Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

Julian. "Remember what happened to the last force she sent down. Their heads ended up on sticks, and their guts were sewn into murderous rag dolls."
    Evangeline shuddered. "I still can't believe toys did that."
    "Stop thinking of them as toys," said Giles. "They're more akin to Furies than anything else. That's what Shub intended them to be."
    "The Bear thinks Harker has gone crazy," said Finlay. "Maybe he thinks Harker is driving toys crazy as well. That could make them and him really dangerous. Let's not forget, everyone else who went in search of him never came back, people or toys. Nothing was ever heard of them again."
    "The Red Man," said Flynn. "They call him the Red Man now. Red for blood, perhaps?"
    "Wouldn't surprise me," said Toby. "Everything's gone to hell here. This place is enough to drive anyone crazy."
    "It's not all bad here," said Evangeline. "Look at Toystown, and Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat…"
    "It's not them!" said Giles. "Just automatons that look and sound like them. Who better to gain our trust and then betray it?"
    "Which brings us back to where we started," said Julian.

    "Hush," said Flynn. "Someone's coming."
    It was Halloweenie, the Li'l Skeleton Boy, carrying a tray of steaming hot drinks. He'd switched his eyepatch to the other empty eye socket, and now wore a proud three-cornered hat, pushed well back on his skull. "Thought you might like something warming," he said cheerfully. "Hot chocolate for everyone! Be sure and wrap up well once the sun goes down. The nights can be very cold here, if you're human."
    "You don't feel the cold?" said Evangeline, taking a steaming mug from the tray.
    "Oh no," said Halloweenie. He winked his eye socket at her, a disturbing effect.
    "I'm only bones, after all. Though I do rattle now and again, just for effect.
    Do stay and watch the sun go down. It's really very pretty."
    He waited till everyone had a mug in his or her hand, and then he bustled off about his chores again, happily humming something nautical to himself. The humans sipped at their hot chocolate, found it good, and leaned over the railing to watch the sun sinking slowly below the horizon. The smiley face on the sun had mellowed and looked distinctly drowsy. A rich crimson glow was the only color left in the night, stretched in streaks across the night sky, and reflecting darkly on the River. Somewhere birds were singing, a vast chorus of voices, proclaiming peace and rest and the day's end.
    "It's just a recording," said Bruin Bear. The humans looked round sharply. None of them had heard him approach. The Bear leaned on the railing beside them, looking out into the night. "At least, we've searched for the birds, but never found them. Perhaps it's just another of this world's mysteries. There's so much about this world you humans made that we don't understand yet."
    He broke off as farther down the River, bright lights showed clearly against the
    night sky, followed by distant sounds of thunder.
    "Fireworks!" said Evangeline.
    "Not anymore," said Bruin Bear. He sounded suddenly tired, and the humans turned to look at him. He was staring out into the night, his eyes sad. "Once, it would have been fireworks. A celebration by toys, to mark the ending of the day. Now it's bombs. Explosions. Grenades. The war is still going on, down the River. Toy fighting toy, for no good reason, fighting a war that will never end until one side has completely wiped out the other. Or until the Red Man and his army emerge from the dark Forest to put an end to everything."
    "You're afraid of him, aren't you?" said Toby.
    "Of course," said the Bear. "He's an unknown factor. The war here may be terrible, but at least it's an evil we understand. Who knows what insane plans may be forming in the Red Man's human mind? We're still only toys, for all our new intelligence, and our minds are limited by our short lives and experiences.
    We've seen the awful things brought about by the madness of toys. Trying to imagine the darkness the Red Man's madness might plunge us into has unnerved us all."
    "But he hasn't actually done anything yet, has he?" said Finlay.
    "We don't know," said Bruin Bear. "No one knows what's happened to the hundreds of toys who disappeared into the dark heart of the great Forest. There are only rumors, whispers, floating back down the River, on the mouths of toys brought in shell-shocked and dying from the war. They say Harker found something, deep in the Forest, something that changed him into