[Mkguild] Healing Wounds in Arabarb (22 of ?)

[C. Matthias]

Healing Wounds in Arabarb
By Charles Matthias


After breaking through the castle wall, Pharcellus pushed Machias and 
Quoddy out before him before leaping into night air, spreading his 
wings, and hoping. The mage who could only be Gmork was far more 
powerful than he anticipated. Lacerations dashed across his neck and 
chest, most of them bleeding. The cold air was a welcome relief, and 
then the emptiness of space as he left the sundry earth below had 
never felt grander.

His wings caught the air and he beat as hard as he could, quickly 
moving around to the east to escape the mage's new vantage. Machias 
and Quoddy followed him up into the air and over the dense forest 
that encroached the castle's eastern flank. Pharcellus chanced a look 
back at the castle, but no more volleys were forthcoming.

He did not allow himself any emblem of relief despite his pain. 
Lindsey was still trapped in that castle and in the hands of Gmork. 
Had the mage not been standing next to the boy, he would have reduced 
him to cinders. Now he just had to hope Lindsey would not be harmed 
for another day or two until they could make a more permanent assault 
on the castle.

Pharcellus flapped his wings and drove ever eastward along the river, 
until quite suddenly the stars in the sky began to spin. And then 
fists pummeled his side as he crashed into an open meadow overlooking 
the river. He blinked as everything began to clear and craning his 
neck backward, inspected his wings. There were a few smaller cuts 
along the edges, but no breaks and no large tears. He'd still be able to fly.

The two sea birds landed on the ground before him and the gull 
squawked, "Are you okay, Pharcellus?"

He gently ran one hand down his neck and chest and grimaced as it 
stung in more places than he cared to count. "I will be," he replied 
in his booming voice. He lowered his neck so that his snout was no 
further from the ground than his two friends. "I need to rest a short 
while, but we cannot stay here long. Gmork will be sure to come for 
us, and we are not far enough from his castle to be safe."

Machias started trembling and he squawked in sudden anguish. "That 
monster has taken our brother! Lubec! Lubec wanted Gmork to kill and 
eat him. And us! Oh Pharcellus! What do we do? What do we do to save him?"

The dragon looked down at the puffin and the gull with deep sympathy. 
He knew how deeply a brother loved his siblings. "We will save Lubec 
and Lindsey both," he assured them, though he didn't feel at all 
certain of it. "But we need to calm down. While I rest a bit, you 
tell me what happened. Then, I want the both of you to go back to 
Fjellvidden and find Elizabaeg. Vysterag is one of Gmork's servants 
and he is to be kept out of all councils. You need to warn her of 
that. You can find her in the old mill at the western edge of town."

Quoddy bobbed his head up and down. "We will. What about you?"

Pharcellus lowered his neck to the ground and let it rest against 
soft grasses. Already his wounds felt soothed. "I am going to lead 
Gmork and his men as far from here as I can. But I will return 
tomorrow. Now tell me what Gmork did. All of it. But be not afraid. 
We'll rescue them. We will."

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Gmork knew there was little time to waste. But that infernal dragon 
had murdered his youngest pup, one he could ill-afford to lose. It 
was time to take a risk with his latest acquisition. There was still 
some humanity there and that could be used against him. So he, with 
Sergeant Cajudy, the fool who had unwittingly brought the dragon into 
the castle, carried the body of his slain pup down to the dungeons.

His three other pups were waiting in Yajgaj's antechamber and their 
eyes filled with horror at the sight of their youngest brother's head 
in Gmork's arms. "Say nothing now," Gmork admonished them with a snap 
and a growl. "Follow me and do as I bid you, my children."

His three children, each with different degrees and expressions of 
their beastly nature showing, but all with furred, pointed ears and 
long tails, followed him silently. Of them all only his eldest child 
had a furless tail, an affectation that normally amused Gmork but 
little could amuse him at the moment.

For one moment, he'd felt certain that the boy Andrig was finally 
going to beg for mercy for his friends. For one moment Gmork had been 
confidant the extent and location of the Resistance would be 
revealed. But that hideous fit of clarity undid all of the 
conditioning Gmork had peppered him with, and then before he could 
reclaim his work that dragon had appeared. They would soon hunt him 
down to finish him off, but first Gmork was going to give his latest 
child a chance to become truly his.

He hoped his gamble worked. Otherwise, it would be another month or 
two before he'd be able to break his humanity completely.

Gmork used the keys he took from Yajgaj to open the door to the 
dungeons, and then pressed it aside with one shoulder. Cajudy 
followed him down carrying the back end of his slain pup, obviously a 
little nervous at being surrounded by his entire pack. The other 
three came down almost snipping at his heels as they crouched as low 
as they could.

With a twirl of his fingers, Gmork summoned witchlights to bring a 
soft light to the darkness. A trio of ghostly spheres giving off a 
febrile blue light wandered and danced like fireflies until they 
settled near his latest acquisition. Gmork, Cajudy, and the three 
pups followed in their wake.

At the pup's feet was a denuded and cracked bone. Crouching on all 
fours with head hung low and tongue panting was his newest child. 
Gmork felt a tremor of delight at seeing the bone completely 
stripped. His little pup had eaten all of the meat even though he 
thought it man-flesh. And there, as promised, twitching at the base 
of his spine through his black cloak was a small tail covered in 
patchy black fur. His arms ended in more paws than hands, though the 
thumbs were still present. His face distended into a snout, the jowls 
coated lightly in the same black fur which receded to gray along his 
ears and cheeks. His eyes were a rich golden hue that sparkled in the 
pale light.

When Gmork came within the circle of light, he lifted his head 
slightly, nudging the bone with the back of his fingers. "I ate it 
all, Father. I... I enjoyed it."

His pup's voice was uncertain, but hopeful, almost resigned. Some 
part of his resistance had given way; not all of it by any means. But 
each measure surrendered to Gmork further cemented his beastly nature 
and eroded the old human identity. But as he and Cajudy set the 
precious body of his slain pup on the ground, it took a great strain 
to bring a smile to his face. "I am glad, and proud of you my child."

His pup lifted his face further, and then he sniffed and realized 
that they weren't alone. The other three pups came around the circle 
and looked at him with ears lifted and tails straight. They sniffed 
curiously but said nothing. Cajudy backed away a few paces so that he 
fell into shadow but waited for orders. His pup's ears lifted and his 
tail lowered to press between his legs if only it were long enough. 
And then his ears lowered as his eyes became transfixed on the dead child.

"I am glad for you, my pup, but I am very sad. Your brother..." he 
stroked one paw down the bloody corpse's chest. "Your brother was 
slain... slain by a dragon." At this, he tilted his head back and 
began to howl in abject misery. The other three pups all sat on their 
haunches and did the same, howling a mournful dirge that made Cajudy 
shrink back further.

His newest pup stared and listened for several seconds, looking at 
the body and murmuring, "My brother? My brother is dead? No..." He 
repeated it three times before finally he succumbed to sorrow, tilted 
back his head and howled with the rest of them, his voice a plaintive 
cry of misery and loss. Their five voices twined in beastly harmony, 
cascading up and down in tone with mellifluous melancholy. When one 
ran out of breath, they lowered their snout, and then resumed the cry 
of anguish.

Gmork let this continue for a few minutes, and if he'd had time, 
would have let it persist for much longer. Every moment his new pup 
howled and wept as their kind did, he cemented himself further and 
further into their family. What was left of his humanity understood 
the importance and the solidarity that had to come through a family. 
That, combined with his clear willingness to obey his father and to 
love him just the same, proved that while he may not be one of them 
completely in body and soul, he was nevertheless one of them.

But was he ready to live among them and as one of them? Gmork now had 
but to test this.

He lowered his snout and walking on all fours, nudged his newest pup 
against the cheek, then bared his fangs to silence him. His pup 
lowered to his haunches and swallowed, ears lowered. Within him, 
Gmork could see the swirls of magical energy slackening. That was not 
what he wished to see.

"Your brother," Gmork said in a soft growl, "was murdered. Cruelly 
slain and the killer escaped our grasp." The weave of magic within 
him suddenly flared to life, drawing tighter and tighter around what 
Gmork suddenly saw was a clenched fist. It was still a human fist 
though. "This is a grave injustice, my child. Our family has been 
hurt and weakened by his murders. What must we do?"

His pup growled, a fire boiling in his golden eyes. "We must have 
recompense, Father!"

"Recompense?" Gmork asked. "What recompense? What can return a life?"

While Gmork's three other children watched, each nuzzling and 
stroking the body of their slain brother in turn, Gmork gently eased 
his will into that flow of magic, finding it open to him at last. It 
swirled about, a whirlpool of power and force, all directed into that 
closed fist. He had to stretch out like a shaft of iron beaten into a 
strip so thin and long that it was as fragile as glass, but he did 
touch that fist. And it hurt.

Gmork trembled but brushed his will along that fist, even as the 
swirl of energy inside his pup tightened further. But the fist, like 
everything else about a man, responded. Little flecks of fur sprang 
up, dark with gray mixed in. Even that little bit would be enough. 
With a gasp he pulled himself back and asked his pup again, "What 
recompense is there for a life?"

His pup growled, the fur on the back of his neck standing on end, the 
hair on his head thickening into a veritable mane. "Another life!"

"What would you do with that other life if it were in your jaws?"

"Tear it! Rip it! Eat it!" Spittle flew from his muzzle with each word.

"Even if it were man?"

He barked in a rage even more furious than Gmork had anticipated. 
"Especially man!"

With a flick of his wrist, Gmork severed the chains holding his pup 
to the dungeon floor. He then leaned back to give his new pup room 
and let one of his witchlights wander away from the other two until 
it found where Cajudy had hidden himself. The soldier had quietly 
inched toward the door to the dungeon, but still had another twelve feet to go.

Gmork whispered, into the growling beast's ear, "That man brought 
your brother's killer. He helped his killer reach into our home. What 
will you do?"

His newest pup leaped forward and bounded three steps on all fours 
after the suddenly fleeing Cajudy. He grabbed the man's backside with 
his jaws and spun him around. Then, rising into a crouch, he slashed 
with both forepaws at the man's chest and abdomen, his arms moving so 
quickly that Gmork couldn't follow them. Cajudy didn't even get a 
chance to scream before his chest, face, and belly were mere ruins of 
red gore and spray. The body didn't fall only because it hadn't had 
enough time to. By the time it reached the floor, his pup grasped 
what remained of the serrated head in his jaws and ripped it free, 
chewing and breaking the bones. Huge swaths of black and gray fur 
were smeared with blood in so fine a layer that they shimmered like 
fiery flames in the glow of the witchlights.

Gmork and the other pups loped to his side yipping and growling in 
welcome. Gmork barked to his child, who dutifully leaned back, almost 
completely a beast in form now. "Very good my son. But the one who 
killed your brother is still out there. Come and hunt with us. When 
we return we will feast on their remains."

His new pup grinned a red-jawed smile.

And in the distant reaches of the dungeon, Gmork could hear the sole 
remaining prisoner praying. His time would be soon enough. As the 
five beasts left the dungeons carrying their brother's body, the 
witchlights winked out, leaving him alone in the darkness with Cajudy's corpse.



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May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,

Charles Matthias


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