Iron Collar - Ch1
"I told no one, I swear it!" came the last cry of an adult female fennec before a burlap bag was fitted over her head, her furred stomach cut open, and her entrails strewn to the floor in front of the town's population. Her body slowly twitched away its remaining life as the crowd gasped in horror. Many mourned the loss, and those who would have cheered the righteousness of their king stayed hushed. So are the times in this barren land. Few Shæul tribes still meandered the rocky deserts and sandy dunes. A great king from the north began to stretch his kingdom downward, while tyrant barbarians from the far south relentlessly raided central villages and outposts of every creature, without bias. The smaller, slowly dieing tribes of the Shæul were faced with death and subjugation to both; the tall, ebony creatures of the south - who's mere appearance meant death to the beholder - and to the grey, powerful race of the north with their warrior slaves of all races.
In the most southern outpost of the northern kingdom, Creonis, the majority of the population were Shæul, either outcasts or absorbed into the walled stronghold. These folk lived in more fear of their direct ruler then their king or the raiders that attempted attacks on the stronghold's walls on an almost daily basis. Within this foreboding, dark town resided a young Shæul with her elder sister. Late, one night, when the raiders seemed to have gone, this little, tan colored Shæul began her daily tunneling 'exercise.' She had been digging this tunnel for months without a collapse or breakthrough, she was quite proud of herself. She continued digging at a relatively fast pace, attempting to reach beyond the city wall before her ever nearing birthday. So was her tribe's custom; proud diggers of the rocky deserts. Before every Shæul's coming of maturity, they had to complete a functional tunnel that five creatures would need to pass through. With her coming of age very close, only hours away, she had reached the wall. The layer of strongly compacted dirt in front of her was a sure sign of the weight of the wall atop it. She gathered the two iron shafts she had planned to use to support the wall's weight in the tunnel and resumed her methodic digging. As soon as the tunnel was under the wall it began to quiver, threatening to collapse atop her. She hurriedly placed the two supports and continued on, leaving the roof of her tunnel only slightly damaged from the weight.
The thickness of the rock between the tunnel and the surface lessened as the tunnel neared the outcropping of the cliff the city stood upon. With a hard swing of her pick, a small ray of morning light fluttered into the dark tunnel. With renewed excitement, the little tunneler hacked at the wall, setting the small pieces of limestone loose and falling to the cliff base below.
Just as the last rock came loose an ebony hand appeared and grabbed the pick, yanking it from the small Shæul's hands and flinging it into the valley below. The little Shæul fell to her back, on her elbows, stunned in surprise and fear. An ebon skinned, sleek creature climbed into the tunnel. Its ears seemed perpetually perked to a sharp point above its head. Its ebony leather armor glinted at the studs with sparks of war as its slender fingers reached out for the Shæul. She attempted to scream but was promptly gagged by the ebon creature's grasp around her throat. A leather strap was tightened around her sharp muzzle and her hands secured behind her back as several other ebon creatures entered her small tunnel. She yelped as she was pushed ahead, crawling onward on her knees and nose.
Jackal after jackal climbed out from the floor in the small, mostly ramshackle house the two Shæul lived in. Only a single jackal was female, and by the elegancy of her garb, probably the raid leader. Two jackals came from the adjoined room carrying a startled and terrified Shæul. The two tossed the bound Shæul to the floor in the corner, by her similarly bound, younger sister. The leader of the raid group smirked as she looked about the room. "Burn it," she barked at her raiders before flashing a surprisingly malicious grin at the two sisters in the corner, "And leave them here to burn." A jackal pulled an elegant, blue stained flask from his belt as the rest fled the building. He tossed the flask in his hand, licking his bloodthirsty smirk with his slender tongue before chucking the flask of thick, promiscuous fluid at the young, dirt covered Shæul. Frozen in fear, the younger one didn't move. Her older sister, with all the might she could muster, shoved her younger sister into the tunnel entrance, though not quite in time. The flask burst against the younger sister's tail, igniting it instantly, along with her dearest sister. In the cave, the younger sister put out the flames upon her tail with large amounts of loose dirt that had been pushed back from all the digging. She was just about to head back in to get her sister when the house collapsed; trapping her in the dark tunnel she dug for celebrating this day. She cried solemnly to herself against the wall of her small tunnel, ignoring the collapsing wall and the screams of war above.