A Reason to Live pt 9
*Disclaimer*
The following (part 9 of the series 'A Reason to Live') contains both mystical/metaphysical and Judeo-Christian Religious aspects. If you are offended by any/all of these subjects, you are strongly encouraged to avoid reading this or any subsequent works with the title 'A Reason to Live' that are written by me. Thank you for your compliance.
A Reason to Live pt. 9
The ceremony complete, the man in the black powered armor strolled at his leisure around the village. He passed by tribals, some busy with their tasks for the day, others who crowded around him, admiring his expertly wrought armor. He pushed the Furs gently away from him, but they crowded back in close as soon as he stopped pushing. He spoke gently inside his helmet, but the electronics in the helm distorted his voice and gave it an alien, metallic sound.
"Back to work all of you, or at least get out of my way; I have things that need doing." Most of the tribals shuffled off, but a few remained, standing behind the man with their heads down, looking at their feet. The human turned around and looked at the Fur standing closest to him. She was a mixed breed, from the look of her coat. Half husky, and half mutt, her black, white, and grey coat was streaked with rusty brown. She wore a crudely tanned leather tunic that went to her knees, and blood spattered blue jeans, a prize won in the recent raid. She went around barefoot. Her two companions were similarly dressed.
"I thought I dismissed the lot of you back to your jobs" said the man. He paused for maximum effect. "So why are you three following me still, daring to disobey me?"
The husky looked to the companions flanking her, but they kept their heads down. She kept her face down as well, but she answered the human.
"Milord, I uh, we thought that maybe we could be like your bodyguards or whatever. " Her two companions nodded their heads in agreement. The black clad man reached out, and gently lifted the husky's face until her eyes were staring into his expressionless black helmet.
"Two thing, first; look at me when you talk to me, especially if you're trying to win my favor, and two; who told you that I needed protection? Do you think that I can not handle myself in all things?" he demanded. The three Furs flinched and stepped backwards. In unison, all three of them bowed low to the ground, touching their foreheads to the dirt. The prostrate husky lifted her face, and, looking him squarely where his eyes would be behind the helmet, answered the human.
"My lord, we know, I know, that you do not need us, but we wish to serve you. Will you let us?" The man in black laughed; it was a harsh, biting sound. Nearby Furs stopped to look at the scene unfolding in their midst.
"Just because you are all canines does not mean you all have to be as acquiescent as dogs. Sheesh, for your own sakes have some dignity..." the man paused, thinking. "You three, get up off your bellies, and brush the dust from your clothes."
The husky, the leader of the three, was the first to pick herself up. The other two followed suit. They brushed the dirt off their clothes, as ordered, and stood awaiting further instruction.
The man in black watched all this unfold.
"Good God! I was not cursed to be a baby-sitter for all eternity, think for yourselves damn you!" The man stormed off in a rage, leaving a crowd of stunned onlookers in his wake.
The Fur on the husky's right, a mix between a wolf and a chocolate lab, turned to the husky.
"He doesn't want us, Jasmine, what do we do know? I can't go back to being a sentry, I just can't." The husky dismissed him with a wave of her paw.
"Calm down, Zane. He'll accept us; he is just testing us now, to see if our resolve is strong. Now come on you two, we gotta follow him." The trio walked after the man. Behind them, the village returned to a relative normal.
"Please try to hurry, Shelly. Raymond and Roxanne may be tens of miles ahead of us already." The jackal was fifteen or twenty paces ahead of the grey furred fox.
"I'm trying Kyle, but you're so damn fast. Won't they wait for us wherever they are?" Shelly had closed the gap between them by about ten paces.
"Yes" said the jackal, after a time. "But we should try to get there sooner rather than later." The two walked on over the shifting sands, moving towards the arroyo entrance.
Not a quarter of an hour later, the jackal motioned for the fox following him to stop. In the distance the green mutants were milling around the desert.
"What the hell are those freaks, Kyle?" Shelly's hand went to the dagger she had hidden in her shirt.
"Those are Molechs, so named because at first they were thought to eat some of their own young. Stay here, please, I'll be right back." Before Shelly could so much as ask him where he was going, Kyle was off, heading towards the fearsome looking mutants.
One of the mutant scouts caught sight of Kyle with one of its' many optical receptors. It hissed a warning to the others, who turned to observe the new-comer. Kyle slowed down as he neared the first creature. He raised his arms above his head to show that he was unarmed. The jackal stopped in his tracks and let the scout move closer to him. He did not flinch as the glowing mutant waved its arm-mouth over him, smelling him, trying to discern what he was. The chief of the monsters, taller than the rest by at least a foot, tromped somewhat clumsily over to where Kyle was.
Watching from a safe distance, Shelly cringed when she saw what was going to happen.
"Come on Kyle, kill the bastard" she heard herself whisper. To her surprise, the leader did not attack Kyle, as she feared it would.
The beast towered over Kyle. It stood about two feet from him, and the other creatures had formed a rough circle around him about six feet away. It raised its arm above it's the stump of its body. The mouth at the end of the appendage opened and closed, fangs visible in the daylight.
"Kai Ull... how... do-o?" It asked, followed by a series of guttural hisses and groans directed towards the Furs.
" I am well" answered Kyle. He then continued in the language of the creatures, communicating in throaty growls and nasal hisses. Then, when he finished, the leader spoke again, still in his own language. This continued for about five minutes, and then the circle of creatures around Kyle broke, and he turned and gestured to Shelly.
"Shelly, it's safe, you can come over" he called over the background noise of the creatures talking amongst themselves. Apprehensive, Shelly walked carefully over to where Kyle stood. One of the creatures, perhaps the scout that had stopped Kyle, ambled over to her and walked at her side, observing her the whole time. The bulbous orbs on stalks that covered the creatures' bodies turned and rotated to get a better look at her. The creature moved its arm-mouth over her and began to smell her as well. Suddenly, it reared back, screeching in alarm.
"Shit, what did I do wrong Kyle?" she screamed, fast walking to where Kyle stood.
"I'm not sure, just stay calm, would ya?" Kyle shot of a series of moans and hisses to the mutant chief. Its reply came in staccato, like machine gun fire.
"Huh" said Kyle. "Apparently you smell like the man in black, Shelly." Kyle began speaking to the whole group of misshapen beings, doing his best to calm them.
"Listen... my friend smells like your enemy because she was his prisoner. It is okay, she will not hurt anyone." Kyle's words had an immediate effect on the creatures. Previously moving about in a frenzy, they slowed down and began to listen.
"Are we gonna be alright, Kyle, or are they gonna attack us?" Shelly was standing at Kyle's side. The head mutant began communicating with Kyle again. All at once, the creatures became calm.
"Yeah... we'll be okay now. They understand that you're not an enemy." Kyle turned back to the leader and spoke to him again. After about thirty seconds, the two beings said their goodbyes.
"Goo-od...bye... Kai Ull...She Ley. May...be...see...a...gain."
"Fare well, my friend. May your quest for knowledge never cease." The two beings bowed to each other, though it was a little bit awkward for the mutant. Then, the two Furs walked off, and the mutants continued what they were doing.
When they were safely away from the mutants, Shelly turned to Kyle.
"Where'd you learn to talk those muties' language, Kyle?"
"A person learns a lot in the desert. Doesn't matter for now though. They told me that they had met a wolverine and an eagle, and that they were only about an hour and half ahead of us in the canyon."
"The big one, the leader or whatever it was, it seemed to me that it knew you. Have you met those things before?"
"Cane we discuss this later Shelly?" Shelly knew from his tone of voice not to push the subject any longer. The two of them walked on, into the canyon, hoping to find the other two members of their party before dark.
"Ray, baby, hold up a sec. Something doesn't feel right." Roxanne put her arm out to stop her husband from walking forward.
"Don't tell me you're becoming a psychic, Roxie." The wolverine took advantage of the situation to get a drink from his canteen.
"I'm serious Ray. I think we should go back a few miles."
"You want to backtrack now? In this heat? There's no shade back behind us in the canyon, and for all we know those raiders could be back there" Raymond protested.
"Tell you what, babe. We go back there, and if there's nothing or nobody, I'll do that thing you like." Raymond's ears perked up, and it seemed like he became energized by Roxanne's words.
"You got yourself a deal, hon." He kissed her on the cheek to seal the deal. The couple turned around and began hiking back into the canyon, back towards the arroyo entrance.
The man in black strolled by the granite house he had recently summoned up from the plateau. It was the same house he had thrown Shelly into earlier. The crater caused by the impact was evident in the wall, and bits of blood soaked fur and gore stuck inside it.
"If you three really want to be my personal guards or what have you, you are really going to have to learn to sneak. Now show yourselves." The three Furs slinked out from behind one of the other stone huts looking defeated.
"Now then, did one of you move the body that was here or see anyone move it?" All three Furs shook their heads no. "Go and find out if anyone moved it, and then report back here with your findings." All three Furs set out on their task. "You, female" called the man in black. "Hold up, and come over here." A smile spread across Jasmine's lips, as did a look of joy across her face.
"Yes, lord?" she asked. The other two had disappeared from sight, intent on finding the missing corpse.
"I know already what happened to the body; it healed, and the cur walked off." The man waved his gauntlet encased hand, ending the subject. "You are almost as sycophantic as the wolf. Tell me, why, and be frank." The man in black laughed at his own pun, but the Fur did not get it.
"I don't know some of your words, lord, but I serve you because you are the only hope we have."
"Interesting, please, continue." The man in black listened to what the Fur said, but while she talked he was scanning the electromagnetic currents that were her thoughts, to see what and why she really claimed loyalty.
"Even before the monsters attacked us, lord, we were not doing well. But then you show up, and you save us, bring us food, weapons, slaves. With you commanding us lord, we could conquer all our enemies. I just want to be on the side that wins, and with you we will win."
Her thoughts showed that she was telling the truth.
"An opportunist, I see. No matter, that. You wish to serve, but would you be willing to lay down your life for me, for any reason?"
"Yes lord, for I know it would help you to achieve your goals, and that would make my children's lives easier, if you get what you want."
"So you are pregnant, but still you expect to fight for me?"
"No lord, I am not with child, but I am your favorite, so no man in the village would resist me, should you grant me leave."
The man in black laughed deep and heartily, but the sound came out of his helmet harsh and like the screeching of metal on metal.
"A power hungry opportunist; you would have done well in America. Shame its ten thousand parsecs away." The man in black patted the husky's head, causing her tail to wag in happiness.
"What's 'America' lord?"
"Shh, shh, you're ruining the moment." Right as the other two Furs returned from their fool's errand the man stopped petting the husky. The two Furs looked on in stunned disbelief.
To be continued...