A Reason to Live pt 6
*Disclaimer*
The following (part 6 of the series 'A Reason to Live') contains both mystical/metaphysical and Judeo-Christian Religious aspects. If you are offended by any/all of these subjects, you are strongly encouraged to avoid reading this or any subsequent works with the title 'A Reason to Live' that are written by me. Thank you for your compliance.
Note: Parts 6 and 7 happen at the same time.
A Reason to Live pt. 6
The man in black waited, almost patiently, for the wolf chieftain to return. It was approaching midnight when he sauntered in to his tent, drunk on the praise and adoration his people lavished on him from a successful raid. He saw immediately that the lioness' paw was free from the shackles. Sensing her master's presence, she looked up.
"Who the hell let you loose?!" the chief demanded. The man in black stepped out from the shadows. Though torches were placed around the room, the light they cast seemed to be muted by the black clad figure.
"You really must learn to take better care of your toys, wolfie." The lioness shifted slightly, moving closer to the man in black and farther from her cruel owner.
"I didn't see you there" said the surprised wolf. "She would have been fine; you didn't have to trouble yourself." The man walked over to where the wolf stood.
"It was no trouble, I assure you. Now then, now that the people of your tribe have gotten their food and their weapons and their women, there remains one last little matter to attend to."
The wolf swallowed nervously. His large yellow eyes darted around the room.
"This uh, what exactly are you going to do?" the wolf seemed to shrink in fear.
"Don't you worry about anything. If you wouldn't mind, now, don't struggle." The chieftain's eyes grew even wider. The man in black reached out with one arm and pushed the wolf onto his knees. He placed his armored hand underneath the scared wolf's jaw and tilted the wolf's head up, until he was once again staring at the human's featureless faceplate. "Now, wolfie, do you swear to serve me loyally for as long as you live?" The wolf nodded his head and managed to stammer out a response.
"I-I swear" the man let go of the wolf's jaw. The wolf's head fell forward.
"Good" said the man. "Assemble the villagers; they too will swear their obedience to me. And as for you, wolfie, I know how much you dislike being a leader of these people, and I think you will be much happier serving me."
The wolf had neither raised his head nor stood up. His breathing could be heard; slow, steady in the quiet room. "Didn't you hear me, cur?" asked the man, his anger already building.
"Yes, yes I heard you" the wolf hesitate, then "master." The wolf got up and made for the exit when the man in black called out.
"I didn't ask you or tell you to call me master, and yet you do anyway." The man started to laugh. "Don't you think that's the least bit funny? I mean, you're the leader, the alpha male, if you will, of this menagerie, and yet you're so submissive. No? Not laughing? Oh well, dismissed."
The wolf walked away, his shoulders sagging just slightly. The man turned towards the chained lioness.
"You do speak basic, don't you?" the man asked. The lioness, startled at the question, tensed just slightly. She hesitated before answering, clearly still nervous around the strange human.
"Y-Yes, a little bit at least" she paused. "Ca-can I ask you a question?" The man walked over to the steel beam to which she was chained. She cringed, fearing for her safety. The man reached over and shattered the other restraint around her wrist.
"Why are you helping me?" the man said nothing, only snapped the two restraints on her ankles.
"You are bold to question me, I'll give you that. As for your first question, ask it, and I will answer." The lioness stood up and stretched.
"why did you bring me here? I was happy in my tribe." The lioness walked over to a small dresser in the room.
"It is just as well you are here now. For soon, all the tribes in this area, indeed this whole planet will be mine." The man stopped to watch what the Fur was doing. "What exactly are you doing?" The lioness had found a pair of the wolf's leggings and an old shirt and had put them on.
"In my old tribe, a female captured in a raid or in war would wear the clothes of her new master."
Just then the wolf walked in. when he saw that the lioness was free he jumped back and uttered a startled yip. Collecting himself, he drew his body into a fighting stance.
"Relax" said the man in black. "Stockholm Syndrome has set in; she won't hurt you know unless you want her to." The wolf relaxed, slumping back into his original posture.
"Uh, sir? The people say they will gather tomorrow in the morning to listen to you. And who's Stockholm?"
"Never mind that now. When the items taken in the raid were brought in, were there any unusual weapons? Ones that seemed to give off an energy field or anything like that?"
"Not anything that I noticed. But maybe you would like to see the weapons for yourself?" The wolf had walked over to the man in black and was standing by his side.
"Maybe I should do just that, wolfie. Follow me, and bring your new mate." The man motioned towards the lioness standing by the dresser.
"I can't bring her out; what would the tribe think of me?" The lioness walked over to the wolf and put her arm around his chest, drawing herself to him. Outside the tents, there was a celebration in process. Drunken singing, the crackling of fire, and other sounds drifted through the thin walls of the longhouse.
"They're out there right now, in drunken revelry." The man in black gestured towards the entrance of the tent. "There could be no better time to begin to acclimatize them to the idea."
The man strode out of the chieftain's room. The wolf sighed, and then followed him out of the room.
"I guess you know where we keep the weapons, right?" the wolf asked timidly.
"No, not for sure" the man responded. "But the energy source, it calls to me." The trio walked onwards, leaving the longhouse. Outside the entrance to the hut, leaning against the wall, was the same grey fox that had accosted him before. She spoke directly to the human.
"So, off to corrupt the rest of the village?" she laughed bitterly. "And you, Freddy," she spat. "You could have had anyone in the village, and you choose one of our enemies? Some leader you are." Before she could say anything else, the man in black had reached out and grabbed hold of her throat. Squeezing her neck just slightly, the man lifted the helpless Fur off the ground. Her paws dangled useless above the ground.
"Now you listen and you listen good bitch. When you speak ill of the one I leave in charge, you speak ill of me. And I will not tolerate slander." The armored man turned swiftly to his right, still holding the Fur. Raising his arm and hand, he threw the vixen at the wall of the nearest hut.
She impacted the wall at an incredible speed. Her head smashed against the wall first, the force of the impact shattering her skull and liquefying her brain. The shockwave traveled through her body down her spine and into her body. Heat generated by the impact combined with oxygen in the air and the carbon based mass of her body to ignite an extremely localized firestorm around the dead Fur. The solid granite wall where the Fur hit impossibly cracked and fractured.
As the man in black and the two stunned Furs walked away, the nanites which had saved her once from fire began once again to repair the extreme cellular damage.
The three figures stood inside a reed and thatch building, one of the few to survive the fires.
"So these are the weapons you looted." The man in black, flanked by the two Furs, stood looking at the collection of human weapons. "Some of these are only a few years obsolete."
The man turned around suddenly, seeming to grow taller. "The energy source I felt is not coming from any of these weapons. Are you sure that your men did not take any of them for themselves?" The two Furs cowered down, the memory of what the man had just done fresh in their minds.
"Yes, I swear, none of the raiders took anything for themselves. All the prisoners are still here even." The wolf, Frederick, but Fred for short, stammered. "May-maybe one of the captives had something with them."
"For your sake I hope you are right. Now the prisoners, where are they?"
The wolf turned to his left and opened a reed door. He motioned inside and held the door as the human walked through. The wolf and the lioness also stepped through. The wolf asked a question.
"Sir, uh, why did you have to kill Shelly?" The human strolled down the row of captives. Females, both human and Fur sat bound and gagged along the walls. At the far end of the room lay a male jackal.
"Wolfie" the man said, ignoring the wolf's question. "I thought your village needed more females. Why is there a male over there?" he pointed towards the jackal.
"Oh, uh, that's Kyle. He used to be one of us until he left one day. He was with the traders." The wolf shifted nervously from one paw to another.
"I did not ask who he was. I asked why he was here." The man was still walking, but he paused in front of each of the captives.
"I saw him there and I thought that he might consider joining the village again. Should I have killed him?" The man had examined all the other captives except for Kyle.
"I doubt you could have killed him had you wanted to" said the man in black. "Cut him loose and bring him over here." The wolf looked confused. "Never mind then. I'll do it myself."
The human reached down and crushed the coarse rope binding between two fingers. He knelt down beside the jackal and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Kyle snapped immediately into consciousness. He sat up and looked around.
"Good, you're awake" said the man in black. He reached his hand out to pull the Fur to his feet. Kyle pushed away the human's hand and rose to his feet on his own.
"I don't need any help from the likes of ye." Before he could say anything else, the human cut him off.
"You see this? I offer to help him, and he turns me down" cried the man. "Now, let's get down to business, shall we?" the man in black was staring down at Kyle, who returned the gaze without flinching.
"Where is the tower shard, jackal? And do not try to lie to me." Some of the other captives had begun to stir in their sleep. A few moaned, the injuries they had incurred in battle had not been seen to.
"I know who ye are, human, and ya don't scare me. As for any tower pieces, ya have deluded yerself. The power I have was given to me, not stolen."
"You lie!" screamed the man in black as he punched out with superhuman speed. The Fur easily sidestepped the blow, which continued on to hit the reed wall of the hut. Fibrous fragments flew outward from the wall, leaving a gaping hole.
"Now here I thought we could have been civil. Was I wrong?" mocked the jackal. The human calmed down considerably.
"Okay, okay, I get it, truly I do. You can't tell me where the shard is because you already absorbed it and took its power..." the man trailed off. Then suddenly, "I'll tell you what. You transfer the energy to me, and I'll let you live, even after you lied to me."
The jackal stood planted to the ground listening intently to voices only he could hear. He called out.
"First, ye corrupter, the power I have is not something that I can give freely. It was given, entrusted to me, and to me only. Secondly, I would never help you, even if it meant my death. And lastly, you couldn't hurt me even if you wanted to, not now at least." He turned and began to walk out the hole in the wall. Before he stepped out, he turned and spat at the human's feet.
Frank, enraged at Kyle's disrespect for his master (that is, Frank's master) drew a small dagger from his belt and charged forward. The power armored man stuck out his arm, stopping the angry wolf. By now the jackal had covered half the distance to the village gate. The wolf looked confused again.
"He's getting away, sir! Why did you stop me?" The man pivoted swiftly, and caught with the back of his armored hand the wolf's muzzle. It was only a light, restrained hit, however. The wolf was flung into the air and impacted against the opposite wall. He fell to the floor, whining softly.
"If I want him to live for now, then what is it to you?" the man walked over to the slumped wolf and picked him up off the ground. "For your own sake, wolfie, you had best learn to stop questioning my decisions."
Kyle had escaped the village, and was running down the steep, rocky path that lead to the plateau. The nanites in the body of Shelly, the fox murdered by the black clad figure, had repaired the ravaged tissue. The nanites, mindless individually, when grouped together, had an intelligence rivaling that of a human supercomputer. A collective thought passed through the group. Like microscopic defibrillator paddles, they gathered on either side of the Fur's newly built heart. An electric current arced across the heart, starting it pumping.
The fox gasped for breath as the memories of her death flooded into her mind. She knew that she had to flee the village, lest the human in black see her alive. She moved as stealthily as she could around the interior perimeter of the walls enclosing the village. She snuck out the gate and started down the path. Unbeknownst to her, Kyle waited about one mile down the path, his sensitive ears picking up the sounds of someone following him.
To be continued...