Fate - Chapter 8

Note: There is some extremely minor violence in this chapter.

CHAPTER 8

"This is it," Count said, taking a deep breath.

The three newfound friends had arrived at a towering stone castle. It was, as they had heard, the home of the deer shaman, Sigurd.

Two tall statues of Sigurd stood on either side of a wooden drawbridge. They seemed to guard the entrance, giving the threesome a forbidding look.

"Well, there's nothing for it," Count took another deep breath and stepped onto the drawbridge. "Sigurd?"

Myth stepped onto the bridge after him and called, "Sigurd?"

Sparkle followed close behind, and soon she was yelling, "Are you there?"

"Come in," an icy, male voice echoed from within the castle.

Nervously, the three entered the castle, clinging together in a sort of pack.

Inside, a tall white deer stood. He had an icy blue underbelly and wore a light grey spiked collar, bow and arrows and white leafed leg armor. His gaze was steady and cold, just like the castle decor: crystals, ice-forged objects... even the blue flames of the lone fire in the castle gave off an icy chill.

Myth and Sparkle, who were used to below freezing temperatures after their abuse at the Gofnak camp didn't mind the frigid atmosphere of Sigurd's castle as much as Count, who shivered, his teeth chattering.

"I see that your companion is... er... not enjoying the temperature, yes?" Sigurd asked, looking slightly amused as he regarded Count. 

Not sure how to respond to this (completely true) statement, the threesome waited for the deer shaman in front of them to speak again.

"And why might you three be here?" Sigurd questioned again, any hint of humor that previously lingered in his voice was now gone. His eyes locked onto Count's shiny brown badge, and, confused, he surveyed the threesome, newfound curiosity replacing his suspicions.

Count and Myth looked out at the open drawbridge nervously. 

"Oh," Sigurd noticed this and led them down a set of winding, stone stairs to a dungeon-like room. The room held a large crystal couch and a lone crystal chair, with a ginormous crystal table at the center of it all. 

Count, Myth and Sparkle all squeezed onto the couch so that Sigurd could have his own chair.

They sat in an awkward silence for a moment, and then Sigurd spoke up.

"So," he said. "Why are you here?"

"We've... umm... come to ask for your help," Myth answered.

"My help?" Sigurd's voice turned cold. "Why don't you ask Liza? She'll save you from everything, won't she, now that she's all famous?"

"Liza and the other alphas are destroyed," Count said. "You and the other minor alphas--"

"Oh, so that's what we are," Sigurd sneered, a mad, angry gleam in his eyes. His voice had grown even icier and had a sharp edge to it, so that when he spoke again, it was like a blade had cut through the air. "We're just the minor alphas. Don't bother with us: the ones who've actually done everything."

"I'm sorry," Count said quickly. "I didn't mean it like that--"

Sigurd cut him off again. But this time, his voice was a soft whisper. "It's not your fault that you think that we're minor," he looked down at his hooves.

"Excuse me?" Myth asked cautiously. "What did you mean by 'the ones who've actually done everything'?" 

"Oh, yes," Sigurd said. "That is quite a story."

THE LEGEND OF THE "MINOR" ALPHAS

as told by Sigurd

Long ago, before you youngsters were born, even before Count Fieryspirit was born, all of the alphas were equal. We roamed the lands, protecting innocent jammers from phantoms. All of us. And the jammers all thought highly of each of us: Liza, Sir Gilbert, Peck, Greely, Cosmo, Graham, Amelia, Marco, Harper, Otto, Sophia, Ruby, Edmund, Cornelius, La Salle, and even me. 

One morning, as I was walking along a river with two of my friends, Otto, the elephant shaman and Cornelius, the alligator shaman, I noticed that the water in the stream was beginning to turn a dark, unpleasant purple color. I pointed this out to Otto and Cornelius.

"The phantoms are polluting the river!" Otto cried. He had studied the phantoms for fifteen long years and was now skilled in detecting their traces, making him one of the most useful alphas.

"Should we call the others?" I asked, my heart beating faster. I was a young alpha then, and had yet to face a full phantom army: I had only defeated a few measly phantoms here and there around Jamaa.

"There isn't any time," Cornelius objected. "The phantoms will be here by noon if we don't find their phantom pipes soon enough. Calling the others would take up half of that time.

Otto and Cornelius raced towards the source of the pollution, and I followed. After a few long, silent minutes, we found a huge, phantom pipe. It was spitting out purple water out into the glistening stream, first only streaking it, then completely engulfing it in the pollution. It was horrible to watch: to see such beautiful liquid ruined by such awful things.

Otto grabbed his enchanted broadsword, Cornelius took up a pair of curved, sparkling daggers, and I nocked one of my own magical arrows in my bow. We all launched our attack on the pipe at the same time; Otto and Cornelius viciously hacking at the pipes while I shot arrow after arrow. It wasn't long before we stood, triumphant over a broken and crumbled phantom pipe. 

By now, the other alphas began to arrive, each one appearing in a magnificent cloud of smoke. The color of the smoke varied from alpha to alpha: Peck's was bubblegum pink, Liza's was royal purple, Greely's was deep black, Cosmos' was dark green and Sir Gilbert's was a noble blue. Mine was an icy white color.

Once nearly all of the alphas appeared, Liza spoke first. "What happened?"

"We saw that the river had been polluted by phantoms," Otto explained. "So we raced upstream to find the source, and we destroyed the phantom pipe."

"That is quite a feat!" Sophia, the horse shaman exclaimed.

"Yes," Greely said, a touch of admiration in his voice. This was before Greely became a coward and joined forces with Count Fieryspirit and the phantoms just to save his own pathetic life.

"Yes, quite a feat indeed," Liza added, a dangerous glimmer in her eyes. "One might wonder who was truly behind this phantom attack." Her eyes darted between the three of us, that same, mysterious glint in her beautiful purple eyes.

"What?" Cornelius blurted, forgetting all respect he held for Liza. "What in Jamaa are you talking about?!"

"All I'm trying to say," Liza said, putting her hands up in mock innocence. And that glint; that awful new shimmer in her eyes. Her mouth turned up into a sneer. "Is that you three were awfully quick to find this phantom pipe."

"Otto has studied the phantoms and their ways for fifteen years," I protested, catching on to what Liza was getting at. "We didn't start the attack: we just noticed it quickly and wanted to make sure that the phantoms didn't do any damage."

"And why didn't you call the rest of us to help you?" Sir Gilbert asked, that same glimmer taking over his serious, green eyes.

"Calling even a single alpha takes about a minute of immense concentration!" Sophia cried, incredulous. "If Otto, Sigurd and Cornelius had called even one of us, it would have slowed them down greatly and phantoms would be roaming freely across our lands this very moment!" She was yelling now, her beautiful face wreathed in fury.

Names of Alphas: Peck (Bunny), La Salle (Raccoon), Cosmo (Koala), Graham (Monkey), Marco (Penguin), Amelia (Fox), Otto (Elephant), Sir Gilbert (Tiger), Edmund (Giraffe), Sophia (Horse), Sigurd (Deer), Liza (Panda), Ruby (Rhino), Harper (Seal), Cornelius (Alligator), Greely (Wolf)

Peck, Greely, Cosmo and Graham now had the same evil glint in their eyes as Liza and Sir Gilbert. 

"Am I the only one who is rather suspicious of the fact that Otto, Sigurd and Cornelius were able to destroy an entire phantom pipe?" Liza asked, her voice booming with a menace that I had never heard before.

"Perhaps Otto and his friends caused the attack themselves," Greely sneered, all admiration that had previously laced his voice now replaced by doubt and cruelty. 

"Maybe they just have more guts than you do!" Marco, the penguin shaman, shouted boldly at Greely. 

"What?" snapped Greely, infuriated. "Don't you dare speak to me that way!"

Liza, unaffected by this quarrel, spoke again. "I think that these silly alphas were simply trying to call attention to themselves: as some of the youngest, most unachieved shamans, they just wanted to prove themselves worthy of their titles."

Fury bubbled inside me like a hot brew. Unachieved? What had happened to Liza and the others? The Liza I knew would have congratulated Otto on his quick thinking and perhaps even promoted him. But this... this creature that I thought I knew? Nothing more than a shell of what Liza used to be.

The other alphas stepped to our side: La Salle, Marco, Amelia, Edmund, Sophia, Ruby and Harper.

"What happened to you guys?" Edmund asked Liza and the other "major" alphas, hand planted firmly on the hilt of his sword.

Peck sneered. "Are you challenging me?"

Ruby, the rhino shaman, snorted. "Peck is half the size of Edmund: he'd wipe the floor with her in a fight."

Peck raised a humored eyebrow at Ruby. "I've trained in the martial arts for seven years: I doubt that Edmund here would stand a chance, what with his long, spindly neck and unbalanced limbs." She spat on the ground.

Graham stepped forward. The darkness of the new glint in his eyes was not as black as that of the others, and he spoke much more kindly than the others; but not exactly kindly. "Liza, Cosmo, Sir Gilbert, Greely, Peck and I are now the Major Alphas. You have two choices: you can die, right now, and keep your inflated pride, or you can become one of the Minor Alphas and fall, forever into our service."

"I think we should kill them all right now," Greely grunted under his breath. "They'll just get in the way."

"Well?" Graham asked us, as we pondered out options: both of which were awful.

Liza whipped out a steel blade and held it to Sophia's throat. Cosmo unsheathed his own sword and held it against Marco's. Greely held his curved, iron blade to Harper's, Sir Gilbert held his shortsword to mine, Graham held his long, angled sword to Otto's, and Peck held her two daggers against La Salle's.

"Tick, tock," Graham reminded us, tightening his grip around Otto. Otto squealed in pain as he struggled to breath against the monkey's solid grasp.

Cornelius held up a hand just as Sir Gilbert's shortsword began to cut into my fur. "Wait!" the alligator cried, his eyes brimming with tears. "Will you not spare them? We will become minor alphas, just leave my friends in peace!"

The new Major Alphas released their grips and their weapons, and as Sir Gilbert dropped me to the ground, I panted for breath, ignoring the cut made in my fur that was now trickling blood, staining my light gray fur with red.

"Oh my sweet little croc," Liza said to Cornelius, smiling a sickly smile. "We will never be at peace."

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I hope you enjoyed that! ^.^ I'll probably publish another chapter soon. :)

-Panda