Kiliko

The smell of blood was in the air that night. Kiliko flared his nostrils under the moon, trying to catch the trail again. The scent was gone, and he was stuck. He knew his brothers would catch up as they ran past him in a flurry. As the night woodland fell to a calm, he stopped in the middle of a grove of pine trees. The others had ran ahead, viciously tasting the scent of their fallen comrade. The pack of 11 wolves ran through the alien forest like it was their home, dodging dead trees and scaling the gradual craggy slope with ease. Kiliko lay behind them, stuck in the grove of dense pine. This was not normal for Kiliko, but the longer time went on, the less blood he would spill by the end. The naked human had only ever known two things, brotherhood and blood, and this time, both of them had been crossed. He sniffed again. The scent was totally gone. Kiliko ducked underneath the cone of needles belonging to the largest pine tree and he began to scale the tree. His hands became covered with sticky sap and dead insects as he scaled the magnificent father tree. Needles poking into his uncovered body, he reached the top without pain.

A magnificent, jagged mountain protruded out of the ground in front of him. The mountain was covered in a rocky exterior with scattered patches of wispy dead trees, in which he had noticed his pack running through. The higher up Kiliko spied, the less trees there were and the more steeper cliff faces existed. The snow capped peak was topped with a large and ominous cavern at the summit. He recognized this mountain, but he had never seen in such detail before. His brothers had mostly stayed in their homeland until the beast-bats began to invade. This began when they first noticed a shortage of water in their rivers, then they began to notice burned patches of trees in areas where they had previously hunted game. He had thought he had seen these beasts flying off once before, but he had no idea what it truly was. This time they had taken Father, the oldest one, and his family was out for vengeance. Father was the elder wolf amongst them, and the one Kiliko felt closest to. He knows full well he is no wolf, and that he is unworthy of their tribe, yet Father allowed him to stay. Over time, his memories have faded and all that remains is the savage art of killing and the strength of brotherhood.

Kiliko began to turn in circle, surveying the surrounding landscape. He thought he spied a great body of water in the distance, but the moonlight made it unclear. As he turned the opposite way of the mountain, he noted the magnificent towering treetops of the Great Forest, his home. He longed for those peaceful and wondrous treetops once more as he spun back into action and began to devise a plan to catch up with his tribe. He saw dots of gray scampering up the mountain and he knew what their target was. Kiliko looked upon the canopy he rested in and saw that it created a belt towards the steep side of the mountain. He began to bound from tree to tree as fast as he could, his calloused feet making a treetop path towards the mountain. Kiliko was running along the canopy's carpetway of tree branches and leaves when he heard an array of howls. Instinctively, he let out a guttural roar in response. The wolves needed him somehow. It was more than one howl, so it had to be his pack. He was nearing closer to their howls. He dropped down to mid level branches as the trees became more and more sparse. He was reduced to ground level right before the wolves began to howl again. They stopped mid growl as they noted his presence. The wolves surrounded him and hastily barked at the mountain. Inspecting it further, Kiliko noticed that the rock face was too steep for these wolves to scale. He immediately knew what he had to do. He kneeled at the feet of the Alpha wolf and bent his head so that his forehead was against the wolves' and they met each other with piercing, passionate gazes. For Kiliko, time stopped. The only thing he knew in that moment was the wolves red hot eyes. Kilikos return gaze was just as passionate and timeless. He broke the gaze and embraced the wolf for warmth. He stepped back and let out a savage cry as the wolves joined in. He turned around and began to scale the face.

Kiliko's experience climbing trees throughout his entire life had proven him useful in this situation. His extremely muscular body was able to scale the face with ease as he reached a rocky slope. He sprinted up the slope until he caught scent of Father again. Father was in that cave for sure, the scent was way too strong. Furthermore, Kiliko noted drops of blood on the rocks. This sent Kiliko into a mad rage as he began to dash toward the cave, vaulting over large rocks while smacking many smaller ones loose off the mountain. Before he knew it, he was standing at the mouth of the cave, with Fathers scent emanating from the cave as strong as ever. Kiliko released another guttural yell, this one echoed throughout the cave. Kiliko waited a bit and then a deafening screeching noise flew out of the cave as Kiliko smelled burnt flesh. He rushed into the darkness towards Fathers scent.

Kiliko ran through the shrouded tunnel, not knowing what was in front of him, but not caring either. Father's familiar scent became more and more apparent the farther he traveled. He began to notice that he was traveling on an upward slope, and he also began to see a blinding opening of light. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw something being tossed into the cave from the entrance. Fathers scent became shrouded in the smell of scorched flesh. Kiliko's face turned stone gray. He rushed to the object that was thrown into the cave. It was a half of a deer, burnt to a crisp with all the meat ripped off of the torso. Kiliko breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the exit to the cave. He was less than a hundred meters from the mouth and began to notice little snowflakes falling outside against the dark shroud of night with the cosmic wonders set behind it. This is the closest he had ever been to the sky and he could now see thousands of stars set against the night sky. The moon was a giant glowing night light amongst an array of beautiful colors in the sky. He ran out of the cave, and immediately collapsed under the weight of something dropped on him. Kiliko rolled over and saw the dying face of Father as he pushed him off. He pressed his forehead against Father's and tears streamed down his face as Kiliko stared at Fathers lifeless eyelids. Father was his only love in this world, and he needed to kill. Tears were foreign to Kiliko, and they hurt. Someone was going to pay.

He turned around, only to face a gigantic red beast with wings and caught a face full of smoke. The smoke cleared and the beast-bat was gone from his roost above the cave mouth. Kiliko scanned his environment and noticed he was within a dragons nest. Snow covered boulders lay everywhere, with scattered corpses of wild game strewn about. His head shot up, still streaming with tears, and he let out an earth shaking roar. He stomped his right foot against the ground and yelled once more. He heard a faint rumbling in the background as he saw the red dragon in its entirety slam the ground in front of him. The dragon had red, hard scaly skin with a streak of black across its snout on both sides and was as big as 4 or 5 great trees. The dragons nostrils let out a little smoke as it began to spread its wings to their full breadth. The wings were membrane with razor sharp talons on the corners. The wings towered over Kiliko like the great trees of his homeland. The dragon let out another screech and a torrent of flame protruded from his mouth and into the night sky. The canvas of stars disappeared from sight for a short bit, then reappeared. Kiliko stomped his right foot harder than ever, puffed his chest out and drew in air, then let out a beastly, savage roar that shook Kiliko's own eardrums. A huge rumbling was heard to his side as the snowy slope to his right began to form an avalanche down the mountain. The dragons back foot slipped with the avalanche and the dragon was forced into the air. Kiliko immediately sprung into action. He dashed to the right side where the larger boulders were located and dove behind a rock, barely missing a blast of fire that came from the air. Kiliko mounted the boulder and jumped to another one, picking it up over his head. Kiliko, straining his muscles like never before, hurled the stone at the dragons wings. The dragon dropped elevation as the boulder soared over his right wing. Kiliko began to look for another stone to throw when the dragon landed directly in front of him. The razor sharp jaws snapped at Kiliko as he stumbled onto the ground, barely missing as he peered into the dark mouth of the dragon. Kiliko, backing up on all fours, bumped into a moderately sized rock and immediately flipped back over top of it and rammed it into the dragons mouth. Kiliko ran, arms extended, pushing the boulder into the dragons mouth. The dragon gagged and recoiled as Kiliko pushed farther against this dragon. The dragons mouth, being big enough for Kiliko to fit inside, began to let out a stream of fire to push back the boulder. Kiliko, pushing with all his might and using his legs to push the boulder farther in, began to slide back on the rock and scrape his feet against the ground. The rock slowly became harder and harder as the fire fought back Kiliko's pushing of the rock. The dragon began to aggressively inch forward, shooting fire to eject the rock from his mouth while sliding Kiliko back into a corner. Soon enough, Kiliko was lying on the ground behind a rock with the dragon looming over him, shooting an extremely powerful flaming torrent. Kiliko's strength was going to give, the rock was getting extremely hot, and he was cornered. He was about to let the rock go when the dragon's flame was redirected upwards and stopped. He peered out from behind the rock as he heard the dragon pound to the ground with a cry. He looked just in time to see 5 wolves biting into the vulnerable tendons of the dragon's back left foot. Kiliko, with renewed vigor upon the sight of his family, jumped out on top of his rock and landed on the dragons head. The dragon made eye contact with him, full of rage and hatred, and Kiliko kicked at the eye. He punctured the multiple eyelids that the dragon possessed, but cut his foot on them as he crushed the right eyeball of the dragon. The dragon thrashed about, creating more booming noises as Kiliko managed to jump off and roll into a landing next to the wolves as he roared. He quickly peered over the side and noticed a long snow path with footsteps lining them. The avalanche that tripped the dragon was the same one that allowed the wolves to scale the mountain. Kiliko and the wolves now faced the dragon on the roost of the mountain. The wolves began to run at the dragon, and 3 of them were caught in a quick burst of flame. Kiliko ran to his left and began to search for large stones as the wolves distracted him. He rustled through the stones as the wolves jumped over the dragon like fleas on a crocodile. The wolves pounced and bounded all over the dragons tough carapace, puncturing skin and leaving multiple cuts on the underbelly and wings, but leaving the dragon largely undamaged. Kiliko was searching and searching amongst the craggy quarry and found a large, elongated rock that came to a point. He drew it back and fired the spear like rock at the dragons face. The dragon spread its wings to escape the onslaught of wolves, but the rock hit it square in the face and crushed its snout in by a small margin. The dragon recoiled back, one eye dripping blood all over the nest, and slipped off the edge and slid down the mountain. The wolves recovered themselves to find that 4 had been killed in combat. Kiliko let out a victorious howl and ran to the edge of the mountain where the dragon had slid off. He saw nothing at the slope, not even marks. He turned back to the wolves as they mourned their fallen, and saw the dragon speed right over the mouth of the tunnel. He saw the dragon flying head on towards and had no time to react. The dragon snatched up Kiliko and took him off the mountain.

Kiliko's right shoulder had taken the brunt of the bite and the dragon began to double back towards the mountain. Kiliko lay in pain in the mouth of the dragon, but as soon as he was over the mountain, he began to thrash. He punched at the nostrils and began to try to forcefully open the jaw. The dragon was in immense pain and had accumulated a hatred for Kiliko and began to thrash. The dragon, floating stationary in the air, flapping its magnificent wings, smashed its head from side to side. With each thrash, Kiliko felt more and more lightheaded, until the only thing he felt was the harsh kiss of the the cold air. He blacked out for a second and opened his eyes, seeing the beautiful night sky in its entirety. It was at this point where he realized he was falling towards the mountain below. He started panicking at such a height and before he knew it, he was out could. Kiliko's body slammed into a snowbank near the middle of the other side of the mountain. The snowbank slid off its inclined surface and toppled down the mountain, taking Kiliko with it, until he landed at the base of a waterfall. His body began to float in the lake, and eventually floated to the mouth of very some calm rapids as he floated downriver. Kiliko's body traveled this river for a day until he woke up. Kiliko woke up, covered in water with a huge gash in his shoulder. He was fine for one second until the pain kicked in. He was still alive, but badly hurt. He began to wander through this mystery forest he had landed in, which looked nothing like his homeland. He wandered, drifting in and out of consciousness until he came to an extended clearing with a gravel bed in a straight line. He looked down both ends of the long line of stone and spied a moving box hobbling towards him. He stood up, clenching his wounds with pain and inspected this thing. A simple box led by horses with a single shrouded driver. Kiliko's naked, wet, bloody body walked up to the box and then passed out on the gravel road in its path. The driver stopped the caravan and stepped down. The driver was clearly humanoid, but shrouded in a wool cloak. He dismounted the caravan and crouched over Kiliko's body. The hood fell down to reveal a small, half-orc wearing a bandanna with a grin on his face. "I think you'll fit in just fine, my friend. Just fine." The half-orc slung Kiliko over his shoulder, loaded the massive man into his caravan and disembarked for his future home.