Impure: Godslayers

The rays of sun shine penetrated through the thick trees, creating a soft, intricate chiselled pattern of light on the lush grass. An icy wind blew gently in a consistent faltering motion through the trees causing the leaves to sway back and forth destroying the pattern and forcing a once twittering sparrow to bury her head in her wings. Moments later the sparrow flew out of her nest hurriedly, as a red blur came crashing through the tress smashing her nest to pieces and sending leaves flying everywhere. She began twittering abusively at the now distant acrobatic creature, as if to express her anger at the tedious exercise. With its narrow limbs and prehensile tail, the creature manoeuvred swiftly through the trees ahead and across the meadow into the trees on the other side. The monkey landed on the high branch of a tree deep within the forest; with its little chest puffed out and it’s back pressed against the tree trunk. Whilst listening acutely, it yanked its long tail closer to its slender body. A really remarkable feature of the monkey was the fiery red colour of its rough hair, and the blue shade of its hairless face. Its wide nostrils flared and relaxed steadily as it greedily panted with such focus that he did not notice the eyes glaring within the dense thicket beside it. The eyes were strange for the pupils were brown but the sclera was of a pale gold shade. Although the owner remained hidden, the ominous eyes soon became visible to the monkey against the backdrop of the dark forest. The monkey made a break for it. It bounced off the branch with ease and dived through the air. Inches behind him, was the hand of a boy who had just erupted out the thicket.

Before he could clutch its tail, the monkey swung out his reach, leaving him clasping at nothing but a handful of air. The boy was sent hurtling down on a painful descent to the ground. He quickly recovered from his head on collision and looked up to see the monkey swinging acrobatically away in the treetops.

“Singe! I will get you,” the boy yelled.

As he was standing up, the boy saw something at the roots of the tree ahead of him. He yelped out in terror and stumbled to the ground, backing painfully into something solid.

“Lee?”

Lee looked up at the sleekly built topless figure, who had on a loincloth. He had a matured yet charming face which wore a disappointed look.

“Osy,” Lee said as he was pulled up.

Although they both had brown pupils and sclera the shade of faded gold, the boys could not be more different. Lee looked like he was in his mid-teens, whereas Osy seemed like he was in his late teenage years. Osy was only a little taller than Lee. His skin was a dark brown tone, while Lee’s was distinctively paler. He had short brown bristly hair, and Osy had thick, long black hair which was held in tight plaits that went down his scalp. He had wide shoulders and a trim build whereas Lee was a little heftier. His high cheekbones, acute brows and narrow eyes, meant that he seemed to have a constant haughty expression on his face. Lee had a wide squashed nose; Osy’s was thinner with prominent nostrils. Lee had knee length, sleeveless tunic with a thin leather belt around his waist. Osy had his tunic hanging on his shoulder; he now began to wear it. Whereas Osy’s was a dark green colour and Lee’s tunic was dark red. They both wore sandals with straps that stemmed up their ankles.

“Why were you screaming? I said you will only hurt yourself trying to keep up with Singe,”

“There,” Lee said.

Osy looked at the direction of Lee’s pointed finger, to the bottom of the tree in front of them. There was a young deer slumped in one of the groves of the thick formation of roots below the tree. One of the doe’s hind legs was snared in the trees roots and was hanging off its body by a thin strip of flesh. Yet the worst sight was the trail of tiny insects stripping the doe, one fibre of flesh at a time. The most sickening fact was that the doe was still alive, but it was too fatigued to even gruff in pain. It just laid there breathing heavily and glancing around in terror as it forelegs were picked clean to the bone.

“Damned Scavenger Ants, vicious little creatures,” Lee said as he looked at the sea of blue insects.

They massed together in two lines, one marching towards the lame doe and the other carrying portions of its flesh back to their colony.

“Well…let us leave this place,” Osy said as he began to walk away.

“Ah Osy?” Lee whined.

“What? I have work to do. So do you. You have barely mastered two languages,” Osy said.

“But the deer,” Lee whinged.

“This is none of our concern; let nature take its course. Besides if Norton sees you playing with Singe again, your fate will be much worse than that deer’s”

Osy chuckled, but when he saw the mournful expression on Lee’s face he paused.

“Alright fine, make its end fast. Incinerate it and let us get back to work,”

“No. I do not want to cause it anymore pain. I was hoping you would, your way is a lot less painful,” Lee retorted.

Osy sighed and walked towards the tree, making sure to avoid the trail of Scavenger Ants. He observed the downtrodden look on the deer’s face, as he placed a hand on its head. Osy turned back to Lee.

“Avert your eyes; I do not like you seeing this.”

“I have seen it before,” Lee moaned.

“Lee, please,” Osy urged.

With a groan Lee pursed his lips firmly and turned his back on Osy with his arms crossed.

“You do not have to treat me like a child. You know I am thirty, if I was a mortal I would have a wife and child by now,”

Osy sighed miserably as green veins appeared on the back of his hand. The doe opened its eyes wide and gave a long gasp as what was left of its body, deflated. In an instant, the doe took its last breath. Its eyes closed shut and its body remained deathly still. Meanwhile, Osy brought his hand up and clenched his fist as his physique swelled up ever so slightly. He grinned with satisfaction for a split second, but abruptly wiped the smile off his face, as though he had just awoken from a sadistic trance.

“Lee it is done,” Osy said.

Yet there was no answer.

“Lee!”

Osy looked around only to find that Lee was gone. He sniffed the air and looked up to see a column of smoke rising above the trees.

“Oh no,” Osy wheezed.

Lee stood before a smoking anthill. The towering structure was not ablaze, but the thousands of scavenger ants around and in it were on fire. Lee looked to the wide trail of ants which led to the tall anthill at the far side of the clearing.

“Lee, what are you doing?” Osy exclaimed.

“That deer did nothing to them and yet these parasites…they have to suffer,”

“Lee, I know it is not fair but that is nature. We have had this conversation before; we do not get angry we cannot always have our way. So you need to calm down before you burn this entire forest down,” Osy said with a condescending tone.

Yet neither Osy’s arrogance nor his words were noted by Lee. Instead, Lee raised both of his hands in front of him

“Alright Lee now you are not being fair. You are fully aware that Norton will blame me for your actions,”

Remaining silent, Lee looked at his hands as they were each consumed with fires that he seemed to have sparked out of thin air. His left hand was consumed by clear blue flames, whilst his right was alight with violent red fire. Although they burned brightly, the fires did not incinerate his flesh neither did they spread to the rest of his body. Lee smiled mischievously like a lecherous sloth, as he stretched a hand down at a trail of ants.

“No!” Osy yelled.

It was too late, a burst of flame projected from Lee’s palm. Immediately the ants caught fire. Osy watched helplessly as the flames spread rapidly up the trail of ants until it dispersed in the many holes of the anthill. This anthill was too close to the forest and the flames immediately spread along the grass. Osy gasped and even Lee looked guiltily as he extinguished the flames around his hands. They both looked on wide-eyed as the fire spread towards the trees. Suddenly, the ground began to shake, causing the boys to spread their arms in an attempt not to lose their footing. The intensity of the tremors increased markedly, causing the trees to shudder and the land to crack. Under the pressure of the shuddering terrain, the anthills collapse. The length of the anthills fell on the trail of flaming ants and smashed to pieces, sending sand everywhere like the bricks of a wrecked building. As the quake finally subsided, the sands had extinguished all of the flames. All that was left on the clearing were thousands of dead ants and two smouldering pits, where the foundations of the anthills had once stood.

A calming wind careened up across the meadow as the lengthy blades of grass whimsically chased each other up the hill at the side of the meadow. On it was a stone fountain, comprising of a large stone lotus leaf which shot out of the basin of the fountain. Water streamed steadily from the gaps in-between the petals. The circular square atop the hill was about thirty feet wide; to the left was a flight of stairs which led to a higher hill where the wooden fort lay, casting a shadow of grand scale over the fountain at the middle of the patio. A hooded figure was sat at the corner of the fountain with a handful of scrolls, and frantically waving at Osy and Lee.

“George,” Osy said as he waved back.

“Do you think he is angry?” Lee said between gritted teeth.

The figure threw its head back revealing long flowing blonde hair; the rays of the evening sun gave his locks an alluring golden tinge. He had a regular spread of freckles on his cheeks, a narrow upturned nose in between and thin blood drained lips. His skin was even paler than Lee. He showed no signs of care and neither did Lee or Osy. All they could see from their distance were his steely blue eyes clashing against his pale gold sclera, and thin furrowed brows, which betrayed his unyielding nature.

“Well, he is definitely angry,” Lee said through his polite smile as he waved back.

The middle aged man wore creased blue robes. He carefully adjusted the lens with his free hand. However, the ray of light travelling through it, failed to focus. His thick brown brow crumpled and he narrowed his blue eyes as he struggled to keep hold of his scalpel to the crystal. Simultaneously he stretched his neck to see the sun-dial that was placed outside the tent. The shadow was past the six, causing him to slouch back on his chair and drop the scalpel, which landed with a loud clatter on the table. It was dark inside the tent, except for the large shaft of light where the sun-dial was stood and the weak ray of light that penetrated through a small gap in the curtain at the egress of the tent. The blue-robed man walked to the other side of the tent and stopped in front of a large mirror. The mirror stretched for the entire height of the tent and the sides were encrusted with clear crystals. It had such a clear and detailed reflection that it almost seemed like a window to another room filled with sparkling transparent tools and objects, with an aged but able man staring through it. Maintaining his gaze at the mirror, he pushed the large translucent orb that was submerged half way into the jewelled panel, which laid on the top of a short pillar beside the mirror. A concentrated frown spread across his face as he looked intently into the mirror. He pressed down on the orb once more, this time keeping his hand on it.

“Lasters, Lasters,” he called out the name repeatedly.

As he did so, the view in mirror morphed gradually, until it no longer showed his reflection, but the faulty image of what seemed to be the sea. The dark stormy skies merely added to the disfigurement of the image. In contrast to its appearance, the image flickered off the mirror leaving the man staring at his own dumbfounded expression. After breathing down he pushed on to the orb, repeatedly calling out the same name. The image appeared suddenly this time, as dark as ever, he could hear the sound of the crashing waves below. A fork of lightning flashed from the sky revealing the surroundings for a second. A second was all the man needed as he whispered to himself with a confused expression on his face. There was a sudden explosion, which jerked the tent causing him to let go of the orb, and a couple of instruments to smash on the ground. After regaining his balance, the old man cursed loudly as he looked at the mirror to see his own reflection. A column of smoke blotted out the sunlight, causing the whole room to fall into partial darkness. As he stroked the orb to the left, it spun. This in turn caused a variety of images to flicker on to the mirror. Firstly it was that of the forest, then the meadows and this was followed by the fountain. As he breathed down he stroked the orb faster, the image of the fort flickered on the mirror, then the courtyard. At this point he stopped and stroked the orb to the right. His eyes widened, he swiftly walked out of the room cursing once more. Carelessly, he left the image of a flaming pit in the forest; on the mirror.

“You know you are not supposed to take the scrolls out of the library,”

Lee and Osy walked into the cave which was at the side of the hill, several paces away from the fountain. The cave was deep but brightly lit, for there were torches hung on the walls. There was a large mirror attached to the wall at the end of the cave. Next to it were untidy bundles of cloths and a bed.

“Ah Lee…after the ruckus you have wrought, including almost starting a forest fire merely seconds ago, you are in no position to tell me what is proper,” George said as he struggled with his cloak.

Finally he managed to take it off, revealing an outfit identical to Lee’s and Osy’s. However, George’s tunic was of a pale brown colour. He had a small chiselled piece of rock hanging from a string around his neck. He sat down on a stone slab which was next to a wooden table at the side of the cave.

“Lee is right. You bring the scrolls back muddied,”

“Muddied in the cave, dusty in the library, why do you care? You will not read them anyway,” George scoffed.

He opened the scroll on the table and began to read it, as though the boys were not there.

“What are you talking about? I have mastered more languages than you and my knowledge of ethics are greater than yours,” Osy retorted.

This comment seemed to exhaust George’s efforts at ignoring Osy and Lee, because he turned towards them.

“Between your struggle to control Lee and your never-ending quest to live up to Norton’s expectations, which we both know is impossible, I will catch up with you,”

“While you two read scrolls and vie for Norton’s approval, I surpass you both in prowess and power,” Lee said mockingly.

“Ashes, that is what remains every time you have your way….ashes,” Osy affirmed.

“…You two just do not get it do you?” George said.

He turned back to the scroll as he continued.

“You two are slow are you not? None of this even matters. Osy, you can be the voice of reason in every petty dilemma that arises in this place. Lee, you can burn up everything in your path so that you do not have to admit the lack of purpose in our lives… we are trapped here. We have been trapped here since birth and probably till the day we lay to sleep never to wake again,” George said.

“Now you are being melodramatic. Our fathers were slain and the outside world is not safe for us, not yet,” Osy replied.

“And when will that be Osy, huh? We have already outlived some mortals and yet we still look like children,” George snapped back as he threw the scroll aside.

George ran his fingers through his hair in frustration as he sighed loudly.

“Look at me, using the word ‘mortals’ like I have ever met one. Between Norton lording over us, Sek on the beach tower and the unpleasant company of you two; I have being surrounded by aberrations all my life. It is pushing me to the brink of madness” George lamented.

“Do not forget Uncle Borr. He is rarely around but Norton said that it is his feat that keeps us safe,” Lee chimed in.

“You do not have to call him uncle; he is not actually related to us. None of them are…that is why I do not understand why they care so much.” George said.

“They fed and clothed us since birth, I think they deserve a little more than your understanding,” Osy retorted coldly.

Suddenly there was resonating explosion. The three ran to the mouth of the cave to see what had exploded. One of the flaming pits where the anthills once stood, was puffing out thick black smoke. If they had looked with more intent, they would have seen the blue robed figure, carrying a barrel full of water towards the pit.

“Great Lee, once again you cannot control your fire,” George sighed.

“Says the boy who made the ground shake several moments ago,” Lee snapped back fancifully.

“That is quite enough from both of you,” Osy exclaimed.

“You do not scare anyone Osy. Why are you getting involved in matters that do not concern you?” George yelled.

He scowled ruthlessly.

“Well I roused enough fear to stop you two from fighting did I not? Besides, someone could get hurt or worse, you may cause more damage”, Osy said with disdain.

Before he could utter a word, George was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. The three boys looked at each other in dread as the sounds of the footsteps became louder until it finally stopped beside them.

“You – you.... simply stood there and argued amongst yourselves as I put out the fire, which by the way you started,” Norton said.

He clenched a length of his blue robes and secured it over his shoulder.

“I take full responsibility for that,” Lee said.

“You would not have to if Osy was mature enough to stop you,” Norton replied.

“But I did not do anything,” Osy mumbled.

“Exactly you did nothing!”

The three youths drew in breath sharply as none of them were prepared for Norton’s castigation, which came seemingly out of nowhere.

“Why? If they want to fight, let them. When they are tired they will stop,” Osy said.

“Fine tomorrow all of you will rectify the damage you have caused. In the evening you will fill the holes up and till the soil without your godly feats,”

“What?” they all cried out in unison.

That was all except for Lee who made a remark that sounded like he was trying to swallow something rather unpleasant.

“We are demi-gods, not farmers,” Lee moaned.

“That will be all; I am trying to teach you how to survive. You are all each other has. If one of you suffers, you all suffer,” Norton commanded.

He turned to walk away but he furrowed his brow and stopped in his tracks.

“I am sorry, but Osy you are the oldest, you must be more responsible. I will not be here all the time as demi-gods you will out-live me and my brothers. All I can do is, prepare you….”

“Prepare us for what?”

Despite the resounding volume of George’s voice, Norton ignored the question.

“You train your feats tomorrow, there is no reason to use your godly feats today,” Norton said as he gazed warningly at Lee.

“That goes for you too George, I felt the tremors. You have a headache?”

George flexed his immense shoulders in annoyance, before nodding hesitantly.

“Good, serves you right for attempting such a feat. How are your studies?” Norton asked.

“This is what was just talking about earlier, all our lives you have had us hidden away in this land. Sek stands guard at the outpost looking to sea, night and day, barely eating or sleeping. Borr we barely see. Whilst you teach us languages, ethics and how to hone our feats, with no contact, whatsoever with the outside world. You refuse to even tell us what we are hiding from,”

“…I promise, when the time is right I shall-”

Suddenly the piercing sound of a great horn filled the air. The hangdog expression on Norton’s face was torn off by a horrified look.

“Is that Sek… what does it mean?” George bellowed in an attempt to get heard over the horn.

“All of you hasten into the fort immediately,” Norton shouted as he began running towards the forest.

“Norton”, George yelled out.

“Please George, I’ll answer your questions later, stay with your brothers,” Norton said more softly this time.

George gave a dutiful nod and followed Osy and Lee up the stairs.