had come to rest in a little clearing in the forest. The Moody Blob, only being able to bounce, was left far behind, and the three Magical Royalties had a chance to lick their wounds. Figuratively speaking, of course.

"Attacking the blob with weapons didn't seem to work, and though it has Moody's face, it seems to be nothing like her." Syrenna said. "I wonder why it's here?"

"Burn it! Burn it, I say!" The Emperor growled. "I don't care why it's here, it should die!"

The Lady rolled her eyes at him.

"Wait, maybe that'll work!" Ivanova said thoughtfully, "We didn't use our powers on the blob, maybe they'll do something!"

"Alright, so what powers do we have?" Syrenna asked, "I can control plants and talk to animals, but what about you two?"

"I can use Darkness, Fire and Ice," Ivanova said helpfully.

"You can use Ice?"

"Yeah, well, mostly for healing myself."

"Alright then, what about you?" Syrenna asked the Emperor.

"Only sadness," he said with an evasive shrug.

"Okay, so here's what we'll do," Lady Syrenna explained, getting up and pacing around the clearing. "We'll wait here, because that blob is bound to show up sooner or later. It wants to hurt us for some reason, so we've got to hurt it back. Ivanova and I will stand out in the open here, and you," she said, turning towards the Emperor, "I want you to hide up in this tree here. Try and use your fog of sadness to stop it, but if that doesn't work, and we can't stop it, then I want you to blast it with as much artillery as you can at the thing."

"But where do I get this artillery you speak of?" The Emperor asked, pouting a bit at being stuck up in a tree. Ivanova started to laugh, and suddenly, out of nowhere it seemed, she drew out a surprisingly large assortment of firearms!

"Where the hell did you get those?!" The Emperor gasped.

"My little secret!" Ivanova said with a wink.

"You can ask more about them later," Syrenna said, stroking the head of the robin on her finger. A robin that hadn't been there the last time Ivanova or the Emperor looked. "My little friend here says that the Moody Blob is coming this way, so we better get into position."

So with the help of some vines Lady Syrenna summoned, she and Ivanova managed to get the Emperor and the guns up into the tree, while they waited for the Blob on the ground.

They didn't have long to wait, for almost as soon as they tossed the last machine gun up to the Emperor, the Moody Blob leapt through a bush, growling and snapping its teeth. The Emperor unleashed his fog of sadness, and a melancholy mist filled the clearing, depressing everyone. Ivanova and Syrenna were feeling its effects, but the Blob seemed to be immune.

"Alright, our turn now!" Ivanova said, forming a ball of black flame in her hand and throwing it at the Blob. Syrenna caused roots and vines to spring forth from the ground, trapping the evil creature. The fire hit and lit the whole shebang on fire, and Syrenna caused poisoned barbs to sprout from the vines and bury themselves into the soft, gooey flesh of the Moody Blob.

But, incredibly, nothing seemed to work! The Blob gave a terrible growl, and expanding suddenly, it broke through the vines and flames, and shot out two sharp goo tentacles and stabbed Syrenna and Ivanova through the left and right shoulders respectively, pinning them to nearby trees. Ivanova gave a startled cry and tugged frantically at the tendril as a burning sensation crept from her wound and down her arm.

"It's poisoning us!" Syrenna cried, "It must have absorbed the poison from the barbs, now it's using it on us!"

"Quick, the guns! The guns!" They called up to the Emperor.

Hoisting an assortment of firearms up, he took aim and shot down at the blob. Round after shell after explosive rained down upon the Moody Blob, tearing up the ground and scorching the trees. After what seemed like an eternity, the ammunition ran out, and the smoke began to clear.

And the Blob was still alive!

Ivanova and Syrenna were picking themselves off the ground, looking weak and deathly pale.

"Nothing works!" Syrenna groaned, pulling herself upright with the help of a tree.

"I guess this is the end. How embarrassing to get killed by a sentient booger!" Ivanova laughed darkly, pulling out a knife and walking towards the hissing and frothing Blob, "But I'll not die quietly!"

"And you won't die alone!" Syrenna growled, pulling a knife of her own and walking over to stand by Ivanova. "If you want to escape, you can use the branches to climb to another tree." She called up to the Emperor. "If you keep doing that, you can probably make it to the beach."

There was a scrabbling and a thump behind them, and the Emperor came and stood between the two women, his whip in hand.

"I am the Emperor here," he said, "And I say when I stay or go!"

"Then I guess we go together!" Ivanova laughed. The Moody Blob growled, fangs gnashing and a devilish grin on its face. It had won! It could already taste victory!

The Moody Blob sprang forwards, the Islanders readied themselves for the attack, and then all of a sudden, FSCHNAK!!

Viniveer, Lady Syrenna's golden eagle friend, had swooped out of nowhere and grabbed the Moody in its talons!

"No, Viniveer! It'll kill you!" Syrenna called up frantically. But as she and the others looked up at the circling eagle, they noticed a sudden change in the Moody Blob.

It looked absolutely terrified!

"What the fuck?!" Ivanova said, nicely summing up her companion's thoughts. The Emperor started laughing, and he pointed up at the Blob with glee. "It's afraid of heights!"

And indeed it was. Being of a gelatinous nature, it could easily form any shape, and heal itself if injured, but that was only if all its parts were relatively intact and close by. But if it fell from a great height, it would pop like a water balloon and explode everywhere. This was the only way a blob could die.

"Well, I guess we don't die today!" Syrenna said happily.

"What about the poison?" Ivanova asked.

"Ah, yes, that. Well, come with me, and I'll whip up an antidote for the pair of us!"

"What about the Blob?" The Emperor asked, wiping tears of mirth from the corners of his eyes.

"Since it's afraid of heights, we should keep it up a tree, that way it won't bother us again," Ivanova said. "And we could always feed it, so maybe it'll get so fat it won't be able to move!"

Lady Syrenna nodded to Viniveer, and the eagle soared away, depositing the Moody Blob on the top of the tallest tree on the Island.

"And you, my precious crows, you shall guard that thing, but don't go too close to it!" The Emperor said to a murder of crows who had come at his call. They swept off after the golden eagle, cawing happily.

"Well, this has been a special day," Ivanova said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Let's go and get antidoted then," Syrenna said, "Or else this day will become ever so special when we die. You coming?" she asked the Emperor.

"No, I am smelly from fighting, and desire a bath."

The End