To watch the army of the centaurs move from sea to land left me amused, but to watch them follow my lead as I began to instruct them in the order they move and the groups they form as this new army took land, left me certain that I would be Kahnum of Outworld.
"Motaro, take the first group out." He nodded and my command took affect.
With Motaro traveled four other centaurs alongside the Edenians Tanya and Rain. Behind them, as they knew these lands better than I, travelled my Osh-Tekk men, three more centaurs and Skarlet. Behind even us, to keep eyes on the ship and the land behind us as we all travelled, Syzoth, and the remaining two centaurs. The men on the ship pulled the sturdy ramp back up and the captain curved from the land back toward the sea.
We were now alone in the Drylands. The hot, dry plains that accented this small continent. It was three days at sea, with the pull of the sea portal to get here faster, but it would be a week before we saw the Keep that awaited me. No longer a prisoner of the Centaur Race, but their leader. The Kahn of Outworld.
On foot, we would be slower than the centaurs, but could protect them from side attacks from natural predators and rival tribes. There were a lot of small satellite villages in Outworld on each continent yet to have been tamed by any Kahn. These villages would fall to me one by one and a grander army would form.
When we landed, the great sun in the sky had already begun to sink beneath the blanket of the Earth. it peered wary at us as we moved along the smooth curves of the Drylands toward the higher hills, and stared as though it knew what the landscape held before us. If only the sun could speak to me. Though my body was fueled by its light, I could not speak its language.
When it finally dipped beneath and allowed the moon to show itself high over our eyes, it was time to make camp. The centaurs formed a barrier for us with their bodies. Two centaurs kept watch and three Osh-Tekk.
In order to maintain order within the camp, Motaro insisted on first watch, and I would take second, and then our best warriors each would take third. Syzoth, the reptile he was, took all three.
"Travel ahead, Syzoth, see what lays before the hills, and if you come to the forest, return with any information." Our orders were strict, but he more than accommodated them.
The reptilian being quickly blended into the world around him and all that we could tell of his movements were the sounds his feet made as the rushed through the brush off into the distance.
As I stood with my eyes to the horizon, ever vigilant of his unseen movement, Skarlet approached from my left side and I could sense the tension that held her arms close to her chest, folded, guarded.
"Do you trust that thing?" She pondered.
Our eyes met, and my resolve was certain. She could see it, even in the darkness. "I do not have to. He will listen to his Kahn, or he will die."
"He may still." She nodded and gazed with me toward the horizon.
"We may all die yet, Skarlet." Our last words before the the next watch began.
The second watch was as calm as the first. Syzoth had not returned, but it was not my intention to see him before daybreak. My thoughts were more focused than my feet as they travelled aimless around our camp. Though my eyes could see the world around them, my thoughts lingered on Jade. On the dream I had where Shang Tsung promised he could return her from death.
How?
Though it may be just a dream, should I encounter the Sorcerer again, perhaps it would be worth to ask.
Behind me, Skarlet and Rain began to talk by the fire. She had started to inch closer with the Edenians. She would soon learn Blood Magic the way Shao Kahn would never have taught her, but it would not be my desire to hold her to me. Only Jade could take my side, and as of now, only Motaro may be my second in command, but this woman is strange. Her past is dark, and her soul darker, but those moments in the light where I can see it shine within her eyes, there is hope yet for her.
Third watch came and my eyes drifted. Though I could not sleep, my thoughts still lingered on that same dream. Each image, scent, touch, word played over in my head. In the stars I could see her eyes glance back down on me, and the glisten of those far away giants felt like tears that fell down her cheeks. My thoughts, my mind, my body adrift in this nightmare.
"Awaken!" A scream echoed through the large encampment and my eyes widened, and hands immediately reached for the sickles not far from my sides.
Pulled from the earth, I scanned the horizon to find the Centaurs jut up from their haunches and launch toward a red and yellow light that grew from the distance.
"Fire!"
A village had spotted us, as I could see the peasant wear and the human faces that marched like hogs toward us with fear and anger. They were no allies of the Centaurs.
"Get up!" I kicked the dirt onto Rain's face and forced I'm awake.
Skarlet joined at my side with Tanya on the other.
The fire spread fast along the dry weeds and grass that surrounded us. There were spots of dirt where the chinch bugs had devoured, but the hills were alive with the sound of the rustled cackle of fire.
We marched forward to meet the ire of the villagers. Hundreds had turned out. They knew the Centaurs would be vulnerable upon return from the Coliseum. By the look of their tunics, the dull earth tones it appeared to be the southern villages come down from the mountains that hid the city Lei Chen.
The fire grew and licked at our heels. My sickles met the intestines of several villagers before I had the chance to survey the battlefield. Two centaurs rain for shore lit ablaze. One had already fallen.
"Motaro!" His voice echoed in the distance after my call, but I had heard him only once before the fight began.
Rain joined at my side not far after Tanya and Skarlet split and with his great power, began to soothe the angry flames. The villagers, still in the hundreds, trampled by hooves, heads removed by swords, and blood drained by Skarlet, still marched on with their torches and basic weapons.
Where was he?
"Rain!" With a firm grasp of his shoulder, I launched him back once the flames on our side had been sated and ordered him to seek out the old Centaur. He nodded and eagerly teleported through a burst of water to the center where the villagers had broken our protective circle.
This was almost too much, but with diligence, we would make it through. Quickly, without Motaro to aid, I had to command his troops. Five Centaurs to slay fifty men! Skarlet to drain their blood and launch the spikes into the skulls of our enemies. Tanya, with her skills as an assassin to sneak through the flams and quell the rebellion. The Osh-Tekk would march forth as fodder to lure the villagers to their untimely deaths, but even as their numbers dwindled, I could still see no sign of Motaro.
The flames died hours after they burned bright with hatred and the soot and soil that blackened beneath us gave way like mud to our trample and search for the dead. The moon above us rushed over the horizon to escape this unsightly battle and the sun peered over again, eager to see the war it had known would come, but never said a word to warn us.
"Kotal Kahn, here!" Skarlet had spotted me aimless in the crowd. She grabbed my arm and guided me toward a charged mass.
The gnarled horns, the burnt off goatee and the color of his fur and flesh. This was Motaro. Charred beyond repair and likely his last breath was choked in the grey smoke of the fires as they had fanned out quickly due to the dry heat. He would have died before we even met swords with the villagers.
An old Centaur warrior, now allowed to dwindle into ashes.
A fate I would proudly have accepted for my people as well.
"Centaurs! Osh-Tekk! Men and Women of Outworld!" This moment would echo through the hearts of us all. "Bring all of the dead and rest them upon your fallen leader."
The shock rippled through the camp with the stomping of hooves, and even the eyes of my men seemed surprised to hear this, what could have sounded like a great disrespect to a great general as Motaro to lay with the dead villagers and his kind alike.
"Motaro held me captive and had every intention to let me rot in a cell." Before any interruptions or altercation, I continued, "he chose me to lead you as your Kahn, not because I was able to talk him out of imprisoning me, but because of the promise I made to him to grant him the world he desired, the world you all desire."
"What world is that?" One voice spat and others followed.
"Osh-Tekk are warriors, just as much as Centaurs, and that may be common ground enough for us to move forward, but without a true goal there can be no true alliance between us." I stepped forward into the circle. "Motaro understood my vision, because it was his as well. We're tired of the wars and tired of oppression, we're tired of the realms fighting and destroying themselves as they tear away at us, at Outworld one by one. His vision was simple, just as mine is."
My sickles met his flesh and hurried beneath as several more bodies met his for the funeral pyre. He would have my weapons with him in the afterlife. As these men and women would have my promise in life.
"We desire a one world. A unified Outworld. Our world." How this sank in, I am not sure. Each and everyone in this circle died for this cause because that was the only cause to fight for. Motaro only freed me so that I could free his race. "I cannot do it alone, and you know that you cannot do it either, but if we all rise together and fight back the hatred and the vile contempt created by the current Kahn of Outworld, we will be free! We will see his vision become reality, and I will lead you to this! I will give you a unified Outworld where Centaurs can roam free with men and women, without threat of death, without oppression, and without a Kahn that sees them as animals, rather than citizens."
All of these words could form great things and wondrous feelings that burn the heart bright and brave, but actions speak louder than words. The only way I could bring freedom to all of Outworld, was with these men and women behind me. Thought he centaurs trust is not easily earned, I had gained Motaro's and that should be enough for them to listen, but will it be enough for them to follow?
"I am the true Kahn of Outworld, but only if that vision burns inside of you as well. Only if you let me."
Jade would be proud. She should be here.