Lukas was shaking,
The culmination of the last few days worth of events had caught up to him, only a little for now. First, he spent a day tensely filled with anxiety as he searched for the ghast. Then when he found it, he broke down and collapsed in pure, undiluted fear.
Afterwards, he spent the better part of two days sulking in emptiness; a lack of emotions. All of it tinged in the colours and shades of sorrow and self-loathing.
Now he found the ghast, killed it even. But this emptiness didn't go away. Even while he was shaking from subtle fear, caused by the alien wrongness of the ghast's mangled body. Even then, it was a hollow fear, only painting the edge of the chasm in his heart, instead of filling it.
He couldn't turn a blind eye to the sheer indifference present as he and Vesa wiped the blood and viscera off of themselves.
Why wasn't he feeling anything? What was this hollow pain in his heart? Did Vesa truly save him from his panic if now he can't feel his fear, beyond its faintest whispers?
"Why don't we get going? We won't be able to make it to Mystic Camp before midnight, at least you won't. So we should find a place to sleep that isn't next to a corpse."
Vesa's words cleared his head a little, reminding him of what he needed to do: Find a place to sleep and head back to Mystic Camp the next day. But one thing lingered in Lukas' mind.
"Why did you tell me to strike at its heart? Why not its neck, wouldn't that be easier?"
Vesa smiled sweetly.
"It's simple, the heart is the only way to kill them. Nothing else will kill them."
"Not even cutting their heads off?"
"Nope. They'll keep wandering around or grow a new one."
"GROW A NEW ONE!?"
Vesa laughed at Lukas' outburst, settling into a devious and sadistic smile.
"Ghasts don't die unless their heart is removed from their body or ceases to function. They can bleed or lose their limbs, but they'll regenerate them. Whether it takes a minute or a year, they will continue to exist like a plague."
She briefly looked around her surroundings, dropped her smile and began to set up a camp.
"Anyway, here looks like a suitable place to rest for the night, go ahead and start the fire."
Lukas did as instructed, as the chill of the lightless night was creeping up on them. The rest of the night was uneventful as normal. Except for a nightmare:
Lukas dreamt of a grand river, it was endless and formless. Along its banks grew reeds as tall as trees, creating a forest of sediment-grown river plants. Lukas, himself, was a small bird, whistling an unfamiliar tune.
He listened to the song, despite being the one who sang it. It was a sweet ballad, its melody was played with strange harmonies and an odd rhythm. But right at the end of the song, before its conclusion could be heard, a grand hawk grabbed Lukas in its beak.
The hawk's strong beak pressed down on Lukas, its force threatening to crush every hollow bone in his body. He tried to wrestle free from the bird of prey, but it was to no avail. The hawk would not give up its meal that easily. Or, at least, it didn't... until it dropped Lukas.
Alas, he could not fly, no, his wings had been snapped in half after all.
So he fell, all the way down to the ground. But even then, there was no salvation, as the ground gave way and his plummet continued.
In the darkness, with only a single ray of light, his descent never ended. His fate was sealed to forever exist in this abyss, able to fly but with broken wings.
However, it wasn't empty in the abyss, they were hands that reached out to Lukas from the walls. He recognized all of them, each individual hand.
He saw the hands of his mother, his father, Caleb, Amy, and Ela. The hands of the people of Shorstone were there too: Some of the merchants he regularly spoke with. A few children that always asked to play with him. Other hunters that used to sell their fish and meat.
Then there were more, the hands of Bene were there, Vesa too. He even saw another pair, who he could only assume to be Oak's.
But as he fell past their embrace, something else grabbed him. It was the alien multi-jointed arms of the ghast he had just killed. While he was held there, each feather on his wings being pulled by another limb, another ghast stared at him.
With its four soulless, abyssal eyes, it shattered his soul. Of course it did, there was only one creature with those unholy eyes, the ghast of Shorstone.
It continued to stare at him, threatening to break his mind and spirit alike. Until he heard a voice call out to him, followed by a pair of hands that dragged him out of the well of darkness.
"Hey, are you gonna wake up? It's damn near past 10 already."
It was Vesa. She was leaning over Lukas, snapping at him lightly.
"Come on, we don't have to be punctual but that doesn't mean we get to relax."
Lukas was still half-asleep as he got his stuff ready. The only thing on his mind was the dream he had.
He couldn't remember every detail about it, but two things stood out to him: The song and the chasm in which he fell. He wanted to know more about that song, as it was so beautiful to him. And he couldn't erase the horrid experience that fall had put him through.
Maybe he could relax when he got back to Mystic Camp.