Title-- The Demon-God of Jubagh (part three)
Rating and Warnings-- G; no real warnings, except for mild cursing.
Species and Characters-- Rai Gerring, traitor and black magician (human male); Brandon "Exile" Styhan, exiled paladin-warrior (human male); Lhafa Softstep, native not-a-holy-man (baghan woman).
Previously-- Part One is here, and Part Two is here.



Brandon flung a well-muscled arm out in a vehement gesture. "You mean to tell me that every hellspawned hexer on this bloody planet wants to summon this thing?!" He ignored Rai's calming motion, taking a heavy step towards the expressionless baghan. "And you didn't tell me this before I said I'd help?!"

Her eyes were silver. It was almost as unnerving as her face - almost human, the most human thing about her, but still different enough to disconcert. "You did not ask before you answered."

Rai pressed his hand against Brandon's chest, a brief radiance from the blood-ink tattoos giving the ex-paladin pause in his advance. Calmly, the black magician looked towards the woman. "We will need your help, you realize," he said evenly. "We are new here. We need a guide."

She stepped back with a soft click of hoof on wood, all too obviously startled. "I am not a holy man," she protested. "I have no way to help. I do not know the spirit-trails of the sky."

"You don't have to be a holy .. person," Rai responded. "You know the paths of the forest. You know your people's culture. You know the tribal boundaries. These are things we need to know, yet do not." He paused, then sighed. "And I do not know very much about Zeh Gurhai. I hope that you know more lore than I."

As she hesitated, Brandon curled his fingers around Rai's wrist and firmly removed the restraining hand. The crackle of conflicting magic between their skin was painful; the magician cringed and drew back, tucking his slightly-smoking limb into the wide sleeve again. Brandon took another step forward, eyes locked on the woman who ducked to be just below his eye-level. "Look here, Softstep," he growled. "If you don't give your all in helping us, this demon-god will be summoned. Do you understand that?"

Abruptly, Lhafa straightened. Though the paladin's muscular frame easily outweighed her, despite her greater height, the sinuous grace of her streamlined body was enough to remind one of a coiled snake. Brandon stopped his forward stalk, despite himself, as she spoke coldly. "Do you not have allies elsewhere, outlanders? Powerful friends who will help you?" She drew back, her weight shifting her stance to an almost-defiant one. "Do you know what fate will befall this world, and others, if Zeh Gurhai is unleashed?"

"No and no," Brandon snapped. "I figure it's bad. That's enough motivation for a guy like me." He scowled up at her.

She stared incredulously, but it was Rai who explained. "What I do know of Zeh Gurhai is pretty nasty, Br--uh, Exile. Plague sweeps the land, mutating the wildlife and corrupting the flora. Creatures become aggressively hostile. The people turn on each other, maddened, and kill until there is no one left. It happens wherever Zeh Gurhai is."

The ex-paladin huffed, crossing his arms tensely. "What does this god look like? How do we kill it? Where is it now and how are they planning to free it?" Rai shrugged. Brandon looked back towards Lhafa, whose long tail had wound around her calves in a strange knot. Must be nervous. "Look, Softstep. We're gonna try to save your people and your world from this thing. The least you can do is lend us your know-how."

Her tone was quiet, compared to his booming voice. "If I aid you in any way, I will be outcast from my tribe and killed on sight by any who once called me clanswoman." She slouched, returning herself to eye-level with the taller of the two men.

Rai flinched and would have spoken, but Brandon shot him a golden-eyed look that warned him to stay silent. "The alternative, Softstep, is the death of everyone you know and the mutilation of your world. Assuming Rai is right, and he usually is."

After a moment, she extended a slender hand, the long fingers tipped in nubs too blunt to be claws and too solid to be fingernails. Almost like tiny hooves. "If you will endeavor to keep me alive, I will help you." Her tail unwound from her legs and coiled behind her again, the tufted tip flicking restlessly.

Awkwardly, Brandon clasped her hand, half-worried of grinding her thin bones together - but her grip was surprisingly strong for her slender build. "We'll keep you alive, Softstep. We'll even try to not kill your friends if they attack us." He cracked a white-toothed grin as he released her hand. She looked surprised.

Rai sighed, reaching a hand into the opposite sleeve to rub at his singed wrist. It still stung. Exiled or not, Brandon had not lost his power as a paladin. And, traitor to his own faction or not, Rai was still susceptible to the Light...

"Rai? Are you listening?" The voice derailed his train of thought.

The magician looked up, blinking. "Eh?"

"Softstep just told us the story of Zeh Gurhai." Brandon sounded annoyed. "Don't tell me you spaced."

Rai's gaze flicked to the woman, who was looking very puzzledly at the ex-paladin. "No, she didn't." He paused just long enough to replay in his head the words he'd heard but hadn't absorbed. "She said she didn't know any story about it."

Brandon relaxed slightly, satisfied. "Good, you pass. Now, Softstep. You need to find out as much as you can. Can you do that?" He frowned when she shook her head. "Why not?"

"Only the holy ones are allowed to know the stories. The rest of the tribe only knows which gods to fear and which to praise. We are not told why."

Rai opened his mouth to speak, but his companion cut him off. "Geh! Blast this. I'm tired of talking. Let's go do something about it." He headed for the rope ladder and kicked it down to unroll itself. It swung loosely towards the forest floor as the magician just shook his head.

"Exile, this is not something we should rush into. Zeh Gurhai is--"

Brandon rounded on him, eyes overlaid with a golden sheen. Rai drew back with a stifled hiss. "Blast it, Rai, you know more about this alien god than the native here does!" He jerked a thick thumb at the woman who watched them silently. "And you don't know enough! So let's go find someone who knows something and beat it out of them."

There was no arguing when the 'holy man' was on the warpath. Rai leveled a dry look at him. "And you wonder why you didn't get promoted through the ranks." He ignored the growled response and glanced towards Lhafa. "Can you direct us to the most hated enemy of your tribe?"

She pointed one hooved finger downwards. "We stand in their territory now."