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Kale
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Chapter Fifty-Nine: Narok
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Present Time
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Dreams fill my mind, flashes of images, glowing eyes in the abyss, the very essence of my existence vibrating. There is a pull from the dreams, the images becoming blurred as I am dragged back towards the realm of reality. Soon the contents of what I have seen elude me, no matter how hard I try to grasp them, they slip away.
I hear the demon Valka’s voice whispering into my head now as my body stirs.
Arise Champion of the Abyss
A dripping noise near my head is the first thing my ears take in. My body aches as though it has been hammered with blunt objects. My eyes open slowly, taking in the light. I am in a cave of some kind, I can barely make it out with what wraps my head. The only light source is from a crack in the ceiling of the cave, making a large fissure. Water trickles down the sides of it from above, slowly dripping into puddles below. The air is thick, and there is something sticky on my skin. It takes me a moment, but I realize I am upside down. There is a small pain in my chest, and the areas surrounding it throb dully.
I try to shift my body, but whatever wraps my face also wraps my torso and legs, making it difficult to move. There is a heavy stench in the air, putrid like the smell of decomposition. My mind tries to parse what is going on, questioning where I am, how I got here, where are Arrum and the others. What happened with the Black Edict, the last thing I remember…
Before I can even think further on it, I hear a loud hissing noise accompanied by some kind of vibrations that rattle the thick air. It is coming from further down the cave, echoing towards me. There is an eerie thudding of movement. The hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise as my heart beats faster, the movements are not from a person, but from a creature of some kind.
It reminds me of the Emperor Scorpions from the Colosseum, except the thudding is less abrasive and smoother in its rhythm. Sekat. It is almost here. I take a deep breath and try to find the calm as my eyes grow wider. The ends of massive, curved hairy legs jut out from the shadows, I can see thick joints that allow the legs to bend. My heart slows with the slower exhale of breath, in defiance of the fear that wishes to grip me.
The creature hisses again, the large hairy legs retracting back into the shadows, a shuffling of thuds back from where it came. There is a roar of some kind, from another creature in the distance. Now is my chance. I thrash in the sticky fibers that hold me, managing to get my arm free enough to slide down to my waist, where I have a small blade hidden inside the belt clasp. Turning the blade on the fibers, I begin to cut, they are tough, the blade barely sliding through each strand.
More noises in the distance, the loud hissing and strange vibrations again, and another roar—then a whimper. Sekat, my hands move faster, cutting into the fibers until my arm is fully out. I cut deep, cutting some of my flesh as I move the blade downwards. There is no time to be careful, I hear the now uneven tempo of the thuds once more. The sound of something large being dragged behind the hairy-legged creature. Amon’s voice slides into my mind in a low whisper.
Narok
Be still and wait for opportunity
My body grows still as it comes into view. Warm blood rolling down my cheek towards my hair. There is a deep whimpering coming from what the hairy legs drag behind it. My stomach churns as the rest of the beast comes from the shadows in the cave. In the old tongue, Narok means simply – Web Maker.
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Huge, bristled hairs all over its legs pluming from the joints, a massive abdomen that could fit six men inside it with room to spare. Each of its eight curled legs is longer than double my height. As large as the Emperor Scorpions were, perhaps even larger. I cannot make out its front half, it works upon that which thrashes on the ground.
The beast in its grasp weakly whimpers as the colossal spider begins to wrap it in its web. More roars from where the spider came from. It stops rolling the whimpering beast, hissing loudly, sending tremors into the ground by vibrating its massive body.
The blood that rolled from my cheek, to my hair now falls towards the ground, striking softly in a puddle. The spider freezes, then begins to slowly turn towards me, lifting up its front half. My eyes take in the horror of its existence. This creature before me is the thing of nightmares, from the hairy abdomen connects the large bent frame of a person that begins to bend upwards unnaturally, turning its gaze upon me fully now.
Grey skin with shorter bristling hairs line its man-shaped upper body, its face a demented creation that even the darkness would recoil from, eyes jut out from its forehead and cheeks, its mouth the hole in which horror itself was born. It tilts its head sideways at me unnaturally, my skin crawls as my heart begins to thud in my chest. It has an extra set of arms upon its torso, the hands extending into sharp pointed fingers that look like small spears.
Roaring from the other side of the cave echoes, and the thudding of heavy steps follows. The spider creature hisses, the fangs that attach to its face uncoiling as it turns and moves towards the noise. Amon’s voice rises in my mind again.
Now
My hand does not wait for my mind to catch up, it slides the blade as fast as it can through the webbing which binds my body. When my other hand is free, I manage to grab another blade from my boot. Barely able to grip it in the half-melted metal hand. Hacking and slashing in a fervor until I fall to the ground, there is pain as I stand. The gravity of this planet is a cruel mistress upon my bones. Still, I feel stronger than I did before. Enough so that I can move almost as well as I normally would.
I hear the beasts fighting in the distance, there is no time to think, I look around the cave seeing many bundles of webs tied in sacs strung to the ceiling. There must be something here, something I can use besides these small blades. There is a high-pitched squealing followed by a whimpering, much like the beast which lies still upon the floor, covered in web. This Narok will win, my gut tells me this. Sekat, think. My eyes adjust to the light as I look up to the fissure in the cave’s ceiling, there are vines growing at the edges of it. The fissure is small enough that the Narok won’t be able to follow. Amon’s voice comes into my head once more.
Climb
I run towards the side of the cave, grabbing at the rocky face of the cave wall. My half-melted metal hand pounds into the rock making a holding place for my flesh hand and my boots. I hear the hissing of the spider creature coming closer as I finally reach out to grasp the vine. Relief washes over me as it holds my weight. As I climb, I see the glint of something metallic in one of the bundles of webs. Blue hair coming from the holes in it, the frame of a large person tightly wrapped. There is only one person I have known with a shade of hair that color besides Lunara when she dyed it, Sekat. It is Kotina, I am sure of it, the size of the bundle makes it clear. I hear the demon Valka in my mind now, her voice not soft as she speaks loudly.
Leave them
You must survive
At any cost
I know that she is right, I know that I should leave Kotina and flee this place, it is the logical decision in an illogical world. My mind plays back to the memories of Kotina before I entered the city of Agora seeking Vadula – a worthy death. When she wore a similar expression that I wear now, one of contemplation. An expression which told me that she considered slaying me, the voice of reason saying it was logical to do so, yet she listened to the another voice. The same voice that speaks to me, not the voice of the vile demon Valka, but the voice every true warrior hears. The voice of honor. The voice that tells me she deserves a worthy death of her choosing, that she deserves to be more than the excrement of a monster.
I remember thinking when she spared me, giving me the tools to seek Vadula… in another life, I would have done the same for her. Valka’s voice rattles in my head once more as I swing the vine towards Kotina.
Do not Defy me
My hand grasps Kotina’s sticky bundle of web, cutting at the strings that attach it to the ceiling of the cave. I must try to save her, I owe her this much. She is not like the masters, she proved that much already. The last cord of webbing breaks under the blade, forcing me to drop the blade as I grab the sac that contains Kotina. Her weight is much more than I expected, I hear the servos in my metal arm protesting against the strain. My shoulder feels like it is tearing as I try to hoist her up, so that I might tie the end around me, letting me climb with both arms.
My stomach drops as the vine begins to pull towards the ground as the roots give way. Sending me into a pile on the ground. I hear Kotina groan, as her body begins to stir. She is alive still, good. My stomach finds an even deeper pit to fall into as I hear the hissing of the spider creature… its face peeling out of the shadows, its beady eyes all upon me. Sekat.