User blog:Zaran Rhulain/Zaira's Apologue

Chapter One
It was going to be the clearest of nights that has not been seen in many days, when the might of Mother Nature’s blizzard finally stopped, the dark clouds started receded and the winking stars were once open again to the sight of the earth. Here and there snow drifts were piled high, and snow delicately covered the fine needles of the pine trees, each crystal beautiful and soft.

Footpaws thundered across the icy tundra of the northlands as a female squirrel raced against the bitter headwind and the chilling cold. Strapped to her back was squirrelbabe, who was silently staring about the northern night with open dark green eyes. There was an aurora borealis dancing across the sky in a ribbon of color ranging from red to magenta to turquoise to chartreuse. The squirrelbabe gazed up in awe, too young to know that the pretty lights only illuminated the danger she and his mother was in.

Chasing directly behind them was a tracking crew with a full complement of five vermin scouts, fully intent on catching up with their fast moving prey.

“Hellgates it’s cold.” panted a rat as he ran. His fellow trackers could only nod in agreement as they defiantly ran against wind and cold. He continued to complain stubbornly against the howling wind, “I don’t see the reason why Svar wants us to chase after a squirrel and ‘er whelp. I’m freezing my tail off and its blasted hard to run in this snow.”

Another rat in the group, the most senior among them, Grange, replied back, “Cuz orders are orders and ‘parently the squirrel and ‘er whelp’ we chasing arfter is the warrior prophesized to free the northlands from us vermin.” He gave a little cackle, “Hehehe, like that shrimp of a squirrel can possibly be a threat to the battalions of Taber La Flesche.” The motley crew laughed along with their commander as they continued to run after the two squirrels.

One of the scouts, a ferret named Kaiju, fell silent almost immediately after giving a short bark of a laugh. He knew all too well what was going to happen if they managed to catch up with the squirrels. He thought ahead to the part where they are capture; they would be brought before the Tribunes and be charged with endangerment of the country and premeditated rebellion, the most serious of charges within the La Flesche northlands.

Although Kaiju has had his fair share of killings and acts of cruelty common to soldiers, he also had what was considered an unusual conscience. Whenever prisoners were taken out of their cells and thrown to the mercy of the hordebeasts, they would often torture the poor soul before ending the life slowly with a look of pure pleasure on their faces. But Kaiju, if he was walking past or was on the sidelines would take every opportunity to ‘spare’ the prisoners.

With a grim face, he would walk out to where the prisoner was being tortured, stare down in secret pity, and break the neck with a quick twist to ensure a painless and fast death. Afterwards, he would get up and just walk out of the ring of spectators, silent.

He would never forget the looks upon the faces of those who had been tortured before he came. Most of them had a fearful glint to their eyes, while others were pained questioning looks. But all had that same look of, “Please end this, let me die with at least a shred of dignity.” The stares were so unnerving to him that he would often pass his paws across their face, closing the eyes.

Often, other hordebeasts to whom torture was second nature, would then give a growl of outrage and try to give Kaiju a piece of their mind. Claws or steel first. Unfortunately for the outraged beasts, Kaiju was one of the few in the horde who had been properly trained in close combat and swordplay. The outraged never really stayed angry for long, it has always been either death or the fact they will be crippled for the rest of their lives that filled their minds.

Focusing back onto the fate of the squirrelmum and her babe, he very well knew what was going to happen at the end of the tribunal. They were going to be thrown, not into woodlander’s prison, but in the horde’s military prison or as the soldiers call it, the Annihilation of Reason, where malcontents and mutinous soldiers were starved to the point of cannibalism.

Unfed and living in horrific conditions, those who manage to survive their time in there say that three days on the field full of decaying corpses would’ve have luxurious, at least there is open space and fresh air to breathe they say.

Kaiju shuddered inwardly at the thought of a female squirrel and her babe being offered to those beasts, not civilized animals. He knew that some of the males within that prison reverted back to base instinct of survival and have not been with the body of a female for a long time. Kaiju wrenched his thoughts away from that area, he would not think about the death of the two squirrels, especially the babe. It was against his every code of honor to hurt the innocent and the young, doing that would be spitting on the memory of Sabine, his younger sister, Pheline his mother, his father, and everyone else that died on that accursed day. He was brought back into reality from his thoughts when Grange gave a growl of frustration, “Curses on that tree mouse, she made it to the pines. When we reach the trees, split up and cover more ground.”

The squirrelmum almost sobbed with relief as she felt her paws crunch on the soft snow-pine needle covered ground. She thought about jumping into the trees and hide among the evergreen branches, but then realized she couldn’t do it with the babe on her back. She bit her lip and continued running.

Unknowing to her, the temperature had dropped even further and the wind blew even harder, but because of the adrenaline from running, she was giving off so much heat, that every time her footpaw touched the snow, the compressed snow melted into a small puddle of water which then formed a thin layer of frost.

The blood was running in her ears so loudly that all she could hear was the beat of heart and her ragged breath misting in the air. So loud the blood pumped through her body that she was oblivious to the explosions of the trees as the temperature got so low that the sap in the trees expanded and blew off giant fractions of the tree trunk, each fragment sharp and deadly.

Still breathing heavily, she started to slow down until she stopped completely and was bent against a tree, paw stretched out to support herself. She took off the sling that was carrying the babe and put it gently on the floor. The babe started to make a small noise of discomfort as she felt the cold seeping through the sling, the squirrelmum bent down and tickled her nose, gazing lovingly in way that only mothers can do. The babe laughed, distracted from the cold, and swiped at her paw, the older squirrel smiled.

Another tree exploded off in the distance and this time she heard it. She stood back up, ears twitching in the wind and decided that this was not the best place to stay currently. As she bent down to gather the sling and put it on her back, she heard an ominous creak. She narrowed her eyes and stood back up to turn around.

CracccccckkkkBOOM!

Like a clap of thunder, one of the pine trees behind gave away to the cold and exploded in a barrage of sharp wood, hitting everything within its circumference. The squirrelmum took the full force of one of these missiles and was thrown back like a pile of rags onto the ground some distance away. The squirrelbabe was crying from the pressure and intensity of the sound on its small ears, but otherwise unharmed, protected by the sturdy trunk of the pine its sling rested by.

When the scout trackers had reached the pine, the group had split up rapidly and began going in different directions. Kaiju trailed behind the two squirrels, using every ounce of his tracking skills passed on from his youth. The tracks were quite clear, but the others had not noticed, in their rush to finish the search and get out of the cold, that the tracks were going south, not in the other directions: northwest, northeast, east, west, or back the way they came…

He continued to follow the tracks until he heard the explosion up ahead, followed by the sound of a baby’s wail. Kaiju then rushed forward, disregarding the potential danger the area still contained. He arrived at the scene where a scattering of bark, trunk, and blood told their grizzly tale.

His ears still heard the babe’s wail and his eyes located the sling. He came over to the sling to make sure that the juvenile squirrel was unharmed, which she was. Kaiju gave a sigh of relief as the squirrel babe continued to wail. For some odd reason best known to himself, he took the squirrel out of the sling and began stroking her back until she became silent and sleepy, gently he put her back in the sling, and she promptly fell asleep.

As he scanned the area again, his eyes immediately focused on the limp form of the mother who was bleeding profusely, even from this distance, Kaiju could tell that she lost a lot of blood already. As he hurried over to the bloodied squirrel, he stopped short. She was pierced twice by pieces of wood that looked more like lances, once through the abdomen and the other across the femoral vein, bleeding rapidly.

She gestured with what strength she had left for him to come over; he went up to the dying squirrel and crouched down besides her head. Her eyes searched his face and then locking onto his eyes. Compassionate brown eyes met defiant, but pleading green ones in a way that was uncomfortably familiar, Kaiju felt himself flashback.

''It was a clear night and Kaiju was doing guard duty in the cold air. Sounds of laughter and chatter reached his ears, followed by an anguished shout of pain. His curiosity aroused, he went over to the campfire where the yell emanated from. As he reached the fringe of the group, he saw to his revulsion, that the hordebeasts had an otter tied to a stake by the campfire. They were poking at him with their weapons, piercing hide each time. One particularly cruel vermin, a thin rat, kept throwing his tail in and out of the fire causing searing pain that could be seen visibly on the otter’s face.''

''Giving a growl of disgust, Kaiju pushed his way throw the throng of soldiers to where the otter was, despite jeers of protest. He ignored them and faced the otter who was breathing heavily in pain. Looking Kaiju in the eye and giving a snarl of temerity, he whispered, “Do your worst you foul black hearted trash, you already killed my wife and children. I have nothing left.”''

Kaiju met his stare giving him a look of contempt for show for the others,
 * “I am not here to torture you otter, but merely to give you choice, remain defiant and those here will kill you slowly or accept my offer and you will see your family again.”

''The otter stared long and hard into the eyes of Kaiju, wondering if he would keep his word, then the otter dropped his head in uncertain decision for what seemed to be forever. Finally he spoke in a low voice with his head still bowed and tears dripping like liquid crystals,, “Ever since they killed off everything I loved, I have no reason to live, but I will not die for their entertainment. If you can promise me that I will see my beloved Alissa again, kill me now, please.”''

He looked up with sad entreated eyes, “Please, I beg of you, let me join my wife in eternal rest.”

''Kaiju clasped a paw on the otter’s shoulder, “As you wish, I’m going to knock you out so you won’t feel a thing.”
 * “Thank you…”

''Kaiju spoke in a quieter voice, “I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you.” He tightened his grip on the otter’s shoulder cutting off the blood flow to his brain. The otter’s head slumped forward, unconscious, but breathing. Kaiju took out his anelace, a doubled edged dagger, and ran the otter through his heart. The otter’s body jerked a bit and released a lungful of air, rejoining him with his wife.''

''Kaiju cleaned his blade and left quickly more disturbed about this mercy killing than every other he had done since he became a horde member. Ignoring the protests and questions from his fellow soldiers as of why he ended their fun, he went back to his assigned guard post to mull over this odd feeling. Out of all the killings he has ever done, none of them still had that look of defiance, the sheer stubbornness to live as the otter had.''

End Flashback

The squirrel lady swallowed like she had a lump in her throat and whispered an urgent request to Kaiju. “Please…take her, keep her safe, she doesn’t deserve the fate of the northlands…” She struggled to take a gasp of air. Kaiju felt compelled to ask, “What is your name treewhiffer?” Using the honor name for squirrels.

With eyes clouding up and breath coming in shorter gasps, she breathed out her last words on this world,

“Azaira….”

Kaiju stood back up and bowed in a sign of respect. Picking up the body of Azaira, he gently placed her against the trunk of the pine tree in an upright position, like she was sleeping. Realizing that the babe might freeze to death in this cold air, Kaiju hurried back to the sling where he, with a definite gesture, picked up and put on his back.

Realizing that it was death to go back to the hordes of Taber La Flesche, he made the decision that he had been agonizing for the past season and the one that Azaira chose. He turned to the south and began dogtrotting away, leaving the icy climate of the north and the life of a hordebeast.

Chapter Two
Grange, the senior rat officer was shivering by a fire at where he and his trackers entered the pines. He cupped his paws and blew into them, warming them with his breath. As he sat by the fire, he cursed his misfortune of having to chase after runaways in this ice-ridden snowbound hell. A shuffling sound cause him to look up, it was the other three vermin returning back to this position. He gritted his teeth as snow from the pine branches fell on his neck from their disturbances and demanded a report.
 * “Well? Did ye find anything? I sent four soldiers, but only three came back, what happened to Kaiju?”

He gave them a hard look which had an opposite effect of what he expected. The three rats shifted uncomfortably, fidgeting and scratching their heads in reluctance.
 * “Well…er…um…he…the babe…er…ran?”

Grange whipped his head around hard to the one that had spoken,
 * “What d’ye mean he ran?”
 * “Er…er…we picked the direction where he was supposed to search?”
 * “And…?”
 * “And…um…we found the body of the mother?”

Grange kept giving the rat a hard look until the rat took it as a sign to continue,
 * “We found the body, but the babe was nowhere in sight. But there were a lot of ferret tracks between an ‘arf frozen pool of blood, the mother’s I think, and a pine tree. From the looks of it, one of the trees’s exploded and the squirrel was caught by a tree piece.”

The rat captain kept up his stare as he questioned the rat subordinate about one piece of information he neglected to say. “Good for ‘er, but, ye still haven’t mentioned what happened to Kaiju and the babe Flarn.” The rat soldier felt a sweat break out upon his brow despite the cold,
 * “We’re guessing that he took the babe and…ran...south?"

Grange felt and the soldier saw a vein twitch running from Grange’s neck to his forehead, a sign that Grange was dangerously close to slaying the unfortunate rat with his bare paws. Flarn took a hesitant step backwards as Grange’s face turned beet-red and unleashed a tirade of curses into the night air. Taking a deep breath, which he regretted as he felt the cold air sting his lungs, he calmed somewhat and started yelling at Flarn,
 * “WHY DIDN’T YE CHASE ARFTER HIM NUMBSKULL? INSTEAD YE COME BACK AND CHEW ON YE WORDS LIKE AN OLD RAT HAG WHILE HE GETS FURTHER AND FURTHER! AGGGHHHHH!”

Grange’s chest was heaving with breathlessness while Flarn quivered in place. Taking another deep breath, Grange ran a paw through his headfur and let it hang on his neck with exasperation. Finally speaking in a reasonable tone and speaking more to himself than his group, he made up a quick mission report in which to give his superiors.
 * “I am going to say that both squirrels are dead. We broke the ice over one of the ponds nearby and drowned them both, but unfortunately, the squirrel mother pulled Kaiju in and drowned him along with her.”

He glanced sideways at the rats behind him,
 * “Now, none of yew even breathe a single word of this incident or, not only will it be my hide, but ye as well.”

The three rats nodded in accord, as if their lives depended on the lie, which it did.

Kaiju trudged steadily southward; by now, he was out of the frozen tundra’s of the north but it was still cold enough that all but the trees and hardiest bushes grew in the tough soil. He had traveled nonstop for two days and a night, trying to put as much distance between him and the horde of Taber La Flesche and was feeling quite hungry since he gave almost every bit of food he could find to the squirrelbabe to keep her warm and satisfied.

Giving in to hunger as his stomach gave another thundering rumble; he looked back at his tracks and decided that he had gone far enough to allow a break. Changing direction, he headed over to an area that was full of stunted bushes. To his delight, he found a thriving fauna of strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, and cranberries which he immediately began picking and shoving them into his mouth, eating like there was no tomorrow; he was so hungry after traveling for two days with no food.

The squirrelbabe on his back gave a small noise of annoyance; being woken up from her nap by Kaiju’s noisy eating. But he only grinned, took the sling off his back, and lifted the babe out of it so she can work her little legs. Giving a cry of delight and surprise as the juvenile squirrel felt snow for the first time, she immediately began rolling around in it until she was covered from head to tail in snow. Giving a small sneeze from the cold air, Kaiju realized the need to build a fire so the both of them won’t freeze to death.

Soon, a cheery fire was burning; being fed by the dead remains of nearby fruit bushes. Burning scarlet to orange to faint green, it snapped and crackled like an angry being, but it warmed the ferret and squirrel up considerably.

Finally realizing that she was hungry, the squirrelbabe began to eat the berries that Kaiju had picked for her earlier, eating rather ravenously, she cleared the entire pile set forth before her and gave satisfied burp common to babes after a large meal. Deciding to have some fun with her, Kaiju looked around from where he was sitting and picked the biggest strawberry he could find. Waving the golden fruit before her, the squirrelbabe laughed as its infant mind became wrapped at obtaining the gold colored thing waving in front of its eyes.

Kaiju mused to himself and to her as he played with the squirrel. “Hmm, some tough warrior you are turning out to be, being distracted by a simple strawberry. You don’t even have a name since your mother didn’t have…the time to tell me. She said her name was Azaira and it’s a nice name, it would be fitting that you should be named after your mother since she saved your life. I’ll think I will call you Azaira, Zaira for short, the A seems a bit unnecessary. Now something of my own creation.”

He thought for a bit, having extensive knowledge of woodland lore, he soon came up with a decent addition to the squirrelbabe’s name. Smiling happily in triumph, he said to her, “Your new name is now Azaira Litavis, named after the legendary squirrel warrior of the old, how does that sound Zaira?”

The now named Azaira only giggled and looked up into the compassionate face of the ferret, too young to know what had just transpired.

Chapter Three
The rat officer, Grange, was standing nervously to attention, fidgeting about and biting his grimy claws. As he expected, ten minutes after he returned to base with his trackers to report a “successful” mission to his superiors, then he was rushed to before higher ranking officers to be debriefed. What he didn’t expect was a direct order coming from the members of the Tribunes for him to appear before them.

As with every other soldier in the army, he has heard of beasts going into the Tribunes chamber and coming out either dead or promoted to places of power. He hoped he wouldn’t get the former, but didn’t really wish to get the latter either.

The problem with being dead was he would cease to exist and have no life, but getting promoted meant that he would also have no life due to the obligations that came with power. Not only would he be working around the clock making things go smoothly, he would also have to watch for attempts on his being, as beasts in powerful positions were prime targets for assassination. Then again, a prolonged social death to physical death would be much preferred over a direct physical death; at least he would live to see his life pass before his eyes.

Grange’s eyes shifted to the heavily armored and armed guards that stood at the exit to his room and the entrance to the Tribunes chamber, immediately any thought he had of escaping if things went badly in the chamber, escaped him. These guards were higher up than his commanding officer and were the best of the best fighters in the entire army. Such was the importance and stature of the Tribune.

A creak echoed in the small room, its sound reverberating from wall to wall, made Grange transfer his gaze from the guards to the entrance to the Tribune chamber. As gateway opened, the guards standing in front of it also moved, standing sideways with their backs to the wall, faces militaristically rigid as ever.

A reedy bespectacled stoat strode through from a dark hallway, walking with an air of almost haughty authority. He took one quick glance around the room and beckoned Grange over with an imperialistic curl of the paw. Gulping nervously, Grange straightened his back and went to the stoat.

Giving Grange an analyzing stare, the stoat gave a quick jerk of his head and turned on his footpaws, silently walking back into the gloomy hallway, a clear sign for Grange to follow him.

As Grange followed the odd stoat through the door, he heard the doors creaking again, looking back; he saw the doors shut with an ominous boom, sealing his fate to whatever powers lay ahead. Then it was quiet again and the stoat and rat continued to walk down the passage.

Fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, an hour they had walked, Grange felt like they were going nowhere. He had also noticed that the hallway they were walking in seemed like a natural tunnel, but on closer inspection, he realized it was stone blocks cunningly carved and joined together so perfectly that it seemed almost alien. Along with this discovery, he also realized that this fortress where his camp was housed in was probably older than anybeast had dared to guess and probably held a greater number than the hordes.

“We’re here.” Intoned a flat monotonous voice. Grange was startled, he was beginning to think that the stoat was a mute due to his lack of conservation or even noise since the stoat was completely silent the whole time, Grange couldn’t even hear him breathe. They had arrived at another, but unguarded, door.

As the stoat opened the door and they proceeded inside, Grange first thought about the Tribune chamber was that it was very dark in here, being lit only by a few candles in the room, Grange had to strain his eyes to get a look at his surroundings. They were in a spherical room, with a curved ceiling and walls, only the floor was flat. The walls also seemed to be purple here, adorned with odd patterns that ran in an endless cycle, flowing into each other. There were also black veils hung on the walls in pairs that appeared to be translucent because Grange could see faintly that there were hallows on the other side.

A hushed whisper sounded out from the veils, coming so fast and so quietly that Grange had a hard time hearing the words. “Excuse me?” asked Grange, voice nervous and unnaturally loud in the enclosed chamber. The whisper came again, speaking in a slow and raspy manner, “You are Grange, species rat, leader of the tracking group G4, sent to terminate the mother and the prophesized squirrel, are you not?”

Grange nodded, fooling slightly foolish since he didn’t know who he was nodding to, “Aye that is me, who’s asking?” The whisper sounded out again, this time harsh and urgent, “Irrelevant. All we want to know is the status of the two. Are they terminated?” The whisper emphasized the last three words.

Grange nodded again, anxiety alleviating slightly at what sounded like fear in the speaker’s voice, “Yes, they are dead. Lost one of my best beasts, but I saw to it myself that both squirrels drowned in an icy pond. Last time I saw them, they were sinking like stones to the bottom.”

A satisfied sigh coupled with a gurgling chuckle emanated from the veils, “Good, good, we shall see to that…ahh…you are well…rewarded.” For some reason, Grange felt that this reward would be less than appealing. “You are dismissed, Stoat here will lead you back out.”

Stoat appeared silently behind Grange, surprising him as Stoat spoke once again in his flat voice, “Come with me.” A door opened, though Grange couldn’t tell if it was the same door that admitted him in; as he and Stoat walked through, he noticed that this passage was much brighter, being lit by torches instead of candles. He also noticed that the air here was much fresher and surmised that this passage must be the emergency exit for the members of the Tribune. Which meant that the walk wouldn’t be as long as last time.

Grange and Stoat reached the end of the passage where they came to yet another door. (AN’s note: unsurprisingly, too many damn doors in this writer’s opinion) Stoat turned to Grange and gave a “wait here” gesture and opened the door, temporarily blinding Grange with the bright afternoon sunlight after being enclosed in dimly lit corridors, and shut it with a soft click.