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TheFacelessDragon — Sinking Into Memory
#alien #oc #scifi #water #aliencreature #alienplanet #memory #shortstory #shortstoryillustration #shortstoryscifi #ladyfaceless
Published: 2021-02-27 22:13:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 3653; Favourites: 29; Downloads: 0
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...
...Another day, black as night. It was just how he liked it. He could feel the storm just above the water tossing the waves and disrupting his swimming patterns. He looked to the surface just as a brilliant blue lightning bolt struck the water, and stopped for a short moment to admire it's magnificence when all of a sudden, a shadow caught his eye. A fish perhaps? He was getting a little hungry after all.
As he approached the shadow, he started to slow down when he noticed the uncanny kicking this "fish" was doing.
"So it was an Gilesian." He thought to himself, a little disappointed. "I wonder what they're doing all the way out here?"
She wasn’t going to make it. Her mouth opened to breathe, and the flailing slowed to a halt. The least he could do was pull her out of the water, and get her to safety if no one was coming for her. As he swam towards the Gilesian, her eyes opened and met with his. For a moment, a look of horror flashed across her face, then a look of resignation as she slipped into subconsciousness...
...
...Awake at last, she rolled over and froze in fear. Argus supposed his appearance was a bit frightful. After all, no one looks proper after being in the water for a considerable amount of time.
Argus wondered if she was hungry at all. He grabbed a skewered fish he's prepared by a fire he'd made earlier and began to approach her. She screamed and threw up a field some kind of force-field. Perhaps she wasn't as injured as he thought. Worried she might do something to something to injure herself, Argus knew he had to say something to calm her down. He didn't know much Gilesish, so he hurriedly ran through his vocabulary, hoping to find a phrase that would calm her down.
“Calm. Calm. You must calm.”
It worked. She stopped screaming and squirming, but her force-field remained active. Optimistic, Argus held up the fish, hoping to tempt her out of her fear.
"Hungry?”
Success. She lowered her force-field, and held up her hand. Argus took this as a sign that she was indeed hungry, and lowered the fish into her hands. Quickly, she snatched it and backed away, keeping a good distance between herself and Argus. She took a slow bite, and her face relaxed slightly.
“Food is good” she croaked.
Argus nodded...
...
...“Don’t you miss the sun, Argus?” Crystal asked. She's been asking questions about him for a while now. It seemed she'd not ever seen any Oulish wherever she was from, which Argus found incredibly odd. Hadn't there been Oulish slaves in the Gilesian cities? Regardless, Crystal was a good listener, and Argus enjoyed the company.
“Oulish love dark, deep, wet. Deep ocean.”
“Why do you come up on land if you love the ocean?”
Argus turned his head to look towards the light. “Also love the air."
Crystal lowered her eyes for a moment, then got up, and walked to the edge to the cave. She stayed there, silently watching the horizon.
"Miss the city?” Argus inquired.
She turned to look at him. “Can you help me get back there, Argus? To the Tallos fields?”
Argus thought for a moment, blinking his large bright eyes. “Very hard journey from here. Many storms. Tallos dangerous.”
“Tallos is dangerous to you?”
Argus knew that the Gilesians guarded the Tallos jealously. For an Oulish--especially a wild one like Argus to go there, would mean certain death. “Kill the Oulish. Gilesians kill Oulish in Tallos fields.”
Crystal lowered her eyes again, then turned back toward the edge of the cave, seemingly deep in thought. A gust of wind blew by, and she shivered at the cold. Argus pushed himself back into the cave and dragged out the furs she had lain under earlier. He pushed them towards her with one tentacle while moving himself away.
“Thank you. Are you cold?”
Argus moved his head from one side, then the other.
“You like being cold and wet, right.”
He bobbed his head twice and blinked his large white eyes.
“Do Gilesians throw out trash a lot?”
He bobbed his head again, a little slower. “Most die. We care for living, but then they die, we mourn, grieve. Then eat.”
“Do you see where the trash comes from?”
Another bob.
“Can you take me there?”
Yet another bob. “Long journey still. Death.”
“If I die, are you going to eat me?”
Argus bobbed his head a little more enthusiastically.
Crystal's face tensed. “Okay, that’s a little worrisome. Are you going to kill me to eat me?”
“No kill. But die – yes.”
“Why are you keeping me alive when you could just kill me?”
“Gilesians brothers. Kill brother – no.”
She looked confused and discouraged.
“Sleep now. I take you tomorrow.” Argus reached a tentacle around her shoulder and scooped up the drooping fur...
...
The cold wind howled in the distance, rising and falling in pitch as Crystal stumbled over lava rocks in the blue light hanging in front of Argus’s face. She kept close behind his tentacles as Argus secreted a softer, sticky residue behind him that helped her footing. “Can you see the tallos shield yet?”
“Yes.”
She grabbed a small corner of the back of his woolen tunic to help herself keep up with him. “Are we any closer yet?”
“Calm.”
“Trying – just feels a hundred million years from here.”
“Many sun-cycles away.”
Argus stopped to look around for a moment. Crystal seemed to be falling behind--her tired eyes were locked onto the light above Argus' head. When she finally caught up, she slouched over in exhaustion.
“Find shelter soon. Fish, eat, then sleep.”
She backed off slightly, her fear rising again. “You’re not hungry, are you"
Argus looked confusedly at her for a moment. What was she so scared about? His tendrils on top of his head bobbed down and up again. “Fish, plants. Make fire cook fish.”
She strained her eyes to see further into the darkness. “Wouldn’t we go faster if we take the sandy trail, over there on the left.”
The tendrils on Argus’s head moved side to side this time. “No sand.”
“Why not? It looks way softer than these rocks.”
“Soft, not safe.”
“Soft, not safe, huh?…Okay. It looks pretty empty to me.”
Crystal slowly shuffled over to the edge of the sandy path when a faint hissing suddenly caught Argus' attention. “Stop.”
Crystal stopped moving. Argus approached the sandy path, and looked alertly into the horizon. He froze when he noticed the plant-like appendages sticking temptingly out of the sand about 20 feet from their position. “Targoth. Still.”
Crystal looked around Argus to the left, as his head turned in that direction, her terror mounted further. “What’s a targoth?”
“Still.”
A soft sand cloud came up from the empty field, and a soft shimmering noise, like a rattlesnake, arose from the cloud. “Still, still.”
She followed Argus’s instruction as best as she could – but even if she wanted to, movement was impossible. She watched through Argus’s blue headlamp as two long appendages with sharp white tips shot up from the cloud, landing only inches away from them. "Too late" Argus thought. Crystal threw up a field, and Argus charged onto the sand, straight for the creature, howling a fearsome noise. The rest of the creature rose from the sand, twice as big as Argus, with a square jaw full of teeth.
Crystal attempted to push energy towards the two monstrous creatures in the hopes of helping Argus. She made another fist and shot blasts around the shield in front of her. A crash against her shield made her jump and pushed her feet on the sharp rocks. She moved to a mossy area nearby and shot again at the long gray salamander-like creature with no eyes, that bit and stabbed at her shield with its long appendages and broken teeth.
She screamed. “Argus!”
Meanwhile, Argus flew at one of the targoths, gouging it in the side with his long teeth. His roar nearly shattered her eardrums. Crystal fell to the side, shaken. More screams in the dark. She laid down this time, and covered herself with a field, to get out of the way. Argus latched once again to the targoth, thrashing his head back and forth hoping to break the monster's neck. The targoth flailed, catching Argus' own neck, and tore a great gash. Argus wailed and bit harder, eventually severing the targoth's head. Distracted, the other targoth turned to Argus and shrieked. It leaped off Crystal's shield, and chased Argus into the darkness. Crystal watched in terror, as reverberations shot out of the darkness...
...
...Argus lay still, a deep groan that sounded full of water bubbling from his mouth. He shivered slightly, the pain in his neck was sharp, and burned intensely. Crystal dropped her shield, and ran to where he laid. Relieved that Crystal was alright, Argus slowly brought himself into a sitting position. Tenderly, she placed her hands on both sides of his face, and he winced.
“Hurt.”
“I know you’re hurt, Argus. Hold still a little. Still, remember?”
Whatever she was doing with her hands seemed to be working. The pain he received from the targoth was growing rapidly dimmer. Finally brought back to his fullest senses, Argus looked up, searching frantically. “Targoth?” he asked.
She took her hands from his face, and looked around in the dim light. “Think it’s gone, but I don’t know.”
Suddenly the burning sensation was back. “Hurt.” Argus whimpered.
Her head snapped back to Argus, and quickly placed her hands on his face once again. “I know. Hang on.”
“You…hurt?”
She blinked--realizing he just asked about her. “I’m all right. Some cuts and bruises. Not bad.”
Argus suddenly realized that as his pain dulled and his injuries disappeared, the same injuries reappeared on her own body. Her face twisted in pain, and she removed her hands from his face. She hadn't really healed him, she merely took his wounds. Tears ran down her face as she slowly crumpled into a ball on the ground. Feeling sorry for her, Argus moved toward her, letting his tentacles surround her and cradle her.
“Calm…”
She couldn’t answer, wincing at the new cuts in her skin as she lay on the rocks. Then, she felt his appendages moving around her, soothing and slow. He lifted her from the rocks, and they moved together forward towards the light of the Tallos shield, still far in the distance.
“I’m afraid” she muttered.
The rumble of his voice above hers rained down on her. “It okay. Rest now.”
“I don’t wanna die.”
“Care for you.”
She steeled her nerves. “Are you going to eat me?”
He purred out the words. “Die – yes.”
“I really don’t want to be eaten.”
“Dead. Waste. Oulish cleaners. Eat dead. No waste.”
“What if I didn’t want to be eaten?” Her shaking voice made Argus sad. He thought of how he could make her more comfortable.
“Tell you how?”
“Tell me how you’re going to eat me? I don’t know…”
“First sing Mourning Song.”
“Like the one we heard earlier?”
She felt his head bob up and down through his skin. “Prayer. Thank the Master.”
“Who’s the Master? Cidvec?”
“No Cidvec servant of Master. Garden Master.”
That was different. No one would talk to her about Cidvec. “Who is he, Argus?”
A pause. It had been a while since Argus spoke of Cidvec. “Loves. Protects, Teaches. Plants and replants. Brother. Master.”
“Have you seen him?”
Argus silently shook his head.
“How do you know he’s real?”
Another pause. “Feel. Hear. Obey.”
“I don’t get it.”
Argus chuckled a little “Young. You learn. Then build fire…”
“No more, Argus. Please. I really don’t want to be eaten.”
“Scared die?”
Her voice rose. “Yes…and scared of being eaten by you. No offense. You’re really nice, and I’m grateful you saved me – “
“Calm…”
“I can’t really be calm about this.”
“Grateful.”
“Grateful – how am I supposed to be grateful for this?”
“I grateful.”
She lifted her head, her eyes looked surprised. “You’re grateful? Why?”
“Save…me…”
She paused for a moment, then lowered her head again. “You’re welcome."
Argus smiled. “Friend.”
Crystal smiled, then lifted her hands closer to Argus' chest. “I guess if I have to be eaten, I’d rather be eaten by a friend than a targoth.”
Argus could feel her breath slowly relaxing. “You live – no eat. Live.”
“Live” she echoed, then drifted gently to sleep...
