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Kale
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Chapter Sixty-Six: Ata
Planet: Etheria
Location: Planet's surface, inside a cave
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Present Time
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Kotina's eyes have not left me since she told me to continue my story of the slaying of Adonius. My jaw moves side to side as my mind races, trying to think of a solution. Sekat.
“Well, spit it out already.” Kotina says, moving closer still “Or I’ll…”
She whips her head to her left toward the cave’s entrance. My eyes follow, but they see nothing. It is strange though, the sounds of the feral growls have ceased, when did they stop? I was so focused on what was happening I didn’t even notice. To my right, near the cave’s mouth, a puddle on the ground is vibrating slowly in an even cadence.
Putting my bare hand to the ground, I feel the tremors now, like something is…
The earth and stone vibrate beneath me, and my heart increases its tempo. Dust sprinkles down from the ceiling, Kotina turns from me towards the noise, slowly rising, her head tilting at it.
“Ravena’s taint… that’s a big bastard.” Kotina says, rolling her neck, her helmet folding from the shoulders and covering her head as she moves towards the back wall of the cave, placing a foot against it and crouching low “Feel the flow.”
Air cracks as the sound barrier ruptures, the rock wall spindles with cracks, and there is a flash of movement as Kotina erupts from the cave into the darkness. The ground shakes as she impacts with something outside.
“Slaggin hells, you’re an ugly bastard too!” Kotina yells.
The outside of the cave rocks with a heavy thud. The face of the creature is illuminated in the light of the formations. It looks like a man who was birthed by a beetle, with hard chitin around its face, its eyes look more insectoid than a man, and it has a large bulbous body with hairs jutting out from the cracks in the thick plating of its exoskeleton. Its size is more than ten of Kotina, it lets out a shrill squeaking as it tries to get back up.
Kotina punches its face, slamming it against the wall, dusting the air. She pounds it again and again until it is still, and she is coated in its gore. She breathes heavily as she shakes the gore from her, removing her helmet. The creature is dragged slowly into the shadows by the feral yipping growls.
“Well, waste not want not I guess,” Kotina says, a disgusted smirk on her face.
She moves back towards me, then stops suddenly, her smirk falling from her face as she slowly turns from me to the darkness outside once more.
The growls outside have stopped suddenly as well, there is silence, eerie silence. The hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise as the puddles in the cave tremor once more. This time the cadence is much slower, a deep rumbling of the earth, shaking dust into the air from the ceiling.
Kotina extends her hand outwards, as though she is calling something to it. Her eyes blink fast, looking down at her hand.
“Goddess, I’m sorry about the taint comments, but I really need my Edict,” Kotina says, looking skywards now.
Nothing happens still. She looks at me now.
“We need to…” she begins.
Suddenly everything begins shaking violently, like a series of explosions going off continuously. From the ceiling of the cave, rocks tumble downward as cracks form in it. Kotina grabs me in a split second, my body feels the tug, my insides slamming from the force of the movement. We are outside now, she is running faster than I have ever seen anyone run before, clutching me under her arm.
The wind pulls my hair back, making it hard to even breathe.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Goddess!” Kotina roars over the howling winds, extending her other hand outwards. Still, nothing happens.
The light of day begins to crest the horizon, breathing life into the shadow’s forms. The thousands of deformities that chased us before are all gone, having retreated from it. Yet the tremoring of the earth continues to rise higher, as I turn my head back towards the sounds, my eyes bulge.
More than a hundred meters into the sky, eyes larger than the Narok spider’s entire body stare down at us, connected to the body of a creature I do not recognize. It’s neck long, connected to a shell of some kind.
Four legs as tall as skyscrapers from the masters’ cities, the legs push it higher into the air. As it moves upwards, the hills shear under its movements. On its body thick vegetation grows, dangling like false hair, scraping the ground as the creature rises from it, as though it had been hibernating beneath it, long enough for trees to take root on its back.
The creature lets out a roar that could rend the heavens, and I feel my eardrums nearly burst from the force of it. How can such a creature exist? My eyes take in its shape and its mountainous size and do not believe what they see. How can such things be possible? Its pace is slow and steady, but the sheer size of its stride is closing the gap rapidly. From the sides of the creature, I see more beady eyes coming into view as it gains on us, hundreds of creatures like the one Kotina just killed cling to its massive legs like fleas.
Sekat.
The creature slams its head against hills as it moves forward, filling the skies with boulders and debris.
“Kotina!” I yell, grasping her arm tightly, if I let go, I will surely die.
She turns her head, eyes growing wider. Curses sling from her mouth as she tries to dig deeper, she looks at me, and I can see in her eyes she is debating leaving me. My jaw tenses, waiting for her to shake me off like the burden I am. I will not try to cling, she has saved me enough already, and my honor cannot handle the strain of owing her more. My hand releases its grasp on her arm, I will not be the reason she dies here, not after she gave me the chance for a worthy death. Her jaw tenses as she grips me firmer, not letting me go, turning her focus ahead of her.
“Leave me…” I begin, speaking loudly over the wind.
Why does she not leave me? My stomach twists into knots. Will I be the death of us both? Before I can wallow further the ground rains down the debris around us. Kotina dodges boulders left and right, digging deeper, bounding from the ground to leap over them. As she leaps between them, she pushes off of them trying to gain momentum. Every time a rock comes towards me, she rolls her shoulder to take the brunt, denting her armor.
“I am slowing you down!” I yell over the wind.
“Shut up—runt!” she replies, another slew of curses falling into the wind.
A massive hill-sized clump of rock and dirt hurtles towards us, casting a shadow behind it as she runs towards the horizon. My head turns forward, my eyes squinting against the wind, she runs towards a cliff.
“Deep breath!” she yells as she leaps from the edge of it.
My lungs draw in as much air as they can, my eyes search below us and see the snaking river at the base of a thundering waterfall. As we move through the air, behind us the cliff gives way, the earth being shoved down towards gravity. Kotina pulls herself around me like a cocoon, tucking my head into her shoulder and wrapping her arms around my head.
We strike the surface of the water with so much force I almost lose consciousness. Kotina still clutches me, my eyes open in the depths as we are pressed down from the weight of the waterfall. Streaks of air ripple through the water as objects fall all around us. Broken pieces of Netherium glittering in the water, gliding through it like a knife.
Kotina’s grasp loosens, her body going slack, blood streaking the water with the debris. My hand feels her back, and something protrudes from it, in an instant I know it is Netherium, it sucks at my soul’s energy so greedily my eyes needn’t see it. Sekat. We are both going to die here. My heart thrashes, my mind races. Images of the memories Amon showed me flash in my mind. The energy and the air in the memory were pushed away by the being using Ata. Maybe I can...
Energy cascades from my chest into my veins and down towards my appendages. More… feel the flow. The being swathed in purple light’s words flowing into my mind, the thousands of thoughts condensed in between the syllables rising up, becoming meaning.
Ata
Push, Expand… feel the flow. Water torrents around us, my one good arm clutches Kotina, light swells in my Kuwathi eyes, bioluminescence exploding as the force of my will is made manifest. I feel it now. The rhythm. I can feel the source, endless, boundless… flashes of images, a being with glowing silver eyes standing in defiance of absolute darkness. My mind presses back to the present, the heat fills my body. I must push everything away… push all of the water back.
With the last of my air, I scream “Ata!”
The steady flow opens like a floodgate, energy rippling through my body, pouring from the void within, seeking meaning in my will. Purple light moves from my chest to my appendages. Water rushes around us, but I can’t control the flow, it is wild, combining with the fires of my soul, burning my body, filling me with pain.
Right as I am about to find the true meaning, time dilates, the water pressing back as though being pushed by some unseen force. Is it me? No, there is something else pressing it. The rays of dawn's light glide down to meet us as the water parts, held back by the force which I can feel, but not see. Above me, I see a man floating in the air in defiance of gravity. He slowly moves down towards me, my eyes squint in confusion as they take him in… it is Keeper Dargo.
“Two bounds and a Legacy. My, you have been busy boy.” Dargo says, though his face does not wear a half grin or a smirk, it is placid as his eyes search for meaning in mine.
“Keeper...” I say. The pain in my body grows as the flow continues to press outwards. Did he take us here as Kotina suspected, how was he floating, is he controlling the flow of the river?
To my sides the waters gently glide by, like a bubble of gravity is distorting its natural flow, parting them. Dargo’s jaw tenses as he looks at the purple light coming from my arm. His hand reaches out and grasps my arm, I feel pressure pushing the energy back towards my heart. There is finally relief.
“Sleep,” Dargo says.
Darkness swallows my eyes as I am pulled to the Realm of Dreams.