The Ascendant

The Tyerian bitch was one of the last of her troupe. She gazed out across the bleak landscape as she struggled against the parching sun above and the cruel rocks beneath her feet as she and the shattered remains of her war party approached their objective, the Standing Stones of Rondel.

She remembered back to the day that Omega’s one-eyed pet burned her village to the ground, killing most, sparing little. That day the survivors called upon Nemesis for guidance… but they heard no answer. The village priest made the decree as he died, though time comes to an end, the Children of the Flame shall not die cowering from the end of this age, we will desecrate the closest place of Rondel’s worship with our dying breath.

And so it was, all villagers picked up and went, male, cub and bitch, taking with them whatever could be used as a weapon and they began their journey to strike at the heart of the merciless God Rondel who found sport in searing a ranching community far from the borders of the Meggin Lands. True, their small community practiced the arts of war as was required of all Tyerian peoples, but they were a fat and happy community, siring many a great warrior, but mostly content with providing the finest eating beasts in all the land.

The bitch sighed as she struggled on, feeling the stirrings of life within her womb as her abdomen pressed against the armour she was obliged to wear, and she cursed the God who had brought her to this. She smoothed her striped fur and licked at her dry muzzle with her parched tongue hoping against hope the War Leader would allow them water before battle. Blood, although tasty, lacked a certain thirst quenching quality. Many a time, to her shame, she thought to hide from the Gods at War and take her cub deep underground to protect this innocent from the foolhardiness of God and mortal. Still, she struggled on, her rage brewing within. She had lost three cubs to this accursed war of pettiness, and it appeared she would lose one more, but only in an act of righteous vengeance.

There were only twelve remaining of the forty who had set out from the smoldering embers of their village. Beset by brigands vying to survive, Human, Meggin and Tyerian alike, both alive and undead, it was a miracle they had made it into view of their quarry.

The War Leader was a powerful male, and had shown her ever increasing respect as she dispatched enemy after enemy in their travels and even once she had spared the War Leader himself from death at the hands of a Human warlock. She herself now bore that warlock’s talisman ankh as a reward for her skill. Indeed she was the last surviving bitch of her village and had been rewarded many times with the War Leader’s personal nocturnal attention, and had been claimed as his and his alone. Though so honoured it was not for his attention and respect she struggled on, but for the sake of her cub. A single cub birth was special, something to be revered, a sign of a great warrior in male, or mother of many cubs if a bitch. She had sworn that this cub would ride with her to death in the act of desecrating the Standing Stones of Rondel the Merciless.

Before them lay the towering columns of the Standing Stones in the midst of the blasted landscape. The shining white edifice hewn of local granite was gleaming in the sun defying the shattered world around it, still brimming with the focussed power of Rondel as He cowered within His last bastion waiting for Nemesis to come take Him; just as the bitch had been told to expect. Whether this was indeed true she did not know as much of the life she had known had been made a lie during her arduous journey. A useless gesture by a weakened God, protecting the remnants of His priesthood while the world died. Though she may die here at the hands of the priests within or by the blade of Rondel Himself, she would show her defiance to the last, both for her people, and for her cub. And so the dozen advanced upon the towering circular column of stones.

Around the circle of stones laid the remains of those who had come before in a similar attempt to strike at the Gods for abandoning them. Gruesome deaths all, even by her standards with innards spilled haphazardly about without even the decency of having been eaten. Perhaps, she thought, no one was alive at all there, and the power she saw emanating from the columns was merely an illusion. But still, caution was warranted in their approach, and the War Leader made the order to advance slowly and low to the ground.

Once within close range a call went out from within the inner circle and many Templar emerged brandishing unholy blades that shone brightly in the sun. The War Leader screamed for the attack and without hesitation the dozen peasants rushed forward to do honour for the slain.

The bitch fought valiantly alongside her people as they fell to the Templar, one by one. She slew four with her own blade much to her pride, until she saw the War Leader fall with a blade in his back. She screamed in horror as the big male struggled and fell, and she was alone.

Three Templar remained of the two dozen that had begun the battle. They chattered amongst themselves in their squealing pig tongue as they sized her up and advanced. The bitch screamed and leaped at them, her claws outstretched. She was fully prepared to die, but the Templar, heeding a spoken command from within the inner sanctum dove aside and she tumbled into the circle of her enemy. She struggled to her knees but the Templar set upon her and pinned her back to the ground.

Before her a Meggin priest stood, and to his side, a Meggin bitch, wearing priestly robes and beads and bloated with pregnancy.

The priest chattered in his tongue to the girl, a tongue the Tyerian barely understood, but what she gathered was this, "My acolyte, this one is with child. You are spared then."

He gestured a spell and the Tyerian slipped from consciousness.

She awoke strapped uncomfortably against a Standing Stone with her hands bound before her and her feet bound beneath her. She had been stripped and her trunk had been carefully bound to the pillar minding her very pregnant condition. Her eyes flickered open in the pre dawn light and she strained against her bonds to no avail. She was held fast. In the center of the stones was a pool of water and to one side a fire burned bright. The pregnant Meggin bitch appeared at her side bearing water from the pool, which the Tyerian accepted greedily.

The Meggin gently rubbed her own belly and the Tyerian inspected herself as well. Although she was naked she now wore the beads and feathers that were once on the person of the Meggin. She mused, so this is my end, a sacrifice for the vile God whose temple I sought to desecrate. It was not for herself that she feared, she was prepared, but for her cub. What retribution would come against them on the other side as their corpses burned upon the pyre?

"Curse you," muttered the Tyerian in her limited understanding of the Meggin tongue.

The Meggin deepened her voice and replied in the Tyerian tongue, slowly, haltingly, but accurately, "It is wrong that you take my place. Yours was a warrioress’s death."

Shocked, the Tyerian replied, "You are my enemy, yet you bless me?"

"The mercy of Omega is all I know," the Meggin meekly replied.

"Mercy!" snorted the Tyerian, "Your Goddess’ pet assassin seared my village to the ground!"

"The Gods themselves have gone mad," replied the Meggin. "I was to be a sacrifice in order to bring the rest of us to the safety of the other place after the great ending."

"Then how much longer must I bear my shame?" asked the Tyerian.

A strong voice called to the Meggin bitch, who dabbed one more drop of water into the Tyerian’s mouth then fled to the priest’s side.

The priest stepped up to the pillar and whispered a spell, then in the clear full tones of the Tyerian tongue he spoke, "We have ten minutes until time ends. Know that your sacrifice will bring my people to safety in the next world."

The Tyerian spat in his face and snorted, "I have been told that your petty magic demands the life of your acolyte. Why was I denied the death of a warrior? Nemesis knows I’ve earned it."

He wiped the spittle from his fur with his sleeve and said, "Speak that name here again and I will demonstrate to you that your tongue is not required. The Great Mother demanded a woman with child, a vessel to carry us to the next world, She takes no delight in this, even in the slaying of an enemy."

The Tyerian laughed, "Your Goddess is dead, priest. Begone from my sight. Allow me the decency of asking my God’s forgiveness in private for falling into this disgusting position."

"As you wish," replied the priest as he bowed away, followed by his acolyte.

"Wait!" called the Tyerian in the Meggin tongue, "Bitch stay… please."

The priest snorted, "I forgive your insult to the mother of my cub, and if she wishes to stay, she may."

"I will," she said and came back to the pillar.

Once alone, the Meggin clasped the hands of the Tyerian and she purred, "Rest now, your death will be swift."

The Tyerian clasped the Meggin’s hands in return and asked, "If a bitch, will you give your cub my name?"

Softly, the Meggin replied, "I would be honoured to know it and do so."

"Swear it!" snarled the Tyerian as she dug her claws into the Meggin’s hands.

The Meggin cried out slightly and replied, "I swear." And she dug her own claws into the Tyerian’s hands in return.

They locked eyes for a moment as their blood mixed with one another’s and the Tyerian announced herself, "I am called She Who Watches the Enemy."

The Meggin replied, "I am Sec Leoness of the Goddess’ Standing Stones."

"Well met," they chorused.

Then into the inner sanctum came the priest with his half dozen other acolytes and the three surviving Templar.

"It is time," he said.

"I’m sorry," whispered the Meggin to the Tyerian as she withdrew her hands.

"As am I," replied the Tyerian, "I rest at peace on your promise."

"I will keep it." And the Meggin bitch joined her… mate as the last adherents of the Great Mother’s faith and indeed possibly the last beings alive in the world gathered around the pyre of sacrifice.

"Have you made peace?" asked the priest.

"I have," replied the Tyerian.

The priest and his flock bowed their heads in prayer. Then as the sun broke the horizon a great howling filled the air, not wind, but the screams of the end of time. The frightful sound tore at the souls of those still living and the priest raised his ceremonial dagger to the Tyerian’s throat as the bitch steeled herself to spit in the face of whomsoever she met on the other side. The dagger plunged and she bled, her consciousness slipping as her bonds were cut and she was tossed into the flames.

The bitch gathered her legs under herself and rose to her feet. She found herself in the courtyard of the Gods. All around her in a great circle were massive crystal pillars shining under the light of an elegant curtain of stars swimming amongst a deep blue background. At the middle of the circle of pillars lay an empty pool formed of the purest of diamond and ringed with gold. Beneath her feet the earth was dead, fallow and lifeless. She went to the empty pool and looked in, finding nothing there but the dry bottom. She felt her swollen womb, and to her shame she wept, her tears soaking into her fur until her muzzle was sodden. I have failed you, my child, she wailed deep in her heart. And a single teardrop fell from the tip of her nose and splashed against the base of the pool, and then the pool was filled to the brim with many gallons of water.

From the sky came a fearful shriek as a ball of fire fell into the courtyard and from the barren earth sprang lush grasses and two trees sprang into being on opposing sides of the pool, one black as night, and one red as the morning sky.

The bitch shuddered at the impact of the ball of fire and watched in horror as from the pillar of flame strode a manifestation of She who the bitch hated. With an ebon spear and a glorious mane about Her head she stood three full times the height of the Tyerian. The Goddess twitched Her whiskers and rippled Her pelt as Her tail slowly traversed side to side.

Though the bitch feared deeply the awesome presence of the Goddess she thought dead; she stood and went to Her directly, rallied herself, and spat upon the Goddess’s feet. Then she cowered to be damned, she and her child both.

"Fear not!" roared the Goddess. "I bless you, you who have been chosen. I demanded a woman with child, I asked My priest for his mate to open the way before us, but he has sent Me his enemy, an enemy called She Who Watches The Enemy. Fortune presents very strange gifts. But then again, these are strange times."

The Tyerian looked up from where she cowered to see the terrifying Goddess cloaked in a green robe and diminished in height to a full head smaller than the Tyerian herself.

"You were dead," murmured the Tyerian.

"I am dead," replied the Goddess, "and so are you."

"Then how?" asked the Tyerian as she rose to her feet, now taller than the Goddess.

The Goddess sighed, "There is no time. The priest’s mate was to be made Holy, now it falls upon you."

"You speak in riddles."

"Look at the sky, daughter of the flame."

They looked up past the crystal columns into the starry night and watched there many more stars winking into existence. And with each new one the courtyard grew brighter.

"Those are the souls of the dead, not just My faithful, but others as well. Good, evil, anyone. Soon the sky will be full of them and it will be as though the day dawns."

The Tyerian snorted, "Then why am I here with You, oh Goddess of the dead?"

"I," began the Goddess, "am only a fragment of Omega. You are to be My vessel and the power that brings the remaining people I can muster to that place."

"Then I am to forsake my heritage and bring the Goddess Omega, mate of the one who slew my village to yet another world?" growled the Tyerian.

"Where we are going to and how we are travelling I will barely survive the passage. Remember, I am dead, and so are you… for now. This was going to be the duty of My daughter of the Standing Stones, but My high priest lacked faith. This disturbs me, and they will not travel with us for his lack of faith, then you will be My high priestess and I will rest in the body of your daughter. There will be no Gods in this new place, and the stars you see in the sky will be your cubs, and your cubs, cubs. You see," pleaded the dead Goddess, "It is not just the few at Rondel’s temple, it is all the stars above us that must not fall into the hands of Nemesis."

"And why not?" roared the Tyerian, "He would reward me well for delivering them to Him!"

The Goddess gazed upon her with eyes of sadness, "You do not understand Nemesis. He destroys and devours with no remorse. Once He finishes with My children He would eat His own… and that means you… and you cub. I offer you an escape, and glory."

A thought occurred to the Tyerian, something she’d never thought before. She’d expected damnation, not an offering of a blessing most Holy from the Goddess whom she’d sought to defy. But still, she had something she felt needed to be said. "If the mercy of Omega is real, then prove it. Have mercy on the Meggin… female."

"We are out of time!" roared the Goddess.

The Tyerian cringed, and prepared her final act of defiance. "No! Prove to me You are what the girl told me! Spare her or I will turn each and every last soul You harbour to Nemesis!" she roared, "This is my cub, not Yours! Grant me this boon or You will not have her!"

The Goddess glowered at the Tyerian for a moment waiting for any sign of weakness or retreat. The Tyerian showed Her none, slowly growing in confidence as time dragged on.

"Very good," whispered the Goddess in a musical tone, Her eyes losing their fury, "You have learned mercy, you daughter of the flame. You are truly My servant and I bless you with this wish. The girl is spared."

Then the sky turned bright white as time ended and the stars flew together into a single orb bright as the sun. The Goddess then joined the Tyerian and occupied her womb.

From the rubble of the Standing Stones strode the pregnant Tyerian flanked by the Templar and acolytes. The mate of the priest, now gone, remained behind to mourn. The Tyerian knew not to worry, for the girl knew full well that her mate’s lack of faith had brought this demise upon himself. The Great Mother Herself told them so as She manifested before them all in the pool of water. From there the Goddess fragment entered the Tyerian’s body to lift her up from the blackness of death unscathed.

Still, the Tyerian decided not to wander far into the surrounding jungles that teamed with life and game in this new world. She hadn’t the strength being perhaps a month away from birthing and especially after the grueling travel from her village to the Standing Stones.

She dispatched the Templar to hunt small game and bring water and commanded the acolytes to form some sort of shelter from the ruined pelts of the Standing Stones for both herself and for the Meggin girl. The Tyerian knew this one would need comforting when she came out from among the Stones. Comforting wasn’t something the Tyerian was familiar with at all, but it was something she felt she could learn from these small, weak Meggins. For time and time again her people had been defeated by the children of Omega and the Tyerian who no longer would be referred to as bitch knew that she had much to learn from them…and much to teach as well. Her cubs would not be Tyerian, she knew this, nor would they be Meggin. They would be something else entirely, something stronger. With the meddling of the Gods her cubs would be more than either could be alone. And she blessed the final act of wisdom of Omega.

Sitting down, she mused about the dawning new age, an age of strife and conflict before the next era of peace. The world that had been one, was now many, and someday would become one again, but that would be after her time.

She felt the stirrings in her womb and purred, knowing full well that the Meggin girl would keep her end of the bargain and name her cub as promised. So it was only appropriate to name this one Leoness of the Goddess.