Ch: 128 Ring Of Fire… *sigh*
Shai made one last check on her breakfast preparations and turned to head upstairs, leaving Axio on the piano bench, tinkling the keys in curiosity.
At that moment she felt something on the edge of her perceptions, something approaching the front door, nothing human. The coldly alien sense of three large, living entities skulking silently up to her door set her nerves on edge.
“Fear not, they mean no harm.” Axio sang, off rhythm but in a very fine key. “I sense them as well, though through my mycelial connection to the roots of every plant in this home and now, this region.”
While the fungus spirit spoke, she felt the creatures withdraw, back beyond the range of her unnatural senses.
“They did leave sommat behind…” She whispered as she opened the door. In the darkness three huge, hairy tarantula backsides vanished silently among the reeds and bushes. Three large, lumpy, silver bags of spider silk hung from the eaves of the porch, gently swaying in the mist.
She closed the door with a shudder. “I’ll nae be touching that noisome mess… the boy kin sweep that down when he rises.” She grumbled.
“Aren’t you a little curious as to what is inside?” The grave guardian asked with delight. “May I look?”
At Shai’s unhappy nod he scampered off and pulled one down, snapping the cunningly woven thread with ease, once he gave it a spin. “This is no simple cocoon! He squeaked with excitement while fiddling with the thing.
He gleefully pulled a skeeter carapace toggle from the flap on the top and opened the spider crafted satchel. “Oh goodness! Skeeter venom sacks! And so many of them!”
Axio plucked one of the vile purple things from the bag and rushed over to show the disgusted smith. “See, so fresh and plump! Gary will be very excited!”
“Aye… tis a princely haul of noxious bug parts, that dinnae ease my mind on this.” The usually unflappable smith looked harried and exhausted. “What hae he wrought now Axio? Does some new foolishness unwind from his madness?”
“Go up to bed Journeyman Shai, the living need rest. I think you will find your mate there; most likely, he will be much improved, as well.” Axio plucked another silken bag down from the porch with a smile and wave to the bedraggled woman. “I will attend to these.”
#
The boy was much improved, everything else was pretty upsetting though.
“It’s Thirp, really… you can come out.” Gary cajoled, standing beside the creature, with a friendly arm around it.
She was nearly doubled in size, and now a pearly white that nearly glowed. All six legs were tapping in a staccato beat as she nearly pranced with joy. Her humanoid torso rose seamlessly from her spider body, also coated with gleaming white fur. Two firm mounds on her chest suggested the feminine, seeming strangely appropriate on the hybrid creature.
Two long, slender, arms emerged from her brand new shoulders, with elegant, eight fingered hands. She waved her new appendages over her harp with effortless grace, coaxing that familiar voice from her harp.
Her mandibles shone with silver and gray light and dripped shining droplets of silver venom when she got excited. She was very excited.
“I am still working on this whole mouth and lungs thing, it’s very complicated. I think if I had not possessed you a few times it would be impossible.” Her harp was still doing most of the talking but she had a passable start on making mouth music too.
When Shai finally stepped out, the human spider hybrid scuttled close for a hug. “See? My aspect has changed, not my essence. My power grows, soon I will have a number of guises to wear.”
It took some explaining and some fast talking from Gary, to get Shai up to speed.
“So Thirp is the patron goddess of a new species of sentient, civilized spiders. That’s just how new sentient races form, by accident and in ways that are totally not my fault…”
It was pretty impressive, Marduk and Thirp both enjoyed the display of human pairbond interaction, on a purely academic level of course…
“We should have snacks for this…” Amy muttered quietly, sitting on Thirp’s back and hugging her human torso tight.
“Shh! He’s ‘splaining again.” Wilford whispered.
“Those sacks were probably an offering for Thirp… cause our house is kinda her temple too.” He smiled and waved his hands helplessly under her furious gaze. “Also not my fault…”
“Actually…” Thirp was smiling with her almost human face, smiling cruelly and with delight. “Those were an offering, but not to me.” Her giggle was very human, so human that Shai caught it too.
“They were gifted to ‘Deathshadow’, the pitiable shambling husk that serves as my vessel in this realm.” Now she was full on laughing, along with Marduk and Shai.
“Who’s that?” He asked in dimwitted amusement. “Wait… pitiable husk, that’s me?” Watching it sink in made the show all the sweeter.
Thirp’s obvious enjoyment made him uncomfortable, which only made the whole thing more delicious. She began preaching, using the classic ‘I’m gonna sermonize this’ tone of voice that every tv preacher had down pat.
“It is written, that in the first times, when the world was old, and our people’s minds and souls were new forged in the crucible of Garee, a dead shadow walked. In its wake, we learned music speech and writing…” She chirped happily, by rubbing her mandibles together.
“It goes on from there, detailing how you, a stupid but good hearted ‘twolegs’, fell into my web and became my desiccated, soulless slave, doomed to carry me over the land and spread my glorious word.”
Amy’s musical laughter joined along with the boys’, all the kids were enjoying this as well... “Tell him about the porphesey!” She sang out.
“That’s ‘prophecy’, darling.” Thirp was having entirely too much fun. “The silk of the scriptures is still new, but the tale is woven for all posterity, sorry, can’t change it.”
She took up her tale again, lecturing from an imaginary pulpit in true religious style.
“In the days of darkness, when the evil skeeter god, ‘He Who Slips From Webs’ feasted on the blood of twolegs and four with impunity, only we, the eightlegs held them accountable. It is written that the dark skeetergod’s minions roam the land, shrouded in stolen garments. They wander, seeking to taste the blood of poor helpless and hapless Deathshadow. Nospider shall allow them to approach him in peace.”
“What you’re saying is, wherever I go, there’s a good chance an intelligent spider is gonna be looking over my shoulder and thinking, ‘I pity that poor schmuck’?”
“That sums it up nicely. They will gift you with small offerings and slay any pesky bugs that might try for a taste.”
“Damn it Thirp… why am I part of your cult too? You know how I feel about religion… aww, man, you guys all suck!” He hugged his mate up and dragged her away, still grumbling about ‘Eight legged televangelists’ and ‘accidental baptisms’.
Upstairs, he fell back onto the bed in exhaustion. “Sorry love, I’ve been trash these last couple days and you and Becky have to pick up my slack. I’m back in the game now lover.”
She stood at the foot of the bed with her arms crossed, that was not promising. The look of mild displeasure on her face didn’t help either.
“The others, they do say ye did all but hurl yerself at that filthy slug demon. I hae still some gristle tae gnaw frae that bone, ere it go tae the dog.”
“Yeah, that was dumb, no excuses. I can’t even bullshit and claim that I knew I had immunity to most of its crud.” He grumbled sadly. “I just wanted to stab that shitstain so bad. I never had feelings like that before coming here.”
She stood there and let him jabber for a while, he was doing a good job of chewing himself out.
“What kind of a dumbass has the ability to identify outsiders and doesn’t take a second to read the info? Only an asshole with no sense.” He complained bitterly.
“If his abilities or my gifts went this way or that way just a little, I would be just a shiny new skellie in slugboy’s army of dumb-dumbs.” He burped quietly in frustration, indigestion still plagued him after eating that thing.
“I’d like to think that I would have been harder to digest, but man, that guy is nasty.”
With a gusty sigh, Shai turned about and flopped down beside him. “Very well boy, tis enough, ye may now begin makin it up tae me…”
“How will I ever do that?” He mumbled huskily, propped up on his elbow and toying with the nape of her neck with his other hand, just how she liked it.
#
Gary had been up since before dawn working ‘in the lab’ on his big bags of horrid bug parts. Liam and Tawny showed up just before sunrise, no doubt coming down to check on him. He put them to work instead.
“It’s gonna really mess with their religion when they figure out that I’m warded against skeeters, pretty much all the time.” He told Liam, who found the entire thing darkly hilarious.
“I’m sorry… but yeah. I can’t wait to see a spider pilgrimage to the holy site where you got eaten by a crawdaddy… will they build a temple there?” He snickered and laughed so hard he almost spilled the refined skeeter venom into the beeswax cauldron.
“Dude! No playing grabass in the workshop. Focus up.” Gary grumbled at his brother. “Pour that in this trough, I’ll knead in the duskmoon pollen and haunted plum sap, Tawny, get the wax ready.”
#
Morning dawned bright and clear for a change, sunbeams sparkled off the dew in a dazzling array of colors. The birdsong still held traces of their passage, sweetly musical and harmonious, but still effortlessly natural.
Breakfast in the garden with the whole group set the tone for a peaceful day’s ride. Gary’s appetite returned with a vengeance; since the slug fight he had eaten nearly nothing. He still had a enough padding to carry on with, but Shai had begun to worry.
Now he chomped and chewed his way through three plates of potato pancakes and a huge bowl of eggs and groundworm over rice… That was worrying too.
The crew formed up in the courtyard, ready to ride, but Gary was busy. He scampered around pressing a small, waxed leather case on each of them. Inside each, were a half dozen one inch squares of bright violet, waxy stuff.
“The new and improved Goblin Goo™, the big difference is that it kneads more quickly and gets more slippery. Liam’s new formula doesn’t need to ferment, so it smells good naturally.” He grinned happily. “Everybody carries some, let me know if you need more.”
“That stuff really worked.” Tallum said softly as he tucked his away. “Those knives were rusty and kinda gross, they didn’t even leave a scar.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Thank you for that!” Ivy sang out happily. “I like him pretty!”
“I’ve got some ideas for those gaps in your armor, bro. We’ll workshop it back in town.” Gary mumbled around a cold groundworm sausage. “Early lunch? I’m really hungry all of a sudden.”
“We’re still in the garden, dummy.” Becky shoved him into the mystery machine and jumped onto the bench seat. “Come on Sandi, let’s go.”
#
The blessed high priestess Spidertouched, led the way from her regal fourleg cart, as is proper. She and the blessed Deadminder, whose sad duty was to care for the broken one, were obviously the leaders of the sacred troupe.
As was prophesied, they rode away, leaving the sacred garden behind. She sighed softly with pleasure as she sighted even briefly, the pool where her mind had been born.
As the house and garden blew away in misty shreds, a huge jumping spider skittered into the fertile soil bed left behind and burrowed in, staking her claim on the bountiful patch of blessed earth.
#
Bennigan was on outrider duty with her partner, Cadwillow, ranging a scant quarter mile ahead for trouble. In the distance she spotted movement, something blue…
“Riders approaching, I’ll get a better look, wait here.” She leapt from her saddle and scurried up a tree with animal grace. Dangling from a bough sixty yards up she shouted down. “It’s those weird kids with the pony cart, moving fast… too fast!”
She slid down the enormous trunk and slipped back into the saddle without a pause. “Let’s get back.”
#
About fourth bell, Dannyl came racing back on Tater, her long legs ate up the road at a furious pace. “Riders coming in fast, really fast…” He gasped.
“...five minutes, maybe less. Saw me, blew a signal horn. It sounded like ‘relief force incoming’. I couldn’t make out the banner.”
“There was a banner and they did signal… but let’s get ready anyway kids. Screening formation, support team get your spells ready. No Mercy!”
They echoed his call nicely and fell in quickly. The kids were in the cart, with the covers down. Gary was in the driver’s seat with Becky and Shai riding flank. Dannyl was leading the cart and Ivy riding trail with shaggy Otho the dog.
The screening force lined up, lances and spears ready. Tallum and Liam held the right flank with Khan and Bannock in the center with Herlick and Luna on the left.
They wheeled into a meadow, clearing the road for the party thundering their way. The Adventurers had only just gotten into formation when the other party hurtled into view. Twenty armored figures on sweat drenched horses pounded down the road, they flew into the clearing and heeled their mounts to confront the nervous party.
“Hi Jules! Where’re you in such a hurry to go?” Gary shouted happily.
Duke Juilus rode to the front, with his bannerman at his stirrup. “Gary… where were you lot riding so fast? We thought you were being pursued.”
“Nahh, we’re just… Urk!” He wobbled on the bench set and looked a little green. “Just heading back. Another successful contract… ohh, man.. S’cuse me Jules, I gotta…”
Khan had been furiously grooming his stache during the exchange to keep from grinning. Stubborn and conservative old Alex, the duke’s captain was slowly turning bright red while his liege chatted with a common vagabond.
The duke and his guard dismounted while Gary slid down and ducked into the bushes with a strange gait.
“Is he well?” Julius asked, while rubbing his lathered mount down and slowly walking her in a circle to cool off.
“Eldritch Diarrhea!” Amy and Becky sang out loud and proud, while Rio and Wilford shared a drum roll and a loud farting noise.
“I don’t like you guys!” A faint and tired sounding voice came from the nearby brush. “Conjure the house love… I’m gonna be a while.”
“I’ll send Axio tae check on thee… he will nae be bothered by the stench.” Shai shouted, with excessive glee.
“You mortals and your fixation with your biological inputs and outputs… it all goes back to the sea, wind and soil eventually.” The little spirit grumbled, as he strode off into the bush, following the trail of some distressing noises.
“Oh, That is alarming… the colors!” He cried out a moment later. “That looks caustic… does it hurt?”
“Yup” was the faint and pained reply from the woods.
#
How are we gonna do this?” Becky had her harp out and tuned, ready to back Shai’s play. “How much can we risk showing?”
Shai paused her tuning and thought for a moment. “Gary, Julius an his troop be here…” She shouted into the trees and shrubbery. A few moments later, Axio stumbled out of the bushes and strode over.
“He says go over on the road and he’ll do what he can, try and distract them, he says: ‘The band will be out shortly.’
“Oh gods no…” Liam moaned theatrically, but he had his guitar out already and a smile on his face.
“Your grace, I sense an ominous presence building in the area…” Greta whispered from behind him.
“I sense it too. It’s uncanny and strange.” His bannerman whispered as well, looking nervous. Chuck was seldom unsure about anything.
“I’m sure nothing too strange will occur.” Jules chirped happily, while he and Nara braided his horse’s mane and tail.
A low, mournful whistle came from the woods, followed by the sound of a single acoustic guitar.
“I used to think this song was about love, or maybe someone who loves spicy food too much…” He called, still far away among the bushes, doing gods only know what.
While he was speaking, he also stepped out of the bushes; silently, save for the strumming of his guitar. Gary was craggy featured and lean, dressed in unrelieved black and singing in a rich, ragged bass register.
Love is a burnin' thing,
And it makes a fiery ring.
Bound by wild desire,
I fell into a ring of fire.
I fell into a burnin' ring of fire!
I went down, down, down,
And the flames went higher!
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire, the ring of fire!
The band of youngsters gathered on the roadside welcomed the strolling man in black into their jam session, as he continued his heartfelt, painful song.
The taste of love is sweet,
When hearts like ours meet.
I fell for you like a child,
Oh, but the fire went wild!
Shai swayed and danced through the band, using her violin as a conductor’s baton and wielding Gary’s gifts as her own. She could feel him manipulating things and arranging the house through their connection, while also making her more compelling and interesting.
It was an odd feeling, being under the gaze of everyone, strangely liberating and terrifying at once, like walking a narrow bridge over a great fall.
Flushed with excitement and exhausted by her conjuration she slowed her twirling flight and stilled the music.
The handsome smith woman whirled and spun through the crowd of surprisingly skilled musicians, stepping lightly at one moment, stomping her heels and toes to the beat in the next.
As she spun she became fascinating, beautiful, radiantly charismatic. Men and women alike watched her swirling, swaying movements lost in her performance as much as she.
The wild and unpredictable woman slowly spun to a stop, as her violin fell silent. She looked into the meadow behind her audience and smiled happily. “Aye, tis nicely done.”
Still in her thrall, the whole unit turned as one to look behind themselves.
“Huh, that was fast…” Alex muttered, while the duke giggled. A trio of campfires crackled and smoked just a little with a spit of groundworm sizzling over the flames. Each one was surrounded by logs, boulders and stumps, forming natural seating. An open sided cook tent nearby, held an iron stove and a cold storage chest.
Blankets and pillows were stacked neatly in hampers here and there. Hammocks and camp chairs scattered under the trees were very inviting to the saddle worn riders.
Their mounts were more interested in the haystack inside a rope corral and the pails of sweet smelling stuff nearby.
Of the madman there was no sign, just baskets and hampers of foodstuffs and comforts, in a lovely wayside camp. Birdsong and forest bugs carried on in harmony, wandering through their own sweet, wild songbook, accompanied by a splashing, babbling stream.
The strange man in black strolled away with a friendly wave, vanishing into a steam swathed bamboo thicket in the far end of the meadow.
“I’m fine, enjoy lunch…” Gary called from the mysterious clump of foliage.
“Really, it’s fine.” Axio said cheerily. “Once he is finished expelling some incompatible biomass and occult remnants, he will be in much better shape. Don’t go over there.”
#
Shai was doing a little work on Alex’s mare’s left hind shoe, when Gary reappeared, looking much less green. He waved to his beloved and flopped down on the lawn with a sigh, in among his children.
Amy was in Julius’ lap, getting her hair braided, Rio and Wilford just curled up on the musician and went to sleep. Becky lay her head on his shoulder, reclining in the opposite direction, while Otho the dog made himself comfy beside her.
“Idyllic, isn’t it?” Julius muttered to his guard captain, who was still stubbornly armored.
“Too Idyllic by far, my lord. We should be outside human lands now… unless I have gone mad…” Something in his voice suggested that others were mad, rather than he.
“Ohh, yeah, that fringe thing took a scamper, it was headed kinda northeast ish… it’s hard to say.” Gary whispered. “Shh, don’t wake the boys.”
“And why, pray tell, did it ‘scamper northeast ish’?” The armored man asked, more softly. “Do you have some insight into this latest impossibility?”
“Alex, be nice… wait, that is a good point…”Julius paused, mid scolding, with a thoughtful look on his boyish face. “You seem to be at least halfway impossible all the time, it’s not unreasonable I suppose.”
The duke turned on his sleepy new friend. “Do you have any insights to share on this matter of the fringe and its sudden relocation?”
He stretched carefully, trying hard to not disturb his kids.
“We evicted a nasty little demon from a haunted keep, tidied up some old business and sanctified the ruins. Held a few funerals and a wake, then we headed home.” He said softly.
“There’s a haunted tree there still, but it only feeds on undead things, kinda like a flytrap or sundew plant.” He smiled madly and gave a little wiggle of happiness that made the kids stir.
“That tree is super magical and weird, want a cutting for your garden? Ghost trees… so cool.”
“You are a very strange person, Gary.” Julius whispered, laying Amy gently on the pile and standing up with care. “Your lovely Shai is washing up and seems keen to take my spot in this little scene. I’ll go see to my troop.”
The duke pressed a quick hug on Shai, as she passed and went to join his troopers around a small barrel of homebrewed beer someone had ‘found’.
“Feeling better, oh foolish boy? Hae ye learnt tae nae eat unclean and eldritch things ye do find in underground crypts?” Her breath tickled his ear ever so softly and so warm.
“It wasn’t a crypt… more like the cellar of a cursed keep. My snack options remain wide open.” He whispered.
“It was just indigestion, like when I ate that whole sack of extra spicy, deep fried wallowbear rinds, but way more magical and far less crispy.”
“Ye are a disgusting, filthy beast, my love. Truly, be ye well? Thirp did say ye would be fine, but it did sound awful.”
Amy snuggled in closer between them and put her fist in Gary’s nose, in her sleep. “Ow! I didn’t really ‘eat’ that thing. We were all tangled up when it died, since it was immaterial it kinda just slipped into my shadow like a ghost.” He grunted happily when Amy got settled again.
“Morrigan’s gift let me steal away its immortality, so in a way it was a ghost, when I finally cut the planar attachment.”
When he opened his eyes, Liam, Ivy and Tawny had joined the pile. Axio was sitting on a boulder nearby and Dannyl was taking notes, or drawing something silly, probably both.
Khan and Luna were sharing a hammock nearby and listening as well, swaying gently together.
“Once my sword penetrated it, the thing had to choose whether to fully enter this world or try to flee. It chose flight, but I already had it trapped. I got a little tummy ache, but nobody will ever summon that rancid thing again.”
“You destroyed a demon? I thought that could not be done!” Luna exclaimed from her hammock, just a little too loudly.
“Shhh! No, I didn’t ‘destroy’ it, that’s impossible. Demons are just souls, untethered to physical reality. They have immortality, by virtue of not having ever been incarnate…” He winked at the eavesdropping duke, over by the horses.
“You can’t destroy a soul. I just made it mortal, bound it into its flesh and then killed it. All very natural and legal, in this reality.”
“So you did destroy it…” Luna demanded softly.
“Nope, I just killed it, now the natural mortal process takes over. That thing is shawshanking its way through the Devourer right now.” He winked up at the sky, into some unknowable distance beyond.
“When it comes out the other metaphysical end, it will be reincarnated as a natural part of the cycle of the universe. Wherever that shithead winds up, it’s just mortal now, like everyone else.”
“Do you wonder that my people find you unnerving, Gary Adventurer?” Vreek purred, from his place, curled up with Shai and Wilford. “I find you soothing now… perhaps I have changed, perhaps you have.”
“Prolly a little of both buddy, that’s how it works, among friends.” He sighed happily as he drifted off to sleep.
#
At some point Shai must have summoned the whole house… cause he woke up in his grotto, feeling ok. When he wandered out, Julius was playing on the pianoforte, with Liam on rhythm guitar.
The blue and white ghost in topcoat and tails waving his enchanted baton, gave a friendly wink and kept on conducting and giving instruction in the fine art of scat.
Hep-hep!
De-boodle-de-ack, de-boodle-de-ackasaki!
Hep-hep!
Oh, rang-tang, te-dah-dah,
Hep-hep!
“Master Calloway is quite the instructor!...” Jules sang, drawing an admonishing wave from the baton. The duke nodded obediently and tried again.
Hep-Hep!
This blue cat is keepin time,
Got me jumpin on his lines!
#
Watching the duke sing nonsense at a common orphan under the instruction of a ghost would have been too much for Alex.
Instead, that gentleman and his fifteen volunteers were riding out to investigate the fringe, camping in the cold and damp, far from any mad musicians or their friendly haunts.
Once they had successfully chased all those weird giant spiders from the campsite, setup went quickly. It was always considered bad luck to kill spiders in the wild, but these were bigger than even the usual and unnervingly bold.
They seemed strangely… they couldn’t be smart… even though he kept catching them looking at him from the shrubbery nearby. He was not alone, a boot flew out into the gathering shadows, narrowly missing a hairy, creeping horror lurking in a shrub.
“Llewellen, I sure hope that was your boot you just threw at that spider. Troop! No one helps Llewellen retrieve her uniform.” He ordered crisply. “Get to searching, lights fading.”
The kids had given them plenty of supplies and fodder, they even borrowed a metal camp stove that folded flat and packed into a small case.
Alex rolled into his bedroll and drifted off to sleep, wondering why the insects were so deathly quiet.
#
“Theological debates aside, the fact remains, several of these twolegs and some of the fourlegs have clearly bathed in the pools of Garee… Despite their hideous looks and aggressive nature, our duty is clear.” Scree’thiliskit sang fiercely. “Death to the skeeters.”
“Yes… though twolegs are rude, as well as hideous to look upon, our duty is clear. Do try to avoid being seen, my brothers and sisters. Their strange shoe throwing greeting ritual is distressing. Jaslee’thire’iin was nearly smooshed!” Kimithr’illithin strummed to the group.
“Let’s go, I’m hungry.”