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Stories / Stories / James Sterling Scott / Text 4 of 4 / Heritus And Quelis Continued

"Heritus And Quelis Continued" by James Sterling Scott

SF&F Picture 4 out of 4 by James Sterling Scott

The story of Arleana and Marsulis continues his story during the final moments of his life.

Heritus & Quelis Continued

        Drahun children carry with them the memories of there mothers. In a certain macabre sense one could even look at the Drahuns simply as humans transformed by the dragon taint Nolan Aldemere put into the blood stream. I wonder how the world would be had Marcus never pursued Maritiv to the Scurlian caverns. Quelis would later inform me of how she slowly hunted down and slaughted the remaining captives in the caverns over a period of months. She grew stronger with each new victim that fell beneath her talons.

        At last after the final human had been slain nearly half a year after her birth did she finnaly spread her wings. The young Quelis was in no rush to escape the confines and protection of the Scurlian caverns. While the dank caverns may have been her home she knew she needed to leave if she were to find the food needed to survive.

        Through her mothers eyes she had already seen the world outside. Through her mothers memories she already knew our language even if she was not very well practiced with it. Quelis even knew who her father was and where he could be found.

        Her homecoming was anything but welcoming. Quelis simply did what came natural to her. She snuck into histent at the Aldemere camp late one night with nothing but the intention of finnaly meeting her widowed father. Alas Marcus was alone no longer. Another woman now slept beside Marcus in the bed he once shared with her mother. Wether it was because she felt her father should bed with nono other or because of the memories Nolan passed to her I do not know but fire and death swept across the Aldemere camp that night.

        Talons tore through steel armor like a knife slicing through butter. Iron tipped arrows bounced harmlessly off her diamond hard scales. Wings lifted screaming men women and children into the skies before she let them plummet hundreds of feet to there deaths. Crushing jaws splintered and shattered bone as she bit into her prey bathing in there crimson blood.

        When at last her rampage subsided only Marcus his mistress and a few lucky families survived. Quelis had far greater torment in mind for the woman that had stolen her mothers bed and the husband that left his wife to rot in the bottom of the Scurlian caverns.

        For weeks Quelis stalked the camp. She coward in the shadows watching and waiting only showing herself when she needed to fetch a new meal. Merila was the first woman of hundreds that Quelis would impregnate in her lifetime. The female Drahuns are not capable of producing there own young. They are born with a foot long hollow bone strut underneath there wrist. During one of there four mating cycles each year they capture human females. This veiny black hollow shaft of bone extends from a small hole along the underside of there right wrist. They insert this foot long bone shaft slowly through the breast plates of there captured females untill the very tip pierces there preys heart. A vile green liquid is spewed from a small hole in the tip of the bone letting the Drahuns vicious taint spread painfully through the heart of the victim before it eventually spreads through there blood stream. The magical energy inherit in there flesh heals the wound as she retracts her bone back into her arm.

        Quelis infected Merila with her taint before letting her return to the Aldemere camp and her new husband Marcus. Had Merila never again lain with a man indeed she could have lived a near eternal life thanks to the taint Quelis had placed in her blood. When they discovered she was with child indeed it had been a day of celebration throughout the encampment. On the day of her delivery Quelis was overjoyed that her revenge would finnaly be served.

        Quelis was there watching from the shadows of the large main tent. Outside rain poured down apon the earth pelting the canvas with it's droplets. The midwife ran out of the tent screaming in horror when she saw Merila's chest explode in a mist of blood as the birthing Drahun stretched it's wings inside her womb. The midwife ran screaming from the tent as the life drained from Merila's face. When finnaly the Drahuns escaped it's prison of flesh from inside her body Marcus collapsed onto his knees in terror and sorrow.

        It was then that Quelis revealed herself to her father yet again. Her slightly slurred speech drowning out the sound of the falling rain. "It'ss time for you to atone for your ssinsss father." His tear covered face glared up at her his eyes full of disgust. "And what of your sins monster? When will you atone!" A grin spread across her lips as she spoke. "When ssomeone ssstronger then myself deccidessI must." The sound of steel rang across the tent as the guards at last arrived. Quelis prepared to defend herself but Marcus ensured she didn't have to. He drew his own sword plunging it into his own chest. The guards fled into the night never to be seen again. Perhaps Quelis hunted them down I do not know.

        She took Merila's corpse back to the Scurlian caverns along with her newborn son Bendigo...the first male Drahun. She raised him there teaching him to fly and hunt despite the fact that she was only a few years old herself. When he turned fifteen he set out on his own leaving Quelis by herself in the Scurlian caverns far to the north in the swamps of Sofilwind. She would not hear from him again for over a century. She lived alone keeping to herself for all those years. Bendigo however kept himself rather busy in the lands of Man.

←- Heritus And Quelis | Elundi Chapters 1-4 -→