Body Without Organs

I will be in a pure white room. There will be nothing of note in it but a round table with cards spread out and a chandelier in the shape of a crescent moon. There will be a raven at the table. I will blink, and the raven will be me, the other me.

I will become accustomed to dreams as theatre. But perhaps I will not be fully aware of what the dreams mean or how terrifying they will be. The other me will offer to sit, and I will do so.

There will be six cards face down and one face up, a crescent moon. She will shuffle the extra card with the other six cards and then instruct.

Ward!

I will draw a card, though I will not remember which one it was. She will scream

Ortseam! Ortseam! Ortseam!

The hallowing will make my skin crawl. The card will burn.

Eybdoog.

~

Then I stirred awake.

──✩₊⁺⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧──

A few hours had passed. Could it be described as night if you slept? I don’t know. I looked around, and everyone else was awake but Lady Scarlet, who was still fast asleep and Buddy, who was cuddled up with her.

“How did you sleep kid?” Mr. Ren asked.

I didn’t say anything and instead decided to go up to him and get a hug. I wanted to feel his warmth because I knew it would melt the feelings of unease the dream had stirred.

“Bad dream huh? Well, you can relax because Lady Scarlet and I will protect you.”

“I’ll protect you too.” Mr. Jason added.

“In that state?”

“Oi, I managed to survive until now. I’m a veteran of the Chaos Lands. You’re still a novice.” Mr. Jason and Mr. Ren continued to banter. Their bickering made me laugh. Although I didn’t realise it, I felt better because of this mild distraction. Perhaps that was their intention in the first place.

A short time later, Lady Scarlet awoke, and Mr. Ren hunted a small rabbit-like creature with two long tongues and horns like a goat. I used the book to identify it as a Dulkat. Apparently, the meat of the Dulkat was sweeter than other meats. Most importantly, it was non-toxic. When we ate it, it was very tasty. It made me drool.

As we ate, a light fog rolled in. Abnormal weather events were normal in the Chaos Lands, so we didn’t give it much thought.

“What’s the plan for today?” Mr. Ren asked as hit tore into the thigh of the Dulkat.

“Well that depends. Jason, which areas have you explored so far?” Lady Scarlet asked.

“It’s hard to say. We seemed to wander in loops.” He responded.

“Then let me ask you this: Where haven’t you been?”

He stopped to think for a moment. “This is the first time I have seen such a large body of water, and we haven’t been to that mountain range yet.” He noted, pointing to a jiggered cliff face in the distance.

To call it a cliff face seemed accurate as a large humanoid face seemed chiselled in the side of it. Though it was getting hard to make out as the fog was growing.

I hadn’t noticed it the other day while checking the area. Perhaps the Chaos Lands had shifted and changed since last time. It seemed like that was a feature of the land.

“Then perhaps our goal for the day should be to venture to the base of that cliff then.”

The fog had gotten thicker, and the body of water had also shifted to a dark monotone grey. It was eerie, but most things were in the Chaos Lands—perhaps most things were back on the other side of the rift as well.

“Alright, shall we head off then?” Lady Scarlet asked the group. We were about to respond when there was a rumbling. Suddenly, several large green tendrils exploded out of the ground. Each of these tendrils had thousands of thorns and mouths with large teeth on them.

What’s going on? I looked at my book to try and identify the creature. Mr. Ren, Lady Scarlet and Mr. Jason all pulled out their swords. Some more rumbling occurred, and the creature's full body emerged from the ground. It looked sort of like a plant, but it had a large round body and a single large eye that seemed to move all around its body.

“Quick kid, Mrs. Dinklebottom, take cover,” Mr. Ren shouted.

“That’s a Galac. Its spikes are extremely poisonous. If they graze you, you will go mad and have an extremely painful death. We lost plenty of folk to Galacs already.”

Mr. Jason had already identified the creature. Perhaps I could have helped him with that if I hadn't been so useless. I scooped up Buddy and looked around to find a spot where I could get out of the others' way.

“Child, come with me over here.” Mrs. Dinklebottom waved towards her, she was standing a short distance away under the eerie black trees. “The tree roots are so strong the Galac won’t be able to reach us here.”

I began to run over to Mrs Dinklebottom when I heard a scream. I turned around to see that Lady Scarlet had fallen over, the Galac's eye focused on her, and several of its vines were closing in on her. My heart began to pound. I was scared, scared of what was about to happen to Lady Scarlet.

The next chain of events is hard to explain. The creature stopped immediately in its tracks and then fell apart as if it were sliced in two. The eye itself was completely cut in half. Something seemed to attack it, something from the direction of the water.

Fog had really set in by this point, and I could make out what appeared to be singing. A dimly lit silhouette appeared on the body of water. It was a small rowboat with a lone figure on it. Despite the vessel being a rowboat, the figure wasn’t rowing, only singing a haunting melody.

As it approached, I saw that the singer appeared to be a skeleton wearing an over-the-top red outfit, a top hat, and a cane that doubled as a sword. The same sword that slew the giant Galac. As the wooden boat washed closer to the shore, the fog seemed to part around the being.

“The Journeyman travels across the land.” The skeletal being sang.

──✩₊⁺⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧──

End Chapter 17