Chapter 7

Mighty Maw

Things that walk, things that talk and some other things that think they retain something akin to intelligence. Skittering, scattering, and sniveling. They were thought and thus were. It is not that one should despise them for it. It was not their intention, nor their will they arose from swamp and muck, or from under glimmering lights of all kinds.

Men or otherwise generally think me a foe. To them: why should I be? They have never done wrong unto me. Many call to me even now. Hitherto it can be said they and their ilk of many kind and kindred flock to clothe themselves in similar raiment as I did. Lambasted and decried surely by those who cannot nor do not wish to understand.

For I am no foe. I am a friend. The helping and ever aching hands stretch out even within the dark to caress needy, hungry, and tired souls. I but give, and they but take. I but manifest and they but choose to demean when they cannot themselves foster nor form what it is I retain alone within my mind. Fire burns against thought, for Flame is my thought. They think not of it. They harbor no design to create something marvelous from nothing. They pick and take and recreate. Worse still they imitate. Sub-create. Vile and thoughtless. Beneath me.

Enemy to them? Never.

But, it is loathing to be so hated. To be thought of by many without name for me, and with name for me all the same in the varied tongues. All think they know me. Not by their hands did I lose what I lost. Not by them did I fall as I have fallen. In fact through them, by them, and because of them – gained what I have gained. The First to wake bear little fruit. Not as they were. Not as the rack and toil and fire and gloom or doom made them. The Second writhe in fire like that of my mind. Needless is there for word on those that follow. For great and vast and far the Second are. Weak willed and arrogant as they are. Conniving, dim, lecherous, haughty, Prideful most of all. Through them I see now shall be the way.

Long may it take, but it shall come.

Thoughts carry one far. Flames in the mind. I heard, as it were, a great rumbling and rattling of the dark. It came at a point and at a time. For such notions are lost within my abode. Yet, rattle, quake and hum the walls did. Something outside scratched at that which was unseen and unknown. Unheard. Curious, I scratched back. Little holes can be made. Tiny tears only I can form. I peer through, I watch, and I listen when fancy takes me. This time, I saw that which was like a pillar of glimmering steel. A sword set about the vastness. It and smaller things like raindrops of colorful stars bored through a tunnel.

They did not interest me. I sought to recoil and leave them to be as they were. Of no consequence. Then, in the dark I heard a call. Calling not to me. Calling out in lamentation. In loneliness, and in need. I peered again, tired of the disturbance of my thoughts.

There it was as a field of darkened dead trees. The skies burned with flashes that swept over dwimmer-lands I cared not to know the foundation of and therein. There was, as it seemed to me, two trees. Trees. Achingly tiresome. Loathsome.

These two, candles they were not. They were great. One abounding with life, and one bearing fruit. Yet, in an instant the image changed. They were no longer trees. One was a pool of some manner of water, and the other a fountain. The meaning of these two images interwoven was a strange sight. It appeared as one then the other. Perhaps they were one and the same?

Allegory? A wonderful thing.

It matters not. For the image played varying sights further still. The waters and fountains, the trees fade. Then, they became as pillars, then to statues, back to trees, and then to fire. It meant nothing to me. The voice. I followed it. Weeping.

The morphing images returned to the dwimmer-land, and the weeping grew louder. The begging, nauseating. It wore upon me to waste away in what was the infinite of a moment. The daggers burned through the tunnel, and careened still.

I drew closer to the sound of lamentation. Until, at last, it paused. It, they, she as I perceived them, perceived then me.

"Who is there?" It called. Undulations, oddities. Unnatural. I felt no fear, for within the bounds of my abode nothing could yet assail me, but neither did it seem to me that this presence was of my quality.

"I felt you." She continued. "Please!" Begging. Familiar, and delectable after so long without. In fact it took a long moment to recognize the acquired taste of pleading.

I spoke not a word. I thought little of her cries. Then, I saw as it were, a tendril reach forth through the cloudy miasma that infected these lands beyond. The burning fire, the striking thunder and corruption parted as the appendage like and unlike an arm reached towards me. A new kind of plea.

"Please...What is your name?" The voice was itself interlaced with many. An amalgam. Odd.

Still, I spoke not. I said nothing. In fact I felt a smile creep upon me as the spider treads web with prey snatched in the silky twine.

Spiders. Wretched things.

Amused, I reached forth. Aching hands slid along the barrier. Tendril reached and found the wall. Sliding across it. Softness turned to rapid slippery caress. Confusion.

Yet, at the moment where both hands touched the shell, there was a great heaving. The pillars of metal, the swords broke through their tunnels and fell as fire onto unknown lands.

"Don't leave! Don't go!" The barrier began to close the tiny tear. Itself but a tear of vision and of hearing. The outermost layer could not be so absently and idly broken through. I mocked the thing's ire and horror with laughter.

"I must." Was all I said.

Then, the tear healed. All visions ceased, and all became as it was.

...

Some time passed.

New tears were made, and I peered through again in my boredom.

Then – I understood.

L's Note: Sorry for the long wait guys. Lord Exar Kun is busy with his actual writing gig these days. BUT, he did write this up as a little blurb to make you all go nuts with ideas, and questions and what have you. ;3

We will be returning to some of our known players next chapter. And, a certain land filled with...pipe weed. :D

Please be patient, and as always, thanks for reading and reviewing! As usual please either ignore or point out any grammatical errors I missed.

(Fanfiction is having some major notification hiccups. I hope you guys get emailed about this upload! My own email is broken on notifications, so I will be checking in every few hours. BUT, I digress! ;p)

-L

Edit Note: Edited/Updated 11/19/2023