Warden
As she started to move around a little, there was a noted reaction from the other side of the cave. The Veil stopped and turned its head to face Fawn, it seemed to regard her slight wriggling with relative disinterest. It carried on with its odd pattern, moving parts of previous victims from one area of the cave to another.
It appeared to be making an order of some kind. Its huge, dense body made a very imposing silhouette against the backdrop of the cave itself: moving like a swarm of snakes that had common purpose, its muscles and sinew rolling and sliding around under its thick hide. Its movements were effortless and fluid. Its claws were clicking fairly lightly on the stone floor as it moved around, leaving small inclusions on the smooth surface.
Between Fawn and the Veil there was a pool, its water reflecting silver and dark gray in the low light leaking through distant cracks in deep rock. There were some stalagmites strewn about the edges, sitting matte and unreactive to the environment. In the far corner of the cave, on the same side as the Veil and furthest from Fawn, there was a crumpled mass of dark leather. There were some sharp, curved implements protruding from the pile, in a random way. Occasionally, the Veil would move itself to the pile, contemplate it for a moment, then go back to what it was doing.
Fawn was growing very cold and feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Her skin felt grimy against the crude, dirty clothing she was still tolerating.
She started moving slowly toward the strange pool. As she moved carefully down the light incline she was sitting on, it started to feel a little bit like she was just taking a bath in a pool, under a tree or something.
As her feet lost grip on the incline, she rattled down the stony surface. Immediately, the Veil looked up and made a calm, slow, clicking noise. It threw its left arm up into the ceiling, cutting into it. A small rain of stone fragments fell out of the cut, and into the pool.
Fawn froze, and looked up to see the creature making its way across the ceiling. So smooth, so focused, like nothing she had ever seen before this shocking day. The creature carried on across the ceiling, toward the petrified girl. As it did, there was a constant tirade of broken stone falling from every inverted step it took, shredding the solid stone like it was nothing more than soft timber.
As Fawn saw it draw closer, she felt all her muscles spasm, her body was trying to make a reflex escape movement. Before she could stop herself, she sprung to her feet and shot backward against the rock. Moved by pure adrenalin, and feral force, she impacted the rock wall behind her, taking the force on her shoulders. The effect of slamming into the wall moved her upper body forward, in a lurch. She instinctively threw her feet back against the wall, propelling herself out, and upward toward the ceiling.
All to get away from the incoming Veil, so fast and accurate were her movements, that it caused the Veil to move with a start. It withdrew its right hand and swung from its feet and left hand as the girl leaped past it. Because she had no idea where she was aiming to land, there was no clarity to the focus of her jump.
She began to fall toward the water. With a smooth movement, the Veil caught her small, frightened body as she fell, securing her, just before the surface of the water. It clicked slowly, as it wrapped its powerful claws around her, cradling her light frame against their blood-tarnished edges.
As she felt herself land against the palm of its hand, Fawn twisted, feeling every part of her body twitch in panic. The sudden movement caught her elbows, knees and feet against the jagged razors of the creature’s claws, slicing her in several places at once. She screamed, and froze, totally aghast.
Devoid of any ideas on how to escape, thoughts of terror raced through her head.
I’m going to die and be EATEN!
She began to cry, sobbing just as a terrified child would. As her blood spilled from the cuts that riddled her soft skin, she felt her will to struggle start to fade.
Moving quickly, the creature placed her down on the hard surface beside the pool. As it inverted its hand, it turned its claws suddenly from her path and dropped her on her side.
The fall proved rough, bruising her left shoulder and hip, and very nearly her whole side in the process. As she fell from its grasp hard onto the stone, it shocked her out of the despair that had begun.
Snapped back to reality, she turned to look at the creature. Slowly but steadily, the Veil moved its head down to where she was lying––bleeding and bruised. It tilted its head slightly, its mouth closed and eyes half lidded, and proceeded to examine her closely.
As the animal’s head moved in closer, Fawn felt her thoughts returning and tears subside.
Why hasn’t it killed me?
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She risked rolling onto her back. The stone was freshly cold against her, but it was at least smooth. Holding perfectly still, she dared to look back at the huge, dangerous creature bearing down on her. Meeting its enormous silver eyes, she shook visibly. As the creature drew closer still, it moved more slowly.
Eventually, it held itself at roughly her arm’s-reach away. Then gradually, it brought its legs and arms together underneath itself, resting down on the stone in front of her and relaxed its eyes.
Her mind began to swim with possibilities. Some of the thoughts were strange.
It saved me on purpose, but why?
She found herself with what felt like forever to think, in the fleeting moments she had.
While she was thinking, the Veil didn’t move. It just sat still and watched her, occasionally blinking its outer lids slowly.
After what felt like more time than she had ever waited, Fawn turned her attention to her injuries. With the apparent threat abated, she took a moment to wrap small pieces of her disheveled garments around her various wounds, working to keep herself as calm as she could.
The hulking pitch-black creature that shimmered gray when it moved, seemed content to simply watch her, occasionally sniffing at the air around her—turning its head from side to side and looking at her from different angles, as though it were regarding something unusual.
Having taken the time to dress her injuries, Fawn curled herself against the wall behind her, staring at the extremely hazardous animal, which at some moments seemed almost ... tame in its stillness.
With the images of those she had seen brutally slain so fresh, it was hard to imagine what she was looking at could make any sense. The creature would breathe vast, gradual breaths from time to time, like those of a sleeping giant. It seemed to need very little air, and kept a slow, steady pulse. Its state was that of something hibernating in a way that could come, and go, on a whim.
After enough time had passed, there was a feeling of acceptance in the air. A small girl curled up against a rock wall, trying not to stand out, and a large predator resting comfortably on the floor, calm and serene—a hunter, after the hunt.
With no time to clean, feed or water herself, Fawn could feel the grit under her nails and in her clothes. She could smell the results of her fear, strewn through her undergarments. Her thoughts went to the others she had seen, and smelled, experiencing fear as she had. The dried blood tightening her skin was becoming more prevalent than the areas that were clean.
Finally, the foul feeling was too much for her and she began to summon the courage to move toward the water again.
As she moved forward, she noted the creature was still in its slumbered state. She had no trouble moving past it in silence, moving herself across the surface without any missed steps, or shuffling.
As she reached the water, its odd shimmering caught her eye. She saw in its reflection that the creature was already behind her: it had moved so quietly that even she had not noticed.
Her pulse jumped as she realized that she had not managed to evade its senses, but in fact, it must have moved in much the same moment as she did.
“Oh!”
I can’t even get past it when it’s sleeping. I might never get away if it always knows when I’m moving.
She found herself shaking in its presence.
It moved again with a calmed sense of purpose, slowly toward its small captive. It closed in on her small, shaking frame, strode over her and made its way back to the other side of the cave, moving things back and forth. Eventually, there came a moment when the creature was done with its housework-like activities.
It gathered the remnants of flesh and skin from the ground, and parceled them in one hand. Stripped of all bones, they didn’t resemble body parts at all. In a swift sequence, it passed over the wall it had come in through, and out into the cavern network, taking with it all the putrid components of what once were people.
Watching as the creature took away the remains of her would-be assailants, Fawn couldn’t help but feel that she might have more in common with the dark predator than she did with the humans she grew up with. It was the most dangerous thing she had ever seen, but felt almost ... familiar.
Prominent within her feeling, was the shadowed possibility that she may have met the one thing that could stand against the Soldiers. The idea that she may have been saved from her human fate by an animal, was both strangely comforting, and yet, awfully lonesome.
Feeling entombed within an enormous cavern made home by a huge and dangerous predator, was not helping all that much either. With the space to think for herself, she made her way down to the silver pool and began to use its waters to clean her feet and hands. It was a welcome relief from the endless feeling of filth she had come to tolerate as normal.
As her extremities came clean, the cool, soothing nature of the water became increasingly appealing. Given some time had gone by, she was beginning to feel more like herself again. She slid her legs into the calm water and carefully moved her arms to drop her clothes off a piece at a time.
Letting them fold into the pool, she watched the circles of dust and oil expand from each piece of crumpled cloth as it fell and soaked in the pool.
With all her outer clothes soaking, she gradually moved her underclothes past the cuts and grazes on her arms and legs, and over the wounds on her feet.
Letting her body relax again without the coarse fabric, so harsh and abrasive against her skin, she sat on the edge of the pool dabbling her feet and legs in the water, comfortable with no rags on and free to wash her whole body.
There was no one to judge or chastise her here. It was the first time she had felt a tender touch in so long, even if it was only her own.
As more time went by, her growing confidence allowed her to move further down the side of the pool, feeling the cool and calming water make its way over her.
Easing her strained muscles and settling the burnt feeling on her skin was a welcome relief. Eventually, she gathered enough fortitude to let herself wade into the water. It was colder as she got further in but still held the same clarity, and the silvered effect remained steady from all angles. As she moved around in the pool, she could feel the water pressing in on her skin and abdomen. At its deepest point, the pool reached under her ribs.
She enjoyed the light pressure against her stomach, it seemed to make her hunger less pressing. Under her feet she could feel the stone was very smooth, although her little toes found tiny cracks in the surface as she walked across: too small for anything much to pass through, but just enough that she could feel the occasional ebb and flow of the water moving in and out through them.
The flow of water was so slight that one might miss it entirely, if not for the heightened sensitivity of raw skin—from too much running on burnt, abrasive dust.
Feeling increasingly comforted, she crouched in the pool and was able to wash her hair as well as the rest of her body. The feeling of cleanliness was such an improvement over her recent days that she might have fallen asleep, if not for the accumulating cold from being immersed for so long.
–Garrick M Lynch–