literature

Shifters ch 14: Basement Lurk

Deviation Actions

Sangheili-Girl's avatar
Published:
1.1K Views

Literature Text

Chapter 14: That Which Lurks In Argost's Basement

Tara's P.O.V

I catch one last glimpse at Zak's disbelieving expression before the trap door slams shut above me. The cryptid that holds me in its grasp squeezes its coils, which surround me, tighter. This morbidly reminds me of an anaconda suffocating its prey.

I snarl and stab the coils wrapped around my waist and gut. My pistol now free, I unholster it and fire at the ones on my feet while I simultaneously slash the ones at my shoulders. It roars in fury and pain, dropping me to the stone floor.

I roll when I hit the ground as I was trained to do to minimize damage to myself and so that I may recover my bearings faster. The mammalian cryptid roars again and strikes with its vaguely snake-like, furred head and neck.

As it lunges forward, I get a shot off at its face with one of my non-lethal blasts. My shot flies true and nails it right in the middle of the face. It hisses in pain and slinks away into the surrounding darkness. I assume that it no longer wants me for a meal and goes to find a more unwary prey.

Figuring that I couldn't go back the way I came, I look around the barley-lit room, which was difficult even with my enhanced shifter night vision. To my left, I spot an inconsistency on the stone blocks. Upon closer inspection, it proves to be my escape into a different "delightful" room. I crawl up into the feeding shoot that is slippery from the blood of the meals tossed down to the imprisoned cryptids and towards the thin metal panel that undoubtedly would allow me into the next dungeon when dealt with.

I feel around the edges of the panel and find what I sought. So I pull out my knife again and start unscrewing screws in the panel. Once done, I pry the panel open enough for me to squeeze through into the adjacent cell. I carefully climb out into the dimly lit room, my pistol sweeping the area as I do so. What I see within this cell however was no normal cryptid.

It was a HUGE bladerith, at least three times the size of Daemon's jeuvinile bladerith form, but something was horribly wrong with it. Its quills were mangled and barbed, and its scales were serated on the very edges and glowed with a flourescent green light. These things are not what I found the most disturbing however, the mechanical device that took the place of the rhombus shaped crest at the start of the trail of quills on its head.

I activate my "bio-vision" to analyze this weird desecration on this creature. Bio-vision is a side ability of mine that allows me to read the energy flow of my surroundings and if I focus on a single being then I can see the innermost workings of it. It has a 360 degree range and gives me a sort of sixth-sense even when it's not in use.

What it shows me nearly brings me to tears. The device itself was wired straight into the mutated bladerith's brain, and it was heavily affected by radiation, the most obvious of the sources of the mutations.

Just having noticed my presence, it turns its huge bulk to face me. Its eyes glowed red-orange in fury as its quills stand straight up in a battle position. The creature roars and swings its over-sized, serrated forearm blades at me. I dodge by rolling backwards to the wall. It was then that I realized how big the room was in comparison to the cryptid within it. The creature which was now standing had to hunch over just to get on its feet and it had no maneuvering room.

It roars again and lunges forward with as much force as it can muster in these close confines. I roll between its legs, dodging the lashing tail. It breaks through into a larger area which is the size of a typical school gymnasium. I was a sitting duck inside the old holding cell, so I get out into the larger room while it is still trying to recover from the recoil.

It lurches to its feet again, snarling in fury, but it stops suddenly. It shudders and convulses briefly and its pupils become the same color as the rest of its eye. A current of energy flashes through the nervous system from the device and interrupts the original impulses. In seconds, its movements become less of a disoriented beast's and more of a decisive fighter. Soon, I find myself pushing my body and training to their limits just trying to keep out of the way of its attacks.

'One hit from this guy and I'll be lucky to just be incapasitated. I've got to end this quickly.'

As I continue to dodge, I see the shimmer of a camera lens, and I realize that Munya or Argost must be controlling the creature. I fire a round at and destroy the camera in the room, hopefully destroying the only way for the controller to see the happenings in this room. Luckily for me, this works and leaves my foe slightly blind.

The one controlling the creature must have decided that I wasn't worth the extra effort, for the creature returned to its 'normal' self and fighting style. The next time its forearm blade slashes past me, I jump onto its upper arm, grabbing on to two surprisingly dull quills before swinging up onto its back.

When I come into such close proximity with the energies of creatures, I can read how much pain they are in. The beast struggling to dislodge me from its back and kill me was in terrible, unfathomable agony. I try to see if anything that I knew about anatomy or healing can heal this poor beast, and I try some of the things that would have worked, should have worked. Nothing relieved it even a little.

Gripping onto the quills at the base of its skull tighter, I let go of my conscious thoughts and release the control of my power to my instincts and my spirit. I feel my spirit extend tendrils of energy to the bladerith's spirit, testing and feeling the extent of damage and emotion. As this happens the struggle between our physical forms cease.

ARGGGHHHH...... THIS PAIN..... I CANNOT CONTROL MYSELF.... it was then that he seems to notice my presence, PLEASE NO.... YOU'VE TAKEN MY LIFE, MY BODY AND MY WILL FROM ME.... IS THAT NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU HUMAN? ISN'T YOUR SICK DREAM OF CONTROLLING EVERY ONE OF MY BRETHREN THROUGH KUR ENOUGH TO SATE YOUR GREED?

I say nothing back and only reveal what I am, neither human nor cryptid but still part of both worlds. A shifter.

NO... NOT HUMAN... PROTECTOR, HEALER.... WHERE DID YOUR KIND GO? THE HUMANS HAVE BEEN DESTROYING THE GREAT MOTHER, OUR MOTHER, WITHOUT RESPITE....

" I am sorry Little Brother," the things I say coming from a deep part of my spirit, a place I have not yet explored myself, a place that I didn't know existed, "my kind was sealed away with Kur. Without our forms, we became no more than 'bleeding-hearts' and 'tree huggers' to the humans... Forgive us, for we have failed in our duties to maintain The Balance."

As I say this, my strength purges the pain temporarily from his body, allowing his spirit full articulation. If I were standing before him, Zanobi the bladerith would have dropped to his belly in relief that the unbearable, constant pain was gone. His spirit cried.

BIG SISTER, THERE IS NOTHING TO FORGIVE. THE ONES WHO WALK BETWEEN HAVE RETURNED TO THIS WORLD, AND THAT IS WHAT MATTERS.... RESTORING THE SACRED BALANCE. I AM THANKFUL TO HAVE AT LEAST SEEN THE BEGINNING OF THE RESTORATION BEFORE MY FINAL DESTINY CAME TO PASS.

"Your Final Destiny?"

YES, THE ONE THING THAT WE ARE ALL BORN TO DO. SOME KNOW WHAT THEIRS IS, LIKE I DO, AND MANY MORE GO THEIR WHOLE LIFE TIMES WITHOUT KNOWING IT BUT STILL ACCOMPLISH IT. MY OWN NAME REFLECTS MY FATE, FOR ZANOBI MEANS SCARCELY ALIVE. MY FINAL DESTINY IS TO BE AN AID TO YOU LATER, THIS YOU WILL SEE SOMEDAY, BUT FOR NOW YOU MUST AID ME.

"How shall I aid you Little Brother?"

His spirit and soul at peace, he says, END MY SUFFERING... AND GIVE ME MY DEATH...

I instantly recoil from the idea of ending his life, "No Little Brother, I cannot take your life from you!"

MY LIFE ENDED LONG AGO, DEAR SISTER. YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I THAT YOUR POWER IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH YET TO PURGE MY BROKEN WILL AND BODY OF THIS SHADOW FOREVER. PLEASE, BIG SISTER, THIS IS THE WILL OF THE PATTERN.

In my heart I knew that he was right, so despite the sorrow in my heart for having to kill him, I grant Zanobi's request, stopping his heart with a simple jolt of my power. In the final moments of his soul inhabiting his body, I cradle Zanobi's spirit and shield it from the final pain of death, a final comfort and hopefully one fond memory as he leaves this world.

Before Zanobi is completely gone, his free voice whispers to me, THANK YOU, MOTHER MYSTIC......

So like that he was gone, and I soon find myself back in my body again and laying on Zanobi's neck with tears running down my face, his final words leaving me confused. 'Mother Mystic?'

I wipe the tears from my face as well as any other signs of emotional distress, and I slide off of his neck. It is then that I realize that I clutched something in my hand. I open it and see something amazing.

Nestled in my palm was one of Zanobi's small scales with the Sumerian symbol of mystic carved into the slighly glowing face of it. (I'd picked up the meaning of a few symbols from Drew.) What really stunned me was that there was a metal ring on the top of it. An idea pops into my head, and I pull my mother's dog tags out from under my shirt. I undo the link on the back of my neck briefly and slide the scale into place next to the tags that were already there. I glance at the three things on the chain which were of equal size once before returning it back to thier place under my shirt.

I walk around to the left side of his face and close one eyelid and then the other, a phrase that I don't even understand flowing from my lips, "Vado tutus ut phasmatis Parum Frater."

With that, I turn and leave to find and reunite with my partner, Zak.

Narrator's P.O.V. With Zak and co.

In rapid succession, Zak, Fisk, Drew, Doyle, Zon, Komodo, and Doc are expelled from Argost's lair by the tentacles of the crustacean cryptid. They all morosely get to their feet, their moment of triumph made bitter by the loss of Tara. They all wear expressions of pain and sorrow, all except for Zak.

He stares intently at the monster crouched upon the hill, waiting for any sign that his dear friend, his partner, was still alive.

His voice crackling with grief, Doc sighs, "I'm sorry Zak.... She's gone..."

He tries to place a hand on his son's shoulder, but Zak jerks away and gives him a half angry, half panicked expression, "No... She's not gone! She can't be gone... I KNOW she's not..."

Drew chokes, "Zak, your bond was blocked off when you two were in there. You wouldn't have known if she was..."

Zak returns his gaze back to the monster, "You don't know anything about this.... Blocked bond or not, I'd know if she were dead."

Everyone could hear in his voice that he truly believes this, and that he fervently hopes that he isn't wrong. So they say nothing more and wait with him.

Suddenly they see a sillouette through one of the first story windows, and it gets larger and larger before breaking into a million pieces with several shots of a blaster. Tara leaps through the hole and transforms when her feet touch the soil and wings into the sky.

They group shouts in happiness that their medic has survived.

"I knew you're okay." Zak says to her as he rejoices that they could sense and talk to each other once more. She is overjoyed as well, but something was troubling her deeply. "What's wrong?"

Tara comes in for a landing and transforms, "Later. We should talk about this later when we are alone." "I'm glad to see that everyone is more or less unharmed." She hugs Fisk, "Welcome back big guy."

"Hey Fisk! Come over here and tell me how big of a hero I am...." Doyle says.
Alright so there's chapter fourteen! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Please drop a review and tell me how the story is coming. Oh and below is the meanig of those words that Tara whispers to Zanobi.

*Vado tutus ut phasmatis Parum Frater - Go safely to the spirits, Little Brother
© 2009 - 2024 Sangheili-Girl
Comments16
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
BullDan's avatar
I AM SOOOOOOO SORRY I HAVN'T BEEN TALKING IN A WHILE- let me explain...

i just got a new computer and the other computers in my house havn't really been working right so i havn't been on this site for a while so i have a lot of cacthing up to do.

i don't think i'll be going on fanfiction.net anymore because that site is not safe and has dangerous viruses.

love the story, keep up the good work.