The sun had broken free of its cloud captors and was now wreaking hot rage upon the cold Island of Crow.

The Emperor Beluga and Lady Syrenna were seeking refuge under the tall thick boughs of leaves in the Mystical Forest. They were sipping on tea and nibbling crumpets as they had every noon hour in past days. Ivanova and Yanna were off somewhere in the east, blowing things to pieces in the sizzling rays of the sun. The Lady was twirling an arrow in her fingers, thinking about how she could make it harsher, deadlier, and more feared.

The Emperor purposely slurped loudly, causing Syrenna's eyes to break from the arrow. He continued to slurp as loud as he could. Syrenna rolled her eyes and looked back at the arrow. Suddenly, he began to choke. He coughed and snorted, his face going red.

"Serves you right!" Syrenna laughed, glancing at him.

"Shut up. What are you doing with that stupid arrow anyways?" He asked, wiping tea off his chin.

"If you must know, I want to improve it."

"Well, if you ask me, it is as improved as it can get."

As the Emperor continued to blab on snobbishly, an idea came to Syrenna.

"You could put a thunderbolt design on it and a silky feather and-" He paused in mid-sentence to take a sip of tea. He closed his eyes as the warm herbal tea tingled down his throat. He curled his pinkie as he set the teacup down and opened his eyes, "It would still be a dumb arrow!"

He looked around. The Lady was gone!

"Hello? Hmmm. Oh well, more tasty crumpets for me!" He giggled, grabbing a few of the better tasting ones and pouring himself another cup as bombs exploded in the distance.

A couple cups of tea and a few crumpets later, The Emperor still sat alone. He was reduced to talking to himself since no one was around to listen. Right in the middle of an intelligent conversation about silk and silkworms with his alter ego, a clump of mud splashed into his teacup.

"GAH!" He shouted and looked up. There stood Lady Syrenna. She was covered in dark thick mud. The Emperor looked at his teacup, where the mud was gurgling and forming bubbles, then back at the Forest Queen.

"What the hell have you been doing?" He asked. Syrenna lifted a big pile of mud up and slammed it onto the table, sending the silver teapot spilling to the ground and knocking his poor little teacup into his lap. He yelled as the tray of crumpets tumbled to the dirt.

"Oh, hush! I was going to feed those to the Moody anyways," Syrenna said, wiping the mud off of her face.

The special napkin that was laying across The Emperor's legs had caught all the tea from his fallen cup, and he quickly removed it, hanging it on the back of his chair. He looked curiously at the ball of mud. In fact, it was not all mud - it was a bush covered in mud. Syrenna picked a leaf off and wiped it on a clean part of her dress. She held it out to him, saying, "This is how I'm going to improve the arrows!"

In her hand was a blue leaf, filled with red veins. It had a most delicious scent.

"It smells good," the Emperor said, leaning closer. She pulled it away.

"You don't want to eat this. The veins are red for a reason," she said, tearing the leaf in half, causing red goo to drip onto the table, "This is poison. One drop is enough to kill you, but that is the purple/red species... This one is the blue/red species. Its poison can cause great pain, as if your muscles were being ripped ever so slowly to pieces and your slightest move could intensify it a hundred times! This blue/red species of the plant doesn't kill you, but eventually you will die of starvation because you won't be able to move," she explained as she rolled the arrowhead in the poison, smiling evilly with intense eyes, "It grows in rotting tree mud, that's why I'm all muddy."

The Emperor was a bit disturbed about the thought of muscles being ripped to pieces inside a live person. He imagined what it must feel like. Actually, he quite liked the whole idea!

The Emperor and the Lady collected all the arrows they could find then rolled the sharp ends in the blood-red poison. Once done, they put them into quivers then put the quivers in the Lady's armoury. They had a few leftover arrows sitting on the table.

"Do you hear that?" Lady Syrenna asked.

"I hear nothing?" The Emperor responded.

"Exactly! Ivanova and Yanna must have run out of TNT."

"Either that, or this damn sun has burnt them all up!" He said, making another pot of tea. He poured himself a cup. He was about to take a sip when Ivanova popped up beside him and screamed in an evil psycho voice, "Baaaaaaaaaaaaaananas!"

The Emperor jumped a few feet out of his chair, spilling tea everywhere. Yanna, Ivanova and Syrenna were rolling over on the ground laughing loudly. The Emperor was quite mad. He stood, face going hot red, and he began to grow like a balloon! He grew and grew and grew until he was almost able to reach the Moody in the treetops. Ivanova jumped up and grabbed an arrow from the table, shouting, "Take this, you air-sack!"

Having an overactive mind of sickness, she began laughing at the word 'sack'. She then thrust the arrow deep into the Emperor's leg. Lady Syrenna stopped laughing. Air rushed out through the wound, knocking Ivanova over. The Emperor screamed in pain as he deflated, falling flat on his back on the ground. He was motionless, lying in an ever-increasing puddle of blood. His eyes were big.

"What the hell is his problem?" Ivanova asked, kicking him.

"Ivanova, that arrow was poisonous!" Syrenna said looking down.

"Oh my god! Someone's gotta suck out the poison! Quick, Yanna! Suck it out!" Ivanova ordered, becoming somewhat worried.

"Me? NO! You do it!" Yanna hissed.

"I said you do it!"

"It was your doing in the first place!"

"Fine, let's do rock paper scissors!"

"No! You can't suck it out. If that poison touches your tongue, it will seep through and poison you too!" Lady Syrenna yelled.

"Okay, rock paper scissors it is then!" Yanna said, completely ignoring what she had just been told. Syrenna looked down at the Emperor again. His wrists were swollen and his veins were popping out, red like the poison. His eyes rolled back into his head. Syrenna ran into the forest.

"Where's she going?" Yanna asked.

"She just doesn't want to play rock paper scissors. I think it reminds her too much of thick moist bananas." Ivanova giggled.

Minutes later, Syrenna returned with a wooden bowl, a rock, some moss and reeds, a big leaf and a branch from some tree.

"This is no time to make tea, Lady!" Ivanova shouted at her.

"Rock crushes your scissors!" Yanna yelled, bashing Ivanova's hand.

"Shit! Best nine out of ten?"

Syrenna ripped off leaves, berries and flowers from the branch and crushed them together in the wooden bowl with the rock. She added water and continued to crush the ingredients until it became a runny paste. Ivanova and Yanna finished their game and came over to help her. Ivanova, the winner of rock paper scissors, made Yanna hold the bloody leg while Syrenna poured one-third of the runny paste onto the Emperor's wound. Ivanova collected some moss and called for Sally. It wasn't long before she arrived.

After a few minutes, the rest of the runny paste in the bowl turned creamy and half of it was poured into the wound again. The rest of it began to form into a thick paste and was applied over the wound as a seal. Syrenna wrapped the huge leaf over the wound and tied it in place with the soft reeds. Ivanova and Sally were busy cleaning up the blood with the moss.

The Emperor's eyes flickered as the paste absorbed through him, destroying all the poison and his torturous muscle ripping pain faded. He opened his eyes and began to say something. Yanna leaned over to better hear him. She soon straightened and looked at Ivanova, saying, "He says he has something to tell you..."

Ivanova stood up and dropped the bloody moss she held. She knelt down beside him and leaned down to hear what he was saying. In a blink of an eye, his arms shot up and his hands clamped around her neck, strangling her.

"It seems that he is well again," Yanna said as the two fought on the ground. Sally was busy cleaning the blood while mumbling something about idiots.

"Yeah, seems so indeed. What kind of tea do you like?" Syrenna asked, smiling.

The End