Chapter 11 – Home

Last time on BTL: A flashback scene to Ras’ funeral along with follicle banter, a description of the Twins and who now dwelled inside them; a history of the relationship between the elves and dwarves, and a wrestling match between Dirt and Jupe highlighted the ongoing westward trip. Let’s give it up for…Home.

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I cannot stand the pain, O Lord. I have gone through two wars for you, pledged my life, my soul, and my duty for you. I have kept watched over Hell for you. I have seen countless die and be reborn for you. But this, this void, this detachment from earth and heaven…this is the cruelest kind of torture. I am away from my master, my savior, and my home. More than away, I am cut from them as a newborn babe’s lifeline is cut from the mother. I cannot sense you, I cannot hear you, I cannot be with you. Hear me, O Lord, hear my prayer. Get me home.

Wasser breathed in the musty stale air and strained against the chains that bound him. He had already opened the scars on his wrists and white blood trickled down his bound raised arms. He had been pinned against this wall for years now. And for years, he has wished he were mortal. The sheer boredom, the immense pain, the stingy guilt that he has helped create hundreds of vampires for…

“What are you thinking about, Wasser?” Arzenal squatted down on his tiptoes, rested his elbows on his knees, and put his hands to his mouth. Sticking a finger at the angel, he continued.

“Because if I observed you right, and mind you, I’m a keen observer, I believe you were having malicious thoughts against me.”

“You may think the world revolves around you, Arzenal, when in reality, you are a very tiny animal in a very large arena.” Wasser relaxed his stance. He had been working on a particularly weak link in the chain for months now.

“It’s funny you bring out the word ‘animal’. I’m thinking of one that goes ‘bah’, for instance. You know, the shepherd and his sheep, the lamb being led to the slaughter, the sacrificial lamb.” Arzenal cocked his head. “Does all this sound familiar to you?”

Wasser smirked. “You may test my faith and beliefs, Arzenal. You will not bend or break them. You will fail.” Wasser pretended to cough violently and tested the chains again. It might be possible to break the right one, he thought.

“Need a smoke for that cough?” Arzenal hopped up and swaggered toward Wasser. “You know what time it’s for, sweety? Time to make a couple more soldiers out of these fucking lowlifes. One by one I will turn them. One by one they will answer to me. And those that don’t will be torn to pieces before the day is done.” Arzenal stood eye to eye with Wasser. “And you can be damn proud that you helped.”

“NNNNNnnnyyyaahhh!” swinging his right hand out as if to hit Arzenal, Wasser broke the weak link in the chain. His follow through connected with his captor’s jaw sending him reeling backward to the ground. Freedom cost him a broken wrist. A small price to pay, and with quick thinking he turned his body away from the wall. His right wing now exposed it slashed at the left chain and cut it clean through. Turning back to the stumbling fallen angel, he pointed a shaky finger at him.

“You had better be damn happy that we are not vengeful.” His eyes bored into Arzenal’s who had just stood up when Wasser went straight up to the tall ceiling of the main cavern.

“You had better be damn happy that I still need you! Capture!” The shadows in the cavern started to move and creep upward. Then as if a starter gun blasted in a track heat, the shadow wall bolted upward in pursuit of the angel.

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Brad Himmelfarb was a man of action. He was a party man who wanted to be connected to everyone possible in every way. He had a high squeaky voice that was annoying enough to bother people’s equilibrium but not powerful enough to shatter glasses. His voice would crack when he went into his excited mode. He loved women. Women were repulsed by his insistence on showing his hairy convex shaped chest and his ten-minute reports on whether his unit was currently in the stalactite or stalagmite status. He enrolled into the ranks of his newfound hero, Burnsy. With Burnsy being his boss, he believed he would go places, see new lands, meet new women, sow the seed of love, and return a richer man. He was promised that, yes, he was.

Brad did, however, question his boss silently, just a little, when the boss and his friends went on their mission, why did he have to stand on the roof of the bar…all alone…18 periods per day?

“Security reasons, Brad.” was the legendary one’s reply. “You’re the last defense between the forces of darkness and this bar.”

Seemed reasonable enough. But still there was this question of why these forces would want to conquer a bar?

“Dumb as a rock.” said Burnsy to HS as they were heading into town. “What the sad part of this is, he’s my only real employee, thanks to Chuck.”

So Brad remained steadfast in his guarding of the bar. Three days have passed with no sign of trouble. He was getting hungry, though. He hoped the boss had told someone that he was up here. No matter, a real warrior would be able to stand the tests of hunger, pain, and suffering. Still a piece of chicken…

Off to the south, miles in the distance, a mountaintop exploded with a column of white light. Brad quickly got out a large circular piece of glass and held it up between the light and his eye. The glass focused onto a winged male that was flying straight up away from the mountain. Blinking and rubbing his eyes he refocused. He saw the figure looking downward where a seeping darkness, living moving darkness coming out of the mountain grabbed his legs to stop his flight. Wings, powerful and deadly swiped at the darkness, cutting deep into it. As the wings shredded the darkness, more strands shot out from the mountain and grabbed a hold of the angel’s waist. The angel arched his back trying to lift himself from the hold. He would move a few feet stretching the darkness. But the shadows would rebound and grab higher onto the angel’s chest. Lifting, stretching, but never breaking the hold, the darkness stopped the ascension of the angel and started to drag him back down to the ground. Never giving up, the angel’s powerful wings gave one last stroke, but to no avail. Through the glass Brad saw the darkness creep up the neck of the angel. Brad’s body shivered when the angel let out one last silent scream as the darkness engulfed him. The living wall of blackness then shot back down into the mountain. The angel and darkness were not seen again.

Trembling, Brad dropped the scope. Unphased by the shattering of the glass, he turned and climbed down the ladder and walked into the bar. He was going to get wasted tonight.

**********

The terrain we were riding on was definitely turning into a mountainous venue. At this point I was glad Chuck was the leader because he knew time-saving shortcuts and the easiest routes to go through. As usual, Jupe and HS had the point every now and then coming back to report any unusual activity, smells, or sights; Butress and I, with Lil Skold’s songs (which ranged from Morrissey to Yes) were barded behind us.

“Do you believe in God?” I asked Butress out of the blue.

He smiled and turned his head up to the sky. “You know, the most important part of a person is to believe in himself. Your own confidence comes from within. And when you know something is true, you’ve studied, pondered, discussed it amongst peers and family…” he turned his head to me, “then one really doesn’t have to answer that question out loud, does he?”

“Yeah, but, do you believe?”

“I believe the bitches, yes, they do love me cuz I shock. Oh look! We’re here!” He booted his horse and it trotted forward passed Skold and Gunblaze; an obvious and successful attempt at not having to answer the question.

As I smiled at him, I noticed Jupe looking back at the group with a grin as wide as it was long.

“Food! Real food! Ha haw! Yeah, baby!”

As I topped a ridge I looked down into paradise as I have never seen it before. A cabin nestled into the base of a mountain, a stream of smoke coming from its chimney, and a family doing the chores around the land. Two boys were playing in the stream that bowed behind the house and who appeared to be a mom getting onto them for getting her wet as she washed clothes. A rather large man, he must be large because he looked big all the way from here, was tilling a row of sweet corn with the help of two horses in front of the plow.

Two younger women came out of the house carrying platters of homegrown food. They were taking it to a large table situated underneath a large shade tree. With those two plates of food were jugs of beverages of any kind, vegetables, and steaks for the hungry carnivore.

We were hungry carnivores.

The man with the plow dropped his reins as he saw our party descend into his valley. Taking his hat off and banging it against his leg to get the dust out, he walked up to Chuck as he got off the horse.

“Funny how you get here right as dinner is ready.”

“Mama didn’t raise no dummy.” replied Chuck. He looked over the area and then at the eyes of the man before him. “It’s good to see you, Gr8.”

Gr8 grinned. “You too, old man.”

They gave each other a hug and pats on the back from which dust flew from each other.

Chuck turned Gr8 to look at us. “Gr8. I want you to meet my clan, my party…” and this is what surprised me, “…my friends.”

We each got down from our horses and shook the hands of the very large farmer. Gr8 looked me over since I was now blue-skinned but I described it as a rather serious rash. I could tell that he didn’t believe a word of it, but he chose not to further the matter.

Gr8’s family started to gather around as we took our horses to a barn behind the house. Burnsy trotted his horse past me.

“You smell that?! Them’s the aromas of food, stinky! Hurry that ole mare up! And get that horse a goin’ too! Ha!”

As I was walking my horse, Chubs, into the barn everyone was pushing their way out to the long dinner table now being set up by our hosts. I tied Chubs down and patted her on the neck. I gave her a mint and thanked her for her hard work to get me this far. As I turned around I noticed a girl sticking her head in a rather large bucket of water. She made gurgling sounds and then snapped her head out of the water and her long brown hair arched over her head and smacked onto her back. She turned around and grabbed a towel off a nearby tree limb. I praised my father and all the gods for letting me be in direct eyesight of her for she had no shirt on.

My luck ran out as she at once spotted me with my mouth open. I clicked it shut as soon as she stared at me.

“You looking for something, blue man?”

In my head I wanted desperately to say, ‘Hell, yes, I’m looking and found a place to rest my weary head.’ Instead I squeaked out, “N-no. Just uh, looking, um, around.” My face started to heat up.

She put on a leather vest that needlessly but praisefully pushed her bosoms together. She twisted her hair to wring the excess water and started to walk towards the front of the house. “Food’s this way. Seems like you are hungry with that mouth of yours being open.”

So I floated and stumbled and “buh-hed” behind her, not realizing that I was giggling like a schoolgirl out loud. We rounded the corner and the rest of the gang were seating themselves.

“How are you able to keep this piece of paradise going, Gr8?” asked Butress.

Grabbing a leg of chicken, Gr8 replied, “It hasn’t been without a price. Freedom and independence never are.” He took a bite and then waved the piece of meat in the air. “Back during the Expulsion War when the dwarves were driven out of their stronghold, our home was constantly attacked day or night by the elves who were attacking the retreating dwarves and the hordes of creatures that were going into the sister mountain and calling it their own.”

“Criminy! It’s a miracle you’re still here!” cried Burnsy.

“We all didn’t make it.” Gr8 took a long drink from his ale. “My wife and baby girl aren’t here with us.” There was a silence.

“Why didn’t you just leave?” asked HS.

Gr8 seemed shocked at the question. “How can you leave your home and birthplace…even if you die and it is destroyed!? At least you can stare down your maker and your demons and say you fought them to your last breath and stood up Fear like the bastard it is!”

I looked around at my friends who couldn’t make eye contact. I, too, hung my head and played around with the food on my plate. I felt like a coward sitting across from a man who had lost so much.

“And that is why I have agreed to help you. Chuck tells me you may be able to scare out the creatures who are living in the dwarven mountain.” Gr8 flashed a smile. “Maybe extract a little revenge on them lil shits.”

“Cover your ears, Skold.” Gunblaze said calmly.

The girl who I had seen “personally” came over and filled Gr8’s flagon.

“Thank you, Grace.” Gr8 looked up at her. “Grace, here, has lost more than I have. She used to live around the river bend. The orcs burned her house last cycle…and her family…alive.”

I looked at Grace again and caught a hint of serene sadness within her that I hadn’t seen before. She put her hand on Gr8’s shoulder and managed a slight smile. I felt a heavy guilt for seeing this girl in some sexual way when she had so much burden to bear.

“In fact, she wanted to go back to her house and see if she could salvage any valuables that might be left. Chuck tells me you people are staying for one day and I need to work on the crops.”

Seeing the opening that Gr8, bless his heart, was creating, I put my hand up, probably too quickly, but nonetheless said, “I’ll go with her.”

Grace looked over at me a gave me a wry grin.

“Besides,” I held my drink at her, “I need to reintroduce myself.”

“Good, let’s make it so! For now…” Gr8 outstretched his arms, “let’s feast and make the most of a gorgeous day!”

And we did.

After the meal, we played catch and sang songs around Skold and the fire. We told tales and stories and jokes each time trying to one up each other. Burnsy was disappointed that he could not translate his “How do you make a girl scream during sex?” joke into Acadian. Laughter rang throughout the night, underneath the watchful eye of the Twin Sister mountains…and those who were within.

-Next….”Ruin”