Another Short Piece, This One's About Saru!

Original Image: outbackencounter.com

The Cleansing:

      The world opened up, the ground falling in on itself like a giant black hole. The air carried vibrations on its currents, like a tuning fork had been struck by an angry god.

      Light was consumed by the ever-growing shadows that appeared to seep from the very fabric of reality itself. The only sound that could be heard was that of the rushing gusts of dust-filled wind and the slow, angry, growl of the planet as it tore itself apart. Apocalypse?

      His eyes held shock and sadness as he witnessed the destruction. An ancient being in his own right, he'd never witnessed such horror.

      When all was said and done, the planet looked like it had been devastated by a nuclear attack. Life had been almost annihilated.

     What caused this? What could cause the planet to destroy itself? Saru knew. Yes, he knew all too well.

      The Ancients. Their hatred for humanity was all the fuel and reason they needed to cause this type of devastation. The oldest members of Nebu Khet society. Ancient beings focused on preventing human DNA from intermixing with their precious blood. Fools! Saru knew what they did not, that his line carried human or sape DNA as well as Khet – and he was stronger because of it. In the 20^th century the increased strength, power, and resilience that Saru's clan carried within them would come to be known as hybrid vigor. Now, however, it might as well be called a death sentence.

      Saru kept his familial lineage a secret from the other khet. He was old enough and powerful enough to not worry about most of his kind trying to test him. He walked the planet, his feet covered in ash and grit. His silver eyes took in the devastation. Charred remains of humans and animals littered the landscape. The air carried the putrid smell of burnt flesh and destruction on its currents. He narrowed his eyes in anger as he approached his village. The first beginnings of sorrow knotted itself in his gut as he passed the bodies of several members of his clan. These were khet, like him. Their only sin against The Ancients was that they were either too young or too weak to defend themselves against the onslaught of chaos and destruction. His power flared to life. The muscles of his body tightened and pressed against his flesh like angry serpents sliding beneath his skin. White energy began to pour from his body in dazzling, angry, rolling wisps. His white hair, which hung in a long straight sheet down his back, fanned out as the eddies of his power caught it in their updrafts. Long crystalline talons slid from the tips of his fingers as the rage and grief held him in its grip. Blue flames began to dance along his arms and hands as he slowly began to hover above the dead, lifeless, ground that had once been fertile and fruitful. With a thought, he sent the flames to envelope the twisted, charred, corpses of his once beloved clan. The otherworldly flames burnt every carcass till they were nothing more than sooty outlines on the scorched ground that dissipated as the wind brushed over them. 

 

      Saru hovered twenty feet above the earth. His eyes had become pools of pure white light. He looked like the god that many of the humans thought him to be. “Saru...” Her voice brought him back to his senses. He looked down to his right at the woman staring up at him. 

 

     “Don't let them win. Don't let them make you vengeful.” Her voice was soft and pleading, yet it held within it a power that matched Saru's.

      “Ché.” His voice was hoarse and raw with power, “You're alive.” 

 

      “As are you, and most of the older members of our clan.” Her eyes, never left his as she continued. “Come cousin, there are those that need us. Those that need you and your insight.”

     He knew that the oldest members of his race were thinking about a cleansing, an ancient practice of decimating the human or sape population. They wanted this planet for themselves and didn't like it when the humans grew their numbers too fast or too large. They feared that humans would eventually find a way to destroy them and they didn't want to be usurped by what they considered to be an inferior race. He knew that they had been talking about it, but he never imagined that they would go through with it. He had pleaded with them to not go through with it, and they had told him that they would consider his words. Obviously, they'd considered them and then chucked them to the side like garbage.

      As Saru allowed his energy to carry him towards the ground he thought to himself about the ways that he could make sure that these acts of evil and violence could be stopped. In his mind he heard his cousin say, “They'll be stopped Saru, one day. We'll make sure of it.”

      A deadly promise was hidden in the depths of her eyes as he returned her mind-talk with his own. “Yes, Ché. Yes, they will be stopped.” A malicious grin spread out across his face as he continued, “And I'll be there, making them scream for mercy.”

      His cousin matched his grin with one of her own. “As will I.” She said out loud.

      The two supernaturals walked through the destruction that was once their home and helped those that still clung to life. Their promise for revenge stored away in the backs of their minds for a future date. Their enemies had no idea what they had helped to create by destroying what both Saru and Ché held dear. Yes, thousands of years would go by, and more destruction would happen, but The Ancients had just signed their own death warrants.