13- His Name Was Zachariah

13

His Name Was Zachariah

It was huge, impossibly huge.

The wyvern had pulled itself from its cave and stood at the other end of the long floor.  It was bigger than Zachariah could have ever anticipated.  Covered in green scales, its hind legs were reversed and looked powerful.  It had a long tail that lashed back and forth behind it with a mind of its own.  The wyvern’s head was like that of a giant crocodile or alligator.  Its arms were a kin to a bat’s with its long wings attached to the underside, flowing out below.

Its reptilian eyes centered on Zachariah from across the room.  There was a belated moment of absolute silence.  Only the beast’s breathing sounded through the megalithic structure.

“It’s real,” Zachariah said as a tear ran down his cheek.  “It’s fucking real…”

Cathleen watched from behind Zachariah, her sword dropping to her side as she stared at the monstrous creature of pure evil.

“Zakaria o mamoru!  Bīsuto o korosu!” Kahn yelled orders to her loyal followers and the Kaze Clan leapt into action.

It would not matter.

Nothing would stop Zersch now…  Cathleen had fulfilled the prophecy.

Zachariah would be eaten.

****

Cathleen is eight.

Cathleen stood in a clearing in the forest on a sunny day.  She stood across from a series of crudely made dummies.  Behind her was an old man covered in tattoos.  The body art stretched around his old and hardened face.  Cathleen’s newest tattoo glowed and danced around her skin, she was training.

Most children her age were playing with friends.

She had no friends.

She was special.

“Concentrate.  Focus on the dummies and feel the connection to the energy in the tattoo on your body.”  The old man’s gruff voice coached her.  His Irish accent was thick.  “Feel the power and assert the control you have over nature through the tattoo.”

Suddenly, barbed thorns exploded from the ground and wrapped themselves around the dummies in unison.  The vines constricted and pulled the dummies to the ground.

“Well done, Cathleen.”  The old man said coldly without compromising his stern face.

She had done it on the first try.  She was a druidic prodigy.  She was mastering the tattoos with the ease of breathing.

“Father.”  She turned with a strange question on her face.  “I have a question.”

The old man considered as if to let her ask, then nodded once.

She asked the question.  “I understand what I am being trained for but I don’t understand why we made the agreement.  If Zersch is so evil, why make a deal with-”

She was cut off by the old man who backhanded her across the face with such force that she toppled to the ground.

He looked down at her with quiet rage.  “We do this for humanity.  We do this because it is the greater good.  We do this to protect.  Never question our intentions.”

Cathleen steeled herself.  “Yes father…  I am sorry.”

****

The wyvern had dropped to all fours, eyes locked on the Rognaithe.  It began to advance with increasing speed, intent on its target.

The Kaze Clan had other ideas.  Two ninja leapt past the beast, each hurling a dagger connected to a chain into either side of the beast’s face.  They then landed on its back and wretched backwards on their chains pulling the beast’s head backward.

It reared and roared as they tried to wrangle it.  Three more ninja leapt into the air, burying their blades into its undercarriage.

Mosquitoes on a horse.

Zersch shook his head and the two ninja holding the chains were thrown in different directions.  Free from the restraints, the beast dropped onto its stomach, crushing the other ninja under its weight.

Zachariah watched in horror.  “What are they doing?!”

Kahn appeared next to him to answer the rhetorical question.  “They are doing their duty.”

Zachariah turned toward her.  His face was panic-stricken.  “I don’t want this!  Everyone has to stop dying for me!  I’M NOT WORTH IT!”

Kahn slapped him in the face.

He looked back at her confused.  “Don’t cheapen my people’s death’s to shit on yourself!  You are a person, a person who is alive right now.  Deal with it.”

Zachariah looked at her, exasperated.  “Call them off, I order you!”

She smiled at him.  “I am not yours to order.  Now if you’ll excuse me, we have a loser dishwasher to save.”

Kahn leapt into action before Zachariah could yell to her to stop.

He stood there and watched the ninja battle feverously to save him and he could do nothing.

I can do nothing?

****

Cathleen watched from a couple of steps behind Zachariah.  She listened to Kahn’s speech and watched the Kaze Clan struggle against the impossible Zersch.

They were going to lose.

The Rognaithe would be sacrificed.

Cathleen had won.

That being true, why did she feel like she had failed?

“Holy shit!” Cathleen spun at the sound of Mel’s voice behind her.  “That was like a million fucking stairs!  Who the fuck needs so many stairs?!”

He was exasperated from taking the long way down and slowly staggered forward.  He finally joined the struggle.

Cathleen watched him plod up next to her.  “What did I miss?”

She turned back toward the mess.  “Zersch is going to eat Zachariah and the Kaze Clan are going to wipe themselves out failing to stop it from happening.”

Mel nodded.  “So, go team Cathleen, huh?”

She nodded with a pain stricken voice.  “Yes, I guess I got what I wanted.”

“HA!” Mel laughed at that and Cathleen turned toward him, confused.  “You didn’t get what you wanted.  You completed your mission, which in turn got some very old, very disconnected, very cranky, druids what they wanted.”

Cathleen looked confused.  “What do you mean? Zersch will be satisfied for another-”

Mel cut her off.  “Oh, cut the crap!”

She looked hurt at the little man but he continued.  “You think you won?  You are down here to feed a man, albeit a loser, but an innocent man to an ancient evil beast so that it won’t eat the rest of the world.  Does that sound like winning to you?”

She seemed to consider this, Mel looked back to the battle.  “You druids lose every time you select a Rognaithe; every time you let that thing tell you what to do.  You guys are the losers.”

Mel started to walk toward the battle.

“Where are you going?” Cathleen asked.

“I’m going to be a winner,” Mel said without turning back.  “At least for a couple of minutes, before I inevitably get eaten or crushed.”

He stopped and turned one more time.  “You should go.  After all, your job is done.”

He then left Cathleen alone.

****

Mel plodded past the stunned and confused Zachariah.

Zachariah watched him.  “Not you too?”

Mel didn’t turn.  “Shh!  I got to get out there before I realize how stupid I’m being.”

Kahn dropped to the ground to Zersch’s right and gave quick short commands in Japanese that were too fast for Zachariah to understand.  Two ninja dropped next to her and they all began to do hand signals.

Another series of ninja lined up in front of the enraged Zersch, between the creature and Zachariah.  They charged, one after another.  The first three ninja hurled smoke bombs, which crashed into the demon’s face, creating a large cloud and stinging the beast’s eyes.

The final ninja in line leapt with his blade out, but the beast flailed and slapped the ninja out of the air, sending the poor warrior speeding into the stone wall.

Mel stepped in next to the four ninja doing hand signals.  Kahn turned toward the small man and nodded.  He grinned and nodded back as electricity began to ripple around him.

They are going to fight together.

The third and final hand gesture was a strange interlocked finger movement in which all three ninja used their hands to create a tower-like gesture.

The floor around the beast exploded into the air.  Each section of the floor then broke apart into small pieces then those pieces broke and so on and so forth until Zersch stood at the center of a tower of stone dust.

Kahn then signaled the other two and they all removed their hands and touched the floor.  The dust constricted and solidified around the massive beast, slowly restricting its movement, creating a statue of the creature.

There was a moment of silence.  They seemed victorious.

Before they could celebrate, the statue cracked and burst as the creature broke the shell with ease.  Stone pieces were sent in every direction, one of them collided with one of the ninja standing next to Kahn.

Kahn grabbed Mel and pulled him out of harm’s way as another piece crashed to the floor at high velocity.

Mel suddenly thrust his hands forward and bolts of white lighting cut the air and struck the beast’s face.  It roared and actually staggered backward, crashing into the stone wall of the spiral.

The force of the giant crashing into the stone sent broken ripples through the wall.  The earth shook under their feet.

A piece of wall detached and fell, careening through the air at Zachariah.

Zachariah looked up and frowned, realizing he was going to die by falling rock.  “Really?”

Suddenly, he heard the call of the robin.

He was thrown clear as Cathleen appeared in a flash of light next to him and shoved him at full force.

The rocks crashed down on Cathleen.

Zachariah hit the floor safely out of the path of the boulder and gritted his teeth as the dust from the rockslide began to clear.  “No, God damn it!”

He scrambled to his feet and back to the mound of rubble, clearing a few large boulders, he found her.

The battle raged on but he couldn’t hear it anymore.

Cathleen lay amongst the rocks broken and twisted.  Blood oozed from her mouth.

One of her eyes seemed to be gone, just replaced by gore and torn flesh.  The other eye fluttered open.  “Zachariah…”

Zachariah started to cry, he tried to fight it but the result was blubbering sobs of pain and agony at what was happening because of him.

All he could manage between breaths was a question.  “Why? Why would you do that?! Why are any of you doing this for me?!”

She seemed to smile.  “Because…  Your name is Zachariah…  You’re a person named Zachariah and you are alive….”

He wiped his eyes and shook his head.

“Your name is Zachariah…”  She said it again.

His jaw worked and he choked back tears.

“Your name is Zachariah.”  Her breath left her.

Zachariah’s despair was filled with an all consuming rage.  “My name is Zachariah.”

A flash caught his eye and he turned to see Cathleen’s sword jutting out of the destroyed masonry.  It was somehow undamaged.  He grabbed it by the handle and pulled it out.

Zachariah began to walk toward the wyvern.  “HEY!”

He pulled off what was left of his floral shirt and tossed it away.  He wasn’t sure why he took his shirt off, but somehow it felt right.  “HEY, MOTHER FUCKER!”

Mel ran out of juice and fell to all fours, sweat pouring off his brow.  Zersch pulled itself out of the crushed stone, undamaged.  It landed on all fours with a crash and roared.

 Mel shook his head.  “Well, that’s it, isn’t it?”

Kahn sighed.  “Seems that way.”

“I said, ‘Hey’, you mother fucking dragon bitch.”  They all turned and saw Zachariah.

His pudgy belly exposed, very light patches of oddly placed hair showed up around his belly button and pecks.  His long hair was no longer in a ponytail, it curled around him. His saggy arms held Cathleen’s saber, ready for battle.

“That’s unexpected.” Kahn muttered with a confused look.

Mel made a painful face.  “Oh Zach, maybe we should have left the shirt on, buddy.”

Zersch turned to Zachariah, seemly comprehending the insult the beast roared loud and long.

“He’s gonna die.” Kahn said, watching.

“What is the deal with the belly button hair?” Mel asked, mesmerized.

Zersch began to charge on all fours, straight for the dishwasher.

Zachriah raised the sword above his head like a Samurai movie and charged the wyvern, yelling.

“Oh yeah, he’s gonna die.” Mel said as he and Kahn watched it play out.

Zachariah closed in on the beast and leapt at the nightmare with a final battle cry.

Zersch opened his jaw and snatched Zachariah out of mid-air in one bite.

Silence followed.

“Tawagoto.” Kahn muttered.

“I knew that was going to happen but I have to admit, I was hoping for more.” Mel said firmly rooted in shock.

Suddenly, Zersch seemed to cough, if a wyvern can cough.  He then hacked.  Then again and then again, over and over.  It began to choke and stumble around the spiraled floor before suddenly lurching upward and falling forward crashing to the ground.

Its head hit the ground and its mouth popped open.  Zachariah rolled out of the beast’s maw, covered in pink and red liquid.

Zersch wheezed and then the mighty evil beast stopped breathing, once and for all.

“You have got to be kidding me.”  Mel muttered, awestruck.

Zachariah began to pick himself up, staggering around dizzy and disoriented. Everywhere he stepped, he left a puddle of slime and blood.

Kahn and Mel ran over to him.  “Zachariah!”

Zachariah spun around, eyes wide and confused.  “What happened?!”

Kahn moved toward the fallen beast’s mouth while Mel went to Zachariah.  “You did it!”

“I did what?!”  Zachariah said, unable to focus his eyes.  “What did I do?!”

“You killed Zersch!” Mel yelled.

Zachariah looked at him confused, then turned and saw the wyvern.  He staggered surprised.  “I did?  Hell yeah I did!  How?”

Mel shrugged but Khan answered.  “The saber is lodged in the roof of the beast’s mouth.  You must have connected with its brain.”

Zachariah made a hard rock signal with his hands.  “Just like an alligator.”

Zachariah then fell backward to the floor with a squish.  Mel and Kahn looked down at the man who smiled back up at them.

Mel looked at Kahn.  “We should get him home.”

Kahn nodded.

“I’m not touching him.”  Mel said and she frowned at him.

“My name is Zachariah.”  The Rognaithe muttered.  “And I am alive.”

Zachariah is still alive and kicking!  Even better, he is officially a wyvern slayer, for whatever that’s worth!  Too bad to see Cathleen go but those are the breaks.  I hope you have enjoyed Season One!

Zachariah will return!

Stranger Things.

Till that day!

12- Spiral

12

Spiral

Zachariah heard the rumble from the beast below roar again and his heart ached.  “All I wanted to do was see it.”

“You are going to come with us now.”  Kyo stepped out in front of Zach and Mel.

“You don’t get it.” Zachariah said in response, slightly crestfallen.

There was no way that the ninja could understand.  He had lived his entire life in the company of the impossible.  Trolls and druids were common place in the ninja’s day. Magic was natural.

It was different to Zachariah.

Less than a day ago, he had been a normal loser; a dishwasher who couldn’t make a good relationship work and now resided in his father’s basement.

Now it was different.

Since this world had opened he had become the center of this universe no matter how strange and dangerous it was.  What was his life if the wyvern got him?  Just to be part of this was worth it.

“Screw it.”  Mel Suddenly chimed in and stepped between Zachariah and Kyo.  “You want him, you have to go through me.”

“What the hell are you doing?”  Zachariah asked, confused that his new friend would put his neck out for anyone.

“You want to see that wyvern?  You’re going to see that wyvern.”  Mel said with a stern voice.

Zachariah shook his head confused.  “Don’t do this, you don’t have to.”

Kyo just started laughing.  “Come now, little nex.  Step aside.”

“You know why I’m out here alone Zachariah?”  Mel asked as his body began to glow.

Zachariah shook his head.

“My father put me in that hole because I broke our family’s most sacred law.  My own father left me to die because of a stupid rule.”  Mel explained as his pony tail started to float in mid-air.

Zachariah remained silent just watching the dwarf build energy.  “Do you know what that rule is?”

Zachariah shook his head again.

“In the snow clan, it is illegal to learn or practice any attack spell.”  Prickles of energy that looked like lighting began to crackle and snap around him.  “But I believed, and still do, that some things are worth fighting for.”

Mel turned his head to look up at Zachariah.  “Don’t you?”

Zachariah nodded and smiled through his swollen lip.  “Let’s give them a shot at the champs.”

Mel turned and thrust his hands forward as a shower of lighting bolted from his hands, filling the staircase with blinding white light.  The energy crackled and sheered through the air, connecting with Kyo and sending electricity rocking through the ninja’s body. The blast sent him spinning through the air backward and upward, into the ceiling of the staircase before falling face first to the stairs.

“Holy shit!” Zachariah yelled.

Mel nodded like a bad ass while all the other ninjas watched Kyo twitch in horror.

They all then turned back to the would-be heroes.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”  Zachariah hooted and hollered.  “Alright Mel, light the rest of these bitches up!”

Silence.

“Mel?” Zachariah turned towards the short mage.

Mel shrugged.  “I can only do that once.”

The ninjas lost all fear and began to advance on Zachariah and Mel from all sides.

Zachariah’s shoulders dropped.  “Awesome.”

Everything became slow motion in front of Zachariah’s eyes.  The ninja all leapt into the air, each drawing different type of weaponry; short, katana looking swords, chains with knifes tied to them, throwing stars and daggers.

That’s when Zachariah heard a robin.

A robin in a cave.

Cathleen appeared out of thin air between the lead ninja and Zachariah.  All her tattoos glowed at the same time.  She was in full battle mode and about to go to war, and somehow the dancing runes of light made her…

…They made her horrible…

…She was beautiful.

Everything stopped being slow.  Things started happening very fast.

Cathleen cut off the first ninja, bringing her saber across the surprised warrior’s mid-section as he passed.  The ninja dropped to Zachariah’s feet, dead.

Cathleen turned at the second closest as he attacked with a slash of his sword.

She parried the blow with lighting fast skill and redirected her own blade, nipping the ninja’s jugular vein.  Blood sprayed from the ninja as he staggered and fell to his death.

Thorn covered vines exploded from the ceiling and walls of the stairwell and grabbed two more ninjas, dragging them down screaming.

Cathleen turned toward Zachariah with rage and determination in her eyes.

“Duck!” She yelled at him.

Zachariah just stared in awe at the blood bath around him.

“GET DOWN!” She yelled as she took three fast steps toward him as she brought her blade up.

Zachariah ducked and Cathleen’s blade passed where his neck would have been.  The blade connected with another ninja’s chest, a ninja who had been approaching Zachariah from behind.

Cathleen leaped over Zachariah and booted the ninja to the already damaged chest, sending him rolling down the stairs.

As she landed, she snapped her blade in a quick arc to knock two throwing stars out of the air before they struck her in the chest.

The ninja who threw them charged with a back-handed slash of his sword.  Cathleen ducked under the blow, drawing her own blade across his chest.  She spun as he passed her and slashed across the ninja’s back.

Blood was everywhere.

Suddenly Zachariah didn’t feel like the center of the universe, he felt like the reason people were fighting a war.

Cathleen spun as more ninjas flanked the three of them.  She took a deep breath and knew what she had to do.

“Jesus Cathleen.”  Zachariah said flabbergasted at the death around him.  “I mean… Jesus…”

Cathleen took four sprinting steps and booted Zachariah in the chest, sending him backward over the edge of the staircase and plummeting into the void.

Cathleen continued her forward motion and leaped over the edge after Zachariah.

All of the ninjas leaped over the edge after her.

Mel watched for a second, then shook his head.  “Fuck that noise.”

He then began to walk down the steps the long way.

One of the ninjas made himself into an arrow to fall faster and charge Cathleen.

She felt him coming.  Cathleen spun in mid-air and blocked the ninja’s blow.  She then thrust her blade upward into the ninjas heart.  She kicked the him off the end of her sword to finish his fall.

Cathleen suddenly teleported again, reappearing next to Zachariah.

He turned while falling and yelled.  “Why would you do that?!”

Cathleen grabbed him and teleported again, this time bringing him with her, sending the two of them back into the staircase fifty floors down from where they had started falling. Zachariah and Cathleen crashed to the staircase.

Zachariah clutched the stone stair floor, white as a sheet.  “I feel like I should be falling still.  Am I still falling?!”

Cathleen stood and turned toward him.  “Get up, no more running, no more excuses, no more tricks.  I’m seeing this through and so are you.”

She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled the much larger man to his feet.

Zachariah saw death in those eyes.

A chain wrapped around Cathleen’s neck and dragged her backward.  The ninja who had caught her was hanging over the edge of the floor, up and dragged the druid out over the void.  Locking his legs, he held onto her, trying to hang her.

Cathleen’s air supply left her.  She gritted her teeth and tensed her neck in order to hold out as she dangled.  Two more ninja leap onto the staircase on either side of Zachariah, who had a distinct ‘deer-in-headlights’ look on his face.

Cathleen reached up with both hands and grabbed the chain that was trying to kill her. Her arm and abdomen muscles tensed as she pulled her legs above her and placed them against the stone ceiling of the floor she had been on.  She steadied herself and pushed backwards swinging out over the void.

The momentum pulled at the chain’s holder, which made him shift his weight to maintain balance.  Cathleen swung back into the staircase and the force pulled the ninja above off his feet and sent him toppling over the edge.

Cathleen came swinging into the staircase at full force, putting both her feet into the side of one of the ninja’s heads, sending him flipping into the wall.

She landed and turned toward the other ninja who hurled a series of daggers at the druid.  Cathleen however, dodged all but the last one, catching it and hurling back into the ninja’s eye.

The ninja on the other end of the chain had other plans than falling to his death and held onto the chain.  It tightened around Cathleen’s neck again and she reached out in desperation grabbing the confused Zachariah.

As the chain ran out of slack, the ninja used it to swing into the floor below Cathleen and Zachariah, this pulled Cathleen who in turn pulled Zachariah over the edge of the staircase.

“NOT AGAIN!” Zachariah screamed as he tumbled into the void, yet again.

Cathleen had to act quickly.  If she fell past the floor below with the chain around her throat it would snap her neck.

She turned in as she fell and caught the edge of the banister on the floor below with both hands.  This action forced her to drop her sword into the void.

The ninja saw what she had done and released pressure on the chain to step in and try to kick her off the edge.  Cathleen had to take one foot off the edge to dodge the kick, and almost slipped in the process.

She managed to maintain her balance and came back with a right cross to the face of the ninja holding the chain.  He stumbled backward, but maintained the grip on the chain.  It tightened and Cathleen gagged again.

Zachariah watched Cathleen get father away and made weird desperate swimming motions to turn himself around and face the opposite direction.

He saw the floor rushing up at him… he was out of world.

Cathleen had enough of the chain.  She grabbed it and jerked on it with all her strength, pulling the ninja off his feet and sending him staggering toward her.

When he did, the chain went limp and she quickly grabbed a loose circle of it and lassoed the ninja’s neck.  She then let herself fall backward.  She tensed her arms to make sure the chain didn’t tighten around her own neck.

The chain went taut in a second.  The force of her falling tightened the links around the ninja’s throat and broke his neck.

Zachariah suddenly felt himself become lighter and the world stopped moving.  He landed on the floor gently.

He slowed his breathing.  Confused, he turned to see Kahn standing over him, mask off, bruised and worse for wear.  “You’re safe.”

A bigger lie had never been told.

He stood slowly looking around and seeing he was on a level stone floor at the very bottom of the spiral.  He looked up and could see the opening, miles above.  The light was dim this far down but he could see.

The roar shook the structure.  It was close this time, and Zachariah could feel it.  He slowly turned and saw at the other end of the floor was a giant open pit, easily the size of a football field.

The fight seemed far behind Zachariah, as well as all of his other silly little problems. The pit filled his mind, the pit and what was awakening inside.  “It’s down there, isn’t it?”

Kahn put her hand on his shoulder.  “Yes it is, and it is bound to you.  As you can feel it, it can feel you.  We must get you out of here.”

“I don’t think I want to leave… I…I…” Zachariah stammered to find the words as he could hear it breathing.

“You don’t have to-” Kahn was cut off as she was struck in the chest by Cathleen’s boot which sent the ninja two or three feet backward to the stone floor.

 “He isn’t going anywhere.”  Cathleen said as she stepped in between the ninja and Zachariah.

Cathleen had enough time after finishing the last ninja, to find her sword and catch up. She brought the weapon into ready position.

The surviving ninja landed behind Kahn, ready to continue the fight with their mistress, “Don’t presume, druid.  He is coming with me.”

“EVERYONE STOP!” Zachariah’s voice became intense and booming.  As un-threatening as he usually was, the voice stopped everyone and put all eyes on him.

“It’s my choice.” He said, breathing hard and sick of the death around him.  “It’s my decision… live or die.”

Next week:  Phew!  Who’s tired after that one?  It has all come to this.  Zachariah must make a choice to face the wyvern or to walk away.   Does he have the strength to do what’s right?  I wouldn’t bet on him.

Find out next week on the gripping season finale of…

Stranger Things.

TO BE CONTINUED….