The H'Cenalot Beast

The sight of mangled corpses used to deter him. No longer did the sight bother him. He adjusted the white fabric on the last body and stood back. He stared at four pyres, a body atop each, bound in white wrappings. He would have to perform the ceremony to send the soul on its way for each. Luckily they had plenty of wine.

He knelt in front of the pyre he’d just adjusted the fabric. Two men stood at the closer corners of the wooden structure, each holding a lit torch. The flames flickered in the dim light, the sun rising, but had yet to crest the horizon.

It front of him in the sand, were two bowls crudely fashioned from iron and whittled out with a dull chisel, a bottle of spirits, and a thin stick. He reached for the first iron bowl and took it to place closer to him. Next he picked up the stick. The man on his right came over and stopped next to him and held out the torch for him to light his stick with; a thin thing, thinner than the pole of a farmer’s hoe.

He let the flames lick the end, watching the colors blend at first, and then placed the stick, flame-side down, into the iron bowl. He took the bowl and turned it to the right. He took up the bottle of spirits and uncorked it with a sounding pop. He let the contents splash into the second bowl. He then took that one up and emptied the spirits over the flaming stick, the fire racing up its length, a line of bright orange now.

With the spirits poured onto the flaming stick, it doused the blaze and created a trail of dark smoke. The smoke leeched up, forming a tendril from the iron bowl. It thickened and began forming the shape of a man. Kreeno, the God who would take the spirit to R’tholeo.

He stood and backed away, letting the two by the corners light the pyre. It burned quickly, fire lacing the white wrapped body.

He moved to the next performing the same, lighting a new stick, placing it fire-end down, pouring the wine over it and then the two men lit the wooden structure. Soon all four pyres were ablaze with brilliant light, thick clouds of dark smoke. The first soul had already been taken by the smoky form of Kreeno, void of any real features, simply a human form. The tendril of smoke from the iron bowl would draw back down into it, extinguishing the smoke and Kreeno would form again, at the next iron bowl that held a smoking stick.

All four spirits had been taken to R’tholeo, and all four had been spirits of light, orbs of shining white when Kreeno had withdrawn them from their physical body. Luxx Diorr was happy his people at least wouldn’t turn into dark spirits; spirits of shadow who returned to haunt the living exacting revenge from their wronged deaths.

He had only become the village elder through ascension of unwanted circumstances. Circumstances like that had taken the four burning bodies. It was the monster that lived in the forest. They had a name for it. The H’Cenalot.

It slithered by night and crawled by day; a horrible beast that preyed upon those if they were unprotected. If he were forty years younger and had the strength he once possessed when he was in his thirties he would seek out and vanquish the beast. But, at seventy-six, thin and lanky, skin wrapping his bones like bark on wood he’d not stand a second’s chance. Even the village boys, sturdy and able to lift an ox over their heads wouldn’t lend him a hand.

He stayed until the fires had mostly burned out and finally retreated to the main hall, the center of their village, and also his new home.

Upon entering the village, having burned the bodies outside of its perimeters, he saw a stranger. With a small village one would immediately know someone new. They were unfamiliar.

He was a young man, blond hair, deep brown eyes, that when Luxx looked at them closer he saw gold flecks throughout the dark irises. He was fair skinned, and wore a silver ring, thick banded with a square, blue, riverstone; and a rich looking ring at that. But, it was none of this that stuck out and intrigued Luxx further. It was the set of plate armor he’d come bearing in, and the large sword strapped to his back, two palm’s length of a handle stuck out from its scabbard.

“Sir, you are not from around these parts,” Luxx said. “May I inquire where you are from?”

The man, more a boy than a man looked him over as he had done the stranger.

“I am from south of here and west. From the capital of Balkanos,” the man in armor replied. His voice betrayed him for someone not even two decades old.

“From the capital?” Luxx repeated slowly, thinking it over. He must be a knight of some sort if he was from the capital. “What is your name, sir knight?”

“Rosco DiMaroy.”

Luxx must have blanched at the name because he was elbowed by one of his men. He shook off the shock. The name DiMaroy indicated he was part of the royal family. All but one of the five princes had black hair, and the one having reddish-brown. This must be a cousin.

“My lord, welcome to our village. Is there anything I can get you?” Luxx asked.

The young man named Rosco, turned to survey him. “Maybe. I am on a quest to find the legendary knife, Callereo. It is a black-bladed dagger with a slim handle and a thick blade. Do you know anything of it, or where I can seek it?”

He hadn’t heard of such a weapon. “I am sorry, young lord, I do not I’m afraid. How is it that it has brought you to our village?”

“I heard a rumor that it had been sighted this way at some time. I am only acting on those rumors for now until I catch wind of something more recent.”

“May I offer you a room in my lodge for the night perhaps?” Luxx asked. It was the least he could do since he had no information for the young lord.

He watched Rosco think it over, a furrow in his brow and a far-off look in his gold-speckled, dark eyes.

“I think I shall take you up on that offer,” Rosco said finally, and with a smile.

“Come this way.” Luxx led him with an outstretched arm, gesturing where they were to go.

tssstssst

He sat at a table across from the young, Lord Rosco. They had been passing stories back and forth for a good part of the afternoon. During their talks he’d had an idea that he had voiced, asking the young lord if he would help the village. He wanted the lord to kill the H’Cenalot.

Rosco had turned him down. They’d continued conversing, Luxx a little disappointed at the answer.

A large spread of food was laid out along his table, some picked from, some not even touched. He hadn’t known what the young lord preferred.

The scents still hung in the air between them, spicy apple pie by the corner, an arm’s reach away; grilled river trout with lemon slices and sage sprigs, by his right elbow; potatoes smothered in cream and herbs, on his left; and a stew made from fish stock, onions, carrots and more potatoes. A sprinkle of herbs had gone into the stew as well, the pot still sitting over the warm fire, its aroma filling the open room with warmth and savory smells.

It was nearing sundown when he heard another scream. He leaped to his feet, as fast as an old man could. The young lord was on his feet first.

They moved across the wide room and outside. At the end of the street that made for the center road through the village he saw it; the creature that haunted them from the shadows, and in the light.

It had a villager trapped. He couldn’t escape, the monster large enough that it blocked all of his ways to flee. The villager had one thing protecting him. It was what was keeping him alive. He held up the thin twine hanging around his neck. Dangling from it was a small pouch. One that was stuffed with something. It was what the pouch contained that kept the monster at bay where it stood. He intended to push back the monster, who everyone knew would shy away at it and leave.

“Leaves of a gaurdina tree. It is the only thing we have found that can save us from the monster. But–”

At that moment Luxx didn’t have enough time to explain to the young lord how the monster had learned about the leaves.

A two-toed hand struck the rope, its sharp claws cutting through it easily. With the force of its hand the pouch sailed away, leaving the man exposed, and the H’Cenalot unharmed by the pouch.

The man now stood unprotected.

The H’Cenalot snapped its flat, round head forward, its mouth closing around the screaming man. It picked him up and swallowed him whole, only having to bite twice to fit the man down its gullet.

Luxx stood gaping at the loss of another. This time it had eaten a man. Often men were hurt and killed when they tried to save someone. This time, no one had tried rescuing the man and so he had been eaten easily.

The beast turned its ugly self, moving its serpentine body on four limbs, each having the same two-toed hand to walk on, a thick, long tail the rest of its body, it longer than from its head to its chest. It seemed it was part-snake, part-something else, but Luxx didn’t know what the something else was.

He heard a sound like sharpening a knife and found the young lord next to him had drawn his large sword from his back. He stood ready, looking like one who could save them.

“I think, Elder Luxx, I will help you. Now that I have seen the beast, and seen why it must be killed. I will help you.”

Luxx exhaled loudly in relief. They were saved!

The creature, seeing Rosco, and as if it had a sense of intelligence turned and half-slithered, half-crawled away, its four limbs pulling its thick body from the village road and into the forest. The branches swung back and the shadows devoured it until they could no longer see its grey form.

Rosco straightened but didn’t put back his sword. He turned to Luxx and looked at him with a hard stare.

“I vow to find a gaurdina tree and plant one here for you, and more, around your village. But, I also vow to kill your H’Cenalot beast. If I were to protect you, what’s stopping it from seeking out another village that is unaware and unprotected,” Rosco said, and then the corners of his mouth turned up. An excited look entered his brown eyes and a fist was clenched. “This will be my first monster kill.”

Luxx stared at the young lord, so eager, his face beaming with the opportunity, and Luxx was sure the young lord would vanquish the H’cenalot beast with no trouble.