Mordecai Kane - (fantasy)

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They came at night. They must have known. The guards in the towers had no chance to even react. Two great balls of fire arced out of the tree line and destroyed the wooden towers at the village gate. The towers exploded into shards of flaming destruction setting fire to dozens of huts and houses. The towers came crashing down, taking the nearby walls and gate with them. Within seconds the entire village lay open to attack.

As the towers collapsed into flaming piles of ruin, dark figures began to emerge from the trees. At first there were a few but the trickle turned into a flood as thousands began to converge on the village. They came in every shape and size imaginable. Some were small dog like creatures with sharp tearing mouths and claws. Others were lumbering beasts with thick scales and massive tusks. Still more wore bits and pieces of armor as if in some ghoulish parody of warriors. Yet they all came with a single purpose.

The residents of the village were caught completely flat footed. The surprise had been complete. But these were hardy folk who had chosen to live in the harsh northlands. Surprise turned to anger and anger to action in moments. Men quickly gathered into groups, strapping on pieces of armor as they moved. They pushed thier wives and children back towards the hill; back towards the towering temple that overshadowed thier village. As the first creatures hit the flaming breach in the wall, the men were ready.

Mordecai crushed his younger brother to his chest. He was a strapping boy of sixteen but he struggled to carry his brother up the steep incline of the hill. His mother lurched beside him, scapping dirt with her hands as she scrambled for sure footing. They moved as part of a larger group, staggering towards the perceived safety of the temple walls. The group was strangely quiet. The fire from the burning village illuminated their backs as they struggled up the hill towards the temple. Their breath came in ragged bursts the filled the air with condensation.

He had tried to stay. His father had literally dragged him and his brother out of their cots. Throwing them out in the street with nothing more than their nightshirts, his father had ordered them to retreat. Mordecai argued but his father was fierce. Mordecai blanched at the look in his father's eyes and relented. His fear was palpable as he fled with his brother and mother. The creatures had started an unearthly yell. It pierced to his very soul. No longer thinking of fighting he only thought of escape.

The men in the village were hopelessly outnumbered. Yet they were the only thing that stood between their families and the approaching horde. Many of these men had seen creatures of this sort before. These were hardy men used to hunting and farming under the shadow of unnatural beasts. But one or two prowling fiends was a far cry from the vast hordes flooding thier village tonight.

The first creatures to reach the men were the smaller quicker beasts. These fell quickly to the thrusting spears and knives of the townsfolk. Soon the few turned into many and then into a flood. Men fell. The beasts carved into them with a horrific power. Limbs were severed and bodies torn. Some of the creatures stopped and began ghoulishly feeding on the often still breathing men. Beasts died as well but far too few to stem the tide.

Mordecai's father fell at his own doorstep. His arm was gashed from the claws of a hideous, gnashing beast. The beast had impaled itself on his spear and climbed right up his arm. The roof of his home was on fire. The cinders fell down on his head in growing numbers. Struggling to his feet, he drew his large hunting knife. Feeling unnatural as he held it in the wrong hand, he lurched out to strike at a passing beast. The scales of the beast's hide turned the knife harmlessly aside. Mordecai's father didn't even feel the blow that killed him but thankfully it fell. In minutes the village had been turned into a funeral pyre of horrific nature.

And the beasts began to climb the hill.


[This message has been edited by Shrike00 (edited November 06, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Shrike00 (edited November 06, 2001).]

 

Great Story! I really like this. My teachers are always saying i'm a good writer, so i know what i'm talking about. So far it looks great, i like the way you write.

 

The staggering group of refuggees finally reached the temple gates. The gates had been thrown open and the monks began assisting people into their compound.

"Hurry, hurry", they urgently whispered, always looking down the hill.

Mordecai thankfully handed his little brother to a monk as they reached the gates. His arms and legs felt like lead. He paused for a moment with his mother and looked down into the ruin of their village. Tears stung his eyes as he realized no man could have survived the onslaught. His father was dead.

He suddenly realized his mother was sobbing beside him. He turned and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Come mother," he said, guiding her into the temple compound. He guided her in, through the gates, with just seconds to spare. The monks, wary of the onrushing hoards, slammed the heavy wooden gates shut. Their haste trapped almost 20 villagers on the outside.

Mordecai and his mother emerged into the temple courtyard to a scene of bedlam. Exhausted villagers were collapsed in huddles all around the grassy yard. Monks scurried back and forth attending their needs as best they could. Mordecai spied his brother with a group of other children and led his mother over to them.

The temple was a well built, smallish enclosure. Its adherents were not the passive type of monks akin to the Celestial Orders. These were Rai Kan. Their skill at the martial arts was rivalled only by their ability to focus their minds. For all of their martial skill, however, this compound was not designed to withstand a determined attack. The wall surrounding the enclosure was only 12 feet high with a narrow walkway. The gate structure had wooden towers like the village below.

There were over thirty monks living in the compound and some 100 acolytes at various stages of their training. Mordecai himself had been receiving training for just under a year. He had not even successfully grown the traditional braid of a Rai Kan monk.

However, Mordecai was shell shocked. He watched passively with his family as the monks and the acolytes manned the walls. Distantly he heard the pleading of the people caught outside of the walls. They had managed to lift their children up over the walls but there was no time for them. The beasts slammed into the walls of the temple enclosure like it wasn't worthy of notice.

And they were stopped cold.

The monks were not ill-prepared, untrained villagers. They were living, breathing embodiments of the warrior spirit. Their bodies whirled and spun across the narrow walkways of the walls. Staves and fists threw countless creatures back onto the milling throngs. As the beasts began to mill around the gate, monks on the wall began using slings to pick of the small creatures.

The attack suddenly lost direction and focus. The crowd of beasts at the gates surged back and forth and finally began creeping along the walls. The monks and acolytes spread themselves out as the beast moved along the walls. Soon they were defending almost the entire circumference of the temple enclosure. And still they held.

But the odds were too great. Some of the beasts towered over even the 12 foot wall. These slow moving behemoths seemed impervious to the rain of blows with which the monks lashed out. Their bulk began cracking the walls in several places. Piles of the beasts began fighting on an almost even footing with the desperate monks. Then the gates were shattered by a massive blow. The beasts began rushing into the courtyard.

The monks and acolytes made an orderly retreat. Their numbers were greatly diminished but they shrunk into a rought semi-circle around the huddled villagers. Some one had thrown open the doors to the temple itself and villagers began to retreat to the last vestige of safety.

Mordecai felt his brother sobbing. His mother stood almost in a trance. Women and children were wailing and crying. Others huddled in fear turning their eyes from the horrific sight before them. The beasts were only yards away, held at bay by an impossibly thin line of robed men. Mordecai saw the open doors of the temple but realized somewhere in the reaches of his mind that is was an empty promise of safety. He stood rigid, clutching his sobbing brother to his chest, staring at his certain death.

Then a fiend broke through the line. The monks closed the hole quickly but the beast made a beeline for the huddled mass of villagers still outside the temple. It was roughly the size of a grown man. It had two smallish horns rising at awkward angles from the side of its oblong head. It had gaping jaws with ragged, jagged teeth spilling in every direction. Its body was a tight bundle of nerves and muscle that seemed built for nothing but death. It reeked of an odor so foul that Mordecai couldn't even begin to imagin the source.

The beast struck a small child just to Mordecai's left. The mother feebly tried to fend off the blow but to no avail. The girl wailed as the creature's claws sank into he skin. The hideous mouth leered as it reached for her throat. At that instant, Mordecai struck.

He had received only the most rudimentary training in hand combat. He didn't think about that as he struck. He struck out of a primal rage that welled in his soul. It was a rage born of a survival instinct he didn't know he had. It was a rage bursting forth at the sight of as malicious an evil as he had never seen.

Mordecai was lucky. The beast was concentrated on his kill and Mordecai's blow landed against his unprotected back. Mordecai lashed out with his fists again and again. The beast, stunned, staggered and fell to the ground. Mordecai's furious assault followed the creature down, giving it no respite. In seconds the creature lay still.

Mordecai's breath was coming in ragged gasps. His fists ached with several broken bones from striking the creatures hard carapace but he didn't feel the pain. He stared at his bloody fists as if they didn't belong to his body. His mind reeled as the bloodlust came upon him. He whirled to face the still oncoming hordes. His rage boiling over from his encounter with the beast, exploded.

The scream was from a primal place that few men know and fewer still find. It tapped a place in his mind that he had never been before. It enfused him with an energy that defied explanation.

Then the lightning started crashing down.



[This message has been edited by Shrike00 (edited November 07, 2001).]

 

Hey, this is really interesting. I like the blood lust, hehe. I'm guessing his rage is calling the lightning, but who knows.

 

very goood