The deeper into the chasm I become with each passing step, the more unease travels throughout my body, a constant cascade of snow falling from the mountains side as well as the constant howling of the wind as it echoes off of the cold stonewalls. As if trying to halt my progression, deterring me from heading any further.
Pushing forward throughout the harsh condition with no intention of heading back a distant light brightening with each step closing the distance towards my goal… fulfilling my promise.
Raising my arm shielding my eyes from the blinding light as I finally reach the end of the chasm, my eyes taking a minute to adjust from a large blurred chamber out of focus, as the surrounding area revealed itself piece by piece. Caught in a panic, feeling like I had walked into the belly of the beast.
Taking a moment to observe the area around, stood within a perfect ring of trees towering up towards the heavens. Where are we? A forest?... No. A forest would have a stronger aroma, these are probably the trees around. Doing my best to assess the situation at hand afraid of being outmatched walking into its trap.
Where are the kids? My mind starts to wander prioritising my concerns in a list from most concerning to personal curiosity that can wait. Scanning the area for any sign of the missing children but none in sight, all that remains the heinous beast stood before me staring me down… stood waiting for my arrival.
Its eyes glowing orange in the darkness with a vertical black slit piercing my body with its gaze, as if staring into my soul itself, enough to intimidate anybody that would dare to venture this far into its territory.
Still keeping its body hidden under the black cloak that it wears frayed all along the bottom from being draped through the snow at such high speeds, bearing two spiral horns wrapped around themselves protruding from its head as it stood its mouth overflowing with drool and its tongue draped from its mouth.
“Can you speak? I ask cautiously, keeping my distance, withdrawing my dagger from my belt preparing for a fight, not expecting to simply return the children out of kindness. As it paused observing my actions as I observed it in return slowly encroaching closer to its position taking small steps refusing to let my guard. “Can you speak?” I repeat projecting my voice as loud as I can, unsure whether or not I’ll even get a response.
“Nobody’s ever asked me that before” It hisses in return tilting its head slightly to the side displaying curiosity and intrigue.
“What have you done with the children you took, you monster?” I demand it answer my question, raising my dagger pointing its sharpened blade straight towards the beast.
“I’m no monster… but, Mlaji, God of the Devouring and those children are mine to devour… to satisfy my hunger.” It speaks with no malice in its voice or actions.
“The Gods have been gone for centuries” Reluctant to believe its words.
“We were expelled by one of our own, when our hunger grew too vast, nearly ravaging humans to extinction.” Its voice hissing as it recalled the events in question, its anger riding becoming more and more agitated with each passing moment. “Is that why you’re here to seal us again?”
Its nostrils flaring releasing small clouds of steam fueled by its rage as it shook the cloak of its back revealing its large pasty figure with hair coating its back and arms, reaching down to its knees with extended fingers and sharp piercing nails attached.
Towering over me as it stood on its feet, my gaze following its head as it raised higher and higher standing over me looking down on me. It must have been at least eight feet tall.
With one swift motion out of the blue slamming its arm into my side, sending my whole body flying causing me to lose grip of my blade along the way through the air eventually slamming into the ground, as I rolled onto my back struggling to gasp for air, my vision blurred for only a moment before returning .
My attention drew to the objects suspended from the branches of the surrounding trees all around the pair of us. What is that? I think to myself squinting my eyes for a better view. There they were the children I had been looking for all this time suspended in cages made of sticks dangling high above the ground. “Sasha!” I cry out gasping for breath. Making sure that they were definitely in them.
“Ye” Her voice panicked, trembling with fear.
“Who’s that?”
“Is he here to help us?” Other voices could be heard coming from above. It sounded like all the missing children were being held here. “Good” I mutter to myself under my own breath at least knowing they were all ok for the time being, picking myself back up off of the ground after feeling like I'd just been run over by the sled.
My eyes quickly darted around the area desperately to locate the whereabouts I had dropped my dagger, knowing full well the two throwing knives I have left on my belt would be all but useless against a god.
Before getting the chance to locate it though Mlaji getting ready to continue his unrelenting attack planting his. As he plants his hands back onto the ground. Blowing steam from his mouth as the drool continues to build up overflowing from the side of his mouth.
An unrelenting charge heading straight towards me, building up momentum constantly closing the gap as I try desperately to escape his path. Out of options, grasping for the knives attached to my belt. Launching them back with as much precision and force as possible.
Quickly batted away though as he uses the horns on his head to easily deflect them both scattering them across the floor as they ricochet away. Without any hesitation lunging forwards through the air pinning me down once more. His strength was incomparable to anything I'd ever seen before, able to keep me restrained with one hand alone despite how skinny and frail he looked.
Am I really no match for him… these helpless negative thoughts consuming my every moment.My chest becoming tighter under the sheer force of his hand sealing my airways shut, even struggling to escape draining most of my strength and energy from my body.
As the god lowered his head pressing its head right up against my body it’s nostrils flaring releasing a constant wave of bad breath that would have normally made me gag, had he not currently been crushing my airways. “You smell familiar but yet different. Perhaps I've devoured someone close to you perhaps.”
“I’ve never met you before in my life.” I snap my anger taking over at my own helplessness.
“Tell me, is there something missing from your life?... a gap you can’t fill… no matter how hard you try.” toying with me playing on my emotions whispering in my ear a constant droning, doing its best to get a rise out of me.
My struggling ceases for a moment when the realisation hits, my eyes widened in shock as perhaps there was truth to his words having known that I have felt that exact feeling that he described so accurately.
As he ran his finger along my cheek subtly piercing my skin with his long rounded nail, drawing blood as he mocked, chuckling to himself. Toying with my emotions as I laid helpless at his mercy, struggling to breath. Occasionally trying to push off of the ground each time manage to catch a large breath of air. “You really do smell so familiar, it’s in the tip of my tongue I can almost taste it.” He hissed as he ran his tongue across the newly formed cut along my cheek as I tried to recoil in disgust at the sight as he ingested some of my blood. Swallowing it in one gulp.
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“I remember now… it was your children I devoured all those years ago” Mlaji stated rubbing his chin, with a large sinister grin across his face. Chuckling at his own amusement.
My anger rising, reaching its boiling point, my head feeling as if it’s about to burst, biting my lip, my whole body squirming desperately to escape from his grasp. Freeing my arm gripping onto his arm squeezing with all my might trying to get him to release his grasp even by an inch, for his strength to falter, for even a moment. “Why can’t I remember them?.” A trembling of fear in my voice, unable to recall the memories of having children, raising them or even what they looked like.
“Go on. Look up at those children up there… I'll allow it.” Adjusting the weight crushing my chest relieves the pressure slightly, as my body gasps at the sheer relief, being able to breathe freely once more, a feeling I will never take for granted again. Refusing to follow Mlaji's instructions, doing my best to figure out my next move, accessing everything I already knew about him, analysing everything seemingly relevant. “I told you to look!” He demanded grabbing at my hair, yanking back my head forcing me to look up at the hanging cages.
As the children all stood in their confinements hung high above out of reach of all those below with no means of escape helpless and stranded, all they could do is watch the one sided game taking place below. Each waiting anxiously for their saviour to come and resume them all front eh big bad and return them to their families.
The constant echoing of his breathing in my ear as he continues to taunt me, pushing my buttons, as the potent smell of his breath lingers on the tip of my nostrils refusing to leave. “He shall enter for his devouring that night” he whispers directly into my ear as his serpent-like tongue lingers in the air, only inches from my skin. “A warning initially meant for others in my exile later to only become disregarded as nothing but a fictional nursery rhyme… It's true I devour the children I take, leaving nothing left; not flesh, not blood, not even bones remain once I'm done…but it goes beyond that…”
“What do you mean? Beyond that?” my voice trembling as my body sweats uncontrollably in a cold sweat as my twitches from head to toe uncontrollably, the visible fear consuming every thought and action running through my veins.
“I don't just devour the body… I devour their very existence; thoughts, feelings, memories. Everything…to the point where they never had existed”
My heart started pounding faster and faster with each passing second, the distant cries of the captured children becoming nothing more than a muffled noise in the distance drowned out by the pounding in my chest as my heart echoed with every passing beat, taking over all my senses, drowning out everything.
A constant thumping overtaking my whole body, my vision became blurred and the stairs became distorted and outstretched appearing a lot longer than they were only a moment ago. Grasping onto my chest with such force, digging my nails into my chest through my shirt causing small vibrant stains to form, feeling as if it’s getting tighter and constricting making it harder to breathe. Gasping for air, as even breathing was hard.
“It can’t be” I mutter under my breath in between the strained breathing. “I had two children” knowing his words ring true, after all he has no reason to lie ,clutching onto my chest finally able to understand the emptiness I'd felt for so many years. My eyes started to water uncontrollably at the realisation as tears formed, quickly cycling into a depression consuming me, taking away my will to resist.
“I remember them… you know, a young boy and a younger girl… how their memories were so sweet, how they hung onto their hope that there dear old daddy would swoop in to save them… but alas you never came… and I ate them both, The girl first whilst the boy watched screaming and shouting, begging desperately for me to stop. Such music to my ears as I watched as he forgot all about his little sister, as the memories faded from his mind…” He continued to taunt, taking comfort reliving the moment of his savage feast, refusing to sit still.
Giddy with each passing step he took pacing in circles around my body, collapsed to my knees on the ground forced to endure, this phycological torture, completely helpless forced to listen to his excessive rambling as I the blood drips slowly from my chest forming a puddle at my knees, displaying only my reflection, unable to recognise the person looking back.. Only my eyes were consumed with a bitter emptiness.
“There it is… the look I admire so much… It has such a distinct taste.” Mlaji cries out bearing a large grin across his face, his eyes brimming with excitement at the thought of his next meal as he licks the drool from his lips, holding back his apparent hunger.
“What if I let you consume me instead of the children?”
“You're mistaken this isn’t a bargain… I'm going to devour you regardless, but I'm going to make you watch as I eat them first.” He says pushing his fingernails into my chest piercing and hooking onto my flesh through the bandages underneath my blood stained shirt, causing me to cry out in my pain reopening my previous injuries from the Hyokla attack.
Dragging me across on my back forcing me to look into the eyes of each of the children that would soon cease to exist if I didn’t come up with some kind of plan, quickly.
Frantically looking around for anything… my dagger… my knives… anything that I could use, desperate for ideas, flailing my limbs, shifting my weight, trying anything and all solutions coming to mind one after another. Each to no avail. With time running out, each of my ideas becomes more desperate than the last.
Rolling onto my stomach twisting the gods arm around with me, I start to clamber up his boney, pasty body, mustering every little bit of will power that remains snapping myself away from the depression he had so efficiently stirred, turning into a justfull wraith acting as the fuel to the fire lit within me pushing me forward for the sake of those children trapped so far above.
Clambering up his arm like an infected zombie, digging my fingers in, refusing to let go until I’d achieved my goal, slowly but surely making my way further and further up closer to his head, my goal, as I reach my free hand forward closing my eye, biting my lip, desperately trying to extend my reach as far as possible trying to gain a firm grasp, until finally, something curved, solid and cold with a rough feeling to it could be felt.
Opening my eyes, hoping that what I had in my hand was in fact what I had been reaching for in my desperation. One of its horns sitting securely squared in my hands.
Pulling with all my force, biting my burst lip as blood continues to seep into my mouth, the pain adding to the fuel to the fire within as the god cries out in pain drowning out the subtle cracking noise that could be heard coming from my hand as the horn starts to chip away on one side from the force, soon overshadowed by the distraught and agonising cries the god bellowed echoing all throughout the area.
The harder he resisted the easier it became to apply force needed, ripping the horn clean away as it ripped its nails out from my shoulder releasing me from its clutches without a second thought, slamming my body back into the ground once more. Only ensuring that his horn would be completely removed, ripping away the fragment of flesh in which the horn was attached.
Shifting my head slightly to the side to allow the pool of blood to run and vacate my mouth once more allowing it to drip onto the ground before me, hearing nothing but a harsh breaths coming from behind me to see the monster of a god, stood with a malicious stare peering over his shoulder aimed directly at me
Turning his body, stamping his foot against the ground, ready to begin his charge at me, no longer intended to capture me to devour, but now only seeked my death.
Calming my nerves, taking in one deep inhale swiftly followed by a quick exhale, stopping the trembling that had previously consumed me to the point of petrification, my body lighter than it's ever felt before, more nimble and looser. Clutching the remains of the horn tightly in both hands knowing it’s the only thing that could probably hurt a god, or at least this one in particular.
As Mlaji breathing becomes more erratic by the second just I rein mine in, my eyes fixated on his micro movements throughout his body from the blinking of his eyes, to the strength of his breaths, biding my time waiting for the optimal moment to react, no matter how erratic his movement may seem at a glance.
This moment seems like it’s going on forever, staring each other down, refusing to make the first move, stuck in an everlasting duel, all senses heightened watching everything occurring.
A subtle shift in its breathing, releasing one mighty breath of air much deeper than the rest, a sudden push of the ground as it lunges itself forward tearing up the ground beneath its feet from such force as it lowers its head, looking to impale with its sole remaining horn.
The closer it gets with each charging step I find my heart flutters once again, this time it’s different though able to keep my mind clear of feelings remaining still with a level head as I remain everstill… watching anxiously to make my move… Not yet… Not yet… I think to myself internally screaming, refusing to let my instinct take over and dodge to the side, biting the inside of my mouth in my anxiousness.
As the god, Mlaji lunges forward throwing its full body through the air at full force with no signs of reservation, as I take one last breath, knowing the moment I have been patiently waiting for is upon is now upon me, waiting until the very last instant, throwing my body to the ground, ensuring not to slam my head though, thrusting the spiral horn into the air right into its chest as it flies right over top. Pushing against the resistance, its chest slicing open right through to its stomach, its blood pouring out in a gushing wave, drenching me from head to toe soaking all of my clothes a new shade of crimson red.
“That actually worked! HA!” Shouting and chuckling to myself in disbelief, quickly turning around to see the body laid across the ground as my smile, just as quickly turns into a face of disturbance as the insides slowly seeping out into a pile across the floor. Tossing the horn aside the body laid cold, twitching in its death.
Brushing my hand through my hair pushing it back out of my face, after all the struggling, forgetting my hands were still soaked in blood, dying my hair a further darker shade than it already was, as I grab my dagger and knives laid across the area ready to make my move towards freeing the children, struggling to figure out how.