Legends of Belariath
Morrigan Steel
Into the Beyond Lands
The Great Warrior – Part Four
Sunlight now streamed about her and everything seemed to be a strange sight. Almost like she was viewing everything through tears as the edges to everything seemed blurry. Yet onwards she walked towards the mountain as it grew steadily closer, yet a chill began to grip her as she watched for the emergence of the Great Warrior.
There was the sound of claws behind her and she turned, thinking it was the white wolf returned to guide her or speak with her but instead the wolf that met her gaze was more of a gray color than a pure white. Perhaps that was due to the dimmer light within this area, she reasoned.
“Morrigan, you have done well. Your journey is at an end, so come. It is time for the Taking.” The smooth voice stated. A voice so smooth it seemed …oily.
“My Lord, forgive me, but what is the Taking, exactly? And isn’t that done in Sapphireus?” she inquired as she started towards the gray colored wolf, whose fur appeared so soft she could sleep within it for along time.
The wolf’s paw lifted and his pink tongue lolled over its tip before the ebon eyes fixed on her. “For when I take you as one of my consorts, of course. Even a god allows himself pleasures, you know.”
She stopped right then, astonished. “A consort, my Lord? Have I not earned the right to serve in ….another manner? As one of your warriors, perhaps? My talents did lie in that area…”
The wolf waggled his paw at her before he dropped it firm before him. “What have I of need of warriors –here-? Look about you. There is no war happening. You’ve earned your place of honor and rest and the right to pleasure me for all time immortal, or am I wrong to have declared you worthy of such an honor? Perhaps you aren’t worthy enough..?” the wolf baited her with the last, attempting to use her pride against her.
Her shoulders stiffened. “I am worthy, I believe. But as a consort..? I know little of such things...”
His eyes ran rather lewdly over her. “I think you do.” As the wolf’s eyes had flowed from her shoulders down so her clothes vanished in their passing, leaving her bare to his lustful gaze. She promptly crossed her arm before her, one over her breasts, one to shield her sex. “Let me see you fully…” he growled low, but something didn’t sit well within her. Something was off...she shook her head.
“Nay, I shall not, my Lord.” She whispered at first, and then let some sound be applied to her voice as the strength in her decision grew and her chin lifted with a defiant manner to it. “You are not he.”
The large gray wolf lifted his head and sent an ear splitting howl to the sky causing even the very rocks upon the mountains to tremble and loose ones to rocket to the bottom of the mountain. Her gaze darted about her then fixed on the wolf as she remained steadfast in her decision.
The wolf turned an ugly black and grey misshapen before her eyes as the Tempter took upon his true form. He sprang towards her and her head rocked back in reaction and arms lifted in defense, expecting a harsh blow to be rained down upon her but instead only a chill wind passed through her and vanished.
“Oh great...at least he could have left my clothes!” she muttered in her wry humorous way as she yet remained naked before the mountain, her gaze momentarily turned to watch the vanishing of the Tempter. There was nothing about to wear in all this barrenness nor was anything about she could transform into a weapon of some type, yet she let not that trouble her as she set off again, undaunted.
She had only gone several paces when the mountain Sapphireus rested on…moved! She stopped and stared…it moved again. It was then she realized it wasn’t a mountain, but the great hulking form of the Great Warrior whose girth had nearly obscured Sapphireus from her.
She gasped at the loveliness of the crystal city as she was able to see more of it when the Great Warrior moved, but now she had another problem. Winning her way against the warrior….butt naked!
She dropped her hands and reached to gather up a few ice shards and rocks that lay scattered about the ground, squared her shoulders and set for the Great Warrior. Sounds of battles that had been fought over the ages with the Great Warrior rose about her as a detriment as the Great Warrior opened his maw. Even visions of countless battles danced before her eyes, most of them horribly lost and catapulting the losers back to their just rewards, whether the Field of Rest or with the Tempter, if the battle had been a particularly disgraceful one.
“Go back, while you still can!” the Great Warrior jeered as he lifted his mighty sword….”Come to me…” whispered the Tempter. “Your flesh shall be fun to tear and torment….” Cackled the Torturer.
“I shall not! As faith is my shield, my weapon, my sustenance…so shall I this day be in Sapphireus! Of this is my assurance, victory shall be mine!” the six foot six naked paladin shouted to the Great Warrior and to the voices about her as she closed with him, and he with her. His twelve foot height dwarfing her’s as she had in comparison to many she had known in her lifetime.
The Great Warrior’s visage seemed to be plucked from horrors within her own mind and crisscrossed with many scars, nearly freezing her on the spot. His eyes burned like coals within the depths of a forge, his breath smelled of sulfur and acid, his girth was two to three times her’s. As he growled and opened his maw she could see his teeth were jagged and filled with bits of souls in them, which was scarier than flesh within a predator’s teeth. Light and shadow both were reflected off the vorpal sharpness of his sword as it was arched above his monstrous physique which was covered in greasy furs.
His mighty sword cleaved up ice in great sheets as it narrowly missed her, she darting to his flank and slamming a stone in her grip into his thigh. He roared and his arm jerked the sword free and sent his elbow into her back and head. It propelled her forward hard and then air born to land and skid upon ice a good ten feet or so away. Her thigh and shoulder was raked open and she painfully rolled to her feet, nearly falling back down in the process, but she knew she would fail if she remained down.
The battle raged forever in a day, she avoiding his weapon and most of his blows, but she was growing taxed and no closer to victory. “My faith is my shield, my weapon, these I wield!” she shouted, her hands empty of anything else to fling at him. She had not even her magic to aid her now.
He grunted with effort and lifted the massive blade to swing at her again, this time aiming to decapitate and seal her eternal fate, his boots trudging quickly towards her.
She prayed, then ducked and rolled narrowly out of the path of the blade a final time, pivoted on a hip and screamed at the pain it cost her, but her feet impacted with his ankles and sent him sprawling forwards as the weight of the swing of the heavy blade also drew him that way.
The momentum of her kick against his ankle and its follow through pulled her back up to her feet and she turned on wobbly legs towards his back and leapt upon it, her hand sending her arm about his throat as she attempted to choke him and perhaps fall forward on his blade as he dropped it.
The Great Warrior was like a wild beast beneath her as he dropped his blade and tried to wrench her from him. As he grasped her and drug her around towards his chest, she wiggled free of his grasp and fell upon the ground before him in a hard thump, her hand shooting out for his blade to grab and try and heft upwards.
He laughed at the sight of the ‘puny’ human naked female trying to lift his great blade, then roared and lunged at her. Appearances could be deceiving, in this realm...and the paladin flicked the tip of the blade up at him, a shocked gaze flashing the Great Warrior’s eyes as it dove within his massive armoring…but he wasn’t defeated yet! He roared and tugged at the blade while she struggled to thrust it deeper within his belly…
When….
“We have come for you, Morrigan. Return unto us…” plucked at her heart, her mind, tugged upon her soul.
“I’m winning. My honor is at hand!” she shouted, thinking it was the Tempter again and gave another shove on the massive blade that quivered in metal and flesh...
“Go, my chosen one. You are done on this realm, for now, I have need of you elsewhere, my faithful servant.”
The visage of a beautiful white wolf replaced the Great Warrior, his blue eyes filled with pride. “Remember my teachings….and do not look back…” he murmured….and turned to pad off into a ring of bright light. She knew then she had to follow…and so she did.
Epilogue
The paladin’s way back through that ring of bright light returned her back to the mortal coil and to the ring of friends and the arms of her lover once again as she awoke within the Spirit Chamber of the Temple, confused and somewhat disoriented, her body a mass of abnormal aches and pains.
Yet she was certain this was where she was supposed to be, but she wondered...had she failed was the reason she was called back here?
A white wolf simply smiled as it gazed upon her from the Beyond Lands from whence her soul had been expelled, his voice fading in her mind as he retreated back into that realm. “Your place in Sapphireus has been assured…but your rank within it has yet to be determined. You passed your tests of bravery and faith. Remember. Fight your battles well, Morrigan. Love your lovers well, Morrigan. Keep your faith for your place at the Banquet of the Taking is assured…. and above all…don’t ever look back, Morrigan.”
The wolf framed against the backdrop of Sapphireus faded as the portal sealed between the realms…..
The paladin wept.