(Hey all. It's gonna get weird...er. ;) )
I have felt pain from salt, sulfur, acid, water, grease, frost, and worse. I have felt burns from small fires and from focused flames. I have been burned in my body and in my soul more ways than I can count.
This. This is different. I can't even describe how, just that it feels like pure energy licking at my heels. An indefinite amount of tension with each tongue of fire. As if the potential for something is there, always almost there, hinting at things...but not quite ever happening. The pain from the fire is immense in what it has to offer, but is only small now. Where it touches it burns fiercely, but the touches are like caresses, they are brief and far apart.
I am alive however, some of the others are as well… many are not.
He had thirteen souls with him. Three and one third remained. Bobby, the piece of one he had a current contract with, the only other pure human soul...and myself.
"This ain't so bad." Good for you Bobby, I have a feeling the other contracted soul is feeling what I am, and the only reason we are both here, is because Crowley really wants us to be.
"I made an attempt to not destroy the human souls, as promised Robert Singer, but those who had already started to break, they are gone." Oh. Ok So I was right about that...What did that mean for me? "It means he likes you Chew Toy, or you still wish to live, or perhaps something else."
"How, how are you not insane right now?" Damien's voice echoes through the clearing. Crowley looks at Damien calmly as the hunter werewolf looks at the dragon sitting calmly in the clearing.
"I shall explain as soon as the king and his entourage are on their way. Are you satisfied, King of Hell? Shall we destroy a tarasque tonight?" Crowley doesn't respond, he just vanishes.
He reappears where we last saw the tarrasque. There are more broken trees, and a few rocks are missing.
"Ah, he has begun eating rocks to aid digestion."
"That aint a rock, that's a goddamn boulder."
Crowley looks around at the mangled trees and begins following the path they have lie broken and twisted like old bones of the earth. He walks between them as if they are not giants who have been laid low by something big enough to be a town. There is silence for a bit as each of us muse upon the recent happenings, Crowley privy to almost everyone's thoughts. The one who still keeps their own mind private is the one who breaks the quiet in the sea of souls.
"So, King of Hell. I see you found my old rules, that I signed with my sigil?" Crowley tenses as Dragoness takes in all he has done since she last saw him, just like he did Bobby. I was trying not to pry. Trying to keep myself to myself as well.
It's the one thing Crowley did not like about this. She could read him easily, whether or not he wanted it, and he is, as of yet, unable to read her. We can all feel a brief hint of dissatisfaction before his emotions are once again hidden from us, but that second is enough.
"One day King of Hell, one day. For now, let us converse on other things. So, what do you think of my rules?"
"They were most definitely not made by a demon. They are all contrary to making deals."
"Yes, that is their point. What challenge would it be if you could make a deal with an unaware soul?"
"Either way, what I don't understand is why you would put the power to affect every single contract in a piece of paper."
"Because it does not. That is a record of my decision."
"What? The Hell you tryin to say? If you die then those rules are gone?"
"No Robert Singer. That decision was one I made, with all my being, and so it is written on my soul."
"What, so you can just change the fabric of reality when you want?"
"No, but I can add to it until there is no more room for words. And when that happens, I become law. I will fade into the fabric of reality with my choices and return from whence I came. He did not create dragon souls as he did yours, he took the magic that he put into reality, and gave it the spark of life. That is the only way a dragon can die, and it is why I do not worry about the King of Hell having my soul."
Everyone else is silent, but as it is wont to my mind immediately begins pondering things. By what she just said, cosmic power aside, her son could decide to have a new physical body and he would, or decide to look like a human, and he would.
"Yes...and no. A body is a body. He could make a new one with magic if he so wished, but he could not decide to have his old one back. That one is gone. Eaten. We cannot turn back time or undo other's decisions, we can only add our own. If something is, we cannot change it, we can only make new things. There is little room left for such decisions now."
"So, what decisions have you made?" A chuckle echoes in the infinitely confining space that is our current home.
"That is the most personal question you can ask a dragon King of Hell. Since we are friends and allies I shall tell you that in my life I have made 7 decisions. One was the deal with you. That I should allow my soul to be held by another in such a way that they could use it to increase their potency."
How many do you get? That seems an awful lot of power.
"It depends on the enormity of the decision Chew Toy, and how much it impacts the world. One dragon, my father, decided that he wanted flowers that bloomed in the snow. It was a small decision compared to my mother and brother. She decided humans should be able to wield magic. My brother, he decided that the world should have symbols that are absolute in their effect on certain things, such as demon traps. Both, no longer exist. They gave their lives for their additions to the world, such was their conviction that they would make it a more interesting place."
There is silence. All I can think is that God wanted to collaborate.
"Once you create, and then your creations create, what is the next step but to create together? He did not give this gift lightly and the rules that come with it are great. Our biggest rule, one that cannot be broken, is that no decision can disrupt what already is. Taking things away or changing them, often does that, but adding things that can be discovered slowly, it is a beautiful thing to watch. A complicated rule, and hard to explain. Of course he always retains the right to undo any decisions we make, although he has yet to do so. He gave us the smallest nib of his pen, and we treasure it and use it with care."
And Crowley fucking has that in his gut. Woo.
Crowley walks in silence absorbing this information, and our opinions on it. If dragons were just like normal beings, could have children, would the children be able to do this?
"Dragons may have children in one way, by deciding to. It is a big decision, to create life, and it was one of my seven. Most dragons do so together, to lessen the cost. My parents wanted two children however, thus rendering that little trick obsolete. My mother made three decisions in her life, and my brother and I were one."
Ok wow. I mean, I always thought having a kid was a big decision, but that was a new perspective. After all… this was enormous power for any one being to wield. It was too much...but she was right. There isn't much room to add things anymore.
"Why do you think we left? We wrote a few lines, and now we watch their result. I wish to watch for as long as I can, so I will make no more big decisions. For that scale, we get but three, and I have made two. One was to impart some of my ability to demons on the condition they make a deal. That was the caveat, immense power...but only if. It was amusing to give something like that to things that will try to use it only to their advantage. What a delicious thing to watch."
Ooooooh boy.
"That's a shit thing to do."
"No Robert Singer, that was an interesting thing to do. After all, you regained the use of your legs, and then forced the demon out of the contract. That was fun to watch."
Crowley tenses; that was one of his failures, it was a risk in part of the game he played. He had said to Bobby's face that he wouldn't have it any other way than Bobby trying to stop him. That Dragoness had seen it...
I am thinking of other things though. By this new piece of information, one of her decisions was to allow demons to make deals, one was her son, and one was her deal with Crowley. So that left four that we had no fucking clue what she did…. Unless one was to put the rules on the deals, in which case there were three left… Oh boy. This is like sitting next to a minor deity, and it is painful.
"Chew Toy, humans have created more things than dragons have dreamed of. You created music, delicious foods, dance, art, and those are the good things. After all a human invented murder. Killing for something other than a base need or war."
The sound of leaves in wind fills the air as we all contemplate Dragoness's ready reverence for the human race. Crowley walks through the graveyard of toppled trees that show the path his quarry had taken. He is keeping his thoughts to himself. The rest of us are overwhelmed by this information this dragon has shared. The amount of power, the fact that there is a co-writer of reality here? It makes my ME hurt.
Bobby is silent. Trying to decide if he should be angry. It sounded like half the decisions made were done eons ago. It also sounded like they couldn't really affect 'current events' on a big scale. Could they decide to make a demon killing gun? Probably not, since it wasn't new… Still...How much had they changed things? How...how many dragons were there? These thoughts swirl between all of us until...
"Since our creation there have been 42 of us. Today there are 12. Four of those decided to give up half their power to become fae, thinking smaller magics would make the world more interesting."
Right the fae lands. I had a question about that...if I can just remember...Right Right. How are all monsters here? Even the ones from the fae lands?
"Chew Toy, that land and the earth used to be one. The moment you monkeys discovered and started using iron with frequency? The courts banded together and made a home elsewhere. Similar, but alien, and without iron. I wandered there for a century or two, but while the fae create beautiful things, they only create beautiful things. Even their darkness had elegance. It grew tiresome. Humans stumble and create as many good things as bad, it is far more interesting to watch. The dragons that became fae did not think through their decision well enough. That is a very big danger. Five of us have died because of such things. We may be powerful, but we are not infallible."
"And what did they decide?"
"I shall not tell of their failures. They are theirs and not mine to tell. Besides King of Hell, can you not hear the loud snores?"
"I can, but your exposition was far more interesting."
"More so than the souls I can sense?" At this there is silence except for the sound of his footsteps. Everyone can feel Crowley's interest however, it is too big to contain.
"How many?"
"That is for you to discover."
"Oh no, that is for Chew Toy to discover." Aw fuck.
I am pushed out onto the ground, a soul with no physical body forming around me yet. It takes a bit for something that doesn't belong here to make a body. It's a Weird fucking experience. You start intangible as an orb, then a soul that looks Like a body, and within seconds you have a slight shell that can just let you touch things. Then it just... Slowly becomes more solid...but I believe the tarrasque doesn't really care.
We crest a hill and below...is an eye. It's closed. It's bigger than a house. It's on a head bigger than a tacky Hollywood mansion. We are nearly blown back by the exhale of air as it snores and as I try to regain my balance I'm just…pushed forward.
As I fall down and twist in the air, past the crater edge, I can see his amused smile.
"Fuck you Crowley!"
"After this...only if you shower."
I land with a slight thud below its eye and the snores stop. I freeze. I am just a bit bigger than a crumb. If I don't move, perhaps it won't notice me. It inhales once and stops. Its eye opens, slowly, then its mouth. It inhales, and yawns. Ok, yawn is fine.
Then it licks its lips.
It is fucking disgusting. The tongue is thankfully just a tongue, not spined or ridged or whatever. It's still grossly slimy. However when I get past that I am not swallowed, I just fall and slide. It's that fucking big.
I land in a tangle of limbs, ones not my own. The tarrasque had been busy. However, that is not what is interesting. What is interesting is the myriad of glowing souls staring at me. I can't count them. Some are fresh, some are old, and some are so faded I think they have forgotten what they are. A few are barely wisps of memory. The ones that can, stare at me with hollow eyes and then begin to slowly move. Some just move back and forth, some seem to wander… and some come toward me. Those are the ones that I do Not fucking like. I start to back away, into sticky flesh that I have a feeling is acid covered and I am super thankful I don't have a full body.
"Annnny fucking time now. Crowley. Crowley!" The one closest to me is a vampire, still tangible, prevented from fleeing or reforming by whatever the hell the tarrasque's stomach is. Either way, it's not happy. It's teeth are as sharp as it's nails as they both slice into me. It hurts, but more importantly the little bit of false blood this world had started forming for me in my brief state of physicality...hits the living floor beneath me. And the floor Writhes. Limbs twitch and eyes open. I trip and fall on a back of something, and as I turn to stand I watch as the soul of the vampire, busy licking its claws, is Pulled into the melting bodies beneath it. Arms reach up and grab at it, mouths attach at hundreds of points, and it is buried in living flesh. A hand reaches for my ankle, another for my wrist that is slowly leaking red, and I gasp as the hand made of bone touches my fading skin.
I pull myself up by something, a tree branch attached to a rock, and run, tripping over and falling into bodies. Some are half melted, some are whole, some are bones. They move in a wave, the drops of my blood and fall of my feet awakening the very ground the arms reach out after me. Each step is a nightmare. A hand with claws grabs my ankle and I pull away, trip and land on something squishy. The warmness is not at all comforting, and the stabbing pain is more understandable right now. Somehow I Know that someone elses broken rib is pushing into my arm. I feel the warmth beneath my hand move and a lung inflate. The head above the torso my hand is currently in looks up at me, eyeless and broken, mouth open and speaking words that I don't stay to listen to. I scream and pull away, turning from the mass of living flesh and horror. I run,
I slam into a tree, salvation, and start to climb, but naked flesh behind me rises up at my presence. The bodies are melted together, moving in lurches as they all try to act like the individual beings they once were. I don't have time, I run. I run in darkness. I cannot see the floor, there is no light except for the glowing souls. I am starting to glow slightly myself, my form losing its tangible state. That will be better than this. I don't know how long I've been running and dodging physical and incorporeal hands. Thankfully you don't tire here. Not physically. Mentally and emotionally though…
"Crowley! Crowley! Your chew toy is getting fucking ruined!"
I look at the white dots in the distance, glowing and floating. I have no where to run to so I make one my goal. It floats, and as I get closer I realize it is a group of souls, not one. They huddle together on a rock, a Rock! I scramble towards it, towards solid ground in a sea of acid and flesh. The rock looms, ever closer, but the chattering and squelching and cracking of bones behind me is closer. I won't make it in time. The figures on the rock watch me, unmoved and staring at something they probably went through ages ago. I don't want to go through this, even if it's only for an hour. I don't know what these, this, flesh behind me wants
"Crowley! Fucking get me the fucking Hell out of this fuc-" I am standing about forty feet away running on solid ground in daylight. "-king place!" I skid to a stop and put my hands on my knees.
"Nice trip?"
"NO! Gross. Looking at me, touching, Wet. So so so gross and so-" He doesn't wait, he just snaps again and cleans me off, and then once more to send me back into the red prison. It's still gross. Still feel gross. I don't even have a body and it feels gross. Crowley ignores me and the things I'm feeling and takes a look at how many souls I saw. It was a lot. Like-
"Another 40,000." Ok that might be a bit much. But, yeah, a lot. Let's go kill it so it can't do that to anything ever. Not existing would be preferable to what I saw. Covered in goop. Watching your body be digested as you float. Slowly forgetting yourself. Maybe they'd heal over time, but that did not look fun. Let's kill a fucking tarasque.
"I couldn't agree more Chew Toy, let's play some scales."
"And how are you gonna do that princess? It's bigger'n your ego."
"Robert, nothing is bigger than that, but…" Crowley and Co. are suddenly standing above the tarrasque again. He snaps, nothing happens. Direct magic resistance confirmed. Whether demon powers counted strictly as magic….ehhhh, a dragon did though. I just thank God that the contract still worked to pull me out. Either way the tarrasque isn't having any of Crowley's attempts to affect it. Crowley looks down at the still snoring form and withdraws his daggers. "It's not about the size, it's how you use it." He jumps down and lands on the face above the eye. It flutters open and Crowley immediately teleports into the middle and slams the angel blade down. His arm plunges halfway into the iris and the resulting screech of pain is very satisfying. The head thrashes and throws Crowley off, or it would, if Crowley were still there.
He's standing about 30 feet away, waiting for the beast to stand.
"Idjit! Run!"
"...Nah." It takes a full 20 seconds for the thing to stand, but when it does it screeches and looks around for the ant that blinded it.
"Hello darling." The tarrasque looks down at the speck that is Crowley. It bellows and charges. Crowley waits, and waits, until the tarrasque's head is lowered right into the edge of the crater it made to rest, and then he's gone. God this is so much simpler when you can teleport at will. There was still the matter of actually doing damage to it though.
On the back of the beast Crowley looks for an opening as it shakes its head trying to clear it. The layered plates of armor on its neck shift back and forth, revealing the soft flesh beneath every so often. It's a timing game, except there isn't a pattern. Crowley doesn't seem perturbed, he just waits, and waits, and strikes.
The blade sinks deep, Crowley's own strength compounded by a dragon's. With the size of the tarrasque it isn't much, but it leaves a wound, an opening, which can immediately be stabbed at again. And it is. And again And again And again. The tarrasque screams as its flesh is ripped as slowly bones become visible.
"There you are." Crowley raises a hand and...Snap.
And snap.
There is a scream and Crowley teleports Far away as the behemoth falls. The crash is as loud as the monster is big and a few trees are blown down by the air displaced from the impact. Then the low moans and growls of a dying beast fill the air.
We watch as flounders, trying to move despite its broken spine. Light starts to seep from its mouth as souls that were trapped flow out.
"The exodus begins."
"Yeah, a freaking short exodus."
"Very. Keep it warm for me girls." He steps forward and flies. His smoke is peppered with light and he fills the sky with red.
"Holy smoke." Unholy Robert, unholy.
The red smoke flies to the mouth in a cloud over 15 feet long. The cavernous maw of this heaving dying mound of flesh fills with it. It covers the escaping souls and vanishes into the mouth, taking them with it.
We wait, he gave no one control of his body and we are trapped in the flesh. Dragoness could probably move it but is content to watch out of tired eyes. Fifteen minutes go by and the tarrasque's breath slows, and slows.
Red smoke seeps out of its mouth, I know what will happen next, and I do not want to be here for it. I have no choice though, so I brace myself for the wave of energy that will burn like a thousand suns...before vanishing far too quickly for comfort with the combined effort of the King of Hell and a dragon's soul.
And that is indeed what happens, that is what happens over and over for an hour. The fire of the soul next to me and Robert burns and singes us as Crowley uses it to whittle away at his prize.
He was not wrong. I could not help but count. Over 35,000 souls had been trapped by that monster. For a brief shining moment they are free...and then they are gone. Which is better than what they were going through. It is better because I tell myself it is better, because I would most certainly prefer non existence to that black nothing filled with rotting flesh.
Now more than ever I hate myself, I can't not. I might prefer death to that existence, but some may disagree. And I chose for them.
"Do not Chew Toy. It is but a story, and their stories are only changing."
"Fuck you dragon, you ain't one a' the ones dyin."
"True, but perhaps I will go through what they are one day, fade into the fabric of reality. That is all they are doing, fading into the fabric of a new reality."
"Yeah, a hungry one." I sigh as I take in the conversation, waiting for Crowley to return. He is looking for the tarrasque soul, not wanting to do this again. He wants to prevent this monster from eating the mere 10,000 he wants to leave here. It takes a few minutes, but he finds it, one last soul, the same as the others, being brought back to die.
It fizzles slower than many of the ones that went before it, it had always been a monster after all. I had seen a few non-human shapes while I was in the dark messy hell, but they were faded, from long ago; and I paid them no mind in my flight from the newer more menacing souls. Still, next to a dragon that specifically wrote on its soul that this was now something it could do...they were nothing.
...Was that one of the decisions she had made? The deal with Bobby? That she could do this to all souls but complete human ones?
I feel a rumble beside me, and a confirmation from Bobby, you can't really keep secrets here. Crowley doesn't even ask why, we all know the answer the Dragoness will give.
Because it was an interesting addition to the story.
We arrive back at the camp to see Lily sliding down Dragoness's tail, and Damien talking to Dan and Bernard while the rest of the pack sits and listens.
"I just don't understand how you can play with a child one minute, and destroy thousands of souls the next."
"Why? They are not mutually exclusive."
They aren't, and that is what's most fascinating and disturbing about the world.
So I sigh, and settle in for a Hell of a ride.
