Chapter 17: Blade Hound of Whisper Stones

As predicted by Kralluf's officer, the desert platform rolled to a stop once it reached the end of its journey. It traveled a long way to get to the edge of the desert, and to its destination. Various rock formations looking like pillars towering into the sky was located at the front of the desert platform, resembling a forest of weathered sandstone in a way. The zergling, or Kay, had no idea how large this rock forest was, or what it might contain. However, patience was a virtue, and Kay did not doubt that wherever the commander of the Crescent Arms Division was going to, Kralluf would deliver the captive zergling there, and Kay was confident that the ambush would still be effective. It soon became dusk.

Jub was released from her containment, and she took her position well away from the zergling. She did glance over at it now and again, and it would stare back at her and trilled each time she did. She looked away from the zergling and sharply inhaled every time. The four of Kralluf's six officers had their precision and tranquilizer rifles trained on the zergling for the rest of the trip, and they looked relieved when they learned they would finally have a chance to relax. Kralluf, on the other hand, was madly typing on his desk's keyboard without any hesitation. It was only when one of his officers coughed that he was brought out of his trance, finally realizing that they were close to their destination.

Kralluf got off of his desk and turned to talk with everybody. "Alright, men. Get that blade hound onto a dune boat. We're meeting with Faddoh."

His officers groaned silently. Did Kralluf's men have some history with this other commander? Jub stepped forward. "Commander Kralluf, sir. If is not any trouble, I wish to be at your side when we visit Commander Faddoh, sir."

Kralluf turned to Jub, paused, then sighed and nodded. "Fine. But if he starts becoming too personal with his questions, gesture to me and I'll put a stop to it."

Jub slowly cocked her head, but then nodded and followed after Commander Kralluf. The four officers had some difficulty trying to pick up the caged zergling, for they knew that if they were careless, the zergling would bite and claw at them. The decision to tranquilize the zergling quickly became a unanimous decision, prompting the tranq rounds to fly into the zergling's right eye. The tranquilizer drug was less effective than before, but it didn't stop the zergling to hiss angrily before pretending to nod off and eventually go to 'sleep'. It kept its remaining eye slightly open, however, but only enough to trick them into thinking that it was incapacitated. The four of Kralluf's best officers picked up the cage and carried it, but not without some difficulty.

"Ugh... I think this thing is somehow heavier than before." "You wouldn't know that. The trapper team brought the jag in." "You know, I'm kind of curious. Where DID that word come from?" "What word?" "Jag. That word." "I think I remember that trapper saying it?" "Oh yeah. The tropic accented gilanian. I swear, they make up a new word for any new occasion." "Think he survived?" "Oh yeah, I remembered that he was transferred to platform 899. Very unlikely if he survived."

"Quit the chatter, you four." Kralluf barked as he led his men carrying the 'tranquilized' zergling to the central hatch of the desert platform, a dune boat already prepared for the zergling to be strapped into. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to start a conversation with the other commander. He's a motormouth."

The four officers, Commander Kralluf, Jub, and a few other reinforcing soldiers Kralluf pointed at and gestured for them to come with, traveled down a descending elevator platform that made landfall onto the ground with a gentle 'thud'. Kralluf and company then marched and rode forward toward the towers of stone pillars, while they carefully guarded the dune-boat transport. As gentle winds picked up, the wind blew past the pillars and became terribly choppy. Jub strode next to Kralluf and looked around as though she was experiencing a new environment. "What is this place?" She asked aloud.

Kralluf didn't turn, but instead spoke his answer. "A pillar forest. Each and every rock formation you see here was naturally weathered by sand storms over several years. This place has a particular name too. 'Whisper Stones' is its most well known name, since the wind can blow into this rock forest and make it sound like someone is talking behind your back from a distance. Due to how high these pillars go up, it'd be difficult to pinpoint where you are in this area, even with a map and compass. A self-tracking device used with a digital satellite map would be necessary to have if you don't want to get lost. It keeps going on like this for more than a hundred kilometers before you enter a tropical zone. Hell, this stone forest is the main reason why it never rains in Red Desert. Only blood moistens those battle-torn sands in days past. This also happens to be where the remaining unaligned gilanians reside. Resistors to Gollog's rule, an abundant number of bandits, and hungry shryik serpents like to patrol between the pillars for an easy meal. It'd be best to stick close to us."

Jub nodded and gulped.

The ride within the dune boat was smooth for the zergling, but the officers next to the rolling machine had to jog to keep up. Twenty minutes seemed to pass before the group was able to see an unusual, massively large cube structure that was mainly copper in make, but had green accents and similarly colored banners. Some of these banners were draped over the entrance, and they parted when mechanical hands manipulated them away, revealing a tall, mechanical machine that was copper and green colored. Its face was green and showed an LED display of another face that was a gilanian. Kay couldn't tell if this other gilanian was albino, like Kragnon, Pallax or Gollog. It then began to spread its arms wide to its guests. "AS THE EMPEROR BREATHES! Kralluf! It is so good to see you again! How long has it been?! Three, four weeks? Oh it has been a good while, I think! We were bound to meet again anyway, since we only ever find ourselves in each other's company either during a holiday or when an important meeting requires our presence. In fact, last time we met, we had only shared exactly thirty seven sentences before we parted ways. Oh how I would LOVE to hear how your life has been! I'll start, and we can share from there. Yesterday, when I heard that there was a new organism discovered on our world-"

Kralluf jabbed at the automaton. "Enough of that, you idiot. I have an organism belonging to the bug-man of that zerg faction he said he belonged to. I'm going to leave that thing in your care. Do your science thing and let me do my work."

The machine, if it was possible, looked crestfallen. "Oh, very well. Where is this 'blade hound' you spoke of?" Kralluf snapped his fingers and his officers got to work lifting the caged and 'tranquilized' zergling off of the dune boat. After carefully setting the cage down onto the sand, the copper machine walked towards it and inspected it. "Ooh! So THIS is the 'blade hound' you captured. Despite having a very unimaginative name, I could see why it has a 'hound-like' appearance. Let me see..." The machine leaned down to look at the beast before him. "... Seems to be able to stand at a meter height, if I counted its pair of dorsal limbs on its back. Able to stand on its hind-legs, but looks like it evolved to travel on its fours. Seems to have a type of carapace as a natural armor of sorts, which suggests an insectoid origin. From the reports you have given me, it has incredibly sharp claws and fangs that can damage metal. There are not a lot of things that can tear through the wheel of a desert platform, yet this little guy could do it with the same destructive power of a low-powered laser-cutter. And from your recent message, you said that it can regrow lost limbs after losing them? Most curious! I want to see this regeneration for my own eyes. Now lie still as I..." Faddoh pointed his finger onto the carapace of the zergling, poking it slightly before pulling out the tranquilizer syringe in its eye. "... There we go. Now to install a tracker..."

Kralluf turned around and started leaving. "I'll leave it in your care, Faddoh. I got business to do elsewhere."

At that moment, the zergling instantly came to life and forced its cage open in a flurry of claws and fangs. This had startled the apparently named Faddoh, as he jerked back and stumbled backwards, falling onto the rear of his chassis. "GUWAH~!"

Kralluf turned around to see what was happening, but was unable to do anything since the zergling had already zipped away. Kralluf fumed. "MOTHER FUCKING GODS-DAMMIT! MEN, GET YOUR SAND-BOARDS AND GET THAT THING BACK! KILL IT IF YOU HAVE TO!" As Kralluf shouted this, his four officers went into the dune boat and got out their sand-boards. After getting onto their devices, they prepared to recapture the zergling that escaped.

The copper machine named Faddoh got up and laughed. "Hahahahaha, oh what temperament! I simply have to find out how that blade hound came to be on Kiln! Kralluf, if you don't mind terribly, could your man there spare that severed claw he took what I assume as his trophy? I simply must have it, since it is the only readily available sample from that blade hound." Faddoh said, pointing a coppery hand at one of Kralluf's officer, whom carried the holstered zergling limb like a weapon. Kalluf turned and nodded toward his officer, which prompted the officer to reluctantly give up his new trophy weapon to Faddoh. Faddoh gingerly grabbed at the makeshift weapon and looked it up and down before bowing. "Thank you so much for donating to science, my friend. Not a lot of people appreciate the hard work that goes into researching new innovations, or discovering the answers to secretly veiled mysteries. With this limb, I bet I will be able to find the elements that gave this creature the power to wreck your precious desert platforms! However, I would also appreciate it if you found more samples, preferably more live zerg organisms, for me to play with! It would be a once-in-a-lifetime moment that I would cherish forever! After all, there should never be a shortage of patients to practice your work on! Why, I remember a little lass who was no more than two years of age-"

Kralluf jabbed at the automaton again. "Enough out of you. MEN! CAPTURE THE BLADE HOUND!" Once his officers were kitted up, they zoomed forward and followed the tracks of the zergling. After his four of six top officers left, Kralluf turned around. "Faddoh, my four top men are in your care now. Once they retrieve your blade hound, have them return to me through a MEM device. Understand?"

Faddoh sighed, but his green LED face displayed a smile shortly after. "Of course. I'll let you know what I find. Should I send you a word document, or can I request a communication link?"

Kralluf sighed before walking back to his dune boat. "Word document is fine. As of now, I have a perimeter defense to maintain. Last time I checked, my long-range surveillance observation staff said that there was even more organisms appearing in the zerg territories."

Faddoh was about to say something else, but was cut off when Kralluf's dune boat started back up and began leaving the area.

Kay was able to listen into this conversation because of the ear and small brain that formed within the zergling's dismembered claw, transmitting the whole conversation to him. However, the attack-claw slowly deteriorated, and it finally became useless after the end of the conversation.

The zergling quickly ran forward with blinding speed, feeling the sweet taste of wind and freedom blowing past its wings and legs. The warm day would slowly become chilled as the desert night rolled over the horizon and eat away at the dusk. Twilight may wane, yet the zergling can adapt to both the day and the night. But Kay urged it to quickly find refuge, as it was told it had pursuers that would put it into a confining cage again. The zergling found it to be very boring in that cage, so the zergling quickened its movement. It also had another purpose: Find a secluded area for a nydus worm to take hold in.

A fur-less animal the size of a football wasn't paying attention when the zergling ran over to it, which snatched it up in its jaws. The zergling ate while it ran. Without creep to feed from, the zergling had to adapt on the run. After all, there were sand-boarding empire soldiers that were chasing after it! After some time searching through the immediate environment, the zergling discovered a cave, but it unfortunately didn't know whether or not it had an occupant. Taking a wild guess, the zergling went into the cave, made several false tracks, walked backwards to the mouth of the cave and burrowed there to hide in plain sight.

Kralluf's four top officers followed the sandy tracks the zergling made, and stopped at the front of the cave entrance. "Looks like our blade hound took a hiding spot." "I don't like it. There's too much traffic going into this cave." "Think a shryik serpent lives here?" "I don't think so. They either make lots of straight lines in the sand as they side-wind, or make a very curvy river-like depression on cooler grounds." "So the blade hound is in here?" "The jag must be. Let's separate into groups of two. I volunteer to go in." "I'm coming with. You guys okay with that?" "I'm good." "Fine with me." "Alright then, let's Split! Anything happens, radio it in." The officers said, splitting their group in half, two staying at the entrance, while the remaining two ventured into the cave.

A few minutes had passed, but they had not found hide or claw of the zergling they tried to seek within the cave. It was still safely burrowed at the front of the cave, and the two officers that decided to guard the only entrance was standing next to the burrowed zergling unawares. It was around this time that they had received a call from their radios. [Hello? Hello? Hello? I am calling for the officers that Kralluf left on my doorstep. Hello? Hello?] It was Commander Faddoh.

One of the officers fished a radio from his uniform. "This is first officer Lieutenant Thathal. Do you want our report?"

[Oh! Yes please! Have you found the 'blade hound' that escaped from that metal cage yet?]

Thathal nodded. "We managed to track the jag to a cave. We had sent two of our own to follow the tracks into the cave to get the creature."

[Oh dear oh dear, you really shouldn't be going into any caves in this area, my dear boy! What if a shryik serpent is inhabiting it?]

"We looked at the tracks in the sand, sir. There doesn't seem to be any indication that there is-"

There was a sudden outburst of screaming from within the cave, followed by the shrill hiss of a huge snake.

"... Oh boy." Thathal growled, dreading the possibility of having to face a shryik serpent.

[You should have been warned beforehand, first officer Thathal! Shryik serpents are known to dig under the sand whenever they feel threatened or get the chance to hunt defenseless prey, and they'll most certainly refrain from creating tracks that would lead any shryik trappers, or their natural predators, to their lair! Despite their rather large size and tenacity to hunt down prey for miles on end, they are actually very territorial creatures by nature. They would only ever leave their territory if they were pushed out of their home by a bigger shryik serpent, or if food and water became available to it. The pillar forest is a natural habitat for these creatures, and within this place, you are in THEIR territory. I would avoid caves as much as possible if I were you.]

Thathal sighed. "Yes sir, understood. I'll exercise more caution."

[There is no point to exercise more caution now, I'm afraid. Once you enter a cave that belongs to a shryik serpent, they'll track you down until you die of exhaustion! It's a good thing that you have bright your sand-boards with you, but I suggest breaking off from the search as soon as possible. The blade hound might fare better, but it's hard to get a body back from the stomach of such a terrible beast, and none are so terrible than those shryik serpents! But fear not. The bio-tracker implant I installed under the blade hound's carapace will let us track him in the future. Once it becomes daylight again, we can resume our attempt to re-capture our patient. It's not the first time I dealt with runaways, mind you. In fact, let me tell you a story! Once upon a time ago, a little lass who was no more that two years of age-]

Thathal turned off his radio and turned around. The other officer did the same as they left their position. Once they got onto their sand-boards and zoomed out of sight, the zergling emerged and trilled its successful escape from those gilanian officers. Kay, on the other hand, had only grown more worried. Thankfully, eavesdropping on the conversation revealed that these shryik serpents in particular were proficient in hunting exhausted prey. But the zerglings have evolved to never get tired, and the escaped zergling would put itself to the test.

The zergling instantly zipped away, whether or not it knew if the shryik serpent that belonged to that cave would follow the zergling. The zergling traveled deep into the stone pillar forest, eating whatever kind of biological matter it could to build up its size and strength. Eating desert grass or shriveled flowers, the odd root, or even the scrap remains of another animal helped fuel the zergling, and helped replace the biomass it lost from growing back its attack-claw.

And then the zergling found it. A secluded spot!

By the time the hexagonal moon showed its face once more, the pillars had revealed a wide area that had fewer rock pillars dominating the center of this clearing. The area was wide enough to support around four hatcheries, and perhaps a few spine and spore crawlers for defending the area. But one of those hatchery spots would have to be sacrificed with something more important. Like a nydus worm, for example.

After looking around for the perfect spot, the zergling relayed the information as best it could to Kay, and the zergling got its response. Since the nydus worm was coming from a far distance away, roughly seventy kilometers away from the edge of creep established territory, the nydus worm would not be arriving any time soon. But it will arrive in time.

Unlike most skirmish sized areas, which would normally take a nydus worm around fourteen seconds to breach the ground within a kilometer sized area, the distance between here and the nydus network at the hive cluster would take much longer. If Kay was right about his math skills, he figured that every kilometer that the nydus worm had to travel, it would increase it's arrival time by two and a half times. So... (14 seconds x 1.5 for every kilometer) x 80 kilometers = 46 minutes and 39 seconds, more or less? The sand of the desert might be easy to shift, but there was other burrowed monsters to worry about, hence the 'more or less' tacked onto the previous sentence. At least the corrosive creep that the nydus worm produces should deter shryik serpents from trying to take bites from its hide beneath the sands. Emphasis on 'should'.

Speaking of shryik serpents, one of such had entered into this clearing, tracking the disturbed sands that contained zergling footsteps. Its streamlined thorns and scales around its lip had a hint of red to them, which could only suggest that the beast had killed prey recently. Its eyes had poor vision, but the zergling's vision was phenomenally better than the serpent's. Once the shryik serpent slithered forward, its tongue dancing onto the sand, the zergling skittered off and maintained a safe distance from it, well away from its effective sight. These creatures seemed to be able to sense movement fairly well, but they also track their prey with scent with even greater efficiency.

For several minutes, almost twenty minutes in estimation, the zergling ran out of the serpent's range of sight, making sure to keep its path random, but stopped from turning too much when it looped around and risk the shryik serpent seeing it. When the zergling went over the tracks it had already created for the umpteenth time, roughly twenty times or so, the serpent suddenly stopped. It licked at the intersected paths and paused for several seconds. Kay already knew it before the serpent did: It was figuring out that it was being duped.

The serpent hissed madly and burrowed under the sands. This was bad. Kay knew that the shryik serpents had the ability to burrow and swim through sand, but the only zerg organisms that could do the same were roaches and infestors. The sand underneath the zergling became the enemy, and the zergling needed to find some way of defeating this terrestrial foe.

... The pillars seemed like a good idea to capitalize on.

The zergling instantly sprinted toward the fattest pillar possible and started hacking its claws into the sandstone, weathering it down artificially by a factor of several simultaneous years. It clawed and clawed on the rock for several seconds before sprinting away at another direction. Kay didn't want for the zergling to wait around for the shryik serpent to strike while it was busy. It sprinted toward a different pillar in the clearing that was the shortest, but also thinnest. The zergling's speed enabled it to reach the pillar in no time, and it took its time to try and cut the pillar down.

There was no sign of the shryik serpent, and that in itself was a danger to the zergling. Kay didn't know how fast the shryik serpents can travel through the sand, and he wasn't sure how durable the zerglings upgraded carapace mutation would compare to its attack. In fact, the beast could swallow and chew on the zergling at its leisure. If it could catch it that is.

The moment the zergling finished with cutting the pillar, the shryik serpent attacked. However, the shryik serpent was confused by the shards of rock that was cut from the pillar. They landed like footfalls, and it gained a mouth full of sandstone for its penance. As the shryik serpent gagged on stone while the short pillar fell and landed, the zergling took the opportunity to run onto the pillar, but then slowly fox-walked to the farthest end of the felled pillar.

Once the shryik serpent finished coughing up the cut rocks it caught with its mouth, the serpent hissed and went back to flicking its tongue, with more determination this time around. It tracked the scent of its prey and slithered up onto the fallen pillar to pursue the zergling's scent trail. It was an odd sort of tactic that the shryik serpent wasn't expecting. Since it could sense vibrations through the sand very easily, since it could track prey through that medium of ground. But solid rock was a different matter entirely. When an animal sits on top of an object, it blocks and disperses the subtle seismic vibrations in the sand. Still, the shryik serpent was hungry for more meat, and it sought it from the zergling it hunted.

Despite its ability to track prey using movement, vibrations through the sand, and tasting scent with its tongue, the zergling was able to get an advantage over the slithery enemy using sight and instinctual cues from the hivemind. Once the shryik serpent got close enough, the zergling launched forward at the right moment when the shryik serpent was sticking its tongue out. After a quick attack from its claws, its jaws latched onto the tongue in a quick motion and yanked it off, spraying the sand with a wet line of giant snake blood.

The shryik serpent shrilled a roar as it reared back and thrashed its head around in agony. That gave the zergling another window of opportunity to run toward the fatter pillar it was whittling on earlier. Several seconds later, the shryik serpent recovered and hissed loudly, like its anger was summoned forth similar to someone crushing a fat kid's doughnut box with a bare fist. Without its tongue to track its prey, the shryik serpent is left without too many other options to continue tracking the zergling. It instead burrowed itself into the sand once more.

The zergling worked hard on the fat pillar, chiseling bare stone little by little and making small progress over time. But after several seconds, the zergling zipped off again, this time with a maw belonging to a shryik serpent nearly catching the zergling as it erupted from underneath. The serpent was not rewarded, while the zergling's lucky streak continued as it ran for the smaller, fallen pillar. The shryik serpent, however, chased after the zergling in a maddened slithering sprint, mouth opened in agitation. The zergling got onto the pillar and used it to gain higher ground. The shryik serpent cared not for higher ground, simply wanting to exact its revenge on the zerg organism that intruded into its home, escaped its most natural method of ambushing its prey, and removed its tongue.

The zergling double-backed when it reached the end of the horizontal-ed pillar, using its claws to drift and turn quickly, and dodging a mouth that was adapted to ambushing prey in sudden, lightning-quick strikes. However, the shryik serpent tried to catch its prey in a sprinting charge, which only made its attempt to catch its prey clumsy and easily telegraphed. The shryik serpent narrowly missed the zergling, and caught its triangular rows of sharp teeth and fangs on the side of a pillar instead. After creating a quick slash onto the beast, the zergling then ran back to the fat pillar again.

The shryik serpent roared in pain. A section of its impaling tail was now missing, and it now craved for the vengeance that only a slain zergling could fill. The zergling chewed on its stolen prize as it continued to the fat pillar and continued where it left off. The shryik serpent was now hissing as though it was livid. However, it became wise to the zergling's tactics and proceeded forward cautiously. It curved its neck into an S shape once it came closer and closer to the wily zergling, making sure that if the zergling darts away again, the shryik serpent would easily pursue.

The pillar suddenly started to rumble, and the zergling changed its tactic. It raced forward to instantly attack the shryik serpent. The serpent was surprised by, yet another, change of the zergling's tactics. It reared its head back and rolled its head on the ground when a piercing pain emanated from its eye, and much of the right side of its face. The zergling risked attacking the shryik serpent in a rush tatic, and the reward was ironic since the zergling's current enemy now sported a missing eye.

The zergling was flung off of the serpent as it pulled jellied, red meat from the socket. The shryik serpent became so agitated, it breathed in and releasing an enraged roar at the beast that had somehow tricked it so many times by now. It followed after the zergling with reckless abandon as it cared only for the death of its tricky prey. The shryik serpent was now very sloppy, and the zergling ran circles around the supposedly apex predator of these lands. However, as it berserk-ed, trying to eat the zergling in a fit of livid intent, it didn't expect the fat pillar to fall down on its own head. Blood, brain-matter, and snot jettisoned out of its eye-socket in a geyser of blood and gore, creating a deep splash of pretty scarlet in the sand. The head may have been crushed and pinned, but the body past the skull was still wriggling madly, looking like electricity was filling the mindless corpse with an urgent purpose. However, the wiggling serpent body started to slow its thrashing. Its movement lazed until it made a few twitches before becoming as still as a deadened corpse.

The zergling approached the pillar-killed cadaver, made a roar of victory, and then began feasting on the body, starting from the stumped impaling-tail. And that was when the nydus worm was heard, as it began shifting the earth from under its entry point.

A/N: David = Zergling, and Goliath = Shryik serpent

Also, a review from a guest: 10k words.

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10k WORDS.

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Can I ask you something? Like, how the hell do you update THAT fast? Let alone write 10k words? I mean, bruh, you just like, updated a day ago!

I'm being serious right here! I can't even write a 1000 word chapter for a day! Do you have that much time!? No wait, you just updated a day ago. Skills? Good grammar? A mastered the art of typing? Pls, tell me your secrets, I need your help! I just wanna write something but I can't!

Answer: I just say my sentences out loud like a doof as I type. In fact, I would recommend proof-reading your own material and correcting any spelling errors that you might find, using a similar process. If it doesn't sound right coming out of your own mouth as you read the sentences you typed aloud, (silently aloud, if you happen to have people in your house) then something needs a revision until it starts sounding right in your view. So long as you know what to type as you storyboard what events you want in your own head, then you can't go wrong!