Many, many were the Homins of all races and beliefs who answered the call of the Rangers. Their mission was simple – to proceed to Desert Stock and eliminate the unknown new Queen from the old lands who has infiltrated the hive, if possible acquiring some of her larvae for investigation.

At the appointed meeting time, the Homins poured into the appointed place of Zora city and waited to hear what Orphie Dradius, the Leader of the Rangers had to say. Once the objective was clear, they appointed the noble Jayce as a pathfinder to lead them to the deadly hive.

Hundreds of homins streamed across the jungle landscape that evening, letting nothing stand in their way as they charged towards the haunted outline of Desert Stock.

Once there, they regrouped and the fierce battle against the Kitin hordes commenced in earnest. The air was thick with the casting of mighty spells and the clashing of weapons against chitinous hide, whilst the healers kept up a constant stream of balm for the wounded.

Slowly they fought their way towards the usurping Queen, and some began to engage her guards whilst others attempted to attack the loathsome Kizarak herself. This, though, was no normal Kitin – she proved to have almost infallible regenerative powers, and the Homins were hard pushed to make any impact on her bloated body. Then disaster struck the Homins as the healers were attacked from behind by an ambush of the cunning Kinreys! All perished, and were forced to use the powers of the gods to respawn and regather for another attempt.

Once again, unbowed in defeat, they fought their way inch by inch through the dank tunnels of the hive to the Queen’s lair, where after a prolonged and devastating fight they dragged her down by sheer weight of numbers.

Leonardo handed Orphie the larvae, and the job was done – but many were the wounded and the lair was strewn with Homin corpses to show how mighty had the struggle been.
It was agreed to gather one last time in Zora, where the Rangers had some stories and accounts from the great swarming which they had pulled from their archives to share with the Homins, lest they forget the Kitin horror.

Orphie herself gave the first speech:

“Homins, you have strived hard this day and I thank you for your efforts. We have searched our archives and we wish to read to you some contemporary accounts and eyewitness testimonies of the great swarming which were gathered many years ago, to show you the true horror of these foul beings. The order's librarian has selected a tale from each race to show that none were unaffected by this terrible menace. Some of you may have heard some of these before, but I am sure there is fresh material here to ponder.....

We start with Fyros:

One day a team of miners, under the reign of Cerakos II, struck upon a pothole leading to a fabulous cavern where a strange thirty foot relic lay entrapped in the roots like a giant forsaken buckler shield. The captain cautiously climbed to the top of the great buckler where a nauseating smell came from a nine foot wide hole. Sword drawn, he approached the soundless orifice and looked over the rim.

But then he let out a short cry before he was seized and silenced and dragged inside! The other miners called out but only the sound of munching returned their call. They escalated the buckler and to their horror, there lumbered from within a horrible six legged creature followed by others. The miners had seen their first Kitins! They smote the creatures easily one by one as they came out of the hole, but little did they know these were only infant Kitins, and suddenly, from a gaping hole in the wall came a horde of great kitin soldiers.

The miners sent a fireball down the tunnel to block the monsters’ progress and were able to escape on their mektoubs. The alert was raised and the mayor of Corialis mustered up a fighting force. But horror met their eyes on the horizon as they were just leaving the town. In the distance, a legion of great Kitins was coming up fast so marking the start of the Great Swarming and the end of an Empire. To this day, many believe that the Kitins were protecting some hidden secret of Atys.”

Then Rangers’ quartermaster Melga Folgore told the second tale:

“Would you believe that the first Matis ever to set eyes on a kitin lived to tell the tale?
His name was Angeli di Fabrini, of noble stock, second son of a high ranking officer who, having but a small fortune placed him with the clergy. At fifteen, after the festivities of the three kings that announce the coming of colder days, the young seminarian was sent to the northern front on his first mission to reinstate the word of Jena in the hearts of Fyros villagers residing in the outer limits of the desert who had been victim to the advancement of heresy. Indeed, the song of pagan chants was in danger of resounding in our lands. After the long and grueling ride to the Matis outpost and a well earned rest, the seminarian was eager to make his first tracks in the desert.

Angeli rode over the hot desert dunes clad in the attire of his station, to which, despite the general agnostic feeling, no Fyros would manifest untoward feeling. At the first Fyros village the young Matis was listened to with polite indifference and entertained by the minor dignitary who offered him a bed till the imminent storm passed over. But the mayor, not for a second imaging that the young Matis apprentice seminarian could feel any affection other than brotherly love, introduced him to his daughter, Julea.

A strange sensation stabbed Angeli di Fabrini full in the heart as he followed the daughter’s argument against the existence of the dragon and even of Jena. Spellbound by Julea’s beauty and assurance, Angeli could only stammer his learning and more often than not found himself acquiescing to legitimatize her questions. As for the young Fyros girl, she was at first intrigued then charmed by the boy’s natural refined manner and before long love’s spell kindled in both their hearts.

It was on the forth evening, sitting out on the silent dunes, that their bare arms first, then their lips touched as natural as the wind caresses the trees or rolls over the desert dunes...

But the following morning gave no time for embarrassing glances or fumbling words or even a simple gaze of reassurance, for news came of a terrible invasion of monsters and the village chief ordered the immediate evacuation of the village. Not knowing then what was awaiting them, the fighting men sadly rode on to join the capital leaving the elders, women and children to travel further north lest Matis launched an assault in the absence of male protection.

Angeli was left to rejoin his own people, though he stayed long enough to exchange lockets with Julea, each locket enclosing a lock of hair. And so they parted forever but the novice’s adventures were not over by a long chalk.

On his way back to the forest lands he was caught in a desert storm and stopped to shelter behind his mektoub packer by an oasis when, hardly fifty yards behind him, he beheld an awful dark mass that stretched tree hundred yards wide and trailed a long way into the distance. The seminarian had set his eyes upon an army of kitin soldiers advancing at a furious speed. It was futile to run, he sat with his prayer book savoring his lost love rememorizing the precious moments as the whole kitin army marched straight past him not thirty yards from where he was praying. But then a number of the creatures came to water at the oasis...

The mektoub was well broken in and under the seminary’s firm hold did not jolt. Angeli sat still and studied the Kitins watering barely fifteen feet from his tree. As soon as the dreadful legions had passed he was able to make it back to his outpost to give the alert. The only ‘rational’ explanation as to why the Kitins had left him unattended was that they were quite simply not yet used to the Matis smell! But what became of the young seminarian?

No, he never married; his heart remained faithful to Jena thereon. And, thanks to Jena, you are looking at him now, dear young Homin. Yes, and between you and me, I still hold the locket close to my heart.”

Followed by the Tryker Ranger Wilk Potskin who sang an old Tryker song of the great swarming called Opportunity Awaits:

Livin’ on a shoestring, walkin’ on a tightrope,
Waiting for the day to come
From out of a nightmare, I’m heading for the one hope
I’m leaving on the rise of the sun

Chorus
Gotta get out of here, find a way to leave
Not gonna take the easy way out, cause I’ve found something to believe
Gotta get out of here, find a way to escape
My thoughts are spinning though my aim is clear, opportunity awaits!

Pressure’s rising, blood is boiling,
Sap is running low
Kitins are thumping, screeching and scouring,
I ain’t stayin’ in these lands of woe

Chorus
Gotta get out of here, find a way to leave
Not gonna take the easy way out, cause I’ve found something to believe
Gotta get out of here, find a way to escape
My thoughts are spinning though my aim is clear, opportunity awaits!

Hacking through the bush like a ragus tracker
I been huggin’ this old road like a kin
Alone out here, lost my mektoub packer
And my soul’s sure wearing thin

But as long as I live, I’ll keep kicking along
Keep pushing till my blood runs dry
To the newfound lands, to the place I belong
I can make it if I push and I’ll try

Chorus
Gotta get out of here, find a way to leave
Not gonna take the easy way out, cause I’ve found something to believe
Gotta get out of here, find a way to escape
My thoughts are spinning though my aim is clear, opportunity waits!

Finally Han Kiou retold an historic eyewitness account of the Kitin attack on Zoran:

“I am from Zoran, the ancient capital of our people. I well recall our beautiful magnificent city that spread over miles of jungle, and my house in the old medina where the first Zoraï temple stood to the glory of the first Kami enlightenment. Morning and evening we would be called to worship by the chimes of the great syre wood bells whose sound was deep and tender and touched the heartstrings. One autumn, we were giving thanks for the exceptional harvest when the great bells tolled unexpectedly, for the last time...

My father’s first fear was that the barbarians in the north had somehow escaped our guards’ attention, found a blind spot in the great wall securing our territory and had launched an attack. He swept me off my feet while my mother took my baby brother and we sped home as the city doors where being banging shut. When he left us to stand ready with his guild I had a pang in the heart and wouldn’t let go of his leg. He nearly became cross and my mother had to pull me away. I watched him from the window run down the road toward the main entrance, skinning knife in hand. I had a sinking feeling I would never see him again.

Outside there was a tremendous crash followed by a sudden movement of the crowd and people started shouting and screaming that monsters were upon us. There was another sickening bang and a rolling of dust as the towers and the city wall collapsed.

We watched the scene from our upper terrace and through the dust we saw the first giant Kitins clambering into the city. Mother grabbed me, we ran downstairs, “pour the trapper liquid over yourself, quick, it’ll cover your scent!” she cried as she dowsed my brother and herself. We poured a whole container over the floor then lifted the cellar trapdoor and descended to where my father did his skinning, and it was none too late neither.

A thousand feet drummed past the upper cellar window that looked onto the street at ground level. An obnoxious smell then filled the air as on the floor above our heads we heard some dreadful scratching about. My mother held my hand over my mouth for the first five minutes in anticipation of my screams, I was petrified. And then the rummaging above our heads got louder...

My mother made signs for me not to make a sound, and I did my best to swallow my sobs for my father who must have been killed. Then there was fierce banging on the door and this time I couldn’t help let out a frightened yelp. My mother put her hand over my mouth again as upstairs all movement ceased, there was a kind of electric sound and I knew the monster was searching the air for sound vibrations. I swear my heart beat so fast and so loud that I was sure the monster could hear it!

But then the sound of rummaging moved away, the creepy-crawly steps were leaving our house, and I collapsed in my mother’s arms. I don’t know how long we slept maybe four hours; all I remember is that outside it was getting dark when I awoke my little brother giggling at a moth. My mother sat bolt upright from her slumber and hushed him for fear of Kitins nearby. But though we couldn’t see out of the window for the dust and dimness, we felt that all was quiet about. We cautiously took our first steps on the creaky cellar steps leading to the trapdoor in the floor. As my mother turned the handle there was a sudden awful clamor outside the door and this time I couldn’t keep in my cries. My mother barely had time to sweep both me and my brother up in her arms...

The door was thrust open and there stood a tall silhouette that I knew peering down at us: my father! He pulled all of us out in one lump and squeezed us in his great arms. It was then on looking round that I realized that our house and our neighbors’ houses, the whole city was in ruins like after a wild flow of water. He had made it to the house of a fellow guildsman when the Kitins broke through the wall; he pushed the whole family down into the cellar where they were waiting for us now. He told us how he had done as he had often told my mother to do in case we were besieged by beasts when we lived in the country. My father told us later that it was the only way to escape as many had died fleeing at the other end of town where the doors were not wide enough; many were trampled under foot before the Kitins even got to them. It is for this that our villages today have no walls.”

All that remained was for Orphie to offer the Homins the thanks of the Rangers, and for them to disperse, either chatting in deep discussion or lost in their own thoughts of what they had learned that day.

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