the statue had stood here a few weeks now, and unlike most statues, it was very angry. cylene was even more infuriated at jake and his friends now. they'd petrified her, left her here, and worse, didn't even know who she was! she'd make sure he never forgot her name...

...if she ever got turned back.

she'd had time to think of revenge. it was all she could do. she'd planned it in detail, the daydreams fresh in her mind of what she'd do...

suddenly, her stone ears heard the muffled sound of footsteps. a kobold and a dwarf entered her vision, and if her stone face wasn't locked in a surprised grimance she'd have smiled. it was her gang. and they were here to turn her back. the kobold threw the potion, reverting her, and the shapeshifter's first act in weeks was to grin a sinister smile.

'we've got work to do.' she ordered the two.

***

the slaver gang, 20 strong, were all outside and quick to obey orders. cylene's plan to get her previous revenge had been left to herself so that the village wouldn't realise it was a whole gang, but now she was done with the subterfuge and subtle tricks. it was time for simple force. and the first step was nuetralising the half-illithid pest who had foiled her previously. they would wait until nightfall, when they knew the whole family would be home. against all of them, they'd be overwhelmed. cylene knew their weakness too. she just needed to be sure all four were in the house at once and no one escaped.

'remember the plan!' cylene told her gang.

they nodded, and soon surrounded the house. her shouted order was to start the charge. she would make sure the two most powerful threats would be nuetralised with one simple act as she burst in the door. as fate had it, what she needed was right at hand. bianca screamed as she was grabbed by cylene, knife held to her throat as the rest of the gang swarmed in.

'no funny stuff, or blondie gets a new mouth in her neck.' cylene warned jake and mordan, who had both leapt up and were ready to fight, pausing only as they saw bianca held hostage. crystal stared in shock.

'what now?' a kobold asked. cylene smiled

'tie them up. gag the males.' she ordered, then reconsidered.

'no... someone hold this. i'll tie up the boy.'

she threw bianca roughly to a lizardman, who held a rusting pair of blades around her like scissors. jake growled at this.

'if you hurt her...'

'oh, but i will have to hurt her, sugah. you can't make a good slave without hurting them first. but you're up first.' cylene smirked, and then gagged jake.

meanwhile, her gang was tying up mordan and crystal, the terrified bianca still held by the lizardman, knowing he'd snip her head off if she moved an inch. cylene meanwhile produced a black rope and began tying jake up.

'so kind of y'all to invite us to spend the night. we'll drag you to market in the morning. i'm hoping your little village down there has plenty more livestock...' cylene grinned.

to make things especially uncomfortable for the family, she looped ropes over the rafters, under their arms, and suspended them from the rafters after all four were tied up and gagged. what cylene didn't like was the angry glare jake kept giving her. she soon solved that with a blindfold.

'think you're smart, huh? glare at me, try and take over my body again to get free... it's not gonna happen. this time i'm in control.' she taunted the blinded, muted, and bound half-illithid.

turning to address her gang, who had crammed into the house, she smiled.

'enjoy our host's home, boys! take anything useful. tomorrow, we're dragging these men away from the women, but if it goes to plan we'll reuinite them when we sell them and their neighbours as slaves!' she said loudly, making sure the family heard their fate.

***

early the next morning, most of the gang helped drag jake and mordan to the village. it wasn't a long walk, but cylene had made sure to tie heavy weights to jake. considering the less than comfortable night he had spend dangling from his own roof, this meant his walking was slow. cylene dragged him personally, savouring every moment of her retribution. she'd taken off the blindfold, knowing two things. one of them was that his angry looks would make this revenge sweeter.

'isn't this fun? a little walk out in the woods.'

jake said something, muffled by his gag, and cylene found he was putting up resistance to being dragged.

'trying something, jake? remember we've got insurance.' she warned. she tugged the rope and watched him glare at her.

she stared him in the eyes, taunting jake to try and use his mind powers.  but he was tired and weakened by what she had done. all he could do was glare defiantly.

'like father like son.' cylene noted, seeing mordan glare too. unlike jake, though, she tried to avoid his gaze. she wasn't relying on fatigue to stop a full mind-flayer from being a threat... but gagged, the pair were helpless as they were dragged to the village

***

the gang stormed into the village, their two prisoners were dumped in the middle of the square, surrounded by a handful of her gang.

'bring the village chief!' she ordered. her gang had grabbed a few villagers who had been unlucky enough to be outside, holding them hostage too. soon, some of her gang had dragged mr. nicholas outside.

'who are you?' he demanded.

'i'm going to be your new owner soon. you and this whole village.'

'what? that's preposterous!'

'if your whole village doesn't surrender to me and become our slaves, i'll kill our hostages. the illithid, his son, his family. and those other little chickens we caught.' she said, motioning to the two tied up and gagged hostages, and the unlucky villagers.

'some of the villagers went hunting...' nicholas lied. cylene smiled.

'good. and to make sure you're not lying, i want you to have the whole village give up while we search for anyone hiding... you're coming with me.' she said.

'we'll search the houses. you tie up all the villagers. we'll wait for these hunters to come back rather than look for them.' she ordered some of her gang.

***

while this occurred, mia and saren watched. they were the only two villagers even remotely close to having gone hunting, having heard the gang coming and hidden nearby. they watched and heard cylene's loud boasting, and saw that she had jake tied up.

'we need to get jake and mordan free.' mia said.

'yeah, but how? there's way too many for us to sneak past.'

mia then had a thought.

'not like this, but what we need is at the temple.'

mia and saren headed for the temple quickly. the gang was distracted raiding the houses to make sure no one was hiding, as well as tying up the villagers. they found the priest inside as they slipped in.

'mia? saren? is there a problem?' he asked.

'a gang of slavers is in the village. we need your help to free jake and mordan.' mia said.

'what's your plan anyway?' saren asked.

'i need a shape shifting scroll or four.'

***

a few minutes later, a group of half a dozen slavers, mostly kobolds and lizardmen entered the temple with cylene and mr nicholas. the priest quickly surrendered, cylene watching as mr nicholas made sure.

'this is a big building. search carefully!' she ordered a lizardman. she then spotted a kobold trying to steal some scrolls and gave it a kick.

'we'll have time for that later, idiot! look for anyone hiding!'

the 8 slavers found nothing. cylene was satisfied, but noticed the kobold from before was stealing scrolls again. cylene grabbed one and used it, transforming him into stone on the spot.

'i told you before, fool!' she said, leaving the stone kobold behind as the others laughed and left.

***

by now, many villagers were tied up, guarded by the other slavers. the village was nearly emptied, and soon the gang would begin looting once the hunters returned. the villagers outnumbered the slavers, but with many of them tied up they were no threat. cylene walked up to jake, holding a familar scroll.

'you know boy, i think i might change my plans. your family will make good slaves, but you'll make a better trophy... blindfolded of course. when everyone is safely in chains and sold off, i'll be sure to change you into a memento worth keeping...' she taunted. jake recognised the petrificiation scroll.

cylene left to search another house while a kobold and a lizardman wandered the crowd of villagers. the lizardman seemed to be whispering to the kobold.

'that was close... a minute earlier and you'd still be in the temple!' the lizardman said

'it's lucky she can't spot the difference between her own allies. or count.' the kobold agreed.

jake could have sworn they sounded like...

the kobold cut the rope around him carefully. the lizard meanwhile freed mordan. the two still looked tied up, but the ropes no longer held them in place.

'wait a minute until we say so...' mia said, passing one of the two scrolls she had to saren. she had turned herself into a kobold and saren into a lizardman to sneak in with the group.

jake nodded agreement. he caught mordan's eye, and his father spoke in his mind

your friends are very resourceful. they've cut the ropes of most of the villagers.

if they wait until cylene is distracted we can get them all at once, then free mother and bianca! jake said back

i hope so. mordan agreed.

'jake, now!' the kobold-mia yelled as she and lizardman-saren used their scrolls to revert. the untied villagers, and the father and son, leapt up and attacked the real slavers near them. the slavers with cylene turned in surprise, only to be hit with arrows and psionic blasts. jake grabbed a rusting dagger from a nearby lizardman, while a number of villagers were clubbing slavers with anything they could grab.

cylene herself saw the battle rage, saw that her gang was overwhelmed and fled as the villagers charged her small group. mr nicholas lended his aid, punching a human in the back of the head and disarming a kobold who carried a crossbow

'she's running!' nicholas warned, while holding the struggling kobold. jake, mordan, mia and saren left the villagers to finish off the slavers, intent on saving bianca and crystal

***

jake, mordan, mia, and saren raced back to the house, knowing cylene would have been moving faster. they were lucky to get there just as she was about to open the door.

'i need help!' cylene shouted for the rest of her gang, but mia was quick off the mark.

an arrow from her went through the window, and the lizardman she'd seen fell down. a kobold darted out in a panic, straight past cylene and into saren's blade. the four faced cylene as the three humans inside stormed out. one carried an axe, another had stolen jake's daggers, and a third carried a long sword. cylene drew her own daggers. jake looked at the rusty knife he carried, and at the man who had his daggers.

'i'll trade. my weapons for this one.' jake said. the man grinned. jake threw the knife, aided with his psionic powers to make it go straight into his mouth. he fell. as he did, the other three with him attacked, wiping the floow in seconds with the two men as jake grabbed his daggers back. cylene soon found herself surrounded.

'keep her here.' mordan instructed as he entered the house

'i don't think so.' cylene smirked,and the shapeshifter transformed. in an instant, she became an eagle and fled into the sky, evading swipes from jake and saren. mia readied an arrow, but missed by a whisker as cylene ran.

'dad, are they okay?' jake asked. to his relief, his mother and bianca were fine. mia and saren followed him in as the family was reunited.

'sheesh, they totalled this place...' saren noted, silenced by a swift elbow from mia.

'it's okay. we can fix it all.' crystal said, glad to be at least be free.

***

as she fled, cylene was even more infuriated. her whole gang, gone, and not one of those she wanted revenge on eliminated. she'd get revenge next time. on jake, on mordan, on the whole village...