Deadsponcelling
By Carly Robb and James Clair Lewis
Deadsponcelling Chapter 12
Arjuna and his dragon, Krishna, were cruising over some low foothills when he saw the three dragon riders emerge from a lenticular cloud. Using his binoculars, he recognized his old friends and flew over to greet them. "Semaj! Sephera! Daath! How have you been?"
Sepheroth replied, "Arjuna! We're fine! and You? Where is your Wing?"
Arjuna informed him, "I dispersed my Wing into squads to look for new Deadsponcellors. The Rogues have been very active lately. They seem to be moving in on the nexus cities. In the last few weeks, I have witnessed the destruction of Bombay, Hong Kong, and Rio. What are you up to?"
Semaj stated, "We've been seeing the same things ourselves. Nemeth, and San Francisco. We found and then lost two new Deadsponcellors, although I think we will get them both back in a little time. Do you think we will find any new recruits here?"
Arjuna nodded, "There were traces of a lone dragonrider around this world, but very faint. I think whoever it was, has moved on. I was about to leave when I saw you here."
Sephera asked, "Why don't you join us for awhile? How long has it been? Five, Ten years now?"
Arjuna answered, "Yes, it has been awhile, hasn't it? And it would be nice to travel in the company of old friends again. Kind of like it was before the Rogues seized power." They entered the lenticular cloud, and continued their search.
Sepheroth noted, "I sense the activity of Deadsponcellors down this vortex. Shall we try this one?"
They entered the vortex, and emerged over a village farming district. In the distance they could see a large group of dragonriders. Sephera looked at them through her binoculars, "Daath, you found dragon riders alright, and if I am not mistaken, that appears to be Tara flying in the Wing of Kali Yuga!"
Daath exclaimed, "Oh, no! Of all the bad luck! We'd best disappear back into the cloud, and lose them amongst the vortexes."
Arjuna agreed, "I can understand not wanting to do battle with an old comrade, but who is this Tara you speak of?" They reentered the cloud and wound around deep among the vortexes, until they came to one which had an almost invisible silver thread wound into it. "I discovered this trick some time ago. Let's take this one, and you can explain to me about Tara, later." Arjuna led them through the vortex, and they emerged over an ocean facing another lenticular cloud. "It is not likely that we could be followed through the first cloud, but once we enter the second one, we will be into another nexus of vortexes entirely." He led them deep into the second cloud past dozens of vortexes, before choosing another one.
Tara thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, turned to look and could have sworn she had seen Sepheroth and the others enter the lenticular cloud across the village, but thought to herself, "if that were them, wouldn't they have let me know it was them somehow? Would they just leave me?"
The dream was seeming more and more like a dim memory that she shouldn't really believe, definitely didn't want to believe, but if that was them, if they really were what and who she had thought them to be in the past, wouldn't they at least have TRIED? She wanted to ask Shadowdeath what he thought, but once again didn't want to raise suspicion, so said nothing to anyone.
Kali shouted, "Over there! By the cloud! Oh, they've seen us. They're gone. Those were probably the Deadsponcellors who have terrorized this village." Kali led her Wing toward the lenticular cloud. As they passed over the village she called out, "The ones who attacked you saw us and flew away. We will be back, and after we catch them, you will be able to live in peace."
Kali led her Wing into the lenticular cloud, and back to the Citadel. Tara looked at Kali and said, "If we're going to hunt them down, why did we come back here?"
Kali replied, I could sense no trace of where they might have gone to by the time we got to the cloud. They were long gone, but they may show up there tomorrow, and then we will be ready for them. We will start out early, and lay a trap. You'll see."
The Rogues gathered together at midnight, mounted their dragons, and flew through the great mirror. They chose an ordinarily quiet village that had recently been attacked by a few Deadsponcellors. They swooped down out of the cloud and laid waste to the entire hamlet. Burning the houses, they killed the people as they ran from their homes. They spared no one, not even the children. They took the heads of all. Then they flew back, and feasted on the brains of their grisly trophies.
Kali Yuga awakened her Wing well before dawn. "I want to set our trap early, and capture the Deadsponcellors who have been raiding that village." She led her Wing back through the vortex, and then explained her plan. "Metis, Adastea, Thebe and Amalthea, I want you to enter this vortex next to the opening in the cloud. You will wait there and when the Deadsponcellors come through, you will follow them outside, blocking their escape. Ganymede, Io, Leda, and Himalia, you will conceal yourselves just inside this other vortex, and do the same. Callisto, Lysithea, Elara, and Anake, you will do slow circles around the lenticular cloud. The rest of you will come with me."
She led Tara, Europa, Carme, Pasiphae and Sinope over to the village, and discovered it destroyed. The buildings smoldered, and headless bodies lay in the streets. They landed, and began to search through the ruins for any survivors. There were none.
Europa came across the body of the mother who had shielded her child the day before by falling on it. The heads of both were gone, "The baby! They took the head of her baby! Damn Rogues! The Damned Rogues!! I will kill them for this! I swear it! I will kill them! Kill them!" She fell to the ground, and began weeping uncontrollably.
Tara looked around suspiciously while trying to hold back her breakfast and mumbled, "This was not the work of a small group of people. If it were, they would still be here. Something isn't right about this." She found a relatively corpse-free area and sat down on the ground to calm her stomach and think. She thought back to her dream that wasn't quite a dream and something that Sepheroth had told her, what seemed like years ago came to mind, "What you see... is what your mind can grasp." What if that was what was going on? What if the dream wasn't a dream but also wasn't what it seemed to be?
She glanced up at the lenticular cloud hoping that they didn't come through, but also hoping that they did, so she could find out the truth once and for all. Who were the Rogues? If she were only allowed one more question in her life that would be it. Why both groups of Deadsponcellors wanted each other dead. But she knew that if she didn't play her cards right, that she would never get to ask another question again. She looked around at the carnage and growled "I will have the heads of whoever did this. I swear to all the powers that be that this shall never happen again. I feel like I am cursed or something, every town I visit gets destroyed. I WILL NOT HAVE THIS!!!"
Kali sighed, "Will someone try to calm Europa down? I have to go and bring the rest of my Wing here." Kali flew back to the lenticular cloud, and in a few minutes the entire Wing was assembled at the village. "I will not leave these people for the scavengers. We will dig graves. If possible, let us try to keep family groups together."
Tara walked over to Europa and led her back to where she had been sitting. Looking into her eyes Tara said, "Europa, relax, Justice will be Served, Order must prevail, mustn't it? I don't care if my best friend since first grade did this, I will have their heads."
Europa wiped the tears from her eyes, "Thank you, Tara. It's just that I've seen this happen before. Too many times. Whole villages or towns wiped out by the Rogues. It's not like a stray Deadsponcellor who doesn't know any better, taking one here or another there. These massacres are planned."
Tara nodded in agreement, "I wonder... oh, never mind, we had left, there's no way that Nemeth could have been destroyed since Sepheroth and the others, and myself, left, is there? I mean, if you helped put the fires and stuff out, and they didn't go back. Nemeth would have to be safe then, wouldn't it?"
Metis told her, "Tara, the day after we put the fires out at Nemeth, the Rogues returned in force, setting fire to the city again. Wing Commander, Wotan Tanka, has stationed a permanent garrison of dragonriders there now, and the city is safe, under our control.
Tara blinked in wonderment and thought to herself, 'They've got the wrong people then, we were in California, someone else did these atrocities, not the Protectors, and not Sepheroth and the rest, but if not either of these groups, who? It would need to be a large group of people to demolish a city as large as Nemeth overnight, but how could a group of Rogues stay hidden from people hunting them? They can't be scattered, otherwise they wouldn't be able to coordinate these strikes as quickly as they do. But who? And where do they hide? I will not hunt innocents, but when I find these Rogues, they will regret ever stepping through the mirror"
She looked at Metis, "But there were survivors? What a relief, I felt so sorry for them, being told that Nemeth was completely destroyed and all, I liked those people."
Metis agreed, "Yes, the people of Nemeth are unusually civilized. Did you know that their religion is based upon the worship of dragons? They say that in ancient times, a dragon came to them, and taught them a philosophy that is beyond good and evil. Hence, they are very forgiving, compassionate people, and the city of Nemeth has no records of crime. I think that there will be no trouble assimilating them in the society that the Protectors are spreading across the many worlds.
Tara was intrigued, "Quite interesting, I would like to learn more of this, I wouldn't think a human society could bear being beyond good and evil. Is it not human nature to right wrongs that have been committed against you? This is quite a concept."
Kali interrupted the conversation, saying, "I hate to break this up, but we need some help here. We have a whole village of people to bury." She put a hand on Europa's shoulder, "Europa, we will see that these people get justice, but right now, we really must get them all into the ground."
"Yes, we will avenge these deaths, Europa, but there is work to be done." Tara stood up and joined the others in the unpleasant task of disposing of the dead.
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