by Gavril Salazar
The Veeps had left us alone since their attack a few months ago. We thought this was because we had taken the proper precautions by obtaining the necessary amount of sleep and maintaining constant vigilance during faire. We were very wrong.
They were simply waiting. A creature more horrible and sinister than the Veeps themselves would soon appear.
The morning of the last day of the Orange County Crossroads Renaissance Festival started very pleasantly. Vasili, Kisa, Tareef, and myself had just returned from a delicious breakfast at a Russian bakery in Orange. When we entered the encampment, we saw it.
The creature was very large and hairy, but its torso lacked arms and floppy horns protruded from its head. It was no Veep, however.
When I relatedthe story of the first attack of the Veeps at the Gold Coast Pirate Festival, Elliott informed me that I had misidentified the creatures.
"They are called Voveeps," he had said. "Didn't you read Dr. Seuss? He wanted to warn children about them."
The monsters I had encountered were unlike any Dr. Seuss may have written. Our Veeps seemed cute and innocent when compared to the monsters that the good doctor had described.
And here we were, staring at a Voveep.
With an evil glint in its eye, it immediately jumped onto the vovoid's chair, splitting it in two. It then bounded over to the neighboring encampment to continue its reign of destruction.
I lost my left contact lens a few minutes later, so the Voveep's aura of bad luck must have lingered. We were fortunate, we thought, to have escaped with so little damage.
Our first encounter with the Voveep was nothing compared to the events which predicated its return at sunset...
After our last show, Nikolai and Petr had decided to make a short video about our encampment. I volunteered to be the narrator. We moved to the back of the encampment to plan our production.
For a brief instant, I thought I was the sky darken. I was also overcome by a sudden feeling of nausea, which passed just as quickly. Nikolai and Petr looked pale, but claimed there was nothing wrong.
We started to tape. I had just finished narrating the introduction, and we moved to the front of the encampment. Petr suddenly yelled "Look!"
He was pointing to the tent Vasili had fashioned otherwise known as the "animal tent." It was violently shaking, almost quivering.
"Roncero, are you in there?" I inquired.
The tent responed by ejecting a woman's skirt, followed by another skirt and various faire clothing which could have belonged to either sex. Being the voyeurs we are, we immediately rushed to open the tent to see inside. There was nothing there.
We could barely fathom what was happening when we glanced over to where we heard some drumming. The drummers were two dancers, Saviya and Sitara. The dancer for whom they played was none other than Rakin. He had a sword perched on his head and was dancing quite gracefully. Almost too gracefully.
In fact, I noticed that the drummers were drumming beats only Rakin could perform, and Rakin was performing feats only a few of our dancers could accomplish. Something was very wrong.
Katrina then called Nikolai over to see something she was doing. She had a knife poised over a small red fox's nether regions. I couldn't stand to watch, so I turned my attention to the center awning.
Petr and Tareef had just started to play a game of Karnoffel when Tareef accused Petr of cheating and pulled out a knife. Petr started running and Tareef quickly followed behind.
I averted my eyes across the path to a vendor's stand, where I saw Fernando pick the purse of an unsuspecting mundane. Nothing unusual there.
In face everything became normal again. The sword fell off Rakin's head, the drummers stopped and soothed sore hands. Petr and Tareef stopped chasing each other, and at least there was no blood on Katrina's knife.
We resumed taping. We had just finished recording a rousing rendition of "Scarborough Faire" when the dancers said there was something they wanted us to see.
With Vasili and Rakin playing on the drums and Shantas on the recorder, the dancers turned their backs. I was immediately swept with another feeling of nausea.
When the dancers turned to face the camera, their faces were distorted their movements were unnatural. Sitara started to scratch herself as Saviya wiggled her behind.
They looked exactly like the gypsies at the San Marcos Renaissance Faire.
We couldn't take much more of this. Petr ran away in abject terror while Nikolai and I tried to hide long enough for this sickening episode to pass. The dancers were about to converge upon us when they stopped. The confused expression on their faces suggested they had no idea about what they had just done.
And then the Voveep appeared. It looked at me, grinned very widely (I could almost count all of its sharpened, pointy teeth), and with a shattering "Whoop!" it disappeared.
I thought I was only hallucinating until I saw the videotape we had made. In it you may witness all the events I have described.
However, it may be better if you do not view the tape. For if you do, you will have to ponder the same questions I am about to present.
Was it coincidence that these events occured right before the Voveep returned? If not, what kind of powers must the Voveep have? Can it alter what we humans percieve? Or even worse, does it have dominion over an alternate plane of existence?
Perish the thought if the Voveep can manipulate the space-time continuum!
One thing I do know is that this is not the last we will see of the Voveep minions. I suspect Elliott knows something more than he is telling us.
Until we know more, the best we can do is remain on our guard. Perhaps the break between faire seasons will do us more good than we know!
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