Sophia's chain shot sideways into the cavern ceiling, so Raf fell in an arc. Then the chain released, and as he fell, it moved down to reattach itself and swung Raf out of the plume of smoke and away from the roaring flames.
The acoustics in the cave reverberated every crackle of wood and scream of wildlife to a deafening echo. The fire must have started recently because it was spreading rapidly and almost engulfed the entire massive cave.
Raf hit the ground and rolled near a stone-carved edifice, twice his height, the length of a hall, and wide enough to entomb several bodies. The flames hadn't yet reached this corner of the cave, but they were encroaching, and the heat was overwhelming.
Sophia's chain whipped forward and slammed against the edifice, cracking it open and revealing a single tomb. Inside was a creature Raf had only seen illustrated in myths: a cthulian. It was gargantuan and crab-like. Raf could see two eyes the size of tree trunks.
Sophia's chain delicately floated behind and under the chulian's head. Raf heard a crunching sound of chitin breaking amid the roar of the burning forest. When Sophia's chain retracted, it was carrying something green resembling a long, dried sponge.
"This is a cthulian's symbiote," sang Sophia's voice out of the chain. "Bonding with it is the only way for a human to reach the Time Dragon. Once done, it cannot be undone. It will stay with you 'til death."
The cthulian's symbiote was dropped in Raf's hand. It felt like some dried-up dead thing found on a beach. It wasn't heavy, but Raf sensed the weight of it all the same. That felt immense. What would it be like, he wondered, to bond with an oceanic creature? Would he still be human? Raf put those fears aside. Morgan needed him to do this. No matter the cost, Raf would pay it.
"What do I do with it?" he asked.
Sophia answered, "Dive underwater. Hold the symbiote to your ear."
"Will it hurt?" he asked.
No response.
Raf looked around. Everything was on fire. The smoke burned his lungs. He tried breathing in through his sleeve. There! A shimmer of water. Raf ran to it, ducking under flaming branches, jumping over fallen logs, and diving into the strange lake without any hesitation.
Raf held the symbiote to his ear as instructed. Between moments, he felt it swell with water and come alive.
No warning could have prepared him for what came next. The symbiote found Raf's ear and squeezed into it almost instantly, but not painlessly. Raf felt his ear canal burst. Worse yet, the symbiote spread through Raf's sinuses and around to his other ear. Cartilage broke and was expelled out to make space for the symbiote.
All the while, Raf was busy drowning. The agony of having his skull invaded caused Raf to scream in pain and then choke on water. As his lungs flooded, Raf writhed helplessly for a few seconds, too disoriented to swim to the surface, until he stopped moving entirely. His motionless body sank with the weight of metal chains.
Sometime later, he seized and coughed and opened his eyes. He wasn't breathing, not really. He touched his ears. Something was protruding out of both ears. Soft and velvety, it inflated and deflated like external lungs on the side of his head.
But the mind-blowing parts were psychic. The cthulian's symbiote functioned as a new sensory organ, combining scent and sound detection. Raf could now 'hear' better and 'smell' underwater. He smelled his blood all around him, alongside the scent of fish and insects; the sounds of fish and insects! Pushing and swimming and scraping and grinding and chewing and pooping.
As for the pain, his entire head and face ached. Every beat of his heart brought fresh throbbing agony behind his face.
Raf was too numb and amazed to do anything but smell his surroundings until a dozen voices boomed harmoniously in his mind.
'What have you done to us, human?'
Raf would have fallen in shock if he were standing. He looked around in vain. Firelight from the cavern above illuminated the lake floor and all around him. It was dark, but he could see well enough to know the voices weren't coming from outside him but inside his head.
'I… I beg your forgiveness,' Raf thought in response. "I was guided here by an angel. Sophia. To free my sister, I need to learn soul magic; to do that, I need to reach the Time Dragon.'
'Your human relations are of no concern to us. We are the Eighth Legion. Our minds have melded among the greatest of our species. You had no right to desecrate our host's body.'
"Former host," Sophia's voice corrected. "Do not let your indignation blind you to your duties, both to your present host and to your people."
Raf sensed the entity recoil in surprise and resentment. He felt its wrath and uncertainty. It was considering, though what, Raf could not imagine. Then the Eighth Legion reached out and invaded his mind, secret thoughts, and memories.
That was... uncomfortable, to say the least. Not exactly pain. More like a tickle behind his eyes, or a cold chill, or the sensation of a limb falling asleep. He wiggled in vain to escape the intrusion, but he was trapped in his head with an alien multitude.
In his mind's eye, Raf saw flashes of memory, memories the Eighth Legion now shared: Playing hide and seek with his sisters in the garden. His mother in a green silken dress, reading a book. Rowan training him in combat. His father sitting at his desk beneath that gruesome painting of Adam, confessing to Raf a most terrifying secret.
Suddenly the Eighth Legion scattered in surprise. This changes things, they whispered among themselves, radiating increased confidence and certainty.
'We will help you,' Legion declared. 'But we cannot guarantee your safety. And when you die, we must be returned to our people for safekeeping. We will not tolerate being a human tool.'
'Understood,' thought Raf. 'So… which way to Oceania?'
'You're in it. You entered the Kingdom of Oceania the moment you submerged. You probably mean the Queen's Lair. First, you'll need to exit the caverns. Follow the smell of fresh moving water.'
Raf wondered what fresh moving water smelled like, then Legion reminded him. Memories between them went both ways! He could remember things Legion wanted to share; for example, fresh moving water smelled like determination; and it was coming from over there!
The weight of the chains had already pulled Raf the lake floor. He walked forward, but his progress was excruciatingly slow. He tried a broad stroke, but his arms were still worn out. At this rate, Raf wouldn't leave the cave system for days.
Fortunately, Sophia was impatient, at least by angel standards, and took over movement. Suddenly, the chain tattoo launched him forward. The firelight from the cavern above quickly dimmed as Sophia pulled Raf downstream, darker and darker as they went deeper and deeper until he could see nothing in the darkness.
But he wasn't exactly blind. He 'heard' the water rush by all around him, eroding smooth the caverns. He could 'sense' the pressure build as he descended and 'taste' the salt levels rise.
As his eyes adjusted, Raf saw the chain was still glowing a fiery orange color, so he rolled up his sleeves and extended his arms, illuminating his surroundings. All around him, countless fish and crustaceans lived their lives. Strange, alien creatures Raf had never imagined.
Raf tried to relax as Sophia carried him swiftly through the tunneling caves, though relaxation would prove impossible, as Legion was abuzz with mixed excitement, flipping through his memories the way a prodigious student flips through a study book.
'Have you ever bonded with a human before?' Raf wondered.
'Never,' Legion answered. 'Though it has happened, long ago with other symbiotes, we have never.'
'What is the relationship between symbiote and host?'
'We are the ghosts of every host who came before you. The symbiote collected our thoughts before we died and preserved them for future generations. It cares nothing for any of us, only its continued survival. Our kinds share a pact: we give them our minds and nutrients, and in return, they give us posterity.'
'Does every cthulian have a symbiote?'
'No. Only a rare few ever earn their symbiote.'
'And how does one earn a symbiote?'
'A series of trials, culminating in a visit to the sovereign of water and sky.'
As Raf pondered what that meant, Sophia pulled him out from underground and into the open ocean. His trajectory curved and then launched forward. Evidently, Sophia knew their destination.
'So were you in that burning forest waiting for someone to be worthy of you?'
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
'Burning forest?' Curious, Legion accessed Raf's most recent memories and saw images of the mausoleum aflame. They wailed in horror. Raf caught glimpses of a tree nymph. Sprigga. Friend to the cthulians and ancient guardian of their honored dead. Dead. The great oak burnt to ash. He felt their grief.
The other symbiotes! Would any of them survive the fire? The thought devastated Legion. Countless generations lost forever. He felt their despair.
For a long time, Legion was silent. Even their perusal of Raf's memories was lethargic and disaffected.
Combined with the blanketing darkness of night, Raf was fading.
'Sleep,' advised Legion. 'We will keep watch while you rest.'
And somehow, almost immediately, Raf shut his eyes and slept.
Even in his dreams, he sensed the Eighth Legion and their contempt for his humanity. They loathed all mankind; that much was palpable. But bound as they were to Raf's mind, they found him endlessly fascinating, even as their grief suffocated them. It suffocated Raf, too. His dreams were of such overwhelming sadness; it was like drowning all over again.
His eyes opened to sunlight cascading down upon a gulf stream, populated with countless fish, whales, turtles, and more, all regarding Raf with varying degrees of curiosity and indifference. None had ever seen a human underwater before. Most had never seen a human at all anywhere. All were riding the swift current.
And the whales and dolphins were singing!
He wouldn't have heard or understood any of it were it not for Legion, but through them, Raf knew the song was one of peace and adventure. The gulf stream was for all ocean life. The majesty around him was awesome.
Legion's many voices broke his reverie.
'We've traveled most of the way to the Queen's Lair. Ahead is the chimney. Be ready. A human in Oceania will likely be met with claws and teeth.'
Raf was about to ask what an underwater chimney was, but then he looked forward and saw an enormous waterfall! The fish and creatures ahead of him were falling, caught in a vortex. How was this possible? Raf wondered. Legion answered.
'Water is warmer and saltier above us than below. Those changes cause the ocean to move and cycle itself. The gulf stream is one of the ocean's main arteries. Beneath the chimney is the Queen's Lair.'
All around him, sea creatures were singing and chirping excitedly. Raf was nervous, but the joyful mood around him was infectious.
Raf reached out to touch a nearby whale. She regarded him curiously. Legion called a greeting that she returned. He felt her fin. It was smooth and leathery. Then he swam up (rather, Sophia understood his intention and guided him) to her shoulder and dorsal fin. She was warm and magnificent. Raf felt her heartbeat! No, several heartbeats! He congratulated the whale and thanked her, holding onto her dorsal fin to brace himself as they neared the waterfall. She sang out in delight as they fell. Raf's stomach dropped, and that's when he first noticed his hunger.
But Raf wasn't the only creature hungry in these waters. Not far below, but far enough to be shrouded in darkness, several cthulians watched the chimney and all who descended it.
By nature, cthulians tend to be solitary and territorial. Older, larger cthulians generally ignore smaller ones, except as the occasional meal, supposing one were foolish enough to evoke their ire on an empty stomach.
It was taboo for ocean predators to hunt in the gulf stream. Whales ensured such customs by deadly force. The gulf stream was for all ocean life, but when a lone human approached the Queen's Lair, every cthulian with a spear rose to kill it, custom be damned.
Raf saw them ascend: vibrant specks of color, beautiful and terrifying, swiftly rising out of the darkness.
They varied in size. Some were smaller than Raf. One was large as a whale.
Their upper torsos were vaguely humanoid with a torso, head, and shoulders. One arm was similar to the human's, ending in three clawed fingers and a clawed thumb. The other arm resembled a giant crab pincer. Beneath and behind its arms, sprouting out its back was a single pair of long, sharp crab legs.
Cthulian lower bodies resembled an octopus or squid, with four long powerful tentacles where legs would be.
By Raf's sensibilities, cthulian faces were nightmarish and uncanny (though they would describe human faces similarly). No neck, the jaw and mouth split down the middle, with a chitin shell covering both left and right 'lips.'
Two stalks of compound eyes crown its head like horns, detecting lights and details no human eye would ever witness. They swiveled forward to hone in on their prey. Beneath the eye stalks, mustache-like antennae whipped this way and that, picking up trace scents from far away.
One brash young raider flung his spear too soon. Their aim was not quite, and would have impaled Raf's traveling whale companion, but Raf threw his arm and Sophia's chain blasted out the back of his hand, reshaping into a shield, deflecting the spear. Then it returned to Raf's skin, but something new happened. The fiery tattoo spread to cover his entire body like a glowing barrier. As it expanded, it also dimmed. The blaze of the chains became a radiant armor.
Everyone scattered. The whales were incensed, screeching loudly. Raf leapt out of the vortex to take the fight away from the others. He was still falling, but not as fast.
Angry cthulians surrounded him. They'd seen what just happened and were hesitant to engage. One brave or foolish cthulian thought to attack Raf from the back. Sophia disagreed.
In an instant, Sophia's tattoo blasted out a needle-sharp chain through Raf's attacker's head. For a moment, Raf's wrist was exposed. The others took the opportunity to lunge and throw their spears.
But Sophia outmatched them all combined. The tattoo extended two chains to the limit and spun in a circle surrounding Raf so fast none of their spears or claws could pass without shattering. While Sophia spun the chain around him, Raf's mobility and versatility were diminished. He was in a defensive position, and that put him in a stalemate. Or so he thought. Indeed, Raf thought he had the advantage, but he underestimated cthulian size and ingenuity.
Each of the cthulians squirted a jet black ink into the water. Soon Raf couldn't see more than an arm's length away from him.
But Legion was equal to this tactic, 'hearing' and 'smelling' all around Raf for signs of attack. Whales were shrieking a counterattack beyond the rippling inky clouds.
An enormous surge rose from the depths below. Raf could see nothing around him, but through Legion, he felt the sudden shifts in pressure, and he knew instinctively what was coming.
Dread radiated from Legion's many minds. 'Brace yourself!' they warned.
A giant hand, easily twice Raf's size, with three sharp claws and a clawed thumb, reached up, grabbing Raf, chains and all, and yanked him down to the Queen's Lair.
Raf would have been crushed immediately were it not for Sophia's chains, returning to his skin and pushing against the incredible force of the giant hand that held him.
It pulled him down from the inky blackness above to an even more engulfing darkness below. The pressure was unfathomable. Sophia's candle-like glow was all that illuminated the oppressive darkness surrounding him. Even by the soft glow of Sophia's liquid firelight, Raf could see nothing.
Two giant pillars like ancient trees came into focus, then twitched. They were eyes! Tall stalks of compound eyes with three distinct segments, top, bottom, and a flat line in the center. Raf couldn't see the head they crowned, but long threads of antennae whipped below him, tapping Raf gently, smelling him, tasting him.
Then a voice boomed from below. Legion knew the language, so Raf understood.
"I sense a human bonded with a symbiote. How is this possible? I should tear off its head and give the symbiote to a worthy cthulian. Who are you?"
How do I speak underwater? Raf wondered.
'You don't,' thought Legion's many minds. Then they spoke, or rather, clicked, at the giant cthulian.
"Your majesty. Our queen. We are the Eighth Legion. It is good to hear your voice again."
"Ancestors! How have you become bonded to such a loathsome creature?"
"It rescued our symbiote from a fire. Your majesty, we bring wretched tidings. Sprigga and the mausoleum were burned. The other symbiotes may have survived the fire, but we hesitate to hope."
The water all around shifted, and Raf knew the queen had recoiled upon hearing the news. A dead cthulian floated down past Raf, possibly the same one Sophia impaled.
A massive tentacle rose up and out of the dark nothing to wrap around the cthulian corpse. Then the tentacle returned to the nothingness below, dragging the corpse in tow. Raf heard a crunching sound and remembered he was hungry.
When the queen spoke again, she sounded less irritated but supremely sad.
"Indeed, these are wretched tidings. Who set the fire? Was it this human?"
Her grip tightened, and Raf feared his bones would break, but Sophia's barrier held.
"It was not this human. We confirmed that at once. With your blessing, we wish to investigate this matter and devour the one responsible."
"Granted."
"There is more, your majesty. This human… carries the Wandering Spirit."
The twin pillars of eyes twitched. Her grip loosened.
"Interesting. Why would the Wanderer choose a human vessel? Such is madness."
"We believe it intends to strike against Adam. Perhaps the Wanderer chose this time and body with reasoning beyond our ken."
The queen was silent for a moment. Then, "Only the Sovereign would know."
"Indeed, that's why the human has come: to beseech an audience with the Sovereign of Water and Sky."
"How weird. Fine. But a worthy cthulian must accompany you. Symbiotes such as yourself are too precious to risk entrusting to a human, especially in light of your tidings. Tzik-Enu will collect the human's head when it fails."
Raf gulped while the queen called out. A large cthulian descended from out of the darkness. Raf recognized this one from the tussle above. Tzik-Enu was fully thrice Raf's size, with a myriad of vibrant colors, barely distinguishable in the surrounding darkness.
While the queen informed Tzik-Enu of the mission, Legion perked up, taking a pleased interest in the imposing cthulian. Raf felt strangely jealous.
Then the queen released Raf, and the water around him shifted as she moved aside. Raf smelled something new, like fresh moving water, except entirely different, yet vaguely familiar. Legion was drawn towards the scent reverently.
"You know the way," said the cthulian queen.
And it seemed Legion did know the way; they guided Raf downward. Sophia gently glowed against the dark abyss, like candlelight on a moonless night, in vain, illuminating nothing but detritus floating in the water. Were it not for Legion's many heightened senses, Raf would have been lost in the vast, crushing darkness.
What Raf couldn't see, yet knew instinctively with Legion's aid, was that he had entered the trench, a wide canyon at the bottom of the ocean floor, crown seat of the Cthulian Dominion, and secret entrance to the Time Dragon's Hollow.
Raf sensed a massive opening in the ocean floor, wide enough to fit Castle Moondial with space to spare. He sank down, down, down the cavernous opening for a long time, long enough to feel stabbing pangs of hunger. Or was it thirst? It had been so long since he last ate or drank anything. Surely he would die from thirst, surrounded by water, he thought bitterly. At least Legion and Tzik-Enu will be happy together.
'Stop feeling sorry for yourself, or we'll kill you and put us all out of your misery,' Legion threatened. The embarrassed shock was enough to dissuade Raf from continued self-pitying.
Eventually, the yawning cavern turned and bent in a U, and for the first time in a long time, Raf saw light drifting down from above. But how? He was well below the trench. No sunlight could reach this place.
With Sophia's assistance, Raf swam toward the light source. It was far in the distance, and the cavern bent again, but then he saw it, blinding light from an impossible pocket of air, deep below the ocean floor. He floated to the surface and broke it, entering a new alien world, the Time Dragon's Hollow.