Those Left Behind It was to be her finest hour. Standing atop a fallen pillar, G’tt-taax, Scar Veteran of countless campaigns against the foes of Lustria, raised her glimmering blade. The ranked units of Saurus and red crested Skinks bashed at their shields and roared their approval. “Today,” growled G’tt-taax in her signature deep voice, “we shall reap vengeance for Darr-Ol’s fall to the ratfolk and drive them from the city and back to the foul tunnels whence they came!” Narr on cue raised G’tt-taax’s personal totem standard and it glinted in the sunlight as if it were blessed by Chotec himself. The assembled Saurus and Skinks cheered. As one they moved to retake what was theirs. ------------------------------------------------------------- The temple was dark and as silent as eternity. The Skink priest sat cross legged on the cold stone floor in meditation. For a long while the priest sat there unmoving until the clacking of clawed feet reached her ears. Her eyelids flickered for a moment before stilling. The clacking got closer but the priest remained where she was. “Revered priest!” gasped the Skink messenger as she burst into the chamber, recoiling from the priest in fear of having upset her meditation. “Br’kk” the priest replied in greeting, unmoved and eyes still closed. Br’kk nervously hopped from claw to claw before deciding to give her report. “I bear news of G’tt-taax’s host, revered priest. She marches upon Darr-Ol to drive out the ratfolk.” “She will fail.” “Revered priest?” The priest slowly opened her eyes. “Br’kk, since I rose you from guardian of the spawning pools to my personal messenger, you have only questioned me twice. This marks the third time.” “I...” Br’kk began. “I have seen it written in the stars, I have seen it written in the winds of magic, and I have seen it written behind the eyes of all those whom I have viewed.” Br’kk did not reply. “You doubt me.” There was no accusation or emotion in the priest’s voice. “I hold onto hope, revered priest,” Br’kk answered with hesitation. “Forlorn hope. The other Temple Cities are silent, the ratfolk rise, and the foul green moon draws closer. A time of ending fast approaches.” Br’kk trembled and not from the cold that seeped into the chamber. “Br’kk, you have served this most minor of cities loyally. There are few I’d trust more.” “What is it you wish, revered priest?” ----------------------------------------------------- G’tt-taax howled in a despairing rage as more of her warriors fell around her, lost in the tide of vermin that surged over them. Countless Skaven fell before her glowing blade and the frantic sweeps of her guards but for every ratman that fell another would take its place. Like an avenging spear they had struck the fallen city and had driven out the ratmen for minimal losses. G’tt-taax had only briefly wondered why the fight had been seemingly so easy. It was only when a Skink scout had returned to the city, her sisters missing and presumed deceased, that G’tt-taax learnt the truth. The city had only been defended by a skeleton garrison and a horde of ratmen were moving towards their position. Within the day of this news the vermintide had swept over them. Beside her, Narr fell, a rusted blade driven deep within her heart. Her totemic standard toppled from limp claws but G’tt-taax seized it before it touched the ground. She roared and buried its pointed base through Narr’s killer and planted the standard where she’d make her stand. Another ratmen leapt forwards, diseased maw squeaking something unintelligible and G’tt-taax responded by splitting it from neck to pelvis. She roared the names of her sisters that the Skaven had stolen from her even as the last of her warriors fell around her. There was the sound of heavy steps and a great creature of disease and ruin pushed through the Skaven ranks, who retreated back to let it through. The ground recoiled from its hooves and its skull-like face seemed to grin a rictus smile. G’tt-taax grimaced, the pause in combat enough to make the pain of all of her many wounds shriek across her body. She raised her blade, dipped into what strength she had left and charged the daemon with a cry of vengeance. ------------------------------------------------ Within the temple the Skink Priest sat with her eyes closed. Outside the city was being overrun by the hordes of Skaven as was, the Priest feared, all of Lustria. Br’kk had not returned and though the Skink Priest wanted to hope that she and the message had gotten through, she felt certain that she too was dead. The other Temple Cities were silent. They had failed. The temple doors shuddered as the sounds of fighting ebbed away from outside; she felt every death of the city’s guardians even as she sought to channel her magic to aid their efforts. The Skink Priest felt a tremor in her left claw but stilled it. The doors shuddered again, cracking under the weight of whatever monsters that pushed and tore against it. The Skink Priest rose to her feet. In the heavens a streak of silver struck the green moon and shattered it. The doors shuddered again and the Priest could hear the chittering of the vermin all around her. The fragments of the green moon began to fall. “Not for hope and not for vengeance. Because I must” she whispered as the doors finally gave way. The Skink Priest opened her eyes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author commentary: I swear whenever it's your turn to decide the theme(s) for a compy, you immediately have no ideas for your own piece. This was one of those ones, and I dislike how disjointed and sloppy it was, especially with the many edits and rewrites I kept putting through very close to the deadline. If it wasn't already obvious, originally the genders of all the characters were male, with the exception of Br'kk (aka Brrx Wyrd-Eye in lizzie form) who decided to write herself into this entry and wouldn't let herself get written back out. This left me with the problem of genders and Lizardfolk. Do I make all the foolish Saurus male and the weaker but more careful Skinks female or vice versa? Would bringing such a divide in sex damage the real messages in the story? I also didn't want to spend a few hundred words explaining that Lizzies regardless of typing could identify as any sex themselves. Besides, would they even have gender as a concept to their minds to even do that? In the end I decided: screw it, make everyone a breeder-thing, it's kind of a trend anyway of late. As for the names, there was little rhyme or reason to them. I just strung letters together that almost resembled a sound a large lizard person could make (with an exception of Br'kk.) G'tt-taax, I think was just a placeholder name (Git tax) that I was going to swap out for something better, but couldn't think of anything and time was getting on. And yes, this was End Times with the Skaven blowing up the moon, but I purposely left it a bit vague for others to draw their own conclusions. As for the ending itself, to my mind the priest wrecks those Skaven in a very cinematic way as the temple and Lustria are destroyed around them by the lumps of moon falling to the world. However, once again, this is only how I see it. I left it open for the reader-meat to decide for themselves.
Alright, so I was a bit ofd with my naming conventions, but at least I nailed the time line. Always the worst when you have a deadline and no ideas! That said I think this story was well thought out and put together. Might need a second draft if you ever decide to publish, but the visuals were great and the story flowed, so I would say it was successful.