by Brett Vonsik
“Get up here,” Mithraam’s voice boomed from the platform. For Rogaan, his father’s voice was both comforting and instructive, giving him focus in the midst of chaos.
Before Rogaan could act, the smaller raver started a trot toward them. Pax broke free of Rogaan’s hold and wheeled about, standing defiantly before the approaching beast. Rogaan realized Pax intended to fight it out with the raver here and now. His Light will be taken.
“Ya took everythin’ . . . ya Spawn of Ninurta,” Pax yelled in a rage at the approaching raver. “Come ta me. Take me, if ya can.”
The raver approached warily, but approach it did. It looked at Pax and Rogaan with unease. It seemed almost intelligent, as if trying to figure them out, considering what to do next. At fifteen strides, Pax spat curses at it again daring it to charge him. A chill ran up Rogaan’s back as internal trumpets sounded, warning him against antagonizing the beast. Pax continued yelling even worse curses at the beast. It responded with eyes turned bloodthirsty as it stopped and coiled itself, readying its body to spring at them. In a moment of alarm, Rogaan grabbed Pax by the shirt and neck, dragging him backward, away from those deadly jaws. Pax fought him, trying to get free of his grasp as Rogaan awkwardly withdrew him. The raver took on a mean air and launched into a charge. Positioned poorly due to Pax struggling against him, Rogaan had to pull Pax in a direction away from the stage in the hope to avoid the raver’s charge. Rogaan’s blood turned chill and his mouth went dry as he assessed their changing situation. We are going to be lightless.
“This way, you ugly beast!” Rogaan heard his father yelling in a deep voice he almost did not recognize. Rogaan looked over his shoulder while continuing to pull his protesting friend now toward the stage platform. At least Pax stopped his goading of the ravers. Looking to the stage, Rogaan’s father was waving his arms and yelling at the ravers. He was drawing their attention to give them time to escape. Rogaan felt a mix of relief and concern. The raver approached dangerously close to his father . . . and the Evendiir, now on the stage, who was unsuccessfully trying to get the stubborn Tellen to stop seeking the beast’s attention. Mithraam ignored Aren as he kept on after the beast. Rogaan felt his grip loosening on Pax who had decided to go limp and act as dead weight. Rogaan spun around, pulling Pax to his feet as he chastised his friend. “Do not do this, Pax. I need you if we are to survive this.”
A scream of pain from the stage drew his attention away from Pax. Rogaan felt his heart stop at the scene before him. Chaos! The Evendiir was on his hands and knees at the edge of the stage, completely vulnerable to the raver. Fortunately for Aren, it did not pay him any attention. Instead, the beast had its focus on a lump on the ground near its feet. Father . . . No! Rogaan’s father somehow had been pulled from the platform by the black and red beast and now helplessly writhed in pain at its clawed feet. Blood soaked much of father’s once light charcoal-colored tunic. Rogaan stood stunned staring at the scene, not knowing what to do. Father! The raver reared back, readying itself to put a killing bite on his father.
Rogaan let go of Pax as he broke into a hard run toward his father without a thought or hesitating. Aren slipped from the stage in his attempt to flee, landing hard on the ground with a cry of pain. The raver shifted its attention to the Evendiir and snapped at Aren. Rogaan’s skin prickled and the hairs on his neck stood on end as a brilliant, soundless light grew and burst in a flash between the raver and Aren. The flash momentarily blinded Rogaan, forcing him to stop. He could hear the raver growl as he blinked until his sight partially returned. Aren was gone, and the stage railing behind the raver was smashed. Sharp edges of wood debris lay everywhere. The raver shifted its stance while vigorously shaking its head trying to clear its sight. Taking advantage of the raver’s disorientation, Rogaan’s father rose to his knees, then unsuccessfully tried to stand. Fear that his father could not flee the raver without help struck Rogaan. He again broke into a run to aid his father. As Rogaan approached the raver, the beast having recovered some of its sight and now holding a meaner disposition stepped forward and viciously clamped its jaws on his father’s torso before lifting him high.
“No!” Rogaan desperately charged the beast as his father cried out in pain. Rogaan slammed his body into the raver’s leg, the impact jarring his teeth and nearly knocking the wind from him. He started pounding his fists on the raver’s leg, striking with all his might. The beast shuffled sideways, trying to avoid the pounding while keeping its jaws clamped on Rogaan’s father, its head in an elevated position away from Rogaan. The beast appeared to be trying to keep its meal from being taken. Rogaan yelled at the raver as he struck the beast’s leg another blow. The raver shuddered from the impact, then responded by taking quick steps forward with hips shifting sideways and its tail in full swing at Rogaan. With no time to move out of the way, Rogaan gritted his teeth in anticipation of the tail slap. This is going to hurt. The jarring impact shook Rogaan’s entire body as the lighted arena vanished into a deep gray void. He felt himself floating and strangely weightless, then pain ripped and seared through his entire body as he felt the wind leave him, dirt kick up in his face, and the ground scraping at his exposed skin. He hurt everywhere as he struggled to breathe and cough up dirt at the same time. Pain inflamed his anger and made him more determined. I must save Father. Curse my feeble chest . . . I need to breathe! Every moment he lay on the ground allowed the raver a better chance at taking his father’s Light. Several more painful tries at forcing in a breath found him filling his lungs. The world suddenly grew brighter with his lungs expanding as the burning in his chest subsided. Rogaan rolled to a crouch facing the stage as he drew in another full breath. He watched the raver drop his father’s limp body to the ground, then looked ready to step on his unmoving meal to tear him apart.
“No!” Rogaan charged the beast with a growl, angry at his own ineptness and the beast’s thirst to kill. He aimed his body at its slow-moving legs . . . the only part of the beast low enough to be certain he would strike. Rogaan slammed his shoulder into and wrapped his arms tightly around the raised lower leg of the raver, preventing it from stomping down and crushing his father. The impact jarred Rogaan, sending waves of pain through his body as flashes of light filled his head. He could not—would not—let go. Father will die if I give up. With his eyes shut tight, Rogaan pumped his feet and legs driving forward as his body felt near to snapping under the weight. He growled and strained with every fiber of his body driving his legs and the raver’s leg forward. A chill washed over him as his skin prickled. He immediately felt stronger, able to drive forward the raver’s leg with an unexpected ease. At any other time Rogaan’s curiosity would get the better of him and look for who aided him, but now . . . He did not care. He had to keep driving . . . had to keep the raver from killing his father. Rogaan dug in his boots as he again drove forward with his straining body. The beast’s leg tilted away from him. Rogaan kept driving his legs. The raver’s leg rotated over his shoulder as an enormous weight pulled his upper body backward leaving his legs drive out from under him. He slammed to the ground on his back with the raver’s leg on top of him. A great howl escaped the beast as its legs thrashed, knocking Rogaan from underneath it. Pain rippled through Rogaan’s chest and arms from the beast’s kick. He hurt everywhere. He painfully rolled up into a kneeling position. Looking at the thrashing raver, he watched it in its death throes before falling silent. The sharp tip of a bloodied wood stake pointed skyward from the raver’s chest. A piece of the stage’s railing felled the beast.
An air of silence fell over the arena as Rogaan kneeled in shock staring at the lifeless raver. A sense of awe rippled through him. How did I . . . ? A roar erupted filling and reverberating throughout the arena. Rogaan felt the roar of the crowd more than he heard it. With the stage at his back and the lifeless raver in front of him, Rogaan stood and looked about. The crowd was on its feet yelling with a mix of disapproval and encouragement, the latter losing to the former by a measu
re of volume. Pax stood off to his right sixteen strides from the stage. He looked stunned and confused . . . lost with wobbly legs staring into the distance beyond the far side of the stage where the big raver bobbed its head down, ripping apart what Rogaan could only guess was what was left of Pax’s father. Intense sorrow gripped Rogaan. His eyes welled up with tears, and he suddenly found it difficult to breathe. A low, agonized moan on the opposite side of the stage from Pax sent a wave of horror and urgency through Rogaan. Father! Spinning, Rogaan found his father lying bloodied and struggling for breath as the Evendiir kneeled next to him with an uncertain and conflicted look. Rogaan did not know if Aren intended to run or aid his wounded father, who, a bloodied mess, reached out to the Evendiir with a crimson stained hand in a plea for help. Rogaan needed to save his father, bind his wounds, and get him to a safe place. To Rogaan, the moment lasted forever. He could not move his body fast enough to get to his father. Bolts of pain shot through his shoulder, chest, back, and legs as he commanded his body forward and over the raver. Frustration and anger filled him with each move as he climbed over the raver’s stinking midsection. The beast suddenly breathed, drawing air into its lungs and launching Rogaan awkwardly, headfirst, onto the arena dirt. He landed hard with waves of pain shooting throughout his body. Rogaan strained his neck and torso to catch sight of his father, hoping not to see the beast take his Light with a final bite. The raver snapped its jaws and growled in frustration as Aren dragged Rogaan’s father just beyond the raver’s teeth.
“Get off your rump and help me drag your father, you half-wit!” Aren growled as he struggled with the near lightless body of Mithraam. He was slowly dragging him to the corner of the stage. Rogaan realized Aren was not strong enough to lift his father onto the stone steps to the platform.
Excruciating pain rippled through Rogaan as he struggled to his feet. He took a step toward his father and Aren when the impaled raver let out a moaning roar, then fell still. Rogaan hoped it was the end of the beast this time. Another roar silenced the crowd. Pax screamed at the larger raver as he rushed it. What is Pax thinking? Rogaan stood dumbfounded for a moment as he watched the big raver, with the head and arm of Pax’s father hanging from its jaws, walking behind the stage, away from Pax. My friend’s Light will be taken, Rogaan feared.
Pax slammed into the leg of the big black and red raver, just as Rogaan had earlier, but bounced off it. Pax kept his feet somehow, but clearly wobbled dazed from the collision. The raver spun left, sweeping its tail at Pax, who barely ducked the wall of muscle, then staggered into the trail the tail made. Rogaan saw the raver drop what remained of Pax’s father as it faced away from Pax, then continued its leftward spin, stopping when it faced his Baraan friend. The raver’s eyes, snout, and jaws were hot with rage. Not good! Rogaan told himself as Pax took off in a sprint to his right around the far corner of the stage toward the struggling and unaware Aren . . . and Rogaan’s father. The raver bellowed with anger and chased after Pax. Not good! Ignoring his injuries and pains, Rogaan broke into a run for his father, intending to get him to the stage and out of reach of the beast.
Pax rounded the corner of the stage much faster than Rogaan expected, yelling as he ran, the raver, with jaws agape, closing on him. Rogaan willed himself to move as fast as his body could, and then some. He cursed his slow feet. Ahead, Aren turned to the approaching noise. Death rushed at him. Without a flinch, the Evendiir let go of Rogaan’s father and leaped to the stage with a scream. Rogaan tried to will himself even faster. He would not be in time to pull his father to safety. He desperately wished for his wild spirit to rise, giving him a slowed world . . . giving him time to save his father. Nothing. As Pax approached Rogaan’s fallen father, he suddenly, and expectantly, turned hard into the stage as the raver snapped at him, its jaws slamming shut at only air. The beast’s eyes then found Rogaan’s father struggling in a crawl toward the stage.
How to save Father? Rogaan’s mind frantically searched for an answer. Draw the beast from him. It came to him in the heat of thought as his boots pounded the dirt, desperately trying to get to his father before the raver. Rogaan swung wide right of his father as he let out a desperate roar, a battle cry, trying to get the raver’s attention. It seemed to work as the beast’s eyes and head followed him. He saw the battle move he was about to attempt once, by Im’Kas. It worked on those ravers. Relief flashed in Rogaan as the raging raver fixed its sight on him and not his father. Now, to keep me from Darkness. Rogaan wished again for his wild spirit, making it possible to do what he was about to do. Nothing. He had no time to feel disappointment or anger at its absence. He and the raver were nearly upon each other. The beast opened its jaws to bite down on Rogaan like a hammer with dagger blades and its running body propelling them, a killing strategy honed over countless eons of its kind’s existence. All he had to save himself was an insane move he watched made by a living legend . . . once. His skin prickled as he launched himself into the forward roll. He hoped his timing was good . . . or he would have his Light taken from him in an agony of crushing and rending pain. He felt and smelled the hot putrid breath of the beast wash his left side, shoulder to thigh as he curled his head, neck, and chest down. He feared his timing too late. Searing pain in his left calf confirmed his fear. The raver’s teeth found him as his body continued forward into a roll, his neck and shoulders striking the ground as the rest of his body, except maybe his lower leg, rolled after with him. The air left his lungs as he hit the ground hard, then slid awkwardly to a stop as the heavy body and thundering footfalls of the raver passed by him.
I live! I have my Light. But he needed to know, do I still have my leg? He opened his eye fearing the worst. He looked at his left calf. It bled from a stinging slice just above the boot. He wiggled his toes. I still have them. It worked! Looking up, the bright sky forced him to squint and turn his head from the wispy and scattered clouds above. The crowd came into focus, a revelry of colors cheering support and yelling disappointments. Rogaan did not care of the crowd’s fickleness. He felt contempt for them all. He and his family and Pax’s family were not bothering anyone in Brigum. All of them in the crowd brought this upon them . . . the pain, the sorrow, the death, and the Darkness. And for what?—to entertain their unhappy lives, trinkets of wealth that belonged to his family and others items of comfort his parents worked their lives to achieve . . . to make a home for family and friends? No, Rogaan would hold them all in contempt . . . the crowds for wanting pleasure from his and other’s pain, taking from others what was not deserved of them . . . the Tusaa’Ner and the Sakes for being willing hands of injustice for the Zas, the lawmakers, and all who served them and their selfishness in seeking power over others. A moment of clarity struck Rogaan in the midst of an insane and unneeded chaos. Anger filled him.
Rogaan felt vibrations in the ground from heavy footfalls. The raver still retreated. It’s at a distance . . . Maybe I have time to get Father safe to the stage. With a powerful determination of purpose, Rogaan leapt to his feet, ignoring his pains. As he turned to find his father, he caught a commotion, the Tusaa’Ner struggling with some of the crowd at the top of the stone wall at the far western end of the arena, ninety-one strides distance, near where Pax’s mother lay torn apart. A flash of sorrow burned hotter his anger, his rage. His father lay where he remembered, near the stage. Broken pieces of timber railing were scattered around him. His father’s eyes fixed on him. Thank the Ancients, he lives! His father’s eyes held a mix of relief, pride, and concern, a strange mix Rogaan did not expect from his father. Pax was pulling himself up to the side of the stage. He looked unsteady. Aren kneeled at the edge of the stage with a hold on Pax’s torn green shirt. Aren helping Pax to his feet surprised Rogaan. Is he helping out of self-preservation, or does the Evendiir dare commit a selfless act? Still, Rogaan’s father lay helpless and exposed. Nobody was aiding him. Rogaan’s anger boiled at the edge of rage. It needed to be satisfied.
He hurried to his father with even
, confident steps. Everything around him moved slowly. His wild spirit was upon him. It feels good. Rogaan kneeled at his father’s side to get a better look at his wounds. He felt strangely calm. He did not understand, but welcomed it. His father’s wounds were bad. How he still lived, Rogaan wondered but was grateful for it. He is stubborn. The raver’s teeth cut open his midsection in several palm-sized lines. He lost a lot of blood and looked to be in much pain. His father grabbed Rogaan’s forearm with a grip surprisingly firm for one so close to Darkness.
“Flee . . .” Mithraam croaked out to his son in a drawn out manner Rogaan now understood as a result of his wild spirit. “My Light leaves me. Save yourself and protect your mother. Your shunir’ra . . .”
“No, Father.” Rogaan calmly cut his father off while trying to talk slow. Mithraam’s head settled back to the dirt, his breathing labored. Rogaan saw the rock-steady Tellen who gave him everything he was, made him what he was, losing his Light before him. Rogaan would not abandon his father. He wanted him to live. Mother needs him, and there is much more he needs to teach me.
No binding I have will fix this, Rogaan assessed. Moving Father will end him. Rogaan needed a kind hand from the Ancients to see his father live. He did not put much faith in such things, but he was willing to receive help from anyone at the moment.
A shuddering bellow from the big raver shook the air. Rogaan looked toward it with a calmness that even surprised himself. The beast stood forty-eight strides in the direction where it entered the arena. It stared directly at him with angry and malicious eyes while stomping the ground. It was challenging him, readying to charge if Rogaan did not retreat . . . maybe charge even if he did retreat. How did such an animal ever come to be? Rogaan wondered. He needed to stop the beast so he could find help for his father . . . maybe a Kabir or Kabiri from one of those temples in Farratum.
