Kwai kwai nidobak! A friend of mine, who goes by the name of Mizter Lamp, is planning on making a comic and possibly audio version of my Lightning series. I just wanted to mention that to you readers because I like the idea and I want to be supportive. Anyway, remember to leave a review or send me a PM!
Chapter 11: A Slight Detour
Awehsohs woke up with a start and when he felt someone roughly grab him and start shaking him. His eyes opened to see one of the Slegs next to him shaking him awake.
"Wake up, human. We're almost there." the Sleg spoke with a usual guttural voice as it released the child.
The young native nodded and looked down at the ground. He felt the airship stop moving forward and began to descend towards the ground. The ramp that would allow them all to exit opened and all of the soldiers stood up.
The nine year old Skræling was about to stand up, but the Sleg who shook him awake grabbed his shoulder again and pulled him up. He glared at the cruel soldier for a second before he adopted a nervous expression and he followed the troops out of the ship.
'This is it...' Awehsohs thought to himself as he walked down the ramp and onto the stone ground.
The child looked around his new surroundings to see that there weren't any jungles around anymore. Instead, there were volcanic mountains in the distance and some buildings could be seen on the mountains. He was also on the roof of what appeared to be a castle of some sort with a very tall tower in the center.
There were Sleg soldiers of all shapes and sizes on the roof he was on. Two Sleg soldiers grabbed his shoulders all of a sudden so that he wouldn't get away. One of the hulkish Slegs who dragged him out of his cell back in the camp was standing close by and with its back to him.
All of a sudden, almost all of the soldiers cleared a path and a single Sleg was walking down the new path. This Sleg was much, much different than the others however.
Judging by the new Sleg's body shape, it was a male and his flesh consisted of black scales. He probably stood about eight feet tall and his body was ridden with noticeable muscles. His head resembled a featherless raptor and Awehsohs guessed that his mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. No one could see it, but he also had a stubby tail on his lower back. The tall Sleg was wearing a blood red cape that went down to his ankles and it looked like it could go all around his body if he wanted it to. There were dark gray shoulder pads resting on his shoulders as well and they were covered in dangerous looking spikes. Lastly, his eyes were completely yellow with black, reptilian slits.
The very intimidating Sleg calmly walked up to Awehsohs and the other three Slegs with his arms resting behind his back. He stopped once he was right in front of the hulkish Sleg.
"Lord Dominus." the hulkish brute spoke respectfully. "We brought you a child who is possibly the-"
"Did any of you fools bother to inform me before bringing a human to my castle?" Lord Dominus interrupted with a deathly glare, sending a chill down everyone's spines.
His voice sounded much deeper than the other Sleg's voices, but it was still guttural.
"W-we tried, but-" the muscular Sleg tried to explain.
"No excuses. I was not informed that a human would be taken to my home." the Sleg leader growled and he barred his pearly white teeth.
"G-General Pugnator believes that this human might b-be the Son of S-Stone…" the hulkish Sleg practically whimpered as it started shaking in fear.
Awehsohs was amazed and horrified as he looked at the trembling brute. He thought those soldiers were supposed to be the toughest of the tough, but this "Lord Dominus" was making the hulkish Sleg cower like a frightened child.
"The Son of Stone… I see why you brought the human, but you should've informed me before you brought him here. I will have to show you… all of you… what happens when you don't inform me of such things." the cape wearing Sleg stated emotionlessly as he reached behind his cape and pulled out a pistol.
The hulkish Sleg's eyes widened in horror and it opened his mouth to say something, but Lord Dominus quickly aimed between his terrified eyes and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud pop as the bullet buried itself in the soldier's head and it fell to the ground with a thud. A pool of blood began to expand under the large corpse and the others simply stayed silent, not wanting to further anger their leader.
Lord Dominus slowly looked away from the corpse on the ground and directly as Awehsohs, making the child shiver in fear. The tall Sleg was still holding the pistol and he walked over to his new captive
The young Skræling tried to move away from the extremely intimidating Sleg, but the two soldiers that were holding his shoulders firmly held him in place. He stopped struggling once the Sleg leader was less than a foot away from him and he had to look up to see his raptor-like face.
"So… you are one of the two things that fell from the sky… and it is possible that you are the Son of Stone." the Sleg leader spoke, mostly to himself, as he looked over the child. "What's your name, human?" he demanded sharply.
"I-I'm Awehsohs…" the nine year old answered quietly, just barely holding back a fearful whimper.
Lord Dominus nodded before he looked at the two soldiers holding the young native in place. They tensed up when they noticed their leader looking at him and they were fearing for their lives.
"Take Awehsohs to one of the guest room sand lock him inside." the intimidating Sleg ordered professionally. "And don't harm him because if you do… I will execute you both in front of your families." he added with a hard glare.
"As you wish, Lord Dominus." the two soldier spoke shakily in unison before they practically dragged the young boy away.
Awehsohs looked over his shoulder to look at Lord Dominus one last time before he was taken into the castle. The two muscular soldiers led brought him to spiral staircase and they all walked down the stairs in silence, none of them wanting to talk about what just happened.
They stopped about halfway down the stairs because there was a wooden door at their level and the Sleg to Awehsohs' right opened it. They then walked inside to find themselves in a well decorated hallway with a crimson colored rug covering the floor.
The two Slegs brought him to a door at the end of the hallway and opened it. Before he even had a chance to look inside, they pushed him in, slammed the door behind him, and locked the door with a click.
Awehsohs was on his hands and knees due to the push. He looked down at the floor to see that it was covered in a red rug, not that much different than the one in the hallway.
Sighing heavily, the young native child slowly stood up and looked around the room he was forced into. The room was surprisingly nice looking. The walls were made out of stone bricks, but the various paintings and bookshelves distracted him from the dull walls. There was a decent sized bed on the end of the room and an overhead light kept the room well lit.
The nine year old looked at the room with wide eyes. He wasn't expecting it to be so… nice. He noticed that there was a wooden door to his left and walked towards it. Slowly, he opened the door and looked inside to see that he had his own bathroom that also looked well kept.
'I do not understand. Why did that Dominus guy have me stay in such a nice place when Pugnator put me in such a terrible room?' he thought to himself as he closed the bathroom door and walked over to the queen sized bed.
Awehsohs was purely amazed at all of this. He's never even seen anything like this before because his tribe never had bookcases or toilets or queen sized beds. He bet his father could explain these things to him, but he knew that he'd never get to meet his father now that he was in a completely different world than his own.
The young half-Viking was brought out of his thoughts when the door clicked and opened, revealing Lord Dominus himself. The child's eyes widened in fear as the extremely intimidating Sleg calmly walked into his room and the door closed behind him.
The black scaled Sleg rested his hands behind his back and his cape lightly flapped behind him as he approached his captive. Awehsohs had to look all the way up to see the Sleg's face and he ended up falling on his rump, luckily landing on the bed.
"How do you fancy your new room?" Lord Dominus asked surprisingly, making the boy flinch.
"It is… nice…" the nine year old answered honestly, but with obvious fear.
"Good. It once belonged to one of the chefs. He's no longer amongst the living however, so don't worry about him returning to this room." the Sleg leader assured, but only succeeded in making the child even more scared.
"Wh-why is he dead?" Awehsohs couldn't help, but ask.
"He tried to poison my drink once, so I forced him to drink it." Lord Dominus answered with a dark chuckle, making the boy shiver. "Now then… I am going to ask you some questions and you need to answer honestly." he stated professionally as he squatted down so they were eye to eye.
"N-no… I do not want to answer your questions." the young native replied hesitantly, wanting to stay strong.
"Now now… don't force me to have to hurt a child." the intimidating Sleg stated almost sweetly as he gently pushed the native's bangs out of his eyes.
Awehsohs didn't reply to this and shivered slightly as he felt his captor's scales brush against his forehead. He wanted to be strong like the heroes in the stories that his elders used to tell him, but bravery could end up getting him killed here.
"O-okay… I will answer y-your questions…" he stuttered as he held his arms to try to stop himself from trembling.
"Good human. Where do you come from and why do you look different from the other humans?" Lord Dominus questioned calmly, his reptilian eyes staring into the child's dark brown orbs.
"I… I come from a different world… my mother and elders are Skræling natives… and my father is a Norseman from across the ocean." Awehsohs answered honestly, knowing that lying would only lead to more hardships.
"I see… I have been told that two objects fell from the sky. You were one of them; what or who was the other?" the Sleg asked sternly.
"The other thing to fall… was my brother, Siômo." the nine year old told his captor, nearly on the verge of tears because he felt like he was betraying his loving brother.
"You're brother? That is certainly interesting. Is he young like yourself?" Lord Dominus questioned as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"N-no; he is a grown man…" Awehsohs answered with a very shaky voice. "Please don't hurt Siômo… I… I…" he practically begged as his eyes began to water up.
"If your brother proves to be a major problem in my plans, then I will have him killed. If not, then he will be captured and you I will allow you to see him." the tall Sleg interrupted as he stood up to his full height. "Thank you for answering honestly. I will be back in a few hours." He told his captive before he turned around and calmly walked out of the room without another word.
Once Lord Dominus was outside of the room, the door closed and the click of the lock was heard. The young Skræling could no longer hold back his tears and he started crying.
'I am sorry Siômo... please forgive me…' Awehsohs thought to himself as he curled into a ball on the bed and cried to his heart's content.
Back in the highlands, Siômo and Reptantis were leaving TarKeen's temple and they stopped in their tracks when they saw something interesting. There was a human woman sitting on what could only a dock-like platform on the side of the mountain. Her feet were hanging lazily off the ledge and it looked like she was looking out at the scenery.
This woman had pale skin with blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail. She wore black cargo pants with matching boots and her belt had ammo pouches attached to it. She was also wearing a white tank top and an opened up brown jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Lastly, there were tined goggles over her eyes.
"Excuse me, miss. May we have a word with you?" the Skræling requested as he took a step towards the girl.
The woman's head perked up when he spoke and she stood up before casually turning around to greet them. She opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped herself when she noticed Reptantis and she glared at him.
"TarKeen didn't tell me that a Sleg was with you." she stated flatly with her arms crossed over her chest.
"I'm not like others of my kind." Reptantis informed her with a heavy frown, not liking this woman's attitude.
The two individuals glared at one another, obviously not liking each other. Not wanting a fight to break out, Siômo stood between them.
"We were told that you could guide us to the Death Marsh." the native informed her with a straight face.
The woman seemed to calm down when he spoke and she glanced at the scenery behind her before looking at the Skræling again.
"My name is Kiara. I come from the Suspended City, to the east. My job is to bring food and other supplies to TarKeen. In return, the human army is given information on what the Slegs are up to." the woman explained calmly, but she kept a close eye on the Sleg.
"I am Siômo and this is my friend, Reptantis." the native introduced, but the woman rolled her eyes when she referred to the Sleg as a friend.
Reptantis was actually kind of touched that his human companion considered him to be a friend. No one's called him that in a very long time.
"…Well, I suppose you should have these so we can talk over long distances." the human woman told them as she held out two earpieces.
The Sleg grabbed one without hesitation and put it over his earhole, but Siômo simply stared at the strange device. He's never seen anything like it before. Kiara noticed that he wasn't taking the earpiece and she gave him a strange look.
"You put it over your ear." Reptantis told his native ally.
The Skræling didn't understand why he had to do this, but he did as instructed and placed the device on his ear. It felt very strange to him, but he decided not to question it and moved on to the subject at hand.
"So, shall we get going?" Siômo suggested politely, gaining a smirk from the woman.
"Just give me one second…" she told them with a light chuckle at the end.
As soon as she finished saying that, Kiara casually turned around, looked up at the sky, and whistled loudly. A few silent moments passed before loud caws and screeches could be heard in the distance. All of sudden, three Pteranodons flew straight towards them and landed on the wooden structure they were on, greatly startling Siômo and Reptantis.
The Pteranodons were much larger than the average human and they stared at the group of three their blood red eyes. Their bodies were covered in light brown scales and their leathery wing membranes were dark brown in color. They also had leather saddles on their backs with what looked like guns on the sides. There were gatling guns on the right side of the saddles, and multi-barreled rocket launchers on the left.
"Do either of you know how to ride these babies?" Kara asked smugly as she walked around one of the flying dinosaurs and mounted the saddle.
"No…" both males answered as they stared at the animals with wide eyes, making her chuckle in amusement.
"Just get one the saddles and I'll teach you. They won't bite ya." the female human told them as she motioned to the other flying dinosaurs.
Siômo took a deep breath before he walked over to the Pteranodon on the right and cautiously mounted the saddle. Reptantis was a lot more hesitant, but he finally approached the animal on the left.
The Sleg attempted to mount the dinosaur, but it screeched and he ended up falling on his backside. He groaned in annoyance as Kiara laughed loudly and he stood up again. Siômo remained silent however and patiently waited.
"Shut up." Reptantis grumbled as he mounted the Pteranodon and sat on its saddle without any problems this time.
"Okay, riding these guys is like riding a horse. Have either of you rode a horse before?" Kiara asked them, but they both shook their heads, making her sigh. "Basically, these guys do what you want them to by how you hold the reins. Pull the reins back to tell it them to go up, forward to go down, and left and right are the directions. Use the guns by pressing the buttons on the guns." she explained to them.
Just after she explained that, she pulled the reins on her dinosaur back and it immediately took flight. Following her example, the two men pulled their reins back and took flight as well.
As they flew over the mountains, Reptantis was screaming at the top of his lungs in fear as Kiara laughed loudly in pure joy. Siômo was terrified as well, but he was able to stop himself from screaming.
The two males finally started to calm down once they got the hang of riding the Pteranodons. They were each flying side by side now and Kiara was leading them south-east.
"We'll be at the Death Marsh in two hours if there aren't any distractions." Kiara's voice was heard in the earpieces.
"How did you speak in my ear? Is it these things you gave us?" the Skræling asked with a confused expression.
"Um, yes. Earpieces let us talk even when we aren't within hearing distance." she explained as if it was obvious.
Siômo was amazed that this strange land could have such technology that was unheard of in his world, but he didn't voice it. He just looked at the passing mountains and the jungles below them. He hoped that TarKeen was right and the Death Marsh would lead him to his brother somehow.