Xolotl

The Xolotl was a thing of nightmares.

It possessed the shape of a dog. Quadrupedal, with a sleek muzzle and sharp swiveling ears. But that was where the similarities ended. The Xolotl resembled a creature that had been skinned - taut black flesh, more sinew and muscle than true skin, twisted around it’s body. Each of its four limbs was elongated unnaturally, bone and flesh distended into humanoid clawed fingers.

And it possessed no eyes that could be seen. Where the eyes of a normal dog might be there were only empty sockets. Only deep pits in a skull-like head, vacant and dead. But when the light hit it, something glimmered within the empty sockets like the eyes of spiders illuminated at night.

Sthuna felt no regret for hunting this creature. It looked unnatural. The old world had revered Xolotl as sacred beasts. But he saw nothing sacred. Only the monstrous.

The Xolotl did not strike again. The first bolt had hit above the surface of the water. Others flickered behind it, great tongues that lit up the flooded hall. But the Xolotl merely stood, vacant skull of a face gleaming down from behind rippling waters.

Combat like this was less than ideal. He was compromised underwater, against a storm bringer, with his human Keeper a noose around his neck. He shot through the waters as fast as his Keeper would allow. Aarik’s hands sank into his scales, as if to tear into them.

He ignored it.

Tail slicing through the waters, he made it to the other side of the grand chamber. The drag was harsh and his lungs burned. He was acutely aware of the fact that at any point in time, the creature could retaliate. The first strikes of lightning were warnings.

Sthuna thrust his Keeper at a spinal staircase. His movements were urgent and lacked respect for protocol. No time for that. They broke the surface. This section of the great hall was dark and shattered, crumbling into a deeper abyss down below. The spinal staircase ascended into an unknown floor.

Aarik gasped, sputtering and choking out water. And then choking out curses. Dark words, raging and frothing as surely as the waters around them.

Aarik snarled. “You insufferable, damnable beast-”

Aarik grasped Sthuna roughly. His Keeper half dragged, half carried him out of the water and up the staircase. His tail tangled around sharp jutting bone platforms and creeping vines.

Out of the corner of his eye, there was a dark smear of black. Like thick blood smudged over smooth stones. The temperature around them dropped abruptly. Still and frigid air that made breaths catch like passing ghosts.

The Xolotl was at the bottom of the stairs.

It sat as if a spirit on the waters. A dead and expressionless head. Merely watching. Spider eyes in the darkness of the chamber. How calm the creature seemed. Almost impassive. A contrast to the breathless and snarling beings that pursued it.

It spoke.

A low voice. Monotone, yet halting in a rolling rumble, like the thunder that haunted it’s every step.

“L e a v e.”

Sthuna hissed. His spines rattled.

“L e a v e… N o w.”

Aarik’s voice was a raging thing in his ear. The pain of his Keeper’s strikes, when they came, were distant. Almost nonexistent as his world narrowed onto the Xolotl.

“Bloody well kill it! Isn’t that what you’re here for?! Can’t you do anything right!? If you were ignis, it would have been burned by now-”

The words became an indistinguishable roar. Like the thrum of blood in his ears. The pulse of all three hearts. They should have been retreating. They should have been regrouping. It was too dangerous to confront the creature here like this.

“This is why acere should be shaken as eggs-”

Sthuna lunged.

He sank his teeth deep into the creature, catching it on one of the elongated limbs. He poured all the acid he could muster into that bite, using it as if it were venom instead. The flesh was so taut upon the bones that he could not fully break it with his teeth. Blood like tar dripped upon his tongue, thick and cloying. The creature tasted of raw churned earth.

And yet.

The Xolotl did not retaliate.

It tilted its head. As if he had merely said something strange and not attacked it.

Sthuna growled, tail lashing as he bit down harder. His teeth found no purchase but the outer layer of skin. The wound he inflicted was so minor as to be dismissed. He froze, teeth still hooked into the Xolotl.

The Xolotl pivoted. The tip of a hard, cold snout pressed to Sthuna’s neck.

“. . . H u r t ?”

It didn’t seem to be indicating to itself. It sniffed curiously at wounds Aarik had inflicted on Sthuna’s neck. He felt a slight pinch at the back of his neck. He had but a moment to register what was happening before he was scruffed and lifted in the mouth of the Xolotl.

The creature was treating him as if he were a kitten and not a war wyrm.

Sthuna struggled as panic flooded his veins. He kicked out and clawed, writhing in the hold. The Xolotl, not bothered in the slightest, made a slow ascent. It leaped up the segments of the spinal staircase, passing cleanly over Aarik’s head. Aarik’s voice was guttural and enraged, disappearing down below as the Xolotl ascended. The unnaturally elongated claws clicked softly, the pace unhurried.

The Xolotl carried Sthuna into a room of cold stone. This chamber was far above ground, built away from the sharp spines and bones. It placed him carefully down on the ground, powerful jaws flexing as it released him.

Sthuna scrambled away immediately. His tail lashed, wings flaring menacingly, a low hiss in his throat. He was tense and stressed, an animal backed into a corner.

The Xolotl regarded him calmly.

Sthuna had been wrong. He wasn't going to be able to destroy this creature. This quarry was beyond him. He’d been a fool, thinking he could take down a Xolotl. The creature hadn’t even unleashed the strength he knew it truly held. The storms, the diseases, the raw power that swirled in that tar-like blood.

But more disturbing than that was the fact that it did not retaliate. Not even once.

Sthuna had contended with many creatures in his lifetime. But never one that didn’t respond to his provocations with aggression, in turn.

Aarik had no such epiphany.

“Useless piece of filth-”

He heard his Keeper before he saw him. The man ascended behind them, face red and contorted with rage. Clumps of hair like damp straw fell over his brow, his muscles strained not from exertion but the force of his anger.

He had withdrawn his weapon, a long ornate silver spear, carved with the sigil of his family crest. A two headed eagle with burning eyes. Aarik leveled the spear tip at the Xolotl, who regarded him just as calmly as it had Sthuna.

Aarik stormed into the room. He descended on Sthuna, wrenching his mouth open. He forced the bleeding edge of his spear under the dragon’s tongue.

“Coat,” he growled, “Now.”

Years of training made the dragon's reaction instinctive. His acid pooled reflexively and coated Aarik’s blade. Aarik twisted it cruelly, cutting Sthuna’s tongue. When he withdrew the weapon, it dripped with dragon blood.

“Keeper,” Sthuna raised his voice in the beginnings of a protest. There was a note of near vulnerability in his voice, his confidence shaken. “We can’t confront this one.”

“Shut up,” Aarik spat, “You don’t know anything.”

“Keeper - Keeper, it isn’t retaliating. Or reacting.”

Aarik sneered. “Of course it isn’t. They never do. I need something to profane it with. Then it’ll die.”

Sthuna paused.

This was new information to him. The wheels slowly turned as he stared, shocked, at his Keeper. Aarik had withheld information about the hunt from him. And judging from the look in his eyes…

Permitting him to go on this hunt was a farce. 

It had to be. 

Aarik had never intended to let him go. He wanted to kill the Xolotl himself. He would get the glory, but Sthuna would not ascend or escape from his Keeper as a result.

“... Profane?”

It was all he could muster, a weak and shaky question.

Aarik barked a harsh laugh. “Yes, profane. These things are all ‘pure’. Need to dirty them up and they die. Eats away at them.”

He circled the Xolotl, eyes like chips of ice.