in my thoughts i have seen rings of smoke through the trees, & the voices of those who stand looking.
[Continued from Don't look back in anger, I heard her say . So if you join, you might have seen Otem flailing at the spirits (/screaming at them), them yelling at her, and the riddle bit :3 ]
Otem is doing the final bit of her trial: Challenge the Labyrinth's Magnus Metus.So. Otem had learned a few things. The first thing was that the angry spirits in this place did not choose to be here. They made that quite clear. Perhaps if they weren't so lonely (perhaps she should think of a few riddles to tell them?) they wouldn't be so angry. But ... Otem had a sneaking suspicion that they did actually enjoy being angry. She had seen plenty of smiles and eyes filled with anxious mirth when they had all gathered around her, shrieking and howling and carrying on as they were.
Now though, she had to challenge a...
a...
"What was it called again?" Otem asked, glancing up at Pandora. The sun was setting, but as they ventured deeper and deeper into this familiar but strange new place, all light seemed to just bleed away. The air felt moist and as the light from the sun gradually fell away, Otem found that the temperature was actually quite cold. Wrapping her wings around her shoulders, Otem stopped by a tree and huffed dramatically to herself. "It was a magnus...something. Magnus m..uhmm..ment-tuce?" Pandora shrugged as she landed onto Otem's whither, curling herself up in the filly's long auburn mane.
A long, soft, pink tongue slowly slips out from a round, tooth-ringed mouth. Nearly snakelike, it tasted the air. But, entirely not snakelike, massive claws on the end of monstrous hands slowly flex. Everything gradual and subtle about this predator. No fast movements to draw wary eyes towards his still stance in the shadows.
A single strand of saliva slipped from out his round, ever-open mouth. The thick skull, attached to an even thicker neck, rotates bit by bit towards the source of the disturbed space. Thin, flesh-colored skin is stretched taut over bulbous places eyes should be—but this naked beast is eyeless and jawless. He does not, however, lack patience.
So it was only when this cluster of movement —the soft echoes of wings and harder clicks of horns— came within his reach that he lunged.
This burst of movement was blindingly fast; long claws swiping through the air as crushing hands blindly sought his prey. Though the Magnus Metus knew where his quarry was, his blindness robbed him of the ability to know how to tackle her.
Though, his great size and strength had yet to fail him while hunting—as told by his gargantuan size.
in my thoughts i have seen rings of smoke through the trees, & the voices of those who stand looking.
Otem's thoughts tumbled over and over in her mind, like laundry set on the fastest cycle. She kept wanting to blame the Rift for its vagueness (a magnus ment- tos? was that what it was called? ) but the more active part of her mind always stepped in to squash these thoughts. Otem wanted to think of the Rift as an omniscient if not benevolent sort of being; an ecosystem that turned out to actually be one large sentient creature. But because Otem was young, she also wanted a place to lay blame for when things were hard or inexplicable. Case in point, being told to answer spirits, and fight a..
"You really don't remember what it was called-" Otem asked Pandora once again, as the gargantuan beast slowly scented the air, likely tasting particles of youth, uncertainty, greed and excitement.
Otem suddenly became acutely aware of the blood coursing through her veins. This was likely some sort of instinctual fight or flight response to the unknown danger lurking only a few meters away, but to Otem it felt like a mixture of needing to poop, wanting to laugh, or needing to suddenly break out and run. Before Pandora could once again reiterate that she did not know the name of the creature they were meant to find, the creature found them.
Now, there's something you should know. Although Otem's life hasn't always been easy (her mother died, she was stabbed almost immediately after coming to the Rift, and had been attacked by a group of aquatic-looking rhinos), but, it had always worked out for her (Isopia's death had given her a soap box to stand on and a chip on her shoulder she wears like a badge of honour, the stab wound had healed perfectly, and she escaped the water-rhinos nearly unscathed). So although a creature that looked something like an ant eater crossed with a newborn mouse that hasn't yet opened its eyes, Otem didn't move. The filly was 1 part awestruck and 2 parts boldly self-assured that despite the viciousness of the creature lunging directly for her, that surely nothing bad would really happen. Her Father would show up, or better yet, Iskra, who could be her knight in shining armor. Maybe even Vulkán. But of course that wasn't what was about to happen. This was a one-player Boss Battle, with no lives remaining.
Pandora, who was under no such delusions fled from Otem's back the instant the leafy foliage parted to birth the creature. With wide burgundy and gold eyes the autumn-touched girl watched as the distance between she and what appeared to be a mutated mole or rat hybrid disappeared with alarming speed. She felt pressure against her flank in a way that felt far away and confusing. How was it that she was suddenly tumbling sideways when only moments ago she was talking to her owl? What was on fire, if there were no flames? Her mind had slowed dramatically as the creature's claws and bodily force shoved her unceremoniously to the left and towards the unyielding ground. Its claws had opened up a gash in her flank (which accounted for the flameless fire that she had felt). Perhaps because she was caught so unawares, her body struck the ground completely limp, likely saving her from the injuries she would have sustained had she braced herself for the impact.
"Wha-' Otem tried, halting the word as it came out of her mouth to gulp down air and try to scramble to her feet. Defensively Otem created an earth sprite large than she ever had before (how had she done that?), but because the creature was blind (a trait the filly had no yet noticed), her magic likely would do no good. Heaving in air, Otem tried to spin to face the creature. Although the ram horns on the side of her head were aimed directly for it, they would of course do her no good as head-to-head combat was not something she was familiar with.
Flyin was, however. "Oh-" She squeaked, comprehending the creature for what it was. This must be the magnamite mangoose! She thought excitedly (and in her excitement, her nomenclature was entirely tangled). Darting to the side, Otem leapt into the air, her downy wings sprawling from her sides and lifting her youthful body up. Although hovering was difficult, she did her best to stay as motionless as she could, while remaining presumably high enough off the ground to evade the creature even should it stand up.
"Pan!" Otem trilled, her eyes seeking out her companion who was in no way sharing her bonded's sense of excitement over finding their intended target (or having it find them). Angrily the owl tittered, flying in random circles around the Magnus Metus to try and pull its attention away from Otem.
Success. The predator’s tongue was already slicing out of its mouth, eagerly tasting whatever flesh it could blindly find as its prey fell limply beneath its crushing claws that opened a gash in his prey. The moment he felt the warm flesh hit the ground, his round jaws were there; pinning his meal against the Labyrinth’s soft earth as razor-sharp teeth eagerly cored out a chunk of flesh from his quarry—
But then it was gone; his feast disappeared in a flurry of feathers. The beast grunted and spun blindly, cunning ambush predator now losing his advantage over the prey. However, both his grunts and his flailing were cut of by a choking noise as the core of the filly’s flesh suddenly lodged in his throat, not yet swallowed amidst the excitement of the hunt.
Gagging and retching the great beast expelled the cylindrical piece of flesh from his long snout, and it lay gleaming and red against the lush grass. Now entirely losing sense of his prey, he became still, claws undulating in irritated hunger. HIs sightless skull twitched as smoke enveloped it, though it didn’t truly have an effect on the beast. Instead, his attention ricocheted between the trilling filly and tittering owl above him.
Again, with movements faster than what seemed possibly for such a large and lumbering creature, the Magnus Metus’ crushing claws were once again swiping through the air. Despite his blindness, his slashes followed eerily close to the owl’s flight.
However, this was no longer the predator’s game. He hunted in ambush; his blindness and large body were not meant to chase flying prey. Already, one could see his massive shoulders and thick neck leaning towards the dark shadows from where he had leapt.
in my thoughts i have seen rings of smoke through the trees, & the voices of those who stand looking.
Blood trickled down Otem's dirt-coloured body, dotting the ground below. As shock began its magical ability to numb the pain, the girl had the most ridiculous thought: think of all the flowers Tamlin could grow if he were here. Really it was only Pandora's screech of outrage as a few of her tail features were deftly removed from her body by an arch of claws which caught her completely off guard, that brought the filly's attention back to the task at hand.
Had Otem been her usual self, she might have continued to flit and fly above the creature. But the weighty-feeling that the Rift had imposed on her body combined with the horrifyingly open wound the creature had opened up was going to make it difficult to remain airborne for much longer. The girl's mind reeled with possibilities. If this really was the magnamite meatus, then she couldn't just let it slink back into the shadows. It was thanks to Pandora rather than any awareness on Otem's part that the filly learned that the creature below was likely blind. Although the Rift had often made mental speech between the girl and owl problematic, Pandora could nevertheless thrust images into her bonded's mind. With a burst of energy caused by an unhealthy mixture of panic, anxiety, and pain, Otem suddenly shot towards the ground, to where a bloody piece of her body lay spat out on the soil.
"HEY." She yelled, her voice filled with childish triumph. "YOU MISSED A PIECE." Otem pranced near the slobbery and bloody piece of herself, not trying to disguise her movements at all. If the creature was blind, then it had some other way of locating food. The only sense Otem could think of was sound, for she'd never met any creatures that could see based on echo location, or anything similiar.
This was the plan: Otem would make noise to get the creature to come towards her. Her thought was that it would take the easy meal on the ground - the bit it had already bitten from her body - rather than trying to break off another piece of her. But, just in case she was wrong about that, her wings were splayed and ready to lift her ever-increasingly-weighty body off the ground. Pandora meanwhile would fly as soundlessly as possible (and thanks to her heavily feathered body, she really was capable of being quite silent), and would try and gauge the back of the creature's head with her talons. That seemed like a fairly painful spot, didn't it?
Green Labyrinth
