Ronan - chapter 6 - the tales of He-Ron (Patreon)

Hello everyone.

Sorry this chapter took so long, but I wanted it to be on point in the tale of He-Ron that I want to tell. This chapter may contain some scenes that can be disturbing to some, but the work is purely made of fiction and is meant to be entertaining and to describe the emotions and their work on a human being.

None of this work is meant as a reflection of the writers (my) personal interests or opinions. I am just working up a tale to give rise and meaning to the struggles of a hero. To those of you who might encounter a slight error or an inconvenience, please note that the writer is writing in a second language and that technology doesn’t always catch corrections or even correct that well.

I promise, and I cannot believe that we live in a day and age where this has to be noted; not a single word of this is written with Ai.

This is all out of human work and inspiration. I do not know if that has any importance or meaning to you, but it certainly does to me. With that said, I hope you will have some enjoyment out of this chapter and hope it doesn’t come too late for your interest.

Yours truly

Hammer

In the Royal Palace of Agorria the mood was dark. 

It had been several months since anything but bad news had reached the center of an Empire whose growth until recently had seemed… unstoppable… but today, the Empire felt less and less like an empire, and more like a crumbling old man. 

Every day, the legend of The Unstoppable He-Ron grew in the mouths of regular people. He was not only Hero to these small folk who lived in the shadows cast by mighty pillars of marble and gold, but he was also a symbol of hope. 

The tale of how he killed a raging Hydra, a monster that could kill anyone and everything, was a favorite, and it was a favorite to show at different venues of theatre and poetry. He-Ron had entered the minds of these people. Like a genuine mind plague that just wouldn’t go away - or at least that was how King Jamos expressed it. 

He had, at times, disguised himself in common clothing to see how he was perceived among his people. A not so long time ago that would have been beneath him, but ever since he had caught the servants in his palace tell stories to each other about the legend of He-Ron, he had been eager to go out to one of these theaters and to see a performance set up of He-Ron’s legend.  

He had had a stroke of luck and gotten a seat at a very anticipated show of He-Ron’s tale. 

It began as many legends began, with a young man, who lost everything. 

How the writers had gotten this information about He-Ron’s origins Jamos was not sure. Maybe it was better not knowing. Most likely, the writer was improvising - but as we say, a blind rooster can also find a corn. 

The tale of He-Ron began with a young Halborian, the children of the gods, who lost everything in the field of battle. Lost his life to the cruelty of a tyrant. 

Jamos cursed under his lips. This part he knew all too well, and it was no secret. There had been hundreds of his men that day, and they had obviously told the stories about it when they got home. 

The actor portraying Jamos was both handsome and talented, but as he entered the stage, Jamos felt an urge of anger, as the entire crowd booed him. Booed him like they would never dare to do in his face. The actor who played the brave Jonan, the Halborian chief was instead cheered for, and as he sat on his knees, the people literally cried when he died on the stage… the agony that Jamos felt… he felt so betrayed… by his own people… 

He had done this to help expand their empire! Their rule… and right! How could they not see it???

But the scene later shifted to the sight of a young man who raised the burial stones of his tribe… alone… and lost… Here… he swore that he would avenge his tribe… and bring them justice in the halls of their forefathers… and bring an end to the tyranny of Jamos. 

The crowd roared when this happened. Jamos felt more than anger… he felt… fear… an overwhelming surge of fear… it froze him in place. 

The scenes shifted as He-Ron befriended a giant wolf, he went south to free Ton-Ra from her prison, and slayed a ferocious Hydra… Jamos had to applaud the level of detail on the Hydra… it was not nearly as big as the real thing but all in all it was pretty precise. 

He-Ron fought the beast and though he was bitten multiple times, he didn’t fall. 

Jamos couldn’t believe this part… A hydra’s venom would kill just if it landed on human skin. He knew, he had tried it… used it on several rude guests who he wanted to make an example of. 

But Ton-Ra attended his wounds in the scene, and they shared a passionate kiss. 

Jamos got sick with envy and jealousy… he had loved Ton-Ra for over 20 years, given her 3 beautiful children, planned to make her his Queen and Empress and yet… she had never even kissed him!

But she would kiss this lowly peasant… this… filthy Halborian… 

The show went on, and He-Ron and Ton-Ra went north in order to find the way to the Rock, the home of Ton-Ra. 

Jamos got an epiphany at that very moment. Of course… the ROCK!

Ton-Ra was going home!! How come he had been so blind! It was the only logical place to go for her. She might have been away from the Rock for over twenty years, but she was still homeward bound!

And He-Ron had to have made it his intention to help her home. Jamos stood up and made his way past the row of people. He had to get out and he had to get back to the palace. 

He walked through the mud soaked streets of his city, cloaked and disguised. He was not too popular with his people these days. There had been a dark raincloud over the city for the last two months, and it had been an absolute nightmare for many. 

The Queen had taken the four princesses, her escort of servant girls and an armed guard to another palace, closer to the region of her homeland. It was not a political move, but she had had enough of King Jamos, and after he had hit her daughter Kimmie, she had given the King a piece of her mind, and left. 

Since she had left, the rain had started pouring over the city, turning the once sprawling capital city Agorria into a cesspool in more ways than one. 

Life had not been too kind to Jamos these last few months since Ton-Ra had escaped the Dead Man’s swamp. She had been seen numerous times, and she was clearly on the run with this He-Ron character…

Jamos had been seeking out solutions to the Halborian problem. Because the news from the northern settlements were anything but positive. 

The armies had been decimated by unknown forces. Caravans of goods and supplies had been raided. Reinforcements had been attacked on the road to the camps in the north, and to make it even worse… diseases seemed to hit every single regiment that put up camp in the Halborian lands. 

Jamos was losing men, not by the dozens, but by the hundreds every single day. 

But he could not stop now. He could not end it. If he did, he wouldn’t be the High King for long. His life would be on the line, and there would be two options… exile or death… and he didn’t know which was worse… No. 

Jamos would NOT be turned into a scapegoat of destiny because of something as simple as an upstart revolutionary. 

He was willing to sell his soul to the deadliest, most cruel force in the world… to make his goal a reality… 

He would rule this world… or burn it down… If he couldn’t rule the world… then the world would end… 

He stopped… Letting the cold rain soak him under the cloak… 

He knew what to do… but… the last time… it had cost him a brother… If he wanted the throne… then his brother had to die… This time… he wanted the world… He couldn’t even comprehend what the price of that would be… 

His mind wandered back to that horrible day, so long long ago… Jamos had not been the oldest son. He was the youngest of two, and he had long desired his brother's position. Samos was, as the oldest son, the heir to the throne. He was handsome, strong and wise beyond his years. And first and foremost, he was kind. 

And to Jamos, he was his best friend in the entire world. The world was a lesser place without Samos… but Jamos felt… no… he knew that he had been touched by destiny. He had wanted to rule… so much… that the loss of a brother had been the price he would willingly pay to get it… but… he had paid more than just with his brother's blood. 

The Nightmares… the never ending nightmares that could only be held back by wine and use of women’s bodies. 

And what was worse… Only whenever he slept with Ton-Ra… and felt her soft body next to his own, had he no need of the wine… her presence alone granted him easy and deep sleeps. So deep, that he was willing to guard her with the strongest and most forbidden magic. He had no idea what it was about Ton-Ra, but he knew that it was her. 

And now… these days… when he never felt her or could sleep with her… he felt that he was losing his mind. 

Every night he was haunted by his brother’s ghost. He had not died well… he had fought back, and Jamos had even been close to death himself, but a rock in his hand had done the trick… 

He had bashed in his brother's head and with that… he had claimed the title of rightful heir… All he needed was to cover his trails… The story came easy to him, lying was something he had always been good at. Jamos and Samos had been attacked by bandits, and one had clubbed Samos as they tried to flee… Samos fell, and Jamos tried to fight off the bandits… but he fell too… as the hour grew late, he had crawled home, and brought the guards to the place of the attack. 

The burial of the first born son was a sad and dark day for the kingdom. King Angos had looked older than he was, and darker than ever before. No parent should bury their child. 

Queen Nanara sang her song of sorrow as Samos was buried in the halls of Kings. 

Jamos… was declared the new heir, and he would be made King just a few months later, as his father died from the sorrow. 

Jamos was the King, and one of his first decrees was to exile his mother to a villa in the far south part of Smouldixia. He had never liked her… she had always tried to hold him back. Tried to rein in his temper and tell him how to behave. He despised her… but… he felt it was unwise to dispose of her… 

It would be seen… as foul among the commonfolk. So exile had been preferred. 

He had married Ann, not because he wanted to, but because it was the marriage that had solidified his rule. Ann had been promised to Samos, but as he was now dead, Jamos would have had to do. 

Ann had proven a bother to Jamos, and now… his one true love, Ton-Ra was gone… 

He wanted her back. No matter the cost. Even if he had to burn down the world, he would find her, and kill the man who had taken her from him. 

The croak of a raven brought him out of his deep dark thoughts as he stood like that in the rain. He looked up. 

The black bird seemed to look at him. It let out another croak and then it took off. 

Jamos squinted his eyes against the sight of the bird… Shook his head and started walking again. 

He got back to the palace, but instead of going to his chambers, he walked to the stables and grabbed one of his horses and rode out into the rain. 

Several clicks to the east he arrived at his destination. An ominous and dark forest full of crooked and naked black trees. The horse refused to enter, and he dismounted before he entered the dark forest. After a long walk through the dense undergrowth, he came to a cave… a cave, littered with bones and human remains… 

This was the place… from where he had gotten the insight… to kill his own brother and take his place… here he had gotten the egg of the Hydra and the other demonic critters that had guarded Ton-Ra in the swamp… 

This place… was the home of his most trusted ally… and here… he truly hated coming… but he had no choice… 

He walked into the cave… 

The stench of death and decay was so foul and so profound that a greater man would have turned away… but to Jamos, this was the only way forward. 

He crawled through the cave, and here and there he heard the unmistakable sound of people crying out in agony and pain. He even caught glimpses of them… tied up in chains to the walls… 

But he kept moving forward… 

Finally he came to a greater caveroom that had long ropes hanging from the ceiling. In the ropes hung the heads of humans in all stages of decomposition. Men, women… and other things… with distorted expressions of pain and strangulation… as if the poor souls were still feeling their pain even in their death… 

Jamos walked past them, while he tried not to look too closely at them. There was most certainly something wrong with this place, but Jamos had been here before… and he was not so easily scared this time. And he knew… that this… was just the opening, to a much more disturbing sight… 

He walked around the hanging heads and came to a fireplace… Here… in the depths of the world's most infested wound, sat a monstrous parasite with a bubbly cauldron in front of her… 

If anything could be called monstrous… it was this… in lack of a better word… woman… She was as fat as anything Jamos had ever seen… so fat that she was broader than she was tall. She had no visible neck, and her body was so absurdly bloated that she seemed to expand in front of his eyes. 

Her immense tits hung off her body like drapes of clothes and by each one lay a gorgeous but completely foul feeling woman… They were suckling the monstrous woman… 

The creature, that could only be a woman in the most disturbing of fantasies, had teeth that were filed to fangs, and on her neck was a small and foul little extra head. The smaller head had eyes that occasionally blinked and looked around… trapped on this body in all eternity… Her feet were rotting and she had long nails that never seemed to have been cut. 

Jamos cringed at the sight. 

The big fat monster of a woman looked up at Jamos, and smiled a most rotten smile. Her sharp teeth were shining in the darkness… 

“Our most handsome of kings…” She said with a voice so deep and booming it could have belonged to a man. 

“How long since we last greeted you in our humble abode…”

The two beautiful ladies, who could be mistaken for the fat woman’s daughters, stopped their suckling and smiled at Jamos… He knew they were in fact not her daughters… but of the same disgusting breed as the fat woman. They had the same yellow eyes and while they looked like a dream… they had the same sharp teeth, and felt just as horrible as the big bloated one… 

Jamos knew that these were in fact not humans… but grotesque creatures of an ancient time. They had once been many… but in these days… these three were the only ones… at least on this continent.

They were not gods… not even close… but they were powerful beings. As old as the gods… related to them? Maybe… in some obscure and disturbing way… but where the gods sought balance… these entities desired something else… not chaos exactly… But something… far more sinister… 

They were named the Oggu… Their true name had been lost to time, but Oggu, was the common and most feared name of them. 

Jamos stepped forward. 

“I have come to make a deal…” he said with a stern voice.

The fat Oggu smiled broader, and the two lesser ones giggled and started crawling towards Jamos. 

“A deal was made…” The Oggu on his right said in a hissing whisper that sounded like a snake's snarls. 

“The second born was made king, in return for the blood on the field… The blood of a prince…”

The Oggu on the left chimed in. 

“And King he became… a more prolific and powerful king none has ever seen… he rules over lesser kings, does he not?”

“A high king…” The fat Oggu said with a smile. She rubbed her fat belly. “A high king on a high throne… who challenged the world… and now… he wants more…”

“Not more…” The Oggu on the right whispered as she crawled up to Jamos side. 

“He wants one…” She smiled an evil smile. “He wants the one that gives him sleep… the one that makes him forget… the one… who belongs to the man that is He-Ron…”

“She…” Jamos said with a growl, “Belongs… TO ME!” He roared out in the cave, and his voice filled the room. The two lesser Oggu’s flinched and crawled backwards, but still smiling. 

“And I want her back…” He looked at the fat one. He knew she was the one in charge. 

“I can tell you what to do, to reach your goals…” The fat Oggu said with a smile. 

“I can help you bend fate to your will… but I cannot make things materialize in front of you, High King… Not even the gods have such power…” 

“I want you to KILL the Halborian… You told me the Hydra you gave me would keep her safe!”

“Safe she was…” the Oggu on the right said. “Safer than any woman in your grasp…” 

“But Halborians are more than mere men…” the Oggu on the left chimed in. “They are the children of Halbara herself… no poison can kill them… and none are safe who tries to harm them…”

“I don’t care… I want him dead, and I want all his kin to die out…” Jamos growled. 

“I will kill every last Halborian and enslave their womenfolk… and He-Ron will die by my hand… mark my words… and you will help me do so…”

“You know the price…” The fat Oggu said with a smile… A lustful and foul smile… Jamos knew that smile… and he knew what she would ask of him. 

“Only… if you guarantee me… that he will die…”

“We can give you the means…” the left Oggu said with a taunt. “Fate decides the rest…”

“But your will is strong, high King…” the right chimed in and teased. “Fate bends to strong wills…”

Jamos closed his eyes… empty promises… but he knew that their power was true and their magic was strong. They had given him the power to bend monsters to his will… and tame a hydra to do his bidding… sure it had been in vain… but he had not counted on a Halborian to cross his path… 

But now… he knew what to expect. 

“Name your price…” Jamos said. 

The big fat Oggu smiled and licked her lips. 

“You already know it…” She said, and moved her body… to make herself… available…

—————————————————————————

Outside the cave, on a branch of a dead tree, the black Raven was observing the cave entrance. 

The Raven saw what was coming out… Jamos… looking more disgusted and more filthy than ever before. 

The Raven blinked and looked at the cave one more time… then, as James walked out of the forest, it flew after him and landed in another tree as he stepped up on his horse again. 

“I will make sure that they will never get access to the Rock…” Jamos said with a disgusted look on his face… 

And then, he turned around, and rode the long way home in the rain. But now… he seemed to welcome the cleansing rain of the Sky-Father. 

The Raven started flying, but this time in another direction. Away from Jamos… 

——————————————————————————

In the southern lands of Smouldixia were untold lands of space. They didn’t rival the lands of Halboria, but they had vast open spaces that were dominated by immense wildlife. 

And here, in the endless rolling hills of Smouldixia, lived a man a simple life, as he had for a few weeks now. 

He-Ron and Ton-Ra had to flee southward as the way to the Rock had been blocked by Dilatonts army. They had sought a way through the mountains, but nothing had worked. They had even been caught and had to run with all their strength. Ton-Ra had shown He-Ron a power she had hidden even from him. 

Her ability to transform into a number of different animals. 

She had transformed into a horse, and she had carried him for hundreds of miles, until even she had to rest. 

They had then travelled south to warmer climates and had on the way made sure to hide from everything and everyone. Staying away from towns and villages. They had crossed the river, Janen, and made their way to the southern part of the Smouldixian continent. 

He-Ron was in a camp that they had made on the top of a hill, covered in bushes and trees. They had a high vantage point and could run at any given moment. But as of yet, they had not been hunted in these lands. Dilatont had most likely lost their trail, and since they were not getting close to any other humans, they were flying under the radar. 

Ton-Ra had been away for a few days now, so it was just He-Ron at their camp. Ton-Ra had said she had wanted to scout and see what was waiting for them, and if they could somehow get around their enemies somehow and backtrack to the Rock. 

She had turned into a black raven and flown off. He-Ron had nodded in admiration of her ability and stayed back and kept a low profile. He had hunted, and fished in the rivers, and remained in hiding. 

In the end, a somewhat nostalgic feeling for him. The absence of Ton-Ra had been felt. Without her beside him at night, he had felt the old dreams of his late wife sneak in. She came to him in his sleep and filled his heart with longing and dread. 

Hela-Ana was still a big part of his heart… and she probably always would be. 

At the end of the fifth day, the Raven finally returned and Ton-Ra stood once again in the middle of their little hiding place. 

She was exhausted from the long flight and just wanted to rest. He-Ron brought her fresh water and she eagerly drank it. Shortly after she passed out on their homemade bed. 

As she instantly drifted off, He-Ron smiled and covered her with a blanket. He would get a report in the morning. He would not risk anything, so he started to keep watch. 

The night came, dark and full of sounds. The only light was the stars and the full moon over them. Ton-Ra slept like a rock. He-Ron kept vigilant watch over them. The sounds of the lions roaring after a successful hunt, and the loud howls of the clans of hyenas was a reminiscence of his life back in Halboria. Everything here was smaller… more compact, but every bit as deadly. 

He heard the gentle cracks in the bush behind him. He grabbed his axe and walked over to the bedside where Ton-Ra was sleeping. He looked out of the corner of his eye towards the spot of the sound. It had been almost nothing, but a gentle branch against fur… but He-Ron had grown up in an environment that claimed the ones who couldn’t distinguish between the wind and a hunter in the darkness. 

He sat down next to Ton-Ra, and with a confident last breath, he turned his back fully to the sound and… 

Out of the bushes sprang a spotted leopard. It crossed the ground of the hideout with three mighty jumps, but as it jumped to embrace He-Ron in a grip of death, he turned with the speed of a Halborian and cleaved the air with his fathers axe. 

The leopard landed on the ground… with its head missing. 

He-Ron placed the axe on the ground, and touched the fine pelt of his slain opponent. 

“You were hungry…” He said in a low whisper. “I understand… Now you are free… Run wild, brother… And thank you for your gifts.”

He began to process the animal. It was foul work, but had to be done. Predators don’t taste as good, but good meat was good meat. And the pelt would make a fine outfit for Ton-Ra.

He walked over to the place where the Leopard had come through. The protective rune had been ruined by the last rain they had… It had just been written in the soft soil. Functional yes, but not practical. Then again, they had not expected to be here as long as they did.

“Beginners mistake…” He-Ron snarled. “Always carve the runes…”

He took out his knife, and carved the rune into the tree next to him. He enchanted the rune with his words, and it glowed. They were safe, once again… as soon as he had carved all the other runes again. 

He worked it through the night, and when Ton-Ra woke up at daybreak, she saw He-Ron, still keeping a diligent watch over her. She smiled and walked over to kiss him. He kissed her back… five days without her kisses, and he was beginning to feel the utmost loneliness. 

“Did you find a way past Dilatont?” He asked once his lips were his own again. 

Ton-Ra shook her head. 

“No… There is no way around them going north. He has gotten more men, more divisions, more weapons… more of everything…”

He-Ron frowned his eyebrows. 

“Are they getting close?”

Ton-Ra smiled. “No… thankfully. They are all huddled up around the cities in the area. The lands here can’t sustain a huge army on its own. They need the food from settlements. So we are still clear. They might send out patrols soon, though.”

He-Ron nodded. They had stayed here longer than intended. Ton-Ra noticed the leopard pelt hanging on the stretcher. She hadn’t seen that last night, and certainly not when she left him. 

“Did you have a run in with the local wildlife?”

Ton-Ra asked. 

He-Ron smiled. 

“Just a young hungry leopard… It tried… and failed.”

Ton-Ra nodded. 

“Did you keep its skull?”

He-Ron pointed to the pot that was boiling the skull for the third time. 

Ton-Ra walked over and took a tong and pulled out the fresh skull of the leopard. 

“Good…” She said with a smile. She took the skull in her hands and recanted a spell… the skull disappeared in her hands and suddenly she vanished. 

Ton-Ra had shifted her form. She was no longer a woman, but a leopard. He-Ron walked over and the leopard looked up at her. 

He petted her head and let his hand slide down over her perfect handsome pelt. The muscles under her skin were strong and powerful. The leopard closed its eyes, and she was a woman on all fours again. He-Ron’s hand was on her butt. 

She smiled at him. 

“A new form…” She said. “I guess that is a win.”

“I think it will be useful.” He-Ron said. Still… with his hand on her fine rump. 

“You know…” She said. “I could teach you how to transform into animals…” 

He-Ron looked at her. She was smiling at him with that enchanting smile he had never seen in any other woman’s eyes before. 

“Isn’t it difficult?” he asked her. 

“Sure…” She said. “But once learned, you’ll never forget it again.”

He-Ron nodded. 

“I might need to learn it… But we also need to find a way to get you home… and if what you said is true… then the direct way is the impossible way.”

He-Ron sat down, and Ton-Ra sat in front of him. 

“There is more bad news, my love…”

He-Ron looked at her. She looked serious. 

“I saw… him…” 

He-Ron blinked. 

“You were far north?”

She nodded. 

“I wanted to see my girls… With my own eyes… not just in my dreams… But they were not there…”

He-Ron placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“Are they safe?” 

She nodded. And she smiled. 

“Queen Ann might not be the best mom in the world… but she is protective… She has taken them away from Jamos, and that… that is a kind gesture I shall not forget.”

“You will be with them,” He-Ron said to her. “I promise… I will reunite you…”

Ton-Ra leaned in and kissed him. 

“That is another matter…” She said. “The real bad news is… that I followed Jamos to a grove of dead trees… an entire dead forest… and in it’s center… a cave… a cave with ancient markings… and human remains all around…”

He-Ron felt a a twinge of an ancient dread. 

“He-Ron… I think Jamos… is in an allegiance with an Oggu…”

He-Ron felt the entire world tilt. 

“No…” He said with a shake of his head. “Not even Jamos is that reckless…”

“I heard them… I heard their voices…” She said. True dread was over Ton-Ra’s face. 

“I smelled the decay… all around…”

He-Ron’s face hardened… He turned to look into the distance. 

The Oggu… the ancient enemy. 

“We called them… Undouls…” He-Ron said as he looked at Ton-Ra. “The dark shadows in the night…”

Ton-Ra nodded. 

“Grendel Brides…” Ton-Ra said. “Troll moms… They have many names…”

“Trolls are one thing…” He-Ron said with a shaking head. “Giant brutes… Cruel sure… but Oggu… they are evil beyond evil… And if Jamos has allied himself with those foul beings… then I need to destroy him, and them… They are the oldest enemy… One all Halborians has sworn to destroy…”

Ton-Ra nodded. 

“Jamos must have sought out their help…” She said with a hoarse voice. 

“I saw the look of disgust on his face… he must have a deal…”

Another sense of dread rolled down the spine of He-Ron. 

The Oggu only made deals in blood… blood… and flesh… That was all they understood. Decay, depravity and delusion… 

“Then he has committed another crime against my people…” He-Ron said. 

Ton-Ra looked at him with a slight confusion. 

“The Malacites…” He-Ron said. “The people who sing no songs anymore… They worshipped the Oggu… And the Oggu… who had grown fat on Malacite worship… craved Halborian flesh…”

Ton-Ra blinked. She had heard rumors… but never the true story. 

“The Malacites invaded our lands… kidnapped us in the thousands… brought us back to Malacita… and slaughtered us… so we could be fed… to the Oggu…”

Ton-Ra felt sick… to think that such depravity had existed in the world… long ago… but not so long ago… 

“But Halborians are not cattle for depravity…” He-Ron said. “We rose up, and the rage we unleashed destroyed the Malacian empire… We hunted down the Oggu… and paid back their gruesome appetite…” 

There was a long silence. 

“Jamos must pay for this…” He-Ron said. 

Ton-Ra nodded. 

“And he will…” She said. “I swear he will… My people are warriors… we are strong and powerful… And from the Rock we can hit all of Smouldixia… and purge out this ancient evil.”

He-Ron nodded. 

“But first we need to get there…” He said. “Any suggestions?”

Ton-Ra sighed. 

“Well… north is out of the question… The coast to the east is rigged with cities… If we go further south we will hit the Southern channel… To the west is the Evergreen lands… It is a tight spot we are in, my love.”

He-Ron thought for a few minutes. 

“If you taught me to transform into an animal… could I turn into a bird and then fly with you?”

Ton-Ra giggled and shook her head. 

“Transformation is difficult. I can teach you… but bird form is a difficult transformation.”

He-Ron looked confused. 

Ton-Ra explained. 

In transformation it is all about familiarity. A transformation into another mammal is not as difficult. It even helps if the animal is close to human size. A big dog, a wolf or a wild boar, all easy forms as they kinda are the same size as a human. 

Bigger mammals such as horses or elephants are more difficult. 

The same with smaller mammals, such as mice or rabbits. 

Reptiles were more difficult than mammals. 

Birds were even more difficult than reptiles. 

And lastly, fish were the most difficult of all transformations, and most mages never even dared it. 

Also, they would need the skull of the animal that they wanted to transform into. 

He-Ron would need to learn the basics. 

They had talked about it in the last few weeks, but only that. 

“So…” He-Ron said a little disappointed. “No bird form?”

Ton-Ra leaned in and kissed him. 

“I have transformed ever since I was a child. I have had years and years to perfect it. And I am still exhausted after just a few days as a bird. I don’t think you will struggle in a mammal form. Not even a big mammal. But if we were animals… it would be easier to sneak around…”

He-Ron smiled. “And it would be kinda cool to be able to turn into a scimitar cat whenever I wanted.”

Ton-Ra giggled. “Well… you’ll have to settle for a lion, my love… scimitar cats don’t live so far south.”

“Lion then…” He-Ron said. “What would I need to start?”

“A lion’s skull.” Ton-Ra said. 

——————————————————————

Lions lived in these lands in abundance. Big muscular and powerful animals. 

There were whole prides of them on the plains. But their best shot was a lonely male lion… but they needed not kill one. If they could find a skull, then all would be good, but sadly that was an even greater challenge than just finding a living lion and hunting it. 

But the first couple of days when they were out and about, they found no lions. None at all. They heard them every single night, but they couldn’t find them. 

“Does it have to be a male lion?” He-Ron asked as they were out and hunting again on the third day. 

“No it doesn’t.” Ton-Ra answered. “Even a female lion will do the trick. All we need is its skull.”

A strange fact. That it was the skull that was the needed part of the body to start a transformation. 

As they walked across the plains on the fourth day, He-Ron was about ready to simply forgo the plan and take their chances by going to the coast. They had agreed that sailing up the coast of Smouldixia and somehow reaching the neck of the continent Malacita would be the best way to get to the Rock.

But that would be risky. Especially if the troops of Dilatont was in the area… which they most certainly was. 

As the couple was on the way back to their hideout, they crossed the path of a single, lonely, male lion.

He-Ron kept his breath for a moment, readying his spear, but as soon as his eyes landed on the majestic beast… he didn’t have the heart to kill it. 

The lion was an elderly lion, but big and strong. The mane was thick and dark. He had a scarred face. He was a battlehardened warrior. Probably a father of numerous cubs. But he seemed a little… out of shape… perhaps he had just been thrown off of his position as king by a younger male. The story of his species. 

The same happened to male Scimitar Cats in Halboria. A king’s life was like the sun’s journey over the skies. One day, the sun would set and the time would be over… 

He-Ron looked at the mighty beast, but didn’t have the heart to end him. The transformation was not worth ending a life… Not like this. 

He-Ron was a hunter, not a killer. 

He had been taught to respect all animals as brothers. Their life was not more important than his own. He would defend himself, but never claim a life that was not his to claim. 

“Let us go…” He said with a somber voice. He was ashamed of his actions. Hunting for anything but necessity. 

“But, my love?” Ton-Ra said. 

As He-Ron took her arm to turn away from the lion, he heard the beast growl at him. He-Ron turned, and saw the lion stare intensely at them. 

“Oh no…” Ton-Ra said. “I think he is gonna fight us.”

“No he won't," He-Ron said. “He is just defending his territory… let’s just leave and…”

He didn’t get to say more, as the lion charged directly at them and jumped towards them. He-Ron pushed Ton-Ra aside and caught the lion midair and used its momentum to throw it off. While old, the lion was massive. Far bigger than other lions they had seen. The beast got onto its feet again and snarled at He-Ron. 

“Don’t do this,” He-Ron said. “I don’t wanna hurt you, king of the plains…”

The lion let out a massive roar and charged once again. He-Ron met it head on and fought the beast. The mighty claws on the paws of the beast tried to dig in, but He-Ron’s skin was Halborian skin, and it was natural armor. The Lion bit him in the shoulder, and even He-Ron could feel the strong bite and the sharp teeth. 

He grabbed the beast around the jaws and tossed himself forward and landed on top of the lion. 

“STOP IT!” He roared, but the lion struggled under him. Somehow the big cat got its feet on the ground and lifted itself up, and managed to toss off He-Ron. In a roar it was over him again, but He-Ron landed a punch on the beast face and sent the cat crawling away for a few moments. 

He-Ron stood up. He looked at his shoulder… blood? This lion had managed to bite through his skin…

He looked at the lion. This was no ordinary lion. 

The lion shook its head and turned its gaze towards him again.

“Fine…” He-Ron said. He cracked his knuckles. “Come and meet your fate, KING!”

The lion snarled and in a loud roar it jumped He-Ron again, but He-Ron ducked and grabbed the lion. He swung onto its back and managed to lock his thick arm around its throat. The lion fought him, but it was too late… He-Ron had killed many a scimitar cat in this particular hold. And if the lion's bigger and stronger northern cousin couldn’t get free… then neither could this lion.  

He-Ron tensed all his muscles and with one quick motion… he snapped the neck of the lion… and the body went limp… 

It was dead… 

He-Ron undid his grip, and stood up straight. The mighty lion was dead. The old king… was dead. 

“I am sorry brother…” He said. “But you left me no choice…”

He-Ron heard the croak of a Raven above him, and it soared down and landed next to him. In the next moment, Ton-Ra stood beside him. She looked at him and rushed over to look at his wounds. 

She had tears in her eyes. 

She slapped him on his face. 

“You stubborn fool…” She said looking completely scared. “Why did you drop your spear? You… You could’ve been killed… you…!”

She hugged him and cried into his chest. He-Ron had messed up. He knew that… He never should’ve gone hunting for something he wasn’t gonna eat. But he shouldn’t have hesitated when the lion had attacked. That was not the Unstoppable way. He comforted and apologized to Ton-Ra. She accepted his apology, and she kissed him. She then cleaned his wounds. They weren’t deep.

Then she inspected the lion, and to her surprise she saw that it was not a Smouldixia lion. 

“It’s way too big…” She said with a glance at He-Ron. 

“This thing must have weighed at least 300 kilograms…”

“400…” He-Ron said. “I have wrestled Scimitar Cats that weighed 300 kilograms… this one was way heavier…”

“I think it is a Wolando Lion…” Ton-Ra said. 

“Wolando…” He-Ron said. The great southern sister of Halboria. In Narroz there are two continents with constant snow. Halboria to the north, Wolando to the south… But Wolando was not just a cold place. Wolando had huge tracts of lands that rivaled that of Halboria. The climate was warmer and more stable than Halboria’s. 

“How on earth did it get here? The southern channel is not easily crossed…”

Ton-Ra stood up and told He-Ron to cut off the lion’s head. He-Ron grabbed his axe and stood over the massive beast for a while before he moved his axe. 

“Forgive me, brother…” He said, and swung the axe through the air and severed the head from the body.  

It took a day before they had a skull to work with. And when they had it, they began the training. It would take He-Ron several tries to get it right. But as soon as he had the basics in place… he would be able to absorb the skull… and start training his transformation. 

It was not easy. None expected it to be easy. He-Ron had to focus a lot, and channel his inner force. The first part of channeling reminded him of the lessons his father had given him back in Halboria… the way of touching his inner strength. 

It was the same force he had tapped into when he had constructed his sword and bound it to his will and soul… 

This time… it was about using his imagination to form that force inside of him, into the mental image of a lion. 

He did so, recanting the words Ton-Ra had taught him. An ancient language that held the power over the force inside of him. The magic of the self… 

When he finally saw the shape of the lion, and said the words correctly… he felt the skull disappear in his hands… and suddenly… he felt the animal inside of him… the huge lion… the big mane… the teeth… he felt his hands as paws and nails as claws… he took a deep breath… 

“When you are ready…” Ton-Ra gently said to him, “Then go from feeling the beast… to becoming the beast… see it like walking to the edge… and jumping off the edge…”

He felt it… the surge of will needed to jump… one thing was walking to the edge… that was accepting that it was there… jumping… was embracing the edge for what it was… the entrance to the abyss… and beyond… In the void lurks the knowledge…

One last breath… and the man jumped… 

What landed… was a lion… 

Ron leaned over and groaned… he felt his body change… His jaw grew, his back altered. It wasn’t painful exactly. But the same as a piece of metal in the furnace being formed by a hammer… Will over matter… Helped by heat and pressure… 

When he opened his eyes again, he looked at Ton-Ra… his eyesight was significantly better, and he saw and smelled things he had never smelled and seen before. 

“Wow…” Ton-Ra said. “He-Ron… you look amazing!” 

He tried to talk, but the words wouldn’t come… Instead he formed the sounds of a lion. Growling grunts and puffing sounds. 

“You can’t talk while an animal,” Ton-Ra said as she scratched his mane.

“But damn you look fantastic as a lion… And you’re so huge… you’re even bigger than the beast we slew today…”

He-Ron walked around a little… he felt his massive body move around him… he was packed with muscles. A true beast. He looked at Ton-Ra whom he walked around. He kinda wanted to measure himself to how and where he reached. He leaned his head against her body, and in her full height he could almost reach her throat with his jaw. She began nuzzling his ears, and it felt absolutely amazing. 

“Awww…” she said with her sweetest voice. “You’re even cute as a big kitty…”

He-Ron looked at her and walked back a little. He didn’t wanna overdo it his first time. Ton-Ra seemed to know, and knelt down and whispered in his ears. 

“Going back is the easy part…” Ton-Ra said gently into his sensitive ear. “Imagine… you are crouched and hunched over… stand up tall… and stretch your back in a full arch…”

He-Ron focused… he saw himself as hunched over, and he stood up and stretched his back fully… 

His body returned in one full motion… slowly and he felt the paws become hands, and the fur shrink into his skin. 

When he opened his eyes… he was a man, and it was a man’s vision he had. 

He turned to his left, and there was Ton-Ra. Smiling… with pride and joy. 

“Congratulations, He-Ron.” She said. “You are now a skinchanger…”

He-Ron smiled. He reached towards her face, and kissed her… deeply and tenderly. 

It had been a long day, so the lovemaking that night was a short but steamy session. They both slept deeply in each other’s embrace. In the distance, He-Ron heard a lion pride roar. He had a slight urge to turn into a lion, and roar with them… but not tonight… he was too tired. He wanted to rest, so he could regain his strength. 

He had a feeling that Ton-Ra would be training him even longer tomorrow. 

———————————

He wasn’t wrong. He-Ron was by day break to turn back and forth between lion and man, in order to learn the sensation and the feeling of transformation. 

He had to know how to get out of the lion form and back to the human form. 

She told him many stories and fairytales about people who had turned into animals, and had either forgotten or been too stressed to turn back. Some had turned into pigs or sheep, and not been able to get back to human form in time before they were slaughtered and turned into food for humans… disgusting yes, but also cautionary tales. 

So at the end of the day, He-Ron felt certain about the difference. One was a jump into another form, the other was akin to a stretch of the back.  

The next few days, he was to learn how to remain in the form for a longer and longer time. 

It was less difficult than Ton-Ra has made it sound like. The first day he spent all day as a lion. 

The next day he managed to bring down a wildebeest in lion form. He brought it back home to the hideout and Ton-Ra made a smile and said: 

“Oh my, look what the cat dragged in…”

He-Ron would’ve laughed if lions could laugh. That evening they ate Wildebeest. 

The next day they were out together, and they found something tragic in a bush around some cliffs. A young lioness and its 2 cubs… the lioness was dead… The cubs were trying to get milk out of her tits, but alas… death had dried her up. The lioness, which was also a Wolando Lion, had several arrows in its back… 

He-Ron and Ton-Ra knew it was the work of humans. 

He-Ron had a thought. Perhaps the male Lion from a few days ago had thought they were the ones who had killed his mate… and he had been out for revenge… 

He-Ron removed the head of the lioness and gave it to Ton-Ra. That way, they could both become lions. She nodded. There was no reason to bury what was left. Sooner or later, scavengers would make sure the circle of life would continue. 

“What do we do with the cubs…?” Ton-Ra said with her big green eyes looking up at He-Ron.

He-Ron looked at the pitiful little handfuls of fur… they were clambering their mothers belly in hope for some milk. 

“What can we do?” He-Ron said. “We have no milk for them…”

Ton-Ra looked at him. 

“I do…” She said. 

“I don't think the cubs want human-milk, Ton-Ra…” He said with a sad voice. 

She lifted the head of the lioness. 

“With this, my milk will be lion-milk…” She said. 

He-Ron smiled. He took the lion's head. 

“Then take them with us…” He said with a kind nod.

Ton-Ra smiled, and picked up the little lion cubs that couldn’t be more than a few days old.

That evening, Ton-Ra transformed into a gorgeous and wonderful lioness. Big strong, long legged and powerful. The huntress of the plains.

He-Ron took the little lions and let them dine at her lion tits. 

He transformed himself into the male lion, and for a moment, the two felt like they were raising a little lion family. 

And when the cubs had eaten their fill, Ton-Ra returned to her human form, as did He-Ron and they slept like a little family. 

———————————————————————

Four weeks passed and the little cubs grew stronger and larger. But they were still adorably small and cute. They only had small teeth and still had very visible spots. They were both females. 

They were unbelievably affectionate, and though Ton-Ra could only feed them when she was a lioness, they could recognize her by her scent. She had named them Numi and Nala. And she absolutely loved them. 

They were also close to He-Ron, but mainly because they saw He-Ron probably as their father figure. They also recognized him both as a lion and as a human. 

When they were out walking, the cubs stayed back in the hideout. 

Until they were around eight weeks old, and then the little cubs followed them in their heels. Making their cute little sounds. This was also around the time they started feeding the cubs meat. 

One day, when the cubs were 12 weeks old, they had a near run-in with one of Dilatont’s patrols. They had observed them riding in the distance, and they had quickly turned into lions, and scurried the cubs off to safety. The patrol of horsemen rode right past them, as they jumped up on a cliff in the middle of the grassland. 

One of the men in front rode up to the rockformation and saw He-Ron as a lion, resting on the big rock. He looked directly at them. 

“What a magnificent animal…” said the leader of the patrol. “It's a shame we don’t have time to hunt it… I have long wanted to bring home a male lion’s fur to my wife! Especially since the last lion got away…” 

He-Ron snarled, and the patrolman’s horse got nervous and stepped backwards. 

“Odd…” Said the patrolman and looked a little nervous himself. “Come men… let’s keep looking!”

They rode past the rock, and when they were way past off into the distance, He-Ron and Ton-Ra turned back to humans. 

“I bet it was them who killed the cubs mother…” He said with a low growl. 

“Most likely,” Ton-Ra said with the cubs crawling all over her lap. 

“But worse… they are in our neighborhood now… I think it is time we pack up and get out of here, my love.”

“Agreed.” He-Ron said. They had been in the same place for way too long. 

They hurried back and began to pack the base up. The cubs didn’t know what was going on, but sensed the urgency. 

A few hours later they were on the road. 

They would make their way south, and hopefully leave the army well behind. They travelled during the night.

Ton-Ra walked as a lioness in front with the cubs behind her. He-Ron, as a male lion, walked behind her. 

He kept his ears on stalks. Determined not to be caught off guard by anything or anyone. 

When dawn came they stopped by a small brook and got some breakfast. 

They found yet another rock formation, and after determining that there were no other lions or other predators around, they found a shaded part of the rock, and slept through the day. 

As night came again, they found, to their delight, a huge herd of zebras grazing around them. He-Ron looked at Ton-Ra, and as lions they brought down a zebra. 

Together, with the cubs, they ate the zebra as lions. Lions do not have the same refined tastebuds as humans do, so the meal went down far easier. 

The next day came, and they traversed even further south. 

They found another place suitable as a hideout. A hill with another bush forest on the top. They made themselves at home, and the cubs were happy to have time to play again. 

They started setting up a camp, and Ton-Ra conjured up a magical source of water for them. Another neat trick that she had perfected in her years in solitude.

The cubs were glad to clench their thirst. As was He-Ron. 

He-Ron walked around the new hideout and carved out all the runes in the trees and stones that needed to be carved. And when the last one was in place, the invisible seal of their hideout was cast over them.  

They still had some Zebra for the cubs, and the cubs eagerly ate it. It was one of the strong hindlegs. 

He-Ron and Ton-Ra chose human food for dinner. Zebra was all good and well, but Ton-Ra had told He-Ron that it was always best to eat as a human. She told him that becoming the animal for either too long or too passionately could alter once perception of reality and make it difficult to get back to human form. Instincts could give way for intelligence. 

He-Ron began to understand. The power of transformation only was a power, if you remained in control of it. 

A few weeks passed, and the little family grew more and more careful. Especially since the patrols of Dilatont grew more and more numerous. They might be completely safe in their new hideout, but they were still in need to get away from here. With every step, they seemed to get further and further away from the Rock… and even further away, from Halboria. 

One deep night, He-Ron was sharpening the blade of his axe. Ton-Ra was snuggling the still growing cubs. They were still cute, but they now had way more energy, and they grew so fast. She looked up on her husband, and walked over to him with a sense of worry. 

She sat down by his feet and looked up at him. 

“Dilatont will never stop hunting us.” She said with a solemn expression. “He will hunt us to the end of the world.”

“I know…” He-Ron said. He knew that Dilatont was a weak and pathetic man down under all his bravado… but men who are weak can still be determined. 

“Which is why…” He-Ron said as he bent the axe slightly so he could see his reflection in the metal. 

“I have to make sure he can hunt no more…”

“Jamos will just send another in his place.” Ton-Ra said. 

“I know… but the replacement will take some time catching up. It will give us the free space to move… and we will get ahead of the army… and with just a little luck… we will be able to move past them, and towards the Rock.”

Ton-Ra could see he was working on something akin to a plan. But getting to Dilatont would be near impossible. He was better protected than King Jamos on a good day. 

“First and foremost… I need to know where he is camped…” He-Ron said. 

Ton-Ra, who had been out flying for most of the week, could finally contribute with vital intelligence.  

“His camp is held up just outside a medium side trading port, known as Dailing Gate. Just south-east of here. The city rests at one side of the Dailing River.”

He-Ron looked at her. 

“Did you see Dilatont?” He asked. 

“I did… him… and his lackey, Jushu.” She looked displeased with the name. 

“I am very invested in the demise of both of them… I have gathered knowledge that if either of them are to succeed in capturing you, then they will be rewarded with my daughters as brides…”

He-Ron smiled.

“That will never happen.” He said. And Ton-Ra smiled and kissed him. 

“But knowing where he is, is just one part of the problem…” Ton-Ra said. 

“He is still surrounded at all times by his army. And Smouldixians or not, they are too many, even for you, my love…”

“Yes…” said He-Ron. “When it comes to numbers, Dilatont is superior… But I have an idea… And it might give me an edge that makes numbers completely worthless. It is a wild shot… but a shot I need to take…”

Ton-Ra looked intensely at him. 

“What are you thinking?”

He-Ron narrowed his eyes. 

“That is is time… the dark tide turns towards Dilatont.”

—————————————————

Dailing Gate was no huge city, but it was sizable enough to matter, and it had long been a central trading post for most of the region. The mayor of the city, Saru Mandaru was also the local Baron and a friend to King Jamos himself. He understood fully well the need for the Army to be at his place, and he was in fact capitalizing on having an army at his disposal. 

He had dealt with a few local tribal leaders who had been a thorn in his backside for far too long. He had hunted out many of the local lion prides and better yet, made a ton of money from the local traders who had felt for a long time that the taxes were too big to pay. Now… the money came in flowing, like the river Dailing. 

Dilatont was a friend truly to all men who sought power. Saru raised his glass of wine to his two new friends, General Dilatont and Captain Jushu.

“To your good health, gentlemen!” He said in a noble tone, and the men raised their glasses and cheered. 

“I am sure you will soon find this pesky Halborian. These lands don’t treat northerners kindly.”

“Hehehe, yep, I am banking on it.” Dilatont said. “Halborians can withstand the endless biting cold, but in these lands, it is heat that is the enemy… and that they aren’t used to.”

“Tell me again, what this barbarian has done to deserve our High King’s rage?” 

“Well a number of discrepancies are attributed to him.” Dilatont said matter of factly. 

“Besides being so rude as to survive an execution, he also had the nerve to steal our king's most valued possession, and… the rumors says… he even impregnated the Queen with his bastard…”

Saru looked mighty pleased with this little tidbit of information. Many queens had been hanged for less than that… although many agreed the royal bloodline was not as straight as many historians claimed. 

“Well I’ll be damned,” Saru said. “Queen Ann, nothing but a harlot, hehehe… always thought her legs were too loose… but I wouldn’t mind a piece of her royal ass myself.”

“You might be in luck,” Jushu said with a smile. “As soon as the king has what he wants, he most likely will discard her. You can have her for coppers on the gold.”

The three men laughed. They were all getting drunk. It was still in the middle of the day, but they had had reason to let loose and drink. 

A powerful chief had just been caught and executed today. The way of execution? 

Well… Saru had a number of big crocodiles in an artificially made pond next to the river. They were always hungry and the Chief had been a good meal for them. 

As Saru placed his glass down on the table, he saw how the glass trembled slightly on the wooden table. He frowned his eyebrows and looked perplexed at the shaking fluid in the glass. Soon the others also noticed it. 

“What is that?” Jushu asked as the trembling grew steadily stronger.

“Probably just a small earthquake…” Saru said with a smile, looking a little confident in his words. 

“They are fairly common in this region…”

But there was no earthquake… it kept going on, and soon… they could not just feel it, but simply not feel anything but the trembling earth. 

They heard screams and shouting from outside the house, and they ran towards the door and out onto the streets. 

They all three saw it at the same time… 

Down… over the ridge that separated the city’s outer limits from the open plains… came a gigantic herd of wildebeest. Numbering probably in hundreds of thousands… in a wild stampede… 

The herd looked to be more than a mile wide, and the animals showed no signs of stopping. 

“What the hell is going on!?” Dilatont screamed. 

“STAMPEDE!” Yelled Saru and turned pale. He ran away towards the docks and Jushu and Dilatont looked shocked for a second and then they turned tail and ran after him. 

The gigantic herd ran in full force towards the city, and the thinwalled clay houses stood no chance against the thousands and thousands of wildebeest who ran in at full speed. 

The people in the town all ran to the docks and onto their boats, but the soldiers who had no orders and no idea what to do, where all trampled down under the probably millions of hooves. 

Dilatont and Jushu reached the dock, but as did the Wildebeest and the pushed and shoved among each other to all get to the narrowest point in the river, in order to cross it. 

Some of the wildebeest managed to destroy the barricade of the pond that held the huge crocodiles in place, and the reptiles swam out in the water in order to gain their freedom. 

The wildebeest kept coming. An endless stream of animals that made short work of the soldiers who had no idea what to do. They were trampled down like grass, and the huge army was laid flat in a matter of minutes. Jushu was one of the men trampled to near death. 

     Dilatont escaped this fate by hiding behind a solid wooden post. The villagers of the city had managed to all escape, mainly because they had all been out on the streets and all were familiar with the trembling of the stampedes in the area. 

Many of the soldiers had also been drunk with victory. So they had been unable to evade this grim fate. 

Saru had managed to escape onto his own personal boat, but a bunch of the wild wildebeest had jumped from the pier and onto his boat and made it roll over. Thus sending all men on it, into the waters. 

Saru had only just gotten up the surface, when he felt a set of powerful jaws close around his chest and pull him back down under… A massive scaly body began to turn around and around, and what came back up, was only the body parts of Saru. 

Dilatont waited until the stampede was good and well over, before he stepped out from his hiding place. He was in a state of pure and total shock. Never had he ever seen anything like this. An entire army of battlehardened soldiers… flattened… by a stampede of wild animals… He was just about to ask if this could get any worse… when he heard the sounds of a lion’s growling behind him. 

He slowly turned and to his dread… saw a big male lion come towards him with slow anticipating movements. 

Dilatont was no expert on lions, but he knew that this… this was dangerous. 

The lion had piercing blue eyes, and… Dilatont recognized that eye color everywhere… 

“You…?!” He said, but the lion did not answer him. It simply charged him, and in a mighty jump, closed its massive jaws around the face of Dilatont… He screamed in agony and pain, but only until the lion crushed his skull in one single bite. 

And thus… ended the career of General Dilatont… not in battle… but in the jaws of a lion. His army was destroyed by nature… what a failure…

Jushu… who felt how his body was completely ruined under the many hundreds of hooves that had trampled over him, saw the dust settle. What little he could still see through the immense pain, he had no problem seeing… 

A male lion… way bigger than any lion he had ever seen, approached through the dust, and slowly… turned from a lion, to a towering muscular man… Jushu looked up at him… up at the blue eyes of the Halborian man he had chased for so long… 

“Y-You…” Jushu rasped with blood in his mouth. “You… did… this?”

The Halborian man, known as He-Ron didn’t answer him but simply stared at him with coldness in his eyes. 

“The gods… are with you…” Jushy sighed. “Our foolish king… has doomed us all…” He coughed up blood. 

“You doomed yourself…” He-Ron snarled. “The gods are utterly useless…”

“You still… think that… after all this…?” Jushu said with a sad smile. 

“None are as blessed as you… Halborian… And we… who followed a man… who fancied himself a god… fell under our own pride…”

Jushu laughed a laugh that caused him immense pain. 

“You know what is worse…?” He asked. “Aggoria will send legions after us… they will never stop hunting you… and meet the same grim fate… So many… unnecessary deaths… So many fathers, sons and brothers…”

He-Ron got a softer look in his eyes. He was reminded of his own tribesmen. 

“I see it now…” Jushu began to get tears in his eyes. “I see… my mistakes… I am sorry…” 

A strange and difficult feeling rose up in He-Ron’s chest… He was talking to a dying man… and suddenly, his anger subsided. He knelt down, next to Jushu. 

“I forgive you… warrior of Smouldixia…”

Jushu smiled a sad smile… and then… he drew a last breath… and then… the light vanished from his eyes.

He-Ron reached down, and closed his eyelids. 

He sighed. 

He stood up and looked behind him. There stood Ton-Ra with their cubs around her ankles. The cubs seemed to understand that something terrible had happened and didn’t aim to play, but stayed close by Ton-Ra’s feet. 

He-Ron walked over to her and looked at all the mayhem. 

There was nothing that any of them could say, but then Ton-Ra finally said. 

“It had to be done…” 

He-Ron nodded. “When the gods won't act… Men has to…”

—————————————————————

Back in Mideltonia to the north, there was a beautiful and gorgeous palace out in the countryside. It was the palace of the Queen. Here Queen Ann had retreated to, with her four princesses and all their servant girls. 

It had all the luxuries needed to house Royalty. An indoor and an outdoor pool, spacious bedrooms, and a kitchen fully staffed. 

Queen Ann was now pregnant in her 10th month. Everyone knew she was pregnant with a god’s child, so none were surprised it took longer than usual. 

Ann as well looked more radiant and beautiful than she had ever looked. 

She ate well and she exercised regularly. Her daughters, even those she hadn’t carried herself, all doted around her. Bonniera who was her favorite, slept with her every single night, and the two had a strong bond. 

“Mom…” Bonniera said as she rubbed the huge swollen belly of Queen Ann. 

“Yes, my baby?” Ann said in a warm tone. 

“Do you promise to still love me… even when our baby brother comes?”

Ann kissed her head. 

“Bonniera, nothing can ever take my love away from you… You are my most precious thing in this entire world. And that you always will be.”

Bonniera smiled and rested on her foster mother’s shoulder. She had been a little worried, but she knew that she had her mothers love… and that wouldn’t change, not even when her new brother came. 

But she was still so uncertain. There was a chance that she would marry that hopeless bastard Dilatont… and be taken away from her lovely mom. 

Days passed, and the Queen and her princesses lived in complete and unknowing harmony… until the day when a rider came during the night. He came with intel for the Queen. He was one of her spies. 

Ann brought the letter to her chambers where she and her princesses slept. 

“It is from Cinesto…” She said. Bonniera, Lonniera, Conniera and Kim all looked at her with big eyes. 

Ann read the entire letter, and then… she read it again… she had to… 

“Dilatont… is dead…” She said in a shocked voice. 

The princesses all looked at each other, but none looked as relieved as Bonniera. 

“How?” Princess Kim asked. 

“He was killed… by a lion… and… his entire army… was killed… by a herd of wildebeest… trampled down… only a few men survived… but died later from their wounds… they only managed to report… that Dilatont was killed by a lion… and that the lion had taken the shape of a man… after the mauling…”

A smile played on Ann’s lips. She looked at Bonniera who seemed to be thanking the Father in the Skies. 

“Well…” Ann said. “We can’t celebrate openly… but how about we fetch up a few stable lads and have a little orgy… just for fun?”

The princesses all agreed. 

—————————————————————

At the Royal Palace in Agorria the mood was far less festive. 

Jamos had thrown a massive tantrum and Cinesto was trying to calm him down, but nothing had worked. Jamos kept raging and destroying stuff worth thousands of gold coins… 

Jamos was beyond rage at this point. Madness was around the corner, and he was determined more than ever to end this pesky Halborian… once and for all… 

He didn’t care that he had just lost thousands of men… men that would take weeks and months to replace… To Jamos that was inconsequential… He didn’t care… All he cared about was getting that Halborian’s head, on a silver platter. 

Winter was coming soon, and there was no longer anything keeping him from exacting revenge… 

“Cinesto…” Jamos said when he was finally calmed down. 

“Tell the northern armies to begin hunting down the Halborian tribes… and kill them… kill them all…”

Cinesto felt a deep sense of dread. He heard the skies outside thunder and crack… the Sky Father had heard them. 

“My king, surely you can’t be serious…” Cinesto urged him. “I am begging you please reconsider… the curses on us will be immense… we will all be damned to… Urgh!!”

Jamos had stabbed his cheeseknife into Cinesto’s chest. The man turned pale, and he looked down at the sharp blade that had pierced his chest and punctured his heart. 

“I damn you, Cinesto…” Jamos said and leaned into his ear. “I damn you… you filthy traitor… Don’t you know I knew it was you, all along… the one who blabbed to my unfaithful wife…”

Cinesto lost control over his legs and knelt down in front of Jamos. 

“For a while, I kept you around because having you around meant… I controlled what Ann got to know… But as of yet… I am annoyed with you…”

He twisted the knife an inch deeper. Cinesto’s face showed the pain. 

“I guess she will have to find a new way to get her information…”

Cinesto, who had never in his life dared to stand up to Jamos… found his courage in his dying breath…

“You… are a no king…” Cinesto spattered at Jamos… his grip around Jamos arm was strong and it even hurt Jamos. 

“You… are a kin-slayer… a filthy disgusting coward… not worthy of Queen Ann’s shadow… and if you dare lay a hand on her… the gods will punish you… Filthy… servant… of the Oggu…”

Jamos snarled and pulled the knife out of his chest and let the man collapse in front of him… The blood ran out on a pool on the priceless marble floor.

The storm broke out. Endless lightning landed on the city of Agorria, causing wild fires running rampant, and the many hundreds of statues of Jamos, all got hit with lightning bolts. They all crumbled. Jamos looked to the heavens above him with hatred burning in his eyes. 

“I don’t care about you anymore…” He said with a smile on his face. “I will get him… and I will kill him… and the rest of his disgusting breed…”

The skies seemed to open up in a big dark spot directly over Jamos. 

“And there is nothing you can do to stop me…” Jamos grew a more and more maniacal smile. 

“You are utterly useless…”

The darkness of the clouds intensified. 

“In truth…” Jamos said mockingly. “Humans… are the only true gods… We… form our world… to our liking…”

And then he bursted out laughing… a sick and twisted laughter, and then it happened… a lightning bolt struck Jamos, right in the middle of his body, and he was hurled backwards through the huge hall and out the windows on the other side… he flew through the air and into the gardens… 

He had been burned by lightning… his body was covered in wounds and blisters darkened and blacked by the deadly force… But… not dead…

—————————————

Uzaron stood on top of his mighty palace in the heavens and he had hurled a thunderbolt directly into the face of King Jamos. 

He had finally had enough of that man’s crimes. 

“You will not lay a finger on Halbara’s children…” He said with a deep dominating voice… 

“I command you to stop this madness, human king… Or I will end you, I swear…”

————————————

Jamos heard him… he heard the voice speak to him, and even in his agony he still raged defiantly. 

“You can’t end me…” Jamos smiled under his mutilated face. “I have made sure of that…”

Jamos turned his face heavenward… 

“I cannot be killed… by a god… anymore…”

————————————

Uzaron blinked… 

His godly eyes showed him what he had been blind to before… he saw Jamos make a deal with the… the Oggu?!

“Oh no…” Uzaron said… The Oggu were the old enemies of the gods… The gods had few weaknesses… one was… only known to them, and the Oggu… and Jamos… Jamos had finally crossed the line…

—————————————

Jamos body was regenerating, but not back to his human form… it twisted and contorted into a hideous new form, with leathery skin and horns sticking out like a crown out of his skull…

He was smiling an evil smile… he was turning… into a raging demon… burnt by heavenly fire… Cursed by a dying man’s words… and haunted by his actions… 

His form turned… and twisted… his face elongated, and his teeth became sharp and pointed… and he looked like a monstrous beast… 

He was a man no longer… His insides… now matched his outsides… his eyes glowed red and out of his back grew a long worm like tail… his fingers got claws and his feet mutated. 

He let out a snarl… a raging snarl… 

A pair of guards entered the room and looked at the scene. The monster… that stood over the dead Cinesto. 

They raised their spears, but as the monster turned towards them… the glowing red eyes scared them out of their own minds… And then… the monster began to talk… with a hoarse and raspy voice that scared them even more… They were guards… not warriors… they had never faced a monster before… And certainly never one as disgusting and foul as this one…  

“You dare raise your weapons… against your king?” 

The guards felt it… they felt their fear take over… their hands began to shake… and as they did… they too started to turn… turn into monsters like the one before them… 

If anyone could guess what animal they looked like… a person would probably say… that they were rat-like… The big shouted head with chisel sharp teeth, glowing red eyes, ragged fur and a long naked tail. 

Cowardly by nature… and cruel to the bone… 

The curse of anyone who dared cross the gods… had now been hijacked… by Oggu magic… Jamos curse… was shared… among his equals… 

A shadow fell over the Smouldixian lands… a shadow under the dark clouds of gods… and all who were guilty of Jamos crime… all turned… turned… into monstrous rat-men… It didn’t happen instantly… But gradually… over time… day by day… the man disappeared… and the Rat-man took his place… 

It didn’t happen to everyone… only those… who were guilty… who shared the corrupted King’s evil mind, and too was lost to his mindless ambition… 

The Oggu had spread a plague upon the people of Smuoldixia. A plague… that they had crafted from the curse of the gods… 

The Oggu were snickering… laughing in their hole… an evil and corrupt laughter… as finally… they would soon have an army… an army that would bring the decay of the world… and let it rot… and then… give them an endless supply of food for their ever hungry bellies. 

————————————

Uzaron now knew the mistake he had made… 

And what a mistake. He had been goated. And now… this vile thing… had been unleashed upon the people of the world. The Smouldixians… were gonna be ripped apart… 

He stepped back and sat down on his throne… 

Phara, his queen came in, and sat down in front of him. He dared not look at her. This was all his fault… had he only heeded his wife’s wisdom so long ago, then this might never have happened… and now… humanity was facing their darkest hour… 

“I am the king of fools…” He said with a deep and somber voice. “And now… I might have doomed the world…”

Phara took his hand and kissed it. 

“I do not deserve to have you as my Queen…” He said with a tear running down over his cheeks. 

“I am guilty of the same crimes… as Jamos…”

“It is true that you are a gallivanting womanizer…” Phara said as she caressed his hand. 

“But I knew who and what you were when I married you at the dawn of time…”

Uzaron looked at her. 

“And I love you as much today, as I loved you back then… Because I know, beneath all that boyish and selfish, lustful nymphomania… is the biggest and warmest heart in all existence…”

Uzaron blinked and felt somehow better and worse. 

“Jamos will punish Queen Ann… and her unborn child…” Uzaron said. “I have no right to ask this of you Phara… but Ann is of your kin…”

She nodded. Ann’s bloodline reached back to Phara herself through one of her only children she had with another deity before her marriage. 

“Can I ask you, to please keep her safe from his anger… my reach has been faulted by this… but not yours…”

Phara looked at her husband with care in her eyes. 

“I know I have no right to ask this of you… but please… Phara…”

“I will do this… But not because my King demands me…” Phara took his face in her hands. 

“I will do it, because my husband asks me… And because he is right to ask me… and it is a fair ask…” 

She kissed him gently.

“I will protect Queen Ann, her daughters and her unborn child… your grandson… I promise…”

Uzaron smiled a careful smile. 

“You truly are… the Queen of Queens…” Uzaron said, and kissed his wife. They shared a long and tender moment. And for the first time in eons… their lovemaking was just as wild as it had been in the Dawn ages. 

After their lovemaking, Phara kissed her husband, got dressed and walked to her own chambers. 

Here she found a way to a secret place in the world. 

Once upon a time, Phara had been the most worshipped goddess in the Omandilands. But as her people lost their way and invaded the realm of the Halborians, they had doomed themself beyond her salvation. Only because Phara had begged Halbara to spare at least the children of her kin, had Halbara relented from destroying all of the Omandies. But their once mighty realm was gonna be destroyed and ended at the bottom of a shallow sea.

The Omandies lived on, but only that… no longer a unified people, but instead hundreds and hundreds of different tribes who sailed the now shallow western coral sea and harvested its many riches.

Phara walked through an archway in the heavens and ended on a small island on the far side of the largest Omandi islands. This tiny island was no bigger than it would take a person about 8 days to walk around it. It was protected, beautiful and looked like a tropical paradise… but once upon a time, this was no island… but the top of a mountain. 

Now… it was a sanctuary… a statue of Phara still stood, and the magic it guarded was as strong today as it was the day of the flood. 

There was a simple village built among the paradise-like scenery and the people were all of dark skin and black hair. A lifetime of sunlight and ocean water had made them into sturdy fishermen and great sailors. They were no longer the conquerors of old who once dominated the entire world… but a people of simple needs and simple pleasures. Not unlike the Halborians their ancestors once sought to tread underfoot.  

Phara walked among them, unseen… like a ghost. But one caught her eye… a woman who stood by the water's edge, draped in white sheets… looking over the water… to the northeast… where her home once lay… and where she could never return… 

Because everything she had ever loved… had been cut down… in a sheer act of brutality and cruelty. 

Phara walked up to her, and she felt her presence. 

“I thought you said; you would never appear before me again… goddess Phara…”

This woman was not one of the Omandi around her. She just lived among them… as a guest… Though she had been here for so long, she had a hard time imagining herself as a wanted guest any longer. 

They were not cruel to her. The opposite in fact. All on the island seemed to revere her, and had the utmost respect for her. Perhaps it was a result of feeling guilty… or shame… She was the living embodiment of their peoples undoing so long ago. 

“Well…” Phara said. “Times change… and… I kinda need your help…”

The woman in white didn’t look at Phara, but she didn’t wave her off either. 

“A woman who is dear to me is carrying a precious and important child… I need you to go back to Smouldixia… and bring her here… and time is of the essence…”

The woman in white was silent. She lowered her head… 

“I can’t… I can’t go back there…” She said. “They… they broke me… I am no longer the woman I once was…”

Phara felt the pain in her words. 

“I need you…” Phara said with a deep and somber voice, “I need you to become that woman again… it is utmost important… not just for me… but for you as well… for your future…”

“I have no future…” the woman whispered. “My future was trampled down… like all dreams…”

“You are wrong… your future lives…” Phara said. She walked up next to the woman, and sat down on her knees. 

“He… still lives…”

There was a motion that went through the woman in white. A motion that seemed like an electric bolt of life… 

She finally looked at Phara… her face was covered by the white silks that draped her body… 

A set of gorgeous blue eyes looked at Phara. 

“Your son… is alive…” Phara said as she took the hand of the woman. “He survived…”

“Then…” the woman said with a rasping voice that fought to produce words. 

“Then how come…?”

“He renounced Halbara… and all of us…” Phara said… “Even… even Uzaron cannot see him fully…” 

The woman… who was in fact Ana-Drea, the long lost Unstoppable woman and mother of Ronan, blinked… Tears formed in her eyes as her heart fluttered with hope. 

“The woman…” Phara said urgently, “Who you need to save… is carrying his first born son… Your grandson… And she is in mortal danger…”

Ana-Drea needed not hear anymore. She tightened her grip on Phara’s hand on her own, and then she took a deep breath and walked back towards the village.

She approached an elder who sat in an ancient temple. The elder looked upon her with awe and respect, and a smile on his lips. 

“I need my sword…” she said with a stern tone. The elder bowed his head and she walked past him and into the temple. 

There… stood a statue of Uzaron himself. By his feet was a sword impaled. A Halborian sword. A sword made from sky iron. 

As its rightful owner approached, the sword began to glow, and Ana-Drea, who had sworn never to wield it again, looked up at Uzaron’s face, and drew it out of the hard bedrock upon which his statue was carved ages ago. 

The sword rang out and seemed happy to feel Ana-Drea’s hand around its hilt again.  

“I swear… on Jonan’s blood…” She stared directly into Uzaron’s granite face, “I will not fail my grandchild… not again…”

A light twinkled through the roof of the rock, and landed on Uzaron’s granite face… but she saw it smile at her. 

And then she turned around and left the temple. The people of the island all had gathered to look upon her with awe and respect. Many of them came to touch her arms in a wish of good luck. She looked into all of their faces, and hugged a person here and there. 

Here she had found a home, and here she had been able to grief, and here she had been met with nothing but kindness. These people were not the scars of their ancestors, nor did they carry their guilt. But they felt their shame. Endlessly so. 

They lived a life in humility and in care of one another. A memory that they all shared… of hubris, arrogance, pain and loss. But here… they had everything they could ever ask for. 

Ana-Drea looked at the elder who had guarded the temple. 

“I need your fastest vessel… and the crew to sail it.”

The elder nodded, and six strong and brave men and women stepped forward. They led her to a strong and big canoe with sails that they had already loaded with provisions for a long voyage. 

And Ana-Drea was about to step on board, when she felt Phara’s presence again. And heard her voice in her head. 

“Her name is Queen Ann… and she is with four girls… four princesses…”

Their faces appeared before her eyes. 

“Bring them to safety…” Phara said. “All of them… It is important.”

“I will…” Ana-Drea whispered. “I promise I will…”

And then… as they tossed off the ropes that tied the canoe to the dock, they felt a strong wind carry them out to sea, and soon… they were on route to Smouldixia. 

Ana-Drea felt her heart pump like never before. But she was not only hopeful… she was afraid… 

Her son… her son had renounced the All-Mother herself… How could he have been so careless? 

She had taught him better than that… But then again… If he was still alive… that meant… he must have been alone… all this time… 

“Oh Ronan…” She said. “My son… Please… regain your trust in the All-Mother… I beg you… please… hear me…”

To be continued.