CHAPTER 5

[Zabutur]

CHAPTER 5: KIDNAPPING THE PRINCE
Lucius, along with Remus’ crew approached the home of Hyrem Westfarthing by ship, since there was a river that ran almost right by their home. Since Clazmars obtained things by ‘stealing’ them, the king of the Clazmars (Henam Westfarthing) lived just like an ordinary villager, laboring with his own hands and stealing his own things, rather have others do it for him. Everybody loved the Westfarthings, for like the gods, they required minimal appeasement: simply follow their few rules. Stealing things was tolerated, since the term ‘stealing’ almost literally is used for ‘borrowing’.
According to Remus, in order to kidnap Hyrem without any resistance, they would simply have to pass him out. Kada, having lived since the very end of the 1st age, knew the best technique, so she was sent to perform it. The rest of the crew was watching from the bushes nearby. It worked perfectly. Kada had stolen one of Hyrem’s possessions, and deliberately made sure Hyrem saw her. (“Even a Zabutur couldn’t be that obvious!” whispered Koara) Kada returned the object to Hyrem and apologized. It looked like a small mirror. She embraced Hyrem and then hastily passed him out.
Now that everyone Remus wanted for his crew was present, (Hyrem was still unconscious) he told them what the purpose of the voyage was: he had found the island of Nacreloo, and had secretly seen what she was doing: she was making an army of her own. Her warriors were all women, and looked like the titans except their clothes were different—they were grey. Moreover, their skin was a very pale brownish-grey and they had glowing dark red eyes and wild-ish hair. They had fierce expressions on their faces, and on their right hands was an “N” with a curve from the bottom-left corner going towards the right that made it look like a backwards ‘y’: the symbol of Nacreloo. All of these creatures were chanting and shouting loudly. There were soldiers and warriors of every kind out there, including lancers, axmen (and women), archers, sensei, and of course, swordsmen. Some of the soldiers had their weapons out; others were fighting against each other. There was far too many to count, but since there was blood everywhere and several hundred weak-looking Tenscimors lying dead on the ground, he assumed that they were killing off the really weak ones. Swords, axes, and lances were going into other Tenscimors’ necks; chests, and limbs, slash marks were appearing all over their faces and bodies, and elements of all sorts was hitting Tenscimors of all kinds.
“That’s what we’re up against.” Remus finished, “We are going to seek out something far beyond the imaginations of the enemies; they’ll never expect it. We are after the Crest of Zabutur. And in order to kill two Zabuturs with one stroke, we plan to spy on these Nacrelooites and see what they’re up to.”

(the end of page 29 and part of 30)
~Z~

[Zabutur]

(the rest of 30 and half of 31)

“So why did you kidnap that Westfarthing kid?” Zadenek asked.
“You know what,” Remus exclaimed, “I didn’t have any good reason; now forward!”
Suddenly, a bizarre phenomenon occurred, though it was not bizarre to Zadenek and Teoma—they had seen it before.
An angel with neck-length, bouncy curly red hair, clad in white, complete with wings and a halo, appeared in front of them. Lucius looked upon her with a look of two old friends reuniting.
“It’s a miracle, that’s what it is.” He exclaimed,
“No,” said Teoma smartly, “It is Miracle.”
Indeed it was. The feminine touch to the group that had been hotshots during the Day of Darkness (after all the group consisted of six men and one woman) was again with them. Back in the day, she had been a water sensei who had worked with them, and therefore she had an affinity for the substance.
“It’s been a while,” she sighed, “but I managed to convince the gods to let me visit you all again for a time or five.”
On Mencu, it was not extremely rare that an angel would return to Mencu from Lautia, the realm of the gods. It was a very complicated process to explain, and how exactly it worked was known by none save the gods and goddesses. Often times, they would go by linking their fates to those of another. Miracle had done just that, linking her fate to those of Zadenek and Teoma, thus fulfilling a prophecy (about her return, not her linking fates) she had made in the year 4425. She explained this to them. They wanted her to elaborate on the Day of Darkness, but Miracle refrained—she said that some people might not want to relive those times, so they would wait for privacy. The Day of Darkness was one that had happened on the 16th day of the first month of the year 4425, so it was but a few months previous. The reason few people know about it was that it was erased from their memories by the gods, who saw it was one of the worst times, in a long time. Miracle Lyautey had been one of the many that had died that day, and she was one of the popular ones. She planned to go on about this Day of Darkness—she just never said where or when.

~Z~

[Zabutur]

(31 into 32)

“So why did you kidnap that Westfarthing kid?” Zadenek asked.
“You know what,” Remus exclaimed, “I didn’t have any good reason; now forward!”
Suddenly, a bizarre phenomenon occurred, though it was not bizarre to Zadenek and Teoma—they had seen it before.
An angel with neck-length, bouncy curly red hair, clad in white, complete with wings and a halo, appeared in front of them. Lucius looked upon her with a look of two old friends reuniting.
“It’s a miracle, that’s what it is.” He exclaimed,
“No,” said Teoma smartly, “It is Miracle.”
Indeed it was. The feminine touch to the group that had been hotshots during the Day of Darkness (after all the group consisted of six men and one woman) was again with them. Back in the day, she had been a water sensei who had worked with them, and therefore she had an affinity for the substance.
“It’s been a while,” she sighed, “but I managed to convince the gods to let me visit you all again for a time or five.”
On Mencu, it was not extremely rare that an angel would return to Mencu from Lautia, the realm of the gods. It was a very complicated process to explain, and how exactly it worked was known by none save the gods and goddesses. Often times, they would go by linking their fates to those of another. Miracle had done just that, linking her fate to those of Zadenek and Teoma, thus fulfilling a prophecy (about her return, not her linking fates) she had made in the year 4425. She explained this to them. They wanted her to elaborate on the Day of Darkness, but Miracle refrained—she said that some people might not want to relive those times, so they would wait for privacy. The Day of Darkness was one that had happened on the 16th day of the first month of the year 4425, so it was but a few months previous. The reason few people know about it was that it was erased from their memories by the gods, who saw it was one of the worst times, in a long time. Miracle Lyautey had been one of the many that had died that day, and she was one of the popular ones. She planned to go on about this Day of Darkness—she just never said where or when.
**********************************
About 3 days later, they hit the coast of Nakreelia, Nacreloo’s island.
“Koara,” Remus commanded, “see if you can find the cave with Orsciment.”
“Orsciment?” exclaimed Koara, confounded.
“The Crest of Zabutur,” Remus answered, as if this was ridiculous. “This so-called object we came here to seek”
“Aye,” Koara replied, and ran off.
“Novembre, Decembre, and Hyrem: go and find out what the Nacrelooites are doing. The rest of us will watch and guard the ship.”
“Shouldn’t you send more people to find the cave than just Koara?” Lucius asked.
“No, her sense of direction is excellent.” Remus responded, “After all, I would trust Koara with my life. But then again, I guess Tera Zakatau can go with her.”
“Aye,” Tera answered, saluting, and she ran off after Koara at unnatural speeds.
“Kada and Teoma will be our primary defenses.” Remus continued, “Andraz, Knefy, you join them. Mateo, Zadenek, and Zak, Raun: you all are secondary. Miracle, if you would like to, you could occupy the crow’s nest, or be our lookout. As for me: I shall be front of the line with my brother Lucius!” Everyone, including Miracle’s angel, saluted and got in their positions.

~Z~

[Zabutur]

(32-33)

Meanwhile, Novembre and Decembre were leading Hyrem over hills and into valleys to where the two of them recalled the Nacrelooites were.
“Come on, young prince.” Decembre called, “Those creatures are restless.”
“Odd are they will be in Krawvill in about 3 days.” Novembre added; the three of them continued running until they crossed over another hill. On the other side were thousands of warriors, chanting, hollering, and shouting.
“Are those them?” Hyrem asked,
“Aye,” The twins whispered back; and indeed, they were right. They were all there, chanting and shouting: “Nacreloo! Nacreloo,” They were female, and whenever they bred with Zabuturs, there were the same result: all the men were Zabuturs and all the women were Nacrelooites. (More along the lines of: the men were called Zabuturs and the women were called Nacrelooites) They were equal in ferocity, and had a tendency to kill off the weaker ones off. A few seconds later, Hyrem discovered why they were chanting. A man that looked like Lyacs had appeared. The color of his clothes looked like an overcast evening—dark grey, and his skin was a pale brown. It was Zabutur himself. Hyrem could tell this was Zabutur because he had what looked like blood dripping down across his forehead, and he had a glowing symbol on his hand. Hyrem’s unusually keen vision had enabled him to notice this, as Zabutur was over 100 feet away. However, what Zabutur was doing with a bunch of Nacrelooites Hyrem did not know. The Nacrelooites did not seem to understand what was happening either, for they started chanting again. Suddenly Zabutur held up his right hand. On it was the jagged ‘Z’. He showed it to the Nacrelooites and they all went quiet. Then he began saying something in a language that Hyrem could not understand, and the Hyrem realized what Zabutur must have been doing: he was stirring up his daughters to war. Then it hit him: although Kada Lahka had cut down Zabutur, the supposed ‘essence’ she had taken was nothing. Somebody, presumably Nacreloo, had revived him. However, Zabutur suddenly did something most unusual: He got his hair, stuck it in his mouth, and blew. A strange noise came from it, and several Zabuturs appeared behind him.
“So why did we come here?” Hyrem asked,
“For one thing,” said the twins, “we know that Zabutur had never actually died. Another thing: these Tenscimors look oddly familiar—almost as if they have been banished here.”
Tenscimor was a term used to describe Zabuturs and Nacrelooites when they were together. Hyrem would have liked to stay and see what else they were up to, but Novembre and Decembre pulled him back.
“Come on,” they whispered, “We’ve seen enough. If they see us we’re all dead.”
The three of them ran back to Remus’ ship to bring him the news.

~Z~

[Zabutur]

(33 and most of 34)

Since both of them had elite senses of direction, Tera and Koara found the cave without any difficulty. “Do you want to keep watch?” Koara asked,
“Of course not,” Tera answered firmly, “If you die, I’ll die alongside you.”
“I figured as much,” Said Koara, “alright then; let’s go.”
The two women went into the cave. Koara pulled out two glow stones and rubbed them together, handing one to Tera once they lit up.
“Stay low.” Koara warned, “There should be lots of clues on how to reach this Crest thing, because the Zabuturs are so stupid.” To a degree, she was right. However, the clues became harder and harder to interpret as they went along. They passed a certain rhyme that stood out in Koara’s mind, so she quickly and quietly stopped and memorized it. Tera stopped to see what it said, and gasped at some parts. However, she did not make any of this known. Koara intended at least to remember it until she saw Remus again. They continued through the cave using only their glow-stones, as their light source until they came to what the last message said was the end. When they got there, they were downright shocked. There were two paths in the road, one going left and the other going right. Between them was a message that was very well written, which said: You’ve come so far and now you’re through, and your reward will now await you. The crest of me was just my schemes; the truth of it is not what it seems. I’ve lured you here to meet the beast, who from your body will make a feast; the way to beat it is not a fight; just use the elements such as light. Now whether or not to believe it’s true: believe and it might benefit you. However, it’s unimportant now; why can I say that— here is how: Since now that you are trapped in here, prepare to learn the term called fear.
Then it struck Tera: this was not a Zabuturian cave, but one used to lure their enemies into it. After all, there had been a time when this cave was the hype of all legend, many yeas ago. Apparently, this cave was the lair to some Zabuturian or Nacrelooite monster.
“Koara,” whispered Tera, “are you light on your feet?”
Koara, realizing what Tera was up to, nodded.
“Then put away your glow stones…” Koara put them away before Tera even finished her sentence. She put her ear on the rock and listened. She heard a rumbling sound and slowly looked up. To her and Tera’s horror, they saw a pair of glowing red eyes. It was not a Cripizord, as they had thought, but it was the 10-feet-tall mother Cripizord, the original ancient creature that Nacreloo had created to fill the realm of Krippa. Where the name Cripizord came from is not known, but there are parts that are known to come from different languages. Krippa, their homeland, easily was the origin of the first part, and that was a Tenscimoric term. The last half was a cross between Koldian and Clazmaric words for ‘beast’. Tera however, thought fast. She grabbed her 13-foot-long hair and, using it like a whip, hit the opposite side of the monster’s face. Since it was pitch dark and the only light came from its own eyes, the monster blundered off in the opposite direction.
“Clever.” Exclaimed Koara, “You’re a crazier kid than I thought,”
Although Koara did not see it, (as it was still pitch dark) Tera put her hands behind her back and tapped her toes against the ground.
“Well, it was only luck that my hair was long enough,” she muttered,
Koara put her ear on the stone floor and listened for the rumbling sound, and heard it fading away. “Let’s get out of here before it comes back.” She suggested;
Therefore, they pulled out the glow stones again and raced out of the cave. Tera waited until Koara was far ahead of her, and then she began running swiftly and gracefully towards the exit. She caught up with Koara about 10 yards from the entrance, so the two of them just walked the rest of the way out. Soon they were on their way back to Remus’ ship.

~Z~

[Zabutur]

(page 35)

When they got back, they found Hyrem, Decembre and Novembre waiting by Remus’ ship.
“We know what the Zabuturs are doing,” Novembre announced;
Everyone gathered around to listen.
“Zabutur is stirring up the Nacrelooites to battle.” Decembre revealed;
“Judging from what I saw, they are bent on coming to Krawvill in about 4 days.” Hyrem added,
“Hold it,” Remus exclaimed, “you mean Zabutur himself was there?”
“Aye,” Hyrem replied, “only he has that glowing icon on his right hand.”
“Well,” said Kada, “sorry if I lied. I mean, when I but him down, he was not moving, not breathing, none of that. I was pretty sure he was dead. He even went cold.”
“Did anything else happen?” Remus asked,
“Well,” said Kada, “after that, the only thin I noticed was that the titans were significantly weaker later on, and that Zabutur had disappeared. It was theorized that Zabutur, Nacreloo, and the titans were somehow connected, but no one ever found out.”
“Interesting,” Remus commented, “very interesting…”
“But yeah,” said Hyrem, “that’s pretty much our story.”
“Very good,” Remus replied happily, “I knew I could count on you three.”
“We have discovered the truth of the Crest of Zabutur.” Koara warned, “It is a hoax. Zabutur and Nacreloo can only be destroyed by elements such as light. That was the message we saw in Zabutur’s cave. We also saw a riddle about those elements.”
“What is it about?” Remus asked,
“It said: monumental powers are in their hands, the one who saves then travels many lands. This ‘perfect person’ knows no more, as they lost their mind at age 10 and 4. Yet some may call themselves the one, the perfect person is no mortal man. Have Zabuturs do as they please to bring the titans to their knees. Nine of the 10 stars do already kneel, and soon the 10th will have the same feel. Whether to fear your friends or fiends will be known when you know what ‘terror’ means the one who know this secret is the one: the perfect person with deeds to be done.” Koara replied, and everyone stopped. This must have been what Koara had stopped to memorize, Tera thought.
“What does this speak of?” Remus asked. Lucius turned to Tera. “Do you think you could interpret it?” he asked her.
“Aye,” Tera answered, nodding. She thought for a minute and the suddenly gasped.
“It speaks of many things.” She replied, collecting her self, “‘They’ in the first line is speaking of the titans, since their power is vested in their right hands, the prefect person…” she paused and looked around. “I don’t care if none of you believes it, but I think that the ‘prefect person’ part is referring to me. I have traveled many lands, and I really did lose my memory at age 10 and 4: 14. Notice how it said ‘age 10 and 4’ and not ‘ages 10 and 4’. That is how it said 14. The perfect person is no mortal man; I am a woman. Seeing, as I knew the true meaning of the message, I believe it speaks of me. However, if any of you know of someone else who fits this description, tell us so we can seek them out.”

~Z~

[Zabutur]

(page 36 and 37 up to the end of the chapter)

“Aye,” exclaimed Zadenek, “so you would rather not think it was you then?”
“To be completely honest,” said Tera, “I’d rather it not be. I mean, that sounds like a lot of work I don’t really want to do.”
“Aye,” Teoma added, “most people would have made a joke about that.”
None of them knew it, but Teoma’s remark had a deeper meaning than what first met the eye. Tera did not recall, but when she was born (no one remembers the day of their birth) her parents had really and truly named her Tera Kyla Zakatau to poke fun at something they had heard about. However, that’s another story.
Clazmars had a tendency to be honest and believing, and since the rhyme was referring to Tera according to what it had said, they had no trouble believing that it was Tera. At the very least, they were going to believe it was Tera unless they found another candidate.
“What about that part about the stars?” Teoma asked,
“It speaks of the titans.” Tera answered, “9 are captured, therefore brought to their knees and the 10th one, Lyacs, is getting hunted down. As for the part with fiends, friends, and terror, that is talking about Rorret, the secret little domain underneath the ground somewhere. Rorret is simply Terror spelled backwards. The two who live there have been on their own side for a long time; several ages if I’m not mistaken.” Everyone remained silent.
“So it is you?” Lucius asked,
“Only if people say I am.” Tera replied, “And of course, if you find someone else suitable for the job, I’ll be sure to let them know”
“Aye,” said Andraz, “that works for me, Kai. And besides: we’re Clazmars, we’re not supposed to care if you’re lying; we’ll believe it anyway.”
Everyone laughed at this, even Tera and Miracle. Andraz, Knefy, and Mateo would still sometimes call Tera by the name of Kai, since that had been their first impression. Surprisingly enough, Kyla being Tera’s middle name, for all anyone else knew, it was just a short way of addressing Tera by her middle name.
“Now that we have come and gotten what we came for, we must return to Krawvill.” Remus declared.
“Aye, aye, sir,” everyone shouted, and directly after this, everyone got back on the ship and returned to his or her post.

~Z~

[Zabutur]

and that concludes chapter 5 for now.

questions, comments, etc. can be placed here or in a new thread.

~Z~