Match 19274 Kojojash vs. The Judderman

[Z451]

Falling, jettisoning through space and time, the once proud hunter is ready, he is ready to die. He has failed them, he has failed his ayïl (village), and the Kïtay people will suffer for it, but he sees no other way to act, but to surrender. The mountain goat has best him, bested the people's provider, the people's hope, Sur- Ecki has won, in spite of her inferiority, and now his people will die. It is over, the war is over, and the victor has been decided.

But then, just as the ground should have broken him, just as the jagged rocks should have taken his light, just as the light should have been extinguished from his eyes, he awoke once more. Eyes moving about, seeing the beauty of life all around him, nose taking in the vast aromas of the cliff side, ears hearing the sounds of chirping and the thumps of animals, he was alive, alive again. It was a miracle, that he was alive, and despite the chill running through his vein, he was relieved.

Lurching forward, he threw himself up from his back, his body aching in agony as he did, in order to see where he was. Surrounded by jagged rocks and sparse plant life, he remembered the cliff side that he'd been baited into by the mountain goat, but not the pit that was around him. The shredded rocks, the sharp edges of the mica formations, it was new and that was dangerous. Anything could happen here, anything could be waiting for him around every corner, and that alone was a threat.

Reaching down to grab his pack, his hands grasped the satchel of his bag, only after much difficulty, as the wounds he'd suffered from the fall, left him pouring his blood out like wine from a bottle. Red streams soaked his skin, as a stream of blood, starting from his shoulder, flowed all the way down to the very webbing of his left hand. Pain had found him, and as he grabbed the satchel in his hands, he could feel the cry of his insides pleading with him for absolution from the very burden of life. Yet, he pressed on, desperate to see Zulayka again once more, to be with her as he awaited his son's birth.

Arching over to his Ak Barang, the hunter barely touched the stock of the weapon, before cold fingers crossed over his own, freezing him in place. Frigid in temperature, and in appearance, the hunter found himself all at once stricken by the sudden appearance of winter, even as the seasons all around him indicated otherwise. Winter itself, the endless cold, the freezing chill, the infernal biting of ice, existed in these fingers, existed in the blood that encompassed them and the man who made them up, this being was winter. Shivering at the thought, and adamant about wanting nothing less than to leave, the hunter dropped the gun, and stepped back, believing that even cowardice would be better than facing someone such as this.

Stepping away, he at last looked at the face of the man who'd touched him, as his cold eyes lit up briefly with a smile, he was feeding off of his fear. Taking up the hunter's weapon, he raised it up for a moment, before spinning it around and directing it back first toward the hunter. Barrel pointed at his chest, the being in front of him showed no hesitation in offering the weapon in that position, as he continued to extend it toward the hunter's ever shaking hands. Smiling widely, he stepped forward as the hunter stepped back, the gun still waving about in the wind, calling to its master all the while. He feared not death, nor dying, as this act was simply a game to him, and one that he alone knew the rules too, and even as the hunter resisted, he too pursued, offering the man his weapon.

Neither would budge, neither would move, they just stared at each other. It was a moment of pause, each one stayed in his place, unwilling to move the process along, lest the other act before he was ready to. The two were locked, hand in hand in this dance, as they awaited a response from each other, that would never come.

Breaking the silence at last, the cryogenic man, finally spoke, as he shoved the gun in the hunter's hands, “Come now, take your weapon. You can't hunt without it, can you, Kojojash?” Baffled by his words, and more by his actions, Kojojash backed up further towards the cliff side, his face struggling to maintain composure at the being's revelations. “What's wrong, don't you want to see Zulayka again?”, he said in response to Kojojash's reactions. “You… What are you?”, Kojojash stuttered as he tried to form the words from his mouth. Smiling again, the being stepped back before lounging his back on the jagged edges of the other cliff wall, “I am simply a merchant, my dear man,” he announced gleefully.

“A merchant?”, Kojojash responded out of frustration. “Hmm…”, the being shook his head up in down in reply, the smile never leaving his face. Raising his gun, he pushed it forward into the man's chin, forcing the metal as far as it could go without penetrating the skin of the being's throat. “Who are you?”, he asked the being as he stared directly into his deep, cold, sunken eyes. The smile never leaving his face, the being merely pushed the gun aside, as he formed a grayish-white bottle out of thin air, and offered it to the man. “A drink?”, he asked as he offered the bottle to the man.
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Circling the man, as his eyes rested on Kojojash's sunken expression, the jackanape stared at him silently, watching his body twitch and quiver with each passing moment, this was a game to him. Moving behind him and then in front, and then behind, and then in front once more, the entity began to smile again as he danced around the exasperated hunter. “You should be dead, right?”, the entity asked disingenuously as he made his next pass about Kojojash's rear. “Your body should be broken, it should be crushed, and yet somehow you are still standing here, why?”, he pressed as he was almost at the hunter's side.

Turning his face towards the hunter's ear, he grinned subtly, as he watched for the man's next expression, the being was almost ready to pounce. A grimace formed on his face, as Kojojash considered the notion that he was being fed by “the thing” in front of him, “he was alive, but how?” Amused by the reaction, he leaned in, close enough to make his lips touch the hunter's ear, and whispered, “You should have taken the drink”, as the man's body suddenly began to collapse.

Falling over, Kojojash watched as the wounds he had accumulated from his previous descent, started to stain the ground on which he stood, in a reflective puddle of crimson red. Palpitating, beating beyond measure, his heart shook the foundations of his body, as it pushed more and more blood out, while his body remained statically passive, incapable of resistance. It was over, all but the eventual approach of death, as the brain slowed with each pressing second, the neurons shutting down, the synapses ceasing to allow for the flow of any more data, he was going to die.

Powerless, and incapable of sidestepping the allure of death, Kojojash lay there curled over on his side, as his breath became strained and his body found itself weightless in only a few moments, death was here, until it wasn't. Waltzing over to the man's face, the being poured his wares into the man's mouth, christening his insides with what most consider to be “liquid death”, as the grim smile he bore, never once left his face. Nothing was new to him about this, as he watched the man react to the cold flowing inside his body, like a fish ripped out of the water, all of it accorded with his plans.

Feeling the chill running through his veins, Kojojash struggled to resist its pulls on him, as the sudden jolt on his body forced him to get up, like a cold hand reaching into his mind and body all at once. It wasn't death, nor life, it was something else, something that forced him back on his feet, and kept him going.

“You and I have much to discuss, my friend.”, the being replied as he once again met his gaze.
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Trailing behind him, as the being pranced along ahead, Kojojash couldn't help but think of his ayïl, and how it suffered in his absence. Pictures and images flashing before his eyes, painted the scene vividly, the children were starving, the elders were shivering without cessation in the cold, and the horses, noble though they were, had been eaten in only one day. It was chaos, a calamity that he could not possibly acknowledge without nearly fainting, the people needed him, and they needed them now, lest they all die, and the she-goat, Sur-Ecki, provide them all with further humiliation.

Shaking his head at the thought, Kojojash remembered how the she-goat had stolen his life, his future, and even his purpose from him, but to kill his ayïl, was something that he could not bear to think about. Innocents were there, people who'd done nothing to warrant such a brutal end at the hands of nature's own inequities. He killed the she-goat's children, he murdered her kids, he killed Alabash, he slaughtered them all, their blood was on his hands, his, not the ayïl's, the Kïtay had nothing to do with it. “Why should they suffer, for what he did?”, he thought to himself, as he kept walking. “My debt, it was my debt, not theirs,” he told himself in response to his musings.

As he continued to ponder the fate of his home, the entity in front of him marched on into nothing, occasionally staring back at the hunter to provide a snarky smile. Kojojash was simply a toy, a doll for his amusements, and even as they crossed the threshold of many rigid cliff alcoves, he never once considered that the hunter was anything more. To him, he could easily dispose of the man, and be on his way, if it came to it, but then who would he find to provide entertainment after that? His sharp demeanor, his dedication to his ayïl, provided all the necessary ingredients for fun, as each one could be manipulated in such a way that the stubborn hunter could do nothing about, until it was too late. Yes, he was the perfect toy, always ready, always available for the entity's whims, he was the perfect remedy for the being's boredom.  Gullible as well, he was willing to believe anything the being told him, good or bad, so long as his village was spared.

“You don't care about your own life, do you?”, the entity asked as he began to slither back and forth between the walls, moving forward all the while. “You follow me aimlessly, mimicking my every move, replaying my every footstep, without a care in the world, and you do it, without ever questioning me, without ever stopping me, without ever truly reacting in any way, why?”, he asked out of curiosity. “Don't you care where we're going, don't you care about getting back to your wife, to your family? Are you not worried about them, about their well-being?”, he pressed on in asking the hunter. “Why do you not resist me?”

Stopping for a moment to stare at the being, Kojojash straightened out his face, and replied simply, “You brought me back from death, and for that I owe you a debt.” Quzzically staring at the man's face, the being let out a brief chuckle, before dancing away on the path again, leaving Kojojash to follow him in a suppressed annoyance. The game was growing old, the players were tiring of each other, and as the hunter continued to follow the entity in front of him, he found himself only growing more and more irritable with each step. The being was keeping him away from his ayïl, and he knew that it was, but he was still bound to follow it, because it had helped him first.

Leading him all around, through steep terrain and past multiple hoodoos, the entity intended to break him with the walk alone, but yet the hunter maintained his pursuit, willingly subjecting himself to the being's machinations out of obligation. Boring him, the being decided to move things along at last, walking forward into an opening in the rocks, from which his ice began to spread en masse throughout the canyons. Kojojash, following him, out of duty and nothing more, did not hesitate to walk in as well, even though the inhumane temperature he felt, warned him to do otherwise.

Opening his eyes to the sight of white and blues, of clear and translucent ice, the hunter looked around in astonishment as he saw a world beyond his own comprehension. No heat, no rigidity existed here, it was a frozen wonderland, a place of absolute perfect craft, as if an artist had sculpted it by hand. Turning from side to side, allowing his eyes to take it all in, he saw the lack of chisel marks, the absence of scrapes and manipulation, but could not understand how it was possible. A perfect icy world, existing alongside his own, it could not be real.

Stumbling over his own feet, he fell onto a frozen chair, while his eyes remained fixated on the world around him. Nothing could compare to the sights he was seeing, to the sights he had witnessed in front of him. It was too much to take in, and as he sat in the chair, his mind raced with worry about the natural order, for what this would do to the lands of Manas, for the Kyrgyz as a whole. None of it should be, he should not even be, even as the being had been “gracious” in bringing him back in such a way, it was all unnatural.

Perplexed by his reaction, the being walked over to him, and simply placed his hand on the man's shoulder, as he stood there by his side. “Beautiful, isn't it?”, he whispered quietly into Kojojash's ear. “It's all mine, my friend. All of it coming from up here,” he told him as he tapped his index finger to his forehead. Looking out at it, at the spread of cave walls, at the melding of ice and rock, of natural and artificial, he smiled earnestly as he remarked, “One day all the world we'll be like this. Union between the frost and the dry will be achieved.”

“But today is a different day…”, he spat out to the man as he snapped back into his senses. “Today, is the day when you and I campaign for the people's hearts.” Rapidly blinking out of confusion, the hunter stared at the being, strung up on the notion of “people's hearts”, incapable of thinking of anything else but that as he looked at the being's pale countenance even among the cave walls. Looking to him, the entity spoke at last, “I am the Judderman. I go from place to place, peddling my icy brew to all around, until all are hooked. It is my calling, my purpose in life.” “To see the world frozen in the feeling of judders, in the sensation of cold chills, and thrilling shivers, it is what I live for.”

“But, there is a problem,” he stopped saying as he brought his point to its climax. “I need help, assistance in making my brew. For you see, I'm one being, but only one.”, looking intently at the hunter's eyes, he made his intentions all the more clear as he let his thoughts burn into the man's brain. “I need the Kyrgyz, I need Manas' people.,” he stated bluntly to Kojojash. “But, they won't listen to me.”

“Hence,” he began talking again, “You must talk to them, spread my wares among the people, propagate my brew among the populace here. Starting with the Kïtay, your people.” “If you do that, if you aid me in my endeavors…”, he hesitated for a moment as his tongue felt the bitterness of his next words, “I'll relieve you of your debt to me.”

Coming to, if only for a moment, Kojojash briefly smiled at the notion that the Judderman had put in his head, the idea of returning home a free man. He would go back to Zulayka, back to his ayïl, to his father, and his son, finally he would have defeated the she-goat, it would be as it was once more. Peace, happiness, joy, and bliss would enter his life, he could live with his family, with his ayïl, as their great provider, and all it took was agreeing to the entity's trivial request. But, then he saw something, something he'd wished he hadn't seen.

Frozen in ice and struggling to live, he saw a family of mice locked in a perpetual prison under the sheets of frozen water. Terror painted on each of their faces, fear perpetuating every inch of their bodies, they resembled nothing he'd ever seen before, and nothing he'd ever wished to see in his lifetime. Death awaited them, but the ice had kept them alive, and they remained prisoners of circumstance here, all because they had been where the Judderman had been.

Thinking of his people again, and growing concerned for their future, the hunter returned his gaze to the Judderman, as he asked the questioned that he formulated since the being's proposal. “What about the Kïtay, what will happen to them?” A question which prompted the entity to reply, “What do you care about them? Haven't you done enough for them?” “My life is not my own. If not for my ayïl, I would not be who I am,” Kojojash answered him. “They must always come first.”, he declared in response. Frustrated by that answer, the Judderman stared at him in anger, as his mind pondered how he could creatively destroy the insect standing before him. “Even when your family is at stake?”

Pausing in thought to consider what the being had told him, Kojojash looked at him intently, his hand reaching for his weapon. The she-goat had threatened his family before, but she never intended on touching them, something inside of her had told the hunter that. The being in front of him, however, was something else, something that even he could not contend with, and in spite of his mannerism, someone that the hunter had not wished to cross the wrong way. Despite his fear, however, something inside of him would not allow him to think of them before the ayïl, and the hunter simply rested his hand once more and sighed. “The ayïl, comes even before them.”, he responded as his mind knew of the risks involved with doing so.

“A pity…”, the Judderman replied as the man resign himself to his fate. A look of sorrow stretching across Kojojash's face, the entity at last realized what the hunter was willing to do, willing to sacrifice, if it meant his people would survive. Then, in a moment of inspiration, he came back again, “What good will you do your people, if you're dead, however?”, as the entity's mind was reminded of what cards he still had. “If you cease to be living, oh great hunter, how can you be of any use to them?”, he pressed as he smiled at him deviously.

“No”, the hunter replied as his mind raced with thoughts of his ayïl's destruction, “You, can't do that, I must help them. I must stop Sur-Ecki from destroying them all.” Offering his hand in response, the Judderman kept smiling at him, as he watched the man fold to his will, the game had reached the good part, down to the final seconds, and he had won, or so he thought. “Do we have a deal?”, he asked as Kojojash continued to stare at his hand.

Everything was at stake, everyone was at stake, but the being was also able to bring him back, allowing him to stop Sur-Ecki's curse, this was the most important fork in his life.

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Author's Note:

Alright, so if you vote for Kojojash you are voting that he decides to reject the Judderman's offer and remain dead, sacrificing himself as a martyr. If, you vote for the Judderman however, you are voting that Kojojash decides to accept the Judderman's offer, he lives and is able to return to his ayïl, but his people will serve the Judderman, and the Judderman will spread his wares all throughout the untouched Kyrgyz lands unopposed.

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Kojojash
Read more about Kojojash at Wikipedia
Official Site: Public Domain Links: Wikipedia

The Judderman
Read more about The Judderman at Wikipedia
Official Site: Bacardi Limited Links: Wikipedia

[Boratz]

Oh wow! This was very creative and an amazing set up!

I'm not sure who to even vote fof

[IKA]

Not really sure what to say except excellently written. 

5* and I'm voting for Kojojash!

[Pizzaguy2995]

Well after reading this I think I regret submitting my entry to the Writers Tournament. I think your matchup is gonna win by a mile Z451, congratulations.

Having looked up the legend of Kojojash, I think he’ll end up taking the Judderman’s offer. He’s apparently his tribe’s only hunter and his underlying characteristic is that he’ll do anything to provide and feed his peoples, which includes massacring an apparently sentient goat family. So honestly dealing with a Devil seems in character for him.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
5.00 - Pizzaguy2995
5.00 - Boratz
5.00 - IKA

FPA Calculation:
3 Total Votes cast
15.00 Total Combined Score
15.00 / 3 = 5.00 Final Rating on the match

MATCH SCORE
Kojojash: 1
The Judderman: 3

[IKA]

Well, congrats on the perfect 5.0 score! 

[Z451]

3 hours ago, IKA said:

Well, congrats on the perfect 5.0 score! 

Thanks IKA. Looks like I'm starting to find my footing.