RAOS - Sweetly, My Child

Hammering feet, hammering heart

Her maddening dash t'was at the start

Fightful leanings of monsters dire

She fights for life's very fire



With hazy breath, beneath jungles cowl

Aleha dashes from beasts most foul

Their roars echo through leaf and tree

Unknown pursuers, she cannot see



They gain but slowly, their romping tirade

Her last endurance, however well played

It wans away, the moon in wax

She leaves behind her bitter tracks



But gain they must, for her stamina does fall

As their triumphant roar is heard to call

One does pounce and throws her through

A tree collects her, she collapses to



And as she lies, the forest about

The beast crawls forward, her life in doubt

But it feels fear, looks to the sky

Knowing that soon that something must die



Shaking off its question as to the noisesome sound

It turns to Aleha, ready to bound

From the canopy he drops, released from the crown

Taking the beast and forcing it down



A spear is driven through skull and through brain

And ripped roughly away so the gore may drain

He turns to Aleha who begins to scream

She wishes on his approach that this all is a dream



And standing before her, he unfurls his hand

But she rejects this offer for it was not planned

He grips her shirt slowly, revealing her wound

And Aleha does faint, believing herself doomed



---


She awakes but slowly to light and to pain

The world is awful, a sunny stain

Aleha yelps loudly, musical and lofty

As the wolf-beast before her speaks softly



His name is Amarouk, the alien Vadasian

But she cannot understand him in his quiet passion

His words sound so brutal, so harsh and so mean

Not like her whistling chiming, a sight unseen



They speak but can't hear, their words all a-mangle

Two languages so different, just all a jangle

But Amarouk is smart, brighter than seemed

And fashions a device so that understanding is gleamed



He knows not where he is, but knows of the danger

And so asks Aleha for help, although she's a stranger

She is uncertain, not wanting to give aide

For she wants something in return, a favor or trade



He agrees to slowly, amused by her intent

Because he understands the leaning of her bent

She isn't a warrior who can fight any of the beasts

A child of love, of kindness in all of the least



Collecting his gear and the child to his care

They move deeper still into the jungle fare

She trips and she falls, not sure of her feet

But Amarouk is patient, tutor, father, discrete



He instructs her to walk, to quiet and to still

As the monsters cannot see them without motion and frill

They see through their ears, blind in their eyes

No noise must they make or loose their disguise



Amarouk and Aleha, so slowly they tread

The day turns to night, Aleha wishes for bed

They make up their camp, a small bivouac

And Amarouk tells her that they will be hard to track



---


In the morning is terror, she runs once more

As the creatures return to settle the score

Hounded by day and hounded by night

Aleha and Amarouk continue their plight



Many days come and go, the two growing close

Amarouk her guardian, she a child at most

He teaches her of his home, of Vadasian lore

Aleha is astonished, always wanting more



Of his history and past, their wars and their peace

Fallen from their moon when an age of strife ceased

The great calamity split what have once been one

And two peoples arose when all was done



Vadas and Vadasian, of land and of air

Their separation from their Goddess all but unfair

Those of the land were found on the world

While the moon housed the airy lives of the unfurled



He himself was of the founded plainsmen

Although his people were at peace with their ken

He spoke of his wife, a beauteous creature

And of his two sons, one with an odeous feature



But then he grew sad, his tale slowly dying

Because his wife was long in grave lying

It hurt him deeply, his face a pained expression

Without of the love of his life he was full of depression



But though he was weary, he tried to but smile

For Aleha tried to lighten him with guile

So they moved further on, with no goal in sight

Evading the monsters as was wont of their plight



---


It happened quickly, the beast came up fast

The Vadasian and child would fight to the last

Aleha did scream, a melody of fear

As Amarouk had become the guardian dear



He threw his javelin, the aim but true

Crunching through skull, its flesh did spew

Rivulets and runnings, the gore was falling

Aleha found the violence appalling



Amarouk moved so quickly, enamored in armor

The beasts soon fell to this violent charmer

His pneumatic spear felled one and all

The hissing of its punch an angry thrall



Thrown and latched, it clung to their side

With gory emergence the creatures soon died

But for all his speed, he was but one against many

And soon the wolf-man fell to their enmity



Gorged through by tusk violently from behind

His bowels leaping to the ground he did find

His corded life seeping away in the sun

Eyes turned to Aleha as he told her to run



With life soon extinguished, he collapsed to the earth

Mawing jaws crunching armor in a strange kind of mirth

The slopping of gullets as his essence did purge

No one to remember, no funeral dirge



Her eyes did water, tears flowing free

The monsters consumed with a disturbing glee

Her terror was mounting knowing she would soon follow

Although in her heart was a hole, she was hollow



She remember his words, his teachings and guidance

And moved slowly away, escaping by chance

For Aleha knew if she stayed, her fate would be sealed

So hoped for her life with the hand she was dealed



---


Aleha did run, her pursuers were screaming

She wished once more that she were dreaming

The sky was red, the sun just peeking

And the monsters once more were out and seeking



They caught up to her as eventually they would

And the crimson-skinned girl was quiet as she could

But her fear was rising, chocking up from inside

Not for the first time she wished Amarouk hadn't died



With no means of escape and no means to defend

She looked about for anything that would lend

A hand to help and a hand to guide

She needed a plan to ensure death was denied



But she was a girl, no warrior in truth

Never been trained beyond the ideal of her youth

So she tried just this once, attempting for luck

But it soon ran out, and she found herself stuck



Fate couldn't be denied, his plan was in motion

Aleha could hear the beasts sniffing the air in commotion

Amarouk had said they they see with their ears

But he hadn't ever bet on the noses of peers



Turning to her in one, they had spied her out

And just this once the girl began to pout

It can't end like this, was his life such a waste?

That Amarouk would be killed, eaten, debased?



Her tears came once more, falling from eyes

As the beasts came once more for their singular prize

It was then that she died, poor Aleha the child

Her life was forfeit, her body defiled



A wolf-man and girl, in a jungle so deep

Where monsters roamed freely to eat and to reap

A place of mourning where the dead were lain

For the jungle consumed all, the livings bane

RAOS - Beached Dreams

He awakes to his own screams of pain and the roar of waves crashing on a shoreline.

Hands hurriedly grope for wounds half-remembered as he struggles into a half-sitting position. Fingers pressing against skin beneath fur that was whole instead of broken. But the agony within him spoke of wounds, of pain, of having died. I've been shot, he thought in panic. Hadn't I? Was it all a dream? One was truth, one a nightmare -- Amarouk doesn't know which one is real.

Tattered remnants of winter gear cling to him as he sweats profusely in the jungle heat. Clawing apart the pieces, he sheds the outer-wear as a night sky looks on with billions of beady eyes.

Shivering despite his undersuit, he stands only to drag himself to the water. An empty gaze casts its net upon the sea before he falls to his knees in the foam. A shuddering breath escapes from his mouth. His mind is in turmoil, trying to understand what was happening, what had happened.

"I remember-," he begins. "I remember being shot. Dying. But it wasn't here."

"Amarouk!"

The shriek splits the air.

His head snaps to a side to see her -- Kristav. He calls her name, yells it, screaming until lungs feel ready to burst. But her eyes are dead, fur falling out in patches as rot sets in. She stands not of her own will -- mouth moving again and again, forming his name in a desparate plea for help --but held in place by the restraining hand of another Vadasian.

Watering eyes weep into an ocean without need. He can't breath. Each a gasp to cling to his own life selfishly, faster and faster. His mind screams as his body shakes. Move! But he cannot. Amarouk! she shrieks a last time as a hooked blade is torn from her back. Blood, gore and spine follow explosively.

A raw throat wails as finally, Amarouk comes to life as his world turns black. Cold, empty, feet pound against the sand as his listless form takes flight. He viciously throws himself at her murderer while her crumpled frame falls into an ebbing tide.

He can't see. Black, red -- there is nothing but the hollow, the anger burning about it, within it, dying amid the pool of his own emptiness. There is nothing but her and this Vadasian with the blade. Nothing but the subsuming rage that follows. He feels her, a brush of the incorporeal. Her soul flies off, a wistful phantasm and takes his with her's, leaving a dead husk to fight on. He sees himself. He sees her. But she is dead, and he follows. The anger is rising, erupting in furious blows that fail again and again against the coldness of his foe.

Eyes bulge and he coughs up blood. The hooked blade is exiting from his abdomen taking with it the binding cords of his internals. The world begins to shrink, black eating the edges of color. He looks for the first time into the face of his own murderer.

"I'm sorry," he gasps. He isn't sure at that moment if he says it his wife, Kristav, or his assailant. "Forgive me, Son."

Everything fades...

---

He awakes to his own screams of pain and the roar of waves crashing on a shoreline.

Confused, his eyes look about as a solitary eye burns bright in the sky above. A sea before him, a jungle behind. Slowly, he gains his feet and with trepidation, enters the jungle...

RAOS - Edge of the Seat

The slide is pulled back. It flows forward, taking a round from the magazine and moving it into the chamber. The trigger depresses, activating the striker. Instantaneous pressure causes the ignition of the primer that burns up the gunpowder in a flash. The quick-burning reaction creates an overpressure that shoots the bullet through the barrel while simultaneously moving the slide back to eject the casing to reload another round...

---

A card table was flipped over onto its side sending chips and cards cascading through the air. The airborne debris fell faster and in lower than normal. Large, angry men rushed a lone red-haired figure hanging on desperately to a look of smug satisfaction that could almost be a grimace. Pained, Wolfe spared little thought to the table he had thrown that was heavier than first thought and instead focused on his soon-to-be assailants, all the while screaming "Get some!" over and over again.

Ducking behind the table, he watched in rising fear as splinters cascaded past him as the makeshift cover was shredded. Wave after wave of crunched splinters made him realize he was fast losing his only defense. Well, might as well get the show over with, he thought, as he came to his feet in a turn. With the minimum pressure necessary, he began to pull the trigger. Four quick staccato bursts and four bullets, each nudged telekinetically by his innate powers, found themselves propelled by physical and spiritual to their targets.

The first round burst through a rushing figures right temple, slashing up and through the eye socket. An eruption of liquid, blood and gore mixed with shards of bone follows before the mashed bullet exits just above his eyebrow. A destroyed pustule of an eyeball seeps while the connecting nerve dangles precariously as the figure drops to his knees screaming incoherently with hands clawing at the ruined hole in his face.

The second is taken in the shoulder with a grunt as it passed through muscle, but does little to slow the man.

The third passed through the side of the neck, dropping a man who's final expression was of pained shock. Momentum carried him forward while the nicked arterial spurts blood like a fountain.

The final onrushing figure fell flat, the bullet having penetrated through his nose before being deflected by the contour of the inside of his skull. A blender that dripped mashed gore and blood through the crater.

Before Wolfe can celebrate -- or fire off more rounds at others now moving in to engage him -- he's jumped. Attempting to grapple, he slammed his knee up into the figures groin. An exhaled grunt punctuated the movement along with a loosened grip. Wolfe began to squirm free. He looked left and saw a boot coming for his face...

---

More coming later...