Writing: "Blind Wielder" Prologue

      

           Prologue

            Stars streaked across the darkness of the night sky.

Several of them bounced off the atmosphere before continuing their orbit, some being pulled in by gravity and burning up from the heat of the furious speeds they fell at. This phenomenon almost always happened over the southern skies of the Wasteland, seen only by its harsh occupants. This particular event was being watched from a large group of sheer cliffs that dropped almost two hundred feet.

            One of the observers crouched, still as stone, watching the sky and the land below it. Almost nothing grew in the Wasteland-nothing but the toughest plants and animals could survive. The observer noticed a sand tornado somewhere far to his right, but quickly dismissed it. Nothing would interfere with the events that would happen tonight.

            The cliffs themselves spread for hundreds of miles at a time, an ancient remnant of the War of the Wall, when fights between man and its hereditary enemy reached their final climax before ending with the Battle of Regala and the completion of the Wall. The wars had gone on and off for as long as anyone could remember, all the way back to the falling of the first star.

            The gargoyle moved from its position on the edge of the cliff, noticing several large clouds coming from the east. He poised as if to jump off the cliff, and was stopped by another gargoyle that got up when it saw Grath’ren move from his position. The other gargoyle raised its hand as if to stop him, and began to speak.

            “There are no cliffs there, Grath’ren.” The other one said. Nhorma was the leader of the Configuration that Grath’ren was also a member of. “Brathom has already taken his Configuration to take care of anything that might be a threat.” Although he had asked several times, Grath’ren still didn’t know how the Configuration leaders communicated quickly across long distances. Nhorma’s Configuration had left them several days ago, and the groups were now more than a hundred miles away.

            Grath’ren nodded and got back into his original crouching position once more, watching the sky attentively. The other members of the Configuration saw the exchange out of the corners of their eyes, but said nothing and did not move. They continued to watch the sky, hoping that they would be lucky enough to witness a special event. The Configuration was divided into groups; some watching the sky and some watching the land.

            Grath’ren briefly looked over the infinite landscape sprawling into the distance before returning his observant gaze back to the sky. He carefully examined the constellations that had been charted by the gargoyles over the last thousand years, looking for stars that were missing from their original positions. He looked over the western portion of the sky, noticing that one of the stars in Islin the Hellsmith was missing.

            “Nhorma!” He exclaimed quietly, trying not to be too loud. Nhorma was examining the clouds of dust rising from the area that Brathom was in charge of when Grath’ren called out to him. He walked over to Grath’ren, pausing briefly to say something to Klardea, another member of the Configuration. He reached Grath’ren, inclining his head as if asking a question.

            “Nhorma, I think I’ve found something. Rethger is missing from the head of the Hellsmith.”

            “Rethger has been missing since the solstice at the end of last year, Grath’ren,” Nhorma said impatiently, “Next time you summon me, try not to waste my time.” He walked away and began talking to Klardea again. Grath’ren noticed a star streaking toward the northern horizon. Chances were that the star wouldn’t survive when it hit the ground, but sometimes it happened. Most of the stars that had survived the massive impact they caused when they hit the ground in the northern half of the world were hailed by men as heroes.

            Grath’ren’s attention on the sky shifted as he thought about this in great detail. The last star that had survived the impact in the Northern Hemisphere had discovered the making of Lunestial blades, driving the gargoyles back with the fury of the swords of the Moon. If the star that was hurtling toward the northern horizon made it through the atmosphere and survived the crash, then another major war between gargoyles and men would soon begin. He sincerely hoped that there would not be another war, at least not if the humans had a fallen star fighting for their cause.

            He was struck on the side of his head by a large hand. The sound of stone hitting stone rang out. “I thought you were assigned to watch the skies, Grath’ren, not sit idly and think.” Grath’ren looked down, noticing that he had moved into a sitting position while he was thinking. He moved back to his original position and once again watched the skies, looking for a star that could be missing from the heavens. Nhorma nodded in satisfaction and began patrolling the perimeter of the cliff. No human would attack this far into the wasteland, but there were several groups of fallen stars that had survived their fall to the planet Rashelm and killed the gargoyle Watchmen. Together these survivors had formed a group that attacked gargoyle strongholds occasionally.

            He had been given the task of watching the sky several days ago by Wrathik, Nhorma’s Underling. Stargazing was used during starfalls to spot missing stars that could possibly be hurtling toward the Wasteland. The profession had been developed soon after the birth of the gargoyles. It had grown more and more necessary after the Year of Falling Suns and the expansion of their race due to the high number of stars that fell that year. The gargoyles were born out of the fire of the stars that hit the ground, melting the earth and making gargoyles out of earth and bloodfire.

            Suddenly Grath’ren noticed something. There was a black space where the star Uriel was! Uriel was one of the fainter stars in the Daligrath, the Great Mountain of the sky. He almost jumped up in excitement, but thought better of it and remained in the same position, checking over his apparently out-of-date mental list of missing stars and the new constellations that were made as a result. Confident this time that the star really was missing, he got up and ran to where Nhorma was silently watching the horizon.

            “I’ve found a missing star, Nhorma.” He said, trying to conceal his glee.

            Nhorma’s face went hard. “Are you sure this one is really missing?”

            “I’m sure, Nhorma.”

            “Which one?” Nhorma asked, still unsure that Grath’ren had really found one this time.

            “Uriel is not in its position in the Greatspere.”

Nhorma looked in the general area of Dalingrath. After several seconds of inspection, his eyes went wide. “I will alert the other Configuration Heads.” He walked to a more solitary spot and stood there for several minutes. Even if Uriel had fallen, there was no way to tell when it would land or where it would land. Methods of starfall prediction were beginning to surface, but they were still unreliable.

Nhorma returned. “I talked to Brathom. He said-

His words were cut off abruptly by the sound of something streaking toward the cliff at incalculable speeds, even faster than the shooting stars they had been watching earlier. There was an explosion, enormous shards of rock from the cliff flying from the center of the collision. Fire flew from the impact area, making the rock red-hot. The entire Configuration felt the recoil of the impact, and several of them were thrown from the cliff. Grath’ren was thrown several feet from where he had been standing. He got up and brushed himself off, looking for the site of the explosion.

He traced the smoke trailing into the sky to its source and noticed that the explosion must have been over twenty miles away to have had such a small effect on the Configuration. They were lucky not to have been hit directly. He joined the rest of his Configuration, and together they set out for the crater that was doubtlessly forming.

They reached the site after two hours of walking. Most of the Configuration, Grath’ren included, pulled their swords from the sheaths strapped to their backs. Only a couple of gargoyles in this Configuration had seen a fallen star up close. Grath’ren paused briefly, examining the area before continuing to walk toward it. The part of the cliff that had been hit by the star had been leveled. He began to run, reaching the center of the crater. There was a figure at the center of the explosion, its skin glowing. It was not as bright as it normally should have been; stars could control their heat and illumination.

“Surround the star. We must kill it quickly before it wakes up, or else it will kill us all and join the other survivors.” Nhorma said. The Configuration formed a circle around Uriel, waiting for the Head to issue a command. But before any commands could be given, the stars eyes snapped open.

Suddenly the land was bright, almost as bright as the sun itself. The ground burned with the heat of the light, and several of the Configuration who were standing too close were consumed by fire and glowed red before melting, their faces contorted in agony. Uriel directed a blast of fire at Nhorma, who was thrown back from the force of the blast. It was then that Grath’ren stopped suppressing survival instincts and ran.

The Head was sprawled on the ground. His arm was completely shattered, as were both of his legs. They would be fairly easy to heal, with all of the newly formed bloodfire nearby. Most of the shattered remnants were large pieces of the broken whole of his limbs, so they would be almost as strong as they were when they had been whole. But the large cracks running down his chest would be a different matter. They were hard to heal without threatening his life, and there would definitely be scars.

Nhorma regained consciousness and screamed from the pain of the wounds. Because of these wounds, he would probably lose his position as head and become one of the lower ranking members. He would lose everything he had fought for as head. The weight of this was probably the other reason for his screaming, the fact that he would lose everything and likely be killed by his successor.

Uriel walked toward Klardea, who still held his ground. He came to his senses when Uriel got closer to him and ran, but was killed by another blast of fire from the fallen star. Uriel began to walk toward Grath’ren and Nhorma then, and Grath’ren got up quickly. He was about to run when the star’s voice rang out like fire itself.

“Stay where you are, underling. I have no desire to stand here and slay your comrades. I wish to join your ranks.” Thoughts raced through Grath’ren’s head. The star could not be offering to join them. Not once in history had a star requested to join the gargoyles in their attempts to destroy humanity. The stars thought themselves better than that. “I wish to be the leader of your race, and lead you to victory against your eternal enemies.” Uriel said.

“Why?” one of the other Configuration members asked him. Uriel turned to him, flame lighting his eyes as he walked toward the gargoyle and grabbed it by the throat. He grew bright then, and the rest of the group turned away. He was not even close to his regular temperature that he had always been at while in space, if he were than Rashelm would be destroyed in a second. Grath’ren turned back, noticing the gargoyle’s dismembered head sitting several feet from his body. Bloodfire leaked out of the head and what was left of the upper torso, starting several small fires in the underbrush. They went unnoticed as Uriel turned toward Nhorma and began talking. 

            “Forget your leader now, and come with me.” His tone was cold, and he looked down at Nhorma in contempt. “He’s no longer important.”

            Together they left Nhorma to die. They found the other gargoyles that had been separated from the main group after the explosion, and Grath’ren explained Uriel’s plan. The other gargoyles were doubtful, and some of them began to leave when Nhorma pushed Grath’ren out of the way and began speaking himself.

            “With me at your head your race will flock to our banner, eager to join the army of victory. We will destroy mankind, and gargoyles will become the masters of the earth as they were meant to be.” Uriel told them. Several of them were still reluctant, but Uriel reminded the entire group that he could kill them all and find another group to take leadership of.

Soon after the Configuration had been reorganized with Uriel at its head and Brathom had been contacted and summoned. Several gargoyles from his Configuration fought, but they were effortlessly destroyed by the fallen star’s awesome power. The others who were reluctant to join were forced by more threats from Uriel and other members of the Configuration who had already joined him.

            After the two Configurations had been joined, they made camp. Since gargoyles don’t need sleep, they sat around the fire they had built, talking for the remainder of the night. Uriel had outlined a plan to launch an offensive against humankind. Gargoyles, the fallen star had said, had done nothing in the past hundred and twenty years except for the occasional border raid. The Configurations had agreed, and were to prepare for march the next day.

 Sometime later, Grath’ren looked up at the sky, his eyes drifting again over Dalingrath. His heart began to speed up again when he noticed another gap in the night sky, right next to Uriel. He ran through his mental list for a moment before realizing that Zeclyptus was missing from Kasheren, the great sea beast next to Dalingrath. He thought for a minute before the connections were made in his mind, thoughts racing through his mind. He reached conclusions quickly, assuming that Zeclyptus was the star he had seen streaking toward the northern horizon.

The next day, after being equipped for battle, he told Uriel what he had seen and his conclusions. Uriel merely nodded his head, taking in the gargoyle’s words.

“Doubtless it is one of my brethren, rushing to prevent their destruction once again. We must move more quickly, now. We march to the southern reaches of the Wasteland tomorrow.”

Several gargoyles complained, but they marched anyway, fearing punishment from Uriel. Over the next several months, Uriel’s Configuration grew in size until they were ready to begin their first assaults on humanity. They left soon after final preparations were made, hungry for the taste of battle and the deaths of their enemies.