A Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts Chp 6

A Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts Chp 6

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Commissioned by Citino

Wordcount: 2500

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There is no justice, glory, nor honor in war.

It is a heartless machine brought to life by those with power. The method for which countries seize more influence and wealth, through the acquisition of land and resources. Kingdoms, empires, and nations husband the lives of their citizens for the sake of creating a body of people from which to draw strength. 

Such has been case for all of human history. 

Periods of peace, periods of violence, and periods of advancement born of either victory or loss.

Whether through spears, swords, or bullets, humanity wages wars, take lives, and commits horrors for the sake of gaining more power for those who rule over them. 

The soldier who is praised for his valor, prowess, and selflessness is merely a cog in a greater machine. His mind has been shaped, altered, and guided towards the singular path of believing that he is a special existence, trained and ready for battle, and in the right, despite standing with and against those who believe the same. 

The machinations of those with power, ceaselessly ravenous in their greed, will weigh their levies of flesh against one another, until the other is vulnerable, no longer capable of fighting, and bereft of the support that brought them to power. 

Blood and bodies in innumerable amounts flow in this world for the same reason. 

Oases dot the Great Dessert, as well as territories rife with monsters whose bodies sell to neighboring empires, or are coveted within the Tribes themselves. The As’Kari did not acquire their territory peaceably. There is reason that they have many warriors, grand veterans, and a herculean leader who crushes monstrous creatures with his bare hands. 

Kan’Is is a kind man, but the truth remains that he has culled weaker tribes, gained notoriety, and is hated by many others in the Great Dessert. Everything that the As’Kari has is a result of violence, destruction, and pain of others. He elevated the Tribe from a sickly, small tent city wandering the Dessert for dregs of others, but making many enemies, crushing many lives, and bringing despair to those who once reigned supreme. 

I cannot stop what is happening, despite all my influence, contributions, and abilities.

The Shu’Ann rules supreme in matters of war. Each one leads their tribe, judges the matters of war, and decided how battle is waged. Kan’Is will have his lead fallowed by all the others in in council. His power is not to be questioned during war, under the pain of death, by those of immense property and power in his council. 

An orphaned child, even with as much as I, cannot hope to even question his decision to wage war… let alone not utterly crush attack sent against the As’Kari by the Tribes they’ve harmed in exchange for their prosperity.

All I can do is wage war as I can. 

And, save as many lives as I can.

Both of the As’Kari and the enemy.

…

The attack was chosen at an opportune time for battle. The night sky was clear and all the moons in the sky shone brightly, covering the sands in silver light, until not even a single torch was necessary. 

Chaos was rapidly spreading across the encampment.

Those who led normal lives amongst the As’Kari did not live within the giant beetles that carried the tribe through the desert. In vast arrangements of tents of every size and shape, they congregated, traded, and lived peaceful lives tending to the herds of gigantic creatures that sustained the As’Kari. They spun silk into reams, fashioned clothes, and produced food either through their herds or through forage. Simple, honest folk who lived out their lives in peace… if not for the horrors of war. 

Flames suffused the outer edges of the city. Flaming projectiles set alight the homes of multitudes, even as throngs sought the shelter provided by the soldiers and greater houses. The din of clashing steel, roars of rage, and screams of fury raged through the night, punctuated by shrill screams and cries of the innocent. 

It was a battle bereft of machine-gun fire, the din of rolling tracks, and the distant thump of artillery… yet it was a battle nonetheless.

Yet, this time I was gifted enough power to alter it’s outcome, even if only slightly.

My descent into the frontline did not go unnoticed. A few soldiers of the As’Kari took note of me, cried out my name, and redoubled their efforts, thus more than a few enemy soldiers went my way, seeking to destroy me as to dampen their spirts. 

With a gesture, I sent forth my threads, even before my feet reached the ground. The deepest depths of my body burned, but I cared not for the cost. I unwound and rewound the bandages I had at my disposal into tools to bind the soldiers who were not of the As’Kari. The silvery threads arced and sped beneath the moonlight like gleaming spears, before curling around the legs of those who fought against guards, as well as those who rushed toward me. 

I bound together their legs in an instant, making the fall and writhe in surprise.

They all struggled, but none had the sufficient strength to unmake their bindings, before I dragged them all to my feet, far from opportunistic attacks, and the flames that ravaged the silk tents around us. Three dozen men, garbed in cloaks which melded with the sand, struggled in my grip, until I bound their arms and gagged their maws. I cocooned them in silk threads wound upon one another countless times, before binding them together, as they lay upon the floor. 

Once they were incapacitated, I turned my gaze, and conducted triage.

Those who lost limbs and those who were disemboweled deserved the swiftest of treatment, so I set about both my fishhook needles, as well as my straighter implements. The cost they incurred was akin to an inferno raging within my bones, even bringing the sent of iron within the depths of my nose, as my heart began to heat up and beat faster than I’d ever considered possible. 

Yet, it was a small price to pay for what I managed to gain.

Arms and legs were returned to their masters by silk threads, before silk and steel intertwined their flesh together. Innards found themselves pushed in, before the holes from which they sprung were sealed. Those who wounds were to grievous couldn’t be aided, but I did what I could, so they could at least be given hole to their families for their funerals. 

Screams and cursing followed in the wake of my actions, and infection was still possible due to the lack of poultice or medicine, but in the battlefield, it was more than most could ever manage. 

Especially when one considered the speed of my actions.

I grafted back limbs which were hewn from bodies, patched up stomachs, and stemmed the bleeding of over two dozen men, before those who fought for the As’Kari even reached me.

Awe filled their eyes, but I had no use for the respect that they sent my way, because if they stayed they would only take more lives. 

Live which I ished to save.

“Take the wounded and head to safety. These men are my prisoners. Treat them as such. I will hold the line here.” I brokered no words with my argument, as I met the gaze of a man decades my senior. However, the turban-clad man merely nodded at my words, before commanding the rest of the soldiers to do as I’ve instructed. “I will hold this place, but call for others to come. I will not last the entire night.”

A few smiles were shared amongst the warriors at my words, possibly at my overconfidence, but I simply chose to walk forward towards the outskirts of the burning sands around me. 

Their thoughts mattered not.

Only my actions from this point onward would.

…

Those who attacked bore no symbol upon their bodies, nor did they have distinguishing traits amongst them. One and all, they appeared merely of the same stock as the rest of the humanity that dwelled within the Great Dessert. Tanned skin, distinguished noses, and wispy hairs upon both their faces and scalps. 

Yet, despite their common features and lack of heraldry, they were armed with weapons composed of steel, given wood to make bows and arrows in the harshest of desserts, and not a single one of their number seemed weak, let alone malnourished. 

The strongest I faced, who broke through three bindings before I halted him with the remains of an entire tent, was half as large as Kan’Is, which meant he towered over me, even when brought upon his knees. His eyes were sharp beneath a bare brow, and a scalp bereft of hair, and his face was covered in small scars from multitudes of wounds that did nothing beside scratch the surface of his skin. 

The man was undoubtably a Shu’Ann, yet he had led a disparate rabble against the As’Kari, fighting as warrior, instead of commanding and leading as a chieftain.

“Hah, so the As’Kari have more fearsome foes than the monster who leads them.” His gaze was not upon me, but what I wrought during my assault. Systemically, with as little err as possible, I seized control of my immediate vicinity. As one would move to claim a square upon the chessboard, I laid claim to the entirety of the battlefield which I found myself upon. “We ought to have killed, as you sought out the most terrible of beasts to make your playthings.”

The silken bonfires were quenched by the sand. A frosty, chill breeze swept the ashes and sand, glittering in the light of the moons, as I stood before the leader of all my captives. They surrounded me, forming a line of bodies that framed the path between myself and their leader. An audience of soldiers whose bodies were unharmed, spared from the destruction of war, looked upon me as I met their leader’s gaze. 

“But you wouldn’t have, because that would have made you the enemies of all tribes. Then, no one would’ve have risen against the As’Kari in your name.” Honor. Tradition. Legend. Each one is merely a method to instill within the hearts of man the urge to fight. Pretty stories and ideas, which lead lives to ruin, harm, and terror. Perhaps the man before me did not know the reason behind the varies rites, passages, and virtues espoused by the tribes, but if he followed them, he propagated them for the sake of their purpose. “Now, tell me who fed you, armed you, and brought you and your kin against the As’Kari. Tell me, for I am trusted, and you will be exiled by my command, if your words are found true.”

“Ah, so that is why you bound the ears and mays of my men. If I lie to you, then you’ll know from them, until they all speak.” A cunning mind dwelled within the man before me. He grinned as he spoke, nearly savoring the words that left his mouth. I stood before him without a word, awaiting an answer, which I hoped would come. He bared his teeth to me in a too-wide smile. “But, boy, you’ll have nothing for me. I’ve nothing to live for, besides the downfall of the As’Kari. The same goes for all my men, and all those that fought tonight.” He strained against his bindings, dyeing scarlet the edges with his blood, as he tried to rise against his bindings. “The As’kari will fall, if not by my hand but by that of others!”

His rebellious yell reached the ears, hearts, and minds of the men he led. Each one in turn struggled at the sight of their chieftain’s actions. 

Until all were smothered by Djet’Is’s sheer power.

Sand and ash alike roiled in her wake, as though a storm had descended upon heaven. Posts which withstood the ferocity of fires cracked and broke in her presence. The greatest fell slowly to the noise of groaning wood, into useless great, charred hunks, while their lesser kindred simply broke into useless splinters. Men who strained until they bled against my bindings quivered, their resistance ebbing away like a wave retreating from the shore, and through my threads I felt their hearts stutter and nearly cease.

I turned to face her, as she loomed over me in all her glory and might, while the leader of the men gasped for air. 

“You protect them? These insolent brigands who have killed so many of my people?” Blood covered her body. Naught a single inch of her unarmored form was left unstained by the blood of others, while her cords of muscle and physique were all coiled and ready for battle, barely withheld by reams of silks. Her scarlet haired flowed in the wind, the stains and moonlight, giving her a mane of flames with a blackened core. In her right hand was an axe that writhed, skittered, and hungered, even as its maws ripped at the flesh of her previous foes. It was larger than I, yet she held it like a toy. “You fought them, healed their wounds, and took not a single life, while the As’Kari struggled against their comrades, losing not only our soldiers, but children and those who cannot fight!?”

The men surrounding me saw a monster unlike any other. A beast which already outstripped her father in power and strength, despite her youth and her continued growth. She is the creature which will take on all other tribes in the dessert, bringing it all to heel, as her father and family dreamed of doing. She shall be the spear tip, which will carve into history a vast nation born of blood and sand. 

A terrible fate for such a kind, caring woman who simply wanted to see her tribe happy and at peace… to the point where she would willingly give it to the strange, ostracized child that her family was forced to raise. 

“I have no desire to kill others, Djet’Is, and I never will.” Both my mind and body told me to grovel and beg for forgiveness. Instinct and logic both quaked and supplicated in her terrifying presence. Yet, I grasped onto my soul with all my memories my previous life, and gave an answer while all others could merely stand in silence, or stay alive in her presence. “Not even now.”

At my answer, her left hand flashed forward and ripped from my shoulders my cloak.

“Even when you have been harmed? When your life is risked!?” Djet’Is’s roar was a pitiful one, filled with the inability to understand, as she looked upon me with the eyes of a leader willing to commit any atrocity for the sake of her people. I met her gaze with one of understanding, as I called my cloak back to me, and to hide away the wounds I’d incurred from battle. More wounds which will turn to scars, yet I will bear every scar my body could hope to have, if it meant a life in exchange for every single one. “Answer me—

“Yes.” I declared, as I matched her gaze and waithood her power, even whilst my body shook and my mind wavered. The fire within my bones threatened to reach a crescendo, while my blood ran hot, and the taste of iron filled my maw. Red threatened the edges of my vision, while heat streamed down my cheeks. Nonetheless, I remembered the horrors of war, and utterly rejected them. “Even at the cost of my life, Djet’Is. Always. For all whom I meet, including you.”

This is a world of monsters, slaves, and warrior-kings. 

A world where violence reigned supreme. 

To instill upon it a fraction of peace, I will pay any price.

Even the angry tears of a former friend.