The Skull Knight

Prologue

There are those who say there might have been ‘something’ before what we speak of as ‘the beginning of everything’. That ‘Something’ itself must have had had no beginning, ancient beyond any concept of ancient. From this eternal ‘something’, universes arose, including ours.

The problem with eternal things is they must be unaffected by time. They have to always remain exactly the same all the way through time. So how could this ‘something’ begin making the universes, frozen as it was in unchanging existence? Therefore, we know this ‘something’ must be beyond our understanding.

Science suggests that, at a fundamental level, the tiniest parts of matter that make up reality are vibrating; perhaps they are only waves and oscillations? Rationally, if that is the case, if you can make the waveform, you can make the particle. One might then see these tiny particles of reality as being the notes in a musical piece that becomes the universe. This ‘song of being’, however, would incorporate sonances and harmonies far beyond any human music.

This is, of course, the issue with trying to understand our universe. We can only relate it to the things we can know, with concepts that fit within our limited brains. We must take on faith things are beyond us.

Therefore, our story begins with such a creation. It was, and is, spoken into being with a cacophony of countless words, the sounds of voices causing cascades of frequencies, ringing, sustaining and changing over time.

The earliest beings were made to be singers in this choir of existence. Helpers in the great work. As such, they watched in amazement as their smaller songs were orchestrated into the great harmony, which was complete and flawless. The singers could inhabit the lands of their songs in wonder and joy.

In those days, the first beings also ranged to and fro without limit. Because their tasks and roles were to help in the ‘singing and making’, they learned many secrets behind the foundation of the matter universe to come. Things hidden in deep ancient time, principles of great power.

The first beings were guided by the 70, hand chosen for purpose. Their individual specialties of rule make no sense to us now in this physical world, but they were the lords of creation. At the head of the 70 were the four arch-rulers, the ‘great-lights’. Beyond and above even them, was the one whose existence made existence.

One day Helel, the lead singer in the songs of making and being, was absent from the council of 70. There was much consternation as this had never occurred before. The council was disturbed as to how they should proceed. Helel’s role was vital. Helel was the first of the great lights. The oldest, the wisest, the most beautiful, the most talented and capable singer, but he was just not there.

Little by little, the Councillors heard of inexplicable rumors of things happening in the matter universe that were not as they should be. Someone suggested Helel had gone mad and was sabotaging everything, trying to break everything made. But why? He wasn’t like that, surely?

Then came the report no-one wanted to hear. Helel had been seen upon a matter world, making it his home, building edifices and luxuriating in the colors of its lights. He had become crusted with a shell of its most attractive matter. Precious stones and metals clung to his form. In the midst of the rivers of fire of this world, he strode in personal splendor. And worse, he had called others to come to him. Some already had, more were to follow. He’d made a new council of his own and spoke out about ‘injustice’.

Helel appeared before the council saying, “I have discerned the conscious beasts, made out of this matter we sing, will usurp us. These frail, dull and mortal creatures have been designed and planned to supplant all of us first beings, even the Great Lights. We have created them and their world and in return, they will over-reach us. There is no fairness in this. We are to be cast aside; a remnant of greatness that once was. How can we stand by and allow this to happen? We must either take control of the song, or pass from relevance, but we must make our decision now, while we still can!”

The council was adjourned so wisdom could be sought from the source of the song. At the gathering, with Helel present, the following was relayed to all in attendance:

“The plan was always to supplant each form of conscious existence with newer, more diverse and varied conscious forms. The humans are merely the next in an ongoing chain of consciousness. The first ones exist forever and their place is secure, always a place of honor. You will change as you mature, as planned from the start. As you find yourselves now, this is not your final form. But these humans also have eternal destiny, and then others.”

The pronouncement caused great distress in the council and out through the ranks. After a time of deep introspection, many saw the wisdom and grandeur of a plan swept through infinities of time and where there was always growth, always change, always novelty.

But there were those who could not abide the plan and felt betrayed. And so, in rebellion, a full third joined Helel upon the world he had claimed and they placed a border around it, limiting access back to the free heavens, bounding their own private domain.

The murmurs had begun. The council lost resolve and became ineffective. The matter world began to corrupt as many of the songs ceased. The non-matter world began to divide…

And so, some foundations of the matter world lost form, becoming loose and fluid. The fields of force which tied everything together were turbulent as storm driven oceans, as the flux of matter particles fell into, and out of, transient existence.

As the matter universe cooled and spread, the worlds wobbled like molten droplets flung through an ocean of deep space made out of time and vast distance, full of great energies and strewn with the unlit stars.

Since they could not physically touch matter, the ‘once singers’ who rebelled became ‘the ones who stand and watch’ embittered, they no longer had a reason or goal and could not even act in this new domain where they had imprisoned themselves. They blamed Helel, seeking to defy his leadership as they began to understand how hollow their victory was.

Many times they tried to adhere matter to themselves as had done Helel, but even Helel could not remain in physicality this way without great effort and so had mostly abandoned it. Incorporeal and trapped between the seven heavens and the heat in the ground, they began to change, bent into bitterness, preferring darkness and putting off their light.

The first men strode forth but they were disregarded in the eyes of the Watchers, who despised humanity.

So the Watchers cast about for ways to ‘be’ in this new world. To embody themselves in physicality. At time, there were great and monstrous animals strode the Earth. The dinosaurs seemed to be the pinnacle of physical strength. And so the dark ancient souls began indwelling the bodies of the beasts. The great Pterosaurs were chosen; winged, armored, with long arms and legs, terminating in articulated taloned digits. The Watchers charged the life of brute strength with intelligence and power. And so, Dragon kind arose.

Dragons made great stronghold lairs and began collecting the wealth of the world; anything pretty to them was hoarded. Precious metals and jewels of the Earth and other forms of life held fascination. They ceased to mate for procreation, but instead prolonged the lives of their hosts through their arts and knowledge.

The brains of the dinosaurs were small and could not express the full intelligence of the Watchers so Dragons really existed as a spirit, loosely bound into a beast. A crude peep-hole into the world of matter and a constant task of control and attachment. They began seeing the bodies they wore were limited in many aspects and unsuited for them.

They then began to look lustfully on the forms of the great sea creatures, mammalian giants with large brains. These great sea creature hosts became the Leviathan and Kraken of human legend but even though their brains were better suited than those of the dinosaurs, they still lacked the many favorable attributes of humans.

Almost as an afterthought, the Watchers looked to taking humans as hosts. They had large brains and their hearts beat with emotions no other creature could feel. Even the very lights of heaven could not feel with the intensity of some of these humans. They began to see the superiority of these weak creatures for their purposes. The emotional side inflamed and overruled the rational minds of the Watchers.

So they captured and kept men in their Dragon menageries. They studied them and lusted over the most beautiful. The daughters of men held great fascination. They kept them like personal pets, teaching them to enhance their appearance with clothing and makeup.

The males they taught war, science and lust for power. These humans, overcoming their fear, soon learned the acquisitiveness and many of the other attributes of their masters. Many men used the alliance with their Dragon to wield power over other men. This pleased the Dragons as they watched the greed and lust of their pets.

After much time, the jaded Dragons began departing from the bodies of their reptilian hosts. Perhaps it was the cold of the new world; perhaps it was their wish to directly feel the lives of their men. Some spirits returned to the air, passing invisibly about the world, ever watching and learning. Passing occasionally into and out of various life forms as they wanted.

But many sought human form. The problem was the brain and will of the man was stronger than a beast and always was at war with the spirit of the Watcher. Only by breaking the mind and will of a man was a Watcher able to stay. This damaged the men, making them mad and fearful. Some Watchers, twisted through their rejection of the light, actually enjoyed this, but for most, an acceptable alternative was sought.

Dwelling within a man also had its own dangers. The mad mind of the man drove the Watcher mad. The more men a Watcher possessed, the more they lost their sanity and grounding in reality. Additionally, it was discovered that, although the human brain had a greater capacity, it was, none the less, finite. After only eighty or so years, their memory became full. Only by forgetting could data storage space be freed but the forgetting in the human mind caused similar forgetting in the Watcher mind.

It seemed to the Watchers if a man could somehow be made without a will or soul, then that man would be free to accept the will and soul of a Watcher. So ways were sought to create these ‘empty’ men.

Initially, a way was sought to kill the man without killing the body – by psychosurgery. This was partially effective and relatively quick but was unacceptable as the man was found to be an idiot who never matured.

Additionally, humans carried programming for some emotions and morality not desired by a Watcher. It seemed they had parts of their brain pre-written to carry instinctive moral laws of ‘right and wrong’ and to feel empathy and kindness. These things were useless to a Watcher. If these instinctual programs could be purged, the brain capacity that carried them could be re-purposed to increase memory and brain function.

These ‘empty’ human carriers could also be engineered for greater size and strength. They could become perfect vessels. If enough were made, even human mortality was not a problem because a Watcher could move between them as necessary.

So they captured the daughters of men and incubated their experiments, mixing attributes from thousands of other species, using the knowledge gained from the making of the world.

The first were hybrids called Nephi. They were created from human ovum and sperm cells, manipulated genetically, combined externally, then implanted back into the woman as a fertilized zygote. As the Nephi crudely included genes from hundreds of species, very few of the surrogate mothers survived.

The new ‘empty’ hosts were made and were superior to natural men in many regards. They were large, strong, crafty and selfish. It was said of them all their thoughts were only of evil, all the time. These new men also began hunting and eating other men due to their perpetual hunger and the blood lust of the perverted Watchers. Natural men learned to live in fear.

These Nephi also had varied non-human appearances, depending on the particular desire and skill of the designers. Some had ‘bird like’ heads and beaks, some were reptilian or more like mammalian predators. Some had pale skin, almost to transparency. Others had reflective silver/grey, blue or greenish skin. Most Nephi were giants and/or overly and unnaturally muscled. This gave the Nephi extremely high energy needs and so they were voracious eaters, driving their cannibalism.

The Watchers also lusted greatly, having discovered the great sexual pleasure and emotional love of which humans are capable. To the Watchers, these emotions were like a drug and they wanted to experience them more and more. And so their offspring began to spread through the world faster than the slower breeding natural men.

But very few of the Nephi were fertile with human mates. Most could only propagate by establishing a breeding pair, which were usually siblings. The Watchers soon discovered the problems of such inbreeding and it added to the need to find a better process. Also, the process of building the zygote prior to implantation and maturing it once it had been born, were annoyingly slow and laborious for the impatient Watchers.

So they came up with a new process. A gene therapy disease which left the mature host changed, permanently, into the new state.

Rephivirus rewrote existing neural pathways or created new ones and also spliced in the new genetic code it carried as additional payload. It was a one shot magic bullet which made humans into susceptible hosts within months. The problem was, with its large genetic payload; it was not particularly infectious in humans.

In fact, in humans, the rephivirus had to be artificially introduced, usually by blood to blood transfer. This was initially achieved by convincing humans they must take ‘blood oaths’ of fealty to become part of the group of the powerful. Once several infective clades were established, the virus could be spread like wildfire with ‘occult’ rites.

They established tribes which overran and began ruling small parts of the human world but slowly, over time, these Nephi and Rephi were increasing in population compared with the natural humans. The natural humans developed an instinctive, racial memory, to destroy Nephi wherever they came across them. As a consequence, there were escalating wars, purges and catastrophes between Watchers, Nephi and natural humans.

Then it began to become known that other species (especially those who had contributed genetic material to the rephivirus) were becoming infected. Most with horrible, detrimental mutations and deformities. Although they were not likely to infect humans normally by ingestion or contact, the virus was live in the creatures’ bloodstream and could still be transmitted blood to blood. With so many hosts, the rephivirus began to mutate uncontrollably into several strains and this led to the creation of antibody resistances in many species.

These resistances began to manifest in some humans. The Watchers had nothing to deal with the spreading genetic chaos and the potential that even an infected human had acquired resistance and would, in turn, be able to resist and damage the soul of the Watcher.

Then, in a cosmic re-balancing of the orbit of Earth, a catastrophic flood destroyed nearly all land animals and so the Watcher souls were cast out of their dying hosts and were either disembodied or sought refuge in the few uninfected great sea creatures.

The Nephilim of old had been wiped from existence by the flood.

In the subsequent time, the surviving natural humans once again spread out, repopulating the world.

The Watchers tried to re-establish the Rephi a few times but they never regained dominance like before, often being wiped out long before they posed a threat. Still, there were some Rephaim tribes that prevailed for a while:

• The Anunaki (wearing neck chains upon neck chains on their long necks). Ferocious, intelligent, with beak like noses, cannibalistic and larger than humans, they were the giants. They built the ancient monuments.
• The Emites (the dreaded ones), nearly as large as the Anakim, but hairy and beast-like. Their noses and mouths project forwards like the face of a lion. It is said they do not bury their dead, but leave the bodies to decay where they fall. They do not build but inhabit caves or the houses of those they destroy.
• The Zamzummim (mumblers), whose language is like the buzzing of insects and whose temples are large amphitheaters cut into the ground. They have large elongated heads, large eyes, thin bodies, pallid paper-like dry flaky skin and use dark magic, even against each other. Their primary weapon is pestilence.
• The Gibborim (the mighty) six fingered giants with a pallid, slightly bluish skin who preferred the darkness. Their hunger and thirst is insatiable. Nimrod, who founded the city of Ur, was Gibborim.

The Watchers also knew that human immunity to the virus was always on the cards and so their desires remained tempered by their fears.

Not every Dragon had sought to be man. Many slept beyond the end of the dinosaurs, beyond the flood on the Earth and into times of human legend. Some awoke to extinguish themselves, returning to spirit by their own will. Some were dispatched by man or by nature. Some contended against each other. Loving the taste of the blood of their brothers.

Occasionally the perverted seed of Rephi resurfaced in the world. Doomed to destruction, the world having changed to resist the contagion, they flourished briefly then died. Men who carried the genetic memory of the evil of the hybrids destroyed them out of fear and heroism, never letting them breed.

Darkened spirits still twisted through the air looking for hosts. For some dark spirits, the madness they inflicted upon those they possessed, as they jumped from host to host, began to drive them mad in reaction. So the dark spirits themselves sometimes held back from possession of mankind for fear of the loss of their own minds. Others descended happily into madness.

Helel went to and fro upon the Earth in frustration and was on occasion called back to appear before the council of heaven. He could not see that his own actions were the cause of his demise, when called to account it was clear that he blamed everyone but himself. His actions were always disruptive and accusative and indeed, he had begun referring to himself as “The Adversary” instead of “The Shining One”. After much deliberation, the council ruled that he had now become so corrupted, deep in his essence, he had become irredeemable and he was barred from further audience before the council.

Samjael the Dragon

Samjael’s soul, being from a spirit without a body, was neither male nor female but the dinosaur body she inhabited was female. For this reason, Samjael identified herself as female.

Samjael had never borne offspring and would never do so. To extent, her dinosaur host had ceased maturing, mentally and emotionally, once possessed. Like all dragons, the spirit mind had damaged the lizard mind one but left behind instinctual drives, incompatible with the spirit mind. The psychological tension of such, triggered feelings of self-loathing and depression, often evidenced with the external show of conceited arrogance common to dragons. And the constant shifting of attention and control to fit into the small brain was an annoyance, but one which must be borne.

She had slept under the mountain for so long her claws had grown out and curled. For days she had to rub them against a rock to make her hands and feet close to usable again. Once happy with the length and shape of her nails, she found a pot of colored lacquer and painted them. The shiny surfaced dark-red of the talons seemed to her a perfect complement to the iridescent red-orange of her scales.

Her lair was a natural limestone cave she had enlarged into a treasury, a library and a sleeping chamber. The air stayed at a constant temperature and even when hibernated, the body heat of a Dragon was sufficient to add a cosy warmth. The phosphorescence of various glowing insects lit the cave dimly as she had designed. The drips of water passed down the stalactites around the edges of the cave, collected in a pool, then ran away through a fissure in the ground and kept the humidity comfortably high. The micro-environment of the dragon.

Where her scales had become dusted with fungal mold, she fussed and preened with a dampened cloth (which quickly fell apart) then with her tongue until she glowed with the brightness of burnished copper.

In the dim light, she admired the brightness of her colors, the contrast between her green irises, the whiteness of her teeth, her orange-red scales and her deep dark red spines and talons. The polished mirror having been re-buffed now reflected her full glory. Her usually full curves had slimmed down to a hungrier and more streamlined shape. She spread her wings as far as the cave would allow and felt the pleasurable cool movement and resistance of the air around them.

She had awoken with a deep hunger after so many years. The grain she’d left stored in wax sealed glass jars had turned to a rather unappealing dust. So she sipped from the pool and set out for the surface.

As she approached the opening, rolling aside the doorway stone, she was struck by the cold! It had never been this cold when she went to sleep. As she pushed through the carefully planted overhanging vines into the starry night, her breath blew clouds of white steam into the moonlit air. The stones under her feet actually hurt with cold.

There was a dust of frozen water on the ground! Snow? There had never been snow here before. She wondered how long she had slept for? Had the world changed so much?
 
The Princess Carmina

Later, Samjael hissed with satisfaction. There was time, plenty of it. In front of her on the hard floor of the cave was the frightened princess. Innocence, beauty, defiance, fear, pain and she knows... oh, she knows no-one will save her! It was delicious. Samjael would take away each aspect of who this girl was and bind them into a powerful potion. Then, when the girls’ mind was gone, she would kill her and eat her. “Ah”, thought Samjael, “Dragon efficiency, nothing wasted, nothing left.”

The girl had squealed and pleaded in her human language which fell on the uncomprehending ears of the dragon. Unlike other dragons, she had never taken the time to learn human tongues even though the gift of the fallen made such understanding easily achieved.

Samjael held other dragons in contempt. They were weak if they sought knowledge from frail creatures such as these humans. She recalled the past when so many great lizards roamed like cattle on the earth. When the first made ones filtered down from the stars and sought dominion over the physical world. For this reason, they bound their souls, minds and knowledge into the physical strength of the dinosaurs, creating the first dragons.

She also recalled the changes this union had brought; the loss of the ability and desire to mate replaced with the magic prevented aging and the thirst for blood “Ah, the blood of dinosaurs, her own kind, how sweet, how powerful, but no-more.” After the centuries of blood when the dinosaurs were plentiful and dragons feasted, came the lean years when there were fewer and fewer until none were left. Now dragons hid from each other, fearing violence and betrayal by their own kind and the earth now swarmed with these new human creatures in their place.

Adrian the Page

Adrian was page boy to the knight Eloric of Westholme, who had a horse and armor and everything (some said one day he would even take the princess Carmina as a wife but Adrian thought she was far too young to marry Eloric). Just after Adrian’s 13th birthday, Eloric had been called by the king and was standing to attention by his horse, waiting for the king to appear outside the tent where he had been living since the dragon broke down the royal house.

Adrian had never seen so many spears, swords and shields as all the able bodied men had been called up to form an army. There were nearly 300 pike men, 50 archers, 5 mounted knights and maybe 1000 foot soldiers with swords and shields, standing in ranks.

Soon the tent flap was opened and the king ducked outside. He took a second to survey the troops and began: “Lords, knights and brave men of the land, by now you have all heard of the attack and of my loss. My beloved queen is slain, my sons are slain and my daughter is missing. We cannot let this ever happen again. We must defend ourselves or die. We must find a strategy will defeat this foe once and for all. We can no longer hope the creature will sleep long as it once did between attacks. Its attacks are becoming more frequent and deadly and we have had no defense. Who will propose a plan? Who has a strategy?”

Adrian was so proud when his Eloric raised his arm and replied “My king, I have a plan.” The king marched over to Eloric as he continued, “We have heard from the shepherds the creature makes its abode within the caves of the fire mountain. When it attacks us, it ranges about us, so we cannot gain the upper hand. We must, therefore, attack it while it is confined in its lair. There we can concentrate our efforts and in so doing defeat the foe when our advantage is greatest. We must meet the beast in its lair and we may also yet rescue your daughter.”

There was a subdued buzz of discussion among the troops as the king considered the plan, nodding sagely. Finally he said, “A good plan but we cannot leave the town undefended. We must retain some troops to drive away any further attack should it occur. Archers would be of little use in a cave so they should stay here.”

“My lord,” said Eloric, “I will only require some pike men and a similar number of footmen to carry lanterns. All other troops should stay.”

“Indeed, a good plan. As usual Eloric you have shown your wiles match your bravery,” said the king. “You are to lead 200 men but I shall remain to defend the town and to mourn my loss.” The King’s voice dropped to a more intimate volume and he said “Save her Eloric, she is all I have left and I know she thinks of you with favor. God speed you to victory.” The king then dismissed the troops and returned to the tent.

So Eloric instructed the men to dress for the cold of the mountain and to prepare lanterns would not be easily be quenched in the heat of battle. They also took the time to sharpen the pikes and to ensure their shafts were sturdy for battle. The lantern design was a wax candle in an open topped box with fragments of glass around the sides. Even shaken and waved around, or in a strong wind, the candle stayed lit. At daybreak, the company set out for the mountain at a fast jog and by evening, reached the base of the mountain where they set up camp.

Again, starting out early in the morning, they began to climb the mountain but after hours of climbing and searching, no cave entrance had been found. The sky was darkening and clouding over so it was decided they must set up camp quickly or face a stormy cold night. Adrian suggested the volcanic vents where the steam arose would afford extra warmth. Eloric found a field of such vents, each of which arose from a thicket of scrub. Shields were placed on top of the thicket and tents erected over them and they did, indeed keep the troops warm for the night.

Adrian over slept morning but was soon awakened as the news got around someone had spied the dragon emerging from a place lower down on the mountain. They broke camp and were soon near to where the dragon had been seen, thanks to the powder of fresh snow the storm had left, which enabled them to slide down the mountain.

They stumbled and slipped down at almost running speed and soon were standing in front of a cave opening had previously been hidden in a cleft of the mountain. They lit their lamps and Eloric tied up his horse, leaving her outside.

Eloric explained they were to follow and form an impenetrable shield of pikes behind him so that, should the dragon appear, it would be unable to attack the men in such a solid mass. The men were then to advance in formation and drive the beast deeper into the cave until its access was blocked. The beast could be routed most easily if it had no escape.

In the close darkness of the cave no-one spoke as they edged forwards through large caverns and narrow squeeze-ways over small climbs and drops. All the while, Adrian felt growing panic of claustrophobia (fear of closed in spaces) as they went deeper into the cave. But he had to move on, he had to be brave! He was the page boy of Eloric the knight and could not afford to show fear so he pushed ever forward into the gloom.

Adrian suddenly realized since no one had seen the dragon re-entering the cave, what if the dragon was behind them and not in front? He raised his lantern and peered back the way they came but he saw nothing.

Nothing? Where were the pike men and their lantern bearers?

“Eloric, stop” said Adrian in panic, “we are too far ahead of the rest.” Eloric peered into the darkness and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “We’ll wait; they’ll soon catch up.” They waited in silence and still there was no activity or lights, just the sounds of dripping water and their beating hearts.

“We should go back” said Eloric “stay close and draw your sword.” They had only gone back a few meters when they found the first indication of the fate of the pike men. There was a broken pike and the remains of a candle lamp had been squashed flat.

Adrian realized the dragon must have followed them in and had been picking them off one at a time. With each man so intent on the cave ahead, the silent disappearance of the following troops went unnoticed. In less than an hour the dragon had silently killed 200 men, each oblivious of the danger they were in.

Eloric stopped and held up his hand “Give me the lantern, quick!” Adrian gave him the lantern and Eloric held it higher, peering intently into the gloom. Suddenly Eloric was flung backwards against Adrian, knocking the wind out of him and falling heavily on top of him. Adrian smelled an evil smell like rotting meat and realized this must be the breath of the dragon. Then the weight of Eloric was gone off him and he lay still in the pitch black of the cave. It was so dark it was like the darkness was pressing against his eyes.

It seemed an eternity Adrian lay there listening to the quiet cave sounds of dripping water. Then he rolled over onto all fours and found his sword, slightly bent, off to one side. He sheathed it in its leather cover hanging from his belt and began to climb along in the darkness. He kept bumping his head into walls and wondered if he was actually going around in circles.

Soon, there appeared a faint glow ahead of him and he felt sure this was daylight and the way out. His hands and knees were cold from the wet rock and he was sure he was bleeding from bumps and grazes. He could make out the contours of the walls as the glow came nearer and the air became warmer. He paused for a moment realizing outside, on the mountain, the air would be colder, not warmer.

As he pressed forward he soon found out the glow came from thousands of swarming insects clinging to the walls of the cave. He could make out wisps of steam wafted away from the light towards him. He realized this must be the same steam had kept them warm night on the mountain side. He must be heading away from the surface and toward the deeps of the mountain. He was too scared to go back blindly into the darkness, so he pressed on.

From up ahead he heard the sound of metal on rock, the hollow sound of an empty helmet. And then he heard a soft whimper. Someone was alive! He edged forward and there was the dragon, its scales reflecting like hot copper in the dim glow. It was actually beautiful up close but Adrian was beyond fear or wonder. He was physically spent and ready for the swift death would obviously come.

It took a while until he finally understood the full scene before him. The dragon, its back turned, was tearing with its teeth at the body of a man, partially limbless, held in a giant claw at the end of a winged arm, while the other arm steadied the dragon’s bulk against the wall.

The bodies (or parts) of at least five others were laid out around someone sitting sobbing on the floor of the cave. Adrian realized it was the princess and though she appeared very scared, she was unharmed, her torn dress smeared with dirt and her hair sticking up and falling over her face.

There was a large pile of straw and cloth at the other end of the cave on a raised shelf, obviously the dragon’s bed. There was also strange machinery around the cave, with wheels and lights which flickered and moved seemingly at random. There were several cauldrons and cooking utensils and a shelf full of scrolls and books. Steam or smoke rose from more than one container and added to the unpleasant sulfur smell of the cave.

Adrian drew his sword, which made a slight squeak sound as it scraped over the brass ring at the top of the scabbard. He held the bent sword shakily in front of him as the dragon started and turned at the sound.

Samjael could hardly believe what she was seeing. There before her was a human child with a damaged weapon, almost a toy really, shaking in fear and threatening her. She was incensed such a little one would even attempt to threaten her when much larger and stronger ones had failed.

In anger she lunged forward and then drew back again, raising herself high into the overhead cavern above the boy. She clawed her hands and stretched her arms out to either side, dropping her meal, her sneer exposing the bright scimitar like teeth, now dripping with saliva and marked with the whiter scratch marks from the armor she had just torn from the lifeless body.

She flared her nostrils and stretched her wings out around her, her scales standing on end in her anger. Those scales which once had locked together and protected her hide now stood out like sharpened blades as she prepared to descend on the boy. What she had not considered was the slipperiness of the cave floor, now drenched with blood and gore. She began to pitch forward and tried lifting her head and flapping her wings but there was not enough room in the cavern. So she fell hard, her exposed chest driving the boy’s sword backwards until it struck rock and buried itself in her breast.

Adrian pulled his hand away from the sword which was up to the hilt in the dragon’s breast. He fell onto his back and his head thrummed with stars as it struck the rocky ground. He was dimly aware his foot was pinned under the edge of one of those scales but he had no fight. The great beast rolled away but he was stuck fast and flopped like a rag doll over the body.

Samjael squealed and tried to tear at the sting in her breast but the sword had been pushed too far in and her arms had no strength or reach for something this close. She shook with fear and realization this was a death blow. She would not survive this. Her heart was already quivering and she could feel the flow of blood leaking away.

She lay calm for a while and then picked up the boy. Sweeping her gaze around the room she saw the very thing she needed. A green glass tube stopped with a cork. She raised the flask and smashed it against the boy, grinding the glass into the flesh but also pushing the boy to the limits of her reach. He moaned softly, shifted then stood unsteadily, wavering backwards, well beyond of the reach of the dragon. He then fell against the wall and slid to the ground.

As he slid, Adrian could feel a dark coldness flowing into him from his wounds. He was unable to move but was quite awake. He noticed the disheveled princess was now standing, bruised, bloodied and shaking. With his last movement he rasped out a single word: “run.” Then he sat motionless as she crouched again, staring at him, the dead pike-men and the dragon in turn. She stood to move but the dragon covered the entrance with a great wing.

The three sat silent for some time each trying to think a way out of the situation.

Samjael could feel her life slipping away. The ancient, angelic being at the core of her intellect writhed inside her in panic. Then there was a sudden realization, “the male is passing away but the female is alive. If I could take the mind of the female, I could live, carried within the human female!” The lizard body was, after all, just a carriage, a shell.

Adrian watched as the dragon extended its claw towards the princess and she began to shuffle mechanically towards it. “Fight it!” Adrian tried to shout but no sound came out. He struggled to speak but it was as though his body had forgotten how to move. The dragon opened its claw and picked up the princess, resting her on its stomach.

Samjael had once laughed at the other ancient ones who came to possess humans instead of the great lizards. But now, touching the mind of the girl, she suddenly realized the force of emotion in humans. In contrast the lizards were so empty and cold. Samjael could also feel the intellectual superiority of the human mind over the reptile mind. This would be interesting. But the princess’s mind was rejecting the other presence. Now… how to kill the person and leave the body alive - was the question. Yes, break her mind. Make her defeated, unwilling to fight. would work, but how? Yes, I see it now, nightmares and horrors from the girl’s own mind. Get her to do what she could never admit to or forgive herself for. Yes!

So Samjael held the princess like a doll. Strand by strand she tore the threads of the ancient soul from the dying body of the lizard and wove them into the girl. As she did so she forced pieces of poison mushroom from a nearby box, into the princesses’ mouth, the hallucinogen amplifying fear and distorting reason. The dragon clawed, twisted, grabbed, slapped and prodded. Hurting and touching intimate places, violating the princess’s body repeatedly, causing pain and fear, as much as the girl could take while remaining conscious. Samjael was breaking the mind and will of this child so easily and could feel the insanity rising in the girl each step, allowing more of the ancient mind a stronger foothold there.

Unable to move, Adrian stared at a horror he could not understand. It went on for hours until the dragon breathed its last and the princess wriggled out of its slackening claws.

There was something wrong in her eyes! He could see it. They were like silver metallic orbs, not eyes, too shiny, too strange. She was grinning and gulping air, hysterical, drugged and insane. She tore the last of her clothing off and stood naked, touching and exploring each part of her body in turn. She bent and flexed and almost danced. Adrian was both entranced and embarrassed, he’d never seen a young woman fully naked before and despite the filth and bruises, the wild eyes and hair, she was truly beautiful. Fair, slender, strong, shapely and young.

She came and stood over Adrian staring at him for a moment. As she leaned closer, her breasts hung pendulously in front of him. He tried to look away but could not move. “You’re Eloric’s page, yes I remember, you’re called Adam or something. I remember the first one, and you’re Adam, son of Adam. Adam, Adam, Adam…” She walked unsteadily away from Adrian muttering “Adam” over and over again. It sounded like the slurred words changed and she suddenly leaned close again. “I’m-mad, I’m-mad, I’ve gone mad little Adam.” She peered intensely into Adrian’s eyes, “I can’t touch you, no, and I might get some on me. wouldn’t do, no, no.”

He thought she’d help him but the princess swung away again and started grabbing at the bottles and jars. She laid some of them on the tunic she tore off the body of a pike-man then tied them up into a bundle.

She did the same with some of the gold and jewels scattered around the cave.

When she came upon the body of one of the pike-me it was like it wasn’t there. She trod on the faces and bodies of the dead as if they were just irregularities in the cave floor.

She stopped looking down at one lump on the ground and said “You know I never would have married you. You were daddy’s favorite, not mine.” Adrian realized the shape must have been Eloric.

She took a dagger out of the coat of the corpse and stared at it for a while, then knelt down and began to stab repeatedly; with each blow she made frightening, animal sounds which became wilder and crazier all the time. She then tore the shredded clothing away and writhed her body on top of the corpse, moaning Eloric’s name.

“Oh Eloric, Eloric my love, my hero. I can smell poopies. What a hero, you have soiled yourself my Eloric. Yuck.”

Sitting on the corpse she licked the bloodied blade of the knife, which had never left her hand. She began sawing away at the shoulder of the corpse with the knife and Adrian realized she had cut a slice of flesh. He wanted to scream as she put it in her mouth and started to chew. “No, no princess, no...” but there was no sound. She swallowed. She was definitely grinning now and she said “Complete” to no-one in particular.

After a final look around she grabbed the two bundles, folded the wing of the dead dragon out of the way and disappeared off into the darkness.

Adrian sat as the cave quietly dripped. He still felt cold terror at what he’d seen but it was more from his mind than his body. He wasn’t in pain, hot, or cold, it was like he was not physically there, like his body had no nerve signals at all. He thought he might have been there for a few days before he lost consciousness.

When he woke, it was always the same. Water dripping but otherwise silence. He tried moving but he was stuck. He couldn’t even blink. His eyes and mouth were dry but did not move. He just lay there.

He went through all kinds of emotion; anger, sadness, humor, memories but still he stayed there and still he couldn’t move. Over several sleeps, he noticed the glowing insects were less and less. Perhaps the dragon had kept them alive?

The enormous dragon carcass was slumping over further each time he awoke and soon there were ribs sticking out through the side. How long had he been there? Why didn’t the princess or someone come back and help him. His eyes stared straight ahead at the same scene as always. He watched as the rats came in and devoured the bodies of the dragon and his companions. Soon there were only bones. The dragon bones seemed to be crumbling and falling away but the human bones remained. He was thankful the rats kept away from him. He noticed he felt somehow lighter. Perhaps he was starving and wasting away. Still he felt nothing.

There was once when the princess came back to the cave. She was older, grown up. She went around the room tidying the other bones away into one corner, totally ignoring Adrian. She gathered a few bottles, books and scrolls and threw them into a bag and marched back out of the cave, leaving Adrian.

He thought he wept for several days, or perhaps it was just a dream. (Over the years there would be several people who came into the cave, looked for something specific, ignored Adrian and left again. With each one he hoped for some assistance or even acknowledgement but none came.)

Adrian felt very light now, hardly there at all and even though he couldn’t move and it was pitch black, he could somehow make out the objects in the cave. It seemed like he could look around in his mind while his body was frozen immobile.

And did he sleep more and more, longer and longer. Days, weeks, years, centuries, millennia, who could tell how long? But there was, most of the time, just the drip of water in the darkness.

In the darkness, in the silence, he dreamed. Strange and vivid dreams didn’t seem to come from his own mind. It was like his mind could range free while his body was bound.

At first they were dreams of the princess. How she poisoned her new mother and father and took the throne. Even her own subjects called her the evil Queen Carmina, but never aloud. Too many had disappeared into her dungeons never to be seen again.

Her kingdom was in ruins. Her subjects lived in abject poverty or left her lands in search of a better life while she lived in obscene luxury, locked away in her keep, every surface jeweled, golden or lined with rich leathers and furs. She was a genius in war and her kingdom grew ever larger but the lives of the peoples under her rule never improved.

She never took a husband and always denied the few suitors who came forward. Some she pretended affection for, only to hurt them or debase them. Casting them aside when she tired of them.

She took to torturing her prisoners personally. She had a luxury cubicle built in the wall of the dungeon so she could sit in comfort and luxury, while feet away her victims were tortured to death.

Inevitably, she grew old and suffered from skin disease, hair loss and fragile bones. Then she chose a new victim to carry her evil spirit.

It was the same for perhaps hundreds of times. Each time the new host was tortured and broken mentally. Each time they were made to do something so abhorrent Adrian wanted to cry out, to awaken from the nightmare.

Around each host, the world changed. New weapons, new wonders, powered vehicles, flight, pictures and sound transmitted vast distances in an instant but all the while people still did the same things, the same way they had always done them. People didn’t learn. People didn’t change.

Soon there were no Kings and Queens so the hosts became the captains of industry, vast wealth under their control but never for the gain of others. Wealth they used to control and oppress. The hosts at times started wars, inciting both sides, just to watch the bloodshed ensued and to profit from the mess.

Adrian also dreamed of strange beings looked like humans but somehow weren’t. Some allied with the host spirit; some seemed working against it. There were angels, jinn, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, aliens, demons and black shadow shapes flitted through the world of his dreams. He was never sure if they were real things or just a figment of his imagination, a filler in a fantastic story.

Adrian tried to figure out what had happened to the princess and to make sense of the world as he dreamed it. In his dream, he was shown before time, the spirit was in Samjael sang before a sea of light with countless others like itself. This spirit called Chazaqiel had watched as the world of matter was unfolded and spread. It had handled the raw stuff had become living things in its hands, in wonder and praise. It had once been good and pure.

Then the leader of its spirit kind, had done something, dividing the world into good and evil. This being then accused the creator of being a monster to have done this.

There was much confusion and then Chazaqiel was being cast into the world of matter with the others, imprisoned in a world it could not touch or be part of. Cast out of its first estate, adrift, a ghost in an emptiness of things.

Adrian came to dream many of the ancient ones were Watchers like the spirit in Samjael. These Watchers had conferred and seen they might be able to take control of the living beings and, in a small way, interact with the world. The spirit took Samjael as host saw the physical strength and power of the great reptiles and so it came into their small mind and set up there. Others inhabited swarms of insects or flocks of other animals.

They also made the Nephilim, which meant “the fallen ones” in the most ancient language. A soulless human body, fully intelligent but dead, which they could fully control. The many strange and unnatural beings now walked among men were somehow what had become of these fallen ones. There had been some success initially but the first Nephilim created were all gone now and the 199 Watchers who designed them were imprisoned in a secret abandoned place with their leader Semjâzâ.

And the dreams continued.

In the latest dreams, a spirit who had not rebelled came and spoke to Adrian, telling him the dreams were true. Adrian was there for a reason, to fight back against the evil. This spirit called itself Gabriel the messenger.

Gabriel said, “Fear not, you will both be restored and will right many wrongs. The soul of the dragon is now hidden in humans but you are purposed to end the dragon’s tyranny. You must hunt the dragon and complete what Eloric started. God will do a work in you and you will succeed, be patient.” As Adrian listened, Gabriel was suddenly gone.

In the quiet and lonely dark, Adrian saw his small child skeleton resting against the floor of the cave and he cried tearlessly until sleep took him again.

Awakening

Gabriel had returned and was prompting Adrian’s fuzzy mind from sleep. “Wake up Adrian, wake up. You must see this!”

Adrian cast his mind around the cave looking for something different but everything was just as it had been for so long. “Gabriel, what is it?”

“Just look and wait.”

Adrian watched and noticed the bracket at one end of a shelf against the wall had moved slightly, having rotted through where the water ran down the wall. The shelf was a large heavy plank of wood, having been built to withstand the slight bumps and knocks of a Dragon. The shelf was empty of all but a single sealed cylindrical jar at its far end and sat on the wall above another similar, but empty, shelf.

So Adrian watched. The rotting bracket seemed to give in ever so small increments, until it broke away entirely and the end of the shelf crashed down on the shelf below. This bounced the jar at the far end into the air, flipping the jar onto its side. The jar then rolled down along the plank towards Adrian, rolled off the end of the plank and smashed amidst Adrian’s remains.

Immediately, Adrian felt a tingling change. It felt like warmth and summer evening breezes. Like sunsets and waterfalls. Like flowers unfolding through a crust of melting snow. Like rainfall in a desert. Like waves crashing upon rocks. Like the flare of a star, raising its hands upwards in an arc of praise. Like the pure joy of being.

Adrian reached and picked up a shard of the broken jar, lifting it before him. His fingers were skeletal, so much thinner than he remembered them but they moved. They really moved. He was no longer trapped like an insect in amber. He gathered himself up and stood shakily, feeling the stiffness in his bones. was all he was. Just bones. No, wait, there was a faint ghost of a body around the bones but it was very faint, a vapor.

“Gabriel, what was that? What was in the jar?” asked Adrian still in the thrall of joy.

“It held the concentrated breath of God breathed life. It was the ingredient Chazaqiel used to spark life into what he shaped, back at the beginning of your world. Adrian, you were stuck between death and life in the thrall of the poison but now you are alive.”

Adrian recoiled a little at the stick-like thinness of his bones. “Gabriel, I am a skeleton, just all bones, how am I alive?”

“No, there is still your body. It is just hidden outside this matter world, in the world of spirit. It is fully there but now no-one in this world can ever take your life. Your spirit body and most of your matter body are preserved in the spirit realm. You are not the only being to have inhabited this state. Many a matter body has been translated into the spirit. Many a spirit may translate into matter. These are things are and will be. Things can only be done by the true God; no spirit or science I know of can ever do these things. Adrian, I must go now and you have much to explore. God is with you, do not fear or doubt.” Then Gabriel was gone.

After moving his limbs around for a while, Adrian set out to explore the cave and came upon the remains of Eloric and the others. So he took the edge of a smaller buckler shield and dug in the soft earth, making graves. He was surprised at the number of names he remembered and wrote up little name markers on the shelf plank, which he laid across the row of graves.

There was little in the cave apart from armor, weapons and some moldy leather items. Adrian cleaned up a few pieces in the pool of water and threw on the few bits small enough to fit him or worth being carried. He respectfully gathered up Eloric’s sword, the finest sword of all the weapons in the cave. Even after centuries of sitting in the dirt, the sword was barely tarnished and bright although its handle was loose and its leather and brass scabbard had fared worse, the leather being black and moldy and the brass green and powdery. After trying to wash the scabbard, it fell apart in the pool so Adrian wrapped the sword’s blade in a leather jerkin and scraps of cloth and tied it as a bundle in a sling across his chest.

The insects once lit the cave were now gone but he had no problem seeing anything. He wiped the Dragon’s mirror down and saw he almost looked ‘knightly’ in the armor and great-helm.

It wasn’t hard to find the exit from the cave and he ventured out into the sunlight through the overgrowth of thorns. The mountainside was in glorious spring bloom. Wildflowers, low brush and tufts of wiry grasses sprung out between the boulders had long ago blasted from the volcano, which hadn’t been active for a millennium.

Adrian also was surprised at the tameness and visibility of wildlife. Mice sat nibbling at seeds, spiders, insects and worms moved about in the foliage. Birds hopped picking at the insects as they burrowed to escape. None seemed to pay Adrian any heed until he was almost upon them, then they casually moved a bit further away.

Adrian sat on an outcrop just watching for a while. The sun set but the sky was luminous with stars. Down at the base of the mountain there appeared to be a river and around it, the suburbs of a town. Its lights glittered in the cold clear air. There were also train tracks and roads and high above, aeroplanes. Adrian could see the rows of their windows and was amazed at what mankind had made. People were up there in those flying machines!

Adrian looked down again at his skeletal hands. His bones didn’t look dead and dry; they looked shiny, white and vital. There were traces of pinkish matter, very thin and close to the bones, and he could see opalescent sinews which moved the bones but somehow faded from view not far from their anchor points. He bent, flexed and twisted his hands and arms and concluded his body was there, just not visible.

Adrian then wondered about talking. He didn’t even know if he could talk. He could definitely hear, but without ears, he wondered how was possible? “Hello,” he said tentatively. He could hear it OK, but the bird nearby still pecked away at the base of a tuft of grass. “BOO!” he shouted but still the bird did not take flight, though it seemed loud enough.

Adrian sighed and in doing so, realized he was, in fact, breathing. He picked a wildflower, held it up in front of his mouth and blew with all his might but there was no sign the air was blowing the flower. He put the flower into his mouth and chewed it but the chewed up bits simply fell out of the space behind his jaw bone, rolling off his sternum and sitting there on the rock.

He then rubbed a finger repeatedly on the rock. It left a faintly chalky mark on the rock and when he looked at the fingertip, it was abraded slightly. He could feel the rock, feel the finger but there was no pain or uncomfortable sensation. He re-examined his finger and, as he watched, the abrasions seemed to be fading and filling.

That was the other weird thing. He was carrying a fair amount of armor. As a page, he knew how heavy it was carrying Eloric’s armor and sword but they seemed to hardly weigh on him at all, now. He unwrapped the sword, which was made for an adult, and a big one at that, and swung it with surprising ease and dexterity.

As a page, Adrian had done much training and practice wielding a sword and he quickly went through all the rote trained moves with ease. The sword seemed to weigh nothing and almost anticipate his moves, making startling swoosh sounds even Eloric would have been unable to produce.

Taking the pieces of leather and cloth and carefully cutting them with the sword, Adrian fashioned a crude scabbard, even incorporating some of the brass fittings of the original scabbard. In fact, the brass pieces made the new scabbard hold together better than if he’d tried to do without. Adrian again decided the sword was best slung across his chest as a bundle, it being too long to hang from his belt and being easier to grab than if slung across his back.

So Adrian felt ready as the sun set but what he was ready for, he was unsure. Somehow, the soul of the dragon was tied up in it but Adrian could not see how to get there from where he was now. Perhaps he would dream or Gabriel would return to clarify things. It had already been such a long time. Waiting a little longer wouldn’t hurt.

Adrian thought of going back into the cave for the night but it was such a place of anguish and sad memory it was best to sleep outside under the cold stars. After lying there for hours, he didn’t feel especially tired so he decided to head towards the lights of the town to investigate. At least at night, he would be able to sneak around unobserved. So he set out down the mountain side.

Adrian did good time and felt buoyed by the quiet and perfection of nature around him, especially the small night animals were barely disturbed from their activities by his passage. At one stage, he came across a domestic cat had gone feral. The cat hissed and cowed as he approached, then raced off into the brambles, scratching itself and losing its footing as it fled. Adrian was quietly disturbed by the occurrence but tramped on.

Towards the bottom of the forest, there was a road and beyond it cleared land and a farmhouse, quiet and dark under the stars. Adrian noticed a quiet hum from a transformer suspended from a telegraph pole. There were wires above it, going from pole to pole along the road and wires below it headed off pole to pole to the farmhouse. Adrian listened to the hum, the likes of which he had never heard before, and wondered what it was. The wires seemed far too long, elaborate and high up for drying clothes.

The little entrance road to the farm carried the wires on poles along one side and Adrian followed it to near the entrance of a large barn off to one side. The barn door seemed to be made of horizontal boards and Adrian could not understand how it could be opened. Perhaps the owners had boarded up the opening? But it seemed to Adrian this was a doorway one could go through. He pushed lightly against the door and it appeared to be flexible and metal but otherwise unmovable. Adrian examined edges of the door but was none the wiser.

He turned to go and walk around the barn, when a Labrador dog walked around the corner and proceeded to pad quietly up to him, sniffing around his legs. Adrian was alarmed, here he was, a pile of bones, and he knew dogs ate bones!

The dog looked up at him with gentle, dark eyes and wagged its tail, so Adrian carefully reached down and patted its head. The dog just sat and looked, with its tongue lolling out and its head slightly to one side. As it appeared to be totally tame, Adrian relaxed and sat beside the dog, scratching under its ears and around its neck. As he did so, the appearance of his arms changed abruptly and he could see muscles veins and some skin. It was like a boat rising on the tide, the field of visibility of his body rising around his bones with contact to the dog. He withdrew his hand and the process reversed, the flesh disappearing as the visibility reduced back to his bones.

Adrian tried this several times and the more he did it, the slower the process became and the longer it stayed showing his body. It wasn’t just his arms. With some embarrassment, Adrian realized he wasn’t wearing pants. The armor covered some of his upper body but left his legs bare. It was a cold night, too. He hadn’t noticed before.

Adrian got back up and continued his investigations. The ground was initially very stony and uncomfortable under his soft bare feet but the sensation lessened as his full body faded away leaving just the skeleton.

The dog followed him silently as he peered in through a side window. There were large machines in the barn. A vehicle for transport on the roads and a larger one with big wheels and a horrendous looking device of metal rake-like talons attached to its back. Adrian guessed this big one was for ploughing fields.

The inside view of the barn door showed it had a cylinder at the top, made of the same metal as the door. It occurred to Adrian the door could roll up onto the cylinder and was how the door worked, it lifted up and rolled around the cylinder. He was rather pleased with his deductive work.

The window was quite large, framed with metal and appeared to be able to open, but Adrian couldn’t move it. Through this window, he could see there was another window and more standard door further along. He walked around and tried the back door, finding it unlocked.

He cautiously moved around inside the barn. In the corner near the ceiling was a small grey box with a red light. The light occasionally went out and came back on. Unbeknownst to Adrian, this was an infrared sensor for an alarm. Due to the average temperature of his bones, the spaces between them and his slow movements, he was not triggering the alarm.

There was a small bench, a wall of tools hanging on hooks and some filing cabinets. Adrian realized this place would be a nice place to repair his equipment.

After investigating the shed, Adrian went back outside and began walking around the farmhouse. There was a low light coming from the nearest window and he cautiously moved up to it. Inside, a girl about eight years old had her back to the window and was sitting on a chair, playing a guitar. Adrian moved closer to the window to better hear what she was playing.

She was singing a song with a clear small voice and was quite accomplished both as a singer and with the instrument. Despite a few stops and starts, Adrian soon picked up the melody and the simple lyric. He was soon immersed in a song about lost love but carried by such a voice of innocence it was the perfect counterpoint to the theme. Somehow, all those long years without even the sound of a human voice melted away in simple song.

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick, and think of you
Caught up in circles, confusion is nothing new
Flashback, warm nights, almost left behind
Suitcases of memories, Time after

Sometimes, you picture me, I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me; I can't hear what you've said
Then you say, go slow, I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

If you're lost you can look and you will find me, Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting, Time after time
If you're lost you can look and you will find me, Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting, Time after time

After my picture fades and darkness has turned to grey
Watching through windows, you're wondering if I'm okay
Secrets stolen from deep inside.
The drum beats out of time...

If you're lost you can look and you will find me, Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting, Time after time
If you're lost you can look and you will find me, Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting, Time after time

For a few seconds after she stopped, Adrian was lost in reverie but he suddenly realized the girl was standing and facing him through the window. The look on her face showed she was startled too but she was silent and didn’t appear afraid. She cautiously moved closer to the window and Adrian just turned and ran.

Adrian became aware of the clanking of the armor as he ran and slowed his pace so as to be a little stealthier. Once he was away from the pools of light around the house he felt safer and turned back to look. The girl was still there, up against the glass of the window with her hands shading around her eyes as she peered out into the night.

Adrian crouched down behind some long grass and lent his back against a fence post. The girl had gone away from the window and the house lights were extinguished room by room.

The night was alive with animals and the moon was only a sliver, but the stars flooded the sky, so much so Adrian felt visible in their light. He reluctantly walked back out along the driveway and followed the humming wires.

He had to walk along the grassy edge of the road as the armor made tin-can noises on the hard tarmac. Soon the forest loomed up around the road again and he walked on until the lights of an approaching truck drove him into hiding in the woods.

There beside the roadway, in a ditch and overgrown with creepers and grass, was the rusting wreck of an old car. Adrian looked in through the missing doors and decided there wasn’t enough of the old seats left and it was too open to afford any sort of useful cover. The big curved bonnet of the car, however, looked like it would make the perfect daytime hiding spot, especially as the first rays of morning were starting to reach across the deep dark blue of the sky.

The bonnet raised with a creak and it looked like the engine had been taken out so there was a perfect little hollow between the wheel wells where he could lay down. He pulled the bonnet down over himself and settled back.

As the day brightened, the traffic of the road increased. In the morning there were mostly trucks but after a while, most of the traffic was cars. Adrian didn’t need to look directly at the vehicles to know what they were. He just listened to the sounds as they swished by and could see them in his mind’s eye.

A police car zoomed past chasing another car was being driven by a young man. All the lights were flashing and the siren created a monstrous wail as it passed. It didn’t take the police car long to catch up to the other car, which soon pulled over and stopped. As the police officer approached the other car it suddenly burst into life again, kicking up gravel and racing off, leaving the policeman to run back to his car and give chase once more.

Adrian could feel the anger and fear of both the young driver and the officer. It seemed to have a palpable metallic smell of evil. Like the dragon had and like the princess had become.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, except for the return of the police car, going the other way at a slower pace, but now with a passenger in the back.

Adrian was a little surprised at how much he seemed to understand about this new strange world where wires hummed, vehicles raced by and people flew in the sky in aerial carriages.

A light misty rain, driven by a gusty wind, made the edges of the world softer and quieter, vacuuming up the sounds of man and nature. Adrian felt surprisingly contented. He glanced down under his breastplate and saw the empty space where his body should be, and marveled.

The rain continued through the afternoon and Adrian waited for the sky to get darker before leaving his hideaway. The Township was surprisingly close as he rounded the corner of one of the winds of the road.

There, across a bridge over the river was a row of shops lit by street lights. Adrian was fascinated by the lights which did not flicker and were so bright. Beyond the shops, Adrian could see the tops of other buildings and houses and in the center some very high towers, the tallest of which was a mirrored spire, like a knife blade stabbing at the sky, with a sign on the top. The sign said ‘Wrest.’ Somehow, he knew his goal was in particular tower.

There was too much light on the bridge and still traffic running past the shops. He couldn’t get across the river way so followed the shore for a while. Here the shops had given way to luxurious houses, leafy avenues and fewer cars. Additionally, the street lighting was not so garishly bright.

For a long time, Adrian watched the water gently lap at the shoreline before wading in out of curiosity. It felt cold to his bones but somehow wasn’t too bad. There was a fishy smell to the water as it got up towards his chin but Adrian had no idea how he might be smelling it.

He ducked under the water briefly by bending his legs and surfaced for air but except for the fishy smell, nothing had changed. Perhaps he didn’t need to breathe, or perhaps his breathing was in the other place where the rest of his body was. He ducked under a second time and waited for a bit. He drew a breath (however was possible) but didn’t choke on water or anything. He still felt he was breathing OK. So he determined he would walk across the river under the water.

It was disconcerting as he didn’t have a clear view very far and wasn’t even sure he was still heading in the right direction. The river seemed far wider than it looked from the top and he stumbled on loose rocks and slipped on muddy patches. Soon he became able to determine the sandiness of the river bed by the lightness of its color. Sand was easier to walk on. Also as he progressed, he entered a forest of weed which blanketed the ground. Fish darted among the weeds and he began seeing bits of rubbish had been thrown in the water. Soon the bed of the river banked upwards sharply and he found himself on all fours climbing up the submerged slope.

At last his head crested through the surface and he stopped to take stock of his situation. He was only about forty feet from the shore and not far from a small private jetty which led up beside a boat shed and into the back yard of a large lightly colored house. No lights were on but Adrian could hear movement in the house. He decided not to try going up way but skirted around the shoreline with just his head above the water.

There was a small park ran into a swampy marsh at the river’s edge. It was dark and quiet and had a pavilion with seats and a table surrounded by weeping willows. There was also the trickle of a small creek which fed into the river. Adrian decided to make landfall at the park but just before, he tripped on something submerged. He grabbed at it and lifted it out of the water as he climbed out. It was a bicycle, in relatively good condition, just covered in mud and weeds. The wheels still turned freely and the handlebars moved easily.

This was another thing Adrian just understood. He could see how it was meant to be ridden. He wheeled it up to a small paved car-park and spent some time trying to propel the bike while staying upright, standing with one foot on a pedal. Eventually, he threw his leg over the back wheel and sat on the saddle. He found the saddle seemed to lock in to his bones and he wobbled around the car-park, getting more stable and more confident as he rode.

The exhilaration of riding increased as he got faster and faster and soon he rode down the meandering pathway and out of the park, onto the road. To his left there were few houses or lights so Adrian headed way with the wind swishing through the holes in the suit of armor.

In the distance, there were the oncoming lights of a car so Adrian dropped the bike on the side of the road and crouched up beside a garbage bin until the car had gone past.
Adrian could no longer see the shiny tower and wasn’t really sure of the direction he should go. He thought it was probably best to turn back and head in the other direction as it felt like he was moving away from the bridge where he saw the tower. So he got back on the bike and rode past the park and through the suburban streets, keeping the river in sight as much as he could.

Soon, he could see the bridge and the row of shops. There were fewer cars now and while the street lights were bright, the shops were dark. Still it was probably best to avoid the brightest streets, so Adrian rode through back streets and alleyways behind the well-lit facade.

As he turned a corner, there was a man and a woman just in front of him and he was moving with too much momentum to stop. The man first appeared to be pushing the woman and the woman, in turn, was hitting the man. Adrian could see, as he got closer, the woman’s dress had fallen from her shoulder and the man was pulling at the bag she held across the front of her body. Adrian could not understand the words the man was using but the woman was saying “No, no.”

The woman, seeing Adrian, called out “Help me.” just as the man tore the bag from her grasp. The man then threw the bag aside and advanced again on the woman, lifting up her skirt.

Adrian leapt from the bike, drew his sword and pointed it towards the man as he advanced. The man took stock of him for a second, then said words shocked Adrian with their crudity but were to the effect Adrian was some sort of wannabe super hero in a suit of armor and a mask.

As Adrian advanced, the man’s eyes widened but he held his ground until nearly at the point of the sword. He then broke and ran away, shouting obscenities.

Adrian picked up the woman’s bag and held it out to her. Her eyes widened in fear as she took the bag and realized she was looking at a skull peering out of the armor. The hands themselves were just bones too.

“Thank you,” said the woman with a trembling voice. Adrian tried to answer but his voice seemed so small and distant, he wasn’t even sure she heard him.

Adrian bowed and slung the sword across his back in one smooth movement. He turned back towards the bicycle but there was a flickering light behind him, so he turned back briefly to look. The woman was holding up a small device which flickered brightly from a small dot in the middle. The woman remained holding the flickering device up as Adrian got back on the bike and rode away, back in the direction of the park. He had had enough excitement for one night.

As he was riding, it came to Adrian the woman’s device had recorded pictures of him. So much for stealth! Well, what was done was done. There were several trucks drove past him but this time he did not hide. He rode on and for the most part, the trucks did not change their pace or seem to acknowledge him in any way. They stayed on their side of the road and he on his.

Soon, he reached the little park and walked back into the water, carrying the bicycle and leaving it out a few feet from the water’s edge where it would not be found by anyone, but would be there for when he came back.

Adrian continued walking in the shallows, following the river downstream. He did so for about an hour, but the river was meandering away from the town, so he turned back and decided to explore the shoreline up to the bridge and perhaps beyond.

After the bridge, the river began to open out into a bay and beyond that, there appeared to be a dark sursurration of the sea. The city had docks with ships extending out into the waters of the bay and there was a constant smell of diesel oil and rotting fish.

Adrian returned to the bridge and crossed the river near the bridge, but under the water, from pylon to pylon. The going seemed easier as the bottom was sandier and the water clearer and faster flowing. He finally climbed out of the water under the bridge and took the road back towards his ‘bed’ under the bonnet of the abandoned car.

A sudden curiosity overcame him and he decided to go back to the farmhouse, so didn’t stop at the car wreck but walked past, up the road.

As he walked, he considered the noise the armor always made on the sealed road. If he had a softer base on his feet, the armor wouldn’t strike the road with such force. Perhaps he could find some large over-shoes to cover his bony feet and tuck the ends of the armor in to.

Once again, the farm was dark and quiet and this time, there were no lights or signs of activity at all, it being well past midnight. The dog once again padded quietly up to Adrian and he patted it affectionately. Once again, Adrian’s hands and body became visible in a ghostly form while patting the dog. Once again after pulling back his hand, the visibility slowly decreased.

In the shed, little had changed and Adrian looked around for something to make shoes to quieten his steps, but there was nothing seemed to be appropriate. The sword was unwieldy and its scabbard would need repair soon but there wasn’t any leather around with which to make those repairs. In a drawer, Adrian found an awl and a large needle and some twine, which he could use to stitch together any leather, if, or when, he found some.

Beside the back step of the house he found several pairs of shoes, one pair of which had soles made of a light spongy material bonded to cloth tops. These seemed large enough to cover his small bony feet and also to tuck the bottom of the leggings in to. Once the shoes had been tightly laced, Adrian marched and stepped around in circles finding the shoes seemed to fit well, but were quite long for his feet. None of the other shoes seemed quite as utilitarian and so he left them alone.

Adrian also considered the occasional squeaks and clicks the armor made when he was moving. He looked at ways to repair and replace the decaying leather went between the plates. There were also boots there, made of a black leather like substance which he could cut up but he had second thoughts about taking more of their shoes, so he left them alone.

There were clothing and sheets hanging across a line and Adrian tried to imagine how one might use them but decided it was wrong to take so much from these unsuspecting people.

You should've just posted a link to your book 😒

a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

There isn't a book. This just a youngsters novel I've been working on.

There's stacks more but it's nowhere near finished and polished & I don't intend to to post the rest, at this stage.

Hope you liked it.

a reply to: chr0naut

Hope you liked it.

Loved it. You do realize that it now belongs to everyone besides the youngsters.

originally posted by: Seede
a reply to: chr0naut

Hope you liked it.

Loved it. You do realize that it now belongs to everyone besides the youngsters.

Yeah, as the story develops, I want it to go through some pretty dark places, some of them not child-friendly. Nothing gratuitous - it is important to the story.

I have some ideas as follows:

The hero has to face it that he has to follow a path that isn't lawful or good. He has to kill to achieve his goals and most times he doesn't know if the person he kills is bad or good, they are just obstacles to his goal. He develops an unhealthy attachment to a pre-pubescent girl, thousands of years his junior. He has to make alliances with some of the bad guys whom he befriends but also, ultimately, betrays, leading to their deaths. Along the way he makes many mistakes. Good people die because he drew them into danger. Evil plans prosper because of his choices.

And the bad guys are genuinely evil, entirely selfish and committed. They are organised and governed by an ancient secret society called the Colophon Society whose ultimate goal is to "re-take heaven" and establish themselves as 'the rule'.

Even Helel, the Devil, permanent chairman of the Colophon Society, is revealed to be insane and driven by fear but has lost the ability to know what is right and what is wrong. He murders allies for reasons that only make sense in his twisted mind and assists his enemies out of a desire to be fair and impartial. He is barely tolerated by the others but too strong to depose.

I'd also like to make it one of a series of stories. Part of the problem is that I keep re-writing and tweaking what I already have, which means that some themes are only ever sketched out and never 'finished'. Still, if I keep on, I should at least get to finish the first story.

originally posted by: Seede
a reply to: chr0naut

Hope you liked it.

Loved it. You do realize that it now belongs to everyone besides the youngsters.

I just re-read the story and noticed I have deleted out the word 'that' which I felt I was over-using (trying to 'beautify' my prose) so some of the sentences are a bit weird and will need rework.