Scalisth watched the half-breeds run to the water like wild animals. He thought it was truly pitiful how the lost any semblance of order when the stream became visible. He sighed and continued walking forward while the group practically leapt headfirst into the water.

The forest had been rather quiet, much more so than he would’ve expected. Sure, the council planned the exit location in a relatively safe and secluded region, but the lack of activity was surprising to say the least. Scalisth had opened many gateways, as it was his job to do.

This was his first interplanetary gateway assignment, though, so he didn’t know if he should expect things to be mostly the same or very different. “This has been rather calm, serene, even. Not at all like that time with the disciples of Tora.”

In that assignment, he had unknowingly portalled the twenty barely trained disciples into a hellish, inhospitable region adjacent to the intended one. Out of the twenty sent, only five came back, with two of them dying within the same week.

Although the trip had been going well, Scalisth was beginning to worry about their pace. “Some of them can hardly move faster than a light walk. We might run a day or two behind schedule if this continues the whole trip.”

It was extremely important for the group to get there on time. The coming-of-age ceremony given to Altum children must be completed within an Altum week, or about twelve Earth days. Scalisth had never heard of someone refusing to do the ritual within the week, but he couldn’t imagine it would be good to delay it.

“I hope that my little helper kills a few more before they’re found out. It would speed things up to have less people and resources to keep up with.” Scalisth smiled deeply at the thought of walking up to the council and mournfully informing them that, despite his best efforts, the group of humans did not make the journey.

His thoughts wandered the myriad of ways the humans could be killed without him breaking his oath as he watched the pitiful creatures bask in the water.

///

“Everyone! Wait before you drink, this water may be contaminated!” Quentin shouted out as everyone practically sprinted to the stream. Most people slowed down and stopped, but a few were too blinded by thirst to ignore the tantalizing stream of life-saving liquid.

Those few continued on to the water while Quentin organized people to start a fire. We had all been travelling light, but each person was given something easy to hold as we made our way through the dense woods. I had a strand of braided plant fibers, but others were given small pieces of kindling and the like.

One person had found a curved bowl-like object while scouting in the woods. It didn’t seem naturally occurring and was likely some form of animal remains. Despite our reservations, though, it was our only way of raising water to a boil so that we could safely drink it.

“Olivia! Can you bring this and fill it with water?” I turned around and saw Nora walking over with the makeshift bowl. I hesitated for a second before nodding and grabbing the bowl. It was rough and bumpy to the touch with gradual curves.

“Is this bone?” I thought to myself as my hands ran along the bottom of the object. It was large, probably twenty centimeters in diameter. “What could produce a bone like this?”

Putting the thought aside, I made my way to the stream at a brisk pace. As I got closer, I could see three people standing in the water. One was knelt down taking handfuls to his face, another was throwing the water over her hair, and the last was waist deep in the stream splashing around in the refreshing liquid.

The stream itself had pretty clear water, and I was surprised to find that you could see to the bottom. “I guess this is what unpolluted water would look like naturally, huh?” I had never been outside the city walls, but I had seen pictures of natural water sources, and they were all dark and murky from pollution.

I knelt down at the riverbed a few meters upstream from the group, so my water wasn’t dirtied from their bodies. I collected my water and made my way back to the fire. I was only a few steps away when I heard the splashing of water becoming louder and louder. I whipped my head around to scold the idiots who acted before thinking.

When I did, though, I didn’t see any people standing in the water, all three of them gone. Startled, I walked closer to the riverbed to see if I could find them. I walked along the soft sand and grass as I made my way to where they had been. I looked into the water but couldn’t see anything.

“Wait, wasn’t this water crystal clear earlier?” I noticed that, instead of the water being see-through, it was clouded by brown dirt and debris. Realization struck me as I yelled out, “Help! We need people over here!”

Without thinking, I jumped from the shoreline into the shallow stream. My feet hit the bottom and I walked through the water, which went from as high as my ankle to submerging me to the waist. The stream was about fifteen meters wide, so I knew there weren’t a lot of places where they could be. I used the bottom of my feet to probe around while trying to feel for any organic matter lying on the riverbed.

Some people nearby had heard me and rushed over to see what was happening. Among them was Nora, who rushed over with two makeshift wooden spears in each hand.

“Olivia, what is it?” she said in a freaked-out voice.

“There were three people here and I don’t know where they went. I think they got stuck down there somehow.” I tried to project confidence to the others, but a hint of worry squeaked out at the end. Two men trudged into the water next to me, and we all began searching around for the three missing people.

“They’ve already been down there for thirty seconds! They might drown if we can’t find them!” I yelled to get everyone moving as fast as possible.

I felt something soft hit my foot and I stopped and yelled out, “I think I found someone! Here, help me get them up!” I held my breath and ducked into the water, using my foot as a guide for my hands to find the object. Within a second, my hands found flesh and I pulled as hard as I could upwards.

Surprisingly, I felt a ton of resistance on the other end, fighting me from pulling the body up. When the other two got there, though, they were able to help me lift the body out of the water. When the form emerged from the water, though, it wasn’t human.

A thick appendage, bulging with fibrous muscle, flailed out of the water, thrashing around wildly. From what I could see, the tentacle was as tall as a person, with dark brown flesh that pulsed with every movement. It got dangerously close to my face, and I felt a searing sting strike my right arm as it brushed past me.

“Holy shit!” one of the men next to me said as we all fell backwards to avoid the wild movement of the arm. It slowed its wild movement as the tip, which I now noticed was a sharpened point, and it sat above the surface of the water in a rhythmic sway.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It wasn’t still for long as the tip turned toward me and sped forward with blinding speed. I ducked my head backward, dodging the sharp tip, but the mass of the arm still struck my chin, sending me flying back and into the water. I felt the cold liquid envelope me as I was still reeling from the blow. I tried to stand up, but my feet couldn’t find the ground and I was stuck splashing in the slow current.

My back found the ground first, and I twisted my body to plant my legs below me, shooting towards the surface with a powerful kick. My face breached the water’s surface, and I took in a deep gasp of air. Right as I broke the surface, though, I felt something strong wrap around my ankle and pull hard, sending me right back under the water’s surface.

I was pulled quickly along the bottom of the riverbed, my back crashing into small rocks, bruising my skin or cutting it on a sharp edge. I screamed out in pain, but closed my mouth when I realized I was wasting air. I used my free foot to kick at the appendage holding me, but the water reduced the force behind my blows to be nearly nonexistent.

“I won’t last much longer down here, and all of this moving is just draining my oxygen further.” I tried to calm down, but the adrenaline was rushing through my blood, increasing my anxiety, and causing my heartbeat to pound quickly in my chest. “Wait, maybe I have a way out!”

Knowing I had no other alternative, I bent forward and got my hands wrapped around the pulsing flesh wrapped around my ankle. The bladed tip had dug into my shin and the tentacle was lodged in too deeply to remove by force.

Focusing on my drumming heartbeat wasn’t easy, as my focus was easily disrupted by a rock gouging into my skin. I was too panicked to precisely control my willpower, so instead I tried to send it all outward with as much force as possible. I felt a burn in my chest as I overworked my internal energy, but I could feel a pulse of Will push outward from my chest, through my arms, and into the writhing mass dragging me under the water.

I felt elated when the limb stopped pulling as hard, flinching from the impact. My excitement died out, though, when it resumed pulling me down, somehow with even more force than before. I then felt a rebound similar to when I prodded Scalisth’s Will as a wave of force thrashed throughout my body.

My grip failed and my hands let go of the tentacle as I reeled backwards from the impact to my Will. If Scalisth’s retort was like a sucker punch to the gut, then this one was like a wild haymaker, sending pain searing throughout my body.

With all of my cards exhausted, I had no other options but my hands and feet to fight this beast. It seemed that my time was up, though, as I could see I was quickly approaching a large mass submerged in the deepest part of the stream. I had thought the water was only a meter or so deep, but from what I could tell, there were deeper spots hidden in the middle of the water.

Struggling against the pain pulsing through me, I gathered all the remaining strength I had, using my nails, and grabbing at the limb as much as I could to deal as much damage as possible. All of my efforts were in vain as my hands easily slipped on the slick surface of the beast’s skin, causing little to no damage to my attacker.

Try and try as I might, there was nothing I could do to stop this creature from drowning me under the surface of the water as everyone watched in horror. I began to slip back into the nihilistic mindset I had before coming to Altus, feeling my concern for my life fade away along with the air in my lungs.

I could see in my vision that I was nearly to the dark shape, which grew in size with every passing second. “Ah, I’m going to die here. I guess this is what I get for trying to play hero. Why did I just jump into the water without thinking first?” A passing rock struck me in the ribs, knocking most of the remaining air from my lungs.

I thought that drowning was supposed to be peaceful, but this was anything but calm. I felt a squeezing pain in my chest as my lungs begged for air, my body unable to provide it. “If I only lasted this long, then the others must’ve been dead for some time now. That’s a real kick in the nuts, coming here to save them only to die alongside them.” I became resigned to my fate, succumbing to the beast’s strength.

Just before the light left my eyes for the last time, I felt a disruption in the flow of the water. A shockwave then flew through the water, sending me hurtling backwards. A torrent of water struck me from below, sending me flailing in a different direction, completely confusing me.

After a second or two, the water was still flowing ferociously, and I was being tossed around like a ragdoll. Amidst the raging currents of water, I felt my body suddenly become weightless as I no longer felt the water flowing around me. I was then lifted upwards out of the water, the waves crashing below me.

I coughed up the water in my lungs and heaved as deep of breaths as I could manage, barely filling my lungs with air. My vision began to return to me, and I looked down over the river I had been under just seconds before. I caught a hint of movement in my peripheral vision and saw three other figures hanging limply above the water as well. Two of them, a man, and a woman, were also coughing up water. The third, a smaller man, was still hanging in the air, no sign of movement present.

The water finally began to calm down, and I noticed that the water level had fallen dramatically, to the point where there were areas of once submerged sand exposed to the open air. I moved my eyes to look towards where I thought I had been near the middle of the stream. Floating halfway outside of the water was a giant mass of brown flesh swaying with the motions of the water beneath it.

The beast had four tentacled limbs, each of them as thick as my torso at the base. All of the appendages were connected by a large, round base of flesh with no discernable features. I looked down and saw that only the bladed portion of the tentacle that grabbed me was still there, the remaining portion cut off near the tip.

I felt my body shift as I was slowly hovered back towards land. A figure entered my peripheral vision, and I saw Amaya looking on with a shocked expression. As I floated closer, she put her arms out and grabbed me. This released whatever force was holding me, causing me to fall heavily to the floor, my legs collapsing under my weight.

“Holy shit, Olivia! Are you okay?” I looked up at her face, glowing in the soft morning sunlight. I took a few more rejuvenating breaths before my eyes focused on her own, her dark grey orbs looking back at me.

“I’m… alright, I think.” I said with some difficulty. She nodded and offered her hand to help me up, but I waved her off.

“I’m… going to need a minute.” I said softly, letting my head fall back into the plush grass. I heard a few voices murmur in awe and surprise, but I let them slip away as I felt the adrenaline continuing to surge through my veins. It was numbing my pain, for now, but I didn’t know how long it would last.

I took the next minute to calm down and breathe, relaxing my body and allowing myself to catch my breath. Eventually, I felt good enough to sit up, and Amaya, who had stayed next to me the whole time, helped me do so.

The first thing I asked was, “Is everyone else alright?” Amaya smiled for a second before it fell slowly into a frown.

“Two of them made it. The other one…” She cut off and turned to look over at a crowd of people a few meters away. I looked as well and saw almost everyone present gathered around a person on the floor who convulsed every second or so.

Between the legs of the people present, I could see a man with short black hair and broad shoulders pushing on the downed man’s chest, looking more and more desperate with every push.

“He’s already dead,” Amaya said, finishing my thought for me. “Been that way since Scalisth dragged you all out of the water.”

I looked back to her and asked, “It was Scalisth that saved us?” She nodded but didn’t say anything. I felt shocked, then relieved, and then angry as I realized what that meant.

“If he could’ve done that the entire time, what was he doing while we were fighting for our lives, huh? That bastard…” I cut myself off as I strained my body to stand up and move. Amaya tried to keep me sitting down, but a mix of anger and lingering adrenaline gave me the boost I needed to get up.

I scanned the crowd and saw my savior standing far away from the crowd, his gaze somewhere in the distance. “That bastard isn’t even worried,” I thought to myself. With uneasy steps, my soggy shoes slapped against the soft ground as I marched toward him. He didn’t even look at me, even as I was less than two meters away.

I raised my hand and swung as hard as I could, trying to hit him in the nuts, since I couldn’t reach his face. Without even looking at me, his hand came down and grabbed my wrist, twisting it away from his body. I groaned in pain, shooting him a death glare as I struggled against his grip.

His size wasn’t just for show, it seemed, as his grip on my arm was like iron, and I couldn’t move in the slightest. It was only now that he deemed me worthy of his attention as his eyes lazily moved over to me.

“You dumb bastard!” I yelled out, “Why wait? You had to know what was happening even if we didn’t!” I swung out with my other arm, trying to get him to release me.

I didn’t even get close as an invisible wave of force met my swing, stopping my punch and twisting my wrist at an odd angle. I grunted in dulled pain as I reeled backward, holding my arm to my side.

The alien bastard finally spoke, saying, “Quentin is twice your size, and even he hesitated to strike me. What makes you think you’d do any better than he could?” His voice wasn’t concerned, but mildly curious, as if he truly couldn’t understand why I tried to hit him.

I didn’t respond, instead choosing to yank my held arm backwards in an attempt to free it. Scalisth’s grip loosened as he let me go, my momentum sending me careening towards the floor again. From behind, I could hear Amaya calling out to me, but I ignored her as I glared at the inhuman before me.

///