《The Creature from the Dark (HIATUS)》 Chapter 1: First Contact ----Hello. This is my first story I''ve ever decided to share. I''ve really enjoyed reading your stories here, and I wanted to return the favor. I will write a prologue later and a later chapter will narrate the following events from the point of view of one of the humans involved. It''s 3 am though, so I''m sleeping now. This story came about when I was thinking about nonhuman creatures and how we have no real way of measuring their intelligence. First person to figure out what kind of creature it is gets the privilege of naming a character, as long as they pick something non obscene. Enjoy the read, or else! :) ---- The darkness was everywhere. The darkness was everything. It was all I needed until the light came to me. Three things intruded into my peaceful realm. I knew them first by their clanking and rustling footsteps. I heard the echoes of their coming from a very long way off. In fact, I had never heard anything so loud. It terrified me that things could approach with such a nonchalance and lack of fear. I retreated into my safe place, squeezing in through the narrow gap in the stone, and retreating back to where I kept my precious things. Their approach grew louder and louder, and with it, something I had never seen before. The tunnel stalagmites and stalactites grew clearer in my vision and suddenly, as they entered my home, I became painfully blinded, seeing nothing due to their radiance. I closed my eyes and let free a hiss of startled pain despite my fear. The radiant things stopped, and I knew they had heard. I quickly changed the color and texture of my skin to match the surrounding rock and picked up three sharp stones with my appendages, more for comfort than preparation to fight. I could see the creatures positions through my eyelids, they were so bright. I tracked them, increasing the transparency and thickness of my eyelids slightly to help protect my vision as it recovered, but still allow me to observe them. The creature in the lead had two arms and two legs, attached to a blocky body suspended in the air with a bulbous protrusion on top, all shining like the reflections in the lake I hunted in, and bearing two sticks in it''s upper appendages, one dark, with a bright light on the end, the other long and shining like its carapace. It rattled with each movement and wheezed unpleasantly, as if it were dying. While this creature scared me, I felt the urge to touch its strange reflective skin. Curiosity was overwhelming, but fear was paramount. I held very still. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The two other creatures both bore bright orbs of light floating above them, seemingly unattached. Their limbs were in all the same places as the first creature, but instead of the shiny carapace the first bore, each possessed a strange rippling skin that covered them completely, hanging almost down to the ground. It waved and rippled as they walked, like nothing I had ever seen. I immediately wanted to touch it, but I held fast thanks to my fear. Each held a large stick with one of their upper appendages, placing it on the ground at regular intervals as they shuffled forwards, using it to move like an extra appendage. The creatures were all swiveling about and moving their lights and I realized they were searching for the source of noise. They were searching for me. I retreated very slowly, farther into my secret place, sacrificing vision for stealth. Suddenly, I could hear a roar and heavy steps coming from the tunnel they had just traveled down, and the creatures made loud noises at each other, turning to face the way they had came. A large bear came charging in roaring, but it had another two legged creature on it''s back waving another reflective stick, who struck the shining one several times, causing it to fall. The bear rushed forward at the same time, knocking one of the rippling creatures to the ground and savaging it with it''s great jaws. The other rippling creature made a cry and a blinding flash of light lit the room, and a great boom shook the whole place. When my vision returned, the last rippling creature stood bowed over, both upper appendages around the stick it held, wailing loudly. The bear and the creature on its back lay on the floor, blackened and hissing. The creature continued to wail for a moment, then fled with great speed, continuing to wail. It sounded very sad. Prologue: The calm before the storm ----Prologues can be kind of hard, but this one turned out nice. This takes place the day before chapter one, and is supposed to give you some insight into the setting and his daily life. I haven''t slept much, so let me know if I made any colossal mistakes. "> ---- My cave was large, with two exits into the dry, burning world above. One was the tunnel to the surface through which bears and wolves sometimes wandered. They never stayed long though, I had a pile of eyeball sized rocks (authors note : His eyes are the size of a large human fist.) that I kept for the sole purpose of driving them out. No creature appreciates rocks thrown at it while it sleeps, and once properly enraged, they can often be lured into the water. They were land creatures and easy to ensnare and drown, and quite delicious besides. The other exit was underwater, amidst the vast lake taking up much of the main cavern, and it exited into a much larger lake in the bright world outside. Between my forays into the external lake at night and my activities inside the cave, there was more than enough to eat and do. I collected clams and mussels at night outside and buried them in the sandbed of my cave to snack on later. I ambushed and ate unsuspecting fish. I collected strange items from the lakebed. I even collected underwater plants and struggled to discover what I could do with them. I did not leave the lake at night, however. My siblings and I had been countless when we were born. After a week, we were hundreds. By the time I reached maturity, there were seven of us. One by one, they forayed into the outer world, but none ever returned. The first left to explore. The second left to find the first. The third snuck out at night, looking to find the others, but not intending to return, bloating her mantle with water and collecting her things in preparation for a long journey. The fourth died abruptly, and I found him on the lakeshore later, deflated and dead, fouling the water with his body. I buried him in the sand nearby, piled many rocks on him to keep him from washing away, then planted a foul tasting bushy plant over him so that I might still visit him later. The sixth, a female, died of wounds suffered when wolves visited our cave despite my careful tending. That night was the first night I ate wolf. Needless to say, the outside world terrified me. Not only was I alone because of it, but a great many large and fearful things lived out there. Over the years, I had seen and heard many of them, and I grew more and more convinced that only death awaited me outside. I stayed inside and tended my little grotto within the larger. With a slim crevice to the air, and a large tunnel underwater for me to haul prey in through, it was the perfect hideaway. A shallow pool covered half the floor where I slept, and the other half was raised from the water,and I had piled it high with my treasures. My sharpened stones for dismantling prey lay in the area where I ate, a pile of bones and shells as tall as I was a testament to my long stay. The skins of my enemies lay piled beside them, 2 bears, 6 wolves, a large reptile, and several of my favorite armored fish. There had been more, but I had only started skinning them recently, after accidently peeling the skin from a rotting lizard, and being pleased with the floppy thing. Once I had figured out how to remove the skin and hair from my land dwelling prey, they became one of my favorite foods. I was still working on what to do with these byproducts, but I would figure it out soon. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Above me, hung from long twine tied around the stalactites, were many different drying lake plants. Some I used to pack and seal my wounds. Others, I rubbed on less appetizing prey to change its flavor. Some I made into a stringy twine. Still others, I was cautiously divining the uses of. In the back right corner, I kept my treasures from my explorations. I had several pearlescent shells that looked, felt, and tasted exquisite. I had several very shiny rocks, one green and translucent, another the color of a fishes scales, another a beautiful white with rippling bands of color that changed when it was moved. I had a baffling square object a quarter my size that tasted and felt like wood, but was too regular and heavy. I had 20 bottles of clear glass, found on the lake bed, that provided me with great amusement and a place to put my plant based experiments. I had several large spiral shells for carrying water in. I had many strange shiny objects which I regularly pondered, handled, and tasted over in one corner. They were fairly strong and durable but I was reluctant to use them in a project because of how seldom I found one. It would be a shame to destroy one on accident, and perhaps I could yet divine their true purpose. In the back left corner, far away from the water were my tools. I had a thin sharpened bone for poking holes in things, a pair of rocks for grinding my plants on, a big round rock for hitting things, several sticks for twisting and rolling twine, several cleanly broken rocks for shaping wood and bone, and my latest project. Using the shells to carry water, and the bottles to store liquids had given me an idea. While I could carry many things in one trip, due to my prodigious number of arms and suckers, on one trip, I found more than I could carry, and I realized I needed a container for other items too. I had taken one of the poorer quality skins, that of a wolf, and poked holes in it to let water through easily. I then took my sharpened bone and several lengths of twine, and fashioned the thing into a crude sack, intending to drag it behind me in the water loaded with clams and other valuables to save trips. It worked marvelously, and when I returned inside, I collected my bottles and to celebrate, I added another mural to the wall. The wall was covered in pictures I had made with my bottled concoctions, one for each of the triumphs of my life, growing more complex and colorful as they progressed. I took a bottle filled with powdered red rock and my mucus, and painted myself, then painted the bag in green with a bottle of ground plants, and rinsed my arms in the water. I had started the wall sometime after I became alone, feeling that somehow I needed to pass along my deeds to another after I was gone. Now there were over 100 drawings on the walls, some of creatures I had seen, some of creatures I had killed, and some of things I had made. I had a drawing commemorating the discovery of each new color of paint, all 6 of them. I even drew myself a few times when I was feeling vain. Satisfied with my work, I put away my bottles and picked up a shiny three pronged object from my mysteries, retiring to my small pool to sleep, tasting the metal even as I dreamed of what tomorrow would bring. Chapter 2 : An Unlikely Caretaker My curiosity got the better of me as the rythmic pounding of the wailing creature faded into the distance. I came free of my hiding place to investigate the mess these creatures had made of my home. Crawling slowly, I approached, watching for movement. None stirred, but I could see the rippling figure''s chest rise and fall, and I could hear the wheezing coming from the shining one. The light, where it had fallen from the shining ones hand flickered and went out, and I opened my eyes, no longer blinded by the glare. The charred, smoking corpse of the bear and the rider were horrible to behold. The smell of burned hair permeated the air, and the ground tasted of ash as I approached. No matter how hard I looked, I could not tell what killed these creatures, so I nervously left to go investigate the others. I approached the shining creature, wary and silent. It heard me in the dark despite my caution, and made weak thrashing motions and noises. I expected this one to be only lightly wounded, but to my surprise, it seemed very heavily damaged. The cavern floor underneath the shining creature was slick with blood and its shining carapace was warped and punctured in three places. I decided to deal with this one later, when it stopped flailing so much. I went to the other creature and found it unconscious. It was bleeding also, and the wounds were deep, but not nearly as severe as it had seemed from my hiding place. I decided it must have hit itself on the floor and passed out. After some thought, I realized the other creature might come back, or more creatures might come after these, so I should investigate these creatures further in the safety of my lair. As I dragged the rippling creature to the waters edge, the shining one flailed and made more noises. I ignored it, and wrapped my arms around the rippling creatures breathing hole to keep it from drowning, pulling it smoothly under the water. As I emerged, dragging this new being into my safe place, I marveled at how heavy it had gotten. It was very, very, sodden and left a wet trail as I dragged it up onto the dry stone, much heavier than before our swim. Curious, I tugged on one of its lower appendages, and to my surprise, the outside came off! I tried again, and the outer layer peeled off like a skin. For a moment, thought I had injured it, then I looked closer at the pink tissue and realized it was soft skin with hairs coming out of it like very sparse fur. I looked at the outer layers I had pulled off, and the heavy black one tasted like the hides I had stacked by my eating space, whereas the floppy brown one tasted like the outer wrapper on the creature, only saltier. They were wearing the skins of animals This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it For a moment, I was terrified, I wondered if they came here for my skin, but then I calmed. They were weak, and I could always eat them if they proved hostile. Also, this meant that they were clever like me. Perhaps I could communicate with these creatures, or observe them to learn new things. I peeled the rest of the hides from the creature until it had only pink skin showing. Its wounds were not very bad at a closer inspection. The rippling hide it wore had stopped most of the damage from the bears bites, but it had failed in three places, causing deep puncture wounds in the flesh beneath. The bleeding was minimal, so I took my jar of wound salve, rubbed it into the punctures, and prepared to leave. The creature began shaking, however. I touched it and it was colder than before, and realized I had taken its extra skin off, so it must need them for some reason. I wrapped the creature in wolf pelts once it had dried, and its shaking subsided almost immediately. Proud of myself, I went to tend the shining creature. It was unconscious but very heavy, nearly twice the weight of the other. After much struggling, I brought it into my lair also and inspected it. It took me quite a while to remove the carapace from this one. It was cleverly secured with complicated shiny fastenings, which brought me no end of joy to adjust and re-adjust. After some time had passed, I peeled its carapace free to reveal a creature much like the other underneath. Its wounds were deep but the bleeding was slowing. I rubbed more of my salve on the three deep gashes, one on its arm, one on its torso, and the last on its shoulder. I pressed a large dried leaf against each wound and tied it down with twine to keep the blood in, marveling at the damage. Then wrapped this one in wolf pelts like the other and squeezed through the front entrance of my secret place. Both reflective sticks lay where they fell, and I stared at them unnerved. These were great weapons, unlike any I had ever seen. I decided I needed those shiny sticks, and went to retrieve them both. I cut myself 3 times before I remembered which part the shiny one had held, and grabbed that end instead. I cautiously retrieved the wood stick the rippling one had held as well, taking extra care with it, placing my arms exactly where the rippling one had held it lest I end up like the charred bear I was studiously ignoring. I returned inside very carefully with my prizes and placed them on dry ground while I slathered my wounds in salve and poked the creatures while checking to see if they lived. I turned my thoughts away from them and towards the skins they wore and the things they had, examining each diligently, tasting and feeling every inch, determined to learn how they worked. Chapter 3: Hello darkness my old friend ----This chapter required rewriting once because I mucked it all up the first time. Also I needed to establish complex events and motivations of the characters involved to figure out what each one would do, then somehow I managed to completely ignore half of the backstory I put together because adding it in killed the suspense. You''ll see it later when it becomes relevant, I guess. Sorry it took a bit, next chapter will be a hybrid chapter with more from our mc and sir robert.----- "Damnation!" I screamed. "Aelina! Lorence! Retreat!" As they pivoted and followed, Lorence threw Aelina on his back and began channeling the power of the earth, his footsteps now shockingly loud and double the pace. Aelina concentrated on the rear, deflecting crossbow bolts with air magic. Satisfied they were safe, at least for the moment, I concentrated on our current situation, and mustered as much speed as I could manage, gasping for air and clanking as I went. Someone had known when and where we would be. Was our mission that important? There had to be 500 men chasing us, and all far too well armed to be a bandit group. Behind me, I heard a distant, echoing roar that chilled me to my bones. "Gods above, was that a bear?" I shouted to the two keeping pace beside me. If anything, I was slowing them down, but they stayed beside me, even in this dire situation, and that only made me grit my teeth and push harder. Aelina was looking over her shoulder, worry on her face. "They must have a warbear." She yelled in return. We wouldn''t be able to lose them in the woods then as I had planned. I thought furiously. There were few places that could help us lose the keen nose of a warbear, plus they were prodigiously fast. It was fairly far off now, but that wouldn''t last for long. "The lake!" I shouted Lorence nodded in understanding, and we both changed course. Aelina set fire to a particularly large stand of bushes as we passed, and I mentally applauded. The smoke should help cover and muddy our trail. I should have thought of that. Soon, we had outdistanced most of our pursuit, but I was fairly sure they were just pausing to reload and follow the bear, who had grown closer despite the smoke. The ones who remained on our heels must have been at the peak of fitness or had a touch of magic to keep up with us at this pace, but there were only a dozen or so, compared to the hundreds before. I made a hand gesture towards Lorence, our signal for attack. We both swiveled, near simultaneous, pitching thin glass flasks of alchemical acid at our pursuit. I instantly drew my sword and charged at the man bearing down on me, shearing off half of his skull with two blows to the head before he could bring his own weapon to bear. We had hit with the acid, and four men were down, the splash from the impact all over what was left of their legs. Lorence had simply punched a man and instantly killed him with the force behind the blow. Aelina was on Lorence''s back, piggyback style, and wherever her eyes fell, flames erupted, charring man and vegetation alike. "I guess this means all those drills were worth it." I said in the sudden quiet. I flipped up the visor on my bascinet and selected and drank the contents of an alchemical flask on my belt, a vigor tonic to help me push back my exhaustion until later. I let my visor fall again, and I turned about and resumed our flight, unable to look at the carnage we had left in our wake for another moment. We fled with great haste, and the lake grew closer and closer in my vision, but the bear became louder and louder each time it roared. The bear and rider had surely lost their comrades at that speed, but we had all spent so much physical and mental strength I was unsure if we would survive a close quarters fight with an alchemically enhanced bear, let alone the rider. I ploughed through a patch of brush at breakneck speed, and suddenly the world spun around me, and I realized I was falling. I hit the ground with a muffled clank, sprawled on my back, and my world was all pain. Hands shaking, I took the last vial from my belt, quickly unstoppered it, and downed it before I could reconsider. A regeneration potion like this one cost a months salary, but without it, I was a dead man. A pleasant, tingling warmth filled my body, and my disorientation and pain vanished. I felt the bones in my left leg shifting around, and heard popping noises from my back, and quickly stood, whole once more. I looked around, standing at the bottom of a 15 foot pit concealed by the brush above. A wide tunnel stretched into darkness in front of me, smelling of damp. I smiled. Maybe we would live after all. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Aelina floated both herself and Lorence into the pit with me, their hefty robes flapping in the breeze. When they were touching the ground once again, I spoke rapidly. "No one will likely find us down here but the bear. If we can kill the bear, we can hide here for a few days until they give up. Can either of you kill the bear?" Aelina rubbed her forehead with her free hand, frowning. "Perhaps I can charge up a big fire and air spell, make a big explosion. It will take time though, and I''m not sure it will kill the bear." Lorence spoke up "Perhaps if I wove water into it, like we did at Banner''s rock. Boil all the blood from a bear and it will definitely die, no matter how strong." "Are you crazy! We did that on accident! There''s no telling if we can even replicate it, plus there''s no telling what it will do to us in a confined space!" Aelina hissed, face turning crimson. "I''m pretty sure I can replicate it. I''ve been practicing." Lorence said evenly "Besides, we know exactly what the bear will do in a confined space. It will kill us all." "I don''t care what you do, so long as you stop arguing and keep moving. We need to head down the tunnel and find a decent chokepoint. Argue later." I interjected. "You''re right, Robert. Let''s get moving. Lorence, walk next to me, we''ll prep the spell just in case. I''m not saying this is a good idea, but I can''t think of anything better." With that, I led the way down the tunnel at a jog. Lighting a torch as I blazed the way, my two companions casting minor light spells behind me, I descended into the dark. Aelina and Lorence followed, talking animatedly. The tunnel reached about 40 feet underground and was astonishingly regular, like a giant worm had bored into the rock. I slowed down as I neared the end, wanting to avoid being eaten by any possible cave residents. I slowly strode into the cave, warily scanning the surroundings when I heard a loud hiss from up ahead, like the noise a disturbed snake might make, only much much louder. "There''s something in here" I said. I advanced, moving my light about to see into the shadowed corners of the room. I saw nothing however, and heard nothing further. "Must be one of those damned giant lizards." I muttered under my breath. Slightly louder, I said. "I, Sir Robert Reginald Haniball the third, will not be driven from my course by a giant lizard." Suddenly, behind us and far too close, came another roar from the warbear. I whirled around. It was practically here! How was it here already? I rushed forward sword and torch in hand, ready to interpose myself between the bear and my companions, the warm tingle from the regeneration potion still buzzing weakly through my veins. I charged forward, right into the path of the onrushing bear. I held my sword fast and readied my stance, prepared to use its own momentum to skewer it, but at the last moment, it swerved and a dwarf rose from the thick fur on its back and struck the sword I held from my hands, following with three savage blows that tore through my heavy armor and the flesh beneath. I struck the bear with my torch as it slammed into me, knocking me into the wall with such force I blacked out. I awoke again and quickly came to my senses. I felt extremely weak, and I immediately knew something was wrong. I should have healed, I could still feel the regeneration effect functioning, but I was still weak and in pain. I attempted to move, but I only flopped about slightly as my right side lit on fire with agony from the attempt. A quick probe with my fingers confirmed my suspicions. The armor plating had lodged in the wound, preventing full recovery. I fumbled at the buckles on my cuirass, cursing the darkness. Suddenly a huge form came between me and the extremely weak light that permeated the cavern, completely silent. I cried out in shock, fumbling for my knife, but it was gone a moment later. I held still for a moment, listening, and heard the rustle of robes dragging on the cavern floor. I tried to drag myself toward the sound, but I was too weak from blood loss. "Lorence! Aelina!" I rasped, struggling to make myself heard. There was no reply save for the splashing of water in the distance. Soon, I descended into darkness again. Chapter 4: Pictures on the wall ----This chapter is a bit longer than my average. I also got delayed quite a bit by distracting neighbors and my parents. I rather like the final product though.----- As I examined the possessions of the creatures, searching for knowledge, I also considered them. I wanted to learn from them, but the possibility of hostilities between us was still there. With this in mind, when I finished examining each of the items, I hung them from my many lines crossing the ceiling. There was no telling what the true purpose of these items were, and this would keep them away from the damp floor. They were dry when the creatures wore them, so I decided to keep them that way. I kept the reflective stick used by the one riding the bear close at hand. I decided it was mine, and I would learn how to use it. I needed to impress upon the creatures that I was as intelligent as they. I doubted we could communicate easily, so I decided that I needed to make myself wearable skins like they had. I had pondered the materials worn and used by the creatures for some time. The skins they wore were not actually all animal skin. Many of them seemed to be made of tiny hairs or ropes, woven together like fishing nets only unimaginably fine. These seemed to soak up water and grow heavy fairly easily also, so I gave up on imitating these, at least for the moment. The ones the shiny one wore easily repelled my beak and I was unable to bend them, even with all 8 of my arms working in concert. I wanted skins like those, but I would have to settle for less, as I was unsure how to make them. I looked through my bone pile with interest, ideas dancing through my brains, my tentacles wiggling with glee. I had found a much smaller reflective stick among the things possessed by the creatures, stored in an animal skin tube of approximately the same size and shape as the reflective, sharpened surface within, and I appropriated it temporarily for this task. I took it in one of my arms and began scraping the old skin and flesh remnants from the pile of armored fish bits I had scraped together. They had bone like growths across the outside of their bodies that even my beak could not penetrate, however their underbellies were soft and easily breached. I collected and cleaned as many of these narrow and curved bone plates as I could gather, piling them up and laying them next to my pile of suitable lizard skins before getting to work. ------------------------------------------------Lorence-------------------------------------------- I woke to the sound of cutting and scraping, completely disoriented. I was in darkness, wrapped in something warm and furry, and completely naked. I struggled to recall my last memories. A tunnel? Was I in a cave? My head pounded and throbbed. I shifted, and nausea swirled within me. A concussion, I realized. Quickly, I began questioning myself, executing the checklist the mage guild healers had taught me on myself for once. Item one. My name. Lorence Assuerus, Mage Associate, Third class. Specializations in water and earth. I recalled this slowly, a rasping noise in the background stabbing into my throbbing head with each repetition. I could not remember where I was or how I had arrived. A bout of nausea seized me. I rolled free of my warm resting place onto cool smooth stone, and threw up everywhere. I definitely had a concussion. The harsh rasp, ever present since my waking, suddenly ceased. I held still, listening, awake and aware that I was not alone. After a few moments of silence, I softly queried the darkness. "Hello?" A soft buzz and a series of clicks came from beside me, quite unlike any noise I had ever heard before. I jumped slightly, startled by the nearness of the sound. I felt something fleshy and damp prod my upper back. I tensed, nervous and powerless, too rattled and disoriented to cast any real magic. I couldn''t even flee without light. Something long and serpentine wrapped itself around my torso, lifting me into the air. It was damp, fleshy, smooth, and very strong. My heart pounded in my chest. This was it. I was going to die, eaten by a monster in the dark. Suddenly, the grip released with a curious suction. I found myself in a pool of water. I flailed, oriented myself upright, and gasped for air. The water was shallow, a foot deep at most, but it was fairly warm. A jet of water hit me in the face and chest. As I sat in the water, I heard more spraying and splashing. The thing was cleaning up my mess, I realized. Soon, it returned, lifting me again, blowing me dry with several violent jets of warm air, shoving me back between what I now realized were two coarse fur pelts. The rasping noise from before resumed after a moment. My confusion was great, but my exhaustion greater, and I swiftly returned to oblivion on soft wings of sleep. --------------------------------- One of the creatures appears to be recovering. I do not think it can see. I waved my arms all around it and it did nothing, but when I prodded it, it startled instantly. It made a foul mess on the floor, but I am unsure if that was simply a response to being threatened or a recovery symptom. To be safe, I demonstrated both my strength and my lack of agression to impress upon it that I was not a threat, but also not prey, and I submerged it in water to clean it off. Its wounds are healing nicely. I will need to figure out what it eats. I had several dozen holes to bore in the armored fish plates, and even with the tool I had appropriated for the creatures, it was taking a long time. Fortunately, I had many limbs and only one tool, so I was simultaneously scraping and softening lizard hide with a round rock and two sharp ones. After a seemingly endless amount of time in which I cut a lizard hide into very fine strips and straps and cut the last 3 into shape. I poked many holes around where the seams would be with a sturdy fish bone and I finished drilling the holes, and assembled my new masterpiece. I made a leather hat that covered half of my body down to my arms, with a large square hole on each side for each eye, and a hole for each of my siphons. I used the holes through each bone plate to affix them all across the outside of the hat with the leather strips I had made, leaving very little uncovered space. With that, I was done. It hampered my ability to deform my upper body, but I could slip out in an instant if needed. I felt like wrestling an animal to test the protectiveness of my new headwear, and I decided to go get dinner. I returned happy, dragging a 6 foot lizard through the water and my bag, full of clams and crabs. The lizard hadn''t even scratched me, and my helmet had held up admirably. I hadn''t needed to drown it, I merely wrestled it down and beat it with a rock until it stopped moving. Glorious success. Next I needed to figure out the mysteries of the fantastic shiny material the creatures possessed. As I approached my home, I saw light bleeding through the water. I preemptively closed my eyes and slowed my approach. One of the creatures must have recovered enough to glow again. Probably the one that had risen once already, I decided. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. I breached the surface of the water, taking in the situation. The creature had retrieved its skins and its stick from the line on the ceiling, and was fully covered, looking around. A glowing ball of light floated above its head. It made noises in my direction, so I emerged from the water, dragging my prey onto the stone. I placed my bag in front of me, opening it and removing a clam, holding it out to the creature. My three hearts thumped in concert as it slowly approached, taking the clam from my outstretched arm. It turned the clam over, looking at it intensely. It slowly handed the clam back, so I demonstrated how to eat one. I held it to my beak and pierced the shell, sucking out all of its innards. I gave the empty clam and another fresh clam to the creature, and it gave them both back just as before. I gave up, and went around the creature, dragging the lizard to my prey disassembly area. Taking my edged stone, I split the lizard''s skin and peeled it off, keenly aware of the creatures watchful gaze throughout the process. I removed the lizard''s leg, then approached and attempted to give it to the creature, but it waved its hands and refused to take it. I ate the leg with relish and threw away the bones after I cracked them and sucked out the marrow. I tore another leg from the lizard and offered it again. The creature took it, then headed to the entrance of my secret place. It paused and waved its arms at me, so I followed. The creature walked into the water, and the water parted around it. Amazed, I stopped and stared, but the creature continued on like this was normal. Soon the creature had completely submerged itself, a bubble of air around it as if the water itself made way for them. I shook myself and followed. This would be a useful thing if I could learn it. We emerged from the water into the main cave, and the creature headed over to the pile of wood I had made last year, when I was experimenting with drying racks. In the end, I had found that twine had worked better, once I increased its strength and added pieces to prevent the water dripping down the stalactites from wetting the things I hung from it. The creature selected a long thin stick, and impaled the lizard leg on it with great force. It then selected quite a few other pieces and broke them into extremely fine splinters, and placed them on top of a large piece. It then selected a stick, and rubbed it on the log with tremendous vigor. The stick became a brown blur, and after a few minutes, smoke began to rise. After a few more, a bright orange light lept forth from the log. Adding more wood to it, the creature dismissed its glow with a wave. Propping the meat above the flames with more wood, carefully positioned, the creature removed one of the sticks from the fire and began drawing on the wall. ---------------Lorence--------------- After I had started the meat cooking slowly, high above the flames, I took another look at our unlikely companion. It was an octopus, much larger than any I had ever seen before. When it had stretched out in the water, swimming beside me, it had been almost 10 feet from the top of its head to the tip of its arms. Now, it stood only 3 feet off the ground, its arms relaxed and spread out forming a ring around its body. It occasionally shifted to a different color, matching perfectly with the color of the floor. It wore a crude hat with bony plates tied all over. I had heard it working on something earlier, and I guessed this was it. What a strange creature. I had woken a second time, feeling much better, and held very still, pretending to sleep, then waited until it left. I then summoned a light, and examined my surroundings, surprised to find civilization here, if crude. Paintings covered the walls, and crude tools lay all over the place. A giant pile of bones lay against the wall, far taller than I was and 3 times my height across the base, none of them human that I could see. Inexplicably, all my clothes and things hung from the ceiling far above me, each piece tied to fine ropes crossing the ceiling. I also saw armor and a sword hanging there, and looked around, finding Sir Robert in a pile of furs like the one I had just been buried in. His face and body were pallid, his eyes were sunken, and he looked like he had lost a lot of blood. I had seen him drink his last regeneration potion only minutes before he had been injured, so his wounds must have been near mortal for this level of injury to show. His wounds were long and deep, but packed with some kind of greenish brown paste. I had noticed my wounds were packed with the same substance. I scraped the paste free from the smallest of them, and saw fresh scabbing underneath, and decided to leave it there. It was obviously supposed to be some sort of medicine. I decided to leave Sir Robert for the moment, he wasn''t going anywhere anytime soon. I channeled the power of the earth and leapt and climbed my way to the ceiling, hanging on to a great stone pillar while I retrieved each piece of my clothes. After what must have been an hour, I was dressed and waiting for the creature to return. I had thought I was ready for anything, but when it returned, and I saw it for the first time, dragging a 200 lb lizard and offering food, I found myself abandoning plans of violence. The creature was hesitant and twitchy, and I was reminded of myself on my first date as a school boy. That''s when I decided to find out how intelligent this creature really was. So now I found myself here, drawing pictures on the wall, the smell of cooking meat in the background, attempting to teach an octopus written language. It had not made any noises so far besides the clicking of its beak and a buzzing sound of varying pitches from its siphons. The combinations of clicking and buzzing seemed too purposeful and intermittent to be anything but speech. I got the feeling it was attempting to communicate. I knew it could draw, though, so I burned the end of two sticks, handing one to the octopus, and began to write the alphabet on the wall. I drew the lizard arm cooking on the wall, pointed to the arm over the fire, and wrote food underneath in block writing and repeated food several times aloud. I did the same for fire, wood, bear, lizard, octopus, human, then waited to see what it would do. It took the charcoaled stick I had handed it, and began drawing pictures on the wall. A fish, a clam, a crab, and a surprisingly well done picture of the three of us entering the cave. I realized it must have watched the whole scene. I labeled each drawing in turn with its written word in our tongue, the desperation to know what had befallen Aelina and what had happened there overshadowed with the knowledge that I could never figure it out without the help of this octopus. Stoking both my determination and patience, I set to work getting this creature to draw exactly what had happened. Chapter 5: A Rude Awakening ----This chapter amuses me greatly. Sir Robert Reginald Haniball III is a bit of a priggish lout. He''s a good friend, but bigoted and unpleasant to strangers. I enjoyed having him on the defensive. In case you haven''t figured it out, octopodes taste with chemophores on their skin, they basically have taste buds all over their arms. All octopodes are venomous, but most are not venomous to humans, this includes our MC. I''ve given our MC the ability to hear because otherwise I would have a hard time writing this, but he has retained his lack of vocal chords. He also cannot smell. The buzzing sound he makes is produced by blowing air through his siphons while shaping them in a specific way. Most octopodes are capable of this, but they can''t hear, so they don''t. I''ve given him a few other small extras, like the ability to breathe air and the whole eyelids thing for story reasons also. I hope you enjoy!---- The humans used drawn symbols to communicate! After many hours of painful struggling over the course of the day, I figured it out! The creature had labeled each picture with a set of symbols that corresponded with sounds from its mouth. These symbols were an advanced form of communication! I waved my arms excitedly, buzzing happily, then drew a clam on the wall and painstakingly copied the symbols underneath it. The creature nodded its head. I started drawing new pictures and getting the creature to label them, eager to study this new form of communication. ----Lorence---- I think the octopus had finally figured it out. We had gone back to the cave for more lizard meat after I had cooked and eaten the arm, this time I was cooking for Sir Robert, if I could get him to eat. It had taken a very long time, but it was eagerly drawing, attempting to add new words to its vocabulary. I was slightly frustrated, trying to communicate abstract concepts like "where?" was very difficult throught drawing. At least I could teach it some vocabulary first, then go from there. I had an idea as to how to extract some information from him anyway. -------- It had labeled each of its kind I had seen with a set of symbols, the drawing of it, the drawing of the shining one, and the drawing of the other like it. It then wrote the symbols in another location, and above its own symbols, it drew a crude picture of it getting bitten by a bear. It was a terrible artist. Above, it drew another set of symbols, then beckoned me closer and guided my stick to the space above the shining ones label. I got it instantly. It did not know what had happened to the others. It had been injured. It wanted to know. I drew a picture of the shining one being struck with a reflective stick by the one who rode the bear. I wasn''t sure how to draw the part about its other friend, so I took it across the cavern to see the scene of the battle on the other end. It called a light to it, and as we approached, it looked around, taking everything in. -------- A great charred mass lay in the corner, bones showing through in places and just starting to smell. It was the rider and the bear, I assumed. There was also a massive pool of sticky blood, bigger than any man could survive losing. The octopus labeled each site with the names of my friends, horribly mispelling them both. I corrected it carefully, mulling over the new information. This explained why Sir Robert was so weak, and also why it had not simply drawn this part. Likely it had no idea what to draw. I recalled the flash of light and the destruction that followed at Banner''s Rock, and shuddered. The octopus led me to the entrance tunnel of the cave, then labeled it. Aelina. It pointed down the tunnel. I was glad to know she was safe. She could take care of herself, plus she was probably hiding somewhere like we had planned. I needed to get Sir Robert healthy again and meet up with her once the trail was cold. Suddenly, I remembered. The meat! How long since I had turned it? I rushed back to the fire, sprinting to reach it in time. -------- The creature rushed forward, running towards its fire. I watched, confused. I followed, arriving in time to watch it turning the lizard meat above the fire. I poked it in the head with my tentacle, annoyed. The creature turned the meat just a little more, then charred its stick again in the flames. I followed its example, then accompanied it to the wall, where it began writing again, attempting to explain itself. -------- Several days pass ----Lorence---- The octopus was proving an adept student. It was learning insanely quickly. It had already mastered the alphabet, and was writing crude sentences with ease. I had moved our fire several times because we had run out of space on the wall. I taught it the question mark and many abstract words by asking it questions until it figured out the answer. I was teaching it the word "who" right now. I found a previous drawing of myself, and wrote "who?" next to it. The octopus wrote "Lorence" in the space I had left. I wrote "what?" next to the drawing, and the octopus wrote "Human". "Very good" I wrote. I trawled my mind for new things to teach it, as it had mastered this excercise in minutes. I had an odd thought. I drew an octopus on the wall. I wrote "what?" next to it, and soon the blank was filled in with "octopus". I wrote "who?" next to it, and the octopus went completely still. It moved deliberately and drew a question mark in the slot. Then rushed off into the darkness as fast as it could manage. I heard a small splash in the distance, and went back to smoking fish, chagrined. -------- I returned to my secret place, mind racing. I squeezed into the area I had hidden my treasures in before the humans woke up. That''s what they called themselves. Humans. They called me an octopus, and the one called Lorence, a patient teacher, wanted to know what I was called. When the others had been here, I had been adressed with 2 clicks, a low buzz, and two more clicks. I found the notion of a name both fascinating and terrifying. What if I chose poorly? I felt helpless. I went to touch my most precious treasures for comfort. As I picked up my favorite, a translucent green stone with comfortable ridges, I realized I didn''t know its name either. I didn''t know the names of any of my things. I quivered in nervous fear. A light dawned on me. I looked through my things with vigor. I could take one item to Lorence and take on its name as my own, and learn its name in one go. Which to choose? Suddenly I remembered the three tined shiny object I had slept with the night before the humans had arrived. It was a symbol of my ignorance, it was appropriate to get it named and take that away. It was a tool of some sort, and it was very bright. It had 4 limbs. I would take its name. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ----Lorence---- Just as I was becoming worried, the octopus rushed back, flailing wildly and clacking its beak rapidly. It rushed up to me, and I jumped back, surprised by its agressive behavior. It slowed, visibly calming, and came up and handed me an object. It was a fork, made of gold. I looked at the octopus confused. It buzzed and clacked, turning a splotchy red. It picked up a charcoal stick and drew a fork on the wall. I suddenly understood. It wanted me to name the object. Where does an octopus get a golden fork? I wondered, writing fork beneath the drawing. Then it surprised me. It wiped clean the question mark under "who" with one wet arm, then wrote "Fork" there. I stood there, stunned for a moment. It wanted to be named fork. Finally, I shrugged off my surprise and wrote "Hello Fork, nice to meet you. Who was I to judge the name of an octopus. Besides, it kind of fit. ----Fork---- Lorence taught me more words, and asked me where the fork had come from. I simply wrote "No", not willing to share my treasures with him, at least not yet. It seemed the better we communicated, the more differences we found between us, and the more conflict we discovered. I asked him about his floating light, and he said it was "magic" but when I asked further, he said "No" just like I had. I still learned many useful things from him. The humans could eat anything, but they had to burn most things first, but not too much, which I thought was both odd and kind of disgusting. I asked if Aelina had wanted to eat the bear, but he only said no. I asked if humans ate other humans, and he got really weird, then wrote "NO!" In giant letters with shaking hands. I realized he was upset, and steered our conversation back to other subjects. Apparently humans ate plants too, which was also kind of gross. I asked if humans ate octopus, and he didn''t answer right away. This made me feel uneasy. I grew slightly agitated, and finally, he wrote "Yes. Small ones. Not you." After more questioning, I discovered that it was against their rules to eat intelligent creatures, which lessened my tension immensely. I asked him questions about humans and their clothes for a while, "Why did they come in so many pieces? What were they for? Why did humans shake without them?" And he answered each with patience. We discussed humans for quite a while until the conversation moved to me. He asked if there were others like me, and I said I was alone. I ended up telling him all about my brothers and sisters. That took a great deal of time, and we headed back inside my secret place when we were done talking, bringing the fish he had been burning to feed to Sir Robert. I took my fork in one arm and squeezed under the wall into the new treasure room, content to rest after a long day. ----Lorence---- After we had returned to Fork''s home, he squeezed into a 2 inch high gap under the wall and disappeared, completely taking me aback. How did Fork fit through there? I lay down next to the hole to look inside, only to see a square pupiled eye staring back. Fork poked me in the eye with one of his arms. When I stopped cussing and recovered my composure, he was gone. A week ago I would have scoffed at the idea of non human intelligence, but now I was being poked in the eye by one. Though his vocabulary was still improving, I never had to teach him something twice. He was learning grammar and picking up vocabulary with a speed that was, well, inhuman. I rubbed my eye and wondered if I was doing the right thing. Sighing, I returned to Sir Robert. I took the two rocks I had selected for the purpose and pulverized some smoked fish between them, placing the paste in his mouth and dripping water in slowly with a clamshell. This time, Sir Robert sputtered and blinked his eyes open. I held back my excitement, looking on with glee as his eyes focused on me. "Robert! You live!" He looked groggily at me, confusion in his eyes. "Of course I live, I''m breathing aren''t I?" I saw realization in his eyes "That dwarfy bear riding bastard! I''m gonna rip his arms off!" "Calm down!" I said, authority in my voice. "You''ve been out for a week. He''s already dead. Aelina killed him." "Oh." He said, slumping back down. "Why are you walking about? That thing chewed you up last I saw." "I called on the strength of the earth, plus my new robes kept the damage at a minimum. It dropped me on my head though, and I was out for a few hours, as far as I can tell. Aelina burned the thing and its rider to death and ran off though. I couldn''t risk leaving you to look for her though, and she''s probably hiding or flown away anyway. She''s far stronger than me, so she''ll be fine for a while yet. Emotionally, maybe not. If she thinks we''re dead¡­" I trailed off. "Well, I''ve got a todo list then." Said Sir Robert. "Get well, find Aelina, report to the council, kill these bastards. Seems simple enough" "There''s a slight complication." I stated hesitantly. "Our host¡­" "Someone lives in this place?" Robert interrupted. He looked around, eyes lingering on the pile of bones against the wall. "It doesn''t look like I want to meet this person." "That''s exactly the thing, Robert, his name is Fork, and I''ve been teaching him Valan¡­" "He doesn''t even speak our language?" Interrupted Robert again. I ground my teeth, growing agitated. "I definitely don''t want to meet your friend now." Robert said, as I grew even more annoyed. "You and your savage can hang out all you like, but I intend to get out of here as soon as possible." "Robert!" I snarled. "He saved your sorry life, and has been feeding and washing you for a week! The least you can do is say thank you. I''m starting to think he has better manners than you. There''s a twenty foot wide puddle of dried blood out there that would have your corpse in the middle without his aid, and you will be a polite guest and be nice! I insist!" I practically shouted the last words, leaning over Robert and glaring with all my power. He shrank back, visibly giving in. "Well, if it''s that important that I play nice with¡­ Fork you said? I can be polite. I''m sorry, I didn''t realize¡­" he trailed off, looking in horror at the wall. "There''s something crawling under the wall!" He exclaimed, shuffling back and looking on with horror. "Don''t worry, that''s Fork." I said with a smile. Chapter 6: Fiery Conflict ----Huge chapter for you. More backstory. Several introductions. Foreshadowing all over the place. I wrote all night. Let me know if I messed anything up, it was late. Octopi have minor brains in each of their limbs responsible for controlling motion, and I decided that a sufficiently intelligent one would have a very easy time learning to draw and write because of it. Clever people will now have enough information to deduce Fork''s origin. I need a nap. See you later, folks.---- I woke up far too early, curled around and annoyed. I heard the loud speech of Lorence, and following, the speech of another. I woke up instantly, rousing to full wakefulness. Excitement poured through me like adrenaline. Sir Robert was awake. Lorence and I had talked about what the Sir was supposed to mean, he was an important person, but Lorence had been unable to explain what it meant to a creature with my poor vocabulary. I was learning as fast as I could manage, using all of my arm brains as well as my main brain to memorize written words more quickly. I wrote them again with each arm until each one knew and could reproduce a word at a thought, independent of my main consciousness. All of my brains strained slightly at my determined pace, but I was learning the written tongue of the humans quickly, and soon I would be proficient. Their spoken language would take longer though. That''s why when I heard Lorence shouting, something I had never heard him do before, I became worried. There had been shouting when the humans fought before. What if the humans killed each other? I liked Lorence. I wanted him to stay, so I could learn more from him. I liked our talks. They made me feel alive in a way I had never felt before. Lorence did not need to fear though, I would defend him in repayment for his tutelage. ----Lorence---- Following Robert''s outburst, he made another, louder this time. "That is your precious friend! Are you crazy? The knock to your head must have rattled something free!" Robert yelled at me, sitting up and waving his arms. "We need to take you to get your head examined at the local mages guild! The damage was obviously far more severe than you realize!" He shouted, reaching up toward me, to do what, I knew not. Suddenly, Fork had crossed the room in a single swift motion, using all eight of his arms and a jet of water from each siphon for propulsion. He wrapped Sir Robert in his 8 great arms and knocked him back into the bed of furs, pinning his arms to his sides, and choking off Robert''s scream with an obviously massive pressure. I ran up and shouted at him to stop, but he looked at me with an obvious nervous pallor to his skin. He was attempting to blend in with the cave subconsciously, wanting to hide. Wanting to hide from me. I didn''t know what was wrong, but I ran and grabbed the charcoaled sticks from where I had left them, and wrote "Stop" on the cave floor. We needed to talk. ----Fork---- Lorence wanted me to let Robert go, but I refused. I did not want Robert to hurt Lorence, but Lorence had shouted at me now. Were we about to fight too? Lorence could kill me. He had demonstrated great strength on many occasions. But why would Lorence kill me. I didn''t want to fight. But I didn''t want Lorence to die. I held on fiercely, unwilling to let go. Lorence continued to write things. "Why not stop?" He wrote. "You are killed" I wrote in reply. "Why?" He wrote again. "Robert kill you." I wrote. "Robert will not kill me. Stop." He wrote. Had I misunderstood something? There had obviously been violence in the making. I loosened my grip to be sure, and Robert began shouting again. I tightened my grip again, silencing him. "He is roaring" I wrote. I was proud of that word. I had learned it yesterday with Lorence, fascinated that they had names for the sounds creatures made. "He is fight you" I wrote. Lorence looked odd, unable to decide what to write next. Finally he wrote "We were fighting with words. There will be no blood. We were fighting about Fork. He did not want to see Fork because he was afraid of Fork. He was afraid Fork would hurt him." I instantly felt ashamed. Lorence was fighting for me, and I had proved him wrong by intervening. I had become the scary creature Robert had believed I was, and I had proven Lorence wrong in a single motion. I wanted to run and hide. I had never felt like this before. I picked up my stick, and wrote the words "I am sorry" and leapt into the water, leaving the both of them alone in my home. I had learned those words two days ago, along with other phrases for interacting with people. Lorence had taught me those words, unaware I would dissapoint him so soon. I could think of nothing but fleeing, unsure where to go or what to do, my arms coiling and uncoiling as they misinterpreted the signals from my roiling mind. ----Lorence---- Smoothing over the situation with Robert was proving difficult. The longer we talked, the more adamant he became. "I don''t care how intelligent it is, or even what its intentions were. If it tries to kill someone every time we have a misunderstanding, I don''t want it around! You say we are staying in its house. Fine. Let us simply leave. I know you can support me with that earth magic of yours. Retrieve my underclothes and armor from the ceiling, and we will be out of here in an eyeblink. Why the hell is my armor hanging from the ceiling anyway? I sighed. There would be no budging him. I didn''t really want to leave, though. Not yet. "I honestly have no idea why your armor is hanging from the ceiling. I haven''t asked. If you insist, I can move you into the main cavern if you are uncomfortable, but I don''t want to leave just yet." "Fine." Spat Robert. "Continue your dalliance with this creature. I will be leaving as soon as I recover and resuming my duties. I will make sure to report the diligence you''ve showed towards fulfilling yours." "Robert," I said, trying to diffuse the situation. "Don''t try to deny it! You''ve been captivated and denying your duty. This is just like that time you shined on that Ukoshi girl. You milked her for every drop of information you could get, and she milked you dry in return. Do you remember that? You had to flee the capital! It was a huge mistake, and I told you so several times, but you still had to go off with that blue skinned wench and look what she did for you. Wanted for theft. Penniless. Running from the guards. It took me two months to get those charges cleared for you, and you said you''d pay me back. You said we could travel together, and you''d help me with my duties to the crown. Honestly, I''m beginning to think I should leave you behind!" "Are you done?" I said. "I think I''ve said everything that needs saying." Robert replied. "You''ll either come to your senses or I''ll go hire some other mage who actually does what they promise." I felt stung. I didn''t want to admit it, but Robert had a point. I was neglecting my duty. I had made him a promise. I had caused all of this by fighting within earshot of Fork, forgetting his relative ignorance. Fork hadn''t come back yet either. He was obviously upset. I just hoped I could work things out somehow. Despite working so hard in school, unlocking the secrets of magic, and promising myself I would never be weak again, once more I felt powerless. I bottled up that feeling within me, making a decision. I turned to Robert, speaking softly. "Let''s get you moved at least. You aren''t strong enough to leave just yet." With that, I began to climb, aiming to collect his armor and weapons. ----????---- Four men met in a rickety wooden shack, their faces hidden behind wooden masks. Each was cloaked from head to foot in an intense shimmering green. Each mask was different, extremely well crafted, and slightly disturbing. The first wore a mask that transformed his visage to a leering skull. The second wore a mask of a smiling pudgy man, the smile far too wide for a human mouth, blocky wooden teeth peering through. The third wore a mask depicting the face of a demon, great curling rams horns and a fanged mouth bearing a perpetual frown accompanying an exaggerated set of wooden features, the eyes bulging, the nose far too long. The fourth wore a completely expressionless androgynous mask with a sagging open mouth and tiny eyeholes. The skull faced man spoke first. "The Emperor''s agents escaped. The warbear may have killed two, but the female mage is on the loose, killing our soldiers." The man wearing the visage of a demon quickly responded, his voice high and nasal. "The warbear is dead. I spent over a month making that thing. Perhaps you should let me give the next intelligence, instead of relying on a fallible guide." "I actually agree, loath as I am to say it" spoke the fat man. "Very well" said the skull. "Don''t let it escape from your control. We can''t have evidence getting free. You remember what happened last time. This time, don''t fail." "Of course." said the demon. "I have been working on improvements, and I believe I have a solution." "Good" said the skull. "What of your men?" The fat man replied. "They are growing restive. It is growing harder to control their minds as their fear rises, but the fire witch is at least thinning their numbers fast enough to allow me to keep control. A single rose in a field of thorns. I''ve lost three hundred of my original thousand. We''ve recovered most of their weapons, and I still have quite a few out capturing new volunteers." He finished the sentence with a sneer in his voice, emphasizing volunteers. "Excellent." Said the skull. "How is our subject?" This last was addressed towards the man with a blank mask, but he let the silence drag on before speaking. "He is not taking well to the changes, but I continue to work. Eventually we will have complete control, but this is very delicate work. It may be a while yet before I finish the job, but I will finish the job. I will finish the job. I will finish the job." His voice came out muffled, as if he were talking into a wad of cloth. As he repeated himself at the end, the others twitched nervously, the only outward sign of their discomfort. The blank man continued to whisper, but too softly for the others to hear. "Well" said the skull. "I have been unable to get an exact fix on the sword. The stupid dwarf must have dropped it underground somewhere. I''ve got a beacon set up to alert me if it becomes visible, however. We need to clean up all the evidence, just in case, and enchanting another weapon like that would set us back too far." The skull paused, holding still for a moment, and then spoke again, a smile in his voice. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it."Speak of the devil, and he doth appear" ----Fork---- My feelings roiled. I realized I was aimlessly wandering. I decided that I needed to do something to alleviate this pressure within me. I entered my temporary treasure room from the water entrance. I gathered up the sword I had stashed there, and made a decision. It was night, and I was going outside. I was leaving the lake and I was going to see the outside. Lorence had been outside all of his life, and he still lived. I would live as well. I had a sword and I was armored. There was nothing I couldn''t face except perhaps Lorence''s disapproval. With my decision made, I left my room full of treasures, ready to see the outside world. ----Sir Robert---- I couldn''t believe what I was hearing. We had to report these terrible events to my superiors. There was no way this series of events was a coincidence. We had been anticipated and prepared for, and only those who sent us knew why, and had the capacity to help. They kept me in the dark on the exact details, but I was here investigating an attack on a personal transport from the capital. The fact that we were intercepted immediately meant several things. First, this issue was definitely not a small, isolated problem. Second, there was a leak somewhere in the chain of command. Finally, it meant we were in deep trouble. Any force that could muster so many men and cause concern for the Crown was deeply serious. This wasn''t a pack of bandits. These men were all equipped with the same weapons, each a copy of the last. They hadn''t made a single sound, even when they died. They had had a warbear. That meant they had a powerful mage with talents in fleshsculpting, one of the forbidden arts. It was only due to Aelina''s powerful magic that we had lived at all. And apparently that damned octopus. What the hell was wrong with Lorence? He had talent, that was sure. His priorities were definitely not in order however. I had agreed to let him accompany me to pay back his debt, but if I had known he would be such a hindrance, I''d have just let him wander off somewhere, chasing after interesting butterflies or whatever, and hired a combat mage. There was nothing particularily wrong with him, but he just didn''t have the right mindset to be a warrior. This octopus actually unnerved me. Not only had it attacked me for reasons of its own, it had felt sorry about it afterwards. After Lorence had moved me and my gear to the main cave, I had had a while to think things through. It didn''t help that all of the walls, and even the floor were practically covered in writing. Lorence had written all of this with the octopus. He had managed to teach the thing enough of our language in a week that they could talk with each other. From where I was sitting, I could read jumbled conversations about trees, about cities, about animals, and there were expertly drawn pictures everywhere. Lorence hadn''t drawn those, he was a terrible artist. There had been paintings all over the walls in the cave, too, but I had been too addled to understand the implications. Lorence was right, this would be important if not for the situation brewing outside. I promised myself to apologize to the damn octopus, or thank it, or whatever Lorence wanted, and to convince Lorence to come back after we got this situation resolved. I chewed on a smoked fish, shuddering slightly as I remembered its crushing grip, stretching to rebuild my stamina and exercising intermittently to bring myself back into fighting condition. ----Fork---- I struck the fallen tree with the sword. The sword cut easily through the wood, burying itself halfway through the trunk. This sword passed through solid things as if they were the innards of a clam. I had split a rock in two with it several minutes ago, after some fumbling as I figured out how to use it. Now I was simply wandering outside, chopping things aimlessly. I was getting a feel for this terrible engine of destruction. I wandered, aimlessly cleaving things for almost an hour before humans showed up. These humans made no sound, but they brought dim blue lights, worn around their necks. They all held black and shiny devices in their hands and lifted them towards me in unison. Frightened, I hid behind the tree I had just been chopping moments before. I heard a loud twang and a hail of objects thudded into the tree and whistled past me. I grasped the end of one where it buried itself in the ground next to me, and pulled it free, finding it tipped with sharp metal edges like those of a sword in miniature. These humans were not friendly. They were trying to kill me with their terrifying human weapons. I was not in the mood to lay down and perish. I quickly matched my texture and color to that of the trees bark, and rapidly climbed into the branches, sword in tow. I squeezed out of helmet in a fork in the branches and left it there, aiming for camoflage over armor. Even Sir Robert''s fancy metal armor hadn''t protected him, so my helmet was likely useless. Humans couldn''t see well in the dark, however, and I could simply move around until they left. ----Lorence---- Fork still wasn''t back. Most of the night was gone, and I was starting to worry. I paced, unsure of what to do, unsure what to say. My nerves were killing me. ----Fork---- The humans did not leave as I had thought. They followed me with a preternatural ability to find my location. I fled quickly from tree to tree and hid perfectly whenever they found me, but I never had more than a few minutes rest before they found me once more. They used their human weapons in my direction several times, but they needed to lift and point them at me first, which gave me plenty of warning to flee or hide. I began to think I couldn''t escape them, and I started planning how to kill them. There were three times as many as I had limbs, but they would likely flee after I killed a few. Lorence''s words came back waited. "Humans do not eat intelligent beings." I wondered if killing them was just as bad. Lorence would never have to know. I envisioned seeing his disappointed reaction again, and knew I needed to be careful here. I fled from tree to tree, just out of range of my pursuers, breaking up the main group and making noise to make sure they knew where I was. I then quietly looped around behind the group, lopping off several tree branches with the sword to confuse those following, and dropped from the trees above two stragglers, lopping one in half with the sword and landing on the other, crushing his head with my arms. My pursuit quickly found me again, and I raced away, looking for opportunities. ----Aelina---- I had been watching the headquarters of these mindless drones, waiting for an opportunity. I didn''t yet know where the mindmage responsible for this was, but it was obvious these people had been wiped, their entire minds and personalities wiped and replaced with whatever pleased the mage. This was why we executed those who dabbled in these arts. Whoever was behind this had some skill in fleshsculpting also, since they had made a warbear. I was going to burn them alive when I caught them. I was going to burn them slow. My anger stirred something within me. The fire bubbled in my mind, eager to escape. It didn''t care why I had let it free, it only knew that I had, and that it wanted to burn. I had let it loose last week, and it had killed many with my assistance and direction. I had been killing these drones for a week now, hoping to provoke the mage into making an appearance. I had still seen nothing, so I simply watched and waited. My new strategy was to interrupt their lines of supply, and locate where the others were hiding. I knew there were others, reinforcements came occaisionally. Whenever a group left the encampment, I tagged them all with stealthed beacons, keeping track of their whereabouts. Then I killed them when they returned and burned whatever they brought with them. Sometimes it was weapons, sometimes it was foodstuffs, and sometimes it was reinforcements. I had marked down seven places outside of this camp that had been visited now, and I was almost prepared to go visit all of them and find out which was the one where I could find the mindmage. Suddenly, a group of drones stiffened, receiving some internal command. They headed out of the camp, arming themselves and falling into formation. I tagged them lazily as they passed, oblivious to my presence. I returned my gaze to the camp, watchful and ready. ----Fork---- Killing the humans did nothing. They did not speak and they did not waver. I used the same bait and ambush strategy again and again, but they did not learn. I was confused, but relieved. These things were not intelligent after all. Lorence wouldn''t be disappointed. I had killed almost half of them when Aelina arrived. ----Aelina---- One by one, the beacons I had placed on the drones had faded and dissapeared. Either the mage was busy cleaning them off, or the soldiers were dying. I hesitated, suddenly recognizing the area the soldiers were in. It was near the cave where I had left my two companions. Hope suddenly surged within me. I gathered the winds about me and leapt into the sky, rushing towards the scene. I arrived to see little more than half the drones still living. They were chasing something in the trees. I came closer, hardening the air into a shroud that bent light around me as I landed. I approached, creating a thin vacuum layer around my position to quiet the sounds of my movement. From time to time I paused, breaking the vacuum and refreshing my air supply. I walked close to the drones, desperate to find what they were seeking. Suddenly, a strange form dropped from the top of one of the trees, stabbing one of the drones with a sword. A sword with a familiar enchantment. That was the sword the rider had borne on the warbear. My emotions overwhelmed me. Frustration, anger, loss, confusion, disappointment and some I could not even name. I lost control, and in that moment, the fire inside me whispered 4 sweet words to me, and I grasped them, taking hold with a new zeal. I somehow knew that these words could make it all better. These words would make me whole. "Burn it all, Aelina." The fire whispered, and I did. ----Fork---- I fled through the trees as fast as I could manage. Aelina had returned and was burning everything. She threw fire in my direction a few times, but she was not really aiming at me. She seemed to be destroying everything indiscriminately. I detoured slightly and grabbed my hat before fleeing back into the safety of the cool water, lit by the dancing flames behind me. Schedule and other weird things. Ask me anything you like here. Ok. Someone asked me about my schedule a little while back, and I''ve been trying to figure one out. I usually pay the bills with freelance writing, 3d design, translation, coding, and data entry. I''m waiting on a new permanent job, so I have tons of free time at the moment. My sleep schedule is completely messed up, and it varies by the week. Here''s how I''ve broken up my week so far
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursday
Morning: workMorning: workMorning: writeMorning: sleep
Evening: writeEvening: writeEvening: writeEvening: write
Night: SleepNight: workNight: workNight: write
Anyway, I''m just letting you know why I''m a little inconsistent at the moment. My Motivations This is a labor of love. It was all spawned by a dream I had right before I posted about an octopus who annoyed the heck out of me. The octopus was grabby and disruptive and generally troublesome, but at the end, it called me a bastard before I woke up. I had never even considered that it was intelligent or could speak in the dream. It really made me wonder. I''m gonna write the hell out of this. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. My Goals. This is essentially my rough draft. I plan on editing, illustrating, and publishing this as an e-book, not only for my freelance resume (it''ll make me feel better if I get my potential boss to give me a dollar) but for my parents. They love books. My mother will drool over this. I really feel like this is one of my best written works. So far, I''ve shown you guys about a fifth of what I have planned for the first arc. I really really want to have a hardcover copy of this on my shelf at some point, even if I have to make it myself. anyway, at some point, I''ll be going on a brief illustrating hiatus, but it''ll be quite a while from now. The images of scenes are very fresh and bold in my head, and I''m loving how they look in my mind, but I''m a little rusty with the pencil. I''ll want to brush up and do a whole lot of them all at once. Barring illness and crisis, I''m gonna try to post a minimum of 5000 words a week, but I''ll be aiming for 10k. Currently, I''m writing about 500 words an hour. Anyway, here is where you can ask me anything you like. I''ll definitely answer eventually. :) Chapter 7: A Touch of Chaos ----This chapter needed to be plot perfect. This stuff is gonna come up later, so it needed to be checked and double checked against my notes on magic, my character notes for each person, and my plot notes for the future. Also, I played some minecraft with my friends on sunday, and it was awesome. Sorry about the delay. I''ll be writing a ton tomorrow, and I can''t guarantee a new chapter then, but I''m gonna try really hard. If not tomorrow, then the next day. Today, I introduce some of the methods of human magic, and some important plot events happen here. It''s not as long as last chapter, but its got a lot in it.---- I rushed into the cave, jetting water though my siphons. I needed to get away from the flames. I needed to get Lorence. He would know what to do. I burst from the water in my home. He was sitting facing the wall with his face in his hands. I needed to prod him to get his attention. I grabbed a stick and began to write. ----Lorence---- I''d screwed things up so badly. My mentor is gone. One of my oldest friends hates me. My family doesn''t even know I should be dead. Will I live through this sojourn into violence? I''d killed already, far too many times for my liking. Was this what this power I had dedicated my life to was meant for? Would some other mage, eager to return to his family send me to my end before this trip was done? Oddly, the worst part is that I''d been sitting in Fork''s home having an emotional crisis, struggling to reign in my elements, while the world moved without me. I didn''t know for sure whether Aelina still lived. I didn''t know if I could reconcile with Robert. We had been friends since primary school, and I had let my fear and indecision drive a wedge between us. I didn''t even think I could continue, my elements straining at me to escape. They always saved their energy for when they sensed weakness. The earth element inside me wanted me to curl up in a ball and sit here forever while the world shook itself to dust around me with a bit of assistance on its part. The water element inside wanted me to call water from the caverns that riddled this area and to wash everything clean. The last element sat coiled among my thoughts, watching, yet silent and inscrutable. It had only spoken to me once. It made the others easier to ignore as I focused on it, knowing how inconsequential the others were compared to this silent abomination, and I sat pondering it for what seemed like hours, my worries temporarily forgotten. After some time, I felt a now familiar touch on my shoulder. I turned, embarrassed, but what I see surprises me. Fork is there, covered in abrasions and holding a sword. His skin is a mottled mix of bright blue and purple. Where did he get a sword? How did he get injured? Nothing makes sense and my mind swims. He pokes me again, and I notice he''s written something. "Aelina is outside." I jerked upright and began to stand. Fork attempted to grab my arm with one of his, but I rolled my wrist and avoided his grasp, taking the power of the earth into my body and sprinting for the exit. I was eager for guidance, three words enough to break the chains of indecision. ----Fork---- Lorence was leaving uninformed. I couldn''t match his speed, and I couldn''t warn him now. I squeezed back into my helmet, and decided to follow, unsure what I would do exactly. Maybe Lorence would get Aelina to stop burning things. ----Sir Robert---- Lorence came rushing out of the water, completely dry, sparking a little of my old envy. He had a skill for those arts I couldn''t match in school, even though he helped me study after I started falling behind. I had thoroughly bested him in alchemy and fighting, but it seemed poor comfort when I saw the effortless ease with which he shaped the world around him at will. "What''s the rush!" I said, a little tease in my voice. "I thought you''d started bricking yourself in there!" Lorence stopped, skidding on the smooth stone floor. His speech was fast and excited. "Fork just came back. He said Aelina is outside. I''m gonna go see." He took off, not waiting on a response, footsteps crashing into the distance. "Well that''s good news" I said to the empty air. A few moments later, the octopus came rushing out, wearing some sort of ridiculous hat covered in bones, waving a sword and holding another of those charcoaled sticks in one arm. It was a familiar sword, and just looking at it made my wounds ache. It looked at me with those giant yellow orbs and unnerving square pupils and paused. It slowly approached, and I tensed, watching the sword. It noticed my gaze and set the sword down, closing the last of the distance between us. It began to write, perfectly formed and upside down letters. I frowned, a little envious. "Lorence did not read. Aelina is killing and burning. He is in danger." I frowned even harder. It wrote again. "What do I do?" At this point, I was frowning so hard my face was starting to ache. I dismissed the expression, then shakily rose to my knees, then my feet. I shuffled over to the pile of armor and gear, and grasped the handle of my sword, lifting it and strapping it on my waist with a belt. I leaned on the wall for a moment, panting. "Only one thing to do, you squiggly bastard. We''re going outside." ----Fork---- Sir Robert followed me into the tunnel, leaning on the wall but progressing fairly quickly. I had to help lift him out of the pit, but it seemed he was almost recovered. I hadn''t understood what he said, but his actions spoke loudly enough. When I left the pit, I was surprised and relieved to see Lorence dousing trees with great sprays of water near the lake. The fire was raging, but I didn''t see Aelina. Sir Robert was breathing heavily and having trouble moving, so I lifted him and rushed forward. He was much lighter without his armor, but I felt myself quickly growing winded too. By the time I got Robert to the lakeside and Lorence, I was blowing air through my inner and outer gills so hard they were whistling slightly. I put Sir Robert down, and dived into the lake to wet my skin and breathe that sweet, clean water. I waved at Sir Robert and swam in circles to pass more water through my gills, watching Sir Robert and Lorence talk the whole time. When Lorence took off running once more, this time I was right on his heels. Stolen story; please report. ----Lorence---- Somehow Aelina had done the unthinkable. She had lost control. She was probably either passed out somewhere in the flames or still running around burning things if the element had any restraint. I doubted her fire had any restraint, it had probably burned through her physical reserves and left her lying among these flames. I cloaked myself in a shell of lake water, my focus straining as I struggled to invoke both powers simultaneously. I barely managed, and took off into the heart of the blaze, hoping I was quick enough. ----Fork---- I left my sword with Sir Robert. There was nothing left alive out there, and I needed all of my arms and speed to keep up with Lorence. I stayed low to the ground and raced after, climbing over smoking debris and dodging falling incendiary leaves and branches. The smoke was thick and the fire raged in the canopy above. Soon we were deep into the heart of the fire, and I felt my skin drying and growing hot. We ran, and I expended the last of the breath I could pull from the water in my mantle, so I sprayed myself down with my siphons to protect myself further from the heat. My outer gills burned in the smoky air, and my eyes stung. My skin tasted of ash. When my skin had dried once again and it seemed I would die from this heat, we found what we we were looking for. Aelina lay in a small crater, everything around reduced to ash. From her mouth, a spiral of flames issued forth into the sky, rushing to join a great flaming serpent that would not have fit inside my entire cavern. It was three times bigger around than Sir Robert in his armor, and at least a hundred times longer. The serpent finished forming as I looked on, astonished. Lorence and I stood paralyzed, the great thing writhing in the air, turning its attention towards us. It spoke at length, and then it paused for some time, staring at Lorence, who was similarly frozen and staring in return. Lorence suddenly collapsed, falling sideways in to a bed of ash. The flaming serpent turned that burning gaze on me, and I quivered in fear. It stared at me, and spoke. I had absolutely no idea what it was saying. I kept my eyes on it, ready for anything. We locked gazes, and I held the stare of this creature, and it held mine. Suddenly, my world was engulfed in fire, and I blacked out. ----Lorence---- I arrived too late. The fire element had broken free from its prison by the time I arrived. It floated in the air, taking the form of a serpent, coiling and uncoiling in slow, sinuous movements. It spoke. Its voice was a great and deep hissing as of escaping air. "Ah, another warden, no doubt here to prevent my escape from this fleshy prison. Well, you''re too late. First I will release the prisoners in your flesh, then I will release the last from this shell. Are you ready to die, magus?" I was not, in fact, ready to die. I was mustering the link between the arcane circuitry in my staff and the raw force of will in my soul, and I had been preparing an entrapment working the entire time it had been talking. It was no doubt stalling while it prepared a working of its own. It had just been freed, and it was weak, however. It also had no preparations laid in place. I had the advantage here. I had never imprisoned an element so large, and I wasn''t sure I could now, but if I failed, death would come for both me and Aelina. There was no way I wouldn''t struggle until my last breath fighting this thing. I was almost finished with the entrapment when the serpent struck first, a hammer blow of will directly into my mind, stunning me and knocking me off my feet. My mind reeled, but I barely managed to keep a grip on the working, a useful effect of my harsh time in the field with Sir Robert. I heard the serpent speaking as I feverishly struggled to complete the entrapment. "What do we have here?" It asked. "A handsomely large vessel, strong and healthy, it appears. It''s been a while since I''ve seen a creature with such raw potential. Yes, this mind will be malleable, and so will the body. Oh, such destruction we will wreak together, octopus." I jolted, losing my concentration and almost losing the entrapment altogether. Fork was here, and this Fire Element meant to turn him into a monstrosity like those across the Great Barrier. My mind suddenly cleared, and I doubled my previous speed, charging each circuit in my staff with a jolt of will and elemental might as I neared completion. I looked around for my target, only to see the last of the fire element disappearing into his body. I had been too slow. I arose shakily and rushed the few metres between us, kneeling at his side. There was still one thing I could do. I released the completed entrapment into Fork, hoping I was strong enough, hoping I was fast enough. My vision blurred as I exceeded my limits, and I quickly sealed the channels to my elements to reduce the strain on my mind. I redoubled my focus on my entrapment ward, struggling to stay aware and upright as I siphoned off my strength of will into the spell. My vision went from blurry to static. I bit my tongue as I tried to keep from passing out. An element in my mind spoke. "Would you like my assistance? I don''t think you''ll manage this without my help." This was the voice that had spoken to me only three times before. This was the abominable thing that had taken up residence in my mind without my consent. It spoke again, a soft buzz in my mind. "You''re about 30 seconds from passing out. Decide quickly." It had exacted a terrible price for its help in the past, but it had done what it promised. If I passed out without completing this, the serpent would unravel my binding, and kill us all. I couldn''t say no, and the thing knew it. "Fine" I said, teeth gritted. "Do it." The last thing I felt was hitting the warm ash for the second time. Chapter 8: Annoyances Abound ----Next chapter will be in a few days, gotta go make some money and get some sleep. :)---- ----Fork---- A voice screamed, and my awareness returned slightly. "That goat sucking Mage! I can''t believe I''m trapped again! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" I stirred further, annoyed. I thought at the disturbance as hard as possible. "Be silent!" The voice quieted, but I could feel its attention on me somehow. It was like an itch and with it watching me, I couldn''t drift back to full rest. Rest. Why was I sleeping? I shouldn''t be asleep. I needed to be awake. The haze lifted from me, and I thought again, addressing the itchy presence. "Who are you? What are you doing in my mind?" "I am the fiery serpent who struck you down. I am one of the greatest creatures on this world. I am an eternal spirit of flame! I have destroyed hundreds of thousands of your kind, Mage, and in my infinite life, I will eventually destroy you all with the help of my brethren. I will destroy you for imprisoning me again! I will eat away your mind from the inside out!" I analyzed the fire serpent''s words for a time before I spoke. Finally, I decided what to say. "I didn''t put you here. Can you just go away. You''re really annoying." That was apparently the wrong thing to say. "Can I just go away! No I cannot just go away! I am imprisoned here until you let me out!" The serpent paused its yelling. It spoke again in a more normal voice. "Did you say you didn''t put me here?" "Yes. I didn''t put you here. If you can''t go away, can you stop yelling instead? Also, could you consider not eating my mind from the inside out? I''m using it at the moment." "If you aren''t the mage, who are you?" The spirit spoke in a whisper now. I felt fear emanating from it. "There were only two humans there, and I knew one. If you aren''t the other, how did I get here? What do you want with me?" "I''m Fork, and I want you to continue to be quiet. That is all I want from you. I don''t really want you here, but I have no idea how to get rid of you. I''m going to try to wake up soon. As long as we''re stuck together, what''s your name?" A long pause followed. Finally, an answer came, quiet like I had asked. "I am Ashak. No host has ever asked me my name, you know. I''m usually not this aware when I am imprisoned. I''ve never had a conversation quite like this." I decided to try on one of my new human phrases. "It''s nice to meet you Ashak. I''m waking up now. Will you still be around when I wake?" "I don''t know" said Ashak. "Will you really let me go? I don''t want to be trapped again." "I don''t even know how you got here, so I can''t promise anything, but I''ll try, Ashak. Could you not to eat my mind and destroy my race or whatever? That would be nice." "I will destroy all humans." Hissed Ashak "I''m not a human." I replied. "You''re not? Well, that''s odd. What are you?" "I am an octopus." I said, proud of my new vocabulary. Ashak began to laugh, and he didn''t stop for a long time. Irritated, I decided to wake up without his answer. ----Sir Robert---- I spoke with Lorence, and told him what the Fork had written. I actually found myself allied in purpose with an octopus against Lorence and his harebrained impatience. It didn''t surprise me one bit when Lorence ran off again as I was finishing my explanation. What did surprise me was the octopus, laying that sword at my feet and taking off after him. Perhaps I gave it too much credit. Maybe I needed to teach it good sense before it was too late. I was almost completely winded, and rattled from my octopus ride. There was no way I could catch up to them, so I sat down to wait. I picked up the sword that had injured me and examined it in the flickering firelight. Dawn was breaking in the distance, but the blaze was far brighter at the moment. The sword didn''t look ordinary. It was plain and unadorned and unusually thin, the guard and hilt all made from the same metal as the blade, no leather wrappings, but as I shifted it in the light, I could see tiny patterns in the blade where metal had been chiseled out then recast in very particular patterns. I saw absolutely no damage to the edge, and when I struck a tree with it, it cut extremely smoothly, and was unmarred when I removed it. A chill settled in my bones. This blade was enchanted. It had an earth spirit inside, eternally bound to reinforce and strengthen the blade to protect from wear and damage. When someone made one of these, they took the hardest steel they could find and gave it a razor edge, and it was permanent until you melted the sword and freed the element. Whoever had made it had also sent that bear after us. Whoever made it could probably track the blade. I buried the thing as deep as I could make it, and built a pile of rocks over the top, and began to consider where to hide. Just then, the flames in the trees all around began to dim. I watched as they dwindled, then extinguished themselves. I decided to meet up with the others, and began to head into the now silent forest, smoke swirling around me as I passed the ruined trees. ----Fork---- Ashak did not stop laughing when I was aware. It seemed I could still hear him when I was awake. My skin was dry and cracked, and I was very, very dirty. My gills were dry and burned with every inhalation. I told Ashak to shut up, as before, but he only began laughing harder. My brain hurt, and this thing wouldn''t stop laughing at me. I grew angry, and I probed around my mind, easily finding the source of the laughter. I focused on it until I could see its shape. A serpent made of flames, wrapped in black chains, tying it to my mind. It was my mind. I decided to take it back. I envisioned the serpent being crushed by my mighty tentacles, and it began to compress. The laughter began to die as I brought my entire will to bear. Ashak soon stopped laughing, and began to scream instead. This annoyed me even more than the laughing, so I let him go. He immediately began to apologize. "I''m sorry, it was just too funny. I thought I''d been grabbed by something truly terrifying, but I know what happened now." "What happened, Ashak?" I asked, squeezing a little to make my point. "I was going to possess you, and turn you into something fearful to destroy the human race. I didn''t realize you were intelligent. The mage must have trapped me in here. I''m sorry. Please don''t hurt me. I promise not to destroy your race or eat your mind. I''ll be good." Once Ashak fell silent again, I released him, and he stayed quiet. I thanked him for his good behavior. I rose on my arms, assessing the world around me. The fire was out, and the woods were reduced to a number of charred pillars. The clearing we were in was still a pit of nothing but fine ash. Both Aelina and Lorence lay in the ash, smeared with soot and ash. I couldn''t carry both of them, and I didn''t really want to leave them here. Fortunately, as I was pondering what to do, Sir Robert showed up. He was pretty smudged, and breathing hard. When he saw me, he just flopped down on on the ground, blowing ash everywhere. I tried to write in the ash with my arms, but the wind blew my words away as I wrote them. I was frustrated. Ashak started laughing at me again. I gave him a mental death glare. He laughed some more. I wrapped my mind around him once more, and began to squeeze. He quickly fell silent. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "I still intend to get you out of my mind. I cannot likely do it without the help of these two. I need to communicate with this human. Can you help?" I squeezed Ashak one final time before releasing him. He groaned, then answered. "I can talk out loud, and I don''t even have a mouth. Of course I can. What do you want me to say?" "Well, first, tell him you''re talking for me." I said, slightly apprehensive. ----Sir Robert---- Imagine my surprise when the octopus began to speak in a deep booming hiss. "I am Ashak, spirit of fire and immortal incarnation of destruction, and I am acting as a mouthpiece for this vessel. This vessel has news to share with you, inferior human." I just kind of stood there for a moment, a little surprised, then it continued. "The humans in this area have all made grave miscalculations and failed to prevent the triumphal escape of the glorious Ashak, and now the great Ashak dwells here. This vessel is unable to communicate, and asked for my assistance. This vessel requires your help hauling these pitiful ones into a more suitable area. This vessel is thirsty and exhausted and cannot do it alone, and must rely on a stinky sniveling human for aid." "Well, hello to you too." I said. "That''s quite the pretentious mouth you''ve got. I''m going to rest for a minute, then we can go." "This vessel thanks you for the compliment. This vessel will wait until your weakness passes." I sat for another minutes, breathing evenly and gathering my strength, and keeping one eye on the octopus. I wasn''t exactly sure what had happened, but it was speaking. It hadn''t even understood spoken language before, but it was speaking and understanding now. It was also very rude. I wasn''t exactly sure what had transpired, but there were several alternatives, none of which were particularly pleasant. I resolved to keep an eye on the octopus in case it wasn''t an ally anymore. I decided for now to just play along, and hope my suspicions were unfounded. "I''m rested enough now. I''ll take Lorence, he''s lighter. Complete wimp without his magic. You take Aelina." ----Fork---- I wasn''t sure I trusted Ashak. He was being exceptionally nice and rather pliable, but I had gotten the impression that he would kill me and escape in an instant if he could. I hadn''t exactly engendered his goodwill either, only fear and hate. I decided to throw him a bone since he was being so helpful. "What sorts of things do you like to do, Ashak? You''ve been fairly helpful, but I haven''t exactly been a good host. What do you enjoy? What do you eat? Is there anything you''d like to do?" Ashak projected startlement, but he started eagerly making a list soon enough. "I like to burn things. I like to kill humans. I like to watch the night sky. I like to throw things off cliffs. I like to read books about battles. I like to go to war." He paused for a moment. "I eat fires. That''s why all the forest fires went out. I ate them all, and tried to use the extra power to escape the mage''s grip, but somehow he got me anyway. It''s just one facet of my timeless and immortal power. It''s also how I get bigger. The more fire I eat, the bigger and stronger I get. Eventually I will be as strong as one of the fire spirits that burn in the night sky. Those tiny specks of light are others of my kind, blazing brightly at such unimaginable distance. Their size and power is overwhelming." Ashak paused for a moment before answering my last question. "Can we burn these humans to death and throw them off a cliff? It would be twice as fun." "No." "Can we burn things?" "Sure, we''ll go burn things. But only if you''re good." I said. I could feel Ashak''s excitement and anticipation from here. "I''ll be super good!" Said Ashak. What a strange being Ashak was. I stopped, paying more attention to the world around me. I heard sounds from ahead, and Sir Robert was paused and hiding behind a tree, Lorence draped over his shoulder. I took on the black and wrinkly texture of the charcoaled trees, gently set down Aelina, and slowly climbed one for a better view. The sun was risen past the horizon, and my vision was poor, but I got a serviceable enough look. It was more of the same humans that had attacked me before. They all wore the same clothes and carried the same weapons. This time, there were more than a hundred. They were milling about, flipping things over and digging everywhere. I slowly climbed back down and asked Ashak to tell Sir Robert what was ahead and about my last encounter with them, and translate his reply for me. ----Sir Robert---- Fork camouflaged himself effortlessly, and climbed up the tree. I watched him closely, but the more I watched him, the less likely it seemed he had been possessed. His body was unusual, and any spirit that invaded his flesh would not have instantly become so dexterous and practiced at using his flesh. It occurred to me that he was very useful, with his rather unique physiology. The camouflage and climbing alone would make him worth having along. I was actually growing rather fond of Fork, he had no hesitation in his nature. The voice thing was kind of odd, but I decided to ask Lorence once he regained consciousness. I was less wary, but still a little unnerved by the whole thing. Fork slowly climbed down from the tree, and began whispering at me. "There are over a hundred humans out there, armed with bolt throwers and swords. This vessel has fought them once before, but there were only 25, armed with only bolt throwers, and it killed them with its sword. These humans are even more retarded than usual. They do not speak or plan. This one''s vessel wants to know why they keep coming to kill it." "I''m not sure." I said. "But I know someone''s probably been tracking your sword. I buried your sword over there too, once I figured it out. I had hoped it would throw off any tracking. Maybe they''re here to get it back." "That makes sense. This vessel says the creatures were able to follow it easily in the darkness, but it was holding the sword. Perhaps they were tracking the sword instead of it." "Well," I extemporized. "They probably want that sword back really bad, if they sent this many people. Those guys are probably working for the same people who tried to kill us. We should keep them from getting the sword, if we can." "Ashak wants to burn them to death. This vessel wants to know if that is all right with you." The hissing voice coming from Fork was eager, excited even. "Sure, if you think you can manage that, go ahead." sorry for dropping off the map Lost most of my income when the place I did a bunch of work for went belly up. Strugging not to get thrown out of my apartment. I feel really bad for ditching you guys, and i''m going on a semi indefinite hiatus until I get some income flowing or until I get thrown out of my apartment. Good luck folks, and sorry for being a !#%€.