The smokes rolled up his clothes, his old, ribbed chest, and upto his mouth. He held it open. The smoke, as if like a living creature, entered his nose and mouth. His body jerked and twitched. I was getting cautious, but he gestured with his hand, telling me not to interfere.
We waited for a moment, and soon the smokes receded from Shaman, and mostly concentrated over the shiny pot on the other side of the pond. It was in a thick mist, confined to an area, with a few tufts and wisps going up, into the tunnel on the ceiling. The water of the pond was already disturbed due to Lud flinging his arms at times, but now there was something happening in the reflection of the hole in the ceiling, though we could not see what. Lud was looking at it intently, and apprehensively.
We could see shapes in the smoke, things that we could not fully ascertain what it was. Faint sounds were also there, but the language was unknown. Shaman seemed to have recovered a bit.
“What is happening?” I whispered to Shaman.
“The ancients are speaking!”Shaman said, closing his eyes, as his lips were trembling. “They are speaking across the Old Water!”
“What are they saying?”
“You and Lud had made a grave mistake! What you had encountered in that accursed cave of that forbidden mountain was not to be trifled with.”
“If we knew we would not have trifled with it at all!”I said.”In fact I would be more than happy to not trifle with any of these things! I would much rather go back to the days when Lud and I were hunting together or picking berries. I promise we would never go back to that cave ever in our lives if he gets back to normal. Can they make him back the way he was?”
“You do not understand!” Shaman cried out, keeping his eyes closed. ” It is not just about healing him anymore!”
“But that is what we have come here for!”I cried out.
“Yes, but now far greater danger is ahead of us! ” Shaman said.“What you had encountered in the cave was a great horror that had come from the stars, and it was not awake when you and Lud had encountered it. Now it is awakening and it must be stopped.”
“It was sleeping?”I frowned.”I can definitely say it was moving and try to drag Lud back.”
“It is far more intelligent and powerful than a mindless beast when it is awake.”Shaman said as his voice cracked, and acquired an odd tone.”If it was awake, you would never have been able to make it back. It is one of the dark gods, one of the few things that could match the power of the ancients. It had wrecked great havoc during their time. In the end of the war, ancients had put it to a deathless sleep and kept it inside the cave.”
“Why did not they just kill it?”I looked at the ominous shape in the smokes, that looked like a being taking up form. It was not human. I did not care. It was very irresponsible of them to not kill it.”They should have just killed it.” I turned towards it and spoke.
“Great horrors of the old water can not be killed, you imbecile mortal!”Shaman spoke, and his voice distorted further. He spoke with his mouth open, without moving his tongue, and his words seemed to be coming from within his stomach. ”They have many bodies in many worlds. If one of them is destroyed in a world, it can come back with another if it wants. Putting it to sleep stops it from doing that, as eventually it becomes almost unaware of such worlds. Now be silent and listen. If the horror in the cave awakens, it would spell disaster for this world.”
“What happened to you, shaman?” Fihy asked.
“I am fine, fine..”Shaman’s voice normalized a bit, as he closed his mouth and breathed.
However, I was doubtful about it.
“Why it is waking up? We have come from the cave since a long time.” I enquired. The smoky shape slowly solidified a bit more, and came closer to Lud.”And what does it have to do with making Lud better?”
“It is because what you had done at the cave.”Shaman said.”If it was not for you, the thing would still be sleeping indefinitely, disconnected and unaware of our world.”
“I just brought Lud back from the cave.” I said.”We came out as fast as possible, and it has been many days since. Why is it waking up even now?”
“You did not bring only Lud with you.”Shaman said gravely, opening his eyes. I saw that only the white was visible.
“What? I brought nothing else.”
“The great horror had already started to assimilate Lud when you tore him off from it.”Shaman said.”Part of Lud was fused to the entity, and part of that great horror had fused with him. When you brought Lud back, you brought a part of it with him. It is still alive within him. It is connected to him and the horror in the cave, and whatever Lud can see and hear, it can know them too. Through this, the great horror in the cave is becoming more and more aware of our world, where its body has been sleeping, and it is waking up. With its return, things that were banished by the ancients to beyond the veil are also returning.”
I looked at Lud. His eyes, open and glowing, his mouth open, but making odd sounds without any movement.
He seemed to be floating in the pond without any movement, as the smoky form of the strange being slowly came closer to him. His body jerked once as its wispy tendrils touched his body. Lud seemed to stare here and there in desperation, as his throat bulged up. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as he was wincing at times, trying hard to breath.
“What is going to happen to him now?” I asked. “What is happening to him? Is this curing him?”
“We did well to bring him here.” Shaman said.”The great ancients have been merciful and decided to help us. They will remove the part of the great horror from him, and severe the connection. With that, the great horror shall become unaware of this world once more and sleep.”
“Will it cure him?”
Shaman stayed silent.
“Why do not you answer? It will cure him, would not it?”
“After the removal, if he is still alive, he will have to be left here.”Shaman said.”It is for the common good. I am telling you so that you do not act like a stupid and make the same mistake again. ”
“What? Why?”I shrieked.
“His mind has been tainted by the great horror. He has known the forbidden thoughts of the great horror, and the ancients can not allow someone like that in the world of ours. It would be a terrible sacrifice for us, but it is for the best for the tribe, and the world we live in. ”
“We can not accept it! We came all the way here to treat him! Not to leave him here!” I shouted out.
“We can not leave Lud here!”Fihy cried.
“We do not have a say in it. ”Shaman said, his voice again distorted to obtain a non human tone. “I am telling you so that you do not cause any disturbance in the delicate ritual. Do you understand?”
I said nothing, and turned to the pond, grabbing tightly onto my spear.
The scars on Lud’s back pulsated and glowed, and from his mouth something seemed to come out. His body went into a seizure. He was now floating in the air above the pond.
“We really have to leave him here?”Fihy was tearful. We have grown up together!
I hugged her.”We must do what must be done.”I muttered to her.” And we have no way but to obey the ancients now. Let us see if they can remove the evil from him.”
The smoke figure slowly floated near Lud, and the wispy tendrils danced around him. A black spider like thing slowly crawled out of his mouth, along with some black liquid. It seemed to thrash helplessly in the smoke, but it was carried upwards, into the hole in the ceiling.
Lud’s eye slowly dimmed. His arms, that were twitching and thrashing slowly went limp. His mouth closed up.
“Lud!”
He did not respond for a moment, but then his eyes opened.
“Huj! Fihy!” He looked at us and talked.”Shaman! Where am I?” He said.
“You are alive! You are back!”We cried in joy.
“Yes, get me down!”He cried out.”What is happening?”
The smoky figure came close to him, and again shr
ouded him with the wispy tendrils.
“What is happening?”Lud cried out. His limbs thrashed in the air.”It hurts! Help!”
I went a step towards him, instinctively.
“Do not approach him!”Shaman roared in non human voice, coming from his stomach, as his eyes went up, revealing the white.”His mind is tainted! He must remain here.”
“Huj! Help me!”He cried out again.
“He is back to normal! You can see it!”I cried out.”I am not leaving him to die!”
“He is not! It has been severed from his body, but his mind has changed! He has known forbidden things that must not leave this temple!”Shaman asserted in the same voice. “It would be a disaster if it happens!”
“Is that true? Lud? Are you the same or changed?”I asked him.
“I am the same, Huj! I am the same but more!”Lud cried out, reaching out with his hand towards me.”Help me!”
“We must help him!”Fihy cried.”Do something!”
“But shaman says you have forbidden knowledge!”I said, feeling terrible for hesitating.”Do you feel like causing harm?”
“Forbidden knowledge? Nothing is forbidden knowledge, Huj. I have known many wonderful things, things that can change our lives! I can help the tribe in many ways now!”Lud pleaded.”It is the ancients that do not want us humans to know more. They want us to remain in darkness, and weak, so that we worship them, so that they regain their powers and return someday. They do not want us to know what would make us powerful! It is the ancients that are evil, it is the ancients that wanted to take over us all! Ancients only do what serves them!”
The smoky figure hissed and went on to attack Lud. He tried to speak something, but the smoke seemed to be choking him. He was struggling for breath.
“I can not take it anymore!”Fihy broke down in tears.
“Do not interfere! The bearer of forbidden knowledge must be vanquished!”Shaman said in unnatural voice.
“Huj! Fihy!” Tears rolled down from Lud’s eyes as he kept on choking.
“Damn your forbidden knowledge and ancients and their pond! I pee on them.”I yelled and ran towards Lud. The smoky figure promptly left him, and stood between him and me.
I tried to slice it with the spear, but it went straight through. It was smoke, after all. I suddenly felt my thoughts to be getting blurry.
Clang!-Glub!
Fihy!
The moment I ran to rescue Lud, she had ran along the other side of the temple and kicked the shiny pot like thing that held the burning herbs into the pond. Clever!
“What have you done!” Shaman cried out. His voice broke, and returned to be more humanlike at the end of his words, and trailed off.
“Get Lud!” Fihy cried out. The smoky figure dwindled and shook, but rushed towards her.
“Yaaa! Get away from me!”She cried out and ran away from it!
Lud fell down on the water. I quickly rushed to him and dragged him out, as shaman collapsed on the floor.
Fihy already scuttled towards us, going along the edge of the pond, with the smoky figure coming after her, its shape flowing away without new smoke from the pot. I could hear angry disturbing noises coming from it as she came to us again.
“What happened?”Lud opened his eyes.
“What are we going to do?”Fihy cried out, panting, hiding behind us as the figure neared us.
“Grab everyone and run.”I said and dashed towards the smoky figure, leaving my spear with Fihy.
“Huj! No! Its dangerous!” She cried out.
I got a brilliant idea. I took off my cloth, and held it in both my hands, and charged towards the smoke-figure.
It stopped right in its track as it saw me rushing towards it naked. Then it retreated, slowly, then dashed away. It always works.
“Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!”I flapped my piece of fur cloth triumphantly. “Go away!”
It jumped into the pond, dissolving in the water.
I laughed hard, and began to pee in the pond, to assert my dominance.
“You incredible idiot! Get away from there!”Shaman cried out, this time in human voice. I turned and saw him struggling to get up. Fihy and Lud were near him too.
“I showed it!”I said, wearing my cloth back, grinning really wide, which was when I felt the ground beneath me trembling.
The pond’s color was changing. There was ominous lights from within, and I had a strange feeling coming from the hole in the ceiling. Feeling that we were not alone and there was something very, very wrong. Perhaps, that ancient did not go away to escape, but to bring something far more sinister.
“Run! You idiot, do not stand there!” Shaman’s shrill voice came into my ears, and I got back into my senses, stopping my pondering. There was another earthquake, and there were strange, circular waves in the pond.
We ran down to the stairs. I soon closed up them.
“I can not believe how unbelievably insane you are!”Shaman panted and gasped as we ran.”You are mad! Madman!”
“Thank you!” I ran down, helping Fihy manage Lud and shaman, who were still not upto speed. From here, the ocean was visible. As we ran down the stairs, we felt another earthquake. I could see there was a pale ring in the ocean, surrounding the entire island. It was still there when we had come here, but it looked more prominent now, which I did not like. We did not have time at that moment to worry about it, so we ran.
We heard a small explosion behind us. Something broke. Looking back, we saw water trickling out from the gate. It was rising up unnaturally, taking up form. A form I had seen only in the pictures in this temple.
“We must get to the floating platform!”I cried out.
But it was closing in on us. Thankfully Lud was being able to run now, and he was helping us to carry shaman forward. We were not too far from the shore, when we suddenly saw something else, and I realized that we were not getting out from here alive.
We saw a head like a frog, coming out from the ruins, towards the side of the water. It was enormous, and the round eyes of it were glowing, bright yellow.
“How did it get here! How!” I shrieked, my grip tightening on my spear.
“The underground river!”Shaman cried out.”It must have been following us from the marsh through the underground caverns! It knew we are going to be here!”
The creature slowly approached us, water still dripping from its body. It slowly walked towards us, too silent for a beast of that size. Its tentacles swinging slowly side to side as they were raised up from its back, their bulbous ends dimly glowing.
“I knew something was following us! ”Fihy cried out, as we quickly turned towards an alley that was going into the ruins, but it was a dead end. The frog faced guardian of the marshes soon came closer to the opening of the alley. I readied my spear, and shaman took a stand with his staff. If it was going to end, I was going to at least try teaching it a lesson.
“Do not worry.” Lud whispered. “It would not be after us.”
“What do you mean?”
There was a shadow before the alleyway. For a moment, we saw the grotesque, fearsome head of the fabled and feared guardian of the marshes to glance towards us from the entry of the alleyway, but then something happened and it turned its head towards its right side, and dashed towards it.
“What happened?”
“It has found its true enemy.”Shaman muttered.
The water form of the ancient was already after us, and the frog beast must had seen it.
“Run! This is our chance.”Shaman cried. We ran out from the alleyway and looked towards where the beast had dashed. What we witnessed was a battle only heard in legends. The two were fighting.
The tentacles of the frog beast were glowing, yellow beams of light scattering out from it, crushing and exploding the ruins into rubbles, while the water form of the ancient was doing something similar with picking up large boulders and entire sections of walls with unseen powers, and chugging it towards the beast. The frog beast was surprisingly nimble and
deadly, considering its size and toughness. It was tearing off those things like they were rotten twigs. Its tentacles were cutting through the stone like nothing. There was a lot of steam too, coming from the water that the beast had vaporized, obscuring the two unbelievable opponents. We only paused for a brief fraction of a moment, such was the ferocity of the battle.
We had no time to watch this battle. We all ran as fast as possible.
Soon we came to the part of the shore where the platform was.
“Get on it! Quick!”I cried. We all hopped on.
The water of the underground ocean was looking ominous. The crystals of the rocky sky-roof were glowing, pulsating, as if entire place are coming alive.
The platform started to move, as shaman pressed on the staff, lodged to the hole of the platform. Behind us we could still hear the sounds of explosions and crashes, as the ruins were being crushed into rubbles further.
Our platform was floating away from the island at a terrible speed. The water was not safe. I was shuddering at the thought of what might have happened if the water-form of ancient was able to reach to the ocean. We would have had no chance of escape. Even now it seemed next to impossible. The waves were dangerous. Particularly, there were a lot of places in the ocean ahead of us where the water seemed to be bubbling, and many places pale stones were rising up. At that moment, my hairs stood on their end.
These were not stones. These were tentacles of some sort, possibly of many creatures, present in a group surrounding the island.
“What are these creatures?”I cried.
“It is a single one.”Shaman said, almost giving up.”They all belong to the same.”
“What? That is not possible!”I cried out.
“This was the place where we had felt something was in the water!”Fihy shrieked.”What is that? What is that?”
We all noticed the pale stoned mountain under the ocean. It was surrounding the entire island like a ring. Now it was moving. It was spreading the tentacles. It was responsible for the earthquakes in here!
“We are doomed.”Fihy muttered, taking out the last of the berries, and popping them in her mouth as shaman stopped the platform.
“Is there no way?”I asked shaman.
Blackrift Gate Page 18