By Woodruff Laputka
THE WAR
A troublesome time lay ahead, for the shocking might of the unknown enemy rose in
oppressive proportion against the initial offensive of man. The battles spread irregularly,
spanning ever southward into the realms of civil man. I kept to the cities of
south, and to the Capital, where I would look through their great seeing instruments, and
begin record of the awful battles that took place. From my seat atop the Tower Fue, that
stood atop the placement of the Fortress of One, I watched from some many thousands of
miles the fall of the Emerald colored city of Razaban, held highly for its skills in
medicine and healing, and beautiful to the painters eye, sitting along the coasts of the
Red Clay rivers and gorgeous purple mountains. It was hideous the way the enemy
moved, for they were as one a body, never falling to the chaos of swarming war, but
moving as if all shared a great mind, each warrior a finger to the greater, terrible hand.
And ever were there more of them, pouring from out the dark smoke that followed, for it
was everywhere they were, blotting out the sunlight so as it never touched them,
shrouding the forces of man into darkness, and illuminating the fires of battle fiercely.
Also, let me note here that all the world shook in horror at the harsh events, for no matter
the technology, or masterful skills of war and reason, the enemy pressed with awesome
strength, that made the tides quite troubling for everyone, everywhere. It was a strange
thing to hear the rumors that no dead soldier of man had ever been recovered, and that
when ever a battle was won for us, the dead were ever missing, never found among the
piles of the enemy carcasses. And this troubled many people, who by the hundreds of
millions watched the battles as I did, for so great is the Tower Fue as to admit an
unspeakably great host, and allow them site with its many thousand fittings of the seeing
instrument.
By now, so far into the stack that was given by Professor Qui’zaar, those present
took a moment to look at one another breathlessly. It could not be believed what it
was they were hearing there in the parlor, while Dr. Sutter turned page after page
still, taking in every account of battle and blood and defeat according to the ever
telling author, so that many a thousand pages had passed with in a short time,
taking up the day and bringing in the night before noticed. No one made any motion
to speak or leave or even more, for were they too riveted with the translations to feel
tired, or hungry, or thirsty at all. Everyone set there, listening as Dr. Sutter
continued on in breathless readings. His eyes had barely blinked sense the moment
they took on the pages, and his lips were dry and flaked with dead skin, his hands
slightly trembling quite oddly.
Truly was it a question among them as to believe what it was they were hearing, for
the accounts of such things, from such a book as the one that they had found were
absolutely astonishing, and beyond doubt, even frightening. The narrator, so they
listened to, spelled a great series of events that occurred in the world that he spoke
of. The provinces which had held the tall cities most revered by him were slowly
crumbling in the sieges of the terrible advancing enemy. His pride in the powers of
the Masterful people who took him on as their own had been damaged beyond all
measure, and it was clear that his long spells of description soon held a most
melancholy tone to them, spelling out a doom that was coming to surface beneath
the fading lights of an ever darkening sky.
And yay! Let it be known here that all the peoples of the earth called into the sky, to the
gods, whom I shall speak of at a later time, to save them from the terror that had beset
their lands, and meant awful destruction to their homes, and death to their children. And
they took it to themselves to name the one spoken rumor. The figure who was sited at the
beginning, that lead the charge when the wall first opened, and was thought as leader
unto the Northern armies of Fire by all those who saw the great cloud come unto them.
And the Avathothon Boy was he named, for that word, that word which set in their history
as a fowl, unspeakable thing, and by that, the word itself meant only itself, for so terrible
was its meaning as to be forbidden the blessing of description. It was he whom was
blamed for all that had come, and in various forms did he plague us while we slept, while
we ate and while we lived. From a screaming child to a great rain storm, one could not
help but see the terror that bled from his eyes, or hear the thunder that roared from his
mouth, and this was the word of the Enemy, ever smotting hope in the people as the years
of the way pressed on.
Then did the dark shadow cross southward, having won many victories along that south
bound paths, and flooded into the planes of Zala Havan. The defenses of that city were
great in magnitude, yet pressed most helplessly back unto the city walls. The dark hordes
came crashing down upon them from out all sides, so many that the earth shook beneath
heir stomping, while the air was unbearable with the screams of their many thousands.
The troops of men, unknowing what to do, gave the call for evacuation of the fine city,
while sending out a final word into the air, a golden light, to call upon any friendly
forces that may hap see their plight. Minutes passed, and hundreds died. The first lines of
the arsenal, which ever was kept behind the troops, had been breached before sunset,
while by the time of twilight, the city had gone into chaos and panic. The fortress of the
one was emptied of its many secretaries, whom kept as cataloguers of the political doings
there, while the Councilmen themselves had long sense departed, forced to leave by the
military commanders once the first ranks of the defenses had been overcome.
I watched all of this from the Tower Fue, which stood atop the Fortress of One as its
observatory. Powerful were those lenses there, which allowed me to see at great mighty
distances, and watch the bathing darkness come over the land as the lights of the fires
glowed hideously. I saw the many bodies piled among the debris of war in the field, and
watched what the idle enemies did when those forward to them were busy. To my horror
did I notice something rather odd about them, for curiously did they appear quite human,
more so than I had ever noticed before. But of their bodies were their assembled armor
of contorted metal and black stones, so that all appeared black and blood stained, but
with a strange familiarity to the armor of the human solider. The terror of this thought
struck me back and way from my looking glass, so that it was several minutes before I
would return, to see an absolutely glorifying thing emerge from the darkening distance of
the east. Lights could be seen in the clouds, hovering about strangely, before emerging
out into site as a great host of allied airships, raining fire down upon the invading hordes
and passing swooping down to as to put a fright into the enemy and push them away.
This, however, did nothing to them, for they are ever the unfazable animal, and are only
stopped once truly dead, which is, quite unfortunately, at great effort. There were so
many that fell when too close, for the masses of the enemy reached up once they noticed
the coming ships, and towered in great hulks of their bodies, becoming as one and
grabbing them from the sky, pushing them to the ground and then tearing them asunder
till al was unnoticeable. But the destructive power of the reinforcements soon turned the
tides against our enemy, and with in the night was the siege turned round, and the forces
of the evil creatures smitten. At that moment, I felt that there was something possible,
buried deep with in the struggles of mankind. A fire that burned unhindered and true.
The hopes of the many made manifest. It was the cause of much thankful praying to all
the saviors of the day, but such did not last long, both in my vision nor in the hearts of
the people, for at the time of the siege, 6 more great cities had fallen in its place, and so
was the staggering difference of this victory unacceptable. Those cities, I must name, for
there is no other who can, nor anyone to remember the man sons and daughters who
were lost. And they were the Tall ones, worthy of remembrance; of Naba, Shui’Zur,
Azeira, Koshnal, Farthein and Ranasum, with its fields of golden grain, and an ever love
for the arts of crafting by hand, of poetry and fine music. People questioned allowed
what was being done in the military. How could it be that in all our capability, they said,
we cannot win against an enemy so vile as those who attack us? And the military scolded
them, assuring them that all measures were being taken, and that the best options were
ever what they had. It was in the unfortunate truth that the enemy was far too powerful to
practical measure. That the machines which had been built so long ago were not to the
standards required for the war, and so were the soldiers pressed and the commanders
stressed with strategies to work unto victory, while ever did the monstrous villains poor
further and further from the black cloud that wandered, always to their targets, always
snuffing out the lights. To this, the people replied that new machines must be built, to
counter the advancements from the North, and to drive them ever back. But the sad truth
of it was that no one remembered how, not even in the texts of the military history, for so
Old were those weapons that were being used, that their uses were all that had been
remembered. The very making of them was a truly complex thing, and of such skill as had
been put to other crafts, leaving their need behind for things of peace of cultural
prosperity.
Once again was the Avathothon Boy blamed for the shadows of the peoples memory, and
perceived to be a curse to them for their forgetfulness and long, peaceful ages.
Now, Too long had they, the men of earth, taken the defensive from absolute necessity,
called upon for protection by any town or village or city that saw the black clouds appear
over their northern horizon. Now did they feel it was time to take upon themselves the
offensive, and drive their machine of war into the very heart of the enemy ranks, and
plow their ever battled advancement back into the dark heart of the North. A long flank
was arranged, consisting of war vehicles and soldiers of speed and smitters of great body
and armor to sit affront by a distance, and wait for the coming cloud. All southern
reserves were emptied, and called upon for the mass of the onslaught, between the two
great ranges of Fallia and Nui’are, which mean, in that most beautiful language, Father
and Daughter. Long was this in preparation, and much resources and time from the
arsenals were placed for the hopeful success of their victory. All would move when the
war horns sounded, and the command of the high ranking soldiers passes wide, that this
will be the final stand, the final time they die. And from the sky did they look to me as a
great arrow, formulated in perfect synchronicity so that their steps and movements held
tight, while the heavier, stronger armored smitters moved ahead by some many miles in
the form of a bottomed half-circle. Millions upon many more bore arms in this
organization, and I stress this moment in my cataloguing even more, for so important is it
for you to know that, though shameful am I for thinking so, I bore then no true hope for
their victory in battle, for ever through this bloody crusade had the victories been sparse,
while our dead vanish and the earth stains with blood, and the sites, the terrible sites
from my viewing glass in the tower depress my soul with every peek.
Soon approaching was the sky of black color, and the armies of the darkness which
swarmed through the northern ranges unhindered, having succeeded in demolishing the
that provinces one city, and now aimed for the pass of Father of Daughter, the quickest
inlet southward, to open into the plane of Xanadon. The War horns were blown, for I saw
the masses march, and the half circle of forerunning ranks meet into the progression of
the abominable beasts. The clash was horrible, with many a thousand warriors on both
sides crushing upon one another to death, while so great was the clash in many the
sections that bodies had even flown into air from the force of it, only to land atop the
swell, and be devoured by the rage of the battlefield. Yet, as I watched, a spring of hope,
though dim, began to kindle in me, for the dark forces receded back with the pressure in
the pass from the men, for the foreword ranks succeeded in standing their ground well.
For a time, it looked as if they could not be beaten, their armor glimmering in the mid
day sunlight like many a thousand diamonds against the staggering mouth of darkness,
the monstrous enemy faltering and falling beneath their righteous blades like cattle unto
the slaughter. And the ranks were as water unto rock, unable to gain a footing beyond the
army of men. But the numbers of the enemy army were vast, indeed, and soon did it come
that so many were there that the humans would soon be overwhelmed, and the pressure
pushed hard into their numbers, and the ferocity and strength of the black armies rise to
proficiency that would not allow failure. Yet, when this hope of mine soon dimmed, it was
sparked once again more brightly than ever, for just at that moment did the great
movement of the massing armies appear, firing off the many powerful weapons which
drove with them and moving in such speed as I had never before seen them do. Glorious
and shimmering like the light of the stars, and calling with horns, so that the front ranks,
dwindled and battered, knew of their comrades approach. And when they were nearly
upon them, and it would be clear that the arrow would pierce even its own men, the front
line split in two, and pushed their way to each side, so that a clear path was suddenly
laid, only long enough for allowing the arrow to drive itself head on, into the middle and
from there mass against the dark ranks and outward, unleashing their weapons in
glorious unison and filling the darkness with blinding light. From there did the battle
expand to the northern cupping, pushing back through burning planes and battling
among the ruins of lost cities. It was a moment that would ever be known as the
Battle of Dawn, for the Darkest Night was finally leaving us, my eyes watching as I wrote
down every single detail that I could. Until finally did they venture so far that the smoke
of the north had enveloped them, and their light was snuffed by an oppressive cloak, that
set on the region, unyielding. For a time, I waited, watching anxiously, as did so many
others, all over the world, waiting to see what would happen. But nothing emerged.
Nothing
moved. The dark wall set as the one did before it. Impervious, titanic and all powerful.
Eventually, the excitement was too much for me, for I was then coming old in age, and
worn by the worries of the war, and I left the capital city for Xanadon, and rested but a
month there after.
***
It was on the third day of the new Autumn season that the trumpets sounded in the
wind, and the war horns blew high in the cities, while the air felt crisp and cool and
smelled of good spices, not of smoke or blood or war as had been. I moved about the city
forums, while all was in uproar and question, taking the lifts to the top of the wall that
ever protected the inner city, and looked over the plane to the north, un sure of what I
would see. But as I listened, I knew those horns to be no sounds of the enemy, for they
were as golden brass and fine temper, and played as a beautiful music as a rival to
heaven, if ever. And over the horizon did the shimmering shields of the human armies
blaze, accompanied with the triumphant warships that flew down from the skies and
golden armored land vehicles that ran fast and sung in glorious unison, their song of
final victory. Everyone watched, from all the windows of all the towers in the city, and
cried when the horns were blown again, for everyone, including myself, had taken by the
lack of account that all had been lost in that final assault. But with in two days were the
coming soldiers upon us, and the many thousand entry ways with in were let open for
them to pass, and greeted by the tens of thousands of singing citizens, while they marched
in trumpeting unison and glorified them with praise. All was in Xanadon, the home I
kept first, while word of the dissipating black cloak in the north spread like the wind over
the planes, and it was told that the war was finally won, and for the first time in years, all
could rest. The families and loved ones of those who died mourned, and thanked their
gods for the news, for it was believed better to know the truth than evaded with
ignorance. These lost, of course, were the ones not accounted for, for as I have told ,the
dead were never found.
THE GODS
Here now will I speak of the gods, which I had at first mentioned, and for good reason, to
be true, do I speak of them now and so awkwardly placed, for so much was there in those
many long years that here now have I only found it best to speak of them, to reflect the
comings of my tale and its outcome. I will say little, save that it is a typical thing to hear
of in the forums, and spoken of in texts and great works of art and music, and worshipped
in a most peculiar fashion. For it is the philosophy, though strange from what I knew,
that the gods willed all to live as free creatures, so it was said, and to become great
people, not as servants or worshippers, for they were born to live, not grovel or prostrate
in temples of stone or idol, as all the earth was as their temple, and to walk upon it was
to be one with them, and thus carry the will of the Gods as blessing, until it is time to go
back to them. It was their way, alien from what I knew back home, and they looked so
often to it for guidance. Difficult times brought frustration and bother, and through the
history of them was it the only stable thing to rival their will for knowledge. And it is their
main goddess Sundra that is revered as highest of all, and of her, I have known the most
in my time here, for she is the embodiment of all graces. The rest are her concubines;
great willers of learning and livelihood, while the God known as Trauloss represents that
of war, and battle and rage and anger, for it is his influence through Sundra’s tools that
make the human so interesting, and able to deviate from good or evil so as to say that
there is neither one or the other. He is revered among the military men, and willed as a
soldiers High father, and is thought to be among them always ,though never known, in
the garb of their own people and in wait for times of war. And those times are his times,
as he unleashes his furry and power unto the world of Sundra’s children.
THE RED NEBULAE
Now, as I had said, the armies had returned home in victory, pushing back the monstrous
forces further and further every day, and burning their bodies as they went in the dark.
And once it was seen that the day had been won, and the remaining forces of evil armies
were bottled into the northern ruins, the majority of all the troops were turned back and
ordered to go home while forces were left to follow and decimate the slim retreating
ranks of the enemy. It was a golden day to see them march, holding out the great banners
of the cities and provinces from where they had originally hailed from, many of which
were long sense gone, ruined, but to be reborn, we all knew. Weapons held proudly in in
parade colored dress, armor put aside for its blood stains and much ware. This was what
we had all dreamed of sense the beginning. What I had yearned to see again, sense the
day the war had begun, oh so many years ago. We all felt heavy in our hearts for what
was lost. Too much had been taken away by the enemy. Too much lost by the gears of the
war hammer, so that all the northern hemisphere and into the south, was blackened and
burned by their fleeting presence, while Xanadon held strong as the gateway to the rest,
and all that remained of us, thankful. I will not make note of the number of deaths it was
believed mankind suffered, for so high is it that even in my experience with the masterful
people can I never fully recover from knowing it. Yet, indeed, it was felt that all was
over. But never more wrong were we to think as fools, unwise, for the terrible creature I
saw which stood above the fires was never reported to have been present at the battles,
and was believed to have left for the black smoky ruin where first all the hordes had
emerged from.
In celebration, we drank ourselves as kings. I was one of the few who stood by sober,
watching the dark northern skies of night fall, till bed. And I dreamed of absolute
pleasantness, too, of high rising, white washed stairways and golden towers of
mountainous height, beneath an ever blue sky and a cold wind. These are how I first felt
there; the awe and majesty of those people. But now I felt worried, concerned and
frustrated, for so strange was the world becoming around me, even though my familiarity
with it, coming to the conclusion that something was wrong. Then the tower horns
sounded out, deep and strong and fierce, and running to the balcony wildly there did I
see the skies full of a vast Nebulae, unlike anything id ever seen before. Vast, towering
clouds arrayed in star light and pigments of terrible reds and crimson, stable, looming
and cold. Every star pulsed menacingly, and I asked the soldiers when it had come, and
was told that it had appeared just then that night, after most of the celebration in the city
was done. Everyone stood in gapping stare, wonder-eyed as new born children, pointing
and speaking of its strange coming and awfulness. Then a different noise was heard far
off, and attention moved down towards the north, and word spread quickly that a strange
glow had appeared there, as if the sun were rising. I dressed quickly and took the
lifts up high, bringing myself to the observatory at the top of the city, where the military
had established its base of command. It was the tallest tower, to be true, and chosen for
that reason, and its sturdiness. For hundreds of times was it thicker than all the others,
and controlled all access into the city from the subterranean passages.
We all watched the glow rise, deep red and orange, blazing out into the sky as a haze of
forgotten sunlight, but growing larger, closer, toppling over the hills beneath the
watching cosmos and the newly arrived phantasm of the red nebulae high above. Then
did it reveal itself for what it truly was, causing all present to gasp in terror, and the
military commanders to sound the horn of battle readiment before the thunder cracked
into their ears, and the screams could be heard all over. For there, far across the empty
black planes of the city, spilled into view a massive army, alit by fires so numerous as to
falter only in comparison to the sky they walked beneath, moving quickly in total unison,
marching as if mocking the humanity it stormed upon. It was the black army! returned in
unfathomable numbers. I could only see that this surely was a planned move of theirs, as
too clean of a passing had they made through the pass of Father and Daughter, and too
sure were we made of their defeat that it hit me to be a mere diversion for an all out
attack. We all watched, as in the in the sky appeared great monstrous things, which flew
wildly, as if birds, yet wholly abominable in condition, for as they turned too and fro,
circling above the great hosts, the fire light reflected their macabre silhouettes, and
showed them to be of malicious construct, animated monstrosities from blasphemous ill-
natures of the designs used for the airships. As if the perversions of their very being
mangled the metal and gave it a demon to live upon. Other things then rolled into view.
Great, abstract objects, intermixed with cloudy flame, steaming from out great colluders
and breathing black smoke into the air, moving on the grounds like the slithering of a
giant snake, yet dwarfed by the numbers of fires that still appeared to come, ever making
the orange glow brighter. The smoke soon spread wide, clawing its way over the brilliant
winter night, darkening the northern portion of that odd display with its putrid pollution.
The soldiers readied their armor and weapons, and the air ships were readied for launch,
and the walls were secured by the tens of thousands of already waiting guardsmen, while
the transit lines were cut and all commuting outside and in ceased. The people who had
lived beyond the other wall came in, seeking safety in the towers and the underground
roots. All were called in, under no exception, to secure safe holdings in the towers, for
the cities were much safer to everyone then fleeing southward to open country. And I
watched, baffled at the commanding side, requesting to catalogue the days to come, and
thus accepted to do at my leisure. Then the cries were heard, and horns were blown from
some where outside the city. And then a bellowing blow of sound and roar came down
from the darkening sky, and Lo! there did I see something in the glow, which then spread
from east to west. A dark figure, barley noticeable in the swells, yet wholly there and part
of the infernal war machine. I shivered at the thought of what it might be, but as
cataloguer, forced myself to procure the looking instruments in the observatory, and
glanced unto the strange disturbance that rippled in the fire light of that massive host.
And when I saw it, I screamed of bloody murder, and fell to floor in petrifying fear, for
those instruments are the most acute of all, and can bring their user right there to the
place they look, and immerse them in such detail and clarity as to rival ones own site.
For the host itself, to all my horror, was made of the black colored blasphemies which
had emerged from out the northern ruins. And amidst them, swaying back and forth like a titan
overseeing its armies, stood the monstrous creature, that at one time resembled a boy!
Now he was too large for all belief; skin pulled taught on a massive frame. And his eyes
breathed the reddest of evil fires into black, twining smoke which emitted from out his
jaws like unworldly, aetherial feelers. The limbs of the thing were now so massive that a
single, razord hand was greater than a standard air ship, and they swayed back and forth
as he jostled on legs that bent from back to front with every step. The soldiers scooped
me up from the floor and made sure I was well, then looked through the looking
instrument with grave concern, barking orders to be sent down that all be made ready by
the next sunset, for they feared the advancement went far too unnoticed, and cost them
much time to prepare.
***
The sun rose and the air was dank, filthy with smoke and ash, while the red nebulae still
hung forebodingly. The entire northern sky was black against an enfant blue, filled with
impenetrable smoke clouds from the unchanged advancement of the black army. The
cloud by then spanned as far east and west as one could see, so that the sun ebbed as if
cleft in two, polarizing the great flatness that surrounded the city in to golden day and
darkest night. I was tired, but watched while in council with the military commanders,
eager to know what was to happen in their planning. It was obvious to them that their
forces sent north had been overtaken, and that defeat, if they could not call upon the
southern regions in time, would be eminent. And even then, with the fires growing more
and more numerous, it seemed as though all the North had been unleashed upon us, and
that everything which was held for reinforcement thus far had been spilled unto the world
as one massive sweep.
There would be no stopping this army, I said to them, for your reserves had been
emptied in the Battle of Dawn, Which seems to have been their plan all along.
It was obvious, did they not see, that the war until now was but a softening! This was the
true attack for us. This was the moment that would spell the end for humanity. Their
hideous nature of violence and threat had cost the lives of so many by then, for a purpose
that no one could know. It was from their abominable need to kill us; a hunger that
sprang from their very loins, and coursed through their black bodies as a putrid blood
and fouled thoughts. Why? I asked them. Why had this happened? Why had the powers of
evil arisen? Was it not the right way that all men had lived? Were the master people not
generous to their own lands? Surely was it considerable that they had angered the world
with their use of it, while too busy in the myriad ways of everyday life to see the damage.
The mining people who took the black rock were so sure of their security In the matter,
yet too much killing had happened for anyone to rightly think past their curiosity, and
question what it was that the black people of horrors had actually wanted, save to hunt us
down to the ends of the earth, and eliminate us.
Now, as I have said, the word could not be sent out for aid, while the enemy advancement
coursed with such speed as to never be understood, so as their darkness overtook the
setting sun, and but half of that terrible nebulae shone down grimly, their armies stood
some few leagues away from the walls. The air was nearly unbreathable, tainted with
smoke and the smell of rotting flesh and charring meat, so that all the people had went
indoors, save the soldiers who stood by, strong. The precise number of those who were
present, I was informed, was that of 300,000. I dare say reader, looking at those who would destroy us, now so close to our gate, that this was far dwarfed by comparison. I
ever stress to you that truly was it an endless ocean of them, while those terrible flying
monstrosities of theirs could only be glimpsed upon in the glow of their fires and war
machine.
An intermingling of bad light and black smoke made for a grim scene, and when we saw
the sheets of snow fall down from the blackened sky, well, we did not know what else to
believe, save that the world was at an end. Not snow, though, I say, No! but Ash! Ash
from the furnaces of those odd looking contraptions they brought with them. Falling all
over the city like a grey winter, sticking to what ever it touched like a painting die for the
dead.
But then they stopped, some miles short of us, moving not an inch, nor making any noise.
Unwholesome silence covering all. They watched us from beneath their black brows,
holding their slaughtering devices with deformed arms and clawed hands with utter
stillness. Then, making way for the walking of that mountainous mammoth that was the
very thing we all feared most. The will of them, the Avathothon Boy, lumbering taller
than the walls themselves, breathing fire and smoke to the air, while belching thunder
from with in him. Their horns sounded deep, curling the smoke in the sky with their call,
while the Avathothon Boy lifted its great razord hands, reaching out wards to the
darkness above, and the minions below did the same as he did, and called out in unison,
a many millions of unworldly voices, screeching into the air in call of something. I could
not help but look up after a time, for they failed to move from this state, and notice the
faintness of that shadow above us part away, yet reveal the bright redness of the strange
nebulae far above. It was odd, for I felt no fear at that moment, but was rather entranced
with a weird curiosity that rose in me, and soon could I stand no more, falling to the
floor and blacking out, for in the patch there did an object appear from the sky, hurtling
into my mind once I saw it and knew immediately what it was.
Speedily falling into planer site, the deep hideous face of a large, cratered object,
rounded to one side, while dark to another, and in similarity from memory did I know it
to be that, none other, than the very moon which this world had ever lacked to it’s skies!
It blazed as a dark red eye, opening wider and wider until its face was perfectly round,
and emitting a strange noise which sounded like nothing that I can describe to you, as if
answering the screams of the dark legions. So much had I seen already, only to be put
into the unutterable truth of what set before me. I knew then where I really was, or rather,
when I really was. The ages of earth are too vast to realize, and though there are men
from my time who believe that all they see is true and real, I say that they have not
ventured to the realms I have witnessed, through the circular prism that sits somewhere
in the northern mountains, possessing all manner of cosmic horror and truth. The lands
of the master race and their strange, brilliant ways. Those people who were our
forerunners. Our fathers. The last before our coming, who fell from so mighty a throne as
rulers of the earth. There they stood , beneath the terror of a one, almighty enemy. Their
weapons useless, their armies, defeated, and their reason and passions obliterated before
the mouth of a yawning beast that rose from depths too ancient and foul to dare be
probed by reason. Yet, there to the fields did I wake and see what happened then, for
after is there no need to speak any further. My story is coming to its final turn, and its
close, before I set it down into this sturdy case, placed beneath the ice of the cold regions
of the farthest south, and left in preservation upon the parchment and inks which were
supplied to me by those, a most wondrous and beautiful people, now all gone. For as I
have said, the armies of darkness had marched upon the city planes, and stood in ghastly
stance some many miles near the wall, depressing the shine of glorious Xanadon with
smoldering smoke and suffocating Ash.
My nerves were gone, my energy drained, yet by some terrible, spiritual omission was I
able to wake a little longer, maddened by every truth crashing unto me in my flawed
perspective, for all of us are flawed, to view as I was carried away, what all who looked
had witnessed there, before dropped and left alone upon the terrace outside the viewing
room of the tower, by those who wished to the impossible happen, and forget their duties
as soldiers. I could only roll to the very edge, and peer down over the city, and see the
shimmering object ride defiantly towards the Avathothon boy. It sung against the calling
of that most insidious moon, traveling with great speed over the planes of the city. I
heard men yelling from with in the observation room. “He cannot be serious!” “What a
Fool! He will die, most surely!” And I knew than that one of the persons of the city had
dared in a craze I now wholly understand, to give up all reason and venture out to fight
the mammoth monster that stood out there, erect, breathing the smoke and the flame. And
I heard the name of “Tamiun” spoken among them, which in their language, means
“Strong armed”, and that he was the one who broke out of the walls and stole a vehicle,
taking with him his only weapon, the smitter of the armies of man, to slay the horrid
beast that led the black ones. My eyes grew watery with interest, and I did not blink as I
saw him go, closing in on the mountain of skin and lumbering infernality that began to
look down at him.
And there did the Avathothon boy emit a most terrible sound, for in some deranged
corner of a lunatic could it be similar to a cackle, causing the legions of dark ones below
to swell away from him in haste, and the nebulae above, and the terrible moon,
approaching him, to halt from their activities, and to stop and watch by command. And
the glimmering rider, the one known as Tamiun, turned dramatically once he came to the
great black feet of the enemy, and stood high defiantly against him. Flame and black
smoke flooded down from on high, while lighting broke from the clouds that rolled as the
Boy turned his head in grimacing laughter. But this did not faze that one, Tamiun, for he
was a brave, pure white soul, that gave not ever to the heat of the flame, or the filthy
pollution of the unnatural smokes, but positioned himself so as right beneath the enemy,
taking back his weapon, and aiming far and true, while the Avathothon boy lifted his
right foot in the air, and sent it hammering down towards the earth, to crush the one
small soldier.
And Tamiun flung out his one great smitter, and this cut through the blackened foot of
the enemy, and soared high as a blinding light, into the smoke and the flames. And the
Avathothon boy gave out a bellowing whale that cracked the very towers of Xanaodon,
and made the earth shake before his size, and cause the clouds above him to roll and part
and break as waves unto the shore, while the legions of dark ones who had parted before
now fell to the earth in terrible spasm, and rolled unto one another like feinding hounds.
The flying monsters of metal and contortion began to fall in screeching agony,
plummeting from their darkened heights and bursting unto the earth as if fireballs, and
the red nebulae then vanished into nothing, while the crimson moon went pale. Great
fires sprung from the planes, and raged beneath the feet of the Avathothon boy, whose
foot and face were now of black smoke, bleeding out as viscous feelers, wrapping about
him tightly. And the people of Xanadon fell to the floor, while the earth began to tremble
beneath its foundation, and the light of the one Tamiun vanished in the swell of
mongreling dark ones.
Then the body of the Avathothon boy split as if chopped from top to bottom, and released
from with in a great, oceanic darkness of black liquid and smoke which enveloped all site
and all sound in drowning omnipotence. I did not know if I would live, as I watched its
towering wall come upon us, but at that time, I did not care, for too maddened was I to
know different.
***
I opened my eyes, and beheld that all was grey and dim. The city was no where to be
seen, its tall spires and great, golden citadels given place to an endless league of grey,
rolling hills which set beneath a thin white sheet of cloud covering and cold rain. But
looking, my eyes very tired, was I dwarfed by the visage of a pale faced moon, looming
phantasmicaly through the clouds and over the horizon. Large, so large as to be of no
rightful manner to memory, as if it were to collide with all the earth in its massiveness,
yet kept away by the will of mercy and the scorning of natures cruel government.
Soundless, its song had been silenced, I thought, and now cause it nothing, to lay dead,
ever to hold its secrets shrouded in mystery and transcosmic whispers in the bowels of
greater darknesses and the wisping frames of shadows when the sun makes its setting so
as to rest.
Bitten hard by a sudden strong wind, I turned my attention to the land, and looked about
in confusion, only remembering those many years ago when I had visited the northern
wastes of the tormented people, and to this, holding likeness to what I was looking upon
at that moment. The air was chilly, unforgivingly moist, and devoid of life or compassion,
while the wind picked up sands from the hills and planes and danced them in gestures of
mockery and false human influences. Something held a familiarity to it all, yet aside from
the likeness to that place that was had sense been no more, I could not come to why I felt
so familiar here. Perhaps, it had all been a dream, I thought. Perhaps I was mad, and
raved about the world I had come from in utter delusion and craze, unfolding the planes
of reality and truth for a world that was far better to me, yet far more menaced then by
the infinitesimal hands of men. And to a degree, I hoped for this to be true, for such a
terrible thing was, now that I considered the reality of my experiences, to have truly lived
through the times of those, the master people, and to see them fall beneath the weight of
an absolute cataclysm. And all was good to my half tired mind, until I turned my self
round, slowly, and beheld the tall menace that would drive me running in fear, regardless
of my tire, screaming at the top of sore lungs and giving me my final decision of what
must be done once I finish this tale, setting it away with all my strength, into stone case
and the cave, to let the cold beyond here take me, and bring me down to die, and may the
mercy of all loving Sundra be with me, the goddess whom I came to know after a youth of
benign belief in false prophets and endless searching for vaster wonders than what I felt
the world of men had ever given itself.
It was of some many stories in height. Black in color, yet worn by time, though ever
prevailing in its hideousness. The likeness and detail were stunning to truth, even beneath
the thin rain and wind and the grey saturation of the land. Even through the cold, and the
most certain warring of many long years, aging through elements opposing it. Forces
until its day of dust, when the world would break and change for ever, crushing it
beneath its weight and age and swallowing the proof of its existence. The face was cruel,
mean spirited and angry, its pose one of daring and pride, arms holding two large
objects, one resembling the staff of a priest, while the other, a mighty Smitter of the
Masterful people, held with in large, stone hands; held out in ready, as if to attack. And
it was that I saw it to be a Protector of Xanadon, and realized where it was that I truly
lay, for ever in my travels sense my arrival in that world had I only seen those statues
in one place…
One place, only. Before the gates of that city, that I knew as my one home, while it stood,
Now washed away…
Dr. Sutter, sitting the final page on the stack, set silently in thought while watched
by the speachless others, his eyes frantic, worried and sure, coming suddenly to a
sense of revelation, glaring down at the papers he had just finished.
He then rose, and took the manuscript in his arms with great haste, and in one rush
from his chair threw it all into the fire place, letting the flames consume the bulk
while keeping his face from the others and coughing out, madly “Qui’zaar read it
all! God…in the actual texts! which undoubtedly taxed the poor man to nearly
Crumble and certainly lies in skewed translation, else we would carry the same
effect…
The implications are…too horrible to think about, gentlemen, you must agree, and
so must the book itself be well hidden, away, where no one, not even us, can ever
reach it. Notes must be destroyed, do you hear?! We did not read it! We did not find
it! You came back with nothing! No one must know of this, do you Understand!?”
He turned, and caused the others to gasp, for in the short time he stood away from
them had the brown tent of his beard turned white, and his flush face pale and
whiten to make his appearance quite old and deteriorated. “ It is of terrible
necessity that no one ever know of this..No One!”
Both physically and mentally stressed beyond rightful measure, all took to their beds
once swearing on their lives and careers to never speak of the passed days events,
nor of the discovery that cost them so much time and soon, so they would discover,
so much sleep, taking to the rooms given them in the house of the one, late Dr.
Qui’zaar, who died of a stroke some months there after their meeting, a victim of
mental break down and unexplained fatigue, leaving behind a legacy of
superb contribution to the fields of linguistics and archeology.
***
Some weeks later, a barge sailing from San Francisco to Korea would be ordered to
drop, somewhere along its root, a single large crate from America, tightly fastened
and heavily weighted, bearing only the words “Geological-Waste, Department of
Geology, USF” on its side. The crew of the ship would be paid handsomely to ask
nothing of it; to do their duty and then to move on, dropping the one load into the
waters of the Pacific, where never could it be reached by anyone again.