City of IF

[Phang]

Winger was too tired to go on, and too scared to dare face what had started making a howling noise that, had her ears been human, would have made them pop, but as sensitive flaps on the sides of her head the noise blocked out everything else and drove her mad.

Shuddering and shaking with the effort to keep herself under control she made slow deliberate steps towards a dark burrow that seemed abandoned, but the noise was overpowering and she fell to her knees, then was forced to crawl painfully slowly to the hole.

Muddy and quivering, she came to the edge and stopped. Instead of a burrow, before her was a long, deep crack in the earth, like some awful slash across a face. Looking to her left she saw it reaching back beyond her vision, and on to the crags around the factory. Crawling closer she nervously peered down and saw huge slits of eyes staring back up at her - a gleaming red eye with a small (but not much smaller, and still unbelieveably large) yellow eye on both sides. The eyes narrowed questioningly, from the sides as if they were just normal eyes tipped on their sides. A rumbling emitted slowly, then grew in noise until the howl was drowned by the beast's echoed noise as it opened its cavernous mouth. Winger was blasted back and recognised the familiar sound of the Echoer - the giant beast of the Down Below, mimicking the sounds of the upper surface.

Getting to her feet, no longer exhausted, she fled from the crack of the spreading Down Below and dived to the ground as the howls faded into an echo, digging with her bare hands to hide from the sounds of the world around her...

*~*~*

Dead. All dead. Torn apart by their own insanity - by his insanity. But there was hope. He knew how to sort out this eventuality...

Getting up from the ground he rose one hand, bent and bleeding from 100 years of ageing and rot in mere hours and days. Slowly and carefully, he tried to wave it over the dead humans and command them to rise, but after a hundred years of haste had torn his body a chunk of flesh up to his elbow fell off, and the remaining half of forearm was unable to project his thoughts towards such a group. Pointing at the missing flesh, he cursed it, and suddenly it jumped to attention and began to crawl towards the nearest body. He was about to stop it when it rose its three long fingers, the nails growing into sharp and deadly fangs, and struck it in the neck.

The young woman jerked up to attention, as best as possible when she was a mere torso lying face down, staring into the Down Below. The hand crawled off and found a disembodied head, jabbing it with its fang-nails, and its eyes opened. He watched in wonder as it dragged the woman over to the head - quite a feat for a withered piece of hand - and attempted to get her to drink from it. Seeing what it was doing he directed it to transfer blood from those too badly damaged to the others with its fangs, and as it set to work the woman began to rebuild legs from flesh, but they flopped into tentacles of skin. He frowned, then saw a huge bird soar up above, and, as the image entered his mind, a boy of 6 reformed a huge, glossy wing instead of an arm. Realising what was happening he recalled creatures he had seen - and soon, the dead began to rise, reformed. This what his dream - the power of animals, the intelligences of human, under his control.

Death was no longer a problem...

*~*~*

Winger slept long into the night after the past events, and long into the day too. She would've slept further but she felt something nuzzle her foot. At first she wriggled over to her side, but as she awoke from half-sleep she suddenly realised the danger and attempted to shoot out of the hole backwards, hitting the source of danger and getting stuck. Scrabbling at the dark desperately, unsure of going up or down as long as she escaped, she felt teeth tighten around her leg and drag her upwards. She came out screaming, certain that this was her end, but turning round to face her enemy now she was free she stopped and stared.

It was wolflike, but instead of fur there was leathery grey skin - like hers. Its eyes were orange slits - a combination of her parents' eyes which she should have had too. Along its back and head was a mane of brown fur, the same colour of her hair, and above this two webbed flaps pricked up, moving in all directions to pick up the sounds of prey and danger - and glancing at herself in a puddle, she saw they moved in almost the same instintive pattern as hers as life unfolded loudly around them.

It was - it couldn't not be. She had found family.

But as it saw her humanoid shape, it grew confused. And looking at its face as its wide eyes became slanted again, it seemed confusion had become aggresion. Was its top lip curling up? Was it moving to pounce?

But could she throw away this one chance?

What could she do?

[ethereal_fauna]

The creature seemed curious at first, if not overly friendly. Winger needs to abandon her fear, and not appear as prey. She is animal enough to connect with this creature, despite her form. If she tries to run, becomes defensive, then the creature will attack.

[Jack_D.Mented]

I fully agree! She needs to stand her ground and face that creature because she should know, on some feral level, that if she appears weak, then she's dinner.

[Shady Stoat]

I agree. The moment Winger runs or shows fear, she is likely to seal her doom. Meet these creatures on your own terms and they are unlikely to attack straight out.

Good chapter Phang. Sorry I didn't reply earlier. It must have slipped by me :)

[Phang]

Once again the poll appears rather one-sided... :cool:

I'll wait for a while, then do a new chapter.

[tramp in a storm]

I know this cammoent may be a bit late but: eeeew insest! COOL!

LOL.
great story Phang! cant wait for the next chapter. :D

[Phang]

tramp in a storm wrote: I know this cammoent may be a bit late but: eeeew insest! COOL!

Incest?

[AreonK]

Insect, my friend, Insect...

[tramp in a storm]

yes. The Master wanted to breed her with her dad. thats inscest. or however u like to spell it. :D

[Chinaren]

Incest.

[Phang]

Yes, but does that have anything to do with this chapter?

HINT: The older chapters aren't locked.