Danger!
The being tried to jolt up, but its limbs seized before it could get far.
It crashed back against the hard rocky ground and was forced to lay there. It felt very little of its body, and what it did feel was as heavy as if there were a pair of bisons sitting on top. And everything was steadily getting worse.
It felt so incredibly vulnerable. A creeping shiver down its whole body, as if something monstrous had jaws poised to strike just behind, about to bite down and tear its spine out. It wanted nothing more than to twist around and check on whatever danger was here, but it just couldn't turn its head! Its body was giving up, and even its thoughts were starting to feel sluggish.
Worst of all was the pain on its neck. The one real sensation since, since... the only one that could penetrate the haze. But a terrible thing to feel, as if everything was out of place, twisted in a way that shouldn't be possible.
The being had never felt anything like this. Never felt so frail and exposed, so close to the precipice of a fate it didn't even want to consider.
Rather, there had been an occasion, before it became the frog, even if those moments were shrouded in its memory. Now however, there was none of the urgency and chaos that had pushed it back then, that had allowed it to ignore its terrible conditions to just push through.
Now there was only stillness and the certainty that it was dying. And there was nothing it could do about it.
...
Which meant that it was time to think outside of the box and come up with a creative solution, because it would never give up!
It would think of... of something! and then extricate itself from this corner.
...
...
While it pondered, it kept feeding instinctively as it had been doing since coming back to awareness, so as to at least bring some comfort to- but there was something here, right? Some kind of connection that should've been obvious, but that it was struggling to focus on right now through the haze of panic and-
Feeding! Yes! Feeding could mend wounds, couldn't it? Yes, yes it could!
Immediately, the being threw all its will behind the only action that felt like it had a chance to do something, drawing in essence as fast as it could and desperately shoving it everywhere at once. Initially without any sort of plan, and with little to show for it. But there was some relief. Just a tiny bit, but better than slowly fading away.
So it just kept going. And as time went on, its thoughts clearing, the being started to refine its technique: drawing in essence in a more reasoned, effective manner. Which quickly led to the realization that the neck was the most critical area. The essence was having the most impact there, pushing and pulling more things around. And so there it focused its efforts.
The relief morphed into localized pain, like it was pushing against some kind of barrier. But the essence was a benign thing, and so the being persisted. It kept pushing, up until its neck started moving on its own, which was all sorts of weird and uncomfortable, but the being was committed now, so...
and then something snapped into place, and all was right again.
Feeling returned to its flesh all at once and muscles relaxed, letting it splay completely against the ground. The threat of impending doom faded away, replaced by a strange sense of satisfaction and joy. Its mind sharpen again, free of crushing pressure, the being took advantage to check around.
It was a tunnel. One of those close to the castle by the looks of it. Though one stable enough, strangely. Safe.
From external threats, at least.
Its hand went to its neck, probing around at the fuzzy texture, and underneath, that everything was as it should be. It felt so extremely glad about its foresight: if it hadn't thought to defend this area and pushed for this mane during the transformation, it might not be here to regret that now.
There had been no chance to fight back. The dark one had been so incredibly fast, the being barely had time to notice that it was moving, and then... nothing. To think it could...
A strange sensation, pleasant and bubbly, spread through its chest.
Maybe it should be feeling terrible, but there was no trace of the panic of before. There was only this, and the joy of being alive. How it wished it could have stayed awake more, to witness the dark one in action: it must have been magnificent.
This confirmed what it had already known, deep down. There was just no other way the formidable creature could have been so fast. To almost behead the being before it even realized it was being attacked... the dark one must have the ineffable thing, the power beneath the whisper. And not just the pitiful sputter the guards wielded. As expected, the dark one was by far the deadliest creature the being had met.
After what had happened, it should hold some resentment... But it didn't. Not much, at least.
If anything, its fascination for the creature had grown.
The being had modeled itself after the dark one in more ways than one, but still felt that the creature was a better version, faster and probably stronger. It had the whisper - that the being couldn't even perceive properly - and the original and true version of its moves - which it had failed to get back entirely.
No, the being didn't want to fight the dark one. It wanted to learn from it. Maybe become friends with it, for how absurd that was. Because even discounting everything else, the dark one had been the only other non-malevolent truly complex creature it had met. The bison might have been too, but that was a moot point now.
Also, that had been somewhat its fault for not remembering the dark one's clear purpose: defending the castle. Of course it would attack if the being tried to do the same as the last one that had gathered its ire!
And that was not really a point of contention anymore: there was no reason to fight over something that the being shouldn't even be after in the first place.
Its newfound blissful state allowed it to consider things more clearly.
It had known since the beginning that getting to the collateral was completely optional. Just something to do to prepare and sate its curiosity, on the path to the actual objective. It should have moved on as soon as the sheer difficulty of the task, the might of the forces arrayed against it, had become clear.
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Instead, it had kept finding plenty of excuses, one after the other, to stay here. It felt as if something had been keeping it, but it could find no clue as to what.
Sure, it had gained a lot of things, and didn't regret staying for those at all. It didn't regret learning its moves, for one. Even the mere dregs it had now were something it wasn't likely to get anywhere else, and that had probably been a huge force in inspiring its new shape. Certainly it didn't regret getting the bison's gem and filaments. That really had been a one time chance.
But it should have left immediately after. Not practicing with its new body would've been uncomfortable, and foregoing the spikes and all its other knickknacks would have hurt. But they weren't irreplaceable treasures.
What if getting these opportunities here had meant losing better ones at the epicenter? After all, the guards there were bound to be even stronger.
Certainly, it should have left before trying this misbegotten assault. It was lucky, in a sense, that things had ended this way: there were too many secrets it still didn't know about the knight.
The being felt strong enough to handle what it had seen, but the creature had already shown that it had held back against the bison. What if that wasn't remotely the end of it? What if it was just the beginning? For all the being knew, the knight might be able to empower again just as dramatically as the guards - a kind of second whisper, or something. Unlikely, perhaps, but what did it know, really?
Worse, it knew nothing about the castle. The guards were very crafty and there might be all sorts of traps and defenses layered closer to it. What if there were other knights, or creatures on that level hiding inside? After all, their champion hadn't started to come out until the bison had pushed the line back. It was plausible that more could come out if it were pushed much further.
In this blissful state, after surviving such a close and intimate brush with death... how the being loved its new life! A marvel ever since it had climbed out of its small world as a little frog. Ever since it had crawled out of somewhere even smaller, as something even lesser. And despite the few bad things it had found, it couldn't wait to see more. See if it could could climb out into somewhere even bigger, as something even greater.
And thinking back to how close it had come losing this all...
It needed to stop being so simple, and learn from the bison's mistakes.
Of course, it would never back down in fear. But if it had to risk its life, that needed to be while trying to achieve the right things. Not doing pointless charges against an unfathomable opponent that held all the advantages, for benefits that were dubious at best. It was time to get moving, and fast, judging by how far the epicenter still felt.
As soon as it had recovered enough at least, since it still didn't know exactly where it was, and what was waiting out there.
About that...
The being carefully pulled itself back up, walked towards the cave's opening and slowly peeked outside, eyes roving around for a deceptively frail figure.
It was quite hard in the sheer chaos out there.
Somehow, the being had ended up in the midst of the swarm, not to far from the guards' line. These creatures had long since ceased to be a threat, of course, and even the random kicks it got on its head for peeking out weren't doing much.
And of those creatures that really mattered, there was no trace: the knight must have gone back to its castle, and the dark one wasn't anywhere to be found. Not even in any of the outcroppings, or back at its hilltop. Not that this meant anything on its own, when the impressive creature had shown that it could appear anywhere without the being noticing...
The only useful thing that could be surmised by looking at the rocky formations around, was that this outcropping was the very same the being had almost got killed on.
It must have fallen down into the tunnels below, left for dead by the dark one similarly to how the bison had been discarded.
For the line to have recovered so much, almost all the way back here, how long had it been out? And more importantly, that meant that its precious things should be...
...there!
The being located its bags a way off from where it had left them - probably pushed around by the throng - but still close by. Fortunately, they were still intact. Less fortunately, the bindings on the spikes hadn't held and they'd all slipped out, currently rolling all over the place and causing many creatures to slip and fall.
Even the cap on some of those containing the filth had bounced off and much of the thing and spilled out.
...
...
Now, a profound conclusion about its love for life and regret for endangering it frivolously had just been reached. The being knew that it should be moving towards the epicenter. And hurry, because the situation was really starting to get worrying.
Even if it felt so very bad at leaving its knickknacks here, it couldn't waste time running around, chasing after all its spikes and putting them back one by one. Especially with an angry dark one lurking by!
It would just take the remaining filth and be on its way.
The epicenter was waiting for it.
The dreg stood watch on a hilltop, unmoving as always since it had found this eyesore. And cursed at its hesitation.
This nest was clearly nothing. Its source must have been exceptionally weak, or gone mad so long ago that time and dearth of prana had ground it to nothing. And it must be almost dry, judging by the immense efforts and sacrifices it was willing to go through, to preserve what little juice it still had.
Gauging the strength of its ilk was always hard, but for the collector to struggle against these pathetic little things, it should pose no threat. And even if it was just pretending, like the disgusting little shit that it was, the dreg should still embrace the chance to finally stop.
Yet it couldn't bring itself to go, when just getting close felt like a terrible weight was pressing down on its chest.
Somehow, it had been thinking of this misery the wrong way: it had unwittingly cultivated the misconception that it had lost all emotions, when it should have really known better.
It hadn't lost everything of its former self. Just the best parts.
And apparently, in that mixture of wretched lows and pettiness hiding deep in its soul, the fear had been greater than the disgust, in the end. Its old self would have been very saddened to find out the truth. Probably.
This self would sigh, if even that capability hadn't been taken away.
...
It should just move on. It had done enough.
The rift in there was far too small and stable. It shouldn't grow. The thought of the collector dying like a rat, starved and afraid and hopeless, trying to claw its way out uselessly in those last terrible moments as everything tore down around it and the very fabric slowly squeezed its life out, crushed it into the pathetic thing it had always deserved to be... It would probably have been amusing for-
And even if the little thing survived that death, it would not survive whatever was on the other side. Not even the most forgiving net.
It had only one herald worth the title, and the dreg had seen to it that it wouldn't get more. Quite a clumsy approach that had been, hindered as it was by fear, but things had mostly worked out in the end. Those of these creatures that could make a difference must all be bound for the main rift by now, and even if something turned up, it was far too late.
Now the dreg had only two real choices: charge in and try to exterminate this thing once and for all; or simply leave.
Alas, the part that could make the right choice had been one of the first to go.
It would leave once that curious monkey-thing proved that it had learned the lesson. It was still painstakingly picking up its pilfered spears and stowing them away, but that could mean anything.
Hopefully, it had understood and would leave too. It would be a pity to have to kill such a marvelous creature.
To think one of these critters could grow smart enough to build rudimentary tools... the dreg had almost believed it was dealing with a person at first - or something adjacent, like itself. But that was clearly a creature of this realm, with the ribbon receptors and all. They even looked... cute, on it.
Those little puddles weren't all extinct, after all. It was interesting to see what one could grow into, with the right opportunities. Because this must have been one of those: only their kind could drastically transform like that, and the thought that there could be two creatures so creepily close to sapient, so unduly advanced, at the same time was just ridiculous.
This was clearly the very same toad that had been monkeying it since recently. A funny little thing. Until the the dreg had felt the touch of the echo of Nimbleness, or whatever its name had been. Something that should be impossible.
Perhaps it wasn't unreasonable that some shadow of a connection had survived even inside this shell, with how little its former self had cared for it... But certainly not enough to touch.
Yet no matter how ridiculous, it couldn't shake the absurd thought that it had felt that little creature reaching for the echo through the dreg.
It would be easy to dismiss this as paranoia. But then, there had been that disturbance at the other claimant's corpse, that had riled up the collector so much. And then this monkey had come up, a stronger claimant than either of them. Clearly the puddle had took the 'core' and absorbed it. But rather than turning into a facsimile of the bigger one as their kind always did, it had become something entirely different. Something that looked like it was trying to monkey the dreg.
It was absurd. But the thing was clearly very close to sapient.
In fact, it seemed it had even understood that it was better to leave the nest alone and was finally walking away, carrying its many bags of random junk. Some pilfered spears, an entire dead drone and, for whatever damned reason, quite a lot of the collector's foul excrements.
Maybe it wasn't quite so close to sapient after all?
A pity that it wouldn't see what the little thing would grow into. And that it would die like everything else in this accursed, nightmarish realm. If it didn't meet an even faster end at the main rift, where it was likely headed...
The dreg would have been saddened by that, had the part needed for that emotion not been taken second.
Or maybe it wouldn't? If the anomaly was as the dreg believed it to be, then there was likely no stronger claimant than that little monkey. If so, it would find its way there, one way or the other.
If it grew as it had in this brief time, it might prove to be another, much needed barrier standing in the dreg's way. A more pleasant one.
The dreg finally turned away from the sight - both of the collector and the little monkey - and jumped off.
There would be no more delaying now. This should've been a pleasant diversion. Instead, it had turned into more frustration, a reminder that only what it cherished most had been taken, and nothing more.
Hopefully, that accursed vedraka would be there to strike it down.
Before it could unleash another horror upon the cosmos.
Did you think this was the actual climax of the arc/book?
