Seventy-nine

Covering the distance between the mountain and Kush District is long, tiring, and frankly, the longest walk I've ever been on in my entire life. I've managed to run myself ragged.

At some point the incline changed, bringing me a little closer to the surface. I can't hear anything coming from above, but it feels cooler and overall better. I've made a few quick pit stops to drink and have a nibble to keep me going.

I've lost track of the creature's whereabouts but I'm pretty sure it's still looking for me.

The only reason I stopped is because I thought I heard voices. I found a crook in the cave wall and hid there waiting to see if I can hear them again. I'm pretty sure that there is a much easier way to get here, but I'd like to take him by surprise. I'm sure he is expecting me, and the fact that he has Mason guarantees him that.

As Apple said, Mason is my weakness, and Brother Dearest will exploit that weakness.

The sound of footsteps drags me from my thoughts, and I press myself deeper into the hole in the wall. Any closer and I'll become one with the wall. It's a tight fit, I squirm at the feel of a sharp rock digging into my ass cheek, painfully so. And for once I wish I was tiny so I could fit into cramped spaces. I could make a pocket, but I have a feeling I'll need all the power I can get, and I'm desperately trying to conserve as much as I can. Hence the lengthy walk…

The voices get louder, but I can't make out what they are saying, they pass by me, and the dim pinkish light illuminating the tunnel offers me a small glimpse of their face, and 

I quickly recognise them as V'asay. Makes sense that they would align themselves with Bartholomew. Micah has either made himself scarce or has been disposed of for his failure to apprehend me, and however many have remained are like a flock without a shepherd.

I let them pass, I need to do an approximate headcount before I spring out of hiding.

More passes, but these are different. You may wonder how I know because they aren't exactly very human-looking. One of them is translucent like a ghost, but the outline of his body has a strange glow to it. The other one has horns poking out of his forehead, and no eyelids. 

Nope, they don't exactly blend in, and I know that is just a fraction of them. There are so many of them, that it will probably take me at least a year to find out what they are.

More pass, but I focus on keeping count rather than analysing their appearance.

By the time the foot traffic slows, I've counted approximately over two hundred of them, and I know for sure that there are more. Many more. The magnitude of the situation I've just walked into starts to take shape in my head, and I find myself in desperate need of a clever plan. Really clever.

A horn blares somewhere in the distance, and everyone begins to rush in one direction. I'm a bit confused at first, but that lasts only until the ground begins to tremble around me. Shockwaves. I know it's not an earthquake, it's not violent enough. 

But it increases in intensity, nonetheless, which tells me that whatever is approaching me, is either big or there is more than one.

Bollocks.

I take a deep breath, and wait, listening and watching as little pebbles break off the wall and tumble onto the tunnel floor. A cloud of brown dust engulfs me just as I see something running past the crook. I wave off the dust so I can see better.

They are huge, freaky and frankly downright terrifying.

I quickly recognise the species Kormon, a type of lizard that has gone extinct. Well, someone should tell the naturalists that is alive, and thriving. More than that, they are huge.

It shares many traits of the Kormon, but let's say it is improved. Greatly, so. Sharp claws dig into the brittle soil, and their skin changes colour from green to dark brown speckled with little pink dots, replicating their environment, making them invisible to the naked eye.

One of them stops, just as I release a huff, his eye peeks inside the little crook, and I debate with myself whether to slip inside the pocket and wait until they have passed. Clearly, the Daiõ and V'asay fear them too, otherwise they wouldn't have sounded the alarm.

I watch the green pupil dilate, the creature huffs kicking up a dust cloud, the eye closes and then he moves away.

I catch sight of the tail of the Kormon as he moves away, and I take a leap of faith and slip out of the crook, jump on his tail, and leg it up his back.

It swishes his tail and shakes his body trying to throw me off, and I dig my heels and fingers into the soft flesh of its neck. The thick skin folds as the creature swivels his head, and snaps at me with its teeth. I look into his gaping mouth and realise that his teeth have teeth. Thousands of sharp, needle-like teeth, pointed inwardly. I swing the bag off my shoulder to smack him with it in the snout while the hoard barely takes notice of me.

He shakes his head and turns again to bite me and I smack him again while the others begin to notice his erratic behaviour and begin to snap their teeth at him. They will eat him and me if I don't get him under control.

It doesn't subdue him, it only makes him angrier, and begins to rub himself against the tunnel wall, trapping my leg. He drags on, the sharp bits of rock protruding out of the cave walls, scraping against my leg, tearing into my clothes, and skin. I bite down on many screams, up until it slams into the tunnel wall, nearly crushing my leg, and injuring himself in the process.

Maybe it's self-preservation, but it pulls away from the wall, panting heavily, and turns to lick the wound on his front leg. A forked tongue slithers out its mouth, gently lathering the wound with copious amounts of saliva. It lets out a screech, alerting the horde, who screech in return but continue to move forward.

I take a quick peek, and I see the skin on his leg melting away where it licked. And I keep watching with morbid fascination, as it grows back, like it never got hurt in the first place.

I pull the blade out of the sole of my boot and prick him in the neck. We're experimenting, to see if I can find a way to control him to do my bidding. I like animals, and I like to believe that I'm not being cruel. I will only prick his skin if needed.

He lurches forward with a clicking sound, and I wonder why the hoard hasn't turned on me. I've been busy trying to keep steady on his back and stay alive, but I look at my hand and I realise that I'm no longer white. I look brown with little pink speckles. He can lend his abilities to whatever it touches. An incredible surviving skill, that I could have put to good use had I known it existed.

The hoard has distanced itself from us, taking various tunnels, we are at the fork. I know we are close.

" Vidris as-" I stop myself before I finish the chant. It would alert everyone of my presence.

Once again, I'm faced with a decision. The Kormon sits, in the cavern that gives way to multiple tunnels, dwarfing its size. I look at the little specks of dust on his back, but that is something to think about later.

It's time to focus on my instincts and allow them to lead the way. And pray, that I'm not wrong.

I push the blade into his flesh just enough to pinch, and lean my body left, hoping that the beast would get the message.

It does, sort of, anyway.

It does turn left but tries to get into the second one, rather than the third.

Standing, I climb on his neck, keeping my head down so I don't bang my head against the ceiling of the cave, trying to avoid adding more injuries. My leg is killing me, but I need to see this through.

When I reach his head, I lay flat on my belly on top of his head, and grab the folds in his jaw trying to steady myself, just in case he tries to shake me off.

He doesn't disappoint. He pulls back from the tunnel and shakes his head trying to get rid of me. I hold onto him with all I have, until he gives up. My body slides left and right, and I dig my knees into the divots on his head to steady myself. I slip off, sliding right ever so slightly, the bag dangles off my shoulders, adding more weight, and dragging me down.

I look into his eye, he narrows his eye at me and huffs out a puff of noxious air. It's so fetid that I begin to cough into his eye, and he tries to shake it off again.

By the time, he is done shaking his head, my hand slips off and I tumble to the ground and return to normal.

Well, I tried, but now I have an angry-looking lizard hot on my tail. I sprint into the third tunnel, dragging my injured leg behind me while the Kormon starts after me with unhurried steps.

He is playing with his food. I have no idea if I'm his usual choice for a meal, but I think that he would just eat me out of spite, for daring to climb onto his back and the rest.

His claws scrape against the ground, taunting me, and his forked tongue slips out, nipping at my bad leg, and tasting my blood. I guess that would be his entrée before he chows me down like a little bug.

Halfway through the tunnel, I'm out of breath, in pain and on the verge of turning around to face him. It could go either way, he could eat me- quite easily- but I don't think I'm enough to be the leftover stuck in his tooth.

Or, maybe he would take it as a show of strength and spare me. Quite a gamble.

Heavily wheezing, I stop, and lean against the wall, to catch my breath. I can see the end of the tunnel from where I am. The Kormon stops too, maybe a bit confused that I'm not offering him the chase he craved.

His green eye finds me, and I look up at him, and push myself off the wall, ready to face my destiny.

He lets out a huff of the same fetid breath and I go into a fit of coughs again. It smells bad.

It takes a few minutes before I can taste and smell the earthy air around me, but in that time the Kormon hasn't moved.

I take it as a good sign and begin to walk again. Something pokes at my back slicing through the tattered top, it grazes the skin on my back but it's not the graze that makes me sink to my knees. It is the unbearable pain that accompanies it. It feels like I'm torn apart limb from limb, painfully slow.

The pain-stricken scream that rips out of my chest echoes through the tunnels, announcing my presence to whoever is near enough to hear it. Which means everybody.

It takes seconds before I hear the sound of footsteps pounding the ground, just as I feel something sandpapery pass over the scrape on my back. The pain soothes almost immediately, and my shivering body curled up on the floor, slowly relaxing. In a few seconds, the pain dissipates, and once again I feel the same on my leg. The throbbing pain slowly becomes muted, and bearable until it disappears.

Someone shouts something at the mouth of the tunnel, and with great effort, I push off the ground. The Kormon nudges me with its snout to get up or move but I have little to no strength to move any faster than I already am.

" She is here. Let him know," One of them man say. Great, so much for my surprise party.

Receding steps ring in my ear just as a looming presence moves over me. I hear one of the men say something to the other one, but it sort of blends in with the sound of claws scraping on rock.

The Kormon lets out an ear-shattering screech followed by a deep, laboured huff and I take a deep breath and cover my mouth. A thick cloud of fumes engulfs me, followed by the sound of something hitting the ground, and the sickening sound of bones crunching. Yep, the usual choice for a meal, is human flesh. I guess that explains the walls.

When the cloud begins to thin, I open my eyes and find that the men are gone but more are coming. With my leg mended, I don't waste any more time, grab my bag and climb on the beast's tail, and onto his back.

His hulking body moves through the tunnels with surprising ease, while I keep my head down trying to avoid getting knocked out by an errant rock.

I don't know, why he decided to spare me but I'm grateful. More V'asay pour out of the tunnels, and I quickly gather that my brother is using them as cannon fodder. He only needs them to get rid of me.

My beastly friend expels more noxious fumes, while I hold my breath and cover my mouth until it passes. The Kormon lets out a screech, not as high pitched as the previous, but resembling a call. And shortly after the ground begins to tremble and shake. Feeding time.

He leaves the bodies on the floor and sniffs the ground choosing for me this time around.

Will he try to eat me when there will be no one else to eat? A problem for later.

He pushes through the tunnel just as a few more Kormons enter the cavern we just left behind. Horrified, and fascinated, I watch them in their feeding frenzy, throwing the bodies up in the air, and each grabbing the limbs and tearing them apart. The bloody spectacle, the gore is sickening but yet I can't stop watching until they fade out of my view.

And they keep coming, by tens, by dozens, and just as they come we leave behind the listless bodies while the horde follows behind us, feasting on them. 

A familiar glow shines at the end of the tunnel, I slip off the Kormon's back and under his belly. Not the safest place but it's safer than being on top.

I do, however, keep a hand on his leg to remain invisible to the naked eye. It doesn't matter, they know I'm here, but I'll take advantage of this little perk for as long as I can.