Saturday, Nov. 30, 2002 - 10:03 p.m.

One winters day, not long ago,

A strange little man played out in the snow.

The little man sang, the little man laughed,

And he built up some snowmen, for that was his craft.

So he made a big snowball, to use as a head,

And then sadly remembered - his friends were all dead.

He decided the snowmen would be his friends now,

The strange little man just didn't know how...

---

But the nice local wizard, he gave him the facts,

"You must go and kill Nastor, and please, take this axe."

To kill Nastor, the wizardly evil man, who,

Lived high up a mountain, would be hard, this was true,

But the strange little man couldn't cope anymore,

And to gain him some friends, twas a worthwhile chore.

---

So the strange little man climbed the mountain on high,

With the axe on his back, he was willing to die,

But he didn't think that he would die quite so soon,

So upwards he climbed, by the light of the moon.

---

When he reached the castle, atop a great peak,

The strange little man, felt horribly weak,

So he rested aside a large tree for a while,

Then picked up his axe, and smiled a grim smile.

---

The tree nodded to him, and said "You'll do great.

I like you, little man, and that Nastor - I hate!

He plants me out here, with the wind and the rain,

And he never pays attention if I start to complain!"

---

And the strange little man, felt encouraged by this,

But when he knocked on the door, he heard a strange hiss.

He jumped back, alarmed, but the hissing just stopped,

So he pushed on the door, the wood creaked, and it popped,

And he stepped right inside, with but moonlight behind,

And in front of himself saw a figure, of ghost kind.

It moaned, and it wailed, and it then became real.

It was Nastor's doorguard, and it wanted a meal.

---

With a swing of the magical axe it was felled,

And the strange little man took the keys that it held,

And onwards he ran, up the stairs, down the halls,

Until, right at last he reached a room with four walls.

---

This final room had four walls, but no door!

Not windows, nor holes in the ceiling or floor.

The strange little man grew worried, and scared,

When Nastor appeared, and the lighting all flared.

---

"I'll get you, trespasser, you'll see that I do,

I'll be polishing your skull by the time that we're through!"

And the strange little man raised his axe up one more,

And with a magical scream it crashed down on the floor,

And the hole that this made started spinning, and whirling,

The outlines of both of the men started twirling.

And then with two screams they were both sucked inside,

And appeared in the land of the people who died.

They didn't feel dead, the strange fighting men, though,

They were living where only the dead people go!

Their fight was forgotten in this moment of fear,

Would the two men be able to get out of here?

Had the wizard's axe enchanted, doomed them to a life of death?

Were they two men lost forever, or would they soon again draw breath?

---

The land of the dead was unpleasant in smell,

It smelled of rot and fear, but it surely wasn't Hell.

For in Hell there are fires, and here there was not,

But this land of the dead was unseasonably hot.

There were rivers of fire, and storms with blood rain,

But there was no screaming, no people in pain.

The mountains were red, and the grass was bright yellow,

But the overall feeling was overly mellow.

The dead were all smiling, which made little sense,

The thoughts in his head caused the small man offense.

Offense, for he didn't like much to be wrong,

And his feelings of wrongness today were qutie strong.

---

So the strange little man looked around this huge place,

And his gaze finally rested on one body's face.

It looked like the wizard, who gave him the axe,

And he was now dead and rotting, two terrible facts,

For the strange little man could no longer be told,

How to gain himself friends, by that wizard of old.

He had to kill Nastor, so he could know how,

But the wizard was dead, so he wanted out now.

---

Nastor the evil was telling horrible lies,

To the corpses, so the strange man went to apologise.

"Sorry," he said, "For the trying to kill you,

I'm sure you understand, it was all I could do!"

Nastor just stared at the strange little man,

"I said I would kill you, and now that I can...

I don't think I will do, it wouldn't be right,

But I will leave you here! I'm leaving, goodnight!"

---

And so Nastor escaped from that horribly place,

Left the strange little man with a look on his face,

That was surely pure horror, and maybe some dread,

But he settled in nicely, and his friends are still dead!