by Robert Spina
The Decadic Marshland runs about fifty-five miles, completing the base of the Mirrimya Mountain. The east-flowing winds drive the acidic clouds up the Mirrimya Mountain, but it is too high for the clouds to pass over, and they drop their acid, forming long, sharp ridges and gullies all along the west side of Mirrimya Mountain, spilling into the Decadic Marshland. Only very unique animals and time-adapted species can survive in the Decadic Marshland. However, pure moisture does cross over the mountain and at times drenches the eastern side of Mirrimya Mountain with pure, clean, fresh water, nourishing and bathing the beautiful green Pinegrow Forest, where somewhere Xanorax makes his home.
The Pinegrow Forest is a very neat and beautiful forest where only the Pyramid Pine trees grow. They are all spaced four feet from one another, and their branches widest at the bottom neatly grow in rings around the trees, getting narrower and narrower as the tree grows up, giving them this neat pyramid shape. The pines are thick and prickly, deep green in color. All the trees are neatly trimmed up to about four feet, like a professional landscaper painstakingly trims all the trees, but this is done by the unique Pinegrow deer that have adapted to feed exclusively on the pines. The forest floor is a soft bed of decaying pine needles, perfect for borrowing animals and for the pine deer to make their beds. The branches of the trees where the pine needles have been eaten off by the deer die and fall off the trees, making the forest very nice to walk through, except for the only four feet height where the branches of the trees grow out, meeting with branches of other trees, making travel difficult if you stand over four feet tall. The ground is full of browns and reds, merging with the deep brown color of the tree trunks then becoming the deep green color of the pines, which extend upward some sixty feet. Looking at the forest from the air looks like a land of sharp-tipped spikes. All the trees grow to a pointed tip, getting wider all the way down the tree. There is no human life here, no elves, no orcs, only the animals that make Pinegrow their home. Xanorax lives here but is rarely seen and somehow sees all.
Xanorax is walking down a stairwell. The wall is rock, and stairs protrude out from the wall. A doorway leads to the top of the stairs, and the stairs lead down the wall about twenty feet to the rock floor. There is a whisper in the air. “Xanorax.” Xanorax gets to the floor and walks to a rock structure in the middle of this circular room. The room is all rock, with nothing in it except a rock cylinder in the middle of the room, which he walks up to. It’s about four feet high, and he puts his hands on the rim of it and looks in. The rock cylinder is filled with a black liquid like oil, and he sees his reflection in the still-motionless black liquid, and again a whisper, “Xanorax.”
Around the large bowl of liquid are many smaller bowls that are a natural part of the structure. These bowls contain different colored powders. Xanorax pinches some white powder and sprinkles it over the black liquid. The powder falls but hangs in midair above the liquid, forming a white cloud. It hovers for a few moments then falls to the liquid. The liquid ripples and turns to crystal-clear water, and an image appears. A bright star is shown falling from space in a slow, organized way. It falls slow and straight, bright diamond white. It falls into Bore Bog. The water ripples, and the crystal-clear water turns to the black thick liquid it previously was. The liquid starts to rise out of the cylinder, and Xanorax takes a few steps back as the liquid grows up and takes the shape of a devil. The shape rises high in the air, turning bloodred on top and running down the head and body until it meets the black liquid in the cylinder, which is mostly gone now, used to create this devil form. It is bald with a thick human head, ridged ears, and sharp canine teeth in its mouth. It is solid bloodred except for its golden-yellow eyes. It has massively powerful shoulders, arms, and hands and thick, medium-length clawlike fingernails. Its abdomen is ripped with muscles, and it has hips and legs reminiscent of a gargoyle and has a whip for a tail. All the liquid in the cylinder has been used except for a small pool in the bottom of the cylinder, which remains black, and the evil being produced stands on its ankles in the pool. It speaks to Xanorax.
“Xanorax, the star you just saw fall in the Bore Bog is pure magic. It knows the way off this world and back to the outer realms. This magic is guided by the magical being that put you here. You must learn its secrets to free yourself of this world. It is very powerful, much more powerful than you. If you destroy it without learning its secrets, you will be trapped here forever. There is no chance of turning this being to our side, so use all your cunning. Use all your knowledge of the dark arts. You cannot deceive this magic. You must steal this magic, learn its secrets, then destroy it, or it will destroy you. I have prepared a Life Stealer for you. You must accept its pain now to enjoy its rewarding triumph in the future.”
From the small pool of black liquid in the bottom of the cylinder rises a black necklace. It is black pearls connected by a thin thread. Hanging from the necklace is a heart and below it a brain and below that the outline of a human body representing a human soul. The necklace continues, a small rope of pearls to the right and left side, continuing the exact length of Xanorax’s arms, with a small noose at the end of each black pearl rope. This unique evil item floats to Xanorax, who is not wearing a shirt, and the noose at the end of each pearl rope goes over the middle finger on his left and right hand. When it makes contact with Xanorax’s flesh, it burns, melting right into his body, causing a lot of pain; and Xanorax cringes, fighting not to scream. The ropes lie down the base of his middle fingers on top of his hands and lie down on his forearms, his outer biceps, and his shoulders; and the necklace goes over his head, lying around his neck. The heart, brain, and soul lie down his chest and abdomen, all the way down to his belt line. The entire magical item has burned right into Xanorax’s flesh, lying flush with his skin, and where this item is on, his body is hard and smooth. Xanorax cringed and wept very quietly through this extremely painful process. He obviously is no stranger to pain.
“You are now Xanorax the Life Stealer. Before you kill your prey, impale them with the Life Stealer and gain their magic and/or life force. With this, you may live forever. This does not give you your victim’s knowledge, only their strength, so extract all knowledge you need before using the Life Stealer. I look forward to watching you against this adversary. Make me proud.”
Xanorax bows, and the devil falls into the cylinder, growing the pool of black liquid back the way it was. Xanorax looks at his chest and arms, turning his hands to see the item’s nooses around his middle fingers. He faces his hands forward. “Life Stealer.” The nooses around his middle fingers, right at the callus, separate in the middle, and the item rises from his flesh. It rises all the way up to his elbows. It forms solid black spears with two very sharp pincers on the end of each spear. Xanorax cringes in pain as the item rips from his flesh. Xanorax looks at the evil deformity growing from his body. So now I am the Life Stealer. The magical item returns to its new home in Xanorax’s body.
Xanorax retreats up the stairs and through the doorway, which leads to a great hall. There is a wide stairway at the opposite side of the hall with a great black coral banister on either side of the six-foot-wide stairs, which ascend slowly about thirty feet to two great doors at the top, which are closed. There is a massive, thick red cloth rug covering the entire floor and stairway, with black demons sewn all about it. There is a large round structure in the middle of the room, which looks like a very large bird bath wide enough for ten men to stand around. There is a single door at the center of the two other walls with round arches at the top, and both doors are closed. The structure in the middle of the room is eye-catching, as is the stairway leading up, but there are four statues, one in each corner of the room and each standing on a solid granite pedestal. Each statue is a magnificent ten-foot-tall likeness of the demon they represent. The color of the statues is solid ruby with a hue of black throughout them. Each statue has the name of the demon engraved into the granite podium they stand on.
Groglegoya the great winged beast is known
for swooping down on its prey and grabbing them with the talons on its hands or for stabbing victims with its tail and flying high just to release its victims falling to their deaths. This demon has enormous wings protruding from its back, three talons for toes on each foot, and three great talons for fingers on each hand. It has a long tail with a barbed harpoon at the end of it.
Smogle, the next demon, is known for its ability to turn into black smog, suffocating its victims as they breathe in the smog and consuming their heart and lungs before exiting its deceased prey. Smogle looks like a man but has large stakes that grow up from his shoulders, one on each side; also one grows from each elbow out the back of his arms and up at a forty-five-degree angle. He has a very unusual ring that grows around his forehead and around the back of his head. This is very unusual and very noticeable, and Smogle can never escape this trait that gives his identity away.
Drumbolt the crusher has the ability to transform and extend his body to any shape and any length. He is the earth demon able to take the form of dirt, rock, water, snow, ice, lava, wood, even vegetation. His statue is a tree trunk for one leg, solid rock for the other leg. His abdomen and chest are water, with ice for one arm and lava for the other arm, and his head is dirt, with snow for hair. Drumbolt extends the form of earth he is touching high in the air, transforms into a hammer, and slams down on his victims, crushing them and absorbing them. So when the hammer retreats from the earth, there are no remains left.
The final demon, Simtap the slicer, also looks like a man with a heavy beard. Simtap has the ability to grow his arms some twenty-five feet, becoming Lavtonium metal, the hardest known metal on Kronton. When Simtap has a victim in sight, he grows his arms. They become swords, and he impales or slices his victims to pieces. Lavtonium metal is red, and not only are Simtap’s razor-sharp, unbreakable swords unmatched by any weapons on Kronton, but they also become red-hot when contact is made with any object, making the swords that much more lethal. Whenever Simtap slices a living being, the wounds are instantly cauterized, and there is no blood loss. The victim dies from dismemberment.
Xanorax walks past the statues and the summoning well in the center of the room and heads up the stairs. He passes through the doors to his chambers. To the left is a birdcage with a blanket over it. It hangs from a rusty chain attached to the ceiling some eight feet above. The room is lit by sunlight that enters from the balcony, where there is a rounded archway and no doors. The opposite side of the room is a king-size bed, well adorned and very comfortable, where he sleeps. Xanorax removes the blanket from the birdcage, and sitting on a wooden dowel in the middle of the cage is a stone, Gardimension. This is a gargoyle the size of a pigeon, but it has the ability to leap one hundred miles at a time when it flies. Xanorax uses his Gardimension to send orders to his lieutenants around the world of Wherlerria.
There is a podium next to the archway leading to the balcony, and Xanorax writes some instructions on a small parchment. He rolls it up and puts it in a small tube. He then attaches the tube to the feet of the Gardimension and removes it from its cage. Xanorax walks out onto the balcony, talking to his little friend. “Wake up, little buddy.” He sucks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, making a Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta sound. “Wake up, little buddy, come on.” The leathery rock skin on the Gardimension starts to crack and flake off as it comes to life. “That’s it, little buddy, go to Mournbow on Mytek Mountain, bring him my instructions.” Xanorax throws it into the air, and it flaps its wings three times and vanishes. It appears one hundred miles later, flaps its wings three times, and vanishes, so it very quickly circles half the globe and enters the chambers of Inglelapse.
Maxflap is the nickname that everyone calls the little Gardimension. It enters a window high up on the steep mountain face of Mourbarria, and when it enters the window, it walks along a small shelf built into the wall. It only travels about five feet inside the window. The inside of Inglelapse’s chambers is carved right out of the mountain, as all of Mourbarria is, and at the end of the shelf is a midsized container containing a couple of families of small white mice. There is a bell above the container, and Maxflap rings the bell. He then hops into the container, picks up a mouse, and consumes it. Maxflap bites the head off, chews, swallows, and so on until the mouse is gone.
Inglelapse enters the messy room with all kinds of trinkets and goblets and other items on a table. There is a bed in here and all kinds of larger items leaned up against the walls. He hurries over to the mouse home, where all the mice retreated into holes in the wall, and sees Maxflap finishing his meal. “Maxflap, Maxflap, Maxflap, oh, Maxflap,” Inglelapse says, biting his nails. This is never good. Inglelapse picks up the little creature that is kind of cute in a monster way. Inglelapse retrieves the message from Maxflap and places Maxflap on a ledge that overhangs the mouse cage. Inglelapse hurries over to a pedestal and lays the parchment flush with the surface. The parchment grows, thickens, and becomes letter size, and Inglelapse reads it.
Oh, this is very interesting. Inglelapse leaves his chambers, carrying the letter. A long, slender stairway leads down from his room to the floor of a large hall. “Belron! Belron!” Inglelapse yells as he descends down the stairs.
Belron enters from another door. “What is it, Inglelapse?”
“A letter for Mournbow, it’s from Xanorax.”
“Give it here!” Belron takes the letter and delivers it to Mournbow. Belron knocks on the door to Mournbow’s chambers, and Mournbow opens the door.
“A message for you from Xanorax.”
“Thank you, Belron.” Mournbow takes the message and reads it. “Belron, bring Corksez to me in the meeting hall.”
“Yes, Mournbow.”
“Belron!”
“Yes!”
“Bring Jetter and Suther as well.”
“Yes, Mournbow.”
Mournbow is sitting at the head seat at the large table in the meeting hall, otherwise known as the trophy room. Corksez, Jetter, and Suther enter the room and take seats closest to Mournbow.
“Gentlemen, I have summoned you here because we have an intruder on our borders. I have received a letter from Xanorax, and this is how it reads: ‘Mournbow, I have detected a very powerful magical presence growing in the Bore Bog. This magic is so overwhelming and so new it can only be a threat to existing homelands. A power this great can only be created for one purpose, and that purpose has to be to dominate and control all subjects in its path. I do not know what form this presence truly is, but it is my belief it is a human male. Send scouts to the Bore Bog to investigate this power. It should be easy to find. Do not engage or make contact, just investigate and see what we are dealing with. I am planning and preparing to travel, defend or attack. Our day of truth is coming. The power that has put us all here has returned, and we have questions to be answered. When you learn more, send Maxflap back to me with your assessment. Xanorax.’”
Mournbow looks up at the men. “This is why you are here. As usual I have no idea what Xanorax is talking about, so this is what we are going to do. Jetter, I want you to take two men and ride to the north of Bore Bog. Suther, you take two men to the south, and, Corksez, take two men and head straight for the bog.”
Inglelapse enters the room, and he has three leather bags tied at the top by leather lace. “Here is the poison you requested, Mournbow,” he says and hands him the bags.
“Inglelapse, have you prepared the stamina water for the Graybazelles?”
“Working on it now, Mournbow. It will be ready shortly.”
“Good, get it ready and meet us in the courtyard.”
“Yes, Mournbow.” Inglelapse leaves the room.
“Inglelapse has prepared Andalonian poison for you. Each of you, take two of your most trusted men with you. This poison is for you and your men in case you run into any trouble. Take no chances. Your arrows with this poison will stop anything. Collect your men and meet Inglelapse in the courtyard. He will have stamina water for your animals, making the trip ver
y fast. Men, we don’t know what this is, so be on your guard. Just collect information and get back here safely. That will be all.”
The three captains get up and head to get their men. The nine men meet in the courtyard, leading their Graybazelles, and Inglelapse gives each man a double pouch of stamina water, each pouch tied shut by a leather rope, and the men sling the pouches over the Graybazelles. This water allows the Graybazelles to travel much faster for greater distances with no adverse effects. The men walk their awesome steeds to the castle gate, which opens, and they mount up and head down the mountain on their journey to the Bore Bog.
Xanorax senses the return of Maxflap and waits on his balcony overlooking Pinegrow Forest. His little messenger comes into view, and Xanorax happily extends his left arm for Maxflap to land on. Maxflap is so ugly but endearing and cute for a monster. He really grows on you. He makes these cute little monster noises that are all his own. He looks at Xanorax, making his cute little noises, just begging for attention, like he just wants to be patted on the head and played with.
“Did you have a good trip, little buddy?”
Maxflap pants and smiles wide, looking at Xanorax while he talks. Xanorax pets him a little and retrieves the message attached to his feet. He then puts Maxflap in his cage and covers the cage with a blanket, sending Maxflap back to his hardened state. Xanorax takes the parchment from the tube and flattens it flush on his podium, and it expands to letter size. He reads the message and looks up, very serious. Xanorax dresses himself with a loose-fitting long-sleeved blue shirt. He puts on a belt with a midsized dagger attached to his left side. He heads out of his room, down the stairs to the large summoning pool, and looks into the crystal-clear water. He unsheathes his dagger and slices his hand, dripping blood into the pool of water.