A short piece I wrote a while back based on my submission to the first Black Library Weekender's 'Pitch Factor' evening. Contemplations The sun was low in the sky, a searing hole in heat haze the just above the jungle canopy. Insects moved through the late afternoon stillness, buzzing lazily around the tumescent form at the temple plateau. The gigantic creature was still, its amphibious bulk as statuesque as the cyclopean stones of the great stepped pyramid. Only the flutter of motion in heavily closed lids betrayed the vital power within the Slann and the vast incomprehensible directions its mind travelled. It was the last hour of the Botl-Xla, the time when the waking Mage-Priest would join its mind to those others across the great geomantic web and consider statements of permanence and law. Aligned as it was towards the heart of the continent the Slann’s spirit was linked in silent council, weighing the actions to take and how such things would progress the Great Plan. A lithe Skink attendant moved across the palanquin, cautiously wiping saliva from the mage-lord’s half opened lips and shooing mosquitoes from the moisture lest they disturb its master. Far below the serenity of the paved plateau, combat whirled. Raiders of the young race of men had come to the temple city. Seeking a fortune in gold and jewels, some of them had instead already found death at the hands of the Lizardmen. The group that remained were clustered at the base of the temple steps. A firm wedge of steel armour and cloth once brightly coloured, now mud stained, spread across the ancient stones. The first Saurus had been sluggish in the late heat of the day, put down by the flashing speed of human blades, but not without cost. Stepping over the bodies of their comrades, left to the jungle vermin, the group rushed the second line of Saurus arrayed against them. This time however, before they collided with the solid wall of scaled flesh, a hail of minute darts struck the foremost men and they tumbled. Frothing at the lips, muscles suddenly in spasm the men crumpled as the potent venoms coating each dart went to work. Only by dint of being shielded by those that fell, or by darts glancing off armour were any able to reach the dubious safety of melee. Their sallet-helmed leader called a rallying cry and the two lines merged. The Slann's eyes opened. Twin pairs of eyelids peeled back revealing solidly pigmented orbs gazing off towards the sun and the tracts of land its spirit form had returned across. Discussion was concluded, now was the time for meditation and thought. The next Botl-Xla must be afforded the same gravity as the one passed and the intervening decade must be filled with due consideration of the matters presented. The actions of the young races were stirring the nest of swamp hornets that was the land of the Old Enemy. Even continuing to form the world as the Old Ones had wished seemed to make no change to the weakening of the Great Warding. Many ancient tablets had spoken of such weakening, but those that might offer a solution were absent. Lost in the Great Catastrophe or the millennia that had followed. But hints of these artefacts had surfaced; prophecies spoke of their knowledge returning. Hosts would have to be dispatched; there would be no chance of failing to heed the prophecies. But such things were vague and required thought and analysis. Interpretations were to be read in the stars observed some of the Mage-Priests, in the migrations of the stegadons or thunder-lizards deliberated others. Or perhaps even in the rapid, fleeting deeds of the young races. The Slann turned its gaze to the beings below. It watched them with half glazed inhuman eyes, its breathing slowing almost to nothing once more and considered. Perhaps that was their purpose. Perhaps their blood could bring the Old Ones back. Perhaps their thoughts. Perhaps their accomplishments. Perhaps... The rays of the sun, passing through treetops now, dappled the great creature’s cheeks as its gaze turned to the melee below. The young race were still fighting. Desperate frenetic energy maintaining the combat even as the ranks of Saurus closed around them. Men hacked at the bronze shields, their leader still pushing forward, fighting for cover of the temple. His plume, bedraggled and threadbare from the humidity, was now barely intact and jutted from his helmet like the spines of a razordon. Another man was pulled down beside the leader, one huge Saurus gnarled with age, tearing his throat out with its jaws even as Tilean steel was driven into its guts. It hurled the gurgling man aside rounding on the swordsman still trying to withdraw his blade. The commander turned too, blocking the first swing and almost losing his own weapon in the process, but saving the swordsman's life. At least for a moment. Another saw-toothed mace chopped down, hacking the arms from the fumbling man in a spray of gore, and another Saurus dispatched him with a crudely efficient blow that crunched his skull. The human leader blanched, weathering blows from the second warrior, fighting to keep clear of the great sweeping arcs the bigger Saurus' weapon made through both air and human meat. The large, mottled Saurus roared at the human and swung again.... The Mage-Priest blinked disdainfully once and with a leaden motion of one finger rolled its eyes. The ranks of bone helmeted Saurus arrayed around him on the plateau stirred, a single ripple of movement as the palanquin was borne aloft. The brutal warriors turned as one and marched the Slann towards the entrance to its resting chamber, perfect synchronous steps blotting the sounds of ongoing combat. As the stone portal was drawn closed, sealing the Slann and its guard within, a stray thought drifted across the Mage-Priests mind; the men had almost disturbed its serenity. Their haste and brief lives often contrary to the desires of the Great Plan, their purpose unclear. Subsiding into contemplation of this, it lapsed into tranquil stillness once more.
Thanks very much. I was going to enter this and then realised it broke the "has to be new work" rule, so I'll see if I can come up with something in time!
Great piece. I particulairy love that it starts in the Middle of ongoing action and ends with the action still going on. Grrr, Imrahil