Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (13 page)

In the trees across the lake, something moved.

Enoch
’s
imaginings were gone now as his eyes scanned the
tree line
, looking for a very real threat.  Again, he caught a glimpse of something f
a
rther to the south.

It was moving.

Craning his neck
to see pas
t
the arms that blocked his vision,
Enoch
looked behind him.  The men were gone.  But in their place were two large reptilian creatures,
slightly larger than a man.
  They
walked
on four powerful legs and looked agile enough to leap the entire seventy feet between them.  The scales of their hides were interrupted by pointed spines which ran in rows down their backs and tails.

Enoch
suddenly couldn’t breathe, choked by his own fear.

The creature on the right raised its long, narrow snout and sniffed the air.  Two quick
and loud
inhalations
.

“Ahhhh!” Enoch screamed, louder than he’d ever screamed in his life.

The creatures began to
stalk
forward.

Enoch continued to scream.

T
heir putrid stench entered his nostrils, making him gag and cough repeatedly.

They were within
reach
now, circling slowly.  The one on the left raised its
angular
head and
opened a wickedly fanged mouth, letting
out a wail that could have
been
heard
all the way back
to
the Kahyin village
.

With his body shaking, Enoch closed his eyes again.

Holy One.  The time is now at hand.  Do not leave me
in my time of need
, for I am about to endure the most difficult
task of any that
Y
ou have set before me.  Stay with me, for I will also be with
Y
ou soon.

The
hot
, humid
breath of one creature could be felt on his legs.

Enoch kept his eyes shut and held his
own
breath
, trying to keep down the bile that was rising in his throat
.

All of a sudden, a
barrage of
noise
ripped through the air, sounding like a mixture of a howl and a snarl.

In the resulting silence, Enoch opened his eyes.

On the shore was another creature.  Thick, gray hair covered its entire body.  Its long snout was curled up into a snarl, revealing sharp teeth.  Its
bright, golden
eyes held an intensity that seemed to look right through Enoch’s soul.  Even crouching in an attack posture, this four-legged
mammal
was obviously much larger than the reptiles
.

Holy One.  Save me from these foul beasts!

With the interruption
of
their meal, the reptiles turned and moved away from each other.  Spreading out, they cautiously approached the threat, hissing and clicking to each other as they
moved
forward.

Enoch glanced from the reptiles to the third creature, then back again, wondering which would end up tearing the flesh from his bones.

The gray-haired animal
howled again
and pounded its front paws on the ground, refusing to give ground to the reptiles.

In response, the
reptiles e
xchanged
a rapid series of
clicking
noises
,
then
unexpectedly
leaped
in unison.

The mammal
dodged
quickly to the left and reared up to the nearest attacker.  Their
jaws just missed e
ach other as the mammal sank its
teeth
into the neck of the reptile and spun, using its larger weight and the momentum of the attacker to throw the reptile toward the shore and into the path of the other.

The scaled beast on the left came to a sliding halt on the stone, its neck torn open.  Blood poured from mangled flesh and
spilled out, staining
the bare rock.
 
The remaining reptile floundered as it tried to
step over, then around the body of its fallen partner.

The gray-haired beast raised its head and loosed another howl that shook the earth.

In the face of such power, the other
creature
backed away toward the shore, then burst into a run as soon as its claws touched soil.

In the ensuing
silence, Enoch could hear the loud beating of his own heart.

Holy One.  Save me!

Sti
ll facing the shoreline, the head of the mammal turned.  As gore dripped from its chin, the animal stared into Enoch’s eyes.  Then, it slowly opened
a
mouth
full of sharpened teeth, each as long as Enoch’s hand
.

“
Olathe
heya e
lhet
?
”
  The deep, guttural noise sounded like the language of the Kahyin
, but like many people speaking at once
.

Enoch stared in disbelief.  “Holy One.  Save me,” he whimpered aloud, now fighting back tears.

“Are you
Shayeth
?” the voice of the animal boomed.
3

Enoch was speechless.

“Who are you?” the beast growled, perfectly enunciating the words in the
Shayeth
language.

Enoch opened his mouth.  “H…  How are you able—”

“WHO ARE YOU?” the animal interrupt
ed
.

“My name is Enoch
,” he answered quickly,
pulling himself up by his wrists.

“You are different than the rest of these humans.”

Enoch stared at the creature, unable to
comprehend
the thought of an animal speaking.  He answered almost without thinking. 
“I am not from the same tribe as the
se people
. 
They captured me and brought me here.”

“N
O!
” the
animal barked
.  It was
now
only
a few of
its
long strides away from Enoch.  “You misunderstand me.  I can see that you carry the presence of another with you.

Enoch
’s
heart, which had been beating rapidly to this point, seemed to slow.  I
mmediately
, he
felt a rush
of
peace
. 
The change in his composure must have been
drastic, because the
beast’s
piercing
golden eyes widened.

“
It is the presence of the Holy One.”

The
animal
walked closer.  Even on all fours, its back stood taller that Enoch’s head.  It circled once, sniffing as it went.  When it came back around, it turned directly toward Enoch and looked him in the eyes.  “
What are you doing here?”

Enoch thought he’d already explained that.  Then he realized
what the animal was really asking.  “
I was shown a vision by the Holy One.  And now
I’m trying to deliver a message
from Him
.”

“
What is your message and who
m
is it for
?
”
it
asked, surprisingly quiet.

Enoch took a slow breath and adjusted his wrists. 
“
It
is for
the
Wandering Stars of Heaven.
  The ones who
shape
creation.
”

The animal took a step back and its gaze drifted to the ground beside it.  When it looked up again, its
golden
eyes
seemed to glisten.
  “Go on,” it said quietly.

Enoch cleared his throat.  “
He told me that they have
broken
His
heart. 
‘
You have abandoned your home and have brought great wickedness upon the earth
,
’
He told me. 
He
showed me what they’ve done and
I saw
His tears of sorrow
fill the earth
.  He wants them to
repent of
their
disobedience
and return to Him.”

The animal now stared out across the lake
.  Its eyes narrowed.

“Please.  Let me go.  I must find them and deliver my message.”

Beneath the terrible face before him, something intangible shifted.  It was more than an emotion, something deeper. 
And for a long moment the beast remained silent, hopefull
y
considering Enoch’s plea.  Finally it
looked back to Enoch, opened its mouth, and leaned forward.

Enoch recoiled in fear.

The massive
teeth plunged deep into the wood of the pole, severing clean the ropes that bound his wrists.

Immediately, Enoch slumped to the stone below, too
scared
to support his own weight.  For a moment, he simply leaned against the
wood
and massaged his wrists, unable to look up into the terrifying gaze of the creature.

“Come with me,
Prophet
,
”
a deep, gentle voice spoke.

Enoch looked up slowly.

“
T
here is someone you need to meet,”
it
added.  “Get up.
”

Enoch obediently pushed himself up to standing, ignoring his body’s protests.

The animal crouched
low.  “Climb on my back.”

Enoch stood motionless, afraid to touch the animal.

“Hurry up.  We don’t have much time,” it warned.  “Grab my fur and climb up.”

Gently, Enoch
gripped
fistfuls of
the coarse, gray
hair
and pull
ed
himself up.  Once atop the massive beast, he could feel its heat and strength.  His legs were nearly lost in the depth
of
its fur.

“Lean forward and hold on tight,” it said.

Enoch barely managed to
follow the orders
before the animal
leaped
into action, bounding into the trees with only a few strides of its powerful legs.

“Go on ahead,” Sariel called.  “I’ll catch up.”

After reconnecting with his escorts, he was now only a few hours away from the Chatsiyr village.  His traveling companions had stopped walking, their
foreheads
furrowed.

“I need to arrange my thoughts before meeting with the elder,” he explained.

The men exchanged glances among themselves, then turned and continued walking south
without any discussion
.

Whe
n
they were out of sight, Sariel looked
up into the foothills of
Ehrevhar
and waited.  After a few minutes,
a
n immense,
winged figure came out from the foliage and walked down the slope.  He was comparable in size to Sariel’s angelic form, but his
mottled
coloring was
comprised of browns, reds
,
and tans.  Like most
Iryllur
ym
, his chestnut colored hair was finger-length, and swept back from his face.  But it was his large, golden eyes that Sariel would always remember.  For many years, they were the
eyes of the only friend he had.  But in recent times, they’d gone separate ways and lost contact with each other.

Moving upslope into the waist-deep grass, Sariel approached the soldier
and looked up
.  “
Welcome,” he said
as soon as they met.

Stepping sideways until he was downslope, t
he angel
still
towered over Sariel’s human form.

“
I thought that was you. 
What are you doing here?”
Tarsaeel
asked calmly.