The Romance of Lotania - An Under Gods Story (Rough Draft)

Chapter 8: Camp Fire part 2

Young G'ravek's heart raced in anticipation. If the tales he'd heard from his mother and the old lotans and lotanesses held wait then this was the place. The frozen river farthest from the great wall of Yorgard and closest to the ever standing wall of ice that snaked around the mass of Lotania. The Jectomandr was said to rest at the base of the river, crawling about waiting for the opportunity to hunt other gargantuan beasts of the waters, though there have some unlucky enough to encounter them on land or air. But as far as G'ravek was concerned, the only one doing any hunting today would be him.

G'ravek stood at the very edge of Roguehiem, his azure Imageon burning as hot as he knew to burn it. He lifted his leg high into the air and stomped on the frozen surface. A rumbling began the very likes of which shook the Yorgard itself. The ice along the river shattered and there it was an armored, writhing mass, blue-violet in color, and still rising further and further into the purple light of the horizon. Its body was so massive, G'ravek wondered how it could even move about the mass of the river effectively. He even considered the possibility that there might not have been a difference between the beast and the river. Maybe the beast was so large and heavy that the ground became depressed under its weight, the waters but melted tons of snow, and the other beasts once foreign to the waters had come to find this new home unaware of the apex predator under them. Whatever the case may have been G'ravek no longer had time to theorize. He needed to move.

G'ravek sprinted back into the forest ducking behind the massive roots and stems as the waters off the Jectogander's back froze into thick shards of ice upon their descent.

"It'd be a disgrace to come this far just die by the waters," G'ravek thought.

He looked up at the creature and though it had been disturbed enough to rise from the waters, it seemed completely unaware of what actually startled it and G'ravek planned to keep it that way for the time being. He rose from the protection of the roots and began a swift climb up the canopy. The Jectogandr's eyes were eight in number, each one carrying a piercing orchid light that was flowing with the ethereal heat of imageon and shifting independently to find what had disturbed it.

G'ravek sat under a layer of leaves breathing deeply in and out, his outer lungs expanding and contracting to calm his mind. He slapped himself, trying his hardest to pull it together and gather the confidence to face the beast he released on Yorgard.

And that was just it.

Yorgard was the place his mother loved, the place his father died for, the place that entrusted its future to him. Was he just going to sit there and let this monster destroy that?

G'ravek's imageon burned and, with all his mustered courage, leaped out of hiding. And there the Jectogandr was its eyes locked on him and its blade-like pincers closing the gap around G'ravek's body. He dodged, rocketing himself out of the way on a trail of imageon flame as the pincers sliced the heads of the massive flowers under him. He lifted his arm and thrust himself into the forest with a burst of flame. The Jectogandr darted him with a speed G'ravek deemed unnatural for its size and complete disregard for the land it trampled. It was as if the beast was more determined to kill him than he to kill it.

G'ravek tried to shake the beast, flying around corners, making mirage clones to fool it, shooting azure flames in its face to drive it back. Nothing worked, it just continued to gallop, stabbing its hundred sharpened legs through the earth and demolishing the forest. G'ravek had to think quickly if he stayed on the evasive this creature would ensure that there'd be no Roguehiem forest left to hinder it. And what kind of Yorgum, no, what kind of lotan would G'ravek be if he allowed that. He had two options. One, he could use the technique he'd been trying to perfect for months or two, he could rely on his imageon path.