OGRISM TAIL.

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 17

He kept coming not scared with whatever Abednego was holding in his hands. The movement was slow, but he kept pacing towards him. He couldn’t see his face in the deep shadows but he could tell, he knew, that he was staring him in the eye.

He pivoted and ran, full bore, towards Abednego.

He didn’t hesitate.

He exhaled, relaxed his arms, and raised the sword, positioning himself in readiness.

The handle of the sword shook his already strained muscles, he swung it up and magically through it to him, it. The sharp edge of the sword got him. The man staggered, slowed, and slumped down into the roadway. He had only moved a few dozen feet from the mouth of the tunnel to where he now sat. The scent of condit tainted the cool night air.

Crimson oozed from the front of his neck and joined the darker brown patch already there. The axe slipped from his grip, making a dull clunk on the asphalt.

Abednego stammered, mouth moving like a dying fish. He run up to him and picked up the sword.

He kept the edge of the sword trained on the man and cautiously looking at him. The sword had cut him in the chest, but not in the heart. Still, he was sure he wasn’t going to last long. He moved to the side, kicking the axe away from him.

His right hand, still holding the magic sword, betrayed his frayed nerves. It vibrated at the end of his arm.

The man coughed and sputtered, blood splattering his lips.

“P-please,” he choked out. He reached for his midsection. Abednego assumed he was going to press his hand to the wound, but it disappeared into a pouch on the front of the knee. Abednego hadn’t noticed it due to the huge, dark smear across the front. His hand came out holding a furry, black object.

A rabbit, neck broken and head hanging pimply to the side. He reached his arm as far forward as he could , which wasn’t far, and tried to fling it to his side, back toward the tunnel opening. It landed two feet away with a sickening thud.

He looked at Abednego in the eye. For the first time, Abednego really took in his features. He was young, Abednego's age, younger even. Clean cut. Abednego didn't know what he was expecting. Crazy eyes, maybe? Homeless drifter meth mouth? He was not sure. But it wasn’t this.

“Please,” he coughed out again, motions towards the rabbit. He opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a pained cry, followed by a wheezing, gurgling sound. The sword has worked magic, it has hit and cut him in the lung.

Abednego stared at the rabbit, trying to understand the situation. He was in shock, looking back on it. You never know how you’re going to react to the horrendous situations life throws at someone until you’re there.

That was the first time he paid attention to his surroundings since he initially saw him. The moon had shifted and he could see the opening of the tunnel now. And the large, black fingers splayed on either side of the concrete.

The opening was at least 12 feet wide, and somehow these hands were grabbing both sides at once. Hands that had to be a foot long, easy.

Two tiny red orbs danced in the darkness, the light reflecting and giving them an odd, pale glow.

That’s when Abednego first heard the scratching. Slow, like the laboured dragging of heavy furniture across an ancient wooden floor. Followed by a ticking, tapping sound.

The man heard it too. His eyes grew wide, his mouth trembling. He attempted to speak again but all that came out was that wet, rattling cough. He fell over trying to reach for the rabbit.

About grabbed the rabbit carcass. It was still warm. He threw it, with everything he had left in him, into the dark opening.

The silence grew palpable, and the tapered shadow fingers retreated into the tunnel. He heard a sickening crunch. The dragging started again, retreating into the depths of the darkness.

He looked at the man, laying on the ground, labouring to breathe. His face relaxed and he smiled. His unfocused eyes locked on Abednego's, and he looked relieved.

“Y-your problem,” he said, then laughed. The laugh turned into a gurgling, choking noise, and then he laid still.

Abednego turned and ran back towards the forest lane. He ran as fast as he could. After some good miles of running he sported the place, in somewhat forbidding edifice deep in the forest, accessible only by a winding road that is often made impassable during heavy rain. The figures are terrible, absolutely horrible, they occupied the place. Since their occupation there has been the victims of suicide by poison.

It was rumoured that the figures were normal human beings but had dabbled in the occult and brought doom to themselves and other innocent people by seeking immortality through demonic visitations, turning the place into an impure, accursed place habitable only by those with total sorcery spirit like Matendechere.

The place the creatures inhabited is a no go zone, Matendechere is the only woman, with her sorcerer spirit, able to move there invisibility. She knew their language; thus her magic spells have been of help to her. She was a gregarious woman who invariably came out to meet the creatures in spirit. So she knew by sending Abednego to get the creatures as food for the ogrism, all shall be well. She grew fond of that place for years, so she she was rest assured.

Abednego struggled all day long and all night long in the forest. The mind was preoccupied with finding the creatures. He got an unusually late start, and night fell as he went, the mad and water of a recent heavy downpour settling in the woods all around him. As usual, he passed no creatures journey. The weather in these parts is unpredictable enough to dissuade any casual person from venturing too far into the forest.

Abednego arrived at a road he wasn't sure of as day became night. The tall spires of the creatures place became visible through the trees a half-mile away. The road sloped upwards gradually, and a man on foot would be exhausted upon reaching the entrance to the creatures inhabited place.

This time Matendechere was already there in the spirit form waiting for him just off the road, most likely having spotted something from one of the trees high above. She laughed at Abednego's tardiness and informed him that the creatures are now hostile. Matendechere's spirit did magic, she told Abednego that there's a gate in that place that he can't see with his n***d eyes. So she blew smoke in his eyes and

Abednego's spiritual eyes flung open. She opened the gate in the spirit so that he could proceed to the so called place, where there could be creatures. When he entered, the spirit of Matendechere approached him holding something in her arms, something swaddled in a blue blanket. She introduced her to what she called her ‘Okunani,’ a baby bat that had wandered onto the grounds seeking transformation of human kind, a magic bat that will conceal Abednego and camouflage him from the creatures.

She held it fondly and maternal, explaining that she had little choice but to watch after it until it could survive on its own, as its mother had never appeared. Peering through the growing dark, Abednego saw that the tiny bat was sleeping, its head almost completely enclosed and snug under the blanket. He immediately communicated to the spirit of Matendechere, he was surprised the bat wasn’t awake and alert in the bitter cold, and She said she worried about that too; the poor creature often slept for hours and hours at a time.

Abednego reached a hand under the blanket and touched its little head. For some reason the bat's body was incredibly warm to the touch, disturbingly so. He mentioned this, too, to Matendechere, and she concurred. All they could do was to transform it slowly, for the beast has to be transformed and taken care of it as best they could.

Matendechere gave Abednego some herbs for sleeping, the herbs were to make him sleep in the spirit form.