The Rokkaia Chronicles

by Rhys Thomas

  She then ducked out the way and dashed backwards.

  Marisa was gouging out the nomadic ogres throat; tearing through muscles and its jugular vein, she looked utterly wild, primal and bestial. Once she tore free from its throat; she then drove her head back in; up to her neck. The ogre suddenly halted its maddening pursuit of the scout, the inside of its neck glowed very briefly and intensely.

  The ogre roared in pain and tried to batter at Marisa on its neck, but Aria was there in an instant and dived forward rolling and coming to her feet before the ogre. Then swung her axe around and chopped down at the inside of the arms elbow. She then moved underneath its legs and hitched the axe head in deep in the thigh there and pulled the ogre off balance and away from where Marisa was flaming down it’s throat.

  They struggled desperately like that what seemed like hours but was in-fact maybe less than 30 seconds. Eventually the ogre sighed heavily, it’s one eye rolling as it fell and flopped to the ground dead.

  I had sat through the majority of their fight in stunned awe of these women, and yes; I thought of Marisa as a woman just one that was temporally in the form of a haughty feathered dragonling. I breathed in deeply throwing away the rise I felt of uselessness. Marisa head popped out of the ogres’ neck, covered thick amounts of blood she immediately sprung off the dead nomad and started bounding over towards me.

  I half expected her tongue to be lulling out of her mouth as she ran over excitedly. *You must be alright If that’s how you feel,* she thought to me and skidded to a stop just short of pouncing on me.

  “Yeah, my heads a little fuzzy though and my left side is numb. But otherwise I don’t feel so terrible,” I said replying aloud to Marisa’s mental statement.

  *Yes. That’ll take some healing, so we’ll have to find shelter and wait for tomorrow’s allotment of power. I’m sorry Al, I know you want to get moving but with the little control you have over this power it’s the only way anything will be fix,* she thought to me concerned. But I nodded, she was right.

  I saw Ariana walking back towards us, she seemed different now and I genuinely felt a spike of fear shiver down my spine.

  Her hands, neck and eyes were fully black and teardrops trails led from her eyes around her jaw and onto her gaara covered neck. They looked like static lines of black electricity running down her face. Those not-so hollowed orbs stared at me unblinking.

  I felt terribly afraid once again, a fear I hadn’t felt since I was a child trying to hide amongst my toys piled in the corner of my dark dingy room.

  I remembered using one of my coats as a blanket and hearing the frustrated annoyance of Michael as he drunkenly tried to search for me.

  The offbeat of his footfalls would haunt my nights and every night after. I swallowed down bile and self-pity and drew my focus back to the thing that had been Ariana.

  *Be careful Alaric,* Marisa sent, having read my thoughts.

  “Hello. Should I still call you Ariana?” I asked the possessor, tentatively. Her—or its eyes narrowed as she/it studied me.

  “I’m afraid not Planes-walker, the vessel has named me Thion believing our connection to be between weapon and wielder. I am more of an amalgam between the gaara symbiote and the vessels Faen heritage.” Its voice was surprisingly clear, though robotic sounding, and it warbled even now and then.

  “Wait, why does Aria believe you to be her weapon?” I asked intrigued and partially glad it wasn’t some sort of demon controlling her.

  Just like Venom.

  “Because she is the first to unite a new strain of gaara with a relatively old species. The symbioses was never meant for any who could delve the Astral Planes such as yourself, the Faen and a few other’s species. This vessel. Ariana Jessem, created a subconscious personality to adhere to highly stressful situations and named that part of herself a weapon called Thion.”

  I nodded my understanding. It reminded me a lot of what I could do; partitioning away the pain in vessels. “I understand Thion. Thank you, is Ariana okay to return?” I asked deciding to embrace this new development and weirdness of my Valakharian companion.

  “Yes. Ariana impulses made her mind lapse into limbo, thus allowing the Thion personality full temporal awareness. To not cause harm to the vessels psyche, I shall withdraw till called upon once again. It was lovely meeting to you Planes-walker until next we meet.”

  The gaara coverings over Ariana’s body slowly began to fade; as did my fear of the possessing gaara Thion, though I kept my doubts deeply hidden.

  *Wow. That was weird.*

  *You and me both chick, you and me both.*

  Slowly but surely Ariana came back to full awareness. She blinked owlishly down at me and my grinning face.

  “Ah, good to have you back with us Aria we’ll need to-” I started to say when she literally lunge bodily onto me. She let out a surprised gasped and I groaned in aching pain as she press heavily against my chest.

  Marisa voice came loudly through my mind and I knew she communicating to scout as well. *Ariana, please get off of him. Alaric has sustained several fractures and bleeds that will need healing.*

  The scout nodded muffling and murmuring her apologies as she reluctantly moved off. She kept her hand on the back of my neck though and gently massaged the area, her touch feeling possessive.

  “We... We need somewhere I can rest, I’m not even sure how far we are from Melancholy. Do we go back?” I asked feeling dejected at being the failing crux of our little adventure.

  *May I suggest something my love?* Marisa thought to me, I nodded.

  “Go ahead, what’re you thinking?” I answered aloud.

  *That we simply find the nomad’s lair.*

  It was a good idea but the thought of facing even more traps just trying to reach a place where it’s highly likely to have booby-traps made me groan in annoyance.

  “It’s a good idea,” Ariana said with a firm nod as her hand squeezed likely on my neck.

  “Yes. Yes, it is,” I replied and thought quickly for an alternative but found none. “Fine, let’s go poke the bear.”

  It was actually relatively easy finding the ogres hangout and we avoided the majority of the traps by simply following the track left by it.

  The ogre’s cave of sorts was more of a series of wide and tall passages going from the mouth of a steep rock face into a large interconnecting living area. Apparently, ogre’s needed warmth as well as utilises to cook their food with.

  The food however we soon realised as we passed a stuffed alcove with a thin curtain hanging before it, were humans and other races, or at least had been.

  Bones of all shapes and sizes from children to adult, several crush and broken child sized skulls sat off to one corner; neatly arranged like trophies. Some remains even still had meat left on them, rancid and rotten with decay.

  I felt the bile but managed to ease it down upon seeing this.

  It all just suddenly hit me that this was all real. I had known we’d see something like this at least, so I had expected it.

  Ariana on the other hand had no expectations. Being a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi novels now and growing up. Had given me some insight into the creatures inhabiting Viria.

  Ogres were common fantasy creatures in games and books. So, a part had known what to expect when Marisa had informed us of the ogre.

  Actually; knowing of the ogre though was good in the sense that I could recognise what it was, maybe in time I could start acting on my knowledge. This wasn’t a game though, I’d killed real people, fought real monsters. Really died, and now I was seeing the bones of a dead child, who had been possibly been eaten alive.

  Ariana came back to me after having to excuse herself, the sound of her stomach’s content smattering against the rocky floor had echoed wetly back to me.

  I took a deep hissing breath as she helped me back to my feet, Marisa had gone ahead to the large open space not far from us. The browned, dirty remains seemed to glare enviously as we walked away, empty sockets
crawled with all manner of insects and arachnids.

  *Marisa?* I asked through our bond quietly.

  *Yes Al,* She replied a moment later picking up on my quiet sombre tone.

  *My mind is okay right, I’m not all desponded or coldly logical like a robot, am I?*

  *Why do you ask?*

  I paused unsure how to phrase my response. *Well you saw those remains, there must’ve been over twenty’s- hell thirty’s worth of people in that collection. And I mean I felt sick at the sight but other than that, I felt no pity or remorse or sadness just sick and not even much.*

  *Ah, you’re worried your morality and mentality towards death is becoming skewed and twisted.* I gave a mental nod. *I have no answers for you personally Al. We are still in the early days of this, our legacy. Your mind is your own, you- we, were not made inherently moral or understanding. You’ve been shaped by the environment you grew from. So, to relax your conscience Alaric Rosen, I will ask you this. Could you have save the people whose bones they belong to?*

  I shook my head, *logically speaking they’ve been dead for weeks maybe even months, the meat stripped from them and cooked with a side of rice or whatever ogres eat other than people. I couldn’t save them...* I began, realising what Marisa was suggesting at. *I couldn’t save them, because I didn’t know of them. I couldn’t save them because until a few days ago I wasn’t even aware of Viria.*

  *Exactly my love,* She replied in a kindly sad tone, yet full of love and compassion. *You weren’t even here when it happened. You only felt sick, because it was a sickly sight to behold, because of the predatory hunger of a carnivore. It was a sickly act and one that won’t be made again. So do not feel estranged because you felt one way believing you should feel another,* she sent softly through my mind like a tender caress.

  *Thank you, chick. We’ve only been together for just over a day and yet you know how to guide my mind so clearly. I’m grateful to have you with me,* I thought to her my voice filled with sincerity.

  *You need not thank me, for it is because of you that we have this chance, as we had many others,* I her last words a whisper’s and were barely audible.

  I became distracted upon entering to the central point of the many passages. Some passages led to complete dead ends were the ogre had stack useless—to him, gear and clothing it didn’t want to eat through.

  Other’s led on continuously, some bent in on themselves forming loops and back passageways. Marisa was crouch low by a smothered fire pit and was quite literally breathing live fire into the pit and igniting the embers. Ariana set me down close by and went off to a collection of wood stacked and retrieving a few she formed a tepee over the simmering small fire now reigniting in the pit.

  Job done, Marisa came to my side and curled by me, her head in my lap.

  “I’m going to take a look around. If I find anything interesting, I’ll pile them in a corner and tomorrow morning you can do that disappeary-thing you do, if your healed that is.”

  I nodded with small smile for the scout, she seemed intensely worried and I wondered if the worry was for me or for her quest to return me to her order.

  I couldn’t help the small inflation of my ego, if it was for me. I had one woman declare her love for, yes that said woman is now basically a fiery chicken. And said woman did say I would have other women. But what about the others that would eventually join us. Would I alone be enough?

  Silly thoughts to have in a monster cave with a curtained off alcove full of skeletons.

  “They’re a few things, just at a glance that we could take with us,” Ariana said coming back into the main area. “There’s also a stream of water trickling out of the wall at the back of the south-eastern passage. It drops down into a small crevasse where I assume an underground channel may be.” She dropped her pack and sack to the ground.

  “You rest up for a bit okay. I’m going to see about food and maybe finding something to carry water. Lost my canteen in the cargo hold of the ship and we both need some. I also saw various cooking pots that I’ll take a look at later.”

  I nodded agreeing with her, drinking supplies would definitely be handy to have. “Well there something you can do that is most definitely urgent and of the highest priority,” I said mysteriously and warped the old kettle I’d found at the farmhouse into my hand. “See if you can find something matching this.”

  “I know what a fucking kettle is Ally,” she said tersely and walked off shaking her head muttering. “God, I swear sometimes...”

  I paused a little taken aback and admitted it was a little stupid of me to believe an old rusty kettle was like some sacred relic that only the privilege few knew existed.

  *Dumbass,* Marisa chided me.

  *It just feels like that scenario where a man show’s off a lighter to a bunch of Neanderthals and becomes their god, that sort of thing.* I really didn’t know what was common on Viria. Everything I took for granted was practically mercurial for the natives of this world. I set the kettle down by me.

  Deciding to close my eyes for a spell, I quickly fell asleep.

  Chapter Ten

  When next I woke, the first sight I saw was Ariana sat by the fire pit sorting through several packages wrapped in what could I only assume be brown paper, that or flimsy bark. It was like the greaseproof paper bags you got for buns or pastries. These were the few supplies Catherine had given us.

  For a time; I just watched her, her graceful and powerful form fluid in the minor rhythm of her movements. I imagined what her wings would’ve looked like, remembering that Marisa had called her a Faen or Fae, that she may just be the daughter of a long dead couple that last fought against the Shi’en.

  Tian Jessem supposedly the one responsible for countless peoples and generations ever going without warmth in their lives. The Elves had supposedly come up with something, a replacement of sorts, but from what I’ve heard of them so far, I doubted they shared their discovery with the other races.

  “You going to stare all day with that dreamy look on your face or would you like to eat,” Ariana said, and I had to blinked repeatedly to bring myself back from my thoughts.

  “Yes, thank you. Sorry didn’t mean to fall asleep. How long was I out for?” I said looking around the ogre’s cave.

  “Just an hour or so; nothing much. I’ve scoured most of the cave and compiled our loot over by that wall,” she said gesturing with a wave at the wall on the other side of the fire pit.

  “Anything interesting?” I asked with a nod.

  “Not really,” she replied dejectedly. “All of the nomads stash seemed to be cookware. I did however find a kettle for which we can brew xhant in,” she added with a sarcastic quirk of her delicate eyebrow.

  “I’m sorry about that. Everything that seems so precious here is the norm back on Earth. I’m still learning. I haven’t been here long enough yet,” I replied with a short laugh, that hurt my side.

  “It’s okay, I wasn’t really pissed with you,” she offered me with a small smile, yet I didn’t fully believe her words.

  “So, once I’m healed up come sunrise—or whatever it is that actually heals me—what’re we gonna do, keep heading on and look for this settlement.” Ariana began unwrapping the brown sheathed paper holding a portion of our rations. Cheese melted on a bread roll and some jerky that tasted of barbecue sauce, it wasn’t anything particularly filling but the eating drew my mind away from my pained side.

  After that the day went quickly with Ariana deciding that I was to become our permanent pack mule, warping countless items of cookware, a large canteen filled with water, and an inflated water skin, with Ariana keeping one on her person.

  We then talked mainly about her, her life and growing up in Pyhronia, being adopted by a Valakharian Matriarch and a Loathain Seer.

  How having her ivory white skin colour and jet-black hair had quickly singled her out, when she was growing up. The majority of the natives of Pyhronia were tanned and freckled skin with deep brown hair and hazel ey
es, they were also shorter than. Which made companionship with the opposite sex harder as most men on her land took numerous wives by tradition.

  With their Roak’shari clan chiefs having the most at ten or twelve, and their picks of consorts and concubines. Most women who sort power either married into it or they joined the Valakharian order.

  At a young age; after her adopted mother’s death, Ariana had set her goal to join and become a matriarch of the order and so far, had achieved four out of the five circles of entry.

  Which basically meant she was but a step from reaching her goal. I could see the pride she held for herself and her actions, it was warranted as well. With time I hoped that someday, I would be brave enough to speak of my childhood. To talk aloud about the things that haunted me.

  My eyes became sleepy once again and I quickly nodded off with a, “Good night.”

  Then I dreamed.

  I was sat at a large Arthurian round stone table; high dark grey stone ceiling and walls gave the room a hexagonal shape. Braziers lit with blue ghostly fire dotted the corners of the room. I leaned back seemingly in deep discussion with the other occupants within the chamber.

  Three other men sat at a compass designation, with me being north and opposite the door. I knew the other’s that sat beside me and those stood behind. As many did the three other men.

  All women as well, yet I couldn’t focus on them, like trying to see clearly through frosted glass.

  We were in some form of an alliance me and these other powerful men. The man to my south wore a something like a space captains uniform and looked like Han Solo during that award scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. His eyes were the most striking feature about him though, they were a mixture of ghostly blues and stark purples. The colours seeming to be in constant combat with each other.

  To my east a younger man in his early twenty’s. He wore an expensive business suit and glasses. The suit was a tailored fit dark navy-blue piece. The single breasted fully lined jacket was undone to reveal his equally dark navy waist coat and baby blue shirt. His arms were outstretched and resting on the table, the sleeve of suit jacket peeled back slightly to show dark ruby studded cufflinks that matched his wine floral tie. His hair was slick and well kept, and I could tell a lot of effort had gone into his appearance. He also looked the most ordinary out of all of us. He was both relaxed and inquisitive.