311. Chaos, 6

(Rose)

We travel into the land now glazed with elfin dust and colours to our eyes.

And when we practice swordsmanship, we train softly. Building muscles seems wiser than hurting them.

We follow an ancient paved road, walking in the grass all over and around it. One arm raised, holding something heavy, and swapping regularly. Still seems unlikely that either of us will ever have the strength to carry Ana on a single arm. It's more a weight differential issue than mere strength at this point.

We see some kind of bird running away through the grass as we approach, instead of flying away.

Ana looked at them go, but she's not hungry and we didn't ask her to hunt, so she prefers to rub her neck against the top of my head. She's almost scratching her feathers and my hair off.

We pass other mountainous peaks. We see the black sea again in the distance.

I can't really see the marks of a being-like-her in the distance or ahead. Where could it be?

There is a vast city further west on the coast. We have a bad feeling about that one. I'm sure if we got closer we would actually see the toxic cloud around it, keeping humans away.

We head inland in a detour again.

We sometimes see silent and very slow bolts of lightning, jumping from ground to sky, and disappear as fading lights in the distance.

I can't tell if they are meteorological or somewhat living beings-like-her, but some things are still sparkling.

~

At nightfall we camped.

A few animals came around to enjoy the warmth of the fire despite the presence of us and Ana.

What is wrong with wildlife now? So many things gathered, it was a little freaky.

Rats without fur, frogs, a large snake with very spiky scales, and a miniature cow about the size of a cat. Not a veal, really a cow looking thing.

With the other gift of sight, they all looked like they were new species, in the modern meaning of the idea. Hybrids between old things and new ones from the other side.

Ana looked very closely at them. We all wonder why they aren't afraid of us, and why they came here to get warmer? It's not winter nor that cold yet. Maybe they fear something else more than us.

The snake raised its head at the height of Ana, to look right back at her. Ana might have felt threatened, because she began to look more menacing, puffing out her feathers, making herself look bigger.

The snake smelled the air with its cute tongue, and left her. It slithered away and disappeared into the night.

Given the amount, and behaviour, of the wildlife around here, there must be something unusual nearby.

Something possibly lying in the ruins of a city ahead.

B - Shouldn't we investigate?

R - Not this time... I have a bad feeling about this place.

B - Okay then. Good night.

Bleue curls herself against me to sleep. I pull the cover over us and we doze off.

~

We have unsettling dreams.

A monster eating corpses and some soon to be dead people.

A giant dark slug, crawling through the collapsing streets of a town, eating everything remotely alive that was left there, including wounded people unable to flee.

We woke up with the same kind of pictures lingering in mind. Something we don't want to face if we can avoid it.

We'll leave the crusade against monsters to Licht...

We prefer to follow the roads that head deeper into the woods and away from that city.

~

Ana catches Siamese-twin snakes for another meal. They are glued together in one longer tail like the letter Y.

The weather is nicely warm and the meal we're sharing is good.

We feel an icy cold wind slip around us as we're eating. A bad shiver. A concerning feeling.

We suddenly, all three of us as one, looked North.

We can't really see anything, but a fear is catching up on us. We all can feel it, even Ana.

Our lunch was abandoned on the spot, and we packed in an instinctive hurry. We left as soon as we could, sharing very few words.

We followed a road walking more rapidly than usual, feeling maybe righteously as if we were being pursued by something ominous.

Nervousness was steadily rising, as weather felt as if it got suddenly much colder.

We were about to begin running when we reached a short cliff. A dry but rather deep river bed before us, now a canyon.

The road stops along the ruins of a collapsed bridge.

As some kind of panic is getting the better of us, we don't think and act fast.

Something is right behind, and catching on us.

Bleue is covering herself hastily with the fly sap. I'm arming my hunting rifle, looking around nervously.

What is that thing creeping on us? Why does it echo so badly inside our heads and nerves?

Bleue grabs the rifle from me. It's my turn to coat myself with the sap. I finish our last bottle there.

I jump above the void and cliff with strength.

I'm slowly floating toward the other end. Ana grabbed Bleue by the shoulder pads, and carries her around as if she were a large prey to eat later. That sight actually makes me laugh, a little nervously, but still.

We've reached the other end of that ravine that is a pretty good natural obstacle for any pursuer imaginable.

Whatever is after us, it won't be able to follow easily.

And finally, we see it appear from the forests shades we've left behind. We see it stepping out of the woods, our predator.

It looks human.

But at least two metres tall. Heavy looking, wearing cloak and old rags. It has a different look to it, because it wears clothes like a human would, but...

B - Is it a human?

R - Hard to tell, but I don't think so.

It walks to the edge of the cliff, on the other side of the missing bridge where we stand.

It grins. We shiver.

We're about to resume fleeing, when Bleue holds my hand back, telling me to look.

The shape has pulled out a wide sword, and holds it above its head.

It throws it with inhuman strength, and we see with terror the weapon flying at us like an immense bullet.

We jump on the side behind a wall with metallic frame, that still holds pieces of the dead bridge.

The flying sword stabbed the ground like a javelin, a few metres ahead of us, further down the road we were planning to take to run away.

B - It wants us to wait...

R - Maybe. But I don't think it's something friendly...

It jumps over the missing bridge, like I did, but with all the normal weight it carries. Dusts are blown and rocks broken where it gave the impulse, and its flight is much faster.

It lands heavily, sending another shockwave of dust and dirt around.

It caught up with us...

What comes to meet us is to me the worst thing in existence in the world.

A human thing I could never have imagined.

~