Post by Arrowbid on Aug 22, 2007 19:29:08 GMT -5
Strange fates
Streke raised his long swan-like neck to the indigo sky, his spiked ears pricked to the howls and bellows that filled his mind. No sooner had they left the cave, when they heard a howl from far to south, and now boars were swarming everywhere over the hillside. As the thundering of cloven hooves pounded against the earth, Wynd couldn’t help but notice the drowning pounding of the boars seemed to be headed toward the echo of the wolves howl. The same direction the disappearing trail of paw and footprints had led.
Streke backed from the shadow of the hills as dust and rocks were kicked up over its side and a cloud of dust fell over them in a huff. Whipping tails and thrashing tusks glinted over its rim in the glaring sun, red eyes and striped thick hides appeared over the ridge in mere glimpses. Trampling the earth, the boars rode on around the dunes crest single mindedly following the lone scent of the miserable wolf and they grunted as their masters drove them onward. Wynd and Streke let a hiss rise deep in their gullets as the beasts plundered past, stealing away into the sun. There they fled over the ridge of the next dune and out of sight. Wynd turned his head trying to follow their position by sight and smell, his claws kneaded through the packed sand tensely. Even so the sand was too loose to sense the boars, and his pads merely felt the vibration and shifting of his own four feet. Wynd felt blind again and the thought of not knowing where the beasts would turn up next worried him. Instead eerie silence broke the tension, despite the ever few screeches and moans of those perilous omens, the black reptilian bird-like creatures. They screeched like vultures in the distance, bringing with them the promise of death and decay. Yet they were concentrated not far from where they stood, and in the rippling, mirage-bringing heat, Wynd could barely make out the scarred tip of what seemed to be an ancient temple. As he strained his eyes through the glare he could see the sun mirroring off the temples time worn marble walls.
At that moment as Wynd stretched his armored neck out through the blaze, the wind changed direction, waving on translucent debris of fur and feather toward them. A lonely sun drawn breeze rolled on gently toward the dragons and distant boars; carrying with it a strong scent of wolf and human blood. Streke let the scent drift over his head and he shot up in alarm at the smell.
“What is it?” rumbled Wynd, silently.
Streke let the scent drift over his sharp tongue before acknowledging his brother, “A human’s been killed” he grunted passively.
The boars sped up snorting and bellowing across the sun ravaged land. Their red eyes stared forward off into the distance, hauntingly precise in the vast expanse. They were running on the whim of their horned masters, for the scent of the renegade wolf, as well as his tracks had long been blasted away into oblivion.
As they stampeded down the rippling expanse of dunes, the wind pushed the same, indisputable scent of wolf to their senses. Yet this time the breeze brought them a new smell as well.
The boars reared gawkily and bruised and jabbed at each other as their impassive riders turned them about to face the wind, letting their striped beasts follow up on the scent. Thick hided boars lashed out against the azure sky, grunting and roaring with red-eyed fury, their sharp coal-black hooves scraped against the earth, forcefully carrying their massive bulk down the dunes. Down the sand polished earth, toward the temple, toward the wolves and toward the dragons.
Streke let out a furious roar warning off the red eyed beasts, yet they never yielded, as they stampeded over the crest of the sun glazed dune. Galloping and jolting their tusks into the air as if they were attempting to leap a chasm each time. Boars streamed down the dune, kicking up giant clouds of dust that billowed up and streamed from their tracks. The beasts showed no sign of stopping and their charging only grew faster as they raced insanely over the burning land, straight toward the two snapping dragons. Ram horned beings upon their razor backs motioned and spoke in tongues to one another as they approached. The razor backs whined and squealed angrily as the whips struck their hides and their riders took aim with bow and arrow.
Streke lashed out at the boar’s thick hide, as they roared past. His talons dug deep slicing out living chunks of bloody flesh and hair. The wounded boar roared in agony, it trampled the earth with blind rage and circled Streke, bobbing its long sharp tusks furiously into the sky. The remaining beasts split up, taking their turn at charging the two dragons. Their riders added to the attack by wielding black, thorn spiked clubs high above their heads. When the signal was given, the boars charged. Raking the sand away with their tusks lowered at Wynd and Streke. Wynd hissed threateningly and side stepped the lumbering creature with ease, his tail thrashed back and forth whipping through the flesh of anything it touched. The boar grunted stupidly and veered with surprising agility, its ivory tusks sliced the air grazing Wynd’s spine. The creature took the dragons shock to its advantage and just as the jagged tusks were about to gore into him, Wynd skidded about facing the wild creature.
The boar faced off with him, pawing the ground with threat and as the whip struck its hide, the beast charged again. Wynd hunched down and sprung up just as the tusks came to his neck; he landed atop the creatures massive thrashing head. The boar skidded to a halt, uncertain of what just happened. It soon began to buck and its red eyes swiveled up and narrowed heatedly at Wynd. Wynd dug his talons deeply into the beasts’ skull, aware of the tusks that scythed ominously along his flank. The boar shook its head furiously and its black faced rider grunted as he swung the bony club. Wynd grappled his fangs around the boar’s neck, but all that met his teeth was muscle and hair.
The ram horned being brought the club hard down at Wynd’s crowned skull, Wynd flinched, stunned and his whiskers bristled with uncontrolled rage, he snapped to attention and quickly shot his neck up, latching onto the beings shielded arm. The inhuman rider roared furiously as the chain metal and steel was crumpled effortlessly by Wynd’s strong teeth. Pain surged and he was slowly crushed as the sharp metal was squeezed inward upon his strangled arm.
Streke preoccupied the unrelenting boars as they charged at him again and again; as one came close he charged it as well, with his crown of horns aimed at the creature’s throat. The boar took no heed from the array of weaponry and shoveled its way under Streke, piercing along his flank. Streke bellowed primordially, he took hold of the beast’s tusks and grappled with the boar, attempting to drive it back into the ground. Streke craned his neck and screeched enraged, his mouth frothed with smoke and he lashed out biting deeply into the boar’s skull and streamed flame straight down to the brain. He snarled satisfactorily as the smoke whished out between his glistening fangs and the boar’s skull. Suddenly a flit of an arrow filled the desert air and a deafening thud made the fighting beasts halt.
Streke paused abruptly, he gaped and his grip loosened from the seared and smoking flesh. An arrow had embedded itself deeply in his flank along his forearm, stunning him with deathly accuracy. The boar took his hesitation to its advantage and whipped its massive head to the azure sky, flinging Streke loose from his massive grizzly head. Streke sailed through the air and he landed a tail-length away with a thud, softening his landing with outstretched gossamer wings. Streke snarled menacingly and shook the shank loose, snapping out the arrowhead from his scaled armor with grim precision. The blood drenched tip fell to the dirt and broke like glass, shining into the pyres of sun gold sand. Streke curled his lip devilishly baring his knife thick teeth at the arrowhead. The sound of a second arrow being pulled made him whip his crowned head around. A boar stood atop the dunes crest, darkened pitch black against the blinding sun. The beast grunted, threateningly lashing its whip like tail against the desert’s blazed blue sky. Atop the hog’s muscled back sat a foreboding figure, his face hidden from the sun by bands of white cloth. The boar’s rider took another arrow to the hilt and bent the regal bowstring back, now turning his aim on Wynd.
Wynd who was still snarling enraged atop the other boar, was cleaving blood from the inhuman rider’s arm. The still impassive man beat and struck Wynd’s skull time after time with the club. Ripping scales from his hardened thorny face and bashing his muzzle and cheek bones. The plight was only worsened by his mount, as the boar went about bucking and flinging its massive bulk in fury.
Streke grunted painfully, shaking himself out of the daze, “Wynd, behind you!” he roared wrathfully.
Wynd swiftly glanced to his brother, teeth still latched on the boar’s furious rider. Wynd’s scales arched, bristling with apprehension along his back and he followed his brother’s gaze to the dunes crest. In the sun’s blinding light, all he could make out was the boar and rider’s silhouetted forms. Then through the glare his eyes refocused until his pupils nearly vanished as if clouded over in rage and the black shining sliver of an arrowhead’s tip met his vision. Wynd released his grip from the raging boar’s mangled flesh and launched himself into the air with outstretched leather wings, flapping away. The arrow streaked by his flank, grazing his scaled green armor with a shower of sparks, it hit the boar full on in the skull with a powerful and deafening thud, digging itself into the beast’s blood spurting, knotted thick, forehead.
Blood streamed down from the embedded arrow and flowed over the massive beast’s white ivory tusks, staining them red. He roared out in agony and crying pain. The howling beast thrust its head blindly to the sky, trying to fling the arrow loose. Streke sneered satisfactorily, and raced along after Wynd in the direction of the marble temple. His muscles thrust forwarded with the agility of a monstrous cat. Pounding across the desert in Wynd’s fleeting shadow.
“Streke hurry up!” called Wynd as he flew higher, his tail waving in the updrafts with his talons dangling.
Streke grunted passively; glancing over his shoulder at the racing boars. He skidded down the slope of the next dune, hydroplaning along its rippled surface and kicking up sand. The enraged boars galloped along side him at a steady pace. The bloody headed one, still with the embedded arrow, hurtled along side him. Streke reached the bottom of the dune and he jolted forward once more as the three furious boars began to box him in. He growled madly and veered with his long spiny tail streaming like a flag behind him. Then the rise of the next dune began to loom and cast its shadow in the distance. Streke slowed and began to trudge swiftly over the rise of the sandbank, spreading his wings to build up momentum. The boars drummed along side him; slowly closing in and letting their long tusks hang ominously above Streke’s outstretched neck.
The arrow pinned boar snarled a grunt and thrashed his head madly. He and the other boar flanking Streke bellowed, and flung their bodies together trying to crush Streke who was trudging amidst them. The dragon leapt powerfully from the crest of the dune just as the boars massive heads crushed into each other. The sound of cracking tusk meeting tusk echoed throughout the desert. The first boar’s head crashed into the others with whap, and the arrow hilt snapped, sending bloodied shards raining into the others mangled skin.
The beast’s eyes seemed to bulge with red-heated hate, a crack of the whip sent the black striped creatures stampeding once more, tusks pearl white and slavered with the taste of their own blood. Clouds rose to meet the blue sky and the primordial swine trampled down the side of the dune like a great plague. The heat worked wonders on the scene, sending it’s’ power to mirage it and make the beasts seem many on its whim.
Great pyres of sun burnt sand were set ablaze in the intensity of it all. They rose and fell like waves in the froth of a hurricane, accompanied with a krakens furious glare shining up from the depths. So did the sun shine, and shine it did, down beaming upon the saw scaled backs of the two, as men would say, monstrous serpents. Their bodies rose and fell on the waves of the deserts heat induced wind. Like battlements on a castles tower, the dragon’s spikes jutted into the sky and flowed like a waving sea upon their backs. The rest of the warm blooded reptile was no stranger to being suited like a fortress.
No sooner had the two of them rose to the sky, and their scales turned black by the sun, had another arrow whizzed by their skulls. Streke turned his fortified body in midair and shot a blast of fire like a crossbow. The boars separated and swerved, thus the inferno burned the sand instead, sending a shower of sparkling glass into the glare. Streke, feeling cross, moaned and quickened his already fast set pace. Yet the brooding creatures never offered a moments respite. Though bloody and beaten, as long as the horned men drove them, they would run. Even the scarred boar, with an arrowhead shard in its brow grunted and bellowed along side the others. Its mark was already whitening over into a clear spade shape, despite the dry blood that still crackled over the wound.
Streke and Wynd sped along faster gliding strongly on the warm air currents of the wastelands gathering storm. The two of them paused however, when the ancient citadel entered their vision. In the light it seemed a place of welcome and lull, but as the skies darkened over with those familiar black clouds. It suddenly became a foreboding place. Howls and snarls of furious beings echoed from its time worn walls, and the reptilian monstrosities perched there, preening and picking the shattered bones of past victims from their teeth, didn’t help much to soften the mood.
“It looks just like that part of the old broken down tower we stayed in!” gasped Wynd, as a section of the distant temple came into view.
Streke focused on it, zooming in with telescopic vision, “No, that tower was just left from being so battle worn. This place looks like everyone just upped and left…”
Wynd scoffed a bit confused, “Well other than being half covered in sand it looks in fine shape to me.”
Streke grunted already bored with the conversation, “Well who can figure man.” He swooped down casually as another arrow slit the cooling air. He smirked, baring his razor sharp teeth, “Those things don’t give up too easily do they?”
“What race are the men on their backs anyway? They look like humans but… I can’t see their faces, and I’ve never seen an ogre with rams horns before.”
Streke had no idea and he shook his head agitated, “Who gives a darn? In a moment they’ll be ash!”
Streke whipped up another froth of smoke and sparked the methane, letting free with a jet of devils fire. At that same moment another volley of arrows was fired from the determined horned men. All of the arrows thrown on accuracy disintegrated in the blaze, but those few that missed their target remained unscathed in the blast.
Streke whipped around slashing the arrows into falling shards, a single shot made it past his sweeping fleet of the tail. It grazed his tear shaped scales, showering the tip with metal sparks and sending it hurtling through the wing membrane. He screeched as the shard became submerged in the tender membrane and the area flushed red.
Red eyes flashed below in their fleeting shadows, as the boars raced with their masked riders taking aim. Streke shrieked monstrously with needle sharp teeth bared and glared at them with slit pupils. He weaved his serpentine neck to the shard and clipped it out with ease. Another shot was fired into the darkening sky and the storm drawn winds urged it on with wild abandon. They barrel rolled with blade edged wings meeting the blades of the arrows. A clashing sound as if it were sword meeting sword ricocheted off the clawed wing tips and echoed into the storm. Streke roared, enraged and he fought off the arrows with his own bared teeth, slashing them down like missiles.
Another arrow flashed by into the crackling and thundering sky. Wynd swooped lower and avoided it by an inch. It disappeared into the lightening and then as if it had split the sky open, it began to rain. Wynd stared off into the distance with the droplets of sky water beading down his face like tears. The arrows seemed to pierce the temple walls and they disappeared into the shadows and clouds, fleeing the storms fury. Lightening painted the dark sky with electricity and brilliance, striking the earth as it searched for a point to release its power. It reflected in the brothers eyes like wildfire and shook the ground with brilliant light. Another arrow streaked by and it sliced through Wynd’s shoulder and his eyes flashed with pain.
Lightening sliced the night once more letting a howl rip through the storms fury, it cried throughout the desert and echoed throughout the clouds making Streke and Wynd stall with shock. Their eyes clouded over and their vision was wiped blank with vertigo. Wynd shook his head and opened his eyes, he no longer saw the desert or storm but instead his vision faded onto the temple. Confusion took his thoughts and he slipped into a dark turmoil, all he could make out was a haze and seeing his own gold eyes shining in what seemed like the darkness of a cave, completely devoid of sunlight. Before he could figure out where the vision was his sight switched, and the form of a gold scarred dragon flying in a blaze filled his mind.
Suddenly lightening slashed through the sky before them, dripping veins of light and electricity. They awoke from the trance in chorus, only to find their bodies still flying and avoiding the arrows. Sight came to them again and though they had shared the same vision Wynd shouted out their thoughts, “Head for the temple, they won’t be able to follow us through there!”
The lightening ripped the air, the sky split open and the darkness poured down in stinging cold tears, never stopping to remind the brothers that it was actually raining. The dips and bends around the dunes quickly flooded, drowning the desert in a once in a lifetime event.
Lightening and thunder rumbled together, one after the other and shook the dunes to their beginnings. Streke tilted his spine and dove out of the storm just out of reach of the boars’ bobbing tusks, “Yeah and getting out of this lightening so we don’t die is just an added perk.”