[Working Title] - Chapter 1, Part 1 of 3

(This is part of a short novel I sometimes work on when I can't sleep. I have no intentions of trying to get published nor do I have delusions of being a great writer. I just write to entertain myself. Hopefully at least one of you will be entertained as well.)

Chapter 1

part 1 of 3

“That can’t be human,” Jaiden whispered.

“I ate one just like it yesterday,” Nyxia whispered back.

Jaiden’s eyes grew in disgust.

“It didn’t taste human. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Jaiden’s eyes widened further. “You ate the whole thing?”

Nyxia burped nauseously, “I shouldn’t have...”

***

“Where are they?!” Chaz’s thick hands wound around his wife’s neck.

“I gave them to you...” his wife stammered, “... you said they couldn’t have been yours... you threw them out...”

Chaz’s violet eyes stuttered and searched the empty room. He hissed, “I would have remembered.”

“I didn’t... you...”

“I would have remembered!” Rusty bile pooled in the corners of Chaz’s mouth. He tightened his grip and lifted the woman off of the floor. “Where have you hidden them?”

Hanging in Chaz’s anger, the woman’s gaunt body shuttered limply in supplication to be released.

“Don’t be a martyr, Maurette. I know you’ve always been against Tshawings.” Chaz’s eyes narrowed into angry slits. “I want my sons.”

***

Nyxia looked ill. She groaned, “I don’t think these were bred to be eaten, whatever they are.”

Worriedly, Jaiden raised the small mass closer to the pale-amber lights of the cavern. Cysts covered the creature’s mildly grotesque figure. Most of the sores spluttered dark-greening blue pulses; two sparkled dully with a golden sheen... and blinked.

Nyxia pressed her fevered body to the cavern’s cool rock wall. Sweat bubbled from her quivering pores.

“I think it’s cooing.” Jaiden seemed oblivious to Nyxia’s plight. He stroked what he assumed to be the creature’s cheek. One of the cysts erupted, spewing its dim bluish pus into Jaiden’s haggard face.

In reflex Jaiden dropped the now writhing blob. It started to hum as it splattered on the ground; the rest of its cysts bursted in unison as the hum grew louder. Tiny pebbles avalanched from the ceiling as the buzz shook the cavern. The amber lights quivered to the increasing beat.

***

Three dull thuds sounded from the metallic door. Distracted, Chaz let go of his wife’s neck. Maurette fell to the ground and gasped in relief. Maroon blood dripped from her swollen lip. Chaz glared at her as if to say, This isn’t over. He opened the door.

A tall, meagerly old man stood at the threshold. “I’ve come to collect the Tshawings,” he announced.

Maurette stopped breathing completely; her eyes darted from the visitor to her husband and back again. Chaz’s glare remained focused on the old man.

“You aren’t the usual collector,” Chaz said dryly.

“No, no,” the old man replied, “I am the King’s Reissod. His Majesty has sent me specifically to collect this batch.”

Chaz’s stare only grew more frigid.

The Reissod continued, “You see, His Holy Eye has foreseen a particular importance in one of your sons. So, if you’ll please...”

Chaz turned menacingly toward his wife. His jaw clenched, “Where are they?”

“Please,” Maurette pled to the old man at the door, “I... Chaz, he took them away... said they were monsters.” If it were possible, she looked paler. Tears fell freely.

Chaz grabbed hold of Maurette’s thinning, silver hair and threw her at the servant’s feet. “She,” Chaz spat, “is hiding them. She doesn’t want them to be ordained Tshawings.”

“He’s mad!” Maurette pleadingly grasped onto the Reissod’s topaz leather garments. “I didn’t... he took them away...”

The old man looked harshly at Maurrette. His sunken cheeks and darkly circled eyes sharpened his glare. Slowly he drew his sword. Mercury-red light seemed to melt from the blade’s slick metal surface. With a deft swipe, the Reissod dampened the sword’s glow as lipid indigo blood slushed onto his regal garb.

***

“Kill it,” Nyxia moaned, her unbearable pain throbbing with the noise. Mossy vomit oozed from her nose. “... or me,” she added, “... that would be okay, too.”

Before he could do anything, Jaiden was blinded by a sharp flood of light, then nothing save silence and darkness remained.