King Mevon walked around Celestia with narrowed eyes and his arms behind his back. He took her all in. He studied her with his eyes, his tongue, his ears and whatever other senses he had. Unlike what Celestia had predicted he was not a lion or any other beast she would have thought of as kingly. He was a cobra with scaly arms and clawed hands dressed in an ornate vest of leather and fur with a golden crown upon his head. He had no legs and instead slithered around her, his forked tongue sometimes tickling her skin in a most uncomfortable way. Celestia had never liked snakes and standing next to one that was taller than she was made her skin crawl as if thousands of tiny legs were scampering around inside her. She stood straight and kept her gaze ahead respectfully but could do nothing to stop the occasional shudder and shiver.
"Do you fear me, hairless one?" King Mevon asked at length, finally breaking the deafening silence. He flicked her chin with his long tongue and chuckled when she crinkled her nose and turned her face away. "I sense fear in you. I can taste it in the air as it positively surrounds you. So, I ask again, and only once more, do you fear me?"
Celestia didn't know what to say so she gulped down her rising fear and simply muttered, "I have never seen....a king such...as yourself before."
King Mevon raised an eyebrow, or what constituted as one. "Are you saying that someone such as myself is unfit to be king? Am I not regal enough for you? What strikes you as unkingly of me?"
Cold sweat rolled down Celestia's neck and her heart began to pound. "You are a most...handsome king, your highness. I am not of this world and I simply was surprised to see you. I mean no offense."
"Yes, truly, you must not." King Mevon slithered closer and lifted Celestia's chin with one hand and then looked into her eyes, his vertical pupils contracting as they examined her. "Tell me, hairless female, where do you come from? Why are you here and what do you want? I have much business to attend to but the coming of an extinct race to my throne room is something that I take seriously. Such happenings are things of omens and customarily bring bad tidings. Are you here to overthrow me?"
Celestia widened her eyes and opened her mouth to object when something caught the king's eye. She glanced to the side of the expansive throne room with its gigantic columns, smooth marble floor, and murals all over its white walls, to see a distraught bipedal coyote run up to Captain Habon, who had been standing quietly off the side. He whispered a few words into the cheetah's ear and the reaction he gave him, one of shock and confusion, had both King Mevon and Celestia curious.
"What is the matter?" the king hissed loudly and angrily, his voice bouncing off the high walls. "There are no secrets kept from me!"
The humanoid coyote bent its ears back and bowed low, letting the captain step forward to answer the question. Captain Habon approached the king quickly and pointed down the room toward the double doors where two guards, bipedal hyenas, were pushing against it. "The eagles are restless, your highness. They are at the doors and trying to break through!"
King Mevon was taken aback. "Preposterous! What would cause them to turn on us?"
Captain Habon set his eyes on Celestia. "They brought us to her, my king. Perhaps they sense her fear and wish to protect her as they had done before."
King Mevon's eyes pierced into Celestia's soul even as she looked away from them. "She is no danger!" she heard him hiss. "Calm those birds down or I shall have them slaughtered!"
Celestia gasped and snapped her head in the direction of the snake king. "Why would you do that?! They're just being protective! There's no reason to kill them!"
There were loud bangs at the doors and the guards were knocked away from them. A moment later the doors were shoved open and three huge eagles squeezed into the room, screeching and squawking and scraping the floor with their massive talons. They charged across the room toward Celestia and, not really knowing if they were indeed protecting her or not, she screamed as they rapidly approached. King Mevon slithered back to his throne as more guards flooded into the area, their weapons gleaming.
"Stop!" a loud voice called out over the commotion.
At once, as if yanked by an invisible rope the eagles skidded to a stop and remained motionless. They stepped aside and let someone walk between them. She was tall, elegant, and slightly unlike the humanoid animals around. She was not human but she was not as animalistic as King Mevon and his subjects. She was covered in small white feathers and her feet ended in four talons, two in the front and two in the back. White tail feathers fanned out behind her, great wings folded at her back and her feathered arms ended in four nearly human fingers. Her face was heart-shaped and two bright, golden eyes sat above a small black beak. A scarlet sash hung around her waist and silken wraps of gold and green hugged her chest. To Celestia she resembled a snowy owl with arms, long slender legs, and a rather feminine figure. She was enraptured and completely at awe for she was at the same time beautiful yet haunting, like a full moon over a leafless, winter forest or flowers in a graveyard. She walked past Celestia but not before giving her a long gaze of deep interest.
King Mevon slithered up to her and jabbed a finger in her direction, a deep frown on his scaly face. "You caused this, didn't you? You come into my kingdom and set my own eagles against me! Do you wish to spark another war against our nations? If so, we will defeat you again and this time we will not stop until you are—"
The owl woman raised a hand, silencing the irate sovereign. "Calm yourself, King Mevon. I am not here to declare war on you or your kingdom. I have an urgent message from my queen."
"Why did she send you here for that? Why not a messenger?"
"Because the nature of this message is not for just anyone."
King Mevon calmed somewhat at the declaration and nodded to her. He turned and gestured her to follow. "Come. We will discuss this in private."
The feathered woman did not move. "And the hairless one?"
The cobra king gave Celestia a snarl. "What of her? She is nothing."
"She is more important than you could ever know, King Mevon. She comes with us."
The king waved his hand at her dismissively. "Bah, so be it. She comes with us then." He glanced at Celestia and nodded to a door at the back of the throne room. "Come along, little frightened one, apparently Yzara thinks you are important."
Celestia glanced at Captain Habon standing nearby and he nodded to her. Slowly at first, she stepped forward, following the serpent king and the elegant owl woman into the back room. A guard closed the door behind her and she heard it lock. A chill ran up her spine at the sound and she waited for instructions as the king took a seat at a large round table. Other than the table in the middle of the room and thickly padded stools circling it there was little else as furnishings. There was a board in the middle of the table with a few sticks of incense burning on it, giving the room a pleasant, citrusy smell. The smell alone eased Celestia's mood and she found the courage to sit down on a one of the padded stools. To her comfort and yet uneasiness the owl woman known as Yzara sat next to her, across from King Mevon.
"What have you to tell me, Yzara?" King Mevon asked, resting his muscled arms on the table and folding his hands together. With his scaled hood furled against his neck and his face in a calm expression he almost looked human.
Yzara stood straight and her wings twitched slightly. "Nilepyt is awakening."
A grin slowly crept across the king's face and his body shook slightly as a chuckle escaped his lips and then a laugh and then a hearty guffaw at Yzara's notion. He titled his head back and laughed vigorously. Celestia glanced at him and then Yzara, who stood motionless and expressionless, waiting for him to finish.
"Nilepyt is...dead, you...foolish bird!" King Mevon said between chuckles as he wiped a tear from his eye. "That serpent titan has been dead for centuries and his bones lay out in the northern wastes, and without a head! There is no force in all this land that could bring that creature back, and I thank the gods for that! Go see for yourself, Yzara. The skeleton remains in the desert, gathering sand until eventually it will become little more than a dune. Now, I ask again, what have you to tell me? Let us forgo any more jests, please."
Yzara frowned and Celestia felt herself get angry along with her. "This is not a jest, King Mevon, and I would have you not treat it as such."
"Really? It is no jest? You have seen it then?"
"No."
"Oh, so you haven't. Who has then?"
Yzara narrowed her golden eyes. "No one..."
King Mevon smiled, showing his long, curved fangs, and spread his arms wide. "Ah, so we are going on tall tales then. Let me guess, Yzara, some frightened grub farmer saw a great serpent rise from the sand and eat all his grubs? Or was it perhaps a beetle herder? Wait, I think I have it! It must have been Hipall, the loveable town drunk. He wandered far in his stupor to tell the likes of you of such dire news."
Celestia could feel the rising heat in the air and the rage boiling within Yzara's blood. "If you will not take me seriously then I will leave you to your fate for the first place Nilepyt will come is where it was destroyed and that puts Akamar in its sights! Do not look to my queen for aid when that happens, which it will!"
King Mevon, his eyes narrowed menacingly, let out a long, low hiss as his hood unfurled, revealing the markings of two red eyes on its scales. "Smooth out your ruffled feathers, Yzara, for you seem to forget that you speak to a king. Explain to me how you come to think that the great titan Nilepyt lives."
Yzara, whose feathers were indeed ruffled, making her look much larger and more intimidating, calmed herself with a deep breath and regain her composure, her feathers slowly flattening against her body. "High Shaman Ibizan has felt strange rumblings coming from the Temple of Rankoor. He has inspected the temple and sensed a dark presence from the bottom of the Well of the Dead. He believes the serpent lays dormant deep underground and is on the verge of awakening from its centuries-long slumber."
"The Phoenix destroyed Nilepyt long ago, Yzara. How can it be at the bottom of the Well of the Dead and in the northern wastes at the same time?"
"Its body lies in the northern wastes, King Mevon. Its head was tossed into the Well of the Dead as a precaution in case it ever arose again, which it appears to be doing now."
"How have you come by this information? You are a soldier, a champion of your people, and I thought only the heads of the royal families knew of this. Everyone else believes the head was destroyed and sold in pieces across the land."
"Queen Ahorya trusts me fully. She did not trust anyone else but her own self and I with this information. Even her consort knows none of it."
"Ah yes, Prince Miniso, is it? He is such a blatant waste of breath I can hardly believe someone as powerful and imposing as your queen wants anything to do with that buffoon."
"He...makes her laugh, which is something she desires in times of duress."
"Whatever the matter, the High Shaman is well respected in this parts. His predictions on the patterns of the rainstorms have saved our crops many times and his teachings on the way of the insect and rodent has allowed our livestock to prosper. Is he certain it is Nilepyt and not some earthquake or natural event?"
Celestia felt the air around her cool and the tension lighten tremendously. King Mevon seemed to believe Yzara now and the two were speaking civilly and calmly, which was much to her liking. Both of them were frightening when they were upset and she listening intently, still wondering why she had been brought along in the first place.
"He has felt the rumblings of earthquakes before which is why he is certain it is something living as these are different," Yzara answered. "He believes that because the skull of Nilepyt was so near to the damned souls of the Underworld that over time their essences imbued themselves into it and gave it strength. The dark soul of the serpent would have been among them and once it found its skull it began to recover itself, so Ibizan says. Our ancestors, thinking they were saving themselves by throwing the skull into the Well of the Dead were instead only ensuring that the titan returned."
"If only they had known..." King Mevon said, acting uncharacteristically understanding and sympathetic. He looked at Yzara directly, his hood flattened against his neck and his vertical pupils wider than usual. He almost looked afraid. "What can we do to save ourselves?"
Yzara sighed sadly and Celestia felt her body grow cold at the look on her face. "High Shaman Ibizan believes our best defense is our magic and hopes that if we use our combined force to seal the well that we may prevent it, at least for a time, from breaking free. It should give you time to gather your people into the Jewel and detach it from its chains. Your people will survive, for a time, until you must land to recover food and water."
The serpent king nodded. "It is what the Jewel of Fire was built for. The titan will run rampant, however, and keeping the Jewel afloat will sap the strength of any sorcerers or sorceresses I have at my disposal. My soldiers are brave but they stand no chance against the likes of Nilepyt. Magic may be our only weapon against it."
"It may harm it but...there is only one force strong enough to destroy it."
"The Phoenix," King Mevon stated. "Do you believe the gods are punishing us again?"
Yzara shrugged. "I believe this time we brought upon our own destruction by throwing the skull in the well. I do not think the gods will save us this time..."
King Mevon shook his scaled head and sighed deeply. "Then may they have mercy on our souls..."
There was a moment of silence as the gravity of the situation dawned on both messenger and king. The incense burned lazily, its smoke curling and twisting like a worm on its way to the ceiling, where it spread and turned into a grey haze. Celestia had no urge to ever meet this Nilepyt creature and hoped she returned to her friends in time to cleanse the anchor before she ever encountered it. She worried for what would happen to these people, especially Yzara, whom she felt a strange connection to but knew that even if she wanted to help them there was nothing she could do. She doubted even the combined might of her friends could defeat such a terrifying monster. She felt a stabbing sensation in her head and looked up to fix her eyes on King Mevon as he stared at her.
"What of her?" he asked Yzara. "Why did you bring her here?"
Yzara looked down at Celestia, her round eyes of gold with large black pupils stared deep inside her, as if staring directly at her soul. At the edges of the small beak a small smile appeared on the owl woman's face. "She just may be the key to saving us all, your highness."
Celestia's doubted her eyes could have grown any larger.
****
Boog slammed a fist against the side of his small cell, cracking pieces of stone off of it. He yelled in fury and grabbed the bars of his cell, jamming his face between them and eyeing one of the guards at the end of the hall his cell was down. He resembled an upright warthog dressed in scaled armour and holding an axe in the shape of a crescent moon. He was as big as Boog and just as muscular but with a wider chest and sharp tusks as extra weapons.
"Why am I here?" he growled at the creature. "What are you and where the hell am I?"
The guard snorted. "So many questions. Just be quiet. Captain Habon will come to see you all."
"Who the hell is Captain Habon? Is he another pig like you?"
The bipedal warthog squealed angrily and tensed up. "Shut your mouth, hairless one, or we'll feed you to the eagles!"
"You'll feed me? You know, back home I've eaten so many of your kind that I lost count years ago."
The warthog guard appeared to be ignoring his words but Boog could see him shaking with rage. He grinned. "Fried bacon drizzled with maple syrup with a side of honeyed ham and some marinated pork chops sure make my mouth water. Mmmmmm. You can hear my stomach growling, can't you? Once I get out of here I am going to grab myself some pork and savour every bite. I'll be thinking of you when I do too."
The warthog squealed with rage and charged down the hall. Once at Boog's cell he slammed his axe against the cell bars repeatedly, hoping to frighten the man within. Instead Boog reached through the bars and grabbed the axe's shaft, gripping tightly. The warthog was strong but Boog was equally so and the two struggled with the weapon for several minutes, their muscles bulging and tight. The inmates in the other cells, little more than silhouettes to Boog, were standing up and watching with interest. Boog felt the warthog's grip slipping and he tugged and pushed over and over, hoping to wrench the weapon away from him.
His progress was stopped when a second guard appeared and chopped down with his own axe, forcing Boog to pull his arms back into the cell before they were cleaved off. The second guard, a fearsome-looking hyena with a scarred eye and a sinister scowl, stared at Boog through the bars.
"Want to know how many of your kind I've eaten, brutish ape?" it asked in high-pitched, gravelly voice. "I've tasted the flesh of your men, your women, your children and even the unborn fetuses yet to open their eyes. I ripped them right out of the womb as their mothers wailed for mercy. All of them were delicious to me, especially the young ones." He licked his lips and cackled. "Their meat was so tender it slid off the bone."
Boog wanted to slam his fist into the beast's face but kept his arms at his sides for he knew that was exactly what the humanoid creature wanted. He turned around and showed his back to the two beasts, feeling defeated. He somehow couldn't turn invisible to trick the guards into thinking he had escaped in order to make them open his cell door to give him a way out. He also couldn't phase into incorporeity and simply walk through the bars of the walls. He had tried as soon as he had awakened but had failed every time. There was something different about this cell, even though it looked plain and nondescript.
He raised his right fist and sighed, the memory of it striking Graham's face still fresh in his mind. He could see himself doing it. He could feel his arms swinging and his fists striking but he couldn't stop himself. It was as if his mind had been under the control of someone else. He remembered the woman in the red dress speaking into his ear and feeling a sudden urge to do anything she willed him to. He had felt an unstoppable desire to kill Celestia and Graham. He knew it was wrong and that he shouldn't do it but just thinking about it filled his body with an orgasmic feeling of ecstasy. It had been more wonderful than anything he had ever felt before and so he gave in to the cravings and assaulted his friends. That feeling was gone now, and he could only hope that Graham had survived his attack.
He heard footsteps coming down the hall and stopping before his cell.
"Boog?" an unfamiliar voice asked.
The muscled man turned around to set his eyes on what looked very much like an upright cheetah in leather armour. He stared at him with a frown. "What do you want with me?"
"I am Captain Habon and Lady Celestia is requesting your presence." He glanced up and down the hall. "She wishes for you to bring along the rest of your companions as well."
Lady Celestia? What was going on here? Was she the same Celestia he was thinking about? How did he know her and why did he call her lady? An ever-increasing amount of questions popped into his mind as Captain Habon slid open the cell door and waved for Boog to exit. With a final hateful glance at the one-eyed hyena grinning off to the side, he walked out of the cell and into the hall.