by Kami Bryant
“Fantastic,” grumbled Beau sarcastically.
“If you can kill the monster in a duel, then we will be taken in to see Myrinth and Aminth. My parents were leading a rebellion against the brothers and then they never came back out of that castle,” sobbed Juniper. “They wouldn’t let me go with them”.
“I am so sorry Juniper,” said Beau gently.
Juniper swiped at her face and continued, “You will need armor to protect you from the acid when he strikes out at you with his tail.”
“I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, Juniper. You could have just left me there to die. Why did you help me?
“Braxen Xarraz hasn’t brought people over to Traetan. He has been taking his army of ogres over to Mirovia, but he doesn’t bring people here. I haven’t seen a human being before,” said Juniper, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment.
“What do you mean Braxen Xarraz has been transporting ogres to Mirovia?”
“Just as I said.”
“After I kill the monster, we confront Myrinth and Aminth, and we look for your parents, will you show me?”
“Braxen Xarraz is very dangerous.”
“Well, if he is Mormorant, and he is a demon vampire attacking Mirovia, I need to know, and I need to see this for myself.”
“His magical ability, right now, seems only strong enough to bring two ogres over at a time. It should take him many years to amass a large enough army to destroy your home. I am sure you have time to stop him.”
“If I help you, will you help me with Mormorant?”
“I have already helped you by bringing you here, bandaging your wounds and feeding you,” said Juniper as she walked over to the kiln and the pot of boiling soup. She picked up two wooden bowls and the ladle sitting on the long table. She ladled out the soup and handed Beau a wooden bowl and spoon.
“What is in here? Actually, don’t tell me.”
After they had finished their supper, Juniper led Beau to her bedroom. Her log cabin had three rooms. The living area, the bedroom and the room where the brass claw footed bath sat.
Her bed had drapes hanging from a frame that was suspended from the log ceiling beams. The bed was very high off the floor and Juniper dragged out the trundle bed from where it was stowed under the bed. The trundle bed had a canvas mattress stuffed with wool and a featherbed duvet on its wooden frame close to the floor. Linen sheets, blanket, coverlet, eider down quilt and pillows were brought out, from the nearby large linen closet, by Juniper.
“Rest. You need to recover from your wounds and then we can start training after I find some armor for you.”
“Thank you,” said Beau sleepily as he laid his long and lanky form on the small trundle bed, his legs from his knees down hanging off the small bed and onto the floor.
For many years, Beau lived with Juniper. They trained and Juniper also taught Beau about her world. Beau began jousting a tree with a large branch until the day Juniper brought him a sword. He ran for miles through Traetan daily, did a thousand sit ups and pushups and lifted heavier and heavier rocks until his body changed from the lanky boy to a muscle-bound man. When Juniper brought Beau a plasma protorifle, Beau began shooting practice by aiming at nasty rat-like creatures with three rows of razor-like teeth, which Juniper called Gravemorphs. At night, Juniper would tell Beau stories about her parents and teach him about the world around them.
The combat training continued until Juniper was satisfied with Beau’s prowess and then they set off one day to find Zorow Shade. “Remember he is slow but his tail can whip out far. The best technique is to keep light on your feet and fast. Zip away and then make your attack and then zip away”.
“I got it Juniper,” said Beau. He wore black armor over his red and black striped clothes. “I think this might go faster if I just shoot off the nasty thing’s tail and then rush forward and decapitate it.” He also wore a broadsword and a protorifle both strapped on his back. “Let’s do this!!” he confidently howled.
Myrinth and Aminth sat in enormous thrones at the top of the stairs surrounded by glass windows. Huge marble columns framed the room. Beau and Juniper stood on the marble floor at the foot of the wide stairs leading to the throne dais. Myrinth was a chalk-white creature with enormous pointed ears on the side of his head. His hair was white as snow and slicked straight down his back. His chest bare, and he wore tight black leather pants and black gauntlets. His fists glowed a ghostly blue.
Aminth had blond hair that hung down from his head past his hips. His ears were also long and pointed, but his skin color was a natural flesh tone and not the chalky white of his brother’s. Aminth wore loose brown trousers, a white long sleeve shirt, brown vest, tightly knotted green cravat, brown gauntlets and brown boots. Aminth sat sideways in his brass throne, his legs casually thrown over the arm rest.
“This is soooooo boring,” complained Aminth.
In addition to the red and black striped pants and heavy silver and black armor he wore, Beau also wore a red and black striped scarf wrapped around his face. Juniper stood beside him, her dragonfly wings drooping with misery.
“Her parents,” called out Beau, his voice slightly muffled. “Where are they?”
“Who are her parents?” Myrinth asked, his voice sounding like he was gargling gravel.
“Drake and Indigo Mapleshadow. Remember them?”
“Never heard of them,” said Aminth playing with his long golden locks.
“He is human,” said Phazedia the Cruel. “Can I eat him?” she asked, and Beau noticed a considerable amount of drool dripping down her chin.
“A human?” asked Aminth. “Well, that is interesting.”
“Bring forward Drake and Indigo and we will be on our way.”
“How about we kill you and the little fairy? Hmmm?” asked Aminth in his honey sweet voice.
“Look,” said Beau. “I am getting really impatient. I think I will just start shooting and sort all of this out later,” and Beau pulled out the plasma protorifle that was strapped to his back. Juniper aimed her bow at Phazedia who was aiming her own plasma protorifle at Beau.
“Ooooh,” said Aminth clapping his hands in delight. “How fun.”
“Bring out the cyborg!” yelled Myrinth.
There was a lot of shuffling behind the throne dais and then a ten-foot creature stepped out. His skin was even whiter than Myrinth, almost completely translucent. A gold helmet covered his face, he wore a gold shoulder spaulder and a gold gauntlet ending in razor-sharp tipped fingers.
“Fantastic,” grunted Beau as he blasted the protorifle at Aminth who jumped off his throne. Myrinth threw a blue glowing ball of light and Beau fell to his knees and slid across the floor on his side toward the lumbering cyborg. Juniper let loose an arrow at Phazedia’s face and then threw a hatchet at Myrinth’s knee. The hatchet bit deep into Myrinth’s flesh and his next blue ball of light spun out of control leaving a charred hole in the marble pillar.
“Brother!” screamed Aminth and launched himself off the dais at Juniper. The fairy girl flapped her wings and rose off the marble floor and Aminth and Phazedia collided. Meanwhile Beau kept shooting the protorifle over and over direct hit after direct hit at the cyborg, who just shrugged off the blasts and continued lumbering after Beau.
“Awww, shit,” said Beau spinning away from the creature shooting at the marble pillar that was crumbling from the hit of Myrinth’s magic. “Juniper!” shouted Beau. “We need to get out of here!”
“My parents!” she shouted back.
“Juniper!! Now,” said Beau as the blasted marble pillar continued to crumble. Beau blasted a hole in the throne room wall and jumped through it. He aimed back through the hole covering Juniper as she flew through the hole after him. Beau and Juniper took off running as they heard the marble pillar collapse bringing down the ceiling.
“That was fun,” said Beau.
CHAPTER SIX
FIVE YEARS LATER IN TRAETAN
Beau and Juniper sat at a long wood
en table at the cantina with the other Traetan mercenaries. Ocypena sat across from Beau, or rather perched on the chair across from Beau on her metal bird feet. She had green speckled skin, her hair was a glossy black and her arms ended in wings. She gripped her drink in her talons and a bowl full of grubs sat in front of her. Beau watched as the anxious grubs crawled out of the bowl and escaped slithering down the table. Ocypena’s talons pounced and she licked the pierced grub off her black talon. Beau shook his head and mused at how quickly he had gotten used to this group, while he raised a hand and ordered another round of demon blood shooters.
A beautiful woman with long blue hair, white skin and sharp fangs drifted across the floor to hover a few inches off the ground beside Beau. She wore a black corset, black collar and black feathered shoulder pads. Her lacey skirt tightly hugged her curvy hips. She licked her sharp fangs, bent down toward Beau to give him a juicy view of her cleavage and said, “Hi Beau.”
“Layla,” replied Beau unimpressed with the view.
“Would you like to join me in my lair?”
“Not tonight, Layla, I’m not in the mood,” said Beau as he threw back his head and downed his shooter. He then motioned to the centaur barmaid and ordered another round.
“You should slow down on those,” said the red-striped Chaosghoul twirling her chakram blades, sitting beside the harpy.
“What are you my mother, Zhiski?” barked Beau.
“I should hope to never have such an ugly child,” chuckled Zhizki and the mercenaries in ear shot laughed along with her.
“Are you sad, Beau?” asked the Vampire Layla scooting Beau’s chair away from the table with her foot and plopping down onto his lap. “I can cheer you up,” she purred, her long tongue licking the side of Beau’s neck, her fangs grazing his skin.
“I said not tonight, Layla,” huffed Beau gently pushing the vampire off his lap.
“I love the taste of your human blood,” pouted Layla. “Please?”
“No,” slurred Beau ordering another round.
“I could just take it!” howled the angry vampire woman. She launched herself at Beau and Juniper, the Chaosghoul Zhiski and the harpy Ocypena all jumped to his rescue. As the four females fought, Beau slid out from under them and crawled under the table. He stood up at another wooden table where a Minotaur, tree being, cat being and a wolf person sat.
“Hey, what’s up?” hiccupped a drunken Beau. “What do you know about the demon mage Braxen Xarraz? He sent me here and I want to get back to my home and my girl. Have you seen him lately? My fairy and I have been traveling all over Traetan looking for him, but he could be anywhere, you know?”
“You are the human?” asked the shocked wolf creature.
“That’s me,” said Beau tipping over with his drunkenness. “I am Beauregard Bartholomew Kitchinham at your service,” he said, attempting a sweeping bow and fell to the floor.
A demon humanoid creature walked up to Beau and helped him stand. “Here you go,” she said setting him back on the wood bench. She had lilac hair, red eyes and small horns curving away from her face.
“Hello there,” leered Beau, addressing her high, perky breasts. “Who are you?”
“I am called Dhuklai. Are you truly the human that killed Myrinth, Aminth and Zorow Shade?”
“I am the only human in Traetan, my dear lady,” said the lechery Beau, kissing the demon girl’s hand.
“You don’t look like much,” replied Dhuklai.
“I get that a lot. Hey, have you seen Braxen Xarraz lately? I need to jump into one of his portals and return to Mirovia. I need to stop that demon bastard, reconcile with my beautiful princess who is now queen and stop the destruction of Mirovia. He is transporting an army of ogres, you know.”
“I have seen him transport two or three ogres at a time, yes. It takes a lot of energy for him to continue to open the portals. Energy that he can’t produce by himself. Energy that he absorbs from human beings. Draining the ogres doesn’t produce much energy. I imagine he is rounding up many of your people and draining them of their life essences.”
“What?”
“It is how it is done,” replied Dhuklai.
“Where is he? Can you take me to him?”
“Maybe, what’s in it for me?”
“What do you want?” asked Beau.
“Hmmm,” the demon girl said as she contemplated the question, tapping the sharp nail of her index finger on her pointy chin.
At that moment, Juniper floated up to Beau. “What are you doing?”
“This demon girl can help us find Mormorant.”
“Demon human hybrid,” growled Juniper.
“There aren’t any humans in Traetan,” said Beau.
“Do you think that you are the only human that my father ever exiled here?” grinned Dhuklai.
“Your FATHER???” asked Beau as he unsteadily pulled out his plasma protoblaster from his hip and aimed at the demon girl’s face. “Where is he?” growled Beau.
“You still haven’t convinced me to help you. What care I for humans?”
“Your mother was a human, right?” asked Juniper. “Did Braxen Xarraz kidnap, rape and murder her?”
“Perhaps,” said Dhuklai arching a dark eyebrow, the tips of her long-pointed ears quivering with either excitement or uncertainty.
“What do you want from me? I need to get back to Mirovia.”
“And even if you can find him, how do you plan to get through the portal? Do you think he wouldn’t notice you? Do you think that you can disguise yourself as an ogre?” she laughed.
“I’ll worry about that when I get there. Now, where is he?”
“I may have a magical device which I could program to sense his presence. Maybe.”
“And what do you want for it?”
“There is a very powerful bauble that I would like to possess. It belongs to Zurvylan, the Fierce. Bring it to me and I will consider programming you a device to find my father.”
“What is Zurvylan, the Fierce?” asked Beau.
“A dragon,” replied Juniper.
“Of course. Fantastic,” he said sarcastically. “And what is this bauble?”
“It is an Arachnite egg,” answered Dhuklai.
“A WHAT!!!!” screamed Juniper.
“You know that she can’t be trusted,” said Juniper as she and Beau journeyed to the dragon’s lair.
“I know,” replied Beau.
“The Arachnite egg is probably for Mormorant. Such a thing could be extremely powerful in the wrong hands. Maybe he needs it to give him the energy boost to expand his portal.
“How would he do that? What would he do with the egg? Grow a new Zorow Shade?”
“Or this is a trap and we are walking into certain death.”
“Probably,” said Beau.
“Why are you so calm?!” screeched Juniper.
“It doesn’t make sense. He knows where I am. He could kill me at any time. Why has he left me alive? In fact, he could have killed me years ago, instead of throwing me into this Hell dimension. No offense.”
“None taken. Maybe he doesn’t want you dead?”
“Why?” asked Beau.
“I don’t know. All part of his devious plan, no doubt.”
“He is draining people of their energy to open his portals to transport ogres to Mirovia. And then what? He destroys Mirovia? He creates a door that will stay open so that everyone in Traetan can go to Mirovia?”
“Sounds about right,” said Juniper. “Maybe, he just doesn’t view you as a threat? And as for sending you to Traetan, maybe he didn’t expect for you to live this long.”
“That’s probably it. I wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t met you. Okay, so how do we kill a dragon?”
“It is impossible to kill a dragon. Our only chance is to find the egg and escape before the dragon kills us.”
“Okay, so how do we do that?”
“No idea,” grunted Juniper.
“Fantastic.”
&
nbsp; CHAPTER SEVEN
TEN YEARS LATER IN MIROVIA
Queen Emberlyn Miriam Julia Chittenden of Mirovia sat on her golden throne and watched as the guards brought in the captured girls. One of Queen Emberlyn’s pastimes, to curb her boredom, was watching her guards rape the screaming girls. Another fun pastime was punishing and torturing the guards who had raped the screaming girls. Or to have the victims of the guard’s abuse take out their revenge on the guards. The screams of pain and torment never moved her clockwork heart. She cared not for their pain or for their pleasure. She actually didn’t care much about anything.
She had been holding these torture parties for a few years now, to see if one day she would feel an emotion, any kind of emotion. She drank her goblet of wine and sneered at the screaming common folk as they begged her for mercy. She soaked up their terror and thought maybe she would feel a twinge of satisfaction, but there was still nothing. Nothing pleasant at all. All she seemed capable of feeling was anger and darkness.
She couldn’t remember much about her life, though she knew that she must have had a childhood and maybe that childhood had been full joy and excitement, but those memories were gone.
“What brings you pleasure, Vizier?” asked Emberlyn of the man standing behind her, his eyes huge with excitement as he leered at the torture on the stage.
“The pain of others, of course, my dear queen,” answered Mormorant.
“Why?” asked Emberlyn.
“Because it is exciting,” he said.
“Why?” repeated Emberlyn.
“Because it shows them how small and useless they are while I am strong and powerful. They beg me for mercy and they beg me for their lives.”
“Have you always felt this way?”
“Oh yes,” answered Mormorant. “I feed off the pain of others and I love it. Don’t you think this is fun?”