Outside Influences

After spending an interminable hour in the near darkness, they arrived at another pond. This one was in a damp cavern with treacherous footing. Stalagmites and stalactites thrust like teeth from parts of the floor and ceiling, obscuring their view around the room. All of the water ran downhill and collected in a pond that stretched out into the darkness beyond the light from their candles.

Well, it looks like a pond, Bel thought warily. She wasn’t convinced yet. And even if it is water this time, that just means that there could be other predators inside of it.

She examined the new water more carefully, searching the edges for signs of cave lobsters or any other aquatic threats. A few creatures zipped away from her, but they were so small that she doubted they had any essence in them at all. Still, signs of life probably meant that the water was actually water this time, and the little creatures probably meant that there wasn’t anything really dangerous hanging around.

Bel knelt down, carefully set her candle on the ground behind her, cupped her hands to scoop out the water, and drank. The smooth, cool liquid moved down her throat, finally dislodging the dust that had built up during their trek through the dry caves.

The water tasted like rocks, but she wasn’t going to complain.

James lowered Beth into a seated position, propping her back against a large stalagmite thrusting up from the floor. She’d been mostly sleepwalking for the past hour or so, but Bel didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. At least she had stopped producing more stimulants, which James was convinced were preventing her body from healing properly.

James put a bit of torn cloth behind her head as a pillow before standing, his joints popping as he stretched out the kinks in his body.

Bel joined him and nodded at the water. “It seems safe,” she whispered.

James sighed with relief and pulled out two of their empty gourds. “I’ll go fill these up then. Keep an eye on Beth.”

Bel waved her brother off and looked at her injured sister. She couldn’t hold back a heavy sigh. She wondered how James was managing. He acted calm, but like he said, he treated things like a game so he could cope with them. Beth had always been the one looking out for them before, and the sudden role reversal made Bel anxious. They were also in a completely unknown place – who knew what would happen next.

Bel knelt and held a candle to her sister’s sleeping face. Some of the color seemed to have returned to her skin, although a sickly sheen still seemed to cling to her. Bel sniffed and wrinkled her nose. Beth also smelled like she needed a bath.

She pushed she snakes away from her face with irritation as she looked back at the pond. Maybe once they were done drinking the water they could bathe.

Bel watched James he filled the gourds, wondering how frigid the water would feel, when her attention was grabbed by a ripple of motion underneath the water.

She got up, concern driving her forward. “James, get away from the water,” she commanded.

James didn’t stop to ask questions, immediately grabbing the gourd and moving away from the water’s edge. He was too slow.

A mouth emerged from the water and rushed towards him, the gaping maw large enough to engulf James down to his shoulders. He desperately push backwards with his legs but slipped on the slick stones, and instead of ending up inside of the mouth he fell underneath it, pinned to the ground by a creature that looked to Bel like a gigantic, stretched frog with a row of widely spaced spikes for teeth. As its mouth slammed shut Bel saw that two of the lower fangs protruded through the upper lip, giving it an ugly, fierce appearance.

James desperately pummeled at the side of the long frog’s head with his fists, to no effect. Bel ran to his rescue, her hands dropping to the short sword at her side. She fixed it with her glare, but her ability wasn’t enough to make the creature freeze. Her attack did succeed in momentarily distracting the long frog, allowing James to squirm out from under its heavy body. He immediately pulled his fighting stick from a loop at his belt and swung it into the beast’s moist exterior.

The stick bounced off of its thick skin with a dull thump.

In response, the creature ducked its head used its powerful neck muscles to ram James with one of its exposed tusks. Bel heard a metallic sound at the impact as James’ new armor absorbed the blow, but the force behind it tossed him through the air. Bel didn’t have time to check on him; she had to keep the amphibian busy. She rushed at its bulky body, her hand gripping her weapon as she prepared to attack.

Its eyes tracked her progress as she shot past its head, dodging an awkward snap of its mouth. She drew alongside its less dangerous flank and dug her fingers into the wet, slick skin of its shoulder. She manipulated her nails to be slightly more pointy and dug them into its pliable skin, grabbed a hold to redirect her momentum into a pivot that plunged her weapon into its exposed side.

The blade only sank in a finger length beneath the skin before slowing to a stop. Bel slapped her offhand against the frog’s side and attempted to force liquify into it so her weapon would fully penetrate, but she could feel heavy resist from the frog. Her sword was stuck: the creature’s thick skin had squeezed tight around the wound and resisted her in both directions. It was so difficult to cut that she wondered if it was some kind of defensive ability.

The monster’s head bent to the side as it awkwardly snapped at her, but Bel moved deeper into the water and closer to the creature’s midsection to avoid its face. She almost slipped, but used her grip on her weapon as an anchor to keep her feet under her, dragging it slowly through the skin and widening the shallow wound. Even if she couldn’t kill it in a single blow, she could at least wear it down.

For a moment she thought that she was out of its strike zone, but then beast abruptly rolled over. Bel only had a moment to realize what was happening before she was struck by the entire mass of the frog. The world tilted and then she was plunged into darkness as its mass pushed her under the water and pinned to the mucky bottom of the shallow pond.

Bel panicked, kicking for purchase in the mud. She frantically shoved and twisted her short sword as she went down. Even her snakes went wild, desperately biting into the slick surface of the amphibian’s skin. She pushed and heaved, desperate to remove some of the bulk from above her, but she had no leverage; she was pinned under the water and, even with her her improved lung capacity, her breath was running out.

A stream of precious air leaked from her lungs as she strained with all of her might, shoving her blade deeper and deeper into the heavy creature, hoping that pain would drive it off of her. She strained until spots appeared in her vision. She could feel her muscles growing weak as more seconds passed and a feeling of despair washed through her. She was doomed, fated to die under a giant frog, stranding her family on their own in a dangerous land.

The weight above her abruptly vanished, taking with it her thoughts of doom. Bel pulled herself upright and weakly kicked towards the surface. When she burst from the water she gasped in the sweet, beautiful air. She caught a glimpse of her brother and hoped that he could handle the beast for a few seconds while she recovered.

She coughed and spluttered as she turned as quickly as possible back to the beast. She’d left her short sword embedded in its side, but maybe she could reclaim it while her brother kept the long frog distracted. Currently he seemed to be wresting with the creature at the edge of the pond.

Bel kicked and pulled at the water, and within two strokes her hands touched the bottom. She ran out of the pond and made straight line to the creature’s side, intending to slam into it. Maybe it wouldn’t be so dangerous if she could flip it over.

James grabbed her before she could commit any more violence.

“Whoah, Bel, calm down. It’s dead. Like, super dead.” He gestured at its rolled up eyes and the darkened skin around numerous bite marks on its side, as well as the blood seeping from the gaping wound that she’d torn into it.

“Oh,” Bel said lamely. “I didn’t notice.”

“Were your snakes using those coagulation abilities? I didn’t know they could do that with them.”

“I didn’t either.” She was too embarrassed to admit that she’d been in such a panic that she hadn’t even noticed what her headsnakes had been doing.

James looked the long frong up and down. “Think you’ll get a level from it?”

“Oh. Maybe.”

Bel put a hand on the slick flesh and pulled at its core. Petals unfurled in her original core and another syncopated beat joined Dutcha’s path.

“Yup! Another threshold down,” she said cheerfully. “That should save, uh…”

Her snakes writhed as she attempted the math in her head. “…half an hour less to refill my core? I think.”

James frowned at her. “You know, we haven’t practiced math in a while. Now that we’re not in constant mortal peril, maybe we–”

“Oh, geez,” Bel exclaimed frantically, “look, we’re making so much noise that Beth’s waking up.”

Beth blinked at them and then blearily looked around. Her eyes settled on the dead frog for a few moment. “Hey,” Beth asked groggily, “is that thing dinner?”

Bel and James turned and considered the large amphibian.

“Well, it’s not bug,” James admitted.

Bel’s lips pulled back in disgust. “I’d prefer bug.”

“What in the hells are those?”

Bel’s snakes fanned out around her head at the alarm in her brother’s voice. She looked where he was pointing and saw that the corpse of the long frog was twitching and bulging like it was alive.

She stumbled back as she gripped her weapon in shock, her eyes widening.

She stared at the corpse as James brought a candle closer. No, it wasn’t moving. There were small lumps on it that were moving around, but the long frog was still dead. Breath puffed out of her lungs, a heavy knot in her gut uncoiling with relief. James told the worst stories about the undead. As far as she knew they were all just fantasy, the closest things being Technis’ creations.

James held up his candles to get a better look at the lumps. They were some kind of pale, disgusting crickets, each as long as Bel’s forearm, crawling on the dead creature. They were eating it, their mouthparts moving about in a way that made Bel’s skin crawl as they pulled the flesh from the long frog’s body. She was suddenly glad that her stomach was still empty.

“Gods, they’re disgusting,” she said.

“Says the girl who just shoved her hand into something’s head.” James waved his fighting stick around, not really aiming to kill the pests, but chasing them off of the corpse. “Let’s get outselves some more provisions from this thing before the scavengers pick it apart.”

Bel looked at the unappatizing lump of meat that she’d been given earlier. She’d left it on a rock when she’d gotten up to test her ability. “I wouldn’t mind letting them have it.”

“Don’t waste good food,” he chided her.

“Is it good though?” she challenged.

“It’s, you know, better than starving.”

Bel wrinkled her nose. “If you say so.”

James handed her a chunk of raw long frog. Bel looked at the unappatizing lump of meat with distate. Even her headsnakes retreated from it.

James rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on Bel. Frog legs are a delicacy. C’mon, this is like a fancy candelight dinner back on Earth.”

“Ugh. Is it even safe to eat?”

“I sterlized it with an ability.” He pointed at Beth. “Look, she’s eating it.”

Bel looked over to see that her sister was eating with without complaint. She actually seemed to be enjoying it, and was quickly finishing her own chunk. Bel sniffed at her own piece and took a small nibble.

“It’s chewy,” she complained. “And gross.”

“It’s fine.”

James took a bite and grimaced, but he forced out a smile after he managed to swallow. “Perfectly fine.”

Bel took another nibble and swallowed after another struggle.

“I’m not convinced,” she gagged.

James sighed dramatically and stepped towards Beth. “Do you want another?”

“Hmm?” Beth looked up, her eyes a bit glassy. She mumbled something and twitched like she’d been struck. “Sorry, forgot to keep myself stimulated.”

“Geez Beth, knock it off with those drugs,” James chastised. “You’ll burst your heart or something.”

Beth waved off his concern with a flick of her meat-stained hand. “Yeah, I want another. I’ll grab it.”

She hopped to her feet and dodged around James protests, striding confidently over to the long-frog’s corpse.

“Ugh, scavengers,” she complained.

Bel took advantage of James’ distraction to drop her half-finished chunk of meat, grab and candle, and go investigate whatever Beth had discovered.

When she joined her sister, she saw that the body had been swarmed by small, pale crickets, each as long as Bel’s forearm. They eating the corpse, their mouthparts moving about in a way that made Bel’s skin crawl as they pulled the flesh from the long frog’s body.

“Well, that’s it for meal time for me,” she declared.

“Spoiled,” Beth snorted. The assassin’s appetite was unsinkable: she swatted away a few of the insects, carved out another chunk of frog flesh, and took a large bite.

Beth looked her sister up and down. “Hey, you’re looking a lot better now. Maybe a nap and some food was all you needed.”

Beth turned to her and nodded wordlessly, her mouth still stuffed full of frog.

Bel’s wrinkled her nose. “Is the frog really that good?”

Beth tilted her head before swallowing. “Well, what else–oh, hey.”

She dropped the meat and grabbed one of her knives. A moment later she held a wriggling cricket at the end of her weapon. The swarm reacted with a little bit of agitated scuttling, but Beth disdainfully kicked away any of the other insects that approached. Once the signs of life vanished from the one that she’d skewered, Beth opened her mouth wide to bite into it.

Bel quickly turned away. She’d eaten giant bugs before, sure, but Beth was just going at it. In fact, even turned the other way she could hear loud mastication as the assassin crunched through her latest victim’s carapace. A gulping noise followed as Beth forced a large chunk of uncooked insect down her throat. Bel couldn’t suppress a shudder and nearly gagged.

James shared a look with her. “Yeah, I would kill for a pizza.”