This is my story for the January-February 2024 Short story contest The theme was: 'Divine Intervention' My entry: Gain a new name “For the second time, no! We are not taking action yet.” chirped the Skink in the middle of the throne room. A small group of Lizards was gathered here at this hour of the day, just a moment after daybreak. Besides the Skink Oracle, Suqy-nakpa known as the Mouth of Xruzi’o-lla, there were four Skinks of last night’s patrol, six Saurus Temple Guards, stationed in pairs at the entrances and behind the oracle sat Slann Lord Xruzi’o-lla himself on his palanquin. His eyes closed, presumably in meditation. “We have to!” stated the biggest Skink, Quekkurk'atl, alpha of the patrol “The problem will grow if we do not act now.” He paused to see if his words did find ground. He noticed no change of mind at the Skink in front of him. In reach for a last straw he pointed at the lump of unhealthy fur and bleak skin in between them on the floor, three darts visibly sticking out of it. “Is this not enough evidence!?” Suqy-nakpa kept his face straight and his hands clenched. “It is as I have said before, by the…” “Quetzl demands us to keep restrain”, intervened a deep and slow voice, the Slann continued: “He will bless us with resilience and endurance to withstand all that will come over us. Like he has done before.” Two of the Temple Guards couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Quekkurk’atl however let his head down and his shoulders followed. The patrol’s morale visibly dropped. Their Alpha had tried to convince the council, but it fell on deaf ears. Council was actually too high of a praise, it consisted of no more than Lord Xruzi’o-lla and his trusted Oracle. In the olden days the council consisted of two Skink Oracles, two Starseers, two Starpriests and a Slann. Since the Great Departure the stars had not aligned right for new members to rise up. Although their Lord was still unable to use his magical abilities, he and his Mouth were of one mind, a stubborn one in his opinion. - o - o - o - o - o - The sun crested the mountain tops at the east, bathing the Temple City and the lush green jungle valley that surrounded it in morning light. Most of the vegetation was relatively young grown, stimulated by the energy emanating from the city’s stonework. Quekkurk'atl and his patrol exited the main ziggurat and halted after a couple of steps. Tetekcotiq turned to their spawn-leader: “What now brother? Are we simply going to wait?” After a brief silence Quekkurk'atl looked at his brothers around him and replied with a question: “Do you all trust me?” “With my life and all lifetimes to come!” was Tetekcotiq’s immediate reaction, the other Skinks chirped in conformation. “Will you follow me wherever I go? Do whatever I ask you to do?” Again the patrol gave their support to him. Quekkurk'atl nodded in a thankful response. “Iquarikuat and Tetekcotiq, you both go back and retrieve the dead rat we brought as evidence. Meet us at the deserted village by sunset.” - o - o - o - o - o - The jungle hugged the city at all sides. Mountains trapped the jungle at three sides, the north, south and east. In the west the jungle stretched out to the next valley and eventually meandered to the Scorched Plains in the south. The thick, dense jungle at the edge of the valley suddenly gave way, there the trees turned brown and began to fall in. A wide groove marked where the jungle had died away, plants had fallen and rotting vegetation was turned into a gray, dusty, rock filled emptiness. There once was a jungle here, or at least elements of it. A lot of the wooden parts looked sagged, partially sunken in and dried. Almost like they were frozen and left to gray. In the middle of this area were a number of small buildings , a very small village of some kind that was dilapidated. Structures that are mostly intact and some that are just the bare bones exterior, the corners and remnants of where they once stood. There stood a singular obelisk spire emerging from the center square. From top to bottom it showed glyphs in shapes of a language long past. In front of it stood a formidable table created from three big slabs of stone. Two blue scaled figures hid beside the spire in between the high growth. At the edge of the area two more figures broke from the vegetation. One of them carried the limp body of a rodent. As they arrived at the village they slowed down and moved around the first building. They halted at the edge of the central square, looking around carefully. The front Skink let out a range of chirps and clicks and then waited. From the side of the spire the opposite range of clicks and chirps sounded as a reaction. Both duo of Skinks moved to the stone slab table in front of the spire. “There you are.'' confirmed Quekkurk'atl, rather impatient. “We ran into some trouble on our way,” answered Iquarikuat the unasked question, “they are closer than last night. The problem worsens, just as we thought.” Quekkurk’atl acknowledged the information as correct: “The more reason to act fast.” Tetekcotiq hoisted the limp rat atop of the table, a soft squick sounded as its head smashed against the stone. The rat was unconscious but still alive. Quekkurk'atl climbed up on the table beside it. He unveiled a shiny dagger with a blade shaped like a crawling snake, a snake’s head at the cling and ending in a sharp point. It seemed like the surrounding jungle had waited for this moment to erupt in sound and motion as squeak upon squeak rose from between the trees. Even further away deep guttural roars were heard. “They caught up on us,” chirped Iquarikuat, “get your blowpipes at the ready!” As the three Skinks took out their blowpipes they positioned themselves in a half circle with their backs to the table. The first small rodents became visible at the vegetation edge, skittering across the fallen and rotten plants. Quekkurk’atl stood atop the table with his dagger at the ready. He lifted his head to the sky, closed his eyes and started to call out: “Great Snake of the ages past! Grant us your protection in our hour of need! Accept this sacrifice as a token of our subdication to you, Sotek the Deliverer! Show your strength and a thousand sacrifices will follow!” Quekkurk’atl opened his eyes, now glowing bright white. As he brought the dagger down he chanted and his patrol joined him: “Sotek deliver us! Sotek deliver us! Sotek deliver us!” With a clean cut the dagger separated the head from the body and its blood gushed freely on the table, over the edge and on the pavement. A couple of seconds nothing seemed to happen. Tetekcotiq shot a small rat down at the left side of the square and Iquarikuat aimed at a couple of rat monks peeking around the corner of a building to the right. Then suddenly a stroke of bright green light burst forth from the table, following the blood flow down to the floor and back to the spire. The light filled the glyphs, starting at the bottom and up to the top, when the top glyph was filled the light struck up into the sky. Meanwhile, for every rat the Skinks shot down two more appeared. More rat monks showed up around the square’s edges, behind them even bigger creatures emerged, parts of multiple rats vaguely recognizable about them. Thick clouds pulled together above the village, a breeze of air started to form around the spire. The breeze grew stronger and stronger. In a couple of seconds the air became very tense and heavy to breath. The sound of gusts of wind got paired with the cracking of thunder and in a flash of green light a giant winged snake broke through the clouds coiling down to the square. The Skink patrol retreated to the spire itself as the monstrous rat ogres and abominations reached the table. A fraction of a second later green light filled every nook and cranny of the square. The Winged Snake hit with a deafening impact. After the first impact the light circled the square a couple of times increasing the radius by every round before coming to a halt in front of the table. Quekkurk’atl kneeled in front of the Winged Snake and raised both of his hands presenting the dagger he used in the sacrifice. “O great deliverer, our thanks is great and my determination is eternal. I offer you my life in servitude.” The snake bowed its head and answered without its mouth moving: “Serve me and you’ll be free, follow my guidance and you will go wherever you like. You will speak my words and spread my prophecies. Because of your devotion I will give you a new name: Iqutakkorhuatzi, Devoted Skaven-Slayer of the Cursed Skybeam.” It looked around at the fallen rodents on all sides and said: “Find the ones still breathing, sacrifice them first.” With that the form shattered in thousand shards of green light, each disappearing even before they hit the ground. The Skinks stood up, looked at each other and started their gathering of rat bodies at the square. Grrr, !mrahil >Back to Index<
A word from the author: I felt like a story of internal struggle in the Lizardmen community. In time this story is a continuation (in some sort) of the last story that described the transition between The-World-That-Was and the Realm of Ghur in the AoS universe. The two sides in the community honoring Quetzl and Sotek have something of my internal struggles in real life to wait and do nothing, see how things will unravel (like the Quetzl followers) or to go and do something to make a change (like the Sotek followers). I feel like the story led to a somewhat predictable end. It could also have used some more polishing. Grrr, !mrahil
reviews of others: Thanks for the review. Among these three stories it really is a though crowd to stand out with this story certainly with just one vote to spent . Thanks man! The story line being perhaps a bit to clear cut from the beginning... Grrr, !mrahil