526 days after a wizard cursed the REALM…
Current Version:
“Hey! Hey you! Down here!”
The Apocalypse Beast groans. What is it this time? Can’t a creature ever be left alone to guard an interdimensional portal in peace without their thoughts being interrupted every few days by one insignificant creature or another?
“Yeah you! You with all the teeth!”
The Beast looks down at her feet. This time, it’s a toad. A talking toad. A toad that’s standing on two wobbly back legs. It’s using a stick for a staff and has made a hat for itself out of black leaves decorated with berries. “Is there something I can help you with?” the Beast asks.
“Have you seen a horse come through here? A tiny one, about two apples high at the shoulders?”
The Beast nods.
“Do you know whether he’d found a magical spring he’d been looking for?”
“I wouldn’t know,” says the Beast, “and really, I shouldn’t be talking to you while I’m on the clock.”
“Oh.” The toad looks away in embarrassment, to the full extent that a toad is capable of such a thing. “I didn’t realize you were doing a job. It looked like you were just standing there.”
“Just standing? Just—oh!” the Beast sputters. “I’ll have you know that I’m not just doing my own job, but I’m covering for Larry and Victor as well. I’m multitasking. I’m digesting my first batch of humans, seventy-five years into their torment, while adjusting my stomachs to accommodate all the newcomers I put in there during NIGHTfall. At the same time, I’m keeping all my senses open to survivors or curiosity-seekers as far as a mile away. At the same time, I’m thinking about the terrifying form I’ll shift into when I get bored of this one. At the same time, I’m guarding the portal to make sure nothing goes in or out. And at the same time, I’m waiting for my mistress to return to take my report and to issue further orders.”
The toad nods. “I see. And this job of yours, does it make you happy?”
“Happy?” It’s a strange word for an Apocalypse Beast to say out loud. She almost can’t form the sounds.
“Happy,” she says again. “Rampaging through the human settlements is the best part of the job, so I suppose that makes me happy, though it doesn’t happen as frequently as I’d like, and digesting the humans afterward is a hundred years of internal drudge.
“Being with others of my kind makes me happy, but they’re all away on their own assignments in other worlds.
So yeah, I suppose that being an Apocalypse Beast provides fleeting moments of happiness.” She puffs a blast of fire from her nostrils. “But this isn’t one of them.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I wish there were something I could do to brighten these last few days of your existence, but I really must be off to find that tiny horse.”
“Last few—” The Beast’s face screws into a frown. “Was that a threat?”
“Oh dear,” says the toad. “Oh dear, oh dear, did I just proclaim that you were doomed to be snuffed out by the end of the week? Oh dear. Curse these prophecy-spewing amphibian lips of mine!”
The Beast shivers with an unfamiliar feeling. Was that what fear felt like? “Are your prophecies accurate?”
“I’ll know that when I find the tiny horse again,” says the toad. “Good day to you, madam, and good luck.” He sets his staff and flops away, leaving the Apocalypse Beast with a feeling of foreboding.
Web3 Draft:
- Listed on OpenSea
- Listed on Rarible
Revision Notes:
To be added.
