Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Queen of the Deep - Belly of the Beast

“Get up you fool!” a harsh male voice whispered. Ikinya pulled open his heavy eyes. It was dark, and only slivers of light pooled down beneath the canopy of trees. He was in one of the mountain forests. He could not for his life recall how he had gotten there. His body was badly scraped and bruised. He could feel that without having to see it in the light. Ikinya’s eyes finally adjusted to the shaded darkness. The man hovering above him was Mbogo, one of his men. Mbogo was a reliable man, and a skilled fighter. He had taken more than one arrow and survived. Being a man his size, it was hard not to become the target of every archer in the east. Ikinya could not imagine why this man now looked so frightened.

“What is it Mbogo? Where are we?” Ikinya asked. Mbogo looked down on the man confused.

“Do you not remember? Have you been resting here on the forest floor since the day we first came to these cursed lands?” Ikinya stood, stretching his achy muscles. “It must be so and likely why you are still alive. She hunts us like animals for a great feast.”



Ikinya then remembered the ‘her’ of whom Mbogo speaks. The woman, Teleza she said her name was, had somehow bested him and all of his men. He remembered the shadows dragging them all away. He remembered the searing heat behind the touch of the shadow as it slithered up his body and dragged him across the plain and into the mountains. He was not sure how he had survived even that.

“How long have we been here?” Ikinya asked.

“By my count, we have been in this forest for seven nights and six days. I have heard the screams of others. I could hear her war cry as she slaughtered them. You have led us to our deaths Ikinya. You should not have ignored the teachings of our people. There had to be a reason the Baharini never took this pass. It was foolish to bring us here!” Mbogo was delirious with panic. They’d fought in many battles together, but he had never seen this man so afraid. Ikinya knew then that he had made a grave mistake in coming there.

“Leave me Mbogo.” Ikinya stated, taking in his surroundings.

“Leave you? Do we not stand a better chance if we fight together?” Mbogo was confused, and rightly so. Ikinya had right away observed that they were in a clearing, too neat and manicured to be a coincidence. He’d been laying there in its center like a ritual sacrifice.



“I have angered this Queen of the Deep Mbogo. It was by my machinations that this great treaty of old has been broken. Surely she will be coming for me to take to see that justice is met. If you want to survive, I am your least hope. Please Mbogo, leave this place, return to your wife and children and warn our people to never come here again.” There was sadness and certainty in his voice that spoke volumes to Mbogo. Ikinya had no thought of surviving this forest, and knew he deserved no less. Mbogo understood, grasped Ikinya’s hand in a warriors embrace, and scuttled off into the shadows.

“So there is some wisdom in this foolish boy after all.” A woman’s voice floated through the air and settled on his soul like honey. Ikinya knew that voice straight away, despite having heard so little of it. It was a voice he knew he could never forget in a million lifetimes.

“I am a warrior!” He bellowed out into the darkness. “I will not be taken without a fight and I will not die screaming like my companions!” His bravado was all he could muster. He knew that the truth was, whatever she was that could summon the very shadow, was much stronger than he.

“Ah yes, your companion. I nearly forgot.” Just that quickly her voice was gone and the silence was empty. Ikinya knew he was alone. He exhaled in relief of a moment to decide his fate. Should he run and allow himself to be hunted and possibly to hunt this woman or stand his ground and fight in this clearing? She had not relieved him of his spear or his sword. There was always a chance he could fight and survive.

The haunting sound of Mbogo’s screams suddenly filled the forest air, causing birds to flee their home in the canopy and fly for safety. His cry was blood chilling and drenched in fear. He’d been hunted down swiftly, and the following silence indicated that he had died just as swift.

A sound grasped Ikinya’s attention. Something was coming towards him, but something far larger than the woman. The sound was of heavy feet, at least four of them, and something large dragging across the forest floor. All sounds in the forest near him ceased aside from the crunching and dragging. He found himself backing away from whatever was approaching, unfamiliar with an animal the size of what he was hearing. Trees were cracking and being felled by the beast, whatever it was.

Then he could see it. First its glowing copper eyes pierced the dark shadows of the trees. The sheer size of the thing was terrifying. Its crimson scales glistened in the darkness. Its sharp, heavy talons slowly brought the beast closer. Ikinya drew both his spear and sword, but still feared that either would help. This beasts sharpened teeth looked far more lethal than any of his weapons. A stream of smoke rose steadily from its snout.

“Are you foolish enough to challenge me again boy?” Teleza’s voice spoke from the belly of the beast. Was this beast the woman from the village?

“I challenge all who would stand in my way” Ikinya spoke to the beast.

“A fool to your final breath I see.” Her voice sounded disappointed, even passing through her razor sharp teeth. “I should swallow you whole to save myself from your stupidity, but I fear you’d only upset my stomach with your incessant hot air.”

“What are you?” Ikinya boldly asked the steaming beast before him.

The beast stepped forward, placing a claw into the clearing, by its second step it was far smaller and changing. By steps four and five it had completely transformed back into the beautiful woman with the long braid down her back. Teleza stood before him, a full head shorter than he, with her copper eyes, flawless brown skin and full lips. She was wrapped in a crimson gown of silk, knotted just beneath her arm and leaving the entire left side of her body open to view. The swell of one breast, the curve of one hip, and the shape of one long leg showed itself from beneath the silk wrap.

“In your tongue, I am called hadithi, or at least I was in a time long before this one. Then my kind had largely become known as dragon. It is the name that we held last at the ending of the last age of men on Earth.” Her voice was serene and bore no malice for the warrior. This he expected less than her turning into a massive beast. She should have been furious and ripped him to pieces like she had his comrades.

“Go ahead” she spoke to him gently. “You grip your weapons so tightly. It can only mean that you are poised to strike at me still. Free yourself young fool. Strike me while I am yet but a woman. Surely it is your only hope of escape.” Just as sure as she spoke the words, Ikinya swung his blade and thrust his spear simultaneously. The spear clanged against her body and bounced far in the opposite direction. It would have knocked him unconscious had he not had the reflexes to get quickly out of its way. The sword clanged noisily and wobbled in his hand as if made by some malleable material. His eyes widened to disks. Her flesh was like stone, or even worse.

“You really are very, very stupid boy. Did you imagine that I would invite an attacked that I feared?” He did not respond, his eyes stay fastened to her skin that should be gaping open and bleeding. The woman sighed in annoyance. She stepped closer grabbed his large hand and placed it to the skin of her hip.

“How is it possible? You are soft and warm like…” Ikinya began.

“Like a woman? Do I not look like a woman to you boy?” Ikinya only swallowed hard. There was no right way to answer that question, even if she were merely a mortal village woman.

“I am woman, I am dragon, I am both. The Queen of the Deep does not have to choose one form over the other. I can always maintain both simultaneously. You will learn these things soon boy.” Ikinya looked again to her soft featured face.

“Do you not intend to do away with me as you have my men?” A smile traced the full lips of the dragon queen.

“No, you have a debt to pay. You owe those people a protector and you owe me a husband.”

It was Ikinya’s turn to gasp. This was not a turn of events he had foreseen when she’d spoken from the tongue of a hadithi. He’d imagined being her evening meal. Was it common for hadithi to make captors their kings?

“Your husband and king? I am afraid I do not understand.” Ikinya admitted.

“Of course you don’t Ikinya, you are a fool. I hope to break you of that, even if it means breaking all of your bones.” The man could not tell if her words were true or in jest. For the sake of self preservation, he did not dare smile.

“Gather your weapons and follow me Ikinya.” The woman said turning away from him. He quickly obeyed her words and followed her further up the mountain and into the darkness.

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