Chereads / Woebegone / Chapter 2 - Immortality

Chapter 2 - Immortality

Typhon stands on the edge of an abyss, so deep and dark that vertigo is a necessity. His feet planted on solid ground, he feels like he is falling and falling and falling.

"Typhon, dear. What do you seek?"

Typhon spins around towards the angelic voice, nearly stumbling over and falling on the ground. Intense fear shivers down his spine as he puts his back to the void.

An angel or a devil stands in front of him. Feminine in appearance, the source of the angelic voice looks at him curiously. It was a little girl, her facial features obscured by mist and fog. She wore an outfit made from the feathers of an angel's wings, the tips of some still bloody. Power and wisdom courses through the air around the girl.

Typhon can't speak. He can't breath or feel or smell. He can only watch as the little girl approaches, her footsteps soft as if she were walking on clouds. He shrinks as she gets closer. Now her height, she caresses his cheek. Blinding pain surface where she touches, making Typhon want to scream. But he's frozen, unable to move.

"Ah... you are not yet powerful enough to converse with me. Mm..."

Her voice echoes through his brain, searing into the depths of his mind.

"I have so many plans for you, my dear... How unjust to be shot through the heart as a first impression. I wonder... what will you do in response to your captors?"

The mist covering her face parts enough to reveal her lips, curled into a smile. Typhon's world once again goes dark.

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He wakes up groggily, with no recollection of his dream. Pain shoots through his body. He was surprised he was alive. He looks down at his chest, wondering if everything had been just a weird nightmare.

Glistening black blood drips onto his naked thighs, the feathered ends of the two arrows still jutting out of his chest. Revulsion wracks his mind as he notices his grey skin moving around the entry point of the arrows, attempting to repair the two injuries on his chest with the same oily brown hair that covers some of his body already. Panic swelled in his chest, his hands instinctively move to try and remove the shafts of the arrows. He finds himself unable to do so, his hands chained to the stone wall by thick iron.

Typhon takes deep breathes to calm down, taking his time to look around at his surroundings. He finds himself in another dungeon, this one far larger than the other one. He's chained in the back left corner of the cell, thin iron bars in front of him. To his right is a bucket, within the reach of his thick legs. To his farther right is a slab of stone used as a bed. Typhon faces forward again as he hears footsteps and voices.

"...know what it is? The descriptions I received were rather... grotesque."

"I have no idea, ma'am. I saw it and... you'll have to see."

Coming from the left end of the hallway, two guards appear. The first voice belongs to a woman with crimson red hair cut haphazardly down to her neck. She lifts her chin up with importance as Typhon and her meet eyes. Her gaze travels down, assessing his appearance and his injury. Typhon does the same.

She was around 5'10", with a body sculpted for defense. She wore chain armor, leather clothes underneath to provide defense for both stabbing and slicing. She had an ornate rapier sheathed at her hip, possibly a family heirloom. A crest signifying superior rank (although Typhon doesn't know what kind) rests on her left breast. And she looks at Typhon with hatred.

"One hell of a monster, I'll give it that. But yeah... this creature isn't in any of our known bestiaries. This can't be a good sign..."

The second voice, a smaller man that couldn't be older than 20, looks at Typhon with fear.

"I agree, ma'am. The surrounding forest... shouldn't have a monster like this. Maybe it wandered here?"

"Don't be dense, boy. South Nylon or Porcity would have spied a monster like that. They're never wrong with their observation magick."

They speak as if Typhon wasn't there, neither of them directing their words towards him. He keeps silent, needing more information before finding a way out of this cell.

The female guard takes some keys out of her right breast pocket, much to the horror of the younger male guard. She unlocks the metal bar door swiftly.

"H-Hey! Shouldn't we have... back up or something?!"

The female guard turns to the boy with annoyance.

"Are you questioning my strength as your superior?"

"N-No ma'am..."

The two guards enter Typhon's cell, the male remaining near the open door. The female, unafraid, approaches him.

"Look at it. Unlike any monster I've ever seen... it looks at me with curiosity instead of hunger like most other creatures. How peculiar..."

"I-I already sent word to Lord Howzer. Look at its chest... its like its body is healing itself..."

"Disgusting..."

In opposition to her words, she peers at the arrows jutting out of his chest with curiosity. She brings her face close to Typhon's, studying him further. The look of disgust and hatred never leaves her face.

"Two arrows to the heart and its still breathing. Absolutely disastrous."

"A-At least it shows no sign of aggression!"

"Fool. Monsters act in ways we can't ever hope to understand. I should cut its head off right now before it becomes a problem."

She unsheathes her rapier, the metal shining in the light. The male gasps and fear swells in Typhon's chest.

"Wait!" 

Typhon's voice booms through the stone cell, making the woman freeze.

"...what? Did it just... speak?"

The guard questions, keeping her weapon raised and aimed for Typhon's neck. The boy has his weapon unsheathed too, a short sword that glints off the light from a nearby torch.

"Who are you? Why do you stare at me with such hatred despite never having met me before?"

The female guard visibly tenses. She glances back at the male, uncertain on how to approach this. She takes a wary step back.

"You said Lord Howzer will be here within a few days? Send a messenger. Tell him to come within the hour."

She instructs the male guard. Happy to be away from this situation, he bolts off to carry out her order. She sheathes her sword, stepping back out of the cell.

"This cannot be good..."

She mutters to herself, locking the door of his cell again and leaving Typhon alone with his thoughts.