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Blood And Rocks Chapta 1 | |
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Chapta 1 |
About a year and a half later… The Mason worked in darkness. Light meant little when you were blind and so he did not bother with any of the crude light sources available to his people. Working slowly and carefully, for any mistake could unleash upon him the very powers that were intended to be targeted at his enemies he made the necessary carvings in the stones. Each stone had already been ground into the perfect shape and in doing so some of the power granted to The Mason had been passed to them. Now though the carvings he made performed the dedication, attuning the stone to the necessary power. “Are they ready yet?” a voice called out as the tent flap was pulled back. “Be careful you fool!” The Mason snapped back, “Do you have any idea of what could happen if I make a mistake?” “Yeah, yeah,
untold damage from powers beyond our comprehension.” The man stand at the
entrance to the tent replied, “Now are they ready?” “Of course. That was why I was chosen for this. I’ve worked on a farm, I know animals. Though how taking these stones and-“ the man replied as he picked a single stone from the box and examined it. “You do not need to understand!” The Mason interrupted him angrily and he slapped the hand that held the stone. The man returned it to the box, frowning as he wondered how the blind man had known where his had was to strike it, ”Just get out of here and do your job. I have mien to do.” The Mason concluded and he turned around and went back to his workbench where he was carving a single stone much larger than any of those in the box given to the other man. “Show me!” the largest ork snapped and the human farmer flinched. “Of course, please come this way.” The farmer replied and he led the ork mob around the side of the farmhouse to where his barn door stood open, “It’s all been affected.” He said, “Every field was the same.” And he went into the barn where the bodies of animals were lined up. Each of the bodies was in a similar condition, with blisters and sores around their mouths and eyes. “So bugs did dis?” the ork nob said, frowning. As the leader of a trading caravan Prurglor dealt with many of the humans in this region, offering them his protection in exchange for deals that were more favourable to him. He was used to humans telling him of attacks by feral ork warbands that needed dealing with, but an infestation of insects that had wiped out an entire herd was something different. “Yes that’s right.” The farmer said, “I don’t know where they came from but they bit my herd while they grazed and infected them. Now can you help me?” “Aye, we can burn ya fields for ya.” Prurglor answered, “We gots about a dozen burnas and loads of fuel for ‘em. Just show us where we should start burnin’.” “Oh thank you, please come this way.” The farmer led the ork nob to the nearest of his fields and began to suggest a pattern for setting light to them that would drive away the insects that were the source of the trouble. Prurglor yawned, uninterested in this but knowing that the mekboy standing close behind him was taking careful note. Meanwhile other orks now began to drag the bodies of the herd from the barn. Selling the bodies to the orks cheaply was the only way that the farmer had to get the money to begin rebuilding his herd. They may be considered inedible by humans, but it would take more than a few insect bites to put orks off their meat and soon there were gretchin crawling over the bodies and slicing bits off. Idly Prurglor kicked at the ground where the corner of a rock was sticking out of the mud and he kicked it loose. Then he noticed that the rock was a regular shaped and he bent down to pick it up. “Wot’s dis den?” he said as he held up the engraved piece of stone. Then he glared at the farmer and added, “Wotcha ‘idin’ in dis field?” “I don’t know what it is.” The farmer answered defensively, “I’ve never seen it before.” “Well it was in ya field. Wot does dese marks mean?” and Prurglor shoved the stone towards the farmer, flipping it over so that he could see the eight pointed star on one side and the cluster of three rings on the other. “I told you I don’t know. I-“ the farmer began before he was interrupted by a scream from a gretchin. Both the farmer and Prurglor looked around to where the dead herd was being cut up and they saw that one of the animals had burst open, its swollen and discoloured entrails spilling out over the ground. But within the guts of the animal there was something moving and the gretchin that had been caught by surprise while on top of the body was jabbing at it with his knife. “’Elp me!” the gretchin called out, “I bein’ attacked.” But around him orks just looked on and laughed. At least that was until another of the bodies also burst open and a swarm of tiny humanoid creatures spilled out. “Runts!” Prurglor yelled, believing that these creatures were snotlings, the smallest of the humanoid greenskin subspecies. But as he strode over to where they had burst out of the dead animal he saw that the creatures were something else entirely. He bent down and scooped up one of the creatures to inspect it more closely. It was more rotund and its face looked lopsided. The creature stared at him and spat a thick lump of mucus into his face before letting out an evil cackling sound. “I’ll ‘ave ya for dat!” Prurglor snapped and he clapped his hands together, crushing the creature between them before dropping it to the floor. But to his amazement the flattened creature simply shook itself back into shape before rushing at him and biting his ankle even through the thick leather of his boot. Prurglor yelled out in both pain and anger and was just about to draw his sword when he heard more cries of alarm, both human and greenskin. Looking around he saw that more of the dead animals were now bursting open and creatures were emerging from within them. Some were tiny such as the one currently attempting to eat Prurglor’s boot, but others were the size of a full-grown ork. As Prurglor watched one of these larger creatures it reached back into the animal it had just hatched from and pulled out what looked like a sword grown from bone. Prurglor swung his sword downwards, cutting the tiny creature from his boot and then he raised the weapon above his head and let out a mighty shout. “Waaargh!” This attracted the attention of every greenskin in his caravan and they all came rushing to see what was happening, holding whatever weapons they had. What they saw was the orks and gretchin assigned to cut up the dead animals now battling with the creatures that had emerged from within them and they ran forwards to join in the battle. Hazug Throatslitter of the Blood Axe clan pushed the smaller orks aside, knowing that if he did not then there was the real risk that the servants he had with him, two humans and a gretchin could be crushed underfoot. No doubt any ork that did such a thing would claim the incident to be an unfortunate accident but Hazug would still have to beat them to death anyway just to be sure and then he would have to find new servants. Therefore, annoying a few orks who were smaller than him anyway seemed like the most efficient solution. He had brought his servants along with him to the fighting pits, the cluster of arenas where orks gathered to watch others battle. Sometimes these fights were to settle disagreements between orks or as a method of punishing wrongdoers, but sometimes they were purely for fun since all greenskins found all forms of violence entertaining. Tonight the fights Hazug was interested in seeing were taking place in the main central arena, the largest one where only the fights expected to be most entertaining would take place. “Where are we going Hazug?” Sophie asked. Sophie had been in Hazug’s service longer than her younger sister Salia, but this was the first time that he had brought either of them here. “To da front.” Hazug replied simply as he delivered another shove to an ork who’s crude clothing gave him away as a Snake Bite. The Snake Bite whirled around, roaring in anger at being pushed in such a manner. But when he saw Hazug towering over him he fell silent. Hazug was a nob; an ork who’s many victories had caused him to grow to a significantly larger size than most orks. To greenskins bigger meant better and might made right and the Snake Bites were the most socially conservative of all the ork clans, unlike the Blood Axes. So instead of challenging Hazug the Snake Bite simply moved away. “No good bleedin’ git lovin’ Blood Axe.” The Snake Bite muttered. “Kill ‘im master!” a high-pitched voice snapped from behind Hazug. This was Ratish Brownskin, Hazug’s ever-faithful grim encrusted gretchin servant. Appearing as a miniature ork gretchin invariably existed as servants and labourers in ork society and Ratish was no exception to this. “We aint got da time.” Hazug replied as he continued to push towards the edge of the arena, ”Look, da fight’s about to start.” Sure enough one of the gates to the area had opened and a pair of orks dressed in the traditional black of the Goffs clan emerged, dragging a cluster of humans behind them in chains. The crowd jeered at the sight of these men while the Goffs released them from their chains and tossed crude orkish knives at their feet before retreating through the gate and closing it behind them to seal the humans in the arena. “Who are they?” Sophie asked worriedly, “Hazug shouldn’t we go and help them?” “Dey is gits. Let ‘em die master.” Ratish said. “How can we just stand here and watch them die for no reason?” Salia then asked. “Dare is a reason.” Hazug told them, “Dat Thayne sent ‘em ‘ere for it. I just don’t knows wot it is.” “Thayne?” Sophie replied. Dariel Thayne was the head of the local human police force, responsible for maintaining order in the area known to the orks as Git Town where most of the nearby humans who had originally controlled the world resided. As part of the deal between the humans and the orks human criminals would occasionally be sent to fight in the pits to entertain the orks, thus saving the humans the trouble of dealing with them. Before Hazug
could respond another gate opened and the orks began to cheer. Looking in
the direction of the gate Hazug and his servants watched as a single
slender figure emerged. At first glance the figure could have been
mistaken for a human female, but she was thinner than most humans tended
to be and her limbs were longer. Though it was a detail too small to
notice from where Hazug and his servants were located the eldar possessed
finely pointed ears. Mayleth was an eldar, a species closely related to humans but far more ancient. Mayleth was part of a faction that made their home in a pocket dimension from which they mounted raids into realspace to gather the slaves they depended onto. Unlike Hazug’s other servants she had been captured in battle, but for now at least seemed happy to serve the ork. Part of this service involved her frequent appearance in the fighting pits where she had gathered something of a following; therefore her appearance was cause for the orks to celebrate. Armed with a single long curved blade Mayleth suddenly broke into a run, heading directly for the cluster of human men and the cheers from the orks grew louder. The humans remained huddled together for mutual protection, still unsure of whether Mayleth was the only opponent they would face or if orks would shortly swarm into the arena as well. Within inhuman speed and agility Mayleth charged the humans and at the last moment she leapt into the air, somersaulting over the heads of her opponents. She kept her body straight as she turned in the air and held out her dagger. Expertly aimed, the blade sliced an ear from one of the men and he let out an ear-piercing scream as he dropped his weapon and clutched at his injury. The humans turned as Mayleth landed and the eldar woman grinned at them evilly before rushing at them once more. This time she moved at an angle and slashed at the closest human as she passed him. The strike sliced open his abdomen and he collapsed, struggling to try and contain the parts of him that came spilling out onto the ground while Mayleth ground to a halt once more beyond the reach of her opponents who had yet to even try and land a blow on her in return and turned to face them again, staring at each in turn. One of the men panicked and he turned and broke away from the group. “No! Get back here!” another of the humans yelled at him but it was too late. Mayleth sprang into motion and in a moment she was already flying through the air to land on his back. Ignoring her dagger she instead drove her fingers into his eyes and he screamed as the fleshy orks were crushed without damaging the weak bone behind them. “My eyes!” he yelled as he brought hi hands up to his face. Instead of finishing the man off there and then Mayleth left him staggering about, blind and helpless as the orks let out another cheer. “Quick get her!” one of the remaining men yelled and he charged as Mayleth was still releasing her grasp on her blinded victim. The man reached out ahead of himself and the tips of his fingers brushed against Mayleth’s arm. In retaliation she brought her dagger upwards and used the razor sharp blade to remove the hand that had dared touch her before the point was pushed between the man’s ribs. The rest of the humans stopped in their tracks and stared. Another of them tried to run, but instead of heading towards the gate they had entered the arena through he made a break for the wall that surrounded it. He jumped up and tried to drag himself over the wall, but as soon as he reached the top one of the many cheering orks paused his cheering to reach out and punch him in the face, much to the amusement of the surrounding orks. Even as the man fell back Mayleth was already bounding towards him and as he picked himself up she struck from behind. The blow was a clean kill, her razor sharp dagger slicing his head from his shoulders and at the same time as she began to somersault back towards the last few remaining humans she kicked the severed head into the cheering crowd before it even hit the ground. Seeing Mayleth coming back at them the humans suddenly split up, each hoping that she would tire herself out by attacking the others first. But the dark eldar drew sustenance from the fear and suffering of their victims and right now there was plenty of those for Mayleth to draw upon for strength. It took just a moment for her to see the most efficient path to follow for her to be able to kill each of them in turn. Then with only the blind man still staggering about at random she halted in the centre of the arena and basked in the reaction of the crowd that had gathered to watch her. “Dat was crap master.” Ratish said,” Dey was just gits.” Salia and Sophie both looked down at the gretchin. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Salia asked, “There must have been a dozen of them.” “Yeah but gits is puny.” Ratish said. “We’re both
bigger than you.” Sophie pointed out, “So what does that say?” Sure enough
the gate that the humans had entered through opened once more and the
crowd fell relatively quiet as they waited to see what would emerge next.
Mayleth herself turned and watched. Her keen eldar hearing caught the
sound of pounding feet and a moment later a group of orks wearing thick
metal armour marched into view. The staggering blind turned towards the
sound, unable to see what was heading for him. Mayleth smiled as she saw the gate swing shut behind her new opponents. The warm up was over and now was time for the real fight. Making it look casual she cast her dagger aside, the weapon landing point first and embedding itself in the dirt of the arena and this provoked another loud cheer from the ork crowd, most of who knew exactly what this meant. She intended to kill them all with her bare hands. Given that many of the combatants in the fighting pits were unwilling participants there was a collection of cells constructed beneath them and after the fight it was here that Hazug came with Ratish, Salia and Sophie. However they did not come here to see a prisoner, instead the cell where Mayleth had first been held after her capture had been converted into a form of dressing room. The door to this stood wide open and now that her participation in the evening’s entertainment was over she had returned here to relax. Upon entering the cell they discovered what little clothing the dark eldar wych wore in the arena scattered about while she sat in a large fluid filled tub, her head leant back over the edge. But where either Salia or Sophie might fill a bath with water the fluid that came up to Mayleth’s neck was crimson in colour. “Is that blood?” Salia asked nervously. This was the first time she had visited this place. “Of course it
is mon keigh.” Mayleth replied calmly lifting a single leg up into the air
and them lowering it again, “I defeated my enemies in battle and now I
bathe in their blood. Well their blood plus some water the smaller beasts
brought me. Unfortunately there was not enough blood to fill this tub
completely and blood on its own tends to congeal rather too quickly so it
required diluting. But still there is enough for me to be able to sense
the echo of the last moments of their lives. I can feel the bitterness of
their fear and the sweetness of their pain.” Then she looked at Salia and
Sophie and smiled, “Come, remove your clothes and join me.” She suggested
and the sisters glanced at one another. “Together?” Mayleth asked and then she smiled again as both Salia and Sophie scowled. Then she turned her attention to Hazug, “So tell me my master, did my performance meet with your approval? Or have you come here to deliver punishment?” “Ya did good.” Hazug said as he sat on a nearby bench, “Fourteen teeth.” He added and he held up a small pouch that contained his winnings and shook it. “I am glad I have pleased you my master.” Mayleth said. It was then that another ork appeared in the cell doorway. Like Hazug he was a nob, but unlike Hazug who wore clothing with a camouflage pattern this ork wore the yellow and blue of the Bad Moons clan. “Hazug.” He said gruffly, “Da boss wants to see ya. ‘E wants to see ya now.” “Did ‘e say wot for?” Hazug asked. “No ‘e didn’t. If ya wants to know ya can ask ‘im yaself.” “Come on.” Hazug said to Ratish, “We better go see wot ‘e wants.” And he stood up. Then he saw that both Salia and Sophie were making their way to the cell door as well, “Nah.” He said, “Ya better both wait ‘ere. Ya never know if da boss is in da mood to ‘ave human visitors dis late at night.” “Yeah.” Ratish added with a grin, “Gits just get us in trouble.” And he stuck his tongue out at them. “Mayleth, keep an eye on dem.” Hazug said, “Wait ‘ere until we gets back.” “Of course my master.” Mayleth said without looking at him in return. Then as Mayleth continued to lie back in her bath of blood Salia and Sophie just watched Hazug leave.
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