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Chapter X: The Trial of War
Solomon looked to the rising sun. He had been dreading this new day. Fearing for this morning's arrival. Nervously watching the horizon for the telltale hues of an encroaching travesty.
Today was the day. Today was the day that Solomon honored his promise of war.
Karst lay silent against Solomon's belly, eying the great serpent above her with apprehension. Just as he had dreaded this new day, so too did Karst fear for the morning's light.
The beautiful dawn mocked them both with its soft pink hues and deep blue shades. So beguiling a morning's birth greeted them on this wretched day, it seemed as if the golden sun itself jeered at their plight.
It wasn't until the sun had risen beyond curvature of the earth, and ascended further over the treeline in a blazing orange globe that Solomon dared to move.
There was no sense in deploring the sun. This day would have still come even without such a glorious herald of light.
…
The morning was still young when the Healer tended the boiling leaves that she and Solomon had prepared last evening. A light mist was rising from the moist grass, and the ember's glow colored the lazy fog with shades of orange and red.
It was a beautiful morning, rare in this season of storms, and the warmth of the sun seemed so wholesome as it dried the dew drops trickling down the Healer's toes.
So marvelous was this day, a day that the Healer had long dreamed for, and yet, despite the glow of hope that kindled the beating in her breast…
...Despite the joy that reflected this day's glorious renewal…
...Some small dread had poisoned the Healer's hope.
"He is Gyarados." The Healer muttered, kneeling among the untouched kindling with her ember.
"He will succeed." The Audino murmured, as she married the kindling with her smoldering ember.
And the Healer's dread only grew with the rising flames of her fire.
"...Can he do it?" The Healer faltered in her brooding, pausing as the smoke wafted from the crackling grass.
"...Can Solomon really become Gyarados?" The Healer whispered to herself in fear.
And now the dread hammered within her chest, matching the every beat of her heart.
Solomon was mighty. No greater predator existed within the Core Delta. No rival hunter, be it pack or recluse, could even hope to compete with the power of such a legend.
And yet this Gyarados, this Solomon, this revived destroyer of ages long past…
...Was neither predator nor monster.
Gentle. Kind. Giving. Compassionate. Thoughtful.
Such traits suited neither predator nor prey, for such weakness spelled certain death for any who dared submit to the softness of the heart.
"Well… Certain death for any who do not stand on the very top of the food chain…" The Healer muttered in exasperation. The Healer lifted a burning branch from the kindling, and stared at its flame, as that orange wisp fought so desperately against the soothing breeze to hold onto its fading glow.
"...He will be Gyarados. There is no point in refuting it. By the madness of hunger or under the guidance of the wise, Solomon will have to accept his nature-"
The Healer cried out in pain, as the flame in her hands lashed out against her grasp. Tossing the stick back into the fire, the Healer nursed a burned thumb.
It was foolish of her, to play with fire. Foolish of the wise to forgo sagacity in favor of passion.
"Healer." That solemn voice interrupted the Audino's bitter musings. Removing her scorched thumb from her mouth, the Healer drew a weary breath.
"How does the day greet you, Gyarados?" The Audino offered her customary greeting. Solomon did not answer, but by the weight of his shadow, did the Healer learn of his mood.
"You worry too much, silly fish." The Healer sighed. Solomon stiffened beside her.
"Worry? I'm indebted to you, and you ask me to pay in blood? Worry is not the fear I know." Solomon kept the rage in check, though it boiled in his throat at the Healer's insinuation.
"Solomon…" The Healer began in a terse tone, as she herself became angry.
"You know who I am. And yet you still expect me to kill for you…" The bitterness in the Serpent's voice could not be masked by his gentle side. He could not hide his revulsion or his fear. Solomon could not disguise his indignance or the anger.
"...Why are you so afraid of death, little fish?" The Healer asked in a saddened voice. Solomon jerked from his slump at her words.
"I'm not afraid to die-" Solomon began to growl.
"Not death for yourself. For others. Why are you so afraid to see others die?" The Healer asked. Solomon sank into his own shadow, and stared pensively at the same flames that held the Healer's eyes enraptured.
"...Because I'll never see them again." Solomon replied in a quiet voice. The Audino drew a deep breath.
"So it is not death you fear, but rather goodbye?" The Healer asked. Solomon lifted his gaze from the fire, and turned to face the Audino's blue eyes.
"...Did you ever manage to say goodbye to the ones you lost?" Solomon's sorrowful tone did nothing to ease the ugly look that now twisted the Healer's expression.
"Do not speak of my children, snake. As a friend I may know you, but as family I do not." The Healer hissed.
"Besides…" The Audino glared angrily back into the flames.
"...The Mightyena are not your friends or family. They are rabid hounds whose deaths should be celebrated, not tragic souls to be mourned after their passing." The Healer spat with fresh venom.
"...But do they not have friends and family? Do they not have any close to them, who dread to say goodbye?" Solomon asked softly. The Healer began to shake in rage.
"Your compassion is warped beyond any scope of rationality, you stupid fish." The Audino growled.
"You asked for a war. I have promised you a war. I only wondered if you were willing to shoulder the sin of war with me… But it seems that I will bear that burden alone…" Solomon murmured, his voice rife with grief. The Healer's eyes hardened as the boiling leaf's base began to blacken.
"You will need to harden your heart, Solomon. It is too soft for your own good." The Healer spoke in a decisive tone, finalizing the exchange.
The Healer's resolve would not be shaken by Solomon's compassion.
Long delayed justice would finally be served upon this very day.
…
"The Mightyena typically roam the border between the Grave Stretch and the Rose Hills. They hunt in Prides larger than any of the Core Delta's other packs, and both their ears and noses are sharper than any other pack's as well." Karst began her rundown on the Mightyena, while the Healer drew a map of their lands in the sand.
"They're not as strong as the Absols, nor as sophisticated as the Houndooms in their hunt, but the Mightyena are both relentless and fearless in battle." Karst continued.
"Savage may be a more apt description of their combat tactics." The Audino grumbled from her map. Karst swallowed at the interruption, but proceeded to divulge her knowledge to Solomon.
"Should a pride of Mightyena succumb to their rage, they will not withdraw from a fight until they are all dead, or their prey is." Karst looked up at her weary fish with concern.
"Savage does sound like the more fitting term…" Solomon murmured from his brooding roost in the sky. The Audino snorted.
"They were the first pack to accept the Absol's supremacy. The Mightyena praise strength above all other traits, and the Absol Alpha's of the past capitalized on the Mightyena's reverence for power." The Audino grumbled.
"Yes, they were the first of our allies, and as such, they have also become the most loyal." Karst shook her head in bitterness when she referenced her relation to the Absols.
"Which I find amusing, given how the Absols regard their closest allies as little more than filthy dogs." The Audino snorted. Karst stiffened at the remark, but chose to forgo a direct response.
"My ancestors have always maintained strong ties with the Mightyena. Of all the Core Delta's Packs, the Mightyena have offered the least disobedience. The Absols gave the entire eastern incline of the Core Delta to the Mightyena, and such a generous gift of territory has only strengthened the alliance between our two packs." Karst picked her words carefully, knowing that the crafty Healer listened for any gap or unmentioned motive in Karst's account of the Core Delta's history.
"Yes, all the rugged territory between the Absol's most fertile hunting grounds and the border of the Rose Hills. Your ancestors were wise to make the Mightyena your anti-Arcanine patrols. With their superior sense of smell and hearing, the Mightyena made for an excellent vanguard against the Packs and Tribes of the Rose Hills. That, and their constant conflict with the Arcanine has more than sated the Mightyena's thirst for violence. A thirst for violence that if left unquenched, might have turned the Mightyena against their masters…" The Healer was ever so subtle in her attack, but Karst could detect the incriminating insinuation.
Reformed or not, Karst was still an Absol, and in the Healer's eyes: Karst was still the embodiment of all the Absol's wicked deeds.
"What can I say? Our species rose to dominance not only by our immense strength, but also by our superior wits." Karst nonchalantly stated, refusing to show anymore shame for her heritage.
The Healer ceased her scrawling in the sand, and glared rank hatred at the aloof Karst.
"Then tell me, oh supreme Absol… Have you ever heard of a legend that highlights the Blue Serpent's rise and fall?" The Healer asked with a nasty smile. Karst snorted at both the Healer's remark and the legend's warning.
"Would you two please… just stop." Solomon's voice sounded close to breaking. Karst swallowed hard, and averted her gaze from the Healer's testy eyes.
"Solomon, we're telling you all of this so that you understand…" The Healer grumbled as she returned to her map. The Serpent's head fell in submission above them both, and sank ever lower to the ground beneath some unseen weight.
"You're not hurting innocents, Sol. You're protecting innocents by defeating the Mightyena." Karst murmured.
"...Is it so easily justified?" Solomon whispered.
"Yes." The Healer spat, carving a snaky line through her map with one angry stroke.
"Less blood for me to clean from my mitts. Less reckless hunters left to wound more families. Less needless death in the Core Delta." The Audino growled, yet Solomon could only shake his head.
He still couldn't accept the price for the Audino's peace.
-War.
"Is there not some other way?" Solomon dared pray. The Audino cast her drawing stone aside in fury, and rose to her feet.
"Go." The Healer spat, pointing to the raw lands with a shaking digit. Solomon's lost eyes rose from the ground and met the Audino's angry glare with confusion.
"Just go, Solomon. Take your friend with you. I release you both from your debts. But when you leave, do not come back. Stay far away from me, and my own. I will have no more to do with you. I want to know nothing more of your foolish empathy. Go learn for yourself what fate awaits the weak hearted in this world. I am through trying to educate you. But know that when your hunger and madness turns you upon the very one whom you hold most dear… I will still weep for you… And the innocence that you lost to your hopeless naivety." The Audino never faltered in her utterance, never betrayed a breaking of her will, and yet her voice softened with pity upon witnessing the horror and fear inspired by her prediction. The mighty serpent seemed so frail where he stood, tortured by the fear of what he may yet become.
"I am trying to help you, Solomon. I am trying to guide you through this trial. I am doing everything that I can to save your innocence… But I must also preserve your life. You will take life, Solomon. You will bring suffering to this world. You will force others to say goodbye… But I am trying to limit the pain you cause here. For you, as much as for the ones you fear for..." The Healer breathed out in a sorrowful voice. The Absol beside the Serpent was foolishly fighting her own fears and pains, but Karst could not hide every tear from her friend.
"Sol… You know who you are to me. I would never hurt you, Sol… I would never ask you to do something that would hurt you… Unless I feared that inaction would destroy you…" Karst whimpered beside her friend. Solomon began to choke.
"...The Absol and I know the cruelty of truth, Solomon. And we would both have you learn it, just not as painfully as we have learned it." The Audino murmured.
"...So I must become a monster?" Solomon wept in both bitterness and self loathing.
"Not a monster, Sol… Just the lesser of two evils. Just the evil that eats greater evils. Not a monster, but justice." Karst whispered.
"...I'll never accept a noble evil. I'll never know absolution for my actions. A killer is a killer, Karst. And a killer must live with their shame." Solomon mournfully murmured. Karst's face twisted in anger and denial when she heard those words, and a hatred rose from deep within her.
She hated Solomon for those words. Hated him more fiercely than she had ever hated her father.
"So what does that make me, Sol?" Karst spat, her voice made hideous with all of her hate. Solomon balked, now horrified at the connotations of his unheeded words.
"Karst, I didn't mean-" Solomon frantically began.
"-Yes you did. You meant every word. But that highlights the problem with you, Sol. You only look at the world from your own perspective. You never consider someone else's experiences in your self-absorbed musings. Well guess what?" Karst looked up at her shaken friend, with her anger made known by the burning of her eyes.
"Now you have to see the world from my perspective. Now you have to see the world as a killer. So go, Sol. Go and cherish the innocence that you covet so much. Because when you return to us from your terrible war, I hope that you judge yourself fairer than how you've judged me." Karst hissed, before turning away from her friend. Before she walked away from his desperate pleas.
Before Karst abandoned Solomon to the cruelty of truth.
"Let her go, Solomon." The Audino softly whispered over the Gyarados's heartfelt pleas. Solomon wrestled with himself, as he repressed the urge to chase after Karst.
"I didn't mean-!" Solomon turned to the Healer, his eyes wide and desperate with shame.
"I know what you meant, Solomon. And so does Karst. She's just… struggling with her own transition…" The Audino sighed.
"Give her time, little fish. The Absol needs time to identify herself, free from your perception. And the vice versa applies to you as well." The Audino waved Solomon over towards her map in the sand.
"...This is my homestead. I can assure you that it is far more comely when it's not drawn in sand…" The Audino began on a reluctant note. Solomon swallowed his fears as best he could, and offered his rapt, if shaken, attention to the Healer.
"The Mightyena bed down in the early evening, in the time between their noon patrols and their nightly hunts. The majority of the pack sleeps here, in the Circle…" The Audino's voice began to quiver when she indicated a circular clearing in the map's dense woodlands.
"...Right over the graves of my children…"
There was no stopping the Audino's tears now. So close was she now to reclaiming her home, that the dread of returning plagued her.
Home.
Where she had been bred and born.
Home.
Where she had been raised and loved.
Home.
Where she had taken her own mate. Birthed her own children. Raised her own family.
-Home…
...Where everything she had loved was buried. Where everything she cherished had been taken forever from her.
Home.
Where she had said that most painful of goodbyes.
"Healer…"
A blue armored wall tightened around her, and a massive mouth rested prone in the sand beside her.
She leaned upon that offered wall for support, and dried her eyes on the rumbling nape between the fins of his jaw and the plates of his neck.
Home.
"Enough… enough of this." The Audino removed herself from Solomon's scales, and strengthened her poise with a shuddering intake of breath.
"...Despite its proximity to the Rose Hill's border, the Circle is quite secure. The Mightyenas are bound to grow lax in their evening rest, which presents you with the perfect opportunity to strike." The Audino indicated a long snakely line that cut the Circle in half.
"This tributary is normally rather shallow, but during the flood season, it becomes a thick river. It connects with the Song here, in the floodplains of the Core Delta. The aquatic route from here to the floodplains is plenty deep, so your marine constitution affords you with a stealthy approach straight into the heart of the Mightyena's lands." The Audino traced a series of tributaries back to their point of origin, before indicating a route from the floodplains to a circled area denoted as the Sandy Glen.
"Now, the Alpha of the Mightyenas is wont to rest on the northern shore of the Circle's tributary, with the majority of his pack standing guard on the eastern flank, between him and the Rose Hills. Meaning that the undefended northern shore is your best recourse of attack." The Audino stepped back from her map, and looked up at Solomon with solemn look in either eye.
"Be quick, be quiet, be unseen. Strike fast and hard. Lay waste to everything between you and the Alpha. Shake the entire Delta with your wrath. And when the hounds flee their lands in terror of your might, when homeless and leaderless, they turn in desperation to the Absols…" The Audino released her pent up breath in a hoarse wind.
"None will dare defy your claim, and the Circle can stand as it once did. As a land of peace and healing. As a home for the meek and the defenseless." The Audino whispered.
Solomon swallowed hard.
Waste, wrath, and might. His foundations of War.
-How could such foundations ever support a land of peace and healing in this cruel world?
"...Then I go now, to reclaim your lands. And when I return… as the monster of your justice… I hope that you still know me…" Solomon gasped, as despondency crushed his every fiber beneath the oppressive weight of defeat.
…
"Solomon…"
The Serpent paused before the river's edge.
"What is it, little one?" The great beast asked in a quiet voice. The Matron's Ralts hesitantly left her cover in the brush, and came to stand some paces away from the giant's stooped spine.
"Are you going to fight?" The little one asked in a frightened voice. Solomon said nothing, but he still sank further beneath his own shadow all the same.
"I'm sorry, little one. But I must…"
The Ralts took a step back.
"Solomon…" The hurt and fear in the Ralts's voice brought the Serpent even lower to the ground.
She didn't want him to fight. She wanted him to stay just the way he was. Gentle and kind. Loving and honest.
The Ralts wanted him to stay true to his nature. True to the nature that no one else believed in.
"...You aren't a monster, Solomon… I believe in you."
And with those soft words, the Serpent disappeared. Only meager ripples hid his entrance to the river, nor did a splash sound at his quick retreat.
But the little Ralts could still feel him beneath the water.
And what she felt lit the fires of hope within her.
Solomon was adamant once again. Her words had rekindled his defiance. He would deny fate. He would conquer futility. He would overcome adversity. He would find a way, using all that he had learned...
Solomon would find a way to defeat War.
…
The Router lowered his maw into the muddy shallows, and lapped at the cold silt that rose from the drags of his tongue. Rolling his head with a snort, the Router glared at the water with disdain.
To wet his knees, seeking cleaner water? Or to drink the vile sand, and stay pleasantly dry?
With a grumble, the young hound made further into the Circle's river, intent on sampling the clearer waters of the deep. The floods had brought no shortage of water to the land of plenty, but the majority of drink was tainted with filth and reeking of debris, adding metal to its scent and tinging tannin to its taste.
As his footfalls stirred the silt at the edge of the river deep, the young hound looked into the inky dark beneath his nose.
His visioned failed all clarity but half a fathom down, and all that greeted his naked eyes was a still and vacant black.
One more step would bring the young hound past the drop off, where solid ground plunged down into the inky unknown. Down to where the Whiscash hunted and the Basculin fed.
Down into an alien world, where his terran prowess made him prey to the fat fish beneath the river.
Sneering at the depths, the young hound mocked the alien predators. On this shallow border between their lands, security favored the terran bound.
Fish could not hunt Mightyena on the incline towards dry land.
Fish could not escape the river to eat what hunted on dry land.
Taking greedy mouthfuls of their clean water, the young Mightyena amused himself with the thoughts of fish, who in anger, might be glaring up at this bold predator of the land. For though the Mightyena had been born to hunt on land, they could still violate the sovereign waters of the fish who were forever bound beneath the water's edge.
Having taken his fill, the young Mightyena threw one last taunting grin at the black waters beneath his snout…
...And fell back with a shriek, as an angry blue mouth rose with a massive swell from the river deep.
…
The ancient call. The siren of death.
Once more did it sound within the Core Delta, as a monster ascended from the heart of the Mightyena's land.
Gyarados.
The Savage Destroyer. The Primordial Killer. The Eater of Alphas.
So magnificent was its rumbling roar, and so mesmerizing were the rivulets of water raining down from its awful form, that all who witnessed its release from the river deep lay stiffened with shock.
And yet this terrible beast, this unimaginable monster graced with an arsenal beyond compare, still possessed the most sophisticated weapon known to the subtle mind.
-A voice.
"I AM SOLOMON!" The azure serpent bellowed, and all who heard the rage within its horrid breath fell cowering upon their bellies in fervent prayer for a swift end.
"I HAVE DEFEATED THE ABSOLS, SO CALLED MIGHTIEST OF THESE FEEBLE PACKS! I HAVE SWALLOWED WHOLE QUARRY GREATER THAN YOUR LARGEST PRIDES! I HAVE PROVEN THAT NONE ARE MORE DOMINANT THAN THE GYARADOS, AND I HAVE KNOWN ONLY THE DULL PLEASURE OF MEAT FROM MY CONQUEST! YOU!" Solomon lunged for a prone Mightyena, and snapped his mighty jaws above its ears.
"ARE YOU A CHALLENGE FOR ME TO KILL?!" The Mightyena beneath his rabid breath melted down into shrill whimpers and pathetic shrieks.
"NO! YOU ARE NO CHALLENGE TO ME! YOU FACE GREATER TRIALS IN HUNTING MOTHS THAN I FACE IN EATING YOU!" Solomon rose from the catatonic Mightyena, and faced the shaken pack beyond this meager gathering.
"I AM BORED!" The Serpent declared, and even the furthermost hounds shrank beneath the decibels of his roar.
"I AM BORED WITH THE TASTE OF MEAT! I AM BORED WITH THE EASY PREY! I AM BORED WITH ALL YOUR WEAKNESS! I DEMAND A CHALLENGE!" Solomon roared to the scattering pack.
"BRING ME YOUR ALPHA! DO NOT MAKE ME FIND HIM! YOUR PACK IS BUT A MORSEL TO MY MOUTH, AND I WILL EAT EVERY MIGHTYENA THAT I FIND, UNTIL THE ALPHA HIMSELF STANDS BEFORE ME!" Solomon slammed his tail into the river's shallows, shaking solid earth and shattering still water with his unimaginable fury…
...And the desperate and fearful hounds tore off in haste, hunting for their Alpha, as the Mightyena made their obedience known to the strongest predator living within the Core Delta.
…
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Don't make Solomon bored. You wouldn't like him when he's bored.
P.S. It's been awhile since this story has seen an update, huh?