Renegades
Deep in the Forest of Black and White, a dark cave led to an open space, with enough light to clearly show the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, as though a group of snakes were raining down and frozen halfway towards the ground. For that reason, the cave was dubbed Serpents Stead. It was two moon cycles before the paramount War of Golemia, where a seven-foot tall lord, known as Lord Serpent of Sand, met with a Day Watcher named Shok of Craft, standing seven feet and one inch tall, with a sinister snake surrounding his green torso and a thorn halo covering his head. Along with a seven feet and five inches tall Night Watcher, who held a muscular build, wearing fury swipe armor, a single horn protruding from between his short spiky hair – his name was Cray of the Fishers.
“Lord Serpent, in the Serpent’s Stead… how very fitting,” said Cray, with a smirk, and a deep voice, as though speaking underwater whilst eating what looked like a piece of dried catfish.
“Know your place, Cray…” responded Lord Serpent, with an almost hissing sound, while sitting down on a nearby rock, like a makeshift throne.
Cray swallowed, bowed his head, and said, “Surely, I jest, Lord Serpent.”
Like all other lords, Lord Serpent was known to be ruthless and capable. Despite his shorter stature, he still held all the power a lord would typically have.
“To what do we owe this pleasure, Lord Sssserpent?” asked Shok, while petting his sinister snake, as though toying with the end of a scarf.
“Well, you are all dull, so I assume you haven’t noticed anything, but I’ll ask anyway,” responded Serpent. “Golems, time being lost. A demon born from a royal, not the queen. Curses hitting the Watched, blinding them. Having to kill a member of our kin many years ago, just because he ENJOYED things, just to name a few things.” He stood up, moving his hands as he gesticulated, “this is not normal…”
Shok responded “What are you ssssaying, Lord, forgive my lack of intellect…” Cray nods his head in agreement with Shok.
“Think, you imbeciles,” said Serpent, with his hand on his forehead. As he removed it, he pointed at the two Watchers and said, “what could the reason possibly be!? Something must be happening with the King and Queen causing this shit…”
Just before Serpent could complete his words, the cave shook for a second, and on the wall behind the makeshift throne appeared a large, vertical golden line.
The line split open with a motion that caused air to hit the faces of the three in the cave. Lord Serpent instantly bounced away from the throne, faced the wall, and held his weapon, ready to defend himself. Shok and Cray stood behind him with their hands on their weapons too. “What in the deities is this Golden Eye!?” said Cray, shocked.
Serpent responds, “If I knew, I wouldn’t be prepared to defend, you moron…”
The eye moved around as though examining the cave and then centered, looking straight at the three. Another rumble occurred, causing a stalactite to fall right between them, separating them from each other. Then, under the eye, another line formed horizontally, and it opened, and uttered the words: “i we Lilira na I yakkhis realm, i goddess na Wants, BLINNYU ya!”
“What now?” replied Shok, confused, “Is this Sssssightell?!” he said.
Cray commented, “I knew I should’ve paid more attention to King Fisher’s lessons, dammit…”
“Shut both your mouths, fools!!” said Serpent in anger. “Be you a deity? My sincerest apologies – we do not speak with the Sight tongue, another thing we’re not casually taught for some reason…”
The golden eye blinked, smiled, and responded, “I am Lilira of the Golden Realm, the Goddess of Wants, BOW down to me!”
Almost instantly, as though someone had thrust them from above like a sudden change in gravity, all three were moved down to their knees, with their foreheads touching the ground.
Lord Serpent lifted his head with difficulty. Whilst shaking, he responded, “Deity Lilira! My body…and… time… doth… serve… you. I… humbly… ask… for… permission… to converse…”
The atmosphere changed. They all felt the pressure pushing them down being removed, and they could breathe normally again. “Shok, I think I soiled my…”
Serpent slapped Cray behind his head and said, “Shut it!” With his head still bowed and kneeling, he addressed Lilira. “Deity, you heard us speak and appeared. You must have some knowledge you can bestow?”
The mouth under the eye moved and said, “I do know, and I will tell. Still, you MUST do what I say if you wish to make this world survive.” Lilira’s voice echoed as though speaking in the biggest of foyers. “A task I can only entrust to those who question the unnatural, such as yourselves”
Serpent’s green eye glistened as he responded, “It would be my honor, as your humble servant, Deity of Wants, but might I ask for two things in return?”
Lilira replied, “Ask. It shall be given only if you complete the task.”
Serpent then said, “The story of origins, how? Where did we come from? Also, if we complete the tasks, I want to be the King of the Land.”
Lilira’s mouth grinned on the cave’s wall, and she replied, “Why, the first I can answer you now, since I enjoy a good story-telling. But the second will only happen if you complete the task.”
Serpent nodded, “A story from a Deity is something I would be dignified to listen to.”
“The Land of Black and White is a single realm at the bottom of the seven that reside under the Golden Realm, my home. It just so happens to be the one closest to the golden realm in nature, if its potential is sought correctly.” Serpent, Shok, and Cray were all seated now, as if they were children listening to a story, yet staring directly at a wall that talks – a scene so comical, yet very serious. Lilira continued, “The rest of the lands and realms looked identical, but each had a specific affinity to them, making them unique and their inhabitants the same. The Land of Black and White had no smart creatures until the Eye Kin arrived.” The face on the wall smiled and continued, “The fourth realm, the Land of Sprout, the lushest in greenery, had a lake which, like the Pilgrim’s Lake of your land, hosted golden fish.”
Lilira’s mouth, although on the wall, mimicked the licking of the lips, as though she craved those fish as food. She continued, “The golden fish hold powerful souls of the Eye Kin, and beneath each seemingly bottomless lake is a gateway that connects to the top of the Mountain of Ascension of the realm below it.” Serpent;s eye widened, as though crazed with this knowledge, listening intently as Lilira kept speaking. “You and all the Eye Kin were once deceased beings, with your King being the previous most powerful King of all the realms – Wareth of Sprout – and his wife, Clairvoyant of Sprout, the two Eye Kin most favored by all the deities. Except myself, of course. The funny thing is, you were all fish in a lake – delicious, delicious soul fish – and the Land of Sprout, due to a miserable existence of a creature called the Golem King and his kin, perished.”
Serpent jumped up and interrupted, “THEY ARE IN OUR REALM, NOW!!!?”
Lilira responded “SIT! You forget yourself in my presence, timeless!”
Serpent felt the pressure forcing him down and said, “I apologize, deity, forgive my insolence.” Cray and Shok sniggered behind him. As Lord Serpent turned to glare at them, they returned to a respectful posture, and all listened to Lilira as she continued.
“With the perishing of the Land of Sprout, the lake with the soul fish leaked into space and time, except for the two fish holding Wareth & Clairvoyant. They were conveniently guided to the bottom of the lake, landing on the Mountain of Ascension of the Land of Black and White precisely, only to find each other again, embrace, and become the King and Queen.” Shok raised his hand, and Lilira smiled and said, “Well aren’t you polite, Eye Kin – speak.”
Shok, now bashful, responded, “But what about uSSss?”
Lilira said, “Good question. You have been brought into this world by Wareth and Clairvoyant, who were able to open a rift in space and time and pull your lost fish souls from there, dropping you into the land to blossom into the timeless beings you are now.”
Shok and Cray looked at each other, and then back at Lilira. In unison, they both said, “We were… dead?!”
Lilira responded, “Well, sort of, yes, some of you. Originally, you were all made to look just like us deities. However, quite a lot smaller and less powerful. And your souls were within a repository, which was the lake. When breeding happened, and a body was formed, a soul from the lake would be picked and deposited into that body by Doo, the Deity of Formation, my younger brother.”
Almost unable to comprehend what was being said, Cray faints. “Now that you know where you came from, I must tell you about your task, children.”
Cray, now sat with his back to the cave wall after Shok had slapped his face awake, and Serpent, fully attentive to Lilira, said, “Anything, almighty deity.”
Lilira then said, “Kill Clairvoyant. And with that, you destroy Wareth. And only then, I make you King, Serpent of Sand.”
Lord Serpent’s eye opened wide, his jaw dropped and shivers ran down his back. He responded, anxiously, “They’re… but… I… they’re… Clairvoyant?!… our queen…” This lord, although rebellious, was still bound by his sense of duty to the King and Queen, and an innate fear of their power. “They’re too strong….”
Lilira smiled, “I’ve planted a seed, in a book, through an old deceased Watched you call a prophet, and I call my messenger – quite the dumb one, if you ask me, but still he did my bidding, and it will be much easier than you believe. Now go!”
The face on the wall blew a gentle wind on the three, and with that wind came a courage they had never felt before. The Renegades were created, and their sinister plan had begun.
