Eikasia: Tributaries by Montoya Illise

Author:Montoya, Illise [Montoya, Illise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pandamian Online
Published: 2014-11-26T16:00:00+00:00

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ELMIRYN________________________

In a flash of heat and scarlet, something smashed out of the canvas of black before her. It tore through like a parasite engorged on her misconceptions. She jerked her head to the side and backpedaled away. Her feet tripped on the uneven ground as a monster came sliming forth into the emerald light. Veins and angry dark flesh, riddled with cancerous tumors that pussed and bubbled, crept along the cavern floor. When the thing stopped a few yards from her, Elmiryn found herself staring at a thing that drew itself up nearly ten feet tall...and had no head or mouth to speak of.

Her head tilted to the side and she squinted at it, her previous frustration replaced simply by confusion. The thing reminded her of a slug, but she didn't believe it were a slug anymore than she believed it were Meznik. She wasn't sure...but was it posing itself in some semblance of haughty pride? Or was it simply trying to seem as intimidating as possible by pulling itself up to its full height?

From where she stood it reeked...it smelled like...

...Raw uncooked meat, cut from a diseased animal, left to rot in the hot summer sun. Her mouth watered.

Elmiryn decided she was hungry.

So it was startling to hear the giggle of a stream in her ear. There were little whispers within the noise that begged and asked for clarification on mysteries she knew nothing about. She began to shake her head with a frown as she looked around her. Where was that noise coming from–?

The melancholy sweep of water on land. The sound came much like the other, but this echoed and reverberated within her bones. For a brief moment she thought she were drowning...only to realize that this was the pain and torment of the raw meat before her.

"My gods..." Elmiryn rose to her feet, a surprised grin spreading across her face. "You...you're not uncooked meat! You're the river guardian!" She went to clap a hand to her head when she realized the one she lifted up was the injured one. Her cerulean eyes fell to it, and the grin vanished. The blood flowed thicker. It came down her forearm to drip at her elbow, where she saw her life splatter onto the ground like sloshed drink.

She looked slowly up again. "I don't suppose you know what's going on?" Furtively, the warrior allowed her eyes to leave the creature before her to search for her missing glove and bracer. She spotted them a few feet away, the discarded bandages next to them. Tentatively she took a step in that direction.

The moment her foot touched the ground, there was a sharp screech, and she jumped back with a wince. The guardian's body, grotesque and amorphous, rippled violently. Limbs branched out from its upper body, like plants, and curved upwards. It seemed to suck in its trunk, letting its base slither and root themselves into the floor in thick tentacles. Elmiryn stared. "A tree?"

In her ear, she heard the splash of water and startled bubbles.

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