Dead Rainbow

Flogging a Dead Horse

Redwing woke the next morning to a day identical to the last; gray, cold, damp, and overcast to the point of being utterly void of sunlight. He pulled a big pot out, put it on the stove, and opened his potion book to a page he titled Indefatigable Steed. 

"I'll need to go back to the castle to get ingredients." 

He closed the book, grabbed his pack, and was about to leave when a thought stopped him. He turned around and thinking about the exotic items he would need, opened the trunk. He looked over at the raptor skull on the desk with an equally toothy grin. 

"I should have known from the start. This is Melock's tent. It has everything you could ever desire."

The once empty glass jars and boxes were now full with every single ingredient needed for the potion; millennium moss, beat root shavings, cavefish scales, bog slime, high-quality animal feed, a honeycomb, and ten worker bees. In a metal bowl beside the ingredients were half a loaf of fine bread, three fresh eggs, and a thin chunk of pork. 

Two hours later, Redwing left the tent with a full belly, a bullwhip, and a mason jar full of glowing green toxic waste. One drink of the snotty thick liquid would empower a horse to run nonstop for a week. 

He searched the dinosaur graveyard for an animal big enough to ride and also in the least state of decay. He found another raptor animal with strong back legs and a long tail still in place. The dead lizard had most of its brownish-green scaly skin intact and even one very pus-filled eye socket. 

He took a clear quartz rock out of his sack and chanted a mind-control spell into it. Then he jammed the crystal into the dead lizard's goopy eye socket. Then he cast the spell that would raise the dead. He never tried these before and there was no way of knowing if the ancient magic would work. 

Alone in the wasteland, he nearly jumped out of his skin when three animals in the area around him began to move. The raptor was the first to get to its feet with a shiny light glowing in its crystal eye. Directly next to it a skeleton of a similar creature moving under the magical force also stood and began looking around. The third beast was much bigger with thick armor plates on its back. It struggles to get up and lumbered about on all four legs swinging a massive spiked tail. 

The first one scratched at the crystal in its eye socket.

"Stop!" yelled Redwing and the creature put its leg down. 

The big animal on hearing his voice moved off across the field but the skeleton raptor lowered into a hunting stance and aimed its body right at him. 

"Protect me!"

The quartz-eyed raptor attacked the skeleton. The two creatures seemed evenly matched until the skeleton ripped open the leg muscle of the other causing it to fall. Then it turned its murderous attention back to Redwing. 

He backed away taking out his bullwhip. The creature came closer and he cracked it across its skull with a sharp snap. It stunned the monster for a second. He hit it again, and again, whipping it repeatedly but only causing a moments hesitation per strike. He would tire long before the hungry skeleton would. He thrashed at it until he managed to wrap the whip around both its legs, then he pulled it down. 

The skeleton raptor snapped wildly in all directions. Its pointed teeth were far too dangerous to approach. Redwing pulled its legs and it kicked to break free. The one-eyed raptor was getting up and limping forward. 

"Rip its head off!" he commanded.

The quartz-eyed raptor obeyed, biting into and snapping the neck of the enraged skeleton. Its head broke off and bit at the ground. Its body jumped up and erratically ran like a decapitated chicken. 

"Come, come to me," he said out of breath from the flogging. 

The one-eyed raptor limped over to Redwing. He opened the jar and poured half the potion into its mouth. 

"Drink." 

The animal slurped and spat and convulsed. Finding new strength, it stood up straight and shrieked a call into the air of the dead planet. It trumpeted a croaky blast several more times and when no response came it looked at the young sorcerer. 

"I shall call you Kwartz." 

The undead dinosaur looked at him. The skeleton head still bit at the earth.

"Kwartz, destroy that head."

Kwartz jumped into the air with its powerful hind legs and smashed the biting skull into a thousand pieces with a heavy stomp. The headless skeleton body collapsed to the ground in stillness. 

Redwing tied the whip into makeshift bridle jammed it into Kwartz's mouth and climbed up her leg on to her back. She from his best estimations was female in her past life. 

"That's my girl, Kwartz. Now, to explore this world properly." 

They road off in the direction of the mountains.