For the second time in two days, Hehlio and Jaithuut processed along the lakeside walkway. The monstrous staircase loomed over the peaceful lake, no one seemed to be active either above or below the shimmering surface. Jaithuut persuaded him that it was better if he tagged along. He wasn’t too sure how the giant humi had suckered him into agreeing, and probably not during the initial convincing either.
Jaithuut carried on a conversation that Hehlio intended not to partake in. “Lucky Roga could make space for us in her schedule. Could you imagine if we had to wait until after the ceremony?”
Hehlio wallowed in his failed efforts to tune him out. He had hoped to lack the need for a visit to Roga’s hut so soon. Apparently, his performance was questionable enough for Kruuther to make the appointment for him. He felt fine now, it was just a minor fluke, it would never happen again. Still, it was probably safer just to hear what Roga would say.
The briefing on their performance rattled Hehlio, none of the gorgons had any form of mind-altering abilities. The one at the front, the one Jaithuut subdued, did have hypnotizing words, but only to seduce others to enact in its will, altering their actions not minds. The one that got away, that Hehlio blanked at and let get away, spat fire. The one Hehlio killed could secrete some kind of oily substance, a challenge for them as it could slip out of the nets they had. It didn’t matter in the end, he had made a mockery of himself. Hehlio, as an intermediary, wasn’t supposed to kill, not until they could be afforded clearance to. The child absconded, his throat gripped, was marked deceased. If he hadn’t messed up, no one had to die, neither the aggressor nor the child. And what would this mean for him becoming an intermediary, did he foul things up too bad?
Splash!
Hehlio threw his head around. Jaithuut flailed in the lake, violent splashes of water obscured him. With wings tucked tight to his side, Hehlio dove in. Jaithuut’s aura frosted over with fear. He swam under Jaithuut; with his murn-enhanced ethereal limb, he held the giant still; they surfaced; then Hehlio threw him to flounder on the stone walkway.
“Wait,” spat Hehlio, “you can swim.”
Jaithuut got up, water dripping off him and collecting in a pool at his feet. He smiled dumbly, “Not as well as you... I panicked!”
“You certainly are a good actor.” Hehlio unconsciously flicked his tail. He rued the thought of ‘drying’ off in Roga’s damp hut rather than in the warmth of the sayk. Though he did love the water, damp scales felt wrong. He would prefer to either be in the water or outside of it, not somewhere in between.
He pulled the rope of Roga’s hut with his jaw, the bell rang from inside. Keeping Jaithuut’s ‘panicking’ under control had his head faintly throbbing; his ethereal limb refused to work the way he wanted it to.
The entrance door opened, allowing the two into an empty combination foyer and front desk. The meeting room door sloshed open accusingly at Hehlio. His fears abated a bit when an orange tentacle slithered through, waving. “I will be right with you, another is in need, please wait for me to finish.”
Jaithuut chatted while they were left wading in the shallow, humid foyer pool. The fun guy enjoyed talking far too much, something Hehlio found endearing. Jaithuut eventually stopped talking and took a seat in the pool next to him. He stared at the door Roga was behind, waiting too long for her to finish.
He knew there was nothing to worry about, he would have been told if he wouldn’t be able to attend the graduation ceremony. All this was a formality to check in on him.
After stewing in the silence, the door opened. “I can see you now Ka. Mora, please come in.”
Hehlio felt Jaithuut’s judging eyes pierce him as he slid through. The door clicked shut and Hehlio sat on the dry patch in the domed room. Everything shimmered with the pool’s ripples.
“Well, Ka. Mora, how do you feel?”
How does he feel? How was he supposed to feel? Sad that he proved himself a failure? Angry that he wasn’t able to save everyone? Happy that he wasn’t kicked out on the spot? He had no idea how to feel. No, he did know how to feel. He looked away, blankly staring at the reflected patterns on the wall.
Roga let a few moments pass before speaking again. “Hehlio, this happens to everyone sooner or later, there’s no shame in the way you’re feeling. And it’s better to have happened where no one living was injured.”
“Jaithuut was injured,” Hehlio retorted.
Roga let silence creep in. Was she trying to think of a response to his comment, or did she give him space to speak further? He assumed the latter. The lapping of stilling waters drove him, “And I could have killed him.” More irritating quiet. “I could have killed Jaithuut,” Hehlio shouted. He started at Roga before catching his posture. He laid down on the rock to not seem so intense.
Roga hadn’t moved a limb. “And that is what has been troubling you so much these past few days?”
Hehlio thought. “No, I don’t think so. I know Jaithuut, it would take more than anything I could bring up to slow him down.”
“Then what do you think is the reason for the way you feel?”
Hehlio rested his chin on the ground, neck outstretched. “I don’t know, isn’t that why I came to you?”
“I am here to help you, but I can not speak your mind for you.”
That wasn’t true, she could very well do that. She was polite in that way. The proof was from two days ago, which had only been allowed after weeks of preparation. What would be the harm of one more mind meld? He’d bared his entire history to her already.
“Roga.” Hehlio found himself choking on his words.
“Take your time.”
“I-I let that happen. My mind- they- I didn’t do anything to stop them. How could I be expected to protect when I can just freeze up like that?” Hehlio found all his muscles giving up on him. His aura must have been a beacon of sorrow, the fish outside probably swam away.
“Hehlio, it’s alright. This is why we have partners during missions. No one can expect you to be perfect every time, and what you saw was horrifying, even if it wasn’t real.” She was on the wrong track.
“No, you don’t get it! It only happened because of me. I, I froze up, I let all that happen.”
“I understand. It’s perfectly natural to be afraid, especially when faced with such horrors.” She went down the wrong train of thought.
“It wasn’t the child’s death that got to me...It was the gorgons.” He closed his mouth, he mustn't think about that. “I, I couldn’t look at them. I don’t know.”
“You hadn’t been terrified of gorgons before, we even have gorgons at the compound that you work with.”
“I know,” Hehlio flicked his tail, she still didn’t understand, “it was something about them. I- my mind went completely blank.”
Roga tapped two of her tentacles together, a motion Hehlio found irksome, “Hehlio, it was a horrifying sight-”
“No.
“It was before all that, when the gorgon was taking the child away.” his flame sac burned. “I could just show you,”
“Are you asking me to look into your memories again?”
“Ye-” a wave of sharp, known, directed fear washed over Hehlio.
It was Jaithuut’s alert, Hehlio was needed to counter a threat. He silently motioned for Roga to get to safety, to which she dove into a hole in the pool that led to a lower floor. Hehlio shoved the door open, difficult due to the shallow pool, to find Jaithuut crouching by the closed entrance.
To reduce noise, Hehlio kept his wings and back feet from lifting out of the water. He shot worry and confusion to Jaithuut, avoiding using any audible communication that could be overheard.
Jaithuut opened his mind slightly for the exchange of basic concepts. He thought about the noise he’d heard outside and the mass panic up in the compound. Hehlio strained to see if he could feel this mass panic too, to which he found himself dull. They both kept their minds slightly open to each other, relaying their basic thoughts rapidly to figure out the best course of action.
Hehlio shrouded them in invisibility and creaked the door open. After a sayk-light blinding moment, all attention snapped to the billowing gray smog growing from the compound. Shouts of anguish echoed and dangerous sparks popped. They were under attack?
They burst out of the hut, Jaithuut running up the steps and Hehlio flying beside him. The wide single flight of steps that were carved into the cliffside led to the compound proper, a direct line to the fight. They kept close, Hehlio’s cloak didn’t have much reach. Hehlio, drake eyes being sharper than a humi’s, noted to Jaithuut that some of the stone around the door at the top of the steps was a weird malted pattern. Jaithuut suddenly stopped, no preamble thought of him doing so. Hehlio flew past him, revealing Jaithuut to whatever threats were around. Jaithuut shut his mind off from Hehlio’s, removing even emotions.
Hehlio doubled back to cover Jaithuut with his veil, halting after finally noticing what he had. Before Jaithuut were two figures. The muzoval had the vermilion padding and gold trim of a high-ranking protector. The other, the humi, donned a weird malted and burnt-looking armor. The armor, Hehlio realized, was the same material as what had grown on the compound’s wall. In fact, the material was spreading from their feet. Jaithuut took steps back down the stairs as the weird material encroached.
“What’s going on!” Jaithuut shouted, keeping his gaze on the two while taking steps down. The protector waved its wing at Jaithuut, calmly commanding the humi in armor to “seize the criminal”.
The humi in armor darted. Jaithuut dove off the staircase, only to be grabbed by the leg and slammed to the cliffside. Before Hehlio could reach, Jathuut stopped moving- the malted material overtook his body- fear and pain plastered Jaithuut’s face. Permanently.
Removing his veil and landing not far away, Hehlio shouted at the one in the protector’s uniform, demanding to know what was going on. The muzoval protector told the humi to “seize the criminal”. Their body and aura hid any idea of their intentions.
The humi in armor lunged. Hehlio narrowly dodged, using one great flap of his wings to move out of the way and back into the air. The humi, rather than plummeting to the lake below, was grabbed by an ethereal limb. That grip threw the humi in armor who touched one of Hehlio’s wing’s leaves before being caught again by the ethereal limb.
His feather of flesh stung as the malted and burnt material spread from the point of contact. It stopped spreading before completely covering the leaf, but the sudden addition of weight and loss of control over that leaf had Hehlio awkwardly correcting his flight. He still managed to avoid the thrown humi.
Hehlio flew high, above the rooftop of the building. The humi was pulled up after him, outstretched arms reaching. “Why are you doing this!” Hehlio shouted as the humi whizzed up and past. He narrowly avoided another throw, but more of his wing was clipped and turned to stone. His movements were more sluggish than they should have been. He then felt it, someone had been trying to hold him. Avoiding the humi again, losing a few more leaves to the weird material, Hehlio searched for a tether.
Horror. Flames and fighting engulfed the entire compound. The courtyards harbored violence between people in red and people he knew. He spotted Oqalth in the sky below him, putting herself between a few protector tsohtsi and Kruuther. His mentor who had so many years experience bled from his underside. One of the red-coated protectors hurled a spear at Oqalth, piercing her wing. She hurled to the inferno below. Two of the three plunged after Oqalth, the other two rushing towards the now vulnerable Kruuther. He lethargically attempted escape. Hehlio dove to protect his friend. One of the protectors raked Kruuther’s eyes, blood spraying into the fires. He shouted, “Lio, behind!”
The humi in armor brushed against Hehlio’s wing. He didn’t have time to shout in anguish, a tsohtsi overtook Kruuther. His mentor burst into smoke.
He spiraled at them shouting, “what did you do to him?”
The remaining tsohtsi responded by trying to rake at Hehlio with its outstretched talons. Hehlio, too many of his leaves petrified, was unable to evade. His chest burned, and the dripping blood puffed to smoke as it left his body. The pain, it wasn’t to apprehend, it was for murder.
None of this was right. Why would they do this? Hehlio lost a few more leaves. Talons scraped against one of his legs, turning it numb as several scales puffed to smoke. They were protectors, murder of the civilized was never an option.
Hehlio scanned the compound. Screams pierced the skies as several people he had known for seasons were bolting out into the courtyards before collapsing, their bodies engulfed in flames. Those who weren’t burning were chased, then culled by red protectors. There was no conceivable reason for this butchery. He needed to save them.
Hehlio turned to meet the tsohtsi who had been trying to grab his tail. With lungs burning, he let forth a burst of dark flames that engulfed his pursuer. The protector lost control of their muscles and began to fall. Hehlio released his net over the limp assailant before having to let go of them to move out of the way of the humi in armor. Hehlio tried to grab the net, to not let the protector fall. They might be butcherers, but he wasn’t. Before he could grab it, he, again, had to move to avoid the flying humi.
Hehlio lost sight of the tsohtsi as they crashed through a roof, which erupted with smoke and flames. “Why?” screamed Hehlio at the humi as they flew past him, “you’re supposed to protect people, including your sisters.”
Hehlio needed to get away, to alert the authorities. But, weren’t these supposed to be the authorities? No, these people weren’t protectors, those uniforms must have been stolen. He would go find someone with power, to make sense of this violence.
Hehlio shrouded himself in his veil. The humi in armor already looked for him, it wouldn’t have much effect on them; it would for anyone else who might try to follow him. Hehlio went back to the staircase, assured that the one still throwing this humi at him was that protector muzoval. They were still there, guarding the exit to the compound. They noted Hehlio but were distracted by whatever was going on inside.
Roga’s hut, the wooden structure grew pillars of ice. He had to ignore his pursuers and save who he could... if Roga was still alive.
With the humi still swiping past him, Hehlio crashed through one of the frosted windows into the building. He had landed in what seemed to be Roga’s bedroom, a sunken cushion of a bed trapped under a floor of ice. The cold of the room bit at his hide, the chilling effects of his veil being expedited. He needed to find Roga quickly.
The humi crashed behind him, the ice turning to the weird malted and burnt material under their feet. Hehlio bashed his shoulder into the frozen door, reeling as the door only cracked. His flames, as useful as they were, weren’t able to melt anything. The humi in armor walked towards him, waiting for the ice to turn before each step. Hehlio dug his talons into the ice and bashed through the door into a hallway. “Roga,” He shouted, “where are you?”
He lept out of the way as the humi raced after him. The humi lost their traction on the ice, not turning it into that weird material quickly enough. But the ice did turn, so he fell face to the ground rather than sliding away.
“Ka. Mora!” Roga’s voice was muted behind thick walls. She directed fear to Hehlio, allowing him to feel for where she was. Avoiding the humi, Hehlio broke through another door, entering the meeting room. Roga was half submerged in the ice, flailing her free tentacles about as crystals slowly crept up her body. Hehlio tried to pull her out, but her slimy body adhered to the ice. He didn’t have a way to melt her out and the humi was already walking towards them from down the hall.
“Hehlio!” Roga screamed, her fear no longer directed towards Hehlio but drenched the entire space. Hehlio chipped at the ice with his talons, trying to break her free. He looked back to the humi in armor, each step brought them closer. Roga screamed in the way only a mouse in a wolf's jaws could, “Don’t leave me, please!”
Hehlio’s fingers ached as he drove his claws haphazardly into the ice. The humi was upon them and leaped at Hehlio. He threw himself to slide along the ice and into the wall. His blood froze from scraped belly to core. The humi reached for Roga. Hehlio spat fire towards them, it would never have reached.
Not again.
Using all of her free tentacles, Roga ripped herself out of the ground, orange blood spurting from the nubs that left behind tentacles encased in the ice. She crawled away with her remaining tentacles ripping off the ice as she lifted them. How could she have done that to herself? She would die too. She dragged a trail of orange behind her as the humi struggled on the ice for a moment before it became its material.
No more death.
Hehlio kicked off the wall, grabbed Roga in his talons, and rolled to the doorway he had come from. He kept her tight as they jumped Hehlio’s entrance hole, wings spread. Roga was unresponsive in his grip and bleeding, but alive. The humi, no longer able to be thrown, was left in the now iced-over building. He had to make some kind of potion to stop Roga’s bleeding.
No more loss.
With Roga unconscious, Hehlio took to alleys, ground level, river streets, and many different paths to confuse any who might be pursuing them. He knew how big the city was, and, if they really were protectors back there, where they needed to go to get away.
None of this could have been real.
"hoped to lack the need.." Kinda awkwards wording...simpler To hope to not need..... Tense and mysterious chapter.