Gray skin and a black mane of hair fall from a thick, bone skull only inches away. A heaving chest pours smoke from colorless lips. A titan lifts my frame in his hand, slamming me into the wall of a dark dungeon. His hands are the size of my chest, and his fingers choke the air from my lungs. An endless labyrinth of dark stone separates me from anyone else. No one will help. No one will hear me scream. Blood oozes from my mouth. How did it come to this?
It was a normal morning in Exile's Gap. Marble was being brought into the town square for sale. Merchants passed by in heavy set carts, ready for transporting stone with oxen. Fields of poppy flowers flowed with the wind guiding their waves of red. A bone dry cliff whistled in the distance, behind the city. A mass of white marble carved itself from the plains in massive, elaborate spears. Stained glass windows littered themselves among the various dwellings, coloring the stone with colorful, bright specs. The massive walls of stone held attackers at bay, while flaunting wealth and success. Breweries, blacksmiths, cobblers, vaults, and even apothecaries sew themselves into the city streets., providing the residents with meaningful jobs and lives. Things had only just begun. Now it might all be over.
I look into the Lumbering giant’s eyes. He stares back and burrows through my soul with an abyss of black. His copper eyes dart to the left and right before he speaks with a voice like destruction, “Boy. The end times come. I know not of this place or its people. You will guide me. Show me your time. Or I will kill you in ways lost to your people, but created by mine.”
The man turns and pulls his hand from me. Oxygen floods my lungs. Life giving air fills me again. Tears fall onto the ground from my face. I stare upwards towards the behemoth. He stares back into me. I choke on the dust he exudes, and he lifts me into the air with a single hand. I plop back onto shaking legs and knees. He says with vigor, "Show me the way out. To your people."
Dark tendrils of fear fill my guts as I say, “Please, I can’t. I just.” A mass of gray slaps my body, flipping me midair. I fly into a nearby stone wall. The barely recovered air jets from my lungs. My nerves and senses come together, creating an ugly symphony with one word. Pain. They say it again. Pain. I slobber as I raise my hands, guarding my face with everything I have.
He speaks like metal, “Fear is good. Ruin is better. Listen and say it well: Auriak of Ruin. That is my name. Your very life was for this moment. Oh how the gods smile from below!”
The gray man smiles, brandishing an ominous white set of teeth. He lifts me by my shirt. My feet fumble in the air. He sets me down, and I stumble forwards against a wall. I wheeze, catching my breathe. I try to muster my strength and stand tall. Instead, I convulse. A gray hand moves towards my face, but I dodge by collapsing.
I sob but stand and say through ragged gasps, “This way Auriak of Ruin. Let me show you the way.” We stand in a massive sarcophogus room. Jewels, sceptors, armor, and riches beyond belief surround the massive coffin Auriak just came from. I frantically lead him through a labrynth of tunnels and passageways until we reach the entrance of the dungeon.
It faces outwards towards unending plains in all directions. The black of night carpets the surroundings in mystery. I turn and note the dungeons cave like entrance. A guise for the tyrant. The lone mountain seemed a hotspot for game and opportunity. Instead it hid disaster and dread. I turn towards the titan before quickly turning towards the ground.
Auriak of Ruin does not move and instead takes deep breathes. We stand for minutes as the sun begins rising on the horizon, revealing Exile's Gap in the distance. With a burst of will, I say, “What now? Auriak of Ruin?”
The mass of gray and black turns, facing me. His large horns and teeth glisten in the morning sun. He gestures with grace and control while saying, “Questioning me?”
My body physically revolts from his hand approaching my face. I grit my teeth, square my jaw, and cover my face with upheld hands. His laugh exudes clouds of smoke.
“Hahah! Good instincts! Does the kitten want to fight all that scars? All that hurts? ” My eyes open, and I realize I’ve stepped in, and lunged forward with a balled fist. My white knuckles barely withstand Auriak of Ruin’s body, hard as iron coated wood.
He slaps me on the back. Long strands of his hair falls onto his face and cover his eyes. He smiles, warm and white with smoke fuming. He speaks with iron in his voice and weight in his words, “Fighting is what our kind does. I’m just trying to show people the way. Remember that destruction is only the beginning of a new future, one where ruin exposes what we all are... What we can be.”
I struggle with my words and my breathe for a second before saying, “What can we be?” Auriak of Ruin grabs my arm. Black bubbles float from the bottom of my gut. A wicked grin traces his lips as he says, “Control, strength, and understanding of it all. You will grow more today than you have your entire life. Even if it means ending it.”
I look at the entrance of the dungeon I entered only a few hours earlier. First, desperation claws from inside my chest, then anger, then nothing. The gray hand holding my arm drags me forwards. The other, it slides stone too heavy and hard for humans to close the entrance of the cave. The cracking of stone and the light of a morning sun soak the dungeon’s new rocky closure.
“I am. You are. You’re lucky to find me now. All the hate in my bones was burnt away when they locked my ashes in the tomb.”
I shiver. He lets go of my arm. I steal a glance. He stands at least 8" tall. Every inch of his body is covered in stone like muscles, a light covering of smoke, and tatoos black as night. Thousands of scars trace his back and chest. He is both cruel and compelling, like a mad king. He raises his hands from his sides into the air. A massive, smoky breath escapes his mouth.
An understanding forms between us. We stand staring into the last pieces of the sunrise. Deep hues of orange crawl across the horizon. The grass bristles from cold gusts. We stand for a long time before my mind becomes numb. Auriak of Ruin speaks, “Few understand it. You might become capable of doing so. What is your name, little one? ”
“Lance.” Somehow the words roll from my mouth, easy as breathing. The fear moments ago was unbearable. As uncontrollable as lightning. Now it lifts me higher. For the first time in my life, the fear makes me stronger. Everything, past, future, present, the fear understands my very soul.
“...A good name. Live for it, and it will live on after you.” A full sun begins casting its light on the plains before us. Auriak of Ruin brings his hand above him. Black tendrils radiate from his palm. He brings the struggling ball of black tentacles down onto the ground. Each tentacle latches into the dirt. The creature pulses, sucking life from the ground nearby. Grass full of life just moments ago begins fading into a sickly brown.
“One might want to move.” The same vicious cruelty from earlier saturated Auriak of Ruin’s face. The creature began growing. As it expanded, the creature grew more writhing tentacles. It's dark, smoky body, drilled the tentacles deeper into the ground. A tentacle slams itself into the ground next to my foot, and I stumble back.
My feet take me a few steps. Dread forms in my guts as I slam into the dirt. A disgusting mound of appendages digs around beneath me. I roll away. The limbs keep stabbing, digging closer. One peirces the ground, inches from my face. Another lifts above me and stabs downward.
Freezing mid air, the creature stops growing. It pulls dozens of tentacles thickened from the very life of its surrounding out of the ground. I grow dizzy.
I’ve been hyperventilating the whole time. Sweat pours from my forehead, and my legs are numb. Auriak of Ruin comes over to the creature. His massive height puts him a full head taller than the tentacled beast as he gently rubs the bulbous body. The creature opens a single, completely black eye at the center of its body. It turns and faces Auriak of Ruin, and he stares straight back into its eye.
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The single black eye contracts, and a green iris, like the grass around it, replaces parts of the black. More like an emerald than an eye, it blinks with new awareness. Auriak of Ruin points towards the beast with his hand. He glances at me with gentler eyes and says,“This spell can only be cast once every sixth cycle of the moon. He may be of the greatest caliber of beast I can create. For now. He is yours.”
I stare at scaled membranes wrapping around the limbs of other creatures. Tentacles of phantasmal flesh grow, then retract back into the beast. The green eye turns to me, and Auriak of Ruin continues, “A shoggoth. He will be your greatest ally in the fights to come.”
My mind fries like an egg on a skillet. Every nerve fires to another, making attempts at forming sense of the situation. Nothing substantial comes of it. The creature stares into me. It lurches forwards, towards me. It breaks the gap in an instant before stopping a few feet away. I shake like a buzzing hornet. Fear, returns to its rightful place, bringing no relief. Only hurt.
The creature protrudes a tentacle towards my chest and my breathing stops. My heart stops beating. The creature’s tentacles wrap around my chest and my body becomes like lead. Slime and a smell like burnt hair smothers me. The creature lifts me up, and places me on my two feet. I promptly lose traction with the ground and fall again. Its tentacles repeat the process. Like a dog being beaten, I learn to stand again quickly.
Auriak walks over in massive, lumbering steps. He strokes the shoggoth as he says, “Bahahah! A gift of this magnitude, and you react like this. I’m tempted to steal your very life, but I understand. I was weak before being broken and reforged. We all need that. We all secretly want it. You are lucky beyond measure to be this young, and struck with fortune like this. No one knows your potential but me. By god, you will have a story." My eyelids weigh on me while the madness of the morning carves itself into my memory. Moments later, I succumb to exhasution and lose all consciousness.
I awaken from damp grass tickling my nose. Masses of Black, gelatinous flesh surround me, keeping cold wind at bay. A colossal, unblinking eye stares at me. I screech at my absolute highest volume. Every single muscle attempts a higher pitch, but my voice cracks, and a sobbing, convulsing form takes over my face.
A massive gray man feet away grabs my skull with one hand and says,“Shut up! Now.” Auriak of Ruin’s hand silences my voice, but my convulsing only temporarily stops.
“Get off of him before he dies from struggling.” Auriak of Ruin says while maintaining his grip on my skull. My breathing slows, but the terror of the event lands hard within my body. I quickly patt my entire body from toe to head, trying to find any poisoned, eaten, or melted flesh. I only find a thin layer of slime, and my body intact.
Auriak of Ruin slaps me much softer than the hit yesterday, and I regain my senses. “I just...It was so...By God in heaven. Holy. I just...” A secondary slap brings me to my senses. I attempt wiping slime away, but instead I collect masses of slime on my hands. The globs stick with voracity, and I have to scrape them off. I finally become able to speak.
“I don’t want it. Thank you Auriak of Ruin, but you know I already have a pet and I can’t feed this guy...He’s too big, needs too much food.” I say while attempting scratching the back of my head. Auriak smiles, white smoke drifts from his mouth as he says, “He can hunt for his own food. And he has already partaken in your essence. He will be yours until he, or you die. Blood leads the charge, as they say.”
I shake the answer from my thoughts and repeat my original statement differently, “I just, you know. My parents, the village, hell just about anybody would not be okay with that...Around. He might, I dunno. I really don’t know. Which is why, I mean, you know...”
A hand as heavy as iron slaps my face. Heat and needles replace the entire right side of my neck and face. Somehow I find the courage for lifting my head back up slowly, and staring him in the eyes. As if by command, his copper irises squint, closing his pupils completely.
I promptly release my bowels, and shit splatters down my leg. But with no pride left, I continue my stare. The unfeeling, cold monster of a man begins chuckling. Not in an evil way, but in jittering, uncontrolled bursts. His completely stoic face begins crinkling. Veins, thick as rope, form on his forehead, but he begins laughing uncontrollably. He breaks his stance and falls onto the dew covered grass. He slams a massive fist into the ground, shaking the earth ever so slightly while he gorges on the humor of the situation.
Tears well in my eyes. I turn far redder than humanly possible. In the moment, I am so frozen with emotion and physical distress that I freeze. I continue to stare at the giant, Auriak of Ruin as he begins rolling on his stomach.
Minutes pass before the man stops laughing. My tears dried earlier in the morning sun, and now he stands back up. Facing my staring face from high up in the air. He opens his mouth, and says, “Little one, you lack it. The quiet intensity you desire escapes your grasp. ”
The accuracy of his description bears little weight in my mind. All of my resolve is focused on not mentally collapsing from embarrassment. Each second more sweat beads on my forehead. My head pounds from dehydration. I finally speak, “I am extremely hungry. You know I think having so little food and sleep has, I mean. It’s making me all loopy. I’d typically, you know. I’d be more, uhm. More in control. All of my stuff is in the main chamber though, and I need to get it before we can go anywhere, or I’ll, I’ll actually die. I just don’t know if, you know. Can the guy, uh, you know the guy. He’s all big and gross. Like, Like uhhh. He’s over there. ” I point at the Shoggoth only feet away, and continue, “He can get the food, and stuff. I think he can, but you know. I mean, what if he’s hungry, or doesn’t want t- ”
The earth trembles as the mound of blackened, glistening flesh morphs its way forwards. It grapples with ground and stone, shifting its mass forwards like an octopus crossed with a snail. I can’t quite comprehend the speed of the beast, and before I know it, the creature has entered the door of the dungeon, and is quickly grabbing my things.
“Shoggoth’s of my fruition are incomparable. It is smarter than you, faster than you, but mostly, It is stronger than you. It is by fate and a grand scheme larger than us, that you are not less than you are. Ruin for all, but moments of delicious agony for you. ”
Auriak finishes his statement while scratching the top part of my head, and I back away and say, “I just, I, I can’t. I am not entirely sure that you, are understanding exactly what I’ve been saying this entire time. You, you might not be getting that you, well you might-” The shoggoth bursts from the stone entrance of the dungeon.
His tentacles wrap around grass, stab into earth, and slather against the ground to bring the beast forwards. My belongings are all wrapped neatly in a blanket I brought in case of cold weather. He carries additional supplies for Auriak of Ruin.The shoggoth stops feet in front of us and carefuly places my belongings in front of me.
A thick layer of slime has oozed through my blanket, and covers all of my rations and belongings. Heat fills my face, and I point at the beast and say, “You know I can’t, I can’t even. Like I don’t even want to try to, it’s really, really unfortunate that I won’t be able to eat any food. It’s it’s all covered in something so, what is this? Auriak of Ruin? Can I please just, you know, I just want to”
The beast coils its tentacles tightly around each of the items. Its massive tentacles flex, and harden for moments as all of my belongings are wiped completely clean of the slime from earlier. I instantly swap my tone and say, “ It’s. That’s great! I didn’t know you could, I. Sorry about getting mad earlier...I just, how about I give you a name, huh big guy? I think you and me, I mean I can see you are, you know it’s really not all that gross. He’s really kinda cool, right Auriak of Ruin? How about we call him, er, uhm. I think maybe calling him, uhm. How about Jenkins? That’s a cool name right? I mean I think it’s classy.”
“Jenkins is the single, least fitting name I have ever heard since my creation a millenia ago. Despite it, names are sacred. They carry power and will only the bearer knows, and what you go by is for you to decide. Bending the earth to your will means carrying your name….Until it can carry you. You, shoggoth. What name are you of a persuasion to? Or, what name persuades you to it’s grasp?”
The tentacles jiggle slightly at the mention of Jenkins, and I look around and say, “ I think, you know, I think my name might be cooler than you thought, huh Auriak of Ruin? I mean you probably need t-”
A massive slap on my back throws me forward. My face hits the slime covered grass. The creature catches the rest of my fall, and lifts me onto my feet. He tightly clasps his tentacles around me, squeezing the slime and dirt off of me as I grasp for air. My very eyeballs swell from the pressure as he reaches my torso. The creatures lays me on the grass where I began, and I quickly attempt to recover from the overwhelming stimulus to my senses.
“A good name indeed Lance. Fight for it. Jenkins will fight for you, but only as you can fight for yourself. Bring honor to the name as it brings victory to you.” His figure grasps for his belongings, he puts on a helmet with big black horns and a cross for him to breathe from. He also sports a pair of baggy leather pants with straps and assorted packs for all kinds of knick knacks, and I realize for the first time since meeting him, Auriak of Ruin is covering his genitals. Our journey out into the planes towards my village begins.