Chapter 1: Shepherd
In the year 32:
Shepherd Fortress
Sunset approaches Shepherd’s Fort. Orange skies, with tiny regular litters of cloud closely packed, hiding the rest of the sky. Then wind whistles through the cracks and holes in the broken fort’s broken large-brick walls. There lies a feeling of regret in the air.
A man named Chester, in a gown of leather stands on the top plank with a creature inside a crate around a hundred meters tall and ninety wide. “Let me know when you’re guilty, I will use my sword and make it quick, or, we could do this the hard way.” Chester knocks his ‘box’ with a smirk on his face, surrounded by a red beard and red hair.
Meanwhile, on his knees, kneels a man with a black beard and hands tied together, skinny everything and pale skin. Looking down with a dark look on his face, he says, “I did what I had to… to protect people. The same people who turned against me, turned into worse monsters than the ones I had to kill to save humanity. So, go ahead, open the crate. Because monsters kill, while royal monsters fear to get their hands dirty.”
“Okay, then.” Says Chester. “Let the hound loose on my command!”
“What are your last words, old man?” Asks Chester. “My last words are, I regret my actions today,” He says, “I regret that I saved you, you fucks. I REGRET THAT I DIDN’T LET THEM SKIN YOU ALIVE, AND USE YOU AS THEIR DAMN CHEWTOY! I will come back. And I promise you, I WILL MAKE YOU BEG! THOSE are my last words, little kid.”
“RELEASE THE TARAKCYS!” Screams Chester. Then, rapid rattling of chains shoot into everyone’s ears. Nothing in the box yet. A second later, a high pitch squeal harmonizing with a loud hiss slithers down Shepherd’s spine, straightening it. An enormous webbed human paw with sharp ends and slimy colorless goo all over it smashes through the crate. With an eyeless face and bent knees, in its own time, it leaves the box. Looking at the chunk of mutton in Chester’s hand. He chucks it at Shepherd and turns away.
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Even Shepherd begins panicking. As the tarakcys moves towards him, the size and threat of it becomes clear. With an eyeless face, it slowly sniffs out the path of the mutton and follows it. Two nostrils on the right of its face, a horn ten meters tall, growing out the back of its head. Another ten-meter tail on it. A minute later, it reaches the mutton. Shepherd begins screaming for help while the beast is only a meter away from him, sniffing his body from the nostrils that are almost as big as him, seemingly made of stone.
He begins shuffling the rope, trying to slip out of them. Slowly,the tarakcys opens its mouth and gives out a sickly happy hiss. The smell of rotting meat hits him with the hot air. The rope loosens, now he begin squeezing his hands through the hoops of rope. His hands plunge out of the rope. He swings around the pole and leaps ahead letting his left-hand lead him. But before he knew it, the tarakcys takes a bite. It slices right through his left hand.
In the tarakcys' mouth, shepherd screams with blood gushing out of his left arm. The mouth like a room as big as a small bedroom with a low roof. A tongue hard and bumpy. As he screams, he notices saliva gushing out of large holes. It fills up the mouth until the tongue. Shepherd holds his breath. Then, the tongue tips over and the saliva forms a small surfing wave, pushing Shepherd over the tongue into the mouth of the pipe.
Outside, Chester turns back around. He calls the tarakcys back into the cage. It takes a step then stops. Suddenly, it's neck curls up tight and the tarakcys begins making noises of choking. It dives onto the fort's roof floor and punches it repeatedly. Suddenly, cracks begin to creep towards each end of the floor. Chester panicks and hugs a pillar as tight as he can, wrapping his legs around it too.
One more punch and, rumbles and sounds of cracking limestone surround everyone. Suddenly, bam! The roof falls through. So does everyone on it.
Ten seconds later, they hit the floor. The tsrakcys, with his mouth open. Chester, paralyzed and the executioner with a shard of glass stabbed through his eye and out the back of his head.
The tarakcys stops breathing. But it begins moving. And slowly, a human head pushes out of the mouth. A female human head. Out crawls Shepherd with the hair of the head tied around his arm to stop the bleeding. His skin looks different. It looks to be...
...turning into stone