It was a rather warm day in the Taurai woods. The trees which had been bare not so long ago had tiny buds on their branches, signifying the start of spring. Although the wind that blew occasionally was a little chill, the general air was that of warm sunshine. Love was in the air, and one could stumble upon small animal couples mating if they were unfortunate. Snow was no longer upon the forest floors, and if one looked closely you could see the rising of dandelions, the weed which although rampanyly abundant, was still a welcome sight to the many denizens of the woods. Well, all but save one.

In a pocked in a deeper corner of the woods, further away from the outlying grasslands, there was a small clearing, lit by only several sunrays passing through the trees. The rest of the area was in shade from the evergreen pines which stood around and throughout the clearing. If one passed by this clearing, they might be rather suprised by what they found. Layinh there, on all four, was Idhrenhith, the mist dragon. He was a great white beast, reaching more than half of the height of the bigger trees around him. He was still small for a dragon though, not exactly a great wyrm in size. His great eyes were shut, and a loud snoring reverbrated through the gentle forest atmosphere. As he snored and exhaled, jets of steam sprayed out of his nostrils. With each inhaling breath his great form loomed up, his mighty lungs expanding his frame.

Idhrenhith was taking a gentle nap in one of his favorite type of locations, a shaded forest. He had planned, when he left, to perhaps go to Estolad and check in to make sure the town was doing ok. He had gotten word from passerby that their had been bandits recently. If there was no trouble afterall, he could always help the farmers do some field work(he made quite a good plow puller. Able to do two lanes at the same time.) No matter what he did though, he was not in any rush. As a scholar had once told him, "The slow, rested turtle, accomplishes the tasl faster than the quick, weary rabbit." And so now he took his lazy rest.

Little did the mist dragon know that he would have a visitor today that was unlike any other he had met. Through his heavy slumber, he did not notice the creeping of this visitor towards him...

Robyn puffed her cheeks. She had lost Mr. Fluffington again. And Mr. Fluffington had set a trap for her too. He was getting so guuuuud at this game! It was almost un-fair! Examining the metal jaw thingamagigger carefully, Robyn tried to pry it apart. The metal whined under her fingers but refused to budge. She puffed her cheeks again before expelling the air. How annoyink! She grabbed the chain thing that attached it to the ground and with a yoink, she managed to pull the entire trap thingy out. She also pulled hard enough to send her flying a good two or three feet. The metal jaw thing had started trying to eat her bones.

But at least she was free! But still, it was rather annoying. She paused to consider the problem. The candle over her head suddenly became so bright it could have blinded anyone looking at her at just that moment.

The next day, Robyn, her foot having been transferred to her stomach and wherever it was that zombies sent their foodstuffs, was slowly limping forwards. She had left the metal jaw thing right where it had been- had even bothered to plunk it back down in the right place! Next time Mr. Fluffington tried to spring a trap on her like that she'd know from where exactly he'd spring it. Robyn smiled- she was such a clever leetle girl! Alice-Mommy would be so proud! Once she got a new foot, of course. Alice-Mommy always became so picky about her having feetsies. Robyn liked her feetsies too but sometimes there were just unavoidable com-pli-cations!

Then, of course, while she was off congratulating herself, her other foot fell into a similar looking metal jaw. It snapped shut.

The following day, her two feet having been chewed off by big, mean, mysterious creatures, Robyn was now reduced to crawling. She didn't mind overly much, truth be told but it still was annoyink. She couldn't even play hopscotch anymore! And finding and capturing Mr. Fluffington so that they could play doctor together was going to be sooooooo difficult! Grach! And she hadn't eaten anything except for her feet for hooooooours. She wanted some head treatsies! Those were yummylicious! Yummy-gummy-icious!

Now it was while she was busy crawling on the floor, looking for her undead kitty-kat that Robyn picked up a funny smell. She didn't normally smell things, but Robyn was wearing her wolf-wolf mask. She wasn't a real wolf, of course, but she was a firm believer that wolves were hunter-thingies. And hunter-thingies would definitely help her find Mr. Fluffington. If he could be found, of course. He might have been eaten! Or swallowed! Or lost himself! Alice-Mommy had done that once- that had been extremely annoyink too! Robyn had looked alllllll over for Alice-Mommy but had not found her.

But anyvays, Robyn-Rin found a smell. And that smell lead to bbbbbbbbbbig lizard. She crawled towards it. Maybe it knew where Mr. Fluffington had gone!

"Meeester Big White Lizard! Do you know where Mr. Fluffington went?" She asked curiously. "He's lost himself again!"

Idhrenhith didn't know quite what happened. One second he was in a deep sleep, dreaming of wonderful things, and the next, he was wide awake. Someone was talking to him, and had woken him up. "Meeester Big White Lizard!" the voice said. "Do you know where Mr. Fluffington went? He's lost himself again!"
The mist dragon slowly opened his big scaley eyelids, and looked around. He didn't see anything at first, looking up at the trees.Then he lowered his gaze and saw something rather gruesome at his side.

There was a girl laying on her stomach talking to him. She wasn't a normal girl though. The first glaringly obvious thing he noticed was that she had no feet, rather her legs were cut short right around the shin. In the place of feet were boney stumps. The weird thing was that there was no blood, and the girl seemed to be perfectly ok. The girl's skin was a sickly hue of greyish green, and it looked worn and stretched, almost as if it were long dead. She looked sort of like a zombie, but something seemed different to him.

"Hello there....child." Idhrenhith said hesitantly. She seemed docile enough. Idhrenhith was generally tolerant of others. He supposed that, if a zombie wasn't attacking him, here was no harm in showing some courtesy." I am Idhrenhith, a dragon of mist."he said. "Who..." He paused for a moment, pondering the child's question. "Who is Mr Fluffington? Is he a friend of yours, or is he the man who cut off your feet?" He wouldn't be very suprised if Mr. Fluffington was just a figment of her imagination, afterall, who was named Mr. Fluffington?

The mist dragon looked around, trying to see if there was any trace of this "Mr. Fluffington." He didn't see anything, or hear anything out of the ordinary. He did smell something that was really quite rancid, but he assumed that must be the rotting flesh of the undead child he was talking to. It was amazing how much odor could accumulate on one's skin after death. Then again, he thought he had smelled it somewhere else. Where was it...? It was some of type of bug....

He failed to remember, and instead turned his attention back to the child.
"What, may I ask, is your name young one?" he asked. "You seem to be rather, pardon my language, disfigured. Are you feeling well? Are you feeling at all?" He knew it was probably a pointless question. Most zombies didnt have much intelligence. Yet there was the fact that this child had been able to produce a complete, albeit wacky, sentence. There may be more to her than what first meets the eye. "Is there any way I can help you?

Robyn was still pretty far from the big white lizard so while he was busy asking her questions she continued to slink forward. Well, perhaps slink wasn't the right word. It was more like prod at the earth until it, out of annoyance, catapulted her forward with random, jerky motions. Or maybe loff. Yes, it was out of loff. Robyn-Rin wanted to go forwards and the earth mother let her. It was such a nice earth mommy, wasn't it? Robyn patted the earth all friendly-like. Thank your toes and beat your foes as Alice-Mommy always said! Or was it Momma Bear? Momma Bear hadn't appeared in a loooooooong while so Robyn-Rin was starting to get the two of them confuzzled. Oh well.

Wait, why was she thinking about toes again? Oh right, to thank them. Or rather, thank the Earth-Mommy. Since the big white lizard was still talking and it was im-pol-ite to talk to the Earth-Mommy since she would be int-er-upting. Or sumfink. Anyways! Interrupting was a no-no! So Robyn wouldn't do eet!

"...is he the man who cut off your feet?"

Robyn peered at the big white lizard thingy and cocked her head. Mweh? Wot had he just asked? About Mr. Fluffington? Mr. Fluffington cutting off her feet? No he... no wait! He had! He had cut off her feet! He had set those dastardly traps that had managed to make her gnaw them right off and then eatify them! That meant that the White Lizard was right! Wow! He was such a good guesser! He was like a supah guesser! And he even knew that Meester Fluffington was a Meester. Robyn blinked. He... he was like the smartest lizard ever! Maybe even smarter than Meester Antioch! And Antioch was one smart noodle! Poodle. Small, not-insect thing. General. Wutever.

"Yup!" She answered simply. "He's a real meanie-pooh sometimes!"

And now that Robyn thought about it- it was true. Meester Fluffington scratched and yowled every time that Robyn-Rin said 'playtime!' and ran off at ridik-ulous speeds when she said Doktor. Didn't even bother to scratch and run. Just ran. She always caught him but he was such a deeficult leetle youngling. Robyn scrunched up her face. She was going to have a looooooong talk with Meester Fluffington. Oh yes. A vereh, vereh long talk. And it'd end with a veeeereh long game of Doctor. Yupyup.

"What, may I ask, is your name young one?"

"You may." Robyn replied promptly. And then she answered. She almost forgot, but that was to be expected wot with the smart noodle telling her wot her name was right left and center but Robyn was sly and tricksy and managed to wheedle it out of the morasses her brain had become. "It is Robyn. Robyn-Rin. Pleased to meetcha Meester Big White Lizard Person."

"And nuh, no pain. And yes, joo can help me find Meester Fluffington!" She smiled cheerily and crawled closer towards the big lizard. She paused.

"Do you have a name?" Her mouth was open as if the realization that she had not asked this question was a big shock.

Idhrenhith watched curiously as the child crawled towards him. It was quite a strange, and rather gruesome sight, to see a legless zombie child pulling itself towards him. Though Idhrenith would normally be wary of such a thing, the child didn't seem at all dangerous. He was more calm than perhaps most people would be, then again most people weren't lumbering dragons...

Then the child decided to answer his question. "Yup! He's a real meanie-pooh sometimes!" she said. So that was it. Mr Fluffington was indeed the man who had cut off her feet. THe way in which the child spoke intrigued Idhrenhith, it was almost as if she was a toddler. Why would she act like that, could it be that her brain was so rotted that it forced her state of mind backwards? Even if that was the case, the mist dragon supposed it was a good thing that she could speak and think at all. Weren't mindless zombies supposed to be....mindless?

The child spoke again, "It is Robyn. Robyn-Rin. Pleased to meetcha Meester Big White Lizard Person." So her name was Robyn, that made it a bit easier to adress her. She called Idhrenhith an odd name, which made her state of mental decay seem more obvious to him. She looked as if to have been a teenager when she died, yet she definitely didn't have the mentality of a teenager.

Robyn then answered Idhrenhith's previous questions, stating that she felt no pain, and that she would welcome his help. A sort of smile spread across Idhrenhith's face. It had been a while since he had helped out someone. He was now almost certain that he could trust this zombie child's intentions, (limited though they may be.)

"My name is Idhrenhith." the dragon said to Robyn, ignoring the fact that he had already given her his name. " I am not quite what you'd call a lizard, I believe Dragons, although similar, are a compltely different family of animals." He stopped, pondering if she would undestand what he meant. Maybe it was best to speak in simple terms to her.

"So Robyn-Rin." he said. "I shall help you find your Mr. Fluffington. Where is the last place you saw him exactly, and what does he look like? Physique, size, hair color?"

Robyn heard him repeat the odd jumble of letters and syllables that he had previously given her when calling himself a 'dragon' (har har har, Robyn knew what a dragon was and it was... well, it wasn't a big white lizard thing!) and perked her brows upwards and outwards curiously. What kind of name was... that was gobbledygook! He was trying to tricksy her! No one had a name like... like.. Idr-Idreh-No-One-knows-how-to-pronounce-something-like-that! Wot a ridiculous thing to say! He was a big white lizard and that was fine-fine! Robyn nodded her head gravely. Yessirree, that was just perfectly fine with her. He'd call her Robyn-Rin and she'd call him Big White Lizard. Person. Thing. Maybe.

Annnnnyways, he was talking about sumfink. Sumfink about lizards. And dragons. Was he going on about that silly notion again? That he was a dr-dr-dragon? Robyn shook her head sadly, she'd have to be firm with this big white lizard. She met people like this every once in a while, friend-friends who firmly believed that she wasn't a real girl, or that she was a monster, or that Mr. Fluffington was a zombie or that she smelled bad. Idjits. He and they had... what were they called? Illusions of manure? Delusions of granule? Sumfink like that. Robyn pouted. In the old days, Cheffy-Chef would have provided her with some of the words she was looking for. Now she couldn't even find him let alone the words!

She was about to remonstrate (or decapitate, she wasn't quite sure which word meant what) the big white lizard about the status of animals in the animal kingdom and show him that big white lizards were not certainly big white dragons and that therefore he must be a big white lizard! Besides, everyone knew that real dragons were long and sinewy and curvy. This specimen had far too much fat. Fatty-fat did not a dragon make. Dragons were thin. Lithe. Delicious. Tasty. Yummy. Non-fattening. Low in chol- Mmmmmm...

Eyes staring into space Robyn started to drool a bit as she thought of a dragon dish. A dish fit for a king! Or if not a king, a small little Robyn-rin. There must be looots of interesting stuffs inside a dragon head.

"I shall help you find your Mr. Fluffington."

Robyn snapped back into the present and promptly forgot all about decapitating and remonstrating this dear, dear, dear friend-friend. Only a friend-friend would help her, Robyn knew that from loooong experience with various friend-friends and meanie-poohs. Meanie-poohs didn't help. Friend-friends helped. It was what made a friend-friend a friend-friend. As flexible as Robyn's mind was at the present, it didn't manage to make the logical leap and integrate Mr. Fluffington into the list of known meanie-poohs. It was an odd little soul that inhabited this walking, talking corpse. Or, perhaps, she had no soul at all.

"Mr. Fluffington is purdy leetle kitty-kat!"