Chapter Eight
Dominion
The battle lines were drawn with more and more centaurs gathering by the moment. That was good. There would be less of them to chase down this way.
I said as much to Honley and he rolled his eyes. Smiling grimly I turned to survey our battle line.
A line of sharpened staves ran in a solid line on a projected angle just right to get a centaur in the chest. We had advanced into the savanna several hundred yards and if ever there was a poor choice of defenses this was it.
All my defenses against the hybrid cavalry before me were forward facing. I had no rear defense in place and it was only too apparent that I had unwisely left the safety of the trees, which would have impeded the centaurs greatly from being able to circle in and around me.
To all the world I appeared the fool. Even now I could hear the raucous voices of the centaur high command just forward of my position across the grass not 200 yards away.
Suddenly harsh commands were called out and I felt the shifting of the impact of many hooves upon the ground. That said I put the enemy count at just over 3000, which left something close to 2000 of them unaccounted for.
I listened to the swishing gallop of the hybrid horsemen as they did what I had expected of them. They thought me stupid as anything other than their own reasoning opinion was of no high regard. Sometimes misjudging one worked to the advantage. That said this would likely be the last time such a ploy would work, because if it did there would be many a centaur dead this day.
My back to the high command of the centaur elite that remained where they were making no move to confront our wall of spears as they dispatched two side wing parties that even now filtered into the peripheries of my vision as they swept wide of our wall of spears in their effort to cut in behind us and charge our column from the rear. The moment of confrontation would soon be upon us.
An energy hard to describe swept through me and with a pulse of the thrill for war that seemed ingrained in me somehow I drew both my swords and cut them through the air in a stretch of my arm muscles that rushed with the blood of anticipation for the moments to come. A wildness to kill those who opposed us swept over me and I made eye contact with Rafargan, whose gaze was a match for my own.
In the background as the twin columns of outflanking centaurs angled to charge us from the rear I heard the flurry of sudden tumult as they met with an unseen resistance. My intensity upon Rafargan brightened as the wails of horsemen going down split through the air.
I blinked authoritatively and Rafargan with a roar that percussioned through the air about me leaped forward and with one great bound thirty other big cats of assorted size and absolute loyalty did the same. I brought my outstretched blades in close as the big cats breezed by me in route straight for the indolent centaur high command standing at ease in the grass behind me beyond the spear wall. In turn the high command was completely obsessed on what was happening to their cavalry on their flanks with no expectation of an attack being forced upon them. That was their second mistake today to think us incapable of any offensive ability.
The big cats surged with fury across the ground far faster than any human could have distanced and with wide-eyed alarm the centaur leadership reached, for still sheathed swords, as all their focus was pulled away from the struggling attack on the flanks that had met with more resistance than expected. Any bugle cry for retreat went unheralded as all focus leapt to the big cats and all the ferocity that they had to their name as kings of the forest.
With no cry sounding out for retreat the well-disciplined centaur cavalry brigades sent to outflank my position, pressed on through the lethal carpeting of mats hidden in the grass studded with sharpened staves. Centaur after centaur went down pierced through the hoof or through tripping over those fallen only to fall and be gored themselves on the upthrust points riddled through the grass.
With the morale of our enemy shaken, I watched as they cleared the mats, leaving almost a third of their number impaled and crying out to them. The centaurs, now fully to our rear, regrouped and drowning out the cries of their impaled comrades thrashing upon the ground they charged us with a vengeance.
I waited tensely as the charging line of trained centaur warriors drew closer. 200 feet……… 100 feet…….50 feet. I lifted my swords.
My human companions, in this war for continued humanity and the right to worship our Elohim as we saw fit, quickly advanced toward me and bending down they pulled up yet more sharpened stakes as the ones that were fixed outward into the savanna remained in place.
The sharpened polls lifted and were braced into place for the impact of the stunned centaurs caught in full gallop moving too quickly in order to affect a stop from their hasty charge. Vainly the forward members of the line tried to hack off the pointed ends of the poles, but driven on from behind they were impaled on the lowered stakes just the same and went down by the scores as other centaurs buck jumped over their bodies only to be met with the same resistance.
The crashing charge of the centaur force had come to a full halt and with a roar I charged through the stakes on my side of the line still facing the centaur high command and with an answering cry all my companions did the same. With weapons held high we chopped our way into the heavy pressed centaur line.
In such close quarters they had difficulty in bringing their huge swords to bear without damaging their own companions and we took full advantage of that with our shorter weapon movements. I swished left and right at milling centaur legs even as I dodged their jerky swings at my head.
The ground rumbled behind me as centaurs with legs crippled fell to the ground only to be hacked into by those who were following behind me. It was a full on pressed slaughter as there was little the centaurs could do other than try to stamp on us with their hooves as we took the legs out from underneath them.
One did manage to stamp on my foot and with a cringe of pain I moved my foot away and savagely hacked into the centaur responsible. He fell and I thrust my way forward once more through the gory scene.
Suddenly the flailing of hooves and horse like screams of terror were gone and there was airspace around me. Blinking away the fog of war I witnessed the fact that the remaining centaurs were fleeing. They galloped on full past there still impaled brethren that lay calling out to them for assistance from the flanks and headed straight for the trees in a group of about 200 strong that had lost all taste for the fight commencing this day.
They disappeared into the forest and moments later I heard screams of terror and general mayhem as the treetops shook violently. The treebeasts had no love for centaurs either and I doubted that a centaur of the group made it out alive from the forest.
Bringing focus to bear, I responded to the clasp of Jafina’s gloved hand on my arm. Inwardly I rejoiced that she was alive and well, but forcing myself to be objective I turned in the direction that she indicated and saw yet more confrontation in the making.
Hoarse voiced, I gestured my companions back to the wall of spears that lay facing the savanna that we had vacated in our mad dash into the ranks of the captured centaurs. The centaurs from the savanna side were in a full on charge straight for our spear wall.
Rafargan and his companions a few less in number raced across the ground just ahead of them. They had a weary look to them that I too felt for myself, but it couldn’t be helped. It was fight or die right now.
The big cats loped deftly through the spear points fixed facing the open prairie and moments later the maddened centaurs hit the line of staves. It was a stupid charge. One that lacked any common sense and that was for good reason as all the more reasonable minds of command lay slashed to pieces by Rafargan’s crew somewhere out there in the grass. Now the army we faced was one ruled by hotheaded warriors who thought they could plow through spears and keep on going.
The front lines of them piled into the stave points as expected, but then those who came forward after those in front fell tore at the remaining stakes even as we rushed forward with repurposed stakes from the rear of the line and jabbed at them as they muscled their way through the spears leaving many of their companions stuck fast in their lust to kill us for the outrage of masterminding a successful defense against them when in their minds such a thing had been a thing of impossibility.
They were determined beyond all reason to kill us and as it just so happened to be, so was I, in likewise fashion in regards to them. We pressed back against their onslaught hacking at them savagely as we met together in close quarters just as we had done before, only this time they kept advancing. They were in a fine bloodlust of retribution, they were, only they had no mind left for tactics and with a bugled roar I heard the last piece of my plan slide into place.
The centaurs lost in their hateful push forward neglected the sound of what I’d heard. Wanting to see I forcefully swung up to stand on the back of a centaur already dead and hung upright upon a driven in stake.
My vantage point took in the staggered line of what I could only attest to as heavy cavalry at its finest. Jafina’s deer of yesterday’s heroics led the charge out in front with a full rack of glistening antlers lowered to the field as beside him ran at full speed a collection of horned rhinoceroses, cattle, and other large deer like species. Each one represented the last members of their kinds that had all practically been wiped out due to the overhunting and obscene sexual appetites of the centaurs.
Now they came together in a long sought out act of revenge as the close packed centaurs could not move to cut out their victim’s legs as they had often done before. Packed tight the rear most members could only gasp with fright and struggle to be free of the conflict as the line of heavy thundering beasts converged on the rear of the heavy pressed centaur column.
The scattered line of large prey animals hit with crushing force and centaurs went flying even as from the impact more of them were forcibly impaled on the stakes that we had positioned before us and those we wielded by hand. The centaur morale completely shattered and with squeals of fright they clambered for an escape, but the options were few, even so, some managed to slip through and streak for the horizon.
The horizon formerly empty suddenly bristled with movement and I groaned with worry that another contingent of centaurs had arrived to take part in the fight. I relaxed though as I realized suddenly what I saw weren’t hybrids but were real horses and they were running all stretched out side to side in perfect lockstep formation that any general would’ve been proud of.
With a will the line of horses plowed into those who were of hybrid form. Centaurs were fleeing the scene every which way that they could and it was a wonder that any managed to survive the onslaught of the horses who were by far the quicker.
They brought the centaurs down with swift well-placed kicks or bowled over top of them with their greater mass and desire of spirit. The routing centaurs were decimated and it was fewer still that made it through the onslaught of horses with a grudge for a past abuse of rape and the willful manipulation of their kind to foul for any to speak of lightly.
The savagery of the horses aside, they did not pursue the few that made it through, even though they could have easily done so. That seemed odd to me and wearily stumbling through the piled up bodies of hybrid refuse, I made my way out to the savanna unlittered by the bodies of the fallen even as the last vestiges of our injured foes were put out of their misery with swift justice.
It had been a bloody day to be sure, but I had the feeling it wasn’t over. The horses were coming and the big black one that I had spoken to was out at the front of them as I knew that he would be.
He was majestic in every essence of the word and humbled, I remained where I was as with a shower of dust the last surviving horses of high order birth came to a ground shaking halt before the plain littered with the dead of our shared nemesis. The stallion came forward blowing hard, but his words were measured even as they were weighty, “Well done young warrior, but this battle is not over! All that has been done this day may yet be undone. Your army must go now as fast as you can to the north where there is abundant water! Maybe then some will yet remain and the fight can continue to see another day!”
“I don’t understand.” I said shaking my head before asking, “Is another army coming?”
“Worse than that I’m afraid. Fire is an avenger that once started knows no master, save one. Tell me son of the Roalain Plains, are you brave?”
Staring into the savage eyes of a stallion that I could see feared nothing in life, I affirmed, “I am committed to the task of doing the Creator’s will. It is His strength that sustains me and to that end I am willing, to the death, to accomplish all that is needed to preserve the truth of His words in the hearts of man.”
The stallion stamped the ground imperatively, “Very well then! It will be you and I, together to face the flames, but the others should go and go now!!!”
Turning on faith that the stallion was to be trusted I called out to both man and beast that had gathered about, “Go, do as the stallion commands, flee to the north! Those of you who are able to help those wounded please do so. Warn the forest creatures that you come across as you go. Go! Go now!”
The mighty deer who had led the charge at the end swiveled his bloodsoaked antlers as he swung to the north and bugled out a stentorian cry that started the ball rolling as a harem of seven stalwart looking does followed in lockstep formation after the last male of their kind who truly was a leader among all beasts. His pace picked up and he did not diminish it even as he gracefully dipped his antlers down and picked up a badly injured leopard.
The leopard perched high in the antlers hung on with three good paws as predator and prey worked together this day in a shared purpose of destiny. Rafargan was coordinating the moving of all those injured and briefly he and I shared a glance and then he was gone.
The Horses of Zavorra swept past me and helped the wearied host along. Jafina stood still a short distance off from me as if stubborn to the action I had commanded and lifting a sword I pointed to the north.
She remained in place for only a moment before turning to do as ordered. A beautiful sorrel colored mare swept in beside her and in surprise Jafina turned to her as she spoke something and gracefully knelt down on one knee. Timidly Jafina stepped forward and swung onto the back of a horse never before ridden only to hold on then as the mare swept forward swiftly after the disappearing host.
All that remained upon the plain where the bodies of the fallen and the sound of the wind whistling through the tall grass heads. It was in the wind that I smelled what I yet hadn’t seen evidence of.
Fire truly was coming. Who had set it?
There yet remained a sizable force of centaurs and such a fire would decimate them even as it would us. I turned and beheld my sole companion left within sight.
Gazing into the stallion’s eyes I asked, “Where does our journey lie old one?”
“Through fire and every sorcery of darkness they may choose to throw against us. You may call me by my name. Feveren, I was named long ago and so I remain. Better a name than to be called old.”
Gazing at him honestly I said, “I meant no disrespect, Feveren. Your wisdom and length of days is our saving grace this day. How did you know that fire would be used?”
“It is the way of a desperate foe to wipe out that which he cannot control or bind to his will any longer. You, Tarik, are a rare gem in the world of men. I have lived long and truly I have never seen your equal.”
Shaking my head I said, “I’m just a boy, now seen as a man. I come of nothing, but that which was put upon me to do.”
“I know Tarik. I know and yet it remains as I’ve said. Shall we face the road ahead now or do you wish to take another route?”
I blinked as the reality that suddenly this majestic leader of his special kind had abdicated authority over his own actions to whatever I might will in the moment. I found the moment crushing and turning from him, I faced the open savanna and in the distance I saw the horizon start to glow. The fire was coming.
The savanna, and likely the forest with all of its ancient memory, would be burnt up in such a provoked blaze. Gone would be the last sanctuary known to man or beast from the pressuring hordes of the enemies beyond this land that had already consumed all the other lands.
Everything I had fought for these past few months would be at an end, if something wasn’t done. Somehow the fire must be stopped, but it ran deeper than that.
I felt an electric quality to the atmosphere that told me that all was not what it appeared to be. Feeling overwhelmed by the conflicting whirl within my emotions that threatened to spin me to the ground I gritted out, “Enough!!!”
The whirling continued and rage swept through me. Jamming my sword points into the ground I fell to my knees as the reality of my focus spun as if I was a spinning top set to run its course along the top of a table caught in a sudden earthquake. Leaving the handles of my swords to sway in the breeze that brought more and more the smell of eminent demise I clasped my hands together and prayed aloud, “You did not call me to this road to protect your people Eloah, for me to give up now. My actions this day are ordered of You and I fully submit to Your will for my life this day and now I wait upon You, my Elohim, to show me the way forward and what I must do to fulfill Your perfect will! I wait on You Master, even as I have been called to serve in the Name of Your Son, so let Your will be done in me. This day I resist evil and all that has been set against me, in the name of Yeshua!”
Eyes closed with my world still a whirl I remained on my knees content to burn if need be even as I was confident that I would receive an answer. Truly what was the sense in living life if one could not take faith that there would be an answer when one needed one the most. A life without faith was an expanse of nothing propped up by a promise never believed in, but for those who believe there is no failure to thrive and the reality is that patience is needed along with trust.
I had seen my Eloah work. I had been in His presence and even though physically overwhelmed in this moment as I was, I knew what I knew and so I would stay, even so believing to the end.
My lips moved in praise for the battle already won this day and in gratitude for the small loss in numbers for our side, I thanked my Elohim and as I offered up praise the whirling focus of my emotions stilled. I opened my eyes and I saw the presence of fire moving out in front of me in a path across the grass, only the flame did not burn the grass.
The breeze blew forcefully at my back and within my spirit I heard the voice of the Fire Spirit softly say, “Come.”
Rising up abruptly I reached for my swords, but the Fire Spirit breathed out even as the flames in the grass rippled, “Leave them.”
I almost lost it then as it felt like I stepped into the mighty current of a river past comprehension of power. The fire upon the grass swirled around me and in awe I saw the flames lick over the skin of my hands, but I was not burned. The Fire Spirit spoke once more, “Come child for even as you have believed so it shall be accomplished.”
I turned and beheld the stallion as more power than I had ever possessed swirled around me in a comforting balm, as it served as an enabler of my spirit to do bigger and better things for the Kingdom of Eloah. Without hesitation Feveren stepped forward and pressed his muzzle into the flames that scorched over my hand and yet left no heat in its wake.
The fire ablaze upon my palm danced up his muzzle until the whole of him was ablaze even as I was. Speaking then as the inspiration to say what I did came from outside my own knowledge I said, “Take me to the heart of the forest.”
Feveren bending down on one knee said with solemnity, “I will do all that you ask Tarik, for now I see what my eyes have never seen. A fire prophet from of old has once more been gifted so as to be a light to the world of the love of the Creator for all His creation. Even so I thank the Son, I praise the Father, and I exalt in the presence of the Fire Spirit, as all that was promised even now is coming to pass. I am at the ready for you Master.”
Without a further word spoken I swung aboard the massive stallion who lunged forward with a will towards the towering columns of flame in the distance. Chunks of sod tore free to fly up into the air behind us in a cascade of churned up dirt as divinely appointed destiny left a trail before us to follow.
I leaned forward and gripped a hold of the free-flowing mane of black hair as Feveren outran in speed any horse I had ever witnessed in life. What the heart of the forest was I did not know, but the Spirit of Eloah within me was urging and I was willing even as Feveren was being obedient to his destiny so too did I seek to do my Master’s will.
Those moments of walking on top of the world came back to me with a fullness now that I hadn’t experienced in months. The imagery of heaven just above obscured by a myriad of colors so bright as to burn the eyes I could in this instance think of nothing I could lose in this life that would be the equal of gaining an eternal presence in that heavenly court one day.
The joy of experiencing no fear, save for that which I had in reverence for my Creator coursed through me like an enabling brook of powered up storm surge. I urged Feveren on faster and with great heaves for breath he did so until it seemed that we flew across the ground.
I moved in easy synchronistic motion with the greatest beast of his kind and together we charged headlong into the upswept column of fire and smoke raging across the savanna towards us. The fire didn’t touch us and the smoke did not deter us.
We broke through the flames that evaporated away from us as if from a fire of much greater strength to once more surge forth onto the blackened plain that reflected only the death and solitude of total destruction. On Feveren raced tirelessly as if he had been waiting all the long years of his life for this moment only to now unleash the full fury of his pent-up rage in a moment of time.
It was a song that called to me and I cried aloud with a shout of war as the cinders and burning embers gave way before us to bade us entrance to a forest fully ablaze as an ancient realm tasted the hungry destruction of fire for the first time. Rules had been broken and now all around me the forest screamed in anguish.
I could hear the trees and calling out I asked for help for them along with all those I held dear even as burning embers sheened down upon us in a fiery waterfall of unmatched viciousness of color and burdensome destruction. Still the heat of the flames was held back from us as if a force of some invisible quality did so or no doubt we would have instantly combusted as everything else was.
“My Eloah send your rain! I ask in the name of Your Son so that a heritage of this place You once made special will remain!” I cried out above the blaze of an ancient place cast into misery.
The smoke blackened skies overhead darkened dramatically and the sun raced across the sky as if he rode on a horse the equal of the one I road if not greater. With the absence of light darkness fell only to silhouette the fiery blaze all around us as the pitch blackness of night fell half a day sooner than it should have.
With the darkness came an opening in the skies above, only it wasn’t rain that fell, but the sky ocean’s themselves. The heavy vapor mist sank down not only upon the entirety of the savanna, which it had not done in several hundred years but it also doused over the forest as well and with a great hissing of extinguished flame we were heralded from behind as the ocean mists surged through the forest corridors leaving no flame unquenched.
With the ocean mists came the tides of life that called it home and looking back I urged Feveren faster as a whale came up fast behind us. I needn’t have worried for before we were contacted by his great bulk he spun to the side and the momentum of his action sent the vapor mist splashing ahead of us extinguishing every flame in sight.
For a moment it was hard to breathe but then we were free of both ocean mist and flame alike as Feveren’s hooves dug into a steep incline that he lunged upward with a vengeance. On this uprising pinnacle within the forest the trees were not burnt and immediately they felt loathsome to me even as I felt the eyes of a thousand and more mythical creatures of folly stare back at me from the silent ranks of dark trees that studded this upward sloping causeway that we now traveled upon, which I could see had once been a road.
The putrid sense of being viewed by evil on parade invaded all my senses, but Feveren did not back down and neither did I. Up ahead of me on a rocky corner of the trail lay an old tree that had all but fallen to the forest floor.
Hardly a leaf remained upon it and though to some all they might see was a tree, a long time in the dying, I saw an entity that had been daily tortured for a very long time. I bid Feveren to stop and he did with a half rear of impatience to be locked in mortal combat, but won over to be patient past his passion by his pledge of loyalty to me.
I slid off his back and slowly approached the old tree that clung on to life somehow as it was mostly swallowed up by the dark pushing wrath of those trees around us that had no song of life within them. As I walked upon the cursed ground of this place my voice rang forth as I began to sing deeply in a language unknown to me, but that issued forth out of the Fire Spirit that was within me, that with every spoken syllable gave direct homage to the Creator of everything.
I sang the words given to me from on high and marveled at the deep richness of them that vibrated through the air with a power unseen and yet felt. Not any power of mine, but His who had sent me here to this place once blessed, but cursed worst of all right now.
The cursed enchantments of this place did not matter as the Spirit of Elohim within me was a force never to be denied victory. The very rocks beneath me vibrated with a keen knocking together of sound as if awakening to the remembered fear for who had created them and indeed it was so.
Restoration was to start here and putting my hands to the great bulk of a tree that eight men couldn’t have reached around I began to push. There was no need to push as if utilizing all my physical might, which would have proved useless, rather the Spirit of the Creator was more than enough to accomplish any task.
The great rotting bulk groaned and began to rise up to where it had once dominated the forest canopy above for, perhaps, since the creation of the world. I pressed onward all the while singing deeply all that the Fire Spirit would have me say and the tree rose into the air steadily.
A boulder fallen into the cavity of where the trees great roots had once been well entrenched before it had tipped over, moved out of the way, as all the trees around shook in fear that a day had come that would see their treachery rewarded. With a loud groaning thunk the great snapped off and snarled trunk of a tree that remained but perilously alive by the fewest of branches came to rest again in its old surrounds.
I pushed no longer but continued to sing as the Fire Spirit gave me utterance as I knowingly prayed for healing and restoration silently within the language I did not know even as the Spirit of Eloah spoke directly to the Father. There was a snapping motion and I opened my eyes to glance down only to see new resurgent roots issuing out from the rottenness of a tree long thought hopelessly un-resurrectable and tormented all the more for it.
The rocks around me shook for glee as they’d had no part in the shames of this place and I smiled as the joy of their emotions touched my heart. I glanced up and witnessed two great old eyes staring down at me even as one tiny little branch with but three leaves moved back and forth with the rhythm of my song pouring out in the Spirit to my Creator. I started to draw down in voice, but the old eyes frowned and with a negative shake the treebeast said in a deep voice, “Deeper! Press deeper young warrior! Sing!”
Closing my eyes I heeded his advice and despite the weariness that assailed me as if plagued in strength by an unseen foe, I sang louder and more boisterous than ever before. Blindly I turned from the old tree and faced the grown-up forest that did not belong here and I let my heart sing out against it.
How long I sang I do not know, but as my voice drew to an end of usability so did the passion of the Creator’s Spirit within me and I knew it was time to stop. I’d settled down to my knees at some point and now as I opened my eyes for the first time since my pleaded love song to Eloah had begun I was stunned to see that a vast change had occurred all around me.
The trees that had resisted the light within me were all gone. They had simply passed as if into nonexistence and all around me lay the green slopes of an upward sloping mound of a hill that I was nearly to the top of.
I got up and turned only to behold, in wonder, a tree as grand as surely as it had ever been in