Here's a piece of Roots fan fiction from the Hypnoticdotcom days back in '99...
KLANG: The Word by Phil Moschovas
Disclaimer
This piece of fiction borrows from the works of Robert Jordan, from
whom i've been inspired greatly. If you are familiar with him already,
you should know where i'm coming from. If you have never heard of him,
you will enjoy him greatly if you enjoy my story.....that being said.
On with the story.
The Wagon rolled across the arid terrain as the sun blared overhead
with a fury. The Driver wiped his forehead that dripped constantly due
to the prolific amount of hair on his head. The wagon was covered in a
white coarse material that kept the sun out and let some coolness in.
What little coolness there was anyway.
The wagon was painted black and had lettering all over in a scrawl that
looked rugged and artistic all at the same time. The occupants of this
wagon were no ordinary travellers. Inside were the most powerful Male
Aes Sedai that lived. Aes Sedai which translates to Servants of All in
the old tongue. They were those who were able to touch the True Source
and draw the One Power. The True Source being the force that drives
the Wheel of Time. There are threads to the One Power, and each person
who can channel can usually grasp some threads better than others.
These threads are named according to the sorts of things that can be
done using them - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit - and are called
the Five Powers. The True Source is split in two parts, the male half,
Saidin and the female half, Saidar.
Time is a wheel that has 8 spokes, each spoke is an age, when one age
ends, it fades into the next age leaving but a vague memory. Each age
is the same, yet it differs slightly from the previous, the changes
becoming more and more profound as the wheel spins. There is neither a
beginning to the wheel nor is there an ending, but this was "A"
beginning.
The Aes Sedai were a power to be feared through the history of the
turnings of the wheel. Legends tell of acts and feats scarcely to be
believed, most twisted after so many tellings, but one truth still
exists to this day, Aes Sedai were not to be trifled with.
Those in the wagon had proved themselves over and over as those who
sought to pit their power against them were obliterated.
Ahmir stopped counting years ago the number that had fallen to them.
What he never stopped counting were those who had fallen to the
wordless. The Children, Hundreds of Aes Sedai like him that were
overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Aes Sedai like him who were forever
trying to spread the Word.
The Word is Knowledge, it is Awareness, it is Power, it is Life.
The Wordless were those beings, some Aes Sedai themselves and some
normal humans, who believed that when the Word was finally forgotten,
The Scourge would awaken and grant them eternal life and immense power
for freeing him from his prison. The Scourge was all that was dark and
evil in the universe. He is for Lies, he is for Ignorance and he is
for Death.
Forever balancing him as the Wheel turns is The Father. The Father
stands for all that is good in the universe, through him the Word came
to be and the Word is what keeps The Scrouge imprisoned. The Word is
the collective energy that is the prison The Scourge is contained in.
The stronger the Word, the less The Scourge can touch the universe.
The weaker the Word, the more he can do to cause it's end.
Ahmir let these things drop from his mind as he looked down the empty
road. The next town was another day away, they would stop there for
the night and continue on to Adelphi, where the king awaited them.
They had been called to counsel King Sandris who was just getting over
an assasination attempt by the Wordless. King Sandris was one of the
rulers who stood fast against these people and was marked for that same
reason. Ahmir remembered him being a large man strong of arm and will.
He hoped he was recovering well because he was a powerful ally in this
war.
Tariq came through the opening in the wagon cover and sat next to
Ahmir.
"Yo, it's mad hot out here, want to take a break?" Tariq said as he
wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, his locks hidden in that
ever present hat of his.
"Nah, bruh, I i'm aight."
"How do ya think we'll find things in Adelphi?"
Ahmir thought for a second and shook his head. "I don't know, but i'm
gettin bad vibes about all this."
Tariq, known as Black Thought, nodded once. "Me too, son. Me too."
He looked Ahmir straight in the eyes.
Malik popped his head out the opening and said, "Dust cloud behind us,
Riders on the way."
"How long before they overtake us?" inquired Thought.
"'Bout an hour, it's still a long way off."
Ahmir, never taking his eyes off the road ahead said, "No one is to
channel. Spread the word."
Malik disappeared back into the wagon without another word and the two
could hear the rest of the crew talking about Ahmir's message.
"Ya know it's trouble don't ya Ahmir?" added Tariq.
"Yeah, it always is these days. There ain't nowhere to lose them
around here, let's stop and see what's following us." said Ahmir.
"Word son, I've been itching to take care of some business something
fierce lately."
Ahmir slowed the wagon and stopped blocking the road, knowing that if
the dust cloud veered off they were trying to avoid the group and they
would then definately have to follow.
The rest of the crew stepped out of the wagon and stretched and tried
to get kinks of travelling out. Ahmir was definately the largest of
them all. And possibly the most powerful, many mistook his kind face
only to find out what anger could manifest itself on that face. The
smallest of them was Tariq and his size definately had his enemies
assuming too much before they were removed. Malik was the quiet one,
some would say that his silence and deep calmness was to be feared the
most. Kamal was a young Aes Sedai, still coming to the height of his
power, his biggest difficulty was controlling his temper. More than
once the rest of the group came to his aid when he tried to fight too
many at once. When he was cornered he was at his fiercest. Rahzel
finished stretching and was now warming up his voice. When using his
voice in channeling, he could destroy a whole town with one blast from
his mouth. His voice, amplified by flows of air when he channeled, hit
like a wall of destruction. Scratch and Rahzel shared the same talent in channeling
though his talent was slightly different. Where Rahzels blasts were a
deep boom, Scratch's blasts were just that, scratches, high pitched
shots that hit like rabbit punches.
About an hour later, the dust cloud cleared to reveal roughly 40 riders
trotting towards them. The riders were all dressed in black and in the
lead rode three dressed in blood red cloaks. The cloaks of the Blood
Guard. The Blood Guard were the biggest fanatics in the lot of the
Wordless. They considered themselves holy and traveled throughout the
world looking for
The Children. They would kill first and ask questions later. The rest
of the Wordless stuck to plotting and preparing for organized attacks.
The Blood Guard on the other hand believed themselves holy and would
attack 5 times their number of Children because they believed
themselves blessed. They were wrong. Although not weak in the one
power, they were no match for a trained Aes Sedai. Especially this
time with these particular Aes Sedai.
When the riders came within 200 yards of the crew they charged, drawing
weapons.
The Aes Sedai could feel the Blood Guard begin to reach out to the true
source and reached out to grab the source and hold it at the ready to
counter whatever they threw at them. A peal of Thunder heralded many
bolts of lightning directed at the Aes Sedai. The lightning hit an
invisible barrier a hundred feet above the Aes Sedai as Malik had
constructed a shield from flows of air hardened with flows of water.
The lightning fanned out in a myriad of colors and Ahmir shouted "NOW!"
and Rahzel and Scratch channeled at the same time and wall of sound
could be seen rippling the dust on the ground as it sped towards the
riders. The Blood Guard had concentrated on the lightning and put up
no defence to meet the blast. Rider upon rider flew from saddles or
were crushed as horses lost balance and fell on them. The Blood Guard
quickly got to their feet and started to hurl balls of fire at the
group. Tariq could feel the true source filing him with the sweet
sensation of life almost to the point of bursting, when he felt he was holding as much of the
power as he could, he let loose flows of air that spiraled instantly in
front of the group. The moment the balls of fire hit the funnel they
were merged into a huge pillar of fire that spiraled. Forcing the
flows down, Tariq forced the fire into the earth letting the dry clay
absorb all the heat.
The Blood Guard screamed in fury at the soldiers that were fearing to
rush and attack. After a few seconds they rushed at the group and
Kamal stepped forward and raised his hands to the air and brought them
down in a quick motion shouting "EARTH" at the same time that he
channeled. The ground began to roll and break as a moving earthquake
moved forward to meet the rushing soldiers dropping them to the ground.
With his hands still pointing down, he opened them wide and then in
the same motion brought them together clapping violently. "KLANG!!!" he
shouted. The Earth then opened below the soldiers feet as if Kamal had
reached down and opened the earth with his hands, they fell into the
fissure and a second later, the earth slammed shut, trapping the
soldiers in an earthen grave.
The Blood Guard, now standing alone, rushed forward... sensing their doom
and attempting to take as many with them as possible.Instead of
attacking with fire and lightning, they attacked with spirit, trying to
cut off the crew from the true source, once they were cut off and
shielded, they would be helpless. As they struck out, Ahmir responded
instantly, weaving flows of spirit of his own with edges sharper than
razors, and severing the flows of the Blood Guard. The recoiling of
the flows knocked the priests back for an instant, and in that split
second, Ahmir wove one flow after the other and slid the shields into
place before the priests could reply. With flows of air, he wrapped
them from waist to shoulder in bonds stronger than the strongest steel.
Unless he released them, they would stay that way until dead or until
someone came along with the knowledge to free them.
The group walked up to them and looked at the three who were so
desperately trying to kill them. The looks they recieved were not much
warmer than the coldest winter imaginable. Pure hatred and contempt
and eyes with no compassion caused Ahmir to shudder slightly. These
were men who had no mercy and no pity in them, they would happily kill
their own mothers if they believed it was just.
"You sick bastards just don't learn do ya??" said Kamal as he walked
towards one of them and stared at him face to face. "You can't kill
us, we're the and we're going to keep The Word alive and
obliterate you suckas."
The priest didn't flinch; he just spit straight into Kamal's face and
said, "Fools, utter fools, don't you know you cannot stop us?" His
voice began to rise. "We're too many and we're too powerful and we
have---"
SLAM! The Priest's head rocked back from the force of Kamal's blow and
he toppled over and fell on his back, his head hitting the dry clay
hard when he couldn't use his hands stop his fall.
"Motherfucker!!!!!!!! You think ya can spit on me like i'm a fuckin
dog???" Kamal shouted as he kicked the priest in the ribs. "Im'a
fuckin' kill you."
"KAMAL!!" shouted Tariq. "Enough, get over here now!"
Kamal backed away with a look of pure fury on his face as he came to
stand next to Tariq. Tariq was sure that if he let him, Kamal would
beat the priest to death. It was forbidden to take a life with the
power out of hate and anger, but fists and feet would serve just as
well.
"Tie off your sheilds Ahmir, we'll have them follow the wagon on foot.
When we get to Adelphi, we can have Sandris' people question them, they
might know something we can use, aight?"
The crew nodded agreement, but Kamal only looked at the ground and
clenched his fists in anger. He would need a talking to afterwards
thought Tariq, a long talk. Lately he seemed troubled and his temper
was quick to ignite like a field of dry grass in the midst of summer.
He would have to keep a close eye on him to try and prevent another
outburst like this one before it happened.
"Help your friend out and get 'im on his feet; we leavin'," said Tariq
as he walked away and didn't look back.
The priests helped the fallen one to his feet and they started to
follow the wagon as it rolled away. The back curtain was open and
Rahzel was watching them to make sure they were following. He wove
flows of air and formed collars around each of their necks which he
attached to the back of the wagon. If they fell behind and couldn't
keep up, then they'd be dragged. As long as one of them survived, the
other two could fall behind and be dragged to nothing for all Rahzel
could care.
"Do you think we should make for the town tonight?" asked Ahmir.
Tariq thought for a second. "Nah, let's take a long way around the town
during the night, in case these suckas had some friends there. If
there were any more priests or channelers there, there's no way they
didn't feel all the weaves even that far away. Kamal's shit was strong
enough to wake the fuckin dead. If that was the case, they'll be on us
shortly and we'll deal with that, but if we don't have to stroll
through the town with those fuckers follwin, I don't wanna."
"Then that means another night sleepin on the road under the wagon,"
said Ahmir.
"Right, ain't shit we ain't used right?" said Tariq with a grin.
"Yeah, yeah, don't remind me." said Ahmir as he stared at the sun
beginning to lower over the horizon, knowing that when the night came
the temperature would drop drastically and he'd go from baking, to
freezing. Yes, just another day on the road for the
