The Seven Scattered Warriors (Chapter One)

High atop a towering mountain peak stood a man as firm as a statue covered in burly white fur. The man peered down from the wind sheered peak being but a minuscule fixture far above the carapace of green far down below. The man held in his fur mitts first a blue jar while in the other a long spear grasped at the shaft midway. The spears point was thrust upwards to the blue sky while the butt of the weapon was firmly planted on the snowy ledge.

The man stood vigilant on the mount.

The white of the man's beard could be seen from inside the parka covering the rest of his face. The white of the man's beard matched the trickles if snow being blown onto him.

The man simply stood firm as the gusts of snow grew in intensity around him on the high cliffs edge.

Then, a freezing air blew at the man!

The man knelt down so as not to be blown backwards! The spear was propped up on the man's knee underneath his other armpit so as the long tip faced in front of him. The blue jar was then summarily opened. The man then threw aside the blue jar so he could hold his spear forward in both his furry mitts! The cold wind howled as it cut against the kneeling man holding his spear!

The tempest was brief though as it subsided several figures emerged from the cliffs edge. What could climb hundreds of feet up to the man's position?

In one cold breath the man knowing answered," Plague spawn."

What began to emerge on the cliffs edge where a growing number of humanoid lizard creatures with black markings on very dark green skin.

A cold hissing sound grew in intensity with each lizard creature crawling onto the cliff. The creatures were on all fours as they crawled onto the cliff until a few of them started to stand. As the creatures rose up to greet the man so did the man decide to stand up once more.

A row of black tales became erratic a sign that they were preparing for an attack! Until some of the lizards sensed something with their black tongues.

The plague of lizard creatures was then repelled by an unseen force! The creature's natural sense of vibration could sense their attackers, yet they could not defend themselves or fight back!

To a casual observer it would seem that the lizard creatures were being attacked by nothing at all. The man saw something far different as he watched proudly several warriors in blue tunics thrusting their silver tipped spears at the lizard creatures! The man watched the tribal warriors with their spears make quick work against the lizard creatures who could do nothing against them accept either be impaled or be flung from the cliffs edge!

No sooner had it begun then it was over.

The warriors were settled after disposing of the threat they now aligned themselves beside the man who had released them from the blue jar. Then another apparition was becoming visible before the man it was an image of a half-naked woman! The man had perceived the woman in her invisible state with his naked eye just as he did the warriors he unleashed on the lizard creatures, he termed plague spawn. Though now the woman slowly became visible to all in the air above.

"Skaaar!", screamed the darkly exotic women being kept aloft by bone chilling winds that would have frozen the flesh off anyone else.

The man kept his spear trained on the half-bare wind-swept women above him, not saying a word.

The sinfully beautiful women touched down to the ground as the man watched her keeping his spear trained on her lithe form all the while.

"Skaar.", the women seductively teased the man in a deep voice.

"What do you want vampire witch?", the man coldly asked

"You shall address me as Vashara or not at all! Do you hear?", the women after making her point stood tall with her buxom backside jutting out as she became as erect as possible while leering at the man before her.

"I have heard you now hear me!", the man declared before continuing, "Make your point or I shall make mine with my spear."

The women threw her head back while laughing as her beaded black hair blew in the wind. When her laughing was done the women addressed the man again, "You are an old lion now standing guard of your shrine of spirits. Though you are a brave warrior you have also become an old warrior. Why don't you become a wise old warrior by aligning yourself with me by my side? Or is this the mountain top that you choose to die on?"

"I will tell you the same thing that I have always said to you from the very beginning, no.", the man told the women plainly and to the point.

The women simply smiled her lush lips showcasing white fangs.

"Your pride Skaar will come before your fall the forces that I am aligned with are too great for you to oppose. Also, if you think that you will die in a blaze of glory think again. That skirmish you had moments ago was against the slightest of my demonstrations. I could resurrect those who you refer to as Plague Spawn again and again. I could use my dark powers to turn those dead lizards into the unliving to again have them in their rotting flesh climb up this mountain to again attack from this cliffs edge in endless repetition. Though why would I bother?"

The man stood unmoving, as he exhaled the cold air in smoke from in-between his perked lips.

"I offer you instead a gift beyond my capabilities. For in the chaos that is about to be unleashed upon this world by the forces I am embedded you can either stand and fall against them or take my hand.", the women said soothingly as she glided her body forward toward the man.

"No.", Skaar told the women again.

Vashara looked lovingly at Skaar as she extended her hand to him.

"No, I say!", Skaar said as he held his spear in-between himself and Vashara!

Vashara wicked smiled as she said, "Old fool you once again choose to pierce the heart rather than embrace it."

The cutting statement held a hidden meaning known only to Skaar who could not reconcile or be unaffected by its meaning. The man who Vashara called an old lion roared a battle cry to vanquish the witch from the base of the mountain, "Begone! You defiling witch be gone! I will slay you forever if you return again! I guard this precipice as a warrior not a fool! Gather with me Osperon warriors to slay the witch!"

The women feeling she has overplayed her hand ascends once more to the air as she fades away with the wind to once more dissapear!

However, incorporeal Vashara is in her current state for transport her voice echoes in the wind the final word," Only a fool would cast away there one chance to reunite with the one who birthed them. Then again perhaps only the son who slayed them would shun away that chance!"

The man raged in anger as a tear leaked from his right eye where it froze in the cold climate. All the while a haunting laugh was had by the women mocking the man's deeply gashed wound within him.

The spirit warrior made a circle around Skaar in an effort to protect him from further verbal taunts against him by the witch!

"Good luck upon your damned voyage as well!", Vashara departed before her laughter finally faded away for good.

The spirits of the Osperon warriors opened up so that Skaar could pass through. It was done more out of respect as their forms being ethereal could not block him.

"Stay upon the ledge to guard it until either I or the one with the spirit jar returns to relieve you if your burden.", Skaar commands the deceased Osperon warriors as he shows them the blue jar from whence, they had been released from.

After all the spirits bowed to Skaar he bowed back to them before leaving the mountain peak.