378. Storm, 5

(Rose)

We managed to escape the beast, if there was any.

We couldn't escape the bad weather however.

We had decided to head East, to follow the coastline toward Crimea.

We went as far as we could with our new ship, packing everything we could carry on there.

The clouds from the north caught us faster than we had expected, and we decided to stop around a ghost city partially collapsed into high cliffs over the sea.

We painfully pulled the ship inside a warehouse to shelter it from the rapidly growing downpour.

It was exhausting and difficult. We managed to do it and just lied there in a damp office for two entire days, with constant rain and thunder raging outside.

It was a really long and strong storm. I rarely saw such things last even for a day, let along two.

We really were tired, but we managed.

I even managed to hunt down a few rats for our next dinner. It's far from being the best meat, but it's food.

Bleue found a giant mushroom in a cave. It was spongy and tasteless but not bad. We only cut a few slices of it as if it was a giant loaf of bread.

We burnt old papers and furniture inside the building to keep us warm. Not much else happened and another day went by like that.

Behind the constant downpour, nothing appeared abruptly to tear us to shreds or devour us.

I looked over the distance and rain on the outskirts of the city very often, still worried. But I never saw any dark shape ever appearing into the skies.

~

We explored the city a little while waiting for the rain to end, allowing us to fly back to the power plant of our friends.

The radio they gave us doesn't work. We're too far away.

I hope they're okay. They probably are.

In a park of the city, we found trees eating glass from the surrounding buildings, and using it in a crystalline form to grow iridescent leaves.

That park is a feast for the eyes, even under the rain and cloud blanket.

The end is becoming softer and more scarce. The greyish cloud ceiling is getting lighter now.

We survived the storm. And the floods that took over many roads and streets over the area.

We saw in another building what looked like a rope of fur. It was actually the extensively long tail of a squirrel, whom fled rapidly after spotting us.

Another morning, I left Bleue to sleep.

I drank a bowl of a soup of rats and turnips, and left.

The sky was almost clear now.

And nothing ominous was flying in the horizon. Ana was somewhere else, hunting her breakfast over the city that is teeming with rats. She'll come back when she's full, or in a day or two if she ventures further.

She did flew beyond the storm on the first day. She had enough of the rain. Humidity makes her skin itchy and she hates it.

I ventured back toward the park of iridescent trees. It's a jungle because they threw threads like roots or filaments all over the square, above the streets to feed on the glass and windows of the surrounding buildings. It's eerie.

I'm walking calmly through that prismatic place.

I pluck a few more sprouts and roots, along my way. They go into my bag where I gather materials for lunch.

I venture over a crossroad into another empty street now dirty from the floods of muds.

I hear a tree falling.

I turn around and meet it as it comes at me. I didn't hear it.

I couldn't sense anything getting so close to me. All of my senses just failed me there, and before I can react it's barely ten metres left away from me.

A beast I don't recognise from anywhere.

It's a colossal mass of muscles with colourless skin tightening them.

I've never seen anything like that. It's mammal looking, but not quite humanoid, nor quite like any animal I could relate to.

Ape maybe. Gorilla?

It's at least as big, but coloured like the earth and muds around, with very clear muscle masses sculptured around the arms, legs and body.

The skin is patterned like scales, especially around the torso.

The beast that stands there, frozen as I am, doesn't seem to be looking at me. It's faceless. The head protrudes into an ashen and black flat or uneven surface with just the hole of a ruptured throat visible. Some teeth randomly protrude around and I can see pieces of skull exposed around that shredded neck.

The throat of this faceless, almost headless creature, can still talk to my surprise.

P - Licht...

I drip a cold sweat, as I steadily reach my sword. I'm not blinking anymore.

The beast makes another step toward me.

P - You won't escape me.

R - ...

It is blind. It thinks I'm Licht.

That's very powerful information found there. But right on the spur of the moment, I don't know what to do with it.

I see first that the massive beast, with real weight and not just the shape of a body, is threatening me.

It's a very primal fear that now inhabits me, before strategic thinking.

It's a new foe to me. I don't know what to expect or how to react. All I feel is my heart beating fast.

I should probably just go and use the toxic light.

Something inside of me keeps screaming that it's the worst thing I could do. That if I try that, I will be dead in the end.

How did that thing find me? It's blind. It has no nose... The lungs, the stomach? The slight hair over the skin?

Before I can think further, it strikes down where I just stood.

I barely avoid the paw and claws that rupture the stones of the street under its strength and weight.

I'm stepping back quietly. It strikes the air above my head, and groans in discontent.

It is blind, really blind.

I remove my shoes and throw them away. It turns its vacant head toward them for a second.

It doesn't see me right in front of it.

It only senses where my general presence is. I think I can work with that.

Barefoot, quieter as much as I can, I run away.

But it quickly realises it and begins running after me on all four limbs like an ox.

It's faster than me. I jump on the side and let it crash into the park. A basement collapses under its weight and it falls inside.

It won't hold it for very long.

I'm scared. That one is focused. And my light...

I'm afraid that if I start using that light against it, I will lose. My intuition is screaming that at me.

Without better thoughts for now, I run away as fast as I can.

~

I'm going through buildings that beast crashes into like a mad beast. It's much more powerful and heavy than a horse. Concrete walls don't stop it for long.

I don't want to use the toxic light... It's terrifying and painful and dangerous... I want to avoid it but I'm growing gradually scared and hopeless.

I can barely escape that monster that repeatedly yells the name of Licht with a tortured voice.

I reach the field at the edge of the city, and the cliff to the sea behind.

The cliff. A blind beast.

I have one chance.

I can make it. And then we'll fly away as fast as we can.

I spot Bleue in the distance as I'm running for my life.

I pray she doesn't make a sound.

The beast is charging after me as we head to the cliff.

I'm running and slipping into the streams of mud near the end of the landscape.

Bleue yells, and my heart aches.

The beast stops abruptly, and rolls over itself, before turning its empty face in her direction.

I stepped in while it thought about it, distracted.

I trust my sword deep into its heavy arm, scratching the bone inside.

It yells and jumps back toward me.

I'm thrown down and slide toward the edge. I'm falling.

I crash a few metres below before I could react in any way or realise where I had been thrown.

The beast following its own movement also fell down the cliff.

It's hurt as well.

Blood clogs my sight. I'm terrified as I realise my consciousness is rapidly fading away.

What I see is the wide grasps of the beast still against the cliff, and beginning to climbing it.

~