Scepters of Empyrea

by Vignesh Ravichandran

  The sun was burning the skin, but the water was so cold. And the best part was that the water tastes so good. Nature's beauty needs to be appreciated, thought Royston.

  While washing himself in the waterfalls, Royston’s face glared with some shiny objects. It came from his right side from an orange color gem that was stuck onto a nearby stone in the waterfalls. He went to the stone and checked the gem. It was firmly held to the stone.

  Looked like ruby, but was not a ruby. Shined like a diamond, but was not a diamond. The stone had all the qualities of a diamond, pearl, ruby, emerald, and other precious stones, thought Royston and took his pocket knife and tried to cut the gem out of the stone. First, he tried to remove the gem alone, but it was stuck real firm to the stone. Then he tried to break the stone keeping his knife on the stone and hit it hard with a boulder. Even then the stone didn’t break into two, but it powdered the outer layer.

  Functioning like an archeologist, Royston slowly broke the top of the stone. When he got near the gem, the stone began to powder more. The powdered place revealed the secret. The gem wasn’t sticking to the stone. It was sticking to a golden bar. Soon Royston started hitting the stone harder and faster to grab the treasure. He wasn’t able to break the bottom layer of the stone as the stone was so strong. So, he hit and cleaned up the upper layer circling the golden bar and to his surprise, he saw many gems sticking to the golden bar. He used all his strength to break the rock, but after a point realized that the stone was harder than a mountain.

  Royston was able to clear up the only 1/4th of the stone’s top, the golden bar looked more like a handle of something. Royston thought to himself there must be more gems and gold inside the stone, but unfortunately, he couldn’t break the stone beyond a point. So he tried his luck with the handle with the help of his knife. He decided to leave the gold and take the gems alone, so he tried to unhook it from the golden bar but to his dismay, it was stuck firmly inside the bar.

  He gave it a last shot by pulling out the golden bar. He firmly held the golden bar in his hands and kept his feet on the stone and tried pulling it out with all his strength but to no avail.

  The golden bar seemed like it would come out only when the stone would be broken entirely. But this stone seemed like it would break only when thunder fell on it, blabbered Royston by holding the golden bar.

  Suddenly, he heard some huffing sound behind him. He guessed it wouldn’t be his friends or other local people and turned slowly, ready with his knife to attack.

  After turning, Royston froze in terror, his eyes locked onto an incredible creature that was about to kill him. It was a furious woolly rhino standing behind him, nearly twice the size of a regular rhino. It was around 11 to 13 feet in height and weighed more than 6000kg. It was massive and peculiar with its enormous sharp horn. The sharp horn rhino bellowed and lowered its 3 meter length sharp horn.

  The rhino leaped at Royston while he launched himself between the two large trunks, forcing the beast to claw its way around to the side while Roy scrambled around a tangle of roots. With a hideous bellow, the sharp horn rhino chased after him splintering the trees. Everything was a blur to Roy, he blindly ran, dodging between the trunks as the wooly sharp horn rhino shredded the forest behind him. Roy suddenly fell to the ground. The sharp horn rhino reached him, its baleful eyes locked into him. Roy raised himself and held the rhino’s sharp horn but it attacked him at his abdomen and injected its sharp horn into his flesh. He was heavily wounded but somehow dodged the creature and started running again to save his life.

  The beast was relentless, slashing its head from one side to the other splintering all the trees. Bellowing loudly it lowered its head and charged at Royston. He was losing ground. He knew he was going to die. Royston shouted and hollered in pain. Suddenly the ground before him collapsed, and he fell in a shower of leaves. He was a sight, flailing arms and legs crashing through the trees at the canyon's edge, free falling into space. With a sickening impact, he hit the branches of the first trees lining the canyon and fell almost a hundred feet down.

  Semi-conscious, he hung momentarily before he slid off again, fingers digging into the bark, falling another ten feet into the swiftly moving river below.

  Weighed down by his boots and clothing, he struggled to stay afloat. Taking a deep breath, he ducked underwater, untying one of his boots. He surfaced, filled his lungs and dived again, releasing the other boot and began to swim towards the shore.

  The sharp horn rhino neared the edge of the precipice from which Royston had fallen. The hunter in close pursuit did not hesitate but launched itself off the cliff in a spectacular leap, streaking down the river. The sharp horn rhino got an open space with a good view of the river below but looking down at the widening, slowing expanse of the river, Royston was nowhere to be seen.

  Royston slowly looked up, a drowned rat. He was nearly finished, his energy reduced, but the water was calm, and a few strokes were nearly enough to carry him to the shore.

  (Started Raining)

  Royston got out of the river and walked through the mud. The rhino surged forward closing in on its prey. Royston found it extremely painful and difficult to run on the soaking ground. The rhino didn’t budge and had no plans of retreat close on his heels. Roy slipped and rolled down towards a dead end where there was no place to turn, hide or run. He was stuck, he tried to stand up but to no avail. With his last ounce of strength, he crawled, panting and gasping into a sheltered mud overhang, collapsing beside the exposed root-system of a dead tree, his body completely covered in thick, gray mud.

  The sharp horn Rhino got to the point and found Royston beneath all that mud, it began to huff and puff ready to attack. On the other hand, Royston began to feel more of his pain, there was just a 100feet gap between the rhino and Royston. He knew it was just seconds before he felt the crashing weight of the Rhino. The Rhino charged towards him and Royston realizing his life was about to end, closed his eyes, and waited for the hunter's killing blow.

  All of a sudden, a thunderstorm fell some meters away from where they were and hearing that sound the rhino abruptly stopped in its tracks with an oversized bleat. It wheeled around, trumpeting in fear and crashed away through the splintered undergrowth. Royston disbelieved that he was still alive, opened one eye, and saw the Rhino’s feet running away from him.

  I knew rhinos were vegetarians, blabbered Royston. And, he managed to get up and went to check where the thunder had struck. To his surprise, the thunder had stuck the very stone that he was desperately trying to pluck the gem from.

  (A phoenix bird flew in the sky)

  Royston went near to the stone. The Thunder had broken the stone into pieces and the golden bar was nothing but the handle of a scepter. Mesmerized that the thunder hadn’t done any damage to the scepter, Royston took it to protect himself from the other creatures. The sky turned fiery orange as the sun went down, silhouetting the figure of Royston with his scepter.

  The stone which Royston tried to break was an empyrean stone which could not be broken by any living creature and that’s why he wasn’t able to break it after a point and was able to remove only the dust which had formed over it for more than 5000years. The thunderstorm hit the stone only after getting the order from Royston. He held the “scepter of nature’s” handle in his hand. But, Royston had no clue of the seriousness of all this and began to move ahead. What he didn’t realize was that he was one of the Gods of Nature and also the Emperor of Empyrea.

  Now the people who didn’t know about the hazards of Empyrea inadvertently became the lords of Empyrea. The sad part is they had no idea of the powers they possessed and that they no longer were in their galaxy.

  The number one hustler of Goa is now the Emperor of Empyrea. Roy did not realize his position as a nature god or the lord of lords. And, he also didn’t know of the transformation power he possessed of turning himself into a mastodon or a mammoth whenever he wanted to.

  Take Ameer, for instance, the one who walked on th
e eggs of the Dinosaurs and who competed with Dinomen inside the cave is now the Lord of Dinolaya and its creatures.

  Lee, the joker who danced wearing girl's dresses and who competed against the pinky Naagamala in the river is now the Lord of Nagamalya but he had no clue about the snake powers and his Naga followers.

  Manav the physically challenged guy who had been washing the yacht floor a week before and who made the apes stampede all over Sorgamia is now the Lord of Sorgamia. He could turn himself into a giant Kong whenever he like, but in order to do so, he had to know that he is the Lord of the apes.

  Let’s see how the new lords change the fate of Empyrea….!

  Finally, it was sunset in Empyrea,

  After taking possession of the scepter, the wounded Lord Royston was strolling on the banks of the river Isis at the borders of Sorgamia and Armania. Because of his injury, he used the “scepter of nature” as a walking stick. At that time, he felt like someone was following him but when he turns to look they hid.

  Without knowing that Mosses was dead, Lord Royston thought it would be him and shouted, “Hey Mosses! That’s enough with the hide and seek, I am wounded, give me a hand”.

  No reply came from the follower but suddenly it looked like there was another one following him by swimming in the river. Lord Royston thought it could be Sammy.

  Oh, Sammy! You too have started to make fun, ufff! What about you Manav! Where are you hiding, I am wounded, you idiots, Lord Royston shouted in pain.

  The follower was nearly 8feet in height with pale greenish skin and an elongated skull. He was wearing a bizarre chain which was a tooth of some animal. He had been following Lord Royston for a long time now as he noticed the scepter of nature in his hands.

  Lord Royston unable to bear the pain held onto to his wound and kneeled on the ground. The followers couldn't see Lord Royston holler in pain and both of them revealed themselves.

  The greenish skin follower was an Empyrean, he rushed towards Lord Royston when Roy fell down in pain, he lifted him up carefully. But Lord Royston got scared seeing his strange appearance, pushed him aside and crawled back in fear.

  Enthlika, myka oothav leylo, esteem reatifzimea, said empyrean in their empii language which means, “I am just trying to help you, don’t be scared”.

  But Lord Royston was terrified, he began to run but was unable to because of the wound.

  “Royston! Don’t panic, we came here to help you, we need you”, a female voice came from the riverside.

  Lord Royston turned to see who that was but his pain stifled him and he fainted. All he could see was a blurry image of a girl sitting on a rock with some red color bird next to her. Lord Royston struggled to maintain his composure, fists flying but then dropped down like a stone on the ground.

  Ejeeth! Etak elod end eva Armania, said the female to the empyrean in their Empii language, which means, “Take the lord and come to Armania”, and Ejeeth was the name of the Empyrean.

  Meanwhile in Nagamalya,

  Lord Lee cut the trees with the scepter’s blade and buried the body of David on the banks of river Isis. It was an emotional moment for funny Lee. For dinner, he caught a catfish and moved inside the island looking for shelter for the night. At one point, he halted and built a tent using the tree woods and barks.

  He gathered some woods before the tent and tried lighting it for cooking the catfish. He cooked the catfish by holding it in his scepter’s blade. He imagined being at home, sliced the smoked fish with his scepter’s blade and started his dinner on a banana leaf. Going without food for more than 10hours, this tasted delicious to him. The aroma of his dinner brought some uninvited guests to his tent.

  There were a group of strangers hiding behind the nearby trees and observing the activities of Lord Lee. They looked weird with long hair, a huge neck, and different eye pupils. Each one of them was in different skin tones and patterns.

  Lord Lee sensed someone else stands next to him. He took his scepter and started checking the nearby places. While he checks the trees, there was no one hiding there but Lord Lee got a feeling like a group of people were standing behind him. He thought they were the Vathroos once again, so he firmly held his scepter and turned slowly to attack. They weren’t the Vathroos but instead, he spotted these strange people and without blinking for a second he attacked them but the group neither attacked nor defended themselves.

  Swas! Swas! Ssshwas lakiya, said a stranger in a pleading voice. But Lord Lee filled with fear was ready to attack again.

  Swas! Swas! Swaga Swaga! Sstancia, said all the strangers and surprisingly all of them bowed down to worship him. They were the Nagas, who worship snakes as their god. Lord Lee after owning the scepter of venom became their god.

  The Nagas were saying, Swas! Swas! Swaga esuhp! Sstancia joelariee in their naga language Nagali, which means “Lord! Lord! Don’t punish us. Guide us on the right path”.

  They invited Lord Lee to their camp which was towards the east of Nagamalya. At first, the lord lee hesitated to go with them because of the experience he had with Vathroos, but after the Nagas bowed down to him he realized they look him as some god and wouldn’t hurt him but still was skeptical.

  He wanted to test their loyalty, so he started to playfully instigate them. He pointed his scepter on to their faces and made an action which symbolized the group to stand up. They stood up! Once again he showed a sign as though asking them to sit and they sat! Seeing all these, funny Lee smirked. He pretended as though he was angry and moved the scepter towards them, they got frightened and looking at Lee’s angry face they were petrified. He was more than convinced now and went to the camp of Nagas at Nagamalya.

  Meanwhile in Sorgamia,

  After escaping from the apes, Lord Manav searched for food and shelter for the night and without knowing about the death of Mosses and Sammy he looked for them as well all the way and reached the point where Royston, Sammy, Mosses and he had split up initially.

  All the creatures in the forest did not take a chance to get in his way because of the scepter he carries, its scepter of arrogance. They were feared to face him because once he turns into an ape he would be uncontrollable.

  Lord Manav still didn’t recognize he was in another galaxy. On his way, he saw an orange glow of firelight emanating from a camp. The flaming torches ignited pools of oil along the length of that camp. Lord Manav headed towards it seeking some food and shelter. That was the Vathroos camp. He thought to ask for some help but once he enters the Vathroo camp, they would once again light the cauldron to cook him.

  The disappointed Vathroos made their dinner with rats, elks and snakes after they missed out on cooking Lee, David, and John.

  When Lord Manav entered the camp, a Vathroo beat out a rhythm on a log drum, he beat it in a ritualistic frenzy. The firelight flamed all over the nightmarish jungle and everyone was dancing around the fire and worshipping it.

  Anyone here! I lost my way. Need some food, requested Lord Manav by standing outside their camp. When he saw those people dancing around the fire, he thought they would be regular tribes.

  The camp of Vathroo was echoing with dance and frolic, the Vathroo’s worshipped the fire god Emra with special events at night, they were playing the drums and dancing around the fire filled with joy.

  As it was night, Lord Manav couldn’t see the faces of the Vathroos. He went near them and called them, the teenage Vathroos got angry because he disturbed their pyrolatry. Lord Manav was dazed after looking at their weird appearances in the firelight. In fear, he took his scepter to defend himself from them. That move costed him heavily because immediately the Vathroos who were playing the drums on the canyon walls jumped down to the ground and all the young Vathroos circled Lord Manav with their spears ready to rip him apart.

  Lord Manav got dread with this move. A Vathroo charged towards Lord Manav with his spear swinging it and following it with a backswing. Lord Manav dodged the first and met the second one with his scepter. He was surprised at his own m
oves. He didn't know how he did that. Meanwhile, the Vathroo was just getting started because he pulled out all his stunts and started to attack Manav with his sharp spear and hurled it towards him. Lord Manav stepped back on his left foot and saw the spear pass his eye just within a tiny gap. Once again, He didn't know how he did that, he looks stunned.