Welcome back, gang. I now bring back a deceased character in this chapter. Enjoy.
Out of the Mud
The rowboat came to an island. On the island was a bog and it was into that bog that the rowboat drifted into. Balor jumped from the rowboat and ended up landing into the mud of the bog. There was a lot of it! He was up to his waist in mud!
Balor tried to jump but he couldn't budge. A laugh then came to his ears. There was something familiar about that laugh. Balor knew the voice! He was sure of it!
He was then lifted into the air by the mud itself. A person started to form from the mud. Balor's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the person! But no it couldn't be! It was impossible! He was dead! But it was!
"Thomeheb!" Balor couldn't believe it. The Scourge of Mumm-Ra now as an Eternal! An Eternal was what an Evabon with a corrupt soul became. It was only natural that Thomeheb would have become an Eternal. Balor only wished that he were somewhere else.
"I remember you!" The mud that was making up Thomeheb's arm was starting to move up to Balor's neck. "I hate the three of you! You, Gard, that little witch! You are the reason I'm an Eternal!" The mud continued until it was up to Balor's chin. "Any last words?"
"Yeah, wouldn't happen to know who my father is do you?" Balor figured that since Thomeheb was Gard's cousin then he must have come across his father during his travels in his lifetime.
"Your father?" Balor nodded in response, barely. The mud around his neck was making it hard for him to move his neck.
"Grey skinned, scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his right arm, that's how he was described to me." Thomeheb released Balor and placed him back in the mud. Now was the time for Balor to form a plan.
"You mention him? A pirate? A bandit? A worshipper of marriage, women and birth? You dare mention him to me? You'll die for that Son of Pwyll!" Thomeheb started to feel his body of mud harden. He couldn't even move. "What is happening to me?" There was a smile on Balor's face. "What did you do to me?"
"The Shaman was right, I do have the spark." Balor jumped onto Thomeheb's shoulder. He tapped him on the head, annoying the Eternal. "Now see here, you'll be like this until I see fit to release you which might be never." Thomeheb glared angrily. "Now is my father alive?"
"I didn't kill him so he might be." Balor smiled and waved happily. He jumped into a tree and left. Thomeheb let out an enraged roar. "You'll see me everywhere Balor! Even in your nightmares!"
Balor raced through the trees. He now had a name to go with the phantom that was his mysterious father: Pwyll.
Sotark continued to stroke his hammer. A smile appeared on his evil face as an idea formed in his mind. A perfectly cruelly entertaining idea! His head turned to the bars where the female prisoners were behind. His eyes instantly landed on Kit. Have Balor kill her while under his influence and the boy would become his champion all the easier!
Sotark stretched out a hand. "To the Gauntlet with you!" A fireball shot from Sotark's hand and soon enough Kit was gone. Sotark then looked at the members of his court. "Continue with the preparations for the Festival of Ecstasy, I leave for my chamber, do not disturb me." Sotark began to walk away but then fell to his knees, dropped his hammer and started to clutch at his head in pain.
A large white tolac with a single eye then appeared in the temple out of nowhere. The tolac walked towards Sotark and it turned into an old Evabon with grey skin and mustache and beard. He too had a single eye just like the tolac. He was dressed in a black robe with shining stars on it. There was a staff in this stranger's hand hewn from simple wood.
"Sotark, look upon me and know me well." The stranger banged his staff on the ground and instantly his wardrobe changed from the robe to an outfit of furs, armor and a horned helmet. The staff had vanished. Sotark and his followers began to tremble. "Look upon me and know me well and know that your chosen champion knows me as well."
"You dare speak to me like that, Shaman?" Sotark stood up, no longer in pain and no longer trembling. "The boy will be broken, he will become my champion! Now I demand you identify yourself! I have seen the statue but I know not your name now tell it to me!"
"I am Death. I am the North! I am the Storm! I am he who searches for his eye but has never found it! I am the one who longs for death! I am the first of the shamans." And with that the stranger, the Shaman, vanished. Sotark growled angrily. Bit by bit he was becoming more bestial since his release. The serpent slithered over to Sotark.
"Something troubles you, my lord?" Sotark's hand shot out and squeezed the serpent's throat. No one was sure if the serpent died of choking or if his neck had been broken but either way he had died. The priests all looked at each other in fear. Who would become the new High Priest? Then everyone starred in shock at what happened next.
Sotark had bitten into body of the serpent, like a predator with prey! He then looked over at the members of hos court. They were still trembling in fear. He then left the temple, the body of the serpent still in his hand and he was taking his hammer with him.
Cheetara turned to look at a wall. Sotark was monstrous becoming more beast than person. Could such a being really exist? She had never seen anyone like that before. How could someone like that exist?