Some new stuff I'm working on. Not the final edit.
Return of the queen
Part 1
Delirium
Lash awoke in the middle of a dense forest with a swollen head, a burn on the right side of his face, his hair singed and blood on his hands. His eyelids drifted open and the blurry vision of the forest canopy above him slowly came into view. A cool gentle breeze rustled the leaves, as he lifted a bloody hand to steady his throbbing head. He looked at the blood on one of his hands then the other with a wrinkled brow and raised corner of his upper lip. What the hell?, he thought as something moved in the bushes nearby.
A large hairy swine with sharp tusks that dripped with saliva stepped out of the bushes and moved toward Lash. Lash tried to stand, but the pain in his throbbing head made him so dizzy he lost his balance and fell back to the ground. With one hand on his throbbing head, he scooched backward away from the oncoming beast. Still unable to rise, Lash moved back until he pressed his back up against the trunk of a tree. A large drop of saliva dripped onto Lash, and the beast snarled and opened it’s mouth to bite at Lash’s throat. Lash raised a defiant, but futile hand in front of the jaws of the beast and turned his head.
A spear flew out of the woods and impaled the swine’s throat. The lifeless hog was unable to even let out a dying squeal, before falling over on top of Lash, who screamed out in fear. A young woman with dark red hair and tanned skin stepped up to retrieve her spear, as Lash continued to wail with his eyes closed.
“Quiet down you bloody child before someone hears you,” She said, as she pulled the spear out of the swine’s throat and dragged the carcass off of him. Lash opened his eyes and pulled back his hands. He looked up at the woman who dragged the dead swine away by its rear legs with only one arm.
“Oh, thank you,” he expressed with an exhausted breath of gratitude.
“What? Oh you thought I did this to save you? I’ve been tracking this beast all morning,” she casually replied, as she continued to drag the dead swine. Lash staggered to his feet with his bloody right hand steadying his head and the other leaning on the trunk of the tree. He looked to the woman’s other arm and couldn’t help but notice the flap of her sleeve shirt dangled where an arm normally would be. “and get your eyes off my arm or
"I’ll pluck them out of your head.”
“What arm? I mean..” he stuttered.
The woman immediately turned to look back at him, noticing his swollen head and burned face for the first time. She saw the blood on his face from when he touched his head with his bloody fingers, but thought it was from the dead swine that fell on him, she never thought it may have been there before. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a focused stare that caused the corner of his lip to tremble upward into a meek smile. The flipped her dark red as she turned back and dragged the carcass through the forest.
Lash staggered behind her trying to keep his sight on her, despite his eyballs spinning in their sockets causing him to nearly walk into a tree. He could hardly stay on his feet, as he followed her through the woods leaning on the occasional tree trunk that seemed to jump out in front of him every few steps. After a short time, his vertigo started to subside and Lash could just see the woman ahead of him on the trail still dragging the dead swine behind her with her only arm. He hastened his pace to keep up with her not knowing at all where she was going, or where he had come from for that matter.
Lash continued to follow the woman deeper into the forest until she disappeared inside a cave entrance. He staggered forward and leaned on the moss-covered stone near the small cave entry and peered inside. He could just see the woman’s shadow on the wall after she went around a corner. With only the eerie green glow of a single frihar stone mounted on a nearby wall, Lash stepped into the narrow cavern following the one-armed woman. Unsure of his footing, he stepped in slowly taking one tender step after another and keeping his hand on the moist stone wall of the cavern. He wasn’t sure why he followed the woman, only that she was the only thing that seemed real to him.
As he came around the bend in the cavern, he could see her stoking the embers of a fire, with her long shadow on the wall behind him. He stopped as his fingers ran over an image on the wall. He turned to look and saw a carving on the wall. The second he saw the dragon face an image flashed in his mind. He saw a dragon breathe fire toward him, as the dragon was fading from view. He instinctively brought his hand up to touch the burn on his face.
“Yes, I believe this used to be a temple thousands of years ago when dragons still flew the skies overheard, but most people believe it only a legend,” The woman said, as she brought life to the fire without even turning to look at Lash. A legend? Lash thought. He again had a brief image of himself flying on a dragon. He looked out at the cloudy sky seeing the flap of a long powerful dragon wing, then he saw her! A young woman with braided blond hair flew alongside of him on a separate dragon. “You must be hungry.” The woman said to him, breaking his focus on the image in his mind. He turned to see her cut some pieces of her kill and skewered the meat to cook over the fire. Lash took a close look at himself for the first time. He was ravenous, but he wasn’t sure why. He was much skinnier than he thought he should be. His ragged clothes just hung from him and he wore no shoes. “Take a frihar torch and go into the next room, there’s a small trickle of water that you can use to get cleaned up.”
Lash felt his way along the wall with the green glow of the glowing stone on the torch guiding his way until he found a small passage. He could hear the trickle of water dripping down from the ground above through cracks in the stone. He put his hands in the cool water washing the blood from his palms. As the blood thinned in the water and washed from his hands, he saw another image in his mind. The face of the young woman with braided blonde hair came into view beneath the blood. The face was smiling and looking at him lovingly, but then changed and twisted with anger.
“Fine if that’s what you want to do, then do it and get out of my sight,” the woman screamed at him.
“Really? I can’t believe you’re not understanding this. I need time to myself. I’m not following you all over inspecting troops and being your man-servant…” Lash heard himself reply.
“Man-servant? Man-servant! Is that really what you think of yourself? You need to get over these insecurities of yours.”
“What? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re going to do this on me? You’re unbelievable. I should have done this long ago.”
“Fine then just go!” the woman turned and struck out at him. The image vanished and Lash continued scrubbing the dried blood from his hands.
He made his way back to the other cavern where the woman was cooking more of her kill.
“So what’s your story?” she asked, as Lash sat near her on a smooth stone. Story? That word seemed to roll inside his mind as if it meant more to him in some way. “I want to know what type of person I’m letting in to my home,” she said, as she held out a piece of cooked meat for him, Lash immediately reached out for it, but she pulled it back. “How did you get that burn?” Lash reached up to touch the burn on his face which was still fresh and very tender. He again saw an image of a dragon blowing flames with the face of the young woman with braids in the image wielding a halberd.
“I’m honestly not sure,” Lash replied and lowered his hand thinking his answer meant he was to go hungry. After a moment the woman gave him the food anyway, and Lash snatched it up and bit into it.
“By the look of you, you must have escaped from one of the queen’s work gangs.”
“Queen?” Lash pondered. “We have a queen?”
“What?” she looked over to him. “Wow they must have hit you hard. I’m Rugan,” she said, as she offered her hand to him.
“I’m Lash,” he stopped gnawing on the meat long enough to wipe a hand on his shirt and accept hers.
“Well at least you remember your name, now get some sleep, I’m going to need your help tomorrow.” Rugan shook his hand then threw another log on the fire.
Rugan unbuttoned her top with her one good hand and slid it over her head. Lash watched, as she exposed her tanned back, but was surprised to see the welts left behind from a whip. He turned his head and finished eating his pork, gnawing at the bone before tossing it into the fire. He found a blanket and spread it out a bit further from the fire, then laid down on it. Lash had no trouble falling asleep despite the hard stone beneath the blanket he lay upon. It wasn’t long before he saw a vision in his mind.
He saw himself walking across a field of grass ahead of him appeared to be a wide lake. He looked closer at the water and it seemed different, it didn’t seem to be clear water, but it reflected the sky above. He went to step into the water only to find it like a thin flexible film. The second his bare foot touched the surface he heard a musical twang from a stringed instrument and rippled across the film. A small circle of color spread out from where his big toe touched the film. He pulled his foot back and the color retracted instantly.
Lash stood at the edge of the strange lake. The musical note sounded familiar to him. He saw a different image briefly in his mind of himself playing a rebec in a tavern in front of a crowd. He stepped again onto the strange surface of the lake and another sound rippled across the film and bright colors swirled out from around his foot. Lash recognized the sound as similar to the sound of his rebec, but different. His rebec appeared in his hand, then the bow appeared floating in the air nearby. He reached for the bow, but it snapped in two then dissipated. He looked at his rebec and it transformed into a new instrument. It was very similar to his wooden rebec only larger and had seven tight strings that ran along it and over the near circular hole He plucked one of the strings with a finger and a musical note radiated out from inside the instrument. Lash then started to strum his fingers over the strings and a musical melody flowed all around. The bright colors swirled matching the rhythm and continued to swirl out in all directions from where he placed his foot. The colors even started to engulf his foot and move up his leg. Lash put his other bare foot out onto the surface of the strange lake which supported his weight and only bent down slightly beneath his feet. Another ripple of sound swept out across the lake and the bright colors spread everywhere. Lash was soon covered by the bright swirling colors which never stopped radiating across his body. Lash held out his arms and watched as the swirling colors spread out to his fingertips.
With a broad smile on his face Lash started to dance across the swirling colored lake and play the guitar as he spun out across the strange colorful lake. Lash watched as a colorful image of the blonde-haired woman from his dreams rose up from the lake and started to dance with him. The two of them danced together across the lake as the music played and the colors continued to swirl all around. After a short time, the colorful image of a dragon rose up and watched them dance. Soon the dragon repeated itself and several colorful dragons spread out on the lake surrounding the two dancers. Lash dropped to his knees and slid across the colorful lake with the guitar pressed tight to his body and his fingers strumming across the strings. A rhythmic chord of music echoed out across the lake.
After the music died, a gust of wind blew across the lake and all the colorful images dispersed like grains of sand blowing in the wind and a dark cloud overtook Lash. He was surrounded now by darkness as all the color was gone. He sat on a bleak hillside and his guitar vanished as well, as a new image started to form.
Lash was laying in bed and he opened his eyes to see the young woman with the blonde braids lift her leg and set her foot on the edge of his bed. She stretched out her leg and pulled up a near transparent light-blue stocking over her developed calf and he watched as she pulled it up over her knee and onto her pale thigh. He reached a hand out to caress her thigh only to get it smacked away.
“You had your chance last night only you were too drunk,” she said to him, as she reached down to pick up a boot.
“Oh, but I know how much you love it in the morning. A great way to start your day,” Lash said, as he lifted himself up from the bed and looked at her exposed thighs from behind, as she bent down to pick up her boots and her uniform dress pulled up to where he could almost see the bottom of her butt cheeks.
“Ya well I don’t have time this morning,” she said after she picked up her boots and sat back on the chair next to the bed. “I need to fly to a fort and inspect the troops.”
“What!? Haven’t you inspected every defense post a hundred times or more by now?”
“I’ve got my duties! And unlike you, I can’t just tell stories in taverns.”
“Oh we’re starting with that again?” Lash said as he got up out of bed and reached for his trousers on the floor.
“Face it Lash, I mean why don’t you do something with your degree?”
“Ya. Archeology digs are rare these days and when I do find one it means I’d be gone for months at a time and you cry that you’ll be alone, so I tag along with you as you fly around Annuvin showing soldiers how to wield a halberd, I mean come on even Otis takes time off to be with his family,” Lash finished pulling on his trousers and looked for his tunic, as the young woman pulled on her sword belt. “Ya know you could be more like your father, he knows how to enjoy life and had the good sense to retire when the job was done.”
“Don’t you bring my father into this!” she turned sharp yelling at him. “You don’t have to come. I can drop you at the nearest tavern and you can slide into a challis of whiskey like you usually do.” She turned back to exit the room and marched through the hallway. Lash pulled his tunic over his head and put on one of his shoes, then searched the room frantically for the other one. He found his shoe and ran after her wearing one shoe and carrying the other.
Lash caught up to her on the porch of the home. The home was high on top of a mountain peak and the sun was just rising over the clouds coloring them in a deep orange glow. A dragon was curled up near a fire against a smooth wall of rock near the back of the home. Lash stopped and leaned on the porch rail, as he slid on his shoe, then hurried to catch up with her, as she walked toward the dragon.
“What? You’re just going to leave me up here with no way to get down?” he asked when he caught up to her.
“Actually, yes that was my plan. Sarnay and Frolin should be back soon and there’s plenty to eat here.”
“Ugh… I’ve had enough of this tired old argument. I need to get away for a while,” Lash said quietly almost to himself.
“Fine if that’s what you want to do, then do it and get out of my sight,” She turned and screamed at him.
“Really? I can’t believe you’re not understanding this. I need time to myself. I’m not following you all over inspecting troops and being your man-servant…” Lash replied.
“Man-servant? Man-servant! Is that really what you think of yourself? You need to get over these insecurities of yours.” They stood looking at each other. The dragon sensed their agitation and stood and looked their way.
“What? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re going to do this on me? You’re unbelievable. I should have done this long ago.”
“Fine then just go!”
“I will!” Lash shouted in her face as loud as he could.
Lash and the young woman started to float up in the air and be pulled away from each other. They both looked at themselves and each other clearly not understanding what was happening. The dragon started to flicker and fade in and out of existence. Lash and the young woman drifted upwards and further apart and the dragon roared deep and looked at Lash as it continued to flux and become transparent. The dragon blasted a funnel of flame toward Lash just before it completely disappeared. The flame too fluctuated and started to disappear, but not before a small puff of it struck Lash in the side of the face.
Lash woke up inside the cavern laying under the blankets neared the ashes of a fire and screamed out…
“Millaney!”
Part two
A kiss goodbye
Lash woke up in Rugan’s cave screaming Millaney’s name. Rugan was already awake packing the cooked meat in a crate. She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him.
“I have to find her,” Lash said as he started to get up. He staggered a bit and his hand reached up to steady his head. Rugan watched him, thinking. “Thank you for helping me miss, but I need to find my friend.”
“Where will you go?”
“My friend is in trouble I have to find her.”
“Yes, I see that, but where will you look?” Rugan asked him, as he started toward the exit to the cavern, Lash stopped. “The queen’s soldiers will still be looking for you.”
“Queen, queen. What is it with this queen? I don’t know of any queen!” Lash turned back sharply causing his head to throb.
“I will help you find her, but you have to help me first please.”
“I’m so confused,” Lash exasperated. “I don’t know what’s what anymore. I know she’s in some sort of trouble, it could be urgent.”
“You’re very right she is, but she can take care of herself quite well,” Rugan said as she continued to pack up the meat. “Just rest here a moment. I’ll have to get you some different clothes.” Rugan finished packing up the meat then walked over to some other crates and looked through some clothes.
“Wait you know her?” Lash asked after sitting back down. Rugan stopped. She turned to sit on one of the crates. “I’ve known her for years. We were rivals, in a sporting way of course. We were both commanders for the queen. Well, not the current queen, but her mother. I’m not sure where she’s at now, but I think I can help find her.”
“You were both commanders for the queen? There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“I’m not sure why you don’t know about the past decades of life around here, but I don’t think it’s a normal amnesia. The day Perowynn was crowned I was not only one of her commanders, but we were very close. I was with her after the ceremony and I was helping her out of bulky ceremonial dress. It had just slid to the floor and she pulled me in close and kissed me.”
Perowynn stood in her finest lingerie and a bulky pink dress laying on the floor at her feet, a jeweled crown on her head, her hair pulled up in a tight bun. Rugan was wearing a tight-fitting ceremonial soldier’s uniform with burgundy and white colors. She had three medals pinned to her chest, one much larger than the other two with a burgundy ribbon. Perowynn pulled her close and kissed her, her hand reached behind Rugan and started to unzip her uniform, just as a servant rushed in to her quarters carrying an ornate box and bowing her head.
“How dare you charge into my chamber like this?” Queen Perowynn scolded the servant.
“Forgive me your majesty. I was under strict orders from your mother to give you this the moment you were crowned queen.” The servant said in the politest of manners keeping her head bowed.
“Fine! Open it and show me what’s in it,” Perowynn conceded, then went back to kissing Rugan.
“I can not your majesty,” the servant trembled. “I was told it was for your eyes only and the key is on your necklace.”
Perowynn stopped. She looked down at a necklace she had always worn since she was a child. She lifted it while still wearing it around her neck, then with the other hand she held out to accept the small box. She stepped away from Rugan and Rugan walked over to gently pick up the huge shimmering pink gown. The servant quietly backed out of the room with her head still bowed and two soldiers outside the room closed the huge double doors. Perowynn looked at the necklace and the keyhole of the small box and after a moment, she turned the necklace with a small edge of it and stuck it in the keyhole and turned. The box clicked and the lid popped up a bit. Perowynn walked over to the balcony of the room that overlooked the sprawling city of Vacentia. She kept her eyes on the box and while holding it in one hand she opened it with the other.
She reached inside the box and removed the aged parchment and started reading a letter she knew to be written by her own hand.
If you’re reading this, then my plan has worked and you are finally queen of all of Annuvin. I have worked hard over the years convincing members of our family of who I was and what I could do for them. Everything should be in place! The wars I knew of and the outcomes gave our generals valuable insight and victory over the other kingdoms. You know Rule! The other families are either vanquished or signed allegiance to us, to you! We do however still have our enemies and that is something you must see to immediately…
Rugan finished putting away the gown and walked over toward her queen who was stepping back into the room while still reading the letter which was several pages. Rugan watched her walk around the room in her lingerie reading the letter. Perowynn walked over to the double doors and opened them, gesturing for the two guards to enter, as she read the last page. The soldiers and Rugan stood waiting for her command, as she walked over to a desk and put the letter back in its box and set it down. She leaned on the desk with her eyes transfixed on Rugan.
“Take her from me and lock her up,” she quietly commanded of the soldiers. The soldiers hesitated for only a brief moment unsure if they heard her correctly, but then moved quickly to grab the bewildered Rugan. “Wait.” She said as if a new thought occurred to her. The soldiers stopped. Perowynn picked up a decorative dagger off her desk and sauntered over to Rugan. “you would betray me would you?”
“What? I?”
“I know it to be true. You never had the right mindset for this job, you’re too empathetic for these people.”
“Perri I…” Rugan sputtered.
“You will address me as your majesty!” Queen Perowynn screamed then lunged forward and pressed the dagger to her throat.
“Yes, your majesty. I don’t know what I’ve done to offend you.”
“Nothing yet,” Perowynn said in a much calmer soft even seductive tone and pulled the dagger away before turning from her one-time mistress. “It’s what you would have done that I must prevent. Take her away.” She commanded of the soldiers, who responded by pulling Rugan toward the doors. “and strip her of her clothes, she’s not worthy to wear that uniform.”
Several days later Rugan sat with her back pressed against a damp stone wall in the back of a dark cell. A large curl of her matted dark red hair dangled over her eye framed in the green glow of a frihar lamp that trickled in through a small window in her cell door. The rest of the small room was in near total darkness, but she didn’t need to see the filth to know it was there. For days she sat in the cell wondering what had happened. Her mother was a servant at the royal castle and she and Perowynn had grown up together within its stone walls. What could have been in that letter to cause her to turn on her like that and lock her up in this filthy cell.
She cocked her head a bit and looked to the door, as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She stood straight up at the sound of keys dangling just outside her door. She knew the routine well, if her cell was to be cleaned, she had to stand still with her back flat against the wall. The door opened spilling more lamplight into the dark cell. Rugan stood in her thin linen night shirt that at one time used to be white, but now were heavily darkened with filth. Her normally tanned skin seemed even darker as her skin was also darkened by dirt. She expected to see the guard with a servant, but her eyes opened wide when she saw the two soldiers step in. She recognized them both as men she had personally trained, but her expression soon soured, as she saw them more clearly. They stepped inside the chamber and stood near each other staring straight forward. Their eyes were dark and smoky and a thin trail of smoke drifted up out of their nostrils.
“Come with us.” One of them said in a simple monotone voice that seemed of an unusual origin.
Rugan stepped forward and the two soldiers turned in unison and one of them took her by the arm and guided her through the cell doorway. After they stepped out a servant with a cloth mask over his face and nose came into the cell with a large broom to clean out the straw on the floor that was soaked in urine and human feces. The two soldiers brought Rugan out in the better lit area of the of a wide circular corridor with several cells on the perimeter. The back of Rugan’s night shirt was stained in lines of blood where she had been whipped. They brought her over to where a female commander stood waiting for them, she immediately brought her hand up to cover her nose.
“Ugh. Get her cleaned up then bring her upstairs,” she commanded, then turned to make a hasty retreat out of the area toward a set of winding stone stairs. One of the soldiers picked up a bucket of water and dumped it over Rugan’s head drenching her in cool water.
“Thanks,” Rugan muttered, after he tossed her a large sponge.
They exited the top floor of a round tower and met the female commander who waited for them just outside the door. Rugan’s hair and clothes were still dripping wet, as the soldier’s escorted her to a small group of people standing on the top of an octagon wall with towers at every corner. The guards took a tight hold of her arms and followed the female commander over to the group. Perowynn stood on top of a wooden platform near the edge of the wall overlooking the city below with hundreds of people gathered near the base of the wall and in the nearby city streets.
“My family has served the people of Annuvin faithfully for generations,” Perowynn spoke to the crowd below. “We united the five kingdoms and ended the bloodshed. We have peace in our time! Yet there are still those who seek to undo my family’s great legacy of peace. There are those who still want war! We must weed out this scourge and stop it before it spreads.”
The female commander gestured for the two soldiers to escort Rugan up onto the platform. As they ascended to short wooden steps, Rugan could see a man wearing a hood standing near a chopping block. She froze in her gait and tried to break free from the soldiers, but they held her tight and pushed her forward. They brought her over to the chopping block and forced her head down onto it. Rugan saw the hooded man raise a sharpened falchion high into the air.
“This woman was once my closest friend,” Perowynn again spoke to the crowd with a well-rehearsed but false sense of empathy. “But she turned on me. She turned on our kingdom. She is an enemy of us all and must be dealt with.” Perowynn walked over to Rugan whose neck was stretched out on the wooden chopping block. She bent down to whisper in her ear. “I always knew you to be weak. I knew you’d betray me. You don’t have the stomach for what needs to be done.” Rugan tried to speak in response, but her neck was pressed so tight against the block, she could not utter the words. Perowynn knelt down beside her and reached down to hold her head in her hands. The soldiers eased up a bit on their pressure so that the queen could turn Rugan’s head and look her in the eye. “I loved you like no one ever before,” she said this time with much more genuine tenderness in her voice. Rugan again tried to respond, but before she could the queen pressed her lips against hers in a strong forceful kiss. “I will truly miss you, but if I ever see your face her again, I’ll finish what I started here today.”
The queen stood and gestured to the soldiers who instantly stretched Rugan’s neck tight against the block, only this time they pushed her head off to the side and stretched her arm out onto the block. Rugan looked to her queen as she stepped away with her back turned. The bright sun glistened off the executioner’s blade as he raised it high in the air and brought it down and cleanly cut through Rugan’s arm.
Rugan sat for a long moment after telling Lash her tale, then with a deep sigh she stood and rummaged through some clothes. She tossed him some clothes and waited patiently while he changed, then the two of them quietly exited the cavern.
Return of the queen
Part 1
Delirium
Lash awoke in the middle of a dense forest with a swollen head, a burn on the right side of his face, his hair singed and blood on his hands. His eyelids drifted open and the blurry vision of the forest canopy above him slowly came into view. A cool gentle breeze rustled the leaves, as he lifted a bloody hand to steady his throbbing head. He looked at the blood on one of his hands then the other with a wrinkled brow and raised corner of his upper lip. What the hell?, he thought as something moved in the bushes nearby.
A large hairy swine with sharp tusks that dripped with saliva stepped out of the bushes and moved toward Lash. Lash tried to stand, but the pain in his throbbing head made him so dizzy he lost his balance and fell back to the ground. With one hand on his throbbing head, he scooched backward away from the oncoming beast. Still unable to rise, Lash moved back until he pressed his back up against the trunk of a tree. A large drop of saliva dripped onto Lash, and the beast snarled and opened it’s mouth to bite at Lash’s throat. Lash raised a defiant, but futile hand in front of the jaws of the beast and turned his head.
A spear flew out of the woods and impaled the swine’s throat. The lifeless hog was unable to even let out a dying squeal, before falling over on top of Lash, who screamed out in fear. A young woman with dark red hair and tanned skin stepped up to retrieve her spear, as Lash continued to wail with his eyes closed.
“Quiet down you bloody child before someone hears you,” She said, as she pulled the spear out of the swine’s throat and dragged the carcass off of him. Lash opened his eyes and pulled back his hands. He looked up at the woman who dragged the dead swine away by its rear legs with only one arm.
“Oh, thank you,” he expressed with an exhausted breath of gratitude.
“What? Oh you thought I did this to save you? I’ve been tracking this beast all morning,” she casually replied, as she continued to drag the dead swine. Lash staggered to his feet with his bloody right hand steadying his head and the other leaning on the trunk of the tree. He looked to the woman’s other arm and couldn’t help but notice the flap of her sleeve shirt dangled where an arm normally would be. “and get your eyes off my arm or
"I’ll pluck them out of your head.”
“What arm? I mean..” he stuttered.
The woman immediately turned to look back at him, noticing his swollen head and burned face for the first time. She saw the blood on his face from when he touched his head with his bloody fingers, but thought it was from the dead swine that fell on him, she never thought it may have been there before. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a focused stare that caused the corner of his lip to tremble upward into a meek smile. The flipped her dark red as she turned back and dragged the carcass through the forest.
Lash staggered behind her trying to keep his sight on her, despite his eyballs spinning in their sockets causing him to nearly walk into a tree. He could hardly stay on his feet, as he followed her through the woods leaning on the occasional tree trunk that seemed to jump out in front of him every few steps. After a short time, his vertigo started to subside and Lash could just see the woman ahead of him on the trail still dragging the dead swine behind her with her only arm. He hastened his pace to keep up with her not knowing at all where she was going, or where he had come from for that matter.
Lash continued to follow the woman deeper into the forest until she disappeared inside a cave entrance. He staggered forward and leaned on the moss-covered stone near the small cave entry and peered inside. He could just see the woman’s shadow on the wall after she went around a corner. With only the eerie green glow of a single frihar stone mounted on a nearby wall, Lash stepped into the narrow cavern following the one-armed woman. Unsure of his footing, he stepped in slowly taking one tender step after another and keeping his hand on the moist stone wall of the cavern. He wasn’t sure why he followed the woman, only that she was the only thing that seemed real to him.
As he came around the bend in the cavern, he could see her stoking the embers of a fire, with her long shadow on the wall behind him. He stopped as his fingers ran over an image on the wall. He turned to look and saw a carving on the wall. The second he saw the dragon face an image flashed in his mind. He saw a dragon breathe fire toward him, as the dragon was fading from view. He instinctively brought his hand up to touch the burn on his face.
“Yes, I believe this used to be a temple thousands of years ago when dragons still flew the skies overheard, but most people believe it only a legend,” The woman said, as she brought life to the fire without even turning to look at Lash. A legend? Lash thought. He again had a brief image of himself flying on a dragon. He looked out at the cloudy sky seeing the flap of a long powerful dragon wing, then he saw her! A young woman with braided blond hair flew alongside of him on a separate dragon. “You must be hungry.” The woman said to him, breaking his focus on the image in his mind. He turned to see her cut some pieces of her kill and skewered the meat to cook over the fire. Lash took a close look at himself for the first time. He was ravenous, but he wasn’t sure why. He was much skinnier than he thought he should be. His ragged clothes just hung from him and he wore no shoes. “Take a frihar torch and go into the next room, there’s a small trickle of water that you can use to get cleaned up.”
Lash felt his way along the wall with the green glow of the glowing stone on the torch guiding his way until he found a small passage. He could hear the trickle of water dripping down from the ground above through cracks in the stone. He put his hands in the cool water washing the blood from his palms. As the blood thinned in the water and washed from his hands, he saw another image in his mind. The face of the young woman with braided blonde hair came into view beneath the blood. The face was smiling and looking at him lovingly, but then changed and twisted with anger.
“Fine if that’s what you want to do, then do it and get out of my sight,” the woman screamed at him.
“Really? I can’t believe you’re not understanding this. I need time to myself. I’m not following you all over inspecting troops and being your man-servant…” Lash heard himself reply.
“Man-servant? Man-servant! Is that really what you think of yourself? You need to get over these insecurities of yours.”
“What? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re going to do this on me? You’re unbelievable. I should have done this long ago.”
“Fine then just go!” the woman turned and struck out at him. The image vanished and Lash continued scrubbing the dried blood from his hands.
He made his way back to the other cavern where the woman was cooking more of her kill.
“So what’s your story?” she asked, as Lash sat near her on a smooth stone. Story? That word seemed to roll inside his mind as if it meant more to him in some way. “I want to know what type of person I’m letting in to my home,” she said, as she held out a piece of cooked meat for him, Lash immediately reached out for it, but she pulled it back. “How did you get that burn?” Lash reached up to touch the burn on his face which was still fresh and very tender. He again saw an image of a dragon blowing flames with the face of the young woman with braids in the image wielding a halberd.
“I’m honestly not sure,” Lash replied and lowered his hand thinking his answer meant he was to go hungry. After a moment the woman gave him the food anyway, and Lash snatched it up and bit into it.
“By the look of you, you must have escaped from one of the queen’s work gangs.”
“Queen?” Lash pondered. “We have a queen?”
“What?” she looked over to him. “Wow they must have hit you hard. I’m Rugan,” she said, as she offered her hand to him.
“I’m Lash,” he stopped gnawing on the meat long enough to wipe a hand on his shirt and accept hers.
“Well at least you remember your name, now get some sleep, I’m going to need your help tomorrow.” Rugan shook his hand then threw another log on the fire.
Rugan unbuttoned her top with her one good hand and slid it over her head. Lash watched, as she exposed her tanned back, but was surprised to see the welts left behind from a whip. He turned his head and finished eating his pork, gnawing at the bone before tossing it into the fire. He found a blanket and spread it out a bit further from the fire, then laid down on it. Lash had no trouble falling asleep despite the hard stone beneath the blanket he lay upon. It wasn’t long before he saw a vision in his mind.
He saw himself walking across a field of grass ahead of him appeared to be a wide lake. He looked closer at the water and it seemed different, it didn’t seem to be clear water, but it reflected the sky above. He went to step into the water only to find it like a thin flexible film. The second his bare foot touched the surface he heard a musical twang from a stringed instrument and rippled across the film. A small circle of color spread out from where his big toe touched the film. He pulled his foot back and the color retracted instantly.
Lash stood at the edge of the strange lake. The musical note sounded familiar to him. He saw a different image briefly in his mind of himself playing a rebec in a tavern in front of a crowd. He stepped again onto the strange surface of the lake and another sound rippled across the film and bright colors swirled out from around his foot. Lash recognized the sound as similar to the sound of his rebec, but different. His rebec appeared in his hand, then the bow appeared floating in the air nearby. He reached for the bow, but it snapped in two then dissipated. He looked at his rebec and it transformed into a new instrument. It was very similar to his wooden rebec only larger and had seven tight strings that ran along it and over the near circular hole He plucked one of the strings with a finger and a musical note radiated out from inside the instrument. Lash then started to strum his fingers over the strings and a musical melody flowed all around. The bright colors swirled matching the rhythm and continued to swirl out in all directions from where he placed his foot. The colors even started to engulf his foot and move up his leg. Lash put his other bare foot out onto the surface of the strange lake which supported his weight and only bent down slightly beneath his feet. Another ripple of sound swept out across the lake and the bright colors spread everywhere. Lash was soon covered by the bright swirling colors which never stopped radiating across his body. Lash held out his arms and watched as the swirling colors spread out to his fingertips.
With a broad smile on his face Lash started to dance across the swirling colored lake and play the guitar as he spun out across the strange colorful lake. Lash watched as a colorful image of the blonde-haired woman from his dreams rose up from the lake and started to dance with him. The two of them danced together across the lake as the music played and the colors continued to swirl all around. After a short time, the colorful image of a dragon rose up and watched them dance. Soon the dragon repeated itself and several colorful dragons spread out on the lake surrounding the two dancers. Lash dropped to his knees and slid across the colorful lake with the guitar pressed tight to his body and his fingers strumming across the strings. A rhythmic chord of music echoed out across the lake.
After the music died, a gust of wind blew across the lake and all the colorful images dispersed like grains of sand blowing in the wind and a dark cloud overtook Lash. He was surrounded now by darkness as all the color was gone. He sat on a bleak hillside and his guitar vanished as well, as a new image started to form.
Lash was laying in bed and he opened his eyes to see the young woman with the blonde braids lift her leg and set her foot on the edge of his bed. She stretched out her leg and pulled up a near transparent light-blue stocking over her developed calf and he watched as she pulled it up over her knee and onto her pale thigh. He reached a hand out to caress her thigh only to get it smacked away.
“You had your chance last night only you were too drunk,” she said to him, as she reached down to pick up a boot.
“Oh, but I know how much you love it in the morning. A great way to start your day,” Lash said, as he lifted himself up from the bed and looked at her exposed thighs from behind, as she bent down to pick up her boots and her uniform dress pulled up to where he could almost see the bottom of her butt cheeks.
“Ya well I don’t have time this morning,” she said after she picked up her boots and sat back on the chair next to the bed. “I need to fly to a fort and inspect the troops.”
“What!? Haven’t you inspected every defense post a hundred times or more by now?”
“I’ve got my duties! And unlike you, I can’t just tell stories in taverns.”
“Oh we’re starting with that again?” Lash said as he got up out of bed and reached for his trousers on the floor.
“Face it Lash, I mean why don’t you do something with your degree?”
“Ya. Archeology digs are rare these days and when I do find one it means I’d be gone for months at a time and you cry that you’ll be alone, so I tag along with you as you fly around Annuvin showing soldiers how to wield a halberd, I mean come on even Otis takes time off to be with his family,” Lash finished pulling on his trousers and looked for his tunic, as the young woman pulled on her sword belt. “Ya know you could be more like your father, he knows how to enjoy life and had the good sense to retire when the job was done.”
“Don’t you bring my father into this!” she turned sharp yelling at him. “You don’t have to come. I can drop you at the nearest tavern and you can slide into a challis of whiskey like you usually do.” She turned back to exit the room and marched through the hallway. Lash pulled his tunic over his head and put on one of his shoes, then searched the room frantically for the other one. He found his shoe and ran after her wearing one shoe and carrying the other.
Lash caught up to her on the porch of the home. The home was high on top of a mountain peak and the sun was just rising over the clouds coloring them in a deep orange glow. A dragon was curled up near a fire against a smooth wall of rock near the back of the home. Lash stopped and leaned on the porch rail, as he slid on his shoe, then hurried to catch up with her, as she walked toward the dragon.
“What? You’re just going to leave me up here with no way to get down?” he asked when he caught up to her.
“Actually, yes that was my plan. Sarnay and Frolin should be back soon and there’s plenty to eat here.”
“Ugh… I’ve had enough of this tired old argument. I need to get away for a while,” Lash said quietly almost to himself.
“Fine if that’s what you want to do, then do it and get out of my sight,” She turned and screamed at him.
“Really? I can’t believe you’re not understanding this. I need time to myself. I’m not following you all over inspecting troops and being your man-servant…” Lash replied.
“Man-servant? Man-servant! Is that really what you think of yourself? You need to get over these insecurities of yours.” They stood looking at each other. The dragon sensed their agitation and stood and looked their way.
“What? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re going to do this on me? You’re unbelievable. I should have done this long ago.”
“Fine then just go!”
“I will!” Lash shouted in her face as loud as he could.
Lash and the young woman started to float up in the air and be pulled away from each other. They both looked at themselves and each other clearly not understanding what was happening. The dragon started to flicker and fade in and out of existence. Lash and the young woman drifted upwards and further apart and the dragon roared deep and looked at Lash as it continued to flux and become transparent. The dragon blasted a funnel of flame toward Lash just before it completely disappeared. The flame too fluctuated and started to disappear, but not before a small puff of it struck Lash in the side of the face.
Lash woke up inside the cavern laying under the blankets neared the ashes of a fire and screamed out…
“Millaney!”
Part two
A kiss goodbye
Lash woke up in Rugan’s cave screaming Millaney’s name. Rugan was already awake packing the cooked meat in a crate. She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him.
“I have to find her,” Lash said as he started to get up. He staggered a bit and his hand reached up to steady his head. Rugan watched him, thinking. “Thank you for helping me miss, but I need to find my friend.”
“Where will you go?”
“My friend is in trouble I have to find her.”
“Yes, I see that, but where will you look?” Rugan asked him, as he started toward the exit to the cavern, Lash stopped. “The queen’s soldiers will still be looking for you.”
“Queen, queen. What is it with this queen? I don’t know of any queen!” Lash turned back sharply causing his head to throb.
“I will help you find her, but you have to help me first please.”
“I’m so confused,” Lash exasperated. “I don’t know what’s what anymore. I know she’s in some sort of trouble, it could be urgent.”
“You’re very right she is, but she can take care of herself quite well,” Rugan said as she continued to pack up the meat. “Just rest here a moment. I’ll have to get you some different clothes.” Rugan finished packing up the meat then walked over to some other crates and looked through some clothes.
“Wait you know her?” Lash asked after sitting back down. Rugan stopped. She turned to sit on one of the crates. “I’ve known her for years. We were rivals, in a sporting way of course. We were both commanders for the queen. Well, not the current queen, but her mother. I’m not sure where she’s at now, but I think I can help find her.”
“You were both commanders for the queen? There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“I’m not sure why you don’t know about the past decades of life around here, but I don’t think it’s a normal amnesia. The day Perowynn was crowned I was not only one of her commanders, but we were very close. I was with her after the ceremony and I was helping her out of bulky ceremonial dress. It had just slid to the floor and she pulled me in close and kissed me.”
Perowynn stood in her finest lingerie and a bulky pink dress laying on the floor at her feet, a jeweled crown on her head, her hair pulled up in a tight bun. Rugan was wearing a tight-fitting ceremonial soldier’s uniform with burgundy and white colors. She had three medals pinned to her chest, one much larger than the other two with a burgundy ribbon. Perowynn pulled her close and kissed her, her hand reached behind Rugan and started to unzip her uniform, just as a servant rushed in to her quarters carrying an ornate box and bowing her head.
“How dare you charge into my chamber like this?” Queen Perowynn scolded the servant.
“Forgive me your majesty. I was under strict orders from your mother to give you this the moment you were crowned queen.” The servant said in the politest of manners keeping her head bowed.
“Fine! Open it and show me what’s in it,” Perowynn conceded, then went back to kissing Rugan.
“I can not your majesty,” the servant trembled. “I was told it was for your eyes only and the key is on your necklace.”
Perowynn stopped. She looked down at a necklace she had always worn since she was a child. She lifted it while still wearing it around her neck, then with the other hand she held out to accept the small box. She stepped away from Rugan and Rugan walked over to gently pick up the huge shimmering pink gown. The servant quietly backed out of the room with her head still bowed and two soldiers outside the room closed the huge double doors. Perowynn looked at the necklace and the keyhole of the small box and after a moment, she turned the necklace with a small edge of it and stuck it in the keyhole and turned. The box clicked and the lid popped up a bit. Perowynn walked over to the balcony of the room that overlooked the sprawling city of Vacentia. She kept her eyes on the box and while holding it in one hand she opened it with the other.
She reached inside the box and removed the aged parchment and started reading a letter she knew to be written by her own hand.
If you’re reading this, then my plan has worked and you are finally queen of all of Annuvin. I have worked hard over the years convincing members of our family of who I was and what I could do for them. Everything should be in place! The wars I knew of and the outcomes gave our generals valuable insight and victory over the other kingdoms. You know Rule! The other families are either vanquished or signed allegiance to us, to you! We do however still have our enemies and that is something you must see to immediately…
Rugan finished putting away the gown and walked over toward her queen who was stepping back into the room while still reading the letter which was several pages. Rugan watched her walk around the room in her lingerie reading the letter. Perowynn walked over to the double doors and opened them, gesturing for the two guards to enter, as she read the last page. The soldiers and Rugan stood waiting for her command, as she walked over to a desk and put the letter back in its box and set it down. She leaned on the desk with her eyes transfixed on Rugan.
“Take her from me and lock her up,” she quietly commanded of the soldiers. The soldiers hesitated for only a brief moment unsure if they heard her correctly, but then moved quickly to grab the bewildered Rugan. “Wait.” She said as if a new thought occurred to her. The soldiers stopped. Perowynn picked up a decorative dagger off her desk and sauntered over to Rugan. “you would betray me would you?”
“What? I?”
“I know it to be true. You never had the right mindset for this job, you’re too empathetic for these people.”
“Perri I…” Rugan sputtered.
“You will address me as your majesty!” Queen Perowynn screamed then lunged forward and pressed the dagger to her throat.
“Yes, your majesty. I don’t know what I’ve done to offend you.”
“Nothing yet,” Perowynn said in a much calmer soft even seductive tone and pulled the dagger away before turning from her one-time mistress. “It’s what you would have done that I must prevent. Take her away.” She commanded of the soldiers, who responded by pulling Rugan toward the doors. “and strip her of her clothes, she’s not worthy to wear that uniform.”
Several days later Rugan sat with her back pressed against a damp stone wall in the back of a dark cell. A large curl of her matted dark red hair dangled over her eye framed in the green glow of a frihar lamp that trickled in through a small window in her cell door. The rest of the small room was in near total darkness, but she didn’t need to see the filth to know it was there. For days she sat in the cell wondering what had happened. Her mother was a servant at the royal castle and she and Perowynn had grown up together within its stone walls. What could have been in that letter to cause her to turn on her like that and lock her up in this filthy cell.
She cocked her head a bit and looked to the door, as she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She stood straight up at the sound of keys dangling just outside her door. She knew the routine well, if her cell was to be cleaned, she had to stand still with her back flat against the wall. The door opened spilling more lamplight into the dark cell. Rugan stood in her thin linen night shirt that at one time used to be white, but now were heavily darkened with filth. Her normally tanned skin seemed even darker as her skin was also darkened by dirt. She expected to see the guard with a servant, but her eyes opened wide when she saw the two soldiers step in. She recognized them both as men she had personally trained, but her expression soon soured, as she saw them more clearly. They stepped inside the chamber and stood near each other staring straight forward. Their eyes were dark and smoky and a thin trail of smoke drifted up out of their nostrils.
“Come with us.” One of them said in a simple monotone voice that seemed of an unusual origin.
Rugan stepped forward and the two soldiers turned in unison and one of them took her by the arm and guided her through the cell doorway. After they stepped out a servant with a cloth mask over his face and nose came into the cell with a large broom to clean out the straw on the floor that was soaked in urine and human feces. The two soldiers brought Rugan out in the better lit area of the of a wide circular corridor with several cells on the perimeter. The back of Rugan’s night shirt was stained in lines of blood where she had been whipped. They brought her over to where a female commander stood waiting for them, she immediately brought her hand up to cover her nose.
“Ugh. Get her cleaned up then bring her upstairs,” she commanded, then turned to make a hasty retreat out of the area toward a set of winding stone stairs. One of the soldiers picked up a bucket of water and dumped it over Rugan’s head drenching her in cool water.
“Thanks,” Rugan muttered, after he tossed her a large sponge.
They exited the top floor of a round tower and met the female commander who waited for them just outside the door. Rugan’s hair and clothes were still dripping wet, as the soldier’s escorted her to a small group of people standing on the top of an octagon wall with towers at every corner. The guards took a tight hold of her arms and followed the female commander over to the group. Perowynn stood on top of a wooden platform near the edge of the wall overlooking the city below with hundreds of people gathered near the base of the wall and in the nearby city streets.
“My family has served the people of Annuvin faithfully for generations,” Perowynn spoke to the crowd below. “We united the five kingdoms and ended the bloodshed. We have peace in our time! Yet there are still those who seek to undo my family’s great legacy of peace. There are those who still want war! We must weed out this scourge and stop it before it spreads.”
The female commander gestured for the two soldiers to escort Rugan up onto the platform. As they ascended to short wooden steps, Rugan could see a man wearing a hood standing near a chopping block. She froze in her gait and tried to break free from the soldiers, but they held her tight and pushed her forward. They brought her over to the chopping block and forced her head down onto it. Rugan saw the hooded man raise a sharpened falchion high into the air.
“This woman was once my closest friend,” Perowynn again spoke to the crowd with a well-rehearsed but false sense of empathy. “But she turned on me. She turned on our kingdom. She is an enemy of us all and must be dealt with.” Perowynn walked over to Rugan whose neck was stretched out on the wooden chopping block. She bent down to whisper in her ear. “I always knew you to be weak. I knew you’d betray me. You don’t have the stomach for what needs to be done.” Rugan tried to speak in response, but her neck was pressed so tight against the block, she could not utter the words. Perowynn knelt down beside her and reached down to hold her head in her hands. The soldiers eased up a bit on their pressure so that the queen could turn Rugan’s head and look her in the eye. “I loved you like no one ever before,” she said this time with much more genuine tenderness in her voice. Rugan again tried to respond, but before she could the queen pressed her lips against hers in a strong forceful kiss. “I will truly miss you, but if I ever see your face her again, I’ll finish what I started here today.”
The queen stood and gestured to the soldiers who instantly stretched Rugan’s neck tight against the block, only this time they pushed her head off to the side and stretched her arm out onto the block. Rugan looked to her queen as she stepped away with her back turned. The bright sun glistened off the executioner’s blade as he raised it high in the air and brought it down and cleanly cut through Rugan’s arm.
Rugan sat for a long moment after telling Lash her tale, then with a deep sigh she stood and rummaged through some clothes. She tossed him some clothes and waited patiently while he changed, then the two of them quietly exited the cavern.