Chapter 19 Break Through The Soil
Xiaoyu
Thank God for bamboo toothbrushes. I’m always so worried about germs and stuff that I brush his teeth myself.
“You do know I am immune to diseases, yes?”
“I’m scared of—” I can’t say it.
“That’s normal human biology, why are you embarrassed?”
“Oh my god, shut up!”
“Aahh, okay, I understand now. This discussion might be uncomfortable, but the die-hards will continue to flip through the pages. Worry not.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
He chuckles. “They’ve—I mean, you’ve yet to see what the Void’s cock looks like.”
Blood leaves my face as he grins wide. So wide that his face disappears and all I see are his mouth and teeth, smiling like the Cheshire cat.
“Do not look so terrified.”
I remember now that he had told me this before, referring to himself in third person. I know for a fact the Void has a cock. He looks like he’s proud of it, too. What ego…
The sun has begun to rise, but we are under the forest’s thick canopy so it’s still darker on this side. We rinse our mouths in the stream and just…relax.
I can’t remember the last time I actually had a moment to think for myself. To deliberate my decisions, plans.
“I have a surprise for you.”
I don’t know why this makes me nervous. “And that is?”
He licks his lips, eyes darkening. “It is the tooth I lost. I will make an adornment for you using it.”
“Awww, like a necklace? That’s actually so morbidly sweet of you.” I throw my arms around him, feeling all the fuzzy, fluffy giddiness.
He throws his head back and the shrubs, leaves shake with him. “Something like that, yes.”
“If you are this sweet, why are you single, Datu?”
He tilts my chin up so we are looking eye to eye. “I have been waiting for a feeling.” His voice sounds tight.
Something pricks my heart. “What feeling?”
“Any feeling. It does not matter what it is.”
“Have you found it yet?”
It takes him a while to answer, but when he does, all I hear is grief. “I am meant to exist in pain, in hunger. When I found you, you breathed life into me. I do not just exist, but I exist for you to notice me.”
Hearing this feels like someone has stabbed my heart repeatedly. “What did I ever do to deserve this?”
“You do not know this, but you deserve everything the world has to offer.”
Datu
It is perplexing to me how humans need to eat so often, but it makes sense. The sun does not sustain them like Terra. They need food for fuel like this form needs water and sunlight constantly.
My belly roars in disagreement. Water and sunlight do not agree with it right now. It craves…something else As I stare at Xiaoyu, I realize that it is her I want. Xiaoyu who I hunger for. What kind of hunger—I cannot determine.
Such a simple yet complex need. I show signs I have changed. My claws and teeth sharper, my form growing leaner the longer I let the thrumming in my gut gnaw at me. My eyes linger on her skin for too long, my mouth watering at the sight.
“You know…I’ve never seen you eat before.”
“There is no need for me to feed in this form.” Somehow, it feels like a lie.
“Mmmm, why don’t you try eating? Maybe it could help. You got the claws, teeth of a carnivore. You obviously evolved after your near-death experience.”
I am silent as I consider this possibility. Tragedies force changes. I know that for certain, but I am afraid if I start masticating, I am going to seek more until I end up eating Xiaoyu. Plus, it is not in my nature to eat in this form. I always feed in my natural one.
Thankfully, she changes the subject.
“You have any idea how the other girls are right now?”
Fuck.
“Do you want to see the other females?” My stomach wrenches at this. No, I do not want to see other humans, but it is for her. For Xiaoyu, I will rip a god’s balls out just to see her smile.
She nods immediately. “Yes, yes, please.”
Her anxiety stinks. It fills the air with poison that makes me wrinkle my nose. I want her to feel safe even if it means delaying another extraction. The humans can make do with the two canisters we have managed to collect.
“Very well, we shall prepare.”
“Thanks,” she breathes out a sigh of relief. “You’re a real stand-up guy, Datu.”
I stand straighter at her words. The way she says “stand-up guy” makes it sound like a compliment, and coming from her? It feels more gratifying. It means more. Before I pull her up into my arms, she starts thumbing her toga. She needs more human clothes. I tug the toga off.
“Take it off and I will provide you with another.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “What—you gonna manifest some spiders so they start weaving silk or something?”
She is joking. I should laugh.
I laugh weakly. “How did you know?”
“Don’t take it too literally, I was fucking around.”
“I got that.” I call into the air—a miracle, forbearance, the earth to engulf me whole—but what it brings me is a dress. Made of braided leaves, and long violet masiterra petals that matches mine—it fits her body like second skin.
She dons it, stupefied. “This is beautiful, but not really ideal to wear when hiking.” She chuckles, spinning around to showcase the offering earth gifted her.
“I will carry you.” My voice in the air sounds rough. Restrained. I am uncertain how I find her. Beautiful is not the word for it. It sounds too…plain. A word too menial for her. No human word I can think of can uplift beauty enough to describe her.
She waves me away, but I catch her arm, pulling her until she is flush against me. I see her skin is starting to change. When she shifts, I see the webbing of vines underneath her skin. My mark on her.
“Datu, we’re kind of in a time-crunch right now.” She reminds me breathlessly. She smells very sweet like a trap. A ravenous, gaping trap.
I grin and lift her into my arms.
She clutches her bag to her chest while I internally sigh. I realize—the farther we trek—that Xiaoyu is not much of a talker. She shows nothing outside, a mask of apathy much like my mask of ease. How exhausting.
“We are close to a creek, you can fill your bottle.”
“I know I drank it already, but I have to ask…how do you know it’s safe straight from the source?”
“No human has died yet drinking our creek water,” I jest. The trees swing in joy to her responding laughter.
“I’ll take that as a yes, it should be safe since Ingar did the same the other day.” She mutters as I set her down. “I’ve been meaning to ask…do you know how many days it’s passed in the human world?” As water streams into her bottle, my world spins.
I am silent as I think of how to respond without alarming her. Birds screech, scattering through the sky, above the thin canopy of trees. The wind wails a warning much too late as a sporadic thumpthumpthump races.
There’s a scream in the distance—female, distinctly human. I straighten and toss Xiaoyu her bottle. Her eyes are wide, terrified.
“Stay here.” I order before she snatches my arm, digging those nails into me.
“No, that’s one of the girls. I go!” She hisses.
My authority has never been superseded so easily as she drags me into the treeline. I haul Xiaoyu up and sling her over my shoulder, sprinting toward the noise.
There are rippling sounds of a belly, and the more distance I cover, the greater my apprehension becomes. This is something that happens to me. The vicious carving of my insides. The Terra are a peaceful folk, and yet, the humans have created this affliction—this disease of violence—among us.
A stench is in the air—sickly sweet—making me gag. Rotten fruits. Death. It smells of death.
“No, no, no, let me go!” The human female in the distance continues to cry.
I can hear Xiaoyu’s harsh breathing. She will never say it, but she is terrified for the woman.
Once I find the source of the stench, my muscles freeze.
Despite its deformed state—his deformed state—I know exactly who he is.
Immediately, I lift Xiaoyu off my shoulder and shove her behind me.
I call the guardian that takes care of Xiaoyu when I am away.
There are no words exchanged between us, they know their purpose as they haul her away.
“Datu!!! What is this, let go of me!”
“Lakan, please, put her down.” He is an imposing male, almost as big as I am.
Lakan is blind, born with no eyes, just a vast spacious wood that forms into a crown where the top of his head should be. But right now, something has scratched the space where his eyes should be, dripping swirling black and violet liquid.
“I starve, Datu.” He moans into the human’s skin. His tongue slides out to lick her skin. From this angle, I can see his teeth have sharpened, too.
“There is another way. Let me help you.”
“I have been asleep for too long to wait.” He snarls at me.
The human woman covers her face, sobbing.
“Brother, please, do not do this. I will find a way. This is not how it should be.”
“You do not know what it’s like!” he howls in despair—in my direction like he sees me. The scratches crack open, his new eyes the same color as the liquid that spills from it.
I understand the hunger, but I cannot have him eating every human he encounters. As his mouth grows wider to accommodate the human female’s head, I make a very drastic decision.
He is already infected. There is no hope for him.
Without warning, I hurtled toward him, ripping his claws off the crying human. I am disturbed at how he claws and screams for her. Another guardian rushes to take her away, and as my thumbs sink into Lakan’s new eyes, I grieve for Esoterra’s loss. I grieve for my loss.
“Please forgive me.”
I feel defeated as I pull him by his eyes. Lakan splits open in two until sap spills and curdles to the earth. His torn body still twist and writhe, reaching for the human woman again.
He will only be in agony forever if I do not burn him.
“You need fire?” Xiaoyu asks from behind me. Before the guardians can stop her, she takes something from her pack, screws two items together and tosses it my way.
I know what it is. It is called a blowtorch. Grinding my teeth together, I snatch it from the ground. Killing a brother with a human weapon is tantamount to disrespect. Lakan deserves better.
“Datu!” Xiaoyu’s cries are shrill with horror. “What are you waiting for?!”
Lakan’s split is snaking its way to them. His grating screech is the sound of breaking wood, of desperation, of pain. What I see now, I have only heard in tales. His other half snakes glowing roots, vines to the other, meeting, uniting like a malignant disease.
Lakan’s body is pulling itself whole before my very eyes.
Without a second thought, I aim the weapon at the vines and open fire.