Elementals-Chapter 1

From: Cheryl Baumgartner(C Baumgartner, Posted Date: Jul 30th, 2011

**DISCLAIMER:

All copyrighted characters, places, etc. referenced in this story are the property of their

creators, Paul Donovan et al.  and I lay no claim to them whatsoever, yadda yadda yadda.  I’m a law-abiding citizen of the Dark Zone who doesn’t deserve to be arrested, sued, or yelled at.  I’d cry…**

 

 

Elementals Chapter 1

 

 

Benai ran through the meadow, the grass almost up to his neck.  At six years old, he loved to use this field in games of Hide and Find. He could easily conceal himself anywhere out here, his lightly tanned skin and short, unruly golden blonde hair blending almost perfectly with the dry yellow stalks. The trees of the surrounding forest were green all year round, but between harvest seasons, these fields all but died completely.

After running for what he judged was adequate distance into the thick of the vegetation, he dropped to his knees, panting.  It was a blustery day and he grinned as the stalks thrashed around him.  The wind’s rustling of the grass would help to cover the path he had taken to get here. The problem was that it would also make it difficult to hear Danik’s footsteps if he started getting too close in his mission to find Benai.

Danik was 6 moons older, several inches taller, and had jet-black, practically blue

hair.  He could never hide out here with any success.  Benai knew he’d be able to spot his friend coming, well before he himself could be found.

Danik must have finished counting by now.  Benai sat as still as possible, listening and watching as well as he could for the approach of his friend. Nothing happened for several minutes. Soon, he frowned. Like any typical six year old, he had very little patience, and a great deal of trouble sitting still.  The game just wasn’t fun anymore if he had to sit here this long with nothing to do.

Cautiously he rose to a squatting position and peered over the top of the grass.  He

Slowly turned in a full circle to see if Danik was trying to sneak up from another direction.  Nothing.  He sat back down on his haunches roughly.  Now, he was officially bored and starting to feel the need to urinate.  With a sigh, he headed towards the nearest trees to relieve himself.

Still moving as silently as possible, he cleared the meadow’s camouflage and dashed behind the largest tree trunk available. He checked the vicinity again and concluded that he

Would be safe enough for the next minute or so. He undid his breeches and watered the fallen leaves at the tree’s base.

Just as he finished, a faint sound reached him, carried by a gust of wind.  It sounded like a cry of some kind, but it was difficult to tell in the violent air.  It didn’t sound like an animal, for Benai knew the sounds made by just about every living thing in these woods.

Maybe Danik had completely given up and was calling for him to come out.  Or maybe it was his mother trying to fetch him in for the afternoon meal, beckoning from the back door of their farmhouse on the other side of the hill.

The sound came again, this time much louder and more pronounced.  Benai could now tell it was a grown man’s voice, and it sounded frantic.  He still couldn’t tell which direction it had come from, but it was certainly getting closer.  A little scared now, he glanced up into the trees, saw that there were no branches he could reach to climb up, and mentally cursed as violently as his child’s vocabulary would allow.

Again, the scream filled his ears, definitely coming from the forest to his right, and this time he could make out words. 

“Please!!  Please don’t kill me!!  I worship His Shadow!!”

Suddenly, a man hurtled through the brush only about 10 paces from where Benai sat.  His clothes were shredded and tattered, and a glistening stain darkened  one leg of his

breeches.  Benai didn’t recognize the man’s face, but most of it was hidden anyway, under a tangled mass of pure white hair, mingled with leaves and dirt from his trip through the undergrowth.

He ran right past Benai’s tree, then flailed to a halt, digging up trenches in the ground with his boots.   Benai saw what had made the man stop, and his jaw dropped.

Emerging from the trees in front of the man was a figure completely clothed in black.  The only visible skin on the newcomer was his face and hands, which were very pale, unnaturally so.  The figure had hair as black as Danik’s, but it was very long, and most of it perched atop his head in the shape of a mountain hawk’s nest.  He also had very intense eyes.  They were a soft hazel color, but seemed to contain an extreme and barely harnessed power.

The dark one raised his right arm ahead of him as he stepped closer to the white‐haired man, who had frozen solid, like a vole cornered by a wolf.

“You are Kanaan of Deimos Two, heretic and conspirator against His Shadow.” Said the man in black, his voice devoid of emotion.

The old man cringed but could not speak.  He only whimpered as his legs gave out and he landed hard on his knees, causing a fresh gush of blood from his injury.

“I kill you in the name of His Shadow” said the dark one. The man started to moan as Benai heard a shrill screeching sound.  The moan was cut off abruptly when the man’s throat exploded, spewing blood in a wide arc.  His body toppled to the ground, almost in slow motion, as his nearly severed head lolled backwards.  He landed so close that Benai could have nudged him with the toe of his shoe.

Benai could barely breathe. Nor could he move as the dark one strode over to the corpse, reached down, and pulled a claw-like blade out of the man’s ruined neck. As he stood again, he spotted Benai.

Cocking his head ever so slightly, the man in black said “You are insignificant.  I will not kill you.”

Benai exhaled and went limp, his heart pounding in his ears as he almost smiled in relief.  The dark man began to walk back into the forest.

“Hey mister” Benai called after him.

The man paused and half‐turned back to look at him, still no emotion in his features.

“What did you do that for?” Benai asked.

“I do as His Shadow instructs” said the man.

Benai was confused. “But why isn’t he moving now?” he asked, pointing at the body.

“He is dead.”

“What’s ‘dead’ mean?”

Again, the dark man tilted his head.  “Dead means not alive. It means permanent cessation of all vital functions. His heart does not beat, he does not breathe, he will soon begin to  decompose and become part of the ground beneath him.”

“Oh.”

Still not understanding, and as the man in black turned away again, Benai asked one last

question.

“Can you show me how to do that?”

            “No” the man said over his shoulder. And then he was gone.

 

 

“Benai!” Danik’s voice called from the edge of the trees a few seconds later.

“I’m here Danik, not hiding anymore.”  Benai called back.  He leaned closer to examine the dead body as his friend ran up behind him.

“Where have you—“ Danik cut off, seeing the corpse.

“Look, Danik, isn’t it neat?”  Benai kicked a spray of dirt toward the vacant face on the ground, giggling as the grains of soil stuck to the inside of the open throat and the wide eyes of the head.  “I wish I could do that  to people who are mean  to me.”

“Benai, what? You can’t…”  Then Danik’s own eyes rolled back  in his head and he crumpled,  passing out.

Benai shrugged and smacked his friend hard on the cheek.  No response. Wimp.