Red twilight Demon of the Flowers chapter 28

Chapter 28 Ghost Dog

Realm: Nimh

Location: Dagger Pass, East Ilse

Chrono Sphere: 20-04

It is the thaw, for weeks the ground has been frozen, endless snowfall has halted any travel across the land. The last 27 sessions have been an age of endless bloodshed. The Giaidren and the Usagi have been locked in an endless battle. Every ship constructed by the two clans have been sank. Every town in East Ilse outside of the bunkers and military camps have been abandon or burned.

Two armies gather at the foot of Ceto Spier, the last and largest alliances of Kobolts and Usagi stand facing the army of Giaidren. Mice and Rabbits stand to fight Wolves in a glories struggle. Hundreds of thousands of bodies line up, shields and spears shine in the sun, swords and axes rest at sides, drums thunder, flags fly. The battle at hand is one that will shape the world in the next generation.

Shogun Kuro is the greatest and mightiest rabbit; he stands large as a wolf, he requires no armor as he walks through the snow, his chest bear, a sword that looks like a sharpened galley oar. By the side of the Shogun walks two trusted friends: Setkora, a scribe, and Henson, a beast tamer. Also, with them walks a single mouse maiden, Jessica the Weaver, a wizard from the Southland.

Kuro looks out across the battlefield as the sun crest the sky. The Shogun takes a deep breath placing a hand on the back of a soldier that stand before him, a young girl, one that looks far too young to be on this field, her name is Aki. The Shogun laughs hardy "Tell me, what do you feel on the wind?"

Aki watches across the field "Fear," Aki explains "I have overheard my brothers whispering, the dogs, some are so strong as to crush two rabbits with one snap of their jaws, and eat a mouse whole."

The scribe explains "we must hold this line today shogun. If we do not take the hill before sundown tonight, we never will."

The shogun bellows mightily "hear them not, today victory will be ours."

The Rabbits wave flags, bet drums and ready themselves as the last minutes before the charge. A whistle blows in the distance. 'The Iron Mare' constructed by the mice 107 sessions ago. Horse fifteen mice tall, twenty wide, thirty-five long. Iron Mare eats 100lbs of metal a day. She is so powerful she can hold in her carriage the weight of 10,000,000 rabbits. she can drag behind her a million pounds of cargo. She can lift a boat singlehandedly. Then run from one side of the island to the other in an hour.

Everyone to come to the island has wanted to learn the secrets of the Iron Mare. That is what the wolves wanted, that is what the rabbits needed, and that is what the mice bring to the war. The largest and most beautiful of machines, artisans of legendary skill.

Wagons are pushed to the front line, atop them sit many loaded crossbows, many strings netting them together, barrels of chains hang off one side filled with thousands of arrows each. A cog and wheel on the back that is used to draw the many strings. This is the newest and most frightening machine the mice have constructed.

Jessica mounts her staff in the ground leaning on it. She speaks to the Shogun "Kuro, do not order the kobolts to use the new bows." Her glasses glow in the soft light.

Kuro flips his sword around staking it in the ground, he whispers with Jessica "why?"

"if these bows fire, you will experience fear like no other," Jessica explains.

"can we win this war without the mice war machine?" Kuro asks

"I don't know." Jessica expresses.

"then I will do what we must."

Horns blow. The wolves charge across the field. Kuro shouts orders "Hensin, take your beast to 3ed rank, hook the flanks. Satkura, ready the spears. Hold your swords high. Every rabbit will fight, we fall, or we stand with our countryman. Glory today, or never!"

Aki watches the dogs get ever closer; she shakes, she digs her feet into the ground, she has never seen blood spilled. She shutters filled with fear. Kuro standing behind Aki, he grabs her by the arms "hold your sword tight. I have given you this blade, and I stand by you. I have given you, the youngest of my sword barriers three maneuvers the will humble any beast if only you dare to strike."

The Shogun's eyes narrow, the dogs are at the tree Setkura named 'Midway' now is the time to let the arrows fly. Kuro points to his bannerets. The knight holds his flag overhead; the mice fire the bows. Drum's hammer, the drums will never stop beating.

The wheels turn on the bows; arrows fill the air. Each bow is firing a thousand arrows a minute. The sky grows dark. The power of the bolts shatters bone, brakes swords, bends shields. The arrows fly so far and fast they seem to splinter on contact with the earth. The speed at which the bolts come is like nothing the wolves have ever seen.

Before the wolves are even within range to fire their bows and slings back, the volley of mice arrows has halved the wolves' forces. The wolves will be quartered before they are in range to draw their swords.

The machines of the mice are more horrifying then Kuro could have imagined. The Shogun folds his hands in 'the prayer of nine cuts,' grass turns to red clay underfoot. Wolves hold up shields pulling in tight to protect each other. Only five minutes of arrow fire has slain more dogs than days of hand to hand battle could have.

Hensin and his beast charge in from the sides once the arrow fire has stopped. Swordsmen brake ranks to run into the field to fight off the remainder of the wolf front line. In an unheard-of demonstration of strength, dogs fall before rabbits at a rate of nearly 200 to 1.

Before the sun has reached its zenith, the battlefield lay baron; hardly a whimper can be heard from the wolf camp. Kuro stands stunned, his sword-barriers having never needed to make naked their blade.

It is clear the battle is over. Mice and rabbits alike throw their hands up in celebration, all but Kuro and his advisers. The four oldest and most timeworn warriors feel an overwhelming melancholy "Setkura," Kuro speaks lost in the sadness of silence "I want boats, fill them with does, and send them to the ten nearest lands to us. I want flowers. 1 million of them. planted here, under my feet." Setkura nods, "Hensin, take these bows, bend them around the trees. Never again will we fire them."

Jessica places a hand on Kuro's back. Kuro lowers his head "we have slain a generation; their sacrifice had no honor." He rests a hand on Jessica's head "the monks from the wolf clan told tails of a field of endless color. We will make this battlefield into the wolves' holy place."

"Aki,' Kuro looks to the rabbit guard that he stands with "Gather the doe' start digging graves. We must sanctify this ground, Jessica, go with them and ready the dead for their final journey."

***

The sun burns in the sky, the smell of blood stains the air. The bodies of wolves are thrown high atop a pile. The does work hard to dig graves for the fallen. A single wolf girl, cold and dead takes an unexpected breath. The does digging near hear a squeal and one point at the newly animated dead. The wolf opens her eyes, a blue-white light shimmering in her eyes.

A hand full of rabbits point at the wolf as she dizzily pushes herself up to all fours. Many rabbits' whisper all sorts of strange phrases leave their lips: "A Krishna!" one explains, "the Buddha?" another inquires.

Jessica is pulled over by a rabbit child who points her to the waking wolf. The wolf slides her head down picking up a chain of wooden beads; a gold triangle burns into her scalp, a glowing blue ring appear around her eyes. The fur of the once dead wolf sparkles as the color burns out of it. She has turned whiter than snow.

As the wolf finds her feet, Jessica waves the does behind her. The mouse maiden grips her staff in both hands waiting to see what happens next. Jessica's glasses shimmer in the light her eyes sparkle pink behind them as Jessica taps into her ancient power studying the monster before her.

Hensin shouts to Jessica and the others as he dashes to their aid sword in hand "Jessica!"

Jessica tries yelling to Hensin "Stay away!" she offers a warning to the beat tamer

Hensin is a courageous rabbit; he fails to break his stride as he charges the undead wolf women. Hensin draws his sword overhead shouting a powerful "Kie-Ie" the battle cry of the Bushi family.

The white wolf jumps sideways sliding out of Hensin's reach; the beastmaster follows the momentum of his sword spinning into the wolf to slash at her again. The shadow of the wolf grows many arms, the shadow of the dog grabs the shadow of the rabbit, Hensin's physical body reacts to his shadow being touched as if he was struck. The rabbit is lifted into the air by the shadow then throwing to the ground.

Setkura sees something is astray and rushes in to join the fight. The scribe takes a takes a bow from a nearby warrior. He draws the bow and fires on the wolf. The shadow of the wolf pulls away from the ground to catch the arrow. The shadow howls, many rabbits crouch and back away from the sound as the wolfs howl shakes the ground.

The wolf looks to Jessica; the beast tries to throw its voice at the Weaver, Jessica is pushed for a moment but then smalls the staff of Kari into the ground throwing a protective wall around herself to stop the magical attack.

Jessica pushes her way ever closer to the wolf, her ears wiggle, her nose twitches. Light burns from the staff, Jessica's divinity neutralizing the power of the demon wolf. "that smell, the shape of your eyes. You have the blood of a Worldwalker in your veins."

The wolf's eyes are filled with fears; her head turns side to side searching for some form of understanding. She is confused; she is lost. The wolf struggles to understand the event she has just seen; she is not attacking the rabbits of her own will, she is acting on instinct, she is protecting herself. "I am Vevavita-una." The wolf expresses.

Jessica squints "Una?" she thinks aloud "Hetatsubachi?" she whispers.

More and more rabbits gather around: Kuro in the lead, Aki standing in his shadow, Hensin, Setkura, then dozens more.

For a moment Vita's eyes soften, she is starting to calm, beginning to understand. As the rabbits close in, Vita lowers her head and snarls. Fire burns in the wolf's eyes. The ghost hound thrust out with her will, dirt and rock are thrown in the air, wind howls. Rabbits are pushed away, Jessica presses one hand to the back of her staff forcing her will against Vita's.

Jessica looks back to the army "flee." She orders "I will face her."

Hensin and Setkura turn to Kuro. Kuro grunts, he has never trusted the mice. But Jessica, she is blessed. She has powerful magic, everyone has seen it. Kuro shouts to his army "back away! This battle belongs to the Weaver."

Vita calms herself. Jessica stands before her, the two wait and watch. Eyes lock, once the rabbits have moved back 50 body lengths as Vita's shadow returns to her body. Jessica addresses Vita "Return to the wolf camp. I will follow you."

***

Vita and Jessica walk together across the rivers of the dead. The camp is empty it seems. Vita is the only wolf warrior left in the camp. Vita turns to the mouse at her side "where am I? what am I?"

Jessica placed a hand on the wolfs side "when you were asleep, did a dragon specter visit you?"

Vita nods her head "I was."

Jessica turns her eyes upwards "you are what I am. You are one of the eternal Worldwalkers."

Vita ask "how, why?"

Jessica explains "metamorphosis. You shed your skin and emerged in the shape you are now. Death was the catalyst of life."

A flock of feathers flashes before the two followed by a flood of butterflies. Loki emerges from the cloud of feathers Hetatsubachi quickly behind. Loki smiles, standing next to the tiny 3-foot Jessica and Loki in his elf shape stands a mammoth 6 feet. "Vita." Loki calls attention to himself "you are more amazing looking then I could have hoped."

Vita squeals happily "Grandma!" she runs over to Loki but freezes as she spots Hetatsubachi. "what are…?"

Loki waves to Hetatsubachi, letting the two look each other over "effectively your clone. Vita, you are made up of all the duplicated, redundant or unusable peace of the spirit that could not be copied onto Ami during her transformation."

Hetatsubachi narrows his eyes looking up to Loki "Transformed, not birthed?" Hetatsubachi takes a moment to try to remember the ritual he participated in "I thought that Ami was going to give birth to our wolf goddess."

"I guess that depends on what you think the word birth means. During the transformation, a birth accrued. Two children in fact. Both of them being equal parts of Asgard and demon. And both having abnormally powerful influence over arcana."

Tatsu looks Vita up and down a few times; he walks around her admiring her shape "she looks healthy."

Jessica steps in tapping her staff to the ground. "If I may step in on this conversation." She looks between Loki and Tatsu "What are you doing in my land? And what sort of ritual magic are we alluding to?"

Loki smiles "I so would hope someone would ask me that." Loki sways her hips as she reaches down to pet Jessica between the ears. Jessica places her staff to Loki's hand to push it off to one side. Loki shrugs and explains "I have harvested the blood of the Tamriel. I have mixed the blood of Chaos with the blood of Mammon to create a new Tamriel. One I can control, one we can use to fight Cravixs when he comes looking for us."

Jessica snorts "Never have I heard such buffoonery!" She takes a deep breath pushing her chest out trying to look intimidating "What sort of foolishness have you subjected us to?"

Loki tips her head to try to look cute but condescending "there is much truly complicated math and chemistry behind what I have done. It involves much recycling of denominators to transform a roboid acid into a nucleic acid, hundreds of years of genome manipulation."

Jessica looks to Tatsu "and what part did you play in all of this."

Tatsu throws his paws in the air with a shrug "I came here looking for you because I want your help in reclaiming the Steel Rose."

With all haste, Loki changes the subject "Before we do anything stupid. I would like to ask your help with something."

Tatsu growls "Last time you asked me for help I was drugged and sexually assaulted."

Loki sneers "You are welcome. But this time no drugs will be involved."

Jessica pushes her glasses up on her nose, "and what is the nature of this work you are asking of us?"

Vita lowers her head looking disappointed "Loki must mean my sister." Loki nods.

Jessica shakes her head in irritation "why must I spend so much of my time cleaning up after irresponsible wizards?"

Hetatsubachi growls "what did you do Loki?"