Re: QUIETUS [S!5] [Round 1: Godsworn Valley]
01-11-2013, 05:17 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by XX.
“Forward forward forward FORWARD forward,” it hissed to her. Invisible teeth chattered in her ear. “Forward.”
The sun was blinding- irony, she thought- as she edged out of the cave with her forearm held above her like a shield. She’d felt as though she’d been underground for days. The air outside was thin and cold and she felt her sun fluctuate in the changing atmosphere. She was so tired. A creeping ache had started in her back and legs from being tossed around like a ragdoll and her legs still tingled when she walked. Halfheartedly she wondered if it was possible for a star to burn out early as Sonora sang.
“Take the cave. Carelessness will kill- kill- kill.”
She paused. The voice sounded… off. Echoing and hollow, as if through a barrier. Familiar.
“Who was that?” she said, refusing to look at the thing directly. Bad enough that it was following her. “That thing you just said?”
“We are not the first, first, coming. Follow you! Iiiiiii will lead, ready to fire! Coming out. Un-i-d-en-t-i-f-i-ed. Ra-chel Wy-lite. Dentified, identified.”
She winced at her name.
“…Sonora. Tell me who it is.”
“Dead of winter! Swear it gets so cold your bones’ll freeze. Huddle close, now- huddle close, that’s it, she won’t- icicles. If the frost sets in before the harvest we’ll lose the crop. Cold now. Cold. Cold. Hold me, please.”
She narrowed her eyes. A cat mewed and something cold pushed at her ankles, turning her clockwise. She gritted her teeth and followed, staring down at the base of the mountain. Something was moving-
There. A rough pack of blue blurs was ascending the slope with determined speed, emerging through the sparse trees on a collision course for the cave. The leader was a huge tank-like thing that moved with an insectoid precision that made her sun flicker, followed by a few bulky shapes that could have been humans. And… someone was sitting on the metal monstrosity. She squinted. A girl in a silly hat.
“Who are they?” she murmured.
A few gentle chimes like champagne glasses brought together were its only answer.
Rachel inhaled and let her breath out slowly, weighing her options. The group had already spotted her, already knew her damn name, if that’s what Sonora had indicated. There was no point in running, not when her only option for escape lay behind her in the cave where Obscura was surely waiting and nursing a grudge the size of a continent. Briefly she entertained the option of asking Sonora for help; the idea left her in a shudder of disgust before it could even come to completion.
“Hail. Metal-bound.”
The voice boomed up the mountain, quaking through the ground under her feet. She took an involuntary step back at its sheer volume, raising her arms; she could flare again if she needed to, but the tank-thing was only growing larger as she watched and seeming like more and more of an unavoidable problem. It towered over its companions by twice their height, bearing the girl on its shoulders might as if she were made of paper. Cold, glittering eyes bore into her. A giant metal insect.
“Rachel-Wylite,” Arokht rumbled. His heavy steps cleared the distance between them with uncomfortable swiftness. His head swiveled to the cave, then back to her. “I am Arokht, of the Iceworld. These humans are the Frostsworn and Anila-Vakmero. I have-”
“Hi! Hi, lady!” the girl interrupted. She waved ferociously from atop the behemoth, nearly unsettling her hat. “We’re friends! We’re gonna be! Don’t be scared of Frosty. He’s just bluffing.”
“Rachel-Wylite,” boomed the colossus over her, “Where is the entity that was here before?”
Silence. The hairs on the back of Rachel’s neck tingled and she glanced behind her. The cave was empty, strewn with dead leaves and the shells of long-dead beetles. The ground at her feet was dry. Where the hell did you go? “It left,” she said curtly. She forced herself to stare into the iceworlder’s glowering eyes. “Believe me, it’s better this way.”
“Unacceptable.” A cannon she could have crawled into was suddenly leveled at her face, a dull blue light glowing in its depths. Rachel bared her teeth. “You know where it has gone. This information is critical to the success of our mission. I will not allow any discrepancies.”
“You get the hell away from me, you fucking machine,” she spat, letting some of her radiance pierce through her chassis. She felt a fierce surge of pride at seeing the iceworlder take pause, its eyes flickering. “I’ve had enough of people trying to scare me today. Sonora’s gone and I’m just perfectly fine with that, got it?”
Something flickered at the edge of her vision, a tiny smudge of darkness on the ground.
“Frosty! Be nice!” the girl in the wizard hat scolded. She tapped the alien’s head with a hollow sound. “He didn’t mean it, he really didn’t. You know how men are!”
“Sonora,” Arokht persisted. “Can it be reasoned with? What are its weaknesses?”
“Lullabies and dirty limericks.”
The iceworlder paused doubtfully. The soldiers behind him glanced at each other. “Dirty…?”
“Yeah, you know. If you whistle one it’ll come right back out and bake you a fucking cake in a French maid outfit with tassels. What else would it do?”
“You are mocking me,” the alien said. It sounded more surprised than angry. As it spoke the ground behind it began to shift, ever so slightly. The rearmost soldier adjusted his stance. “I will not negotiate-”
“I know some limericks!” Anila squealed happily, clapping her hands. She tilted her head exaggeratedly to the side, pressing a finger into her cheek and humming badly out of tune. “How about… how about the one that goes… There once was a man from Nantucket, who had… Oh, I don’t think I can finish that! Hee hee, I’ve got to know at least one good one!”
The ground shifted. The soldier had just enough time to look down before a pair of jaws closed silently around him and vanished into the earth.
“This is irrelevant,” the iceworlder insisted. Even if you are not attempting to trick me-”
“Bra-ave boys in the empty coats of men…”
The voice floated up from nowhere. Rachel was half-surprised to see the party jump with the exception of the alien and the manic girl. The latter merely looked around excitedly while Arokht continued to stare at Rachel, cannon thrumming at his side. She returned his gaze with a glare of her own. She’d been harassed by enough monsters today.
“What was that?” he asked her. His hollow voice had dropped a ground-shaking note.
“What the hell do you think it is?”
“Hibernus!” The gasmasked soldiers sprang into formation, huddling with their backs to each other. Pale glittering guns appeared in their hands. “Where-”
“I don’t understand the rules of this game,” sighed the ground. Rachel felt it wind and shift underneath her, but she kept staring at Arokht as though she didn’t feel the twinge of revulsion that came at seeing the monster’s sinuous black hide rise up from the soil and coil loosely around her legs. The rest of its bulk was still underground- she could feel it in the tremors- but enough of the water rose up to form a swaying serpent that laughed and screamed at Arokht and the soldiers, splitting horizontally into a dripping tangle of a mouth.
“Sonora,” Arokht boomed. “I am willing to ignore your hostility so long as you indicate yourself to be in line with our goals. I ask that you return your hostage.” Despite his words the iceworlder had slipped into a battle stance, massive legs meticulously balancing on the trembling earth. “In return, I will… forgive your initial response.”
“Welcome home, welcome hoooome,” the water trilled, and spat a cluster of white pebbles at the iceworlder’s feet. “There she is. What a goddamn beautiful animal. Let’s get a closer look, shall we?”
It only took Rachel a moment to see that the pebbles were a set of human teeth, all 32 in perfect, spotless condition. Sonora laughed and laughed and laughed.
“Forward forward forward FORWARD forward,” it hissed to her. Invisible teeth chattered in her ear. “Forward.”
The sun was blinding- irony, she thought- as she edged out of the cave with her forearm held above her like a shield. She’d felt as though she’d been underground for days. The air outside was thin and cold and she felt her sun fluctuate in the changing atmosphere. She was so tired. A creeping ache had started in her back and legs from being tossed around like a ragdoll and her legs still tingled when she walked. Halfheartedly she wondered if it was possible for a star to burn out early as Sonora sang.
“Take the cave. Carelessness will kill- kill- kill.”
She paused. The voice sounded… off. Echoing and hollow, as if through a barrier. Familiar.
“Who was that?” she said, refusing to look at the thing directly. Bad enough that it was following her. “That thing you just said?”
“We are not the first, first, coming. Follow you! Iiiiiii will lead, ready to fire! Coming out. Un-i-d-en-t-i-f-i-ed. Ra-chel Wy-lite. Dentified, identified.”
She winced at her name.
“…Sonora. Tell me who it is.”
“Dead of winter! Swear it gets so cold your bones’ll freeze. Huddle close, now- huddle close, that’s it, she won’t- icicles. If the frost sets in before the harvest we’ll lose the crop. Cold now. Cold. Cold. Hold me, please.”
She narrowed her eyes. A cat mewed and something cold pushed at her ankles, turning her clockwise. She gritted her teeth and followed, staring down at the base of the mountain. Something was moving-
There. A rough pack of blue blurs was ascending the slope with determined speed, emerging through the sparse trees on a collision course for the cave. The leader was a huge tank-like thing that moved with an insectoid precision that made her sun flicker, followed by a few bulky shapes that could have been humans. And… someone was sitting on the metal monstrosity. She squinted. A girl in a silly hat.
“Who are they?” she murmured.
A few gentle chimes like champagne glasses brought together were its only answer.
Rachel inhaled and let her breath out slowly, weighing her options. The group had already spotted her, already knew her damn name, if that’s what Sonora had indicated. There was no point in running, not when her only option for escape lay behind her in the cave where Obscura was surely waiting and nursing a grudge the size of a continent. Briefly she entertained the option of asking Sonora for help; the idea left her in a shudder of disgust before it could even come to completion.
“Hail. Metal-bound.”
The voice boomed up the mountain, quaking through the ground under her feet. She took an involuntary step back at its sheer volume, raising her arms; she could flare again if she needed to, but the tank-thing was only growing larger as she watched and seeming like more and more of an unavoidable problem. It towered over its companions by twice their height, bearing the girl on its shoulders might as if she were made of paper. Cold, glittering eyes bore into her. A giant metal insect.
“Rachel-Wylite,” Arokht rumbled. His heavy steps cleared the distance between them with uncomfortable swiftness. His head swiveled to the cave, then back to her. “I am Arokht, of the Iceworld. These humans are the Frostsworn and Anila-Vakmero. I have-”
“Hi! Hi, lady!” the girl interrupted. She waved ferociously from atop the behemoth, nearly unsettling her hat. “We’re friends! We’re gonna be! Don’t be scared of Frosty. He’s just bluffing.”
“Rachel-Wylite,” boomed the colossus over her, “Where is the entity that was here before?”
Silence. The hairs on the back of Rachel’s neck tingled and she glanced behind her. The cave was empty, strewn with dead leaves and the shells of long-dead beetles. The ground at her feet was dry. Where the hell did you go? “It left,” she said curtly. She forced herself to stare into the iceworlder’s glowering eyes. “Believe me, it’s better this way.”
“Unacceptable.” A cannon she could have crawled into was suddenly leveled at her face, a dull blue light glowing in its depths. Rachel bared her teeth. “You know where it has gone. This information is critical to the success of our mission. I will not allow any discrepancies.”
“You get the hell away from me, you fucking machine,” she spat, letting some of her radiance pierce through her chassis. She felt a fierce surge of pride at seeing the iceworlder take pause, its eyes flickering. “I’ve had enough of people trying to scare me today. Sonora’s gone and I’m just perfectly fine with that, got it?”
Something flickered at the edge of her vision, a tiny smudge of darkness on the ground.
“Frosty! Be nice!” the girl in the wizard hat scolded. She tapped the alien’s head with a hollow sound. “He didn’t mean it, he really didn’t. You know how men are!”
“Sonora,” Arokht persisted. “Can it be reasoned with? What are its weaknesses?”
“Lullabies and dirty limericks.”
The iceworlder paused doubtfully. The soldiers behind him glanced at each other. “Dirty…?”
“Yeah, you know. If you whistle one it’ll come right back out and bake you a fucking cake in a French maid outfit with tassels. What else would it do?”
“You are mocking me,” the alien said. It sounded more surprised than angry. As it spoke the ground behind it began to shift, ever so slightly. The rearmost soldier adjusted his stance. “I will not negotiate-”
“I know some limericks!” Anila squealed happily, clapping her hands. She tilted her head exaggeratedly to the side, pressing a finger into her cheek and humming badly out of tune. “How about… how about the one that goes… There once was a man from Nantucket, who had… Oh, I don’t think I can finish that! Hee hee, I’ve got to know at least one good one!”
The ground shifted. The soldier had just enough time to look down before a pair of jaws closed silently around him and vanished into the earth.
“This is irrelevant,” the iceworlder insisted. Even if you are not attempting to trick me-”
“Bra-ave boys in the empty coats of men…”
The voice floated up from nowhere. Rachel was half-surprised to see the party jump with the exception of the alien and the manic girl. The latter merely looked around excitedly while Arokht continued to stare at Rachel, cannon thrumming at his side. She returned his gaze with a glare of her own. She’d been harassed by enough monsters today.
“What was that?” he asked her. His hollow voice had dropped a ground-shaking note.
“What the hell do you think it is?”
“Hibernus!” The gasmasked soldiers sprang into formation, huddling with their backs to each other. Pale glittering guns appeared in their hands. “Where-”
“I don’t understand the rules of this game,” sighed the ground. Rachel felt it wind and shift underneath her, but she kept staring at Arokht as though she didn’t feel the twinge of revulsion that came at seeing the monster’s sinuous black hide rise up from the soil and coil loosely around her legs. The rest of its bulk was still underground- she could feel it in the tremors- but enough of the water rose up to form a swaying serpent that laughed and screamed at Arokht and the soldiers, splitting horizontally into a dripping tangle of a mouth.
“Sonora,” Arokht boomed. “I am willing to ignore your hostility so long as you indicate yourself to be in line with our goals. I ask that you return your hostage.” Despite his words the iceworlder had slipped into a battle stance, massive legs meticulously balancing on the trembling earth. “In return, I will… forgive your initial response.”
“Welcome home, welcome hoooome,” the water trilled, and spat a cluster of white pebbles at the iceworlder’s feet. “There she is. What a goddamn beautiful animal. Let’s get a closer look, shall we?”
It only took Rachel a moment to see that the pebbles were a set of human teeth, all 32 in perfect, spotless condition. Sonora laughed and laughed and laughed.