Birds fly out of the harsh dense treetops of a woodland area as a loud horn sounds. In the dense trees next to the river, the tribal villagers scramble to their wood and stone homes as the ground shakes. The houses are nestled deep in the ruins of what was a greater society. A roar from an unknown creature is heard. People push past a young boy. He's standing there oblivious to the rise in panic. A stone column topples over and crashes into the river nearby. The crash causes dust to blow in the wind. The wind pushes the dust past the young boy. He's standing there holding out his hand. A bright red and green leaf rustles from the breeze in his hand. The boy makes a clicking sound with his mouth. A gliding lizard lands on his hand and crawls up his arm chewing on the leaf. The boy laughs and pets the lizard with his finger. The hurried sound of footsteps are heard when next to him a hardened young man kneels down.
"Xen! Are you OK?" He exhales heavily and asks, with his voice very strong and commanding.
"Yeah, why?" Xen asks curiously, his voice is playful. Xen looks around and sees everyone running around. "What's going on?"
"Didn't you hear the horn? Stay right here." He demands patting his shoulder harshly, "I will be right back." He steps away into a small gathering of old villagers.
"OK Shu!" He says giggling trying to keep the lizard from crawling on his head.
Shu steps up to a small gathering of the village elders.
"Oh, there you are Shu. We were just talking about you." The shaky old voice from the village chief perks up. His eyes heavy, he looks to Shu. "We know you have some kind of plan! Are you taking Xen with you this time?"
Shu angrily interjects. "No, he's not ready." He gets defensive with a furrowed brow.
The village elders laugh, "You would be surprised!" One says in the huddled group. "Look how much you've grown since that age." Another remarks playfully. "We've all come a long way..."
"This isn't some kind of game!" Shu says, touching the scar on his arm. He rubs his shoulder. "Xen is still too naive." He glances over his shoulder and sees Xen with the lizard and now a giant blue flying horned beetle. "He doesn't understand the kind of danger these creatures contain."
The horn sounds again but closer now.
"OK Shuuuu... What's the plan?" The village elders ask with urgency. A strange roar goes off in the distance as the ground rumbling is less intense.
Shu nods and they discuss actions to take if the city is breached. Xen is keeping a watchful eye on Shu. Shu leans in to the conversation and in that instant Xen rolls into the bushes nearby.
After explaining the next steps to take Shu looks up and notices Xen isn't there, but at this point he has to hope he will fend for himself in the village walls. He has everyone's lives to think about.
With his new found freedom Xen begins to run down a path that is a little less beaten. He takes a sharp turn and continues running to a small ruined house. The house was destroyed by something massive and a very long time ago, but in the wreckage is a space where a boy Xen's size can get through. The lizard jumping and gliding keeping up with Xen as he runs to the entrance. Slowly trailing behind is the big blue horned beetle.
Shu looks back at the elders and nods. He begins to run towards a large tower on the villages outer walls, two young warriors following him trying to keep up with him. A chubby warrior slowly trailing behind.
Through the entrance Xen comes out on the other side. He stands looking down an old path from ages ago. He jumps through a bush and does a sloppy roll. He gets up and dusts himself off. The lizard landing on his shoulder and the horned beetle hovering over him. He stands in front of a large ruined temple with old faded paintings. The paintings show humans with large beasts and creatures.
Shu jumps over a wooden fence and does a stylish roll hopping up to his feet and doing a running jump over a wall. He begins to enter a massive building with large spikes and large monster bones.
Xen enters the ruins casually. He directs the lizard to the wall. It glides to the wall and disturbs a string mushrooms. The mushrooms are very large and damp. The sound of rushing water can be heard as the trickling of water can be seen dripping through the wall and onto the mushrooms. The mushrooms shake releasing a small cloud and as the spores spread a light blue hue beings to shine. This illuminates a path down a long dark hallway. The mushrooms glow with a light blue intensity allowing Xen to see the way.
Xen cheerfully hops and skips down the hallway walking past imagery on the walls. The pictures depict a time from so long ago. Crude pictures of humans interacting with a large variety of beast ranging from small to insanely huge. The mural is some what of a scale and as Xen nears the end of the wall it shows a large beach with a large creature as if to guard the shore. The creature has a colorful set of feathers. Off in the distance in the ocean is a massive white and blue water dragon. Only a portion of it is displayed due to the massiveness of it. It's half covered in the ocean.
Xen meanders past and gets settled into his little hideout. He walks into this large room. It's the epicenter of a large temple. The cathedral style has an open roof, but plants and earth have covered up most of it, letting only some spots of natural light in. The bright leaves of a vined plant bares an oddly shaped fruit. Xen picks the fruit and collects the bright colored leaves from it. Xen gets comfortable on a hammock made from an old flag. He eats the interestingly shaped fruit and lays the leaves on his belly. The lizard and the beetle climb to him snacking on the colorful leaves. Xen spits out the pit of the fruit onto the floor.
Shu enters the warriors guild catching his breath as he walks past a long row of monster trophies. All types of monster parts are on display from jawbones to horns and even claws. Shu grabs a spear that is fashioned with a large colorful feather. The hunters guild opens up from that large hallway to a staging area outside the village. Shu and other warriors are gearing up to go on a scouting mission to see what the alarms were sounding for. A handful of hardened villagers are selected as Shu readies a party to move out. They follow the river up a large cliff face as a way to see over the forest of trees. The high ground has always been the starting point to every mission. It allows them to see creatures before they decide to fight. They live deep in the forest because it acts as a buffer from most creatures. They do not go near the riverbed where the village stays. The river leads to the ocean and the village is next to a beach. In the distance he can see the toppling of trees. It is heading towards the village. The path it's taking is very visible.
Shu looks over the horizon to see if there is any sign of what the creature could be. A roar is heard. Shu's eyes widen. The image in his eyes show a younger version of himself. He flashes back in his mind. The same roar is heard again. He is breathing heavily as he's frantically looking around.
"What do I do? What do I do?" He says to himself under his breath as he's standing there holding a spear. He looks around frantically. A piercing scowl of a large creature is heard. It filled him with fear. It sounds like a bear and a cougar. The slam of an enormous gray monster claw next to him. The thick leg crushing a wood and stone house next to him with little effort. He is brought to his knees by the tremors. He looks at his hands. They are scratched and bloody. The terror and fear in this situation is too much to take. Tears flowing from his eyes. He begins to yell.
"XEN!? Where are you?" He gets up and starts to run. He quickly realizes that this is a fight or flight moment and he is not in a position to fight. As he runs along the stone path he looks up. Above him is the belly of a massive creature. The scales were gray and through the smoke he couldn't make out exactly what it is. All he knew is that it was huge. The sound of crashing water is heard. Screams can be heard as smoke billows to the sky. Smoke from the fires make it hard to see anything. The sound of cracking wood and toppling stone shake through Shu. He scans the area to see if there is any indication of where Xen is.
Down an alleyway between two buildings Shu spots a swaddled child. Wrapped tightly in a flag of the tribes colors a baby lays crying. A small baby unable to fend for himself. Shu begins to run to him.
The massive gray monster's feet clashing with the surroundings. An unknown creature lets out a growl that stops him dead in his tracks. He looks up at the rooftops and sees the bright glaring eyes of a monster through the smoke. Above that was the massive claw of the gray scaled beast. The humongous trunk of a leg was coming down. In the light as it was coming down was a glimmer of blue light. Causing him to shield his eyes. Shu knew that leg was coming down on top of him and if he didn't move now he'd be crushed.
Shu, against his better judgement, started to run and that triggered the eyes in the smoke to slant angrily. His gestures triggered the monster to chase. Through the smoke the creature jumped. It's dark fur and bright feathers around its neck flowing. Shu knew doing that would not end well for him, but he had to do something. The massive claw of the scaled dragon comes crashing down. The dark, feathered monster swipes it's claw at Shu, connecting with his shoulder and causing him to be flung against a stone wall. The wind is knocked out of him. He can't catch his breath as the massive gray claw crushes the building between him and Xen. The dark creature is no where to be seen. The massive gray trunk legs disappear in smoke.
Trying to slow his breath he closes his eyes. In the chaos it is now oddly silent. Shu looks up and tries to stand holding his spear defensively. Neither creature is in sight. Shu's shoulder is ripped and torn deep. His blood dripping down his arm. He is unable to move his fingers or even move his elbow. He stumbles to his feet propping himself up, his arm dangling there limp. He touches his wound and looks at his bloody hand. He looks around, dizzy. The massive gray scaled monster is gone, all that is left is the ruins of the village. He hears the crashing of the waves near by. It was unreal how quickly things had transpired.
He looks around and grabs his spear, using it as a walking stick to look for Xen. The smoke clouds break and sunlight shines through. The light points to a small bit of rubble where a village colored flag sits. Shu looks at the earth and it is scared from a blast of energy. He climbs into the ripped earth. It's soaked as if it were a blast of high powered water. He climbs through it and hurries to the flag. Shu sees that the baby is Xen! He's safe there holding a bright colorful feather cooing happily. Shu holds him up checking him for injuries and holds him close, squeezing him tightly. Everything starts to go dark. Knowing Xen was safe was a huge relief. His vision blurs and it goes black.
Shu blinks a few times and instantly knows what he's facing. He shakes off the memory and touches his scar. Coming back to reality he rotates his shoulder to remind himself it still works. He scans the edge of the trees looking for any sign of movement. If this monster shows up it could be another catastrophic event. Shu may have a gut feeling but he has to be sure. He begins to head into the dense woods.
Xen hears what he discerns to be a roar but thinks nothing of it. The lizard gets frightened. It begins to cower using the beetle as cover. This caused a bit of a disturbance with the beetle. It uses it's horn aggressively as the lizard backs away. Xen watching this play out on his stomach laughs. The beetle begins to fly away. Xen, enamored with his new beetle friend tries calling him back with clicks from his mouth.
"Tsk tsk." Xen motions towards himself.
The beetle ignores the command and flies away. He flutters around and hits against an oddly broken wall. It's tough shell absorbing the impact. It lands on the wall, using his large horn to create a hole. As it's digging light beings to pour through. It makes a space large enough and it crawls through. Xen follows and is curious about this hole he has never seen before. He looks through it with one big eye and jerks back. It's too bright to see anything. He begins to unearth this new pathway and as the dust settles he hears the soft growl of a creature.
The growl sounds playful and it tries to roar. Xen slowly peers around the corner. On his shoulder the lizard is also peering over the corner, scared. Xen sees in this small room an old nest woven into these massive roots and in it crawls the beetle.
Xen looks around the room as he slowly walks to the center of it. The room is small and above the nest is an opening in the roof that leads outside. Vines come through the hole in the ceiling and down through the nest. In the room a small little flow of water travels from the river near by. He sees the bright leaves of the odd shaped fruit that grows on the vines. The threads of vines come through this area touching the water. On the floor next to the nest are pits from the fruit. The colorful leaves scattered around. Something is in here, surviving.
He slowly walks to the nest. He cautiously places his feet, inching closer to the nest. The beetles wings can be heard fluttering. Xen's eyes slowly look over into the nest. The beetle is wrestling with a small little catlike cub. The cub is pawing at the beetle. It's hard shell defending it against the cubs pats. The paws of the creature are large and fuzzy. The catlike cub raises it's paw, revealing the claws expanding out. On display are these very intense looking razor sharp talons. The lizard instinctively jumps into the nest between the beetle and the cub, protecting the beetle. It's neck flaps extended and colorful. It hisses at the cub, it's saliva dripping from it's mouth. The cub retreats into a defensive position. The cubs ears are folded back. It's eyes show remorse. It sniffs the air and looks at Xen.
Xen extends his hand out to touch the cub. It closes it's eyes and growls. Xen doesn't rear back. He keeps moving his hand slowly towards it. Xen's eyes focused on the cub. The cub looks at Xen's hand and takes the aggressive pose like the lizard. The cubs mane reveals a colorful set of small feathers. His hand hovers above the cubs head. For a moment that seems like an eternity Xen holds his hand there. Xen begins to feel nervous. The cub looks up at Xen, it's mouth at a partial snarl, the mane feathers raised. His arm quivers slightly from the strain. The cub moves it's head to his hand and begins to purr. Rubbing it's chin and cheeks on Xens hand, Xen smiles. He pets the cub gently with his other hand.
Rubbing it's soft fur Xen notices around it's neck these even more beautiful small feathers. The cub is extremely friendly and enjoys the attention Xen gives to him. He begins trying to teach it how to sit, using the clicks. With Xen issuing commands the lizard begins doing the same commands. Xen using hand gestures and clicks easily tames the cub, the cub following the lizards lead. Xen and the cub become bonded. The beetle munching away on the leaves in the nest, the lizard and the cub follow Xen's hand movements and he begins to run around in the room with them chasing. Laughing and playing was his specialty.
He mumbles under his breath, " I don't know why Shu is so scared of these guys."
Xen, thirsty at this point goes to the little flowing water. The clear blue water coursing by, he cups the water in his hands as he takes a drink. He offers some to the lizard, and to the cub. They drink from his hand. The beetle on Xen's shoulder rotating a leaf in it's mandibles munching away.
A bellowing roar is heard off in the distance. The cubs ears perk up and it begins to cry repeatedly. The cry is the same high pitch cry, as if it's trying to signal something. The cub frantically looking up through the hole in the ceiling and pacing around. It tries to jump on the vines and climb but it isn't strong enough. Xen cups the cub in his arms and places it in his satchel. Xen curiously climbs up the vines with the cub in tow. It's fuzzy little face poking out of the bag as he firmly stands on the ridge. He looks over the ridge into the distance. He see's the rustling in the trees. Something large is making it's way through the forest. Xen begins to get a little nervous. There hasn't been a large creature near by in, well ever!
Down in the wooded area outside the village, a three colored snake writhes up a tree. A sharp thump as Shu's spear severs the snakes head from it's body. The body hits the ground and slithers around. The head resting on the spear. The feather lifts and swirls in a light breeze. He grabs the snakes head and opens it's mouth. He uses the liquid it secretes as a new face paint. He wipes under his eyes. He has bright green markings on his cheeks and down his neck. The liquid stings his eyes. The snake venom will help keep him sharp.
"Disgusting creatures." He says under his breath as he tosses the head on to the woodlands floor.
Shu has decided to get close to the beast to see what it is, and be sure. He has to be sure. As he walks casually through the dense wood he strokes the feather on his spear. It's softness going through his fingers as he has a thousand yard stare. He repeatedly strokes it between his fingers, pulling down on it. He is moving through the area as if on auto pilot. The warriors behind him slowly following, fear in their eyes. Shu confidently leads, this is nothing to him.
Shu and his warriors near a clearing, he motions the group to stop. He moves his hands in a swirling motion. The warriors spread out staying in the trees but close to the actual clearing. The area is very beautiful, open with grass and large flowering buds. Shu positions himself against a tree. He hunkers down. Through the trees nearby a low howl rumbles.
The trees part and into the clearing Shu sees something that makes his heart stop. The dark fur shines through as a dark blue and purple. The creature from so long ago. He feels weak looking at it. He takes a second to collect himself. The beast walks into the middle of the clearing. Sniffing around, it let's out a low howl again, this time longer. Shu realizes it's looking for something. If it keeps coming this way it will come to the village. We know what happened last time it was there.
Shu signals and his warriors jump out from the trees, rushing towards the monster. Shu waits and counts to ten. The warriors start yelling as they throw their throwing their hand axes and spears. The beast rears up and it's fur begins to stand on end. It's mane revealing these brilliant colors. The feather on his spear rustles. Shu begins to rush towards the beast. Hatred in his eyes. The beast claws at the warriors and jumps over them with ease. This beast is quick and agile. More dangerous than anything else they have fought before. With a pounce the beast lands on one warrior, crushing him. It snarls looking at all the warriors around him. The eyes slant angrily and the beast let's out a massive roar, stunning everyone around it. Shu stopped dead in his tracks drops to his knees, covering his ears. The beast swipes, the paw connects with a warrior, and ends up throwing the warrior into the dense woods. His scream was cut short as he hit a tree. The three remaining warriors try to overwhelm the beast by yelling and clanking their weapons. The noise causes the beast to retract. It is being cornered up against the treeline. Shu uses this opportunity to make a strike. He runs full speed and does a flourishing jump from a tree. In the air he spins and the momentum helps him strike. He strikes the beast in the arm with a heavy thrust. The spearhead punctures the monsters arm so deep that Shu can't remove the spear. Shu will not let go. Shu is hanging onto the spear as the monster topples over. It violently begins to thrash around and claw at the wounded arm, trying to remove the spear and Shu. Shu is grasping at the fur trying to get a hold. The only thing stable to hang onto is the shaft of the spear. Shu cannot hang on through this and as he's being flung from the beast he grasps the feather. In that moment he is ripped from the monster with a downward swipe from the beast. The spear breaks and Shu hits the ground. The beast roars, wounded, and slowly slinks away into the dense trees.
Shu is laying there looking up at the sky and in his clenched fist is the bent bright feather from his spear. Blood spattered on the tip of the feather, it isn't soft anymore. He lay there breathing heavily. The warriors gather around him and help him up. They pick up their weapons and together they say a prayer for their fallen brothers.
Xen, standing on the ridge saw the scuffle. Even from that distance he witnessed the beauty of the bright feathers on that creature. He saw the beast get away into the woods. Xen had a feeling it was Shu. Xen looks at the cub and sees small little feathers that matched that beast. He quickly put two and two together. This cub is lost and that beast is looking for it's young. Xen climbs back down into ruins. He begins to walk back to the village, but on his way out he stops and looks at the wall. He looks at the massive dragon in the water. He can't quite put his finger on it but when looking at this he knows this is a beast that is untouchable. As he looks down from it he sees on the beach a village that looks similar to the ruins and guarding it was the brilliant feathered creature in the woods.
As Xen gets back into the village it seems as though life is back to normal. The people bustling around and doing their things as if nothing ever happened. The fishmonger yelling about her fish, the blacksmith hammering away on metal, kids carrying baskets and just overall helping things move smoothly.
Here's the ending I still need to sort through and build up.
The cub escapes / at the same time Shu leads the beast back to their village on accident /
the monster roars and the cub runs, xen chases and shu chases they end up clashing in the middle of the village market / people are scared. Shu tries to appeal to the fear in people but Xen shows that the cub is tame / the beast lashes out protecting the young cub. Shu hurts the beast more on the wound he created. Xen tries to tame the big beast like the cub but fails. The villagers push them out of the city. They end up on the beach. A large storm swirling in the ocean, lightening, crazy wind. Large waves crashing on the shore. The monster and cub are on the beach the angry villagers trying to end the terror / Shu sees an opportunity to kill the monster. He has a flashback to the village before the ruin, and remembers how his parents died. A flash of lightening triggers him into the flashback. The storm and the blue and white water dragon came. The clouds weren't smoke clouds it was the dragon's fault. The use of his water/energy blasts. The dragon destroyed the house they were in. which is why his hands were bloody and scraped. the blast thrust him forward and he scraped his hands trying to stop. This was the beginning part of the trauma he forgot. He only ever remembered trying to find Xen and the beast that hurt him. Shu realizes that the beast saved him, despite his grave wound. The blue and white water dragon is the true threat. Shu forgives the beast and actually tames the large monster He removes the spear and helps tend his wound. Things settle down and the village is reminded of what time was before the fear controlled them. The village elders celebrate Xen reminding shu that they knew he was great.
the end of the story reminds us, on the shore the storm comes closer and in the distance the white and blue dragon emerges. Xen
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