Prophecy of the Old King: Verse 1 The Gauntlet Prologue

City Life

Sprinting through the streets, I duck under banners, down alleyways, hoping to lose them in the maze of the city, but to no avail. My pursuers won't give up. Whenever I chanced a look behind, there they were still on my tail. My one and only hope was to find the well I had climbed into the city from, but in my panic I was now completely lost. I dodged down a side passage and stooped under a low archway.

I come to an abrupt halt. Silently I curse my stupidity. There in front of me is a wall. The dead end leered at me; its bare flawless façade screamed at me that I was doomed. Desperately I look around; there's a few pots, and an old, threadbare tapestry which I definitely can't climb. There had to be something, there was always something. I try a locked door to the side; it was unyielding and too strong to break down. There was no way out this time. I strain my ears begging not to hear anything. But there it was, a distant clicking sound, it was still coming.

My fate clicks nearer and I remain unafraid. I was a Death-seeker, death was in the job description, so I would meet it proudly in battle and go to the halls of the brave in Valedor. Still, I had just passed my initiation, so felt a twinge of disappointment my end was so close. I had so much potential. I could have been the first to cross the Frozen Death, or accompanied the Great Grayal to the furthest reaches of the kingdom.

The clicking was high pitched now, it was close, the reality of my situation snapped me out of my gloom. Well if I was going down I would fight to my last breath. Back against the wall, I drew my dagger from its scabbard. I ran my tongue down the blade drawing blood. Something moved in the darkness of the alley. My eyes caught the movement and stared. The thing slowly, clicking, scuttled out of the shadows. I gaped, I had only seen them from a distance before, up close it was a monstrosity. The thing was a huge, humanoid, stag beetle. Reared up on two of its six legs, with flashing mandibles, creepy antenna, four beady eyes and a red shell of armour, its pincers snapped at me. As it drew nearer it opened its mouth and a piercing metallic shriek issued forth. Behind its jaws I glimpsed three steel spinning disk saws. I recoiled horrified, the things were part machine. This was going to be a painful death.

The creature lunged at me. As I ducked and scooted out the way, I spotted a bare patch of leathery skin at its throat. Quickly I parried a few more lunges with my blade, then drove it into the beast's throat, hacking off its head. The head fell to the ground. It was dead. It had been so easy to kill, I was not going to die today, I could go on to become the greatest Death-seeker ever. I sighed in relief.

Then the world turned completely upside down. The body, which should have fallen, was still standing clicking and on the severed neck a stump was slowly forming. As I stared on, the stump grew larger and round. Then eyes popped out and a slit opened, from which mandibles protruded. Before my very eyes the grotesque bug had regrown its head.

"Pultch! Not so easy to kill after all," I swore. I glanced down at the head, apart from it was no longer just a head, it was now a fully formed clone of the original. So cutting this monster in half just made it duplicate. These things don't die, it was impossible. Those saws will shred me to pieces. But even though it's useless I must go down fighting. The monster's comrades finally catch up with the front runner and close in on me.

"Come on then you overgrown maggots, come at me, I'm ready," I yell at them, then shout to the heavens, "and Oylde Sato you had best lay a place at high table for me tonight."