//------------------------------// // A Mammoth of a Problem XXXVIII // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Dinner over the past couple of days was a bit more quiet and awkward than it had been in Larkon’s house earlier during Rainbow Dash’s visit. Even tonight, right after Alykon’s victory in Trunkball, the negative auras of Samarkon and Larkon brought everyone else at the table down. Rainbow Dash silently chewed on her kelp, her eyes darting back and forth between Larkon and Samarkon to see if one of them was going to speak. Alykon on the other hoof was feigning interest in her own meal while glancing up at her father every other second. She was hoping he would congratulate her on her victory or at least say something about it without her having to be the one to bring it up first. But so far Larkon was either oblivious or apathetic to her desires. After another minute of watching that it was finally Shibu who broke the silence. “Dear? What do you think about Alykon winning her first game of Trunkball?” Larkon’s head snapped up as if he’d been shocked awake. It was almost like he had been in a trance or something that had only been broken when someone finally spoke to him. “Hm? Oh… yes, I’m very happy for you, Alykon.” He said to her, although he forgot to smile. Rainbow Dash cringed. Larkon… get it together. He did seem slightly brighter at least, not just totally lost in his funk anymore. “Oh, thanks dad,” Alykon said. She was clearly still a little sad and not totally satisfied by his response and attitude. Larkon sighed and reached over with his trunk to pat her on the head. “I’m sorry, Alykon. My mind has been on a lot of things lately.” His eyes briefly glanced over to Samarkon before he looked over at Alykon. “But that’s no excuse, you’re my daughter and I’m very proud of you. I’m happy that your team was able to win their first game.” He looked over at Rainbow Dash and did manage to smile. “And thank you for helping them do that.” Rainbow Dash grinned back at him, happy at the change in mood around dinner. “No problem, bud.” “It was really great!” Alykon said with much more excitement in her voice. “We didn’t just win by luck or anything, we really were a lot better!” “Next time I’ll come watch your game for sure. I promise you,” Larkon told her. Alykon beamed up at her father and went to eating her kelp and other food with gusto, the family (minus one member) much happier now. But there still needed to be something done about that one member who had remained silent all throughout the meal so far. Larkon knew this too. And maybe a happy occasion like this could get him back out of his shell instead of acting resentfully to all of them. Larkon truly didn’t want Samarkon to be so full of rage, he wanted to be able to heal him somehow and get him to stop idolizing Karkona and what he stood for. “Samarkon? Don’t you have something to say to your sister too?” Larkon said to his son. The young mammoth grumbled and looked away, not even meeting his father’s eyes. Well that wasn’t good enough for Larkon. And he was still in a depressed enough mood where his patience wore thin enough for him to actually get angry with his son despite his desires for reconciliation. “Samarkon...” Larkon warned, his eyes narrowing. “You are still a member of this family. We feed you, we house you, we look after you. The very least you could do is congratulate your sister on her team’s Trunkball victory.” “Tch,” Samarkon clicked his tongue but relented. The mammoth sat up straight in his seat and looked down the table at Alykon, though he was still frowning and looked angry. “Good job on your first win.” “Thank you,” Alykon said simply. She didn’t smirk or be a jerk about it like Rainbow Dash would’ve been if she was in a similar situation. Alykon handled it very maturely and then went back to eating. Samarkon almost sneered at her but went back to silently eating as well, his eyes glued completely to his plate. Rainbow Dash looked over at Larkon and shrugged. It was better than nothing, right? Maybe with time this family could heal completely and Samarkon could find his place in the world. Rainbow Dash certainly hoped so, but she also knew that would be impossible until Karkona was dealt with. Nothing about the society of mammoths would be completely peaceful with the problem of him around. Much less Larkon’s family. Regardless if Karkona was dealt with nonviolently like Larkon wanted or… less nonviolently like Rainbow Dash wanted, they at least knew it was a problem that needed a stop put to it. Unlike the deaf and blind senate. “The food was excellent too, dear, like always.” Larkon said to his wife. It made Rainbow Dash snap out of her thoughts and she looked over at Shibu too. “Yeah, you’ve really made me a kelp lover. Never thought that would happen after that first day.” “Told you my mom was a great cook,” Alykon said to her. “Oh stop, all of you!” Shibu said, blushing. But then her eyes drifted over to Samarkon, an expectant look on her face. Larkon, Alykon, and Rainbow Dash all looked over at him too. It was obvious what they all wanted to hear. Samarkon could sense the eyes on him and he sighed, looking up with an annoyed frown and a furrowed brow. His face slowly turned to his mother while disregarding the rest of his family and Rainbow Dash. “It tastes good.” He said to her. “Thank you, sweetie,” she smiled and patted him on the head with her trunk. He grunted in annoyance but at least didn’t try to hit her trunk away or anything. Rainbow Dash grinned. She would count this as a victory for tonight and one more small step in the right direction. And it was due to the three great friends she had made right here at this table. Karkona was still lurking in her mind, but Rainbow Dash was more at ease now. Friendship always won out. She just had to keep that in mind and believe in herself and the well-meaning mammoths of this city. “The time has finally come.” Hours after the sun had gone down and most mammoths slept, Karkona and his most trusted minions met in his home. Murrank was with him, the foreman who had been there when Rainbow Dash, Larkon, and Abalun broke into the warehouses was there (he went by the name Alok), and several other twisted and brutish mammoths were there as well. “We’ve waited long enough,” Karkona continued. “And it’s clear we won’t find what we need any other way. There’s enough food and weapons for all of us, and the senate has recently proven they’re nothing but a bunch of cowards. Tonight we can enact the plan.” Murrank chuckled malevolently, a sneer twisting his features and making him look even worse with the scar on his trunk. “Finally we’ll be able to learn the location of the Sacred Spring.” “Yes,” Karkona nodded. “Whoever the keeper of its location is they won’t be able to hide and ignore what we’re about to do.” “We’ll spread the word to the others you selected and go out immediately,” Murrank said. Karkona grinned and went to a sliding window that was built into the eastern wall of his house. He pulled it open with his trunk and stared across the slums, across the river, to Tarmok’s Hall up on the hill. “Remember that I’ll be the one personally paying Bakol a visit though, the rest of you can go after any senators.” “They won’t even know what’s going on until it’s too late,” Alok said. “That’s right. They can scream and try to stop us all they want but it won’t even be until tomorrow that most of the rest of the city will even learn what happened, and then we’ll have already gotten back to the slums with our prizes,” Karkona laughed. “Everything is coming together, I can already feel the waters of the Sacred Spring.” “All our weapons and armor are ready if we need to use them in the city too. It’s all cleaned up and organized,” Alok told him. “I doubt we’ll need them but perhaps it would be nice to use them just for a show of force to the weaklings,” Karkona said. “Just to show them that we mean business,” Murrank said. “Yes, to show them that we’re not a bunch of cowards like they are. They’ll all be able to see how serious we’ve been this whole time. And they’ll know that war is coming when they see us,” Karkona said. He then took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his trunk, turning back to his cohorts. “But that’s the future—tonight we make the present.” The moon shining through the cold and dark night silhouetted his form against the window, leaving only his ivory tusks and piercing eyes clearly visible. “Now we go.” The home of Harrak the senator was on the northern edge of the city past Tarmok’s Hall. A quiet and relatively secluded spot, it was owned by his family for several generations now. The house was a large three stories with an open courtyard in the middle of it that gave it a very high-class feeling. A pond that for half the year was completely frozen sat in the center of the courtyard with an expertly crafted wooden bench built right beside it. This late at night there was only one member of the house still awake, Harrak himself. Late at night he liked to come sit here on the bench and enjoy the still night. It was very cold but as a mammoth he was more than used to it. Of course since it was night the pond was starting to freeze, already the surface of it was hard and snow was falling all around the rest of the courtyard. But Harrak didn’t mind, in a moment he’d finally retire for the night and then tomorrow morning his groundskeeper would take care of the snow and everything else. His eyes drifted over to the flower patch in the corner, the poor things weren’t going to be back in bloom for a long time now. Most of the color of the courtyard was going to disappear until next spring and even then only reappear for very briefly. That’s just how it was in their northern home. Harrak took a deep breath and held it in for a moment before releasing it, letting himself feel his whole body inflate and deflate. It was a calming exercise that he had found himself using more and more recently the past couple of days. A pang of guilt shot through him and he looked down at the pond to see his reflection—a pointless attempt though. He sorely wanted to think he wasn’t the bad guy. He really did. But Larkon and Miss Rainbow Dash… they were so passionate. He wanted to think he was doing the right thing, the safe thing, but maybe he was just in denial. Harrak knew they weren’t lying about what they said they found in the warehouses (although some of the other senators may have honestly thought that) but he truly believed no good could come from doing anything about it. Karkona was too volatile and dangerous and they could never keep him imprisoned even if they moved against him somehow. Harrak sighed, hoping his inaction was truly in the benefit of the city. A breeze blew down from the sky and whirled around the courtyard for a bit before taking off again. Harrak looked up the walls of his house after it and his eyes stopped on a certain window on the third floor facing the courtyard. A smile stretched across his lips, it was his son’s room and just earlier today he had come running home as a bundle of pure joy—his Trunkball team had finally won their first game. Harrak had given his son a big hug after hearing the wonderful news, he was so proud of Dathon. Truthfully Trunkball had never held much interest to him but he knew how much Dathon loved it and that was more than enough for him as the boy’s father. Maybe next time he should actually watch his game… Harrak decided it was finally time to turn in though and he stood up from his bench. He had been getting too old the past five years to spend so much time alone out here in the cold night. The courtyard had but one entrance and exit, a vine-patterned metal gate that opened up into a small patio that in turn had a door that led into the interior of the house. Harrak passed through the gate and closed it back up, pausing briefly on the patio to shake off any snow that had fallen on him before he walked back inside his house. The door opened up with a squeak into a dark hallway with the front door to the house directly across from him. He turned to close the patio door with his trunk and then made to walk towards his bedroom where he could slide into bed with his wife and finally drift off to sleep. It was no sooner than he took the first step towards his bedroom that the front door was kicked open. Part of the wood from the door snapped off from the force of the kick and the door handle slammed into the wall and cracked the plaster. Four mammoths burst into his house and immediately ran towards the senator, who was surprised beyond belief. “Wha-what?!” Harrak yelled, taking a step backwards and accidentally cornering himself against the wall. Seeing who he was, three of the mammoths ran off down different hallways while the fourth continued to stride up to him. “Well, well, well, look who’s still awake so late at night?” Murrank said to Harrak. “Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” Harrak trembled in fright from the scarred mammoth. Elsewhere he could hear his family waking up as the other three mammoths ransacked his home. “Murrank is my name and I’m here on orders of Karkona,” the scarred mammoth grinned evilly at the senator. Harrak’s pupils shrunk down to pinpricks. It was like all his fears had become realized at once. “B-But why are you here?” Murrank laughed and suddenly brought his trunk up to slap Harrak across the face. The older senator was thrown to the ground where his left tusk bent awkwardly against the hard floor and snapped in two. Murrank then walked up to him and swiftly and repeatedly began kicking him in the ribs. “Old fool, you have no idea what’s going on. You and all the other pitiful senators that think Karkona is just some thug, or that he’s like you and doesn’t have the courage to do whatever he wants. Well Karkona is proving that he’s the mammoth fit to be King and bring us into a new age of glory,” Murrank kicked him one more time for good measure. The scream of Harrak’s wife tore through the house and the senator weakly lifted his head to try and tell what was going on. He heard more shouting, his son Dathon, and a scuffle break out on the floor above him. It sounded like something was knocked over, a vase shattered, several loud thumps and bumps. At last a heavy wheeze was heard and something heavy fell onto the floor, followed by laughter. Murrank was listening to all of it too while wearing a grin on his face. The scarred mammoth’s eyes drifted down to Harrak’s. “In a moment you’ll see how serious we are.” Harrak heard some more struggling and the sound of something being dragged across the floor, out from a room and down the hallway to the stairs. He heard the sound of multiple mammoths laughing and hitting something else, all of it drawing closer as they came down the stairs. His eyes were glued to the corner of the hallway as he waited with dread for the mammoths to reappear from around it and see just what was going on and what Murrank was doing here. Those three mammoths edged around the corner, carrying someone between them. “Dathon!” Harrak yelled as he saw his beaten up son being dragged along by the thugs. He looked on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness with how bruised and limp he was. “Father...” Dathon weakly replied. “What are you doing with my son?! Let him go! And my wife, where is she?!” Harrak yelled, trying to scramble to his feet despite his pain right up until Murrank hit him on the head with his trunk. “Hahahaha!” Murrank laughed at Harrak’s pain and anger. “I couldn’t care less about what my friends did to your wife but your son is coming with us.” “Why...” Harrak coughed. “He’s going to be our prisoner. Our hostage,” Murrank grinned. “You’ll hear more about it tomorrow morning I’m sure, but for now your stupid son is coming back with us to Karkona’s slums. Better just sit tight and do what Karkona wants or you’ll never see him again. That’s a promise.” Harrak didn’t have the strength to speak anymore as the other three mammoths laughed with Murrank and took Dathon out the front door and into the dark street. Harrak had to watch through the open door as Dathon was taken further and further away while there was nothing he could do. He struggled to prop himself up, feeble front limbs too weak to pull his body up all the way. The house was now quiet in this cold, dark, night and the sounds of footsteps in the snow soon disappeared. His attempts to yell after his son just turned into pained croaks. At Bakol’s residence a similar event was occuring. “Daddy!” His six-year old daughter yelled as one of Karkona’s goons wrapped her up in his trunk and carried her away, the poor girl crying the whole way. “Seebol!” Bakol yelled after her and tried to run out the door for her only for his tusks to be grabbed by Karkona’s powerful trunk and his body wrenched to the side. Karkona then jerked his head forward and stabbed one of his sharp tusks into Bakol’s left front leg. Right at the joint where it connected to his shoulder. Bakol didn’t scream but he gasped a sharp intake of breath and nearly lost consciousness from the sudden pain and shock. His body slipped right off of Karkona’s tusk when Karkona let go of him and the speaker collapsed onto the floor, a sweat breaking out over his entire body while Karkona stared down at him in disgust. “Pitiful,” the dark mammoth sneered with blood still on his tusk. “A single shallow wound is all it takes to almost make you faint? What kind of mammoth are you?” Karkona began walking away, following after his underlings that had taken Seebol. He paused in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at Bakol. “Tomorrow morning you and your senators are going to spread the word of what’s happened to the entire city. Along with a very important order from me: If the Keeper of the Sacred Spring does not reveal themselves and tell us of the Spring’s location, you will never see your children again.”