Baked Scribe Flashback : Zuijin
“It says that they’re supposed to represent the guardians of the temple,” Justin said as he looked up at the plaque. The twin statues were seated on opposite sides of the archway leading them up to the exhibit. “They were ancient warriors who—”
He was interrupted by a rumbling from deep within the statues. The ground started to shake as if from an earthquake, and even though it was impossible, the statues started to move. First, one enormous foot was lifted, yanked free from the ground. This was followed by the other foot and soon both statues were standing and walking around the courtyard, drawing giant stone swords from their sheaths.
Justin and Doug took one look at each other and made a dash for what they hoped would be the protection of the original guardhouse that had been cut into the base of the cliff. A loud crash followed close behind them as one of the giants hurled what looked like a car engine at them as they had made their retreat. The walls and ceiling began to shake and rain stones down on them as they knelt into fetal positions, screaming the whole time.
After a few minutes, Justin realized that there was a new sound, hidden within their own screams. It was the sound of something else shrieking, animal-like and it was coming from out there. They crawled to the entrance and peeked around the corner.
There was a reptile of sorts, the size of a small house, hovering over the statues with wings beating the air as it craned its neck forward and belched out a column of flame at the two giants. The statues were taking the blasts of heat with no effect, waving their swords wildly in the air, missing with each stroke as the dragon lifted up, easily dodging their parries. It unleashed another blast of liquid fire, which flowed over the giants like water.
“We need to get the fuck out of—” Doug started to say as he turned towards the far side of the courtyard, where the exit was, and stopped. Justin watched him staring at the tree-line, past the parking lot, wondering what it was he was seeing. “Never mind, nope. Not going out that way.”
Justin crawled to the entrance and looked for himself.
Charging from the darkness of the trees were at least a dozen animate skeletons, glowing an eerily phosphorescent green in the early evening light. They charged up the hill towards the parking lot, swords, axes, and spears held high in a unified cry of rage. The giants seemed unaware of their attack, or simply didn’t care as they continued to focus on the dragon, still hovering just out of reach and engulfing everything in flame. Justin thought that the giants were actually showing signs of weakening, with scorch marks up and down their stone bodies.
In another moment, the army of skeletons were on the giants, hacking and slashing at the massive legs, ducking and weaving as the stone swords swung at them in wide arcs. The dragon swooped, and again bathed the giants in flames. As they turned their attention up to meet this attack, the skeletons renewed theirs, swarming like insects. Once or twice, a stone sword did manage to catch a few of the skeletons and knock them across the yard, but they got right back up, and sprinted back into the battle.
One of the giants dropped to a knee, causing the whole yard to shake. The dragon swooped down low over the other, causing it to spin around in its attempted counter-attack and in the process, tripped over its partner in arms. Both of them were now lying on the ground as the skeletons clambered up onto them, hacking and stabbing as they did so. The giants writhed under the force of the attack and managed to sweep most of them off of their bodies. They lumbered to their feet, standing, and looking like barrel chested wrestlers, heaving from the effort.
The attack on the giants somehow grew even more in intensity, and it seemed like this was going to be an eternal stalemate, when Justin heard a sweet tune on the air, a melodic singing coming from above. A bird appeared, even larger than the dragon and glowing the most beautiful red and yellow colors he had ever seen. The giants turned to look up at the new participant, and even with their blank stone visage, seemed to be weighing their options. Meanwhile, the bird continued its lazy descent until, as it neared the giants, it reached out with its talons and took hold of one of the stone heads.
Upon contact, the claws began to squeeze, and with a cracking sound that made Justin’s ears pop, the head exploded outward in a shower of rock and fine dust. The dragon swooped in and lifted the now headless giant and flew straight up into the air with it, spinning around several times before releasing the body and launching it off into the horizon.
The remaining giant immediately went on the attack, swinging at the bird, but not even coming close as it flew up and out of the range of its sword. The skeletons, now seeming to have tripled in size rushed in, and climbed up the body until all Justin could see was a pile of skeletons, writhing and struggling with what lay beneath them. A loud cry came out from above. As if on command, the skeletons slid off the body of the giant, leaving it exposed for the dragon and the bird to swoop in, each taking hold of an arm and pulling, ripping it, down the center. The two halves of the body dropped to the ground, and did not move again.
The bird lifted up into the air and spread its wings, nearly fifty feet across, and began beating the air. An intense, hot wind buffeted them and howled into the cave as they tried to stay on their feet. An explosion filled the empty space and knocked them both to the ground.
When Justin came to, he staggered out from the guardhouse, into the courtyard and looked around. All that was left from the battle was a pile of rubble and stone debris. He sensed Doug stumbling out, moments later. Neither spoke as they looked around, trying to decide if what they had just seen had actually happened. Doug shook his head and finally managed to find his voice.
“Next year, we’re going to God damned Mardi Gras.”
