Journeys – Part 2
Ahsael stared down at the object that had been placed in front of him. It was made of wood, something incongruous to most hive cities, and hollow on the inside. Filled with tiny chips of rockrete, it was intended to be shaken to create noise that was pleasing to most infants.
Selene stared down at him, waiting for him to pick it up. He was large enough that he could sit up, though staying that way was still a struggle for him, as his ridiculous body always seemed to be tilting one way or another, a far cry from the nigh-perfect balance he'd once had.
Impatient with his stubborn refusal to engage with the toy, Selene picked it up and shook it in front of him, the clatter of the stones inside the wood creating a swishing noise that Ahsael was annoyed by how pleasant it sounded to an infant's ears. This had to be some kind of mental manipulation.
He would not suffer this indignity, but there was no escape from this either, he knew. Actually, there were several, but they all involved suffering through even greater indignities.
"Look, Calba!" Selene said, shaking the toy again, waving it in front of his face. He slapped her hand away, or at least tried to. What he managed was lightly tapping her hand and the mortal girl beamed in delight as she misinterpreted the action as a desire for the toy. She pressed it into his tiny hand and he dropped it immediately, as his hands were so small and weak that he couldn't have wrapped his fingers fully around the handle even if he'd tried.
The toy dropped to the ground, striking Ahsael's tiny foot directly on the largest toe. Horror dawned in his mind as he realized what was about to happen. He tried to stop it, tried to tell himself that the pain was nothing compared to some of his wounds from the past, let alone having his soul ripped apart, but that did not matter to this body. His tiny lips parted… and he began to wail.
DARK GODS, WHY DOES IT HURT THIS BAD?!
Tears streamed down his round face even as Selene scooped him up, cooing and bouncing him up and down in her arms as her mother had shown her to do. Her hand patted his back and Ahsael wasn't sure if he hated the fact that he was crying more than the fact that her efforts were actually helping.
"Don't worry, Calba, its not that bad," Selene said and Ahsael tried to punch her, but all he managed to do was wrap his arms around her as though hugging her.
HOW IN THE WARP WOULD YOU KNOW, YOU SANCTIMONIOUS CORPSE-WORSHIPPER?!
Selene drew him back, giving him a look at her face again and horror dawned in his heart at the expression on her face, which was that of someone who had just come up with a brilliant idea.
"Wanna go uppies?" She asked and the horror only grew.
No, NO! DO NOT! DO NOT GO UPPIES!
"UPPIES!" Selene said and Ahsael had a horrible moment of weightlessness as she tossed him up into the air. In truth, he rose perhaps an inch out of her hands grasp before he fell back into it, as she lacked the strength of arm to actually throw him any great distance, but to his view he might as well have been tossed up to the ceiling. His cries of sadness were quickly replaced by either cries of panic or glee as he went up-and-down, over and over again.
Selene continued her attack against his pride a few more times, before eventually getting winded and holding him in her arms again as a break.
"Have fun?" She asked and giggles poured out of the infant's mouth in spite of the mind's burning rage. "Now, how about story time?"
Dark Gods, no.
Selene crossed over to one side of the hab block, setting Ahsael down in her lap and reaching over to a small pile of colorful flimsiplast books, though calling such thin things books was an insult in his view. She pushed aside several on the top of the pile, yet none of the books seemed to catch her eye.
There was the sound of some strange clacking and Ahsael turned towards the entrance of the hab block. The door swung open and he expected to see the woman who had claimed him as her adopted son, Cory, or perhaps another of the mortal family members come through.
Instead, he froze as a monster entered the hab block.
It was tall and lanky, almost skeletal. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, but it walked on all four over-sized limbs and with a hunch to its relatively tiny torso. The green skin over its body was stretched tight, like it might burst, and its head was little more than a trio of red stalks and a fifth limb, which was even thinner than the rest and ended in a grasping claw. Incongruos to the rest of its appearance was the small, narrow-brimmed hat atop what could, charitably, be called a head.
Ahsael did not move as the monster stalked closer. It was tall, far taller than a man, and had to stoop low in order to fit inside the hab block, though it took up little space. Its fifth limb reached into a pouch in the torso that he hadn't noticed before. Her heard the crumple of flimsiplast as it withdrew another of the tiny books, setting it down gently next to Seleen, who was still rummaging through the pile, seemingly unaware of the creature's presence.
Then, the monster departed, stalking slowly out the door, shutting it from outside with the soft creak of hinges. Right before it vanished out of sight, its claw had gone up and dipped the hat towards him in farewell.
What in the Dark Gods' name was that?
"Oh, hey, a new one!" Selene said, only now taking notice of the freshly deposited booklet. She picked it up, thrusting it in front of the face of a shaken Ahsael. "This looks good!"
He blinked, wondering if that had been a vision or some kind of psychic illusion or even just plain insanity. He turned his gaze to the booklet that had been brought and his eyes widened at the sight of the creatures on the cover. One was a white-furred dog with green eyes. The other was a crow with disturbingly blue eyes and feathers that curled in a way that almost made them seem like tendrils.
A very familiar crow.
Vra'kzil?
" 'The Dog and the Crow'," Selene said, reading the title before flipping open to the first page.
"A little hungry crow found a large building one day and a crack leading inside. 'Now, here's a good meal', the crow said to himself, thinking it a granary. He had to squeeze himself a good deal to get through the narrow opening. But the feed was tempting and the crow was determined."
The page depicted the crow, halfway through the crack of a large, wooden structure, the bird almost seeming serpent-like in the way it squeezed through. An ocean was depicted in the background of the picture, within which dark shapes could be seen below the surface. There was a human woman as well, resting against the structure, seemingly asleep. Selene turned the page and continued.
"Into the granary the crow went until at last it had gotten through. However, it found more than the feed it had sought to steal, but also the largest dog it had ever seen."
The picture on this page was of the crow, squawking in surprise at the sight of the white-furred dog, which was easily six times its size and standing in front of the pile of grain.
" 'Now, I see you are a good and large fellow,' the crow said. 'But surely there is plenty of feed for us both?'. The dog said nothing, but snatched up the crow and scoffed him down in an instant."
The final page of the booklet was that of a dog, resting on its haunches, a feather sticking out of its mouth. The text on this page was italicized, a message for the readers, though it was something different to Ahsael as Selene read it aloud.
"Do not bargain with that which sees you as a meal."