CHAPTER 13
The Hidden
Jewel had arrived in Narma just as Greble was leaving for Earth. What saved the Witch was luck and her Talisman's quick reaction. As luck would have it, the dragon stepped out of the Portal on the side opposite to where the Witch was about to enter it, such that Jewel was facing the other way and didn’t immediately sense her. A jolt from her Talisman caused her to leap into the Portal and escape safely to Earth.
After arriving on Earth, she had been able to find only faint charred remains of the Two Horde Sisters. Yes, they had indeed run into serious trouble! Greble hadn’t remained in the area very long due to danger that she sensed in the form of an Elf Warrior and a very young but dangerous dragon. The egg had obviously hatched!
Strengthened by the Talisman, she could have simply attacked the Warrior and the young dragon immediately, but although she might have had a quick victory, she might also have been destroyed herself. Without Jewel they had lost most of their strength, but even a young male dragon was nothing to trifle with. Also, she had fought a human Elf Warrior in the past, and wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. Then there was the troll. Without the other two, a troll wasn’t much to worry about, but in combination with the other two, he could possibly tip the balance in their favor.
"WEAKEN THEM FIRST USING EARTHLY EVIL," her Talisman advised.
Based on that that hint Greble decided on a more elegant and indirect approach to destroying the dragon hatchling and the humans. On her previous Earth visit she had sensed the presence of dormant Earth-powers, some very powerful and with a decidedly Evil disposition. She decided to awaken some of these and have them attack her enemies for her. In the ensuing confusion she could join in the fun by consuming Earth life.
To begin with she had to travel using human methods. She wasn’t immediately successful, but she learned quickly. After a few unfortunate incidents she determined not to consume human pilots or drivers of land vehicles until AFTER they had gotten her to where she wanted them to take her. She also learned that like the humans on Narma, Earth humans responded well to pain and were terror stricken when faced with death.
It was easy to travel from what they called the United States to Africa. There, deep in a rain forest full of scrumptious life, she found the site where an ancient Evil tinged elemental named KraKara was buried deep below the ground. Long ago this elemental had developed a craving for human flesh, but had been finally overcome by human witchdoctors and imprisoned.
Even now over the site a tribe lived which trained witchdoctors in the art of KraKara imprisonment. When what appeared to be an old woman covered in black robes entered the village, few took heed. Greble walked up to the current lead witchdoctor before her dark aura was recognized. As he stood up to stare at her with a startled look in his eyes, she threw back her hood, revealing a skull-like face that grinned to show sharp canine teeth.
“Are you death?” he asked, for he had never seen anyone remotely like her, except perhaps a long dead body he had once found in the jungle.
“I have come to free KraKara, human.”
“No, no,” said the shocked witchdoctor. “It is ancient Evil and will kill us all!”
“It will not kill you,” replied Greble. “I will do that.”
At that the witchdoctor suddenly felt intense burning pain in his hands and feet. Looking at his hands, he was shocked to see them gray and wither before his eyes. His feet seemed to also burn and would no longer support his weight. As he fell to the ground, screaming in agony and terror, he was aware of the other people in the village doing the same. Women, children and men, all were shouting and screaming and crying in fright and pain!
In seconds, the atrophy and excruciating pain had traveled up each limb to the knees and elbows. Hundreds of victims kicked and rolled about on the ground futilely, arms and legs broken and withered.
“Wanwago, wanwago, kunabo,” the witchdoctor screamed, in a moment of clarity and purpose.
These were words of power that rocked Greble, though only for a moment. What had struck her was some sort of life force, drawn from the forest. She smiled more broadly as she quickly learned to absorb this new power source. Trees around the village cracked, shattered and fell lifeless to the ground, their life force drained into Greble and her Talisman through the witchdoctor. Birds and insects fell dead from the sky, grass blackened, and even the soil lost color as countless billions of insects, worms, microbes and other living things died.
The witchdoctor’s screams ceased as he withered and died, but still the circle of death expanded, for Greble and her Talisman were perfectly capable of absorbing life forces without using someone else as a channel. When she finally stopped, everything within quarter-mile had been killed, with the exception of the ancient creature that slept buried a hundred feet below the village. It was the best she had fed in many years, for on Narma, such an action could draw the attention of the Horde, and before finding the Talisman she hadn't the strength to kill so many! KraKara would doubtlessly get blamed by the humans for these deaths.
“ARISE AND EAT ALL LIFE THAT YOU WISH,” she commanded KraKara telepathically, for that was its nature. She sent it some of the newly absorbed life-energy along with the command, to get its attention. It couldn’t consume much of the life energies in that way, but was stimulated enough by the concentrated energies such that after centuries of rest it was immediately aroused and aware.
It had slept long, far longer than normal for it, and it was ravenous. It sensed a world that had changed, but still contained numerous life forms suitable for consumption. It was aware that the powers that had subtlety made it sleep were at last gone and a small but powerful and unfamiliar Evil creature was summoning it.
It slowly sat upright, effortlessly shifting hundreds of tons of rock and soil to do so. Its misshapen head towered a hundred feet above the diminutive Witch, though the creature was still mostly buried underground. It somewhat resembled a near-human skeleton in form, but as Greble watched, what looked like putrid flesh formed to cover the bone. It stood on its rear legs to tower over the tiny being that had freed it.
Greble smiled. KraKara was an elemental, all right, but quite primitive. Immensely powerful physically and infused with Evil, but stupid. It suited her purposes perfectly.
It roared and produced a sound disturbingly like that of a dragon, then impulsively swung a massive fore-paw at Greble.
Greble smoothly glided to one side, such that the blow struck the ground next to her, thunderously smashing its paw a dozen feet into the soil.
Then the Witch struck back. Absorbing another elemental was normally dangerous, but she drew the massive arm to herself, assimilating the putrid energies, gambling that after feeding she was the stronger. She was right; Greble and her Talisman were much the stronger.
KraKara screamed as its arm disappeared, replaced by incredible pain many times worse than the spells that had imprisoned it centuries ago. The creature drew back from the Evil little creature that had injured her worse than anything else ever had or could!
Greble was shaken herself. The putrid energies she absorbed fought to free themselves from her for several long seconds, but with difficulty and with the help of her Talisman she finally contained them. It was fortunate that she had just fed and strengthened herself, while KraKara had not fed in thousands of years. “I have tasks for you,” she told the creature. The Simple House was a long way off, but if she could get the creature to an airport, perhaps it could be carried by a very large transport airplane. Perhaps crashing the airplane and monster directly into the Simple House would be doubly beneficial.
If the creature understood her, it didn’t acknowledge that it did. It turned and climbed out of the hole in one smooth motion and walked away ponderously, ignoring her commands to stop. Another arm formed as it walked.
Not exactly what the Witch had planned, but good enough. The brutish creature was too stupid to be controlled, but it would be a distraction, at the very least. As
she returned to the airport she heard reports of the creature already rampaging through villages, devouring everyone it could catch. The humans couldn’t stop it with their puny weapons.
At the airport thousands of panicked people were swarming to leave the country. “The creature will kill us all,” they screamed. Greble amused herself by sucking the life from several of them, causing further panic. “We are cursed,” they shouted, while Greble laughed. Some fled the airport for the surrounding countryside, while others crammed into departing aircraft.
Greble departed on one of the escaping flights. She soon sucked the life from a hundred passengers and animated several of their dead husks to throw the others and themselves from the plane for her further entertainment.
India was her next stop. She sensed countless succulent human lives and many hidden ancient creatures in India. After that she planned to travel to the Middle East, China, and perhaps South America. She would save North America for last.
As she consumed the last of the aircrew that had flown her to New Delhi, she reflected that she would not need to control most of the monsters after all, but merely wake them up. They didn’t need to be commanded to know how to kill.
Several of the humans she had killed had made reference to a hero known as Mystery Man. Curious, she had tortured more information from them. She finally realized that they were describing the old Elf Warrior who guarded the Portal.
She concluded that for reasons unknown, the Elf Warrior had in the past gone out of his way to defend human lives. That suggested that she would not need to get the monsters to travel to the Portal; the Elf Warrior, and perhaps the baby dragon that likely gave him some of his powers, would travel to the monsters to destroy them.
Greble would watch. If the Earth monsters killed the dragon and the warrior, all the better. If not, she would watch for the right moment to intervene and finish them herself. Either way, she would minimize the effort required as well as risk to herself.
Her Black Talisman of power unexpectedly gave her a painful burst of power and reminded her that the White Dragon was not to be completely destroyed. Some of it or its Chosen had to remain for consumption the Dark One. "VERY WELL," she acknowledged.
As she exited the airplane at New Delhi she sensed cities teeming with potential victims, as well as additional monstrous creatures that had slept for millennia.
****