//?A Curious Sergal: Part 2.001
#2 of //?A Curious Sergal
Whoa! what's this box do?
Oh. Okay
Part 1:
http://www.sofurry.com/view/375124
NOTES AND DISCLAIMERS: Sergals, Rain Silves, Vilous, and some other things ©Mick39 (AKA Trancy Mick)
//?A Curious Sergal Part 2
//(DepartureTime+170.5
The bulkhead latch released, and a metric fuckton of titanium-A boomed as the colossal deadbolts slid in. The aperture opened, and the beams of a thousand Keeper targeting sensor arrays shot through his retina. Then he remembered... not targeting sensor arrays... it was the sun.
The sun was setting over the horizon, it was dusk. No, he told himself, it is dawn... to a new day of shadow.
Jax picked up his make-shift pack and stumbled out of the cave entrance he had obliviously entered almost twelve seasons earlier. While he had only physically aged only three years within the confines of the facility, he had been forced to mentally mature at a much quicker rate than most Sergals to stay alive. His first objective shot into his mind: find any source of civilization. He could hardly remember where he was; countless miles of winding, dimly-lit tunnels had erased much of his bearings in the outside world. Never-the-less, his sense of direction surpassed that of someone well over twice his age, and he slowly made his way back to the plateau where his clan used to be.
***
He stopped and leaned on a tree to catch his breath. It felt like he had walked for days. But it couldn't have been; it was still night. He then remembered what it had been like in the Facility; unending passages, flickering lights that seemed to dilate time around them. It must have been his mind playing tricks on him. Or his body. After all, that was what mOTHER had said about his 'condition', reduced stamina, hypersensitivity, and all the other things that came along with radiation poisoning. What a terrible weapon the Nomads who used to dwell in the facility had invented. He looked up at the stars to find out the time as Father had taught him so many seasons ago. It was still early night. No more than two hours had passed.
Something in the heavens caught his eye... some stars were missing. He couldn't quite remember gazing upon the stars with his own eyes, but he had seen the star charts in the Nomad facility often enough to remember the constellations. They seemed to have a strange fixation with things in the sky, almost as if they were capable of reaching such far off celestial bodies. That was when he realized something must have been blocking them out. He picked himself up from the tree as his curiosity revitalized his will to trek.
***
Jax started to remember... a trail here, a scent there; these were the lands of his old clan. He proceeded wearily, should they still be hostile towards him. He couldn't even remember why he and his parents had left; it had been so long ago. Perhaps it was something about his fur color. Yes, that was it. Something about his jet-black fur was considered bad in that clan. They would more readily accept him now that his once full black coat now had a blotch of snowy-white fur on under his neck from the dead pigments where he had been burned from his Curse.
He craned his head to look at the stars once again. There was smoke. That was what had been blocking out the stars over his old clan's village. He reached the outskirts of the small town and entered through its open gate. He quickened his pace to find out the source of the fire, but after he located it he wished he hadn't. His retinas were pierced by the rays of light that were emitted from the pile of mutilated heads, torsos, arms, and legs that sat burning in the village center. It was a jigsaw puzzle of the discarded body parts of his previous clan members. It was surrounded by an array of spears, some of which had decapitated heads on them, but all of them carried a banner with a symbol painted in blood. He covered his eyes and nose to prevent losing his last meal on the ground. He turned to leave, but couldn't move. What could have done such a thing? What was that symbol? Jax hadn't had any contact with any living thing for five years, and now this... he couldn't bear it. Then he thought of his parents. He shot up and sprinted out of the village, not only to find his family, but also to escape the death that filled his senses.
Jax dashed through the night at lightning speed to find the settlement he had spent the last seasons of his childhood life in. The wind bit at his nose and howled through his ears, but he was too numb to notice. He arrived at the general location, but could not find any tents or signs of his parents. There was no smoke either, but he considered that a good sign. There was a smell. He closed his eyes as his muzzle probed the air to the source. A drop of something landed on his head. He opened his eyes... _No..._His heart stopped.
After the discovery he crawled into a nearby tree and cried himself to sleep.
***
Everything was red... The sun, a bleeding eye that hung low in the sky, was red. The sky was red. The flowers were red. Even the rotting, lynched corpse hanging by its single remaining limb...was red. And the symbol was everywhere...
Jax shot awake, almost flinging himself out of the branch he was nestled in. His fur was matted in a cold-sweat and his heart was in his throat. The memory was fresh enough in his mind of what happened to his parents without having to dream about it. A pain rose from inside his uvula, choking him from within. No! he vowed to himself, Not this time! He was no longer the small innocent child that had obliviously wandered into the Nomad facility due to his curiosity. Without parents, he would need to act like an adult. He kept the pain in and, just as he had promised himself, managed to keep himself from crying. But his pain soon evolved to rage, coursing through every fiber of his being. He wanted one thing, and as he thought of it, his lips curled away, unsheathing rows of pearly white daggers. The feeling was too powerful to contain, and he screamed a blood-curdling cry into the night. All the birds and wildlife in the area retreated from the wave of hatred. He would see to it that he got what he deserved: Vengeance.
***
//(DepartureTime+170.6215
Fwoosh!
Chak's powerful hind legs pushed down on the ground, and he flew over the bushes with his heirloom spear in hand.
Fwoosh!
He heard Tan do the same behind him. He ran with all his might towards his prey; the Reono scout that was running with all her might to get away from them. She had accidentally passed by their outpost a few miles ago and they had been in hot pursuit ever since. Dumb Reono! They really think they can win the war?! Chak thought to himself as he ran. His legs' rhythmic drumming on the ground quickened its pace. He did that constantly. Every time his simple mind was reminded of such topics, he could almost feel the spirits of his ancestors inside him, pushing him on. Every time he thought about the war, or the Reono, or the Shigu, or Rain...Rain... his muscles went into over drive as he thought of Rain. Intimidation, impulse, inspiration, Chak didn't know what it was about her that made him run faster (and he probably wasn't smart enough to understand it even if he did know), but it didn't matter. His sudden burst of speed caused him to break away from Tan and close the distance to the Reono Scout at an incredible rate. The scout saw her pursuant assailants catching up at an alarming rate, and went full speed ahead, unfortunately causing her to not react to the root sticking out of the ground.
Her foot snagged on the root and she flew forward, but at the last second curled up into a ball and rolled out of her fall, managing to avoid Chak's spear as it swung down in a deadly arc. Chak was so enthralled in the hunt he didn't even pause to notice how graceful the female Sergal's roll had been.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Chak's spear swung in two wide arcs, narrowly missing the scout's bare stomach. Just as he got ready to swing again, she brought her dagger out to parry. Chak moved as if to attack to her right, but at the last second leveled his spear directly at the scout's exposed patch of stomach. The Southern Sergal watched in horror as the polearm that had already taken the lives of so many of her kin tore through her torso. Her lifeless body slumped to the ground after Chak ripped his now sated weapon out of his prey.
He laughed as he turned around, expecting to see a defeated Tan (they had made a bet with each other over who would reach the scout first, the victor having the honor of mounting her head on his pole arm, and subsequently a possible promotion from their Commander) cursing, or making some other excuse for not winning. What he instead saw was the dead husk of a Northern Sergal slowly bleeding out from the dagger embedded in its spine as a shadow-like figure rolled out of the attack that had implanted it there. Chak was outraged. Tan had been his friend, but that was not what made him angry. Tan had been a loyal member of the Shigu clan. No one would cross the Great Shigu Clan and survive when Chak was around... No one. Chak charged at the black assailant, but it dodged to the right at the last second. He whirled around for another pass. Chak leveled his spear on the shadowy foe and tensed his leg muscles in preparation for another attack, when his opponent took out a dagger.
"You think you can win with only a dagger!?" He burst out laughing, right before he charged 'Is that all the enemies of the Shigu can muster!?'. His opponent took one step back. His legs felt charged with the power of his ancestors. 'HA! He's afraid! It is time to push my advantage!' Chak ran forward, propelled by his powerful Shigu legs feeling stronger and better than they ever had before... only to have the snare that caught on his hind paw grow taught and flop him to the ground. He only had enough time to look up as his snout was impaled by the black Sergal wielding his family's heirloom spear.
***
He heard movement in the foliage below, and crouched in a warrior's-squat. His ears swiveled in an about-face, and his nose tested the air for any new scents. Someone was close. His leg muscles tensed underneath him in anticipation, ready to propel him through the air from his vantage point in the trees. Jax had been waiting nearly all night... he would not let this opportunity escape him.
A Reono scout burst through a nearby bush, desperately trying to evade the two Shigu scouts that followed her. She tripped on a root that had been concealed from view by a pile of leaves, and stumbled to the ground. The scout was quite experienced, and managed to roll out of her fall to prevent injury, but in the process lost her distance gained between the two Shigu and herself. Jax couldn't help but see how gracefully she had acted. The first, smaller Shigu jumped at the Reono, just barely grazing her leather chest plate with an iron-tipped spear before the Reono could spring out of the way. Jax saw his chance. While the Shigu in front was occupied with the Reono, the black shadow swiftly launched itself with its coiled up legs down towards the larger Shigu in back. The Shigu scout had no time to react to the dagger being surgically introduced to its spine. Jax used his momentum to roll out of the fall and get back on his feet in a fighting stance just in time to witness the Reono's lifeless husk of a body fall to the ground after being impaled by the remaining Shigu. The Shigu warrior charged for an attack, leveling his already used polearm at Jax. Jax rolled to the right, jumping out of the way just in time to prevent the inevitable impaling that awaited him in front of the Shigu warrior. He drew his second dagger and crouched in a fighting stance.
"You think you can win with only a dagger!?" the Shigu taunted.
Jax didn't respond; words could not express his anger towards the Shigu, and any that flew the banner of the eye of death... that, and five years of solitary confinement in an AEF facility had somewhat hampered his ability to communicate with others verbally.
Jax took a step back, he needed the Shigu to step just one stride closer. The Shigu charged again, but this time a small rope that had ensnared his leg grew taught, flopping him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. He craned his neck to see what had happened, only to get a glimpse of Jax ramming the Shigu's spear through its previous owner's muzzle. Jax stood up. It was time to scavenge what was left. Unfortunately, the dagger he had backstabbed the first Shigu warrior with had snapped. Things like that, which had been homemade out of flint, broke often. Digging through the three corpses' packs, he found a Shigu map, a Reono map, and a parchment with the signature of a Reono commander. He read through the parchment: (INSERT NOTE THAT WARNS OF SHIGU ATTACK ON REONO TOWN HERE). He rolled it up, but before leaving he took the upper arm armor of the smaller Shigu and put it on himself. It fit quite nicely above the AEF ceramic-composite fore-arm plates that had been integrated onto his arms. He etched his symbol into the chest armor of the two Shigu with the head of his defeated opponent's spear head that was his new dagger, and then ran off to finish delivering the Reono message. He headed due west of his position, following the 'X' on the Reono map.
He arrived at where the 'X' was on the map, and could see he was in the proximity of a small Reono village. He broke off the branches of a few nearby trees with the greenest leaves he could find, and then arranged them in a small pyre for signaling. Before lighting it, however, he took the Reono letter and Shigu map out of his pack, pinning them between two rocks next to the fire. He took out his make-shift quill and ink pouch, and carefully replaced the Shigu emblem on the map with his own. Then, he lit the fire and left. It was nearly noon; much past his bed time.
Too tired to trek all the way home, Jax took some premade snares out of his bag and buried them around the general area before finding a suitable tree and scrambled into the safety of its branches. The bark was spikey and filled with crags. He tied himself down to its sturdiest branch and embraced his temporary nest before drifting into a restless slumber to wait out the day.
It had been four years since Clan Shigu started its expansion. For the past season, Jax had been setting traps in places he had observed the scouts travel often, then ambushing them and bringing their information to neighboring clans to prevent the expansion. It had not even so much as delayed their progress. Most of the clans that had ever possessed any of his repurposed parchments had been either exterminated or assimilated. The only currently living people that had seen his emblem were in the small village he had ventured to earlier that day. That... and the thousands of lives who had been affected by the existence of the passing Nomads, whose symbol Jax had borrowed.
Part 3: