Jacob followed Shortie, he didn't run but the pace was a little faster than what Jacob really wanted. Ten minutes later they arrived at a campsite. Five things.. not humans, were sitting around the fire roasting a very large fish.
Shortie came up to them like it was nothing and struck up conversation. "Meat, your meat smells great, Can I have some meat? I like Meat, Do you like meat. This smells like Cat food. Jacob, Jacob, this smells like Cat food." His chatter was a bit annoying, but the others that surrounded the fire didn't move. They stood like gargoyles and only turned their heads. They didn't offer it to Shortie, so he didn't take it. Instead, he jumped into the river and tried to catch his own.
Jacob didn't expect Shortie to come out with a fish. When he went to grab it to put on the fire, Shortie fought to keep it, tear it apart somewhat. Jacob sighed. "I need something else, I'm so hungry." His stomach growled, it was loud and caught the three gargoyle figures attentions. They shifted position and slowly started to approach.
"Strange.." One of them poked at Jacob.
"Yes, Brother, Strange." Another poked in a different spot.
"Quit it." Jacob brushed their hands away but they were strong, it was like strumming his hand against a fence post, solid and firm. He couldn't get them to move an inch.
"Oh, it fights. Interesting brothers. Maybe we have a better meal tonight. This one is low on energy, let us take its meat." the encircled Jacob and tried to claw at him. Shortie barked and attacked the nearest one. His teeth sank into their skin, a green fluid came out, it tasted like a dirty penny. Shortie released his bite and turned to the next one, he pawed at it and bit down at the wings. A great tear appeared on one of them. It was the second of the gargoyles to become wounded and the trio backed away slightly.
Jacob saw Shortie licking crap from his mouth and spit it away. His fur was raised, he was angry and growled. A loud bark disoriented the trio and Shortie tore apart the tail and legs of the third gargoyle. With all three injured, he bit down on their necks until a cracking sounded.
"Master, these are a little bitter but I kinda like it. Tastes like soup." Shortie started tearing one of the gargoyles apart and Jacob almost lost his appetite.
His nose smelled something burning. 'fish?' "Oh! The Fish!" Jacob ran over to the fire, he saw some strange looking tools nearby. One looked like a crystal, the other looked like a bottle. Inside the bottle there was a small pill. Jacob put it aside and stared at the fire through the crystal. 'What were those things?' He thought about heaven and hell, wondering if he had died. 'Impossible, I've been good.' The confusion got the better of him and the fish burned a little more.
Jacob pulled the fish from the fire and waited for it to cool. Shortie finished eating the first gargoyle completely. Only bones and a shiny marble remained. It was something he had seen in comic books before, it glowed with green light, pulsing before the naked eye. Covered in bile and the green blood, Jacob didn't know if he should be taking something like that.
He hesitated but Shortie didn't.
Shortie started chewing on the ball, trying to crush it, consuming it. He swallowed it.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?!" Jacob waited patiently for the horror show to happen but it was uneventful, he waited for an hour.. the fish got colder but it was edible. He picked at it.
"Master, bring, bring these master." Shortie nudged the gargoyle corpses toward Jacob.
'Jesus, even the Dog is telling me what to do!!!' Jacob stared at the fire while he ate. Occasionally he peeked a glimpse of the bodies. They were strange, stone-like. "I'm not carrying dead things around." Jacob said with a boring tone.
"Food Master, Later, Food." Shortie's words were pretty true. Jacob poked a dead gargoyle with a stick. 'ughh, can I really eat this?' He thought to himself and poked it again, some blood leaked out. Jacob tasted it on the tip of his finger, it tasted like medicine.
Jacob got a headache. Dizzy, he sat down on the ground away from the fire. 'smoke, maybe its the smoke.' the reaction was too fast to have been the blood but there was pain in his head. He could feel something taking shape inside his head. A different sort of understanding, a warm feeling, immeasurable and unknown to him started to form in the depths of his mind. Jacob held his head in pain for a moment, then it was gone and he caught his breath.
"fishy.." Jacob looked at the fish and ate some more. Then he saw it, another marble. It was golden orange. Shortie hadn't died, Jacob yanked the marble out and felt something transmitting into his hand, it was more of that warm feeling. It was vast and wonderous. He stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed. It was a hard pill to swallow, nearly the size of nickel in diameter, it was the largest solid thing he'd ever tried to swallow.
As it passed down into his body, he could feel it breaking apart and a surge of energy rushed over him. He became alert, energetic and observed the qualities of everything around him slowly.
He was lost in epiphany.
The night was sort of cold, many strange noises filled the evening like a nightmare. Howls and screaming animals, crashes and thunder could be heard in nearly every direction. Jacob felt like he was in a war zone. Shortie slept by his side, it gave some comfort.
'A watchful eye lurks and doesn't smile, a sleeping giant's roar, a trail of the heavens, a lure from the gods it does not prevail. A craven desire, corpse bound flesh, transmutation, transformation it changes all. The Soul.' Dreaming, Jacob watched vivid dreams, lectures from beings calling themselves Gods. A gentle warning in their education, they spoke of devils, demons, beasts and death. Images flowed around him, broken, distorted and blurred at times.
They showed great tragedy and loss of life, then, suddenly a change, a renewal, a life force fighting back. It was small in comparison, held by a single light, the light of a Soul. Great waves of energy swept across the world, it shook, and darkness crept into the shadows. Light filled the Universe once more, a great circle of symbols and lights covered the soul, protecting it. Golden light, swam across the skies.
It was dazzling.
'Shake the foundations, step into the light. Never surrender to the darkness.' A disc appeared in front of him. It spun in many directions at once on its face. Letters and symbols tumbled and churned, a bright light consumed all of his vision and then the light of the Sun woke him from his sleep.
There was a lingering sensation, Jacob looked down at his fingers and saw a trace of gold lick across his skin. Looking back at the campfire, his dinner sat there, even though it was cold it did not seem to taste bad or give off a foul odor. He ate the rest of the fish bite by bite. When there was nothing but bone, he took off a shirt and brought them and the gargoyles along with him.
Shortie kicked up a dirt while he walked, he seemed heavier than usual. Paw prints that were normally the size of his own were now the size of his feet. Shortie was already a large dog but he seemed to have grown overnight. Jacob wondered if his dream had any clues to what was going on, the golden ball, the green ball.. perhaps it was all something similar. "I have no idea what's going on but we've been gone for two days I'm sure the Camp is worried. Lets find a town or a road soon, this wandering is getting to be hard on my back." Jacob cracked his back and washed his face in the river.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍