Entry tags:
mizaru… kikazaru… iwazaru… shizaru (part 2)
"YOU AREN'T MY SISTER!"
At first, the bridge over the River Lum was a blessing. The conquest of the Hallowed Lands by Lord Drakan's forces and the subsequent rise in piracy and the civil war in the Eastern Sea had killed the vital trade routes that that connected Uzer and Ullek, and later Menaphos, to the rest of the world. The bridge connected the ancient Kharidian desert with the fertile farming region of the young kingdom of Misthalin. Before, trade caravans had to go as far north as what were the ruins of Senntisten, now the capital of the nascent kingdom, and deal with the royal class of Varrock. The farmers of Lumbridge were much easier to deal with than the nobles and bureaucrats of Varrock.
The Mehkmet tribe of the north profited greatly from the increased trade flowing through their territory. The great distance to Menaphos compared to the proximity of Lumbridge only increased the temptation to claim a greater share of the benifits of the trade for itself. Extremely late in the fourth age, The Emirate of Al Kharid declared it's independence the Pharaoh of Menaphos. The desert was tense.
The words thundered as if the mountains to the south had spoke them. They did so, later on, for when it was their turn to echo the words, they vibrated as if they were part of the ribcage of some mighty beast speaking in resonant tones. The sky itself warped and twisted, making the stars flee from their positions as columns of fire descended on the village below.
The village erupted in a cacophony of shrieks, hoots, and howls as monkeys and apes of various types poured out of the wattle and daub huts. This wasn't a human village, this was the last settlement of the desert apes. The desert wasn't always so dry; the ancestors of the apes living here once roamed the grassy plains of Uzer and the thick forests of Ullek but the change of the Kharid's climate forced the apes to live a different life. A more communal life, social, like the settlements of men, but even more so. And this is why Tumeken chose one of their number, Apmeken, to become a god. She, and her fellow apes, were to be an example to the inhabitants of the desert of the civil way, the social way to live. That civility was destroyed by the the crisis of the night.
"███████!" The name of the red haired woman running through the village thundered out of the temple to Apmeken. The name was black, almost painful. It was a name that could be heard but not listened to, seen but not read; the Destroyer, the Devourer, the Slayer was making her protestations of Apmeken's recent actions known. The columns of fire rampaging though the village were an obvious calling card. The answer was three faced Apmeken, racing out of her temple and giving chase to the Devourer, dissipating fire columns along the way. Apmeken wore the face of a monkey, reflecting her skillful side, but also the face of a panicked mother about to face the fierce lioness that threatened to devour her children. It was then that the lioness stooped down and collected three fleeing young monkeys. And disappeared.
After some coordinating of the monkeys and apes to put out the remaining fires, Apmeken disappeared as well.
The den of the lioness wasn't far. Like the Monkey, the Lioness chose to spend most of her time in the dead center of the desert. Before, the den was well hidden, even from the gods who still roamed the world. Now, it was obvious, but unfortunately for Apmeken, the reason the den could be found was not obvious. Not on that day, not at that hour, and not to distraught Apmeken.
The Lioness was maimed, and Apmeken knew this. The Lioness was angered, and Apmeken knew this. But Apmeken was unmaimed and fully divine, and she entered the den alone. She chose to wear the face of the baboon to confront ███████. The face of the skilled monkey might have given ███████ the impression that she was being negotiated with by a higher power and remind her of her fall from grace. The face of the wise ape may taint Apmeken's words with perceived condescension. Perhaps ███████'s sense of humor was still intact.
"███████, why do you throw such tantrums? I may look like a baboon, but I an fully capable of understanding that silly language you humans speak," Apmeken said, laughter coloring her speech.
But no amount of divine laughter could lighten the gravity of ███████'s name upon the ears of the three monkeys stolen from the village. They chittered in confusion, then in joy, as a distracted Apmeken looked in their direction. Relieved that they were still alive, their goddess smiled upon them, and her relief and peace was almost material.
The peace was cut through by the weaponry of the Devourer as the woman charged at the baboon faced goddess. Apmeken leaped out of the way and onto a barely perceptible ledge in the vast cave that served as ███████'s den. ███████ leaped after her, yelling, almost roaring in rage. Apmeken leaped from ledge to ledge with ███████ behind her, matching her move for move, getting so close to nick Apmeken's tail thrice with her scimitar and draw blood.
"Wow, you are good at this. Are you enjoying this?" Apmeken asked. "I like this game, ███████. Ape Apmeken." Though she jested, she was concerned. ███████ was no longer a goddess. She was only human. Immortal, but human. How was she so agile, so able? Apmeken was going way beyond what was possible for even the most skilled of the monkeys she watched over. "Can you not speak? Has a cat eaten your tongue?"
Enraged, ███████ threw her scimitar at Apmeken yelling, "Shut up!!!!". Remembering herself, she realized that the scimitar was no longer in her hand but was heading straight for Apmeken. Summoning up energies within herself and in the cache of runestones she carried with her, ███████ fired off several spells at the scimitar. The blade glowed white hot but the nature of the magic sent the sword into a tumbling, unpredictable trajectory. It is a trick ███████ usually used on telepaths, but for a goddess? Might work with the element of surprise.
The hilt hit Apmeken in the head, knocking her to the ground. A wave of sympathetic pain hit her followers, both the monkeys in the cave and the primates in the village. The pain was quickly gone and Apmeken was rolling away from the fireballs being thrown at her by ███████. "Hahaha, that was a neat trick. Hey isn't the magic you are using supposed to home in on it's target?" Indeed, the fire balls were behaving more like projectiles than spells. Apmeken stopped rolling, caught a few of the fireballs and started juggling them.
"STOP MONKEYING AROUND!" ███████ screamed as she threw more fire spells at Apmeken.
Apmeken caught those too and juggled them with a giggle. "I didn't hear you. Did you say that you want to try?" She tossed a few to ███████, saying, "Sorry if I hit you, you gave me so much that I can't see you clearly."
The spells, with their target now changed, did hit ███████, and she fell to the floor, howling in agony. She rolled on the ground trying to put herself out. The flames finally died when she cast a water spell on herself.
Apmeken, feeling compassion for her adoptive sister and pangs of guilt about her suffering, exfinguised the fires she was juggling and raced over to ███████'s side. "███████, ███████, are you alright?"
"Always." ███████ turned toward Apmeken showing her burnt and raw face to the goddess. ███████'s flesh knitted itself back together, revealing a predatory grin. The cave began to tremble and great rocks fell from its ceiling. The three monkey children whimpered and shrieked.
"GET OUT!" Reaching her hand out to the monkeys, Apmeken was able to teleport them out of the cave but not herself or ███████. The Monkey and the Lioness were buried alive under the great mountain they found themselves standing on, in the middle of the Kharid desert.
There, they saw two great armies of men. To the north, the warriors of the Emir of Al Kharid. To the south, the legions of the Pharaoh of Menaphos. And in the middle, the burnt husk of the ape settlement. The peace of Apmeken had been shattered.
At first, the bridge over the River Lum was a blessing. The conquest of the Hallowed Lands by Lord Drakan's forces and the subsequent rise in piracy and the civil war in the Eastern Sea had killed the vital trade routes that that connected Uzer and Ullek, and later Menaphos, to the rest of the world. The bridge connected the ancient Kharidian desert with the fertile farming region of the young kingdom of Misthalin. Before, trade caravans had to go as far north as what were the ruins of Senntisten, now the capital of the nascent kingdom, and deal with the royal class of Varrock. The farmers of Lumbridge were much easier to deal with than the nobles and bureaucrats of Varrock.
The Mehkmet tribe of the north profited greatly from the increased trade flowing through their territory. The great distance to Menaphos compared to the proximity of Lumbridge only increased the temptation to claim a greater share of the benifits of the trade for itself. Extremely late in the fourth age, The Emirate of Al Kharid declared it's independence the Pharaoh of Menaphos. The desert was tense.
The words thundered as if the mountains to the south had spoke them. They did so, later on, for when it was their turn to echo the words, they vibrated as if they were part of the ribcage of some mighty beast speaking in resonant tones. The sky itself warped and twisted, making the stars flee from their positions as columns of fire descended on the village below.
The village erupted in a cacophony of shrieks, hoots, and howls as monkeys and apes of various types poured out of the wattle and daub huts. This wasn't a human village, this was the last settlement of the desert apes. The desert wasn't always so dry; the ancestors of the apes living here once roamed the grassy plains of Uzer and the thick forests of Ullek but the change of the Kharid's climate forced the apes to live a different life. A more communal life, social, like the settlements of men, but even more so. And this is why Tumeken chose one of their number, Apmeken, to become a god. She, and her fellow apes, were to be an example to the inhabitants of the desert of the civil way, the social way to live. That civility was destroyed by the the crisis of the night.
"███████!" The name of the red haired woman running through the village thundered out of the temple to Apmeken. The name was black, almost painful. It was a name that could be heard but not listened to, seen but not read; the Destroyer, the Devourer, the Slayer was making her protestations of Apmeken's recent actions known. The columns of fire rampaging though the village were an obvious calling card. The answer was three faced Apmeken, racing out of her temple and giving chase to the Devourer, dissipating fire columns along the way. Apmeken wore the face of a monkey, reflecting her skillful side, but also the face of a panicked mother about to face the fierce lioness that threatened to devour her children. It was then that the lioness stooped down and collected three fleeing young monkeys. And disappeared.
After some coordinating of the monkeys and apes to put out the remaining fires, Apmeken disappeared as well.
The den of the lioness wasn't far. Like the Monkey, the Lioness chose to spend most of her time in the dead center of the desert. Before, the den was well hidden, even from the gods who still roamed the world. Now, it was obvious, but unfortunately for Apmeken, the reason the den could be found was not obvious. Not on that day, not at that hour, and not to distraught Apmeken.
The Lioness was maimed, and Apmeken knew this. The Lioness was angered, and Apmeken knew this. But Apmeken was unmaimed and fully divine, and she entered the den alone. She chose to wear the face of the baboon to confront ███████. The face of the skilled monkey might have given ███████ the impression that she was being negotiated with by a higher power and remind her of her fall from grace. The face of the wise ape may taint Apmeken's words with perceived condescension. Perhaps ███████'s sense of humor was still intact.
"███████, why do you throw such tantrums? I may look like a baboon, but I an fully capable of understanding that silly language you humans speak," Apmeken said, laughter coloring her speech.
But no amount of divine laughter could lighten the gravity of ███████'s name upon the ears of the three monkeys stolen from the village. They chittered in confusion, then in joy, as a distracted Apmeken looked in their direction. Relieved that they were still alive, their goddess smiled upon them, and her relief and peace was almost material.
The peace was cut through by the weaponry of the Devourer as the woman charged at the baboon faced goddess. Apmeken leaped out of the way and onto a barely perceptible ledge in the vast cave that served as ███████'s den. ███████ leaped after her, yelling, almost roaring in rage. Apmeken leaped from ledge to ledge with ███████ behind her, matching her move for move, getting so close to nick Apmeken's tail thrice with her scimitar and draw blood.
"Wow, you are good at this. Are you enjoying this?" Apmeken asked. "I like this game, ███████. Ape Apmeken." Though she jested, she was concerned. ███████ was no longer a goddess. She was only human. Immortal, but human. How was she so agile, so able? Apmeken was going way beyond what was possible for even the most skilled of the monkeys she watched over. "Can you not speak? Has a cat eaten your tongue?"
Enraged, ███████ threw her scimitar at Apmeken yelling, "Shut up!!!!". Remembering herself, she realized that the scimitar was no longer in her hand but was heading straight for Apmeken. Summoning up energies within herself and in the cache of runestones she carried with her, ███████ fired off several spells at the scimitar. The blade glowed white hot but the nature of the magic sent the sword into a tumbling, unpredictable trajectory. It is a trick ███████ usually used on telepaths, but for a goddess? Might work with the element of surprise.
The hilt hit Apmeken in the head, knocking her to the ground. A wave of sympathetic pain hit her followers, both the monkeys in the cave and the primates in the village. The pain was quickly gone and Apmeken was rolling away from the fireballs being thrown at her by ███████. "Hahaha, that was a neat trick. Hey isn't the magic you are using supposed to home in on it's target?" Indeed, the fire balls were behaving more like projectiles than spells. Apmeken stopped rolling, caught a few of the fireballs and started juggling them.
"STOP MONKEYING AROUND!" ███████ screamed as she threw more fire spells at Apmeken.
Apmeken caught those too and juggled them with a giggle. "I didn't hear you. Did you say that you want to try?" She tossed a few to ███████, saying, "Sorry if I hit you, you gave me so much that I can't see you clearly."
The spells, with their target now changed, did hit ███████, and she fell to the floor, howling in agony. She rolled on the ground trying to put herself out. The flames finally died when she cast a water spell on herself.
Apmeken, feeling compassion for her adoptive sister and pangs of guilt about her suffering, exfinguised the fires she was juggling and raced over to ███████'s side. "███████, ███████, are you alright?"
"Always." ███████ turned toward Apmeken showing her burnt and raw face to the goddess. ███████'s flesh knitted itself back together, revealing a predatory grin. The cave began to tremble and great rocks fell from its ceiling. The three monkey children whimpered and shrieked.
"GET OUT!" Reaching her hand out to the monkeys, Apmeken was able to teleport them out of the cave but not herself or ███████. The Monkey and the Lioness were buried alive under the great mountain they found themselves standing on, in the middle of the Kharid desert.
There, they saw two great armies of men. To the north, the warriors of the Emir of Al Kharid. To the south, the legions of the Pharaoh of Menaphos. And in the middle, the burnt husk of the ape settlement. The peace of Apmeken had been shattered.