Episode 8 : The Valley of the Id - Part 3

 It was a humiliating defeat that the young Captain Astorias, the Lion of Arvon, would never forget.

 He was born into a noble family, and since his first battle in the fifteenth year of his age, he has done many deeds of valor, and has even earned the nickname "the young lion of Gora. He was pursued one-sidedly by Shem, a race of dwarfs not half as great as theirs, and savages who had never even heard of the crossbow, and he was forced to gather his troops and fall as a blue gleam.

 Under the helmet Asturias's fair face grew paler than paper, and he bit his lips and beat the saddle with his fists more than once. But it was too much for the pride of the Mongol nobility to allow him to fall into Shem's hands here.

 Shem and his men did not try to annihilate the Red Knights, who were falling with their hearts set on a later date, and the Arvons, who were now down to less than fifty cavalrymen. No, the chiefs wished to do so and jumped up and down with their bows, but the leopard-headed warrior, who was now looked up to by Shem as the god of war himself, stopped them.

"Why stop, Guin?"

 Istvan was not happy either.

"Let's show Mongol what happens to those who follow us without knowing their own fate by sticking the head of that cheeky little nobleman in the sand with a dead branch."

"Well, you'd better."

 was Guin's reply.

"Why?"

"Lord Astorius comes from a distinguished family, and is a young nobleman who likes the Grand Duke of Vlad, and his father, Count Marcus Astorius, is the Grand Duke's right-hand man and the pillar stone of the Torus. If you kill him, Mongol's revenge will be fierce."

"Yes, you did."

 A little wilted, Istvan said, and then suddenly turned his eyes.

"Hey, Guin. I thought you lost your memory. How do you know about Torus when even I didn't? You're a dumb son of a bitch, you know that?"

 The mercenary looked creeped out and tried to get away from Guin. Guin made no reply.

 The sand was stained with the blood of the two armies' victims. Lothor, the great chief of the Rak, approached, pushing aside the sodden corpses. Linda and Remus followed him, and Lothor, his head adorned with a feathered headdress, and his figure covered here and there with whitened bristles, was full of dignity even for an ape-man.

 Roto graciously stepped forward in front of Guin and Istvan and struck them on the head. When he looked up, there was a glow of admiration and deep wonder in his eyes.

"O brave man!"

 In a high-pitched, Semitic voice, I say it as gravely as possible.

"The god Alfetu has sent you to the desert. The bow and arrow of Raku are yours."

 Behind Lotho were five petty chiefs lined up in a row. They bowed their heads,

"Liard."

 We chorused together.

"They call you Leopard Riad. You are the son of Alfetu."

"Hey, it's the son of a monkey god!"

 Guin stopped the impudent Istvan from shouting in a fit of giggles.

"My name is Guin."

 Says the gravely voice.

"Thanks for helping us out, man."

 Roto waved his hand hurriedly.

"You have saved my grandson, Liard."

"Suni is your grandson?"

"Yes, the fourth. We went out to gather herbs for a desert festival and were caught by a black devil who came across the river Kes. The black devil stripped us of our skins and squeezed our blood."

"It's all right now. Guin killed the demon that lurked in Castle Staphorus."

 Linda, who was staring at Suni, hand in hand, assured him. Roto shook his head.

"After the black devil, the red devil comes over Kes. Why don't the devils let us live in peace?"

"I see you were not part of the great advance on Staphorus."

 Guin said. Roto nodded.

"Rak likes peace. The sign of the council of chiefs came to him from the chiefs of Karoi and Glo, but he refused. Raku's wish was to escape trouble, not to become trouble himself to get rid of it."

"Castle Staphorus was destroyed, and tens of thousands of Shem and Mongol lives were lost."

 Guin said dreamily.

"Rak welcomes you and your noble companions . Liard the Brave. --Stay in the village of Rak forever."

 Istvan speaks in a complaining tone.

 But Guin seemed to have other things on his mind.

"It's good to know that the Rak love peace and don't like to fight unnecessarily. But there's one thing that worries me... the white knights who broke away from the army and headed for the Kes River. I killed one of them but I lost the other. If I'm right, one of them may have already crossed the river and entered Alvon Castle by now, and they may have formed a new strike force against us."

 When Roto delivered Guin's words, there was a visible uproar among the petty chiefs.

"So that's all of Rak's total strength?"

 Guin asks.

"No way. The Rak are the largest tribe in all Shem, and all Shem are warriors, women and children. If you call together all the men who can fight, not just the old men and babies, the total number of Rak would be nearly 2,000."

 Only at the number "two thousand" did Roto revert to Semitic and say "two tentacles of the Ringworm of Kes". Guin nodded, thinking it was two thousand.

"Two thousand?"

 He said thoughtfully. Linda, Suni, Remus, and Istvan looked up at Guin like a group of children waiting for their father's words. Guin's yellowish eyes are fading, and he seems to be lost in thought.

"It's Leard."

 Roto stepped forward and touched his firm arm.

"I fear it is not right for you to remain here long. Much blood has been spilled here. Not long from now, the smell of it will bring gluttonous biteguiners, sandhills, bark beetles and many other things."

"Oh--I almost forgot."

 Guin nodded and stood up.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

"To the village of Rak?"

"No."

"Guin--?"

 Linda makes a surprising sound.

 With a soothing nod,

"I've been wondering about that white knight who ran away. Chief, I'm sorry, but I need 50 of your young warriors. I'll scout them out and enter Raku's village later."

"As the brave man commanded."

 Roto got his head bashed in.

"Whoever you choose."

"I want the children to rest in the village first."

"Well, Guin, I, Guin can't be--"

 Linda is about to complain. But..,

"Soon. We'll find out what's going on and we'll be there soon."

 Guin soothed her, placing his large hand on the girl's slender shoulder. Linda shook her head, but did not dare to intervene. In truth, she was as exhausted as mud from her peril.

"Hey, I hope it's okay for me to go with you. I don't understand a word you're saying and I don't want to get eaten by a bunch of monkeys."

 Istvan shouts. Guin was about to object but changed her mind.

"Is there anyone who will scout the Red Devil's castle with me?"

 Shouting in the language of Shem. Fifty young and vigorous little monkeys lined up at his word. They're already tired from the battle, they're not wounded and they're as full of energy as if they'd just come out of a bed of straw.

"Leard, make them what you want them to be."

 Roto said. Guin nods.

"Soon, we'll be in the village of Rak."

"Welcome, you can't have a black pig, but you can roast some sandhill meat and wait for me."

 Istvan closes one eye and shouts. Roto and the others were startled.

 Guin and Istvan seized two of Mongol's horses that had lost their masters, and replaced their swords with ones that were still sharp. The fifty Rak youths who followed him were given poisoned arrows by their companions on their way back to the village. Just as they were about to leave, Linda suddenly ran out and clung to Guin's horse's bridle.

"Take me with you, Guin."

 A small, sunburned face with a desperate expression on it.

"No."

 Guin said curtly.

"Why not?"

"Of course. You look like you're about to fall. You have the soul of a true warrior, rare among men, but your body is but a little girl. Go with Suni into the village of Rak and rest."

"Guin I have a bad feeling about this. It's not necessarily a bad one, but it's a bad one that I'd rather avoid. Hey, Guin, please. Take me and make me an eye that can see through the darkness. With me, you'll be able to see what's beyond before you turn the corner."

 Guin pondered. This time Linda could see that Guin was seriously considering it.

 But when he did make a decision, it was a decision that disappointed Linda.

"No, no."

 He said it clearly.

"Not the worst," you say. Well, then, with my power, my planet, and this strange knowledge in my head that I don't know where it comes from, as long as I behave properly, we'll get through this. Don't worry, Princess. I will go to the village of Rak."

"All right, Guin."

 There was no point in crying foul. Guin had made up his mind. Linda's shoulders slumped as she realized this, but then it occurred to her,

"Then I'll just tell you what I see. Good, Guin, listen to me. "Okay.

 It goes like this. Be more careful on the way home than on the way there. And be more afraid of what you can't see than what you can. What seems like bad luck is actually good luck, but you have to make your own way to it.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"That's more of a saying than a prophecy, Princess."

 Istvan interjected teasingly.

"--Okay."

 Guin taps Linda on the shoulder.

"We'll be careful."

 He promised to hold her soft, warm shoulders in his stout hands. Linda's worries did not seem to be allayed, but she moved back to remind him to be careful.

 It was time to leave. A small detachment of fifty Semites, led by the two horsemen Guin and Istvan, rode west, while the rest of the Semites and the Twins rode east. On their way back to the village, Lotho and his men brought their comrades who had been wounded in the battle with the Arvon soldiers inside the ranks so that they could give them a shoulder to lean on. Those who were badly wounded were carried on a stretcher made of fur and a bowstring. However, only those who could be restored to their original state with medical treatment were taken away.

 Those who are badly injured, or those who are likely to be crippled even if they are healed, are left with the dead. It is a ruthless way for the barbarians of Nosferus to survive. The nature of Nosferus is harsh and food is always in short supply. Those who can't fight or who can't benefit the tribe in some way don't deserve to survive. And soon, all the strange and fierce carnivorous monsters of Nosferus will end their suffering by burying their dead and wounding their wounded on the sunlit rocks.

 Linda shuddered softly. She loved Suni, and she had no objection to having the Rak as her friends, but she couldn't help thinking.

Well, how lucky I am that I wasn't born in the wilderness of Nosferus.

 The column started moving left and right.

 The sun is high in the sky, and the smell of blood is being blown in all directions by the dusty winds of Nosferus. The wounded are groaning, the horses are whinnying, and when you look up at the sky, there are angel hairs floating in the air, crashing into your face as if in terror, and then melting away like a fleeting dream or light snow.

 The elite of Shem who had been guarding the tail end of the line called out the name of the god and ran. Guin and the others looked back and saw. The sand had risen into a hideous shape and a mouth full of vicious fangs peeped out of it.

"Riyolat."

 A young man of Shem who was walking behind him pointed to him. The gluttonous Bitsuig'eater of Nosferus snatched the corpse of the Knight of Gora into his red mouth and sank back into the sand.

 Not long after, a white, disgusting tentacle, known as the tentacle of the giant anteater, came out of the sand and snatched the corpse of a Semite. And one more.

"Lal."

 The young man says. Nosferatu has started its brutal activities.

 By night, the corpses lying there and the blood stains would be gone, and all that would be left would be the same sea of sand and rocks, and there would be no way for people to find out what had happened to each other.

 There was no need to linger. The gluttons of Nosferus never know when their ferocious hunger will finally be sated. Once the dead and the badly wounded are taken care of, we'll smell the live bait. Roto gave the order in Shem's language. Raku and his men will retreat as soon as possible.

 What Linda saw at last was a band of half-beast, half-human warriors led by a god of war, vanishing like a distant mirage over a sea of sand filled with monsters.

 Guin didn't even look back. He did not seem moved by the gnashing of the teeth of the gluttonous bitgutters, by the hair-raising sounds, by the crunching of bones and the chewing of flesh from bone, by the noises that made him want to cover his ears.

"We're too late. We may have fallen behind, so hurry."

 He said a few words and hurried the horse in the direction of the Kes River in the west, the direction of Alvon's tent from which he had escaped just yesterday.

 They did not need to worry about the Semitic youths who followed them on foot. The desert was their land, and their feet were fit to walk in it. Without delay the fifty elite of Raq followed behind the two horsemen.

 A little more than a dozen yards away, Guin narrowed her eyes.

"Stop."

 I command you to bark. Even the best-trained troops under his command did not do so quickly, and Sem and his men stopped and waited for orders.

"What's wrong?"

 And Istvan. Guin pointed beyond the rocks.

"They're the remnants of Asturias."

"You're still wandering around here. All right, let's do this one at a time."

"You're a short-tempered man."

 Guin growled lowly,

"We're fifty cavalrymen away from the main army now. Don't forget that. Let's go around. Get to the rocks on that side."

"That's not funny."

 Istvan blurted out.

 But then he suddenly changed his mind again and smiled.

"Naa, Guin."

"What?"

"It's a strange story, just a moment ago, you and I were tired fugitives, chased by Mongol's pursuers, with only two swords and a bunch of lame kids.

 And now you're giving orders to 50 monkeys like that's what you've been doing all your life. Hey, Guin."

"..."

"I think, whatever it is you're looking for, Landok or Aura, with the two boulders in my hands, your predecessor must have been none other than the king or the grand marshal of that country. If not, I will burn your leopard head to a crisp."

 Guin didn't answer.

 Their party, to avoid detection by the soldiers of Asturias, made a great detour, and ascended a craggy mountain. And the juice of the herbs which they sprinkled on the ground drove away from their path the sand-snakes, the sand-worms and the carrion mosses.

 Soon they had a good position from which they could look out over the desert from the top of the cliff. All that was left to do was to follow the rocks and watch the scene below.

 Below me, I could see the defeated troops of Asturias fleeing towards Arvon. The proud Red Knights, who had marched proudly through the wilderness of Nosferus with more than two hundred cavalry, now looked a sorry sight. Their horses are wounded, their armour is torn, and the wounded are moaning incessantly.

"Almost there. You're almost to the Kes River. Hang in there."

 Asturias constantly raised his voice to scold his men, but his voice was often choked and muffled, and was often muffled by the moans of his men who had reached the point of exhaustion and disappointment.

 When he saw this, Asturias took advantage of the horse and went to the front of the column, and then to the rear, and tried to unite and encourage the men himself. He had only just turned twenty, and his pride was badly wounded because he had never before suffered such a merciless defeat, even in a small battle, in his life. It was he himself who needed consolation and encouragement most, and yet he kept running back and forth, looking out for the threatening Shem behind him, for the fallen, and offering his own canteen to ease the wounded man's pain. This was the spirit of the young, proud, upstart Gora himself.

 Fortunately, there seemed to be no sign of the ape-man tribe, who were vindictively pursuing the miserable defeated soldier, and Alfetu, in the form of a sand frog, the god of the desert, seemed to pity the miserable young nobleman. nor any other dangerous plant or animal.

 Even Asturias could not have imagined that a Leopard-headed madman astride a horse and a black-robed mercenary, accompanied by fifty Semitic youths, were staring down at him with glowing eyes from the white cliff above.

 Swords without sheaths were dragged and struck against the rocks, making a clattering sound that irritated those who listened. The faces of the knights, their cheeks raised, were soaked with dust and stained with blood.

 Some of them, unable to bear the weight, threw down even Gora's helmet, and clung to the neck of the horse without strength. Asturias, seeing this, and knowing that if an arrow were to fly at him from behind he would be in danger, turned the horse over, picked up the headpiece with the point of his bow, and moved it back to give it attention and put it back on its head.

 That's when.

"Captain ... that."

 The Polack on his right arm pretended to wither as he entered while he still had some energy left in him to follow Asturias' horse.

"You can get that at ...."

"Oh--?"

 Asturias blinked his hazy eyes. He could not keep his eyes open because of the dust in them, and even when he looked in the direction Pollack was pointing, he had only the vague impression that there was a haze all around him.

 Asturias lifted his cheeks, pulled off his chain-knit gloves, and rubbed his eyes carefully. His eyes twitched violently, but then slowly came into focus.

"Captain--!"

 Pollack whispered again. This time there was a germ of something that could be called a stern joy in his voice.

"Stop--stop!"

 Asturias licked his chapped lips and gave the order. Suddenly his heart began to palpitate violently. He clapped his eyes again and looked at the unbelievable vision that had spread out there, as if he wanted it to disappear if he believed in it carelessly.

 And I saw it.

"--Polak."

 He says in a hushed voice.

"Captain!"

"Pollack . --go."

"Okay, sir!"

 Pollack's loud voice. He suddenly lashes out at the horse and starts running.

 Asturias looked away, breathing on his shoulder. Suddenly, in his humiliation and anger, the sweet hope of mad revenge and humiliation flooded his heart. It sent strength into his limbs and poured new life into them.

 His youthful face flushed bright red. He stretched out, watching Pollack finally be sucked into the mirage, fist-beating the saddle jar and shouting.

"Leopard-headed monster! Black-robed traitors and vicious barbarians, the apes of Nosferus! Behold, your fate is at an end. Soon Nosferus will be a no-man's-land for all intents and purposes!"