Post by D'Kali Hegemony on Jan 18, 2014 6:04:00 GMT
Rakx gripped the haft of the spear in his hands a little tighter as he pushed his way through the brush, using the long blade at the end to push aside a vine in his path. Tongue darting out to taste the air as his nostrils flared, he smiled. He and his hunting party had been tracking the beast for the last three hours, forcing it along a ridge line. Cornered now, the d’kali could taste the fear on the animals’ scent. Black talons gripping the earth under his feet as he moved carefully through the jungle floor, moisture dripped from the leaves as he moved through them, rolling in beads off his deep red hide.
A slow growl rumbled up from his chest as he moved forward, nodding to Tralx on his left. Before his spawn-mate could react though, there was a sudden crash from in front of Rakx. Without warning the gigantic furred pachyderm they had been hunting began to charge, the massive prey apparently tired of being corralled by the half-dozen d’kali. With a great roar of defiance, Rakx lifted his spear and counter-charged
* * *
“ARCHON!!” The cry echoed around the hall as several dozen d’kali roared the honorific and raised their goblets to the sky. All around the long table, more then twenty meters long and five wide, d’kali warrior-nobles drank deeply as the smell of meet filled their senses. Each d’kali in the room was a powerful creature in his own right, lord over one or another of other cities or citadels that comprised the Hegemony of the southern continent. None however could match the power or guile of the d’kali at the head of the table.
In the centre of the table sat the seared body of the beast Archon Rakx and his spawn-mates had killed earlier, the grand centrepiece to the honorary feast. It was several hours later and night was falling on the fortress-capital of Rox’ka. The hard red light of the sun setting over the horizon and casting the bloody pallor over the sprawling stone city. On the edges of the southern wall, a great and sprawling complex cast artificial light over the ground of construction sites. It was this complex that formed the cause of the celebration.
“My Comrades!” Rakz bellowed with a grin as he raised his cup again, a revered hush falling over the assembled. “Tonight, I fulfill my promises, tonight my clan proves my visions! Roxal has called to me…to US!!” He thrust his cup towards the window and the light of the setting sun as it’s dying rays mixed with the flickering torches in the hall. “He has called to us for greater conquest…greater glory among the stars and our ancestors! DARED us to leave our mother Kalisa! Will we answer him?” A small murmur of growls vibrated through the crowd. “I said ‘WILL WE ANSWER HIM?!’” This time, the question was met with a resounding roar of agreement, joining in a low rumble from the well-lit complex at the edge of the city. As if on cue, the first interstellar D’Kali ship, the Preyfinder, rose from the city’s grand shipyards. Its blood-red hull intensified in the dusk light as it lifted off for the edge of atmosphere, the whole of the city watched as it demonstrated the Archon’s vision and power.
In the hall, the D’Kali had cause to celebrate well into the night.
*Note: While the d’kali race has no distinct genders, their fearsome appearance tends them to male pronouns when first encountered by other races…and it is very very hard to consistently write gender-neutraly without resorting to the rather unflattering ‘it’. So I use male pronouns for the d’kali. Because I am lazy.*
A slow growl rumbled up from his chest as he moved forward, nodding to Tralx on his left. Before his spawn-mate could react though, there was a sudden crash from in front of Rakx. Without warning the gigantic furred pachyderm they had been hunting began to charge, the massive prey apparently tired of being corralled by the half-dozen d’kali. With a great roar of defiance, Rakx lifted his spear and counter-charged
* * *
“ARCHON!!” The cry echoed around the hall as several dozen d’kali roared the honorific and raised their goblets to the sky. All around the long table, more then twenty meters long and five wide, d’kali warrior-nobles drank deeply as the smell of meet filled their senses. Each d’kali in the room was a powerful creature in his own right, lord over one or another of other cities or citadels that comprised the Hegemony of the southern continent. None however could match the power or guile of the d’kali at the head of the table.
In the centre of the table sat the seared body of the beast Archon Rakx and his spawn-mates had killed earlier, the grand centrepiece to the honorary feast. It was several hours later and night was falling on the fortress-capital of Rox’ka. The hard red light of the sun setting over the horizon and casting the bloody pallor over the sprawling stone city. On the edges of the southern wall, a great and sprawling complex cast artificial light over the ground of construction sites. It was this complex that formed the cause of the celebration.
“My Comrades!” Rakz bellowed with a grin as he raised his cup again, a revered hush falling over the assembled. “Tonight, I fulfill my promises, tonight my clan proves my visions! Roxal has called to me…to US!!” He thrust his cup towards the window and the light of the setting sun as it’s dying rays mixed with the flickering torches in the hall. “He has called to us for greater conquest…greater glory among the stars and our ancestors! DARED us to leave our mother Kalisa! Will we answer him?” A small murmur of growls vibrated through the crowd. “I said ‘WILL WE ANSWER HIM?!’” This time, the question was met with a resounding roar of agreement, joining in a low rumble from the well-lit complex at the edge of the city. As if on cue, the first interstellar D’Kali ship, the Preyfinder, rose from the city’s grand shipyards. Its blood-red hull intensified in the dusk light as it lifted off for the edge of atmosphere, the whole of the city watched as it demonstrated the Archon’s vision and power.
In the hall, the D’Kali had cause to celebrate well into the night.
*Note: While the d’kali race has no distinct genders, their fearsome appearance tends them to male pronouns when first encountered by other races…and it is very very hard to consistently write gender-neutraly without resorting to the rather unflattering ‘it’. So I use male pronouns for the d’kali. Because I am lazy.*