Kuda's Bestiary - The Miracle Priest

Kuda’s Bestiary is an episodic fantasy series that I’m currently working on. Feedback and the like is always appreciated, more entries will come but each entry will be a standalone story with an under

Kuda’s Bestiary - The Miracle Priest

1

Leanore had trouble finding her breath in the midst of spilled guts; she watched her master brave a smile while the hole in his chest stitched itself together.

It was difficult to get used to that, in their short time travelling together it had already happened far too often, and yet still as disturbing as the day they met. The splash of red painting the pavement, the pungent smell permeating in the air, and the squishy sound of organs plopping to the ground-it never fails to make her sick.

“What are you? You goddamn Quothe, leave the premises!” The officer could barely keep his grip on his spear. Leanore found it a little amusing, that between the stabber and the stabbed, the stabber was the one scared out of his wits.

“I told you, I’m not a Quote, I’m a Roden. But more importantly, I’m a travelling scholar, if you give my name to the priests I’m sure they would recognize me,” his composure was still intact. Leanore admired him for this, though it creeped her out a little. His name was Klein, but Leanore called him Kuda, partly because it meant ‘master’ in a language that’s been dead for centuries, and partly because the word was tattooed on his left shoulder. Kuda always looked like a mess, which clashed with the m-watch on his wrist, a gift she had given him from Orbis. He had shaggy white hair, a pale complexion, a ragged jacket on top of an even more ragged shirt, and big purple eyes-that was the problem at the moment.

“Rodens’ been extinct for thousands of years,” the rest of the soldiers held up their weapons. They weren’t planning on letting them pass.

Kuda’s chest was fully healed at this point. He sighed and readied to head back, Leanore was readying to fight. And she would have, but Kuda eyed her down. One of the first lessons he taught her was to avoid violence as long as it’s possible, which was sound advice but a little hard to put into practice when they seemed to attract it wherever they went.

“Halt!” An authoritative woman’s voice stopped them in their tracks. The soldiers stepped to the side and revealed a lady in her fifties, she had circular glasses, tied long black hair, and a well kept uniform-the name ‘Deilor’ was plastered on her left shoulder.  “You are the author, yes?”

Kuda nodded respectfully.

“Let them through!” She snapped her fingers and the soldiers dropped their stances. “Check in at the inn, we will meet with you after the ceremony.”

2

The next morning Kuda and Leanore decided to get up early to walk around the town together. It was a pleasant day, bright and only a few clouds in the sky. They passed by a crowd going nuts over an m-carriage, it seemed to be the first time the locals has seen anything like it. It was amusing, Leanore had seen so much of them in her hometown that she’d taken it for granted.

Lintel’s signature flowers, pink limmies, were blooming almost everywhere they walked, through every nook and cranny of every house, the vines littering the alleyways, and on the patches of grass in front of every house. Leanore found it an incredibly pretty sight, slightly ruined by the incessant stares from the citizens.

“You think these creeps will learn to give us a break before we leave?” her voice still a little rough from sleep.

“Unfortunately, as long as I have these purple eyes and this white hair, they’ll treat us with animosity,” Kuda said with a smile.

“Gods, I can never understand how you can keep that smile even in situations like this,” she couldn’t stand the oppressive atmosphere. It felt almost as if their eyes were pushing her to the ground with sheer glares. “For grandfather’s sake, they hate your kind!”

Kuda patted her on the head. “Don’t worry, not my kind. Just a close cousin of it.”

They passed by a farm, Leanore almost let out a gasp. Dozens of young men with white hair and purple eyes working the fields underneath the blazing sun. Their bodies, lord, it looked as if not a single part of their body was left untouched by either a whip, a knife, or fire. Their clothes were drenched in sweat and even more ragged than Kuda’s, but the most disturbing of all, was that their eyes held no ounce of life.

“This can’t be the first time you’ve seen slaves,” it took her a second to recognize the deep voice. That was the only time she heard Kuda sound like that. It was true, they had slaves back in her  hometown, they were Mips, the most common slaves in the world.

“First time I’ve seen a slave resemble a friend,” she replied softly. Her master’s face-no smile-instead a heart piercing sullen face; how does she handle a situation like this? She’d never been good at this stuff. “Do we do something?”

“You wish to fix the slavery problem across the whole country?” Kuda’s voice reverted back to normal. “Brave, but an impossible task for two.”

“We can at least try to fix this one!”

“Why?” Kuda glared at her. “Because I share some features with them? We only save the people that has a similar ancestry to us? Because if so, that would only be another form of discrimination,” still no smile.

“Maybe, but we should do whatever good we can,” Leanore couldn’t believe she was even having this conversation. She thought her master would take every opportunity to do some good.

He stood in silence for a few seconds. “We are not meddlers. It is not our job to change the policies of the towns we travel to; our job is to write the second bestiary. We can help a few people that we encounter, but we can’t change the fabric of society.” His face perked back up, “come on then, we’ll miss the ceremony.” He continued to walk.

Leanore couldn’t help but wonder how many of his smiles were as fake as this one.

3

The ceremony was starting, and the crowd was riling up; it was taking place right in front of the church. The ground rumbled from the cheers and the jumping, their hands were clapping down the seconds for the ceremony to start, Kuda and Leanore were stuck at the back of the crowd, unable to see anything.

“Lea,” Kuda’s nickname for her. “Get on my shoulder,”

“What?” She blushed.

“Come on, better that one of us can see,” this smile was genuine.

“But I’m stronger than you! If anything you should get on my shoulder,” she said playfully.

“Ha! Man that looks like a Quote getting carried by a woman would start a riot around here,” he bent his knees and gestured for Lea to climb up.

Lea shrugged and got on Kuda’s shoulders. Above, she saw the priest walking up to the podium. The crowd went silent.

“Holy lord above, you’re heavy,” Kuda groaned.

“Hush, it’s starting.”

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” the priest was balding, and fat-must be in his fifties. He wore a long blue-green robe, a signature of the Exaequatio church, and circular glasses similar to the woman named Deilor that helped them out the day before-probably a fashion thing around these parts. He was standing behind a podium atop a wooden stage, the crowd was chanting his name, ‘Gendel’; Leanore didn’t like the look on his face.

“As you all know, young Elizabeth Mary passed away yesterday,” a coffin was brought to the stage. It bore a woman no older than thirty, she looked pretty-Leanore gulped nervously. “Such a tragic event,” Gendel took off his glasses and wiped it with his robe. “Young woman like her suddenly dropping dead. Lived a healthy life, she did. The world can be cruel like that, audacious enough to take the good from us before their time,” he gave the crowd a knowing smile. “Who here would like to see her revived?”

“What!” Leanore yelled automatically, Kuda almost jumped from beneath her, and the crowd lost their mind.

“Stand back, and watch closely!” Gendel held up his hands as the coffin was brought right in front of the podium; the crowd went silent once again.

Mana rose from the wooden stage. A spectrum of formless cool colors swirled around Gendel and the body of Elizabeth. No, it was impossible! Despite all the progression of magic, no one has managed to bring someone back from the dead.

More mana rose, usually mana used by one person only appears as one color, but for some reason the mana Gendel was manifesting took on all kinds of colors. Green, purple, and blue.

Gendel smashed his palms on the podium, and all of the mana that rose earlier came crashing down towards Elizabeth’s body. Her body floated and glowed for a few seconds and crashed back down to the coffin, the crowd was in awe. Just silence, of course it was just silence, her body still lay there. It was impossible after all.

“Mommy!” A voice from the crowd called out.

The body moved.

“No way,” Leanore trembled.

“What? Don’t tell me he actually managed to do it!” Kuda yelled from below.

The body-Elizabeth-screamed in fear. A little boy came running up the stage to Elizabeth. She was squirming around and kept muttering something incomprehensible, she stopped only when the boy hugged her.

“Thank you,” the boy said to Gendel.

The crowd roared.

Gendel gestured for them to settle down, and walked to the edge of the stage to get closer to the audience “As you can all see, for as long as I’m he-” he fell.

The crowd gathered around gendel in worry, shouts of panic scattered around the area.

“What’s happening?” Kuda cried out.

“He just fell,” Lea shrugged.

Kuda let her down and rushed past the wall of people to get to Gendel, Leanore followed.

“Let me through, I’m a doctor,” he wasn’t. But he knew enough to rival an actual doctor, so in a sense, he was.

They got to the front of the crowd and Gendel’s body was lying face down, unmoving. Kuda flipped him around, felt around his neck for a pulse, and counted the seconds on his m-watch. He let out a sigh of relief, followed almost immediately by a look of terror.

“He’ll be fine, just take him somewhere safe, he’ll wake up soon enough,” Kuda looked around and found the lady who helped them out the night before-Deilor. “You,” he pointed. “Take us wherever you take him,” the crowd started whispering. “I have some questions.”

4

Leanore stood in front of the bathroom mirror, the blue mana light from the bulb made her eyes pop out. She pushed the crystal on the faucet and water gushed out. Mana Infused Object, also known as MIO. The leading advances in magic technology, she was glad that even a town like Lintel gets access to them now. She wouldn’t know what to do without a modern bathroom.

After washing her face she managed to hold back her tears. Magic that can revive people, not even the brightest minds in Orbis could figure that out. A town that’s still going nuts over an m-carriage couldn’t have possibly figured out one of the biggest puzzles in magic. But still, if it was possible…

Memories of her hometown flashed before her eyes. It was moments like these that made her miss him terribly.

She tied her hair back to a ponytail and adjusted her buckle poncho. The poncho stood out in this country, and she never really liked to wear stylish clothing, but it was one of her only ties left to Orbis. It was grey, houndstooth pattern, the buckle was on the right side, freeing her sword-arm-it was all the rage in the city before she left.

It also made her feel pretty, though she didn’t like to admit it. She hated most things about her appearance, her black hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, and though she was proud of her defined muscles-it didn’t really make her popular. But the poncho, yeah, that made her feel pretty, though it was slightly offset by the longsword strapped to her back and the MIO attached to her left glove.

5

“What took you so long?” Kuda was sitting down on the pews, Deilor sat on a foldable chair near the altar. The priest was taken to a hospital, they said he wouldn’t be awake for a while so Kuda decided to talk to Deilor.

“Girl stuff,” always a reliable excuse.

Kuda raised his eyebrows and turned back to Deilor, “So it’s true then? The rumors?”

“That there’s a near extinct magical beast residing here in Lintel?” Deilor smiled, “yes, it is true.

“You are a well educated man, are you not?” she asked.

“I’ve had a long time to read.”

“Then I believe we can help each other,” she stood up and gestured for the both of them to follow, her guards trailed closely behind.

“We will let you analyze the beast as much as you want, and write about it as much as you want"as long as you mention that it resides in Lintel, should be a good tourist attraction you see.  But in exchange we need your help to figure out how to get it to fully cooperate, it’s being a bit of a pill I’m afraid,” she pushed the altar to the side with the help of the soldiers and revealed a trap door. “Come,” she opened the door and jumped down.

6

They were in a cave, their only source of light was a MIO bulb that Deilor had taken from the church"but blue light was hardly reliable in a place as dark as a cave. White or yellow crystals would have done the job but Leanore supposed that she couldn’t ask much of Lintel. Lord, she hated the dark.

“Relax, I’m a professional. Whatever this beast is I bet I can make it respond to me.” Kuda placed his hand on her shoulder, it was strange, he was a bit of a wimp. She could certainly take him out in a fight, immortality or not, yet being next to him made her feel safe.

They were reaching the end of the tunnel and Deilor stopped, halting everyone else.

“Beyond, I believe you will find something that will surprise even you, Klein Quistis,” she seemed to be enjoying this a lot.

“Try me,” Kuda smiled.

Leanore didn’t feel good about this, her hand defaulted to the hilt of her sword.

They walked past the tunnel and a growl echoed throughout the cave. A large reptilian creature came flying directly at them, Leanore drew her sword and pulled Kuda to the side.

The beast stopped in front of them. Leanore noticed a white line drawn on the ground, and then she heard the clanging of chains and realized that the thing’s neck was clasped with metal. What the devil was going on?

“Well? Mr. Quistis? Impressive, isn’t it?” Deilor bragged while the thing was still bashing itself on the walls of the cage, yanking it’s chain. It had bright green eyes and spikes that protruded out of its spine. It was coated by a faint, yet slightly visible green mana.

“A dragon…” Kuda pondered. “Wait, not just a dragon, this is an Inanis Dragon!”

“You know of it?” Leanore had never heard of it, a dragon… weird name for a giant lizard with wings.

“Yeah, I met some,” Kuda’s eyes wandered for a second. “But that was a long time ago. This isn’t a near extinct magical beast, it is extinct! No one has even heard of dragons for three thousand years.”

“And yet I’m looking at one right now, not to mention that I’m also looking at a Roden,” Deilor said smugly. “As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, this is how we did it. Gendel used the dragon’s mana and brought Elizabeth back to life.”

Leanore’s eyes opened wide. Then it was true after all, no tricks, Elizabeth was dead, and now she’s not. And this thing makes it possible. If she could borrow its powers, then maybe, maybe, she could use it to bring Elodir back. She drooled at the thought, and yet she knew she should be ashamed. She shouldn’t want that, she should have moved on by now, and yet she would give most anything to hold his hand again.

“That’s why Gendel is in the hospital right now,” Kuda broke the silence, and he gave Leanore a knowing look. “Life doesn’t come out of thin air, it has to be transferred. And I doubt the dragon is willing to give it’s own life for a human being.”

“Precisely, which is why we need your help. If you could convince it to stop taking Gendel’s life then you can study and write about it at your leisure.”

“F**k off,” Kuda snapped. Deilor was set aback.

“Kuda,” Lea grabbed his shoulder. “What’s wrong? They just want it to stop killing the priest.”

“Are you listening Lea?” His pupils were quivering. “Life doesn’t manifest in thin air, and Gendel isn’t dead.”

It took a moment for Leanore to follow. Elizabeth was brought back from the dead, and Gendel only passed out. Not to mention that they’ve probably performed the ritual plenty of times. Gendel should be dead, and yet he wasn’t. They were using sacrifices, and in Lintel, that could only mean one thing"Quothes.

And just like that, Elodir was dead again.

“If you’re not willing to help, then you can leave. Find other creatures to fill your bestiary,” she sounded bitter.

“I’m sorry Deilor, but like I always tell my pupil, we are scholars. That means we won’t only do whatever it takes to come to a better understanding of this twisted world, we will also share it with the public"saving the Quothes will just be a coincidental perk,” Kuda ran towards the dragon and it lunged towards him.

Leanore rushed to help him, but what could they do? There was no way they could put a fight against this thing.

The dragon opened its jaws, revealing about a hundred sharp fangs, and Kuda stood there trying to convince it to stop. The dragon bit Kuda in half.

The lower half of Kuda’s body dropped to the ground. Leanore almost hurled. Deilor and the soldiers groaned behind the white line.

Kuda’s legs propped itself back up"the dragon jumped backward. Apparently, even to a mystical being, a half body regenerating itself is unnatural.

“Usually, the key to handling aggressive beasts is to show them that not only are you not afraid, but you can take them,” he started talking as soon as his mouth and tongue was back.

The dragon was moving side to side, eyeing Kuda. He walked slowly to the dragon while holding his hand out. It roared in front of his face. The roar shook the whole cave, it was so strong that it almost blew Leanore back. Kuda stood unfazed. The dragon kept huffing, its eyes locked with Kuda’s. And slowly, its huffs grew weaker and weaker, its pacing slowed to a standstill, until it rested its nose on Kuda’s palm.

“You’re f*****g insane,” Leanore said out of instinct.

“Poor thing, they drain your mana daily don’t they?” Kuda said gently. “Normally these chains would be a child’s game to you, but you’re never given the chance to regenerate,” Kuda took a deep breath. “Well I have an endless supply.”

A stream of white mana poured out of Kuda and the dragon breathed it in.

“Hey, what are you doing! Guards stop them!” Deilor yelled.

“But ma’am… the dragon,”

“What about the dragon, soldier? It’s occupied taking in mana so it can escape, are you going to stay here and piss your pants or are you going to be a f*****g man and kill these foreigners!”

The soldiers rushed towards them. Leanore held her sword in front of her, she had to stall them until the dragon finishes taking in enough mana. Her hands trembled, this would be the first real fight she’s had. Plenty of experience in swordfighting from her dojo wasn’t enough to prepare her in taking a life. No, she had to remember her training. She didn’t have to kill right now. Calm down.

Wooden spears? It was almost insulting.

Leanore intercepted the soldier farthest forward and sliced his spear into two, she quickly crouched and nicked his ankle with the tip of her sword. One useless soldier. The next two came for a simultaneous attack, she ducked underneath both spears and sliced upwards. She smashed one’s neck with her thumb, and the other"the hilt of her sword to the back of his head. Three useless soldiers. Five left.

They tried to run past her while she was dealing with the other three to get to Kuda. Smart. Leanore activated the MIO on her left hand and closed her eyes.

Solar flare, bright yellow mana exploded and filled the cave with light.

The soldiers all yelled in pain. They should be blinded for a few seconds, but Leanore had to keep her eyes closed as well.

Listen. Two metal boots clanged to her northwest, directly north was one that fell to the ground, and two northeast must have dropped their weapons.

Leanore rushed left and sliced the two soldiers’ ankles, the middle fell, so she kicked his head while making her way to the right side. Two soldiers that dropped their spears, she found one of them and broke his wrist, the next one was nearby so she went low and sliced his kneecaps. Five simultaneous shouts of pain filled the room. The light faded, and with it, revealed eight useless soldiers.

“W-what was that?” Deilor was in shock.

“The MIO? A special little ditty from Orbis, you want to check it out or are you still overwhelmed by m-carriages?” She always did feel a little cocky after a victory.

“Forget you!” Deilor shouted. “I called more guards, they’d be here any second.”

She wasn’t kidding. Around twelve more guards showed.

“Rush her! Be careful, she has some sort of tech that allows her to use light magic,” Deilor ordered. The guards sprinted towards Leanore, spears up.

She couldn’t take much more of them. Hurry up, Kuda.

Four soldiers were at the front this time, they lunged forward simultaneously. Leanore dodged left, and swung her sword down to slice the spears"a sharp pain on her left arm emerged. The leftmost soldier swung right instead of thrusting, it must have nicked her. Her poncho was ruined, and she was surrounded.

There was no use. She dropped her sword, “I surr"”

A piercing screech shook the whole cave.

The soldiers were distracted for a second, Leanore grabbed her sword and swung in a circular motion. It hit air but it made the soldiers step back.

“Lea!” A voice called from above.

“Kuda,” Leanore cried.

The soldiers lunged for her, but she was picked up by the dragon’s talons. The force cracked her shoulders, and the fresh wound seared with pain"the next thing she knew was that she was looking down at twelve soldiers like they were ants.

“We’re flying!” Lea said in disbelief.

Kuda was laughing hysterically,  riding on the dragon’s back.

“Wait, what is it doing?” Lea closed her eyes in panic as the dragon headed straight for the wall. Any second now and they’ll crash and fall to the ground. Any second now. Any second.

Leanore opened her eyes, they were phasing through the walls of the cave"and she started laughing hysterically as well.

7

Nothing but blue skies. The wind blew Leanore’s hair back, her poncho flowing wildly, below was a sea of pink limmie trees"it was sights like this that reminded Leanore why she decided to join Kuda.

The dragon dropped them near the front of town, and it started licking Kuda’s face.

Kuda chuckled. “Stop it,” he said playfully.

“What are we going to do with it?” Lea couldn’t help but ask.

“We set it free, I was able to study him pretty well while he was taking my mana. It’s an intimate experience, exchanging mana,” Kuda answered.

“Are you sure? This one bears a lot of power, we might be able to use him for good.”

“No, we can’t,”

“H-hey!” a trembling voice from behind them called out. It was a young woman, no older than thirty, Elizabeth.

“Can we help you?” Kuda asked.

“Y-yeah, I heard the rumors about a self-healing man staying in town. I was waiting in the outskirts b-because they said you were leaving after your meeting,” she was shivering.

Kuda nodded in silence.

“I know what this does to you, you know. I saw the others, w-when they got revived. Some killed themselves, some are in the loony bin, and some just stay silent"like they were just walking dead. But you, you must have died a hundred times and you’re fine. How do you deal with it? The t-trauma,” she broke into tears.

Kuda walked towards her and placed his jacket around her, “this will haunt you for the rest of your life. Some nights you will sleep trembling, afraid that you won’t wake up in the morning. You’ll feel life within you that feels like it doesn’t belong to you. It won’t be so bad, you’ll find purpose in something, maybe you’re son"and for that you’ll be glad that you were given a second chance. I wish there was anything I could tell you that would right this wrong, but for now"simply cry. Let it out.” Kuda placed his arms around her, and she cried aloud.

END

Author's Note

Any and all feedback would be appreciated