“Do you truly believe that your actions are your own?”
I’m chasing something, I don’t know what it is, but I do know that I can not let it escape me. I turn down a corridor and find myself in a ballroom filled with dressed up people chatting with one another. I can see my target and smile knowing what is about to happen. Strolling up to the man in the expensive looking suit, I reach into my bag and pull out a device with a switch and a button. Flipping the switch I am rewarded with a red light blinking on inside my bag. I push the button, and everything goes white.
“Oh please, we both know this isn’t the end.”
I burst through a door and find myself in a room with a large group of men killing or forcing themselves on my mistress’s followers. I feel my face contort in rage as magic races to my fingertips. Bringing my hands up, I throw my magic at the attackers and watch as they are picked off the ground and thrown back several feet. Making a grasping motion with my right hand I pull back and snarl as one of the attackers stops suddenly with a sickening snap. “You dare to defile the temple of Hecate?! I will flay you alive for your disrespect!”
“Ehhh, seven out of ten.”
I race across bars of music trying to outrun the treble clef eating the notes behind me as a demonic voice calls out from the aether.
“~”
I stop at the edge of the bar and look into the black abyss beyond.
“~”
I turn around and find the unicorns from before hounding me with glowing eyes. The demonic voice is coming from every one of them.
“~”
I turn around and without a second thought I leap into the abyss.
“You’re getting closer, Eris. Now let’s see how much you really want this.”
I crash into the cavern floor and look around. The lights mounted on my shoulders are at their maximum output and the light barely penetrates the darkness surrounding me. I hate this place, I hate this mech I am in. I know what is down here, and I am terrified.
A long drawn out sound vibrates the water around the mech. I shiver, knowing that I am about to face something that even my mistress is wary of.
I take a step forward and the mech mirrors my movement. I activate the device in my ear and open my mouth, “This is Armor One Seven reporting in, I have reached the destination.”
“Copy that One Seven,” a gruff voice replies after a moment of silence. “Activate your cameras, something down here is keeping us from mining the caverns and we want answers.”
I roll my eyes before following through on the order. I continue walking forward despite the oppressive silence. My mistress wanted this thing gone at all costs and I can see why.
I can feel the beast pulling at my magic simply by being near it, I can’t imagine how it would feel if it was actively trying to eat me.
Another long drawn out sound vibrates the water again, this time much closer. I take one more step before the ground beneath me shakes and I experience my first true terror of the universe.
The ground opens beneath me and a glowing yellow orb floods the cavern with light.
I turn pale as the cavern floor cracks and breaks. Pushing the mech’s speed to its limits, I barely have time to place a hand to the ground before the cavern’s true nature reveals itself.
I am almost thrown off as a titanic eel shakes off the stone encasing it and starts gliding through the cavern. The eel’s four glowing eyes show me just what the fuck I have sentenced myself to.
The cavern is filled with eels of gigantic proportions. The smallest eels almost as large as the thirty foot mech I am currently in.
“S-s-s-s-sir! Are you seeing this?” I whimper into my communicator.
“...Get out of there, Armor. This planet is a loss.”
“Y-yes sir!”
The mech lets go of the eel and the propellers kick in, driving it to the surface. Unfortunately my mission is far from over. Leaving my host behind before she ascends, I am left clinging to the eel as it swims deeper and deeper into the cavern.
Bending the rules of death even this much would probably send my mistress into a fit… but she did tell me to get rid of these things at all costs…
‘Am I really thinking of doing this?’
Laughter echoes through the abyss. “I’ve been wondering how you would deal with this memory, or rather our lack of memory.”
I close my eyes and feel myself sinking into the eel, only for a jolt of energy a moment later to force my eyes open.
“Disorienting I know, it’s one thing to bury a memory, it’s violating to take one.”
I blink and rub my eyes not exactly sure of what I am seeing. A chimera is sitting in a beanbag chair sipping what I think is Dr. Pepper out of an upside down teacup.
The chimera rolls its eyes before opening its mouth, “Oh please, we’ve seen stranger things than our reflection, Eris.” The chimera chides me as it tosses the teacup to the side where it sprouts legs and runs away. Taking a look at the scenery is a mistake as it makes me feel as if I am in some sort of abstract painting… A two dimensional abstract piece trying to portray seven dimensions.
“Now I know what we’re thinking, ‘this is such a mind fuck’ and I’ll be honest, it totally is. This is why I absolutely love this place, as I can just sit back, relax, and let our mind wander wherever it wants without trying to make sense of everything, as I know we could never do it!”
The chimera leans back with a smug grin on its face, “What’s the matter, bird catch your tongue?”
‘She’s not real.’
The chimera frowns, “Well of course I’m real, I’m you... well, a part of you anyways, or maybe it would be more correct to say that you are a rather large part of me.”
‘This is insane.’
“Well of course we are. It’s one thing to talk to yourself, it’s another thing entirely for me to be having this conversation with myself.”
‘...’
I hear something shatter behind me and the chimera winces before looking behind me, “By Morgana’s bouncing belly, why is it every time we have this conversation it results in one of our mental walls breaking? That’s the fourth one this week!”
I simply stare at the chimera as it waves its arms around in exasperation.
“You know what? Fine, it’s not like we will actually remember this when we wake up. Now go and find something else to keep you preoccupied, or better yet...”
The chimera holds up a black talon with two claws pressed against each other, “Wake up.” The claws make a snapping sound.
My eyes snap open as I jolt awake. My head falls to the stone underneath as a moan escapes my mouth. I hate waking up like this, the moment of vertigo like my stomach is going to fall out of me is… well it’s not the absolute worst way to wake up, but it is definitely in the top ten.
I’m a griffin again, judging by my completely black body. Looking over, I come face to ethereal face with the spirit foal who is curiously poking my side in fascination…
I just silently watch the foal for several seconds with a bemused expression before opening my beak, “Are you done?”
This proves to be the wrong thing to do as the foal doesn’t seem to handle surprises very well as it dives into the closest thing around… which happens to be me.
My eyes open wide as my body tenses and a shiver travels from the tip of my black tail to the feathers on my head. I feel my body tremble as an unnatural cold sweeps over me. I have been in subzero degrees before but absolutely nothing compares to the ice I can feel in my veins right now.
“Ohhhhhhhh, that’s cold,” I whisper, feeling my left eye twitch every now and then. Focusing on my breathing I am greeted with a surprise when frost forms where I breathe. I lie there for what feels like minutes as all these new sensations overwhelm me and I am given a crash course on places of my body that should never be cold, and it is only after the immediate shock passes that I realize I can feel something else in my head.
I’m not sure it is the best idea but… ‘Can you hear me, little one?’
Confirmation, along with contentment.
I move my talons and feel a large amount of shock when I place them on the stone and shift myself into a standing position. My body is still trembling badly as I head over to the right wall and collapse against it. Curling up with my back to the wall, I start running my talons up and down my sides to try and warm myself up with the friction. “W-well this is an experience,” I stutter as the cold lessens a tiny bit.
Confusion.
I shake my head. “I’ll- I’ll explain later.”
I have no idea how long I simply sit there but I eventually feel the chill in my bones fade… or maybe I just get used to the ice in my veins. My body aches from being tense for so long but after this I want to get somewhere warmer before I fall asleep again. Climbing to my talons and paws once more, I shakily make my way over to the mouth of the cave.
Fear.
I tense as another shiver goes down my spine, ‘Don’t worry little one. I’ll keep you safe, just wait and see.’
I place a talon on the snow and frown at how warm it feels. Not trusting my wings at all for the moment, I silently start making my way down the mountain to the plains beyond.