[Returning Home]

The giant boar, body scaled below its mane, looked impenetrable. Its tusks were wide sabers that reached the ground, scraping into the chasm stone. How were we to fight it? I didn't know if that was even my concern, caught as I was in big guys grasp. It seemed the system had little care that we fought among ourselves. It was only when we shared danger that it felt the desire to drive us together. What a terrible species, unable to communicate between each other.

Big Guy roared again, even more deafening with the full force of three maw. Did it not see its opponent? There was only death there.

The boar didn't seem to take interest. Whatever taunt the Big Guy had there was too great a difference in their power. It dropped its attention to the lower boar, injured and afraid. I could feel its contempt rising through its face like it was my own, borne on the memories from the totem. It opened its heavy head, and pinned the injured boar between its teeth.

We were too far away to hear as it closed its mouth, heavy bones crushing against each other. A thin trail of flattened entrails connecting the mashed body to its lower half. It remained standing, held upright from the tension of those red threads.

It had stolen my kill.

The embers of hatred I'd been building rose to a crackling fire. The lesser had sacrificed itself to its larger brother. Fed to it what had been mine, my right, my kill. In a fit of madness, I struggled to get free. I had to challenge, To fight back and reclaim. I would not stand the theft of souls from the drip of my venom.

The large cliff hugger dropped me and pain flashed through my body. My greed had not cared that I was not fit to walk. The big guy had other concerns now.

If it planned to fight this demon I would have no part of it. My heart may want it to pay but my mind could feel how sluggish my body was becoming as the toll of the damage set in.

The boar stared at the two of us, not advancing. It was ominous. The deep lifeblood of its brother lay thick in the beard of its dirty mane. It seemed completely intelligent, as interested in us as creatures as it was on a food source. The eyes had the same anger as the totem in the domain. A gaze I had cowered from and had to cover after its death.

Finally it turned, responding to a call only it could hear, and ran into the deeper chasm. I didn't believe its passing until the aura of fear lifted like a fog burnt out by the hot sun rising in the early morning.

Relief.

I had forgotten that I was still in reach of a deadly opponent. The thought of solidarity against a common foe had let me believe a fable of an unspoken truce. The big guy picked me up by the leg, dangling me like a carcass of butchers meat. Its maws were open, salivating.

[Connection with Domain restored]

It turned me about, grabbing my arm and peering into the hollowed chambers of my stingers. I hissed through my maw, and then tried something I only half remembered.

"D..own..." I rasped through my small, tongued mouth.

The shape of the word was incorrect. It caught in my throat, forcing it into unnatural configurations. It was painful to force air through the lip less gape and its many rows of sharp teeth with enough intent to speak. But it worked. I landed on the ground with a sharp thud. My health fell into the single digits. The big guy moved forward, and I hissed out. I needed space to breath, as injured as I was.

Did it remember me? What name had it given me, like I had given it and dagger. Only a few weeks separated us from the silent maw, from the ledge. Did it know I was the one that had ate their fragile sucking bodied off its back? I don't see how it could. My sleek black form and chitinous stingers were a far cry from the unformed, melted creature that I was. Lesser Wailing Cliff Hugger. Lowest Lesser tier indeed, we came from the womb half shaped. Only now was our journey beginning.

Walking backwards, I dipped into the shadow realm. The Big Guy seemed mesmerized by the trick, tossing boulder and ground cover alike to follow. I needed to get to my domain. The shadowed realm was thick and heavy. It lacked the clarity that had lured me into the hunt with the boars. The height of the realm was daunting. What had been wide targets to leap would be struggles for my weary form.

Weakened, I abandoned the shadow hunt. It seemed without a target, it was more costly. If I ran into another demon I was easy pickings, but I couldn't bear the thought of dying struggling for air. Trapped between two worlds that had collapsed together. It was my bad luck and his good observation that brought Big Guy's attention back to me. He seemed content to move at my hobbled pace, following a shadow. I couldn't get far enough with any speed to lose him.

Only once in the journey did we pass danger. The Big Guys lumbering disturbed one of the trees, and it blossomed into a flurry of activity. The fat aphid bodies moved like a small swarm, leaping up to cut into his large expanse of exposed flesh. Exposed, but not undefended. I had to shelter in the shadow realm. As I looked out from the shadows, too weak to intercede, his large strikes popped through their backs. His flesh boiled where the bright goo touched. Acid?

What disturbed me was they seemed to peer into the shadow realm. As I walked, trying to avoid their territory, they followed right above me. Tested their obsidian limbs on the boundary between substance and the void. If I was alone I would not have escaped. They could have waited the few moments it would take for my mana to give out and then sliced into my yielding flesh.

Their acid would have eaten through me, if I managed to strike back.

The Big Guy made quick work of them. As loud as he was, he seemed unfazed by the deep streaks of corroded flesh left by their bodies. I wasn't the only creature with pain resistance it seemed. What's more, he had mastered it. Only after we had traveled a while did I notice that his wounds were drawing closed. Clumps of dead flesh sloughing out of the valleys replaced by new and healthy tissue. He seemed to have a healing factor.

Had he evolved without a domain? Where. I couldn't imagine. Caught in one of the tunnels and liquefied deep within the cocoon. Waiting for anything hungry and sharp to gouge in and feast on half formed, embryonic flesh. Being trapped even if you survived, closed in by the narrow tunnel that had given you refuge. Buried alive.

I thought about communicating again. Rasping out the syllables that might form into words. Through great concentration I had forced it out before. It wouldn't matter. The big guy had nothing that would allow a response. Rivers of open phlegm dried down its chest as it left its maws half open as it scanned for more threats on the horizon. His design was one of terror, made for feasting and pummeling.

I almost didn't make it to the entrance to the tunnel. Seeing it, I wanted to curl up in the open. Rest or death, I was losing my preference. In my mind they were becoming the same. My health was so low a sharp stone would make the decision for me.

The Big Guy shadowed me the entire way. It followed me, deeper into the tunnels. I once thought I would lose him in the first narrows, but he grunted in anger and began pounding through the rock. The skin of his hands kept splitting on contact. The rock, to my surprise had less endurance, crumbling under repeated blows. That he could pay no mind as the sand powdered into his own flesh said much.

When we finally reached my domain, I slunk into the shadows. I had more mana left than I had the energy to force myself through the narrow rock entrance. He couldn't follow me here. I heard the heavy thump of his large body falling to the floor. Climbing out into the chamber, I looked at his shadow through the entrance to the domain. So be it.

The dragon boar worried me. I felt like there was something bigger at play and I was just a piece. If I was being played in someone else's game they would have to wait.

With no more energy to give to thought, I curled up in my own wet blood and went to sleep.