The Following episode will be featuring Sergals. Sergals are a creation of Mick39 as part of her sci-fi world Vilous; this story is a fiction all its own and the lore is unrelated to Mick39’s creation. Posted with permission.

Written by: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

In the center of the Lands, a creature of black and white fur with blue fluorescent designs slowly pushed a set of wooden doors open. He cautiously maneuvered one of his fur covered raptor-like legs through the doorway expecting the place to be deserted. The gentle step of his long-toed foot made no noise as he peaked his thin arrow-like head in to have a look. Much to his surprise, however, a familiar looking Cat stood behind a counter in the main tavern-like room wiping out a drinking glass with a clean white rag. “Dolan Crow, you old Sergal, come on in and have a seat,” the feline bar maidan of velvet red fur beckoned flirtingly.

“You still running this old dump, Jessy?” Dolan replied as he took a seat and grabbed the drink Jessy placed before him tossing the liquor down his gullet.

“She may be a dump, but she’s my dump,” Jessy replied.

“Our dump,” interrupted the familiar voice of an old Western Rabbit with grey fur and yellow eyes.

“Jack Harris,” Dolan greeted his old friend. “Where’s Mordecai?”

“Haven’t seen or heard from that Fennec of the West for seven years,” Jessy replied.

“I reckon that Legend is doing just fine,” Jack added as a blur of grey and red sprung out and tackled him.

“Daddy!” the adorable ball of velvet fluff shouted as she wrestled with her father.

“Don’t you hurt her now, Jack,” Jessy warned. “or I’ll make rabbit stew tonight.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed, girl?” Jack looked sternly at his daughter.

The feline bunny stood up, she had her mother’s cat-like tail, body, and face with her father’s rabbit ears, legs, and arms. Her fur was like an abstract velvet painting of reds and greys. “I heard voices and wanted to see who was here,” she said innocently. “Can’t I stay up just a little bit longer?” she looked at her father with his own eyes.

Jack could not say no to her, “ask your mother.”

Jessy gave Jack a sour look that quickly switched to a smile as her daughter looked up at her. “Please,” the feline rabbit extended the word adorable.

Jessy thought for a moment and then gestured for her to come and sit on a bar stool, “Come on, Kitty Rabbit, meet your Uncle Dolan.”

“Uncle?!” Dolan exclaimed as the young girl of seven years hopped to the bar stool in a single bound, almost slipping off of it as she landed. She found her footing again and sat down with her legs dangled over the stool’s edge as she casually kicked them. Her paw-like hands held the front of the stool as she stared at Dolan with wide eyes and a smile. Dolan sighed before finally asking, “and what is your name?”

Dolan flinched, “Katherine,” she replied, her arms already wrapped around Dolan with a hug he did not see coming.

Dolan laughed, “you’re an energetic little scamp, aren’t you?”

Katherine smiled so hard she had to shut her eyes. “Alright, Kitty Rabbit, off to bed now,” her mother said softly.

“Awe, do I have to?” Katherine pleaded.

“You heard your mother,” her father replied. “Off to bed.”

Katherine hung her head, and her ears flopped down over her face, “may I have some water first?”

A soft symphony of instruments could be heard, but not seen as Katherine’s ears perked back up. A small disk of water crystalized before her into a solid cup of Ice and then another disk filled the cup spiraling the water into it. The music ended only as the cup gently fell into her open paw-like hands. Dolan smiled and patted her on the head, “off to bed with you.”

Katherine looked at the cup and then at Dolan, “for me?”

Dolan nodded, “It will never melt, so long as I draw breath.”

Katherine’s eyes grew wide, the cup was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and the music that had formed it echoed in her memory. She gently put the glass down and gave Dolan another hug, “thank you, Uncle.” Then she took the cup and ran off to her room with it. Jack followed her to tuck her in.

“She’ll never leave you alone after that,” Jessy giggled at Dolan.

“She’ll grow into a fine young lady with her mother’s looks and her father’s skills,” Dolan sighed as he took another drink.

“No luck finding more of your own kin, huh?” Jessy asked sympathetically.

“I could not even find any trace of Skinner. It would seem only myself and the other three Elders remain now,” Dolan sighed, “and I have not seen or heard from them for a while either.”

“Can’t you reproduce?” Jessy winked. “Whatever happened to you and that Northlandish Fennec/Human hybrid, Miss Lengsly?”

“Sterilization was one of the requirements for our immortality, unfortunately,” Dolan replied. “She wanted children, I did not have the heart to deny her that.”

“Why can’t any other species learn the ways of your people, Sergal?” Jessy asked out of curiosity.

“Yeah,” Jack interrupted. “My daughter not good enough or something?” he joked.

“There is a way,” Dolan sighed. “However her chance of survival would not be great. Even if she lived through it, you would not see her for many years, and she’s almost past the required age of nine.”

“That gives you two years,” a tall and skinny Northlandish Fennec Fox entered the old tavern. Only Dolan recognized the voice, but he could not place it though it left a chill down his spine. The Fennec sat down at the other end of the bar, “Got any mead?”

Jessy filled a mug with mead from an old wooden barrel, “it’s aged, to say the least,” she warned as she slid the pint over to the stranger. “I thought your kind were all but extinct.”

“We are,” the Fennec replied, “unless you count the Human halfbreed.”

Then Jessy noticed the silver rings weighing the Fennec’s ears down, only a little, and the sapphire blue eyes as brilliant as the gemstone they resembled. “Who’s our guest?” Jack asked as he returned from tucking Katheran into bed. Dolan dropped his drink when he realized who the Fennec was.

“So you do remember me,” the Fennec smiled. “Better hold your symphony, Sergal. We wouldn’t want the child wondering out here now, would we?”

“Knives don’t make noise,” Dolan replied. “Jack,” he called upon his old friend to help take on this, an even older foe.” Jack hopped up towards a mounted spear of fifteen knives stacked end to end horizontally on the wall. One at a time he threw all fifteen knives in rapid succession at the Fennec’s eye. “Don’t aim for the head, he’ll dodge,” Dolan warned.

Much to Dolan’s surprise, however, the Fennec did not flinch as one by one the knives dematerialized upon contact with his eye. He slammed his drink and looked at the Western Rabbit, “haven’t witnessed that spear since I was still alive,” he smiled. “You must be Ken Harris’s great-grandson, Jack. Am I right?”

Jack took a step back, “Jessy, go to Katherine’s room and do not leave her side.” Jessy saw fear in Jack’s eyes she had never seen there before.

Jack felt something pinch his left foot and then an unmistakable axe blade fell in front of him. The Fennec stood behind him, two of the six-inch retractable claws on his paw-like feet held the old Rabbit’s foot as he leaned on his axe’s pole. He smiled, “Go and fetch the girl, please,” he gestured to Jessy.

“Aleister Keith of House Dimir,” Dolan said with a sour tone, “Why and how are you here?”

“Three reason’s why” Aleister began. “One, you. Two, the girl. The third has not shown yet, but he’ll be here soon enough. As for how” he looked towards Jessy. “She knows,”

“Technically I outrank you, Wyyvern Knight,” Jessy replied sternly. “Now release my husband.”

“As you wish, Soothslayer,” Aleister did as she asked. Then he disappeared and reappeared at the bar stool he sat at earlier. “Just ask the Sergal. If I wanted you dead, I would not have wasted my time talking to you.”

“What do you want?” Jessy demanded to know.

“Get the girl,” Aleister requested again. Jessy nodded at Jack and Jack went to get Katherine. “Dolan Crow, Immortal Sergal of Water. One of four Elders,” Aleister looked at his ancient acquaintance. “How are you?”

“My race is all but dead, no thanks to you,” Dolan replied.

“I hear you are the reason for my people’s near extinction as well,” Aleister rebutted. “At least the Northlandish half. I’d say we’re even in that regard.”

“What do you want with the girl?” Dolan questioned.

Aleister disappeared, then reappeared behind the bar, refilled his mug, and waited. Jack returned with Katherine and Aleister laughed, “you are the most adorable halfbreed I have ever seen, Katherine right?” Katherine nodded. “No need to be afraid. Come here, child.” Katherine slowly approached Aleister, she recognized the rings on his ears and the unmistakable axe sheathed on his back from a book, The History of House Dimir. Aleister picked her up by the scruff of her neck softly. Jessy hissed at him, “relax pussycat. I’m simply taking a good look to make sure she’s the right one.” Katherine shook with fear as she curled into a ball. Aleister chuckled and then held her more gently in his arms, smiling at her reassuringly.

“Please, I don’t know what you want with us, but please leave her be,” Jessy pleaded.

“I want nothing from you, Soothslayer,” Aleister replied. “My business here is with the Fate of this young girl.” He looked to Dolan, “she will survive and pass every trail handed to her,” then he looked at Katherine as he put her down and smiled at her again. “You will carry on the Sergal people’s Symphonic Disk Magic.” Then he unsheathed his axe and held the blade inches from Dolan’s face, “You and I will take her through these trials personally, but not yet.” Then his axe turned into Death, Wyyvern Scythe of Fate, “First you must do something for me.”

“You can’t be,” Jessy exclaimed. ‘What are you doing with Chastity? What has happened to the Wyyvern Knight of Death?”

Then Aleister held in his left-hand Famine, the Wyyvern Incense Burners of Fate. War, the twin Wyyvern Swords of Fate, formed into four wings on Aleister’s back, two righteous and two wicked. Strife, the Wyyvern Artillery of Fate, mounted himself onto Aleister’s shoulders as a pair of multi-barrelled cannons. Aleister lifted off the ground a few inches and hovered over to Jessy, “this Fate is the price that must be paid for Edward’s soul.” Jessy saw worry in Aleister’s eyes. “Please.”

Through Aleister’s eyes, she saw Edward’s mortal soul bound in Hell. “Impossible, he is Hell, right?”

“Was,” Aleister looked down, “he was made mortal again by Blessed water and fell to a Warpriest. You know the price of a Wyyvern Knight’s failure.”

“Why my daughter?” Jack interrupted. “Why my Katherine?”

“I must atone for my past sins, in exchange Edward’s chains will break, and he will be free to begin the trials of the Nine who hold Hell’s gate keys,” Aleister replied. “Dolan, you must aid him in this because should my brother fail, the Nine will return and, Jessy,” he looked at her. “You know what that would mean.”

“If I refuse?” Dolan replied. “What then.”

Aleister hovered over to Dolan Crow, “Then your people’s magic will die out, and there will be nothing you or I could ever do to save it.”

“Dolan, do as he says,” Jessy sighed.

“But, Jessy,” Jack interrupted.

“A deal had to be made either way,” Jessy began to explain. “If one is not the Nine would return. Who devised this deal?” Jessy asked Aleister.

“This was a personal request from Stu Writer himself,” Aleister replied.

“Then the Nekolich has placed the Fate of the Multiverse in her hands,” Jessy looked at her daughter and smiled. “You did always tell me you wanted to learn Magic.”

“But every time I try, I fail at it,” Katherine began to cry. “I don’t want to let the whole Multiverse down.

“You will not,” Aleister replied. “I promise you this.”

“Alright, Aleister,” Dolan finally agreed, “take me to Edward.”

“Not yet,” Aleister said as he made it, so Katherine was in her bed sleeping, “She will remember nothing, however, she will be haunted by dreams of her new Fate.” Jessy went to check on Katherine. Then he counted down, “seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”

At that exact moment a Fennec of the West entered the tavern, “Mordecai,” Aleister looked his great-grandson in the eyes. “Thank you for doing right for our Family.” With that, Aleister and Dolan disappeared.

“Was that?” Mordecai almost could not believe what he was even asking.

Jessy came back out, “she’s asleep, but tossing and turning.”

“Stay by her side then,” Jack said before turning to his oldest friend, whom he had grown up with. “So that’s why you never told anyone your last name.”

*          *

Aleister Keith of House Dimir was the most feared assassin in the Lands for a reason. He knew well the study and practice of it, but what made him the best was his Westland Fennec blood. Aleister’s height was all he got from his Northlandish Fennec mother. His speed, his accuracy, his heightened senses, all were granted him by his Westland Fennec father. He was more than fast enough on the draw, with any one-handed melee weapon, to deflect a projectile back to the weapon that fired it. His mark was unconscious and being taken away by the bonus mark. “Two birds, one stone,” all he had to catch up to them, but he was only halfway across the canyon now. He spun his axe around as he leaped towards his mark’s last known location. He found one of the many triggers on his axe and pulled it, mid-air. Wings spanned from it, and Aleister glided over to the checkpoint. Suddenly a disk of water damaged the glider and Aleister fell to the ground, landing on his feet, unharmed. He looked up at his checkpoint and growled, as disks made of wind, water, and fire drove him back. Aleister found himself surrounded by angry Sergal freedom fighters. They were between him and his mark making them all marks. He found another trigger and pulled it, the barrel of a 44 magnum revolver rotated out accompanied by another trigger. When the battle was over Aleister, surrounded by dead bodies, pulled his axe from a Sergal’s skull. He watched with an enraged look in his eyes as the last of the survivors ran into a cave and collapsed the entrance behind themselves. He had lost his mark, “Damnit!” He spent hours attempting a way through the rubble but was unable to make it through. He could not even find clues as to where they might have gone. To return home was a death sentence for himself, and his family, so he cleared the canyon of bodies and set up camp there. Aleister never slept that night, there was too much on his mind. He just stared into his campfire and thought,”Why?”

One mile East of the exact center of the Lands he continued his shameful walk home, empty-handed when his ear twitched, “Edward Michael of House Dimir has switched sides” The voice that said his brother’s name came from a mile away, West of his position. Yet, in the quiet windless morning, he could hear it as though it was being said directly to his face. Now he was listening to the whole conversation. “The Wall has begun a campaign, aligned with the Sergal people, to bring down the Fennec Empire and take the throne from Drak Mountainhiem.” Aleister bolted towards the words being spoken. “The Iron Ram Order are on their way here right now to meet with us and join our cause.” It took him mere minutes to reach the conversation. Hiding from view, he found who was talking. It was a Western Rabbit with some Anti-Northlandish Rebels in a secret meeting in a cavern in the center of the Lands. He found a way in through a hole in the top of the natural, large, and lonely cavern which was hidden by the vast forest that surrounded it

“How can we trust any of them,” another interrupted. “If you ask me they should all just die. You have grown too soft, Ken Harris!” The crowd of Rebels began arguing amongst themselves. Few yelled, “let the Fennec Fox of the Northlands join our cause!” Most of them yelled, “No!”

“My brothers and sisters, if we do not accept one of them into our Rebellion how are we any better than the regime we fight to end?” Ken interrupted.

All Aleister had to do now was sit and wait, “the entire Iron Ram Order?” he thought to himself. Speaking would have given away his position “If I bring back proof of this betrayal with their heads, I am sure Drak will show House Dimir mercy,” Then the wooden doors at the entrance of the cavern opened, and Juliana of House Mountainhiem was the first to step in. “Drak’s own daughter? Damn, I’d have to bring her back alive,” he thought.

Then Ruko and Buck, the twins of House Vlad, came in behind Juliana. Leon of House Aventis followed with Krunk of House Saber Fennec bringing up the rear and closing the doors behind them, “Greetings friends!” Krunk shouted with arms wide open. The Rebels immediately went quiet.

“That’s Drak’s daughter!” one of the Rebels shouted. “I knew this was a setup!” shouted another.

Juliana stabbed her sword into the ground and walked forward with her arms in the air, “Do to me what you will.” Ruko stepped forward to intervene, but Buck held him back. Leon leaned against the cavern’s wall and watched. Krunk tried to resist his overwhelming urge to stand between his Commanding officer and the angry Rebels. They trusted her judgment.

“With pleasure,” said a giant Bear of black fur as he stepped forward and raised his lumberjack’s axe. Juliana just stood there, ready to meet her fate.

Suddenly, fifteen knives landed, one at a time, end to end forming a spear between the Bear and the Northlandish Fennec commander, “That’s enough John.” Ken Harris walked up to Juliana and looked up and into her eyes.

Aleister had never seen such skill with knives, “I cannot wait to fight you, Rabbit,” he thought. He hung upside down, the six-inch retractable claws on his feet holding him to the cavern’s ceiling.

Something caught Juliana’s attention. She pulled her crossbow from her back and fired it. Aleister’s ear twitched and he moved his head, ever so slightly, to the side avoiding the arrow. All Juliana saw a shadow, every so slightly, move. “Everyone needs to leave now,” she said with concern and widened eyes. She stepped back and pulled her sword from the ground.

“Commander, what’s wrong?” Krunk inquired concerningly.

“I said get them out of here!” Juliana shouted in response even more concerningly. “That is an order.”

“Come on!” Ken shouted to the rest of the Rebels. “There is a safe house in Westland’s Grove, we can regroup there.”

Juliana cringed, she wished Ken had not said that so loud. Aleister came down from the shadows only after everyone had gone and approached Juliana with his axe drawn. “Please come quietly,” he requested with the tone of a direct order. “If I so much as scratch you, all of House Dimir will no doubt be punished.” He smiled, “you wouldn’t do that to poor Edward, would you?”

“Fuck you,” Juliana replied before throwing her sword to the ground.

Aleister bound her wrists together and put talon clipper locks on her hands and feet. They were designed to prevent her six-inch retractable claws from being unsheathed. “Thank you for cooperating, and anytime.”

Juliana replied by spitting in Aleister’s face, before Aleister could so much as growl at her, “shut up and take me to my father, hound.” She dropped a piece of parchment on the ground behind her while they left. Aleister noticed but did nothing.

*          *

Edward pushed the wooden doors open expecting to find a meeting of Rebels. Instead, he found an empty cavern. “Footprints on the ground,” he walked over to the cavern wall, “Leon’s pawprint,” he walked to the center of the room and knelt down. He wiped his paw-like hand over a thin yet long hole in the ground. He thought for a moment, then noticed a piece of parchment that fell in between some stalactites. It read, Westland’s Grove, “Oh no.”

*          *

“What is the meaning of this?” Drak questioned as Aleister entered the chambers with Drak’s own daughter, Juliana, bound in chains.

“Your daughter and the rest of the Iron Ram have betrayed us,” Aleister replied.

“No!” Juliana pleaded. “It was only the five of us, not the entire order! They knew nothing, please father!”

“Silence traitor!” Drak scolded. “Aleister, go now and put an end to House Iron Ram.”

“No!” Juliana screamed.”

“And their Knight’s Order,” Drak completely ignored his daughter. “Then bring me the heads of the remaining Knights that have betrayed us.”

“With your permission, Sir,” Aleister requested. “I would bring Edward back alive so that he may be executed publically as an example.”

Drak sat back in his throne-like chair, “A fine suggestion, bring them all back alive. One by one. Do not try to group them together.”

“It will be done, my Lord,” Aleister bowed.

“And Aleister,” Drak leaned forward. “Good work,” he said with a grin. 

Aleister took his leave and headed to House Iron Ram to End it, “for House Dimir.”

*          *

Westland’s Grove, an oasis hidden from the hot, dry desert sun of the West. The Western Rabbits had turned it all into farmland and became the Lands main supplier of produce. Edward knew Drak had taken complete control over it, he just hoped the Rebel’s knew that too and that they were not caught. As Edward had guessed, the Fennec Regime had made the men slaves to work the fields. He could hear women and children scream, “This is not what they show the people. This is not what they showed me.”

Edward walked around the corner of a barn revealing himself to two armored guards, “Hey! Wait a second, aren’t you?” Edward headbutted the one who talked, cracking the guard’s skull, and punched the other in his gut with his left fist. Then he unsheathed his double-edged short sword with his left hand, holding it backward. He cut the neck of the guard he had previously punched, then he drew the greatsword sheathed on his back with his right hand. The slave drivers stopped and turned their attention to Edward who just kept walking towards them with a disappointed look overtaking his face.

“Should we help him?” asked Roil.

“Not yet,” the Nameless one replied. “I want to see what he is willing to do for us first.”

Edward blocked an attack from his right and moved.  Pivoting around his greatsword, he cut the attacker on half with his short sword. Then he locked his short sword with an attack from his left as he headbutted an attacker in front of him and then one who was behind him. The attackers at Edward’s front and rear fell to their knees, and Edward slid the attack made against his left into the shoulder of knelt down attacker behind him. He kneed the one in front of him as he stabbed his greatsword through the left attacker’s chest. He swung the blood off his blades as he kept moving forward. He leaped forward, “Iron Ram,” into another Fennec Knight’s gut sending him flying back towards the arranged troops behind him.

“Haven’t you heard, traitor?” asked Commander Flit of House Daystar, General Zarcor’s brother. “House Iron Ram and their Order have fallen.” His soldiers laughed “I’m told the screams of the women and children of House Iron Ram could be heard by all Cathedral City.” A tear hit Edward’s cheek, and he began to growl. “Do you know what they told the people? They told them it was Sergals. Even now Drak is preparing an army of everyone but us to send South and exterminate them all. Meanwhile, your brother is coming here to finish his job by killing you and the other Iron Rams we captured here.” He laughed, “we were the distraction!” A Symphony of instruments began and a ring of fire formed around Edward. The music’s speed increased as its pitch did Then an enormous vortex of wind blocked Flit and his men’s view of Edward.

Drums sounded from deep underground and Edward found himself being lowered down as the earth beneath him rotated slowly, and then a path of disk-like stepping stones appeared before him, “go free your friends and earn the Rebel’s trust. Let us handle the distraction.”

The Debris cleared wind and fire stopped leaving only the drums in the deep. The drums became more violent yet remained rhythmically synchronized. Giant disks of earth rose from the ground where the ring of fire had been and began terraforming the canyon known as Westland’s Grove into an elaborate maze of a chasm. A technic used by many Southlandian Sergals called the Dungeon. Roil, and Criinos took up positions within their Teacher’s dungeon and readied for the fight to come. Dolan was nowhere to be found.

*          *

It had taken Aleister one year. By the end of that year, he had captured all the remaining Iron Ram Knights except for Edward and killed most of the Rebels including Ken Harris. Now he found himself face to face with his brother Edward in the ruins of Vilous, fallen city of disks, under a heavy rain.

He relived every moment, unable to stop himself. Then he awoke resurrected. “Where am I?” he could not even find his own body.

“You are in your Wyyvern Weapon form,” the Nekolich replied to his newest Wyyvernforged. “I am sending you back to the Lands in order solidify a deal that, if successfully carried out, will prevent the Nine from returning. For this task, I will temporarily grant you your Wyyvern Knight form. When you are done, you will return here for your trials.”

“The Nine?” Aleister inquired.

“Your new brothers and sisters will explain,” Stu replied.

Then Aleister found himself staring down some old wooden doors at the entrance of a cavern in the center of the Lands. He had, all at once, acquired all knowledge of the deal to be made and of the Nine that the Nekolich feared.  “I think I understand, let me go in alone, first,” he requested and the Horsemen hid within his hammerspace.

*          *

The Deal was made and Fate was forged. The chains that bound Edward’s mortal soul broke. Weak from dehydration and lost, Edward fell, face first, to the ground with only one thing on his mind, “Zesrial.”