Note: the very violent fight scene. Fair warning.
The magical field of light expanded to encompass what was in the darkness, and it didn’t move to escape it. A moment later, the children and their mother saw what had found them down there in the tunnels.
A huge humanoid creature stood before them, eyeing them carefully; the light seemed to dim considerably within a small radius around. It stood at what the childrens’ mother estimated to be between nine and ten feet tall, with a dragon-like head and a form of black chitin covering its body. It vaguely resembled a Human in shape, with two arms and two legs, but its arms reached entirely to its knees and it had claws on its hands and feet.
Ngh, they see me… again, what ARE they!?
Ichabod stepped forward, the only one of her children that rivaled the beast’s size. Several others stepped up behind him as well, ready in case he somehow fell to the monster before them.
They’re organized… and that one is using magic of some kind.
I can taste the aura of it in my mouth…
I’ve never eaten magic like this before.
After several tense moments, Ichabod whispered. “Mommy… what is it?”
“I do not know,” she replied. “I know many legends and tales regarding Deltora’s creatures, but… I’ve never heard of or seen anything such as this…”
“And you speak,” the creature said out loud in a grating, gurgling voice.
The act of speaking startled the group, but they recovered quickly. Their mother replied to the creature.
“What are you?” she asked firmly. She could feel the light magic being tugged at as it got closer to the creature but she held no fear of it.
It looked past Ichabod (having to lean a bit to do so). “I am a… guardian of sorts. If you comply with me, I will take you in gently,” it continued past answering her question, “but if not…”
The beast cracked its knuckles, showing off the size of its hands; it could easily grab her around the waist with just one of them. Ichabod stepped further towards it and took an aggressive stance.
“We’re not going anywhere!” he yelled at it. “You’re not going to so much as lay a hand on our mother!”
Mother? They are her children…?
‘Ichabod should be able to handle this,’ she thought. ‘If not, I’m sure I can find a spell that will get through that neat little anti-magical aura while the rest keep it busy. I just hope it’s not as strong as it looks.’
Her face…… I see… concern……………………….. hm…
‘This thing wants to hurt us… I won’t let it do that. I won’t let anyone hurt my mother AGAIN!’
Ichabod charged.
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“Hahaha, tell me another one, Juke!”
“Of course my Queen!”
Juke was Queen Chrysalis’ royal jester, and a good friend of hers. A little cowardly, as those of his position usually are, but loyal nonetheless. He was constantly coming up with new jokes on the fly, and was always quick to please anyone whether it be his queen or a sad sibling.
“My Queen, have you ever heard of the no-me-neether?”
“…no…”
“ME NEITHER!”
Chrysalis stared at him for a few seconds while he fell to the floor in laughter before she finally got the punch line. She gave a little laugh; he wasn’t ALWAYS top notch, but he at least tried.
Suddenly, the hive shook. There was a moment of silence as they awaited further tremors, which did not come. Several servants appeared by Chrysalis’ side, ready to take a command. She thought for a second before giving them orders.
“Servants,” she said, turning to the left side of the group of eight, “I want half of you to check the housing section that was scheduled to be renovated, in case it has collapsed unexpectedly. I want the other half—” she turned to the right side, “—to check on the Devourer, in case he’s been caught in a cave-in again. He informed me that he was to be mining today, and we all remember what happened last time the tunnels collapsed on him.”
The servants dispersed in the directions of their goals. Juke came out from hiding behind the throne, where he had rushed upon feeling the tremor.
Chrysalis sighed and laughed. “Juke, you can go now.”
Juke hurriedly bowed and ran from the room, tripping and falling on his face once in the process. Chrysalis recalled that he’d been doing this ever since he copied the form of a certain unicorn that had wandered too close to the nest but got away… either way, it hadn’t harmed anything yet and it was kind of funny.
Chrysalis stood from her throne and walked to the huge stained glass window behind it. Well, it was sort of like stained glass: it was more of a thin membrane that had hardened into a substance resembling glass. In addition to copying other beings’ forms, changelings were masters of replicating substances as well.
She looked out the window and into the mountains that surrounded it. It was a location that was difficult to find by most species, and so the hive was safe there for the most part. Occasionally a travelling pony or gryphon got the bright idea to take a shortcut through the mountains to get between the Glass Sea and the territory of the Dallis (a tribe of primate reptilian creatures) faster than travelling around them, but most simply figured it was too much trouble since the mountains were too high.
She gazed out over the scenery, another reason that having the hive in the mountains was a good idea. Changelings certainly had an appreciation for beauty, even if their views of it were slightly different from what other races might value. Mountains just happened to be one type of scenery that they enjoyed in common with others.
Chrysalis looked down towards the clear area around the hive. She recalled that the Devourer had a set of tunnels directly beneath the surface there, specifically so that if need be he could quickly ambush enemies that approached. If something was too big to ambush effectively, then it would break through the relatively thin ceiling of the tunnels and be slowed by the holes created. With this in mind, she pondered the heavy thumping sound that was audible even up on the second floor and through the glass in front of her, coming from the ground down there.
Her questions were answered when a part of the ground erupted upwards and a creature came flying up into the air: her loyal servant and guardian of the hive, the Devourer. It arced backwards, its eyes and maw clenched from the impact. It landed and rose to its feet as a variety of other strange creatures began to emerge from the hole that was created, many of them seeming to relish in being out of the tunnels.
One in particular, though, caught her attention: the first to come out, looking like a huge sack of baggy red flesh with a toothy mouth; whenever it moved one of its limbs beyond a certain point in its range of motion, the skin pulled tight to reveal powerful, dense muscles. It had a body shape similar to the Devourer’s though much thicker, and even stood a little taller than it. It looked angry.
It charged at the Devourer once again, hitting it dead in the chest with a bull rush but stopping short at letting it go tumbling instead of carrying it forward. Yeah, it was definitely angry.
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The Devourer stood up again, covered in dust from being slammed around in the tunnels. Ichabod stood before him, still angry. His siblings and mother remained by the hole.
As Ichabod approached the Devourer again and readied yet another blow, the twins from before got an idea. They positioned themselves in the field where they could be heard by everyone involved and began… singing, coordinating their voices so that it sounded like more than just the two were harmonizing.
The Devourer and Ichabod continued fighting, ignoring the battle music. The mother of the group, though, stood near the back of the group. She was satisfied with how well Ichabod was doing, but… why wasn’t this creature dead yet? Ichabod had landed several crushing blows so far that she had been sure would have killed it, yet it just kept getting back up. In addition, she could tell that it wasn’t really fighting back; any blows it struck were very light and had no effect on Ichabod, and it was taking more hits than it should where it could have dodged. Something wasn’t right…
Ichabod slammed the Devourer into a stone wall near the edge of the clearing, holding it up against it by the throat. He began to squeeze the plating just below its head.
“You wanted to hurt my mother. Do you have any last words, monster?” Ichabod said with a wicked grin.
The Devourer opened its eyes. It held up both of its hands in front of Ichabod’s face rather than attempting to pry his fingers from its throat. It held up four claws on each hand.
“Forty four,” it said perfectly clearly, even though Ichabod was sure that it couldn’t be getting air with its throat between its hands.
It then reared one of its hands back and struck Ichabod in the side of the head with a tremendously powerful, staggering punch. Ichabod stumbled sideways, releasing the Devourer from his grip.
“One,” it said.
The Devourer looked to Ichabod’s mother, observing her reaction. She seemed to have been expecting something like this to happen; she had guessed that it was gauging Ichabod’s strength. The Devourer looked back to Ichabod as the twins continued to sing.
Chrysalis’ servants suddenly flew out of the hole that the group of children were gathered around and rushed to the side of the Devourer before they could be caught, having figured out what was going on quickly.
“No,” the Devourer commanded them as they attempted to take up fighting stances next to him. “This is my fight.”
The four servants reluctantly backed down. By now, Ichabod was recovering from the surprise attack, but the servants figured out something they could do. They took up positions near the twins, who were surprised but continued to sing. Then… the changelings began to sing as well. The twins smiled for a few seconds and then adapted their singing to the new tune, assisting it.
Ichabod charged at the Devourer again in a rage. He swung his right arm in a powerful right hook, but the Devourer ducked beneath it. It twisted its torso at what seemed to be an impossible angle while folding its right arm and pointing it upwards. It then moved itself upwards very quickly, connecting its right elbow with Ichabod’s jaw and knocking his head upward. As it continued its motion, its left arm revealed itself to be in the form of an uppercut that immediately followed the upwards elbow, also hitting the now-stunned Ichabod square in the jaw and lifting him off the ground a little bit.
“Two, three.”
Before Ichabod landed on his back, the Devourer twisted back to his normal stance and did a jump-slam onto Ichabod’s chest with both fists, further stunning him.
“Four, five.”
The Devourer climbed on top of Ichabod’s immobile form, ignoring the tingling running through its back. It was feeling spells of an alien type hitting its hide, each having no effect. Ichabod’s mother was trying to protect him.
It sat on Ichabod’s chest and began repeatedly hammering Ichabod in each side of his head with its fists. It counted off each blow, Ichabod too stunned to react.
“*POW* SIX *POW* SEVEN *POW* EIGHT *POW* NINE *POW* TEN *POW* ELEVEN *POW* TWELVE…”
The Devourer felt several more, much stronger spells hit its back. It continued the assault, continuing to beat Ichabod senseless. The twins' singing stopped, but the changelings continued.
“*POW* THIRTEEN *POW* FOURTEEN *POW* FIFTEEN *POW* SIXTEEN *POW* SEVENTEEN *POW* EIGHTEEN *POW* NINETEEN *POW* TWENTY…”
Ichabod’s mother gathered a lightning bolt into her hands and hurled it at the Devourer in desperation; the bolt vanished into its hide without a trace. The Devourer took notice and stopped its beatdown for a moment, looking over its shoulder at her with a wide grin that chilled her.
It was counting up to the number it had stated before it knocked itself free from her son. Whether it was counting towards unconsciousness or death, though…
The Devourer turned back and continued slamming Ichabod’s head, right as he had begun struggling to get free again. Ichabod’s siblings reacted, moving to assist him but the changeling servants stood between them and the fight, carrying on the tune without the twins even as they assumed fighting stances. The children recoiled; if the large one could do this to their strongest brother, what could the smaller ones do?
The Devourer continued as Ichabod’s mother kept hurling progressively more powerful spells at it. Lightning bolts, fireballs, transformation spells, agony spells; they all vanished into its body with no effect.
“THIRTY EIGHT.”
There was no choice.
“THIRTY NINE.”
It had to happen.
“FORTY.”
The Devourer raised its fist to strike the next blow when it heard a cry from the crowd behind it.
“STOP!”
It froze. The servants stopped singing. Ichabod was not moving.
“Just….. stop………. We’ll… we’ll go with you…” Ichabod’s mother said painfully. The thought of obeying another’s orders once more angered her, but her son…
The Devourer climbed off of Ichabod and stood next to him. It motioned for his mother to approach.
Ichabod’s mother complied, walking out of her group of children and past the changelings. She reached the Devourer.
The Devourer lowered its arm to waist-level. “You and—“
“What about Ichabod?” she asked, interrupting it. Oddly, it didn’t treat the interruption as an insult.
“He will be alright. Just unconscious for a while,” it said in an assuring voice.
“……alright.”
“You and your group will come with me. My brothers and sisters will carry your unconscious son, and the others will follow us. This is understood?”
“…yes.”
“Then come!” The Devourer said loudly enough to startle most of her children. It picked her up by the waist with its other hand, stood, and then placed her sitting on its other arm.
“I have someone I wish you to speak with," it said in the same volume with a wide smile.
The Devourer stood and called for a small swarm of changelings, which grabbed Ichabod at various points on his body and began to (slowly) follow them while flying low to the ground. The herd of children followed as well as the Devourer led them all into the hive.