Wanted to do a writing exercise. This is a prequel to THIS COMIC

This writing tells evens just before the comic. I intend to write a follow up that retells events of the comic and a bit of things after. It will also have some differences so its more of a reimagining of the comic rather than a straight retelling.


In between the hills of a large wooded valley, the walled settlement known as Kimyan sat. A clustered mass of tall, and narrow angled wooden structures painted red and black in a sea of green trees and grey peaks. Twenty foot fortified walls of wood and stone kept the town contained. With nowhere to expand outward, many buildings extended upward. The most notable was the master's tower situated within the heart of the settlement. The only sound in the air was that of nature, and the distant chatter of Kimyan marketplace going about it's usual business.
A thirty kilo explosive charge roared across the sky like lightning through a library. Greasy smoke smeared the clouds over Kimyan. Screams and cries drifted upward with that smoke. Now raucous laughter from near where the initial blast detonated.
Two riders atop a large bipedal insect raced through the new hole gouged from the town's wall.
Pop!
Crack!
Gunfire. More screaming of confused and frightened bystanders. The riders laughed.
Phoenyx, a brown furred Canidine sat at the front of the insect and held its reins. The top of his head, a chrome helmet with a narrow visor, reflected the sunlight. Phoenyx laughed. Behind him sat Rand, another Canidine with black and white fur. The iron shackles around his ankles, neck, and one remaining wrist jingled as the insect bobbed up and down in its stride.
Rand let out a mocking hoot and an obnoxiously shrill laugh. The gunfire from the town's guard continued, their crude firearms missing every shot. Phoenyx cracked a wide toothy grin at the spectacle of it all. He spurred the insect to run faster.
“Eat bugshite!” Rand jeered.
“I got one more!” Phoenyx held up a small explosive charge.
Atop the tallest tower in Kimyan a tall slender gentleman walked across the roof. Each step he took was perfectly balanced. His long white furred ears blew in the wind and his black tricorn hat flew off his head out into the sky. In his free hand he carried a folded brass contraption. With a practiced, almost mechanical motion the black figure unfolded the mechanism — a scoped long-rifle. The bipod clicked neatly into place and mounted to the roof. He peered through the scope and into the back of Rand's ragged head.
The insect carried Phoenyx and Rand closer to a bridge that crossed a large river.
“Prepare the charge! We got only one chance!” Phoenyx handed the charge behind him. Rand took it in his single remaining hand. Phoenyx then passed the lighter to Rand. He dutifully grabbed the lighter with his mouth.
“Ready!” Phoenyx called out as Rand struggled to swap the lighter and charge between his mouth and hand.
At last were the town's guard mounted and giving chase. Two riding insects and several motorized bikes and some kind of bipedal mechanical thing loped behind.
The sniper on the roof adjusted several knobs and widgets on his scope and gun. He held out a fine lace handkerchief to test the wind. He returned the handkerchief to his petticoat and adjusted his position.
Rand now held the lighter in his hand to the explosive charge, which he held in his mouth, and clicked the flint. The fuse lit. The black powder scent brought back memories.
“NOW!” Phoenyx called and Rand spat out the charge. It clattered to the floor of the bridge.
From his vantage point the sniper saw Phoenyx and Rand's position and where they were heading. The town guard was gaining on them, having just reached the bridge. The guard seemed to notice something and began a frantic retreat. The sniper set his sights on the two riders. He held his breath and focused deeply. The moment sat suspended in thick concentration like a bug in honey. It was a trick he'd learned through years of practice, meditation, and experience. In his head he heard a melodious chime. It was time. The sniper took his shot.
Rand and Phoenyx crossed to the other side of the river and within the same heartbeat the explosive charge detonated a section of the bridge. Phoenyx and Rand rode into the thicker woods beyond the river. Only Phoenyx was laughing.
From the roof the sniper tried to maintain visual contact with his quarry but the smoke and thick treeline protected them. He knew he hit. He always did. Always would. With nothing more he could do he began to fold his rifle into its compact configuration, just as methodically as before. Behind him the window swung open again. Konns, a fat Felidine with grey and white fur, leaned out the window as best he was able.
“Did you get them?” Konns blustered out in exhausted breath.
“Of course,” the sniper stated.
“Are they dead?”
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean, maybe?” Konns nearly choked on his words.
“I hit them. Lost visual.”
Konns stared at the sniper. His brows lowered, his face grim.
“Finding them should be only a matter of time.”
The sniper finished collapsing his rifle and climbed through the window. He passed Konns without looking at him.
“They won't make it far. I expect my usual pay, and a new hat.”
Konns seethed in silence. He bit off a small chunk of the inside of his mouth and chewed it. He always found the taste of blood calming. The sniper walked down the stairs, secretly impressed Konns was able to climb so many steps that quickly.
Phoenyx steered the insect out and away from Kimyan.
“Only six days and I can get us to Orssan. We can lay low there and figure things out. It's a big enough place that-” Phoenyx cut off as Rand fell from the insect. “Rand!” Phoenyx dismounted and looked down at Rand. His lower abdomen was bleeding heavily. Rand was breathing but obviously in shock. Phoenyx looked down at himself. His drab olive green tunic was stained in deep dark reddish black. Phoenyx had two kinds of blood. First there was the red stuff, looks, tastes, and smells just like everyone else's blood. Then there was his deep blood. Black, and with a colorful rainbow shimmer in the light. It didn't match to any other kind of blood he had ever seen. It carried a heavy chemical stench. It tasted of hateful bitter medicine and made the inside of the mouth numb, as if chewing cotton. Only now did Phoenyx notice that taste in his mouth.
Quickly, Phoenyx removed his tunic. A hole in his abdomen leaked black and red. When he placed a hand over the wound, an electrical spark burst out. He became aware of the damage his internal mechanisms had taken. His mind clouded with warnings and notifications. He covered his eyes, but the warnings were in his vision. He could never shut his eyes. He was always seeing, always aware. Rand's drowning cough cut through the confusion. Phoenyx's world cleared and he was back in the moment. Phoenyx tended to Rand's wounds.

Rand returned to his senses. He had been awake the whole time, just not-all-there. Rand was still not all here. He knew that he would never come back. He was dying. The world around him was dim and blurry. The only things he could see with clarity were the stars, the small bonfire, and Phoenyx. Phoenyx stared at him. Rand was always disturbed whenever Phoenyx got into one of his silent staring fits. Always perfectly still and quiet, he didn't even breathe. Rand wasn't certain that Phoenyx ever really needed to breathe to live. And that eye. It probably wasn't an eye, but that's what he called it. A single red circle of light sat at the center of Phoenyx's visor. It wasn't always there, but whenever he concentrated on something Phoenyx's eye lit up. But there was no life behind it.
Rand shifted where he lay. Instant pain exploded from within. He stopped moving and Phoenyx moved over Rand.
“Where are we now?” Rand croaked, surprised at how terrible his voice sounded.
“You were injured. Your lower-”
“Where.”
“East of Kimyan. About sixty miles. South of Ner-”
“Okay.” Rand didn't like cutting Phoenyx off, but Phoenyx had an annoying habit of giving him all the information about something, whether he wanted it or not. Where he was didn't even matter. It was just something to ground him in this world. Rand felt himself growing more and more distant from it. Phoenyx stared. Something told Rand that Phoenyx could somehow see through him. Rand always wondered what Phoenyx was, or where he came from. Phoenyx didn't know either. Rand found Phoenyx back in-
Pain. Again.
“Don't move! If you stay still I can find something or someone to help! A healer, a wizard. Something.”
“No. It's just us out here.” Rand sat up. The pain came back. Only dimmer.
“I promised I'd get you back to Hypatia.”
Rand smiled. All this for a promise. Phoenyx always got like this over promises. Phoenyx always loved certainty and absolutes. Everything else vexed and confounded him. Maybe there was something he could do.
“Phoenyx.”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember the Crown Mesas?”
“Yes.”
Rand looked around. He could see them. The hills. The memorials. The graveyard.
“I can see them.”
“Yes. Me too.”
Rand had no doubt Phoenyx could visualize them.
Phoenyx envisioned a detained topographical map of the area. He grabbed a stick and drew a simple approximation of the very distinct geological feature. Several mesas in a circular formation.
“These”
Rand chuckled. Rand turned over and placed a finger on one of the mesas. He didn't feel any pain.
“Right here.”
“What about it?”
“It's a sacred place to my people. I want to be buried there.”
Phoenyx stared at the drawing. He cross referenced the position of where Rand was pointing with his memory of the area and the map data he had in his mind. He knew exactly where Rand wanted to go.
“When?”
“When I die, dumbass!” Rand let out a sick gurgling laugh.
The next few hours were spent talking about the past. Phoenyx wondered about his future without Rand. Where in the world he would go next. Rand also wondered where he would go next. The two never had direction in their lives. Rand supposed that was what landed him in a cell, or why he lost his arm. Why he was dying.
Rand thought that dying would feel like losing something, like water draining from a barrel, or fading away into nothing, or falling. When he died it felt like something that had been struggling since it was created had finally broken free.
Phoenyx sat alone. As perfectly still as Rand lay. In the morning, when his mount had time to rest Phoenyx would take Rand to where he wanted to be buried. Phoenyx never slept. He had no eyes for tears. Still, he wept.