“Trig!” I hissed. “Get up!”
“I’m up, I’m up,” he mumbled, climbing out of bed and staggering towards me. Both daggers were out and at the ready, and he quickly was rousing from his sleep state.
“Do you see that?” I asked, pointing towards the lights.
“I do…” Trig replied, squinting. “First time we’ve seen anything but shadow and trees out here.”
“What do you think? A village? A monster?” I asked. The light could be some kind of trap, maybe the eyes of a monster, glowing to lure in desperate folks who were lost in these woods.
“Only one way to find out,” Trig said. “Shooting at it might not be the best idea, in case it’s people. Remember that boot print we found?” He turned to look at me with curious but concerned eyes. “It’s your call, boss.”
“So now I’m your boss, not your friend?” I asked.
“Hey, you’re my friend when it comes to me ignoring your orders and my boss when it comes to me passing the buck,” he said. “Is that so hard to follow?”
Little Hig nodded in agreement to this statement. I sighed and looked back out at the red lights. They were faint, semi-circles that seemed to stack atop one another. At this distance, those lights could be anything. Torches, monster eyes, glowstones. Who knew?
“It’s our first sign of something of note,” I said. “We can’t pass it up. But I’m not going in exposed.” I uncorked my flask of a freshly brewed Ironskin potion. It smelled like lavender and cinnamon, two ingredients that were not part of the brew whatsoever. Thanks to my second sip ability, I took a swig and handed the rest to Trig. Two people for the price of one potion. How very useful.
Immediately, my skin toughened, growing hard and rigid. Another layer of protection in addition to my armor. If these lights were a lure, the beast trying to trap us would have a hell of a time trying to crack me open.
We trudged forward, weapons at the ready and torches carried high. Little Hig seemed to sense some kind of trouble and nestled back into Trig’s hair, burying itself and only popping its head up occasionally to check the world out.
The lights seemed to be in a fixed position, never changing as we approached. They were much further than either of us had calculated, for the size of the lights only grew slightly as we walked for an hour. An especially eerie silence had fallen around us. It was hard to describe, for the forest had been quiet before, but now, it was almost like…something was blocking sound.
“You okay?” I asked. There was no purpose in asking other than to test whether or not this part of the forest was indeed supernaturally silenced. My words had a strange dullness to them and were certainly softer than I had intended. Trig mumbled something back, but I couldn’t quite hear him. I could hear the words, but making them out was rather difficult.
I turned to face him. “I can’t hear you,” I said.
“I said, I’m fine,” he replied, straining to speak louder. He frowned and put his hand on his throat. “Why is it so hard to talk?” he whispered, though his mouth seemed to move as if he were shouting.
I shrugged and merely motioned towards the lights. They must be causing this. Or perhaps the monster controlling these lights also had an effect on sound. We continued moving closer and closer, minding the area around us.
Finally, my Tremorsense kicked in as we neared the red circles. I could sense movement within the circle areas, shifting back and forth, like something moving around, yet stationary. In fact, there were many vibrations in that exact area, all tightly bound together. All moving, yet stationary at the same time.
A shiver ran down my spine as more circles became visible. Some were deep yellow, while others were orange or red. They were growing higher and higher above us, piled on top of each other, like bubbles on water. In fact…my eyes widened as we stopped a mere thirty feet away, the flames of our torches illuminating the area. They were bubbles! Large, black bubble-like sacs that glowed and pulsed. Thousands upon thousands of these sacs were stacked atop each other, clustered together like grapes. But rather than hanging from a vine, they were wrapped around one immense tree.
“What the hell…” Trig muttered, his voice stifled and struggling to get sound out. The dampening effect seemed strongest here. As if something was trying to prevent all sound from escaping the area.
“They’re eggs…” I whispered. “Giant eggs.”
As if to confirm my words, one of the large sacs began to pulse and throb violently. The stirring motion within was indeed a life form of some kind. This egg, which had an orange semi-circle in the center of it, began to break open as something forced its way out. The sounds were muted and hard to make out, but both of our eyes went wide at the sight. A full sized Fitzon came wriggling out of the egg, its body wet and glistening with amniotic fluid.
This was no mere infant! It was a full-fledged adult and seemed to focus immediately towards something in the darkness. We readied our weapons, but the creature rushed off, leaving us alone to contemplate what we had witnessed.
“So that’s how Fitzons reproduce,” Trig said, looking up at the great tree. Thousands of eggs were all writhing and pulsing. “Crazy how many grow at once.”
“I…I don’t think these are just Fitzons,” I replied as a particularly large egg caught my attention. Within I could see the vague form of a L’Gara, twisting and turning in its embryotic state. This wasn’t a Fitzon nest, it was a…a hatchery.
Chapter 16
“Let go!” Trig grumbled as I dragged him back to our camp, following the faint flicker of flame in the distance. Sound was slowly returning to the area and I could hear his protests much more clearly.
“Sorry,” I said, “but we had to get out of there right away. Did you see what I saw?”
“Eggs?” he asked. “Fitzon eggs?”
“No, not Fitzon eggs. Monster eggs. I saw a L’Gara being formed in one,” I stammered, trying to get my bearings. Excitement and horror were overwhelming me at once as I continued to pull my companion towards the flames.
“For real? That’s awesome! Let’s go back there and start smashing,” Trig said. “Oh man, we’re going to get so many Bloodpoints this way.”
“You don’t understand. It’s a hatchery of some kind. It has to be,” I said, slowing down as we reached the fires of the camp. “And that means something is tending to it. Those eggs couldn’t just have appeared out of thin air.”
Trig rubbed his chin. “So you think this is a sign of something intelligent? Like what, some kind of caretaker for the monsters?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but we can’t start causing trouble just yet,” I said. I let out a shaky laugh. “Trig, I think we found something huge. Something bigger than we could have possibly imagined.”
“I think you’re reading too much into it. Chances are, the monsters spawn in pods and maybe they all come from the same uh…whatever makes monsters. Spore? Seed? And it could be just random what kind of monster comes out. You know how a mom doesn’t know if she’s having a boy or a girl? Maybe a mom monster doesn’t know if it’s having a Kinru or a Titan.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” I asked.
Trig put both hands up in the air. Little Hig sat up in the young man’s hair and did the exact same gesture. “I’ve got no clue, but we can’t just make wild leaps to conclusions just yet. We’ve never seen monsters reproduce. So maybe they lay eggs in the dark jungle and then move on. Or, it could be possible something is breeding them. But let me remind you of something real quick. We’re Venators, not scientists. Our job isn’t to analyze breeding habits. Our job is to kill those bastards before they can kill our own people. So I say we go back there and start squashing those eggs before they can hatch more horrors.”
He had a good point. There were a lot of unknown variables here. But would attacking the eggs cause them to hatch early? That Fitzon had popped out fully grown and seemed to have no trouble moving. If we started breaking eggs, a s
mall army might emerge to kill us.
“How big of an explosion can you make with those grenades?” I asked. “If we’re going to go the destruction route, we have to be fast and efficient. I have breach arrows that can help blast the area, but there were thousands of eggs in that cluster.”
“An explosive that big would take a lot of resources we don’t quite have at the moment,” Trig replied. Something caught his eye and he glanced behind me. “Maybe we should ask them?”
I turned around to see a small group of humans standing near the fire pit. They were regular people, just like Trig and I, though they were so pale their skin looked almost pink. One man was standing at the forefront, wearing heavy metal armor and a helmet that covered the entirety of his head, except for his mouth. What was curious about this man’s armor was that the neck joints connecting to the helmet had keyholes in them, indicating the helmet was locked in place. What a strange feature.
Behind the armored man were a few shorter men and women, armed with torches of their own, though the torches glowed with a green pallor. They looked surprised to see us, almost as surprised as we were to see them.
“We’re friendly,” I said, taking a step forward, raising my hands to show they were empty.
“Forget about friendly,” the armored man demanded. “How are you two still alive?”
“We make it a habit of killing monsters,” Trig growled. “And anything else that tries to take us down.” Little Hig growled as well, making sounds for the very first time. Either the monkey didn’t care for these people or he was just picking up on his master’s own energies.
“Easy,” I whispered. “No need to escalate things.”
“Something’s off here,” Trig replied, his eyes narrow. “I got a really funny feeling here.”
I shrugged at that and spoke up to the strangers who watched us from a distance. “We are outsiders who hunt monsters. Our business has taken us into the Shadewood.”
The armored man slowly nodded. “The fog fears you. The orange flame you bear keeps it at bay. But…you reveal yourselves with such a power. The green fire we hold protects us from the darkness, yet it cannot be seen by the beast that lurks in the shadows.”
“What beast?” I asked. I still could not sense anything in particular lurking about. Only the occasional movements of some foul creature in the distance. But even those monsters seemed wary about attacking us right now.
“That which lurks in the shadow. Which consumes those without fire or light,” the armored man said. “We dare not name it, for fear of calling it forth.” He raised his green torch. “You would do well to come with us to our village. We shall teach you the secrets to making the green flame and in return, you shall aid us with a most troublesome creature. One that threatens our very existence.”
I felt a surge of relief run through me. A village? Green fire that hid us from the shadow beast? This was music to my ears. If anything, being in the company of people who knew what was going on would reassure us. Perhaps we could even learn what they knew about that hatchery of sorts.
Trig put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t think I’m a naysayer for no reason,” he hissed. “But something tells me there’s more to these people than meets the eye. I got a bad feeling and trust me, I know trouble when I see it.”
I frowned and looked at my comrade, nodding. I trusted his instincts and his judgment. But at the same time, we couldn’t just let this opportunity pass us by. “Stay on your guard then. If they try anything, consider your weapons free.”
“I’d rather we not go at all. I mean come on, why would total strangers offer us shelter? Generosity is not a trait of a survivor,” he argued.
“No, but desperation is,” I replied. “And unfortunately, we’re not in a position to be choosy with who our company is. We have too many questions and nothing close to an answer. So…either you come with me or you hang back and scout things out on your own.”
“The fire’s going to ruin any of my stealth abilities,” he grumbled. “We stay together at all times, okay? I don’t want either of us to be alone with these people.”
Chapter 17
Eckshaw—the armored man—led me and Trig through the dark forest, speaking very rarely. His companions scattered ahead of us, into the darkness to ready the village for our arrival. Their green torches did glow, but were hard to see in the dark past a certain point. Certainly a useful item for stealth.
The village wasn’t terribly far from our own camp site, perhaps a mile or so at the most. Distances were really the first casualty upon entering this forest, but we were working out a simple measuring system. I had taken a particularly long stick and thrust it through my belt, so that it would drag across the ground as we walked. This let me keep track of our movements, while also allowing us to continue concealing our footprints. A drag on the ground was hard to spot unless you were looking for it.
Great braziers made of stone lined up the edge of the village, green flames rising up from them, illuminating the entire area in a pale green glow. From twenty feet out, we couldn’t see them, but once within the radius of the light itself, the flames were instantly visible, as well as the rest of the village. It was like a form of invisibility, in a way. One moment the village was hidden, the next it was visible, plain as day.
“Wow,” Trig said as he came into range. He had taken to follow us a few feet behind, to make sure no one tried to get the jump on us. It didn’t matter that we both had extrasensory perception abilities, his paranoia had grown quite strong. Then again, paranoia was justifiable in these kinds of situations.
The village was constructed out of wood, with leaves lining up the roofs. These leaves were black and gnarled, ugly and twisted, pasted together in all directions to give each home its privacy. The huts themselves looked well crafted, professionally designed and relatively spacious. Each hut had several windows, a chimney and two doors, one in the front and one in the back. Inside of each home I could see people eating and talking, sleeping or doing chores. No one seemed to care about us, the two strangers entering their village.
This nonchalance at visitors was alarming. Everywhere I had been, villages were usually freaked out to find other survivors. They were worried, excited or worse, looking for an opportunity to take from another tribe. But here, our presence was business as usual. And that did not feel right to me. How could these people be so calm at strangers visiting in a dark place, where a shadow creature consumed those without light instantly? There was no possible way visitors were commonplace.
I decided to test Eckshaw, to see what I could glean from his words. “You have visitors often?” I asked.
He shook his head as he led us towards the largest hut in the center of the village. This hut was surrounded by braziers, the flames dancing in all directions, casting an eternal green light across the walls. “Just the hunters that come in from time to time. They arrive, offer some kind of service in exchange for lodging and then vanish without a trace.”
“How many come by?” I continued as we stopped in front of the great brass door of the central hut. While this building was indeed made out of wood and adorned with black leaves, the door was made from the same material as the braziers. How very curious.
“A few, here and there. We don’t bother tracking time in this realm,” Eckshaw replied. “We sleep when we tire, we eat when we hunger. Time more or less is of no consequence here. So who can say when they came and when they left?”
An odd line. They didn’t track time? That made no sense. Even underground, where we lived in perpetual darkness, we found a way to track the passage of time. How would they get anything done otherwise? Or even know who the elders were? I didn’t buy it. But I held my tongue, knowing that it wasn’t worth getting into an argument right now.
“Here is where the Eldest lives,” Eckshaw mumbled, placing an armored hand against the brass doorknocker. It was a round handle, though the metal seemed quite banged up, having seen much be
tter days in the past. “I cannot enter, for I am one of the shamed armorbearers. You two may speak to her alone. She has been expecting you.”
I glanced at Trig who shot me a worried look. Entering alone was a bit worrisome but at the same time, we were both superhuman Venators. What could these people possibly do to us? With a shrug, I motioned for him to follow as the door slowly creaked open, inviting us inside.
The green lights from the outside seemed to seep through the matted leaf ceiling, creating little pockets of light in the otherwise pitch black room. The large hut had nothing within it, no shelves, no bookcases nor office furniture. There were no walls to separate rooms. Nothing but darkness and a few patches of green light here and there. Nothing except for the Eldest.
She was sitting in the shadows, her body avoiding all light within the area. The darkness seemed to cling to her, creating only a mere silhouette of a massive woman. She was fat and tall, far taller than a human should be.
“Welcome, hunters,” the woman said, her speech slow and ponderous, as if speaking each word was a struggle. They did not flow out eloquently. “I have been waiting for you for some time.” The words were strangely disconnected from one another, as if she had no understanding of grammar or speech patterns. The delivery was mechanical. Inhuman.
At once, I raised my bow and Trig his blades. The enormous woman in the shadows emitted a raspy chuckle and began to move forward, towards us. A skittering accompanied her sluggish movements as she lurched forward into the green light. The skittering of a thousand tiny little insect legs, moving across the ground.
The pale green hue illuminated this creature. I will say ‘creature’ because it was clear that though her body looked to be human, she was clearly not. Her skin was stretched and strained, in the shape of a human head and body, but missing the features that made a person…well, a person. She had eyes but no pupils, a mouth but no teeth and dark green hair that spiraled all over her shoulders, twisted in impossible ways.
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