It was noon when the abandoned Temple of Time started to show signs of activity inside its walls. An hourglass in the ceremony room of temple started to glow. Then the sand inside turned a bright yellow. The golden hourglass inside was reacting to an unknown power. Nonetheless, the gears turned and opened the latch on the bottom of the magnificent piece of art. But rather than it's glowing contents flowing onto the floor, only a handful of unusually black sand fell out. After the black sand was on the ground, the latch returned to the closed position.
For a few hours, the black sand laid there on the cold, dark ground. It wasn't until the sun shone though the entrance of the temple and hit the black sand, immediately making the sand radiate a white aura around it. Then the sand moved. It moved into the middle of the room, a few feet away from the base of the hourglass and started to mix with the brown sand that lay on the floor all over. It too began to move as soon as the black sand washed over it. Now all the sand in the room started to swirl into the center where is started to form a giant pair of black, clawed feet. Muscular legs etched with grey scratches and gears then formed on top of the feet, joining as the torso was created. It held the same etchings as the legs, except for what looked like a giant grey plate over the heart. Then two equally muscular arms formed, ending with giant claws on the fingers. Finally, the armored head composed on top of the torso, with two great horns forming into an infinite symbol.
The dark creature stood in the middle of the temple room. The hourglass behind him and the exit in front of him. He sighed heavily and then opened his two glowing eyes to survey his surroundings. He looked around and looked at his own hands, then his body. A small chuckle escaped his mouth-less face.
"I'm finally awoken once again…. Born from the Sands of Time. And this time, my target is already known. I do not need to wait for her…."
The black behemoth started for the door, when there was a flash of light behind him. When he turned around, there was a slender woman leaning against the hourglass. "Awww, leaving without saying hello?"
"I do not need you help this time, Kaileena. Let me be."
She smiled and got off the hourglass. "Oh really? The great dahaka knows where he's heading without me even telling him whom he's hunting? Honestly Magus, your hopeless. You just don't know when to ask for help."
"I do too, it's just I don't need it now, have, and never will need it. I know the prey this time. Do you not understand?" There was an impatient tone to his voice.
Kaileena grinned and crossed her arms. "Then may I ask who the target is? Since you seem to be so confident I figure I might ask a few questions. I don't want you to go out there all vigilante style and killing whomever you think needs to die."
The giant creature gave off a low "hrumph" and walked over to her, having to look down to meet her eyes. "You know that I only kill those that have mistreated the innocent or opened the hourglass. Which is why I want to get this done as soon as possible. Prince Dastan has done nothing wrong in my eyes. He righted what was wrong. But the rules say that anyone that opens the sands of time from either of the hourglasses, they must die. Even if they return the Sands of Time to the hourglass. Even though only two people, including the prince, have done so, they still have died, or need to die."
The dark haired woman in red started to laugh. "Oh, so you're going to have trouble killing him then?"
"No, I never said that. His death will come swiftly and surely. It's just there's a lot more remorse for the target when he did nothing wrong. It's different when it's just some lowly bastard that opened the hourglass in hopes of riches, power, or immortality. Then they just run from the problem, leaving everything behind, everyone else to fend for themselves. That's when I feel proud of the job I've done."
"Right, I forgot about your code. I never expected that when I chose you to be the ultimate assassin, your personality would carry over; all I wanted was your fighting skills. But if you're going to do this your way, at least promise me that there will be no other bloodshed. I want you to try and control yourself, understand?" Her smile turned to a very concerned look.
The dahaka pointed a finger at her, not breaking his stare. "It was you who decided I needed the uncontrollable rage whenever I fight. The prey is not the only one that can piss me off."
"I just don't want you leveling an entire city because you thought the laws they had in place were wrong. You could have just killed the king but you had to kill everyone. Then I had to clean up the mess, making it so the city never existed. You know how much work it is cover something like you up from the humans?"
"I need no covering up, they have heard of me and they know what I do. You can't just expect them to…"
"Your suppose to be a legend." She cut him off quickly and her face turned to a stern look. "Your suppose to be a myth, something that doesn't exist. Even though there were no witnesses left at Giturasi, the city was going to get noticed sooner or later. I can't change the timeline. No one can. But I have to try my hardest to keep it in order. And your not helping, Magus."
This time he was the one to laugh. "Your treating me like a child. I know what I'm doing, at least until the rage kicks in. After that happens, I can't control what I do to the person I see as unjust. And since the entire city was unjust, there was no backing down; there was no telling myself that I shouldn't kill them all. Even the children would have grown to be evil if they stayed under the rules that were established. Even if I killed the royal family, the rules would have lived on…"
"This is why your locked up in-between quarry. You can't be controlled. If you were ever let to roam the earth, there would be chaos." Kaileena started to hint at being pissed with the tone she was using. "Look, if you know your 'prey', then go get him. Just don't try to kill everyone. And you really need to be careful with prince Dastan. He's an excellent fighter and if you go easy on him for fun or out of respect, you will regret it."
Magus turned his back to her and started for the exit. "There is only one sword in the world that can hurt me and it's safe on the island of time. And you also forget that I enjoy the fight. It does not mean I go easy on them, I just give them a fighting chance, no matter how small it may be."
The woman shook her head as she watched the dark giant walk though the oversized doorway. "His overconfidence will be his undoing…."
And with that, she disappeared in a flash of light, once again leaving the room empty except for the golden hourglass.
Wow, never would have thought i would get this story off the ground... hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave Reviews, thoughts, ideas, or whatever is on you mind. Thanks!
