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Home Index of Tales of Strange Adventures
"Call of the Dragon, Part I"
"Call of the Dragon, Part II"
"Ruins and Hopes"
"Shield Maiden" Cornell #3
"Warrior Eternal" Cornell #4
"Childhood of a Fighter"
"The Pledge" Cornell #5
"The Rock of Discontent"
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"A Tale of the Gods"
- Read in HTML (from Part One)
"The Miracle of Solstice Day" Cornell #6
- Read in HTML (from Chapter
One)
"Life's Values"
"Tangled Elves"
"The Pilgrims' Trial and Faith"
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by
Marc H. Wyman & Chris Bogues
“Do
you know what this is?” Shenaumac grinned, his squat figure seated on a
couch in his large, airy home. The entire building he had claimed for
himself consisted of only this single room, eerily reminiscent of
Decirius’ study – except that this place was bathed in light, the
walls clearly visible, their stark walls rising to a ceiling hundreds of
feet above them. On Shenaumac’s lap, a ball of orange fur lay curled up,
purring sounds issuing from somewhere within the ball – presumably where
the head was.
Koultirsp
hissed, “It’s a cat, that’s all.” She raised up her lithe figure,
let her three tails beat the ground behind her restlessly. “Little
good-for-nothings, that’s what they are. Couldn’t make it in the
mortal world more than two or three heartbeats. Herbivores! They can’t
even hunt for their food! Whoever was so foolish to create these – these
things?!”
Shenaumac
smiled, stroked gently the cat’s fur. “Oh, they are worth something.
You know, Tirspie, I’ve made a few enhancements to them. Just a few.
I’ll ask Decirius whether I be allowed to take care of them. What do you
think?” The latter he hadn’t addressed to the goddess but rather to
the cat, holding it up by its forelegs and grinning into its little face.
The cat hissed, disappointed that the stroking had ended, but Shenaumac
nudged its little nose with his own. In gratitude, the cat buried its
teeth in his nose – unable to pierce the god’s skin, of course.
Koultirsp
didn’t pay any attention. She was shaking her head, her tails
intertwining nervously. “Would you stop playing with that? There’s
more important business at hand!”
“Business?”
Shenaumac asked, let the cat drop back into his lap and patted it softly
on its head. “Has something happened that I should know of?”
“Has
something happened?!” Koultirsp screamed angrily. “Decirius has locked
us in! We’re not to leave the Eternal City for sixty days! Sixty bloody
days! We can’t even go to the midrealm – and those villagers there,
I’ve still got some issues with them!”
The
cat started to purr again, hesitating at first, but then it grew more
comfortable, and its noise grew louder. Smiling, Shenaumac stroked its
head. “Well, is there a reason?”
“How
can you be so calm?” the goddess whirled around and pointed a finger at
him. “Haven’t you understood what I just told you? Are you dumb? We
can’t leave! I’ve spent all morning trying to find an exit, but that
idiot Haguen has sealed up the entire circumference. We’re stuck
here!”
“Oh,
Tirspie, it’s –“
“Don’t
call me that!” Koultirsp exploded. “You know my name! And you will use
it! Or shall I destroy your little plaything, your cat? You know
you can’t stop me!”
Shenaumac
calmly continued stroking the creature. “Would you prefer me to grovel
for its survival? Is that why you’ve come here? You can’t play with
the beings in the midrealm, so you pick on me. Get it over with, I’m
busy.”
“You
won’t be busy for long!” The goddess raised her hand, ready to throw a
lightning bolt at the cat, burning it out from Shenaumac’s lap. “I
thought you had some common sense, but you don’t, you fool. Now pay the
price!” She started laughing, then twitched her fingers and sent
gleaming fire shooting through the air, straight at the cat.
The
lightning bolt dispersed before it hit its target, flaking apart into tiny
sparks that burned black holes into the couch and the walls. The cat
looked up at the disturbance, without any real interest in the lightshow,
then started licking its fur. Shenaumac clucked happily, watching the
cat’s every move enthusiastically.
“How…”
Koultirsp muttered, glancing down at her hand as if it had withered away.
“You’re the weakest of all of us, you’re just the God of Sharpened
Things. You couldn’t have –“
Shenaumac
rubbed his nose on the cat’s head, mumbling, “Looks like I did,
though.”
Emptily
the goddess shouted, “But you can’t!” She knew it was futile, but
she tried to fire another bolt of lightning. It fared no better than the
first. Enraged, Koultirsp turned around and rushed towards the exit –
remembering halfway there that she had a better way of leaving and
vanished into thin air.
The
moment she had disappeared, Shenaumac sighed painfully and raised his
head. Beads of sweat were gathering on his forehead, a grimace of pain
embedded on his face. “Thank goodness she’s gone, little one,” he
muttered to the cat. “The next one would have fried the both of us.”
Ignorant
of the meaning of the words, the cat rolled around on its back and offered
its belly for some good scratching. Shenaumac took a deep breath, then
obeyed the cat’s commands. “What I don’t do for you, my little one.
Well, now,” he then said, rolled the cat back over – it mewed
petulantly – and put it on the ground. A protesting stare from the
feline later, Shenaumac gave his right hand a twist – and a mouse
appeared dangling from his fingers.
The
cat immediately perked up, focusing its eyes on the mouse.
“Can’t
hunt,” Shenaumac repeated Koultirsp’s words sarcastically and flung
the mouse a few feet away. The rodent immediately skittered away, piping
in nervous fright.
For
good reason, it turned out a few heartbeats later when the apparently lazy
orange cat suddenly transformed into a streak of lightning shooting over
the floor, claws clattering on the marble ground. The mouse zig-zagged, tried to
escape, but the cat wasted little time before one of its paws landed
heavily on the mouse’s tail. Fangs bared, the cat proceeded to sniff the
creature, before letting it go again. For a few moments, the mouse resumed
its frantic course, then the cat shot into action once more, just as
determined and effective as before. This time, though, hunger won out, and
the fangs sunk into the mouse’s flesh.
“Herbivores!”
Shenaumac laughed. “You should have asked me about the enhancements I
made, Tirspie. Poor little Tirspie, you have no idea what
‘sharpened things’ can be good for!”
The
mouse had vanished by now, and the cat looked back towards Shenaumac, as
lazy and immobile as it had seemed before. Shenaumac chuckled, twisted his
hand twice, then he flung two mice in opposite directions. At first the
cat was entranced by the skittering, wild movements of the mice, looking
in vain for some hiding place. Then, slowly, the cat got up and trotted in
the direction of one rodent – suddenly leaping on it.
Holding
his aching side, Shenaumac settled back on his couch and watched with
utter glee how the cat played with the mice before devouring them.
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