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 Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:11 pm
I hadn’t been in a jungle for years. The hooting and cackling of the various birds, the oppressively sodden, heavy heat, the light that filtered greenly through the canopy overhead. It was all a vague memory, but somehow familiar. Like déjà vu.
I pressed deeper into the thick undergrowth, and the sounds of the jungle became muffled as though some pall had been cast over the area that blocked out the sounds of life. It also became darker, though I was fairly certain it was midday. Blooming in the shadows were delicate purple flowers. Their stigmas were a deep, rich shade of red.
“Saffron crocuses,” Irial commented. I hated to admit that I’d developed a fondness for him, this devastatingly lovely creature, but it was true. I’d even slipped and called him Iri, much to his amusement. There was no playfulness in his tone, now, as he continued, “We’re close,”
Instinctively, I tensed, certain I’d be ambushed by this terrifying adjuchas any minute, but the forest remained still. I continued on, cautiously, slowly. I was going to win this fight. I had to win. No way was I being devoured by another entity. This afterlife was mine.
“Don’t be fooled by what you find,” Irial counseled. His voice was tense. It was almost touching that he worried about me. Almost. I pushed away that gooey-sweet emotion. We were a team out of convenience, nothing more. I was his ‘horse’, though why he was even betting on me to begin with was a mystery. His motives remained hidden, and it pissed me off to no end. I think he knew that.
Some delicious emotion tempted me, making my mouth water at its tantalizing, complex taste. I couldn’t feed on it, but it was there, wafting through the trees. I followed it, taking deep breaths, letting the feelings roll over my tongue. It was a heady mix of rage, despair, and breathless pain.
I had to have it.
[3/8]
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:23 pm
The saffron crocuses were thicker here. In the semi-dark, they seemed to give off a lavender glow. Then I saw her. It. The adjuchas.
This had to be a joke. My target was a child? True, her skin was a hideous, corpse-like pallor. True, she stank of blood and gunpowder. But, honestly, the little girl came up to my waist. Barely.
“Irial?” I murmured, certain there’d been some sort of mistake. He didn’t respond. Typical. He’d run at the first sign of a fight. Then again, if he was a figment of my imagination, I guess I’d just stopped imagining him.
The little girl adjuchas heard me, though. Her head snapped up. In her hands, she held a shredded crocus. It looked like pale strips of flesh, and my stomach gave an involuntary flip. I pushed away the fear. I don’t feel fear, I reminded myself. Others fear me.
“You’re not her,” The girl spoke in a gurgling rasp. It sounded like something was decaying. She frowned, clearly displeased. “She left me behind. I hate her,”
The sudden malice in her voice was tantalizing. I had to feed. Had to drink her emotions. This was my kill.
“I love her,” She croaked brokenly. Blah. Love. Sickening emotion, really. I thought I could taste bananas on the back of my tongue.
“Love or hate, you’re mine,” I said, hardly caring if she was listening. I thought it might be sporting to tell her I was going to eat her before taking a chunk out of her without so much as a by-your-leave. “I’m going to swallow you whole. Lucky you—you won’t have to feel anything, anymore,”
I took a step towards her, intending to finish this quickly.
“You’re not her!” She shouted, leaping away from me. Her anger spiked. “I want her! I want my sister!”
I thought, at first, that the flickering and wavering was a trick of the shadowy light. No. It was like she’d been wearing some sort of glamour, hiding her true form. Now it ran and grew.
The little girl’s true form was far taller than mine. She was bone-thin with too many joints. Her eyes were large, too large for her head. They gave her a sense of doe-eyed anguish. Coupled with her emaciated body, glowing a soft lavender like the crocuses around her, she seemed vulgar and gorgeous all at once. Her tongue flicked out, a sinuous, slick red. She was a disgusting embodiment of the saffron flowers.
[4/8]
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:31 pm
“It’s not fair,” Her voice had changed to a gurgling, sibilant hiss. “Why didn't she come back? Angels rescue people...”
Making no sense of her ramble, I leapt towards her, tired of holding myself back. I had to get a sip of those delicious emotions. I closed in, intending to snap that all-too-brittle neck of hers, but she was faster than she’d looked.
She contorted, bending around me. I landed on the tree in front of which she’d stood, digging my serrated claws into the bark to keep my position. I roared my challenge, annoyed that I’d missed.
Hardly wasting a moment, I ripped myself free, launching myself back towards her. I was faster, this time, having gathered myself before the move. I sailed into her, closing my jaws over one bony wrist. Her skin was coarse and hard, and, though I’d ground upon it, I barely breached it. She hurled me away, and tumbled into the undergrowth. All I’d gained for my trouble was a drop of her blood, rolling across my tongue, teasing me. It made me ravenous, and I scrambled out of the heavy vegetation, intent on my prey.
She was ready, swaying on her reed-thin legs. We collided, and I extended my serrated, scythe-like claws. They raked over her chest, and, this time, I was rewarded with deep gashes in her bony torso. I could taste the pain. I could drink it, such was my proximity to her. I took a long, satisfying pull, detecting hints of rage and fear. The tastes invigorated me, and I renewed my assault.
Shrieking in anger, she got her multi-jointed legs under my chest. She extended them, throwing me away for the second time. I was caught awkwardly amid the vines the wreathed the limbs of the trees around us, but I quickly hacked myself free, my scythes making quick work of the rope-like plants.
The adjuchas’s saffron-colored tongue flicked out, cutting ominously through the air. I rolled out of the way, and it impaled a heavy branch, cracking the limb from the tree. I had to be careful. If she took a piece out of me, I’d be stuck as an adjuchas forever. I couldn’t let that happen.
I’m was more than this.
With a roar tearing from me, I shot back towards the bone-girl adjuchas. My jaws clamped around her too-thin neck, and my canines sank into her skin. She hissed and writhed, repeatedly sinking her needle-like fingers into my sides, but I held on. Her pain, her rage, her fear, and her darkest nightmares. I could see them all, and I drew nourishment from them.
With each pull, my body pulsed with greater strength while my strong teeth crushed her bony neck.
[5/8]
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:15 am
Sometimes, I am so careless, it’s pathetic.
I’d worked myself up into a fine frenzy, grinding away on her seemingly-brittle bones, when a sharp pain erupted from the thick web of muscle between my neck and shoulder. That damned whiplike tongue had shot straight through it. Stupidly, I paused, surprised.
The adjuchas took advantage of those precious seconds, tearing through the muscle like so much gauze. Her tongue emerged from the top of my shoulder, severing various tendons and ligaments. Important bits. The ones I needed to move my arm.
In one fell swoop, I was down to one arm, and she’d wriggled free of my jaws, seeming no worse for the wear. I leapt clear, furious at myself for my overeager offensive. I was letting my thirst control me, and, in most cases, that had worked. I lose my mind a little when I’m going for the kill. I let instinct guide me and draw me towards the emotions I want. There’s very little thinking involved. A lot less strategy. And, generally, my opponents are all but incapacitated by their own amplified emotions when I get my claws into them. They rarely struggle.
This adjuchas, on the other hand, was smarter than my other prey. I understood that she was probably so used to intense pain and longing for that sister of hers that when I started to feed, she hardly noticed the intensified emotions. This made her a rather daunting opponent. I needed to feed on her to augment my strength. If I could thrust her deep enough into her own nightmares, I’d have her, but her many-jointed body made holding her still incredibly difficult. She was just too damned flexible.
I dodged under another extension of her tongue, feeling the movement jar my ruined arm. I needed something to hold her down. What I wouldn’t give for a length of cable… My mind raced a mile a minute, and my eyes darted about, weighing my options. I could jump at her again. Maybe get my fangs in her for a moment or two, but I knew she’d throw me off again.
I circled, ever wary of her attack. She kept her distance from me, sidestepping to keep me in her line of sight. She was nimble, disturbingly graceful as she stepped amid the heavy vegetation. By contrast, my mangled arm dragged, catching on the vines and snarled roots in the undergrowth.
The vines.
Not cable by any stretch of the imagination, but cumbersome all the same. Hadn’t I been caught in them, if briefly? I only needed to give myself a couple of extra seconds.
If I remembered correctly, there was a patch of vines garlanding the trees just to her right. They crisscrossed like spiderwebs, creating a harsh tangle that would suit my needs perfectly. We circled, and, with each step, she drew closer to the viny entanglement.
There.
I darted towards her, gathering myself into a headlong leap. I barreled right into her chest, knocking her into the vines’ waiting hold. Moving quickly, I used my scythes to manipulate the vines, quickly hooking them around her. They were pliable and seemed to curl themselves around her form almost lovingly. She struggled against their embrace, but her many joints worked against her, and she was soon impossibly encumbered.
Still, I needed to strike quickly. I could see her deceptively hard skin chafing against the vines, tearing at them. She’d be free if I didn’t act.
Pulling my head back, I drew out all my strength. I lashed forwards like a snake, powerful jaws closing around her throat. My fangs tore into the underside of her throat, and slick blood poured into my mouth and down my chin.
She shrieked in pure, satisfying agony.
[6/8]
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:20 am
Her pain spiked, and I took advantage of her distraction, thrusting her deep into her nightmares. I was only a bystander, but I could feel her psyche shredding under the weight of her own memories.
*** There’s shouting and the pop of muskets. The sharp tang of gunpowder in the air. Running. She’s running as fast as her little legs can carry her, but she’s not afraid with her sister here. Her sister. I’m seeing her through the eyes of the little girl. She worships her, and I feel a strangely intense longing for this tan, dark-eyed girl with her mane of brown-gold curls. She’s lovely and fierce and wild, and I want her.
***
The adjuchas-child’s memory sucks me under again.
*** She’s peeking from behind her sister’s arms. The men with the muskets are frightening, and I drink her fear down. A form barrels into her sister, and the bullets whizz angrily. They bite into the little girl’s flesh, and her pain tastes better than the fear. Soul sheds body, and I see no more.
***
I blinked, and I became aware that the adjuchas was struggling harder than ever, convulsing in my jaws. It was becoming a nuisance to hang on to her. Frustrated, I hooked my claws into her torso, keeping her within my grip as I freed my mouth to speak.
When I looked at her face, the adjuchas-child’s too-large eyes were brimming with tears. They ran down her sunken cheeks like fat drops of oil, and I pulled in the sharp taste of her despair.
“I can take it all away,” I crooned, stroking the side of her face. Her skin shredded like tissue paper under my fingers, and oil-slick blood flowed over the contours of her thin head. Somehow weakened, her skin was no longer hard and durable. It had taken on the finer characteristics of the flower petals it so resembled. “I’ll drink your nightmares,”
Her eyes were wide. Trusting. She really was just a kid, despite her centuries as a hollow. She nodded, and the oily tears came harder, mixing with the blood that already painted her face. This really was the most satisfying meal I’d had in years. Small wonder Irial had pointed her out as a target. I’m always at my best when my enemy is full of pain, and this child-adjuchas was brimming with it.
I snapped her neck with an efficient twist of my all-too-powerful jaws. Then I ate her, body and soul. Her flesh was soft and yielding, like a saffron crocus. It made her readily digestible.
[7/8]
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:29 am
Just a soft little flower, I decided, now resting from my meal. I didn’t feel any different, really. Stronger, sure, but that was the usual high from consuming some choice emotions. I really do like pain best.
“Finished?” Irial was back, incredibly pleased with himself. “I’m impressed. I had my doubts about you, but you really pulled through… How did she taste?”
“Flowery,” I replied, not really in the mood for a chat. The spectacular changes that were supposed to be occurring weren’t.
“Oh, come on,” Irial prodded, still in high spirits. Why was he so pleased? “You’ve become a Vasto Lorde! That’s what you wanted!”
“Come off it, Iri,” I was in a very foul humor at this point. “I don’t feel anything. I’m no different,”
“Are you sure?” He drew out the last word, clearly teasing. I swatted at him, annoyed.
An angry rushing sound filled the air, and my hand felt hot. Something shot from my palm with the force of a small cannon and made a neat, round hole in a tree I was certain was several feet thick. I snatched my hand back, pulling it to my chest and clenching it into a fist.
“Irial?” My tone was one part anger, one part surprise. It made Irial laugh, much to my irritation.
He inspected the hole in the tree, noting the white-hot and smoldering edges. “Bala,” He said. I could hear the grin in his voice, and he turned back to me, beaming. He was achingly lovely when he did that. “See? More powerful, already. That’s a technique that befits my Vasto Lorde,”
I opened my mouth, probably to remind him that I was not his possession, but he continued, speaking over my objections. “Ah! Jesi—while you were busy with your charming flower maiden, I came up with a new name for you! You’ll like it,”
“I thought we already decided my name was Jes,” I stressed, wary of whatever inane nickname he’d invented.
“Yes, but this is your last name,” Irial was clearly itching to tell me. “Everyone has one. How does 'Morinozuka' sound? It’s a noble name,”
“It’s Japanese,” I wasn’t sure what I thought of it. Jes Morinozuka. It kind of rolled off the tongue…
“And they have nice names. You can shorten it, too. To Mori. Like the Latin ‘Memento Mori’-- ‘remember your death’,” He added, a glimmer of mischief in his blue-black eyes. “Mori-chan,”
“I can see arguing with you would be pointless,” I responded drily. Some part of me was pleased with that name. Remember your death. I didn’t remember mine, but my enemies would remember theirs by my hand. I liked that. “You’re not going to stop calling me it, are you?”
“No,” Irial replied casually. “But you like it,”
He answered my unspoken question. “Because I know your heart,”
I rolled my eyes. He knew very well I didn’t have one.
And it ached more than ever.
[8/8]
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:12 pm
(extra bonus scene! 'cause I want to be back in Hueco Mundo ^^)
Wild brown-gold curls and the flash of dark brown eyes. I opened my own, aware that I'd been dreaming. I only ever saw snatches of her. Somehow the image of the adjuchas's sister haunted my thoughts, always filling me with an indescribable want.
I rose, and the white sand that had blown over me in the night trickled from my form. I was back in Hueco Mundo, having succeeded in my mission to devour the adjuchas in India. In theory, I would become a Vasto Lorde, now, and I would no longer be in danger of reverting if I didn't constantly feed on other adjuchas. Not that I didn't want to. There was still the thrill of the hunt. The high of feeding on a victim's emotions.
If only my sleep wasn't constantly disturbed. Irial said they would subside, these snatches of the crocus-girl's memories. Only, they haven't. They make me feel strange, and I don't like it. I don't like it when my body does something I don't understand.
Frustrated, I opened my mouth, and the familiar rushing sound crackled in the air. A massive beam of black energy, laced with pale blue threads, decimated the dune I was facing. I'd learned to control ceros on the return journey, and I often used them to vent my anger. I didn't feel any better, today, though. I was in a truly foul mood.
"You said it'd fade, Iri. You said she would fade,"
He didn't answer, and I really didn't expect him to. He'd disappeared soon after my return to Hueco Mundo. So much for being his favored horse. I still had my shadows, my ever-faithful pets, but Irial was gone. I wasn't sure how I felt about being alone. The empty dunes of Hueco Mundo emphasized the feeling.
But I worked better alone, I decided. I don't need anyone, and I didn't care if anyone needed me.
[waiting for approval, i suppose =3]
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