Chapter Twelve Conquest of Chimera

Chapter 12

Conquest of Chimera

  “Our Prince and Princess be needin’ attire befittin’ royalty,” Captain Marks whispered to Henry as that sat together in his private quarters.

   Henry twitched and cowered as he hunched over the Captain heavy oak table. “But sir, they said…”

  “Prince Kian spake the dark words, his presence be an omen. Few dare meek sich utterances, why do ye think I weept. They hafta wings. From Heaven they fell. Yes I spoke de’ word, but only because it be time. Surely, they be the offspring of Kings if not Gods, Princes or Angels they.”

  “They don’t want our worship.”

   “Then they’ll have our loyalty. That may spare our lives if not Chimera.”

  Henry pushed away from the table, “What have ye heard my Captain, somethin’ from the narrows?”

  Captain Marks stood up, walked over to the door, and peeked out at his new passengers, who were blissfully looking out over the racing sea from the ships port side. “Stretch ye sail mendin’skills past their leemitts, we’ll not be enter’n the narrows with those royal children dressed so shably. The silks are below use that and any udder fine fabrics ye kin find in the hold.”

 Henry shivered, “I’ll need ta’ meesure them sir, for,” he sighed, “the journey.”

  “Then git to it, and Henry, call them nuthin’ but friend, ye understand?”

   A head jerk and, and a nose twitch from Henry and the Captain was assured that his best mate had taken his orders to heart. He pushed the door open, let him exit, and watched the were-hare join Kian and Kia.  

  These two had somehow come from their ancient nameless fathers, their forgotten past or could it be their past erased. Though the Captain was certain Kian had told him everything, he knew, there was much more they both must learn. 

   Olders lived in the narrows. They held secrets. Some were dreamers. Some were seers. Sometimes they remembered fragments. Sometimes they etched things in the ancient walls; puzzle pieces from the past? They knew where much of yesterday lay buried or so some had rumored.   

   Kian had defeated the lethal sky bolts, wrestled his very heart from death’s icy grip, floated from his infant body, died on another world; their own ancient past, and now walks in a new Chimeran body given to him by whom? And his mate his own Chimeran offspring, what manner of creature can do that? Whatever he was, they needed his skills.

  They had come from another world, another reality. How could their presence in Chimera not change everything?  Their arrival was an undeniable sign that a great upheaval was just below the horizon and rising fast.  

  These strange children called them friends and Chimera their new home. His greatest hope was that their words were much more than the ignorant babblings of innocents. These children had twice defeated death; remarkable-disturbing and he feared needful.

  Moreover, the west was rumbling again. The western sky had spawned the very storm that spat them into his precious sea, another dark omen. However, he was convinced they were good, born of light. How that was possible, he did not know.

   He had always yearned to see more. Now that the desire of his heart had become the greatest need of his world, he found he longed for the days of his youth. The drudgery of clearing briers for the needle artisans seemed like light work now, so much lighter than facing the coming darkness…