The 9th day of Lassis, the 4th month of the 536th year In the Eyes of the Pantheon...
"Hmm," I mused as I glanced from the scattered Oracle Shards - metaphysically charged shards of bone, metal, and wood - to the unassuming fishing village, then back to the Oracle Shards.
Tree of Bones and Three Steel Claws enclosed by a Ring of Wood. Undeath, violence, overgrowth will befall these folk. The Malorum will consume them in the coming weeks, or days perhaps. Tragic, and I was starting to hope I might find some good specimens here.
A short, slavering growl pulled my attention to the one behind me. A hulking mass of mutated muscle that bore a roughly human shape slurred a primitive string of syllables and pointed a misshapen claw at the village in an attempt to ask what their fate would be. Intelligence had begun to return to his orange-flecked green eyes, a good sign.
"The village will not last, I am afraid. The Malorum is too aggressive."
"Mal...o...rum..." He craned his unnaturally elongated neck southwest, to the fog shrouded wastes.
"Yes, Primus. Malorum." I examined him as he gazed into the shifting mists and blighted woods, as if he could now ponder its malevolence.
The mutagens I crafted had caused significant growth and deformation in equal measure, he could have easily stood near seven feet tall if not for the severe hunch and lopsidedness of the hips and spine the mutagens had caused. Though he were a simple creature with animal intellect, the horse-sized mutilated carcass of a reptilian beast clutched tightly in the claws of his left hand spoke to the efficacy of the mutagens' amplification of his strength and reflexes.
He turned back to me, a shock of wild blonde hair fell over his misshapen maw, which was unable to withhold his excessive slobber or mask his blood-stained fangs. I reached out and scratched the top of his head. His eyelids instinctively shut and he made a grumbling noise of satisfaction.
Despite the many mutations he suffered, Primus' metamorphosis was a success. If I can further refine the mutagens and acquire a few more specimens, a true metamorphosis may be possible within the next few months.
I removed my hand from his head and his eyes flickered open. "Let's go to the next village. I do need a new workshop."
I turned without waiting for a response and my ivory staff's runes glimmered faintly as I channeled a wisp of power to gather my Oracle Shards and dump them into the pouch I'd taken them from. Primus wrapped a rough arm around my thighs and gently lifted me onto one of his shoulders.
"Vilj...?" He asked as his feet fell like toppled logs.
"Yes, Primus, a new village. Or was it a town? Doesn't matter, we'll be there soon." I answered.
21st day of Lassis, 4th month of the 536th year In the Eyes of the Pantheon...
Lanerra cast her brother's net into the river, hopeful that the harvest goddess would show enough kindness or at least pity to give her a decent catch before the sun sets. All this talk of Malorum spreading had made the whole village nervous, and more and more aggressive or mutant fish had started appearing in the village and driving out the healthy and delicious ones.
Not that the angrier ones didn't taste good, they were stupid, large, and were as much trouble to catch as Water Wolves. Her brother stood by with a trident in his good hand, having found sturdy clubs to be insufficient to kill the aggressive fish they'd been catching.
"You'll cut the net with that thing Saulo." Lanerra grumbled.
"If I have to choose between getting my hand almost bit off and cutting a net, I'm not letting those damned things eat what's left of my hand." He raised the trident slightly as Lanerra readied herself to reel the net in.
No sooner had she gripped the rope than a ridiculous yanked her fully off her feet. Lanerra yelped as she righted herself and drove her heels into the river sand. Saulo leapt forward to wrap his injured arm around his little sister's waist and heaved backward with a scream through gritted teeth.
The two siblings strained and heaved against their aquatic prey, determined to wrestle it out of the water and rob it of its strength so Saulo could skewer the aquatic beast. Their desperate tug of war took a terrifying turn when the aquatic predator nearly dragged them into the river in which large shapes lurked with menacing anticipation beneath the coursing waters. Their hearts hammered in their chests as they heard phantom screams from when the invasive river predators had swarmed Marbo and his nine year old son, now mere feet from the lethal waters.
"P-pull!" Lanerra screamed as she leaned back into Saulo's chest and dug her heels deeper into the sand.
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Saulo screamed and heaved as his wounded arm bled through its bandages. With a defiant roar Lanerra and Saulo finally gained the upper hand and tore through the sand and ripped the predatory fish from the waters of the river. The fanged beast flopped onto the coarse sand, tangled hopelessly in the net and ripping uselessly at the net with serrated teeth.
Saulo released Lanerra and staggered forth. In a single movement he raised his trident and slammed the triple-pronged spear into the crimson and black fish's horned skull.
"Hornfish." He called out to Lanerra.
"Ugh, at least it wasn't a Sawjaw."
Hornfish were meaty and oily, but they had a rather bland taste that was comparable to soggy potatoes if you didn't season them right. Lanerra briefly wondered if Daron would have liked to try the Hornfish, but sighed as she helped Saulo pull the dog-sized fish from the net.
Daron lived two weeks away in the trade town Nessa's Peace. She wouldn't get to see him until the Grace of Spring festival on the 9th day of Veksta in a few weeks. The siblings got to work gutting and scaling the Hornfish, and by the time that dusk had darkened the sunset orange sky to a dull grayish purple.
"That should be a good day's eating," Saulo nodded to himself as Lanerra hefted the fish up.
"Let's go home, it's getting dark."
He nodded again. "The whole Wiktan family's disappeared."
"No they haven't!" Lanerra protested. "They were just at the docks this morning!"
"And no one's seen 'em since." He winced as he lifted his bloody arm. "Heard the Elderman is going to raise a militia."
"Guess it's a good thing you got bit by that Sawjaw."
Saulo whapped her on the thigh with the shaft of the trident. "We should get up early tomorrow and catch some more of these things. Ma and Pa want to take a wagon to Nessa's Peace tomorrow afternoon."
A murder of crows occupied the skies above the village, silent save for the beat of their obsidian wings. Other villagers stopped what they were doing to look up with a mounting sense of dread at the ominous creatures. Lanerra and Saulo exchanged a glance, unnerved and uncertain.
"Oy!" Miss Marja shouted from her window. "Everyone get inside! That could be the Malorum!"
The silent crews didn't caw once as they began to perch on roofs and stared with unsettling patience at the villagers. Miss Marja shut her window. Everyone hastily moved, their paces quickened by the silent threat of the Malorum.
Now Lanerra wished the wagon would leave now instead of tomorrow, but she didn't dear say as much. Then Saulo would ramble on about the Malorum again and go "See? The Malorum is coming!"
They were halfway to their house when, to their combined relief and horror, their mother came to meet them, clubs clenched so tightly in both her hands that her knucles were white and her face was twisted with anxious looks that neared fearfulness.
"Thank the Gods, you're okay." Their mother muttered and hugged them both.
"Ma, what's happening?" Lanerra asked, unable to shake the fear that had begun to soak the air.
"We're going to the wagon now, your father's gone to get Jora and his family and horse. Come now." She stuck one of the clubs in Lanerra's hand and took the Hornfish from her.
"What's going on? Is it the Malorum?" Saulo asked as they both followed their panicked mother.
"I don't know, the Wiktan family's come back, all bloody and hurt, they were found a few miles South by some of the militia and murdered them!"
"Murder!" Both children almost screamed as other villagers darted into their houses or ran anxiously for the safety of their homes.
"Yes now walk faster, your father...!" She froze.
A creeping mist rolled into the town and blanketed their knees with unnatural speed. Lanerra felt her heart hammer in her throat as her skin crawled at the touch of the fog. The crows watched her with haunting little eyes, as if she had volunteered to entertain them. And then, just as quickly, the mist rolled away, carried on an intangible breeze out of the village.
Lanerra jumped half out her skin as a blood curdling scream pierced the dusk sky from further South. Her mother turned and started pushing them both as the shrill cry of terror was joined by more voices.
Her knees felt weak and she squeezed the club in her hand until her knuckles whitened as the fear that had wormed it's way into the village's heart blossomed into confused terror.
"Wh-what's happening? Where is the militia?" A woman screamed as she clutched her crying daughter.
A man glanced about in the hopes that someone else had answers. "Bandit attack? Monsters?"
"Look! Oh Gods!" Another man pointed his trident toward the South.
Lanerra, Saulo, and their mother risked a glance South and their blood ran cold. A boy Saulo's age cried out as a withered and corpse-like thing scyther through his spine with emaciated claws. He fell flat on his face and reached out to cry for help until the thing sank its rotted fangs into the small of his back and began to tear chunks of spinal cord out in its grotesquely pallid maw.
Lanerra couldn't breathe. She jumped again when a woman tumbled out of her window and screamed in terror as the half-rotted corpses of her missing brothers slammed through her door, a bloody trident and club clutched in their dead fingers as she screamed for her murdered husband.
And then it was her mother who screamed. Lanerra turned to see Saulo skewered through the chest with a trident, his terrified eyes wide as he coughed up blood. His legs buckled the moment the fleshy skeleton tore the trident from his chest, and the creature stared down at Lanerra with the single rotten eye still in the left socket of its skull.
Her mothered act quickly and caved in the skeleton's skull with a desperate flurry of blows. Then it all hit Lanerra like a violent punch to the gut and she sucked in her first breath in how knows long.
"Saulo!" She screamed in unison with their mother as they both fell to their knees and cradled the dying boy.
"Get up!" Lanerra screamed at Saulo and smacked his shoulder. "Saulo get up! Please!"
"Nooo!" Their mother wailed as Saulo breathing became shallow and erratic. "Aruvan, Lord of Courage and Strength, please save my son! I beg you! Please! Please don't let Saulo die!"
Saulo raised his bandaged arm, and it trembled violently with the effort as he pointed at something. The very last of his lifeblood was spent to warn his mother and sister, and they watched as he went limp in their arms and exhaled his last.
They held their tears just long enough to look where he had pointed.
A cart-sized orb of rotted and flesh and weathered bones floated over the village and lashed out at anyone it passed over with scythes of bone and flesh. Any who were struck withered away until they were walking corpse-things or heaps of hateful bones.
Lanerra and her mother wailed bitterly and scrambled to their feet as they abandoned Saulo's corpse. They ran for the wagon, desperately evading the dead things by weaving around and between houses until they finally found her father standing with his bloody trident over two dead corpse things next to Jora's wagon.
Lanerra wept for Saulo, fearful that he would be torn from death to haunt this slaughtered village.