((I'm baaack... rawr))
Part 1-
"In the beginning, it is always dark. - Never Ending Story"
Stars blinked back over head, the pin pricks of light shimmering off the snowy terrain. I hadn’t been back to RubiKa in months, and I wasn’t confident that I could go back. Biology and burden had propelled me here to the ice, fear and habit kept me here. That and for all the roughness of life here, it was beautiful. In the dark it was hard to tell where the land, brink and stars all started and stopped. It could almost lull you into a sense of safety, almost.
The soft swish of the fur and leather cloak I now wore brushed gently on the top of the snow as I stalked through the dense trees. Not many travelers passed through the west forest and the tracks I followed appeared fresh. Everything out here was foe or food, and having not eaten for the better part of a week I hoped for the latter. My mind tripped over the idea that you are what you eat, but paranoia about the possibilities pushed it out of thought.
I paused on the lea of a snow bank and pressed the ligature of my clawed deck into the frost for balance as I crouched listening. I had learned that my eyes could not be entirely trusted in the white darkness, shadows didn’t always reflect exactly what was there. Pressing my thumb onto the fresh scar on my thigh I weighed my options. The fur of my cloak made from the cat that had caused the scar swirled over it uncomfortably, a reminder to be cautious. Tilting my head to concentrate on the direction that the prints disappeared, the only sound drifting over the bank was the soft flop of heavy snow shivering off branches; nothing. Damn it.
Rising to my feet slowly I looked over the mound of snow and could see a small pond that had likely been frozen for more time than I could wrap my brain around, starlight reflecting in it like glass. It explained the loss of tracks, but the quiet disturbed me. I squinted thinking a moment about the most likely direction my prey would have taken. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck raise up, the pond masking foot prints meant that whoever it was could of doubled around behind me. As I made the realization I turned my head to check behind me, and it felt like time was slowing down all around me. I raised my hands to blast first and ask questions later but I felt like I was moving through molasses.
An enormous glimmering black creature was bearing down on me. It wobbled side to side on spindly legs that appeared to have the knees installed backward, suggesting that it should drop to all fours and run like a cat rather than stand on two legs. For the handicap it looked to have it was moving in my direction fast; fast and screaming. The sound resonated in my skull, growing louder as it drew nearer to me until it was on top of me, clawed fingers pressing me to the ice. I kicked out as we fell hard into the powder, my head smacking against the drift. As awkward as it had looked to be it knew exactly what to do with the body nature gave it. With the full weight of the creature, I was being shoved deep into the snow, the drift to helping it hold me in place. Blinking my eyes I tried to clear my head of the shrieking and I moved my fist across my torso and caught it where its jaw should… be… ****.
My ears were bleeding, the warm liquid flowing down into my hair freezing into sharp red crystals. It breathed over me panting with gray clouds of moister, the smell almost as powerful as the internal auditory experience of its screams. I couldn’t feel my legs any more, and had started to not care; the solitude had sharpened my instincts but had put a damper on my motivation to continue to use them.
Large arms scooped under me, prying me out of the indent my body had made. I could see into its right eye as the creature lifted me with ease into its arms. The… thing… was staring at me, my mind adding hunger to the gaze. I forced myself to close my eyes to break the stare. I felt something hot glide up my neck, sliding slowly to my ears. I could hear the soft sucking noises dully until air rushed into my ear canal, no longer clogged with blood. The creature shuttered, shifting back to stare at me again this time with blood on its gnarled lips… my blood.
Panic still had refused to reach me; no natural heat had risen to my finger tips to reduce the dark thing to a charred and fetid mass. I lay still in the black arms, because my body refused to do anything else. I thought about the long knife I had strapped down the length of my spine. Imagined the bone grip, the feel and weight of it in my hands and tried to will my arms to move. My mind wanted nothing more than to jam it into the belly of foul smelling thing, but no dice, my arms were not up to cooperating. The ground began to move by me in a blur, and I had to close my eyes to keep from throwing up. I had no hope of defending myself if I was also vomiting, certain tasks require your full attention; tossing one’s cookies is one of them.
I was unsure where it was taking me. To the den where the rest of them came from, so it could feed whatever spawn it produced? I wasn’t afforded much time to think about it fortunately. We began to slow down and I could see rough architecture and runes in my peripheral vision, my face turned up to see the stars I had admired just hours before growing warm with the color of dawn. Passing through an arched door I could smell sulfur and old dampness. Firelight danced along the ceiling as it chased shadows in and around the columns we passed by.
I forced my neck to pull my head up from the flopped back position it was in and get a proper view of my surroundings. I could just make out a group in the back of the hall we had entered, gathered near a seal on the floor that was glowing warmly. I was being brought toward it at a respectful and what seemed to be cautious pace by the thing that carried me. Noticing that I was regaining my strength, if only a little, it stared down at me momentarily and all I could hear resonating in my ears was sleep… I had to sleep… I needed to sleep now… it wanted me to sleep… sleep…