The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1)

by Gwyndolyn Russell

  The rumbling soon settled.

  "Volcano?" Mjolnir shouted from above.

  "I fucking hope not." Jackal cursed.

  Just as Mjolnir continued the climb, a boiling hot liquid spewed out from a crack just over his hand. The foul smelling liquid hissed on contact with the air. Steam rushed upwards. The liquid sprayed out over the face of the stone.

  The rumbling started again. More pustules of the liquid exploded from the cracks all over the mountain side.

  Hot as lava. It burned through the stone like acid.

  "Keep moving!" Yaaranam shouted.

  "I'm trying!" Mjolnir looked for the next spot to grip.

  He pulled himself up and over just as more liquid blew out. It coated his shoulder and back.

  The ardrizi cried out and hugged himself as close to the surface as possible. He bit through the pain of the liquid scalding right through his clothes and fur.

  Yaaranam opted for a different path to speed her own ascent. She climbed as quick as she could. They could see the faint glow more clearly now despite the steam clouding their vision.

  As she pulled herself up higher, one of the cracks ripped open. She lost her grip.

  Yaaranam, with no safety rope to fall back on, fell straight down. Her chest felt to be on fire. She couldn't find something to grab, no matter how desperately she groped the air.

  Her descent came to an abrupt end. Suspended in the air, bent over like a horseshoe. She took in a sharp, deep breath.

  "Fucking Christ, you weigh more than you look." Jackal grunted. He was barely hanging in there purely by the strength of four fingers.

  "Oh, please tell me you're stronger than you look." Yaaranam hissed. Those yellow eyes darted back and forth searching for something she could grab.

  He held onto the waistband of her pants, digging the toes of his boots into the stone.

  "Are you good?" Mjolnir shouted down to them.

  "Yeah! We're good!" Jackal gave her a pull, but his elbow had gotten locked.

  "Hold on! I'm coming!" The ardrizi reached off to his side to try to grab a sheet of rock.

  The liquid erupted from a crack directly beneath Yaaranam, making her jump. Jackal nearly lost his grip on her and the wall.

  "Fucking stop moving!" He growled.

  "That shit almost got me!" She snarled and scratched at the wall.

  "Just stop, you damned raven, before you get us both killed!"

  "How about you lift me up so I can grab something?!"

  "You weigh too goddamned much and I'm about to lose my fucking grip!"

  "Grab this!" Mjolnir said. He hadn't moved much closer. Back tracking through the erupting geysers of heated acid was nearly impossible. He tossed the rope down to Jackal.

  Smacked in the face with it, Jackal grunted.

  "What the hell am I supposed to do with that?! My hands are full!"

  "Sorry! Hold on!"

  "It's all I can do!"

  The rope was pulled away and swung in front of him.

  "Hold on he says…" Jackal grumbled. "Because, y'know, I can do literally anything else right now."

  "Whine, whine. Is that all you do? Humans are just whining machines." Yaaranam rolled her eyes.

  "I could not hold on if you'd like." He glanced down to her. "It'd save me some trouble."

  "Don't you fucking dare."

  "Oh, I dare."

  The rope slung down over his arm and dangled right next to the eldiravan. She took the rope and tied it around her waist.

  The rumbling of the mountain slowed down. The geysers even calmed. They leaked more than they sprayed.

  "Ready!" Yaaranam called.

  Jackal slowly let go of her. She held the rope to keep it from digging into her too bad, but Jackal had forgotten about it laying on his other arm. As her weight took it over, it dug into his forearm and rubbed until the skin turned red with blood.

  With a groan, he gripped the rope with his good hand.

  Mjolnir started to climb again. They were nearly there.

  Up at the top, Mjolnir tied the rope down and hoisted the other end up. Jackal clambered over the edge. Then Yaaranam.

  They all sat down for a moment and panted.

  "I am never doing that again." Jackal said.

  "Thanks," Yaaranam breathed, "for not dropping me. I know you wanted to."

  "I thought about what Reaper would do if I did."

  She smiled at him.

  "Aw, my beautiful fur!" Mjolnir picked at his shoulder which now only had patches of fur. "Oh, do you know how long it takes to grow back?! Ages! This is terrible!"

  "You're hurt, too." Yaaranam pointed at Jackal's arm.

  "Just a scratch." He picked himself up. "Let's keep moving."

  Yaaranam followed him into the cave.

  Stalactites hung from the ceiling, their counterparts jutting up from the floor. The air here burned with each breath. The moisture stuck to their skin.

  What they thought were puddles of water, burned on contact. It threatened to eat right through the soles of their boots.

  The tunnel twisted side to side, the darkness held at bay by a series of chemical lights thrown on the ground. Old ones, which no longer glowed, littered the floor.

  A faint beep reverberated from deeper within.

  The further they went, the louder it got.

  Mjolnir soon stopped as the tunnel opened wider.

  "Do you hear that?" His ears stood up.

  "The beeping?" Jackal asked.

  "No...skittering."

  "Something is running around." Yaaranam said, all four of her ears twitched in opposite directions to better pick up the sounds.

  "It could be water dripping, or something." Jackal shook his head and stepped in further.

  The chem lights were against the walls of the cavern, unable to light up the entire space. The sound of dripping water echoed through, but Jackal could not hear the pitter patter of creatures like the others.

  A red light blinked in the darkness in sync with the beeping.

  They approached it slowly.

  "Is that a robot?" Jackal asked.

  "It's just a head…" Mjolnir added.

  "You two are idiots." Yaaranam sighed and picked the blinking object up. "It's a bichani."

  "A bichani? Wait, what's it doing out here and in pieces?"

  "We might be able to piece it back together." She bounced the head around in her hands.

  "There's a part over there." Mjolnir pointed into the shadows.

  "I'll look over here." Jackal headed in the other direction.

  "Humans can see in the dark?" Yaaranam asked.

  "Better than standing here with you and a dismembered head."

  Yaaranam decided to look as well, leaving the head on top of a table she found lit up with a few chem lights.

  First a leg was found, broken in half at the knee with odd chew marks on it. Then an arm. Half a torso. The other half. The other leg without a foot. Half of the upper arm. Destroyed wires and harnesses.

  Bit by bit they pieced the machine back together. Each part seemed to attach itself once placed in the right spot. As soon as the head was attached the red light flickered. Shut off. The beeping stopped.

  A moment of silence. They watched, nearly shaking with excitement. Could it turn back on? Yaaranam was already thinking of a hundred questions to ask it. If her father had been here surely this bichani would have met him.

  The face of the machine lit up with a ray of green light sliding down. A few clicks and beeps.

  Screaming.

  A blood curdling scream cut through their ears. Yaaranam covered her ears, reeling back. Mjolnir groaned.

  The bichani stopped screaming and covered its face.

  “Oh, no. I’m so sorry.” He said, “I thought I was still being torn apart.”

  “T-torn apart?” Jackal picked at his ear.

  “Wait…” The bichani perked up. “Who are you?” His face lit up with a question mark.

  Ya
aranam backed away, cursing under her breath. She rubbed at her ringing ears.

  It seemed both of his giant companions were preoccupied at the moment. His ears were ringing as well, but he seemed to be able to recover much quicker.

  “I’m Lieutenant Jackal. That’s Mjolnir and Yaaranam. We found you in here ripped apart.”

  “Ah...I see…” He tapped on the side of his head.

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “The last thing I remember…” A series of dots scrolled across his face. “Right! Those strange creatures came out of the shadows. They attacked us. I remember they were playing tug of war with me.” Up to his feet, he looked himself over. Puzzled, he stared at his missing arm.

  “We...couldn’t find it.”

  “Oh, no matter! It’s not that important! What’s important is I’m alive again!” He shoved his fist into the air, the lights on his helmet lighting up as if he had thrown confetti.

  “Were you with anyone?” Yaaranam hissed, still holding her ears.

  “Hmm…” Dots scrolled across his face. “Yes! I was! There were five of us!” He looked around. “Now there seems to be only me… And you!”

  “Was there another eldiravan?” She asked. “Short red hair? A male.”

  “There were three of them, but only one with red hair.”

  Jackal held onto the side of his head, his nose scrunching up. It ached something awful all of a sudden, like an ice pick shoved right through the temple.

  “Do you know his name?”

  “Yes!” An exclamation point appeared on his face. Then dots. A frowning face. “No…”

  “What do you mean ‘no’?!” She got closer to the bichani.

  “I’m sure I knew his name.”

  She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “You have to remember! Was it Vactubstein?! Jneki?!”

  The frowning face turned into a crying one.

  “I’m sorry, miss, I don’t remember! I really don’t remember!”

  “Hey, relax…” Jackal tried to stop her, but the sudden pain in his head made him step back.

  Mjolnir grabbed her shoulder.

  “He just had a traumatic experience.” He said calmly. “He’s not exactly whole either. Maybe with some repairs he could remember.”

  She let the bichani go and sighed.

  “I’m so close...He must have been here.”

  A gust of wind showed up on the machine’s face as it wiped its brow. He watched Jackal shake his own head and groan.

  “Lieutenant Jackal?” A question mark.

  Jackal’s head snapped around, looking for something.

  “Can you hear that?” He asked.

  “Hear what?” Mjolnir stepped over to him.

  “That howling. I can hear howling. It...it sounds like Fenris.”

  “That’s not possible.” Mjolnir raised a brow. “Fenris is still on the ship.”

  “Fuck. It hurts.” He groaned, hitting the ball of his hand against his head.

  The lights and colors faded away from his vision. Wrapped in darkness, Jackal turned around in search of anything familiar. Nothing. He called out, but could see no one, nor hear his own voice.

  A hollow, bony nose poked out from the shadows. Jaws lined with wicked teeth haphazardly grown in.

  “Fenris?” Jackal tried to say.

  Open your eyes! Its voice snarled in his mind.

  “What? They are open!”

  Open your eyes! It repeated. This time its jaws snapped shut.

  Within a blink, Fenris had faded from his sight. The darkness turned red and through it, Jackal could see a blackened silhouette in the distance quickly approaching. At first he thought it was Fenris somehow, but it moved unhindered. It moved with a different purpose. Hunched forward, with three massive claws thumping against the ground.

  He blinked again.

  The lights returned. He could see the colors of the chem lights dotting the cavern.

  The warmth of Mjolnir right next to him.

  Eyes glowing red, Jackal looked away from the ardrizi and back into the darkness. The tint of red clouding his vision seemed to have given him the sight into the shadows he desperately needed.

  Wide, heavy jaws of bone crushing teeth reached from the shadows too close for comfort.

  Jackal grabbed Mjolnir’s arm and pulled on him, stepping backwards.

  “What the fuck is that?!” Yaaranam shouted.

  “Run!” the bichani screamed. “Run for your lives! Those creatures are back!”

  The growl rumbled the cavern. Its thumping feet shaking the stone around them. Softer shrieks echoed from out of sight. It sounded as if a dozen were crawling out of the rocks.

  They turned and ran, following the tunnel back out into the daylight. All the while those creatures on their tail. It felt as if no matter how fast they ran, the creatures were inches away from snapping their jaws around their heads.

  The bichani nearly jumped off the cliff when they broke into the light. Mjolnir went for the rope, tossing it over the edge. He waved for the others to follow. Yaaranam was first to grab the rope and jump down. The bichani followed.

  Jackal hung back for Mjolnir to go. He took his pistol from his hip and fired it into the darkness of the cave. He wasn’t sure if it would do anything. Hopefully it would delay those creatures.

  As they descended, preferring to suffer the burn of the rope than be eaten alive, they looked up to see a massive beast barely able to fit within the cave staring down at them.

  A bipedal creature made of flesh and machine. Massive jaws that could crush through anything. It snarled, unable to follow them down.

  “What in the Emperor’s name is that thing?!” Yaaranam shouted.

  “Is that really---” Mjolnir was cut off.

  “An eos.” Jackal took a breath. The aching of his head ceased. His eyes no longer glowed and he no longer saw in that odd tint of red.

  “I cannot believe we got away!” The bichani dropped to his knees and kissed the dirt. “Oh, thank the great cosmos we’re alive! I will never doubt you again, God!”

  “Liam!” Reaper called over the radio. “Liam, come in!”

  A shadow crashed into the ground a few feet from them. Jackal and the bichani actually lost their footing. They hit the ground on their rears and looked up. A shuttle still a mile high was coming down for a landing. The shadow rose from the small crater.

  “Looks like the cavalry's here.” Mjolnir grinned.

  “F-Fenris?” Jackal choked.

  The valkyrie paid no mind to any of them. Its eyes focused on the creatures up on the mountainside. More of them piled out into the light. Smaller ones of the giant one, each with extra appendages and the lack of arms. Spider like limbs, attached to their backs, made threatening gestures at them. Some snapped at each other.

  “H-how did you know?” Yaaranam asked.

  “Ask Fenris how he knew.” Reaper answered.

  The largest of the creatures reared back. Its jaws split apart, even the lower jaw snapped in half to open its mouth as wide as possible. Its roar made their blood stop flowing. Their hearts stop beating. They could feel the rage and hunger boiling inside of its very soul. Even the shuttle shook from the sound, nearly losing control of its stabilizers.

  Its roar lasted for several seconds. Its jaws snapping back into a proper resting place as it finished.

  Fenris would not let the challenge go unanswered. It took a step forward and roared right back. A mechanical flair just the same as the creature’s only Fenris’ was like that of multiple voices. A howl, the guttural scream, the equivalent shriek. Its own call made the others recoil and cover their ears. The ground trembled. Their souls jumped out of their bodies.

  Perhaps its roar was louder due to proximity, but it certainly lasted much longer. The snapping of its jaws resonated in the air when it finished.

  The smaller of the creatures shrieked and fled back into the cave.

  The shuttle hit the ground rough, Reaper hang
ing out of its side.

  Fenris’ fur ruffled up at its neck and its body shook to make it relax.

  “Fuck yeah!” Jackal cheered.

  “Could we tone down the roaring?” Willis called from the pilot’s seat. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but that shit fucking sucks when you’re flying!”

  The large creature was the last to slowly turn and walk away. When it did, Fenris approached Jackal. It held its hand out to him to help him back up to his feet.

  “Jackal hurt.” It grumbled, its voice now much softer, though much hoarser than normal.

  “I’m all right. It’s nothing bad.” He smiled, using the valkyrie’s fingers to pull himself up.

  “They truly are afraid of you, Fenris.” Mjolnir crossed his arms. “Is it the roar? You must teach me to roar like that!”

  “You must see the good doctor.” Fenris said, looking at the burns and scrapes on Jackal’s arms.

  Yaaranam stared at the valkyrie wide eyed. She shook uncontrollably. Her heart thumped in her chest. What the hell were those creatures? What exactly was Fenris? Monsters? They were all monsters.

  “Hey!” Reaper called. “Let’s get out of here before they decide to attack!”

  “Yes, you should leave.” Fenris gave a nod of its head.

  “You’re coming, too.” Jackal glared at it.

  “There are eos here.”

  “We can come back for them later.” Reaper said.

  Fenris stared in silence at Jackal for a good minute while the others boarded the shuttle.

  “As you wish.” It nodded its head and followed Jackal into the shuttle.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Yaaranam was left disappointed from the troubles on the planet. No sign of her father anywhere. The only hope she had now was that bichani they pieced back together. She wanted to question him more, but since much of his internals had been damaged, he could not remember much of anything. She was put under strict orders to let him rest and repair and when he was ready he could tell her. She sat around impatiently, staying busy with training.

  The bichani on the other hand was happily welcomed aboard the ship. He had a long private conversation with Reaper to find out anything at all about who he was and why he had been there. He liked adventures. He thought exploring the universe and learning all that he could brought him that much closer to God.