First off, really, REALLY sorry about the long delay for updating. Real life has been taking me to town. I've spent the last month or so busy figuring out the rest of my college life (Political Science and History double major, along with Law School path) and organizing my plans for summer and next year.
But for now, the Leviathan is here! In all it's monstrosity! Again, sorry for the wait! If you're still reading then please review and let me know your thoughts!
Enjoy!
Chapter 35 The Leviathan
Day 8 of the 77th Hunger Games
The monster burst through the water howling at the top of its lungs. The screech pierced the ears of each of the six tributes, causing all of them to recoil. Not enough though to miss Sterling's figure at the tip of the tentacle, misshapen and twisting in agony. Before the tributes could process that sight, two more tentacles emerged from the water, these two closer to shore and holding the figures of Krystal and Clair at their tips.
All three of them were monstrous; missing legs so only their upper body remained. Small pores dotted their bodies, releasing a blackish slime that coated their decaying skin. Below their waists' were the typical bright red suckers found on an octopus, each one releasing its own pus and horrible stench.
Save for their faces, they had cleared of any discernable sex features. Their bodies remained androgynous, nipples removed and the girls' breasts reduced. Instead, black veins run all along their body, concentrated in their chest and taking the vague shape of lungs.
As for their faces, they were thin and morphed into looks of agony and abject horror. Their eyes gleamed pale and red, veins prominent and destroying their natural eye coloring. Their hair was soaked and matted against their against their head. Their jaws were also unhinged, hanging far lower than usual while extra skin bunched underneath it. Stretch marks ran along their cheeks; muscle mostly holding their jaw up. Lips were spread into a faint smile, thin and pale along with the rest of their faces. The teeth behind the lips were yellow, with both canines sharpened and molars overly large.
As he stared at the monster, Watt suddenly understood what he was looking at. The creature from the book he read about was right in front of him.
"LEVIATHAN!" He cried out, shocking all the tributes around him. The Leviathan looked to Watt, a low growl emitting from all through of their throats. Slowly, each of the tributes began backing away from the Leviathan to retreat back into the forest. None of them wanted to draw the monster's – no, Leviathan's – gaze and wrath. Every tribute there, even the proud Careers, realized that they couldn't fight this monster.
So survival instincts took over for all the tributes. It was time to flee.
But the Leviathan was ready for this.
"Brielle!" Watt called out, trying to keep his voice from growing too loud. Wanting to return to his former ally's side, he began moving slowly towards her. They could retreat back into the woods together and then plan out their next move. Whatever it was, he knew they stood a better chance together.
But Brielle had another idea in mind. She had no interest of chaining herself to such a weak tribute again. Without even a look back at Watt, Brielle turned and ran back towards the woods. It was an extreme moment of déjà vu for Watt, remembering how Ayla had abandoned him during the Bloodbath.
And just like then, he was surprised by what happened next.
The Leviathan had been waiting for a tribute to act, and it was all too happy to stop Brielle in her tracks. In a moment of irony that seemed impossible for a monster to comprehend, the tentacled Clair dived in front of Brielle, blocking her path towards the forest. It hissed at Brielle, mouth shaped into an elongated 'O' shape while it moved closer to Brielle in a snake like motion. Brielle couldn't help but scream, drawing her sword in a weak attempt at defense.
As Brielle prepared to fight, Clair chest began to inflate, the black veins growing in size and becoming darker and clearer against pale skin. A loud gurgle and then sickening gagging, only to be followed by an expulsion of black and yellow fluid from its mouth, followed it. The fluid splattered across Brielle's chest, causing her to scream. A loud hissing sound began as her clothing began to disintegrate, the acid spit making its way towards her skin. Once it connected, Brielle let out another shout of agony, falling to the ground while struggling to remove her jacket. Her efforts only caused the acid to spread to her gloves and arms, which began burning the flesh there.
Watt began backing up, sickened by the sight of skin melting and the smell of burnt flesh. Watt also began screaming as well, along with the remaining tributes. Sky had taken the Leviathan's distraction with Brielle to escape, but managed to see Brielle's skin melting before disappearing into the forest. The Clair tentacle began circling Brielle, ignoring Watt entirely, as Sterling joined her. Watt stumbled slowly backwards into the forest, unable to take his eyes off the now steaming Brielle.
"We need to get the fuck out of here!" Ansel shouted, forgetting the instructions never to curse in the arena. The Capitol wouldn't like that. Aileen was already ahead of him, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him towards the woods. "Chance, with us!" Ansel shouted as he was dragged away, calling out for his former ally now.
Chance saw them as he was retreating, not waiting for anyone else to retreat. Gambling, Chance decided to follow them and changed his course.
Only to be blocked by the tentacled Krystal. Chance stopped, fear playing across his face as the sick smile that was plastered on Krystal's face. Saliva was slowly dripping from her lips, eager for what came next. This Krystal would get what the other had not been able to get in life. Chance's death.
Meanwhile, Ansel had raised his whip against Aileen's protests and prepared to help Chance, only for another tentacled creature to appear. This one had Jory at the tip of it, screaming and flinging itself around viciously. Ansel adjusted his stance and cracked his whip at the creature, causing it to retreat back in defense.
Aileen, realizing that Ansel was in trouble, rushed the creature as it was distracted by Ansel's whip and stabbed it. Her sword pierced the Leviathan's flesh, spurting acid across the sword and Aileen's gloves. She recoiled in fear and began tearing off her gloves, shouting in pain as bits of acid seared her hands. Brielle's matched her own, though far more hysterical. Jory laughed, utterly deranged, and retreated back into the water now that she had managed to wound a tribute. Ansel rushed to Aileen's side, dragging her back into the forest and leaving Chance to his fate.
On his own, Chance was quickly losing ground. Every time he tried to retreat back into the woods, Krystal would block his exit. Realizing that he only had one choice, Chance raised both his swords in attack fashion.
"Come on!" He shouted, tempting the creature to attack. It did so, pouncing on Chance with all it's weight behind it. Chance, timing it perfectly, stabbed forward and pierced both of Krystal's bony shoulders. Krystal screamed in agony, its acid blood slowly disintegrating the swords though not fast enough to prevent damage. Chance twisted them, carefully to prevent hitting an artery that might cause acid to spurt forward.
But that seemed to be what the Leviathan wanted.
In a surprise move, Krystal raised one of its arms, the other too damaged to move, and grabbed hold of Chance's shoulder. A slimy substance soaked into Chance's jacket, the smell of it almost causing him to gag and lose focus. The force of the impact forced Chance to the ground as well, causing him to lose leverage over his swords. Now close enough attack, Krystal's jaw unhinged and locked into Chance's throat. He screamed in reaction, expecting pain to follow the attack.
However, he was saved by his gift. The armor he wore prevented Krystal's teeth from tearing into him, giving him just enough time to react. Reaching down to his waist, he grabbed his knife and stabbed it into Krystal's neck. Her jaws unclamped from Chance's throat, saliva and acid dripping down onto his chest. With a feral cry, Chance managed to kick the Leviathan's tentacle off of him, his boot momentarily caught in one of the suckers. He pulled it out, trailing pus and mucus with him.
Krystal was not dead though. She tore the knife from her throat, partially melted, and pulled back from Chance. Her pale eyes stared at him, lighting up as her lips slowly parted into a smile. With a low growl she pulled back into the water, leaving only the Sterling and Clair tentacles above ground. Having no connection to Brielle, Chance ignored her screams and prepared to retreat. He pulled off his ruined jacket and threw it aside as he did so. His armor had protected him from Krystal's jaws and her acid blood, though some signs of damage were clear. Giving Brielle one final look, he retreated back into the forest, not eager to see what came next.
Brielle was still on the ground, writhing in pain while Sterling and Clair slithered around her. She couldn't see anymore, some of the acid spit burning her cheeks and destroying her vision. But she could still hear fine, and over the sounds of her own screaming she could tell that her former allies were getting closer.
"Naaaa!" She screamed, unable to form words properly, her vocal cords ruined along with her eyes. With a sharp hiss, Clair dove at Brielle's prone figure and grabbed her arm. With a sharp cry, she pulled on the arm. Brielle was dragged with her, only to be stopped by Sterling who was grabbing her other arm. Soon it was a tug-of-war between the two monsters, both of them screaming as they dangled Brielle off the ground and tried to tear off her arms. She managed to escape Clair's grasp though and started banging weakly on Sterling, who proceeded to drop her back on the ground.
Brielle landed with a thud, screaming out again as she felt her ankle twist. "IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS!" She screamed at no one in particular, her last coherent thought before she collapsed into total insanity. The acid had done it's damage, making it's way all the way through her jacket, shirt, and now skin. It had torn through her breasts without mercy and had burned away her lungs. With raspy gasps, Brielle struggled to hold onto life. But with nothing to regulate her breath, her esophagus was merely blowing out red puffs of air.
Brielle's body seized, her body shutting down without oxygen. Meanwhile, the two faces of the Leviathan were content to watch her struggle slowly. Clair continued to laugh at Brielle, face delighted at her suffering. As for Sterling, he also smiled and drew himself closer to Brielle. He looked through her exposed chest cavity and watched her heart struggle to maintain its pace.
Another bloody gasp was all Brielle had in her. Her body finally gave out from shock, her final moments of agony finally over. A cannon sounded across the arena, confirming what was all too obvious. Upon seeing her heart stop, Sterling screamed and plunged his hand in her chest to pull out her arm. With Brielle's heart in hand, Sterling proceeded to crush it in her hand, splattering blood everywhere. He then dropped it onto the ground, letting out another shrill cry. Clair joined him in the shout, both of them daring another tribute to come and fight them. When no one emerged the both turned and slithered back into the murky water, their business concluded.
The Leviathan had been revealed to the arena, and it would not be underestimated.
With one final roar, the two remaining tentacled creature sunk back into the water. The air became still after that, silence filling the arena as the screaming of tributes and birds ended. From the cliffs on the other side of the arena, Luna lowered her binoculars, her hands shaking and mouth agape. She remained in place for a little, gazing over the bay near the waters edge. Then Luna turned and sprinted back to her pack, stuffing everything inside of it.
She had to get away from the water, very far from it and very fast. Tightening her winter jacket first, Luna then threw her knife jacket over it. She drew a knife as she threw her pack over her shoulders, just in case anything nasty came her way. She doubted it could hold off the monster, but it helped her feel a little calmer.
Her next task was to scale the cliff side, a harder task than she anticipated. Descending it had been easy enough, ascending it was a whole other monster. Some parts were far to steep or rocky to climb properly, but there were a few ledges Luna could use to climb. She began her task, feeling the full extent of her weak body screaming at her to stop.
'Just a little more.' She kept telling herself, hoisting herself up onto another ledge. After almost five minutes of climbing she had made it halfway up the cliff, hardly reaching twenty feet off the ground. As she climbed, she kept checking the water for even the slightest ripple. Every small wave that crashed against the shore spooked her, motivating her to climb faster.
But rough terrain and her own tired muscles slowed her down too much. She kept imagining a dead tribute rising from the water and plucking her from the cliff side, dragging her down into the murky water.
'No! That won't be me! I've come to far to die to such an abomination!'
As if hearing her thoughts, a loud screeched erupted from underneath the water, followed but a figure and tentacle emerging from the water.
The figure of Griffin attached to its end.
Luna stared back into Griffin's dead eyes, gripping her knife tightly. She was currently positioned on a ledge, restricting her movements to left and right. With only six knives in her vest, she only had a few chances to wound and possibly scare it off, if that was possible. Luna had not been particular adept with knives in training either. She had practiced throwing the previous day and had improved a good deal, but she doubted she'd be able to hit her target if it started flailing violently like it did on the beach.
For the moment, the Griffin thing was too far away to hit anyway. It actually looked like its beaded eyes were studying her, as if strategizing for the best way to end her life. With a low hiss, the creatures jaw detached and it reared it's head back to attack. With a quick twist, the tentacle and creature came at her. Luna let out a scared gasp and raised her knife, feigning a throw at the creature. It anticipated the attacked and dodged accordingly, only to have Luna change her direction and throw her knife at the creature.
It impacted hard against Griffin's shoulder blade, causing it to let out a loud screech and pull back from the ledge. The withdrawal gave Luna a chance to draw another knife and keep moving up the ledge, making it up another row before the monster attacked again. Luna turned her body and swiped outwards, knowing the knife wouldn't connect with flesh. It still caused the creature to back up for a moment, hissing louder as it pulled back. Suddenly, Sterling' chest began to puff up, the veins littering his chest enlarging and darkening. A harsh gurgling sound erupted from his throat, along with foam around its decaying lips.
Immediately realizing what was happening, Luna remained in place as long as she dared before rolling away from the acid salvia. Looking back, she watched the projected salvia melting through the cliff side, reacting harshly with the coarse rocks. But while she was distracted with that, the monster had managed to slither around her, wrapping around her form and blocking her from moving any direction except back towards the water.
Panicked, Luna looked down and saw that she was probably twenty feet above the ground. She could survive the jump, but she could also break bones if she landed wrong.
Before she could decide though, Griffin was launching another attack, taking advantage of Luna's indecisiveness. She had no choice but to fight close range, and stabbed at the Griffin creature as it charged her. The knife pierced Griffin's chest dead on, causing the creature to writhe in pain. The individual suckers beneath it began to flail and produce more puss, the smell of which made Luna want to vomit.
With knife still in its chest, Griffin pushed closer to Luna while the tentacle wrapped tighter around Luna, suffocating the air around her with the smell of death. Realizing she was losing ground, Luna screamed and twisted the knife in Griffin's chest, spilling blood all over her hands and causing the creature to back off. Suddenly, Luna's hands felt warm and she was stunned to see the blood dissolving her gloves, threatening her hands. All within the same motion, Luna tore her gloves off – dropping the melting knife – and jumped off the side of the cliff.
Or slid would perhaps be the better word. The smell produced by the sucker pus had caused Luna to go light headed, misjudging her surroundings and her strength. Instead of jumping, Luna had almost comically plunged down the side of the cliff, crashing into multiple rocks on her way down. When she heard and felt a sharp crack, Luna finally screamed before coming to a stop.
She now lay on the ground, struggling to compose herself. With a weak move of her right arm, Luna saw that it was bulging near the middle. Looking further down her arm, she noticed that her pinkie and ring finger were misshapen, broken along with her arm. Adrenaline was keeping the brunt of the pain at bay, but the shock was enough to cause her to scream out in agony.
Her thighs also felt raw, her clothing torn and specks of red dotting her sides from where the rocks had cut her. Nothing felt broken there, but it stung enough that moving was difficult. Luna, wracked with pain and desperation, tried crawling away from the monstrosity that was now positioned directly over her. Acid dripped from the creature's lips, which had curled up into a smile. Its figure was blotting out the sun above her, casting a shadow over her prone and helpless figure.
And then it hit Luna. 'I'm going to die.' She thought. 'Right here, and right now, I'm going to die.'
She wanted to be strong, to bravely face death for the sake of her mother and brother. But she couldn't muster up the courage. She had been trying to act stronger than she was. Trying to prove that she could survive the Games. Trying to forget what she was.
A scared twelve year old.
'I never had a chance.' She thought, coming to terms with what she had known the moment she had been Reaped. How long ago was that? It felt as if it had been years. Luna looked up at the monster, body shaking from fear and pain. Griffin's dark eyes looked gleefully upon her, his own decaying body shaking with excitement at the prospective kill.
"P-please…" Luna begged, tears brimming from her eyes. She hated herself. She hated begging to a mindless monster. She hated that this is how she would be remembered. "I don't w-want to die!"
A high pitched sound came from the monster's mouth, a sound that reminded Luna of laughing. When was the last time she heard laughing? Griffin finding joy in hurting her couldn't possibly count. She was in the Capitol, and they were laughing at something Aileen had said in her interview. Yes, that was the last time, wasn't it? Everything was jumbling together now, random memories and thoughts that had no connection to what was happening at that moment. Most of them didn't even have anything to do with the Games.
"Please!" she shouted, her entire body shaking. "Please not like this!"
And then, the monster's pitch changed in a feral scream and it descended on her.
And then it was over. A few moments of excruciating pain and terrified screams gave way to nothing. Luna's body went still while blood continued to spurt from her torn open throat. The creature remained above her body, gore falling from its lips with skin and muscle stuck in-between its teeth.
Another canon sounded across the arena, accompanied by the Leviathan's terrifying cry of triumph. Slowly, the Leviathan uncurled itself and began to pull back into the water. As it did, Griffin grabbed Luna's limp leg and began to drag the body with it back into the water. Soon they were both gone, both bodies sinking deeper and deeper into the inky water.
Luna's body, never to be recovered.
A safe distance from the cliffs, Tassel lowered her telescope once the cannon sounded and the monster stopped screaming. "L-Luna…" Tassel began before stopping herself. She wasn't sure what to say. She had never talked to the youngest of her fellow tributes, but it certainly didn't mean she didn't feel for her. While the cliffs had obscured the attack, to the point that they could only see Griffin's corpse appear occasionally, both her and Twill had deduced that it had to be Luna. She was the only one besides them missing from the first attack, which had taken the District 4 girl from them. Neither of them knew what to make of Brielle, but it was horrifying nonetheless.
"We have to get away from the water." Tassel said. "We have to get off this ship and get as far away from the water as possible!"
"What the fuck was that?" Twill asked, voice breaking with fear. "What in the living fuck was that?!"
"W-we can't think about that now! We need to focus on-"
"THEY WERE ATTACKED BY DEAD PEOPLE!" Twill shouted, grabbing hold of Tassel's jacket and staring her directly in the eye. "THOSE WERE DEAD TRIBUTES! JUST LIKE LAST YEAR! THAT ISN'T POSSIBLE!"
"Get a hold of yourself, Twill!" Tassel shouted, pushing Twill off of her. Twill hit the deck hard, only to jump up again and continue ranting.
"If they had those dead tributes, then they'll have them all, right? RIGHT?! So… so F-Flux and… and TRENT! Trent! They'll be those monsters too, right?! Oh my god! Oh my god! They tore her apart! Sterling and his partner! They're going to do that to me! I actually hurt them! FLUX AND TRENT ARE GOING TO KILL ME! I'M GOING TO D-"
A sharp slapping sound rang through the Tassel struck Twill across the cheek. He looked at her, still deranged, and then cried out in pain as Twill slapped him again.
"Get ahold of yourself and then listen to me!" Tassel shouted, unable to hide her fear. "We're going to fine as long as we can get away from the water! It's an aquatic mutt! It can't hurt us if we're by the mountains, right?"
"B-but the mutt birds!" Twill protested.
"Then we'll hide somewhere else! Listen to me! We're going to be fine, but we have to get off this ship right now! We're sitting ducks up here!"
"Y-you're right! YOU'RE RIGHT!" Twill shouted, trying to convince himself to calm down.
"I'm going to go below deck and grab our stuff, ok? Then I'm going to come back here and you and I are going to descend down and get the hell out of here, ok?"
"Wait!" Twill shouted, a thought coming to him throughout the chaos. "What about the silver door thing?"
"What?"
"The latch below deck! The one that we can't get open! There has to be something down there! Something we can use to kill that thing or the other tributes! Yes… we need to kill them! We need to kill them before that thing kills us!"
Tassel couldn't stop herself. She slapped Twill once more, this time purely out of rage and fear. "Who gives a shit about what could be there?"
"Because the last item we found in one of these ships saved my life!" Twill shouted back, face red from the slaps and his own rage. "We haven't even explored all of this ship!"
"And we're not going too! I'm going to grab out bags, the spear gun, and we are leaving!" Tassel shouted before going below deck before Twill could protest. She rushed to their supplies, hand shaking as she grabbed the bags and the spear gun. Before she picked them up, Tassel tried to control her shaking hands. She tried breathing slowly, then distracting her mind, and then finally getting angry at herself. Nothing could quell her hands though, or the fear burning through her.
'I wasn't even this scared about the Bloodbath.' Tassel though. Shock had to be the reason for it. This was different. Tassel had gotten used to the constant fear of death from her fellow tributes. She wasn't prepared to deal with that monstrosity though.
Grabbing the packs and gun, she turned to return above deck. As she climbed the rickety, wooden stairs, she glanced once more at the silver latched door. It was tantalizing and she felt compelled to once more try and pry it open, but survival instincts overtook her and she continued above deck.
Only to find Twill was nowhere in sight.
"TWILL!" Tassel shouted, dropping the packs and raising her spear gun. What if the monster reached up and grabbed him? 'No… no! I would have heard screaming. Oh God!"
"TWILL!"
"I'm here! I'm alright!" Twill replied, a smile on his face. "I found something!"
"Twill, we really need to leave, NOW!"
"No! Not yet! There's something in the bow cabin you need to see!"
Before she could protest, Twill was already re-entering the cabin at the front of the ship. They hadn't explored it the previous night, electing to do so in the morning when they were less tired. Despite her better judgment, Tassel consented and followed him into the cabin.
Once inside, Tassel immediately coughed at the harsh air. The smell was too distinctive though to not remember it. "Ok, almost all of these barrels have some sort of liquid in them! Except for a couple up here! I'm not sure what it is, but look! The sticker says it's flammable!"
The universal stamp of danger was printed on the side of all the barrels, but the symbol for flammable was emblazoned in red on the side of several barrels. They stood next to two large cannons, a very large fire bellower that was attached to both of them. It's pump was so big that it looked like it take an entire person's weight to pull it down.
"Great, we're on a wooden ship with flammable barrels on it. Another reason to get the hell out!" Tassel said.
"The room is metal! See?" Twill asked, stomping his foot on the ground. The stomping resounded throughout the room, confirming his claim. "But these cannons… and this... I know what they are! It's a furnace and funnel! They're like flamethrowers!"
Tassel couldn't help but laugh cruelly at Twill. "Are you serious?" she said. "The Gamemakers added flamethrowers to a ship? That's too much, even for them."
Twill laughed back, though Tassel noticed a change in him. There was a hint of his old self now, perhaps drawn out by his desperation and fear. It was a look that Tassel hated and thought him matured from.
"We can use them to burn down the forest." He said.
Tassel looked at Twill, mouth agape with surprise. "You want to burn down the forest?"
"The canons are aimed directly at them! And there's enough of this liquid to keep the fire going long enough to burn it all down!"
"You can't be serious."
"Why not? Besides, it's not like it wouldn't help us! All of the other tributes are in the forest! We can drive them out!"
"You want to burn five other tributes, alive?!"
"It probably won't be that successful. But we can weaken them! We'll probably be able to burn them, or at least give them some smoked up lungs!"
"Twill!"
"IT'S US OR THEM GOD DAMNIT!" Twill shouted. "This is the quickest way to fix things! Besides, the Capitol is going to love this! We can finally start getting some more sponsor gifts! Maybe a full meal, or wait! A full set of armor! For both of us!"
For a moment, Tassel balked. Her mind was racing, processing this new information. Perhaps it would be for the best? Could Twill be right? If they killed off the rest of the tributes in one fell swoop, they'd literally be on the Victor's doorstep!
'But five people!'
Twill sensed that she was on the fence, ready to agree, so he gave her just one more push. "Chance is in that forest right now, alive! Don't you remember what he did to Flux? Don't you want justice?!"
It was absolutely the wrong thing to say.
Tassel snapped back around, almost slapping Twill for a fourth time. She stopped herself though; instead charging at Twill and forcing him against the wall before she started shouting at him.
"How, fucking, dare you!" She shrieked, face enraged and body shaking. "You little shit! I know who who's responsible for her death, and if we're burning those people then I should throw you into the flames as well!"
Twill remained against the wall, shrinking and turning as much as he could away from Tassel's anger. He had never seen Tassel like this before. It was a side he would never have thought possible for her.
"We're not burning the forest down! Otherwise there's nowhere else to hide and we'll need the forest to escape that thing!"
"I… I just d-don't want to die." Twill whimpered, sliding down the side of the wall, tears fresh in his eyes.
Tassel took several steps back, breathing uneasily as she did so. Tears were also falling down her cheeks. She stopped when her back suddenly hit the opposite wall, the gulf between her and Twill filled with the sound of crying.
Neither of them was sure how long they remained there on their respective walls, curled up and crying. Eventually, Tassel managed to compose herself enough to stand up once more. She looked over at Twill, saddened by how broken he was.
'Did I do that? Was it all the Games? It's probably both.' She thought, feeling guilty for his condition. She looked again at this stump of a hand, unable to imagine what it must be like. Slowly, she began walking over to him, falling to her knees once she was next to him. Twill didn't even recognize her presence, not until Tassel hugged him.
It was awkward and terribly one sided at first, but Twill managed to reciprocate the hug. There was nothing romantic about it, nor did either of them feel that way. The hug was meant as support for one another, for the shared horror they were facing. It was a hug of survivors.
"W-we can go." Twill said. "Just give me a… a moment to, you know."
Tassel nodded and ended their hug, standing up and giving Twill a moment to compose himself. "I'll grab our stuff and get the spear gun line ready."
"Ok." Twill replied, rising from the ground slowly. Tassel offered him a small smile, which he reciprocated, unsure of himself. "I just don't want to die, Tassel."
"I know. We won't." Tassel replied, before leaving the bow cabin. Outside now, Tassel breathed a little easier in the open air. She heard the gulls above crying out above her, returned to the arena after vanishing during the monster's attack. Just having them above her caused Tassel to relax.
'They must be a signal for the monster. They gather above where it is and then vanish as long as it's a threat.' She concluded, hoping that she was right. It would at least give them a little time to prepare for an attack.
The sound of a door closing interrupted Tassel from her thoughts. Turning back towards the bow cabin, she was surprised to find them closed. "Twill?" she questioned, walking back towards the door to bang on them. She then tried for the handle, only to find that it was locked. "Twill, what are you doing?"
No response followed, save for the rumbling of barrels across the ground. Sharp sounds echoed throughout the cabin, along with grunting from Twill. "Answer me, Twill!" Tassel continued, her knocking becoming more frantic. She stepped back several feet and then ran at the door, slamming all her weight into it. She cried out in pain as she was hit with recoil, falling backwards onto the deck beneath her. The cabin door remained intact, but her shoulder felt shattered.
FWOSH!
A loud gust of air cracked through the arena, followed by a wave of heat. The edges of the ship's bow in front of her grew brighter, only to die down slightly.
"No!" Tassel muttered, rising to her feet slowly and moving towards the side of the ship. Looking over the side in front of the ship, Tassel gasped when she saw the forest on fire. Several rows of trees were ablaze, the fire dancing across their branches. It was spreading quickly, the wind coming off the blow encouraging it forward. It wouldn't be long until it consumed the entire forest.
"TWILL!" Tassel shouted, desperate for him to stop. In response, another gust of fire burst from the bow of the ship, spreading the flames further and causing Tassel to scream out from the heat wave.
Before long, five tributes would be cornered and killed.
And her and Twill would be the only ones remaining.
If you're having trouble visualizing the Leviathan, look up Broodmother from the Dragon Age series. It was a starting point for me imagining this creature. I knew I wanted something aquatic, and the Leviathan was perfect.
Fair warning, the Broodmother is not... pleasant on the eyes. So NSFW if that applies for this.
Again, let me know what you think of the Leviathan! Thanks for staying tune as well!