Such Limited Imaginations

By Daniel Fellows

“Such limited imaginations,” he thought as he watched the savage Unmann tearing heads off the fallen Britanans. Malrecha observed the battle from the safety of the ruined temple, neglected and ancient beyond comprehension, he wondered what terrible malevolent deities had been worshipped here during the absence of his people? The sanctuary of his ancestors had been desecrated almost beyond recognition through the occupation of various bloodthirsty invaders but the inimitable cog works that the foundations of the temple rested on could only have been forged by Nuem hands.

He surveyed the ruins and caught a glimpse of himself in a shard of broken mirror. It had been decades since he had looked upon his self and the image startled him momentarily. He admired the intricate bronze armour which entombed him and embraced its torment as it wracked at his body mercilessly, the strange sensations perversely consuming his every thought, he could no longer differentiate between pleasure or pain as the two were entwined eternally in a never ending rapture of excess. He dismissed the shard with a short kick and it shattered into a thousand pieces across the marble stone floor. Luckily for him the victorious Orcnar were too enthralled with their own celebratory howling to notice the crashing sound that echoed out from the decayed ruins of this once sacred place.

He crept silently into the shadows, a short distance away from where the skirmish had unfolded and continued his assessment of the invaders, he yearned to administer the cleansing upon the souls of his enemies immediately but he knew he needed to be discreet for now. He vowed there and then to reclaim Encartria and restore its former glory for the sake of his people. He would return at nightfall with a war party and catch the wretched beasts off guard. He considered the possibilities of the ambush and inside the cold emptiness of his armour a terrible grimace of delight passed across his twisted lips. It was a necessary task he was about to undertake and a process which he would gladly repeat again and again until all the enemies of the Nuem had been purged from existence.

The last remnants of the sun beamed down upon him as he exited the temple, his armour glistening as the light shone down. He leaned back and eyed the celestial magnificence of the dying star and wondered what it would be like to see it once again with his natural vision or indeed if his remaining eye would be strong enough to handle the sight of its blinding light. That question would be answered in due course he decided. For now though, it was time to prepare for the oncoming war.