The horror reared to its feet – a semi-decayed man. His long tongue flickered in and out with a hissing sound.

"A ghoul!" cried Nadine. "Don't let it bite or scratch you!"

She fired at the ghoul and so did Corey. The undead fiend dodged Corey's bullet, but Nadine's lodged in its shoulder, centimetres from its heart. This didn't seem to bother it however. It danced around them hissing:

"Fresssshh meat! At lassst."

"Not on your un-life," said Nadine. She gritted her teeth and fired, this time getting the ghoul through the skull.

The ghoul fell to the ground, where it twitched and died.

Nadine let out a long breath. "You OK, Corey?"

"Yeah. What exactly was that?"

"A ghoul. The spirit of a cannibalistic evil-doer. We stumbled into his larder. Look at the other bodies…" She gestured around. "I can't perform last rites for any of them. Don't know what faiths they were, if any, and probably don't belong to them. Rest in peace though, guys."

They left the dreadful chamber and crept along the stone passage. It grew almost pitch black as they went on. "Cats eye goggles!" said Nadine. They put the goggles on. Nadine smiled at him. Through the night vision goggles, everything looked like it was suffused in a greenish yellow light. Nadine looked beautiful, even with the goggles on, although Corey thought he must look silly.

The tunnel sloped downwards and the entered a vast crypt of some kind, the ceiling supported by cracked pillars. At one end there was an altar and various coffins were strewn about the room.

"Based on what we've already seen… I've got a real bad feeling about this," said Nadine. "Stick close to me, darling."

The silence was deathly. A slow drip startled Corey as they crept around the coffins and towards the altar. The altar was ornately carved and studded with jewels. The drapes hanging from the walls would have been beautifully woven once, but now they were rotting and threadbare. A creaking noise made them jump and whirl round. The largest coffin was opening. A huge, muscle bound man sat up in his coffin as the lid swung open. His face was ashen, with dark areas around his glaring eyes. He bared his teeth at them. They were sharp, like the teeth of a wolf. A terrifying hiss came from his throat. He beckoned to them.

"Vampire!" Said Nadine. "The ghoul was something like a very poor man's vampire."

The vampire was dressed in a nightshirt or shroud. He gave a drawn out hiss. "Come to me, my little running buffets."

"Don't look at his eyes!" urged Nadine. "Dunno if cat eye goggles filter out vampire hypnotism."

"You have a beautiful throat, freckleface," gloated the vampire. "Just the right size for my teeth."

Nadine fired at him and he snatched the bullet out of the air. Suddenly, the bullet exploded in the vampire's grasp and the undead being caught fire, staggering around the crypt, roaring and hissing. Eventually he collapsed to the rocky floor, just a charred skeleton.

Nadine took Corey's hand. She was trembling. "Let's go," she said, her voice trembling. She led him quickly from the crypt and down a winding stone passageway. After they had turned a corner she checked him over. "You OK?" she still sounded odd. The full beauty of her face was diminished in the weird, greenish tinge of the cat eye night vision goggles. He imagined she would look pale in the clear light of day and her freckles would really be showing.

"I'm alright… I didn't think anything bad would happen. You're with me."

"Oh, Corey…" she sighed. "What we're doing is dangerous and we've got lucky so far."

"Cheer up," he said, touching her cheek. "Think of us getting married when this is all done."

"I really hope," she said softly.

They went down the winding corridors, Nadine checking the compass as they turned each corner.

Suddenly, they saw a glimmer of light in the distance. The removed their cats eye goggles, and crept closer. In the room were four little humanoid creatures with blue-green skin, sitting around a table. They were each about three feet tall. They were leaning back on their little stools and smoking clay pipes, the clouds of smoke giving off a sweet, musty aroma. There were strangely shaped dice on the table, all the colours of the rainbow.

"Well hi!" said Nadine, grinning and starting forwards into the room. She scooped up one of the little creatures in her arms. "What're you doing so far down this hole of the undead then, eh?"

"Hey! Gerroff!" The little creatures struggled. Nadine put him back on his chair, where he tried to recover some of his ruffled dignity. "We're goblins. The Orc Chieftain sent us away. Said we were runty and useless." Nadine scowled. "I wanna slap him."

Corey wondered why she was so protective of the goblins. Could it be her maternal feelings kicking in again?

"We're playing SwindleStones," piped another Goblin. "Won't you play, too?"

Nadine's freckled cheeks flushed pink as she was suffused with the gambling fever.

"Nadine, hadn't we better keep moving?" asked Corey, tugging her arm.

Nadine had already drawn up a stool. It looked pretty funny, her sitting at the table. It was really too small for her. The goblins were all three foot. She was five foot nine. "One round won't hurt," she said.

"Relax, boy." Piped a goblin. "We only play in coppers."

The gambling game was a complicated one. The players had to throw the dice and then guess the numbers each player had thrown. They covered the dice with their hands so the others could not see. The dice were magic and couldn't be moved once they had landed, until it was time for the next round.

Nadine was grinning, her brown eyes shining, as she stared into the eyes of each goblin and bluffed about her throws. "Can any of you beat five fours? Anyone?" She had in fact only thrown one four. But the goblins fell for it and she won the round. "Come to momma!" She swept all the coppers to her.

"Want a smoke to celebrate?" asked a goblin.

Nadine smiled. "No, thanks. I'm going to have a baby, you see."

"What?" squawked another goblin. "That boy blow his beans up your muff?" He pointed at Corey with his little green hand, that had only two fingers and a stubby thumb.

Nadine scowled. "No! An ogre did that to me." She breathed through her nose.

The goblin definitely had a weird and vulgar way of phrasing it.

Corey tugged on her arm again. He had to be bold, if he was going to snap her out of the gambling habit. "A gambling thing… you can't really have that either, if we're going to be a mom and dad together." He thought wording it cutely might get through to her.

She blushed, looking more beautiful than ever. "N-No, Corey. I think you're right." She rose to her feet. "Take care, goblins. I still feel bad about you being in this random room in the undead realm, like this."

"What're you clearing off now? You're winning," grumbled a goblin.

Corey dragged her towards the door. "Maybe the warlock will know what to do about them. He may be a thief, but he can't be all bad if he gives refuge to outcasts."

They went down various passages, leading in different directions like a maze. The came to another door, and unexpectedly, it opened into a carpeted room, lit up by flickering candles, the walls lined with bookshelves.

An old man in star spangled robes was poring over an old tome with vellum pages.

He glared at them. "Well? Why are you disturbing my concentration."

Nadine put a hand to her mouth. "Sorry, sir, we just got lost…"

"Get lost now!" He snapped, thumping the desk. The floor gave way beneath them. Corey yelled as they fell onto something soft and squishy. A green, viscous substance of some sort. They were standing knee deep in it. They were in a rocky cavern, in a pool of this stuff.

"Oh my gosh, Corey, are you OK?" Nadine began checking him over.

"What're yoo doin' here?"

A huge, ugly green monster, his skin glistening with an oily sheen had shambled into the cavern. Nadine gave a gasp, and blushed deeply. Her freckles looked weird when she did that. "Blarsh!"

That ogre that had raped and impregnated her. Corey felt indignation well up in him, but he couldn't move his feet.

"Yoo just one of my conquests, 'uman woman," said Blarsh, pointing at Nadine. "I've made more half-yooman babies 'an I c'n count."

What number could the ogre count to, exactly? He had more half-human babies than that, anyway. Nadine was just one of that number of mothers.

"But yoo…" the ogre pointed at Corey. "Yoo prettier and sexier 'an she is. I've no such tendn'cies, but if I 'ad… cor!"

Wait! What exactly did that mean? It didn't exactly make Corey feel very comfortable. Nadine's mouth had fallen open. What exactly was this doing to her, seeing the ogre again and then hearing him tell Corey that he must be sexier than her? It was beyond weird, to say the very least.

"Now that rump… cor!" said the ogre, pointing at Corey's behind.

Nadine scowled. "Don't talk about him that way."

The ogre ignored her and continued rambling to Corey. "If I did it with 'er again, I'd be thinkin' of yoo, all the time."

This was really creepy. Especially as the ogre was breathing heavily. If the ogre had no such tendencies as he put it, then why was he rambling on about Corey in this way? If he wasn't really attracted to Corey and was only attracted to women, then surely, or so Corey thought, the ogre would be reminiscing about doing it with Nadine and making their baby? She was carrying his baby in her womb, and she was standing right there.

The ogre rambled on. "I know class, I does…" He pointed at Nadine. "She's not very excitin' to mate wiv… She jus' keeps strugglin' and fighting it even tho' I gave her multiple orgasms that started 'er swoonin.'" Then the ogre started insulting Nadine, giving very uncomfortable and specific intimate details based on his complete carnal knowledge of her.

Nadine glared, her brown eyes glinting. "H-How dare you…" Her voice was trembling.

"I wouldn' both wiv 'er, 'cept she might be a good mother," said the ogre, still prattling on in this weird way, now insulting poor Nadine. "I'll 'elp yer out of there, tho.'"

Blarsh pulled Corey out of the pit. His boots came free with a squelch. "I'd like ter do it wiv yer, you gorgeous and perfect hunk of man candy," said Blarsh.

Uh Oh! This was quite … horrifying.

"No!" said Nadine, turning pale, her freckles really showing. "Get me out of here… I'm going to be the mother of one of your kids and I want another go… I can't stop thinking about you. Have me here and now."

"Oh, alright," said Blarsh, heaving her out of the pit with a squelch and then pulling off her jacket.

Nadine gritted her teeth and seized the stunning stick from inside her boot and rammed it into the ogre's private parts. There was a buzzing and the ogre collapsed roaring to the ground. "Ooooh! Urrrrgh! Right in the breeding parts! After they gave yoo multiple orgasms and a baby…!"

Nadine grabbed Corey's arm. "Come on. Run."

Corey knew perfectly well that it was against Nadine's kind nature to ever kill anyone, but he couldn't help but think it would be better if the ogre was dead and that they had just missed a chance to see to it. What if the ogre should sue for visitation rights for the baby? Corey didn't want the ogre in his life, for obvious reasons that need no explanation! It would just be so much better if the ogre was out of the way. He could love Nadine's baby just fine if he didn't have to think about the biological father…

They hurried along a passageway that veered to the west according to Nadine's compass. They reached a small rocky arch, beyond which was a vast cavern, partly lit by natural light that shone in through the roof. As they shone the torches on their belts around the cavern, they heard a rumble and the flickering of fire in the dim light... Corey's heart hammered in his chest as a great, green dragon came stalking out of the shadows towards them, smoke curling from its nostrils!