The Complete Tales of:"The Soldiers of Nirut" (Part of the Cadaverous Planets)
Discover Ancient, Mystic Literature through the Fiction of D.L. Siluk´s new Cadaverous Tale: “The Soldiers of Nirut,” Parts One through Four
Part of the Cadaverous Planets
Part One of Six Parts
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
A Ancient Tale of Gallantry
Introduction
The Wrath of Nirut
(Note: the first part of this drama is done in Poetic Prose, the second part, is prose alone)
Nirut is a word that means, a poem about a king-warrior, and in this small but profound epic poem done in a Greek style, is best summed up in its first lines, ‘…the wrath… (of) Nirut’ The incident that provided, or provoked Nirut´s wrath took place in the Black Galaxy, on the moon (Planetoid) Retina, one of the two moons that orbit the planet SSARG, not his home planet of Lihterb, during a conquest of the planet SSSARG. The epic poem does slowly work into narrative scenes that of his anger, and the war, being recalled in stages. The Great War of SSARG, at the Quiet Mound (a fortress) near the grasslands of the planet, all will end up being killed, but General Terb, of the Desert Warriors, and most all of King Nirut´s warriors, but King Nirut does win the war, or the battle, yet he loses, for he has to leave the planet, his safety is on the moon nearby, Retina, a guest of the King there. He will have to return to his home planet to regroup, and get more soldiers, for he wishes to continue his quest within the Galaxy, this is really his first loss, yet a win. Nirut in this part of the his saga, does not accept the ransom gift of his brother now captive in the dungeons within the fortress called “The Quiet Mound”, perhaps it is a matter of pride vs., he has never been defeated, he is in a way like Napoleon, he will, and has let his whole Army parish because of his stubbornness, which he refers to as power, yet power is simply a way in trying to be a little god, in a big universe. Nonetheless, he frees his brother, and Terb, the general, hides on a space craft with both Niruh and his comrade, Rognat, and they land on the moon Retina, there he recaptures Niruh, and this is where the anger comes into play, the king accidentally kills his brother, which is really Terb’s fault, thus, he refuses to give up on the revenge of his brother’s death, Niruh, his pursuit of Terb leads him into a five year struggle across the planetoid, until he finds him, kills him, and then leaves the planetoid for home, there he find a way to get his kingdom back. That is another story in itself.
The Wrath of Nirut
(King and Solider of Planet Lihterb)
Wrath—Demigods, sing the wrath of Niruh´s brother Nirut,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Lihterbeans countless losses,
heaving down to the House of Doom so many strapping souls,
brave fighters’ soldiers, they made their bodies rawhide,
and died like a plague on fire,
and the will of the gods were moved toward his end.
Start, think, when the two first broke and clashed,
Nirut King of men and lance huntsman Niruh.
What demon drove you to fight with such a will?
Agaliarept the henchman of Hell and Beelzebub. Terb, angry
at the king, he swept a fatal blow with his army—soldiers dying
and all because General Terb rebuffed the king.
Alas, the General approached the Lihterb’s fast space craft
hid himself inside, and flew back to Retina, bringing back a set free
and holding high in hand, brother to Nirut,
placing a crowned-wreath upon his head, the deadly lancer.
He had begged the whole Lihterbean Army but clearly
the two captive commanders, Niruh and Rognat saying:
“Niruh, tell your brother the king, we are geared for war!
May the demonic hold those chains of hell around you?
Nirut´s Army be ransack, then safe passage home for us;
just set my Army free, my dear King…here,
admit these prayers, this ransom. We will honor the demon
gods who strike these Lihterbeans away—Azaz’el, Semyas!”
And all ranks of the Lihterbeans cried out their consent:
“Respect the General; accept the ransom gift, Niruh!”
But it brought no delight to the heart of Nirut.
The king dismissed the General’s gift with a brutal order
ringing in the hearts of his soldiers: “Never bow, old General,
I will destroy the fortress you feel is your safe haven!”
Not pacing nor pondering back and forth, he went forth.
With skill, wrath, and good soldiers, nothing could save them now.
“My brother—I will not give up my brother. Long before peace,
old age will overtake the general on his world, on SSARG, and
far from my eyes I will shall cast his people, slaughter them
back and forth to their end, lift my brother from his dungeons!
Now go,
do my wrath—and set my beloved brother free.”
The Old commanding officer was terrified. Obeying the order,
turning, straggling away in stillness down the corridor,
of his host king’s palace, on Retina, where the roaring
commanding battle orders would come from.
And wondering off to a safe corner, over and over
the old Commander prayed to the Great Warrior King Phrygian
of Atlantis, “Hear me, Phrygian! God of the golden city
who ruled the world from Lemuria to Greece—
lord of the islands of the Atlantic, and Poseidonia!
If ever I could build a shrine to please your eyes,
or make sacrifice with fat rams or goats,
on your sacred pyre, now, now bring to me a means.
Pay the Desert Warriors on the Quiet Mound back
Set freed the king’s brother Niruh free!”
His prayer went down and Phrygian King of Atlantis heard him.
Up he strode form Mount Hades’ summit, as if in a night raid—
with his golden lance, in his grip and across his shoulder.
The golden stick at its end, clanged as he walked with wrath,
the king himself on a stride down the corridor at night.
When the old Commander saw him, he dropped to a knee,
and a petrifying spar rang out form the great golden spear.
Next he put his hand on the old mans shoulder, “stand!”
Then, placing his piercing lance at the Commander himself,
he cut him near the bone of his neck and chest—
“You will owe me; I will give you an end in sight!”
One day the spears and arrows swept through the air.
On the second day the Commander called all his soldiers to gather—
The moment seized him, sent by Phrygian, for he grieved to see
All the Lihterbion soldier fighters drop and die.
Once they had gathered, he had them lift up a great net
(12000-meters wide and long, of some miraculous iron and nickel)
Crowding around this mysterious net, with spacecraft, swift
they rose above the fortress of General Terb, of SSARG
and dropped the net over the stronghold, and no man rose above it:
“Phrygian of Hell’s Atlantis, now we have beaten them, to fright,
this long campaign is won. So home I hope we go…
if indeed, we can escape our death—beforehand.
But wait: let us question the king,
a warrior, even a man of vision and quest—
let no man blame us for this victory, for none
can lift the net, nor feed themselves, and thus set-free
the captives, and so it was, Niruh and Rognat won their freedom.
So we proposed
to go home to the king, and down we sat as Nirut rose among us,
and gave us our will, but we did not know, nor have second sight,
all things that were to come, hence, Niruh was now missing!”
No: 1881 6-25-26-2007
Part Two of Six parts
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
Part of the Cadaverous Planets
Nirut´s Torment and Ode to Niruh
Haiku for Niruh
“You can t stop it—“
(Niruh once said to his brother long ago)
“It is a matter of time:
Fate is at the end…!”
No: 1880 6-17-2007
Nirut´s Torment
Nirut sat back half distraught from what he had done, unintentionally done, he had killed is brother Niruh —now burdened to the point he went into a depression. At this moment he sat back against a great stone outside the high walls of the castle of the King of Retina, the walls were eighty feet high, seven feet thick. Rognat, his close friend, stood high up looking down from hallway window, looking through a window to where he was in the meadows a short ways from the palace, he could see Nirut, it looked like he wanted to take his own life, but fate would not have it, and as his Niruh, his brother once said to him, “…do not look back, for there is where torment of parting is brother…!” As if he knew someday, something like this could happen.
What had taken place was this:
When Niruh and Rognat were held captive at the Quiet Mound by Murdock and Terb (whom made their escape to Planet Lihterb, and at which time, both Niruh and Rognat were set free shortly after, General Terb, escaped by hiding on Niruh´s spacecraft, and hitching a ride to Retina, whereupon, he found Niruh, drugged him, and brought him down to the river below the Castle-fortress. There he bound him with thick roots of a nearby trees, bound him to a huge rock. With the drugs he became senseless, and Terb was hoping to watch him die slowly, for three days he lay on that rock as Nirut, Rognat and Arallets looked for him.
Then in the middle of the forth night, Nirut found his brother (Rognat and Arallets were a little ways off in the woods, as was Terb, hunting for food to eat, and display to Niruh, as he had intentions to ate it, and psychological torment him in the process). Thus, Nirut finding him, looking upon him, freed him from the rooted-ropes that bound him to the rock, whereupon, once free, he came up wild, yet still in a haze from the drugs, and lack of food (Terb was too far off in the woods to hear a thing). He went wild, and attacked Nirut with half his senses back, and struck out blindly like a viper, recklessly gripping Nirut by the head and neck, and with a thrust and twist back and forth, trying to snap his neck, in the process between the twists, thinking it was Terb he leaped forward, leaped right onto his own spear, the very one his brother had brought with him to fight Terb with, once he found him, to thrust it through his heart for his evil and cruelness to his brother, for the war on SSARG was over, and this was really vengeance for no reason other than please of a kill to insult the young King of Lihterb.
Now Terb hearing the echoes of Niruh´s dying voice from the wind shifting it down hill towards him, he ran the opposite way, looking about, to see if anyone was following.
And there he stood lost in a haze of thoughts, and now confirming with his eyes and senses, that he had killed his brother. When Arallets and Rognat appeared they were horrified.
The Funeral and the Hunt
Terb from the Lost Tribe of Toso
It was the third day of Niruh´s death—he was now laid in the ground on Retina’s soil, Nirut still in a haze, still depressed, looking at his brother, and his memories of childhood with him on his home planet Lihterb, “I will not rest until I find and decapitate Terb,” he said, with dread on his face, as his body was lowered into the King’s soil—the King of Retina looking on, not sure how to take this, and several of his guards watched on with him, while Rognat, and Nirut, bowed their heads in dismay, pulling up the ropes that lowered the coffin into the ground.
Ode to Niruh
I have been renewed—
By the love and memory of Niruh
(The Great Spear of the Universe—)
Here, along the Kings River
Heedless of peril—I remain;
Heavy and strong, was he.
Pleasure and joy he gave—
“Do not look back,” he once said,
“…for there is where the torment
of parting is…!
Go forward brother,
Like a burning spear.”
No: 1879, 6-17-2007, Part of the Manuscript:
“The Soldiers of Nirut,” also part of the “Cadaverous Planets.”
“Terb´s Demise”
Terb of the Valley of Arrows (whose ancestors had migrated from planet Toso, to Planet SSARG (better known as the Planet of Grass, in the Black Galaxy), had been hiding in the old folks Village in the Safe Zone of the moon Retina (planetoid) one of two moons orbiting SSARG, and upon his discovery by several of the inhabitants who confronted him with sticks and stones and pitchforks and so on, he quickly fled before they could bind him, and give him over to Nirut (whom was originally from the planet Lihterb on a conquest of the Black Galaxy).
Nirut was notified on this by Surendic from the Old Folks Village, which helped her in her tracking of Terb, whom now went towards the river, the King’s River, that separated the two Kingdoms (the Western from the Eastern), and climbed from the river up and onto Long Bridge that connected both empires by land.
As for the old folks, they had a feast, feeling proud on their discover and assistance in the matter of finding the outlaw for Nirut, or at least notifying him he had been there, and now was headed in the direction of the Long Bridge. Perhaps the feast was a result of them feeling needed, which gave them pride that was once lost back.
Consequently now that he had found the bridge, climbed its tall torso to its top, leaping over onto its solid woodened platform, he went to where the bridge was in the center of the river, connecting the West to the East, Terb stood in-between the two, one leg on each side as if he was going to run either way, he stood on the bridge looking over, looking onto the river, watching for Nirut, There was no place to run to, if there was he would have, and so he wept, not for the killing or being responsible for killing, or having Nirut kill his bosom comrade, for he was not sorry for that, but sorry he had no place to hide, sorry he was going to be captured by his slayer in a short time by Nirut.
Hence, Nirut had hewed his way towards the bridge, and now they both stood alone in a moment of silence, one facing the other, which allowed an evil spirit to speak out of Terb´s mouth; it was Buer of Earth’s Hell.
“Hail, King of Lihterb, slayer of many on planet SSARG, Warrior of Moiromma, and once sovereign ruler in the Black Galaxy, hail to you and Earth’s Hell, for you have even controlled the demons, Hail to you and your followers.” (He had intentions to harm Nirut, but he, the demon inside Terb wanted Nirut to know the monument victory he was seeking and would receive when he killed him.)
Nirut leaped on Terb, on his muddy flesh, fire in his eyes, Buer the demon, opened up the mouth of Terb, and leaped out, without fear of Nirut (which was his mistake), for he tried to grab him, as he did herself grab the demon; having to let go of Terb to fight the demon, now fighting two beings, swiftly and quickly, Gwyllion (daughter of the Tiamat, demonic being) froze the evil spirit into a trance, thus numbing his fighting skills having to release Nirut, and at the same time, the Pig-snake demon warped himself around Buer as if in a cocoon (They did not do this out of pure friendship ((no demon would)), but the assurance they would be reward later, in that they’d be welcomed on any planet in the Black Galaxy, Nirut conquered, in later days to be, thus he was an investment to them).
Anyhow, the battle was not over, not yet, Nirut did not get his full. He raised Niruh´s spear, Xerrhang, and as if Terb was stone, Nirut drove the spear through his chest, heart and out through his back and split his spine in to two pieces, then he knelt over his dying body as to insure he would not survive the attack, unmoving he was, in the purple dark sky overhead. And then he stood up, said, “It is finished.”
Part Three of Four Parts
6-26-2007
The Soldiers of Nirut
The Battle Cry of the Devil-bats
From the Journal of Yahoo the Strong
“He drove his soldiers unmercifully, Nirut, King of Lihterb (but they didn’t seem to mind), all over the planet of SSARG (in the Black Galaxy), until they came to the Quiet Mound. His bodyguard, Yahoo, saved him once during the incurring battles throughout these trying days, and months. It was the giant broken-winged devil Bats (that looked more like flying rats). They had swept overhead of the King, and tried to grab him, flying low, trying to kill him, as if the war of the planet would stop once he was dead, and perhaps they were right, it would have. But Yahoo the Strong grabbed the food of one, and another, and swung them at the twenty or so coming in on him, batting them like a ball, knocking them out, and then he tied their feat one of the two feet, backwards (like a camel) and thus, they could not fly without a run, and walked about the camp, falling and getting back up, like drunken men.
“In the Valley of Arrows, we had conquered what was left of the armies, only a village or two were left, and they only held women and children, unless the younger boys were hiding. And so we took the most direct rout toward the Grasslands.
“We had fought the Great Bears of the high cliffs and mesas, in the north, the cavemen of the western cliffs, even the mantic ores of the east, and in the desert we had fought the Lost Tribe of Planet Toso (General Terb had made his way out of the desert, when he heard we were near, and was held up at the fortress called ‘The Quiet Mound.’
“In addition, we even conquered the ghost leader’s army, the so called ‘Jason the Wizard, and taken his wife into custody, she was a beauty to behold. We heard he had escaped from a phantom environment and had possessed the dead body of an officer called Darab, a great warrior within his command, that evidently came out of the stock of the Lost Tribe of Tose, as he had been, hundreds of years earlier.
“Some of the battles that we perused with Jason (prior to the battle by the rim of the forest of rats), he used his magic, for it seemed he darkened the skies, so his men could sneak up on us, or so it seemed, but at the end, he was no more than a piece of smoke hiding inside a decaying body, giving orders to a half witted caveman army.
“It was the second month that Nirut and his soldiers, a dark moving mass, marched through the plains; Nirut ordered his devil-bats, now under his command, to find Jason’s Army of 2000, whom were by the rim of the forest of the rats. As they tried to enter the forest to hide from our nearing army, the rats chased them out.”
The Rim of the Forest
Journal
“Knowing the whereabouts of Jason’s Army, the king marched towards the upper rim of the forest, hoping to engage in battle once in site of his lopsided army. Commander Niruh, and the 3rd in command, Rognat was approaching the forest, it was the 9th week in the desert, and it was refreshing to get out of the heat, then we spotted Jason’s army. Nirut had returned to Toso that very day, and I, Yahoo the Strong was told to be the scribe for a while longer, then return before the battle at the Mound to serve him in the palace of the moon, Retina, as his body guard, expecting the battle to only last a day.
The Battle Cry of the Devil-bats
Journal
So intense was the interest of both armies, the rats even stopped their engrossment of attack on Jason’s army, which were a collection of nomads, cave men, and desert tribes for the most part.
King Nirut´s dagger was firm in his sheath, he really did not want a battle, he wanted to win by intimidation, and perhaps cause a revolt within the ranks of the foes army. Nonetheless, the battle cry came out of the mouths of the devil-bats, as they circled high and low, back and forth, over the encampment of the foe: psychological warfare, so the king said, build the fear in them early, and when the fight starts, half will run off—desert.
Nirut— furtively gnawing at t his enemy while in battle, grabbed Jason, almost losing his grip, grabbed them around the neck, next he pulled out his dagger, gleaming after he cut open his cut, Jason struggling to get away, ready to fight with the rest of his strength, he leaped at the king, dagger in hand, Yahoo was present, swung the king to his back, lest he be killed from the force of his weight plunging on top of him, and the dagger opening up his stomach or chest areas. And with the long thick arms of Yahoo, he broke the spine of Jason, clutched him by the arm, and cast him into the air, and when he fell, it was instant death.
The ´Battle Voices
Journal
A clamor of voices sank into my ears, and I heard the king call my name “Yahoo…!”
And the king’s soldiers trampled over the horde of bodies, a few dying were bellowing, but the battle had been won. Now somber the king walked about the battle field, he wanted me by his side, and so I was. Soldiers were looking for Niruh and Rognat, they were being brought up through the corridors to the courtyard, in hopes the king would spare their lives.
Nearby the mighty rats (one hundred pound rats), peeking from the rat forest roared in a climatic frenzy, which warned me, they could be trouble if provoked, and we were now a very weak army. I and the king made a smiling gesture of friendship with them. The next day, we marched onto the Grasslands, and the Quiet Mound (the king would return to Retina shortly).
Part Four of Four Parts
6-26-2007
The Soldiers of Nirut
The Inner Fortress of the Quiet Mound
From the Journal of General Terb
“No one really knows what went on in the inside of the Fortress at ‘Quiet Mound,’ especially during the last days of the Great Battle of the Mound, in particular with Niruh, the brother of the King Nirut of Lihterb, and his companion Rognat—but of course I do, for I was the Commanding General there. I wrote this journal entry, for I fear history will overlook this battle, one of many in the scheme of all things. So I leave it in the vaults of the dungeon, for posterity’s sake, written on strong and lasting snake skin.
“We had captured Niruh and Rognat threw them in a cell deep in the dungeons of the Quiet Mound, and what I really wanted to do was cut their throats, but Lived said, ‘No! We may need them for a ransom.’ And that sounded logical, and I added: ‘I’ll take the chance’, so I said, and did.
“Then shortly thereafter, before the sun went down, we saw the great mass of Nirut´s soldiers surrounding the compound: swords, spears, bows and arrows, ropes to climb the walls, daggers in their hands, all ready for battle.
“We all rested, uneasily that evening and throughout the night, until first light, when they tried to bust down the front gate with a large tree they had cut in the Rat Forest, nearby, made it into a battling ram of sorts, and tried to rush and bust through the two foot thick wooden door of the fortress, to no avail.
“I stood on top of the tall, thick wall of the enclosure, and commanded my men to continue to shoot arrows—non stop—at the enemy below, and hideously I thought at the time, what fun it is to kill the enemy, one after another, it gets to you, you know, desensitizes you, and the more you get to watch and kill, the more you want, the less the previous kill matters, and so it often has to be more gruesome, and you watch the arrows pierce their skin, eyes, skull, watch the blood ooze out. It is how it is, not necessarily how it should be.
“Then the General, the old one that seemed always to be by Nirut´s side, he came up with an idea, where he got it I don’t know, perhaps from hell itself. Anyhow, I didn’t know of the Iron Net, not at that time, but I would shortly.
“During the Battle I glanced at the sun, it was low and hot, and the first few battles got to both armies, and then we started to fight in the cool evenings, just before twilight; them and us, we all seemed to have had the same idea—fight when it’s cool.
“In a way it was all senseless, all this bloodshed, and when we all agreed to let our prisoners go, a form of goodwill to Nirut, for inside the fortress we were tired of fighting and most wanted to go back home to the Valley of the Arrows in the Desert, most had children and wives, and we knew Nirut was like a wild dog that once he got a hold on something, he’d not let go he’d take every once of blood of every soldier he had to win, break the devil in two, if he could, we were hoping he would have not come to this conclusion yet.
“Anyhow, we agreed and so did they to this ceasefire, and I suppose it stopped the fighting for a day, or a few hours longer, not much more, and then the King of Lihterb had second thoughts, and so did his general. (We did have a feast that night in the courtyard even brought some lamb meat down to our captives.) In the meantime, King Nirut took us as a continued threat bitterly, screaming vainly for revenge outside our fortress walls—and then the net came, the iron net, right over the fortress walls, it was dropped by two spacecraft, it locked itself tightly around us, like a snake would to its prey; we had never seen anything like it before, it scared us just to experience the sight of those iron knitted chains interwoven above our heads, it was as if we were cursed.
“What could I do—I yelled passionately, ‘We’ll fight on…’ and I remember seeing the King smile, I think he wanted that, and we did fight on, what else could we do, and he killed all our men, life flies. Only I and a few others escaped, the others escaped through the Forest of Rats, which Nirut tried to avoid. I escaped on Rognat’s spacecraft a ways away in the Grasslands of the giant snakes. And so to the reader, this is my recollections of the event that took place.” Terb
Part Five of Six Parts
6-27-2007
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
The Death of a King
In Three Parts
The Blue King
Advance: Grleg once the woman, lover and wife of Jason the Wise (taken against her will from her father, king of the Stone-men of the high cliffs and caves in the western part of SSARG), became the wife of King Nirut. Jason, had escaped from the ‘The Shadow Lands,’ on Planet SSARG, and his doom, to become the leader, and king of the deserts and plains, as well as the Valley of Arrows, within that vicinity, of the same planet, now dead. She was now Queen of Lihterb, or what was under the king domain, he was at this time circling the planet and winning back all his lands King Gilga had taken control of when he was gone for six years from his Archkingdom.
He had also taken Sun, the younger sister of Grleg, and gave her to Scro, the Governor General of Lihterb, whom was faithful to the king while he was gone.
The Blue King of Lihterb was of course Nirut´s father, as Nirut had followed in his foot steps, and now often referred to as “The Little Blue King.” (Or the: Lesser.)
Journal of a King
“I was never much of a talker, as I fought a hostile galaxy (The Black Galaxy). Often times I had to refer back to my father’s teachings, the so called Great, Blue King, so he was often referred as. He loved what he called his: traditional warfare, or war tactics. Be that as it may, they worked for him, and as he often said, ‘If it is working for you, there is a reason, life is a balance, there is a rhythm to it, in it, sometimes all it takes is to outwait the others.”
I suppose I inherited his blind rage from my father, or so I’ve been told. In the plainest speech I was told I would die young, mangled with glory, like so many heroes that will be in the future, and that have been in the past.”
Death in Near
The Kings Journal
“I make no appeal for a longer life, for I would not care to be a devil-winged bat, at another’s whim. Nor would I care to be like a gaunt ghost returning to hear my voice sour across the twilight of a campfire and scare men, women and children. No I do not believe in one-hundred life times there can be a lasting peace, so I chose war over peace to be my bed partner. It is you know the more popular tumult to be in.
‘Draw your weapon,’ I have often said—and at my command twenty-thousand swords and spears, raised upward, flaming in the gleaming sun. Then I’d hear, ‘Lead us oh king…!’ my soldiers would cry.”
Death is near
From the King’s Journal
“I went forward with one-hundred men to the Blue River, the march was hard, cautious we were, a short time after sundown as the moon was setting, we were to cross the river, someone carried the news of our coming to the commanding general of the armies of the Sumernites—they thought we all were on the flatboats (but there was really two contingent groups).
The king of the south had taken the control of the planet from me, when I was gone for six years; King Gilga. His son Ga, Slim Blade for short, was present at the campsite. Once across the river, Yahoo the Strong, my bodyguard stood by my side as usual, I told him, the old General knew my father’s tactics, I wanted his advise, and so Yahoo went and found him, he said, ‘Lie in wait,’ I pondered on that, then he added, ‘…among the great stones and trees, all of us, lie in wait and the enemy will not be the wiser, and we can strike, we have the surprise on our side, strike I say in the early morning before sunrise.’ And so we were to do, as he suggested.
There was really little cover along the banks of the river, so this sounded more feasible, and thus, we extended ourselves inland, and hid in the woods, as the enemy was in front of us, unknowing our presence.
Up stream a company of men were coming down to join us (our plans were to attack them just before their arrival and they would come to our rescue): we had constructed some barrages, flatboats, several of them, and the rapids had turned all the boats upside down, and they crashed into large boulders waters. This information came back to us from one of the runners we sent up stream to find out exactly where our second contingent was, as he had spotted the enemy doing the same thing, and thus, they must had figured, the battle was won already, in the water, and would not have to do a nights fighting, and thus would sleep sound tonight.
Alas, most of the men would die drowning in the dark waters of the Blue River. We could not turn back now; we would have to use the element of surprise to win the battle, and the courage of our men.”
Attack and Death
(By Ga: Slim Blade)
From the Journal of Nirut, the King of Lihterb
Attack and Death
“And so about 2:00 AM, we made our attack in an arch form, with three rows of soldiers all swinging axes, spears, swords, swinging wide and wild, cutting down the enemy like chopping grass throughout the enemy’s camp: with dizzying speed we had killed two-hundred foe faster than a fish net can catch fish, thus, 400-or less of their fighting solders were left, and now they had seemed to have captured the spirit of war, and armed to the teeth, as they started pushing us repeatedly back towards the river—but we hung onto one another, breathless, we slashed them right and left back, in the neck, face, swirled them under our feet, stomping on them, then, we cut open their arm-pits so they could not swing their swords so easily, or cast their spears with all their might, or fix their bows.
—We did defeat them, by dawn we discovered our men from the rafts that had turned over in the rapids of the Blue River, were but twenty left out of perhaps 160-soldiers; and out of the 160-soldiers that were with me, 90-fighters were left, thus, we had about 110-soldiers, to zero of theirs.
The rest of the night we all sat around the campfire in a full circle, the roar of the water in the background seemed to calm us.
The clash of steel I will regret not to hear again. Ga (known as the Slim Blade) had struck me in my guts, I have now internal bleeding, I did although decapitate him, and now torrents of pain circled my body. But I have won the land back—killed Ga, and ordered my bodyguard, Yahoo, to kill the King of the South, King Gilga as soon as I am buried. It is over. Now, I feel silence, numbness over my body.” (The last words of King Nirut)
Epitaph (by Yahoo the Strong, left in his Journal)
“We had left, but 110-soldiers after the battle by Blue River, the King, King Nirut died that day, a few days ago, and all of us bowed as he took his last breath. I left afterwards, and killed Gilga, as ordered. A pit was dug for the dead soldiers of ours, and we fed Gilga’s men to the wild devil-bats, the ones we subdued on planet SSARG, and brought back to Lihterb. Next, we concealed the pit, and put the king on top as ordered, and brought his sword and dagger back to the palace.
As the sun rose, the soldiers left behind, had crossed the river after insuring the campsite was properly cleaned up. And to my surprise, when all the soldiers got back to the kingdom, they made me king, which was one of the last requests of our king.”
Part Six of Six Parts
6-28-2007
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
In the Cell of the Dungeon
In Three Parts
The Incarceration of Niruh
I
I rushed across the stone cell floor
tore my thigh on the bedside,
men packed in behind
panting, raving, blood-stained
(from the battle-ax of the guards).
Their fierce, faces found mine;
the bars on the door began to give:
reluctantly my brain—(with
suspicion) told me: “Step back,”
next—the guard hurled the door open
(had I been closer, I’d had been on
by back…!)
I yelled, “I am Niruh, the prince of
Lihterb, my brother Nirut,
the king….”
Suddenly my eyes were blinded—
(burning like fire)
by the thrust and force
deafened, by a roar and flash
of a sword of bright blue steel;
it passed so close it seared my hair…
(I hesitated) turrets of pain
in my mind, screamed, flooded
my cerebellum: sixty-men—in
the enormous room, all of us
held captive in the secret dungeons
of the Quiet Mound, like dogs in
a kennel.
There was blinded chaotic frenzy
all about, and many guards yelled
as they stumbled blindly about,
“We have lost the war, kill one by one;”
thus for many, luck had run out. I
jumped out of harms way, with Rognat
my companion (both fighters
in the Black Galaxy).
I leaped in front, when I heard “Niruh
and Rognat, you’ve been ransomed,
set free, come forth!”
We rushed to dissipate ourselves
from this putrid air, that had been
devouring us slowly.
Looking Back
II
Rognat had been directly behind me,
as I looked back I could see—
several inmates,
charred out of human recognition—
trying to get directly in my path,
seeking the outside air like me.
The cell screamed, ignited, sending
flames of hate, for our escape!
Up the stairway, into its heavy dark,
shadowy beams, a torch on the top,
I found the upper doors unfastened,
unbolted above, I heard a confusing murmur,
beside me, a head bobbing, a shape saying,
“Follow me!”
Then there was a score of others—
grunting, and there was my salvation,
‘Yahoo the Strong,’ Nirut´s bodyguard:
“Come,” he said, “your brother waits.”
Virgins of the Dungeon
III
Rognat’s Glimpse
I caught a glimpse of the struggling women,
a glimpse of them, in their cell, as I walked by,
they, the guards of the dungeons,
of the Quiet Mound,
were breathing hard.
I caught a glimpse of their shoulders, thighs,
battering them on the floor—half alive;
cowering on the floor, trying
to avoid chance blows.
Unable to be heard, they pulled them up,
under their arms, in din darkness.
I saw the gleam in their eyes,
white limbs huddled against the walls!
But the rapes never stopped; their eyes
accustomed to it all…: I heard a cry!
“Slim…!” and the figure was hurled across
the chamber, as the hungry lips of the guards
roared on. And that was just a glimpse.
▼
Notes on how the story “The Soldiers of Nirut,” material taken from the handwritten manuscript written 11-17 June, 2007 (more of an outline, the death of Nirut was not figured out in the outline, but rather in the afternoon 6-27-2007, although I had expectations to kill him off prior to this, perhaps right from the beginning), and reedited and revised, and sections rewritten between 6-24 to 6-27-2007, in manuscript form, and in sections, then rewritten again on the computer, and revised; some of the new material added was the poetry, and the Devil-Bates; some of the outline was redone and the old left out, and some characters left out that seemed to simply get in the way: written in Huancayo, Peru, under the sunny sky, with a cup of coffee in my hands, at my sister in-laws house, Mini. The version of “In the Cell of the Dungeon,” Part Six to the series of “The Soldiers of Nirut,” done in three sections, were structured in poetic form to create a more smooth, dependable, and emotional version of the story, done in the afternoon of 6-28-2007.
Part of the Cadaverous Planets
Part One of Six Parts
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
A Ancient Tale of Gallantry
Introduction
The Wrath of Nirut
(Note: the first part of this drama is done in Poetic Prose, the second part, is prose alone)
Nirut is a word that means, a poem about a king-warrior, and in this small but profound epic poem done in a Greek style, is best summed up in its first lines, ‘…the wrath… (of) Nirut’ The incident that provided, or provoked Nirut´s wrath took place in the Black Galaxy, on the moon (Planetoid) Retina, one of the two moons that orbit the planet SSARG, not his home planet of Lihterb, during a conquest of the planet SSSARG. The epic poem does slowly work into narrative scenes that of his anger, and the war, being recalled in stages. The Great War of SSARG, at the Quiet Mound (a fortress) near the grasslands of the planet, all will end up being killed, but General Terb, of the Desert Warriors, and most all of King Nirut´s warriors, but King Nirut does win the war, or the battle, yet he loses, for he has to leave the planet, his safety is on the moon nearby, Retina, a guest of the King there. He will have to return to his home planet to regroup, and get more soldiers, for he wishes to continue his quest within the Galaxy, this is really his first loss, yet a win. Nirut in this part of the his saga, does not accept the ransom gift of his brother now captive in the dungeons within the fortress called “The Quiet Mound”, perhaps it is a matter of pride vs., he has never been defeated, he is in a way like Napoleon, he will, and has let his whole Army parish because of his stubbornness, which he refers to as power, yet power is simply a way in trying to be a little god, in a big universe. Nonetheless, he frees his brother, and Terb, the general, hides on a space craft with both Niruh and his comrade, Rognat, and they land on the moon Retina, there he recaptures Niruh, and this is where the anger comes into play, the king accidentally kills his brother, which is really Terb’s fault, thus, he refuses to give up on the revenge of his brother’s death, Niruh, his pursuit of Terb leads him into a five year struggle across the planetoid, until he finds him, kills him, and then leaves the planetoid for home, there he find a way to get his kingdom back. That is another story in itself.
The Wrath of Nirut
(King and Solider of Planet Lihterb)
Wrath—Demigods, sing the wrath of Niruh´s brother Nirut,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Lihterbeans countless losses,
heaving down to the House of Doom so many strapping souls,
brave fighters’ soldiers, they made their bodies rawhide,
and died like a plague on fire,
and the will of the gods were moved toward his end.
Start, think, when the two first broke and clashed,
Nirut King of men and lance huntsman Niruh.
What demon drove you to fight with such a will?
Agaliarept the henchman of Hell and Beelzebub. Terb, angry
at the king, he swept a fatal blow with his army—soldiers dying
and all because General Terb rebuffed the king.
Alas, the General approached the Lihterb’s fast space craft
hid himself inside, and flew back to Retina, bringing back a set free
and holding high in hand, brother to Nirut,
placing a crowned-wreath upon his head, the deadly lancer.
He had begged the whole Lihterbean Army but clearly
the two captive commanders, Niruh and Rognat saying:
“Niruh, tell your brother the king, we are geared for war!
May the demonic hold those chains of hell around you?
Nirut´s Army be ransack, then safe passage home for us;
just set my Army free, my dear King…here,
admit these prayers, this ransom. We will honor the demon
gods who strike these Lihterbeans away—Azaz’el, Semyas!”
And all ranks of the Lihterbeans cried out their consent:
“Respect the General; accept the ransom gift, Niruh!”
But it brought no delight to the heart of Nirut.
The king dismissed the General’s gift with a brutal order
ringing in the hearts of his soldiers: “Never bow, old General,
I will destroy the fortress you feel is your safe haven!”
Not pacing nor pondering back and forth, he went forth.
With skill, wrath, and good soldiers, nothing could save them now.
“My brother—I will not give up my brother. Long before peace,
old age will overtake the general on his world, on SSARG, and
far from my eyes I will shall cast his people, slaughter them
back and forth to their end, lift my brother from his dungeons!
Now go,
do my wrath—and set my beloved brother free.”
The Old commanding officer was terrified. Obeying the order,
turning, straggling away in stillness down the corridor,
of his host king’s palace, on Retina, where the roaring
commanding battle orders would come from.
And wondering off to a safe corner, over and over
the old Commander prayed to the Great Warrior King Phrygian
of Atlantis, “Hear me, Phrygian! God of the golden city
who ruled the world from Lemuria to Greece—
lord of the islands of the Atlantic, and Poseidonia!
If ever I could build a shrine to please your eyes,
or make sacrifice with fat rams or goats,
on your sacred pyre, now, now bring to me a means.
Pay the Desert Warriors on the Quiet Mound back
Set freed the king’s brother Niruh free!”
His prayer went down and Phrygian King of Atlantis heard him.
Up he strode form Mount Hades’ summit, as if in a night raid—
with his golden lance, in his grip and across his shoulder.
The golden stick at its end, clanged as he walked with wrath,
the king himself on a stride down the corridor at night.
When the old Commander saw him, he dropped to a knee,
and a petrifying spar rang out form the great golden spear.
Next he put his hand on the old mans shoulder, “stand!”
Then, placing his piercing lance at the Commander himself,
he cut him near the bone of his neck and chest—
“You will owe me; I will give you an end in sight!”
One day the spears and arrows swept through the air.
On the second day the Commander called all his soldiers to gather—
The moment seized him, sent by Phrygian, for he grieved to see
All the Lihterbion soldier fighters drop and die.
Once they had gathered, he had them lift up a great net
(12000-meters wide and long, of some miraculous iron and nickel)
Crowding around this mysterious net, with spacecraft, swift
they rose above the fortress of General Terb, of SSARG
and dropped the net over the stronghold, and no man rose above it:
“Phrygian of Hell’s Atlantis, now we have beaten them, to fright,
this long campaign is won. So home I hope we go…
if indeed, we can escape our death—beforehand.
But wait: let us question the king,
a warrior, even a man of vision and quest—
let no man blame us for this victory, for none
can lift the net, nor feed themselves, and thus set-free
the captives, and so it was, Niruh and Rognat won their freedom.
So we proposed
to go home to the king, and down we sat as Nirut rose among us,
and gave us our will, but we did not know, nor have second sight,
all things that were to come, hence, Niruh was now missing!”
No: 1881 6-25-26-2007
Part Two of Six parts
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
Part of the Cadaverous Planets
Nirut´s Torment and Ode to Niruh
Haiku for Niruh
“You can t stop it—“
(Niruh once said to his brother long ago)
“It is a matter of time:
Fate is at the end…!”
No: 1880 6-17-2007
Nirut´s Torment
Nirut sat back half distraught from what he had done, unintentionally done, he had killed is brother Niruh —now burdened to the point he went into a depression. At this moment he sat back against a great stone outside the high walls of the castle of the King of Retina, the walls were eighty feet high, seven feet thick. Rognat, his close friend, stood high up looking down from hallway window, looking through a window to where he was in the meadows a short ways from the palace, he could see Nirut, it looked like he wanted to take his own life, but fate would not have it, and as his Niruh, his brother once said to him, “…do not look back, for there is where torment of parting is brother…!” As if he knew someday, something like this could happen.
What had taken place was this:
When Niruh and Rognat were held captive at the Quiet Mound by Murdock and Terb (whom made their escape to Planet Lihterb, and at which time, both Niruh and Rognat were set free shortly after, General Terb, escaped by hiding on Niruh´s spacecraft, and hitching a ride to Retina, whereupon, he found Niruh, drugged him, and brought him down to the river below the Castle-fortress. There he bound him with thick roots of a nearby trees, bound him to a huge rock. With the drugs he became senseless, and Terb was hoping to watch him die slowly, for three days he lay on that rock as Nirut, Rognat and Arallets looked for him.
Then in the middle of the forth night, Nirut found his brother (Rognat and Arallets were a little ways off in the woods, as was Terb, hunting for food to eat, and display to Niruh, as he had intentions to ate it, and psychological torment him in the process). Thus, Nirut finding him, looking upon him, freed him from the rooted-ropes that bound him to the rock, whereupon, once free, he came up wild, yet still in a haze from the drugs, and lack of food (Terb was too far off in the woods to hear a thing). He went wild, and attacked Nirut with half his senses back, and struck out blindly like a viper, recklessly gripping Nirut by the head and neck, and with a thrust and twist back and forth, trying to snap his neck, in the process between the twists, thinking it was Terb he leaped forward, leaped right onto his own spear, the very one his brother had brought with him to fight Terb with, once he found him, to thrust it through his heart for his evil and cruelness to his brother, for the war on SSARG was over, and this was really vengeance for no reason other than please of a kill to insult the young King of Lihterb.
Now Terb hearing the echoes of Niruh´s dying voice from the wind shifting it down hill towards him, he ran the opposite way, looking about, to see if anyone was following.
And there he stood lost in a haze of thoughts, and now confirming with his eyes and senses, that he had killed his brother. When Arallets and Rognat appeared they were horrified.
The Funeral and the Hunt
Terb from the Lost Tribe of Toso
It was the third day of Niruh´s death—he was now laid in the ground on Retina’s soil, Nirut still in a haze, still depressed, looking at his brother, and his memories of childhood with him on his home planet Lihterb, “I will not rest until I find and decapitate Terb,” he said, with dread on his face, as his body was lowered into the King’s soil—the King of Retina looking on, not sure how to take this, and several of his guards watched on with him, while Rognat, and Nirut, bowed their heads in dismay, pulling up the ropes that lowered the coffin into the ground.
Ode to Niruh
I have been renewed—
By the love and memory of Niruh
(The Great Spear of the Universe—)
Here, along the Kings River
Heedless of peril—I remain;
Heavy and strong, was he.
Pleasure and joy he gave—
“Do not look back,” he once said,
“…for there is where the torment
of parting is…!
Go forward brother,
Like a burning spear.”
No: 1879, 6-17-2007, Part of the Manuscript:
“The Soldiers of Nirut,” also part of the “Cadaverous Planets.”
“Terb´s Demise”
Terb of the Valley of Arrows (whose ancestors had migrated from planet Toso, to Planet SSARG (better known as the Planet of Grass, in the Black Galaxy), had been hiding in the old folks Village in the Safe Zone of the moon Retina (planetoid) one of two moons orbiting SSARG, and upon his discovery by several of the inhabitants who confronted him with sticks and stones and pitchforks and so on, he quickly fled before they could bind him, and give him over to Nirut (whom was originally from the planet Lihterb on a conquest of the Black Galaxy).
Nirut was notified on this by Surendic from the Old Folks Village, which helped her in her tracking of Terb, whom now went towards the river, the King’s River, that separated the two Kingdoms (the Western from the Eastern), and climbed from the river up and onto Long Bridge that connected both empires by land.
As for the old folks, they had a feast, feeling proud on their discover and assistance in the matter of finding the outlaw for Nirut, or at least notifying him he had been there, and now was headed in the direction of the Long Bridge. Perhaps the feast was a result of them feeling needed, which gave them pride that was once lost back.
Consequently now that he had found the bridge, climbed its tall torso to its top, leaping over onto its solid woodened platform, he went to where the bridge was in the center of the river, connecting the West to the East, Terb stood in-between the two, one leg on each side as if he was going to run either way, he stood on the bridge looking over, looking onto the river, watching for Nirut, There was no place to run to, if there was he would have, and so he wept, not for the killing or being responsible for killing, or having Nirut kill his bosom comrade, for he was not sorry for that, but sorry he had no place to hide, sorry he was going to be captured by his slayer in a short time by Nirut.
Hence, Nirut had hewed his way towards the bridge, and now they both stood alone in a moment of silence, one facing the other, which allowed an evil spirit to speak out of Terb´s mouth; it was Buer of Earth’s Hell.
“Hail, King of Lihterb, slayer of many on planet SSARG, Warrior of Moiromma, and once sovereign ruler in the Black Galaxy, hail to you and Earth’s Hell, for you have even controlled the demons, Hail to you and your followers.” (He had intentions to harm Nirut, but he, the demon inside Terb wanted Nirut to know the monument victory he was seeking and would receive when he killed him.)
Nirut leaped on Terb, on his muddy flesh, fire in his eyes, Buer the demon, opened up the mouth of Terb, and leaped out, without fear of Nirut (which was his mistake), for he tried to grab him, as he did herself grab the demon; having to let go of Terb to fight the demon, now fighting two beings, swiftly and quickly, Gwyllion (daughter of the Tiamat, demonic being) froze the evil spirit into a trance, thus numbing his fighting skills having to release Nirut, and at the same time, the Pig-snake demon warped himself around Buer as if in a cocoon (They did not do this out of pure friendship ((no demon would)), but the assurance they would be reward later, in that they’d be welcomed on any planet in the Black Galaxy, Nirut conquered, in later days to be, thus he was an investment to them).
Anyhow, the battle was not over, not yet, Nirut did not get his full. He raised Niruh´s spear, Xerrhang, and as if Terb was stone, Nirut drove the spear through his chest, heart and out through his back and split his spine in to two pieces, then he knelt over his dying body as to insure he would not survive the attack, unmoving he was, in the purple dark sky overhead. And then he stood up, said, “It is finished.”
Part Three of Four Parts
6-26-2007
The Soldiers of Nirut
The Battle Cry of the Devil-bats
From the Journal of Yahoo the Strong
“He drove his soldiers unmercifully, Nirut, King of Lihterb (but they didn’t seem to mind), all over the planet of SSARG (in the Black Galaxy), until they came to the Quiet Mound. His bodyguard, Yahoo, saved him once during the incurring battles throughout these trying days, and months. It was the giant broken-winged devil Bats (that looked more like flying rats). They had swept overhead of the King, and tried to grab him, flying low, trying to kill him, as if the war of the planet would stop once he was dead, and perhaps they were right, it would have. But Yahoo the Strong grabbed the food of one, and another, and swung them at the twenty or so coming in on him, batting them like a ball, knocking them out, and then he tied their feat one of the two feet, backwards (like a camel) and thus, they could not fly without a run, and walked about the camp, falling and getting back up, like drunken men.
“In the Valley of Arrows, we had conquered what was left of the armies, only a village or two were left, and they only held women and children, unless the younger boys were hiding. And so we took the most direct rout toward the Grasslands.
“We had fought the Great Bears of the high cliffs and mesas, in the north, the cavemen of the western cliffs, even the mantic ores of the east, and in the desert we had fought the Lost Tribe of Planet Toso (General Terb had made his way out of the desert, when he heard we were near, and was held up at the fortress called ‘The Quiet Mound.’
“In addition, we even conquered the ghost leader’s army, the so called ‘Jason the Wizard, and taken his wife into custody, she was a beauty to behold. We heard he had escaped from a phantom environment and had possessed the dead body of an officer called Darab, a great warrior within his command, that evidently came out of the stock of the Lost Tribe of Tose, as he had been, hundreds of years earlier.
“Some of the battles that we perused with Jason (prior to the battle by the rim of the forest of rats), he used his magic, for it seemed he darkened the skies, so his men could sneak up on us, or so it seemed, but at the end, he was no more than a piece of smoke hiding inside a decaying body, giving orders to a half witted caveman army.
“It was the second month that Nirut and his soldiers, a dark moving mass, marched through the plains; Nirut ordered his devil-bats, now under his command, to find Jason’s Army of 2000, whom were by the rim of the forest of the rats. As they tried to enter the forest to hide from our nearing army, the rats chased them out.”
The Rim of the Forest
Journal
“Knowing the whereabouts of Jason’s Army, the king marched towards the upper rim of the forest, hoping to engage in battle once in site of his lopsided army. Commander Niruh, and the 3rd in command, Rognat was approaching the forest, it was the 9th week in the desert, and it was refreshing to get out of the heat, then we spotted Jason’s army. Nirut had returned to Toso that very day, and I, Yahoo the Strong was told to be the scribe for a while longer, then return before the battle at the Mound to serve him in the palace of the moon, Retina, as his body guard, expecting the battle to only last a day.
The Battle Cry of the Devil-bats
Journal
So intense was the interest of both armies, the rats even stopped their engrossment of attack on Jason’s army, which were a collection of nomads, cave men, and desert tribes for the most part.
King Nirut´s dagger was firm in his sheath, he really did not want a battle, he wanted to win by intimidation, and perhaps cause a revolt within the ranks of the foes army. Nonetheless, the battle cry came out of the mouths of the devil-bats, as they circled high and low, back and forth, over the encampment of the foe: psychological warfare, so the king said, build the fear in them early, and when the fight starts, half will run off—desert.
Nirut— furtively gnawing at t his enemy while in battle, grabbed Jason, almost losing his grip, grabbed them around the neck, next he pulled out his dagger, gleaming after he cut open his cut, Jason struggling to get away, ready to fight with the rest of his strength, he leaped at the king, dagger in hand, Yahoo was present, swung the king to his back, lest he be killed from the force of his weight plunging on top of him, and the dagger opening up his stomach or chest areas. And with the long thick arms of Yahoo, he broke the spine of Jason, clutched him by the arm, and cast him into the air, and when he fell, it was instant death.
The ´Battle Voices
Journal
A clamor of voices sank into my ears, and I heard the king call my name “Yahoo…!”
And the king’s soldiers trampled over the horde of bodies, a few dying were bellowing, but the battle had been won. Now somber the king walked about the battle field, he wanted me by his side, and so I was. Soldiers were looking for Niruh and Rognat, they were being brought up through the corridors to the courtyard, in hopes the king would spare their lives.
Nearby the mighty rats (one hundred pound rats), peeking from the rat forest roared in a climatic frenzy, which warned me, they could be trouble if provoked, and we were now a very weak army. I and the king made a smiling gesture of friendship with them. The next day, we marched onto the Grasslands, and the Quiet Mound (the king would return to Retina shortly).
Part Four of Four Parts
6-26-2007
The Soldiers of Nirut
The Inner Fortress of the Quiet Mound
From the Journal of General Terb
“No one really knows what went on in the inside of the Fortress at ‘Quiet Mound,’ especially during the last days of the Great Battle of the Mound, in particular with Niruh, the brother of the King Nirut of Lihterb, and his companion Rognat—but of course I do, for I was the Commanding General there. I wrote this journal entry, for I fear history will overlook this battle, one of many in the scheme of all things. So I leave it in the vaults of the dungeon, for posterity’s sake, written on strong and lasting snake skin.
“We had captured Niruh and Rognat threw them in a cell deep in the dungeons of the Quiet Mound, and what I really wanted to do was cut their throats, but Lived said, ‘No! We may need them for a ransom.’ And that sounded logical, and I added: ‘I’ll take the chance’, so I said, and did.
“Then shortly thereafter, before the sun went down, we saw the great mass of Nirut´s soldiers surrounding the compound: swords, spears, bows and arrows, ropes to climb the walls, daggers in their hands, all ready for battle.
“We all rested, uneasily that evening and throughout the night, until first light, when they tried to bust down the front gate with a large tree they had cut in the Rat Forest, nearby, made it into a battling ram of sorts, and tried to rush and bust through the two foot thick wooden door of the fortress, to no avail.
“I stood on top of the tall, thick wall of the enclosure, and commanded my men to continue to shoot arrows—non stop—at the enemy below, and hideously I thought at the time, what fun it is to kill the enemy, one after another, it gets to you, you know, desensitizes you, and the more you get to watch and kill, the more you want, the less the previous kill matters, and so it often has to be more gruesome, and you watch the arrows pierce their skin, eyes, skull, watch the blood ooze out. It is how it is, not necessarily how it should be.
“Then the General, the old one that seemed always to be by Nirut´s side, he came up with an idea, where he got it I don’t know, perhaps from hell itself. Anyhow, I didn’t know of the Iron Net, not at that time, but I would shortly.
“During the Battle I glanced at the sun, it was low and hot, and the first few battles got to both armies, and then we started to fight in the cool evenings, just before twilight; them and us, we all seemed to have had the same idea—fight when it’s cool.
“In a way it was all senseless, all this bloodshed, and when we all agreed to let our prisoners go, a form of goodwill to Nirut, for inside the fortress we were tired of fighting and most wanted to go back home to the Valley of the Arrows in the Desert, most had children and wives, and we knew Nirut was like a wild dog that once he got a hold on something, he’d not let go he’d take every once of blood of every soldier he had to win, break the devil in two, if he could, we were hoping he would have not come to this conclusion yet.
“Anyhow, we agreed and so did they to this ceasefire, and I suppose it stopped the fighting for a day, or a few hours longer, not much more, and then the King of Lihterb had second thoughts, and so did his general. (We did have a feast that night in the courtyard even brought some lamb meat down to our captives.) In the meantime, King Nirut took us as a continued threat bitterly, screaming vainly for revenge outside our fortress walls—and then the net came, the iron net, right over the fortress walls, it was dropped by two spacecraft, it locked itself tightly around us, like a snake would to its prey; we had never seen anything like it before, it scared us just to experience the sight of those iron knitted chains interwoven above our heads, it was as if we were cursed.
“What could I do—I yelled passionately, ‘We’ll fight on…’ and I remember seeing the King smile, I think he wanted that, and we did fight on, what else could we do, and he killed all our men, life flies. Only I and a few others escaped, the others escaped through the Forest of Rats, which Nirut tried to avoid. I escaped on Rognat’s spacecraft a ways away in the Grasslands of the giant snakes. And so to the reader, this is my recollections of the event that took place.” Terb
Part Five of Six Parts
6-27-2007
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
The Death of a King
In Three Parts
The Blue King
Advance: Grleg once the woman, lover and wife of Jason the Wise (taken against her will from her father, king of the Stone-men of the high cliffs and caves in the western part of SSARG), became the wife of King Nirut. Jason, had escaped from the ‘The Shadow Lands,’ on Planet SSARG, and his doom, to become the leader, and king of the deserts and plains, as well as the Valley of Arrows, within that vicinity, of the same planet, now dead. She was now Queen of Lihterb, or what was under the king domain, he was at this time circling the planet and winning back all his lands King Gilga had taken control of when he was gone for six years from his Archkingdom.
He had also taken Sun, the younger sister of Grleg, and gave her to Scro, the Governor General of Lihterb, whom was faithful to the king while he was gone.
The Blue King of Lihterb was of course Nirut´s father, as Nirut had followed in his foot steps, and now often referred to as “The Little Blue King.” (Or the: Lesser.)
Journal of a King
“I was never much of a talker, as I fought a hostile galaxy (The Black Galaxy). Often times I had to refer back to my father’s teachings, the so called Great, Blue King, so he was often referred as. He loved what he called his: traditional warfare, or war tactics. Be that as it may, they worked for him, and as he often said, ‘If it is working for you, there is a reason, life is a balance, there is a rhythm to it, in it, sometimes all it takes is to outwait the others.”
I suppose I inherited his blind rage from my father, or so I’ve been told. In the plainest speech I was told I would die young, mangled with glory, like so many heroes that will be in the future, and that have been in the past.”
Death in Near
The Kings Journal
“I make no appeal for a longer life, for I would not care to be a devil-winged bat, at another’s whim. Nor would I care to be like a gaunt ghost returning to hear my voice sour across the twilight of a campfire and scare men, women and children. No I do not believe in one-hundred life times there can be a lasting peace, so I chose war over peace to be my bed partner. It is you know the more popular tumult to be in.
‘Draw your weapon,’ I have often said—and at my command twenty-thousand swords and spears, raised upward, flaming in the gleaming sun. Then I’d hear, ‘Lead us oh king…!’ my soldiers would cry.”
Death is near
From the King’s Journal
“I went forward with one-hundred men to the Blue River, the march was hard, cautious we were, a short time after sundown as the moon was setting, we were to cross the river, someone carried the news of our coming to the commanding general of the armies of the Sumernites—they thought we all were on the flatboats (but there was really two contingent groups).
The king of the south had taken the control of the planet from me, when I was gone for six years; King Gilga. His son Ga, Slim Blade for short, was present at the campsite. Once across the river, Yahoo the Strong, my bodyguard stood by my side as usual, I told him, the old General knew my father’s tactics, I wanted his advise, and so Yahoo went and found him, he said, ‘Lie in wait,’ I pondered on that, then he added, ‘…among the great stones and trees, all of us, lie in wait and the enemy will not be the wiser, and we can strike, we have the surprise on our side, strike I say in the early morning before sunrise.’ And so we were to do, as he suggested.
There was really little cover along the banks of the river, so this sounded more feasible, and thus, we extended ourselves inland, and hid in the woods, as the enemy was in front of us, unknowing our presence.
Up stream a company of men were coming down to join us (our plans were to attack them just before their arrival and they would come to our rescue): we had constructed some barrages, flatboats, several of them, and the rapids had turned all the boats upside down, and they crashed into large boulders waters. This information came back to us from one of the runners we sent up stream to find out exactly where our second contingent was, as he had spotted the enemy doing the same thing, and thus, they must had figured, the battle was won already, in the water, and would not have to do a nights fighting, and thus would sleep sound tonight.
Alas, most of the men would die drowning in the dark waters of the Blue River. We could not turn back now; we would have to use the element of surprise to win the battle, and the courage of our men.”
Attack and Death
(By Ga: Slim Blade)
From the Journal of Nirut, the King of Lihterb
Attack and Death
“And so about 2:00 AM, we made our attack in an arch form, with three rows of soldiers all swinging axes, spears, swords, swinging wide and wild, cutting down the enemy like chopping grass throughout the enemy’s camp: with dizzying speed we had killed two-hundred foe faster than a fish net can catch fish, thus, 400-or less of their fighting solders were left, and now they had seemed to have captured the spirit of war, and armed to the teeth, as they started pushing us repeatedly back towards the river—but we hung onto one another, breathless, we slashed them right and left back, in the neck, face, swirled them under our feet, stomping on them, then, we cut open their arm-pits so they could not swing their swords so easily, or cast their spears with all their might, or fix their bows.
—We did defeat them, by dawn we discovered our men from the rafts that had turned over in the rapids of the Blue River, were but twenty left out of perhaps 160-soldiers; and out of the 160-soldiers that were with me, 90-fighters were left, thus, we had about 110-soldiers, to zero of theirs.
The rest of the night we all sat around the campfire in a full circle, the roar of the water in the background seemed to calm us.
The clash of steel I will regret not to hear again. Ga (known as the Slim Blade) had struck me in my guts, I have now internal bleeding, I did although decapitate him, and now torrents of pain circled my body. But I have won the land back—killed Ga, and ordered my bodyguard, Yahoo, to kill the King of the South, King Gilga as soon as I am buried. It is over. Now, I feel silence, numbness over my body.” (The last words of King Nirut)
Epitaph (by Yahoo the Strong, left in his Journal)
“We had left, but 110-soldiers after the battle by Blue River, the King, King Nirut died that day, a few days ago, and all of us bowed as he took his last breath. I left afterwards, and killed Gilga, as ordered. A pit was dug for the dead soldiers of ours, and we fed Gilga’s men to the wild devil-bats, the ones we subdued on planet SSARG, and brought back to Lihterb. Next, we concealed the pit, and put the king on top as ordered, and brought his sword and dagger back to the palace.
As the sun rose, the soldiers left behind, had crossed the river after insuring the campsite was properly cleaned up. And to my surprise, when all the soldiers got back to the kingdom, they made me king, which was one of the last requests of our king.”
Part Six of Six Parts
6-28-2007
“The Soldiers of Nirut”
In the Cell of the Dungeon
In Three Parts
The Incarceration of Niruh
I
I rushed across the stone cell floor
tore my thigh on the bedside,
men packed in behind
panting, raving, blood-stained
(from the battle-ax of the guards).
Their fierce, faces found mine;
the bars on the door began to give:
reluctantly my brain—(with
suspicion) told me: “Step back,”
next—the guard hurled the door open
(had I been closer, I’d had been on
by back…!)
I yelled, “I am Niruh, the prince of
Lihterb, my brother Nirut,
the king….”
Suddenly my eyes were blinded—
(burning like fire)
by the thrust and force
deafened, by a roar and flash
of a sword of bright blue steel;
it passed so close it seared my hair…
(I hesitated) turrets of pain
in my mind, screamed, flooded
my cerebellum: sixty-men—in
the enormous room, all of us
held captive in the secret dungeons
of the Quiet Mound, like dogs in
a kennel.
There was blinded chaotic frenzy
all about, and many guards yelled
as they stumbled blindly about,
“We have lost the war, kill one by one;”
thus for many, luck had run out. I
jumped out of harms way, with Rognat
my companion (both fighters
in the Black Galaxy).
I leaped in front, when I heard “Niruh
and Rognat, you’ve been ransomed,
set free, come forth!”
We rushed to dissipate ourselves
from this putrid air, that had been
devouring us slowly.
Looking Back
II
Rognat had been directly behind me,
as I looked back I could see—
several inmates,
charred out of human recognition—
trying to get directly in my path,
seeking the outside air like me.
The cell screamed, ignited, sending
flames of hate, for our escape!
Up the stairway, into its heavy dark,
shadowy beams, a torch on the top,
I found the upper doors unfastened,
unbolted above, I heard a confusing murmur,
beside me, a head bobbing, a shape saying,
“Follow me!”
Then there was a score of others—
grunting, and there was my salvation,
‘Yahoo the Strong,’ Nirut´s bodyguard:
“Come,” he said, “your brother waits.”
Virgins of the Dungeon
III
Rognat’s Glimpse
I caught a glimpse of the struggling women,
a glimpse of them, in their cell, as I walked by,
they, the guards of the dungeons,
of the Quiet Mound,
were breathing hard.
I caught a glimpse of their shoulders, thighs,
battering them on the floor—half alive;
cowering on the floor, trying
to avoid chance blows.
Unable to be heard, they pulled them up,
under their arms, in din darkness.
I saw the gleam in their eyes,
white limbs huddled against the walls!
But the rapes never stopped; their eyes
accustomed to it all…: I heard a cry!
“Slim…!” and the figure was hurled across
the chamber, as the hungry lips of the guards
roared on. And that was just a glimpse.
▼
Notes on how the story “The Soldiers of Nirut,” material taken from the handwritten manuscript written 11-17 June, 2007 (more of an outline, the death of Nirut was not figured out in the outline, but rather in the afternoon 6-27-2007, although I had expectations to kill him off prior to this, perhaps right from the beginning), and reedited and revised, and sections rewritten between 6-24 to 6-27-2007, in manuscript form, and in sections, then rewritten again on the computer, and revised; some of the new material added was the poetry, and the Devil-Bates; some of the outline was redone and the old left out, and some characters left out that seemed to simply get in the way: written in Huancayo, Peru, under the sunny sky, with a cup of coffee in my hands, at my sister in-laws house, Mini. The version of “In the Cell of the Dungeon,” Part Six to the series of “The Soldiers of Nirut,” done in three sections, were structured in poetic form to create a more smooth, dependable, and emotional version of the story, done in the afternoon of 6-28-2007.
Labels: Mystic Literature of Fiction
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