BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN
The bare chamber from which the large felines had emerged reeked of wet fur and rotting meat. An archway to the south opened onto a balcony overlooking a lush garden lit occasionally by the lightning of the storm outside. The room’s only furnishing was a stone couch against the north wall. The smell seemed to be coming from a large nest of rubble and plant matter astride it, in which the partially-eaten body of a large lizard-like creature was draped.
“A deinonychus,” Mandi observed as she leaned over the carcass. “They’re indigenous to the island, but usually not this high up in the mountains. I’d say this one traveled with the temple from somewhere else.”
Cleaver had wandered out onto the balcony and stood peering out into the darkness. The rain-soaked garden beyond looked like some exotic, tropical jungle. Illuminated by periodic flashes of lightning, unfamiliar plant life grew in wild abundance, as if it had not been tended in years. A twenty-foot wide overhang supported by great square columns sixty-feet tall surrounded the enclave. Vines and other plant life covered these columns and hung like green curtains in some sections. Gray stone pools and fountains protruded from the greenery sporadically, and in some places revealed glimpses of white…like polished bone. The air was strangely warm and comfortable despite the torrential rain.
“I think we’ll stay indoors for now,” Sepoto said, coming up behind the minotaur and laying one hand on his shoulder, giving the big warrior an unintended start. “Seems safer until daylight.”
They exited the chamber through a door on the far side, which led into a narrow hall and a descending stair. Through a second door at the bottom, they found themselves in another chamber, the walls of which were painted with murals of fantastically peaked mountains covered in jungle growth, with precariously hanging palaces that could only exist in an imaginative mind. The colors of the murals remained bright, as if painted only recently. The rest of the room was spotlessly clean, with several stone benches spaced around it. Though exquisite works of art, there were no obvious depictions of the obahs the companions had come in search of, so they pressed on. Past the mural room, they came upon a large veranda. Where the southern wall should have been was a wide opening looking out on the overgrown, rain-soaked garden. Two red-tiled columns supported the archway, matching the hexagonal red tiles that comprised the floor. A massive table composed of a single slab of gray slate supported by many skillfully carved oak legs dominated the center of the chamber. On either side of the table ran a long, wooden bench. Clay vessels on the tabletop were stacked with a variety of fruits and tubers.
No sooner had Sepoto opened the door than he saw the hulking shapes of four girallons rise from around the veranda, silhouetted by lightning flashes against the dark backdrop of the garden. There were two of the feline creatures present as well, and they leaped nimbly onto the large table and began stalking down its length. As the first one drew near the goliath, he stepped in to meet it, snapping his chain like a whip which surged with divine power as it struck the beast. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the girallons closing to his flank, but as it closed in, Tower Cleaver’s great axe blade fell from beyond the door, slicing deeply through its thick fur. The creature lurched back, but Sepoto flicked his chain at it as it tried to retreat, opening its wound further. While the goliath’s attention was turned, one of the snake-headed felines lunged. Sepoto brought up his chain reflexively, catching the brunt of the animal’s attack, but then it opened its fanged jaws and exhaled the noxious, green gas of its breath. As the vapors washed over both Sepoto and Cleaver, the two warriors felt an intense torpor overwhelm them. To the dismay of their comrades still in the mural chamber, both of them slumped to the floor.
Mandi didn’t panic. “Daelric!” she bellowed. “Get your sorry hide up here and rouse the bulldozer!”
Not waiting to see if she’d been obeyed, she stepped to the doorway and summoned a barrage of arcane bolts, sending four of them to strike the great cat. It howled and tumbled to the floor, dead. The fifth bolt, she aimed at Sepoto. As the sizzling missile struck his exposed flesh, the goliath yelped in pain, but his eyes sprung open. He was wide awake in an instant. Behind her, Mandi heard a snort of rage as Cleaver surged to his feet, looking around for whoever had slapped him. The invisible Daelric slipped quietly back into the shadows.
At that moment, a ball of fire engulfed the veranda. Marius stood just around the corner from Mandi, his fingers still smoking. When the flames cleared, one of the girallons was a charred husk, while the others sported wicked burns and singed fur. Sepoto used the distraction to get to his feet, but as he did so another girallon struck, raking one large paw across his face. The goliath wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and grinned.
“My turn,” he said in a low, menacing voice before he drove the tip of his chain through the girallon’s neck. Another surge of holy power blew the beast’s head completely off its shoulders.
At that point, both Mandi and Marius found themselves shouldered roughly aside by the charging bulk of Cleaver. The minotaur drove forward into the room, head down and axe raised. The girallon he rushed towards, however, was ready. It lowered its own shoulders and met the barbarian head-on, the force of their impact echoing across the veranda. The great ape wrapped all four of its arms around Cleaver, rending and tearing at his flesh as it sank its teeth into his neck. With all of his considerable strength, Cleaver thrust the girallon away from him, and as it prepared to pounce again, he buried his axe in its chest, wrenching it free as the beast collapsed.
Suddenly, a door behind Mandi opened. Surprised, the mage turned and found herself peering into a kitchen area. Ovens and hearths of smooth stones comprised one wall, while between them were heavy wooden cabinets and shelves inset into the stone. Numerous bits of debris and broken furniture littered the floor. Another girallon stood directly on the opposite side of the door, while further back in the room was yet another. Clustered behind the second one were what appeared to be a half-dozen or so miniature versions of the apes, each about the size of a baboon. Young. As Mandi looked on, the second adult opened another door adjoining the veranda. As it did so, the remaining feline darted through, taking up a defensive posture in front of the mewling younglings. The elf wizard turned back towards Marius and nodded meaningfully. Her fellow Seeker understood implicitly, and did not hesitate as he began casting. The occupants of the kitchen were simply another group of enemies to be dealt with. Their age or maturity was not a factor in his calculations. A second fireball erupted in the room, and as its flames died, so to did every one of the young girallons. The two adults and the feline were burned, but still very much alive…and enraged.
Back on the veranda, Sepoto lashed out at the last girallon, but the beast abruptly broke off combat with him and leaped over the table, landing on Cleaver’s back. As it latched on, it shredded the minotaur’s hide as if it were rice paper. Roaring in blind rage, Cleaver threw the ape off, whirling as he did so and slashing it in two before it hit the ground. Even as the final enemy fell, one of the adults from the kitchen, as well as the feline darted back through the adjoining door, rushing towards Sepoto. Before they had gone three paces though, another fireball rent the air, incinerating them both. Sepoto stepped over their corpses and into the kitchen. The last girallon stood crouched over its dead brood, teeth bared and claws raised. It died in that pose as the crusader’s chain cleaved its skull.
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“I grow weary of this,” Sepoto said as he surveyed the carnage around them. “We came here seeking religious icons, yet all we’ve discovered thus far are mutated apes and leopards. Why kind of monks were these people anyway? And where are all the barbarians we were supposed to be wary of? I think the records keeper may have been mistaken.”
“It’s possible,” Mandi said, “but we’ve only scratched the surface of this place. It looked very spacious from the outside. Perhaps the beasts we’ve encountered were pets or guardians of the monks, now reverted to their feral state. As for the Tuigan, I do not believe they are here presently. The ones we met were leaving. They may have been the last to do so. The legend said that when the storms raged they would be allowed to leave their prison for a brief time. If you spent your entire life pillaging and were then denied the ability to do so, wouldn’t you seize the first opportunity when it came along?”
“So you’re saying they are out marauding, and may return at any point?” Sepoto asked.
“Exactly,” the mage replied. “Which also means that the storm may end at any time, and the temple may vanish again into oblivion. Therefore I suggest we continue our explorations and delay as little as possible.”
Mandi’s logic could not be argued, though the crusader still bridled at the fact that his talents were being wasted on glorified livestock. Not that he didn’t enjoy a good fight, and he had been growing board back in Farshore, but he had been looking forward to testing his mettle against the battle-hardened Tuigan about which so many stories had been told. The company pressed on. One door opened from the far end of the kitchens. Sepoto grasped the handle and sighed, “Please, Savras. No more monkeys.”
The door opened into a long, dusty hall, which gave onto several empty cell-like rooms, each bare of furnishings and having no door. What was present, however, and immediately obvious was another trio of girallons, spaced at opposite sides of the L-shaped hall, and immediately beyond the doorway in which Sepoto stood.
“Why have you forsaken me?” the goliath said, rolling his eyes towards the heavens. With a resolute shrug, he stepped forward, and as the nearest ape rushed towards him, he cracked his chain side-arm, sending its point unerringly into the left ear of the girallon. The beast reeled, clutching its bleeding auricle. As it struggled to regain its equilibrium, twin rays of fire scorched from Mandi’s had, and punched matching holes through its chest.
Tower Cleaver leaped into the room behind Sepoto and immediately began charging down the right branch of the hall towards the girallon waiting there.
“Oh yes, please do split up the party,” Mandi yelled after him acidly, “That is always a sound strategy!”
Cleaver paid her no heed, instead rushing headlong into the girallon which had chosen to meet him halfway. The monster swiped at his forearm with one paw. Simultaneously, the girallon down the opposite hall bound to the corner on all sixes, sweeping past Sepoto who still managed to tag it a glancing blow as it passed.
‘Not so stupid as they look,’ the goliath thought to himself as he saw the creature’s tactic. It now had Cleaver hemmed in with its companion. The minotaur was flanked and could not advance nor retreat. Still, the crusader was no slouch at tactics himself, and he pursued the animal down the hall, flailing away at it as he drew closer. It never reached Cleaver, instead sprawling in a growing pool of its own blood. As the remaining girallon prepared to sink all four of its talons and its teeth into the minotaur, Mandi loosed a spell. The ape froze in mid-attack, paralyzed.
“Now,” Mandi said in a bored tone, “have fun.”
Tower Cleaver actually looked disappointed at the lack of challenge, but nevertheless he shrugged and proceeded to decapitate his helpless foe.
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Jiba lifted his spectacles as he wiped a tear from his eye with one large, taloned finger. His mates were dead, and so, he assumed, were the rest of his tribe, including the children. He had always known this time would come. When the barbarians first invaded the temple, so long ago that he couldn’t remember how much time had passed anymore, and killed his masters, he knew that his people would follow eventually. There had been an uneasy truce since that time, however. The barbarians were fierce, but not foolhardy. They knew that, in numbers, his kin were formidable, and with the kamadans on their side, they were indeed a force to be reckoned with. But the years had taken their toll. Generations of inbreeding had robbed his children of the enlightenment the Shensites had bestowed upon them. Eventually, they had reverted to the savage ways of their ancestors. Now he alone still recalled the glory that had been, but even his mind was going, and he knew that he had already forgotten many things. The barbarians had only been biding their time, he understood now. Waiting for the right moment, when his people were no longer capable of functioning as a united force. Even though the kamadans still aided them, the felines were more concerned with their own personal grudges against their cousins. They underestimated the threat the humans posed. Their mistake, and now his children had paid the price, and it would seem that he must also. Yet he was determined to honor the memory of his kin and his former masters. The barbarians would pay dearly before he journeyed to the next level of existence. As the sounds of battle died in the outer halls, he rose to his feet, marking the text he had been reading with one finger. He turned and bowed low before Gobal the Dancer, asking the obah for one last blessing, and then he moved towards the door.
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Tower Cleaver kicked at the dead girallon on the floor before him and snorted in satisfaction. Why he had ever been afraid of these creatures, he could not recall. With his new tribe-mates, he was unstoppable. Every beast in the accursed temple would suffer for having tormented him. Sepoto by his side, he started down the darkened hall, towards a door on the north wall. Suddenly, the large, stone door exploded outward, taking a sizeable section of the wall with it. Dust drifted from the hole, but there was no movement or sound. Sepoto held up one hand, signaling the minotaur and the others to wait while he continued cautiously forward. When he reached the doorway, he put his back to the wall, and peered slowly around the corner. Inside was a vast chamber, which rose to a terraced bronze dome ninety feet above. The stormy sky was visible through a large hole at the dome’s apex. A soft patter of rain soaked the floor beneath the skylight. Against the east wall of the room rested a massive green, copper statue. It stood some forty feet in height and depicted an immensely fat man seated cross-legged with sixteen arms raised and holding various objects, from weapons to ornaments to strange musical instruments. Its face bore a leering grin, and a single horn protruded from its forehead. All this Sepoto caught at a glance, for what truly drew his attention was the huge creature crouched in the corner to his right. It appeared to be a monstrously large girallon, standing some twenty feet tall, but its fur was silver-black, and it sported six arms instead of four. What struck the crusader the most about it, however, was the incongruous pair of spectacles perched on its nose, and the large tome it held in one hand.
“Savras save us!” the crusader whispered, but he never hesitated. Stepping around the corner, he struck out with his chain. The spiked links caught the great behemoth full on across its lower abdomen, causing it to double over with an audible grunt, followed by a dry retching as it fought to regain its breath. Sepoto smiled. “The bigger they are…” he started, but he never finished the adage as the massive girallon voiced an ear shattering roar and lunged towards him. The goliath raised his shield, but its protection was minimal. The beast’s great arms easily reached over and around the tower shield, and Sepoto felt his flesh being torn from him in strips. The monster’s talons bit deeply into his hide, and it was only his great strength that kept him from being disemboweled. Staggered, he stumbled back thru the door, feeling the beast’s hot breath upon him as it prepared to strike again. At that moment, however, he heard Daelric’s voice chanting behind him and felt the priest’s hands touch him, lending him their healing power. It wasn’t enough. His blood still flowed in rivers and he knew if the creature reached him again, he was dead. Desperately he struck out as he simultaneously retreated. His weapon bit deep, channeling Savras’ divine power through its links. The girallon howled and hesitated, just long enough for Sepoto to make his escape. Tower Cleaver stepped into the breach. He had no idea what manner of thing could inflict so much damage on the goliath, a man he was beginning to think invincible. If it could do that to the crusader, it could surely crush him with ease. Still, he had a new clan now and he was honor-bound to defend them with his life. He would atone for his previous cowardice, with his own blood if necessary. He allowed the battle-lust to flow through him and consume him, blotting out everything else except for the all-encompassing rage. Howling, he hefted his axe and leaped into the room. The girallon reared high above him, raising all six of its arms to crush him, but the minotaur was a fraction of a second faster, and his blade bit and bit deep. Jiba, the last of his kind, looked down in strange fascination as his life’s blood fell to the floor. “Master…,” he whispered, before oblivion took him.
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“‘Gobal the Dancer, Obah of Prosperity and Success’,” Mandi translated from the inscription on the base of the giant statue as Marius worked on a sketch of the same. “It would seem we’ve found the first of the 3000. Only 2,999 to go.”
Samson paced around the body of the giant girallon, a troubled expression on his face. “What do all of you make of this?” he asked at length. “Why would an animal wear spectacles and be reading books?” A stack of similar tomes sat against one wall. According to Mandi, they all seemed to involve various theories on mysticism and mediation on the natural order of things. “And he spoke,” Samson continued. “We don’t know what he said, but it was obviously a word.”
Mandi sighed as she rose from her inspection of the pedestal. “You’re over-thinking this,” she replied. “Many occult sects breed their own guardians. So this one happened to be a bit smarter than most. What of it? It still seemed quite intent on tearing Sepoto limb-from-limb. It’s not as if we could’ve reasoned with it.”
“Yes, but we had just killed over a dozen of its kin,” Samson retorted. “How would you feel in the same situation?”
“Relieved,” Mandi said in a low whisper only she could hear, and then aloud, “Yes, yes and a mother bear will fight to defend its cubs, and its mate to defend her, but they are still just animals. It would have been perfectly lovely if we could have captured them all and returned them to the wild, but they’d gone feral and they did not seem inclined to listen to rational explanations. I worry about you sometimes, Samson. I thought you used to do mercenary work. I’ve never heard of a mercenary with a conscience.”
“I just don’t see the sense in needless slaughter, that’s all I’m saying,” the dragon shaman said moodily.
Mandi threw up her hands in exasperation. “Where do you think we are? This isn’t Tashluta! We are in the middle of an uncharted wilderness full of predators who wouldn’t think twice about making you their next meal, not to mention the pirates and demons we’ve encountered. There is no room for social niceties out here, nor for attacks of morality. We are being paid to be here and do a job. Whatever creatures we find here have been trapped for untold centuries. If they are in any way hostile, then we are doing them a mercy by setting their souls free once and for all.”
Samson let the matter drop and the others busied themselves with gathering and cataloging the books and tomes. They had already determined that there was nowhere to proceed from the area. They were going to have to go back the way they came, and that meant entering the garden if they were to proceed further.
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Standing on the veranda once more, they looked out over the darkened garden. They could not see its far borders due to the heavy growth, rain and darkness, so they decided to be methodical and move along the walls. Choosing randomly, they started towards their right, west. As they hacked their way through the underbrush, Sepoto leading, they glimpsed a large pool off to their left. Just ahead was the balcony Tower Cleaver had stood on, outside the room where they’d first encountered the feline creatures. Abruptly, the goliath held up one hand, calling for a halt.
“What is it?” Mandi asked in irritation.
“Nothing,” Sepoto answered in a low voice. “That’s just it. Do you hear any night birds or insects? Even the monkeys have stopped their chattering. There’s something out here besides us.”
As if on cue, a large reptilian head suddenly thrust its way through the trees not ten feet in front of the goliath. It was attached to a sinuous body which stood erect on its hind feet, each of which sported a wicked-looking spur on the ankle. Its foreclaws were equally sharp, and its teeth identified it as a pure carnivore. It looked exactly like the carcass they had seen in the room where the felines had nested. A deinonychus…a raptor, Mandi had called it.
“You’re a brave one, I’ll give you that,” Sepoto said, unlimbering his chain. “One against six. I don’t like your odds.”
“Sepoto!” Mandi called from behind in the dark. “Raptors never hunt alone!”
At that moment, the raptor sprang, darting to Sepoto’s right and snapping its jaws shut on the arm of Marius, who stood behind the goliath. Without warning, the entire jungle around them came alive as seven more raptors darted into view, completely surrounding the company. Then the night erupted into violence. The raptors were everywhere, darting into the midst of them to attack and then springing back. Cleaver suffered bites from both sides before he managed to bring one of the hunters down with his axe. Then the darkness blossomed into light as Marius loosed a ball of fire upon their foes, causing them to recoil, shrieking before quickly gathering themselves for another assault. It was chaos. Tower Cleaver swung his axe in wide circles, heedless of who was around him. Raptors fell beneath his blows, but allies found themselves having to dodge quickly away as well. Sepoto’s chain was more precise, striking with swift, deadly accuracy. The magic of Mandi and Marius was not so discerning, but the skill of the mages allowed them to sculpt their spells around their friends, while at the same time dealing withering damage to their attackers. It was over in less than two minutes. All the raptors lay dead, but several of the Legionnaires were bloodied and battered. Sepoto took a moment to catch his breath, but then quickly his head came up, turning this way and that.
“I still don’t hear any of the normal night sounds,” he said.
In answer, a chorus of hisses sounded from all around them, and multiple pairs of evil yellow eyes glared at them from the foliage…
