Swish Swish. Tall fronds of the undergrowth ripped and bent under the unforgiving blades that were pushed in front of a lithe figure. The figure briskly jogged, arms by their side, while longer and thinner arms rushed with the blades of archaic flying machines from an old backpack. A knee-length, dull-brown overcoat and thick boots hid their figure, while a full-face mask and shawl hid their face and head. Every article they wore seemed so heavily used that dirt became their dye. As they were jogging, a fallen tree was revealed amid the plant life. The whirling blades immediately stopped, folded into a claw, and pushed the ground in front of the tree to assist in a jump.
The figure grunted and with the pitch of the voice the androgynous figure was immediately revealed to be female. She grumbled, “Damn, what a pain” under her breath as she continued to run. As she ran, she kept her eye on a trickling streamlet that seeped through the dirt and rocks, careful not to step in or near it. It was not water; it was too viscous for that and too clear. No dirt or mud could be seen in or around it except that which it flowed over. It was an eerie liquid. It shimmered and wove about like something with a mind. She followed it upstream for a while, ignoring her hunter’s instinct.
Suddenly, an animal bounded through the bushes on the other side of the stream. A quick flash of immaculate, white and curly fur stopped and revealed a cylinder of fluff. The bottom of the fluffy tube showcased four stubby hooves, but the woman knew that its legs stretched longer and bonier than hers concealed inside that fluff. Its black horns shone in the light that leaked from the canopy, however its eyes and button nose could only barely be seen poking up from the mass of fluff that concealed the rest of the face. Adorable! A tube-pup! the woman thought, pressing her palms on her cheeks in a brief and rare moment of weakness. Her thoughts were quite in contrast to her emotionless face under the mask, although her thought could perhaps be gleaned by a slight red blush if her mask was removed. She forgot the reason she was here due to her brief delirium but before she could yelp to alert the tube-pup, it tilted its entire body, due to its lack of a neck, in order to drink from the stream.
The creature soon found the reason that the woman had not strayed close to the stream. The “water” splashed, without any prior indication, into the face of the fluffy animal. The droplets hardened in midair and formed into hooks with barbs. They gripped and twisted tightly in its thick fur, tugging it slowly closer to the bank, despite its fervent resistance. The pup frantically extended its long and bony legs from the recesses of its fluffy body but to no avail. The woman yelped as two more spines shot out, their points reflected directly in the center of the tube-pup’s eyes.
The pup could no longer resist as it bleated in pain. It fell over as the spikes grew bigger and bigger inside of its eyes. Small chunks of flesh and organs continually siphoned out into the stream and rocketed away to the source as the animal lie unresisting save for a few spasms when a particularly large chunk was pumped out. Hopefully for the tube-pup, these spasms indicated death, but the woman knew that this was unlikely. The woman lay motionless on the other side of the stream, watching in disgust and fascinated horror at the crimson operation before her. She had heard of this phenomenon, that was, after all, why she was here, but it was so much worse in person. Gore and blood were not strangers to her life, they have been companions to her and her occupation since her early days, but this was something else entirely.
There was something very industrial about the liquid. It was precise and clean, emotionless as a machine. It looked as though it had some amount of consciousness as it swished around organically but its consciousness was cold. She had seen death but never so unfeeling. Usually death is accompanied by greed, hunger, sadness, insanity or justice. But this had only the cold precision of a dissection table. She knew that her horror may have been biased by her secret obsession with fuzzy, cute animals but she doubted that even the most hardened hunter would be unfazed by this vivid display.
It reminded her of the operations, no the Blessings, that took place in the ancient temple ruins that dotted the landscape, some kept clean and well managed in cities but many in hidden valleys and forests yet to be discovered. Here, however, the operation was one not of addition but rather of subtraction. She began to wonder if she really wanted to find this temple as her guess of her destination was confirmed by the surreal sight before her. Envy or anger at the ancient powers, the Blessings or other gleaming riches that others had acquired in similar temples no longer maintained her full attention.
After about fifteen minutes, the woman shakily stood up, eyes darting around like a cautious animal. They focused on the husk of the creature. All that was left was a pile of dripping red fur and a pile of bones as white as the fur had been in the past. The skull had eye sockets wider than a natural specimen as if they were expressing the surprise and fear that its eyes had a short while ago. Although the sockets looked neat and free of flesh, she remembered that these creatures typically had eye sockets only half of this one’s size. The long leg bones wildly stretched in different directions. The woman shuddered at the memory of what splayed them. She glanced once more at the stream, distanced herself by another body length and began her journey anew. She thought she had resolved herself for whatever may come ahead.
As she continued to move, the blades that had folded themselves into her backpack due to her inattention swished back out and began to cut once more. The somber faced lady ran even faster amid even more piles of bones similar to those she just had seen. Her thick boots crushed skulls and spines that she could not avoid with a sickening crunch. As she ran towards the source of the stream, the bones looked older and messier. May were of the same animal as before although unfamiliar skeletons were present as well. Unlike the efficient work on the immaculate skeleton that she had previously observed, each skeleton here had clear imperfections like large holes dotting the outside of a skull or a ribcage forced open. Before now, all of the bones had been from complete skeletons, but here, all she saw were piles of bloody bones, now brown or black as opposed to scarlet. Each pile had only one type of bone like a pile of skulls or of ribs and it gave an eerie sense of completion to see a slaughter so organized.
She could imagine that it would have taken some time for this grand sorting to occur. It seems like it is getting better at managing its time, getting more efficient, she thought. She was sure that she would prefer to be sorted into piles that showed attention or even a sick affection than to be deserted with nothing left to rot like the animal whose demise she had seen. She shuddered at the thought of having a preference. Her proximity to the ruin was indicated by the decrease in the quality of the bones and the increase in quantity. She wondered how many corpses it had consumed into its swirling mass.
The bones were much easier to avoid now that they were in these organized piles. She cautiously slinked through the piles, eyes darting above them, making sure that she did not step in or otherwise alert the stream. The “water” was much deeper now and the river it was contained in was much wider. She could tell she was close now. Moss, vines and a great mound of dirt obscured an open hatch leading down into the depths. This was clearly the final objective of her mission, but the problem was once more in the stream. The hatch had not been opened by human hands, rather it had clearly been bent and pried open by the liquid.
Although her only entrance to the ruin was blocked, she was determined to find the origin of this dangerous liquid. It had destroyed the ecosystem around her home and many residents were forced to evacuate the immediate area of livestock and even humans as well. Several children were caught unawares playing and splashing in their newfound play area on the outskirts of town. She didn’t witness the scene herself, but it was from their parents that her impression of the liquid came. All they could say was that the water dragged their children far away. They didn’t say that it only took the insides. Their voice suggested even then that they didn’t believe it, with their identically glossy eyes and abrasively monotone chuckle. Nobody looked inside the coffins so she just assumed they looked the same as other drowned corpses or that the bodies could not be found at all. No one told her that they were picked clean.
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Seeing an absurd amount flesh chunks being pushed and pulled down into the cave, she had a terrible idea. She began to back away into the forest before turning around and running. She wished that she was running away for good. Rather than running on the ground as she was before, she used the metal arms to grasp and leap off of the sides of trees. She was proficient in controlling these arms and was thus as silent as she could possibly be. She ceased paying attention to where she was going, and her eyes honed on a large shape slowly nearing the tree she was clasped to. A different, uglier creature lumbered through the tall trees underneath her.
This one was not nearly as cute as the fluffy creature had been before, so she felt some small consolation for what she was going to do. It was a hulking mass of muscle without any fur. Its wrinkled skin sagged all around the body that was five times the size of the woman. It was surprising that the trees and the forest could accommodate a creature of this size. A fat belly, presumably for storing nutrients, wobbled as it stomped around. Many massive horns that were studded all throughout its body stood rigidly in stark contrast to its fat.
It continued to wobble its way through the woods, the ground shaking slightly with every step. It raised its oversized nose and sniffed the air. Its head looked vaguely canine but without jowls or lips to obscure its sharp and yellowed teeth. Only skin seemed to cover the canine skull. Its lazy eyes widened suddenly as its nostrils flared. It was right beneath her feet. Shit, the woman thought as the mechanical arms retracted and she leapt down from her perch. As she fell, she grabbed one of the many bone protrusions that studded the creature. Using that, she jumped up to the back of the creature’s neck. Its lipless mouth snapped at her, but she grabbed both sides of its face and forced it forward with a grunt of exertion. As she struggled with its face and mouth, the grotesquely muscled arms rushed upwards as its skin squirmed. Like it was killing a fly, both arms swatted towards the figure on its neck.
Just before creating a bloody pulp, the arms stopped with a shudder. The woman’s mechanical arms had once again extended to protect her. The woman looked at them from the corner of her eyes, but her eyes flashed with dismay when she realized that the mechanical arms were shuddering, almost to their breaking point. In a moment of desperation, she entrusted her weight to her arms, both organic and mechanical, and lifted up her feet. Hanging in midair, she tapped her heels together twice and thin blades shot out of the inside arch of each boot. With a quick kick, her feet slashed on either side of the monster’s neck.
Blood spurted everywhere and her boots were covered with red. As the creature’s thick arms fell once again to its side and its huge body came closer to the earth, the metal arms broke as they sprang back from their position of compression. The woman fell directly on her spine with a thud. She jumped up from her position and quickly looked around while holding her hand to her back, even though she knew it would do nothing to change the pain. She had been through many worse injuries and learned to cope.
She now faced a different problem, she had to find a way to transport a 4000-kilogram carcass through the whole forest back to the ruin. Her back was already in pain and she could only imagine what was in store for her. She took her backpack off and began to rummage through it. She saw the sparking remains of the metal arms that had helped her throughout the journey. “Sigh” she said. Others would have wondered why she said the word rather than actually sighing. The portable arm apparatus clanked behind her as she threw it away.
She continued to search through her bag until she found a thin sharp knife and a few other devices, putting them into the many pockets that lined the inside of her thick overcoat. She stood up and threw away her backpack and some of the remaining objects within it fell from its opening. With her hands on her hips, she looked at the looming body, lamenting the daunting task ahead of her once again. Motors whirred underneath her jacket as she grabbed one of its arms, beginning to drag it in the direction from which she came.
“Sigh,” she said again as she overlooked the metal hatch from her high vantage point, “I think the motors are shot.” She glared at her sleeves as a small amount of smoke seeped out of the end. It had taken hours to lug that disgusting creature here. It had leaked blood onto the forest floor the entire time. It was a miracle that it hadn’t attracted any scavengers. She placed her hand on her arm, made a twisting motion until something clicked and then shook her sleeve above the ground. There was a clunk and smoking pieces of machinery fell from both of her sleeves when she had made the same motion on both of her arms. She wished she had measured the width of the hatch beforehand because she knew that she probably didn’t even need half of the giant creature.
She began to carve the creature with the knife she had retrieved. First, she cut off its arms and legs. Wading in the blood from her previous action, she proceeded to saw off its head and make a cross shaped cut on its large stomach. She grabbed a limp arm and tossed it down the slope into the hole. She carefully counted the time it took to be disassembled as it fell deeper and deeper into the circular pit. She could no longer see it, but it seemed slow enough to attempt her idea. I must be insane, she thought to herself. She knew she wanted power and that she wanted riches and of course, most importantly revenge. The pleading eyes of the desperate in the village she lived in still lurked in her memory. But she also knew that she generally enjoyed not being violently torn apart. Her greed and her sympathy won her over in the end and she walked towards the headless and limbless creature and studied it with a glare.
Yellowed fat oozed out of the gap in the obese stomach of the creature that she had just recently cut. She propped up the creature, held her nose, closed her eyes and jumped into it, displacing many organs and other pieces of flesh. When she entered the chest cavity of creature, she felt glad for her thick jacket and shawl as they slowly absorbed the fluid around her, rather than seeping over her actual skin. She grabbed one of the many devices that she had taken from her bag with one hand and with the other, she pulled the large gap closed. Darkness once again filled the stomach except for a reddish glow of skin penetrated by light. She needed this makeshift vessel to be practically watertight. A small light appeared in the woman's hand and she slid it across the bloody cut she herself had made and miraculously, her cut reversed like a zipper being pulled back together. There was a sizzling of burnt meat and a smell wafted through the already pungent corpse where darkness slid unhindered.
The woman closed her eyes under her mask, although it would have made no inhibition to her ability to see within the creature. She curled up with her arms around her knees and began to rock. Slowly at first but then as fast as she could, she rocked back and forth and from the outside, the upright carcass wobbled with her. It began to tilt slowly downwards and veer off of the side of the hill over the open bulkhead.
The corpse rolled down the hill with the same elegance and grace one would expect from a water balloon filled with mud and rocks. It picked up speed and the vibrations alerted the liquid at the opening. It quivered in anticipation for another prey to gather close once more.
Splash! The corpse with the woman inside sunk into the vertical tunnel and the liquid welcomed it with quills and prongs. They dug through the neck, hoping to find valuable brain matter but there was no head to be found. The tendrils dug deeper, into the fat that it so relished. The crystalline roots dug and picked at the copious amounts of fat to deliver it back to the source like the rest.
The woman shivered without making a noise as countless tendrils shot past her head. They prodded the organs around her and dissected them to bring back. She had been counting the entire time, eagerly awaiting the time at which she would allow herself to escape. The flesh around her decomposed at a visible rate as patches of skin began to fall away, revealing the outside. She was floating on a shallow river through old decrepit halls to an unknown destination. She realized just how insane her idea had been as only dumb luck had carried her this far. While being mindful of the veins of the liquid still squirming inside the corpse, she jumped from it to the ceiling. Her wrists shot small metal spikes hidden within her sleeves and she stuck them above her into the ceiling to hang.