Title: It Came From The Novak

Author: Jos Mous

Email: wotan_anubis@yahoo.com

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters, I'm not making any profit out of this, blahblahblah.

PAIRINGS: Lots, but mostly Sam/Brooke

RATING: PG-13

NOTE: The last Lord Sam got a bit too serious in my opinion, so this one is a little less serious. I hope.

Simon Ferguson was a fisherman. And he was proud to be one too. His speciality was red herring, which he fished out of the Novak Sea. The Novak Sea which, as we all know, borders on the western border of P'p'l'r. Simon had chosen his speciality in red herring because it was so very rare and therefor expensive. He especially liked the expensive part. He did not like the rare part, however. For you see, the problem with rare animals is that there are very few of them. More often than not Simon did not catch any red herring at all in his nets, but disco-coloured jellyfish. And not only were disco-coloured jellyfish not rare they were also quite tasty. And tasty seafood never sells well in the really _expensive_ restaurants. So, as Simon went back to the shore in his small boat he prepared himself for another banquet of disco-coloured jellyfish and a rainbow halibut or two.

The sea had been very calm all day, so the small, gentle ripple in the water that approached his boat did not surprise Simon very much. What did surprise him, however, was the sudden tidal wave-like wave that hit his boat next.

"Sorry." Said a voice. "I didn't see you there."

Lady Brooke was bored. Things had been very slow around the Palace lately. Usually that was not so much of a problem. After all, quiet times meant a lot of quality time with her wife. Unfortunately her wife had left for the Rim Mountains a week ago for some official business with the Crystal Queen who, against all odds, still ruled. So there Lady Brooke was, sitting on her throne, watching a large empty throne room and just barely listening to her court mage. Lady Brooke's boredom, however, would soon come to an end since the lowly peon Harrison was about to enter. This would not do much to alleviate Lady Brooke's boredom, but what would happen after that would.

The doors to the throne room opened and the lowly peon Harrison entered, walked up to the throne, ignored the outcry of 'Hi Joe!' from court mage Cherry, bowed and looked up again.

"My Lady, there are some men here to see you." Said the lowly peon Harrison.

"You know Joe, you really should come up to mah tower more often." Court mage Cherry said.

The lowly peon Harrison blocked the court mage out of his universe. He was very good at blocking things out of his universe.

"Really?" Asked Lady Brooke, only vaguely interested. "And what do these men want?"

"I don't know." Answered the lowly peon Harrison. "I haven't asked."

"Then go and ask them!" Lady Brooke said.

"An excellent idea, my Lady."

The lowly peon Harrison bowed and turned around.

"Mah word. Tha insolence of that guy! Ignoring mah absolute perfectioness!" Court mage Cherry fumed.

"Let it go Cherry." Brooke said. "He's really not worth it."

The lowly peon Harrison was about to open the doors to the throne room when they flung open and hit him square in the face, knocking the lowly peon Harrison out for the remainder of this story.

Four animals entered with a very confident stride. However, it was very clear that these were not animals usually found in P'p'l'r. The animals in P'p'l'r didn't walk on two legs (well, not as a rule, anyway) and they also did not wear clothes. The four animals bowed briefly before the throne. The wolf with the patch over his right eye was apparently the leader, because he spoke first.

"Greetings Lady Brooke, co-ruler of P'p'l'r." Said the wolf. "My name is Wolf O'Donnell. And these are my associates Leon Powalski," Here he indicated the chameleon. "Pigma Dengar," The pig. "And Andrew Oikonny." The monkey.

"A pleasure to meet you." Lady Brooke said.

"My, you are a nice, furry piece o' man, aren't you?" Court mage Cherry said.

Wolf O'Donnell swallowed uncomfortably. Wolf had seen quite a lot of hardships and horror in his life, but he was not accustomed to a court mage Cherry.

"What is it you want?" Lady Brooke asked.

Wolf looked gratefully at Lady Brooke for getting him out of a tight spot, then pulled himself together. "My associates and I are employed by the Corneria Armed Forces." He said.

"Corneria?" Lady Brooke asked. "That's across the Novak Sea."

"Indeed it is." Said Wolf. "The reason we are here is because there is a matter of some importance which could concern you."

Wolf flipped a picture out of his jacket and handed it to Lady Brooke. On it was the depiction of a green snake-like creature.

"Have you seen this woman?" Wolf asked.

"Woman? This is a leviathan."

"She is indeed Lady. Well, have you seen her?"

"I'm afraid not." Lady Brooke said. "We have not seen huge sea-monsters for quite a while. The last one that came along was last summer. He was a friend of Julian's who came to visit her."

Wolf O'Donnell looked rather taken aback by this. "I see." He said. "Well... err... in any case... if you see this creature make sure to turn around and run like crazy if you don't want to be eaten alive."

"I will." Said Lady Brooke. "Anything else?"

"Well, it would be nice if you would contact the proper authorities, but since the proper authorities are oversees that may be a bit difficult."

"I will consider it." Lady Brooke said. "Now I am sure you have lots to do."

"Well, not really." Said Wolf.

Lady Brooke looked the wolf right in the eye.

"On second thought, it might be best if we kept searching for our escaped convict." Wolf turned around. "OK boys, let's get going."

Wolf and his team did not get very far since the doors to the throne room swung open again. How this was possible was a bit of a mystery to Lady Brooke since no-one had closed them after the four anthropomorphic animals had come in. It was messenger Carmen and she seemed out of breath. Whether this was because messenger Carmen had run a lot, or because she had been busy with very different affairs was always a question. It was also a question that always remained unanswered.

"My Lady, you must come with me right now." Messenger Carmen panted.

"What is it?" Lady Brooke asked. "No, wait, let me guess, a leviathan has appeared near one of the small fisher towns near the sea."

"How did you know?" Messenger Carmen asked.

"Lucky guess." Lady Brooke said. "Well gentlemen," She said turning to Wolf and his men. "It seems you are in luck."

Wolf didn't seem so certain of his luck, but managed to hide it. A little. "Indeed we are." He said. "We shall go at once."

"I will accompany you." Lady Brooke said.

"No need." Wolf said quickly.

"Of course there is need." Lady Brooke said. "In the absence of my wife, I rule P'p'l'r. And I would be a poor ruler indeed if hid inside several very thick walls while a leviathan is attacking my people."

"She's got a point." Said Andrew, the monkey.

Wolf glared at him with his one good eye.

Andrew winced. "Or maybe not."

"Ah goody, a trip!" Court mage Cherry exclaimed. "Hadn't had one of those in a long time. And never fear, Ah shall provide for our transportation."

"Thank you Cherry." Lady Brooke said with only a minimal amount of sarcasm.

Out in the courtyard court mage Cherry waved her wand and a large metal dragon robot appeared. A door in its side opened and a ladder came out, allowing everyone to enter.

"Very good, Cherry." Lady Brooke said. "I never knew you had it in you."

"Why thank you, mah Lady." Court mage Cherry said blushing. Then she walked over to Wolf and seriously invaded his personal space. "Ah was thinking of calling him StarWolf. What do you think of that?"

"Err... very nice. Very nice indeed. A good name, as a matter of fact. A very good name. Perhaps I should adopt it myself." Wolf babbled.

"Let's not waste any time." Lady Brooke said. "Come on."

The StarWolf quickly and quite easily took off. From the outside the steel dragon looked like something that could theoretically be described as an aeroplane. On the inside it looked like a very anatomically correct dragon. Lady Brooke and the others had made their way through the steel intestines of the StarWolf to the brain, which was logically also the control room. Lady Brooke looked out of the conveniently located window and saw the land of P'p'l'r move beneath them.

"Well, we certainly seem to make good time." Lady Brooke said. "Just one question, though. Who's flying this?"

"Why, tha pilot, of course." Said court mage Cherry.

"Really? And who is the pilot, may I ask?"

Court mage Cherry looked doubtful. She had suddenly discovered a flaw in her creation. Namely, the creation of a creature who could actually fly her creation.

"Just a sec, mah Lady." Court mage Cherry said. She quickly waved her wand around a few times and a robot with two arms, a torso and a head appeared.

"Where is the creator?" The robot asked.

"Ah am raight here, mah hunk o' metal."

The robot looked at her. "Destroy. Destroy." The robot said in his toneless voice.

Cherry ducked out of the way of the robot's flailing arms. She quickly created a couch with her magic and jumped behind it.

"Not one of your best creations, Cherry." Lady Brooke said casually, whilst hiding behind the couch as well.

Court mage Cherry responded by standing up and uncreating the robot. Then she decided to create an auto-pilot system in the steel dragon. That is to say, she decided to create another robot, but Lady Brooke ordered her to create an auto-pilot system.

Lady Brooke was met by cheering crowds, the mayor of the town and little girls who handed her flowers. That seemed to be happening quite often whenever Lady Brooke appeared in some small town. The inhabitants all spontaneously organised a big 'Hello Lady!' celebration. Unfortunately, while the people were being spontaneous, they were not very original in how they were going to be spontaneous. In the distance, Lady Brooke could see the leviathan towering above the small houses.

"It seems you are rather detained." Said Wolf, while Lady Brooke gently waved to the gathered crowd. "Maybe me and my men should go on ahead."

"Oh, very well." Lady Brooke said, as she accepted a bunch of flowers and smiled friendly at the girl giving them. "Take court mage Cherry with you, will you?"

Wolf looked over at court mage Cherry. Cold shivers crawled down his spine and he started sweating when he realised that Cherry was winking at him.

"Do I have to?" Wolf asked.

"Yes, you do." Lady Brooke said determined as she listened carefully to the explanation of the ancient art of cheesemaking by the local cheesemaker.

A few minutes later Lady Brooke found herself on a small podium with her arms full of flowers. Following the proper customs Lady Brooke waved kindly to the townspeople. A few priests of one of the local temples had quickly been called in. Even though Lord Sam and her family never really made a point of the fact that they were in reality divine beings, everybody thought it safe to have a few priests and priestesses close by in case the Goddess of the Moon started to get a fit of religion.

Next to Lady Brooke stood the mayor of the small village, his round face gleaming with pride and his chain of office hastily, yet thoroughly, polished.

"Lady Brooke," The mayor began. "It is an honour for us to have you here."

"And I am glad to be here as well." Lady Brooke answered on auto-pilot. "This is a very nice village you've got here."

The mayor's chest swelled with pride. His grin became even bigger. "Thank you, my Lady."

"However," Lady Brooke quickly continued. "I'm here for some serious business. As I understand it a leviathan has appeared near the shore of your village."

"A leviathan?" The mayor chuckled nervously. "Nonsense. There's no leviathan here."

Lady Brooke looked at the leviathan-shaped silhouette at the horizon.

"Really?" She said.

That was when she realised that in the minds of these people there really was no leviathan. After all, whenever Lady Brooke showed up somewhere it was always a cause for celebrations. And while the Lady was there, there could be absolutely no room for mistakes. Everything had to go perfectly because it was simply not done to bother her with their own trivial little problems. Even if those trivial little problems consisted of a very large leviathan.

"I'm afraid I can't stay very long." Lady Brooke said. "But before I go I really would like to see the harbour."

A little dose of reality made its way into the brains of the mayor. "I... err... I'm not sure... I mean... there really isn't much to see there. You know, just some old fishing boats, nets, sailors." He paused for a second. "Sailors who are not drunk and are not looking for prostitutes, by the way."

"I'm sure they're not." Lady Brooke said smiling. "But I must admit that I find little fishing boats simply fascinating. I would really like to go to the harbour."

"Ah." Said the mayor. "Well... in that case... let me send for some people. A Lady like yourself can not go without some sort of escort."

"I thank you for concern." Lady Brooke said. "But I'm quite alright."

"Oh... well..." Realising that he had no other option the mayor sighed and extended his arm in the direction of the harbour. "Shall we go then?"

The sight Lady Brooke stumbled upon as she arrived at the harbour was not the one she had expected. Leon, Pigma and Andrew were all firing arrows at the leviathan. Wolf tried to fire arrows as well, but was seriously distracted by court mage Cherry. What surprised Lady Brooke, however, was the leviathan. She was not, as she had expected, roaring and attacking and destroying. Instead, she seemed to be very ticked off.

"Look, stop that." Said the leviathan.

An arrow hit the leviathan's chest, broke and fell down into the water.

"I am not warning you again." Said the leviathan. "If you go on any longer I'll have to take those bows away from you."

Lady Brooke stopped paying attention to the leviathan for a moment as Wolf suddenly stood in front of her.

"Don't worry. We have the situation under control." Wolf said.

"Right! That's it!" The leviathan exclaimed.

"I can personally guarantee you that this leviathan will be out of your way in no time!" Wolf shouted almost unhearable due to the sudden roaring.

"You don't have any P'p'l'rarian ancestors by any chance, do you?" Lady Brooke asked.

"No." Said Wolf. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

The leviathan suddenly stopped roaring. Lady Brooke looked over to see that three bows were laying broken and shattered on the ground.

"Now you go home and think about what you've done." Said the leviathan. "You're very lucky I don't know who your parents are or they would hear about this."

A chameleon, a pig and a monkey looked at their feet and almost simultaneously mumbled. "Sorry."

Wolf rushed over. "What the Hell do you think you're doing!" He shouted at his men. "If we don't slay this beast we'll never get that reward."

"Oh, but I do know you Wolf O'Donnell." The leviathan said.

Wolf looked up at the sea serpent. He suddenly wished that he had only court mage Cherry to worry about. Then he scratched that thought. Dealing with a leviathan was much better than dealing with court mage Cherry any day.

"I see you still haven't given up on trying to kill me." The leviathan said.

Three animals suddenly looked up at their leader.

"Are you saying this isn't the first time you have gone up against this beast?" Leon asked threateningly.

"Oh... well... err..." Wolf started.

"You didn't tell them?" The leviathan asked.

"Well, you see, I mean." Wolf continued.

"I had the impression that we were a team." Leon said. "I thought that we would take on every job that came along together and that would split everything honestly."

"We split things honestly?" Pigma asked. "Since when?"

"Gentlemen, what's going on here?" Lady Brooke interrupted the conversation.

Wolf and the others look at her.

"Well... like I said... we're from the Corneria Armed Forces, and... err... this leviathan is so enormously dangerous that the Cornerian government has put a price on her head."

The others nodded vehemently.

"Really?" Lady Brooke said.

"Yes, really." Wolf said, nodding very vehemently as well now.

"She doesn't look dangerous. She doesn't act dangerous. I don't think she's very dangerous."

"Now, now." Said the leviathan. "That's not completely true. I am well aware that I am able to pound this entire village into a small pile of rubble in a few seconds."

"I can declare war on any country and send thousands of people to their deaths. That doesn't make _me_ dangerous." Lady Brooke said. Then she looked back at Wolf. "You're mercenaries, aren't you?"

"NO! No! No. Well, yes. But there are many mercenaries in the world." Wolf said weakly.

"And you don't work for the Cornerian government either, do you?"

"Err... no... I'm afraid not."

Lady Brooke nodded. "Well in that case I have to ask you to leave." She said. "Unless of course you want to become inhabitants of P'l'p'r in which case you will need a green card. And the only way to get one is to get married, understand?"

Wolf looked over at court mage Cherry who tried to look seductively.

"We're going." Wolf said.

"But Wolf..." Andrew whined.

"We're going!" Wolf growled.

"Who died and made you the leader?" Leon asked.

"What? I have always been the leader!" Wolf shouted.

"You try to make some money and not let us know about it? I would've expected that from Pigma, but you... I think we have to have a long chat about how things are done when we get back."

"Yeah." Pigma said.

Bickering loudly Wolf and what used to be his team walked off.

"Well, now that that's settled, could you please tell me something?" The leviathan asked.

"Sure." Lady Brooke said.

"Could you give me the directions to the Palace? I want to see some family there."

Lady Brooke's eyes went wide and she started smiling. "You're Jane! Sam's mother!"

"Yes." The leviathan said surprised. "How did you know?"

"I'm Brooke." Lady Brooke said excited.

"Her wife?" Jane the leviathan asked. "Really?"

"That's me." Lady Brooke said. "You know, I have heard so much about you. Sam has told me everything."

"Well, she hasn’t told me very much about you I must admit." Jane said apologetic. "But that's because I have not been able to keep in touch with her."

"Don't worry." Lady Brooke said. "I'll fill you in on all the details on the way."

"Thank you. It would be very nice to get to know the girl who has won my daughter."

"Don't mention it. Coming Cherry?" Lady Brooke got no reply. "Cherry?"

She looked around but could not see her court mage anywhere.

"I saw her going into that bar over there." Jane said, gesturing with her head towards a bar.

"Oh dear. I'm afraid she's going to be drunk when she gets back."

"Maybe you should get her out of there." Jane suggested.

Lady Brooke shook her head. "No. It wouldn't do much good anyway. She'll be fine eventually."

Lady Brooke and the leviathan started moving. Lady Brooke next to the water, Jane inside the water. And as the two of them slowly made their way towards the end of the story there was still one phrase in their conversation that should be mentioned.

"You know, Sam never told me that her mother was a leviathan."

The End