Bryan Perro - The Mask wearer

The farther Amos walked, the more he thought about what the woman had said: One often finds eggs where they are the least expected. He stopped in his tracks. What if the pendant stolen by Yaune all those years ago contained a rooster’s egg? That had to be the reason why the magician of darkness wanted so badly to get it back! The pendant itself did not possess any magic or evil power. It was simply the wrapping that protected the egg. The first owner of the pendant had wanted to create a basilisk. It made total sense: this magician commanded an army of gorgons, and wanted to add to his ranks a monster capable of destroying an entire regiment in the blink of an eye.

Amos concluded that the enemy of Bratel-la-Grande exercised power over all living creatures, near or far, who were related to snakes. He had to be malevolent, treacherous, and very dangerous. Beorf was in great danger, and Amos wasn’t sure how to warn him.

– 9 BEORF, THE GORGONS, AND THE NAGA

The gorgons were in hot pursuit of Beorf. He ran into the forest, his head lowered as he tried to avoid the nighttime obstacles.

The first two days following Amos’s departure had been quiet for the humanimal. The gorgons concentrated their search in the city. In his hiding place in the forest, Beorf slept and rested in anticipation of the difficult nights to come. He also pondered at length the best strategy of defense against the invaders. The main idea, simple and efficient, was to get rid of the gorgons one by one.

Beorf perfected dozens of traps and set them everywhere in the forest. He guessed that after several nights spent uselessly searching Bratel-la-Grande, the monsters would inevitably begin to comb the surrounding areas. The gorgons would find various trails-all his own-and would follow them to try to corner any fugitives. The humanimal had purposely left footprints in the fields and in the forest that led directly to the traps.

So as not to be spotted when going from trap to trap, Beorf morphed into a bear. The gorgons were looking for the thief who had stolen the pendant, a human. Not a bear! These creatures would never imagine that the animal and human were one and the same.

One moonlit night, as the gorgons followed Beorf’s footprints, three of them encountered quicksand. Hidden from sight, the humanimal saw them disappear into the ground.

“Minus three!” he shouted.

Meanwhile, another small detachment of gorgons found itself in the clearing around his old burned-down house where he kept his beehives. Beorf ordered the bees to attack. The insects swarmed together to form a huge cloud above the gorgons and swooped down on them at full speed. Petrified in flight by the gaze of the monsters, the bees fell from the sky like a torrent of stones and pierced the gorgons’ bodies. The insects had sacrificed themselves, allowing Beorf to get rid of five more gorgons.

Soon Beorf noticed that the gorgons’ wings enabled them to glide for short distances, but that the snake-haired women were unable to truly fly. He imagined another ambush.

Ditches encircled the tilled fields around the city. These were filled with water through a dike; the water was used to irrigate the farmers’ land. Aware of this, Beorf dug several large holes in the fields and covered them with twigs and hay to hide them from view. The following night, eight gorgons fell into the holes. Beorf opened the dike. The water flooded the ditches and holes. All of the gorgons drowned.

Tonight Beorf planned a different snare. He had raided the knights’ armory and had planted spears into the ground and hung sabers and swords from tree branches. The only way to avoid these sharp blades was by using a particular path through the branches. Since the gorgons attacked only at night, Beorf had all the time he needed to conceive and set his trap. He trained all afternoon to make sure he knew how to escape the blades. The moment of truth was not far off now.

Beorf could hear the gorgons approaching. He couldn’t run fast on two legs. At least his snare wasn’t far off. He just had to maintain a good speed to save his life. Out of breath, he took the safe path through the branches. The gorgons, on the other hand, didn’t suspect what awaited them and entered the forest of blades at full speed. It was a success! Not one gorgon survived.

Pleased with himself, Beorf returned to his father’s library-his main hiding place-to rest for the remainder of the night. He opened the trapdoor, went down the rungs of the ladder, and looked for his lamp of fireflies. Instead, a red light flooded the room.

Seated at his father’s desk, a bald man was looking at him. His luminous eyes were a pale yellow, with elongated pupils that dilated and contracted constantly. Scales covered his hands, arms, and neck up to the back of his head. Beorf noticed that the man’s eyebrows joined together above his nose, just like his own. The man’s nails were horribly long, and a forked tongue came out of his mouth, which was filled with pointed teeth. His bare chest displayed strong muscles, and he wore dozens of gold necklaces adorned with precious gems around his neck. He also wore two large shiny and gilded earrings. Legless, his body ended with a very long, gray, snakelike tail covered with black spots.

Beorf tried to flee at the sight of this monstrous being. But as he turned on his heels, he was caught and immobilized by the man’s huge snake-tail.

“Ssss, you already want to leave, young friend?” hissed the snake-man. “It’s very, ssss, impolite to rush off without letting me, ssss, introduce myself first.”

The tail relaxed its stranglehold on Beorf, who turned around to face the hideous intruder. Beorf was shaking.

“Good, ssss, you’re a courageous boy, ssss, it’s very good. My name is Karmakas, and I traveled far, ssss, to come here. Don’t be afraid, young friend, I don’t want to, ssss, harm you. Like you, ssss, I am what humans call a humanimal. I would not hurt someone of my own race without good reason. You seem surprised to see me! Ssss, is it the first time that you are in the presence of another member of, ssss, your species?”

Unable to utter a word, Beorf nodded.

“It’s very unfortunate, ssss. Do you know why humanimals like us disappeared one after the other? It’s because humans hunt us. Humans are, ssss, jealous of our gift, ssss, jealous of our power. Me, I am a naga. Which means in, ssss, ancient parlance, ssss, a snake-man. You are a beorite, a bear-man. You have power over, ssss, bees and some other insects. My power, ssss, is over every crawling, biting, and venomous animal that slithers. I control the gorgons because of their hair. But I have to tell you a secret that, ssss, you may already know. I am also a powerful magician.”

Beorf took a step back.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m a nice, ssss, sorcerer. I hurt only, ssss, those who hurt me. I turn nasty only, ssss, when someone is nasty to me.”

With a shaky voice, sweaty hands, and a pounding heart, Beorf interrupted the sorcerer. “Then why did you change all the dwellers of the realm into stone with your army of gorgons? You wanted to get your pendant back and punish Yaune the Purifier, did you not? So it wasn’t necessary to injure so many innocent people to satisfy your thirst for vengeance!”

Karmakas laughed. “You are a smart beorite! I think that snake-men are wrong to think that bear-men are the lowest members of the humanimal race. You’re not as stupid, ssss, as you seem, ssss, big fat bear. The inhabitants of this realm were turned to stone because they trusted, ssss, a thief and a murderer. I’ll tell you my version of the story and you, ssss, will understand. I was living peacefully in my hometown, ssss, a large city that no longer exists today. In the middle of a stony desert, ssss, the nagas and the men who resided in the city lived together in peace. We were craftsmen and our skill, ssss, was to work gold. We also had mines and a lot, ssss, of wealth. Men grew jealous, ssss, of our riches and called on the Knights of Light, ssss, to exterminate us and steal our property. Fortunately, the gorgons, ssss, came to our rescue, but, ssss, too late. My wife and my fifteen children, ssss, all of them nagas, were killed by the knights. Yaune the Purifier is the only knight who managed to survive. And do you know why? Because during the final battle against the gorgons, Yaune was, ssss, in one of our temples stealing our riches. If he had participated in the battle, he too would be dead, ssss, petrified by the gorgons. The pendant belongs to my people and I’m here, ssss, to take back what was stolen. That is all, ssss. Creatures of my race, those who, ssss, survived, wanted to take revenge on men and make them pay for their, ssss, avarice and their failure to accept creatures that, ssss, do not look like them. Didn’t the Knights of Light, ssss, kill your father and your mother because they were different?”