Chronicles of the Wolf: Of Wolves & Spiders

Chapter 12

Some more time passed and Lacia and I started heading towards the Terskay-Alata mountain range. I personally didn’t like the idea of getting so close to the mountain of Jengish as it was heavily populated, but Lacia insisted that the mountain range would provide cover for us.

It was on our journey there that Lacia started to explain these creatures to me. Per Lacia there was legend of other worlds that had been created by Lord Brahma, and the existence of other gods. It was one god, Lord Shiva that was of interest. Lord Shiva was a god of Destruction and one day when the maintainer of balance Lord Vishnu had found himself preoccupied with another matter Lord Shiva decided to eradicate all of existence.

Lord Shiva had followers who called themselves the Trimurti. For eons the Trimurti terrorized the cosmos, until they were taken down by a group of beings that were called the Warriors of Light. However, legend spoke that the Trimurti had gone off and teach another race their beliefs. This race came from the neighboring constellation of the dragon.

“So, you mean to tell me these things are from that constellation?” I asked.

“Or so the legend says,” Lacia said.

“Do you have any idea why they would be after you?” I asked.

“Well there is the obvious,” Lacia said.

“That you are a descendant of Lord Brahma?” I asked.

“I also have his power,” Lacia said.

I nodded that I understood. There was still this burning question I needed answered. If she was a descendant of the High Priestess Kyzl and the blood descendant of Lord Brahma himself how was it that she came to be in the Bel’athore forest.

“There is still one thing I don’t quite understand,” I said.

“That is?” Lacia asked.

“If you are the descendant of Lord Brahma how is it that you ended up in the Bel’athore forest?” I asked.

“I was born in the Bel’athore forest, my mother is the one from Fergana. It was after my grandmother decided to leave Fergana with my mother when my mother was younger than I was when I first met you.” Lacia said.

“She must have been barely a pup,” I said.

“Yes, that is correct.” Lacia said.

“That sort of journey must have taken them weeks,” I said. I had long forgotten about that earlier conversation we had had about this same subject when we were younger.

Fergana as mentioned was quite literally on the other side of the land that was known to the Beghrest, there were documented evidence that areas beyond the borders of this land that the Beghrest called Kyzlbrahma, named after the afore mentioned high priestess and the chief god Lord Brahma.

Fergana was the most western city of Kyzlbrahma, we knew that there was a city beyond Fergana that was called Tura, but beyond that to the west we did not know much. Kyzlbrahma was quite a large plot of land there had to be at least 4000 miles between Fergana and its next big city of Durat, and from Durat to Ozgon there had to be about another 3500 miles or so. And Durat was to the South East of the Bel’athore forest beyond Ozgon which 3700 miles was about away from Bel’athore. So, traveling that would have been about 12,000 miles or so that would have taken several weeks at least to travel.

“Oh yes it took them several months to journey, especially since my mother was barely older than I was.” Lacia said.

“Then why did your grandmother decide to leave from Fergana?” I asked.

“Because she had a vision of what we just witnessed,” Lacia said. “But in her vision, she saw Kyzl and Fergana in flames. So, she decided to run as far away as she could. Eventually making it to the Bel’athore forest.”

“I take it that is why you wanted to go to the Terskay-Alata forest?” I asked and Lacia nodded.

This made a bit of sense, I guess.

“Did Baharus know about your mother’s heritage?” I asked.

“Of course, he did.” Lacia said.

“And he still wanted you to marry off to me?” I said.

“I am sure my father didn’t know you were so…different.” Lacia said.

“You didn’t need to formal like that,” I said.

For some reason when I was talking with Lacia about these pack of lizard creatures that had attacked I remembered about the creature my father had encountered in the Bel’athore forest. I was trying to remember what exactly happened and wondered if the creature that my father had fought was one of these things, but it didn’t look like a bug, it didn’t look anything like that.

“My father once talked about this giant bug he fought in the forest,” I said. I felt that I was starting to reminisce perhaps it was because my father had been beaten by the pack leader.

“I’ve heard of that, your father called it the Zhiran, named after an insect creature that is found in myths.” Lacia said.

“Up until I saw these lizard things, I always thought he was making things up.” I said. “Now I feel like he must have truly seen it.”

“Of course, he saw it.” a voice said that made me turn left.

I didn’t understand what I was looking at. Perched on a tree next to us was some sort of…primate. He looked like an enlarged version of a primate that lived in the Ozgon valley to the west of here. It looked just like those primates. It had five fingers on its feet that it was using to hold on to the branch it was squatting on. It had five fingers on its hands I could see. It reached out and grabbed a fruit from the tree it was sitting on and bit into it with a loud crunch.

The creature was about maybe six feet tall and he was wearing strange clothes. Including in what he was wearing was a gold vest and a great golden sash and what looked like was some sort of fabric on his back that flowed in the soft wind that was blowing through the forest. I was surprised to see this creature sitting there as if it had not a care in the world. I had no idea how it ended up there, there was no way that it could have snuck up on two Beghrest the way it did and yet it did.

“This thing taste like an apple,” he said taking another bite out of the fruit.

I looked over at Lacia trying to see if I could get some sort of explanation. She was on the flooring bowing deeply with her hands on the floor and her head and upper torso completely on the floor. I had a hard time trying to understand what in the world this thing was.

“What...what are you?” I asked

“Don’t tell me you’re that ignorant?” Lacia looked up at me in shock and whispered vigorously and motioned for me to grovel the way that she was.

“I am not groveling what the hell is this thing?” I asked suddenly I felt this tremendous force push me down to the ground hard. It was as if a ton of weight had been added to my body. I had slammed the floor so hard that it made a small crater around me.

“I’ve heard of you,” the primate said as it munched on the fruit it was eating. “You are apparently so arrogant that it sometimes annoys people.”

I felt the weight hold me down, it was so much there was no escape from it. I managed to look up at the creature. I had no idea how, but I felt like I knew this thing was the one responsible for what was happening. It was then that I noticed this golden mace that he had in his other hand. It was twice the size he was and yet he was carrying it like it was nothing. It looked like it weighed quite a lot.

“You think you are high and might and you don’t respect anyone, kind of reminds me of that one that just attacked your village.” The creature said.

“Forgive his ignorance my lord,” Lacia said.

“Lacia what the hell are you talking about?” I managed to say.

“This is Lord Hanuman you fool,” Lacia said as she jabbed my side and whispered vigorously. I looked back up at the creature. I had heard of Lord Hanuman, I had seen scripture making references to him. He was a dignitary of Lord Brahma, one of the last known dignitaries. I remember seeing the drawings of Hanuman and picture it in my mind’s eye and looked at the creature sitting up in the tree and realized…it was the same creature.

I couldn’t believe it, here was not supposed to be real. A creature of myth and legend and yet it was sitting up on this tree munching on the fruit of the tree it was sitting on.

“I think your friend here needs a bit of a wakeup call.” The creature said. “To think that you would be related to the Supreme Chief of the Bel’athore forest and his son no-less.”

“If you expect me to grovel to you, you have seriously misunderstood me.” I said as I tried to push up from the ground. There was just so weight pushing down on my back it was if it was the weight of a mountain. I couldn’t move.

“Big words from someone like you,” the creature said. “In my day if anyone talked to a deva like you have, they would have been sent to the deepest reaches of the universe. There is a point where ignorance ends, and treachery begins.”

Suddenly I felt like the weight was gone and I got back up and stared at the creature that sat squatting like a hen laying an egg on the branch above us. I growled angrily at the creature though he just ignored me like he was ignoring a pesky insect.

“Why have you come to us Lord Hanuman?” Lacia said.

“I am here to warn you Lacia,” he said, and I looked at Lacia questioningly.

“This thing knows you?” I asked.

“I, my Beghrest friend am omniscient,” he said.

“Omniscient?” I snorted.

“Yes, Behemet son of the Supreme Chief of Bel’athore,” he said. “I know everything and anything about you. Including that you once thought it was a clever idea to stick your privates into a bullberry bush to…”

“Enough!” I growled angrily. I had no idea how this creature knew about the bullberry bush my own mother did not know about the incident with the bullberry bush.

“Well now, seems like you’re still squeamish about that eh?” the creature said to me then he turned to Lacia. “This creature is something I have been keeping an eye on ever since he surfaced about two years ago.”

“What the hell is it, what does it want?” I asked.

“Oh, now you’re paying attention eh?” the creature said. “It wants nothing (or so it seems) but destruction.”

Something that wants nothing but destruction? This was hard to believe.

“Whatever you do don’t let it capture you Lacia,” he said mysteriously.

I heard this strange noise that caused me to look away. I turned around and saw that it was the core of the fruit that the creature was eating. It was off on the floor about ten feet away from me. I saw it roll a bit clearly indicating that it must have just landed seconds ago. I turned back at the creature and it was gone.