RAVEN STORY    

THE END (take from originaL story)

byRaven (killian)

Thank you to everyone who has gathered here today. I had to think long and hard about how I wanted to present myself today. As Kajirus, who I was for so long, or as the person I have kept secret inside me for so long? I decided on the latter. Today, I am banishing the Kajirus inside me. I am showing who I really am, what has been made of me. That a chapter is ending here and now.

My last part ended with us getting lost in front of the Sardar Mountains. Yes, they towered above us, but we still had a long way to go. A journey that raised more and more questions in me, to which I received only very brief answers, if any at all.

I can still remember clearly that I had goose bumps, non-stop. Something was happening here, but I didn't know what. It was driving me crazy. I also found myself questioning everything. Had it been wise to come along? But he was my brother, so everything was fine. Wasn't it?

Again and again, I caught myself looking at my brother, watching him. He was strange. He often showed sides of himself that I didn't know. But I dismissed it as figments of my imagination, my nerves getting the better of me. I was seeing things that weren't there. But I was wrong about everything. Especially about my brother. He was no longer the person he had once been. Something had happened to him; where he had once shown kindness, there was now coldness. Even towards me.

 

This became more apparent the closer we got to our destination. You're probably wondering what our destination was. A Kur camp. He led me straight to a camp of Kurii. There he made it clear which side he was on. Everything he had told me, everything about the priest-kings, was it all a lie? It seemed that he had only been carrying out an order to find me. And so I became a pet of the Kurii. 

It was not a pleasant time. I still remember clearly how I almost wet my pants when the captain towered over me, grabbed me by the throat and clarified that I had to obey them, that there was no alternative, and so I resigned myself to my fate for the time being.

 

I can still clearly see my brother's face in front of me. I didn't understand. Why had he betrayed me? What was he trying to achieve? He acted as if he didn't know me. He pushed me aside, and my hatred grew. At first, I thought he was trying to achieve something, but when I was severely punished by him during my first attempt to escape, it suddenly became crystal clear to me. My brother had died on the day he was kidnapped. Every one of the men who became warriors was so deeply mentally manipulated that nothing of their humanity remained.

That was also the moment when I turned against him and everyone there. I went into battle with them, yes, but I did it cleverly. I never wanted to be a weapon of the Kurii. I would rather have died than continue to obey them, and my plan to escape again grew with each passing day. With each passing minute. Even though the threat that I would lose more than just my fingernails next time raged inside me. They could kill me. This was no life.

 

They even turned against their own kind. Their own people became renegades and it was precisely these who were recaptured. Often killed to make an example of them. 

When I wasn't fighting, I had to look after one of the Kurii. It was menial work, making sure the cave and sleeping quarters were clean. And yes, at first I didn't notice, but soon I realised the difference between him and the others. 

It was one night. I came into the shelter and caught him trying to comb himself. Yes, I had to look twice, I had never seen anything like it before. Normally, a Kur didn't care what his fur looked like. But mine here did seem to care.

At first he didn't notice me and continued combing himself, only turning around when he caught my scent. And yes, these creatures could be damn fast. He pounced on me and knocked me down. He growled dangerously, showing his enormous fangs, which were close to my throat.

 

I didn't move, stayed where I was and my thoughts raced. Normally he was very gentle, I had never seen him like this before. So what to do? Our languages were different, but I had learned a few things. And so I tried to calm him down. I stroked his fur. Tried to clarify that I wouldn't say anything. His behaviour also showed that it was dangerous to be different in his world. Well, we weren't so different in that respect.

Anyway, he eventually let go of me and crouched down, growling and staring at me suspiciously. I had to regain his trust, but how? As I was thinking, my gaze fell on the comb. I picked it up and slowly walked over to him, crouched down and pointed to the object. I slowly ran it through his fur. 

Yes, I thought he would beat me up now, since every Kurii enjoyed hitting me.But no, he let me, and so I combed him almost every day. This connection showed me very clearly how different he was, how he stood out and was considered an oddball even among his own people. He never joined in a fight; no, he always stayed in the camp. He hunted and took care of the wounded. People would call him a healer, and damn it, he knew how to hold his own as one.

Now, when someone asks me if it is possible to develop a kind of friendship with a Kur, I have to confirm in a messed-up way that it is possible. Not in the way we know it, but rather based on trust. No, a Kur does not allow closeness. We had to show trust in gestures and actions, so I helped him when he healed someone, when he cooked, or he helped me when I was injured in battle. 

I wasn't just his slave, no, I had to help everywhere. I was also a trained warrior and cannon fodder. With every mission, they sent us to the front line. It wasn't a question of whether you wanted to go, it was more like do it or lose your head. That's how I ended up being sent to the Sardar. More than once. My mission was to gather information. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn't.

 

One day, after thinking long and hard about how I could plan another escape, everything went haywire, but there were Sleen in the camp, so escape was hopeless. In any case, I no longer counted on a chance, but often something unexpected happens. In my case, it was a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

I know I'm talking in riddles.

 

On that day, we attacked a village near the Sardar Gate. My mission was to take out the village's Ubar during the attack. He was a spy for the Priest Kings. The actual attack was just a diversion. Yes, I had been given more missions like this over time because the commander had noticed that I was quite skilled at it. My training on Earth had included this objective. I was and am a contract killer; here, you would call me an assassin. That was also the reason why my brother was supposed to capture me. Today, that is what I call it.

 

But sometimes missions go wrong, as they did that day. The inhabitants knew what was going on. The Ubar was already waiting for me. And I had walked into a trap, my own fault. Something hit me in the neck and I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was no longer in the village, but in a strange room.

When I sat up, I still felt a little dizzy and sat back down. ‘Drink the water, it will weaken the effect of the anaesthetic,’ said a voice from the entrance. It was a young guy dressed in a kind of tunic. He was good-looking, but I wanted out of there and stood up.

 

The guy backed away but didn't leave the cell. ‘You should stay lying down, it was a strong dose.’ I waved him away and pretended it couldn't hurt me, but the next moment I sank to my knees. What the hell had they given me? My knees were like rubber. I glared at the guy. I hated kneeling like that.

 

I dragged myself to the bed and grabbed the cup. I drank the damn stuff, then leaned against the bed. I yelled at him, asking him where the hell I was. The answer silenced me and I blinked. In the Sardar Mountains, inside... the mountain. Damn it, I had actually made it into the mountain, well, not on my own. I had to try three times to answer, and anyone who knows me knows that this was not me.

It soon became clear to me that I had escaped the Kurii and didn't have to kill anyone anymore. The guy who introduced himself as Rius quickly made it clear why they had captured me.

‘You've done a lot of damage. Many have died.’ 

I just shrugged my shoulders. What else could I do? Better someone else's head than mine.

 

At first, I wanted to try silence. Maybe they would soon get fed up with me and throw me out. But they were persistent, and eventually I opened my mouth. It had been a process, unnoticed. Silence was useless. My subconscious knew that, only my thick skull didn't.

Soon Rius knew what I had to do it, but he already knew that. It was well known how things worked in the Kurii camp. That they had abducted us from Earth. And I was still alive only because I was now supposed to switch sides. It was quite simple. They brought the most important horse on board.

 

And once again I was trapped, once again I couldn't decide what I wanted. I wanted to get away from everything. But Rius quickly clarified that the Kurii were a great danger and were still kidnapping people and destroying entire families.

He didn't need to explain it to me, I had experienced it myself. My family, my brother, everyone was gone. The Kur war had claimed many victims and there was no end in sight.

I could go on and fill hours with stories, but I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what happened next. 

In any case, I stayed in the Sardar Mountains and switched sides. Today, I fight for the priest kings. Nothing much has changed, really. Today, I carry out the orders of another in order to protect humanity and make life difficult for the Kurii. 

I hid in Isfahan as a slave. It couldn't have been more inconspicuous, but now my path is leading me further.

I thank everyone for the time I spent here and for what I was able to experience.