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 Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:25 pm
Walk for afew miles in one direction? Still Desert.
Take a right, walk past some overly friendly Cacti, kill and eat the fruit that grew on their unfeeling little heads, and you were still in a desert.
Talk to a rock for 20 minutes? Well, now you're delirious, but still in a desert if that rock is surrounded by some very rude sand particles.
Stand still for another 20 minutes in the middle of the desert in a seemingly lifeless stupor and you were Damion, more than alittle lost, dehydrated, and on the verge of complete mental breakdown. This had perhaps been the worst idea he had ever been party to and executed without first thinking it through. He had no idea where to find this bloody snake, no idea what supplies he needed for the desert, and really only a half assed idea of what precisely he was going to do. And now he was paying for it.
His wandering feet had carried him far from civilization and into the realm of legend where the sun seemed never to set. Heatwaves rippled across the sand around him and for several kilometers now he'd been finding the bleached bones of creatures that had wandered out here to die or had simply found themselves too far from safety to retreat without dying. Skeletal paws and, in some cases, hands reached up to plead with an uncaring sun that simply beat them and the rocks around them unmercifully until they were nothing but white lumps of former life. The Hydra only barely understood what was happening to him but there was that little bit of hope to keep him going.
Far below his blistered and cracked feet he felt more than the vague nonshape of the sand, a missing space had begun to grow wider and wider deep beneath the sand that slowly rose the further forward he walked. Its dimensions were larger than a simple animal tunnel, easily the thickness of some of the smaller vehicles he'd seen in cities. Too deep yet to dig too and too slim a chance to risk such an action he had decided simply to follow it for as far as he could go or it went and was rewarded only with the rising of the tunnel.
And then it happened, one of those simple things most people called miracles and Damion called dumb luck. As he crested the latest of those god forsaken dunes his eyes came to rest not on further desert, although that was there, but a rock that had been split down the center in hallowed antiquity where water poured in a small stream down to the base of his claimed dune. It ran pure and clear, pooling in the shaded bit of ground directly below the boulder itself and trickled swiftly down into the opening to a rocky cavern mouth, the sand held back around it by the cluster of large and small rocks that had been stacked in a vague arch.
To the half dead elemental, it was salvation itself that he fell towards, knees falling away below him as he rolled end over end down the slope. His motion was arrested with a splash and a furious lapping noise as he strove to drink the tiny bit of life dry, rising up onto wobbling arms and knees with his head buried down to the narrow stream. Water, warmed by the sun but still far cooler than he, rushed past his fallen form but for where his mouth caught it.
For a long time Damion let no other thoughts intrude but the need to drink, gulping heavily until his stomach cramped unmercifully and drove him away and into the shadow of the cave mouth. There he curled, peering down into the dark recess with only thoughts of a life saved, thanking any and all gods for this safe place. Or, atleast it seemed safe for now. A clearer mind would have wondered what had made this place and why it was so far distant from the rest of the world. And why, of all places for water to spring from, was it springing from a boulder?
The stench of magic filled the cave but he could not smell it. A magic unlike that which had made him and changed him, and that made him stand out like a beacon to creatures who could sense such things. Things similarly changed by magic. Things that may or may not have been just as hungry as the elemental was. But for now, both creatures, the Elemental and his unseen watcher, were content to wait and rest, to let the cursed Daystar fall and the heat of the day diminish to the cool night.
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Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:36 pm
The attack came suddenly, like a thunderbolt. While the moon created deep shadows out of tall dunes and the water producing boulder, a hunter of flesh and bone had sought another hunter out in the darkness. With senses purely biological but far beyond what the humanoid reptile could produce it struck hard and fast and yet ultimately it failed. Where the blunt, arrowhead shaped cranium of the serpent struck out with fangs unsheathed the warm outline of a human body jumped forward to meet it and was blasted backwards.
It tumbled across the cooling sand leaving puddles of red heat glow in its wake for the giant Serpent to track, slithering along swiftly after its failed strike. Poison ran from the edges of its lipless mouth to hiss and sputter on the sand behind it in a trail that let the man-shape know where it was coming from just as the light of the moon struck it fully. The Hydra at last set eyes on its cousin yet again and for amoment he was awash with fear.
Dark brown and sandy tan scales ran the length of its body in seemingly mindless patterns that undoubtedly served to hide it in the daytime but only made it stand out all the harder in this moonlit battle. As large as Jormungandir was in the swamp it would tower over the guardian should it rise up to strike again, long tongue flickering out to taste the air and its prey in turn. Along the noseline hard spikey bumps rose as a kind of psuedo-defense turned attack, more camolflauge for a creature who no longer truly needed it. The smaller hunter circled his stalker on all fours, moving from toe points to fingertips slowly as they closed again.
Damion clutched his Fangs loosely in widespread fingers, the hilt of his bone weapons tight to his palm as he waited for the next assault. His ribs ached unmercifully and he could feel warm blood run from where those hard and pointed horns had gouged into his flesh. In his minds eyes he dimly saw the full form of the creature uncoiling from the cave-refuge and with each passing coil he let his rage build at this affront to his skill. Where he was a beacon of heat in its eyes, he would make it a beacon of his own fertile rage, make it glow with his sheer hatred and the power he had been granted.
The giant serpent slunk around the water giving rock, coiling around it and rising up slowly in a pile with head weaving high in the air above Damion's prostrate form, seeking a chance, an opportunity to strike all its own. The two reptiles circled one another in patches of alternating shadow and light, one moment there then the next gone in the deeper darkness around them. As great minds thought alike the two beasts struck as one with their fangs and their bodies, one striking as a freight train and the other flying skyward like a falcon.
Damion jumped high to avoid the descending head of the serpent and let it smash the ground where he had been. His fangs descended and bounced off the hardened neck scales of the creature before he followed them, gravity reasserting itself and pulling him down to bounced from the creatures harsh scales to the ground below. The beast threw up a spray of sand as it missed, but it's next strike only served to drive Damion further into the ground, snapping back whipcord strong and drawing more blood with its nose spikes as the fangs fell far short of penetrating into his flesh.
The deadly poison of the Rock Serpent burned on either side of his wrecked torso and threw gagging smoke into the air that stole the air from Damion's lungs. He rolled to avoid a third devastating strike, throwing his body up and into a low wide legged crouch to watch as another strike came down from the heavens. He rose to meet it yet again, driving underneath the descending jaws to stab upwards with his knives, buring them in the softer scales of the Serpents underbelly. No shriek of pain was given and only its immediate recoil gave Damion the indication that had hurt it at all.
His knives were ripped from his hands and he was left unarmed again with only the hard siloutte of the beast above him as any kind of comfort. Breath came as harsh bursts from tortured ribs and lungs, teeth bared in a white crescent towards the sky. Like the gods, he would tear this creature from its throne, he would bring it to ground and rip the heart from its chest. They circled one another warily again as each took the time to gather its heart or its head.
As the serpent watched, the Hydra began to disappear from vision, red giving way to blue until it matched the background heat of the sand. The giant head swung back and fourth slowly, swaying in the air as it searched for the lost creature who had so painfully stung it. Without warning something heavy collided with its head and slammed it to the ground with bonebreaking force that ripped it completely from its boulder, the long body writhing and slamming into the ground with the force of its struggles. Grinding particles of sand dug into the scales around its neck, digging in as the tendril that gripped it tightened.
In the dim of the night, green eyes glowed like St. Elmo's fire as Damion stepped out of the cave mouth and into the moonlight. A cruel smile curved his lips into something gastly and for amoment he seemed less man and more monster, the kind that mothers warned their children about. His skin hinted at grey, his long black hair hung heavy against his shoulders and back in a wild fashion and his curved fingers bore claws of sand and stone that glinted with his own blood. He strode smoothly to the thrashing serpents head and paid little mind to its gaping mouth and dripping fangs.
He flexed his hands slowly before leaning in close to the beasts right eye, fixing it with his own hungery glare before setting his hands to the socket around it, digging those clawed fingers into the flesh around those tennis ball sized globes of green and yellow. Had the creature been capable it might have screamed as he dug deep, deep down into the flesh around those perfect eyes and yanked back in a burst of blood and bone and hardened flesh.
" One...."
Blood, black in the night, poured out onto his stomach and legs and filled the air with a coppery smell that set Damions soul on fire. He took a deep breath of it all and began to growl deep in the back of his throat. His grip on the tendril began to fail and with a burst the serpent recoiled free of its binding, skirting back into an S shape with a trail of blood leading up to it's head and leaving Damion holding onto that perfect eye in one hand.
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Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:19 pm
Three eyes now watched the coiled serpent, the poison green eyes of the Hydra and one of its own, ripped from its flesh to leave only a gaping wound where it had lain until recently. Dark blood spotted the sand and formed little crusty pools where the thick liquid sank in. Both beasts knew lifeblood when they saw it and the serpent could feel the strength slowly sapping from the length of its body the longer they waited. With what seemed like agonizing slowness to the creature it moved for its cavern, shooting across the sand like a freight train at full speed in an effort to get away from the horrid creature that stood 20 scant yards away.
It had made a mistake.
It had thought the man shape to be prey, to be food.
But how had it missed that fire burning in its core? How had it missed that burning green beacon there in its breast? Damion's heart burned with a fire that commanded him to move, to kill, to strive for the most perfect slaughter imaginable. It filled his dreams and his waking moments with visions of such glorious things that he couldn't ever help but burn with passion. That fire was fueled with blood and sacrifice and the Hydra was all to happy to feed it.
And right now it was hungry indeed.
As the serpent slithered for safety the Hydra burst across the ground on all fours, leaving his rounded prize behind as he sought another to match it. Sand flew in a spray with each powerful push of his legs as wicked long claws dug into and helped shove off. He hit the mass of flesh and hardened scales high, digging those shifting sand claws into the gaps between scales. He could feel the creatures shifting muscles below his palms in the moments before he began to carve into it. At first only flakes of scales flew free into the air as the creature writhed and thrashed below him in efforts to dismount the savage Beast there.
And then blood began to fly with bits of torn muscle and sinew, the ripping claws carving into bone in moments as those outer defenses were removed so forcefully. A spine was found and destroyed with brutal force, shards of yellowish white bone thrown to either side of it's body as it atlast fell still. The electrical impulses that governed that might body had nowhere left to go now and the body was left with no direction. But Damion wanted more than that, he wanted the creatures flesh and blood, it's eyes and skin were to be his. Even as he was he knew he couldn't let it tear itself apart.
The Islander scrambled up the length of the creatures body, moving to the head in a flury of arms and legs to the Arrowhead shaped head. Already he smelled the acrid stench of decomposing flesh as the snakes venom began to do it's work, the flesh around it's mouth bubbling and spitting noxious fumes into the air. A smashing fist popped the eyeball from its socket as adrynaline lent his muscles more strength than he could have expected. Scales crumpled around the impact site like a crater where the eye socket had shattered under his hands.
Panic began to set in, would he be able to make it? The edges of creatures head began to bubble and melt away as the poisons influence began to spread and cut into the amount of space Damion had. Down the length of the body the corpse was under similar influence, flesh sinking in as the interior of the creatures body turned to a turgid sludge of melted flesh. The beast was collapsing into itself as Damion clawed madly at the head, slicing fretfully into the stone hard scales there until he had freed up a large section of flesh, large enough to suit his purpose. It gave with a rough tearing noise not unlike sheets being ripped inhalf and left him holding onto a section of scaled flesh the size of a childs blanket.
Fierce triumph burned inside of his breast and burst out as a joy filled shout that perhaps came abit premature as the whole of the skull below him gave way. Damion was spilled from his perch into the sand unceremoniously, rolling to his feet in a sandy lump of confused flesh. The snakes body was melting that much faster than he had expected, turning to liquid sludge that seeped from the still solid portions of its body. He felt his stomach turning alittle despite his normal ability to hold such things back.
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