|
|
|
Hell’s Fury-Dark Armed
Chapter IX
Heart of Steel
Fortified winds of death, ripped the Zeppelin Los apart. Tamoka was also blown to and fro by the unrelenting tempest’s fury. Her poison stricken gaze watched with nerve wracking fear as those she cared about disappeared. Falling, she was not alone.
The unfortunate leper known as Ducard, was also tossed about, spiraling towards the ground. Tamoka couldn’t get her wings to fly because the puncture wounds she received from battling against Lucifer, had ripped open wider and couldn’t catch any air. She dove after the leper who was barely conscious. She removed his cloak and tore it into two, tying each part around her wings as her legs caught his waist in a straddle.
She held her now clothed wings with her arms as a brace, flapping them, she managed to catch enough wind to twirl about, but flight wasn’t sustained for long as a mighty gust hurled her into a tree. She twisted so that her back would take the hits and not Ducard. Branch by branch she crashed onto the ground, laying on her back, with the blacked out leper.
Ducard’s mind swarmed in and out with dream-like visions. He saw the demon girl hovering over him. There was blood on her hands. He felt sharp needles piercing through him. He saw in her hands a round from a Browning hi-power pistol. He saw dreary trees traveling above him. Against his left cheek he felt the comfort of a plump, warm bosom.
At last when he came to, he was in a dark chamber, with bone cold walls. He looked around still lost. A whole entire day had passed, but the last thing he recalled was hurdling from the Los. His mouth piece had been removed and his infected body was exposed, aside from a tight bandage that was wrapped around his shoulder, where he had been shot. His other wounds, covering his body had bubbled and became worse, his lips were scraggly, with no smooth flesh. Even his yellow eyes were covered with infection. His condition had worsened.
“You’re awake now, good.” Two red eyes were glowing from the darkness, ten feet away.
“Who are you…”
“Who do you think I am stupid?” Tamoka treated him rudely, much as she did when she first met AnRak. This man worked for Lucifer who tried to kill her and he, himself had blinded her eyes.
The man’s stared back with a disease ridden glare. “Right… Tamoka, why did you save me?” Everything he imagined was true. She pulled out his bullet and bandaged his arm tightly in the rags she used for wing patches.
“You were just too pathetic, to let die.” She couldn’t let him die, even if he had hunted her down.
He was astounded by such bizarre kindness. As a leper he could never receive kindness from anybody. Until the day he met Lucifer.
“I’m going to kill you myself…” Her teeth bared furiously over her lip. “If AnRak and the others are dead!”
“Good clause.” Ducard weakly stood.
“Sit down stupid!”
“You should have allowed me to die, but I will repay the favor.” He tried to smile, but he couldn’t keep living in the body that he had. Saving this girl’s eyes could be his last mission, a good deed to redeem himself in the name of god. Tamoka was a demon, but as a survival instinct she opposed Lucifer, this meant she was not evil.
“It’s fine, last night’s rain washed it out.” She explained boastfully.
From this Ducard gathered the day had passed and he sat back down. “In the morning I will fetch the Silver Azalea’s pollen… You can see fine, but the pain hasn’t disappeared has it?”
“No…” She admitted disdainfully.
“Then the toxins are still in effect. You will have to keep your eyes open as much as possible, so stay awake.”
She was exhausted, but complied. “Yeah, I’m a light sleeper anyways.” She looked to him. “Why can’t we just get it now?”
“Lucifer’s out there. He can only come out at night, the day light weakens him exponentially.”
Tamoka stood up and walked over to him, sitting beside him, squishing her bosom to her knees. “That’s when I’ll kill him then, after my eyes are fixed. Say, who are you and what’s your connection to Lucifer, did he steal your soul?” She asked, her motive more so inquisitive than cruel.
“I am not important…” He licked his warped lips. “Just a leper…”
“A leper?”
“You see my flesh, I am contagious, you will most likely be coming down with my sickness-”
“Ha! Just because your body is all puss and scabs?” She began to explain to this man of her previous encounter with a leper colony.
Infected Sheath
It was month’s after her mother was murdered. The young girl with blossoming wings, roamed shirtless through the trashy outskirts of Tendo. In her hand she clutched the pentagram pendant that was given to her by her mother. She held it for strength and hope that her mom would watch over her. She couldn’t go back to the city, she couldn’t go into any populated area.
It was only until one day she found a boy with rotting flesh, limping with a cane, in the woods. He was missing his leg. Was he human? The young girl wondered. She slowly followed this boy, he was aware of her presence.
He frightfully hobbled home and explained to the elders that a demon was stalking him. The elders yelled at him for leaving the city, because they would now be plagued by demons.
There was no real force of defense for this small shabby town, which was blocked off from all other trade routes by large irrigation systems. These people were dying, all they could do was pray for the gods help and get small aid from missionaries.
A younger, thinner Shielsia had left the town, walking with a spoiled holy man with tufts of black hair. It was James.
“Jove was really sad, after everything…” The girl was overly dramatic.
“In the name of god. Understand child, in the name of god.” He explained to her, as they left the leper colony.
Tamoka just missed them, her nose following the smell of rotting flesh, it could’ve been food. Her mother told her never to eat a living human, but she wasn’t sure that they were human.
She climbed the 50 foot tall wooden barrier, digging her nails in, like a climbing cat. Her curious crimson eyes watched the people of the city. They were all damaged. She climbed over, hopping from one side to the other, and down the opposite side.
As she reached the half way point a net entrapped her. She was pulled to the ground.
“Good shot Gonzolas!” One of the sickly people complimented.
Even to a leper Hellian’s were pure evil. Tamoka was no exception, until she was brought before the elders. Her eyes were in tears, she was trapped and surely going to be killed. They had never seen a demon so young, or with tears in their eyes like a human. Her three fingers clung tightly to the pentagram and she prayed for her mother to come save her.
“Young Hellian, what are you doing, coming to our city?” The old man’s voice spoke strictly, his face was covered by bandages, as were the two beside him.
The room was dark, for lepers could not stand to see themselves in the light of day, they built all their shelters without windows. They didn’t want to be reminded of who they were, as impossible as that was.
“I… I followed a boy…” She didn’t say that she was planning on eating him.
The man opened his eye, getting a good look at her. From the black pitch of the room even these people could see, with adapted eyes. “Do you know what we are?”
She shook her head.
The elder chose not to tell her. He then asked where she came from. Tamoka said her mother was dead and everybody since had tried to kill her. From such circumstances, she was hated as they were. A sympathy was given. The elder announced that she would live with them.
There Tamoka lived. At first she was treated as if she were a leper, but they realized that she was just a child and all had welcomed her. A blacksmith had melded a form of armor for her, though it was too small. He said he would keep melding more molds as she grew.
“You never became stricken with leprosy?” Ducard’s eyes cocked with concerned.
“Nope.” she smirked.
“You were a god given gift to them. My name is Ducard Renvious madam.” He stood up bowing in a gentlemanly introduction, but fell forward, still weak. She caught him and set him back down.
“Your life seemed joyful, what happened?” He asked.
“Nothing. I told you enough, so tell me about this Lucifer creep.” She demanded.
“I met him a decade ago…”
Black Revelation
The dry winds of the flat, salt desert blew crisp grains violently. A shoeless man had been wandering the desert. It was Ducard, but all his gear was missing and his leprosy wasn’t as harsh. All he had on was a pair of shorts. His yellow eyes filled with bloody veins. He left his home after everybody he loved caught his disease. He had a wife who died, thus he could not kill anymore, even indirectly.
There were many uneducated lepers who had severed their limbs, thinking it would be cured, but Ducard knew better. The only cure was medical treatment, which was held by the Redjedef empire for purposes of biological warfare, claimed to be used against Hellians.
For this reason Ducard who was generally a kind soul filled his heart with vengeance and hate for the death of his wife and for his own body’s pain and grotesque appearance. He desired to wage war, this desire drove him to insanity, because it clashed with his gentle disposition. In an effort to destroy himself with honor he left his village: Neigenan to wander the great salt desert of Iran.
Burnt and dehydrated he collapsed with a smile. He didn’t give into his hatred, praising his lord all the way. Soon he would be with all that he loved, until the area became fog bound and cold. The sun disappeared and the bright red sky became a dark as blood.
His eyes were faintly open, but his ears picked up the sound of a carriage drawn by horses, clanking. From a distance, cutting through the fog several monstrous statues raged forward. They were pulling an old brown carriage with an illuminating light inside. It was like nothing he had ever seen. The pullers were not demons, but golems in the shape of stallions.
The carriage stopped in front of him and out stepped the tall figure. His flesh was a pale white, with blonde hair. He had angelic blue eyes. His voice was unfriendly, but gave out soothing words.
“A miserable wretch, is that how you wish to die?” The man kneeled to Ducard. “Or cured, fulfilling your desires to right the wrongs of this world?”
“H-…” Ducard tried to ask how, the word could not come, but Lucifer answered.
“By soothing your heart in darkness I will cure you…” At first Lucifer seemed concerned for Ducard, but he never could hide his true motives. “A leper, would serve well. Will you aid in my own ambitions, do so and you will be cured. Serve well and I will make sure those who have robbed you will be no more.”
Ducard’s ears clung to these words. He would do anything, anything at all to get his way. He tossed away his holy disposition. Moments from a peaceful death he threw it all away to be a servant of darkness.
“And you thought Lucifer would help you? Don’t you read the bible?” Tamoka didn’t, but she was smart enough to know that man couldn’t be trusted.
“Qur’an.” He quickly replied.
“What?”
The rest of the night had Ducard explaining to Tamoka the belief’s of Islam. She kept interrupting his stories with questions, though some parts of the lecture interested her, the others confused her, because it was just a religion, sharing many similarities with the bible, which she got to hear so much from Shielsia.
The next morning they left the cave, which ironically was a hollowed out rib of the great dragon that died on Everest, but Tamoka didn’t notice: busy attending to Ducard’s wound and he didn’t know that she came here for the bones. Ducard was limping, but in no time they traveled through the still soaking forest. The sun was bright and a rainbow could barely be seen in the crimson sky.
“Ah-ha, here it is.” He pointed the flower out to her. The tired girl swayed over to it, getting on her knees. “See the thick pollen on the petal, it’s yet to be harvested, rub it off onto your fingers and place it into your eyes.”
Tamoka did it accordingly. At first her pain disappeared, but her cheeks and nose became red. She sneezed awfully in a fit that wouldn’t stop, blood rain down her eyes as if she were crying.
“What the heaven…” She yelled, her face burning, her hand rubbed the tears away, shocked to see it was blood. She wouldn’t go blind, but now she is in agony.
“Was this a goddamned trick!” Her hands roped around Ducard’s neck, shaking him back and forth.
“No, I had no idea you were allergic!” His gasping voice pleaded.
“So how do I fix it!” She howled at him, who couldn’t produce an answer.
A small mousy, but boastful voice was heard from above. It spoke riddling. “If an atom is parted it will kill, a particul removed could be a cure.”
Tamoka looked about from her foaming eyes. “Who said that!” She was regaining her animalistic ferocity.
“I am he and she is he and we are eight limbered.” The voice squeaked again. Ducard heard it, he found a spider web aligned with water droplets. A violet and black spider, dangling from a thread, had a tiny head of a human.
Ducard looked closer at the strange looking arachnid, noticing it had three segments. The head was separated from the cephalothoraxes, an oddity of most all species of spiders. It had it’s eight limbs, but also a bosom covered in weevils of web. Also it’s face had two eyes that blinked, but it turned out each eye was cut in four horizontal segments, with a pupil in each one. A web of hair was also designed onto it’s head, while it bared fangs over a lip.
“You spoke, didn’t you?” Ducard tilted his head, cautiously.
“What the hell are you doing!” The rampant Tamoka was clawing at the ground, shrieking at Ducard.
The spider’s whole web shook from the tantrum and the spider dangled about. “Quaking idiot, shaking fool, a quake shan’t repair your eyes!” The poor wavering spider clung to her web.
Tamoka barely heard this over her screaming, but panted. “What do you expect that I do! Calling me an idiot, I can squash you!” She stood up, going for the spider, but Ducard held her back.
The spider hopped from her web landing onto one of the silver strands of Tamoka’s hair, using it as an artificial web to hang onto. “Remove what ails, cease your moronic ails!” She was peering into Tamoka’s left eye. The eye lid mighty to the spider almost slashed her to pieces as it sealed shut, the eye lashes attacking her.
“Eye open, or pain shall persist!” The spider scolded her, biting her nose.
Tamoka went to angrily slap, Ducard continued to hold her back. The spider’s eight legs began to gently remove pollen from Tamoka’s eyes. Her eyes began tearing naturally, this time bloodless. Using two of her legs to hold onto the base of Tamoka’s cheek, two clung to the eye lashes, two removed pollen handing it to the last two that shoved it into her mouth. Soon all the pollen was gone, but the swelling remained.
She began the other eye, climbing over Tamoka’s nose, manicuring the base, cleaning out the whole of the eye. The spider then hopped off of Tamoka who was tearing up, still in pain.
“Annoyment is gone, healing will assume.” She climbed back into her web.
The girl looked at the spider, feeling a bit better. “Thanks… I really do owe you.”
“Annoyment is gone!” The spider yelled at her, throwing a severed dried head of a dead fly at her.
“Who are you, and how can you speak?” Ducard was astonished, feeling this was a mythical creature.
“Rakuga spent a life time of speaking, how is it that you speak to Rakuga?” In riddled form she mocked Ducard. Before Ducard could answer Rakuga noticed the pentagram pendant on Tamoka’s collar. “A time from time, is that a hex imprint?” She hopped onto Tamoka’s neck, reading the pendant, finding inscriptions that no eye could capture.
“What are you doing?” Tamoka carefully kept her chin high.
“Voices over voices, one life into another, are you you or are you the other?”
“Speak sensibly for death’s sake!” Tamoka’s hatred of the way Rakuga spoke was apparent.
The soft hands of the spider brushed upon each segment of the pentagram, whispering words that she read to herself. The words were not on the flat crossing bridges, but on the miniscule sides of the bridge, a place where only Rakuga’s head could fit. Before the pentagram was made into a pentagram the separate pieces of metal could’ve been read with a microscope.
“No, you are, who you are, no other soul within you… Though your thoughts have melded with thought patterns of souls that have been delivered into the darkness.” Rakuga explained.
“What?” Tamoka’s eyes stared forward, not really giving a damn anymore.
“You tell me everything. Any idea of this pendants geneology?”
“It’s an heirloom, so what?”
“A demon who traveled with human, it explains why you get along so well.”
“I hate this guy!” Tamoka growled.
“You did save me…” Ducard smiled, his eyes focused on the spider on her neck. “It’s true, she is kind.”
“Ah, from birth to now this is the reason why you survive around humans, why you help them, kindness runs in your family. Kindness and good intentions cannot be inherited. Memories and thought patterns can not be inherited. Do you understand, this hex is the reason why you treat others kindly.”
“Wait, my memories aren’t my own?”
“Awareness of new experiences is not a natural gift, idiot!”
“She didn’t know what the Qur’an was.” Ducard butted in.
The spider chuckled climbing up Tamoka’s neck and face, hopping off floating back to her tree. “Enough of this, be gone before you attract the dark one and ruin my life.”
“But wait, we-”
“Let’s go…” Tamoka turned away. Ducard wanted to know more about where Rakuga came from and how she could speak and bared an odd human appearance. Tamoka’s mind however understood what Rakuga meant and had to test this theory.
Sorrow Evolved love
The Los was now a wreckage, empty and abandoned. The crew members however have survived. They took refuge in one of the many hollowed out ribs of the dragon. AnRak was familiar with the area so there was no mistaking it.
With the loss of Tamoka he became cold to the others and distant. As soon as they managed their way into the cave he began work on her armor. If she was still alive he would protect her.
Shielsia was most miserable of all. She was on the other side of the cave crying. Yazl held his head on her pillow like lap, while Kalbe comforted her with his arm wrapped around her shoulder.
“Cry all you need to ba… Shielsia.” He leaned his nose into her black ruffled and damped hair, inhaling her scent.
“Tamoka’s fine, she’s really strong!” Yazl’s high pitch voice tried to comfort Shielsia as he rubbed her tummy.
Shielsia shook her head, tears dripping down her nose, AnRak spoke from a crossed the room, he was holding a large piece of wood that he carved as a chest mold, pouring molten liquid that he burned from the bone. “She is alive… I feel it.”
“It’s…not… that…” Her pure eyes did not cry for a lament, but because of her own mean nature. The golden bible was beside her, her hand trembling at it’s binding. “She tried so hard…”
Shielsia’s memory kept sinking before the ship crashed. She was floating, with Kalbe holding onto her wide rear, by the cargo bay. Her gaze was on the gash that been created on the wall. The rain pelted at her face, but there was a dark figure clinging to the side of the ship. It’s wings moved so fast that it appeared invisible, eyes glowing crimson. A flash of the sky shown that it was Tamoka, desperately trying to lift the ship, another flash and she was struck in the back.
“Tamoka… She tried so hard… So hard…” She wailed. “All this time I’ve treated her like scum, but she was attacked and ki…ki…” She was going to say ‘killed trying to save us,’ but the over coming tears folded her words away. Kalbe held her.
“It’s okay… You and her just bickered, she wouldn’t hold it against you.”
“I truly hated her!” Shielsia screamed. Burying her face into Kalbe’s chest, confessing her wrath.
“Never forget what she did then.” AnRak’s voice calm and collected used his sword and bow to pick up the piece of armor that he had created. It was steaming orange, but by the way he held it extremely light. It would’ve been Tamoka’s new breast plate. With curves matching her bosom, that was aligned with rigid angles. AnRak desperately held back his own tears, but they survived. She might have as well. Either way he would keep his promise to her, even if he would never see her again.
 Shielsia · Sat Oct 02, 2010 @ 01:44am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
