Part Two: Deluge
Chapter XIII:
Apehunters
Ten ettins cleared through the trees with their finger nails acting as axes. The ten, once members of the Bear Town council, had in the past few hours become transfigured into ettinkind by a newly installed apegift booth. They were already performing the second apegift; their next anatomical and spiritual transformation, to become even more ettin than ape. The pink-skinned ettin, their leader, sniffed the burning woods, then tossed the oblong grenade the ettinlord had gifted him.
A blue gas shot from the device, soon filling the ground like a creeping fog.
He sniffed a sequoia.
“The apes are close by. Prepare the obelisk for their entry into the Eldermark.”
A green ettin dragging an obelisk on a pulver chain sighed.
“Why are we takin’ orders from that creep? He ain’t even from Bear Town. Never seen ‘im before.”
Reaching out a starfish like hand, Pink pulled Green’s head off.
“Any of y’all wanna back-talk?---Roland, you take the obelisk.”
The other ettins looked away from the incensed glare of Pink. “No, Boss. We ain't backtalkin'...,” Roland muttered taking the chain. “Listen! The apes are near,” shouted a blonde ettin.
“Where??” said Pink dropping the green head in his grip.
He stared about the blue gas at their feet.
“I don’t see ‘em...you made me drop my head...I need that as proof of my apegift.”
“Your apegift is killing ettins? Your brothers?” said Roland dropping the obelisk’s chain.
“Backtalk!” Pink screamed.
“There, Boss, I see ‘em,” pointed the blonde ettin at a tree, the largest of trees: the tower of Rammbock.
A lump like a furry hillock stuck up out of the gas. “That’s not an ape...that’s a bear...idiot.”
“No, Boss, I seen his face.” The blonde ettin nudged the furry lump and rolled it over.
A long mossy green beard and a red face greeted them, the eyes shut.
Curled beside him was a small woman, with fiery orange hair, clad in black.
“This one is Grimnar! That ugly ogre, good golly!” said Pink clapping his hands,“The girl is a mighty prize too…this blue stuff really does a good job at knockin’ out apes, huh?" Pink heaved them both up by the necks, like a master to a puppy’s scruff. “Toss ‘em to the Eldermark. Azza will be pleased...real pleased.”
“Yes, Boss,” said Roland, opening up the door's of the obelisk floating beside them. Its doors opened, Grimnar and Embla were dropped inside, into the oblivion within.
“I smell another,” said Pink.
“Looking, Boss,” said the blonde. He sniffed the gas. “It’s close by! But, I smell…pulver? An etin? No… an ape! How though?...”
Deathbrand loomed tall, planted in the shrouded ground, shining brilliantly even amidst the iridescent blue gas.
Kurt’s body lay below its base. “Ah! I know this one! He’s John’s boy! The black ear gives it away! Old bastard would never shut up about him” said Roland.
“So what?” said Pink stepping forth to Kurt.
Roland shrugged. “He's pretty important. All the big bosses have been trying to get their hands on him. Tryna convince 'im to take an apegift.”
“An apegift? No way, he's wasted his chances. Azza is not a patient soul,” said Pink.
“Azza told me so! John’s boy was really strong or somethin’.”
“What did I say about back-talk!” “I ain’t afraid of you, Seth.”
“Don’t you dare call me that! I’m Pink-Sexy now! Pink-Sexy!”
The blonde one motioned to the obelisk, saying,“Hey, don’t forget the orders! The Unghost ain’t gonna be happy if we lollygag.”
Pink turned back to Kurt, reaching for the sword blocking his body. “I’ll apegift all of you the first chance I get. That’s a promise... Damn thing’s blockin’ the way.”
He kicked Deathbrand with his great big toe. The others watched, puzzled, as Pink dropped to the ground groaning.
His foot was missing, black smoke rising from his new stump.
“Yer foot!!” said Roland howling laughing.
“That,damn sward!” wailed Pink, tears in his eyes.
He turned to his troops,his eyes evaporated, vacant black sockets remaining.
His neon pink skin now a dull peach.
“Suits ya,” said a golden bodied ettin holding up an arquebus. The others began shooting, bullets yawing through flesh, exploding, gibbets of ettinmeat falling like the light frost about. Pink Sexy stumbled, gripping his gaping wounds. He bled black pulver all over, from his mouth, from his sockets.
“Stop...take the sward...it’ll help ya...”
“Bullshit!” cried the Gray one. “I’ll apegift you with that sword.”
Gray grabbed Deathbrand and screamed.
Lightning bolts struck from the base of the blade, each meeting the horrified faces of the ettins. “The ettinslayer…” said Roland with his last breath.
The ten all fell dead, save the blonde one, missing half his torso but still able to inch upon the ground.
He reached out to the obelisk, lifting a lock at its base. A door on the ship swung open. He stuck his neck forward ready to fall forward into the world beyond. A voice spoke from within the booth, saying: “Your apegift is not yet completed. Where do you plan on going?”
“Please...give me another chance!” he said with half a tongue.
“You have failed. Must I work through machines instead of men? I called you to elevate your body and soul and you have tried to abandon me...”
“No...no, my lord. My Unghost...please, let me try again! I’ll take him. I’ll do whatever you ask!”
“Come into the pit. Join your fallen brethren. Will you do that?”
“Anything!” The keeper of the booth, pulled the ettin torso inside, the door shutting behind his screaming.
+++++
Hooves raced from the burning woods; Buck and Canute flew into the tower base.
Riding Canute was John, Kalendros his robes sopping wet sat atop Buck.
They examined the grounds, their weapons still drawn. “Kurt is there,” said Kalendros holding up the limp body of John’s boy.
“I smell a gas…” said John.
“Same sort used in the TS war. Never bothered me much, but it knocks most men out instantly...where are the others?”
They searched the area the blue mist gradually dissipating. “I have a fear they have been taken…” said Kalendros, mournfully.
They stepped over the pieces of ettin corpses.
“Deathbrand slew these beasts…but not before our friends were captured and placed here,” said Kalendros holding up an orange strand of hair on beside the obelisk.
“Trapped in an apegift booth…we need to go after them!…Buck! Ram her open for us!” said John, with a sincere intensity.
“No! Whatever lies behind that door is of immense power, the same that was able to toss me like a ragdoll into the lake... It appears our friends were sent to the Eldermark, John” said Kalendros shaking his head.
"When?" asked John.
“At least five hours ago. There is no chance we can find them without Rammbock’s help.”
“And where is he?? Bear Town was just destroyed! Dozens of good people…kids! All dead!”
“Rammbock is fighting at the frontline. Some of the nobility have turned to his side…they have pledged troops.
It is now a war of Rammbock’s forces against the whole of the Eldermark," said Kalendros,“…We need the Weever…but without Verity's assent to grant us the Tooth, I cannot predict a certain victory.”
John growled. “The damned Weever!...what are our odds that we can win without that thing?”
Kalendros, looking to the tower, said, “Do not despair! Look at yourself! You who climbed out of your tomb to fight again! Take your boy now. He will awaken soon. Though the forest is surrounded at all sides, the tower may provide a refuge for us.
I will do what I can to save time…but hurry, for the sake of Kurt and all of mankind, hurry!”
Chapter XIV: The Thousand Year Fate of Lovers