Chapter 8
Brir
A sense of familiarity washed over me as I walked through the dark, damp tunnels. My hand instinctively traced the glowing rocks that lined the walls. Memories of another life whispered through my mind, a phantom echo hushed by the roar of a world now lost.
My hand touched a painting done by my sister. The pads of my fingers caressed the faded lines. These tunnels were just a few miles from the center of the mountain that housed her village. My home was closer to the summit, away from the others, so I didn’t corrupt them. I rolled my eyes at the thought.
A crackling of energy made me turn my head. I looked farther down the tunnel, deeper into the rock. A rush of blinding blue light widened my eyes as it rushed towards me. A solid wall of energy slammed into my body, sending me flying back. I crashed into the ground, and my head bounced off the rock.
I struggled back to my feet, feeling like I had been dropped off the mountain. Pain pulsed through my body, but I stood to my full height even as the ground trembled under my feet. The rubble of falling rock echoed loudly. My heart raced.
Panicked screams ricocheted off the walls, traveling from the deep. My breath sawed in and out of me. My body went cold. I didn’t take another moment to think and sprinted frantically towards my sister’s village. My lungs burned with each breath as I pushed myself forward, determined to reach her.
I knew this place and what was about to happen. I’d had this nightmare several times, and no matter how hard I tried, I never reached her.
The rocky ground crumbled beneath my feet. The once-gleaming crystal walls were cracked and jagged as I sprinted through the winding tunnels. The mountain trembled from whatever had opened up deep within it. Some power was pulling the mountain apart from the inside.
My sister was trapped within this unstable mountain, and I was her only hope of escape. The terrain grew more treacherous with every passing second, but I refused to turn back. Adrenaline fueled my sprint. The ground shook violently beneath me, threatening to throw me off balance.
I struggled to inhale as dust filled my lungs. The path that once connected me to my sister was now covered in fallen boulders and loose rock. My feet slipped on the gravel. I fell to my hands and knees but stumbled up again. If only I hadn’t been forced away, I could have been there with her, protecting her.
But regrets were a luxury I couldn’t afford; determination burned within me. I pressed on, my sister’s safety my sole focus. The tunnel ahead of me seemed to stretch endlessly. The walls quivered with each passing tremor. As I ran, the air grew thick with dust and the acrid scent of danger.
This was the first time I had made it this far in the dream that constantly plagued my sleep.
I finally burst into the open chamber where my sister’s village lay. My heart clenched at the sight of chaos and destruction. Buildings crumbled around me. Clouds of dust billowed into the air like ominous specters. People screamed and ran in all directions, their faces twisted in terror. And there, amidst the devastation, I saw her—my sister, standing frozen in shock as the mountain quaked around us.
I sprinted towards her, dodging falling debris. I leaped over a vast chasm that split open in the earth, the heart of the mountain where ley lines converged. The ground heaved beneath me, threatening to swallow me whole as fissures cracked open, spewing molten rock and blinding light.
My voice was lost amidst the cacophony of destruction as I reached out for her, my hand closing over her wrist.
“Calea!” I tried again to call her name. This time, she turned her light pink eyes on me. Dark gray blood trickled down her forehead.
I could see the fear in her eyes, mirroring my own. My muscles were tense with adrenaline.
My gaze darted around the scene, searching for a way out of this nightmare. The heat from the molten rock spilled out from the gaping crevices. The air grew thick with the stench of sulfur and the deafening roar of the mountain’s wrath.
I pulled her towards the nearest exit, fighting against the chaotic currents of the surging magic that tore the earth apart.
The ground under my feet shook again under the earthquake’s aftershocks, pulling my sister from my hand. I was tossed into the side of the cave wall. My shoulder crashed into it with bruising force, and I landed hard on my side. I scrambled to my knees just in time to watch as the ceiling just a few feet behind me collapsed with a loud crash. The crystal walls shattered. A jagged shard sliced my side.
I floundered to my feet again, covering my head with my arms. The dust made me cough and sputter. I desperately pulled my shirt over my mouth for some relief. Faint cries drew my eyes to the blocked path.
“No!” I cried. Calea was nowhere in sight.
“Brir!” Calea called, her voice strained from the other side of the collapsed tunnel. A hand jutted out through a small opening in the rocks. I rushed towards it. Just as I reached for her fingers, they were jerked back into the darkness beyond.
“Brir!” Calea’s voice echoed through the dusty air. I saw her eyes through the small gap, wide with fear and desperation.
I began to dig frantically with my hands, sucking in ragged breaths. The dust stung my eyes. My mind raced as I tried to clear the path.
Squinting through the narrow cavity, I spotted my sister’s familiar markings glowing in the dim light. She had activated her bioluminescence so she could see. Tears ran down her dirt-streaked face. A panicked Lepot brayed loudly nearby.
She stretched her hand to me through the opening again, her glowing blue stone ring shining on her finger. I grabbed her sweaty hand and used my other one to claw at the rocks and debris. Her ring slipped into my palm, and I shoved it into my pocket without a second thought as we worked together to clear the way out of the cave.
My sister’s panicked voice echoed through the chamber, sending shockwaves of urgency through my body. “Brir, just go!”
Each word was like a hammer pounding against my skull, but I couldn’t leave her here. Her desperate cries pierced through the thick stone walls as I frantically clawed at them. My blood stained the crystals with each jagged scrape.
Every muscle in my body burned with determination. I hurled myself at the solid barrier again and again, fueled by the fear of losing my sister. The rough, hot stones burned my hands. My heart pounded in my chest, its rapid beats echoing in my ears and drowning out all other sounds.
“I will get you out,” I growled through gritted teeth. My hands were slick with blood. The sound of her agonized screams echoed in my ears, driving me to dig faster and harder until, finally, a large rock gave way, and the opening grew more extensive, but it wasn’t big enough for her to fit through. I could see more of Calea as she dug from her side. Tears poured down her face. Her hand reemerged from the darkness, reaching towards me in desperation. I gripped her wrist with all the strength I had left and pulled her closer, ignoring the searing pain in my injured hand. I gently cupped her cheek with my bloody hand and reassured her that we would make it out together no matter what.
“Brir, I love you.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, and her weathered hands shook with fear. “You have to go. You have to survive.”
Her words hit me like a gut punch, knocking my breath out of my lungs. She looked decades older than I remembered. A nearby Lepot let out a warbling cry of distress. My ears tilted back in pain.
My mind couldn’t wrap around her words. It was like watching a time-lapse of her body aging, the life draining out of her figure in front of me. I could see wrinkles forming on her skin, making her appear older than she had ever been before my eyes. Her body was rotting away in front of me. It was a horrifying transformation that left me reeling. Eyes wide, my jaw slack, I stared at her.
Caught in the grip of sudden hysteria, I lost my footing and stumbled backward against the jagged rock wall. My mind whirled with questions. I could see the light slowly fading from my sister’s bioluminescent markings, her life force ebbing away with every passing moment.
My heart pounded painfully against my ribs. I groped blindly for her hand, desperate to bring her back into the light. But all I found was space. Somewhere in the distance, the haunting cry of a Lepot reverberated off the cave walls, a mournful dirge that echoed my fear and despair.
“No…” I murmured, desperation tinging my voice. “No! Stay with me!”
Her pink eyes were already growing distant, glazing over in the way that heralded death. Hopelessness gnawed at my insides like a monstrous beast, tearing apart any glimmer of courage I had left.
“He needs you… Brir,” she croaked weakly. “Save him… please…”
“I can’t leave you, Calea.” I reached through the small opening to try and touch her one last time. Her voice bored into my skull. I couldn’t leave her behind. My feet were rooted to the ground, unable to tear myself away from her pleading gaze. I tried to understand what she wanted from me, but all I felt was an overwhelming sense of guilt and despair.
“Stubborn idiot.” My sister’s voice grew to a piercing wail like something coming from the underworld. Her hands gripped my arm with a force that could crush bones, yanking me towards the rock. With no time to react, my forehead slammed into the sharp edges, agony exploding through my skull. I felt like I had been dragged straight into the depths of hell.
???
A piercing agony jolted through my skull, ripping me from a fitful sleep. My senses were bombarded by the acrid stench of blood and the cacophony of anguished cries. I pressed my trembling fingers to my forehead—a sticky warmth coated my skin.
My gaze snapped to Dune, who was standing in the doorway to my room. A curtain that had offered Artemis some privacy was ripped and under his feet. His eyes were fixed on the spot where Artemis lay.
I shot out of the chair where I had been sleeping and rushed towards him, heart pounding in my chest.
His body writhed in agony on the bed. His spikes were embedded in the mattress. I barely dodged Artemis’s six-foot tail as it whipped toward me ferociously. As I stumbled back in shock, I realized why Dune had been stuck in the doorway—Artemis’s tail had almost impaled me on its three-inch-long bone spikes.
Artemis thrashed and growled. My mind reeled. His body contorted and writhed like he was seizing. His eyes rolled back, the white showing through a black, slimy ooze that poured out of every inch of his body.
The scent of decaying flesh filled the air. The skin on Artemis’s back bubbled and oozed with pus as if he were being eaten alive from the inside out. Shadows danced on the walls, making grotesque shapes that mimed our struggles.
I tried to speak, to call out to him, but the words wouldn’t come.
Artemis’s serpentine tail lashed through the air with each violent convulsion, hurling thick black ooze in all directions. His eyes, wide with agony, streamed tears of the same foul liquid.
As Dune’s cries pierced the air, drowning out even Artemis’s screams, I could feel my ears throbbing with pain. Dune was in a state of frenzy. His primal howls echoed off the walls and threatened to shatter every eardrum in the vicinity.
I stumbled towards Dune on shaking legs and pushed him back into the other room. I needed to get to the shelves behind him. I clawed desperately at the jars and bottles. Some fell to the ground with a loud crash. Finally, I found it—a leather bag made from animal hide. It contained a small pouch of glowing moss from my world, carefully preserved for the moment it was needed. I tore the bag open.
Artemis’s blood-curdling screams echoed off the walls. I rushed to the counter and crushed the moss with a mortar and pestle. Dune’s panicked stomps reverberated through the room as he watched with wild eyes, his taloned feet trembling. The beast’s fear only heightened my own as I worked feverishly to create the antidote that could save Artemis from whatever was causing these violent seizures. The scales looked like they were molting right off his flesh.
“Don’t worry, Dune. I’ll fix this.” My voice trembled with determination. I snatched the jar of sterilized water off the counter and dumped the powder into what little remained. I reached for a syringe from the cabinet above my head. My hands shook as I popped off the cap and loaded it with the glowing green liquid. Recapping the needle, I stuck it between my teeth so I could use my hands.
I reentered the room, shouldering Dune back to get past the huge beast, and scanned the room. Artemis’s screams were almost suffocating. My ears recoiled in pain. I pinned them back against my head. With the syringe clenched between my teeth, I ripped off my shirt. His tail thrashed. I waited for the perfect moment, then I lunged forward with all my strength and wrapped my trembling hands around his scaly appendage, forcing it down towards the floor. A sharp spine grazed my arm, cutting it deep as I struggled to get Artemis’s tail out of the way so I could safely care for him.
Frantically, I swung my shirt around the leg of the bed and tied it around his tail to hold it in place. Gasping for breath around the syringe, I stood back up as Artemis’s screams transformed into a garbled, guttural sound—a sound of agony and terror that made my heart wrench with guilt and fear.
I moved around the bed quickly. Panic coursed through my veins, making it hard to breathe. I tried to turn Artemis onto his side, but the black ooze that filled his mouth and dripped down his face made it difficult to grasp him. I firmly gripped his shoulder and tried to force him over, but the sharp spines protruding from his back had ripped through the mattress and were entangled in the springs. I needed to get him on his side.
I turned Artemis’s head, trying to clear his airway as much as possible, but it wasn’t enough. He was choking on the goo. Holding him in place, I snatched the syringe from my mouth and plunged it into his neck, pushing the plunger down with my thumb before I ripped it free, dropping it to the ground.
My fingers fumbled for the bolt cutters under the bed. With all my strength, I wrenched him as far onto his side as the tangled spines would allow. It was just enough. The few inches of space gave me a clear view. I jammed the bolt cutters under his thrashing body against the first spines protruding from the center of Artemis’s back. I looked back at his unseeing eyes. He fought for every breath against the suffocating black ooze pouring from his body.
“Forgive me, but I’m pretty sure they will grow back,” I reassured myself as I gritted my teeth. I braced him on his side between my knees. My hands shook from the adrenaline that was pulsing through me. I didn’t want to do this, but I needed to keep him safe. I squeezed the handles together until the spine snapped off.
The new scream that tore from Artemis was full of agony that broke something inside of me because I knew I was causing this new pain. It was the scream someone made when the pain was unbearable. Crimson blood oozed from the broken bone-like spine. I gagged hard at the crunching sound. It was close to the sound of when I trimmed Dune’s talons. Tears sprang to my eyes, but I forced myself to continue, clippers crunching through each spine with sickening cracks. Finally, all that was left was a scattered mess of spines. I tossed the bloody clippers aside in disgust.
I stumbled backward, my body wracked with sobs. I raised my hands to cover my mouth and held in my screams. My heart felt like it had been crushed under a ton of guilt. I reached out and grasped Artemis’s shoulder, pulling him towards me. As I rolled him onto his side, black vomit exploded from his mouth like a geyser, coating me, the bed, and the floor in a putrid slime that reeked of death. The acidic stench threatened to make me retch, but I swallowed it down. Vomiting would not help Artemis right now. His skin was slick with sweat, scorching hot to the touch like a red-hot stove as I struggled to hold him still. With each convulsion, his scales peeled away in bloody patches, revealing raw flesh underneath.
The pain must have intensified as the liquid was expelled from his body because he started to convulse harder. His clawed hands came up to tear at his chest. A horrified gasp escaped my lips as he thrashed wildly, pushing me back with such force that I stumbled and nearly fell. I barely managed to keep myself upright.
I launched myself onto him again, straddling his writhing hips in a desperate attempt to subdue his frantic movements. He ripped viciously into his chest, tearing out chunks of bloody flesh with primal ferocity. I seized his hands to stop him. I couldn’t pin his hands down like this, so I did everything possible.
I threw myself onto the bed behind him, my arms wrapping tightly around his thrashing body. I tucked my head over his shoulder, yanking him as close to me as possible.
His claws tore into my skin, drawing deep gashes that dripped silver blood onto the sheets, but I refused to let go. I interlocked our fingers in a desperate attempt to provide some stability as I pinned his scaly hands down to his heaving chest. With a swift movement, I threw one leg over his, trapping them between mine. His breaths came out in ragged gasps as he fought against me with every ounce of his monstrous strength.
I leaned close to Artemis, my head on his shoulder, my breath on his ear. The sharp points of his claws pierced my flesh, but I refused to let go, keeping him pinned beneath me.
Through gritted teeth, I whispered urgently, “You’re safe with me. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I repeated on a loop. “I’ve got you.”
I held him in my arms. His eyes remained open, wide with whatever demons he was fighting, and dilated so his pupils consumed all that beautiful blue. His movements finally started to slow, the medicine finally beginning to take effect, but the intensity of his fear was still palpable, almost suffocating.
The sound of Artemis’s piercing screams echoed in my ears as I watched him gasp for air. His once bright blue eyes fluttered shut as he collapsed into my arms. He went limp like a rag doll, completely unconscious. It was as if the very life had been sucked out of him, leaving behind nothing but a shell of a person.