A Flesh Golem's Ascension

by John Domus Cruo

  I informed her about the whole wendigo event and how Bob had requested to have a new body made for him.

  She shuddered and brought her hands to her face. After composing herself a bit she responded. "Poor Bob, and this whole time I haven't even noticed. I just thought he was hunting." Her eyes started to well up with tears. She closed her eyes for a moment then wiped them.

  "For Bob!" she said as she balled her little hand into a fist.

  "Yes, for Bob!" I replied with gusto. Oops. Yelling is the opposite of good hunting.

  I sat her down gently, allowing her to regain her footing on the uneven terrain. I gave her head a pat then kissed her on the forehead. Ah, there's that blush.

  "All right, my little amazon, you go and scout in the trees by the lake. Come and get me when you find something big enough, and I'll deal with it." I said as I stood up.

  She unfurled her wings and I got a glimpse of her nude form again. I could almost swear that she turned a darker red before hopping up and flying off toward the river.

  Huh, I guess she doesn't need to climb a tree first now — I did better than I expected.

  I heard some noise behind me and turned my head to see something resembling a large squirrel running down a tree. It was about ten feet away. I slowly crept toward it. It seemed to be busily eating a nut of some sort and didn't notice me. When I was about six feet away, it looked up at me. Time to try the wendigo's coercion. I felt energy flowing into my eyes. It stopped mid-chomp, its small mouth hanging open.

  "You, bring me the nut." I commanded.

  It just kept sitting there stupefied. Oh, yeah, woodland critters can't speak, so they probably can't understand, either. I mentally pictured it bringing the nut over to me. It started walking over with the nut in its hands. When it got close it offered it up to me. I took the nut and examined it. Hmm. It looked like a walnut mixed with an acorn, as it has a little cup on the top. I pulled off the little cup part and placed it on the squirrel's head.

  "All right, sergeant, you've been promoted. Now salute!" I said in a mock military voice.

  I pictured it saluting and the little critter did it. I laughed to myself for a while, but I had business with the sergeant here that needed attending to. I think we're supposed to be able to share information somehow.

  I mentally pictured a bear and tried to relay my need to find it. The sergeant tilted his head, knocking his little hat off, then sent me an image of something terrifying.

  It looked similar to a bear in size and shape, but its muzzle was pushed in close to its face. It had two curly tusks jutting from its lower jaw. It turned and I saw its profile. Its hind legs were powerful-looking, reverse-jointed things that I would imagine gave it the ability to leap. Yeah, bears were tame when compared to this thing. I could only imagine that if it stood up it would be nearly ten feet tall.

  I mentally pictured picking the hat up and putting it back on. The sergeant complied. I then thought, Where? The sergeant took off like a flash, holding his little hat in place while he ran. I followed him, running at a fair pace. It didn't take us long before the creek was in sight. We ran along its edges until he ducked back into the forest. I followed him, running through the forest for a while parallel to the shore but at a good distance.

  We finally seemed to reach our destination. It scurried up a tree. Oh no, I'm way too large for that. I used Life Sense and saw two massive blobs in the distance close to where the creek was. I mentally released the sergeant and made my way towards them, while trying to be as quiet as possible. I moved closer and caught a glimpse of them from behind a tree. They were indeed massive.

  They were sitting on a bank facing away from me, the larger one swatting at fish and the smaller watching.

  I thought about how best to tackle the situation. I reached to my back to grab my weapon. Oh yeah, I probably should have brought that. I facepalmed. The ears on the small one twitched and it turned its head in my direction. I held my breath and hoped it didn't notice me.

  After a few minutes, it lost interest and decided to try its luck at fish-swatting. I heard a rustling in the tree above me and saw Lina high up in the branches. Okay good, I think we have a chance here.

  I considered sneaking, but after the facepalm incident I was pretty sure it would hear me before I got close enough to do anything. I decided to walk out cautiously and gauge their reactions.

  I walked out from behind my tree and approached them slowly.

  The little one was the first to turn around, and the larger one followed suit. As the larger one saw me, it roared and moved in front of the smaller one. I took another step closer and it charged.

  Sure enough, those legs allowed them to jump. It was only a few feet away from me before I knew it. I used Dark Tendrils to slow it briefly before the tendrils strained and ripped apart. I used Weakness. It stopped momentarily and looked back at the smaller one before resuming its charge. It was snarling and moving too much to use Petrifying Gaze, so it came to a melee.

  It leaped again and was on me, knocking me to the ground. I was able to grab its throat with one hand and push it back. I punched its face and felt the bones crack as one of its tusks broke off in my knuckle. I maneuvered my arm to the soft part of its neck and shot my spike as its claws raked the side of my head. I felt its dead weight on me as it stopped moving.

  I quickly rolled it off and prepared to fight the smaller one. But instead I just saw Lina standing on its body, looking at me with an expression like, “What took you so long?” I mended my minor injuries.

  I used Soul Steal.

  I examined their souls to see what could be gained. They actually did have skills, fishing and foraging. I decided I could probably use those at some point and took them. The other soul had the same skills. I would give them to Lina, but I wanted her to stay alive, and I can only give them in soul form. I guessed I could give them to Bob, so I did.

  I started dragging the bigger one. I would have to come back later for the smaller one. I didn't feel comfortable leaving Leera alone with a goblin, and dragging two of them would slow me down considerably. I marked its location on my map.

  The trip back was uneventful for the most part. Lina killed something resembling a large fanged bobcat and was now dragging it behind her.

  As we entered the cave I was greeted by a strange sight. Leera had her arm around a sobbing goblin, rubbing his head and shushing him.

  I dropped the bear-thing and looked at her quizzically. She looked up at me and smiled as the small goblin continued blubbering with snot and tears streaming down its face.

  I looked at it for a while before it seemed to notice I was in the room. Its ear was no longer torn, and its shoulder was no longer bleeding.

  Its expression changed from one of sadness to one of worry as it went quiet.

  "Leera, a word please." I said as I walked toward the back of the cave.

  She gently released the goblin and started to walk toward me. The goblin's lips quivered and it looked like it was suppressing another crying fit. Its eyes met Lina's, however, and it went still.

  Lina just looked at it with a perplexed expression, but her muscles were tensed and it seemed like she would attack it if it moved again.

  Leera came over next to me and put her hand on my chest as she hugged me from the side.

  "Leera, what's going on with the goblin?" I asked in a hushed tone.

  "You know, goblins can't speak English. We could have talked about this right over there,” she joked.

  I slapped her ass and she yelped. "Smart-ass, answer the question." I said.

  She rubbed her butt and gave me a brief smile before her eyes turned sad as she spoke. "You know how we're made of goblins, right? Well, I think this is their son. He came this way while looking for his parents."

  Wow, that hit me like a rock. I hadn't felt guilty even once since coming to this world, but now I felt like a murderer. No, I wasn't in the wrong here. They were trying to kill me. Wait, how did she even communicate wi
th him? Oh right, she was mentally half-goblin.

  All right, I'll see if I can't go and at least talk to him. Maybe I can give him some comfort. But first I'm pretty sure Lina deserves to know this as well.

  I gestured her over. Lina came running with a clack-clack noise. When she reached me, I brought her up to speed. Her face turned sour, then gradually softened into an expression of contemplation. I gave her a pat on the head, which seemed to make her feel better.

  I walked over to the goblin youth and knelt down. I threw his stone knife across the room and began unmelding his skin with Fleshcrafting. He winced as I worked. Apparently this was not a pleasant process for him.

  He drew his knees up to his chin and stared at me with fear in his eyes.

  I sat cross-legged in front of him and spoke in the simple goblin language. "Why you shooting Lina?" I gestured my hand toward her.

  He looked over and replied, "I not know! I thought was weird bird. Might taste good."

  I sighed, and some fog came out as I did so. The goblin seemed to recoil slightly. My fog didn't really have any effect, though I suppose I could infuse it with Weakness if I wanted to.

  I recounted the story about what happened to his parents and pointed out Lina and Leera to show what they had been reincarnated into. The goblin seemed to have a hard time understanding it.

  I walked over and picked up what was left of the skinned gopher. I Fleshcrafted a tiny hairless bear, no bigger than a fingertip. It was like the ones I was used to, not those huge ones that live here, though without fur it was still ugly.

  I opened the soul panel and dragged the monstrous bear soul over it.

  The goblin looked on in shock as the tiny bear ran around my hand. I poked it with a finger and it started swiping at it. I handed it to him.

  "Here, pet for you." I said as he nervously took it from me before setting it softly on the ground and watching in wonder as it ran away.

  I pointed to the monstrous bear that I had dragged in and told him this little one was the same one.

  Some of it seemed to click as he looked at Leera again.

  Leera came over and sat next to me. She tucked her multi-colored hair behind her left ear and began speaking goblin. She explained that she thought she was probably his mother, and she's very happy now, so everything's okay.

  Lina came over and sat on my other side. I could see that she was still taken aback a bit by all this. She also spoke in goblin. She explained that she didn't remember her old life, but from her brief time as a soul she could tell that she was very unhappy with herself and never felt right. She talked a lot about how glad she is now to be what she is, and how happy I make her.

  The goblin stared at the floor for awhile. His lip quivered and he looked from Leera to Lina as he began to cry again.

  We gave him some time as he sat there quietly sobbing.

  He looked as if he was still trying to make sense of all this new information. He looked up at me as his tears stopped, and I gave him a pat on the head.

  He no longer had a look of fear in his eyes. He now wore a look of reverence. He seemed awestruck.

  He began speaking after a long silence. "You be one of gods?"

  I put my hand up to my chin and thought. How do I answer this? To really explain what I am would be a long conversation, much of which I didn’t think he would understand. It is true that I am partially a god, so let's just go with yes.

  "I god. You call me John." I replied simply.

  The goblin's mouth dropped open. He seemed to be in a panic. He quickly got to his knees and bowed his head to the floor.

  Leera looked at me with more shock than the goblin had. Lina had a beaming smile and muttered something about bringing a god's child into the world.

  I clarified to the two of them in English that I was only partially a god and we would talk about who and what I was later.

  With some effort I raised the goblin youth up. He wouldn't meet my gaze. What to do here? Okay, why not give him a parting gift and send him on his way? But what, the rest of the skinned gopher? No, that's a shitty gift. I just told him I'm a god that wouldn't seem like a gift from a god. I need something that only I can do, something fun and somewhat flashy.

  "You's hold arm up, like this." I said as I raised my arm straight.

  The goblin raised his arm.

  "Okay, Leera, he's going to need some of your fog for this as it seems like it might be painful for him."

  Leera moved over beside the goblin and started producing fog. I got up and grabbed a bone from Ye Olde Bone Pile and sat back down by the goblin's outstretched arm.

  Let’s just make this a quick and nasty version. I shaped it into a spike and minimally reinforced the tip. I pulled and stretched ligaments from the gopher body and went to work giving him his very own bone spike. Whenever his face would contort in pain, Leera would breath more fog and he would relax.

  I made him the version like Lina's that always had the tip sticking out, so he wouldn't bleed every time he used it.

  I sat back and looked at my work. You could clearly see it sticking up on the thin goblin arm, but it more or less looked natural.

  The goblin held his arm up and looked at it. I raised mine and shot my spike. Lina followed suit, then even Leera got in the spirit by doing the same thing. The goblin, going with the flow, flexed his arm and his spike popped out. He looked like a kid on Christmas.

  He started to chuckle and we followed suit, shooting our spikes and retracting them. Bob had been the first person to let me know how fun this was.

  "You need go home now." I said bringing an end to our fun.

  The goblin had a slightly sad look until he looked back down at his arm again, his eyes sparkling.

  "I go now. Need go home before too dark. Danger in dark. I tell others of God John. You's gobs god now." He bowed once more before walking over to his stone knife and picking it up.

  I walked him to the entrance. It was starting to get dark out. I told him to be careful, and he was gone into the bushes in the blink of an eye.

  Wait, did he say I was his god? Oh no, I'm not sure I want that. Oh, well, it might be fun to have worshipers, I suppose. That is as long as they don't offer me any pies.

  I walked back towards Leera and Lina while pulling my pants off. The conversation that we just had with the young goblin was heavy, and I could see it affected both of them.

  I was sure that the long story about myself and what I was would be equally sad and full of questions, so for now I decided it was better to take everyone's mind off of it all for a while.

  We mated until it was late into the night. I made sure to spend an equal amount of time on both of my little ladies, ensuring that they were thoroughly satisfied.

  Lina slept on my chest while Leera lay to my side with her leg over my waist. Pervy Guy rested, spent, in the crook of her knee.

  From what our goblin guest said about it being dangerous outside after dark, I decided it was best to go get the small monstrous bear before something made a meal out of it. It also seemed like a good opportunity to perhaps find some additional predators and get some better parts.

  I slowly moved Leera's leg down and off me. Pervy Guy reacted to the smooth skin as it slid down it. Leera murmured something quietly in her sleep but didn't stir. I moved Leera's arm off me, softly rolling her onto her back as I carefully took my arm from under her head.

  Now for Lina. I slid her over, trying not to move her wing at an unnatural angle, and placed her on Leera's abdomen. Lina groaned in protest but seemed to settle back down after moving up and snuggling her face between Leera's breasts. Leera naturally moved her arms down to hold Lina, and they both drifted back to sleep.

  I looked down at the two of them. I felt a warm feeling wash over me. I had to fight the urge to lay back down and cuddle the hell out of them. When I get back I'm going to take my time and dote on each of them, spoiling them as much as possible.

  I put my pants back on and this time I made sure to
remember my weapon. I felt its weight once more in my hands as I slung it onto my back and fastened the bone snaps to hold it in place.

  I exited the cave and the familiar urge to go northeast returned, however now there was an additional feeling coming from the goblin camp. Huh, this was strange. The one from the goblin camp wasn't pulling me. It was just announcing that it was there.

  "Mors, do you know what this compulsion to go northeast is?" I mentally asked.

  "No, Master, I'm afraid I can't feel anything," she replied, sounding disappointed.

  "It's okay, Mors, I still love ya."

  She smiled and disappeared.

  After I get the small bear back here I might just have to go and investigate it. But I think it would be safer to take Bob along with me. If I've learned anything since I've been here, it's that this place is unforgiving to those who take it lightly.

  I debated activating Life Sense. Although it would show me lifeforms that were around me, it would also make my eyes glow. Glowing eyes aren't that bad in the daylight, but at night they would be a beacon giving away my position.

  Let's test out the wendigo's sense of smell. I inhaled deeply. I could smell dead things clearly for miles around. Might I add that the cave had a particularly strong smell. Huh, I guess that since I had been in there for so long I had kind of gotten used to it. I hoped it was the same for Leera and Lina as well. We all had the same ghoul-wendigo stomach now, so to be honest it smelled a little appetizing.

  I continued inhaling. I could smell several small dead things in the area, but the next largest source was coming from the same direction that I was compelled to go in. I also got a bit from the direction of the goblin village, but it didn't smell as good.

  A thought occurred to me: Was this what drew the wendigo here, and was this what kept animals from entering my cave? Also, why were goblin corpses not as appealing? Was that what kept them alive out here, just tasting bad? Wow, that was the worst survival trait I could think of. It was just sad; I felt bad for the goblins now.

  Leera smelled okay, and I had tasted her several times now, and she was mainly made from goblins. I remembered back to Blend and how it makes my creations genetically viable throughout to allow for the addition of otherwise incompatible organs and limbs. I guessed with all the parts and modifications I had made when creating and recreating her body, she now was something entirely different from a goblin on a genetic level. She was closer to whatever I was when I was in living form.