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!