Kehaar The Darksteed

“Distraction!! Now!!” Namir ordered on the verge of panic.
--- For once, his order was obeyed immediately as I streaked past him and out of the alley, and also past two large Ovricooper dragons. They took chase instantly, shoving and jostling each other into the walls of buildings, trying to be first to get at breakfast.
--- As I led the two dragons, others who caught sight of us also followed up in pursuit. I was outdistancing them easily, what with their clumsiness, and had nearly made it to the back wall of the city. I came around a bend sharply and nearly lost my footing when I had to avoid crashing headlong into a crowd of Ovricooper and Myang-ra. To avoid them and also avoid being seen, I turned right back around and raced back into the oncoming pile-up of dragons.
--- Before they even knew it, I was among them, dodging and ducking an assortment of claws and tails, snapping jaws and flailing wings as I raced back the way I had come. There was mass confusion as pandemonium ensued. The masses of dragons crammed in the back alleys coupled by the size and strength of most of them, all trying to change directions and keep their speed, demolished several brick houses and trampled many more dragons.
--- As I ran away, nearly breathless and very tired, three front runners had broken away from the group and were racing ahead and gaining quickly. Two Myang-ra and an Ovricooper were hard on my heels and I needed to stop and rest. I was running slower now and was ready to stop. My chest was burning and my throat ached for water for the first time in this desert. My lungs were ablaze with the heat and dryness of the sharp dust-laden air, making my breath leak out in ragged sobs of pain, as I slowed to nearly a jog, no longer able to run, but going doggedly beyond my limit and slowly beginning to beg for death or unconsciousness; whichever came first.
--- I saw my chance as one Myang-ra raised his axe to throw, and dodged into an open doorway. Inside, it was dark and crowded with piles of rubble and bones of long dead dragons. I ducked behind the remains of a large wooden crate in the corner as my pursuers entered the same building. I panted heavily and my heart raced as I watched them through a knothole in the wood of the crate. They spared nothing; overturning boxes and kicking away bones and garbage. I watched from the opposite corner, waiting until they made it to the other side as they worked their way from the center of the room. As soon as all three had their backs turned, I slunk out from behind the crate, across the open space in the gloom, and out the door to the streets.
--- My sigh of relief choked me as I met my reflection in the Amber eyes of a giant beast: An Ovricooper. An enormous specimen of it's breed; huge, bedecked in green scales and standing upright upon two gigantic feet. A large heavy head pivoted easily upon the thick sturdy neck, heavy enough to make the beast seem as if it were constantly leering down at its prey. It had followed and now I was cornered up against the outside wall of the Ovricooper den, its enormous head, just inches from me as it stared confusedly down at me for a moment. Then, huge snapping jaws opened wide, and for a brief second, I saw the edge of a saw on four different planes coming at my face. I reacted with the only movement that I had time to: I threw my arm across my face shamelessly in an instinctual reaction.
--- The only thing that saved me was the immediate response from Kerr; that noble staff. I had still held it and as I swung upward and across to bring my arm across my face, the deadly scythe sank into the unprotected face of the Ovricooper dragon. It screeched a horrible cry of pain and reared away from me. As it did so, I hung onto the staff, and the dragon tore, and it tore hard, ending up tearing the blade through his face as he reared. I gripped Kerr tighter as the blade encountered bone, and the pained dragon shook his head vigorously in a panic to shake loose the blade from it’s jawbone.
---I hung on gamely and then there was a sickening crunching, tearing sound and I looked down only to see the large lower jaw of the Ovricooper clatter onto the path at my feet as Kerr came loose from its face. At the same time, I felt something warm and wet spatter across my face and most of my body as the dragon finally reared in anger and in pain.
--- I looked up and saw the dumbfounded thing staring, its tongue dripping and lolling uselessly in front of it’s open throat. The dragon was suddenly jawless, biteless; helpless. I needed nothing more.
---Like a hurricane that had been building for miles of ocean, growing and killing in its wake, finally rearing above the shore, terrifying the people below before crashing down with mighty unstoppable force, I surged upward; up and into the throat of the Ovricooper, locking triple flag blades into the firm scales and flesh, and tore and cleaved and raked as the creature fell to the ground from my upward pounce. With one final enraged thrust of the blade forward like a shuffleboard player taking his turn, I rammed five new pieces of metal through the throat, scales cracking and flying off at the edges of the great furrow I created up the long neck, a rooster tail wave of blood cascading over me. With blood pouring everywhere as I stood on the chest of the dragon, I finished the thrust with the last of my energy by ramming the five blades past the open exposed throat and up higher, just a few inches more, and the Ovricooper’s life came away against Kerr’s keen edge.
--- I still leaned upon the staff, panting and heaving in exertion, as I stared down at the pieces of the beast. I stepped away, looking tiredly over my shoulder at the mud hut I had hidden in. The three dragons that had tried to find me in there stood in the doorway, jaws slack and eyes wide, watching me warily. I let a tiny smirk slip past my lips; none of the other dead dragons that littered the streets looked like that.
--- I watched those that watched me, noting the horror that was stamped clearly in their eyes. With a careless flick of my head, I sent a few drops of the blood that had soaked my hair into the faces of the watchers as I stood upright. With a wicked, cruel, half-lunge forward, I sent the horrified watchers running as they tried to avoid me, tripping and stumbling over each other in their hurry to be first to miss breakfast....

--- With a sigh of exhausted pain, I hauled myself through the pipe that Namir had said he had used to enter the city. I used Kerr to lean against, and limped tiredly along the deep, muddy trench of the stream that we camped on the banks of and fell to my knees as my anxious party caught sight of me. The mere sight of me was enough to get them stampeding over.
--- I was soaked almost completely through with blood, with the majority of it dripping off my hands, arms and face. My hair dripped blood too, making it look very much as if it were alive, but bleeding. My clothing was soaked and my arrows floated in the quiver brimming with the filthy Ovricooper blood. I hadn’t a scratch on me, but all of my friends had the same thought: was all that my blood? They couldn’t tell.

--- “Should’ve guessed there’d be something strange about you; standing here, all alone.” Namir’s words came back to me quite suddenly. I thought immediately back to what Namir had told Eteele at the Plains before he had tried to get him to open the gate to the deserts for us. But that wasn’t what I was supposed to be remembering; that wasn’t the first time Namir had said those exact words. What did it mean, and what did he mean? Who was he talking to now?

--- “And mah name’s Eteele. Oi ain’t gonna open the gate for yews cuz all yer gonna do is lead all dem Myang-ra and Ovricooper upon us!” Namir had been surprised and Eteele had nodded his head once in satisfaction before he turned back around to ignore us. Namir had then turned back to me, at a loss.
I had shoved past him angrily, saying under my breath “Daft old fool’s been fed the same rubbish I’d expect from a Windwalker! Bet his father’s a Markien...”
--- I had not spoken harshly, as I recalled, even though I had wanted to and my party had thought I would, and I did eventually coax Eteele into talking. Why hadn’t he wanted us to come here?
--- “You’re still here, aren’t you? It can’t be that bad if you were able to make it back.” I remembered that as being the last thing I had said to him before Eteele had nearly broken down crying.
--- “Ye carn’t go!” he had pleaded. “Ye jus’ carn’t!”
--- “But we must get to that continent! There are two sagestones there. You don’t have to go, we just need you to open the gate.”
--- “You carn’t go! Not yew! Not yer friends! Not no one! Once ya go, ya ain’t comin' back!”
--- “Well, we plan on coming back, so don’t worry about us. Just open the gate and we’ll use our best judgment from there.”
---He had looked at me, and after another moment of frantic searching with his eyes, he had dropped his head quickly and had continued eating grass, pretending to be completely preoccupied in the hopes that I would leave.
--- Something had happened here. Some terrible thing that could not be spoken of again. Should not. Eteele did not want another to suffer the same as he had. What had it been? We were still going there, no doubt about that, but a fair warning of what lay ahead was really what I sought.
--- I had thought for just a moment of turning away, but instead, knelt beside the big lizard and asked him as gently as I could what had happened here that he dared not speak of.

--- “Oi’ve bin there, obvisly. Oi’m only here now cuz Oi’m the gate-keeper.” here, he had paused and had shuddered through a sigh, and had turned his head slightly to see me clearly. I was genuinely interested, so he continued shakily. “Oi too tried ter save the planet. Maybe a year ago…maybe six, two, months ago. Awhile ago… Not sure, carn’t amember. Whenever it were, Rocc had just gone all crazy. We - mah friends and me - were da first ones here ter actually troy doin’ sumthin’ agin ‘im. We went to the deserts afore they was disconnectered an’ all, loaded with all the weapons we could find and buy from the ‘Quannas. We were plannin’ on stopping the operations goin’ on there, yew know, jus’ a quick in an’ out job ter sneak by and sabertage anythin' that we could find that mighta been dangerous later. Rocc was assembling an army of them big Ovricooper and the Myang-ras an’ anyone else from any other tribes that wanted to come too an’ ever-thin' was unner the ‘ighest security. Ever single guard seemed ter be askin' fer passwords and sich from ever-one. They’s was all parernoid! But we did make it, mah group an’ Oi. We made it to ther great temply fortress thing jus’ as we was runnin' outta surplies. We never did get our chance to meet Rocc, but that weren’t our plans anyways. As soon as we were insoide an’ affer makin' ever-one think we was rebels asking ter be recruited, we sneaked inter the main part a the Fortress. There were tonsa dragons ever-where! O course nones a us stood a chance. The secret was out soon enough…nones a us stood a chance…” he had repeated, now crying heavily and speaking through sobs of sorrow.

--- In the heat of the midmorning sun, I was vaguely aware of a sharp pain across my face and then Namir’s voice. “Ash! We need ya! You gotta be okay! You jus’ gotta!” his voice was muffled and sounded far, and pleading.
---Then it was Broadfoot’s voice…no, maybe it was Denethrir’s… “Namir! Calm down! She is okay! She’ll be okay!”
--- His voice faded and then it was hot again; as hot as I could bear…and I waited. Waited for wakefulness to seize me…waited for Eteele…I waited patiently as Eteele cried, for him to finish his tale….

--- “We did make it out aliove though…. But we had no supplies so we didn’t make it far. A woid patrol found us even befer we had gotted outer sight a the fortress. Oi was released, cuz Oi’m the gate-keeper an’ even Rocc ain’t a-loud ter hold me prizner, but moi friends…they’re still up dare. Oi dunno if they’re still alive, or if Rocc killed ‘em or done ‘orribul things to ‘em, but Oi do knows dare ain’t no way a helpin' ‘em. No one’s stand a charnce.”
--- I had listened to all of it politely and then told him again “We still plan on going there to get those stones. If we can, we will find your friends. Who are they?”
---Eteele had protested at first, but he did relent to telling me. “One of ‘em was a young Aquanna feller, an’ a Windwalker along with two Ju-leece. An’ mah brother too.”
--- “Thank you.” I had told him and started to walk away, knowing he couldn‘t refuse opening the gate now. He had called me back.
--- “Wait! Oi gotta tell yew! Rocc’s army ain’t the only thing yer got ter fear up there!” I listened to the tale a second time now, stolidly but paying it more attention. “We was travelin’ - this was befer we gotted to ther Fortress - an’ ever noight, we’d go as far as we could cuz it was cooler. But we didn’t loike travelin’ at noight. We didn’t loike bein’ there at all at noight! Kehaar’s up there! He’s a monster! One a the legends! Leas’ he used ter be a legend till we saw ‘im! Kehaar’s got huge wings! Big purply wing things that could knock yer right over! But the dragon attached ter those wings! It ain’t no ordinary dragon! It’s got long thin legs, but arfully powerful an’ fast! To help it run even faster though, it’s got bits a stone on it’s feet! An’ his face is long an’ thin, with ears that stick up loike horns! Loike a demon! He’s a evil critter! An’ he’s got hair! A long mane, or at least sometimes, loike yers, Miss, an’ a tail too! It’s loike nothing’ Oi’ve ever a-seen!” here, Eteele had begun to look around frantically and his words came fast and thick as he explained even more of the terrifying beast to me. “And when it comes; when it comes, it brings the fog and mist with it, and Blacke clouds! And when it comes; when it comes, it says yer name - don’t let it say yer name - don’t hear it say it!” Here he dropped his voice, “When it says yer name…there ain’t nothing yew kin do.” Raised his voice again. “Yew kin run, but it only makes it worse! They say yew kin see ‘im when ya sleep too! But you don’t wake up! Kehaar’s a warnin’! A warnin’ that yer leadin' yer life ter damnation an’ it’s a warnin’ to change yer ways; before it’s too late. If yew don’t, it drags yer soul away! I dunno where to, but it’s what Oi’ve heard. It’s the harbinger of doom an’ they say he caren’t be tamed or killed! An’ Oi believe ‘em! To tame a ghost! ‘Tis impossible! An’ yew know what else they say?” Eteele had asked me darkly, lowering his head to look directly at me. I found myself asking him what they say one more time.

--- No one heard the words I uttered in my sleep because at that moment Namir dumped a full canteen of cold water on my face, hoping to wake me from my stupor. Normally, I’d have been up in a second and knocked him right out for it, but I wasn’t going wake up that easily this time. With an uneasy glance at Denethrir and Roswell, Namir tossed the canteen aside and sat to wait it out instead.

--- “They say Urran Hov created Kehaar…. So many years ago. They say he rode on it’s back an’ it obeyed ‘is ever command! But that demon broke’d free; the Demon Steed knows Hov is still out there….”
--- I had become suddenly interested then, and again did. “Is he? I’ve been told he’s dead….”
--- “That’s the only reason the Demon Steed still roams those deserts! Urran’s damned! Kehaar will run till he gets Urran. He’s always hopin’ an’ hopin’ that Urran will someday return to the Flatlands! Please! Don’t go there!” he pleaded one more time with me.
--- “We have to! Demon Steed or no!” I had snapped him out of it. “You just need to open the gate!”
--- Eteele had known there was nothing for it. He sighed. “Okie, but be careful. An’ please. Don’t ferget about the others. They are on your soide.”

---Again, I saw Violet light, Violet flames, an enormous dragon’s face, the test of Souls, four rows of wicked teeth and then Emily’s harsh shout rang through the dark. “We need light, Seveer! Open your eyes and get over here!”




This is a quote from my very first *ahem* story, I guess you could call it that. I never did finish it because it needs an overhaul as well; but in running, this thing amassed a full 375 typed pages at only 79% completion.

Done solely with a .01 Micron pen; first serious attempt with it; this is one of those pieces that I can be most proud of even though the style that most of my other pieces reflect don't seem to match.