scarystrasse

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Lilith’s Joy

Lilith's meal had come in and was served.  The roasted young imperial goat had been deboned and slice moderately for Lilith to eat.  She also had apple sauce, carrots, mashed potatoes, a chocolate pudding, and a glass of cinnamon milk.  She ate with the unlimited joy of a child on their birthday.  The meat couldn't have been any tenderer, the batter had the perfect crispness to it.  She couldn't have asked for a better meal.

The hunters said they grabbed the first kid they could find and cleaned it up and brought it in.  Lilith never checked the goat before being prepared for dinner.  Which was a good thing for the hunters, or they would have had their privates cut off in frnt of the hunter assembly for pulling such a nasty trick upon her.  She couldn’t come out of her confines to do anything to them.  The shadow elves and demons took advantage of that fact and took many liberties when serving her.

The Demon Mistress finished her dinner and had a warm feeling all through her body.  She danced around in her chambers.  She hadn't eaten a roast kid in months.  She had been cutting back since people were getting wise to the disappearances of the imperial goats.  The shadow elves were getting sloppy.  So, they were killed and eaten by Lilith.  It didn't work as well as she'd have liked.  Then she skinned the shadow elves and then the chaotic killings stopped.  Lilith set their forms on pikes out in front of her domain where she was imprisoned.  It served as a reminder what happened to people or demons that displeased her.  The Demon Mistress hated carelessness and she made it known to all.

This please Lilith to no end, because the demons didn't die in the pit, so they were in constant pain and agony while they were impaled on their spikes.  Even decapitated they were still alive.  The only time they died was when they were on theara and then they were only banished to the deep forever.

Lilith was so satisfied that she put on a sequined cobalt blue dress.  She loved to dress up when life was going well for her.  The meal she had just put her in such a mood.  She admired herself in her mirror and was pleased at what she saw.

Lilith, having finished her dinner, glanced through the books she had and tried to find out how to break the first seal.  She knew that she would have to sacrifice an imperial baby goat and she had to avoid eating the sacrifice.  She had to get her mind off the sacrifice and on other things otherwise she would get hungry and eat another goat instead of sacrificing it too Luciferous.

Lilith glanced through her book for a powerful spell that would break the seal that held her in place.  She knew that the hardest seal to break would be the first seal.   She found a spell for breaking a seal, but she didn't think it would break a seal, but she'd give it a try.  It didn't seem strong enough to break the first seal of the Creator.

Lilith’s people went out and bought a gnomish carpenter’s drill bit, sand, cooking grease, and axel grease used on coaches.  They all came together, and Lilith took them to the first seal they had found.  The seal was in an old temple of the dou-jin.  They moved the pulpit out of the way.  They dug down three feet and there they found the seal created by the Creator.

The seal was two feet in diameter and was white with a blue six cornered star with a black dragon and an orange dragon chasing each other’s tales and the background of the seal was as white as a lily.  There was a red silk piece of cloth draped over the cross that hung three quarters the way down, the cross and it had the number one at the base of the Star.  She read the pages from the spell book, but nothing happened to the seal.

"Okay we need to get the rest of the pieces of the spell."  Lilith said in disappointment.

Then she sensed a familiar sensation.  She stripped out of her gorgeous dress.  She glanced down at her arms and could witness scales forming upon her upper limbs.  She howled to the heavens as her body transformed from her shadow elf form to the medusa/spider appearance.  She began to weep in rage at the curse that befell her body.

Her lower body ballooned out into a huge abdomen eight spidery legs protruded from the body.  Her body and legs were smooth.  Her upper form transformed from a beautiful shadow elven woman to a hideous visage.  Scales covered her upper body.  Her face was that of a woman, but that’s where the resemblance ended.  Her skin was olive green, snake-like eyes with vertical slits, a forked tongue whipped out of her mouth, and she had black adders for locks of writhing hair.

She was more than rageful at the transformation.  She had been having such an enormously great time with everything until then.  Would the Creator ever let her have a little joy occasionally?  The God of Love would never let her forget that she was a prisoner.  Why had He made her this hideous beast?  Wasn’t being in prison bad enough?

Christar was working on his ring of domination.  He had put strength, intelligence, wisdom, agility, stamina, and charisma.   He had made several of these rings and they were waiting to be tested.  He took out one ring and put in the holder and clamped it into placed.  He had six failures before this one.  He took a scroll of resist fire out.  He made sure that the clamp was tightened down, and the lights were properly put on the gem of the ring.  It was a fiery crimson ruby.  It sparkled as the light hit the gem.  It was a beauty to behold.  It already held great power, but Christar wanted more.  He was greedy that way.

Christar chanted the words of the spell.  “Naplaćujem ti opiranje vatri!”  He spoke over and over as he waved his thin bony fingers over the ring as he chanted.

The room grew dark only the laser light focused from the sun could be seen in the chamber.  After the ray was on the gem of the ring the light shone exceedingly bright bathing the chamber in a scarlet illumination, then the room light ever so gradually returned to normal. 

Christar waited three hours for the cooling process so that he could try the ring on.  This circlet was a creation meant only for himself.  Many of the items he created were for his personal use.  He had had troubles with people stealing his creations.  This caused him to craft laboratories on different planes of existence that only he knew where they were.  If someone did manage to discover his secret labs, they were booby traps that would maim or slay the would-be thief.

Christar, although exhausted, smiled at his creations.  The arrogant narcissistic mage was full of himself.  He adored his inventions and coveted them.  He didn’t want to share them with anyone, no matter how many he had of the same thing.  He horded his innovations.  They were all precious to him.

He had rings, scrolls, wands, staves, scepters, and coronets.  He rarely let any of them out of his avaricious sight.  The only time he ever let one go was when the shadow elves insisted on him making them a particular object, and then he grudgingly gave it out, but at great cost.

He treasured his masterpieces.  To him they were more precious than tenson.  He would do anything to protect his creations.  He would beg, borrow, or steal anything that had mystical qualities.  Well maybe not beg or borrow, but stealing was not beneath him.

The aged mage hobbled around his lab and sat down in a padded chair to take a break.  The charging of the band had really taken it out of him.  He needed to rest for a few hours before working on the next ring.  He had twenty-eight more rings to go before he put a new enchantment upon the next rings.

His next enchantment would be a protection spell.  He was hoping to get protection from physical harm.  He glanced down and his casting hand.  He noticed that it had withered a bit, which was normal after generating a new object.  This was another reason he needed to rest.   If the wizard were to cast another spell a few things would happen.  He would pass out, do irreversible damage to his hand, possibly go into a coma, or burn himself out.  He would no longer be able to cast magic.  It would be like severing both of his hands and feet from his form.

The aged mage’s head slumped forward, and he fell asleep in his chair.  The nap came over him so quickly that he hadn’t had time to get to his bed.

Commander Xander stood outside and watched the apprentices and roda-ki train with the heavier weighted vests.  He knew that they wouldn't work out as well as he expected but on Mercury Day, they were allowed to train without the weighted vests to see if they were improving.  Those that had improved could go into the shadow elf city and have a two-day pass.  For now, he was going to have to train with them, which meant leaving Dwanna, Marsondra, and Paddria with paperwork.  He only trusted Dwanna though with the more sensitive papers.  He was sleeping with her.  She was one of the few shadow elves he liked and trusted enough to do secretive paperwork that involved finances and money distribution.  After all he was embezzling from the shadow elves.

Zartan dawned his work out equipment accoutrements and went down to the trainees to give them all a talking to and that meant both roda-ki and their maroke.

"Move it people!"  Zartan screamed at the apprentices and their roda-ki masters.  "You’ve made me come down to do the course with you and I will continue to do the course with you until I’m satisfied there’s a leader among you to take my spot.  None of you sons of goats can not seem to do the course like fargan roda-ki.  Roda-ki are well disciplined and you are a bunch of fargan bastages.  Now let’s get moving!”

“Each of you will be striped by the whip if I think you’re slacking off in fact the last ten people across the finish line will get the whip.  Is that clear?  So, I want to see hustle and dedication.  This will be a daily routine.  The last ten across the line will get the whip, plus any that I see slacking!”

“Since K.P. and latrine duty hasn’t sparked any dedication maybe the whip will!”

"Is that understood?!"

"YES SIR!  HAIL LUCIFEROUS!" The marokes and their roda-ki said with their arms and hands out at a forty-five-degree angle as they ran by.

The students started moving faster than they had been going.  That told Zartan that the students hadn't been giving their all.  This made the Commander angrier.  Zartan didn't let any of them slack off.  None were allowed to stop to catch their breath or get a drink of water until he said so, they passed out from their exertion, or until the course was done and the course was three times as long.

He supervised the students and the journeymen.  He didn’t stop hollering at them the entire course.  He took his whip out.  If any of them even had an inkling of not doing the utmost in performance, he cracked the whip over them.  He was repulsed at their performance.

At the end of training the last ten were strapped to a pole, had their shirts ripped from their back and were given ten lashes each.  Zartan thought that only marokes would be at the post but almost half were roda-ki.  Which nauseated him to no end.

“If any of the same ten cross last again they will receive an extra five lashes!  Is that understood?!”

“YES SIR!!”  The all screamed at the top of their lungs.  “HAIL LUCIFEROUS!!”

Zartan turned around in discussed and returned to his chambers.

The Grand Master of the roda-ki sat at his desk going over the files of each of his maroke and his roda-ki that he had in his arsenal.  He was one of the youngest to have ever made Grand Master in the history of the roda-ki.

Zartan had reached his position the old fashion way.  He had assassinated the old Grand Master.  That was the way of the roda-ki.  That was one reason there weren’t very many of the mystical warriors.  The roda-ki usually had only one apprentice per master as well.  Some had more, but it was dangerous to have more than one.  As they couldn’t keep a close eye on more than one trainee.  Since they assassinated their masters.  The roda-ki masters could only keep an eye on one student at a time. 

Zartan had thought about changing that rule for his roda-ki.  The dou-jin worked with six shau’doku, why couldn’t the roda-ki have one or two more students.  Their numbers would grow faster.  The roda-ki needed to be stronger though to have even more than one.  His masters were too weak to teach their students anything and that was with just one maroke.

Zartan carried a mace that glowed white when he held his weapon and used his demonic powers.  It was a sign of pure hatred in his spirit of Mephistopheles.  He had a kite shield that was painted with a Y on it.  At the top of the Y there was a flame, to the left there was an inverted pentagram, and on the right, there was the skull of a goat.  Zartan took his oath to Mephistopheles seriously and he didn’t care who knew about it.  He was a devoted follower and he expected everyone below him to be as devoted to the roda-ki as he was, and if they weren’t, he molded them in training.  If they didn’t show any promise to the roda-ki they mysteriously disappeared.  This helped keep the roda-ki and their maroke in line.

The roda-ki were gradually growing, they had picked up their pace in recruitment in the past few cycles, but they were nowhere near the numbers of the dou-jin.  However, they had managed to tarnish the reputation of the dou-jin by pretending to be dou-jin and wreaking havoc in their name.  People were beginning to fear and distrust the dou-jin thanks to the dirty dealings of the roda-ki.

The trust of the noble warriors was losing their good reputation in the isolated areas of the country.  In the larger cities the dou-jin were still well thought of, for the most part.

The evil numinous warriors had played their hand well.  Most people never even knew of the roda-ki’s existence.  People, if they knew anything about the roda-ki, thought they had died out over a millennia ago or that they were just a myth thought up by law officials to keep people in line.

The roda-ki were well hidden as well.  Their main base was in the shadow elf kingdom of Talcoma’De’Shore, and the underworld city was massive.  There were other roda-ki outposts, but this was their main headquarters.  Almost fifty roda-ki and their apprentices stayed at this base and were deployed from the city to disburse their mayhem.  Zartan made sure of that.

Zartan hadn’t found a way to get the roda-ki into the albino elf city of Del Marco, but he did have connections that were working on a plan to undermine the city’s security.  It had taken some time, but like any other race they had their feeble citizens to meet the needs of Zartan.  The commander was willing to exploit these weaknesses.

The commander had found some, not many, albino elves to bend to the ways of the roda-ki, because not even the albinos were immune to the ways of the seven deadly sins.  Some he bribed with sex, others with money, others with any of the seven deadly sins.  He did manage to get a few spies.  Unfortunately for Zartan they weren’t especially high up in the government and they had to be creative in getting the jobs done that the roda-ki wanted accomplished.

Zartan shuffled through his paperwork scanning for the progress of his spies, but they had made little headway.  He thought he may have to kill some of his emissaries, or at least bring them to the shadow elf prisons to get others to work harder.  The shadow elves wouldn’t be lenient with the gutter rats as shadow elves loathed the white swine.

The other first cycles at Argathous’s table introduced themselves to one another.  There were two royal elf brothers from Alclamain who were fraternal twins.  They both had sandy brown hair, blue eyes, pointed ears, exceptionally fair complexioned, sharply pointed noses, and spoke with a royal elf accent.  One was Isaian and the other Noahan Brazier.  They were the tricksters and practical jokers of the group.  They would do anything for a laugh and that meant anything.

Sometimes their practical jokes went a little too far and it ended them in hot water.  A few times it had earned them a whopping from their parents, getting beaten by the people they had played the prank on, or fell prey to their own practical jokes.

The duo seemed to fear nothing.  They were the foolhardiest elves anyone had ever met.  They had some common sense, but it was miniscule compared to their daring.

Another boy who was human, had oily coal black hair, dark black eyes, and had a scowl on his face was Lassitor Gingam. He had a haughty tone to his voice as though he were better than anyone at the table and didn’t act shau’doku like at all.   He was also the bully of the new shau’doku.  He loved making people squirm and applying pressure to make others give him whatever he wanted whether it was legal or not.  He spoke with a strange accent that wasn’t normal for a human.

Lassitor made sure that he got the first of everything at the table whether he wanted it or not.  He had been a jerk because he could get away with it.  Nobody stopped him because they were trying to ignore him at the table, which was hard to do since he was being a loudmouth and bragging about all the people he'd bullied before he'd gotten to the school without saying he'd bullied them, but everyone knew what he was talking about.

Lassitor would take something someone else wanted, even if he didn’t really want the item.  He had taken a doll that a little girl really wanted.  When no one was looking he ripped it from the girl’s hand and ran out of the shop without paying for the item.  How he had been selected to become a shau’doku for the dou-jin was anybody’s guess.

Another human boy had a chubby exterior, a hearty laugh named Clifton Harbuckle.  He had snow white hair and bright rosy cheeks and a round nose.   He was a happy boy, but a boy that Lassitor would have loved to pick on just for sport when he had nothing else to do.  Clifton laughed at nearly anything that was even slightly funny.  He had a good spirit about him.

The young boy smiled at everyone at the table, even Lassitor.  It earned the young stout boy a deep loathing glare, which wiped the grin right off his face.  He turned from Lassitor and resumed his smile if not as enthusiastically. 

The last boy was a halfling.  He had plain brown straw-like hair, a plain dull expression on his average face and his attire was that of any everyday person.  No one would have been able to pick him out of a crowd of people which made him an excellent thief! 

His name was Leon Slickfingers and he spoke with a halfling accent.  He may have been short, but he wasn't one to be bullied by anyone.  He was excellent with knives.  He made sure Lassitor knew it by twirling his daggers and making them disappear and reappear at will.  Lassitor just sneered at Leon.  He wasn’t impressed with the halflings kniving abilities.  If he had wanted to, he would have snatched the daggers away from the little snot nosed creep.

The other six, were first cycle girls.

Sherrien Brickard.  A human that had shoulder length light brown hair, a turned-up nose, some freckling peeking out on her cheeks and nose, dark skinned, and she wasn’t very tall.  She wasn’t a shy girl, but another easy target for Lassitor.  She was just as jovial as Clifton.  She enjoyed laughing and having fun with everyone.  Even Lassitor’s disgruntled visage had no effect upon her.

She gazed directly at Lassitor and continued to laugh.  Lassitor took this as laughing at him and he made sure to take note of it.  He would get her alone and teach her that nobody laughed at him.

Then there was Debra-Ann Arkinnan a human girl with straight short dark brown hair, perfect skin, a dainty nose, liquid chocolate-brown eyes, and a broad smile that seemed to never leave her face.  She was a thick girl and could take on almost any boy in a fight if she had to, even Lassitor.  She was tall for a girl her age.  She had a large bosom for a fourteen-cycle-old.

She, unbeknownst to Lassitor, Debra-Ann was strong in the Spirit, having had some training in her village where a retired and aged dou-jin lived.  She had sensed the Spirit in Debra-Ann and took her under her wing until she was able to go to the Dou-Jin Temple.

The third girl Terkesha Icewind was a star elf with incredible ebony skin and an extremely arrogant way when it came to the males at the table.  She refused to talk to them unless she started the conversation with them first and she had a star elf accent.  She had lengthy black hair pulled back tight into a ponytail that hung down halfway on her back.  She had icy cold steel gray eyes and an abysmal frown upon her face.

She had a don’t mess with me look about her.  She talked sparingly except with the females at the table.  She was an exceptional warrior and novice shaman in her clan.  She knew that she was going to have problems with Isaian and Noahan.  She detested males that weren’t serious, and the twins were already goofing off at the table.  They were getting on her nerves.  She wanted to slap them upside their heads.

Then Dorminda Littletown a gadget widget with kinky black hair and bold pitch-black skin that was like ink.  She was the shortest person of the first cycle students at the dragons table, being three feet tall.  She giggled at nearly everything that was close to funny.  She seemed to like everyone, even Terkesha and she had a widget accent.  Her eyes were opals with double white pupils in each eye, which was strange for any race.  They had to have a special seat for all the widgets to sit upon.

She glanced around the table and wondered what school would be like.  She was shocked to know that she was going to the Dou-Jin Academy.  Dorminda had heard such awful things about the dou-jin, but then she had heard good things about them as well.  She didn’t know what to think.  Although a cheerful person she was apprehensive about starting school.

A moon elf named Deedra also sat at the table and was quite good with a bow and daggers and she didn't take anything off anyone and that included Lassitor.  She was of average height and weight for a moon elf which put her at about one-hundred-five pounds and five feet five inches, and she had a moon elf drawl to her voice.

She had brilliant emerald eyes that seemed to catch the light and cause them to sparkle with a dazzling brilliance, dark coal black hair that had pencil thin braids throughout her hair and was gathered into a ponytail that hung down her back to her waist.  Her skin was blemish free and was as smooth as polished marble.

The last girl was Lorianna.  She was half elf, had blonde hair and was of average height and weight.  She had slightly pointed ears, thin lips, a slender nose, a large bosom, and almond eyes that were tilted like a cat’s eyes.  She had a half-elf voice which was a mixture of human and star elf.  She stared at Argathous with wonder at how someone could be so beautiful to her.  He was everything she had ever wanted in a boy.  He was tall, muscular, and had a perfect face.

After two hours of dinner and conversation the guilds were dismissed to their dorms.  The lead boys and lead girls lined up the students in order of highest grade to the lowest grade and followed them in double file to each of their respective towers.

The students lined up and were an were anxious to get to their dorms.  The boys and girls that were the first cycles couldn’t wait to see what was next in the chain of events.  The new students going to the new towers were led by the Headmistresses and Headmasters of their towers.

Lassitor bullied his way to the front of the first-cycle boy’s line while Argathous allowed all the other boys to go ahead of him being polite and courteous to all.  Isaian and Noahan held back as well just so they could make fun of Lassitor. 

“Lassitor’s momma’s so ugly dat she was at de top of the ugly tree and fell off and hit every branch on de way down and den gave birth to Lassitor.”   Isaian said with mirth.

Argathous couldn’t help but burst out into laughter which caused Lassitor to glare back at him.  

            Nobody laughed at Lassitor or made fun of him, or they’d pay dearly.  He would make sure to beat those elven boys into a pulp.  He would wait until they were asleep, sneak over to their bed, bunch their covers around them, and begin to thrash them.

Argathous didn’t see the human’s glare as he was doubled over in hysterics.  The twins couldn't help but laugh at their own joke because Lassitor was such a jerk.  Lassitor just glared daggers at them.  He didn’t know what he was going to do about Argathous, but he’d think of something.  Argathous may have been big, but he was probably stupid and thought with his muscles, the dolt!

Noahan had to take his shot at Lassitor as well.  “Lassitor’s mom was so hairy dat when his modder gave birth to him, he got rug burn.”

Argathous again roared at the twin’s antics.  Lassitor walked back because of the jokes he had heard, he was incredibly angry, so he was going to threaten them.  He was fuming enough to take on Argathous.  He had his fist doubled up ready to take on the three of them, he was just that cocky.

“I heard what you little elves said and I’m going to mash your faces!”  Lassitor said with a growl.  He took a swing at Isaian, but his fist was stopped by Argathous's large hand, well large for a fourteen-cycle-old zephyr.  Lassitor's fist made a splat against Argathous's palm as Argathous stopped Lassitor's pommel.

“You were so anxious to be at the head of the line I suggest you go back to where you came from.”  With that Argathous shoved Lassitor hard causing him to stumble and fall at the head of the second graders on his butt, which embarrassed Lassitor even more and made him outrageously irritated with Argathous.  Lassitor didn't know how he was going to get even with Argathous, but he would think of something.

Lassitor turned six shades of scarlet and took his place back at the beginning of the first cycles and continued to walk and glared back occasionally at Argathous and the twins.  He wanted to get even, but he would have to get each of them alone and he’d have to surprise Argathous with some sort of trick.  The zephyr was too big to take on in a fair fight, or as fair as a fight as Lassitor cared to engage in.

The young men and women arrived in the dormitory.  The chamber was vast.  The dorms main hall was nearly the length of a football field, and its width was a wide as a football field as well.  There were nine ten-foot-long fireplaces along each wall, and each was magically lit and gave off whatever amount of warmth was needed for the temperature outside.

After all the children had entered the enormous chamber, a lady stood upon the second level of the room.  She was the Headmistress of the Dallas Dragons.

“Good evening, all.”  She said with a cheerful rosy smile.  She was rather plump and short with sandy brown hair that was slightly wavy and down to her shoulders.   She wore a brown leather tunic with darker brown leather britches, a burnt orange robe with black pleats, with a new leather with a gold buckle in the middle.  She had a warm inviting demeanor about her.   She gazed over the students and took them in.  She loved the first day of school.  Everything was new and exciting.  New students she could fuss over like they were her own children and in a way they were.

“I’m Holiday Chase your Headmistress.”  She started in a soothing voice.  “I welcome you to the Guild of the Dallas Dragons.   For the next ten months you will be going to school then you’ll get a two-month holiday, but you’ll still be living here.”

“As many of you have come from all over the Northern Tektaras. We can’t send you home for any holiday breaks.  All your holidays will be spent here.  The Dallas Dragons are now your family and friends.  You are all brothers and sisters.”

“We have exterior school expedition’s competitions, but only for those of seventh cycles and higher.  Any cycle lower will have inner school competitions for your amusement and skill direction.  We have football and volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball, softball, and the Olympics in the spring.  During the two months of summer break is free time to do as you will.”

“Spiritweapons are only to be used by ninth graders and above.  Anyone caught attempting to use a spiritweapon will earn demerits for the guild.  Spiritweapons are not toys and must be used with the utmost of care.”

“Now our guild can earn merits for good schoolwork, good athletic performances, and expeditions.  It can lose merits for bad school conduct.  We don’t punish students for failing grades if they are truly trying hard, but if they are intentionally being lazy and slothful, they will earn demerits.” 

“Now for you first cycles get yourself acquainted with your surroundings.  There’s a lot to take in and you probably won’t be able to get it all in for the night, but you'll have all weekend to get acquainted with your surroundings."

Around each fireplace were overstuff chairs and couches to sit in for homework, relaxation, student interaction, or to read.  Throughout the room were dozens of lengthy tables to do homework or converse at.  There were also couches and more overstuffed chairs throughout the dorm. 

Chandeliers hung from the thirty-foot-high ceiling. Each had mystical candles that burned with the light for the time of day.  During the daylight hours, the windows let in plenty of light, but at night until 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM the candles would be out except for a few that would burn to let students go to the restrooms.

At the twenty-foot level was another tier that held a large library for students to use and if the students couldn’t find what they were looking for in the dorm they had the temple library.  The temple’s main library contained many times the number of books to browse through.

The students milled around for about two hours and then the Headmistress stepped out onto the balcony again.  “It’s time for you to head to your rooms.  First cycle students are at the very top of the tower the rest of you know where you belong.  You will all have your things waiting for you in your rooms as the squints have delivered them already.  Oh, and if you have come with nothing there will be things for you in your dressers and wardrobes.  Have a good night to all of you.  Enjoy your weekend before school.”

With that the Headmistress vanished into her chambers.

The rest of the students divided into boys and girls behind the Lead Boy and Lead Girl that led the first cycle children to their bed chambers.  They snaked around in a spiral once every full spiral a group of six students would walk through a door that had a sign above the door saying what grade the bedroom was, i.e., the first door said seniors and the very top floor said first grade.

“This will be the only time that I show you to your bed chambers.”  Ricky informed the group with a smug tone in his voice.  “From now on you’ll find your own way.  May the Spirit protect you.”  And then he left.

Clifton picked a bed but was shoved out of the way by Lassitor who took the bed for himself.  Lassitor really didn’t want the bed, but he was being a jerk and a bully and force Clifton out of the way.  Clifton hit the hardwood floor with a tremendous thud that sounded like it had to have hurt.  Lassitor just laughed at Clifton. 

“This cycle was going to be fun.  He was going to be king of the roost.  No one was going to challenge him, not even Argathous.”  Lassitor said to himself with a satisfied grin upon his face.

Argathous went over and picked Lassitor up and threw him off the bed so Clifton could have the bed.  “Here Clifton you picked this bed first.”  Argathous told him.  Argathous glared at Lassitor for his bullying and wanted to pound some sense into the greasy hair boy, but he thought better of it and calmed himself down before he did anything rash.

“No that’s okay I’ll take another bed, but thanks anyway Gath.”  Clifton said diffidently.  The young portly boy rubbed his behind and his jovial visage was now one of dejection.  He knew Lassitor would find any opportunity to make his stay at school miserable.

“Why are you such a jerk?”  Argathous turned on Lassitor with a glower upon his expression.  He still wanted to pound Lassitor into a puddle of goo.  He found it harder and harder to control himself around this snot nosed intimidator.

“Why do you have to be everyone’s savior?”  Lassitor spat back.  A gaze of death upon his face.  He wanted nothing more than to beat Argathous into a bloody mess.  He would figure out a way to do it, but now wasn’t the right time.  He knew that he couldn’t beat the giant in a fair fight, so he’d bide his time and attack when least expected.

“I wouldn’t have to, if you weren’t pushing everyone around.”  Argathous growled.  He had his fists ready for a fight and a look of rage on his face.  He took a step closer to the tyrant.  He was going to knock Lassitor on his arse.

“Nobody asked for your help.”  Lassitor scowled back from across the room hoping Argathous didn’t close the distance.  “Only the strong survive in this school!”

“How were you ever picked to become shau’doku?”  Isaian asked in a loathsome tone.  "You’re such a bully and can't handle being polite to anyone.”

"You don't have to be pleasant to be dou-jin."  Lassitor said scathingly in his strange thick voice.

“You be a horrible person.”  Noahan said in agreement and the same deplorable tone as his brother.  "You be a bully and no jerk should ever be a dou-jin. You be a dug and why dey ever let you in is beyond me.  Your parents must have paid someone off to get you in here.”

“I have great potential according to our prophets in Albany New Amsterdam.”  Lassitor said defensively. “I was the only one for hundreds of miles around that passed the tests.  The Spirit is strong in me.  I’ll take on any one of you to prove it.”

"You must have cheated on the tests."  Argathous said.  "It's the only way you could have managed to get in here.  I'll talk to Mistress Holiday tomorrow about it and see what she has to say about you."

"What a narc!"  Lassitor spat with indignation.  "Afraid I'm better than you!  So, you must run and tell the Headmistress of the tower that Lassitor’s still trying to be a bully!  That just shows how weak you truly are.  You’re afraid of me.  You fargan coward.  You are stupider than you look.  Too bad we can’t use spiritweapons in the first cycle.  I’d thump your arse all over the place."

“You don’t have to be so arrogant about it.”  Isaian said with annoyance on his tongue.  “You be not dat strong in the Spirit.  If you were den you would act like the shau’doku we’re supposed to be.  You’re noding but a blow hard!”

“Dou-jin are humble people.  You’ve been noding close to humble.”  Noahan said in irritation.  “Dou-jin are cool headed and fair minded.  You’re neider!”

“You’re just jealous that I’m better than all of you.”  Lassitor shot at the group.

“I think we should all calm down and go to bed.”  Leon interjected in a calm tone.  He didn’t like Lassitor either, but at the rate the night was going no one was going to get any sleep.

Lassitor shot Leon a glare that would have frightened Clifton, but Leon just shrugged his shoulders and went to bed.

Everyone picked a bed finally and Lassitor only glared at Argathous for throwing him across the room.  Lassitor wasn’t used to people standing up to him and Argathous wasn’t one to be messed with.  Lassitor would have to make sure Argathous wasn’t around when he bullied people.

Christar hobbled into the chamber and made his way into the room at a snail’s pace.  Zartan loathed the man with a passion, but there was no love lost between the two of them.  He had several plans to have the ancient mage killed but his spies had ended up dead or missing before jobs were done.  Then again so had Christar’s plans for Zartan.   Both were always out for the other in secret, but face to face they acted like close friends.  They both knew the other’s plans for each other.  Why they were so congenial to one another was anyone’s guess.

They talked politely to one another, they socialized at the same functions, and even plotted together on how to get rid of certain government officials.  Both knew the other detested the other though.  There was no trust between them and that was one reason each of them couldn’t kill the other.

Christar sat down in a padded chair across from Zartan and made himself at home like he did everywhere he went in the shadow elf city.  He set his staff across his lap and straightened out his robes and cleared his shaky voice.

“So how goes the infiltration of the albino ‘white swine’ city?”  Christar asked, already knowing the answer.  He only asked because he liked making the roda-ki leader appear incompetent and sense the embarrassment about his short comings.  The elderly mage was always trying to make others seem more insignificant than himself.

“They’re coming along just fine.”  Zartan lied.  He didn’t want this pompous arse knowing anything about his dealings, but he didn’t comprehend that Christar knew everything that went on in the dark elf city.  “The plans for the gutter rats are coming along quite well.  My agents have come up with a copious amount of intel for me on how to get to the royal family and how to best assassinate the king.  We’re still planning on when the best time for that is.”  Some of what Zartan said was true, he just embellished some of the facts, but Christar didn’t need to know his plans. 

The egotistical pompous mage wasn’t privileged to know Zartan’s plans.  The commander knew that he was more than competent to get the job done.  He didn’t need the condescending worm to know anything that wasn’t already known to everyone.

“We should get together some time and share intel so we can work together.”  Christar suggested.  Knowing good and well that would happen when the deep froze over.  “I think we could work well together.”  He said lying through his teeth.  He wanted Zartan to be strapped to one of his torture racks and flay the skin off his form.

Christar had eyes and ears everywhere.  He was well connected, informed, and wealthy.  He could manipulate and blackmail anyone into doing his bidding. He had people in the roda-ki that spied on Zartan and Zartan didn’t even know it, they were just that good.  Although Christar hadn’t been able to get anyone in Zartan’s inner circle and that annoyed Christar to no end.  Christar couldn’t get anything on anyone close to Zartan, but he had people close enough to get the information the old mage needed.

Zartan had similar spies in Christar’s Crimson Sanhedrin, but he couldn’t get close enough to act boldly.  He could taste the mage’s defeat, but he wasn’t close enough to slay him.  He, unfortunately, would have to bide his time in getting close enough to Christar’s inner circle and then to his demise.

“Are your roda-ki ready for the big battle?”  Christar asked coughing into his handkerchief and leaving a few spots of blood as a performance for the Grand Master.

“Good maybe the old fool will die from a blood clot or choke on his own blood!”  Zartan thought to himself, hoping above all hope.  “My roda-ki are more than ready.  Are your mages up to the task?”  Zartan shot back insulted that the wizard would think his people weren’t ready to take on the albino elves.  His sources in the mage’s guild had informed him of the currents of dissention in the guild were even worse than the rifts in the roda-ki and that was saying something.  With any luck, one of Christar’s underlings would do Zartan’s work for him. Christar had Luciferous’s own luck when it came to trying to murder him.  That old man was slipperier than a river eel.

“My mages are putting the finishing touches on their spells as we speak.”  Christar said in a matter-a-fact tone.   “I run a tight ship with my mages.  They're like my family and I treat them so.  You might take a page out of my book and treat your roda-ki the same.”

“The roda-ki are an army of specialists.”  Zartan said plainly with a hint of his hatred coming through.  “I can’t hold their hands and coddle them like children otherwise they wouldn’t ever get anything done.  There are special occasions, not many mind you, that a little coaxing needs to be done.  For the most part they are tough as tenson spikes and as rough as the bark of a starwood tree.  They can take on an army of ogrilar and come out on top every time.”

“Was there a point to your visit Christar?”

“Nope.”  Christar answered just as plainly.  “Just like to let people know I’m still alive and kicking.  Keeps people on their toes.”

With that Christar ever so gradually got to his feet his audible glamour spell making the sounds of his bones popping and creaking as he got up.  All part of his grand illusion.  Another thing he liked to show to everyone, to make them think he was too weak to defend himself.  It made them drop their guard and then he could attack without them realizing what he was doing.

Christar liked his theatrics and loved to perform for someone daily.  He didn't like to leave anyone out of his performances.  The more people he performed for, the more people he could kill or trap to do his bidding by sparing their lives.  He also liked performing for people because the more people that saw him the more rumors would be spread that he was a feeble timeworn aged man that could be easily attacked.  That way Christar could gradually get rid of his unwary enemies and eliminate the competition for the bidding of his place of power.

Zartan knew that Christar was more than he seemed though.  One of his informants was in Christar's Sanhedrin and knew the old fool to be as healthy as a young vital stallion and Zartan wasn’t going to get sucked into Christar's ploy.  The roda-ki had had enough of Christar.  Zartan was going to find a weakness in the mage and slay him.  He just needed to find the right opportunity.  When he had an occasion, the mage would just vanish, like he knew what was coming.

Christar finally exited the chamber and there was a knock at the door.  Zartan’s servant, a dark elf opened the door.  He was a thin, tall, and overly dark elf.  He said that the king of the shadow elves wanted to speak to him.  He told his servant to escort the king in and Zartan stood until the king sat himself across from Zartan.  The roda-ki commander bowed respectfully and sat down.

This was another thorn in the side of the roda-ki commander.  The king was nothing more than a blob and a smudge on the shadow elf community.  Zartan loathed the king almost as much as he despised Christar.  The warrior had people in the king’s court.  He was just staying his time to figure out how to get rid of the obese king and his slobbish family.

“What can I do for you your majesty?”  Zartan asked in mock humility.  This was another arrogant jerk that he abhorred.  The white of Zartan’s weapon was true to his nature.  There were dreadfully few people that Zartan could stomach, the king wasn’t one of them.  He wanted to separate the king’s head from his shoulders.  He didn’t care if the shadow elves tried to seek revenge or not.

The king was a five-foot-tall extremely dark shadow elf that had a circlet of pitch-black hair and a large bald spot on the crown of his head.  He had an enormous belly with copious amounts of fat that covered his body.  He was an obese shadow elf that had held the throne for more than two hundred cycles.  It was time for him to be tossed out on his arse. 

To say he had a double chin was an understatement, as he had five.  He had a large flat nose that spread across half of his overweight face, narrow black beady eyes that peeked through his sizeable lids, thick full lips that were always wet, and long pointed ears.

He was dressed in bulging crimson robes trimmed in white rabbit fur with gold embroidery along the sleeves.  He wore a swollen black silk shirt with a red scarf, and ebony britches that were bursting at the seams with a crimson belt.  The fresh leather strap had extra notches placed in it to hold his expanding girth, that had a large gold buckle of the Demon Mistress etched upon it.

He had twelve armored and armed guards with him, none of which were roda-ki which bothered Zartan.  Zartan insisted that the king be guarded by roda-ki, but the king refused saying that his private soldiers were the best in the underworld.  In fact, he believed them to be better than the esteemed roda-ki.  Which exasperated Zartan to no end and he would have loved to prove the king wrong.

The soldiers wore black chain mail and were covered with full breast plates also black.  Each guard had a crimson spider etched upon the chest.  They wore long swords at their side with a candy apple red spider etched at the base of the blade’s crossbar and a hand crossbow with three clips of twelve bolts in each.  Each soldier wore a solid helm that magically let them see through an otherwise covered face.  The soldiers were the best of the best the king had in his army, but they were nowhere near the talent of the roda-ki.  The king could trust them with his life, which was more than he could say for the roda-ki.

“I have come to sssee how your plansss for infiltrating the white ssswine dump are coming along.”  The king said in his most haughty shadow elf tone.  The king thought the roda-ki were mediocre at best.  He had never put his men up against them, he didn’t think he had to.  He thought he knew how poorly the roda-ki functioned.  The roda-ki were puffed up bantam roosters in his opinion.  Zartan may have bragged on them, but that meant nothing to the king.

“We have made progress in our infiltration.”  Zartan lied.  “I have been meaning to have my men train with yours.  You place so much pride in your soldiers I thought I might learn from your soldier’s examples and cycles of training.”  Zartan was hatching a plan to make the kings guard look obsolete and now he was going to prove it.

The king had a visage of surprise upon his face.  “That would be a wonderful idea.  I think a demonssstration would be in order right now.  My elite guardsss againssst your roda-ki.”  The king was going to show the conceited roda-ki master just how worthless his soldiers were compared to his.

“Very well.”  Zartan said and was surprised that the king had so readily agreed to the match.  Now he would make the king appear the fool he was.  The commander had one of the roda-ki that he knew could best the king’s elite guard, especially if Zartan had trained the student himself.

“Larriance come in here please.”  Zartan called in a slightly raised tone into the other chamber.

A boy of eighteen came into the room.  He was human with dark skin, short spongy black hair, dark brown slanted squinted almond eyes, and was five and a half feet tall.  He carried only a quarterstaff with him as a weapon.  He bowed before Zartan and stood at attention.

“Thisss isss jussst a boy.”  The king scoffed.  “My bodyguardsss will beat him about the head and ssshouldersss, and he will go home crying to hisss mother.  I don't want to have to humiliate a boy in front of you like thisss.  Give me a better challenge than thisss.”

“I have trained him personally.”  Zartan assured the king with pride in his voice.  “I want all your guards to attack him.”  He is trained better than he appears.  Do your worst against him.  He will show you what the roda-ki can do against your elite guards.  I want you to see what my people are made of.  I think you’ll be impressed.”

“You can’t be ssseriousss.”  The king laughed.  He knew that his guards would mop the floor with this boy.  Twelve of his guards against just one boy.  This was going to be a slaughter for his well-trained elite man, and he would show Zartan what elite guards were like against the roda-ki.  The roda-ki would fall at the feet of the elect guards.

“Want to make a wager.” Zartan said mocking the king.

“Attack!”  The king yelled.

Steel on leather rasped throughout the chamber.  The staff whirled with great speed and turned a brilliant crimson, meaning wrath, in the demonstaff.  As a sword attacked the staff deflected it and the weapon went flying and the staff slapped the guard across the head knocking him out.  Two guards attacked seeing their brother knocked unconscious by this insolent boy and both swords were blocked.  The ends of the staff struck both guards alongside their helmeted heads knocking them out.  The young man’s varied attacks were with ease and grace.  The student wasn’t even breaking a sweat as each guard went down one by one.

Some of the guards withdrew their hand crossbows and shot at the youth.  The bolts were deftly deflected, some at the guards who had fired them.  The projectiles were driven into the attacker’s knees, elbow, and shoulders.  Anywhere the missile would do the least amount of damage but take the soldier out of the fight.

More long swords flew from the hands of guards grabbing their wrists and then falling unconscious as the staff struck them alongside the head.  Soon all the guards were either unconscious or on the ground moaning from their injuries.  Larriance had defeated them all in a matter of minutes.  The boy stood at attention and yelled “HAIL LUCIFEROUS!” and stuck out his arm and hand at a forty-five-degree angle upwards honoring Luciferous and his mistress Lilith.

The king was taken aback.  “You mussst be one of the bessst roda-ki that Zartan hasss.”  The king said admiringly.

“Nope he’s a fifth cycle maroke.”  Zartan said with pride.  “Apprentices study for twelve cycles before they become full roda-ki.  This is why you need roda-ki guarding you.  With just two full roda-ki and their maroke guarding you, you’re safer than a full squad of soldiers.”

“I will take it under advisssement.”  The king said trying to get his men up off the floor.  When he finally did, he left in a hurry and with more than a little egg on his face.  He was totally ashamed of the performance of his guards.  They were supposed to be the best of the best and that meant the elite.  They performed like toddlers in a sandbox against a boy of all things!

After the king had left Zartan took his apprentice aside and patted him on the back.  “You have done well this day.  You showed that pompous pile of garbage what his soldiers were worth.  Now go back to your studies.”

Larriance exited the room proud of what he had done.  He had defeated twelve soldiers that was a new personal best, of course he was usually battling other maroke, but twelve was still a number to be proud of.

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The Terror of Lilith

Argathous stood in a large empty gloomy chamber.  Sconces on the wall illuminated the place but just barely their pale light flickering upon the walls.   It was like the darkness was absorbing all the light.  The flames from the torches were faint and barely illuminated the floor but not the vaulted ceiling.  The impressions of light cast eerie devilish shadows that danced ghostly upon the floor, walls, and parts of ceiling like specters looking for someone to haunt.  Argathous glanced around and realized he was dreaming again, but it wasn’t going to be a pleasant vision, it was going to be a nightmare!  He needed to wake up and do it right then.  These dreams were never any good and he wanted out before it even started!

“Wake up!”  He told himself.  He knew he had to get out of this place because it wasn’t going to be anything good.  “It’s not real!”  He told himself over and over.  Hoping the nightmare would go away, but the vision stuck with him no matter how hard he tried to shake it.  There was something evil lurking in the murkiness and it sought him out.  A chill went up and down his spine, arms, and across his scalp.  Goosebumps the size of hailstones riddled his body, or at least that’s how it felt.

He knew that vileness lived here.  He could feel it in his marrow.  He didn’t have to see the baseness; he could sense it.  His stomach felt like he was about to puke, but he managed to keep the bile down.  He knew it was just a dream, at least that’s what he hoped it was.  His heart sprinted like it were the drumming of horses at a racetrack.  He could scarcely breathe, sweat broke out on his face, his hand became unsteady, and his eyes were as wide as the moons.

He staggered gradually down the hall.  He could sense the atmosphere of dread clinging to himself getting closer to the malevolent presence.  Whatever was casting this perniciousness was getting ever closer and he knew that he was going to run into it soon and he didn’t want to see its face.

“Well, aren’t you a young one.”  A purring seductive voice came from the shadows.  The voice was calm, but it wasn’t pleasant.  It had the sound of evil to it.  Like pythons wrestling in a pile of dead dried leaves.  The young lad could feel his skin begin to be riddled with more extra enormous goose bumps and it felt like massive spiders were swarming beneath his skin.  He didn’t like the sensation and wanted to get rid of it.�� He didn’t like being afraid of anything.  He thought of fear as being a frailty, but this sensation was foreign to him.  He had never felt anything like it in all his fourteen cycles.

Argathous strained to see who it was, but his eyes couldn't pierce the gloom, but it was no use there just wasn’t enough light to see through the murkiness.  He backed away from where the voice had come from, but he found that he had backed into a wall and in a corner at that.  The voice was emanating from every direction.  There was no place to run to, there was no place to hide, he was trapped! The only illumination was that which was upon him.  The light followed him wherever he went.

He wanted out of this nightmare, but it was no use he couldn’t force himself to wake up from the dream.  He felt himself start to hallucinate.  He could see colossal spiders start to skitter across the floor towards him.  He wasn’t afraid of spiders normally, but these were as huge as ponies.  Their mandibles were clicking together like they wanted to eat him, as though they hadn’t eaten in days.  They halted just inches away from his neck and clicked their pincers at his carotid artery just waiting for the order to attack.  The spiders could sense his rapid pulse race.  Precious life fluid coursing through his neck.  Argathous’ heart rate inspired them to grow even closer to rip at his neck, but they held back at the mistress’s domination.  They wanted to drive their pincers into his fleshy throat!

            “Hmmm.”  Came the voice as sultry as any flirtatious tavern wench.  “I like them young, but you’re barely a young man, but you’ve got such power within you.  I haven’t seen potential like this since…  Well since the beginning of time.  You look tender enough to eat, but I like my meals so much younger than you.  You I have plans for, yes immense plans for and the dou-jin don’t even have the inkling of what I want to do with you.”  She laughed enthusiastically.

“Who’s out there?”  Argathous said in a timid voice trying to be as brave as possible.  “Where are Mike, Ron, and J.D.?  Who are you?  Why are you in my dream?  Get out of my head!!!”

Argathous normally wasn’t afraid of much that he could see, but this new sensation was rattling him.  He couldn’t resist the urge to run away from the voice.  The utterance was so vile and evil that it terrorized him and all he wanted to do was escape the taunting of the vocal expression.

“I’m the one that’s going to make you famous.”  She said teasingly, tauntingly to the youth.  She knew that she had the boy petrified and there was nothing that he could do to stop her.  She was a voice in the air and there was no way to fight a spectral announcement.  She couldn’t help but laugh at the situation because he was under her influence.

“Famous?”  Argathous said confused.  “Famous for what?”

“Famous for being the strongest roda-ki to bring down the Dou-Jin Republic!”  She laughed maniacally, but there was no mirth in her laughter.  The only thing in her laughter was pure hatred and loathing.  “I’ve been whittling them down for cycles with temptations of various sorts.  Some I turn roda-ki, others I forced out of the dou-jin order to become mai-lai, others I set up as a disgrace to the Dou-Jin Temple, and yet others I’ve given the lack of confidence to pass the dou-jin trials.  Like Yo the one protecting your family.  You and I will do a lot of damage to them.”

“They are falling apart, and they think that you’re going to bring them back together.  To give them back the potency they once had over the world of Theara, but I have other plans for you.  I’m going to make you king of the world.  All shall kneel at your feet!  You’ll stoop at my feet.  You will make the world kneel and make them prostrate themselves at your feet.  They will do anything for you.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?  Every person in the world so taken with you that they would be willing to do anything for you, and if they don’t, they will know the meaning of pain!”

“All you must do is kneel before me.  You’ll have the world and I’ll have you.  It’s just that simple.  What’s a little kneeling at before me when you’ll have the world.  It’s just your soul and what’s a soul really?  It’s such a small thing.  A tiny soul for the entire world.”

“You are nothing but pure evil and I will never kneel at anyone’s or anything’s feet that is evil.  You can go to the pit!  You think you can scare me with your spider’s well you can’t. I don’t care how big you make your spiders I don't scare easily.”  Argathous had mustered up all his courage at the talk of losing his soul to this mysterious voice.  “I squash spiders daily.  Spiders are nothing but a nuisance.   Your spiders are about as scary as a rag doll.”

Argathous at hearing what kind of person he was to become under the rule of the haunting tone he had straightened his backbone and fought back against the malevolent voice.  Nothing was going to turn him evil, nothing at all.  He would only prostate himself before The Creator and His Family.  This woman would get nothing from him.

“The only ones you have to answer to are the Chosen thirteen, Luciferous, Me Lilith, Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, and Demonique.”

“I will never worship the fallen!”  Argathous screamed in rebellion to Lilith.  “I will kill myself before that ever happens!  You will stay bound by the seals.  I and the dou-jin order will see to that.  I would rather die than serve the fallen!”

“Then I’ll bring you back to life and you’ll still do my bidding.”  She told him with an amused laugh.  “If you commit suicide then your soul is ours according to the Dou-Jin Bible.”  She loved that she had him in a corner and so young.  He would be easy to intimidate and bully.

“You think you have me right where you want me, but I’ll never give into you!” Argathous shouted.  “Now show yourself coward because that’s what you are!  Afraid to come out into the open to face me!  You’re nothing but a lily-livered coward, and I’m calling you out!”

“I don’t need to show myself because you are mine and will always be mine no matter what.”  The eerie voice spoke in a deeper menacing tone trying to intimidate Argathous even more.  She wanted him frightened again so that he was more pliable and bending to her will.  He was proving to be an iron-willed boy, and this was frustrating to her.

“Then I’ll run until you can never find me!”  Argathous bellowed in revolution.  “I will never do your bidding in life or in death!  There’s nothing you can do to me that will make me do what you want.”

“I know where you are all the time.”  Lilith said to Argathous.  He was perspiring profusely now.  He was worried that Lilith would find him and make him serve her and he wouldn’t go to the afterlife and be with the Creator and His Family.  “What if the goddess of hideousness went after his family?”  He thought frantically.  “How could I protect my family from her and her followers?  If she could get into my dreams, what was to stop her from getting into my mother’s dreams, my brother’s, or my baby sister’s?  I have no way to protect them.  Lilith held all the cards and I have no training.  Would my family die before I received any dou-jin training?”

“I shall do just that!”  She said harshly her voice was like a wood rasp being dragged across metal.  “If you don’t follow me, I’ll hunt your family down and make them all my slaves and I don’t treat my slaves kindly.  They will each get the strap three times a day and thirty-nine lashes at each lashing.  Then I’ll heal them enough so that they still feel the pain until the next beating is to happen.  Their entire lives will be nothing but pain and suffering!  The choice is yours.  Follow me and your family will be safe, or rebel and they will be in constant agony.”

“I and my family are protected by the Creator and His Family and there’s nothing in the light of the Spirit that you can do about that!”  He screamed in defiance.

"I am the Mistress of Pain.  There is nothing you can do to stop me.  You are nothing but a puny little boy who couldn't save a bug from being squashed and that's what your family is to me a house of insects.”

“No!”  He screamed in rage and fear.  “You’re the insect.  You are the Goddess of Hideousness.  Half spider and half medusa the ugliest of all creatures.  You can do nothing from where you are!”

Argathous sat upright from his sleep.  It was still dark out.  He looked around the camp and saw Brady staring straight at him.  Somehow Brady had gotten into his mind again and made him dream that horrific nightmare.  Argathous slept the rest of the night only halfway sleeping and never falling into a deep sleep.  He couldn’t fall asleep, not with Brady watching him.  Somehow Brady had done some kind of roda-ki mind trick on him.

“Whet’s wrong lad?”  J.D. asked after witnessing Argathous sitting up so fast.

“Brady got in my head or Lilith did.”  Argathous mumbled through tear-soaked lips.  “She said that she was going to torture and hurt my family if I wouldn’t join her.  That she was going to break the seals and she was going to make me break the seals for her.”

“Thet wes jest uh mind treck Brady played on yuh.”  J.D. replied.  He had to remind himself that he was talking to a fourteen-cycle-old boy that was the size of a full-grown man.  “I’ll teach yuh ‘ow tuh block them en th’ next few days.  Now get some sleep ‘nd ignore Brady fer th’ night.  ‘e can’t ‘urt yuh.”

Argathous wiped the tears off his face.  “How was he ever going to get the images out of his head of his mother and family hanging to death from the porch back home?  He had to get back there before they became victims of Lilith’s torture.

He didn’t know if J.D. was telling him the truth.  Only Yo was there to protect the family, but would that be enough to defend his household.  He had to believe that the Creator would keep his family safe.  That he would be in safe hands as well, but he didn’t think he would sleep well the rest of the travel to the Dou-Jin Temple, not while Brady was in their camp.

He wanted to take J.D.’s battle-axe and lop off the man’s head before he could cause any more of those nightmares again.  He would love to see Brady dead before they placed him to the jail.

Brady was nothing more than scum to Argathous.  He was a bully and trash.  Argathous had never killed anyone before in his life, but he’d make an exception for Brady’s sake.  His first kill would be Brady and that would start his path to the dou-jin.  There was no good reason that Brady should be alive.  He was an assassin and the punishment for that should be death.

Argathous couldn’t wait until Brady was locked up and Argathous was learning how to become a dou-jin.  He would learn the ways of the dou-jin and destroy the roda-ki so that all Theara could be at peace and no longer have to face the terrors of the roda-ki.  He wouldn't be able to learn the ways of the dou-jin fast enough to keep his family safe.

Debriela was having a wonderful dream about riding a horse with Bladden, her brothers, and sisters in an open field at the back of their farm.  They were racing and Debriela was winning.  She managed to get to the barn first and beat her brothers, sisters, and Bladden by nearly ten seconds.  Bladden was surprised that Debriela could ride so well.  Debriela never beat others at horse racing!

The gloomy intense threatening rainclouds covered the sky and rain began to plummet in a downpour of something unreal.  Thunder and lightning began to crash and clobber the surface of theara.  The lightning strikes hit the earth and gouts of earth sprayed into the air.  It seemed that the lightning was more powerful than the children had ever witnessed.  The sextet got in the barn as quickly as possible. 

Lightning exploded upon the barn and apprehended the structure with fire.  The six tried to get all the animals out, but the fire spread so fiercely that Debriela, Jainny, Mattwin, Chester, Patsy, and Bladden found themselves caught in the barn with no way out.  They began choking on the smoke and Bladden fell from too much smoke inhalation.  Debriela and the others couldn’t wake him and then the scenery changed.

Debriela found herself in a deep gloomy vast chamber with mist and smoke all around.  It was hard to breathe because of the smoke.  A voice came from all around her.  She was surrounded by the paranormal tone.

“I am Lilith the Goddess of Beauty and Love and I have killed your friends and family as I will you and your brothers and sisters if you don’t do as I say.  You must kill your family, or I’ll kill you.  Your brothers, sisters, and you’ll all spend eternity in the deep with me as my servants and I don’t treat my servants well.

Bladden then stood up.

“Bladden is one of my servants now and she lit him on fire and Debriela and others screamed as Bladden burned.  They tried to put the fire out, but it was no use.  The flames burned their hands and blisters formed on their palms and fingers and the blisters opened and drained ooze over their hands.  Bladden screamed and cried out for help.  It hurt Debriela’s and the other’s ears, and they couldn’t handle anymore, and she wanted it to stop.

Bladden lay at their feet.  His skin burnt, cracked with liquid oozing from the fissures in his skin.  He was scorched beyond recognition.  There was nothing left of his face but a charred skull.  The rest of Bladden was cooked with crispy skin of charcoal black.

“It will stop as soon as you say you’ll kill everyone in your family.”  Lilith told Debriela.

“I won’t kill anyone in my family no matter what you do!  You goose brained goat licking fargan bastage!”  She screamed.

“Such language from a little girl.”  Lilith teased.

Lilith had her mother, her two brothers, and her two sisters hanging before her.  They were naked and being whipped.  She had to hear them scream as they were being striped.  They were begging that the flogging stop, but their cries fell upon deaf ears.

“Now kill them or they will suffer for eternity at my hands.”  Lilith informed Debriela.  “I will whip them forever if you don’t kill them now.  They will be in shear and utter torment, and it will be all your fault.”

Debriela didn’t know if it was a dream or if it was a reality.  She wasn’t going to kill her family in reality or in a dream either.  The shrieks coursed out through her mind.  She couldn’t bear to listen to them anymore, but she wasn’t going to give into Lilith’s demands either.  She placed her hands over her ears, but it only amplified the shrieks.  There was no way for her to block the sounds of the whips and the cries of her family.

“I will not kill my family.”  The eleven-cycle old rebelled against Lilith.  “You will have to get your thrills somewhere else because I’m not going to let you get the better of me.  Now let me get some sleep.”

Lilith then strung her up naked and began flogging her body and she screamed with each thrashing.  Lilith pounded her body, but Debriela wouldn’t give into the Demon Mistresses will.  Debriela was stronger than that.  She howled with pain.  She couldn’t handle it.  Blood coursed from her wounds and the lashings weren’t stopping.  She was only eleven, and she was suffering the torture of a full-grown woman.

Something grabbed her and she woke up and she saw her mother, but Debriela stared at her in fright until she recognized where she was.

“Is that really you momma?”  Debriela asked in bewilderment.  Where was she and where were the bodies and the fire?

“Yes, it’s me honey.”  Inger said to her daughter.  “You were having a bad nightmare.  You were screaming so I came in to wake you up.  It’s early morning.  You can get up and forget about that nasty delusion.”  Debriela wasn’t going to forget that nightmare anytime soon.

Then they heard Jainny was screaming in her bedroom.  Inger went in and woke Jainny up and Jainny had had the same horrendous nightmare as Debriela and the girls both cried until no more tears could fall.  Then Chester, Mattwin, Patsy also woke up screaming from the same nightmarish experience.  They refused to kill their family and Lilith had punished them for it in their dreams.

The Dou-Jin Temple was an entire city.   It was so immense that Argathous couldn't believe what he was seeing.  It was a pure white building build out of Bracken stone the hardest stone known to man.  It was stronger than steel and it was mined by the dwarves and gnomes.  The temple was the tallest building in the city it had forty towers that went up to two hundred feet high.

It had stores and shops inside that sold goods for sacrifices, inspirational reading, religious jewelry, and the like and outside the temple there was a massive metropolis.  As the group approached the main entrance Argathous saw the enormous bracken stones that were crafted with magic and dwarven builders so that the buildings were made smooth.   No one could see the seams of the large stones.  Which made up the impenetrable outer wall of the city and the temple.  As much as the temple was made for worship it was much more made for war. 

Lost Vargas surrounded the temple.  The city held over a million people.  The city was massive and had everything and more to offer its people.  The population was quite diverse.  It had every race within its walls.

The main gate of bracken slid out on what looked to be four-foot-high wheels that sank into two-foot-deep holes when the gate was shut.  The wheels appeared to be about two feet apart.  The wall was nearly one hundred feet tall.   There were twelve turrets and twenty towers the towers being closer to the center of the city.

Along the curtain wall thousands of arrow slits could be seen.  As the group walked through the gate Argathous could see that ten horses could walk abreast and still have plenty of room on the wall without any danger of falling off.

J.D., the ruddy haired dwarf, took Brady off in another direction than where Michale and Ronaldo were taking Argathous and his cousins to see the Grand Headmaster.  The young boys and girls traversed to the center of the temple when they dismounted and were led inside the structure that had the forty tall towers.  The building on the outside was perfectly symmetrical being made from flawlessly crafted stone.  There were twenty tower groups, in twenty groups of two, but twenty of the forty towers were empty due to the lack of students to fill them.

The dou-jin had fallen upon hard times throughout the cycles.  Each cycles the number of dou-jin were thinning.  Things were about to change for the dou-jin.  They were no longer searching the metropolises, but the small villages and hamlets.  Why the dou-jin overlooked the smaller population was anyone’s guess, but they had finally realized their mistake and were rectifying it.

The eleven walked through the double starwood doors.  Starwood being an extremely dense purple wood that’s as strong as high-grade steel and the trees needed to be cut down with magical equipment.  The densest population of starwood was in the country of Talos the royal elf kingdom and the only way they would cut down a tree is if were dead, diseased, or dying and they were the only ones that had the equipment.  They would be hired out to go to other countries to cut down their dead starwood trees.  The wood of the starwood was a pale sky blue and could be bleached to be pure white and then stained purple.

It was said that it took nearly two cycles to cut down one of these massive trees.  These trees stood over two thousand feet tall and were as wide as three hundred yards in circumference. 

Argathous and his relatives were taken through the halls of the temple until they came to a chamber that had a large door with a huge brass ring on it.  Michale knocked on the door.  A tiny voice said come in with a scholar widget accent and the dou-jin opened the door and the group walked in.

Argathous and his cousins gazed around the room with awe.  The room was much larger on the inside than the outside would have indicated.  In fact, the room was nearly three hundred feet by three hundred feet.  The chamber looked more like a museum than an office.  Several giant skeletons were placed about the room. 

One skeleton was of a massive creature that was fifteen feet in height and nearly as wide.  It had long tusks that protruded six feet to either side of its nasal cavity.  It had thick bones for legs as if it had to carry an extreme amount of weight.  If it had been normal size Argathous thought, it would have been a warthog of immense size.

Another skeleton stood eighteen feet tall and was almost human in every detail except that it was so tall.  It had a massive, huge gorilla-like head, but the rest of it was human in form and structure.  It held a small tree as a club and there were animal skins draped over the skeleton to make it appear more real and menacing.

Another skeleton hung from the ceiling.  It was ninety feet long and had a ninety-foot wingspan.  Argathous had never seen anything so incredible in all his life.  He stared at it for a few minutes and thought it must be what people said dragons looked like while in flight.

Another skeleton was that of a massively giant worm the was ten feet wide, it was snake-like in appearance, but it had strange soft bones, and had a skeleton which worms usually didn’t, but this one did.  The creature also wasn’t coiled up like a snake either, so it couldn’t have been a snake.  Its head was ten feet across and had seven horns on the crest of its head.  The maw of the creature had saw like teeth and it was rearing up twenty feet as if ready to attack.

The last creature was of a giant snake.  It was coiled up in its skeletal form.  It had a spear-like wedged head, and was poised to strike from its forty-foot height.  The snake must have been over two hundred feet long and would have given a dragon a run for its gold piece.

The chamber was painted a periwinkle blue and had stars and planets painted on the ceiling and walls.  The entire room was like a circus to the zephyrs they had never seen anything like it in all their lives.

“Welcome.” Came a small cheerful scholar widget’s voice.  “So, you must be Argathous, the one I’ve heard so much about and Marie, Enoch, Constantine, Paul, Peter, Monroe, Marlyn, and Jessup from the same village.”

Argathous had to stop gawking at all the wonderful stuff in the chamber to gaze at a three-foot-tall man with a tall, pointed hat.  He had a long stark white beard and mustache that reached the floor.  His face was full of wrinkles like that of a raisin.  He had a large nose, big, pointed ears, and large cow brown eyes that seemed to take in everything.

“Yes sir.”  Argathous answered nervously.

"Yes sir."  Argathous cousins answered just as respectfully.

“I’m Donaldrid Vorhelm the Grand Headmaster of the temple and school of the dou-jin.”  The three-foot widget informed the mid-teen boys and girls.  “You got here just in time to be put into your guilds.”

“Guilds?”  Argathous asked.

“A guild is sort of like a household.”  Donaldrid informed Argathous while stroking his mustache.  “A prophet enters the room, and the prophet places you into the guild that you will be in for the next twelve cycles.  The prophet, it’s a different one every cycle, it saves them from playing favorites with guilds.”

"But I still have more cousins and friends from my village that are coming from my town and area that with need to be put into a guild.”  Argathous said in a worried tone.  “They’re not going to miss anything important, are they?  It will be a month until they get here."

"Not to worry Gath."  Vorhelm assured him.  "They arrived her by gateway a week ago, so they aren’t being left out of the experience.  You can go down and talk to them if you'd like before they get sorted out into their different guilds."

“Why didn’t we come by gateway?”  Argathous thought to himself.  “it would have saved me from Brady’s torment.”

“There are now twenty.  We just opened ten guilds to bolster our numbers.  We have spread out our search for new members to farther reaches where we have never searched before and were pleasantly surprised at what we have found.  Six boys and six girls are chosen for each guild.  So, there are twelve for each first cycle guild.  Then you are separated into pods of six.  Three boys and three girls.  You spend ten months studying various things during the cycle.  You have your basic math, science, reading, history of the world, history of the dou-jin, and writing as well as spirit casting, spiritual force powers, defense against black magic, and things like that.”

“Now the assigning is about to begin.  Go to the main hall.  There will be food there for you to eat.  Don’t mind the squints they are the temples workers.  They will provide anything you need.  They can be a bit unsightly, but they are harmless and extraordinarily sociable.”

“I hope you enjoy your stay.  Here’s a squint now.”

Argathous jumped at the sight of the squint.  It looked like a giant potato.  It had a large bulbous nose, huge elephant ears, big droopy eyes, sagging thick lips, a sparse beard and mustache, and a full head of orange hair.  It had small but muscular arms as well as athletic legs and stood four feet tall.  Its skin was like that of a potato as well, a washed potato, but a potato none-the-less.

“Hello sirs and misses.”  He said in a thin high crisp voice.  “Will you follow me to the main hall? Don’t worry about clothing, all of that is being taken care of right now.  Just enjoy yourself and glory in the Dou-Jin Temple.  The Temple is called Creatures Sanctum.”

Argathous and his cousins shadowed the squint throughout the temple.  The temple was so vast that it took nearly ten minutes to get to the main hall.  There were over a thousand students of many diverse races in the main hall at ten different tables.  Ten tables were vacant that were going to have new students at them starting this cycle and would slowly fill up in cycles to come.

Two hundred eighty-eight students stood amid the hall before an ancient half-elven woman.  The woman was extremely pale and had stone gray hair that was pulled up in a tied iron bun.  Her eyes were cold steel gray, and she had a look of no nonsense about her.  She wore a cobalt blue gown and a bent pointed hat that had seen better days which through off the elegance of her gown.  She must have loved the hat, because the rest of her clothing appeared to be brand new.

The students made a line established before the prophet and she walked up to each one of them and place her index finger and middle finger upon their foreheads and then whispered something in their ears.  The students then walked to their perspective tables.  Each table had a banner upon it.   They were Dallas Dragons, Lyle Lions, Morrison Minotaurs, Whitworth Warriors, Academy Angels, LaCreole Lycanthropes, Glendale Giants, Blue Garden Bugbears, Creative Alternatives Chimeras, Theater Titans, Richardson Remorhaz, Peedee Pegasus, Rickreal Rakshasa, Parrydale Phoenix, Fallen City Knights, West Salem Werebears, Willamina Worgs, Jefferson Jaguars, Levens Leopards, and Oakdale Owlbears. 

All the new students gawked completely confused, a little frightened, and more than a bit anxious at the prospect as to what guild they may perhaps go.  Were they going, where their parents had gone, only Argathous’s and his cousins parents had never gone to the temple?  As a minority of the students had had parents that never went to the Dou-Jin Temple.

This cycle all the tables would have students at them as the dou-jin were expanding their places of seeking students, so more were coming from being even farther away than normal.  They were coming from little towns that most the dou-jin prophets had never heard of and now the temple was going to be full again in another twelve cycles if everything worked out the way they planned for the shau’doku students and dou-jin faculty.

When the prophet finally got to Argathous she stopped and gazed at him in awe.  “The Spirit is powerful in you!  Immensely powerful indeed.”  She said a bit too loud.  “You must be Argathous Dragonsbane.”

“Yes ma’am.”  Argathous answered respectfully and with more than a little apprehension in his voice.  “You can call me Gath if you like though ma’am.”

“Well Gath you will be placed in the Dallas Dragons.”  She responded.  “We will be keeping an eye on you.”

“Why?”  Argathous asked as if he’d done something wrong.  He felt a little paranoid that someone might single him out and make him the laughingstock of the school, because he was poor and had no money.

The half-elven prophet moved on down the line ignoring the question and went about her business not given the young boy an answer to his question.  Argathous watched her make her way through the line not going to his table he was assigned to by the prophet.  Why had she said they would be keeping an eye on him?

Argathous finally shook himself after one of the older students nudged him toward his table.  “Welcome to the Dallas Dragons!  My you’re tall!”  A tall willowy human woman with silvery hair and deep green eyes said.  “I’m Samantha Goodwin the Lead Girl of the Dallas Dragons.  I know that I am a woman, but if you’re a student of the Dou-Jin Academy you are considered a child.”  She pointed at another tall thin human boy with light brown hair.  “That’s the Lead Boy Ricky Trompsom.”  Both Lead Boy and Girl wore a silver six-pointed ebony star badge with an opal in the center of its body.  Above the opal it said in amber letters. Lead and below it said Boy or Girl.

Argathous noticed that there where one hundred forty-four students at each lengthy table.  There were many races of both sexes and a wide variety of ages from age fourteen to twenty-five.  Argathous gazed at all of them and was a bit intimidated at the enormous number of students in his guild.  He didn’t know any of them and he began to feel out of place.  The only thing he thought of was that he was going to have a lonely twelve cycles at the school.  But he had his cousins, unless his cousins made a lot of new friends then he’d be back to being lonely.

Argathous sat at the far end of the table with eleven other youths his age there were five other boys and six girls.  All glanced about the room trying to take in everything as if trying to memorize all the elements of the chamber.  The magnificent chamber had all types of floating brightly lit orbs in the hall.  They illuminated the hall exceedingly well.  There wasn’t a dark spot in the great hall.  There were huge windows along the wall that were made out to be pictures of stained-glass depicting people that had been possibly heroes in the dou-jin’s past.  Argathous only guessed at that because he didn’t know for sure.  He grasped a crystal goblet of water and drank the liquid.

At the once ten empty tables there were only twelve students at each.  The tables were going to take a while to fill up the ten tables over the next twelve cycles.  The students there couldn't help but glance around in wonder at the vast hall just like Argathous was doing. Some of his cousins were sitting at the tables appearing lost in their surroundings.

The Grand Dou-Jin Headmaster waddled up to his diminutive podium and began to speak to all the students.  He had a rather high-pitched voice and sounded more like a child that a full-grown man.  He had silver hair and a silvery beard all of which hung down to his feet.  He had cow brown eyes and a monocle over his left eye, and he set his pipe down upon the podium.  He held a strange device in his hand that appeared like a wand but was much thicker and was larger at the end he spoke in than the end he held. 

“Good evening students of The Dou-Jin Academy.”  He began in a pleasant mild high-pitched tone.  The device in his hand amplified his voice so that the entire hall could plainly hear his tiny high-pitched voice.  “Welcome Academy Angels…, Creative Alternative Chimeras..., Dallas Dragons…, Glendale Giants…, La Creole Lycanthropes…, Lyle Lions…, Morrison Minotaurs…, Parrydale Phoenix’s..., Oakdale Owlbears…, and Whitworth Warriors.  And to the newly reopened Blue Garden Bugbears…, Theater Titans…, Peedee Pegasus…, Fallen City Knights…, West Salem Werebears…, Willamina Worgs…, Jefferson Jaguars…, Levens Leopards…, Rickreal Rakshasa…, and the Richardson Remorhaz. 

We hope to one day to refill those latest ten towers again and bring the school to its former glory.”  Each table gave a roaring cheer as their name was announced to show their school spirit.  There was drumming on the table and the thundering of foot stomps mix in the cacophony of the guilds spirit.  All the guilds were boisterous and were sure not to be outdone by any of the other guilds.  The only tables that made little noise were the ten new tables, but they gave it their best, but their voices were minute in comparison to the ten full tables of students.

“Now for some announcements.”  The widget said to his audience.  “I am Donaldrid Vorhelm the Grand Dou-Jin Headmaster of the Dou-Jin Academy for those who are new and don’t know who I am.”

“Second all your teachers are sitting at the long tables behind me.  They are most anxious to get your courses started for this cycle.”

“Third only those twenty cycles and older are allowed in the meditation chambers and then only during 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.” 

“Fourth the penitentiary is out of bounds to all students under the age of twenty as there are some very vile men and women down there and they would be more than happy to kill you or worse.  There are students that visit the cells, but only with my permission.”

“Fifth, it’s time to eat.”  At that Donaldrid clapped his hands and the twenty tables were teaming with a diversity food and drink appropriate for children and young adults.  There was roast beef, fried chicken, pork chops, and lamb chops, potatoes and gravy, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, green beans, corn, asparagus, eggplant, salads, cup cakes, cookies of many varieties, cakes, pies, puddings, assorted drinks and so much more.

At the end of the tables stood a couple of squints.  Their jobs were to clean up spills and anything that was dropped on the floor.  They were extraordinarily quick at their jobs.  They were a blur when they moved, which was a surprise since they looked like sluggish potatoes.

Argathous felt extremely out of place in the great hall.  He sat on the end of the table in his dust covered clothes and didn’t talk to anyone at first.  He tried to talk to one of the squints, but they kept running off to clean up messes.

None of his cousins or friends had been placed in his guild.  He found some of his cousins in the hall and waved at them, but they seemed to engrossed in conversation with the other people in the guild.  Argathous wished he were more social.

Argathous started feeling a little lonely at the table as he wasn’t used to social gatherings except when all the families would get together and had a party once a month for a family get togethers, but right now Argathous felt like a toothpick in a haystack.  He couldn’t find another toothpick to talk to.  His cousins had been put in different guilds.  Each of the ones that were brought he were put in different guilds which was a surprise to Argathous.  He figured that since they were related, they would be put into the same guild, but that wasn’t the case.

A girl sitting next to Argathous tapped him on the arm.  She had wavy blonde hair, dark sapphire blue eyes, a slender nose, slightly pointed ears, and thin lips.  Her skin was perfect and so smooth.  There wasn’t a smudge of dirt on it.  Everyone Argathous had ever met had some sort of dirt on their face as they seemed to be farmers, lumberjacks, rangers, or other earthy people.  Well except on Sonday when everyone went to church to worship the Creator and His Family.

“I’m Lorianna Flameblade.”  She said in a half-elven voice to Argathous while sticking out her hand ready to shake his.  She had such a beautiful voice; it was like she was singing.  She had a pleasing smile on her face.  He had never seen such utter beauty.

Argathous froze like a mouse under the gaze of a hawk.  A girl that wasn’t a relative was talking to him and she was gorgeous as well.  He just sat there and stared at her.  Here he had helped catch a dangerous criminal more cunning than himself and he couldn’t muster up his own name for this young lady.

“Go ahead tell me your name.”  She said teasingly.  She knew that it was going to be her who was going to have to make the first move, the second move, and all the moves after that, but that was okay she was used to going after what she wanted.

Argathous’s face went ten shades of crimson his lips moved but no sound came out of them.  He slowly managed to raise his hand and shook hers.  Her hands were so soft compared to his callused ones from working at the blacksmiths and laboring on the farm so long.

“I know your Argathous aren’t you?”  She said to him putting a hand on his right arm.  She knew she was rattling him, but she was having too much fun with him. “The prophet practically yelled it when she came to you.”

Argathous slowly nodded his head.  “Y… y… you can call me Gath if you’d like.”  He said barely above a whisper.  His eyes were staring at her hand that was on his arm and his eyes were ever so wide.  He stared at her hand as though it were in an ever so soft vice.

“Why you do have a voice.”  She giggled teasingly.  “What race are you.  I’m a half elf.  My dad’s full star elf and my mom’s human.  My dad couldn't stand the star elf women and he wanted a calm human woman."  She tittered at that.  Star elf women are domineering and forceful.  Star elf women also don’t let men talk unless the man is spoken to first, or unless the man had proven himself worthy of talking freely.  That usually is demonstrated by slaying a grizzly bear or a mountain cat.

“I’m zephyr.”  He said gradually still staring at Lorianna as if she had fallen from the sky.

“Oh, a barbarian.”  She said excitedly still with a smile that made Argathous melt.  “No wonder you’re so tall. Are you going to get any tattoos when you graduate?  I hear zephyr men and women get tattoos on their bodies.”

“My mom doesn’t have any and my dad never had any while he was alive that I know of.  My aunts and uncles don’t have any either, except my Uncle Chrisman he has a tattoo on his face so he looks like a raccoon.”  Argathous said a bit defensively.

“I hear star elves get tattoos also.”  She said.

“Yes, ve do.” Another girl said at their table.  “I’m Terkesha Icevind.”  She said in a strong star elf accent.  She had a black tattoo that made a feathery mask across her brilliant green eyes.  “Ve also hoff piercings.  Ve take pride in our vays and zese tattoos mark uz in honor uf our life’s achievements.  My mask is in honor uf my virst kill oz a hunter.”  The right ear was pierced twice with dangling earrings of silver and the other ear was pierced three times with small hoops of gold.  "The zilver earringz vere for spearing a vild boar, the three golt earringz vere for zlaying a black panther, a mountain lion, and a grizzly bear.  All bevore I vas zirteen"

“You’ve had quite the life.”  Argathous said to Terkesha.  “The most I’ve ever slaughtered were goats, sheep, and steers.  An occasional deer or elk.  That’s not counting rabbits.  So, mine were tame compared to you.”

“Zo, you’re a Varmer.”  Terkesha said.

“Yes.”  Argathous answered.  “I have been a farmer all my life.”

“Zo, you hoven’t proven yourzelf oz a man?”  The star elf said in a smug tone.

“No, I guess I haven’t.”  Argathous said with a little irritation at the young lady.  “I work hard and am proud of my family.  I don’t have to be a man yet.”

At that Terkesha stopped talking to him.

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Council of the Mages

After Brady was securely shackled with the power of air.  He was sat down beneath the bows of a tall oak tree.  He glowered at the three dou-jin masters.  If he hadn’t been cut off from the son of Luciferous he would have done a lot of damage to the party of masters and children just so he could get to Argathous.

J.D. went over to Argathous and sat down next to him.  He had a worried gaze upon his face.  “Whet do yuh thenk you was doen? 

“Helping.” Argathous said a bit sheepishly.  “But my stick caught on fire, so I threw it at him so it wouldn’t burn my hands.  I don’t know how it happened, but that stick just burst into a type of flame!  I’m surprised I didn’t get burnt by it!” He said more excitedly as he talked on.

“You coulda ‘ave gotten yerself killed.”  J.D. Grumble as most dwarves grumbled.  “’e’s uh seasoned roda-ki uh fallen dou-jin turned, really bad. ‘e now follows th’ dark magic’s uf th’ roda-ki instead uf th’ Daughter or the Spirit uf th’ dou-jin.  ‘e follows th’ Son uf th’ Father uf Lies, Mephistopheles.”

“I hit him.”  Argathous said with a slight awkward grin that was forced as he shrugged.  “That’s something isn’t it?  It allowed you guys to capture him.  Now you have a prisoner.”

“Well ‘s fer thet, yer lucky.”  J.D. rumbled his brows furrowed not sure what to make of Argathous.  “Now git some sleep laddie.”

J.D. went over to Michale and Ronaldo with a bit of fire in his step.  “Did yuh see thet?  ‘e ‘as th’ violet powers uf uh full dou-jin.  ‘e ‘asn’t efen bin trained yet!”

“He’s more powerful than we had first thought.”  Michale whispered as he tried to make sure that Argathous didn’t overhear him talking to J.D. and Ronaldo.  “The boy doesn’t know what he wields and that’s dangerous.  If he doesn’t stay humble, he could become roda-ki and we’ll have to kill him.”

“’e’s jest a wee lad.” J.D. said, turning a sympathetic glance towards Argathous who was getting back down to go to sleep.  “’e has plenty uf time tuh train ‘nd tuh learn our ways.  Th’ prophets say ‘e ‘as a good ‘eart.  Let’s jest ‘ope thet ‘e stays thet way.  Let’s jest ‘ope they’re right.”

“Yes, let’s pray that the Creator stays in his heart and mind.”  Michale agreed with his partner.  “I would hate us to have to kill such a young promising apprentice.  He's like an untapped volcano just getting ready to explode.  We have to tread cautiously with him or were going to make a grievous error and send him down the wrong path.”

"You guys talking about Gath?"  Came the voice of Jessup.  He was a tall skinny zephyr boy that was opposite Argathous’s huge frame.  He was six inches shorter than Argathous.  He had black hair, a warm smile, and crooked teeth.

The men had forgotten about the cousins.  "You don't tell Gath about any of this.  You hear me mister."  Michale said to the young lad.  Michale tried to be as intimidating as possible, but Jessup just shrugged his shoulders.  He didn’t take Michale’s threat to heart since he was nearly as big as the dark dou-jin, but Jessup hadn’t quite caught the powers of the dou-jin yet, so he was quite naïve about how powerful Michale, and the other two dou-jin were.

"Yeah, but he should know that you guys might have to kill him."  Jessup said.  "How would you guys like it if someone was talking about killing you and you didn't know about it?  Not so fun when you think about it that way.  Besides, Gath's one of my favorite cousins.  He's always honest, he always listens to my problems, and he always does the right thing.  He's not going to betray you.  So, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't talk about killing him."

With that Jessup walked, made his bedroll next to Argathous's bedroll, started talking to him, and the trio wondered if he was telling him that they might have to kill him.   That’s all they needed was a paranoid Argathous.  If Jessup informed Argathous about what they had been talking about, the boy would never trust them.

"Wouldn't dat make for a lovely chat?"  Ronaldo said to the others.  "Aye mon we might have to be killen you if it looks like you might turn roda-ki any time soon."

"’e's jest starten out."  J.D. said.  "’e's not goen tuh turn roda-ki, not yet anyway."

Argathous lay quietly not quite sure what to do except gaze into the fire while he lounged on his side.  “How’d that stick catch on fire?”  He deliberated to himself.  “I could’ve burned my hands.  There’s something wrong with me.  Sticks don’t just light themselves on fire for no reason.  Maybe J.D. is right, I’m too dangerous to be around people.  Maybe I should run away in the middle of the night and solve everyone’s problems.  I can’t hurt anyone if I’m not around anyone.”

“I’m gonna kill you kid.”  Brady snarled through gritted teeth in a murmur so as not to attract attention while J.D., Ronaldo, and Michale were talking secretively.  “I’m going to gut you like some trout.  I’ll cut you from your throat to your privates and let your insides spill out onto the ground and you’ll still be able to watch because you won’t be dead yet.  That’s how quick it will happen.  Yuh catch my meanin.  If yuh don’t turn roda-ki I’ll feed yuh tuh the wild animals.”

"You had better shut up or I'll tell J.D. to come kick you in the head."  Marie verbalized, showing that she wasn’t scared of Brady.

Argathous swallowed a firm swelling in his throat and tried to glance away hoping that Brady would disappear, but he could still hear Brady’s grating voice as he threatened him more and more.  He felt as though he were going to wet his pants or soil them in another minute, he was so frightened.

            “And kid you might even live long enough fer the coyotes, buzzards, and ravens to come around and feed on yer flesh.  Just think of them tearing at yer flesh with their claws, teeth, and beaks.  All the while you’ll be screamin.  I’ll…”

THUMP!

Brady was knocked sideways.  His roda-ki abilities hadn’t warned him about J.D.’s boot kicking him in the side.  Brady groaned at the solid blow and air was expelled from his lungs.  The roda-ki was seeing dancing sparkling lights from the wallop and he could barely breathe.  His ribs ached from the clout as well.  J.D. had kicked him exceedingly hard.  There was no air to be expelled from his lungs and it was incredibly difficult to inhale to get fresh air back into his body.

"I told you I'd tell J.D."  Marie said. As she stuck her tongue out at Brady.   “You shouldn’t talk that way to any of us you overgrown swine.  Argathous is a powerful dou-jin and he’ll kill you one day and then you’ll wish you’d never threatened him.”

Brady glared dagger at the young girl.  Maybe he would gut her first instead of Argathous.  Argathous could wait a few seconds before be split like a hog on a feast day.  Marie he would take pleasure in slicing up.

“Sorry ‘bout thet lad.”  J.D. said apologetically rubbing his hands together.  “Fergot tuh gag the cow licking shade friend.  ‘e wona be given yuh anymore trouble th’ rest uf thes trip.  Dona yuh pay no never mind tuh his threats either.  ‘e’s headed tuh uh dou-jin prison ‘nd nobody escapes those.”  He ended with pride.  “Nobody’s e’er escaped th’ dou-jin prison in th’ temple!”

Argathous took little comfort in that fact as he swallowed an apple sized bulge in his throat again.  J.D. didn’t just have his life threatened by having his innards exposed to be eaten by animals.  Brady terrified Argathous to no end.  He was going to sleep as far away from Brady, if he slept at all.  He didn’t think that Ronaldo, Michale, or J.D. could keep an eye on Brady all the time and the time they took their eyes off him would be the time Brady would gut him!

Argathous stood gazing at a horrid scene.  His family had been attacked by half a dozen villains that appeared exactly like Brady. They were laughing as they put nooses around his mother’s, sister’s and brothers’ necks and hung them from the porch of their house.   They were standing on wobbly stools.  The menfolk kicked the stools out from under his family.  He had to watch them dangle as they were trying to breathe.  Their legs kicked and their bodies squirmed trying to breathe and get a foot hold on something, but there was nothing but air to grab onto.  One by one they all suffocated from the ropes around their necks.  The young lad had just lost his entire family to six Brady’s.

He didn’t want to get his family killed.  He didn’t think Yo could fight off six Brady’s at once no matter how good she was.  She had failed the dou-jin trials but was still working for the dou-jin.  If she failed the trials for the dou-jin how could she protect his family?

“Yer family will die while yer away.”  Came a deep man’s voice.  “You must join the roda-ki and then and only then will yer family be safe.  I have brought yuh this vision just to show yuh what I’ll be doing if yuh don’t join us, boy.”

Argathous’s house caught on fire and his family was trapped inside.  They couldn’t open the door as they were barred from the outside.  The half dozen Brady’s stood outside laughing refusing to help the young man’s family.

He jerked awake and it was daylight and Brady wore a sinister grin upon his face and Ronaldo kicked it off his face.  The royal elf picked Brady up with air and flopped him over the horses back like a sack of potatoes.

Brady rode the rest of the day with his hands and feet tied with air.  He was slung over the back of the horse like a rug.  He had his mouth gagged with the power of air as well so that he couldn't say anything to tall young boy.  Whenever he had the chance, he glared in Argathous’s direction, but the boy was never gazing at him.  In fact, the young lad made it a point not to stare in Brady’s direction at all.  He didn’t want to chance that Brady would threaten him again with some other sort of violence.

Monroe, a tall thin black-haired girl, talked to Brady the entire way about playing dolls and how it had become boring now that she was fourteen.  Tea parties had lost their luster as well.  She was growing up so fast and she couldn't believe that she was going to become a dou-jin just like her cousins.  She talked with Brady the entire ride and Brady was going crazy with the ramblings of the young teenager.  He wished he could have gagged her, but his magic had been bound as well so he couldn't do anything but listen to her ramblings.

The party broke for camp and made a fire and put on a pot of beans with a little bit of rabbit, some turnips, carrots, and something that looked like potatoes, but they were all dried vegetables. 

“Now lesten ‘ere Brady.”  J.D. said in an irritated tone that bore no nonsense.  His fiery orange eyes seemed to glow with heat as he spoke to the infamous roda-ki in a deep gravelly mountain dwarven voice.  “I’m goen tuh ungag yuh, but ifen yuh go ‘nd act up ‘nd taunt th’ boy you won’t git nothen tuh eat, and you’ll ride th’ same way tomorrow.”

Brady just glowered death at the dwarf, but he kept quiet.  The roda-ki wanted to stab the stout dwarf in the face several times.  Brady didn’t want the indignity of having to ride the way he had that day.  In fact, he wanted to stab the Monroe girl in the face as well.

Argathous was amazed at how well-behaved Brady was.  The man’s hands weren’t even tied up and he didn’t even try to make a break for it.  What the boy didn’t know was that Ronaldo, Michale, and J.D. had bound Brady with the element of air and there was nothing that Brady could do but sit there and eat his meal or sleep where they told him too.

Argathous didn’t like it that Brady was loose and had a fit trying to get to sleep, but he eventually drifted off to sleep, but woke up an hour later and glanced about the camp.

Argathous saw that J.D. wasn’t watching him and he sneaked out of his bed roll and started to make his way out of the camp.  He was hoping to get as far away from the camp as he possibly could before he hurt someone or himself.  He didn’t want to burn someone to death by accident.

A gentle hand grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around.  It was Michale. The tall black man’s soft brown eyes penetrated Argathous’s deep amethyst eyes with concern and care for the young boy.

“Where do you think you’re going so late in the evening?”  He asked in an even gentler voice.

Michale had Monroe with him.  She was wondering why Argathous was running away as well.

Argathous was startled to have been caught so quickly.  He had been an excellent hunter.  When you tracked animals, you had to be quiet and stealthy in following your prey.  He thought he had been, so how had Michale heard him?

Argathous swallowed hard and began explaining to Michale.

“I wanted to leave before I hurt someone.”  He said honestly.  “That stick caught on fire.  What happens if I touch you, Ron, J.D., my cousins, and you catch on fire or maybe even one of the animals while I’m riding or getting them ready for traveling?”

The young boy’s eyes began swelling with tears at the thought of hurting anyone or anything.  Tears commenced streaming down his cheeks at the thought of people and animals burning to ashes before his horrified eyes.

“Calm down.”  Michale said serenely to Argathous.  “You’re not going to burn anyone with that fire, no one that’s good anyway.”

“Why?”  Argathous asked in a whimpering voice that belied his stature.

“Because that was that power of the Daughter or the Spirit.”  Michale answered.  “Her power would never hurt anyone good.  Sure, it would have hurt Brady, but it wouldn’t have caught him on fire.”

“Running away from your problems isn’t going to solve anything.  I know Brady has you frightened, but he's tied up with the Daughter’s power and She’s so much stronger than the power of the Son of Darkness.  Brady’s not going anywhere.”

“Brady makes me have horrifying dreams.”  Argathous instructed Michale.  “He might be tied up, but he still plays with my mind.”

“I can’t stand it!  I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he does.”  He said in pain.  He wished Brady would leave him alone.

“They’re just dreams.”  Michale tried to console the boy.  “You must learn to take control of them so that you don’t have them anymore.  Brady can’t control your dreams.  He can plant suggestions, but he doesn’t control your dreams.  Only you do.”

“How do I do that?”  Argathous ask doubting that he could control his dreams.

“When the dream starts you have to tell it to stop.”  Michale instructed.  “It takes practice.  Brady won’t be with us much longer, so you can get some practice controlling your nightmares.  Remember they’re just dreams.”

“I’ll try.”  Argathous said with reservations.

“Now get to bed and get some sleep.”  Michale instructed the young boy.  “We still have a little way to travel before we get to the Dou-Jin Temple.”

Lilith was scanning through her cookbook she examined details through the leaves carefully searching for the perfect recipe.  She had a dire appetite for an imperial raised goat.  She hadn't had one in an extremely long time.  She just had to have one.  She thought that she was well over do for a treat.  She knew all too well that she couldn’t get the kid herself.  She called for one of her shadow elves to come to her room.

A shadow elf woman gracefully glided into the chamber.  She was a lovely creature. She was of average height for a shadow elf female.  She had long beautiful eyelashes, perfect thin lips, and there wasn’t a blemish on her young face.  The young servants name was Narna.  Her hair hung down to her bottom and was well groomed.  Her slippered feet made no noise as she entered Lilith’s apartment.

She knelt before Lilith in humility knowing that if Lilith was angry enough that Lilith could just rip her head off and not give it a second thought.  However, Lilith wasn’t in that kind of mood today, luckily for the dutiful servant.

“How may I serve you, my Mistress?” Narna asked prostrating herself before the demon goddess in sheer humility.  She was enamored with her goddess and would have done anything for her even dispatched herself if Lilith had asked, she was just that dedicated.  She gazed upon Lilith with pure love and devotion.  She had always carried out Lilith’s request and disciplined herself if she had failed to accomplish the task to her own satisfaction.

"I'm craving an imperial raised goat in a blackberry sauce glaze."  Lilith instructed her in her demonic accent.  Lilith's mouth salivated at just the thought of a succulent kid.  Imperial baby goat was her favorite, next to human babies.  Tiny horns to nibble on and little hooves to snack on at her leisure it was just a feeling of power over the people of Theara.

"Yesss, my Mistressss."  The shadow elf woman said in her shadow elf accent in obedience with her eyes focused upon the floor.  "We ssshall have it for you ssshortly."  She bowed and left the chambers to do her Mistresses bidding.

Lilith's stewardess went out and instructed the harvesters and scavengers what Lilith wanted.  They were about their duties to get her a fine baby goat indeed.  The scouts went out to find her an imperial goat to satisfy Lilith's unique appetite.

Lilith had a particular hunger for imperial kids.  Those were special treats.  They seemed to have a sweeter taste to them than regular goats.  Lilith thought it was because the royals took better care of their goats, although she did come across a rotten one occasionally.  Imperial kids had a slightly more tenderness to their meat and if prepared right their youthful skin would come out extra crispy.  Imperial kid cravings was nearly as ravenous as she had for royal infants of less than two weeks old.

The spider goddess couldn't wait for her servants to come back with her precious order.  She was going to have it bake with sheer perfection the thin second layer of skin would be crunchy and the meat so tender and there would be a salty seasoning to the thin layer of mucus that covered the muscle.  She couldn’t wait to have the platter of the goat before her.  She would have all the trimmings before her as well.  Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, virgin olives, candied yams, sweet potato pie, the finest wines, and several carbonated drinks.  It would be a feast to remember as were all her imperial goat meals.

She didn’t know that if they couldn’t find an imperial goat, they just dressed up a regular kid and passed it off as an imperial.  If Narna had known what they were doing she would have informed Lilith of their subterfuge.  Lilith couldn’t tell the difference.  She said she could, but one regular goat was the same as any other.  Lilith was none the wiser.  In fact, ninety percent of Lilith’s imperial goats were just regular generic baby goats.

If Lilith ever found out about this machination, she would have the heads of all involved in the process, so everyone kept their mouths shut about the deceit of the goats.  They knew that a happy Lilith meant that there were no random deaths in the shadow elf’s goddess’ kingdom.

Christar, the aged mage, sat upon his well cushioned chair.  He glanced through his spell books to make a small number of scrolls to enchant to create a few magical items for his shadow elven hosts.  He had made them several bewitched objects that could withstand the sunlight.  Most of the shadow elf weapons would disintegrate or lose the supernatural properties if left in the sunlight too long.  Christar and his arch mages had made armor, weapons, wands, scrolls, and other bits and pieces for the shadow elves.

Christar had constructed several items for himself to fight against the shadow elves if he had to.  They were known as sun arsenal or his anti-shadow armory.  No one ever knew about the military hardware except Christar himself.  Christar had special weapons magically hidden in his chambers that would fire upon anyone that came into his rooms while he was sleeping. 

Christar saw a weapon that might be of use against the shadow elves.  It was a ring of extreme power.  It was a tricky ring to make but he thought he could make it.  It had a staff of tremendous force that went with it as well, a scepter of persuasion, and a crown of intense might. 

He had to get the materials to create this ring, but he was sure he could construct the ring of supremacy to dominate the shadow elves.  He would rule these dark elves and it would put him one step closer to becoming a god.  Christar knew that once he had control of the shadow elves, he would send them through a gateway portal and send them against Lilith’s armies, but what Christar didn’t know is that Lilith had an almost endless supply of a demonic host at her disposal.

Christar thought that she only had the shadow elves to worry about.  He had never opened a gateway to spy on her unholy host of demons that she had serving her.  The demon that was possessing Christar had never apprised him of the unconsecrated multitudes that was at Lilith’s disposal.  Christar was blind to what Lilith had as an army and nobody was going to tell him otherwise, until it was too late.

Christar was certain that he could take Lilith down if he had the right army, magical items, and a host of powerful spells.  Christar was quite narcissistic that way.  Even though he wasn’t the most powerful mage, he sure thought he was.  In the shadow elf city of Talcoma’De’Shore he was the most powerful magic-user and that flamed his ambitions.

Christar didn’t care what Lilith had at her disposal, because he thought he was the most dominant force on all theara.  Nobody could beat him.  Once he slew Laurinda Lindaura, he knew he was ready to take on the demon goddess with the utmost assurance.

Now though he had to work on magic item projects and spells.  He had a lengthy road ahead of himself before he took on Lilith.  He wanted to be more than prepared for her.  He would be kind to her face, but he always had a dagger ready to stab her in the back when she wasn’t observing him through her smoky glass mirror.

He just had to shine her on and give her a false sense of security.  He would strike at her.  She’d never see it coming.  He would make sure to silence her first so that she couldn’t summon demons to come to her rescue.  He had to make sure that she was alone.  He would have his hands full with her, let alone hundreds of demons.  He had so much planning to do before he took her on, but he was sure that he could do it.  Just as long as he carefully thought out the process.  He had no room for error.

He wanted Lilith so bad he could taste it!

Zartan watched as the marokes were on the obstacle course with the extra ten-pound vests on and he was totally disgusted with what he saw.  He was so repulsed that he had to do something about their performances, and he knew just what he had to do.  These roda-ki were nothing to brag about no one stood out and there were no leaders among them.  No wonder the dou-jin were beating them at everything.  These apprentices needed more discipline.  Zartan rushed down to the training ground and had all the marokes gather around along with their roda-ki masters.

He was where the roda-ki were running drills and waited for the last one to finish the course. They gathered around the commander in utter fear.  They knew that when the commander came out of his office it wasn’t a good sign.  He started yelling and cursing at them he was so irate with them.

“I look at your pathetic bloody training out here!  It makes me want to become a fargan dou-jin!  You runt goblins make me wish I had never joined the blasted roda-ki.  You are sorry excuses for the blasted goat licking pit fiends of the roda-ki what in the deep are you doing here?!”  He started raging.  "This isn't fargan playtime you pit dwellers!  You bastages make me want to vomit!  So now you get twenty-pound vest weights!  You will be run through your blasted training course twice as hard and your worthless roda-ki master’s will run them with you!  I will run it with you, but I will be working out with twice as much weight as you, and I will still run the course better than you, and you’ll see how a real roda-ki is to do the job!” 

“I’m tired of watching blasted crappy sluggish training!  You should be ashamed of yourselves.  You call yourselves maroke and roda-ki, when really, you’re nothing but blasted feral female dogs!  I want to see you doing your bloody best out here!  I don’t want to see any half-arse attempts on this training ground!  You had better hope that I see you doing your best out here, or there will be hell to pay!”  He finished his speech with stern emphasis to get his point across.

  The commander went in and changed his clothes into his heavy training gear, which was forty pounds, twice that of everyone else.  He was dressed in a weighted vest, arm weights, leg weights and he was ready to go.  He was going to show these worthless sons of dogs that they were as worthless as puke on the latrine floor.

"You sons of feral goats are going to know what it means to be roda-ki!"  He bellowed.  "When you see how easy it is for me, you'll be embarrassed at your bloody performances!  You goat licking excuses for maroke and roda-ki will see just how blasted pathetic you are when you witness how easily I do the course and gauntlet!  You pit dwellers disgust me.  I thought you were men and women, but what I see is whipped puppies!"

He was going to run the course faster and more efficient than the roda-ki masters and their maroke were going to run it.  He wouldn’t have been surprised if some of the maroke ran the course and track faster than their roda-ki masters.

            “Get ready let’s go!”  He ran them ragged!  He wasn’t even affected by the work out.  Some kept up with him for a while, but soon they were all lagging.  He screamed at them to get their butts moving of he would get the whip out and give them each several lashes until they picked up their pace.  Everyone else was sitting or lying on the ground trying to catch their breath.  They were wheezing, coughing, they had stitches in their chests and sides, and a few even vomited from the harsh work out.

“Now you’ve seen me do it!  Now you’ll do it until you can do it as well as I can!”  Zartan wasn’t even breathing hard.  "I’ll do this training with you every day until you can all do it without all the symptoms of exhaustion. You fargan greasy sheep kissing swine herder maggots disgust me!  I see you out here working out and you remind me of toddlers in a play pen!  I am going to work you so hard that you’ll will puke your guts out after each training session!  You hear me!?"

"Yes sir.'  They all answered unenthusiastically.

"What was that!?"  He screamed back at them.  He couldn’t believe their lack of discipline.  That was a pathetic answer.  Are you a bunch of little fargan girls?”

"YES SIR! HAIL LUCIFEROUS!"  They all yelled.

“I want to hear a hail Luciferous at the end of yes sir every time you salute me.  I want those right arms sticking out at a forty-five-degree angle and all of you all into saluting Luciferous!”  Zartan yelled.  “You’ll learn your place in this army and you’ll learn it fast.  I don’t want any pathetic whining out of any of you or you’ll get a strapping like you’ve never had!”

“YES SIR!  HAIL LUCIFEROUS!”  They yelled and saluted.  They still appeared pitiful and Zartan was about to jump out of his skin.  “I can’t believe the lack of discipline in my roda-ki and maroke!  I want you standing up straight and at attention, your arms and hands out at a crisp forty-five-degree angle and I don’t want to hear you whining out your yes sir hail Luciferous!  Is that understood?”

They all jumped up and stood at attention and brought their arms up and scream “YES SIR!  HAIL LUCIFEROUS!

"Now get going and run the courses again!"  He shouted in the weakest marokes face as the marokes had barely acrossed the line.  “You will run this course until you can beat the maroke across this line is that understood!  Otherwise, you can expect a blanket party!”

“If you don’t know what a blanket party is!” Zartan screamed in their faces.  “It’s when a group of men and women tie you up in your blanket in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping, and they beat the crap out of you until you’re no longer a disgrace to the group!  Is that understood?!”

“YES SIR! HAIL LUCIFEROUS!!”  They all shouted. With their arms and hands at a forty-five-degree angle in the air.

“Now get going, you blasted sons of goats!”  Zartan screamed for emphases.

“I don’t want to see any of you lollygagging around the course or you’ll run the course until you can’t run it anymore!  We here at the roda-ki school don’t accept losers in our midst!  You will run this course until you get it right or die trying!”

“Is that understood?”  Zartan said yelling at them in each of their faces.

“YES SIR! HAIL LUCIFEROUS!!”  They tried to yell back. 

“Now get going until dinner and then it’s off to bed!”  Commander Xander shouted.

“The last ten people across the finish line will have kitchen duty, latrine duty, and whatever tasks I can think of after that!”  Zartan was going to have them doing useless tasks until they could get their performances up to par.  He was going to have them dig holes and then refill them with spoons, he was going to have them clean the bath houses with toothbrushes and then he would walk across them with muddy boots and make them start over, and he would find other meaningless tasks for the final ten, and if the group couldn’t get their performances up then the entire group would be performing worthless everyday jobs.

Zartan smiled a sinister grin.  He knew that the bastages wouldn’t be able to get their performances up.  He was going to think up other punishments for his students and masters.  He was most disappointed in the roda-ki masters.  They should have performed above and beyond his expectations.

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Edralve ‘The Dark’ and Lavanna ‘The Witch’

Brady was shadowing the group at a good distance behind the master dou-jin so that they wouldn’t sense him.  These three men weren’t normal warriors they were elite dou-jin and they were sent after Argathous to make sure that he made it to the academy.  Brady was good, but he wasn’t good enough to take on three elite dou-jin.  He would be hard pressed against just one of them.  He was fortunate that he had managed to abscond the first time from the trio.

He knew that they would be setting up camp soon and he would have to make his move and apprehend Argathous before he comprehended he had any abilities.  The soothsayers said that the boy would alter the tide, whether it be for the roda-ki or the dou-jin.  The ones who instructed him would be the ones to dominate the world.  Brady had to retrieve young man.  His booty would be vast if he could get his hands on that boy.  All he could think about was getting the recompences and accolades for his acquisition.

Brady wanted the esteem at the end of the journey.  All he had to do was name it and it would be his.  He wanted the cloak of wonder.  The cloak gave incredibly long life, invisibility, protection, and was immune to magical and physical attacks.  He would do anything to get that cloak.

He would have murdered his own mother to acquire the magic item.  Brady loved collecting powerful enchanted items and he was vicious about obtaining those objects.  He would kill, steal, or do anything to get what he wanted.  He didn’t care what he had to do.

Brady snuck into the camp, but J.D., Michale, and Ronaldo sensed the vile creature that was Brady.  They were quick to jump upon Brady like a diamondback rattlesnake upon a desert mouse.  The trio assaulted Brady with fervor.

The dirty roda-ki had tried to seize Argathous again.  Hadn’t he learned his lesson the first time?  Argathous assumed Brady thought his odds were better only fighting three dou-jin Instead of the dou-jin and the people around the dou-jin back at Argathous's farm, but he and the others had to unearth something to skirmish with.

While the trained dou-jin fought Brady, Argathous and his cousins were looking for weapons to fight with.

The weapons clashed.  As the weapons struck each other a volcano of molten sparks erupted.  Brady was trying to hold off the trio dou-jin, but he wasn't doing well against them, as it was three to one.  These dou-jin were excellent warriors and Brady was only one man against three extremely well-seasoned dou-jin.

J.D. wielded his crimson blazing battle-axe in an arching motion that clashed and threw large, liquefied drops of crimson and ebony through the air as the black depraved demonblade of Brady’s connected.  Brady’s blade was powered by the son of darkness Mephistopheles. 

The gem encrusted bracer upon Brady’s wrist was glowing.  The bracer that gave him the ability to defend himself.  His amethyst jeweled necklace glowed as well, it gave him the reflexes of a cat.

Michale tried to catch the vile intruder off guard, but Brady was like a viper in his movements and deflected the blow as easy as water off the rocks in a river.   Lavender and coal black fluid spark showered the ground and bounced out of sight.  Brady might not have been as good as an elite dou-jin, but when pressed he was a survivor in any situation.

Ronaldo tried to strike Brady with his azure staff, but Brady had sensed the attack like a dou-jin master and blocked it.  Liquefied sparks rained down.  Cobalt blue and ebony droplets sprayed throughout the air.

The four danced with their weapons showering liquid metal that bounced off the ground and vanished as soon as it had bounced two or three times.  The liquid drops held no heat so there was no possible way for them to start a fire.  Brady was an excellent roda-ki to keep Michale, J.D., and Ronaldo busy for as long as he had.

While the trio skirmished with Brady.  Argathous and his cousins scavenged for a way to try and assist in the battle, but all they could find were a few stout sticks about three feet long.  Argathous brandished the thick limb like a long sword and to his shock the bough burst into light and flame violet like Michale’s spiritblade.   He hurled the limb at Brady so he wouldn’t get burnt by the flaming stick, but as soon as he released the branch the light and flame wink out and the limb hit Brady in the back of the head.  The attack caught Brady off guard.

Why Brady had not sensed the attack he didn’t know.  He felt woozy and dazed from the attack and couldn’t get his bearings on the f

The large branch had stunned Brady and the trio lunged at the roda-ki and subdued him.  They bound Brady with the element of air so he couldn’t go anywhere, but Argathous didn’t know that.  The young man thought they were letting Brady sit unfastened.  He could jump Argathous with little effort and carry him off into the darkness.  That horrified Argathous.  Argathous wasn’t going to sleep that night or any night until they incarcerated Brady once and for all.

They secured Brady with the spirit of air that the dou-jin had made exclusively for the roda-ki so that he couldn't mystically unravel the knots of their bonds.  Brady’s arms were restrained to his sides and his legs were lashed together so that he couldn’t move.  Brady was bound to a tree away from the children so he couldn’t cause trouble with the youngsters.  Argathous stared at Brady and walked over to him after he was tied up.  They plopped Brady on his butt which sent a shock through his form.  Brady sat against a large oak tree, the deep hard grooves of the bark digging into his back.

“Why do you want to kill me?”  Argathous asked curiously with his head cocked to the side.  “I’ve done no wrong to you, your family, or your friends.”

“I don’t want to kill you kid, unless you don’t join the roda-ki.”  Brady answered with his teeth gritted trying to wriggle loose.  “If we can’t have you then no one will have you, especially the dou-jin!”

“You’re evil I would never join the roda-ki!”  Argathous said in irritation.  “You are foul and depraved.  Your kind want nothing more than to suck the life out of the planet.”

“Is that what they told you, boy?”  Brady asked, remaining calm.  He knew he was getting under the boy’s skin, and he loved it.

“Yes, that’s what they told me and the others.”  Argathous replied.  He had begun to hate Brady for trying to kidnap him and trying to turn him to the dark side of the demons.  “You think I’m some prize to be won.  Well think again.  You’ll never get me to the roda-ki leaders, and you’ll never have your prize!”

“You keep thinking that boy.”  Brady said with a wicked smile.  “I will not be detoured.”

The commander of the roda-ki Zartan Xander hid from view in his private chambers looking over his map at the country of Zephyr, the portion of Dallon near the city of Lost Vargas.  He knew that’s where Brady was.  He wondered if Brady was taking the main road that led to the dou-jin school.  The Rhino-Lost Vargas Highway was the most direct route that would take dou-jin home.  The filthy dou-jin would be on that road.

Zartan couldn’t help but think that Brady had run into trouble.  He had told Brady to take a couple roda-ki with him, but he had refused.  He said that he could do the job better on his own.  That Mephistopheles was with him and that he could handle anything thrown at him.  Brady was almost as good a roda-ki as Zartan.  Zartan was the best roda-ki in the city of Talcoma’De’Shore.  He had full confidence in Brady’s abilities.

He wished that he were on better terms with Christar and Lilith because he could have more roda-ki teleported to Brady for back up if he only knew exact location of Brady.  If only he had a plethora of crystals to communicate with Brady like the dou-jin had, but the roda-ki only had a few and they had to be used sparingly.

The supreme commander of the roda-ki had given one of his crystals to Brady, but it was so weak and feeble that the messages could barely get through at times.  He had had to borrow it from Christar as per Lilith's orders, otherwise, Christar would have never shared the items with Zartan and Brady.  Christar was one not to share anything with anybody.

Christar was extremely reluctant to lend the crystal.  He wouldn’t have provided the crystals to Zartan and Brady, but the Goddess of Beauty and Love, the goddess Lilith preferred to be called, insisted that Christar give them the crystals.  Under threat of demons finding the elderly mage Christar finally gave in and grudgingly gave the two men crystals to communicate with.  The vile mage had given the feeblest crystals to Zartan and Brady to use.

Christar wasn’t about to give his best out to anyone except for himself and those he wished to communicate in person.  He would die before he helped Zartan, but Lilith had insisted.  So, Christar gave out his weakest crystal and blast the goddess if he’d give out his best.  He cared nothing for this Argathous and Lilith’s quest to obtain the boy.

Zartan tried to puzzle out the map and endeavored to strategize where Brady was and where the dou-jin might be.  He had so little information that he couldn’t get a fix on Brady.  Brady wasn’t answering his crystal.  He hoped that the assassin was still alive.

Zartan used his scrying crystal over the map.  The crystal that hung over the map was connected to Brady’s crystal, but even the scryer couldn’t locate the assassin.  Zartan was in truth worried about Brady.  Had the dou-jin found him out.  He hadn’t a clue.

“Brady where are you?”  Zartan said in frustration speaking into the crystal.  “Brady answer me!  I need to know if you have the boy.  Did you kidnap him, or did you have to kill him?  Answer me!”

The commander paced his chambers playing out scenarios that Brady could possibly be doing.  He knew that the assassin was the best he had, but he was facing three elite dou-jin and the odds weren’t in his favor.  However, Brady was quite crafty so Zartan couldn’t count him out.  Zartan had foreseen the three dou-jin, but had Brady?

In a murky chamber a couple, a shadow elf, and a human, second and third in command of the Crimson Sanhedrin, prepared an altar.  The shadow elf was a bald male with a single thick braid of hair leading from the left side of his head to the middle of his back, named Edralve ‘The Dark’ San’tini the second in command of the Crimson Sanhedrin, with six glittering earrings in each pointed ear and a mythril chain that led each earring to a nose ring on the left side of his face.  The right ear had a variety of dangling sparkling earrings.  The hair the dark elf had come from the mid-side of the back of his head and was woven into a two-inch-thick braid that was decorated with precious stones and metals ranging from diamonds, sapphires, rubies, gold, mythril, and tenson.

The female, Lavanna ‘The Wicked’ San’tini, was a priestess who had done most of the preparations.  She had lengthy curly blonde hair that she had pulled back tight into a ponytail.  She had high cheek bones and a slender figure and a petite body and would have been mistaken for an elf if she hadn’t had rounded ears.

Situated before, Lavanna was a massive spider with the head and torso of a medusa.  At the base of the altar lay an imperial goat.  The rarest of goats to find anywhere upon Theara.  Imperial goats were said to have magical qualities and were great to have for sacrifices as they brought the sacrificer powers beyond belief.  The furs of the goat were said to have the power to withstand almost any blade and if worn into battle had the strength of tenson steel and the ability to resist most magic’s.  This goat was from Edralve and Lavanna’s private herd of goats and kids.  Lilith cherished sacrifices made with these kid goats.  She would pour out blessings upon anyone who could sacrifice an imperial kid to her and Edralve did it as often as possible.

However, out of the imperial goat herd only one kid survived out of ten and Edralve and Lavanna had only two hundred goats.  It was the largest herd in all the tektaras.  They only had one-hundred-ninety females and that meant only nineteen or twenty kids would make it out of the birthing process.  Edralve and Lavanna tried to use their magic-user and priestly abilities to make sure that more of the herd survived and they managed to get double the number of kids to live through the process which brought not only them much joy, but Lilith also.

The goat lay motionless and pale upon the slab that was the altar; the imperial goat had had all his blood exsanguinated from its tiny body and poured out upon the alter.  They left the skinning of the goat and the preparing of the skin and meat to the underlings and slaves.  Edralve and Lavanna were proud of what they had done for their goddess and were sure to get a great blessing for the deeds they had done that night.

            “I think Lilith is pleased.  We have found favor with Lilith this night!”  Lavanna said in a thrilled tone to her dark husband.  Lavanna could sense when Lilith was pleased it was one of her special abilities.  She had a broad grin of excitement in her voice and upon her face as she gazed down at the sacrificed goat.  She was an extremely proud woman, and she took even more self-importance in her work.  She couldn’t help but think of how much Lilith must be enjoying the sacrifice they had made this day, everything had gone so wonderfully perfect.

“I do believe ssshe isss.”  Edralve agreed heartily in his shadow elven voice also staring down at the sacrificed goat.  “I thought the ritual went off without any complicationsss.  I found the blood to be quite refressshing.” Edralve loved his wife as much as a shadow elf could have affection for another person.  He was often surprised that he found himself in love with a human, but they both worshipped and served Lilith with the same vile fervor that Edralve couldn’t have loved Lavanna any more than he did. 

“As did I, my love.”  Lavanna admitted licking her lips. She loved Edralve as much as he loved her.  Both were devoted to each other as they were to Lilith and that was saying quite a bit.  The duo were depraved and would do anything for Lilith if she asked, they were that devoted.

“Once we have the Orb of Solomon, we will control the underworld in this area and the arrogant albino trash won’t know what hit them.”  They hated the albino elves that live four miles across the valley from them.  They couldn’t wait to decimate the wicked creatures.

“I just wisssh I were leading the charge inssstead of that old ancient fool human Chrissstar.”  Edralve said bitterly.  “Thisss plan wasss my idea and he ssstepped in, and Lilith choosssesss him to carry out the final charge.  It makesss me almossst wish the plan would fail, just ssso I could sssee Christar fall on hisss old thin bony arssse!”

“We are the devoted ones my dear.”   Lavanna said soothingly as she caressed Edralve’s brow lovingly.  “Christar is old and human he will pass away soon, and you’ll have your chance to rule the Crimson Sanhedrin.”

“Yesss, the Crimssson Sssanhedrin will be mine.” Edralve stated.  “That old fool will die sssoon.  We ssshall assscend to the throne of the Magesss Guild in all Theara.”

“I would like to help Christar along on his way to his death, but the fool is so old he should be dead in a few cycles as it is.”  Lavanna said.  “The Crimson Sanhedrin will be mine soon and we’ll rule it as husband and wife, and no one will stop us.  I pity the fools who think they can stop us from taking control.”

            “My wife you have been taking the anti-aging posstionsss regularly ssso that you will live as long asss I do?”  Edralve asked in concern.  Leading the Crimson Sanhedrin meant nothing to him if she were not at his side to do so.

            “Yes, my husband I have been.”  She reassured him.  She smiled down at her husband who had his head in her lap.  She ran her fingers over his scalp lovingly and bent down and kissed him lightly.

“You know every one of those dolts will be scratching and clawing their way to take over the throne when Christar is dead.  I only hope Shandor succeeds and then we’ll kill her and take the seat for ourselves."

"The Crimson Sanhedrin will be in the best of hands once we take over.  Christar’s labs will be ours once we use the slaves to disenchant everything, so it doesn't blow up in our faces."

"Jussst think of all the sssecretsss that will be oursss."  Edralve said.  “That fool will have worked ssso hard for the two of usss and won't even know it.  I can't wait until he diesss."

"But the longer he lives the more inventions he will have for us to steal my love."  Lavanna said.

"Yesss."  Edralve said. "But I'm tired of waiting around for him to die.  Sssomeone must kill him sssoon.  I just don't want it to be usss.  I hate having mage blood on my handsss.  We alwaysss have to explain ourssselvesss to Lilith and I hate exssplaining anything to Lilith."

“She’s smiling upon us, but she loves Christar more than us!”  Lavanna said.  “There’s just no pleasing her when he’s around.  Christar the traitor is in her favor, and he doesn’t even make any sacrifices to her.”

“Be careful dear.”  Edralve warned.  “Chrissstar hasss her favor.  She could be lissstening now.”

“We are the mossst devoted to her.  Shess isss the mossst wonderousss goddess and we ssserve her without fault.”

“I know.”  Lavanna said.  “We are more faithful to Lilith than Christar, yet she chooses him.  Christar hates her, but she coddles him like a baby.  He could take her or leave her.  We should be the ones in favor with her.  We make sacrifices to her, and what does he do he spits in her face when she’s not looking.”

The slenderman stood outside a village at night waiting for a weary traveler to pass his way.  He had waited outside the village all day, but no one had wandered near his location.  Now that it was dark, he was going to make his way into town and see what soul he could feast on.  He only needed one a day and he could go a week without one, but he preferred to have one a day.

He was a tall figure who wore a jet-black suit, a white shirt, black tie, and had a blank white face.  He had no nose, no eyes, no mouth, no ears, and no hair.  He was a creepy creation of Lilith’s that was meant to frighten people and to suck the souls out of his victims.  He was the collector of souls for Lilith.  The more souls collected for Lilith the less souls that The Creator could take to heaven and Lilith loved that idea more than anything.

The slender would stalk the woods and forests at night and wait for lonely travelers to come by a path, then he would follow them and make them feel like they were being watched, which they were.  People would look around and maybe get a glimpse of him and they would be filled with dread which is one of the things the chilled one fed on besides the souls.  He thrived on fear.  The souls were for Lilith, but the fear was for himself.

He was an expert at hiding in the shadows.  He would creep up on a person and let their terror build up and then he’d let them see him in his full body and he would start jogging towards them and the victim would start running in horror.  This would cause the person make mistakes and then they would trip and fall or run into a tree and then the invisible man would have them and when they went to scream, he would open his concealed mouth and suck the soul, fear, and the scream right out of them.

He stalked into the village hiding in the shadows and he spotted them where he heard laughter and singing.  An exceedingly drunk obese man bald man with a ring of ebony hair encircling his bald spot.  He was nothing but rolls of fat.  His fat corpulent body bulged out of his shirt and over his trousers.  He wandered outside and the slenderman knew he had found his prey.  The overweight man stumbled and staggered around the building so that he could relieve his bladder.  He didn’t use the outhouse but used the tavern wall instead.

The stone wall was the perfect place for the man to urinate.  If he peed on the wood the smell of urine would have soaked in the wood and that would have upset the innkeeper profusely, by peeing on the stone the urine soaked into the ground and the next rainstorm to come by would wipe the scent away.  So, he thought he was so smart.  He was certain he had picked that perfect place to pee.

The slender made no noise coming up behind the man and stood there quietly as the man urinated on the alley wall.   He felt terrible uneasy and a shiver ran up his spine.  Goosebumps riddled his form.  Something bad was about to happen to him he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched.

The man finished his business and turned around and saw the slenderman standing there and he thought nothing of it until the face of death grabbed him by the face and began drinking down his soul.  This was a vile tasting soul.  It was full of sin and transgressions.  It was so corrupt and disgusting but the slender drank it anyway.  It tasted like horse manure to the thin man.  He choked down the soul anyway and knew it was going to leave a bad taste in his mouth and violate his body until he found a clean soul to consume.

The soul was so foul that it made him want to vomit it back up, as his so-called mouth was for in taking only, but the chilled one had no way to vomit so he had to keep the vileness of the man inside until he found a better tasting soul to take in.

He let the withered dusty husk drop to the ground into a pile of ash.  He made his way out of town with a foul feeling in the pit of his stomach.  He had never devoured anything so depraved in all his existence.  Normally a sinful body was just as good as a pious form.  This man was somehow the vilest man in all the history of his taking souls.  A midden heap was more tolerable.

He had to go back into the forest and wait for another soul.  He waited for an hour and another semi-drunk person came out of the inn and began walking home in the dark.  He walked down the path right past the slenderman without even noticing the ghoulish black and white being.  Faceless death made himself emerge a hundred feet in front of the man and the man halted and examined the slender.  All he could see was the non-existent face and gloved hands of the creature.

“Who are you?”  The intoxicated man said with a bit of a slur in his voice.  He didn’t even notice the face of death’s visage which didn’t have a face or any hair on his head.  He had nothing and the drunk man noticed nothing.

Slenderman said nothing.

The inebriated man took a few staggering steps forward. To get a better look at the thin man because he was sure the man didn’t have a face.

“Who are you?”  The plastered man said again.  "Where's your face?  Why are you so bald?

The chilled one still said nothing.

The man blink and the thin man was gone.

The drunk man squinted his eyes in search of the man that had been standing there but found nothing.  He swayed and staggered in his spot and couldn't figure out if he had really seen anything, but he must not have.  He had too much to drink apparently because now he was seeing things and his brother Rocky wasn't going to believe what he was going to tell him what he had seen in his drunken stupor. 

The intoxicated man glanced in search of the man that had been standing there but found nothing.  He continued walking but he felt that multiple eyes were upon him from the forest.  He stopped by a tree and put his hands upon the tree for support and vomited the liquor he had just drank.  He vomited several times and he felt something touch him, it was something he had never felt before in his life.  It was like the icy hand of death had touched his spine and it sent a frosty shiver through every inch of form.  He couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness.  He shook himself trying to shudder of the terrible feeling of being stalked like a wild animal being hunted.

 He glanced around but he saw no one and he vomited again but nothing came out.  He began dry heaving his stomach so tight that it hurt him.  He felt an icy chilly hand touch his back again he spun around but saw nothing.  Was his mind playing tricks on him or was there really something horrifying out there.  He couldn’t tell if it was all the spirits he drank.  He was sure something was out there trying to frighten him.

“Come out coward this isn’t funny.”  He said in a shaky tone.  “Rocky is that you?”

Who was touching him?  Whoever it was they were sure icy and freezing cold.  They needed to warm their hands up by a fireplace.  The chilly fingers of death had stroked him again.  The immobilizing caress was enough that it caused his hairs rise all over his body and scalp.  Terror began to fill the drunk and there was nowhere he could run.

“Who’s there?”  He said slurring his words.  He wished he had brought his sword with him, but he had left the blade at home.  He had nothing to defend himself with except his fist and feet, but there was nothing to see except darkness.  He knew how to fight, but how could he fight a specter?  How could he fight something he couldn’t see?

The slenderman stepped out from behind a tree not thirty feet away from him.

The man then noticed again that the chilled one didn’t have a face and was completely bald.  It was completely round with no place for a nose or eyes or anything.  The slender stepped back behind the tree when the man blinked, and the strange man had thought the man had vanished.  For a second the stranger was there and the next he was nowhere to be seen.

He went over to the tree to search for the man, but when he had arrived there, there was nothing to be seen.  The alcoholic smashed man was becoming even more frightened and picked up his pace to get home hoping he could get his sword.  His nerves were jittery, he couldn't think straight, and he didn't know whether to blame the booze or the fact that he was scared out of his gourd!  He was too inebriated to walk straight let alone run, but the man didn't want to be stuck out in the night with this ghastly ghoul that was taunting him.

He sprinted down the path.  His home was only an eighth of a mile away when his boot snagged a root he tripped, fell, and hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him.  He tried to breathe but the air wouldn’t fill his lungs.  His lungs burned to be filled with precious oxygen.  He just gasped at the fact that he couldn’t breathe.  His nose was broken and wine-colored liquid drained from the wound. 

He began to panic even more, he tried to get up, but his arms acted like they were trying to push up a ton of boulders placed upon his back.  His arms weren’t strong enough to pick himself up off the ground.  He was just too weak after the fall.  He was at the mercy of the terror that had provoked him.

The slenderman turned the man over and when the inebriated man started to scream the slenderman opened a hole where his mouth should have been but if formed out of nothing and took the scream into his mouth along with the man’s soul.  A brilliant white light flowed from the man’s throat.  It was the man’s soul.  There was nothing the man could do to stop his spirit from going into the face of death’s mouth.  The slender stood up.  He was pleased to have a fresh soul that washed away the vile taste of the last essence he had drank in.  There was the man’s clothes rippled and the pile of ash that blew away in the light breeze.

 He would go hunting tomorrow for another soul that would wander the path in the dark. This soul was so refreshing.  He couldn’t know whether or not a soul was abhorrent or not so he was always risking devouring a dreadfully sinful soul or not, but the odds were in his favor that generally the souls meet the requirement of being a decent soul to take in.

Christar Anderson, the leader of the Crimson Sanhedrin was an ancient looking old man who appeared like he should have expired ages ago, but instead sat at his desk deep within the bowels of theara far deep beneath the depths of the shadow elf city of Talcoma’De’Shore.  He had made his way to his new home after being driven out of his homeland of New Yark, New Amsterdam a city back in the kingdoms of northeastern tektara.  He felt betrayed by his fellow man for causing him to leave his comfortable home.

He had been a promising student of magic-user and illusionist, but when he was discovered studying the dark arts and sacrificing people to Lilith he was headed to the Guillotine, but a group of his black art students liberated him they ran west until they found the shadow elves. Lilith told the shadow elves to assist him and make him the head of the mage council.  Which the shadow elves did grudgingly.

Christar had not a stitch of hair on his wrinkled bald head, sagging watery red eyes, a thin pointed long nose that was continually dripping which he kept a hanky for.  He was always wiping his nose, and had raisin like lips.  He sat on a large cushion as his butt was so bony that it hurt for him to sit on a hard surface for long without it.  He wrote with his left hand and cast with his left hand.  Some said that left-handed mages were extra powerful, had extended lives, and were lucky as well.  So, the aged mage forced himself to work with only his left hand. Christar seemed to be proving that point.  He was writing in his spell book.  He was toiling on a new spell for some time but hadn’t quite got it right yet.  He wanted to be able to disintegrate his opponent.

He wore an azure robe trimmed in gold which was a sign that he was filled with pride, took his craft extremely serious, and obtained delight in his magic of course.  Christar took pride to the limits. 

Pride was a weakness for Christar as it brought him to new heights, but also made him forget to make him gaze behind himself to see who had the dagger directed at his back.  He thought so highly of himself that he forgot to lookout for his so-called friends that might have a knife aimed at his throat ready to slit it, but then again Christar had himself booby-trapped in case anyone wished to do him in. 

He had brought spells to new heights.  Some of his spells couldn’t be cast by anyone but himself, barring Laurinda Lindaura, Donaldrid Vorhelm, Richardo Sorenson, or the Charmers when they acted together and weren’t fighting with each other, their incantations were that powerful.

The other secret to his power and a lot of other powerful magic-users in the dark arts was that they were demon possessed and the demon that was said to possess him was Montague the demon of pride.  Christar may have sold his sole to the demon, but he had total control over the demonic being, or so he thought, because of an amulet that he wore and if he had that amulet.  He was the one that called the shots and if Mephistopheles didn’t obey him Christar would torture and torment the demon as Christar had many times in the past, so the demon rarely pushed his buttons.  It was also the reason he had lived so long.

The council room was well lit for being so far underground.  The people around the table were all powerful magi that each were possessed by demons, which is where they got their real power.  A power they thought they had control of, but in all reality had control of them.

Edralve and Lavanna sat on opposite sides at the head table where Christar sat.  Edralve lusted for that seat and had been scheming for decades for that position.  He was possessed by the demon Bromgail, the demon of evil mages.  He had a thick leather gauntlet that had seven gemstone settings in it.  The stones were called perpetuity gems and each one had a power.  Edralve only had two of the seven gems now.  A sapphire gem which gave him unbelievable perception and an orange they gave him incredible intelligence.  The glove controlled the demon even if it had no stones within it.  Edralve cherished the gauntlet called the Exon Gauntlet and he always kept it with him.  He wore it on himself everywhere so that no one ever stole it from him, also so that the demon never had the chance to take control over his body.

Edralves wife, Lavanna, was possessed by the demoness known as Luxor, the demon of evil Clerics.  She wore a necklace of shimmering and lustrous pearls.  The Carabelle Pearls of Demon Control which kept her demon in check.  The string of shimmering black pearls had such a luster that when the light hit them just right, they had a purple hue to them. The necklace seemed to be of one continuous ring to have no beginning or end.

Carrio Deathgrip was possessed by Carragin the demon of wrath.  Carrio had a ring that kept his demon under control with a segmented tenson ring upon his index finger, even though the battle was a struggle at times because wrath was so unpredictable.  Carrio was a deep dark coal black shadow elf with short cut black hair that was parted down the middle and feathered to the sides.  He wore a crimson eye patch over his left eye that was counterfeit because it allowed him to see everything visible and invisible.  He could see the demons that possessed each of the mages through his eye patch, and he could see the façade that Christar was trying to pull over the eyes of the other mages with his old age incantation.  His eyes were cobalt blue and were very penetrating when he gazed upon anyone. 

He had what appeared to be a hearing aid in his ear and that's what he called it.  He said it was something a tinker gnome had made.  He had pilfered it from the architect he had slain the inventor while procuring the item.  It allowed him to eavesdrop in on conversations he wasn’t supposed to be part of.  He wore a crimson robe and was the head of his order.  All the heads of their orders were in the shadow elf city of Talcoma’De’Shore.  Carrio’s robes were blood red and trimmed in gold scroll work and were quite exquisite.

Dorraine Lacreesha a tall willowy half-elven woman with pale skin even for a half elf was possessed by Vual the demon of greed and the demonic spirit was controlled by a mythril bracelet.  Dorraine had a full body of blonde hair that hung a quarter way down her back and was kept in pristine condition all the time.  Her eyes were a deep emerald and when she looked at someone they felt as though she were staring into their soul and you wanted to leave her presence, but that could be because of the demon that was inside of her.  She was a witch that wasn't to be messed with as she would put a curse on anyone who crossed her or just plain annoyed her.  Many nonmagical people had been cursed by her, just because she didn't happen to not like the way they looked at her. Her robes were golden and trimmed in silver.

Another person sitting around the table was Suzanne Burgundy, a moon elf was possessed by Delustria the demon of lust.  Suzanne didn’t bother trying to control the demon, she let the demon have her way as she was driven by all sexual activities.  She had tattoos of snakes crawling on her arms and another tattoo of a spider on her neck.  She had platinum blonde hair, gray eyes, and puckered lips that appeared as though she was about to kiss anyone she was talking to.  She was the slootiest woman on the council and of the entire mage order and she didn’t care.  She loved sex and that’s all there was to it.

Rebecca-Lynn Smithe was possessed by Mammon the demon of Sloth controlled by a tenson amulet with an emerald cut amethyst.  She was a short woman with straight coal black hair that hung nearly to her feet.  She was a royal elf originally from Talos.  She wore a green robe with silver scroll work upon the trim.  Her face was soft with delicate features.  She had pleasant sky-blue eyes, a dainty nose, and soft kissable lips.  She kept her demon under control with sheer willpower so that she didn’t become another Shandor.  She didn’t want to look like the demon of sloth, so she kept a tight rein on her demon.

Shandor Heabantrell was possessed by Raum the demon of gluttony.  She wore a two-carat diamond ring to control the demon.  She was a heavy set black human woman in her mid-forties.  She wore brilliant fluorescent orange robes with gold trim.  She had a round obese face and had two earrings in each pudgy earlobe.  Her eyes appeared to be squinted on her face was so obese.  Her nose was slightly turned up giving her a hog-like appearance, making some think that she was half orc.  She wore a ring on each of her plump fingers.   Nearly each of the rings had a magical enchantment known only to Shandor and she kept it very confidential so that no one knew about her magical abilities.  Even Christar didn’t know of their magical qualities.  Her hair was braided with an assortment of flamboyant beads interwoven that hung down to the middle of her back.  When anybody saw her, she was eating a sweet pastry and drinking a glass of wine.

James-Earl Manson was possessed by Azazel the demon of torture who was controlled by a leather bracer with interwoven tenson strands of fiber.  He loved tormenting people.  He let the demon have free reign when it came to cruelty.  The demon was far more inventive than he could ever be, but he was learning by watching the demon work, yes, he was learning.

James-Earl had curly black hair with wings of gray at the temples and deep green eyes.  His nose was long and sharp, and his mouth had a pout on it.  He was a large muscular black zephyrian man for being a wizard, but he had a little fighter in him as well which had helped get him out of a scrape or two when his magic had failed him.  He was short as far as zephyrs went as he was only six foot four.  He believed in law and order, but he was still an evil man and did horrific things in the name of Lilith.  He wore a jet-black robe with silver hems and scroll work.

Leopold Vindicator was possessed by Satanicous the demon of envy that was controlled by an opal amulet in the shape of a bat.  Leopold was a dark tanned man who was native to the land of Azon where he grew up in a clan of warriors and he was the medicine man until they found out he worked his magic for the dark one.  He was chased out of his tribe ahead of the headsman’s.  He found solace among the shadow elves.  He had slanted almond eyes, a regal hawk nose, and a proud way of standing in his earthy plain brown robes and a headdress of feathers.  He was a native to the lands of tektara once known as the freeborn lands to his people and the people like him.

Clintock Martinez was possessed by Beelzebub the demon of hate.  The youngest of the mage leaders was an albino elf with immense power.  He wore white robes but don’t let that fool anybody he was pure evil.  There wasn’t anything evil that was above him doing.  If Christar was to fear anyone to take his place it would have been Clintock, but Clintock admired Christar.   Clintock was a violent mage.  He would tear anyone apart that got in his way or in Christar’s way when it came to obtaining more power.  Although he had a struggle with the power when it came to Christar or him getting the power Christar usually won out.

The door to the chamber swung open and a shadow elf guard dressed in black chain mail with leather beneath allowed Christar to gradually make his entrance into the room. 

“All rise… The highest and most powerful Mage Supreme in this time, Christar Anderson approaches his seat of honor.”  The Doom Guard said in a thunderous voice which was proper for Christar’s station.

The others in the room thought that Christar was full of horse manure thinking he was the most powerful mage of the age.  They could name more than a few who were more powerful or at least give him a run for his coin.  Laurinda Lindaura, Donald Vorhelm, The Charmers, and Richardo Sorenson from the Central Tektaras, just to name a few.

Everyone stood at attention when Christar entered the well-lit chamber, even those who couldn’t stomach him and wanted him dead.  They bowed in mock respect for the man, but they respected the power that Christar possessed. They wanted that power for themselves.  The person that killed Christar would claim his powers.  That’s how evil world worked.  They gained their power through the art of assassination and debauchery.

Christar appeared easy to kill, they all did, but with the demons possessing each of them made them they were ever alert to danger.  They could sense a thief in the night, a dagger in the dark, a drop of cyanide in their drinks, or a sprinkling of poison herbs upon their food.  Their demons were ever watchful twenty-four seven.   But the demons couldn’t be trusted.  If the demons thought their mages too weak to have them possess them anymore.  They wouldn’t warn you of a poison, a knife in the dark, anything of that nature, and let the assassin slay them just so they could possess someone else with power worthy of them.

Christar walked with a crooked oak cane that clicked with every other step on the floor and his pace was extremely gradual, but it was all a façade.  Anyone who knew Christar, and only a select few, very few, did know him, knew that he was nearly as agile as someone in their fifties.  The ancient mage made his way to the head of the table.  It took the wizard nearly three minutes to get to his padded seat.  He loved pushing the limits of his underling’s patients.

A steward that stood in the corner of the room pulled the chair out for Christar and allowed Christar to situate himself before pushing him up to the table.  The servant poured the sorcerer a glass of wine and asked Christar if he needed anything else, but the aged mage just waved him away with his bony thin hand.  Once Christar was seated the others accommodated themselves in their seats once again.

“I have you all here to discuss an exceedingly important matter.”  He said in a bogus frail voice that came out just above a whisper that was shaky.  “We have men working on getting us the prodigy shau’doku as I speak and soon will attain the Orb of Solomon, the Dagger of Luciferous, and the Trident of Poseidon.  Having all three of these items will give us what we need to strike the albino fortified city of Del Marco and then set us up to attack the dou-jin capital in Lost Vargas.”

Two people stepped out of a deep dark corner, probably from a globe of darkness that shadow elves were known for, but only the male was shadow elf.  The female was human.

The shadow elf male was Murdoc ‘The Dreaded’ Zeldonus he was another advisor to Christar and one of the chosen few that knew about Christar’s secrets.  Murdoc was possessed by the demon Nelchael the demon of plagues.  He was about five and a half feet tall and was as bald as a smooth rounded stone.  Brilliant azure blue eyes.  He was an expert with magic and fighting as well.  He wore strange octagonal glasses with sapphire lenses.  They were lenses of true seeing and he could see anything, everything, much like Carrio’s eye patch.   Christar’s façade didn’t fool the man at all since he saw through Christar’s ruse.  He could also see each of the demons that possessed each of the mages and they were quite frightening to gaze upon.  The demons were hideous.  Each was unique in appearance.  They were all distorted and frightful.

His wife, also an advisor to Christar, Marriott-Suzze Zeldonus was about five and a half feet tall.  She had lengthy tresses of straight blonde hair that hung down to the middle of her back and she was a large, bosomed lady at that and had stone gray eyes.  She was an excellent priestess and a sorceress.  She was possessed by Zavebe the demon of Calamities.  She was an exceptionally strong magically powered woman and an impressive priestess as well.  She was second only to Lavanna.  Marriott-Suzze wanted to murder Lavanna and take her powers and add them to her own, but she knew that Edralve would take vengeance and slay her and her husband Murdoc, Edralve was just that powerful, and if Edralve was slain Lavanna would do the same.  So, if they were going to kill one of them, they would have to kill both together and that was next to impossible.

“What do you have to report Murdoc?”  Christar asked kindly.  The aged mage was only kind to the people that knew him.  He made sure that the people who knew him well were properly taken so that they would never stab him in the back.  He made sure to make time for them and to teach them more powerful spells.  Giving them the advantage over Christar’s enemies.  Christar wanted to make sure that if he was ever ambushed or slain that his closest friends would get retribution for his enemies attacking him.

“According to Brady Tunage he failed to obtain the boy.”  Murdoc informed his master.  “He said that six dou-jin showed up just before he apprehended the boy.  He said he tried to kill the boy, but the boy moved with such snake like grace that he couldn’t murder him.  He said the boy had the Creator’s own luck.”

“Should we send more roda-ki shadow elves?”  Rebecca-Lynn suggested in a light airy royal elven voice.

“No.”  Christar answered flatly.  “He was supposed to have two other men with him.  Where were they?”

“Brady thought he could handle it on his own.”  Murdoc answered.  “But he says he’ll intercept the dou-jin and is getting the boy.”

“I don’t have as much faith in Brady as Brady does in himself.”  Christar said with a growl and then had a fit of coughing as though he had been speaking too much.  “The fool thinks too highly of his attributes.  I think they’re mediocre at best.  If Brady fails, he knows the price he’ll have to pay for his arrogance and stupidity.”  He said through a bunch of wheezing.  Christar finished after he was through his theatrical coughing.  A few spots of blood appeared on his handkerchief. The blood was fake, but he had to keep up appearances and hope for his audience to fall for his performance.

The people around the table had thoughtful looks upon their faces.  They were wondering if Brady’s plan that he had brought to the council would work or would it just cause the dou-jin to dig in and reinforce their troops?  None of them had much faith in Brady either.  They thought that Brady was too egotistical for his own good.  He couldn’t pull this off on his own.  He should have taken back up with him.

He needed more than just himself to do all the things that needed to be done.  If he were to pull off what he had planned he was going to need at least six people to achieve the plan, not just himself.  Maybe he was going to use the dark dou-jin/roda-ki infiltrators to help, but then they would no longer be any good for the plans of the underground society.

“Ssso, we let Brady posssibly fumble another attempt?”  Carrio said in a deep shadow elf menacing voice. He loathed the roda-ki he thought they were a bunch of puffed-up bantam roosters.  “He could messs up everything we’ve worked ssso hard to put together.  I didn’t like thisss roda-ki asssasssin from the ssstart.  Hess’s too wild and unpredictable for sssuch a sssensssitive mission.”

‘Most roda-ki are, that’s why we picked him.”  Christar said.  “They’re so arrogant and unpredictable it makes it hard for the dou-jin to keep track of them.  We need that edge to get that boy, not to mention the other items.”

“Do we have our cleric of good Spirit?” Christar asked Shandor with a tinge of despise in his voice.  “I want that woman ready for our assault on the gutter rats.  She could be put in jeopardy if we don’t keep a close eye on her.”

“Yes.”  Shandor replied just as icy.  There was no love lost between the two magic-users.  “I have her and her family as hostages to make her cooperate to use the Orb of Solomon once we have it in our possession.”

“That is all then, unless anyone has new business.”  Christar asked, but no one said anything.  Everyone excused themselves from the area with Christar being the last one to leave the chamber.

He admired the artwork that was upon the walls of the great room.  He had picked out all the pieces himself and he gazed upon all of them fondly before making his way out the door with Murdoc and Marriott-Suzze.

The rest of the mages backed their chairs out after Christar had left.  Shandor caught Carrio so she could talk to the shadow elf in the passageway.  Shandor lowered her voice to just above a whisper.

“Have you spoken to your uncle Richardo?”  Shandor asked in concern.  Her whispers weren’t exactly whispering.  Her voice carried and Carrio didn’t want anyone to know about his great uncle.  He was sure Christar or anyone else could easily eavesdrop on their conversation.  He loathed Shandor and wanted nothing to do with her.

Carrio gave her a dangerous glare.  “Why do you insssissst on talking about thessse thingsss ssso clossse to Chrissstar?  He’sss our leader for a reassson.  If he even knew that we were talking about my uncle he would have usss killed and rightly ssso.”  In his shadow elf speech.

“Well, have you?”  Shandor insisted with a look of worry upon her dark face.  She wanted Richardo to slay Christar so she could have Christar’s seat of power.  After all, Richardo didn’t want it.  She would take advantage of Christar’s defeat.  She would rule the Crimson Sanhedrin.  She would rule with an iron fist.  The Sanhedrin thought Christar was tough on them.  She would make Christar appear to be a schoolboy compared to her.

“My agentsss haven’t gotten back to me yet.  Ssso, no.”  Carrio answered with a look of regret on his face.  He wondered how Shandor ever found out about his relationship with Richardo.  Shandor wouldn’t leave it alone. She wanted Carrio’s uncle yesterday even though it would take weeks to hear from him.  He had thought about telling Christar more than once about her, but that would implicate him.  He didn’t want to get into that web of spiders right now.

“Now leave me alone.  I’ll let you know when I know anything.”  Carrio rushed down the hall before Shandor could do or say anything else.  He wanted to get away from her before she got him put to death for knowing Richardo one of Christar’s nemesis.  Carrio didn't want Christar to find out about his uncle at all.  Shandor was going to ruin everything.  If Christar ever found out that Carrio was related to Richardo, he was afraid that his time on the council would be numbered, and Carrio liked his place on the board.  It let him know what Christar was doing.  Christar couldn’t keep anything hidden from him because of his network of demons that he had working for him within the Crimson Sanhedrin.

Shandor stood in the hallway alone her brow furrowed deep in thought and disappointment.  She had hoped that Carrio had contacted Richardo.  That mage was more than extremely powerful.  He could quite possibly bring Christar down to his death.  She wanted Christar dead.  She wanted it done today, but she would have to wait a little longer.  Maybe she could get the Charmers to do it, but they were unpredictable at best.  She could never tell what they were going to do.  It was useless to get Laurinda Lindaura to do it because she would destroy Shandor where she stood for being so evil.

Richardo Sorenson was more powerful Christar, but he lived in Central Tektara.  He was the great uncle of Carrio, and Shandor had found out by doing a lot of magical research on all the people in the underworld’s magical hierarchy.  Carrio had been surprised that Shandor had even known about his great uncle.  She wasn’t going to let Carrio slip through her pudgy fingers.  She wasn’t going to ruin her chance at becoming the leader of the magic society of the Crimson Sanhedrin.  Once she had her fat claws in someone, she wouldn't let them out until she got what she wanted or until you killed her.

She had plans for Carrio’s great uncle and she thought that she might know how to seduce him into helping her attain her goals.  Richardo liked big voluptuous women and she was perfect for him.  She just had to get Carrio to do some work for her.

If it were true that Richardo like big voluptuous woman, she was going to be just right for him.  She was going to snuggle up to him and make him want her and then she was going to have him by the short and curlies to do her bidding.  She thought she knew the way to a man’s heart, but she didn’t know that she was a grotesque fat pig of a woman that was only desirable to herself.  There was no way that Richardo was going to fall for her.  Richardo may have liked voluptuous women, but they had to be beautiful as well, and Shandor was far from beautiful.

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lilith

A gorgeous ebony woman sat upon a chair at a make-up looking glass as she brushed her silky ebony hair and gazed at her exquisiteness with both narcissism and repugnance.  She adored her shadow elf form and could stare at herself all day if she was in her shadow elf figure, but when she transformed into her medusa/recluse spider physique she wanted to break every mirror she could find and had on a few occasions.

Lilith had a man’s soul entrapped in a soul cube and she gazed upon him in utter triumph.  He was a mere reflection of the man he used to be.  Now he was a ghostly image of what he had once been.  He was a tall zephyrian man with pale skin since he never got any sunlight in his cubical prison.  He had long flowing dusky hair that hung just past his shoulders.  Then had his hair held back by a half an inch-wide braided leather cord.  He had a dull of gray hair sprinkling upon his scalp, but not enough to notice at a passing glance.

He paced back and forth like a cat in a dog kennel trying to escape his confines he did most days the boredom just about killing him, but he had no way to end his life here.  Every time he thought of a way to slay his spiritual existence the object would have disappeared from the room until the urge went away.

“How could he have let himself get into this situation?”  He thought to himself for the two millionth time.  “How could he have been fooled so easily?  Why hadn’t he trusted the Creator and have trapped Lilith without being trapped himself?”  He should have had more faith in the Father of Hope, but the situation seemed so dire at that moment.  What a fool he had been.  He hated himself for being tricked so easily.  He thought he had been stronger than that, but pride goes before a fall.

Lilith could feel the alteration coming on and she released the box back upon the table.  She raised herself up from the stand and got as far away from the mirror as possible.  She covered the mirror with a blanket, so she didn’t have to see the transformation.  Her upper body grew plated scales and her face was hideous and it was a combination of shadow elf and snake.  It was her transmuting into a medusa.  Her lovely locks of shimmering ebony hair turned into wriggling coal black asps and her face was like that of an abomination the forehead and eyes of a woman and the rest of her face was that of a serpent.  She had venomous fangs in her maw that could strike out and spread a noxious toxin through her victim’s form dissolving them into a puddle of goo that she could slurp up into her hungry awaiting jaws.

The lower portion of her body was that of a brown recluse spider.  It glowed slightly in the dapple light off her chambers, and she rose with her head brushing the eight-foot-high ceiling.  Her skin or shell was like full plate armor that left her protected from attacks to her body.  Her underbelly was also plated in armor as it was the most vulnerable portion of her form, but it had exposed segments in the armor which allowed her freedom of movement.

Lilith had been looking for something that had happened nearly fourteen cycles ago and she knew that it would be her downfall if she didn't prevent whatever it was that had caused this anomaly.  She had to exterminate them or terminate them before it slew or annihilated her.  Her seers had foreseen her downfall.  She was determined to slay the man that was going to slay her, or capture him like she had Argathous ‘The Great’.

She received a message over her clouded mirror.  A mirror that she could see her subjects, but they couldn’t see her.  Lilith had received a plethora of reports from Commander Zartan that Brady had found Argathous Dragonsbane and had fought off three dou-jin and had killed two of them, but the boy had managed to get away.  Brady then reported that he was following the boy and was going to wait for him to fall asleep before he tried to kidnap him again.  Brady was not in the best of moods since he failed to collect the youth on his first attempt.

Zartan was a short zephyrian male, but don’t let him overhear anyone say that or that individual or creature would be dead before their next heartbeat.  He was a pale white man in a shadow elf city in charge of the roda-ki men and women.  He was especially pallid for a white man.  That came from living underground in the underworld city of Talcoma'De'Shore the city of the shadow elves.  He sat at his desk and studied the documents before him.

A large seven-foot oval shaped mirror was set in her chambers and swirling fog had appeared in the mirror and took up every inch of its face and a female demonic voice called out for Zartan to come to the mirror.  The mirror was an extraordinary, enchanted item.  It had a deep cherry wood that was stained to be even darker in appearance and it was lacquered.  The face of the mirror was no longer a mirror but a swirling mist and the people on this side of the mirror couldn’t see Lilith, but Lilith could see them, and she kept a watchful eye on them when the mist was eddying around the face of the looking glass.

Lilith didn’t want any more screw ups.  She hated others failing at anything especially when it came to such easy tasks as kidnapping a child!  No child was going to make her appear as a fool in the deep.  The pit would freeze over before that ever happened. This child wasn’t going to make her best assassin look like a total bungling idiot, or would he?  The boy was quite resourceful when he wanted to be, and Lilith was drinking in the false news like a kitten to cream.

“If Brady was so good, why had he failed?”  Lilith scoffed in her demonic accent.  “According to all the reports Brady Tunage is the finest the roda-ki could have sent out on such an excursion.  Brady was the greatest thief and assassin roda-ki in all of the underworld."

“So why did he let Argathous get away?”  She insisted with a violet hiss wanting an answer and she was tired of Zartan's run around.

“More dou-jin showed up.”  Zartan lied for his friend.  “He barely got away with his life.  We couldn’t lose our best assassin and best chance at getting Argathous later.”

“It would have been better that he gave his life.”  Lilith said with a laugh.  “I jest.”  Inside she was seething like a pot of boiling water in a kettle with the lid down tight.  She wanted that boy, like a boy who wanted a puppy.  She wasn’t going to allow anymore foul ups.  “Get that boy for me or assassins will be after you and Brady next!”

“What plans do you have for getting Argathous?  You do have another plan, don't you?  Never go in with just one scenario go in with ten!”  She said with heat in her voice all the laughter now vanished from her voice and face.  She wasn't going to have another failure on her hands.  Brady either got the job done or it was to the torture chamber for him.  Everyone abhorred the torture chamber, and rightly so, many roda-ki had been flogged or whipped for failure to satisfy the Demon Mistress's desires and now she required Argathous to be in her grasp.

“Yes, my Mistress.”  Zartan said.  “He is planning a sneak attack to get the boy when the dou-jin are sleeping.  We should have Argathous by midnight.”

“Good he had better succeed or die trying.”  Lilith said this time she wasn’t joking.  She wanted to see results with this next mission.  She hated getting reports of failed missions.  She wanted to rejoice in a victory for once.  Her victories were generally small, but this time it was going to be a grandiose victory.  Argathous as her pet roda-ki or Argathous her prisoner, it didn't matter to her if she had another Argathous to her collection.

"Yes, my Mistress."  Zartan said and the mirror went back to its darkened shaded reflective color.  "Why doesn't the old feral cow come out and grab the boy herself sense she thinks it so blasted easy?  The boy has the Creators own luck when it comes to being kidnapped.  He seems to slip through our fingers just when we think we have him in our grasp!"

"Brady, you'd better get him, or they’ll be the deep to pay and not just from me!"  he said in a scathing tone as if imitating Lilith.

The manuscripts that interested him the most was the possible kidnapping of Argathous Dragonsbane.  To seize him would put great prestige upon him. 

            Brady had better do his assignment right, there was a lot hanging on this mission.  Argathous would never know he was being kidnapped according to the soothsayers because he had never been to The Dou-Jin Academy.  So, leading him astray would be easier than guiding sheep to the slaughter.

            Zartan was especially looking forward to meeting this young man, because he was going to be the messiah of the roda-ki.  He was to bring glory to the dismantled roda-ki thanks to the goody-goody dou-jin who had nearly decimated them a millennia ago.  Zartan was ready to take the crucial weapon of the dou-jin and transform him and become the roda-ki's critical armament.

            The roda-ki embodied everything that the dou-jin weren’t.  Where the dou-jin stood for truth and justice and the way of the people, the roda-ki were in it for their pride and the selfishness.  The roda-ki wanted everything for themselves.  They would take whatever they wanted no matter whatever it required to get it.  They appropriated from the people and took it for themselves, where the dou-jin took from the evil and gave to the honest people.  The dou-jin were the protectors of the people and the roda-ki would harm the people unless the citizens did what they said.

The lab had many glass tubes, copper coils, and magical ebony boxes of electricity.  There were potions brewing and elixirs blending as well.  The aroma of sulfur and rotten eggs drifted heavily upon the air.  There were various magnitudes of flames under a diversity of caldrons with an assortment of colorful liquids brewing in them. 

Christar was an ancient elderly man that moved with the speed of a crippled snail.  He used a gnarled cane that fit him perfectly.   He appeared as a crippled ninety cycle old man even though this was only a façade.  His true form was that of a fifty-cycle aged man.  He created the illusion so that he would dupe his colleagues into considering that he was a frail aged man that could be easily attacked and overthrown since he was the head of the Crimson Sanhedrin.  He wasn’t a tall man, but he was ultra-powerful.

If people thought him frail enough, they would assault him, and then he would demonstrate the error of their ways.  He would either slaughter them or disfigure the assailant into submission so that he or she would remember never to make the same mistake if he didn’t just murder them.  The first would be done if Christar thought the person was more of significance to him, the latter if they were of no consequence.

He checked a particular potion that he had been brewing.  He hoped for the best outcome possible.  He twisted knobs and handles to shut off valves to some projects and adjusted others to started other projects.  A cloudy cobalt potion bubbled.  Christar put out the flame beneath the endeavor and he took a pair of tongs and took the potion down and placed it in a bracket to cool down after which he would come back to later to test the potion on one of his plethora of rats.

            He let the concoction set for an hour and then picked up one of his rats and grabbed an eyedropper, sucked up the liquid, and placed a drop in the rat’s mouth.  He set the rodent down in a pen and observed the scoundrel.  The tiny creature began to run the maze with extraordinary speed and agility.  In fact, the rat was a blur to the magic-user. Christar truly couldn’t have been more ecstatic with the results of his experiment.  He had coupled two potions and they hadn’t made a poison this time.  He had made a potion for speed and dexterity.

            Christar went to check on another mixture he had high hopes for.  The potion was a clouded lavender color.  He blew out the fire and took the flask off the bracketed with a pair of tongs and set it in another bracket for the potion to cool off for a period.  He waited another hour to see if this potion would work.  The time past by and he removed the rat and put a drop of the colored liquid in its mouth and watched it for a positive reaction.  The rat commenced to expand with its muscles and kept growing until its skin began to split and the rodent squealed in utter pain.  The rat turned into a muscular dead hulk, and it left a huge puddle of blood for a rat.  His second trial had failed, well that just meant he had to try again after all they were just rats, it's not like he was using this on people, yet.

Christar then changed his attention to the magic rings he was making.  He was proud of the achievements he had accomplished thus far.  Christar was working on a ring and trying to imbue powers upon the ring so that it had more than one power.  He had managed to get it to hold a protection spell permanently and now he was trying to get it to hold an invisibility enchantment as well.  Rings were much more difficult to make than potions, but the rewards were far more gratifying as well.

Christar read the spell to the ring.  "Oplemenim nevidljivost!"

The ring sat within the sunlight under a magnifying glass and under a magical laser light from the corner of the room.  As the spell was read the room grew dark.  All that could be seen was the laser light and the concentrated intense beam of sunlight and the ring itself.

He finished reading the spell from the scroll and the ring started to glow a mystical crimson and then it exploded into dust.  The experiment had obviously failed and Christar had just lost a powerful ring of protection.

"Blast it!"  Christar shouted in his secret lab.  "I hate losing these fargan blasted rings!  I know I have so many of them, but I hate even losing just one!"  Christar continued to let flow a stream of curse words as he made his way through his hidden lab.  He wished he could trust more people and he could let more people into his lab, but who could he trust with such valuable information?

Everyone was after his mystical, magical, and confidential works and wanted his abilities if the price was right.  All his projects were of great value, and he couldn't let any of his secrets out to anyone.  Each of his discoveries was of immense worth to him and he didn't want anyone finding out his innovations and pilfering them.  He was extremely possessive of his belongings, and he didn't like to share.

Christar thought all his creation were of vast importance, and some of them were, but most of all they were just above average spells and magical items, but he was working on trying to make them better.

            J.D. rode at the head of the group a kept a steady pace that the horses could keep up for hours and still gain many miles, while Michale rode towards the tail end of the party to ensure that Argathous and the others were well protected on the journey on the way to The Dou-Jin Temple.  Ronaldo rode next to Argathous and Marie to keep the other boys and girls calm and to assure them that they were in good hands.  The others followed double file behind Argathous and Marie.

The trio of dou-jin masters were taking Brady’s threat seriously that he would try to kill Argathous or at the very least try to kidnap him before he arrived at The Dou-Jin Temple. Brady wasn’t the kind of man who would give up easy on such a grand prize and Argathous was the greatest trophy that he could have possibly acquired.  He would be remembered throughout roda-ki history as the man who single handedly kidnapped Argathous and turned him roda-ki.

Argathous was glancing everywhere trying to take in everything as though he were going to spot Brady coming through the bushes to try and kidnap or kill him.  He didn’t want to be surprised by Brady and he didn’t know what Brady was capable of, but the three dou-jin seemed to, and they were keeping a close eye on him.  They were going to make sure Brady didn’t take him in the night or on the road, which didn’t make Argathous feel any better.

Who was this Brady?  What made him want to kill or kidnap Argathous now?  He had never done anything to Brady.  He had never even called Brady a bad name or looked at him wrong.  Brady wanted him to become roda-ki.  The dou-jin bible never mentioned the vile roda-ki and Argathous wondered why the bible would leave out such a notorious assembly of vile men and women.

J.D. took in a deep breath of the fresh air and exhaled at the enjoyment of being out in the wild.  He was a mountain dwarf and he was born beneath Theara and was now use to the open clean air.  He scouted the area before them making sure that Brady didn’t surprise them and didn’t bring along any friends to help him kidnap Argathous. 

The three dou-jin reached out with their dou-jin powers.  They had the seven powers of The Spirit, the elementals, life, and death searching the area of the road making sure Brady didn’t show his ugly face.

Brady only thought of Argathous as a prize to be captured and the three dou-jin weren't going to give Brady the satisfaction of taking him away.  The trio weren’t about to let one roda-ki hoodwink them into losing the pride of the dou-jin.  The dou-jin were taking this excursion seriously.  Sure, they had eight other shau’doku to watch over, but Argathous was their true accolade.  Brady wasn’t after the other children.

Argathous was no award to be won. He was a juvenile boy who was to be trained in the art of the dou-jin.  They just had to make sure they got Argathous to The Dou-Jin Temple without Brady kidnapping or killing the boy.  J.D. was worried about both, but his main concern was on the latter.  He didn’t want the boys, or the girls being killed by the feral dog licker of a roda-ki.

Just before dark the party set up for camp. Michale scouted the area surrounding the site with not only his exterior senses but also his dou-jin perceptions as well for any trouble. He focused his mind on the Spirit the strongest of the seven powers of the elements that powered the dou-jin.  He also used the other elements as well fire, air, earth, water, life, and death.  It took nearly an hour of in-depth probing of the surrounding area before Michale was satisfied that the campsite was safe.

J.D. prepared the evening meal.  He had a huge cauldron of stew over the cook fire on a tripod to feed the immense group of hungry zephyr children who had ravenous appetites.  He added spices into the stew to add flavor and gave the dinner a scrumptious aroma.  J.D. besides being a dedicated and fierce dou-jin master was an excellent cook.   He took the wooden spoon and tasted the stew and smiled as he was pleased with the way the stew tasted.

"Jest uh li’le while longer."  J.D. said with a wink to Argathous and the others who thought they could eat the entire cauldron of stew by themselves.  Being zephyrs came with big appetites and large stomachs to try and fill all nine of the youths were bottomless pits.   J.D.  was an exceptional cook and cooked the meals whenever the group went out on an outing?  He could make oatmeal taste like a feast instead of like the mush it was.

The dwarf went to polishing his tensonite double-bladed war-axe.  J.D. babied his battle-axe like it was an infant, but he used it like the weapon of death it was.  Her name was Mayhem.  He never let anyone else touch his axe not even to look at.  “Yuh use yer eyes tuh look at et, not yer filthy hands tuh look et me exe.”  He would say.

Tensonite was mined in various mines most abundantly in the dwarven kingdom of Thails’Bane.  Other kingdoms had deposits of tensonite, but Thails’Bane was the richest in the ore.  One tenson coin, or quarter ounce, was worth one hundred thousand silver pieces and tensonite had natural magical properties.  All dou-jin masters’ armors and weapons were lightly coated with the precious metal, even the leather was laced with tenson.  It gave the wearer extra protection and better chances of striking a challenger or deflecting a blow from an adversary. 

If a man or woman happened to carry a weapon with a dragon etched into its handle, you knew they were a dragonmaster and a master of the weapon they were carrying.  Some dragonweapons were so heavily enchanted that they never needed up-keep.  Swords never needed to be sharpened and that included all blades, and other weapons were enchanted the same way.

Argathous had been farther away from home as he had that day.  He had been to Mount Shazar a mountain fifty miles away from his home, the boy did he get a blistering after that trip.  Argathous couldn’t help but wonder what his family was doing right at that moment.  They had probably finished dinner and his mother was probably reading to the children from one of the books they owned and then from the dou-jin bible before they said their prayers, cleaned up, and went to bed.

“Gath, you and the others are to start your training tonight.”  Michale started in his deep voice.  “Now gather together in a circle.”

“Okay.”  Argathous and the others said not quite sure what to expect.  They got more than a little excited.  They didn’t know if they were going to teach them the sword, the staff, or the axe, but they couldn’t wait to get started.

“I’m going to guide you through this.”  Michale informed the young zephyrs in a gentle but firm tone.  “It won’t be easy since you're not quite sure what you’ll be doing, but just try and follow my voice and my mind will touch your brain and I will try and guide your psyche in what it’s supposed to be doing.”

“More than likely nothing will happen except that you’ll become extremely relaxed and feel a little lightheaded.  It’s okay it’s your first time.  Normally a first grade dou-jin doesn’t sense the Spirit until the end of the first cycle or the beginning of their second and then it’s only a trickle.  So, don’t get your expectations too high.”

“Okay.”  Argathous and the others replied not comprehending what touching the Spirit was, so they really didn't discern what to expect.  Argathous and the others just hoped that it didn't hurt to do it.  "It's not going to hurt, is it?"  Argathous asked becoming more nervous as the time drew closer to touching the spiritual source.

“Close your eyes.”  Michale instructed calming his voice almost as a soft whisper as he began to hypnotically calm the others down to try and touch the Spirit.  “As a beginner this will help you concentrate on what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Argathous and the others closed their eyes.  Their minds raced at what to anticipate, but as they followed Michale’s voice they gradually calmed down.

“Now I want you to clear your minds and think of nothing, but the light of the Creator.  I want you to clear your brains of everything, but the Creator only think of the Creator and that's all.  Don't let your psyche wander.  Think of pure thoughts of the Creator and His light and nothing else.”  Michale directed in his calm tone.  “I want you to breathe in deep slowly through your nose and let your breath out slowly through your mouth and keep your mind clear the entire time.  Concentrate on your breathing.  Breathe in deep through your nose… breathe out deep through your mouth.”

Argathous did so for about five minutes until he was totally relaxed.  He kept his mind on the light of the Creator and his breathing.  It was tough at first things like home kept interfering and intruding but after five minutes Argathous had most of it under control.  The others were getting distracted but within the five minutes they too had their young minds under control as well.

“Now I want you to picture what you think the Spirit looks like in your mind.   Don’t force it just let it come to you naturally.”

Argathous cleared his mind, and he began to form a shapeless cloud of light blue and pale gray.  It never took any true form, but it was just a billowing cloud.  However, he did feel at harmony with the cloud and it did feel friendly, comforting, and peaceful.  His entire body went limp with relaxation and was at total peace.  He felt like he could float into the cloud that had formed in his head.  The cloud was so peaceful and soothing.  He had never felt anything so pleasant.  He felt as though his body could float and he would just drift higher and higher, but he clung to the log he was sitting on so that wouldn't happen.

The others were still focusing on the Creator and didn't see what Argathous was seeing.  Marie peaked around through one squinted eye lid but saw that nothing was happening, so she shut her eye again.

“Have you seen the Spirit?”  Michale asked knowing that no first cycle except Argathous “The Great” hadn’t ever seen the Spirit their very first time.

"No."  The others said in disappointment.

"I see a light blue and gray cloud and it is very comforting and peaceful.  It’s reaching out to me like a person trying to hug and engulf me.  It’s just so wonderful!”  Argathous answered getting excited at what he was experiencing.  His face shown with a luminosity of the enlightened.  A smile creased his face as though he were the happiest man alive.

The other students couldn't believe what they were hearing.  "How come I can't see the light?" The other children said getting excited and anxious about not seeing the Spirit like Argathous had.  "If Gath can do it, they should be able to do it too."  So, they tried harder to relax but all they did was force trying to obtain the Spirit which was the wrong way of summoning the Spirit.

Michale, Ronaldo, and J.D. glanced at each other in sheer surprise.  Students couldn’t sense, see, or feel the Daughter until after their first cycle, and well into the second cycle of the dou-jin training and then it was just a trickle to sense of the presence not any sort of expression.  Full manifestations didn’t appear until usually after the fourth cycle.

The trio of masters couldn’t believe what they were hearing.  Was Argathous playing some kind of trick on them?  He couldn’t have been how could he have known about the Spirit?  Nobody he knew could know anything about the Daughter.

“Now I want you to picture in your mind the surrounding campground.”  Michale suggested trying to keep his voice calm but finding it difficult after listening to Argathous explain what he was sensing and experiencing.  “Reach out with your mind and try to picture and feel each object.  This is the hardest part of the lesson.  If you can’t do it, it’s okay.”

Constantine and the others tried to reach out for anything they could see by peeking out of his eyes then he pictured it in his mind.

Argathous wrinkled his forehead and concentrated.  The cloud in his mind grew to fill his vision and enveloped his inner self.  He felt incredibly magnificent as the Spirit took him over.  He felt as though he could fly within the cloud.  The Daughter felt so soothing it was more encouraging and comforting than his mother's arms could have ever been, and it made him feel full of life and excitement.

He had never felt so serine in all his life. The cloud was the most wondrous and calming like he had never experienced.  It embraced him like nothing he had ever sensed before in all his life.  He smiled with joy at how delightful it felt.  He sensed such peacefulness like he had never experienced or undergone before.

He couldn’t believe what he was feeling.  He couldn’t explain it to anyone.

“I feel… I feel… I can’t explain how I feel.” Argathous said.  “It's just so wonderful.  I wish you guys could feel this as well.  It’s so warm and light.  There’s a bright light and a warmth that I can’t explicate.”

“The Spirit has taken the shape of a woman.  She’s beautiful and she wants me to walk with her.  She’s leading me to a vivid light.  The dazzling light is a man.”

“Hello Gath.”  The man said in His godly accent.

“He’s talking to me.” Argathous told the others outside the dream-like state.

“Gath, I give you the gift of My Daughter.”  The Creator said.  “I am the Creator Her Father and She is now yours.  She will train you along with your people’s trainers and you will learn exponentially.”

Argathous told the others what The Creator said to him.

“Now go back to your lessons.”  The Creator was gone and the young lady was gone as well, but the blue-gray cloud was still there.  Argathous informed them that the Creator wanted the teaching to go on.

Michale had Argathous feel everything around him and told him how it felt in his mind.  Argathous levitated a five-pound stone.  It had a smooth exterior due to the rain and other elements that played a part in flattened the stones surface.  Then he noticed an earthworm that was extremely wiggly and he picked it up with his mind and examined it.  It would have made a great fishing worm.  He noticed all the rings on the worm and the flecks of dirt that were upon it as well.  Argathous explained all the details to Michale.  He noticed that the worm was an earth brown color and was slightly translucent and could vaguely see the organs of the moist crawler.

"Paul what do you see?"  Michale asked.  "Don't be disappointed if you can't see anything or see details this is very advanced stuff.  If you want, you can come out of the trance and let us work with Argathous."

Paul and the others gave up and opened their eyes and stared at Argathous.  How could their cousin be so good at this thing?  Monroe couldn't do it and she was proficient at everything.

"What else do you see and feel?"  Argathous lifted the log J.D., Ronaldo, and Michale were sitting on a few inches and notice a gray adder, it was lethal, but not aggressive.  The adder was about three feet long and had sleek texture to its scales.  Argathous saw two light green tree frogs with black inky splotches on them, they tried to hop away as soon as they saw the gray adder, but only one of the tree frogs managed to get away as the adder caught the other one.

Argathous raise Michale’s two-handed sword blade and brought it down on the snake’s neck.

Argathous surveyed as the blade came down and severed the adders head from its body the lifeless frog still in the serpent’s mouth.  The snakes body wiggled wildly as its head rolled away from its corpse.  Argathous scrutinized in utter amazement at the spectacle before him.

The three dou-jin masters watched Argathous and then they witnessed something they never thought they would ever see out of anyone not of The Dou-Jim Temple.  First a fist sized rock levitated off the ground, then another, and another. 

The fire flared up and blazed with intense heat.  The fire popped and crackled with the ferocity from the power of the flames.  The wood was being consumed at an alarming rate and the trio just watched in shear shock and through all this Argathous had his eyes closed and could only witness this through the Spirit.

Peter and the other cousins gasped at the amazing things that were going on around him, but Argathous wasn't even affected by their huffs.  They were caught up in amazement at what Argathous could do.  There was no way that their cousin could be doing this.  It was Argathous after all.  Sure, he was a great athlete and everything, but he couldn’t do all these great things that he was performing now.  How could he?  He wasn’t a wizard or anything like that.

Another log was raised off the ground and a plethora of insects came scurrying out from under the protective barrier.  All the creepy crawlies scattered into different various directions as they searched for new places to hide and be concealed from predators’ eyes.  The entire campsite was floating except for the fire and the trinity of dou-jin masters were bewildered as to what to deliberate.

Michale, in shock, nearly forgot what he was doing.  “Okay Gath I want you to gradually let the Spirit leave your mind and let the items in your head vanish.  Go back to concentrating on your breathing.  Breathe in through your nose…  and breathe out through your mouth...”  Michale could barely contain himself.  He tried to remain calm until the exercise was over, but he had to really restrain himself to do so.  His heart was racing, and he just couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.  There was no one he had ever seen that could do the things that this boy could do.  Would he be the next Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart or Arron ‘The Brave’ Stormblaze?  This boy couldn’t be that powerful, no child could be, but there it was right before his very eyes.

Argathous found it difficult to release the Spirit.  He wanted to stay in the Daughter forever it felt so good and so right.  He felt like it belonged to him and he to it.  They were one and it was supposed to be that way forever. He had never felt anything so calming, so relaxing, so soothing, and incredibly fantastic.  He tried to pry himself away from the Spirit, but he couldn’t let it go so easily.

“I can’t do it.”  He said in a labored voice to the three dou-jin masters.  Argathous was beginning to sweat with the effort of trying to release the Daughter of Peace.  His head hurt from the effort of trying to liberate himself from the Spirit.  He was worried the Daighter was going to hurt him now even though it felt so good.

“Concentrate on your breathing and the Spirit will leave on its own.  Don’t think about the light either just focus on your breathing.”  Michale instructed him.  Michale was hoping that the youth could release the Spirit on his own or he might have to step in and help Argathous let go of the Comforter.  He had to stay calm so that the boy didn’t think the Daghter would hurt him in any way.

Gradually the levitated objects descended and landed softly on the ground and Argathous was back to just breathing once more.  The fire returned to normal.  The three dou-jin masters and the other apprentices had visages of shear and utter surprise upon their countenances.

“You may open your eyes now.”  Michale apprised Argathous.

“What did you experience?”  The dou-jin asked trying to hide his shock, but not doing a remarkably successful job at it.  Argathous never noticed though, he was still caught up in the spiritual experience.

“I felt at complete peace.  Like someone was there with me taking control of me and guiding me.”  Argathous answered.  “I could feel everything around me and in my mind, I pretended to pick them up, I even made the fire grow hotter.  It felt wonderful!  I have never experienced anything like it before in my life!”  Argathous was bubbling over with great enthusiasm.  He had sensed everything, and it felt like he was going to burst with energy from the occurrence and he wanted to share it with the world!   But then I was afraid the Spirit was going to take total control of me, and I would be its prisoner.  Then it left me because I was afraid of it.  It didn’t want me to fear it.”

"You should have seen what you did."  Monroe said in excitement and disbelief.  "You did make the rocks and logs float.  The Spirit made you do all those things.  Even the fire got hotter.  You really have the Spirit dwelling in you!"  She was just so excited to see such things.

Michale and the other dou-jin masters wished that Monroe hadn’t told him that, but the cat was out of the bag now and there was nothing they could do about it.  They just hoped that Argathous didn’t freak out about the situation.

“I’m glad you enjoyed the experience.”  Michale said trying to stay calm and cool.  “The Spirit doesn't want you to fear it.  It wants you to love it and be your companion.  You did very well for your first time, but we shouldn’t push you so hard.  We should eat and get some rest.”

“Aye laddie.”  J.D. said in agreement with Michale. “Uh young man like yerself shouldn’ta be pushed tuh ‘ard ‘is first time out.  Don't be tryin’ any uf thes stuff without ‘ny supervision now.  You could really ‘urt yerself or someone else.”

“Yes sir.”  Argathous answered respectfully even though he really had to concentrate on what J.D. said because of his accent was so difficult for him to understand what he was saying.  Argathous was always doing what he was told by his elders unless it was illegal or immoral.

Argathous and his cousins helped themselves to a lot of stew and ate quietly. 

He wondered about the mysterious cloud that he had seen in his mind.  It had been so peaceful and yet so strong and formidable.  It had wrapped him up and had made him feel powerful.  He really did want to see it again, but the dou-jin men said that he wasn’t to try and see it without them being around.  He didn’t see how he could damage anyone by scrutinizing the cloud in his mind. 

He wondered how the cloud had become a young woman though.  She hadn't tried to harm him and neither did the Creator.

"Wow I saw the Creator and the Spirit in my vision.  I can't believe that, but there they were as plain as the nose on my face."  Argathous said to himself.  “Why me?  I’ve never done anything to attract the Creator’s attention.  There’s nothing special about me.  I saw Him though and His Daughter.  What makes me so exceptional?  I’ve never done anything to attract that sort of attention.”

“The Creator saw something in you.”  Michale said not sure how to proceed.

Argathous just shook his head and went to sit down on one of the logs around the fire trying to figure out what had happened to him.

The cloud hadn’t damage him, his cousins, or the three men, but the masters were older and wiser, so he figured he’d best leave things well enough alone.  The Spirit had scared him though, but it hadn’t wounded him.  His mother had always told him to respect his elders.  Argathous was always one to follow rules and did what was right to please those who were more mature than he was.  He was always called a goody-goody behind his back at school.  The children whispered it, but they whispered loud enough for him to hear their taunting’s.

He laid down for the night and went to sleep upon a bedroll that J.D. had given him.  He liked sleeping outdoors he could look up at the billions of stars and saw the three moons that sat in the sky over Theara.  One moon was crimson the Croan, one moon was azure the Woman, and the third moon was emerald the Maiden.  He had always wondered if there was life on the moons, but he had no way to get there. He had heard the great wizards had traveled to the moons and said there was life upon the blue and green moon, but the red moon was lifeless and desert-like.

Occasionally a shooting star would flash across the night sky and wink out just as quickly as it had appeared.  Argathous made a wish on everyone that he saw streaking across the sky and every wish was the same.  He wished that he could be as good a dou-jin as Argathous ‘The Great’ and Aaron ‘The Brave’.

His cousins were enjoying the stars as well.  They couldn't help but talk about what had happened that evening and wondered if Argathous could do it again just for them.  They promised not to tell anyone.  "Come on just raise a few rocks while J.D. is out and we're alone.  Do you remember how to do it?"

"Yes."  Argathous said.  "Breathe in through the nose… and breathe out through the mouth….  He did it for about five minutes and the Spirit came to him.  He reached around the campsite and picked up a few items and his cousins could barely contain themselves.  He then heard J.D. coming back and he tried to release the Spirit, but the Spirit held onto him and wanted him to embrace Her.  Argathous gave in and there was a whoosh of air and Argathous came out of the trance in perfect health, but he laid down and pretended to be asleep.  J.D. came back into camp and acted like nothing had happened.

"That was close!"  Argathous said to himself.  "I'm not going to do that again!"

Argathous went back to sleeping on the ground and remembering the little buddies that he could possibly wake up with and he didn't like it very much, because most of them were dangerous.  The only bad thing about lying out on the ground was that you sometimes got a bed buddy and not always the good kind.  There were knifetails (insects that were twelve inches long and had pincers and a stinger for a tail that carried toxic and deadly poison), shakers (six foot long venomous chameleon snakes that had three two inch long rattles on their tails), blood suckers (worms that burrowed up from the soil and would find exposed skin and had razor sharp teeth that could cut a person even though they wouldn’t even feel the cut and they had a tube for a tongue and suck your blood).

But sometimes you’d wake up and have a rabbit or other furry creature in your bed and that was always a nice surprise.  One time to Argathous’s astonishment and fear he woke up with a cougar cub sleeping with him.  He wondered where the mother had gone, but the cub hung around for a little while and then disappeared into the forest.

For several days the group traveled south each night Michale ran Argathous through the exercises and Argathous kept performing admirably beyond expectations.  The others weren’t doing as well, but they were doing well for first cycles and the masters told them not to give up because they would get the hang of it sooner or later.

The children were hoping for the sooner.  They all wanted to be like Argathous, special and get all the attention like he was getting from the dou-jin masters.  They wanted to see the Spirit and the Creator.  They wanted to move objects and be just like their cousin, if not better.  They knew that Argathous was a goody-two-shoe and maybe that’s why the Father had chosen him.  Argathous was a special boy even without the Creator selecting him.  He was the best of the best when it came to doing what he was supposed to.  He never disobeyed any of his elders, he was honest, trusting, and a goody-goody.

One night while they were doing their exercises Argathous tried to give his cousins a trickle of the Spirit so that they wouldn't feel so down about not feeling anything, because he didn't want them to give up on becoming dou-jin.

Argathous focused the power of the Comforter.  The Daughter guided him through the process of what to do.  He took the procedure ever so gradually so as not to frighten the other adolescence in the party.

They said that they saw a sliver of the gray and blue cloud. It wasn't very big, but it was there.  His cousins just had to remember how they did it, but it made them so happy that they had finally seen it and gave Argathous a hug and they were all as happy as two chipmunks with an acorn.

[scarystrasse]

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Brady Tunage

A large coal black zephyrian man, three inches taller than Inger, rode a massive sleek zephyrian ebony gelding that was even darker than the rider’s skin.  The steed had the height of a Morgan but the aerodynamics of a Thoroughbred.  The mount could be heard coming because of its size and the squishing of the mud beneath its massive hooves.  The horse was of the best stock and the man had another charger the same size only it was an earthy brown paint in tow.  Both horses were in prime shape and condition.  They were far better than the farm mounts Argathous was used to riding bareback.  The farm horses were bulky and used to pulling a plow, these two new steeds had never seen a plow a day in their lives. These new geldings were groomed well and were in perfect shape.

Argathous was taken by the beauty of the horses.  He had never seen a horse so large and beautiful.  He wished he had a steed like he was witnessing, but he could never afford a prime animal like either one of these.  They were magnificent specimens of their breed.

            Argathous sensed great evil exuding from this rider that was leading this extra horse.  He didn't know how he knew he was evil, but he was pure malevolence.  This man was the vilest of the vile.  Hatred and malicious exuded and flowed from this man.  The family had best do what this man said or there would be dead bodies upon the ground upon the farm and it wouldn’t be the huge shadowy mans.

            Jainny pulled the alarm bell three times to indicate trouble on the farm.  Hopefully within ten to fifteen minutes several farmers armed with whatever weapon or piece farm equipment would be there.

            "Be careful mom."  Argathous whispered in hushed tones into his mother’s ear as he put himself between his mother and the dark ebony man.  Argathous felt like he wanted to vomit as his stomach twisted and turned upside down around this mysterious person.  He couldn’t place the vomiting feeling, but it wouldn’t go away, but he did become use to it eventually and he was back to himself, just the vomitus feeling in the back of his mind that wouldn’t quite go away.

            Argathous had a double-bladed elven enchanted tensonite wood axe made for splitting starwood in his hands.  The blade was sharper than any man-made steel and he was there to protect his mother from this man, even if he had to die doing it.

Inger backed her family away from the man, as she had no trust of strange man.   This man-made Inger afraid just by his presence.  She knew that if he tried to rape her, she and her children would die, but Argathous was in between his mother and the opaque rider.  Argathous knew his mother’s fear as he had seen the look on her face before and he didn’t like seeing his mother in these situations, because it made her look imperfect in front of her youngsters and she didn’t need her children seeing her in a bad light and weak.

Argathous didn't want his mother to look terrified in front of her children.  He wanted her to appear brave and put herself between the other five kids while he stood guard over is mother.  There was no way this man was going to get close to his momma.  If he tried, he would lose a hand to the starwood splitting axe.

            The dark man gradually dismounted his enormous steed and approached Inger and bowed before her as if she were of royal blood.  He had ebony hair that was braided with beads.  He had deep dark black eyes, a broad flat nose, and thick full lips.  He acted friendly, but that's all it seemed to Argathous, and Inger sensed something not right about the black man before them and that stiffened Argathous's resolve.  He smiled at the family, but the friendliness never touched his murky eyes.

            “Hail and well met!  My name is Brady Tunage.”  He said in a deep rumbling voice like thunder as he introduced himself.  “And I have come from the Dou-Jin Temple.  You must be Inger Dragonsbane the mother of Argathous Dragonsbane the one who I seek to join our ranks in the temple.  You must be Argathous.”  He diverted his eyes from the woman to the boy.  He held out his hand to shake Argathous’s.  “It is good to see that you’re brave and willing to protect your family as it will bode well in your training and loyalty to the dou-jin.  The dou-jin are always on the hunt for young men who are brave, loyal, and fearless.  It is why I’m here. Argathous you are an extraordinary young man.”

            The entire family stepped back away from Brady as he drew near, but Argathous held his ground and didn’t budge from his place. Argathous stepped forward towards the man and was extremely close to the guy.  If the fellow were to withdraw his blade, he could have run Argathous through with but a single stroke.  Argathous shook the man’s broad-weathered hand.  The dark man’s hand was calloused from long hour of working forms with his blade.  Argathous felt the malevolence even stronger when he took Brady’s hand.  There was almost an electrical charge that shot up Argathous’s arm, but he refrained from acting out as he didn’t wish to alarm Brady and make him do something rash.  The lad wasn’t about to give this stranger the opportunity to lash out at his family, because of a knee jerk reaction from himself.

            Then Argathous's brothers, Chester and Mattwin, stepped forward with their hoes whirling like they knew what they were doing and Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny came out with a sharpened sticks and pointed it like a spear at the gentleman.

            “You want Gath?”  Inger said with a surprised question stepping forward towards the man trying to keep her children behind her.  She was having difficulties making the children mind her.  They all wanted to defend their mother when it was her wanting to defend them.  She didn’t trust any men after her rape and any male strangers was scarcely tolerated on her property.  She held the hoe in her hand like a staff warding off the tall gentleman and she knew how to use the hoe if she had to.  She had chased off strangers before and this big black fellow was no different.  “But he’s just a boy.  Why would the dou-jin want him?  He’s only a boy and the dou-jin are men.  What could you possibly want with Gath?”  She asked suspiciously still sizing up the dark man standing before her.

She didn't trust this male.  Her woman’s intuition told her this gentleman meant trouble for Argathous and she would fight this man to the death if he tried to take her eldest son.  She wasn’t going to let this Brady person take her son anywhere with him.  He was bad news and she pulled Argathous back away from the man putting even more distance away from the tall dark stranger.

Debriela had sneaked up to the farm bell and pulled it three times again to get her aunts and uncles to their home.  As no one had revealed themselves yet and the children and Inger were becoming nervous at the delayed comings of the male relatives.

            Brady pondered for a moment and stroked his thick dark black mustache and goatee over and over as another light breeze caught his beaded hair and made clicking sounds with the hair ornaments.  He made no advances towards the woman sensing that she was fearful, and he wanted to gain her trust.

            “The prophets of the dou-jin say that Argathous Dragonsbane must one day face, fight, and defeat Lilith.”  He said plainly and directly not trying to hide anything from Inger.  “He is the Chosen One that the dou-jin have been in search of for quite some time and now we have found him.  He is here to bring back the good name of the dou-jin and to eradicate the roda-ki from the face of Theara.  You must know how important your son is to our cause.  The dou-jin need him as he needs the dou-jin.”

            “The boy is important to the dou-jin.  I must take him for his training.  He is like a diamond among gravel to us.  He will become the strongest dou-jin since Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart.”

            “The Goddess of Destruction?”  Inger said in disbelief still not trusting the man.  “But she is the mother of the seven deadly sins.  The co-founder of the Thirteen Fallen, the Goddess of Hideousness, The Mother of Lies, and many other titles.  How does Argathous fit into this picture?  Will he have to fight the other gods as well?”

            “The prophets have only told us this.”  Brady answered truthfully.  “All I know is that we must train and prepare him for this purpose.”

            Inger put her thin, but strong fingers, to her mouth as she gazed upon her eldest son.  How could this young man have to do such an enormous task when so much of life had already asked so much of her?  Now she was going to have to give up her eldest son to this stranger for some dangerous task.  A man she didn’t trust.  A man that made her skin crawl.  A man that made her intuition alarm go off in her head.

            “I can’t let you take my son.”  Inger pleaded.  “He is just a boy, and he won’t be fighting any creature such as the Goddess of Lies!”

            Argathous could feel the other fellow growing with excitement at the prospect of gaining the Chosen One and the real dou-jin hadn’t even found him yet.  Brady’s thoughts were so clear to Argathous he couldn’t believe it.  How he could read the other man’s thoughts and motives were unknown to him, but they were so clear and precise.

            Brady’s mind thought.  “If the kid doesn’t come with me willingly, I will slaughter his family before him and force him to come with me.  That ought to bring enormous incentive for him to go.  I’ll kill his feral horse faced mother first and if that doesn’t work, I’ll kill his brothers and sisters one at a time.  He will have to listen to them scream while I peel off their skin in front of him.”  Brady knew that he had to keep up a calm façade in order to steal this boy away from the dou-jin and to raise him as Roda-Ki.

            “He is a descendent of Argathous “The Great” Lionheart.  The boys duty is to slay Lilith and it has been given to him by the Daughter.  The Daughter of the Creator will flow through him, and he will defeat the Goddess of Hideousness.  You should be proud your son has been chosen for such an honorable task.”  Brady added, trying to make his argument even stronger for his position for Argathous.  “The Daughter will be with him.  You couldn’t ask for any greater power to be with him in this journey.”

            “But why my son?”  Inger pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears.  She didn’t want to let her son go and lose him like she had lost her husband.  “I’ve lost my husband, I’ve been shunned by the village, and we’ve had one hardship after another, what more must I endure?  Why do the dou-jin and the Creator want more from me?  And why does He want my precious first-born son?”

            “It is the age the dou-jin must start their training.”  Brady Tunage said to Inger.  “I’m sorry but your son must come with me.  It is his duty to the Creator.”

            Argathous had rarely spent a day without his mother.   His thoughts of leaving her unnerved him and he felt extremely anxious.  He didn’t want to depart with this dark outsider, and he had never heard of the dou-jin coming out of the temple before, but then again, he didn't really know that much about the dou-jin.  He had only heard that people went there for guidance and help.  He had never heard of them recruiting people and this man gave him a horrible feeling of unrest.  He could feel maggots creeping beneath his skin with this stranger and a dou-jin shouldn’t cause that kind of sensation in a person.

            “What are the dou-jin doing?  I thought the roda-ki were only myth now."  Inger said to Brady.  "I heard they died out over a millennium ago.  You’re not taking my son if there are truly roda-ki out there terrorizing the country.  My son has no business out in the world battling the vast evil that is out there.  He needs to stay home and protect his family!”

“The roda-ki are extremely real and are exceedingly dangerous and we must get going before your farm becomes endangered by them!”  Brady said with urgency.  “They have poked their vicious heads out of the earth and have begun pillaging and tearing up the planet.  Their goal is to make the dou-jin appear evil and to bring as many boys and girls as possible into their ranks.  They will stop at nothing to engorge their fold.  Your son is extremely important in this endeavor.  We need him!  He is the chosen one and he needs to come with me.”

            “I mean we have a dou-jin bible, but I have never heard of the monks coming out of the temple except to make peace treaties or to settle other disputes.”  Argathous said curiously moving himself in between his mother again and the gentleman as though he were going to protect her.  His face was determined and stern not letting the male see the fear that was inside him.  His uncles had taught him that.  “Why are they so important?  I’ve heard people in town talk of you and they say you are trouble at the best of times.  Why should I go with you if you could mean my family harm?”  Argathous had to keep up the lie to stall the man from taking him away.  He needed his uncles to reach the farm and slay this man or at least drive him away.

            Argathous had managed to get between his mother and the shady man again.  He knew this man to be trouble.  He didn’t know how he knew; he just knew it!  He wasn’t going to allow anyone on his farm to be hurt by this guy and he would fight this fellow to the death if he had to keep his mother safe.

            Argathous was stalling for time.  He didn't know why; he just knew that he had to make the stranger wait for some reason.  Argathous could sense something virtuous and righteous getting closer and it was a wholesome feeling not the bile feeling in his stomach that the stranger gave him.

            Argathous aunts and uncles arrived at the farm and saw the tall dark zephyrian man standing before the family.

            "Are you okay Inger."  Geffus asked.  He was Inger’s oldest brother.  He was seven feet tall and had dark fiery green eyes and a massive flaming scarlet mustache and beard.  He was armed with a battle-axe he had obtained from his cycles in the army.

            Inger was too frightened to answer.  She didn't want to provoke the tall ebony stranger.  Inger was frightened of this man and knew that her brother couldn’t get in between herself and the foreign man.  She didn’t know what to do.  She knew if she provoked the man, he would slay her and her children before her brothers and brothers-in-law could rescue them.

            Argathous could feel the virtuousness growing closer and he had to keep asking questions of this man while the goodness drew close.  He knew that it wasn’t far off.  He just had to wait.  The man standing before him exuded massive amounts of evil like the devil himself.

            “That is a good question Argathous.”  Dou-jin Tunage answered.  “We are the peacekeepers of Theara.  We make sure that truth and justice are done.  We are not only the peace and justice of the world, but we are also the providers of mercy and grace.  I don’t know where you heard these rumors or even if you heard them, but rest assured your family is in excellent hands.”  The man was trying to coax Argathous to come with him.  He needed the boy and his family to trust him, or he would have to slay them all so that the real dou-jin never got the righteous hands on Argathous.

            “Right now, the dou-jin are in turmoil, and we are hoping that you will set things right.  I know that’s a lot to ask of a young boy, but the prophets have foreseen that you are the one to bring peace, order, and respect back to the dou-jin throughout the world.”

            “Lilith is going to try and break the eighteen seals that hold Luciferous in his infernal prison.  If she breaks the first six seals, then she breaks out and the other Fallen come with her.  The demons that helped Luciferous turn a quarter of the gods against the Creator and was able to unleash the demon armies upon Theara.”

            “The rulers of Theara have been warned and they are beefing up their armies because the prophets say within the next several cycles, at the most, Lilith will break the first six seals.  The Goddess of Hideousness will turn Theara into a wasteland and without your sons help there will be nothing we can do to stop her.” 

            Brady tried hard to sell the lie.  The roda-ki wanted Argathous for themselves.  With the boy as an ally of evil he would decimate the dou-jin and Lilith and Luciferous would rule the world and the goody-two-shoe dou-jin would be no more.

            Argathous gazed upon the ground as if he were searching for answers.  He dug the toe of his leather boot into the ground and made the symbol of the dou-jin.  It was a circle with an S in it the top and lower portion of the circle were made up of the S which stood for the Spirit that filled all dou-jin warriors.  Then he turned to his mother.  He looked at her with his haunted amethyst eyes welling with tears.  He just stared at her and wasn't sure what to say to her.

            “Mom,” He started.  “I don’t want to go, but if the prophets of The Creator have said it is so then I must go.  You have always said that the Creator is the most important being in our lives and He is the one that we should follow.  I believe the Creator has the best for me in mind.  I can’t go against what the Creator wants, that would be a sin to disobey Him.”

            Argathous then turned to Brady.  “Let me get my clothes and I will go with you.”

            “There is no need.”  Brady informed him in a hurried tone.  “I have everything you will need and what I can't get you the dou-jin school will supply you with their goods.”

The drumming sounds of a multitude of galloping hoof beats were heard rapidly approaching from the south.  Three men on horseback dressed in a same manner as Brady.  Using their dou-jin powers they vaulted from the saddles on their steeds into a roll in the air and landed firmly and perfectly upon their feet.

            “’ld roda-ki scum!”  One of the three horsemen yelled.  He was a graying crimson haired dwarf with a thick graying strawberry colored beard and an even thicker mountain dwarf accent.  He had a gruff visage and he looked as if he could chew through an iron spike.  The other two men a tall black man and an average pale royal elf stood at the ready to take on Brady.

The next second four weapons were drawn and ready for battle.  Brady’s blade was a pitch-black light absorbing two-handed weapon and a strange fire that wasn’t fire revealing his sinister and vile heart.  For black, in the league of the roda-ki, meant pure vileness and it had flecks of black sparkling within the blade as well let out sparks coming off the fire.  Brady Tunage was the vilest of all evils.  He would as soon kill you as look at you.

            The three horsemen had different colored spiritweapons as well.  One man, Michale Brody, a tall human black man who had thick dreadlocks, a mustache, and goatee and his he had a two-handed spiritsword that was of a light and flame, yet of neither, it was violet in color, which stood for justice in the dou-jin order.

J.D. Wildhammer, another dou-jin, the short dwarven man with a mountain dwarf accent that had halted the roda-ki with his two-handed battle-axe of light wavering crimson, which stood for passion.  He stood ready for Brady to try anything.  He had no trepidations of the roda-ki.  He would have taken on seventy roda-ki and not balked at the opportunity.

J.D. had thinning strawberry gray hair, a broad face, a large bulbous nose with hairs bushing out of each nostril and each ear had a crop of hair as well, thick lips, fiery orange eyes, large ears, and stood five feet tall in a stocky frame.  He wore purple hewn metal armor and the battle-axe that he kept strapped to his back was the same color.  The armor and weapon were coated with tensonite as tensonite was extremely rare, hard to find, and was worth a kingdom in one coin.  The handle of the axe was made starwood covered in the finest imperial mountain goats leather the premium in all the lands it was a rare leather that had magical properties and the goats were extremely hard to find. 

J.D. wore a double horned helmet with tufts of goat’s fur at the base of the horns and around the brim of the helmet.  The fur was dirty and matted as J.D. didn’t keep his armor up as well as he should have, but he loved his battle axe and took care of it like it was a newborn babe when not in combat, in combat the blade was whirling death.

The third was a slender royal elf named Ronaldo Silverleaf who had long flowing silver hair that he kept neatly in seven thin braids and tied together at the back of his neck and the rest streamed like a river down his back.  He had a royal elven accent.  He had a starwood staff, it glowed azure, which stood for loyalty, the starwood was as strong at high grade steel but glittered like a rainbow when its power was being used.  It had the color of the rainbow because it was a reminder that the Creator would never flood the world again like in had in Noah ‘The Devoted’s day.

            Brady hissed at the newcomers.  He took a swipe at Argathous with his ebony twinkling sword, trying to end the young man’s life so that the true dou-jin couldn’t have him, but the boy’s natural agility blocked the attack with his enchanted wood axe and dodged the assault with little effort.  He stepped away from the tall ebony zephyrian man and smiled with the ease in which he avoided the strangers strike.

            The dou-jin assaulted Brady, but his blade clashed with the three.  Molten metal erupted from the bond of the armaments and Brady backed away quickly and made a move for his steed.  The trio tried to impede him getting away.

            Brady abruptly leaped onto his saddle and rode off leaving his additional paint gelding behind.  “The boy will never make it to the temple!”  The roda-ki shrieked to the true dou-jin.  “The dou-jin will fall!  We have spies everywhere!  You arrogant fools don’t even know that the dou-jin are falling apart at the seams!”  He laughed hysterically and within seconds he was swallowed by the nearby small woods.

            Argathous aunts and uncles were throwing large chunks of rocks at the escaping man. Every now and again they struck the evading roda-ki agent of evil in the back or the rear of the head.  They were excellent shots with rocks and stones.

            "Shouldna we go after ‘im?"  J.D. said in his thick accent that was hard to understand at time especially right after he exerted himself.

            "No." Ronaldo said in his royal elf voice.  "We came for the first son, Argathous Dragonsbane."

            Michale put out his hand towards Argathous in friendship. 

Michale was quite different since he was human.  He was three inches shorter than Argathous and not quite as broad across the shoulders and with one-inch-thick dreadlocks with strips of leather and tenson woven into his hair that were about half an inch wide each hung down past his shoulders.  It was nothing Argathous had ever seen before in his short life.  Michale had a bold hawk-like nose, thin lips, and light blue-green irises with pure white pupils, and large ears.  The white pupils were what made Argathous wonder about the man, but he never asked because he thought it would have been rude and awkward.

            Argathous had a pleasant impression of these three men.  He gladly grasped Michales hand and shook it.  He felt comfortable around this trio.  It was much better than the awful stomach churning he had felt towards Brady.  Argathous felt uplifted towards these men.

            Michale gazed at Inger.  “I’m dou-jin master Mike Brody and these are my friends master Ron Silverleaf and master J.D. Wildhammer.  We are from the Dou-Jin Temple.”

            Inger feeling at ease around the men stepped forward and shook the man’s hand.  She didn’t feel threatened by these men as she had by Brady.  These guys had an impression of peace about them.

            “I’m Inger Dragonsbane.”  She informed the men.  “I am the mother of Argathous, who you’ve come to take from me.”

            “Are you alright Inger.”  Alfred asked.  One of Inger’s brothers enquired.  He was a tall man with stark white hair that stood up and was ill-kept.  His pale mustache was lengthy and was draped over his chest.

            “I don’t know yet.”  Inger replied.  Just hang around a little while longer to make sure.”

            Her brothers came a little closer to make sure the three men weren’t up to no good.  Her family was extremely protective of her and wanted no attempts upon her life.  They didn’t care if these men had called themselves dou-jin. The brothers would lay down their lives for their little sister and sister-in-law.

            “I know why that roda-ki was here.”  Michale said.  “But we’ve come to ask if you’ll let your son join us at the Dou-Jin Temple.  We have nothing to hide from you.  We are part of the brothers and siters of the Dou-Jin Order and we mean you no harm.”

            That man said his name was Brady and he wanted the same thing.”  Inger responded.  “He said the same thing.  I normally don’t trust strange men.  So, I don’t trust you either.”

            “That only makes our task more difficult.”  Michale said in all seriousness.  “I don’t know how we can make you trust us after this Brady character was here.  We’re not here to hurt anyone.  Your son has an important destiny among the dou-jin.  He is to bring the dou-jin into its once respectfulness and order.  He is a very important part to our institution.”

            “Brady said he was to be trained to fight the Goddess of Hideousness.”  Inger said with a bit of contempt in her tone.  “He was said to stop her from breaking the seals that hold her in place.”

            “That’s only part of it.”  Michale replied.  “He has an enormous weight upon his shoulders.  “There are many things that he is destined to accomplish.  He is a direct descendent of Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart.  He will become as illustrious as Argathous ‘The Great’ or  Aaron ‘The Brave’ Stormblaze or even more remarkable.”

            “I must ask you as I did Brady.”  Inger started.  “Why my son?  He is needed here on the farm.  I don’t see why I should let him go when he is such an asset to the farm.  Without him our family will starve.”

            “I don’t know why the Creator chooses us for anything.”  Michale answered.  “He just does.”  Michale then turned to Argathous.

            "You ever wanted to go on magnificent adventures?"  Michale asked in all seriousness to Argathous.

"Yes." All the siblings all answered."  Argathous's two brothers answered as did the younger sisters Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny not wanting to be left out of anything, and they set themselves in front of their mother thinking it a real treat that, not one, but three dou-jin were standing before them.  That is noble but you two boys will come to the Dou-Jin Academy next cycle he pointed at Chester and in two cycles you'll go to The Academy and he pointed at Mattwin you will come to be dou-jin as well."

"And who are these beautiful little girls.  Wait let me guess.  Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny.  Well, Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny I'm sorry but you young girls won't be going to the Dou-Jin Academy.”  He said in a confused manner.  “I don’t see it in the foreseeable future.  Which puzzles me.”

He stood up and turned to finally talk to the children’s mother.  "Don’t they have the same father?  I'm not judging you, but entire families go to The Academy.  I don't understand why they’re not going as well."

"I'd rather not talk about it."  Inger said through tears.  As she was ashamed of herself for her past lack of deeds to honor the zephyrian people.  She placed her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry if I've upset you."  Michale said in a quiet voice.  "I was just surprised; you don't have to tell me anything.  It's none of my business anyway.  There's still a slim chance they could be dou-jin.  They could be tested when they become fourteen.  The test doesn't hurt them and it's quick and painless."

"Thank you for not pushing the subject."  Inger said through sobs.  She was surprised at Michale’s compassion at not prying like so many others had done.  “But over the next few cycles you're going to be taking my boys."  She couldn’t bear the thought of all her boys leaving the farm to train as dou-jin.  “Why must you take my boys.  What have I done to deserve this?”

“Why must they go?”  Inger said her eyes still gushing with tears.  These were her children and she wanted them to be there always to protect them and now they were each going to leave the nest at the fledgling age of fourteen.  She didn’t think she could bear observing them leaving the nest, but they did have to grow up someday.  She just didn’t think it would be at such a boyish age.

“We need more dou-jin.”  Michale said soothingly trying to calm Inger down.  “They will become fine young men.  They will become dou-jin and they will help protect the world from the infamous roda-ki who seek to poison this world with their lies and deceit.”

“They will also protect the world from other evils as well.  They will be cared for and trained properly.  They will not be released upon the planet until they are truly ready and not a day sooner.  They will be tested and trained and tested some more.  Be assured that your sons will be doing Theara a great honor becoming dou-jin.”

“Our farm will need workers and I can’t afford to hire more support.”  Inger said in a distressed tone.  “Will the dou-jin help with that?  I can’t afford for my boys to leave the farm no matter what you say about their futures.”

"Yes ma'am."  Michale said we'll give you a shau’doku worker to take his place so that your farm doesn't suffer.  Here she comes now.  She was a young woman in her mid-twenties, and she wasn’t tall by any means, but then again, any one standing next to a zephyr was rather petite.  She had almond eyes and wore a strange wicker cone shaped hat.  She carried a starwood staff across her back and had an ox carrying all her belongings which was mainly clothing for farming.

"I'm Yo Lee."  She said to the group of awaiting family.  She bowed before them and extended her hand to Inger.  “I will do my best to serve you in the absence of your son.”

Inger accepted her hand and shook it.

"Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny show Yo to the extra bedroom."  Inger ordered her daughters.  After the young girls were out of earshot Inger asked about her daughters as well as her sons.

"How do I know you're not trying to kidnap Gath as well?"  Inger growled trying to hold back her temper as well as her tears.  The tears ran down her cheeks anyway, but not in sorrow, but in anger.  Her mood had quickly changed at the thought of losing her first born son.  She could take on these three men if she had to. Inger had her brothers behind her.  They knew how to fight.  She would do anything to protect her children even if that meant giving up her life so that the children could run for freedom to their aunts and uncles.

"It’s okay mom they're not here to hurt me."  Argathous informed his mother.  He tried to calm his mother down.  He didn’t know what had changed her mind so quickly toward the three strangers.  “They are not like Brady, the other man.  These men are peaceful and are of the Dou-Jin Temple.  I sense only peace from them mom.  It's okay if I go with them.  I will see you next summer.  I promise.”

"What about that other man?"  Inger asked.  “The one that claimed to be dou-jin, but ended up being roda-ki?  You were willing to go with him and leave us behind.  Why were you willing to go with him?”

"He would have killed us all if I hadn't gone along with him and played his game.  He wasn't very good at cloaking his mind to me.  I'm not that good at it, but him being roda-ki he should have blocked me."  

"The roda-ki are not as well-disciplined as the dou-jin."  Michale informed them.  "Still, you were lucky that was Brady Tunage, an assassin for higher, with some roda-ki skills didn’t just take you away.  If he had known, we were coming he may have slaughtered all of you except for Argathous and kidnapped him.  You are quite fortunate."

"Yo should keep your children safe from him though.  Roda-ki are cowards at best they won't pick a fair fight when there's a dirty one to be found."  Michale continued.  “Yo should keep you well protected though.  Yo, and your family.  Yo is well versed in the arts of the dou-jin.  She will keep you from harm and fill in where Argathous had filled in for the farm.  You have very little to worry about while Yo is here.”

The three dou-jin gradually put their weapons away and steadily approached Inger.  They didn't want to startle her into doing something foolish, they wanted her to trust them.  They didn't realize that it would take more than politeness to win her over. They stood some distance away trying to reassure the young mother that they meant no harm to her or her family.  They did not know her family’s history.  They didn't know how she had been hurt by a group of men.  They did not know how helpless she had felt through the entire ordeal.

            “We are not here to hurt anyone.”  Michale said to Inger.  He had read her mind and got the impression of what had happened to her in the past.  He didn’t want to read her mind, but he felt he had to, to get a grasp on the situation so that she would feel more comfortable with the dou-jin being where they were.

“You have nothing to fear from us.  You are in total control here, but if we don’t take the boy the roda-ki will come back here and try to take the boy and possibly kill your entire family.  We don’t wish that to happen.  Your son is much safer with us, as is your family.”

            “Mrs. Dragonsbane.”  J.D. started his voice was deep and sounded like someone who had gravel in a cast iron frying pan.  “I’m J.D. Wildhammer uh mountain dwarf ‘nd dou-jin master.  My friends ‘re Ron Silverleaf uh royal elf.  ‘he’s from Talos ‘e's also uh master dou-jin, ‘nd lastly my good friend, Mike Brody ‘uman from Dallas en Alclamain, he too is uh dou-jin master.”  J.D. made sure to explain everything again to the young mother.  He wanted to be as open with Inger as possible so that she felt comfortable with them.  He felt the more honest he was with her the more relaxed she would become.

            Inger tried to hold her children behind her, but she was failing.  The children were gathered around the trio and were checking them out as if they were new toys.  Argathous bravely stood before his mother with the wood splitting axe, the one he’d been chopping starwood with.

            The children knew how their mother felt about strangers and they knew that she had had enough of strangers for the day first with the fraud Brady and now these three.  However, these strangers seemed so peaceful.  They couldn’t help but gather around them like they were knew horses.  They were so comfortable around the trio that they could help but feel at ease.

            “We dona know thet th’ roda-ki knew ‘bout yer son.” J.D. informed Inger.  “Or we would ‘ave been ‘ere sooner.  We ‘re th’ dou-jin sent from th’ temple to take Argathous back to the temple.  ‘e is tuh go tuh Lost Vargas th’ capital of Zephyr ‘nd th’ ‘ome of th’ dou-jin.  ‘e'll be trained ‘nd brought up right.  ‘e will be taken care uf ‘nd protected by the best men and women in the world.”

            “We ‘ave nothing but th’ best intentions fer yer son ‘nd ‘is trainen.  The Dou-Jin Academy will treat ‘im weth respect.  ‘is training will be ‘ard, but then et es for all who come tuh th’ academy.”

            “They seem alright to me.”  Mattwin said with a smile.  “I trust them.  Just look at their magnificent steeds, and did you see their weapons.  Brady’s was black and these men had colorful weapons.  They must be good!”  He finished enthusiastically.

            Argathous remained calm and put the wood splitting axe down.   He scrutinized each man in their eyes as if searching for something.  I believe them mom.  Their weapons weren’t black like Brady’s was.  I can see into their souls.  These are good men.  I want my mother to be protected though, in case Brady comes back.”

            “You have my promise.  Yo will be here to help protect your family. She is an excellent shau'doku and she knows what to do on a farm. She'll be staying with your mother.  Just in case Brady decides to come back. The roda-ki can’t be trusted at the best of times.”

            Argathous said before he would put down the double-bladed axe.  “Good that’s the best that I can ask for. An assurance from a dou-jin is the best that I can ask for according to the Dou-Jin Bible.

            “You have our reassurance, master Argathous.”  Dou-jin Master Michale Brody informed the young man.

            “I hope you enjoy your journey’s Argathous.  May you live healthy and flourish.”  Then Ronaldo put his fist over his heart and bowed.  Yo will take care of your mother and your siblings.”

            “I donno whet thet fargan goat lecken ogrilar uf uh blasted grunt Brady told yuh ‘bout yer son.”  J.D. said in irritation and foul mouth towards the Roda-Ki more than anyone else. “But the Creator’s got uh lot en store fer yer son Argethous.”

            “Yes.”  Inger replied.  Her voice was still a bit shaky after everything that had happened.  She wasn’t sure she could trust these men, but Argathous said he trusted them.  He had always been a good judge of character, but why he had agreed to go with Brady was beyond her.  “He said that my son was to stop Lilith from breaking the eighteen seals.”

            “What can you tell me about the dou-jin though?”  Inger asked in concern.  She wasn’t sure about these men after what Brady had tried to do.  Brady had talked nice and pleasant just like these men. What made them any better than Brady?

            “The dou-jin are the protectors of Theara.”  Michale told Inger.  “Yo can fill you in all that you need to know while we head back.  I know that you have a lot of questions, but we are pressed for time to get Argathous back to the temple safely.”

"We don't wish to scare you."  Ronaldo said with compassion in his royal elven accent.  He could sense that she was getting ready to explode and attack them.  "We can stay here and talk as long as you'd like.  You can even pull your bell to bring your entire family down and we can talk with them as well.  I know that you want to.  It won't hurt our feelings at all if you ring your alarm bell."

            "Go ahead and pull the bell.  We'll wait right here while your brothers, sisters, and their families come to help you.  We're not here to hurt you.  I know that some of your brothers and sisters are already here, but if you pull the bell one more time even more will come to witness us as dou-jin and you can put your mind at ease."

            Inger’s hand went for the rope to pull the alarm bell three times with trepidation and saw that the men weren't dashing for their horses.  She saw that they were standing right where they were.  They didn’t seem to be frightened at the fact that the bell had been pulled.  They were as calm as lions sitting in the grass.

            "May we sit on your porch swings while we wait for your brothers and sisters to come?"  Ronaldo asked placidly.

            Inger nodded her head and rang the alarm bell three times again.  The trio sat down and waited for the crowd of brothers and sisters to gather around.  Within fifteen minutes they were all there.  The twenty-eight brothers and sisters and all their children all one hundred seventy-five of them. They all had large families.  Even the grandparents arrived

            Michale stood up before them and addressed the people standing before him.

            "Dear people we are the dou-jin from The Dou-Jin Temple in Lost Vargas a couple hundred miles away from here."  Michale began.  "As I glance out over all of you, I see there are many of your children that can become dou-jin.  The Dragonsbane children are descendants of Argathous 'The Great' Lionheart.  I see at least eight of you that can join us if you'd like.  I know there are probably more within the town, but representatives will be up and sorting through all the children to find the dou-jin prospects."

            “We didn’t know that so many shau’doku resided in such proximity to The Dou-Jin Temple.  We have been lax in our searching to have so many neighboring us.”

            "We can take you now if you'd like or we can come back for you later."

            "How do we know you're really dou-jin?"  Pietrea said out in the crowd.  He was a tall balding man with a gray ring around his head.  “We have never seen a dou-jin come out this way looking for recruits.  Why now and why us?”

            Michale took out his two-handed sword and brought it alight in the lavender color with the sparkles of the rainbow within the flame/light.  The crowd was taken in by the light show as Ronaldo and J.D. did the same thing.  The crowd was impressed with the enchanted blades that the warriors had.  They were enthralled at the colored of their weapon and knew that these were men of power.

            “We have come because the prophets of the temple have sent us forth.”  Michale informed the crowd.  “You are the people of Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart and you are the ones that deserve training.  It is an honor to train so many descendants.”

            Gasps went through the audience as they perceived the exhibition before them.  They couldn’t help but contemplate that their children could obtain such awesome power. 

            "What else you got?"  A woman named Jilkins asked.  She had long flowing black soft curling hair and a large nose that was set upon her face.

            J.D. waved his hand and raised the woman two feet into the air.  He didn't want to raise her any higher because it might start a riot.

            “How many of you would like for your sons and daughters to come to The Dou-Jin Temple with us this day or who wants to wait until we come back.”  Michale poised the question to the audience.

            "Who's all going?" Ask Stew Dragonsbane.

            J.D. pointed at eight children that would be joining the dou-jin.  “I see eight.  Some ‘re uh li’le older than usual, but thet’s okay.  They c’n be trained up right.”

            "They’ll be haven th’ potential of becomen great dou-jin.  Jest like Argethous 'The Great' Lionheart.  Et's en their blood.  ‘nd next cycle there'll be uh dozen moore ‘nd th’ cycle ‘fter thet seven moore ‘nd each well be replaced weth a shau’doku farm hand ‘nd tuh ‘elp yoh weth yer farm work that yud be losing because yer youngens have left.  So, yuh won't be shorthended on yer farms."

            The group had some trouble understanding the dwarf, but they got the gist of what he was saying.  They agreed that if the dou-jin came back their children would be ready to go to the Dou-Jin Temple.

            Michale tried to sooth Inger and his words washed over her with his dou-jin mind technique.  Inger could feel herself calming down and she became more comfortable with the three dou-jin and was much easier to work with.  She couldn’t help observing the strangers who were well received by her brothers and sisters.  She sensed that if her relatives were accepting of the trio than she too would believe the strangers.

            “You must promise me that Gath won’t get hurt.”  Inger said wanting reassurances that her first born son wouldn’t be hurt in the slightest after seeing how her relatives were accepting of the dou-jin.  Michale said to the family, but he assured them that he was after Argathous to join the dou-jin this cycle and no one else in her family.

            “I promise you he won’t be hurt while we are with him.”  Michale guaranteed Inger.  Argathous saw something deep within each of the men.  He didn't see any darkness all he saw was a light that burned within their souls a light he couldn't explain but it gave him a warn self-assurance and he knew that he could trust these men.

            “I wish you could stay for dinner and let me know everything.”  Inger said.

            “Yo will fill you in on everything.”  Michale said to Inger again.  “She is a good woman.  She is filled with the Spirit.”

            “Thet wood be th’ sum uf et.”  J.D. added to Michale’s.  “’m sorry lass.  It’s uh big burden to be putten on yer son, but we’ll train ‘im up good ‘nd proper ’nd the Creator well do th’ rest.”       

            “If it’s not too far away.”  Argathous started.  “I’ll visit next summer and bring Chester back along with some of the others with me to the temple.  I don’t think the journey isn’t that far or very dangerous, but if I must, I’ll come back with the dou-jin to pick up Chester and the others just to see you mom!”  Tears streamed down his cheeks as he made ready to get on his horse.

"My daughter Marie’s ready to go now."  Jedidiah said.  “She can ride one of our horses or the extra horse you have."  He was a stalky man with a clean-shaven face and a broad smile seeing his daughter was going to become dou-jin.

“My two sons Enoch and Constantine are ready.”  Another man named Jack said.  He was a beefy man with graying hair and a dark black beard streaked with gray.

“My two boys Paul and Peter are ready as well.”  Malcom said he was a tall muscular man taller than the average zephyr.

“Monroe’s ready as well.”  Livia an older lady said standing next to her husband.  Both were quite tall for zephyrs and their daughter was nearly as tall as Argathous.

“Jessup’s ready as well.”  Carmichael said, a short man, well short for a zephyr he was six nine, said with a broad smile that split his face.  He hugged his wife with pride.

“Marlyn is ready as well!” said Wynona a young mother said offering up her girl as well.  She stood next to her husband with her arm around his waist and he head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, we can take dem."  Ronaldo said in his royal elf accent.  "Saddle up children.  You're about to enter your first cycle of dou-jin training.  In two week’s time you’ll be at de Dou-Jin Temple and you’ll start your journey on becoming full dou-jin within twelve cycles.  And you’ll be one of de few shau’doku dat will be able to visit your parents over the summer if you like."

Everyone was in their saddles and was ready to go to the temple to begin their training.  The nine children were excited to be on their way.  Tears were flowing because they knew they were going to miss their families, but they didn’t want to forego the opportunity of becoming legends.  They were direct descendants of Argathous ‘The Great’!  That excited them to no end that they might be as great as he was.

The twelve of them took off and Argathous felt a little more comfortable riding with eight of his cousins on the journey to The Dou-Jin Temple.  It was nice to have family with him.  He trusted the three men, but having family made him even securer.

            They had given their families hugs and kisses and couldn’t wait to get to the Dou-Jin Temple to start their training with their cousin Argathous.  They were going to become real dou-jin warriors.

Argathous hugged his little sister’s and brother’s good-bye and gave his mother a kiss.  With that Argathous mounted one of the extra horses the dou-jin had brought with them and rode off and looked back occasionally and waved until the large farm was out of sight.

Inger and her brothers and sisters stood where they watched until they could no longer see Argathous, and the others backs and waved good-bye.  He was such a good boy and now he had been taken away from Inger to go to some school to be trained to be some spiritual warrior that she had read about in the bible.  It all seemed so surrealistic to her.  Her son couldn't be becoming a legendary warrior out of the Dou-Jin Bible and her other two boys were going to be as well. She just put her face in her hand and began to weep uncontrollably.

“Momma I don’t want Gath to go with the dou-jin.”  Patsy said tears running down her saddened face.  “I’m going to miss him, and he won’t be back for a long time.  I can’t wait ten months to see him.  I want him here with us.  He’s nice to us. Not like Chester and Mattwin who are always teasing us and picking on us because we’re only their half-sisters.”

            “Well, you tell me whenever they’re picking on you and I’ll paddle their behinds I don’t care how old they are, besides Gath won’t be gone that long, before you know it, he’ll be right back her and you’ll be seeing your brother in no time.”

            “You promise?”  The Patsy said to their mother.  “Chester and Mattwin are always picking on us, and they’re always bossing us around like they’re our mother instead of you when you’re not looking or aren’t around.

            “Now go back and hanging up the clothes, doing laundry, and churning butter.”  Inger told her baby girls.  “All the excitement is over.”  Inger couldn’t help but wonder if her oldest child was going to be okay, but then again, he was with eight of his cousins so how much trouble could he get into with all of them around.  If there was trouble his cousins would come riding back and warn the family that Argathous and the others were in dire need of help.  Wouldn’t they?

            Debriela went back to hanging up the clothes, Patsy went back to scrubbing shirts, and Jainny went back to churning butter all three wondering if they were ever going to get to go to the school that Argathous was going to go to?  They were his sisters after all, and they deserved to have the same chance as him to become this dou-jin just like he did.  Debriela forced the clothes pins on the clothes with more force than was necessary and almost tugged the sheet she was hanging down into the muddy ground.  She was going to have to take it easy.  Patsy did extra scrubbing thinking if she worked harder so she could go to school with Argathous and her brothers.  Jainny began churning the butter forcibly and with vigor.  She too wanted to become dou-jin.  All three hoped the tested positive to join the join the dou-jin and they could be in the same school with their oldest brother.

[scarystrasse]

A Chapter

Argathous Dragonsbane

Dou-Jin Apprentice

of Monsters and Men

By S. Cary Strasse

Book 1 Part 1

Chapter 1

The Chosen One

The late afternoon spring heavy rain laden pregnant clouds hung in the sky after the morning downpour of rain had hit that day.  The clouds wanted to continue their deluge, but the Creator had given the mountains a break.  Leaving the day dreadfully cool for a mid-summer’s day. The murky gloomy skies were always obscured with clouds this time of the cycle as it was the middle of summer.  It was time for the plants to be flourishing growing to their full heights and the gardens needed to be tended to and the wood needed to be cut for the fireplace to keep the immense log home warm during the freezing winter months. 

Some of the clouds still hung severely in the sky where they reached down and tried to scratch the crust of Theara with its misty fingers only to have them buffeted by the solid ground of the farm that acted as armor to all that lived on Theara.   All the people were moving, doing chores as they were sweating in place as they were working so hard. Even though it was summer it felt instead more like mid-spring for the people of Zephyr. The day was near the upper sixties and lower seventies.  However, it was a comfortable day, wet - but comfortable, for Theara as far as the curse of Theara went.

            A tall fourteen cycle old zephyrian boy named Argathous Dragonsbane, human in all appearances just much larger.  He was about a foot taller than the average human male child of fourteen, and six inches taller than the average zephyr young boy of his age, which made him about six and a half feet tall.  He was quite handsome as was common among zephyrian men and women, but Argathous had even more than his share of good looks.  He had short spiky snow-white hair, he had deep violet-colored eyes that all the girls in Dallon loved and admired.  He had well developed and defined muscles that was distinct for a young man who was covered with sweat.   The cool weather didn't inconvenience the adolescent boy. 

Sweat streamed down through his hair and over his overdeveloped chest and thick back and drenched the waistband of his trousers.  He had the muscles of a full-grown man who had worked for the local metal worker all his life and Argathous had worked in the forge for the blacksmith in town in his spare time, but he worked hard on the farm doing the heavy lifting and difficult work. 

His large hands grasped the tenson double-bladed wood splitting axe with his biceps flexed and his latissimus muscles prepared to slam the splitting maul down upon the fir wood he was chopping at that moment.  Argathous was always chopping wood even though there appeared to be no need for wood.   Since he had piled up wood to the eaves of the house in seven thirty-foot rows along the side of the house.  It would ‘ve lasted any home in Dallon couple of winters maybe even three and still have some left over, but the Dragonsbanes were always prepared for everything, especially since the winters were clinging on so long.

            He had made four rows of Fir wood for fast hot burning fires, two files, and of oak for long burning fires that would keep the large home warm.  A string of starwood that they would bank the fires at night to keep the house warm throughout the harsh winter nights.  Starwood would burn up to twelve hours which seemed like forever, but it kept the house warm at night during the coldest nights during the icy months.  Argathous found that he had to cut the tree in sections to get any firewood out of the huge starwood tree he had cut down.

            Argathous managed to have been given especially exquisite logging materials from a traveling royal elf that had bought some new logging equipment and gave the used paraphernalia to the young lad.  The wandering royal elf had informed Argathous the gear was used for cutting down starwood trees on the Dragonsbane property.

He had been told Argathous that the saw, maul, and axe were getting dull, but it only cut slow through the starwood.  He gave Argathous a file so that he could keep the equipment sharp and ready for work on the farm, but it cut through every other wood quicker, like an ever so sharpened saw, maul, and axe blade.  Argathous took great care of the starwood tools.  They were the only ones that could cut and chop the starwood trees.

            Argathous took extra good maintenance of the finely crafted implements as though they were expensive, which they were, and he didn't know if he was ever going to come across another royal elf willing to give away his used tools.  It had taken Argathous three cycles to cut a section out of the starwood tree just to get the firewood he had from the starwood in the cow pasture.  But the starwood tree had died and the elf that came by and looked at it and gave the tools to Argathous and told him to take very good care of the gear because they would last him a lifetime, and it might take a lifetime to cut this entire tree down for firewood. 

The elf offered to help build him a house out of the tree, but Argathous didn't think that was fair to the elf to help build the house with the meager money they had to pay him.  So, the royal elf left and bestowed the tools to Argathous, and he got busy cutting down the two thousand five hundred ninety-six-foot tree.

All the girls in Dallon swooned over Argathous whenever he came into town to buy whatever was needed for the farm, but Argathous was oblivious to all the gawking and stares of the girls.  He was always down to business when he came into town to get supplies for the farm.  He would throw one hundred-pound bags of flour or of anything in the back of the family wagon as though they were ten-pound bags of rice. He never observed the girls cupping their hands over one another’s ears and murmuring about how much they admired him, he never perceived them leaning on their elbows just staring at him, and he never noticed anything about the girl’s even girls nearly six cycles older observing him. 

Argathous’s lavender eyes were the talk of the town as no zephyr or any other zephyr boy or girl had ever had such beautiful eyes, but Argathous’s mother was the town feral female dog and that forced all the zephyr mothers to keep their zephyrian daughters at more than an arms distance away from Argathous.  It also kept zephyrian girls from talking to him.  Some rebellious girls who didn’t care what their mothers had to say talked with Argathous anyway, but no matter how rebellious they might have been they never spent time alone with him.

How many white-haired boys with amethyst eyes were there in the world?  He was considered a freak by the adult zephyr men in the town, and by most of the older boys which earned him a lot of fights that he never lost no matter how old the boys who challenged him were.  The zephyr fathers just made sure that Argathous stayed away from their daughters.  He was considered a cursed child because of his mother, but that didn’t stop Argathous from going to school, going to town, or working at the blacksmith shop to do his work.

Girls would have to be shooed away from the smithy from watching Argathous work because they liked gazing at his sweaty muscular body, but the boy was too focused on his work to even notice them.  The blacksmith used to kid him about the girls, but whenever Argathous glanced around there were never any girls, so he figured the blacksmith was just pulling his chain for fun.

Argathous thought that some of the girls were pretty and even liked a few of them at the school, but he never talked to them because he was too bashful, and he didn’t think that they were fond of him anyway.  Their fathers just gave him glares and dirty looks if he happened to be glancing in their direction, even if the girls were protesting. After all he was a dirt-poor farm kid and he had shabby clothes compared to the village kids, and nothing to offer the girls at school in the way of flowers or precious gifts.

The town was mainly human but had quite a few zephyrs in the town and they were the ones to make sure that Inger never set foot in the town unless she went shopping with her sisters and sister-in-laws.  Then the zephyr women just threw seething glares and insufferable scowls at Inger and gave her rude gestures in her direction when they didn't think anyone was glancing at them and some even did it when they were.  Inger enjoyed the time she spent with her sisters when they went to town. 

Most of the humans used the ice cave that Inger had next to her home, but none of the zephyr families, except for her brothers and sisters.  As zephyrs in town thought they were too good for Inger to have her help them out.  The humans just thought it was the zephyrs loss for not using the ice cave and packed their hunting catches in the cavern and gave Inger some if they had too much and gave her a silver piece a month if they didn't.  Inger always appreciated the human town’s folk.

There was nothing that kept Argathous and his brothers and sisters from going to school even though it earned them a lot of malicious glowers.  Argathous was always there to protect them.  Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny had the same problem Argathous had when it came to talking to the boys and girls.  The fraternal triplets had golden eyes that were like honey and all the boys loved gazing into their sun brilliant eyes and were always talking to them at school, but their mothers were always badgering the boys after school for talking to the hag born daughters, that were the daughters of a horse faced nag of a mother.

Argathous wouldn't hit a woman, but he would have liked to for the way the towns folk regarded his mother and sisters.  They had sinned against the zephyrian population of the town to deserve the kind of consideration they received from a lot of the zephyrian township’s folk.  Not all the city’s society was unjust that they wouldn't do business with Inger and her daughters, just the zephyrians.  Argathous had been in a lot of altercations, because he defended his mother and sister’s honor, and he never lost a fight over them either.  So, the town’s folk just kept it to a whisper when it came to bad mouthing Argathous's family.

            Argathous was a hard, dedicated, and honest worker.  If someone in town gave him silver to go buy something, he got it as fast as he could and gave them the proper change back not keeping any for himself like some of the other kids did.  He had an apprentice job with the blacksmith in town and he was always to work on time.  He never left work early unless the blacksmith let him go.

            The blacksmith was a huge man, by human standards, name Charles Bulger and he liked Argathous and his household and felt sorry for Argathous’s immediate kin.  He knew what had happened to Argathous's mother and knew there was nothing she could have done to protect her farm and knew that no woman would have been able to kill her own children no matter what the zephyrian village people thought.  His own wife would have never killed one of his daughters and he wouldn't have either, so he gave Argathous a job and it helped his mother out quite a bit with the paying for food, clothing, and the household goods.

When Argathous’s mother sent him to do a task he got right on it and got it done and was onto the next task, unlike his brothers and sisters who never did anything without being told several times or being threatened with a spanking with a switch.  He was Mr. Goody-two-shoe to his siblings, to his face and behind his back. He was always doing the right things all the time and that only infuriated his siblings.  They figured they had to live up to their big brothers’ example, but most of the time they didn’t.  They figured what was the use of being a goody-goody since the family already had one and their mother worshipped the ground he walked on.

Argathous was working on chopping wood.  He methodically chopped the wood into quarters and stacked, chop, chop, chop, and stacked without even thinking about what he was doing.  Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack. Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack; it was all second nature to him.  Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack, his mind numbly wandered from one of the village girls name Veronica.  She was a beautiful raven-haired girl with soft curling black hair and the gentlest face in the world he would have treasured to have kissed her lips and went for walks with her holding hands.  It made his heart soar just imagining the possibilities.  He knew he’d never have a chance with a girl like that.  She was too gorgeous and lovely for him.  He could dream though.  One day he’d have a wonderful girl to have and to hold, but that day wasn’t today and probably wouldn’t be tomorrow either, but maybe some day.

Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack, the swimming hole that was about a hundred yards from the house where he went swimming, chased frogs, and fished.  Although chasing frogs didn’t seem as much fun anymore as it used to be.  It just didn’t have the glamour anymore.  A lot of things had lost their excitement playing tag, hide and seek, teasing girls, and pulling on their pigtails.  It just didn't have the appeal to him like it used to. Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack, and so his mind went on wandering to the dou-jin bible was full of their adventures such as Samson the Destroyer, Noah The Devoted and the ark, and adventures beyond that, Isaiah the Prophet, Saul the King, and David the Mightier King his imagination ran wild with thinking about it.

He then thought about more recent heroes like Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart, Aaron ‘The Brave’ Stormblaze, Christopher ‘The Bold’ Daniel, Rebecca ‘The Valiant’ Denise, Teresa ‘The Heroic’ Gay, Tony ‘The Daring’ James, April ‘The Fearless’ Dawn, Roxanne ‘The Gallant’ Lynnette, Scott ‘The Courageous’ Clinton, Carson ‘Hazard’ Deckard, and Anita ‘The Epic’ Starwise.

            Argathous had all the names memorized of each dou-jin from the start to the present day.  There hadn’t been a true hero for nearly five hundred cycles with the absence of Aaron 'The Brave' Stormblaze.

            He even listed all their triumphs and failures if they happened to mention them.  Like David the King having a relationship with Bathsheba.  Both married but not to each other.

            Sampson throwing his religion in the face of his fellow Levites and ending up with Delilah cutting his hair and losing all his strength, yet when it came down to it the Creator gave Samson his strength plus some back and he destroyed the temple of sin and debauchery and killing everyone in it, including himself.

            They were heroes even though they had failed in their mission from the Creator.  King David lost control of his family and sunk into a deep depression and didn't protect his daughter after she was raped by her brother.  That made one of his other sons to revolt against him and tried to overthrow him.

            Even the fallen heroes had been inspiring to the children.  To have great powers given to you by the Creator to do his work it was everything the children could hope for.  Argathous wanted to be like his name sake, but Chester wanted to be like Sampson, and Mattwin wanted to be like King David only without the cheating on his wife. 

Debriela wanted to be a princess and have boys chasing her all over the country seeking her hand in marriage, Patsy wanted to be a great magic-user and blast goblins with her mystical powers, and Jainny wanted to be a warrior to take down dragons and rescue people from rampaging giants.  Jainny was a bit of a tomboy unlike her sister who were a bit of a prissy.  Patsy was somewhere in between her sisters as far as ambition went.  Chester, Mattwin, and Jainny thought that was stupid until Inger thumped them in the head with her middle finger causing an “OUCH!” from each of them.

            Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack.  Argathous thought about what it would be like to adventure out into the country and kill orcs, slay goblins, slaughter kobolds, destroy hobgoblins, eradicate gnolls, and such.  He always daydreamed about going on an adventure and carving up some useless kobold with an enchanted blade.  He wondered about the dou-jin and the adventures they must have. 

He wondered what it would be like to go out and gather grandiose treasure and bring it home to help the family out with their money problems.  His mother had owed her brothers a lot of coin for letting her keep the farm.  They were the ones who paid the taxes while Inger paid for food and such with the money she got from the crops.  With a horde of dragon treasure there would be no more monetary problems, ever.

Kuchunk, kuchunk, kuchunk, and stack.  Argathous didn't know what to think about this marriage stuff.  He didn't think he could be in love with one girl for his entire life, but his mother told him.

            "When you find the right girl, you'll know."  Inger had informed her eldest son.

            Argathous highly doubted it.  He was too much in like with too many girls in school to settle down with just one of them.  He just couldn’t see himself with just one of them.  He had a crush on four or five of the girls that went to school with him and one of them was a senior in high school and he was only in the eighth grade, but that didn't stop his emotions.

Even the nights were freezing cold in the country of Zephyr.  Zephyr was a rugged country, but it did have spots of good farmland in the river areas which was where Argathous lived.  The rest of Zephyr was rocky and dirty for its terrain.  It was mostly desert country, except for the valley oasis’s that followed the three rivers.  The Humbug, Boulderado, and the Walking River were the main rivers but there were other small creeks and streams that ran through the Zephyrian lands that allowed farmers to grow family crops and water their cattle and other livestock.

Argathous’s family had more than their share of silver problems.  They butchered a couple of steers, goats, sheep, and pigs, so they were never hurting for meat.  They had their harvest of grains for flours and cereals, the had plenty of cotton and wool for clothing, so they were self-sufficient in that manner, but they had to hire hands for all the work around the farm which is what took up most of their silver.  The children could only handle so much of the work that needed to be done around the farm, but it took men and women to harvest the grain and fruits.  It took people to herd the large flocks and herds of animals, it took individuals to sheer the sheep and goat for their fur and wool.  There was just so much that it took to run the farm and she couldn’t rely on her brothers and sisters because they had their own farms to run.

Then there were the taxes for her property and her livestock and produce profits.  Inger also had to deal with farm repairs and a plethora of other problems which took its toll on the silver she made for the cycle.  All the clothes were homemade for the children and the children in town always had the latest fashions.  It left her own children to be made fun of.  It made Inger and her children feeling awful, but they made due.

            The wagon merchants that traversed through town had always given Inger a fair price for her grains, produce, cattle, and livestock, but it barely paid for the upkeep for her family and farm, but it was lucky for Inger that she had an ice cave near to the house that she earned some silver from that kept them fed through the winter.

            Argathous wished he could have done more but he was only fourteen.  The blacksmith gave them money, but Argathous could only work there in his spare time.  The other times he was working on the farm gathering fruits, vegetables, milking the cows, and herding the sheep and goats which he shared with his siblings, but his brothers and sisters were always lazy about doing their chores for the family for the long winters.  Farmhands picked up the slack, but that sucked up silver that Inger had to try and keep a tight rein on.

            Argathous’s mother was a tall woman only three inches taller than her fourteen-cycle-old son.  She was a woman with golden blonde hair pulled back bound into a wrist thick braid that hung down to her waist.  She had the braid tied to the back of her work dress so that she wouldn't get her hair all muddy from the sodden soil.  She had a beautiful but strong face with loving green eyes that watched over her children.  She casually leaned on her worn wooden hoe made smooth by cycles of use of her hands working the soil and pulling out weeds with deft perfection. 

The young mother worked in the muddy garden.  They all wore special shoes that were built on thick one inch in diameter dowels, they were six inches long as well that went along the edge of the shoe and kept their feet out of the mud.   The chores of feeding the cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs had been completed for the day and the evening milking wasn’t due for a few hours.  Inger kept a close eye on her children like a mother hen.  Her children were her life, and she didn’t know what she would do without them or what they would do without her.  They were already fatherless she didn’t want them motherless as well.

The farm was only full of almost half of the children the Dragonsbanes wanted, but the children she did have were enough for now, not that she had another man in mind to have more children.  The youngsters made her life worth living.  She didn’t know what she’d do without them.  She couldn't help but smile at each of them as she glanced around the farm watching them.  Her eyes began to well up with tears the more she thought about them.  They were more precious than rare Creators gems to her.

Inger never remarried and no self-respecting zephyr man would have taken her as a wife since she had been defiled by a human male.  Inger was considered a weak woman because she had not fought off the multitude of rapists like a good strong zephyrian woman.  Any zephyrian female worth her weight in silver would have either killed her attackers or died trying to kill them, but no she had lived and not only that, but she had also kept the bastard children.

She watched them all working and not working so much and had to get them back on their chores or they’d get the switch and none of them wanted that.

            Argathous’s thirteen cycle old brother Chester, who was a foot shorter than Argathous.  Chester was hoeing as though he were going to beat the weeds to death. Inger had to tell him to be a bit gentler with the hoeing or he might end up killing the vegetables. Chester had flaming crimson hair that hung down to his shoulders and his face was full of freckles.  It was hard to tell if there was a tan to his face or if the freckles had taken over.  He had stopped hoeing and was chasing a butterfly with his hoe until Inger told him to get back to work and to stop goofing off or he was going to get a whooping with the switch.  He would have time to goof off later right now they had to tend the garden so that the weeds didn't choke out their food.

Chester worked in the five-acre garden with his younger brother Mattwin pulling out weeds that sprouted through the soil.  With the recent rain it made pulling the weeds a lot easier.  Even though they were young they had done the job many times before with his mother and younger brothers and could tell a vegetable plant from a weed.  They had been doing the chores for many cycles.  If they couldn’t tell a carrot sprout from a weed, then they had no business eating at the dinner table.

            Argathous’s youngest brother was twelve cycles old and was named Mattwin.  Mattwin was three inches shorter than Chester and had bright orange hair and appeared as though his head were on fire.  Mattwin was picking his nose and searching for good boogers.  He couldn't help but wonder how they formed in his nose before wiping the crusty things on his pant leg and he started digging for another one.  Then Inger had to get onto him about hoeing weeds in the garden as well and to keep his fingers out of his nose or it might get permanently wedged there.  He got the same speech as his brother Chester did and Mattwin got back to work instantly.  He hated the switch.

The younger boys were covered in dirty muddy soil, despite their special shoes, they weren’t exactly the most organized or clean about the task.  It was extremely hard to tell where the boys ended, and the garden began.  They had to get down on their knees and pluck out the smaller weeds and that got them even muddier and the hated that worse than the switch at times.

Third to last in the family was the boys’ three half-sisters Debriela she was first born of the triplets who was eleven cycles old and was average height for a human child of ten as she was half human half zephyr.  She didn’t have the height of the Zephyr people, but she held their beauty with elegance and perfection.   She was hanging up clothes that she had just finished scrubbing with Patsy.  Both hated laundry and they thought their mother knew it and that’s why they were assigned the horrible wet task so often.

Second to last was Patsy.  She had short cut blonde hair like a boy’s haircut.  She was the second born of the triplets.  She had honey-colored eyes.  She was in between Debriela’s and Jainny’s height.  She was half human half zephyr, and she was truly half like Debriela who appeared to be human and Jainny who appeared to be more zephyr.

Last to be born of the triplets was Jainny, she had the size and beauty of the zephyr people even though she was a half-breed.  She was only three inches shorter than Mattwin.  She was churning butter, which was the lamest job she could be doing or so she thought.  She hated doing chores.  She would rather be off playing and playing like she was on a magnificent escapade.

Argathous’s father had passed away when he was three, his father had been attacked by a saber-toothed tiger while defending the livestock.  His father was carried off and eaten while the beast had left the livestock alone.  His body was never found so they had nothing to bury or perform a zephyr ceremony over.

Shortly thereafter their mother was raped by human and zephyr raiders on the farm that came to rustle livestock.  Inger had tried to fight the men off, but there were twelve of them and she was all alone with only her three toddlers to help defend her.

            With the livestock gone the town refused to help find the rustlers because Inger hadn’t fought the raiders off, but Inger was part of a large family she had seven brothers and six sisters who were all married on her side of the family and on her husband's side of the family were eight men and seven women and all zephyrs.  They were the ones who went out searching for the rustlers and when the brothers found the rustlers they were dealt with accordingly.  The rustlers were slain and their bodies impaled right outside the entrance of the farm for all to see.  This was to detour any other rustlers from thinking that this farm was going to be easy pickings.

            The corpses of the rustlers had long since rotted away but the farm had earned a reputation for having skinned rustlers and putting heads on pikes that any would-be rustlers steered clear of her farm.

            Inger had spent a long time dealing with gazing at the twelve bodies at the edge of her farm, but they were soon picked apart by ravens, crows, and vultures and Inger was glad to have them gone.  It was a gross thing to have outside of her house.  It scared the children, even Argathous and he was only three.  The only part that wasn't skinned was the rustler’s heads as they were put on pikes with their mouths wide open and a look of sheer terror upon their faces when they knew what was coming.  None of the rustlers escaped justice that day and neither would any other rustler that thought this farm as it was no easy meat for anyone one or anything.  The only thing that remained of the corpses was the twelve skulls, which were bleached out and were never taken down by order of Inger’s brothers and sisters on both sides of the family.  It was said to be a deterrent.  So, Inger left them up.  She never had problems with rustlers since that dreadful night.

            There was a bell set up for Inger to ring out if strangers came around that Inger didn’t trust.  Her brothers would come running to defend her farm and Inger in her time of need.

            Inger had become pregnant with Debriela, Patsy, and Jainny and she brought them to term and took care of her daughters instead of leaving them to die in the wild to be eaten by coyotes, wolves, or mountain lions as was the custom the zephyrian people.  The zephyrian village banished her and her daughters Jainny, Patsy, and Debriela from ever coming into the village for goods, so it was up to her sons and extended family to do all the shopping for her. 

            Debriela hung clothes on the clothesline.  The young girl had golden hair and had golden eyes like her sister Jainny and Patsy, which set them apart from everyone.  Golden eyes were a mark of true utter beauty to the entire zephyr community, but since she, Patsy, who was still scrubbing the clothes, and Jainny were bastard children they were overlooked by the zephyr village council and the zephyr village community.  They would have to wed outside the village if they had any matrimonial ceremony at all.  Otherwise, the village would have honored them greatly and young men who would have been betrothed to them the mother picking the richest and most worthy, which meant royalty.

            Debriela had gotten bored and was now walking around the yard with a sheet over her head pretending to be a ghost.  She chased the chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys.  That was until Inger scolded her sternly to get back to work hanging clothes and to stop fooling around.  She ordered her there would be plenty of time for playing once the chores were done.  Debriela reluctantly pulled the sheet off herself and went back to hanging up clothes grudgingly. 

Jainny just laughed at her getting in trouble, but Inger noticed that Jainny wasn’t churning the butter anymore and got on to her about doing her chores as well and to mind her own business.  Jainny grumbled about that and Debriela stuck her tongue out at her triplet sister.  Jainny made a rude gesture toward Debriela.  Debriela told on her and Inger said if they didn’t quit fighting, they were going to get the switch and that meant both of them.

Patsy laughed as well, but when Inger saw that she was slopping water she got on her behind as well.  Patsy scowled and got back to work and scrubbed even harder on the clothes as though the laundry had done her a personal wrong.

            The house of the Dragonsbane family was made from lengthy lodge pole pines that extended thirty feet to either side of the front door with two glass windows were centered on each side that had flower planters that lined beneath each of the four windows in the front of the home as well as the sides and rear of the log house.  The flower boxes had beautiful pansies growing in them and they livened up the otherwise dreary looking front of the house.  Pansies also lined the front of the porch, and the home was beautiful.

            The wood that formed the building was made from lodge pole pines that stood nearly two hundred feet high and the children’s father had cut them down with the help of their mother and the rest of her family and their father’s family as well.  With both families working together the house and the back were built within four months.  It was a summer long project.

The home structure was thirty feet wide and twenty tall for the second story not counting the eaves and the roof.  The bedrooms were upstairs, and the living areas were downstairs.  The father had built the house because he had wanted an exceptionally large family and hadn’t anticipated dying so young.

            In the living area there was a sizable library that held about one hundred twenty some books that Mr. Dragonsbane had collected since he was a teenager and had received from his father.  The library was the third largest in all of Zephyr.  The books were a diversity of sizes and bindings.  Some were cloth bound, some leather, and some wood.  The children’s father loved to read and had a large collection for a farmer.  He had such books as The Seasons of the Dragon Series, The Adventures of Argathous ‘The Great’ Lionheart Series, The Journeys of Aaron “The Brave” Stormblaze Series, the dou-jin bible of course, and the prophesies of the Dou-Jin Series that was read out of every night to the family, and many other books that were always ever so captivating.

            Inger and her children kept the house incredibly unsoiled for living in such a filthy environment.  They cleaned and dusted the house before dinner every evening.  The house was always in pristine condition if any of Inger’s brothers, brothers-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-laws, mother-in-law, father, or father-in-law happened to stopped by unexpectedly.

            There was a lengthy porch that ran all along the front of the home and had a comfortable wooden plank porch swing held up by sturdy chains on either side of the front door of the pine log house. 

The roof of the log cabin had wooden shingles upon it that had been bleached out by the sun but still did a wonderful job of keeping rain out of the home.  Every now and then there was a shingle or two that appeared fresh as it had been replaced from the wind blowing it off or it let water into the house.

            A light cool breeze blew was the only sign that it was late Spring in the area.  The blankets and sheets on the clothesline billowed out like sails on a ship as the breeze passed by.  Pants and shirts appeared as if they were dancing on the clothesline to a whimsical song being played at a barn dance on a Saturnday night.

            Inger had a tender heart for her children and loved them all enormously and would have given her life to protect them just as she had tried when those men who had raped her so long ago.   She had fought so hard that night.  She had felt so defiled and violated she couldn’t even look her brothers and sisters in the eyes, she felt so dreadful.  She was only one woman and there had been twelve men and six of them had raped her.

She just watched her children working and pride swelled up in her and she began to cry with pride and love for her kids.  She felt like the luckiest woman in the world.  The world may have dealt her a crappy hand, but she was content with what she had from the Creator at any rate.  She loved her children, they were the greatest gift that could have ever been given to her.  She wouldn’t have traded one of them away.  Her three daughters held a special place in her heart, and they always would.  She loved her boys incredibly, but the girls held a place because she had defied the laws of the zephyrian people, and she had three of the most beautiful daughters on the Creator’s green earth.

The Huntsman, Bruce Saxon, sat in his luxurious home.  It had all the luxuries of a palace and yet was small enough for him and his twenty deep hounds.  The good thing about deep hounds was you didn’t have to take them out for a walk to go to the bathroom.  The hounds got plenty of exercise though.  There were always jobs for the Huntsman.  The minor gods and demons were always wanting someone, or something hunted down, and he wasn’t a cheap fly by night business.  He charged an exorbitant amount for his services.

The deep hounds were massive Pitbull appearing canines, but they were three times the size and they were at the command of The Huntsman.  The deep hounds were an ebony color and were all but invisible at night and had the ability to turn invisible if The Huntsman so wished them to.  It was a great tactic for surrounding his victims.

The huntsman was a six feet plus tall man with a lean body from all the running he did with his canines.  He had dark charcoal hair and deep ebony eyes that could pierce the soul of any man or woman he happened to be hunting.  He had a strong square jaw that gave him a rugged handsome appearance.  He had a no-nonsense look about him that made men and women take notice even when his hounds weren’t around him, which wasn’t often.

The least he’d ever charged for a job was two million silver pieces.  Most people and demons paid in gold or platinum.  He hid his coins beneath the house in an expansive steel vault that could have retained well over twenty million coins, and it had a special combination deadlock on the door.  Now though, the Huntsman only had about a hundred thousand coins in his safe.  Business had been dreadfully slow.  He had been forced to work his farm with his hired hands.

The Huntsman walked around his outdoor lake and stripped down to his undergarments and dove into the lake and began swimming.  He loved the lake it was the only place he could go to get away from the dogs.  The deep hounds were deathly afraid of deep water.  They could handle rain and streams, but lakes, ponds, rivers, and the ocean they would whimper and cower over like a cornered mouse.

The Huntsman hadn’t had a job in two months, and he was happy about the rest and relaxation, but he was starting to get a little antsy about having nothing to do.  He was going to have to make up something to keep his mind busy.  He hated being idle for too long.

Then came the summons from Lilith.

He didn’t like working for Lilith as she was arduous and got on his nerves.  She wanted everything yesterday.  He didn’t work that way.  She didn’t understand that things and people took time to procure.  The people or objects took a little finesse to obtain, and Lilith didn’t perceive things like other people did.  Sometimes it took weeks to find an item or a person.  A person was easier to locate than an object and a person had a distinct scent to follow whereas an item usually didn’t have a scent, but this wasn’t going to matter to Lilith if it was going to be an object.

However, if it was going to be an individual the Huntsman could get him or her for Lilith much faster than the article.  A person or persons would only take up to three or four weeks depending on their location. 

In any event it was going to have to take some time.  Lilith wasn’t going to be ecstatic with the answer that he was going to give her.  He dreaded talking to her.  She may have been a goddess, but that mattered little to Bruce.  He was set in his ways of doing business.  He didn’t care if they were a god or of royalty.

The huntsman went out of the lake and made his way to his home and dried off.  He deliberately took his time.  He knew that it exacerbated Lilith, but he took pleasure in making her wait.  She made his life a living deep, so making her wait a few extra minutes was just cream on the pudding.