Into The Deep Pt I

The day they first appeared, the ancient sky had been pregnant with rain. Civilization was young back then. Most of the great cities had yet to be built, and the realm still felt wild along its edges. Sol recalled hearing the isolated lamentations of the songstresses drifting between thunderclaps, and he recalled the way something unseen had pulled his insides against themselves as they all sat in the grove, unaware of what was coming.

None knew where they had originated or why they had been unleashed. All they knew was that the clouds had bellowed, guttural and animalistic. Fronts rolled faster than they should have. Something dove from the stormy heavens, and it pulled smoke in its trail as it descended to the sound of chants and static discharges.

Then the fires began.

They were solitary, self-indulgent spirits. Hoarders and destroyers who hid in the mountains until their desires overwhelmed them to enter the world. Most were hunted down through the ages, reducing them to myths that few would see in their lifetimes. Yet as Sol fell through the darkness, he knew beyond a doubt that this was such a beast, or at least what was left of one.

A dragon.

Its soul stone was empty; undetectable to his eyes. No remnants of the spirit realm existed in its body, telling him it was already technically dead. Whatever was flailing after them was something that remained.

His hands pulled together, cupping against themselves to shield the two little ones as he braced for impact. Before he could decide if it would be better to land on his back or side, his spine struck a smooth jutting of stone, and he no longer needed to debate.

He screamed out as his massive body snapped the stone away from its wall, and they fell once more. Black burned along the edges of his sight as he gasped for air, but no air could be drawn in fast enough.

The creature’s manic eyes reflected the glow of his own as it cackled and tumbled over itself.

Sol did his best to look away from its gaze while still keeping it in his focus. To see a dragon’s flame was to fall into its trance and walk towards one’s fiery doom. That was what she had done. It was said that the fire showed one their heart’s greatest longing, and only by looking away could the spell be broken. So Sol turned his permanently open eyes downward just in time to see the black water below.

“Hold on!” he shouted as he braced for the hardness of the still water.

It greeted him with malice, breaking his fall with instant resistance from its placid top. The back of his head struck first, and everything ripped into whiteness before several of his teeth chipped against one another. Consciousness flickered. His fingers slacked. They screamed as they sank below the surface, into the stagnant filth.

“Burden, cover your nose! Don’t let the water get inside you!!” Wretch ordered as they disappeared into the muck.

He heard their panic, and he wanted to move, but his body ignored the order. It was cold. Stabbing and wicked. Thick and infected with disease. But it didn’t smell like water. It didn’t taste like water. Hints of tainted metal slid along his tongue, and he realized the coloring was deep, deep red. Almost black.

Wretch had realized it as well, and was doing her best not to scream out in abject terror as the disgusting fluid consumed them.

Dragons drank the crimson lifeforce like the little ones drank water. She’d heard stories of how they would slaughter entire cities just to create reservoirs of red.

Blood turned black when it met the air. It congealed when it sat. It smothered light and life. And now it was drowning them.

Thuds from her racing heart threatened to break her ribs as she felt them sinking deeper. Burden was choking. Small kicks told Wretch that her little sister was involuntarily trying to swim, but they were still trapped in the sinking titan’s hands. This couldn’t be how it ended.

There was a gulping slap above them, and the red began to churn.

The dragon had jumped in after them.

Claws longer than their bodies swiped blindly, churning the filth as the beast’s hysterical laughing wheezes choked against the thickness. Still, it descended. Wretch could feel its swipes gaining strength as it got closer.

She was losing consciousness. It was too much. Weakness in her grip told her that her sister was as well. Her only option was to scream.

She braced for the disgusting invasion and opened her mouth.

Muffled, bubbling desperation sang out as she shouted his name as loud as she could. Death’s stagnant viscosity coated her throat, and she gagged, then viscerally vomited out into muck, feeling it float around her head, warm and new.

He heard her. Deep in the darkness, he heard and knew her. More than that, he heard her fear. Something was wrong. He was floating. Sinking. But he wasn’t. They were being hunted. He was there but he wasn’t. He had to wake up. Wake up. WakeUp. WAKEUP. Wake up!

His back touched the lakebed, causing clarity to return to him. They had sunk far. The little ones were now bobbing weightless in his hand.

“Oh no.”

White turned to vermillion in a flash, then was gone.

“Little ones! Breathe out! Exhale now!” Sol shouted.

Gurgling commands managed to reach their tiny ears, and he felt the faintest of bubbles blow against his fingers.

Just then, the specter appeared above him, smiling wide with hunger. Sol looked away just as its gaping grin opened, but he had seen enough.

The smile was the first horror of it- spanning too wide for its bent skull that held it, fangs shattered and yellow and set to angles that served no natural purpose. Rows of them fanned outward and curved upward into a chomping expression of idiotic delight that seemed locked in perpetual ecstasy.

Still, he settled his feet on the bedding of damp clay and rushed towards it, aiming for the surface. Without time to react within the heavy, ropelike pool, the beast instead received the full impact of Sol’s skull into its own as he stood to his full height.

Crunches snapped, and he tasted metal, but he knew from the yelp that the dragon had suffered worse. When his body reached its full extension, he lifted his arm and hurled his hand through the surface, sending the little ones into the breathable air.

Wretch and Burden felt the cold breeze greet them just as life threatened to fade. Ravenous lungs inhaled immediately, drinking in as much breath as possible between the gags and cries as they clawed to one another.

Something akin to relief flooded Wretch’s veins and she feared it. Instinct locked her delirious hand onto her crown’s tension gear, twisting too swiftly and sending the spike deep into her skull. She cried out but didn’t stop crawling to her sister, who was spasming as she spat up the dark red between sobs.

“I don’t want this. I don’t want this anymore,” Burden wept.

Seeing that her sister was more broken than relieved, Wretch paused the torture and dared to touch her small chest in a simple act of softness.

“I know. I know. It will be over soon, I promise,” Wretch offered weakly.

Their platform lurched and swung wildly, interrupting their quiet and almost throwing them back into the water.

In the darkness, the dragon was coiling around Sol’s chest, tightening like a vice to shatter his bones. Up above, Wretch watched the strangely glowing water churn and bubble from their violence. It was frothing and curdling in the commotion. Beside her, his large fingers locked in pain, and she wondered what was happening down there where she could not see.

Sol howled as the tension threatened to snap his spine. His free hand clawed for something to grab onto, sliding along the dragon’s slick back until it found a worthless wing. As his own hand tightened, he felt thousands of small fingers and mouths biting at its side from along the dragon’s belly. Force surged through his arm, briefly glowing stale white. It was enough.

Bone and ligament crushed within his grip and the dragon roared in agony as he ripped its wing from its fleshly mount. When its tension on his ribs slacked, he threw his legs forward, pushing both of them into the shallower point of the lake and allowing his head to finally breach the surface.

Wretch watched in awe as the two massive beings broke through the ink, raging and roaring as they hurled ropes of fetid fluid across the ravine. Seeing them burst upwards, glowing, drenched red and screaming, felt like seeing the womb of the world spitting out some undesired bastards born of foul deeds. Grace and dignity were abandoned in that festering pit, and she watched as the two titans shoved and bit and clawed and screamed. Still, he held them as steady as he could, angling them from the carnage as he pushed to the water’s edge.

His arm slapped heavy onto land and he stole a glance to confirm he’d reached the water’s end.

“Jump! Run, little ones!” he commanded.

Wretch grabbed Burden, who grabbed her staff, and they awkwardly rolled from his palm and down onto the hard clay as Sol did his best to pull the beast away from them. But there was no mercy to be found on the dry land.