Extinction Country’s Tempest: The Legend of Darger Latriost Bun
The Society On Da Run Issue #11: 11.11.11 Day Edition
By Nipaporn Baldwin
Published by Geppetto Garten/Nipaporn Baldwin at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 by Nipaporn Baldwin
e-book edition (smashwords edition)
11/11/11 © 2011 licensed CC-BY-NC
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Extinction Country Tempest
The Legend of Darger Latriost Bun
Rain coated the skies. Fire coated the land. Darger the Bunny led the rabbits to war. Swords high, the knights on their two feet, they charged toward the enemy. They are led by their respect for the Great Valley. In the skies the dragons went to war with unholy flying birds their size. Teeth, claws, fire and water. But this tale is of one bunny’s courage.
Darger lived in the great valley. His unyielding sense of adventure led him everywhere in the valley.
Kliest the wolf led a clan of animals, calling themselves the Cove of Despair. On the other side of the valley is the Rabbit Siege. They lived on fear and wanted the valley for their queen.
These clans clashed when Darger invaded their lands and they found each other to be pests with different beliefs. They fought hard, and both retreated.
Kliest’s clan became more of a formidable foe, taking other animals and gangs into their hands without woe. The Rabbit Siege had been a cult of birds, rabbits, and dogs and cats that had gone Garīgo. They took over half the valley, destroying and saving what they wanted. Darger ran into Pella and her group of renegade warriors. At first sight she hated him, for he was from Glasglow Isle, but she put aside the hatred. She trained him hard, made him her protégée, and mended him into a warrior of great skill and courage. Though just a bunny child, Darger took on the Rabbit Siege army and led them to their deaths inside a volcano.
He sailed back to Glasglow to see his family, but to his dismay they were all murdered. The whole family of 32 bunnies, dead in their blood in their underground cave. He screamed, his eyes red with fury, and found the enemies. They torched the forest, killed anything they saw with their swords. Darger, running mad on hatred, slaughtered them mercilessly. Decapitation, blows to the heart and a slash to the neck.
Darger walked from the fire, his tail half gone and his fur dirty. He felt empty. He sailed back to the valley on the tree-bark ship, and Pella took him to the Rabbit Hole. There he saw the world they carved. 3,000 years worth of work was all molded into the beautiful rabbit hole and the entire forest. The forest itself was a marvel, a haven for the inhabitants. But beyond them watched the wolf; one very wicked wolf.
She returned back to the Wolf Land Oswego and presented her findings to the Werewolf King. The wolves detested all the animals. They wanted them to suffer for banishing them. They wanted revenge on the Animal Court. So, one hundred wolves with sticks of fire marched to the Rabbit Forest. Jerr the owl reported his own findings of the army to Heisgen at the Bunny Tower. Heisgen alerted the Rabbit Queen, and she alerted Pella. Pella sent out warning calls and amassed her forces. Their armaments are swords constructed from metals and stone. When the wolves appeared in a glow of fire Pella led her rabbits to war. The small animals tackled the wolves with their size, not strength. It was fierce, each rabbit sending a blow to a wolf’s heart, all of them fighting but many lives lost on both sides. Darger fought the Wolf Queen. She snapped at him, he dodged and jumped high to send a blow to her head. The wolf wasn’t so stupid! She laughed as she kicked the bunny and tried to tear off his left arm. He was a resourceful bunny and managed to grab the sword and stick it in her nose. The Wolfess shouted in anger and retreated. Her job was done. The wolf clan set the Rabbit Tree on fire. The rabbits cried their loss, and sought revenge. The Wolf howled her victory atop their highest hill.
Darger saw everyone in pain, and saw the only way to defeat a wolf is with a dragon’s gem. So he set out to the Dragon Lands aboard a ship. Seven friends accompanied him: Sera the Wolfette, a child saved by Pella, Black-Bone the bunny, whom served many kings, Lavish the dragon, Kyle the Cheetah, Frida the owl, Clip the Bear, and the strangest of them all: Zero, a young adult deer. They all served a purpose, including the baby wolf. Pella herself joined them, as did her three warriors. The Rabbit magistrate set the boat aloft and they sailed to the Dragon’s land.
The land outside the dragon’s city was like hell, but there are no fires or charcoal rock. The city is nothing but houses, roads and cities. It was a village where humans lived in fear of the beasts. The dragons were everywhere. The band tried hard to keep straight faces, so they split up. All of them agreeing to meet at the same spot.
The Wolfette wore a cloake and saw the dragon High-Emperor. He spotted her and came at her with searing fire erupting from his mouth. She ran fast, and Zero stepped in to protect her. Lavish ran at the Emperor with claws and teeth tearing at scales, skin and fur! The dragon took her by the neck and threw her far. Black-Bone climbed atop a house and when the dragon descended, Black-Bone jumped atop the dragon’s head. He stuck his sword in the dragon’s head, causing it to shout its deafening scream. Kyle and Frida tackled the dragon. Frida clawed at it and Kyle leaped onto the dragon’s leathery hide to tear at it with his claws. The dragon shook them off and blew fire at them all. They were lucky enough to dodge. Darger ran at the dragon and leapt high. Frida came at the dragon to distract it as Darger found his footing on the dragon’s head. The dragon grabbed Frida by her talon and pounded her on the ground. Pella tackled the flying beast at his head.
Clip took some rope from a shop and tied it around the dragon’s snout. Frida squirmed herself free of the beast. Clip pulled the rope hard and dragged the dragon down. The beast overcame Clip’s strength and yanked the rope high, causing the bear to be thrown like a ragdoll.
The dragon beat his wings at them, causing a swift wind of air and as he ascended to the sky. He invited them to battle at his volcano. The invitation was well accepted. The group found it hard to navigate the tunnels of the cave and found the dragon awaiting them in a volcanic chasm. The dragon roared at them and Darger took the first hit. He charged and jumped, then Sera came after. They attacked with the methods of biting, clawing and dodging. Zero charged at the dragon with his antlers in great aim. Kyle disabled the dragon by tearing at its wing and bending it. Sera bit the dragon’s snout. In fury the dragon blew fire at them, but this caused his chest to be exposed and Darger took the chance. He leaped as high as he could thrust the sword into the dragon’s chest. They all stopped to watch as the dragon towered over and collapsed.
The dragon said them, “better to die at the hands of the enemy than to await my heart to stop,” so they all took it as a chance to kill the dragon Emperor.
But Lavish stopped them. “Let him live, the city needs him.”
Darger thought twice and complied. The dragon shouted in a fury of fire. The Wolfet seized his gem, and the dragon made all attempts to stop the group from escaping. He screamed a breath of fire at the pathway, and his fire nearly seared them. But the successors had escaped.
To Rabbit City they returned with the dragon jewel in hand. The best of the Creators welded half the jewel into Darger’s sword and the rest into his staff and armor.
The dragons gathered in the sky and fought the birds of Rabbit Siege for the final time. The Rabbits of the Siege marched through the forest, and the wolves on the same track. Darger and the Seven Friends stood at the bay of the city with Pella, the Rabbit Kings and Queen, and a thousand soldiers and Heigsen’s owls and renegade wolves as their aid. In a matter of seconds the kingdoms clashed in a climatic battle that changed all tides. Darger set his sights on the Wolf Queen, the female that manipulated the leaders of the kingdoms. Darger ran amidst the smoldering mist of fire, fighting soldiers and bloodshed. He tackled the Queen headfirst and struck at her with his sword. The climatic battle raged on as Darger and the Queen hit each other with attacks, biting and defensive maneuvers. As the dragons and birds fought, as the Rabbits and wolves killed, Darger plunged his sword into the heart of the Wolf Queen. She screamed in defeat, and there was a sudden cease-fire. All the animals looked on as the Queen stood on her hind legs and gazed at the moon and the setting sun. Darger used his sword to erase the Queen’s amulet into dust. She took her last breath as her eyes glowed yellow and with a final raspy gasp she fell and died.
Darger watched with a bit of remorse, then remembered everything the rabbits died for, and he stood in triumph as the tyrant was no more and the Rabbit Kingdoms lay free under the skies.