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The stench of decay hung heavy in the cavern as Midnight advanced, ethereal malevolence trailing in her wake. The sprites had permitted her passage through the barricade of bones, but had pushed her out of the darkness immediately afterward, their distorted laughter the only explanation for their motives.
In her pathera form, Midnight used the darkness to heighten her senses. The passageway was flanked by an array of skeletal pillars, remnants of grand creatures that seemed out of place in the confining spaces. Their size and age spoke of beings that met their end elsewhere before finding a final resting place within the Albweiss Mountains.
Persistently shadowing her, the sprites alternated between floating at her sides and hovering annoyingly close overhead. Their ethereal forms occasionally traversed the walls, vanishing momentarily only to reappear from beneath Midnight, a constant effort to disrupt her stride. Their dissonant laughter reverberated through the caverns, unnerving sounds that betrayed Midnight's presence to any lurking dangers.
Midnight attempted to meld with the darkness two more times, but the sprites thwarted her efforts each time, seemingly deriving pleasure from impeding her progress and leaving her well exposed.
-
-
You are doing it wrong!
You are wrong.
So wrong.
Poor little shadow.
So, so wrong.
Try again!
Yes, try again!
-
She did, and again a burst of something pushed her right back.
-
Wrong again!
Oh, look at her, you nearly ripped her!
No, no, I did not.
Yes, just look at her face! She’s not all there yet.
No, that is just her normal face. Her normal, little, stupid face.
She has a stupid face.
Are you all there yet?
No, she is not.
Oh dear, I nearly ripped her, didn’t I?
Oh yes, you did!
Oh yes, I did!
-
The sprites revelled with shrieks of laughter, jeering in discordant unison.
-
Try again, little shadow!
Do it!
Do it!
But don’t rip her — yet!
I promise, I won’t rip you.
Yet.
Yes.
Yes?
Well, yet.
Do it again!
But don’t do the same!
Yes, again —
Not same!
It’s not sane
To do the same
Ever again.
Yes, don’t ever do that again.
But do try again.
Do it!
-
Midnight did not do it. She continued on foot, upon which the sprites unleashed a barrage of commentary on her disappointing attitude.
They made it a vengeful game to smack her right ear whenever they floated past her head. Their actions sought attention and provocation. They wanted her to succumb to rage and attack. They wanted justification to eat her.
Midnight, too, killed and ate other beings. She killed to survive, defend and to sustain herself, but she was never cruel with prey. She hunted fairly and killed swiftly. However, Midnight had many times experienced that what was natural and sensible for her and most beasts demanded great restraint from humanoid peoples. They needed many words to kill. They played with their prey and tortured their enemies, and relied on established rules to be less cruel.
The sprites, too, operated by a set of rules alien to Midnight’s instincts. Their motives remained elusive, but Midnight intuited a pattern in their actions. Instead of outright killing, they posed conditions and demands to exert their influence. They bound Midnight’s actions to arbitrary demands, before then attempting to trick her into failure.
As she had wanted to advance past the bone blockage, they had demanded her to reveal novel information to them, a challenge which was in itself as vague as it was unfair. Still, they had not simply let her answer, but tried tricking her to ask questions that they could obviously answer. Midnight believed that they would have eaten her if she had posed a singular question that they could have answered; in their words, a question they knew.
Their latest demand was as indistinct as the first challenge, though much more deceivingly woven into their distracting array of utterances and laughter — to shift not wrong. Even if there were a lesson here, it was not lost on Midnight that while the purple sprite had promised not to rip her apart, the green one had not.
Suppressing her anger, Midnight remained composed amidst the continuing mockery. Keeping her natural pathera form, she pressed on swiftly through the tunnels, sensing that the sprites’ whims could transform into cruelty and brutality at any moment.
As the tunnels widened, offering divergent paths with the breath of the mountain wafting through both, Midnight discerned traces of witches along the right tunnel. Through the darkness that served as her whiskers, she felt sigils etched into the stone, and the thick tang of witch magic warned of their proximity. Sensing tension and danger, Midnight veered towards the left tunnel. The Albweiss Mountains were infested with the Coven of Shaira, who claimed vast parts of the mountainside lands in the North-East. Since entering the Albweiss Mountains, Midnight had strategically navigated away from the periphery of any witch presence. With the exception of the crystal chamber, she had steered clear of their influence.
The sprites, revelling in Midnight’s discomfort, redoubled their efforts to unsettle her as soon as Midnight committed to the left path.
-
You sneak around the witches' den?
Did you not come to see them then?
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
You should pay them a visit.
Many others paid them a wizard.
But you, you are alone.
Pray tell, where has your wizard gone?
Did you not come to set your wizard free?
Or do you not know where he might be?
They brought in many wizards just yesternight,
Many bound, the rest frozen in fright.
-
Midnight shook her head, acknowledging what might be a potential intent for sharing authentic information, though suspecting the sprites were likely plotting another challenge. She understood the delicate balance of providing what they sought in order to appease their capricious nature without giving away her intentions.
-
Why now, do you fret?
Perhaps you think he’s already dead?
Do you so fear their perilous domain?
Or do you fear more that there is nothing to gain?
Perhaps you don’t mind
Leaving him behind?
Or did he leave you, go off on his own?
Did he leave the little shadow all sad and alone?
-
Midnight really wanted to be alone right now. She did not know where Yves was, and the question of his survival lingered heavily on her mind. She had witnessed the aftermath when other familiars faced the loss of their wizards, but the prospect of Yves's death added a disquieting layer of uncertainty. Midnight did not know how her wizard’s death would feel. The transformation wrought by the weaver venom had reshaped her in profound ways, and even her bond with Yves seemed to bear the marks of this metamorphosis.
-
Go and ask nicely, and you might pick out a new one.
And if you don’t like him, we take him off your hands —
Paws.
Same, same.
Same, same, but differ-rent.
-------------Bones much more promi-nent.
-
Midnight ventured into the left tunnel, the sprites allowing her passage without interference. However, when she attempted to shift once more, they delivered a substantial blow. The impact was profound; for an initial moment, Midnight was engulfed in a void of sight, touch, and perception. Gradually, her surroundings re-emerged, yet the disorientation lingered for several moments.
-
Oh no, look at her stupid face!
I am so looking at her stupid face!
I did it again!
Oh, you did do it again!
But I did not rip her.
No, you didn’t.
Not yet.
Did you want to, though?
You bet.
-
Midnight compelled herself to dismiss the sprites’ antics, recognizing the likelihood that their aim was to divert her attention from potential threats within the tunnel. With the presence of witches looming as a tangible concern, Midnight remained vigilant. Progressing in her natural form, she used the surrounding darkness to amplify her senses and to extend them, searching for any subtle indications of imminent danger.
-
Does she not get it?
She does not get it.
Do you not get it?
She is too stupid.
Are you too stupid?
Listen, if you shut up — Listen!
She is not even looking!
Look at me!
Yes, shut up and look and listen to him!
You are too full of yourself.
Full of yourself, get it?
You cannot be full of yourself, get it?
Get it?
Get it?
Don’t be FULL!
Don’t be OF YOURSELF!
Get it?
Get it now?
She does not get it.
Even when we get it for her.
Stupid little shadow.
Even when we give it to her.
Even when we give it to you.
We give it to you one more time.
Yes, give it to her again.
Stupid little shadow, be ready to do some heavy getting.
Appreciate the giving you are getting!
Get it now!
Listen now!
If you just shut up, do you become the same as silence?
Or do you stay a stupid little shadow?
You cannot be silence
By hiding your voice.
There is no voice within the silence
Silence is only itself.
Get it?
Silence is where the voice is not.
Your voice must be silence.
Otherwise, we can make you scream anytime we want.
She is so stupid.
She does not get it.
She does not listen!
Listen, how can you be this stupid?
Stupid, stupid little shadow.
-
Midnight halted and looked up at them. Then she gave them a flick of her right ear. It made them mad, bashing her ears several times — Unexpectedly, the sprites recoiled, their grotesque, mute grins frozen on their oversized heads. A disquieting stillness descended, thickening the air with palpable tension. The very walls seemed to draw a heavy breath. Then, ripples of darkness pulsed through the stagnant silence.
-
Here is one that listens.
And he heard you.
-
Their words had not dissipated, as the shadebeast lunged at Midnight right through the wall, his form an undulating distortion of darkness. Reacting with primal instinct, Midnight flung herself to the ground. The shadebeast soared over her, missing by a hair's breadth. Midnight jumped back and shifted into the darkness — and was pushed out again, the ethereal blow accompanied by distorted laughter.
-
-Little shad-ow, little shad-ow,
----------Where is that flicky-flacky arrogance now?
-------------------We let you go, now give us a good show!
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