With every day that passed the lemur’s mind became clearer. It was this place, the Redmouth, the swirling node of ethereal energies that fed him each day; as long as he remained king of this place his limbs would fill with strength and his mind would have clarity.
And someday soon he would finally know the will of the goddess.
The moon was high above the Redmouth Canyon, a huge and yellowed sort of moon washing the inner crevices with light in shades of sickly white-gold, the tint of bone left to dry in the desert heat. Within that color the grass was withered and lifeless, the sand as white as lunar soil.
It was the time of the hunt.
The First Steps.
Quest - Slay the Deathpack Hyenas of the Redmouth Canyon (0/4).
[https://i.imgur.com/6NVmTKz.png]
For three days, the lemur had tracked its foe through the winding inner paths of the canyon, into hidden passages so small it could barely slip through, into vast vaults of stone held up by stalactites the color and consistency of candlewax - formed by the slow drip of sedimentary waters from above. A thin hole in the ceiling let moonlight wash down in a long slanted ribbon of pale beauty.
The beast had tried to escape him, tried to turn him off its path so it could return to the den.
It had failed.
Now it stood above them on a natural ridge of stone. The stink of rotting flesh washed up from above, the floor littered with chewed bones and scraps of rancid flesh. The cavern floor was submerged in a thick bed of crawling moss and the animal carcasses were heavy with furred, dark fungal growths. Pups struggled to crack spars of ribcage and femur in their teeth, wanting the marrow within, while the grown warriors of the pack watched over their children, half-sleeping.
Four in all, as promised, and seven whelps beside.
The lemur lifted a chunk of stone in his peace-hand and tossed it to the far side of the cave. The clack, clack, clack of stone against stone echoed within, the rock clattering down and drawing their attention. One of the hyena mothers drew her lips back and let out a high-pitched, stuttering bark-laugh.
The lemur was already in the air above her.
His war-hand slashed down, severing the head at the base of the spine. His hindlegs struck the ground and he braced with his peace-hand for a second, knees bending, his long body coiling for a leap that brought him darting along the ground as his second kill turned.
The blade-finger whipped up and caught it through the lower jaw and up, through the skull.
Before he could rip his weapon free again, a hyena threw itself onto his back and bit into his neck, the moment of surprise fading. Their ghosts howled and screamed, the sound deafening in the hollow cavern. It was a sound that poured down on him from all sides, an endless rippling wave of screams and barks and yowling screeches, trying to drown him in confusion.
The last grown hyena flung itself forward and he caught it with his peace-hand, fingers driving against teeth and tongue as he seized its lower jaw. His own bat-like muzzle let out a screech of fury as it bit down hard, blood gushing, knuckles cracking.
With a wild sweep he smashed it into the cavern’s pillars, again and again, the weight of its packmate hanging from his neck all the while, teeth ripping at his skin. He turned and the beast’s hindlegs flailed in the air.
Again, swinging himself about, screaming. No easy fight. No cool composure. Wild fury and teeth bared till the end.
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The beast’s fangs ripped free, and the hyena fell to the ground in a roll. Its legion of ghostly ancestors screamed a final note of defiance as the lemur scored its belly open with a sweep of its war-hand. Red innards uncoiled.
The pups were fleeing and he had no need to follow. They hadn’t taken from him, not yet.
He turned his head to the sky and brayed out a chirping song of joy, for the brother and sister he had lost. Their restless souls were avenged. And the moon was satisfied.
The First Steps.
COMPLETED.
[https://i.imgur.com/6NVmTKz.png]
Reward Granted- Lunar Guidance (1:00:00)
He sank down, hunched, his back a coiled arc as he chewed at the hyena’s flesh. The moment of truth, the violence of the fight, still thumped and thudded in his heart and made his head spin with hot anger. The cold of the cavern washed his skin and slowly let the battle-rage ebb.
Meat hanging from his jaw, he noticed the stone that glowed like the moon. It called to him, but as soon as his fingers closed around the smooth pebble, the light was gone.
It had leapt to another stone just out of reach.
He followed as the light continued to evade him, flickering out just before he reached its source, then blinking into being elsewhere, another small piece of the world lighting up with the moon’s radiance. It led him down through secret paths, until the dark grew stifling and the air was wet with the smell of the deep earth. Ahead, his dowsing-sense told him there was a wealth of water.
More than he’d ever sensed before.
As the last stone faded and left him in the dark, the lemur stood on the edge of an underground lake. The water was billowing black with mud. Something within had disturbed the sediment below with movement, and recently too.
It was a place to move cautiously. His blade-finger knocked the stone, mimicking a motion he’d made so many times in his life as prey. A slow, steady tap, to lure bugs from their burrows in earth and rotten wood.
This time his cleverness caught something different.
A huge blob of yellow filth flung itself forward, splattering against the wall where his hand had knocked. The lemur flung itself back, crouched down like a cat, ready to fight. Nothing. The blob was attached to a long stringy tendril that slowly reeled it back. The sound of the gelatinous mixture peeling off the walls was disgusting, fleshy.
He knocked again, already braced to leap back as the oozing tendril smashed where he’d been. This time his war-arm flashed in a long arc and split it into two.
The reaction was instant. The severed portion almost seemed to flower, spreading out countless thin feelers that whipped through the air to try and find him. To seek the source of its pain. The waters broke, and an oozing mass far bigger than the lemur rolled up like a living tide, made of thin yellow slime with veins of black within.
It was too big to fight. It drank up its severed ‘hand’ and pulled it back into the whole, healing seamlessly.
The lemur knew it was outmatched- but the creature was blind.
Moving slowly, swiftly, the lemur leapt onto a small island of mud. The lake didn’t move. Careful not to touch the water or make too much noise, it slipped to the next island in a chain of little rock-mounds, slippery with moss. In the distance another ooze made the water ripple as it reached up a lazy tendril, scraping a little yellow crab off side of a boulder.
The lemur considered turning back.
And in the distance a thin lunar glow shone forth. Small but only for a moment, and growing brighter, brighter, until the whole cavern was blazing. The light came in waves, long ripples that ran across the waters with moments of near-darkness between.
It illuminated a long chamber. Beneath the water were cracked and faded tiles, and above loomed the ruins of pillars and stone arches that once lined a long walkway leading to the far shore.
On that shore a set of twin doors flared and ebbed with the moon’s blessing.
One more step-
And something went terribly wrong. The stone underfoot was different than the rest, a piece of broken archstone. The moment the lemur reached out and set his peace-hand across it there was a sickly green flash, and then another, another, sparking up in quick succession. He flung himself backwards as the pale emerald energy pouring out of the broken stone coallesced into a cloud of ghostly snakes, their jaws snapping at the space where he’d been.
The lemur crashed into the water, sending ripples throughout the sunken temple.
The oozes turned, rising up, sensing his presence. They came towards him like slithering avalanches of soft flesh. Faster than they should be, ready to lunge forward and engulf him. The lemur turned towards the safety of the shore he’d come from- it was already too far away.
With no choice, he raised his voice into a battle-screech and ran for the doors, smashing through the water on all fours as the slimes shifted to block his path. The moon’s light waited for him.