The Zibong; KaMing and KaKhan

KaKhan sat up, his robes clinging to his body with a cold sweat. Emerging from the tent in his encampment, the night's breath greeted him with a kiss. The cold did not stagger him, he had an important message. Quickening his pace, he made haste to his father's tent. "I have dreamed father, a terrible dream." KaKhan's father stirred and leaned up on his elbows as he lay on his bear skin rug.

"And what dream is so urgent you need wake me from my slumber boy?"
KaKhan looked down in shame, but pride bolstered his courage and he replied, "I have dreamt of death itself come to this land." His father's eyes wandered to the firestones near his rug, then back to KaKhan's dimly lit face, "I'll have no such nonsense rumors flying around before the biggest battle of my life. The last thing I need is our kin-in-arms hearing of witchery and ghosts."

KaKhan's feet retreated, but before he made his exit he turned to his father's bold frame in the firelight, "No witchery or ghost can compare to the horrors I saw tonight Father." Back in his tent KaKhan made preparation to leave camp, taking dried meats and a few water skins. "Where are you going in the dead of night before the epic battle your Father aspires to win young KaKhan?" It was Genghis, KaKhan's mentor and true brother. "Genghis, you have been more true of a brother than my own blood, but now I must leave these lands, for I have had a vision."

"Your brother loves you KaKhan. KaMing merely owes more to your Father than to you, but that doesn't change his care for you." Genghis put his hand on KaKhan's traveling pack as he went to hoist it onto his shoulder. "My Father always loved him best, now they can both die together." KaKhan pushed the hand away and took his pack and started for his horse. "The battle will be won tomorrow, we will take the Han army out," Genghis said to his back. With his back still to Genghis KaKhan called back, "Its not the battle that will kill them, it is what will come after."

"Father, your aspirations have come true, you have conquered the Han army; and now nothing short of intervention from the Wargod stands in the way of our taking on the greatest kingdom of these lands." KaMing sat across from his father after their victory feast at the banquet table, a trite table, but substantial enough for these savages of men to eat their fill at. "Your brother came to me before he fled in cowardice, trying to curry my favor by playing at being a seer." KaMing looked at his father quizzically. "But Father, I believe he did have a dream."

"Dream or no dream, it has no merit because we are all still here. And with that let us never speak the name of our disowned kin again, his name mars the Khan family's reputation." KaMing looked, startled as his father, then stood up and left. The night was young, and the stars bright in celebration for the souls released to the heavens in the recent melee. KaMing jaunted to his tent on the far side of the encampment, but was stopped halfway like a blow to the head by what he saw.

KaKhan emerged from the wood near the encampment haggard. Blood running down his arm and dripping from his hand. The moonlight played around his face, not allowing a glimpse of what gleaned there. His words broke the darkness' frozen silence. "They are upon us... RUN!" KaKhan's body language changed from a sullen stagger to a full on sprint as he headed straight for KaMing.

Flickering torchlight displayed ethereal visages emerging from the wood behind KaKhan as he raced back to camp. "What are they?" KaMing called out, not oblivious to the apparent danger, but desiring to show is courage in the face of it. "You fool, RUN!" KaKhan roared as he passed KaMing, who was still squinting at the shimmering figures that swayed not in the night breeze.

"You! What brass have you coming back here after such a display of cowardice and mockery of the name of Khan!" Father bellowed. His eyes were yellow with rage, but before he could open his mouth for another verbal barrage KaMing spoke up, "Father, I think you should take an eye to the woods outside camp." Still fuming the beast of a man stood and robed. His eyes burned a nearly visible hole in KaKhan as he passed him out into Awen's dream called night.

KaKhan kept quiet as his brother poignantly showed their Father the floating ghost-like members still appearing at the edge of the wood. Grimacing, Father looked to KaKhan and shook his head. Then turning back to KaMing, "Make preparations to leave camp, inform our kin we are leaving our prized lands. We must move before they come upon us, they do not look too kind at the likes of man."

KaMing vanished into the night to stir their kin. Father hustled back to his tent to start coordinating the exodus en masse. KaKhan went for consul to Genghis. "What am I to do? Father must know what I foresaw has come to fruition, and yet he hates me for it. And while I tried to warn them of impending danger, KaMing gets praise for blindly staying like a lapdog in a burning house." Genghis, pulling up the stakes in his tent turned at KaKhan, "Naive, selfish, man. You still think this is all about you? Get your head out of the clouds and help your family before we are laid waste."

An assemblage of the heads of the families meet in the only tent left standing as a caravan awaits the word to move out. A translucent wall has formed now as the Zibong inch away from the forest.

"Why not stay and fight?!"
"Why risk our new lands in fear?!"
Questions flew as Father stood, axe cradled in his arms. When silence descended he spoke, "We are leaving, because my son has had a vision. We are leaving because if we don't, we are all dead. We are leaving, because we have not the resources for another battle yet." And with praise for KaKhan finally reaching his ears from his father, not even a slight grin shown from his face amidst the crowd. He only then realized his father had always been harder on him because he expected more from him, being the older of the two sons. "We will respect your decision, but we hope we will at least be able to, one day, return to these lands without fear of the intangible."

"We don't even know that these Zibong are intangible," noted one of the heads of the houses. As an answer to his doubts a Zibong materialized alongside Father, who stood infront of the assemblage alone. Before anyone could so much as gasp at the frightening sight, the ghost reached out its fading hand and pushed it through Father's chest. An eerie noise filled the room, later it would be recalled as a deathly sigh of contentment, others would remember it as a sickening laugh. But that noise held no candle to the disturbing view of the Father's eyes glazing over, and his final icy breath escaping as he slumped to the floor.

The only casualty of the night, Father, why couldn't it have been me? A better man I have never known... KaKhan thought as he, Genghis and KaMing rode at the front of the caravan. "We are lucky they are no faster than a three legged dog, else we may have suffered more," KaMing spoke up. "We have no such luck, we have lost Father, and they are still following us," KaKhan replied. "Where shall we go then? What force can stop these Zibong if they have the power to push the horde from our lands?" Genghis asked.