Crawling back to the errant hadn't been hard, with the boundless strength granted by newfound determination.

  Reaching the chosen leg without getting crushed by the others had been harder, but it accomplished that too, and smoothly.

  Climbing on... now that was the real hard part: the thing just wouldn’t do it the favor of staying still.

  Right now, the other legs were smacking it so hard that, at first, the being had thought it had been discovered. Fortunately, it was just a more violent fit of thrashing.

  It could only hold on and hope for the best. That was something familiar. It could do that. If only its stump would stop hurting, and the flesh on this leg weren’t so... unpleasant. A strange, frail and spongy texture that felt simply wrong.

  Eventually, the assault ended and it was free to resume its-

  a patch of fur suddenly gave – the flesh underneath revoltingly soft – and the being went down with it. It barely managed to grasp onto somewhere else and cling to it. So close to all this stomping, falling off would mean certain death.

  After such a close call, the being was much more careful and as slow as it could afford to: it was starting to feel light-headed, for some reason. Better to hurry.

  Slowly but surely, it reached the upper part of the leg... and the tremendous sore on it.

  Unlike the wounds below, this one felt more... active. Dripping the same stuff that was coming out of the being's own stump. Along with something... more, wafting outside.

  Something eerily similar to what the great Current conceded: it had never felt the likes, but there was this deep sense of familiarity with it. Along with the certainty that the stuff coming out meant the errant's situation was bad. Really bad.

  All of which meant that this was the right place.

  The being was immensely tempted to just bite down. It would certainly make the errant feel it. Here would hurt.

  But...

  Was that really what it wanted?

  The instinct inside warned that striking now would alert the errant of its presence.

  And then it would be over.

  … there had been another lesion just below the neck, hadn’t it? One even worse than this. Huge and deep, dripping copiously. In such a clearly vulnerable area.

  The being was feeling increasingly weak, but if it had to do this, then it should give the best it could. Its last act should be significant, it felt. And giving some little sting to the errant wasn’t enough. Far from it.

  So, it dragged itself onward on the gigantic body in a journey that was... surprisingly easier. A few times it was almost thrown off with all the jolting, but without the legs trying to crush it, it was just a matter of grit and patience.

  It found itself at the head faster and in better condition than expected.

  Careful not to be seen, it angled towards the left side, where the sore was, and crawled over... until it was almost on top of it. The shaking was even worse here, but it would not be undone so close to the end.

  Gathering its last strength, the being bit down.

  The enemy reacted immediately.

  The shaking became much more violent. The flesh beneath heaved as the nape and the top of the errant’s skull came crushing down, grinding back and forth. Something cracked inside… the being bit down harder.

  Paws came clawing desperately, digging into its and the enemy’s bodies both. Its flesh was mauled… the being twisted its mouth and what was in it, and reached for more.

  It dangled about as the world shook and as the errant threw itself against that very same boulder of earlier, rubbing viciously against it. Its lower body lost all feeling… the being buried itself deeper.

  No matter what, it wouldn't let go. Only push further ahead. Because it wanted to finish what it had started.

  ...but also because it felt something from deep inside the errant. Something alluring. It would love to-

  The whole world suddenly flipped upside down, and the being was jerked violently. So abruptly, it was almost forced to let go. Fortunately it-

  Another violent impact.

  Then another.

  And another.

  The being held on for dear life, but feared it would be too much, this time. It was too deep in the enemy to see, but it felt as if something was violently smashing into it.

  Could another errant have joined the fray?

  One last tug, worse than any of the others, and the being couldn’t resist anymore. It finally got knocked off, and went tumbling out of the errant's flesh. The impact with the ground was much sooner than expected, but still hard.

  It found itself laying in a softer patch of dust.

  ... It wasn’t so bad. A good place to rest.

  It could maybe move a bit now, but how would that help? Soon, the errant would stomp down, and then it would be over.

  The being slapped the annoyances away weakly, then laid on its back, waiting for the inevitable demise.

  …

  For some reason, the errant was taking its time with stomping it to death.

  So, while it waited, the being decided to satisfy its curiosity and finally check what was happening with its lower side. Every part of its body felt funny in some way, but down there was the strangest of them all by far.

  Lifting its head with difficulty, it took in the state of that part. Or rather, its non-state, as there wasn't anything there. Except the stump of one leg. And even that stump was just… trailing flesh, reduced to something similar to the errant’s own leg, that it had climbed what seemed so long ago now.

  And there was now that same, precious stuff, the one reminiscent of the great Current, wafting off its own body too. If any doubts about its fate had remained, they were gone now.

  There was no going back from this.

  It should probably be feeling something, but it couldn’t really decide what. And it didn’t matter anyway, what with its impending end at the paws of the errant, or the likely other errant that had attacked the first.

  It laid back down.

  ...

  But all was still.

  Through spikes of pain and an increasing haze, it raised its head once again.

  No other errant in sight. And the first was... it was lying on the ground, completely motionless.

  Had it become bored?

  But the stillness was too much, and it didn't take long for the being to realize...

  It was dead. It was really dead.

  Which was disorienting: the being hadn’t thought so far ahead. It hadn’t thought it would survive at all, to be fair. Not that it mattered with its state, but... to think it would manage to bring down the errant!

  The sight before it spurred it on. It had gotten so far. Why not check what was inside?

  The secret buried in that flesh had felt very interesting back then. If it could find out what it was, then it would be... not content, because it could have done with not dying. But content...er.

  It dragged itself the brief distance and started to climb on once again. It wasn’t that much harder than before. Its missing lower part was a huge hindrance, but the terrain not trying to kill it more than made up for that.

  It wasn’t long before it got back to the sore... and started to really feel the pull. It had been shrouded before by all that was going on, but there really was something extraordinary inside.

  All for it to find.

  It started digging and wiggling into the flesh. This part was much slower going, and the pain combined with the draining – whatever it was, the being had lost a lot of it – were starting to really make themselves known. But the closer it got, the more drawn it felt. It needed to have this thing, whatever it took.

  Luckily, it didn’t have to go far. Just a tiny bit more…

  The last layer of sinew gave-

  twisting out of the way just in time, it was hit on the abdomen by something hard and ugly, rather than in the head. It also had the presence of mind to grab the offender, before the last of the sticky filaments broke off and let it roll to the ground down below.

  Only after absentmindedly bringing it up did the being realize: this was what it had been seeking.

  It was horrific.

  The way the bulbous surface curved in and out; the sensations it gave to the touch; the subtle shift. Simply obscene.

  But also supremely alluring.

  It knew at once what must be done: if it fed from this, rather than begging from the great Current, that would be...

  It would be worth putting up with any amount of disgust.

  And there was something else. Something even more entrancing.

  The filaments stuck to the gem, anchoring it to the stuff all around... they had this quality to them. Like the great Current pushing throughout the air outside. Together, a kernel of the errant’s very flesh.

  The being didn't know what to think, or how it knew these things. What it did know was that somehow, someway, it could interact with the gem. Easily. That through the horrid thing, it could get hold of the filaments. And the filaments were more.

  It didn't take long to decide. The being was nothing if not curious and enthusiastic, after all.

  It did what felt right.

  Its grasp on the gem suddenly became unbreakable. Which immediately caused the being to try and fight it, because it didn’t like to be compelled. It knew it was useless. It had started, and there was no backing out now. Not without giving up.

  But nothing else was happening. Nothing different from usual. There were these annoyances that couldn’t be slapped away, but that might have to do with its current impairment.

  And the more time passed without anything happening, the more the being’s condition worsened and its fear increased. Had it all been for nothing? Had it come all this way and not even its curiosity would be satisfied?

  The wait was devastating. It eroded its determination – the only thing keeping it going - like no other challenge before. Immense drain and all the damage sustained made themselves known. The being fell down to its knees, kept upwards only by its unrelenting grasp on the gem, its vision going black. It felt so slow and sluggish.

  It really started to fear the end would come before anything happened, and was searching everywhere outside and inside itself. Leaving no stone unturned.

  It was at its limit, barely holding itself together. It needed to do something, and do it now. But what else could it do? It had already tried everything and was fully determined on going through.

  Or was it?

  There was a part of it that was still hesitant, to be honest. That was holding back.

  This was a fundamental decision. The last time it did something similar, everything changed. And not all for the best. This would change everything too, and so it was right to be careful.

  But there wasn’t much time to ponder, or even much of itself to lose if things went awry, was there?

  The being found itself seizing up as the gem floated out of its grasp. It couldn’t move, no matter how it tried. Even as the filaments unraveled all around, gathering over the gem... and then flowing up its arm. Into it.

  It felt it as they burrowed into its flesh. As they unmade it.

  And as they rushed further and further in, towards its center... the world stopped making sense.