Lule lets out a hissing wail and Jevita fights to simply keep him from bolting. Tasii seems to want to take a step forward to help the women, but the big arm spider has already slammed them into the ground and buried them beneath its massive weight. Then its arms start grabbing and gnashing and smashing. I see the tall one try and pull herself free and scream. But a hand, larger than my head, shoves three fingers into her mouth, then she is dragged into a maelstrom of those arms.
The warmth in my chest whirls into an inferno as terror holds me in place.
Yrelia is yelling something at me. Pulling at me. Trying to get me to run with her.
Tasii is at Lule's side, trying to get to one of the bags as the big Quelekita continues to wail and jerk. Jevita is nearly dangling from his harness, yelling at Tasii about a chest and gemstones.
I can't take my eyes off the thing, even as my stomach turns and threatens to force me to vomit bile. I watch as the tongues unravel, and I catch a glimpse of teeth and slime and–
Yrelia begins to try and drag me back, but suddenly Lule jerks and swings both Jevita and Tasii into us. She loses her grip and falls away. We all tumble into various parts of the path, but even that doesn't break my horrific fascination with the creature.
Then something slams into my foot, shocking me from my stupor.
I look down to see a glass potion jar, filled with a clear blue liquid. Water from the canals? My reflex to grab my bruised foot ends with me holding the potion in one hand. I can see my reflection in the cerulean liquid.
Then I can see Her in it. My terrified two eyes swirl into four narrowed back at me.
I grind my teeth and look back up to the creature, then back down to the potion. My own fear stares back at me once again. I tighten my grip.
What should I do?
I stand back up, and prepare to try and throw the potion, but stop as I notice the arm spider has slowed its writhing assault, then stops entirely.
"Ina!" I hear Yrelia call from somewhere behind me. "Run!"
Coughing, followed by screams and whimpers echo from beneath its mass.
Then it's launching forward at me. It is so fucking fast. Before I can think I am being smashed beneath a wave of clawing fingers, jutting elbows, and lashing tongues.
I kick and punch and try to scream, but fingers that taste like bile and blood shove themselves into my mouth. I bite at them to little success. It's like biting down on slimy wood. It gropes and claws at my… well… everything. I feel it tear my face and clothes, then clawing at my chest, legs and… FUCK THAT!
I keep trying to fight, but with every kick or squirm it answers with two or three heavy blows or full body slams down into me. My mind is a swirl of pain and starlight after the third time my head bounces off the hard dirt road.
There is a crack, then a pop. My hand burns, but I'm too distracted so I keep punching and clawing.
The third woman's eye flashes through my mind as this thing pins one of my kicking legs against my shoulder. I picture a hundred things this creature might be able to do to me before anyone could get it off. How it could rip and tear me to pieces. Destroy and ruin this perfect new body.
No. no no no no no NO NO NO! Fuck you!
The burning in my hand redoubles, and I feel something break beneath my clawing. Then there is a light, and I get a great look at the teeth beneath this thing's core.
A weird mix of purple and green flames dance and bite along my skin, the liquid from the now shattered glass bottle acting like ignition fluid. The warmth in my chest seems to roar in anger and joy at the sight.
My hand's on fire?
A pause of surprise, then I shove my arm into the crackling hole I see amidst the writhing tongues. Punching and clawing and tearing right back at the thing bearing down on me.
GOOD!
The fingers that had stuck in my mouth slip free. I let out a choking sobbing howl of rage as It tries to grab at my arm, but where the fingers touch the flames they catch fire instantly. The weird pale flesh of it turns black in only a few seconds.
It tries to pull away, but as it does my fingertips slide across a solid mass deep inside its core, then find two little holes big enough for me to grab hold. It jerks back, but at least half its legs crumble and shatter to gooey bits of ashen muck under its own weight. As it stumbles I feel the handhold I grip begin to crack. I kick up both my legs and press them against the teeth, then I push and kick as hard as I can. Trying to rip this thing apart.
This thing apparently can't cry out with its disgusting teeth, tongue, mouth, center core… thing. But I can feel it twist and rock in agony as whatever this thing at its core burns. A loud crack and rip sounds, and I feel it die as the mass in my grip tears free. I slam back down into the ground and its corpse finally crumples away from me. Collapsing into a heap a few feet from my toes.
I just lay there panting as the glare of the sun breaks through the canopy above. The silence is only broken by a faint crackling of the flame coming from my right arm.
"Ina!" Yrelia cries out. And then she's above me. Fear plain on her face.
"Ow." I'm able to gasp up to her, but it comes out wrong. My tongue feels... off. Throat feels hoarse and dry.
There are a few hundred questions and cries shouted about me. The adrenaline thundering in my ears drown them out. Then a shark whip-crack command from behind Yrelia makes her jerk.
"Stay awake," Yrelia pulls my head up into her lap, "Don't close your eyes! Please, Ina stay awake!"
Sleep sounds so nice right now. But I obey, fighting the urge to close my eyes. Then Kque is there with a large blanket and another glass bottle. She moves to pour the liquid onto me. It's cool and makes my skin tingle, seeming to soak into me instead of sliding off.
Healing Waters. I muse amidst the pain. A specially brewed alchemical mixture made from the waters of Lyttoral. Most of the Sororitas sell these, but not cheaply. I once heard they take 3 months and very precise work to create. It speeds up the healing process and makes sure wounds can't go septic and sour. It's not a miracle potion though, it needs time to work.
"Keep her awake." Kque demands, "Slap her if you have to."
Kque tries to get some all over my body, both starting and ending at my burning arm. Between the healing water and the blanket she uses to smother it, I hear the flames sputter and die. It hurts so fucking much, even if I'm not sure if I can feel my fingers.
While this happens I find myself wiggling my tongue around in my mouth. Something is wrong there. It's missing a chunk. At the thought of accidentally swallowing that missing piece my face screws up.
"What is it?" Yrelia asks, "Where else does it hurt?"
I mean… everywhere. But for now I open my mouth to stick my tongue at her, and end up sputtering blood. Yrelia winces, and next thing I know she's pulling me up a little and trying to get me to drink some of the healing water.
"Swirl it around your tongue." She tells me as I begin to drink the cooling water greedily. "I… I think it can help. Might be early enough to–"
She cuts off and a little sob escapes her as her eyes wander over my body. "I'm so sorry Ina."
"Tasii." Kque calls out, calm but very loud. Like Tasii is far away. "Bring me the stitching pack please. And more healing water if we have some."
This is the loudest I've ever heard Kque speak. And it's only then that I notice a wailing cry from a long ways away. Is that Lule? I hope he's okay.
A few moments later the short woman is speaking from next to Kque.
"Will this work?" She asks, holding something out.
"Oh thank the moon and stars. Yes. It will," Kque lets out a relieved sigh, then pauses. "I… are you three okay? Do you need–."
"No. We're not." The woman snaps, but not unkindly. I can see her face then. There is a huge bruise that's keeping one eye shut and three long scratches run down the length of her face. Her shirt is barely hanging on and I can just make out more bruises and scratches. "But we can wait. She needs it more."
She looks down at me, and my body, face blank. Then her eyes meet mine, and her expression softens. "Thank you. I've no idea how you… did all of that, but thank you for–"
I'm still swirling the tingling healing water along my tongue. So I try to give her a thumbs up with my unburnt hand. She gives me grimace, and leaves.
"Pour some of that on this please." Kque tells Yrelia, holding out some kind of… tweezers? But… bigger. Sharper….
I can't quite see what she's doing. I spit the foul water/blood mixture and try to ask, but Yrelia shushes me and has me swirl fresh healing water. I feel a… probing along my arm. It stings, then she is jamming something into my skin. I let out a yelp of pain, sputtering half the water out over my chest.
"Sorry." Kque replies. "Your arm was burnt badly, and there seems to be… What even is this? Buried in your skin?"
I spit. Tongue feels heavy, but my words seem to come out better. "Glass. I think. Some kind of potion from Lyttoral. It shattered in my hand."
Yrelia once again forces me to take in another mouthful of water.
Kque pauses her work. "Fuck. I should have done this first. There's glass… beneath your skin now. Your skin sort of melted over and is trying to heal around it. I have got to get this out before we use more healing water. I'm sorry Ina, this is going to hurt more before it hurts less."
And fuck me is that an understatement. Her work goes from annoyingly painful probing to full on peeling my skin off to get at large and small chunks. After a few minutes Yrelia has me bite down on… something, to stop me from grinding my teeth to powder.
It's during then that I end up looking down at myself. I'm basically naked. A few scraps of the outfit Yrelia gave me still cling on, but it's mostly due to the dried blood. My dark skin can hide some of it, but I can still see that I am covered in slowly rising bruises. Long scratches carve across me too. Centered around my hips, chest upper legs, and… well… I can't really see everything from this angle. But it feels like something bit and chewed and clawed at my everything. The healing water they poured on before seems to have staved off the worst pains for now.
I jerk and bite down hard as it feels like Kque tears a strip of skin off from along the back of my hand.
"I'm sorry," Yrelia mutters, a stutter in her voice as tears begin to form.
I reach up to touch her cheek, and we both notice that two of my fingers on that hand are twisted the wrong way. Yrelia's face turns an even greener shade. She gently takes it and begins to kiss my wrist.
I wish the next few minutes were a blur, or that I passed out. But I remain painfully awake and very aware. Kque's work keeps getting worse. At one point Yrelia has to nearly pin me down as I try to pull away, begging Kque to stop. They let me take a little break, to drink and calm down. But not long, Kque says that if we take too long the glass could meld really deep into my arm.
I get so cold, the warmth from last night is long gone. The gaping maw left in its place makes me shiver. It feels like it's dripping out of my burned arm. The wounds along my chest and legs heal enough that they can wrap me in that blanket without fear of it sticking to the wounds.
I catch sight of my arm too. Patches of skin are black, crackled, and peeling away. Everything is bleeding. I catch a glimpse of white bone and almost throw up, and Yrelia moves herself to block as much of the view as possible.
Kque promises over and over she's almost done. Just a little more. I can tell she's started crying too. Then Tasii is back, covering me in another blanket at passing two more potions over to Kque.
"The fuck took you so long!" Yrelia barely keeps her voice from a shout.
I want to try and calm her, but there is another ripping pain from my arm and my vision goes crooked and I need to clamp down on the thing in my mouth.
"...Nearly dislocated." Is what I catch next. Yrelia's anger turns to a bit of surprise.
"You're kidding." She hisses. "Did… Is she okay?"
Tasii nods as she moves to Kque's side of me. "No, but it's mostly fear. Lule wouldn't even let me come close to them."
Tasii peers beneath the two blankets, "Fuck!" Then tosses them off, unstoppers one of the healing waters, and begins gently pouring it over my wounds.
"We only had the one potion." Yrelia replies, obviously trying to keep her anger in check.
They all work quietly after that. Well… except me. I don't even try to hide my pained cries.
At some point the shorter woman returns, dressed in fresh clothes and her wounds bandaged. "I… I hate to ask, but do you have any more of that healing water? We can make a trade for it and that first one you gave me."
Tasii's finishes pouring some water over me and stands. She looks back to Kque.
"They can take the half-full one. Leave us the un-opened one. Just in case. I've gotten as much glass out of her as I can see and feel."
The woman nods, "That'll be plenty."
Tasii passes it to her. "We can work things out when we're all in the city."
The short woman takes it, the hard exterior continuing to crack. "Thank you."
Tasii moves back to me. Kque is true to her word this time, and after pouring a heavy dose of the healing water over my arm and waiting for my skin to weave back into a solid surface, she wraps it in damp strips of cloth. Then Yrelia lets Kque know about the broken fingers on my other hand, and I have to grit through a cracking pain as they are twisted back right, then splinted.
Standing is… not something I'm able to do easily. But we take it slow and eventually I'm on my feet. They wrap me in the blanket and we begin to move.
The other three women are already gone, and the body of the nightmare spider is just a pile of wet ash on the side of the road. I look about and spot the thing I drug from its core. It's round, charred black, and basically cracked in half. I swear I spot what looks like eye sockets glaring back at me.
The trek is slow going, and the sun is already setting by the time we find Jevita and Lule waiting for us.
Lule's feathers flare up at us, but between Jevita's coos, scrutches, and the familiar voices of the group he eventually calms enough for us to approach. When Jevita's eyes fall on me her face turns pale.
She swallows hard, "I… Do we need anything from the packs?"
From beneath my 'good' arm, I feel Yrelia begin to wind up to snap out something. But she quiets as I pretend to lose my balance and she has to help hold me steady.
Tasii shakes her head. "We just need to make it to Deledita before It gets too dark."
So off we go. It's fucking terrible. Everything throbs with each step, and more and more often the group has to stop because I feel like I'm about to pass out. But eventually someone calls out, and I look up to see lights shining down the path. We're met on the road by about five of the city's duenna. They have weapons, Everlights, and a sort of bed that's suspended between two poles. I feel a surge of fear, but when they have me lay down on that bed and insist on carrying me to an inn, that melts away.
By the time we've reached the city gates I've let sleep drag me into its dark embrace.
I do wake up later, pain wracking my body when I try to move. I'm on a rather soft surface that takes up most of the space in a room with wooden walls. Starlight from a single window illuminates three forms curled around me on a pretty big bed.
Yrelia murmurs for me to get more sleep, and I obey.
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