THE LAST MIDGARDIAN


Scourge


It was not long after the xenological examinations of the humanoid samples in the museum that three-dimensional models of each species appeared in front of their cages. With a few presses of buttons, the curious museum patrons could discover complete anatomical projections of every major organ system of each exhibit. Skin, muscles, and bones could all melt away to show what lay beneath, all for the educational delight of the ravenous onlookers.

Jane would have found it fascinating - the sheer amount of data and the complex technology required to create such life-like projections was staggering - if it were not so very publicly displayed. Instead, she watched in morbid horror as throngs of guests sifted through full-color scaled facsimiles of her entire digestive system, followed by a complete rendering of her neural pathways. From the way her heart pumped blood through her veins to the very double helix of her DNA to a full color display of her reproductive system, it was all there for the eyes of all. Her humanoid neighbors around her were similarly exposed and she could not hide the sting of embarrassment that flushed her cheeks each time she had to face them after seeing their innermost processes revealed for all to see and gawk at.

It bothered some exhibits more than others. Leo, a woman covered in orange fur and a long, red mane along her spine from her head to toes, seemed nonplussed by it all. She even posed more dramatically, all her sharp, predatory teeth displayed in an expression somewhere between a grimace and a grin. Her audience each time responded by stepping back in a gasp and then cheering and growling back at her (or as much as a mimicry of a growl as their biology permitted). Leo reveled in the attention and called as much to herself as she could manage, posing for pictures and willingly displaying whatever anatomical feature her onlookers wished to investigate further.

Sagittarius, like Jane, despised the attention. He shrank inward and became even more aloof than he had been before. He did not try to draw ice paintings or notice her half-hearted attempts to communicate with him. Instead, he kept his red eyes closed as much as possible and only roused himself when something out of the ordinary occurred.

Life the in museum, while terribly mundane, was still frittered with events completely and totally out of the ordinary that shattered the mundane into shards of adrenaline. Sagittarius could not remain cut off from the outside world for long and he was forced to open his eyes, whether he wished it or not.

One row behind Jane was a humanoid creature she called "Lacerta." Jane could not tell if Lacerta was male or female or how much consciousness the creature possessed or if the sheen on its skin was perspiration or condensation or mucus. Lacerta was about as tall as Jane's waist, but twice as thick. Four limbs protruded as one would expect arms and legs to, but they were all of equal length and ending in webbed, hand-like digits. The entire creature was pale pink and lacked any sort of eyes or ears but instead had a set of coral-colored frilled gills around its neck and one narrow slit for what Jane assumed to be a nose. Overall, it reminded her of a very stubby, tail-less, bipedal salamander.

Lacerta was kept in a steaming cage with very dim lights and a three-inch-deep puddle of water on the floor. It ate with mouths in the center of each of its webbed appendages. Every time the lights came on full strength in the great hall, the creature began to twirl in a circle and flap its gills in such a way that it produced a rhythmic clicking sound. It fell motionless again once the lights dimmed. Every few weeks, the creature felt compelled to hop four times and splash water all over its cage before once again falling back into stillness.

Most of the time, each exhibit paid very little attention to their neighbors. In their tranquilized stupors, very little could rouse them to care about much other than meals or absolute novelty. However, the day Lacerta shrieked with enough volume to shake the sides of every cage in the hall, all heads and horns and eyes and faces and antennae swung towards the eyeless creature.

Sagittaurius' previously closed red eyes flew open and it did not take long before he not only paid attention but leapt to his feet and began to pound on the sides of his cage with enough strength to rattle the glass. He was not the only one. The three cages surrounding Lacerta also began to hoot and holler and pound in a cacophony louder and more terrible than any Jane had ever heard. An alarm sounded and grew in volume until it reverberated off the metal walls and tall, latticed pipework of the ceiling.

At first Jane could not discern what the commotion was about. She saw Lacerta's webbed fingers flailing and Leo began to climb the corners of her cage like a cat, but she could not see what they were upset by.

Then she saw it.

Bright green flashes of something moved through the air and descended both on cages and within cages, causing all chaos to descend wherever they touched. Jane recognized the green as the giant winged centipedes that now inhabited Ursa Minor's cage. They had somehow escaped and were now invading the cages of other creatures.

Jane's own panic grew as she watched the insects shift their molecular density to slip through the very glass of their cage without so much as a pause or a crack in the glass. Dozens of the insects, some as large as Jane's forearm, were alighting on the cages nearest to them and the glass of those cages proved just as ineffectual a barrier as their own had been. While the glass did not keep the insects out, it did a very effective job at keeping occupants trapped within, easy prey to the centipedes' powerful mandibles.

Lacerta's cage, located the closest to the now emptied centipede cage, was the first target for the predatory attack. Jane watched as Lacerta's soft, pink flesh was easily sliced into manageable pieces by three of the centipedes. Lacerta's eyeless face shrieked helplessly as its arms failed to tear the insects away. In a matter of minutes, Lacerta's limbs were entirely dismembered and its remaining head and torso wiggled in the water on the floor of its cage. Lacerta's head was soon buried in the many legs and wings of its still-hungry killers and Jane turned away before she could see the end.

Leo, instead of cowering away from the centipedes, used the corner of her cage to propel her on top of them. One after another, she gleefully devoured them with her sharp teeth until their neon wings littered the floor of her cage.

Four different centipedes breached the walls of Sagittarius' cage, but they fared little better than in Leo's cage. Each invader was quickly encased in a clear prison of ice. Before they could shift their forms and escape, Sagittarius sent thin pins of ice through each of their abdomens. They then were speared in place like all the preserved insects hanging on the display wall of the museum.

When the last centipede was vanquished, Sagittarius' eyes grew wide and he thrust his palms against the glass again, but this time he frantically motioned at Jane. She turned in time to see two of the centipedes land on the top of her cage, right over her head, and begin to enter.

She screamed. With her fists, she tried to scare them away by beating against the glass as loudly as she could, but they were not dissuaded by her efforts. The head of one centipede had just passed through the barrier and its mandibles were already snapping near her head when the creature suddenly let out a loud hiss, seized, and collapsed motionless onto the floor of her cage by her feet. She jumped to get away from it and bruised her head against the side of her cage in the suddenness of her movement, but the insect did not attack.

Outside her cage stood one of the Keepers, face unsmiling, clinging to a weapon in her hand which she brought to the head of the next insect seeking entrance. When she finished stunning it, she moved on to the next. The Keeper, now joined by dozens of others, ran from cage to cage, zapping the centipedes with a blue burst of energy from her long gun. Cage after cage, the centipedes hissed as if they were a fire suddenly doused with water and they fell to the floor in tangled heaps of sizzling, segmented limbs and wings. Within a matter of minutes, each centipede lay dead and the screams from each cage devolved into a chorus of soft whimpers and cries.

Various shades of bodily fluids marred displays and poured from freshly punctured holes in the bodies of hapless victims around the hall. Many creatures, while in pain, were salvageable and would recover from their injuries. Perseus, the pig-nosed reptile, had lost the better half of a foot, but was otherwise unharmed. Others, like Lacerta, were beyond repair and signaled the final extinction of their species.

The Owner's long strides as he entered the hall after the chaos was quelled lacked their typically unhurried ease. His jowled cheeks dripped into a furious glower as he took in the state of disarray marring his beloved collection. He paused in front of each cage, his frown deepening to something akin to a thunderclap. The throngs of Keepers scattered away from him as quickly as they could as he began shouting and cursing and throwing dead centipedes in their directions.

Before the clean up was complete, three Keepers had been locked in cages along with the half-eaten corpses of their previous inhabitants and another Keeper lay dismembered on the floor, the recipient of the greatest outpouring of the Owner's ire. The remaining Keepers flitted about on their light little feet as quickly as they could to shovel up the dead, right damaged exhibits, and tend to the many injuries of those who still lived.

Jane struggled to calm her heart as it threatened to jump out of her throat in the aftermath of the shattered monotony. She cowered as far away as she could physically muster from the centipede still on the floor of her cage. Despite its obvious death, it was still too close for her to feel at ease. She feared to move lest the creature resurrect and come to free her of some of her less than necessary limbs.

She felt, rather than saw, the concerned gaze of her neighbor. Sagittarius cocked his head to one side and motioned towards her with one arm. He nodded and repeated the motion. Not understanding him, she failed to respond until she saw him point at one of his frozen centipedes, mime eating his arm, and point to her again.

Are you hurt? She interpreted from his motions.

She shook her head and showed him her arms with a forced half-smile. She pointed at the dead attacker on the floor of her cage, stuck out her tongue in disgust, and then shook her head again.

He attempted a smile, or as much of a smile as he could muster with his bound lips, and sent another sheen of ice over the edge of his cage. With one sharp fingernail, he drew a happy face in the ice and below, very carefully, he mimicked her previous writing and scrawled out, "Jane".

She nodded vigorously and pointed at herself. With her lips, she spoke her name out loud, hoping that even if he couldn't fully hear the sound, he would catch her meaning.

He released another covering of ice. With one finger he pointed at himself and then he wrote some characters into the ice. She could only assume he wrote down his name.

Unfortunately, she didn't know how to read it.