The Fallen Akhu - Quest for Lost Lamuria

The Fallen Akhu - A Dark Fantasy / Thriller novel
1st Draft 19/07/2009

Prologue

         The quiet now was oppressive, for days the earth had convulsed in agony. Ancient beyond reckoning with roots that ran deep, the great forest had felt mother earth's pain and had wept. Explosions tearing at her flesh released waves of superheated gases, pollution fouling the air while deadly acid rained from the tortured sky.
         This was the beginning of the end.
         Black as sin, the night air was pensive and still, humid heat below a mass of chocking clouds that roiled like a mass of vipers. Far off to the west beyond the horizon thunder rumbled, great giants pounded incessantly on war drums half way round the world.
         Here was the calm before a storm to swallow the world.
         Creature’s large and small hide in their holes and not even hunger could move them this night. Deep in those dark, brooding pillars one was moving however. Staggering blindly through the undergrowth a man toiled. Moving east, his steps laboured amongst the slapping ferns and scratching briar.
         To the west the thunder continued, closer.
         Even from a distance his panicked sobs could be heard. Drenched in sweat, bloodied and filthy, his once fine clothes hung loosely on an emaciated frame. An unseen root sent him sprawling headlong, a cry was cut short as his head struck the solid bulk of a fallen tree. Within his heaving chest his heart hammered wildly and fresh blood soaked his lank, matted hair.
         Each tortured breath drank in the earthy aroma of the forest floor on which he lay dazed and exhausted. Clasped firmly still in his right hand was his people's last hope, the flattened oval of a midnight black substance as long as his forearm. Writing could be seen on its surface but didn't seem to mark the perfectly smooth surface.
         I cannot fail them, but knew he had even as he thought it.
         Everything he had known his entire life, his family. Great works of art and culture, the towering cities with their graceful lines and pillared colonnades. All of the wondrous accomplishments of his race, the people dead or dying.
         The unstoppable hordes were destroying it all.
         Trembling with far more than fatigue he climbed to all fours and peered west, he couldn't see it through the trees but he knew what was coming. His goal was too far, he'd not reach it before the end. With renewed urgency he began clawing at the earth below the massive trunk, his fingers bled, at their tips the nails tore.
         Clutching once more his charge he thrust it into the small hole and swiftly covered it. It wasn't enough he knew, what if it was never found? All would be for nothing. The thunder had been growing steadily in intensity and the first flashes of light could be seen through the leaves above.
         Too late, he hung his head.
         With enough light he could see a small clearing created when the forest giants had fallen. Slowly he walk around the trunk covering the stone to stand in the centre of the clearing, he'd go no further. Here he would see the end.
         Staring up into the churning soup of clouds, purple striations rippled through them and idly he wished just to see the stars once more. A sudden gust of wind moved him slightly but above the treetops whipped ever harder, even in the wind he scented death. The thunder continued to mount; even here he felt the earth tremble at its coming. As the lightning flashes approached ever faster he closed his eyes and waited to die. He absently thumbed his right first finger out of long habit and his eyes snapped open as he noticed his joining ring was missing. Unknown to him it had caught on a root while digging.
         Overcome by the loss of the last reminder of his wife he failed to notice the first set of glowing ember eyes closing on him. Realization came only once the stomach churning chittering began and he was surrounded. Little clicks and toks behind rows of jagged fangs. Hissing breaths, rancid and foul that reeked of corrupted meat.
         All thought fled as fresh sobs caught behind his clenched teeth and bile rose in his gut. His eyes remained tightly closed to what was to come. They would wait, these demons soaked in his fear, craving it as much if not more than flesh and blood. It intoxicated them, even arousing them with twisted lust. Beastly hooting in sadistic delight as long thin tongues flicked the air snakelike tasting his terror.
         Wrenching terror made his limbs spasm as long tongues probed and sliced at his body, his bowels loosened unnoticed. Driven wild demons spasmed an unholy parody of orgasmic delight, rasping breathing and scratching manic laughter. Beating wildly his heart stuttered, literally dying of fright as the fangs tore at his flesh. His last agonizing scream abruptly choked off as his throat was torn out.
         Dark, long limbed and clawed, evil needs sated as they devoured the corpse. Blood soaked the earth and such is the beast hunger they chewed this too. But the chittering had begun anew, tasting the air for a hunger never long satisfied.
         Unheeded above the demons the storm had arrived, a storm that now spanned the globe. Lightning discharged all around, demons exploded and the air stank of charred flesh and ozone. The air sizzled with energy and the earth shuddered in great booming roars.
         Demons fell about rending at each other in the confusion. Chain lightning struck over and over, and as the world burned tornadoes roared across the land sucking fire and earth into the sky. Oceans boiled, ice exploded as fire rained from the sky.
         Earthquakes devastated the land, volcanoes long sleeping flowed anew. Great swathes of land were swallowed by seas while creatures which only knew the deep found agonizing death when seabed’s thrust from below. Tidal waves swamped lands only stopping only at mountains.
         Protected under mounds of fallen debris the stone waited, the single ring with it possibly the last trace of a once great people.