Introduction
This is a continuation of the Mortis Custos Part 29 by @lex-zaiya.
To start at the beginning of the story please see the links provided at the end of this post!
Viewer discretion is advised due to gory violence! Undead! Swords! Death! Beware!
Part 30
Magna dug furiously around in her bag, looking for the herbs and tinctures that would stem the blood flow.
Derric lay very still, his every move an agony, but he was still breathing. She finally found a small vial that would disinfect a wound and help with the clotting of blood.
She sat on her knees at the beast's back and began applying it over the several open wounds where the sharp stones had torn through the skin and not stayed put. She then turned towards the stones that were buried in Derric's flesh.
She noticed for the first time that there was an eerie quiet. She had not even taken the time to note their surroundings. She was kneeling on smooth black rock, stones and glass-like crystals were littered on the grounds around them.
We are not in the swamp anymore.
She shook her head. There was no time. She had to focus on what she was doing or else Derric would die and all would be lost.
"Adiran?" She called while she worked. "Mortis? Are you there?"
Nobody answered her.
She pulled the first of the stones from Derric's back and the werebeast yelped and whimpered.
I hurt.
"I know and I am sorry." She said to him. "I need to take them out one at a time and then stop the bleeding." As she said this she placed tincture into the wound and the wound almost instantly started to mend. "Wow! This stuff works fast!"
Not medicine. She heard in her mind. Werebeast healing..... fast.
She nodded and pulled another stone from his flesh. Derric whimpered a little but seemed to sigh with relief as the wound was cleared and it began to close.
There were only a few more stones left and she heard a rumble. She looked up for a second and for the first time saw the sky. It was not dark, nor light, there were no clouds and yet the sky was devoid of stars and had a light purple colour. There was no sun in the sky, but she could see clear as day.
Magna could not yet see the source of the rumbling. The landscape was that of rolling hills with massive mountains lining the horizon. She looked behind her as well. All around her there were hills and mountains meeting a sky that was neither dark nor light. There was nothing in the sky except one blank colour.
"Where the hell are we?" She muttered to herself and looked back down at Derric's werebeast body when the massive canine creature whimpered again.
She pulled another stone out and watched the wound heal. When she reached for another crystal shard, it moved away from her and sank deeper into Derric's body. The wound closed around the crystal before she could make a decision to try to take it out.
There were only two more crystals left and within a blink of an eye, she saw them become swallowed up in the wolf's flesh and the wound heals over.
Magna stared at the freshly closed wounds where the glass-like stones had been.
Or had they been crystals? She shook her head. What's the difference?
She could not decide if she should leave it because it was healed or to try to cut it open and take them out. She put her head to the beast's side and listened. His breathing was normal again. If he was out of danger of dying and at least all of his blood stayed inside of him, surely that would be better than cutting him open?
There was a deep rumbling sound in the distance that distracted her line of thought. She looked up and shivered as the side of one of the hills shattered with a sound like the crack of lighting. Shards of glass stone showered the area, but none reached her. The sound the pieces made when striking the ground was like crystal rainfall.
Out of the hillside came a creature. She would have expected it to be a massive lumbering thing like Simmin. Or something like a Dreadthing, just much, much larger.
Instead, something flowed out of the hillside. Its mass was somewhat large at first but seemed to fold in on itself. At first, it seemed almost like a cloud, yet there were tendrils that flared and extended out. It was a tentacle, like some massive underwater creature... yet they were not underwater.
She looked around. There was no indication that this place had any moisture at all. No rivers, no sea, not even vegetation. She looked again at the massive form that seemed to be reduced in size now that it was flat on the ground.
The tendrils also all lay flat. It was a long distance away but it made her feel sick to look at it, the landscape where it had laid down was writhing and moving. She realized that the landscape was covered in its body. She shivered.
One of the tendrils reached up towards the dull purple sky. Even from this distance, she could see that it was covered in large bulbous eyes. These eyes were looking in all directions.
It seemed to be searching.
Does it know we are here? Was it looking for whoever made the sound? Where the hell are we? What about Adiran and Mortis? Are they here? Maybe Helga is with them too.
Derric whimpered in his sleep, fighting he woke up and tried to stand. She jumped at him and wrapped his muzzle in her forearms. "Shhhhh!" She whispered close to his ear. "There is something big over there. We must be quiet."
Something? A danger? I hurt, but I can still fight.
"No. No fighting." She whispered.
As she looked she had the sickening feeling that it was looking right at them. The distance was... strange. She could not make up her mind how large this thing was.
It looks small. Derric said and stood.
"It broke a hill open when it appeared." She hissed and dragged him down to sit.
The tentacle covered in eyes leaned towards her and Derric, then away to her right, then again to the center and leaned to her left. The eyes all seemed to close then and the tentacle drooped down and merged with the mass of slimy earth that seemed far away as well as close by.
A mass started to rise from that wet landscape. It looked as though it throbbed.
This does not look good.
"Let's move away. Its eyes are down."
What is it?
"Does it matter?" She pulled the wolf to a standing position and they edged their way to the back of the hill they were on.
What if there are more of them underground? Chills ran down her spine. She looked left and right. There were hills everywhere. Could there be more? Or could more of the same massive, slimy thing be everywhere?
She looked back at the bulbous mass that now rose from the creature's body. There were white balls all over it, they pulsed in a way that made Magna sick.
An explosion thundered through the still air.
Magna tried to make sense of what she was seeing. The bulbous mass was spraying the white balls through the air. Several were coming right at them.
Wrapup
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