Monsters At The Gate (CHAPTER 5) (Patreon)

Monsters At The Gate

CHAPTER 5:

“The paradise of the swamp and humid insects, VILLA SWAMP…and those that fell from the sky"

The vacation had taken a course which was not at all expected, much less desired, the lazy fire mage kept walking crestfallen and with no enthusiasm as she and her wild friend went deeper and deeper into a jungle, far away from civilization, all the comforts and luxuries of the resort and hotels had been left behind, all that would remain in the end was Kat's sad and discouraged expression.

"come on, you look like a little girl who doesn't want to go to her first day of school, it won't be long now!"- Noruh continues moving through the forest in the middle of the island, a jungle quite full of all kinds of wild plants and small animals, even to the point of not allowing to see beyond the leaves and the branches of the trees, an almost embracing darkness begins to surround the two women.

"hey, really, I didn't think I would say this, but I think I should go back and tell Mr. Ras that you won't be coming back to the agency anymore, I think my work here is done, I should leave Noruh, sorry"- Kat does her best to find an excuse and not to continue venturing inside the humid jungle which had already started to become more and more a wet and cold swamp.

"Oh Kat, YOU'LL ONLY MAKE YOUR FRIEND CRY IF YOU LEAVE NOW! WHUAAAAA!!!"- Noruh begins to put on a lousy performance of sadness and crying, with her hands covering her face and feigning sorrow.

"stop acting already, you're so bad at it!"- Kat angrily points out her friend's misinterpretation of despair.

"of course I'm crying"- Noruh looks through her fingers without taking her hands off her face, trying to convince herself of her "sadness act", but seeing that it has no effect, she quickly stops her joke. "well, it really was a bad performance."

Noruh lets out a light chuckle as he begins to look surveyingly at the vast swamp that the jungle has become, and then looks back up with a knowing smile at Kat 

"I guess I'm afraid we can't go back now"- Noruh rests his gaze on Kat again, but this time with a more serious expression.

"wait, now you're joking again?"- Kat asks with a tone more scared than annoyed.

"I have no idea where we are"- Noruh responds coldly and with a lot of relaxation, for someone who has spent her life in the swamp, that's no problem for her.

Kat, seeing this, explodes in anger, but it's all more out of fear as she imagines herself lost in a wet swamp far from civilization.

"DON'T PLAY WITH ME CRAZY WILD WOMAN!"- Kat shouts quite annoyed by the words of Noruh who just keeps smiling, as if holding back laughter at a good joke.

"but I'm not lying Kat, it's a shame"- Noruh turns around to continue going deeper into the swamp which seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, "I guess we will have no choice but to find Villa Swamp and from there, see what we can do to get out of this wet paradise, poor us".

Kat follows Noruh with a discouraged expression as she sees that she has no choice but to go to Noruh's home, while in her mind, the refreshing sea breeze can't help but awaken a feeling of nostalgia and sadness for not being able to enjoy it. In her mind, the luxury hotels, the comforts, the fine food of the highest standard, the sunny beach and the refreshing sea and not to mention the handsome boys with whom Kat had hoped to have a "summer fling", all that simply cannot be anymore.

(what a horrible tragedy)

GRRRRR....

BRR....

Kat starts to feel her stomach rumbling, the whole trip, she hadn't had a chance to eat, not even breakfast because of her eagerness to go to the beach and enjoy paradise, a noise that only lets you see how hungry she is, even Noruh stops to listen.

"oh, but how inconsiderate, I imagine you haven't eaten anything and we haven't stopped for a snack either, Kat I'm sorry"- Noruh approaches where Kat who is now hugging her stomach as if trying to prevent it from leaving her body and devouring anything at her disposal.

"at least we could have stopped to buy something for the trip"- the strong hunger that kat now feels, makes her regret not having eaten earlier, making her fall to her knees.

"nonsense!"- noruh exclaims confidently.

"uh?"

"right here we have a cocktail of exotic and nutrient-packed delicacies!!!, we are in one of the best '5 star kitchens and restaurant' you can find in the world"- Noruh raises his arms to the sky and points to the whole swamp and the majesty of his humid paradise.

"what are you talking about?"- Kat watches very confused what Noruh is trying to say, as her mood, right now is on the floors, along with her stomach. "you're going to catch something in one of this lake, really, it doesn't look very hygienic".

To his surprise, the solution and answer to the word "cocktail and 5-star restaurant" came from inside a wet, fallen tree.

With enormous strength, Noruh manages to lift the huge tree with only one hand.

"EH!!!????, I forgot how strong she is"- Kat says as she quickly regains her composure, which would bring anyone to their knees for fear of witnessing a monster instead of a beautiful woman.

A loud thump is heard throughout the swamp, a thump caused by Noruh who had opened a large hole in the dead and wet tree, only to extract, the "cocktails".

"guala, food is served, just look at this, there's enough to fill that empty tummy of yours, come on, don't be shy and let's eat together".

The "cocktails" Noruh was referring to were none other than Insects.

Worms, beetles, centipedes, spiders, slugs, caterpillars, cockroaches, grubs and various other insects and bugs which no one would bother or want to know what they are. 

"Oh look, these taste like vanilla milk!!! and these are very crunchy and taste like mashed potatoes, oh and look at this one!!!"- Noruh starts eating all kinds of insects and larvae which she consumes without any shame or disgust, a delicacy for her palate and delicacy for a swamp woman like Noruh, "I'll be sure to take lots of them for Nubeh and Benuh!"

Buagh!

Kat vomits at the scene of Noruh eating bugs like they were candy.

"Oh come on Kat, what's wrong now?"- Noruh approaches Kat without yet having stopped eating the bugs, luckily keeping her mouth shut.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE, NO!!!, I REALLY DON'T WANT TO EAT INSECTS, ARE YOU CRAZY?"- Kat tries to escape Noruh's "cursed, swampy food", but this is stopped by a simple grab of her jacket and where Noruh doesn't remove a sneer at the hilarious situation.

"you'll starve to death if you don't eat, besides, where are you planning to escape to, I already told you, the way to VILLA SWAMP is kind of confusing unfortunately, you can only get out of here once we get to the village"- Noruh holds Kat by her waist and carries her on his shoulders as if she were a sack of potatoes with orange hair.

"that means, I won't get out of here until I get to that village and it's probably full of bugs too!"- Kat tries not to burst into tears as she always does, as she imagines having to live in a leaky wet mackerel while eating bugs and other slimy swamp and mud creatures, "I want to die".

Noruh walks through the huge roots of some trees, avoiding with enormous dexterity and agility falling into the water or slipping on the moss.

"Hehe, I think so, but don't worry, once we arrive, you can leave whenever you want, but if you want you can also stay as long as you want"- using his agility and dexterity, which would make a fool of the best circus acrobat, Noruh reaches a great height in a matter of seconds, only to see the great majesty of the swamp which, only for the territory it possesses, could easily swallow a small city. A sky of branches and leaves of the trees, prohibits access to the sky or even a single ray of light.

"the swamp tends to confuse outsiders and anyone who enters without their 'consent', that's why getting out of here is an almost impossible task, but don't worry, I'm here to be your guide!"- Noruh spanks Kat's butt who looks with amazement and some fear at the great swamp.

"great"- Kat nods with no encouragement, but her eyes dazzle some strange lights coming from behind the giant wall of trees.

"we should be here by now, if I remember correctly, VILLA SWAMP is behind the wall of trees we're in, but I think I still keep getting lost from time to time, luckily dad always leaves a... Katty?"- although Noruh knows the swamp to the last root, the entrance to VILLA SWAMP tends to be quite misleading, even for its inhabitants. But on this occasion, Noruh had indeed managed to hit home, only the jungle woman was turning her back on the entrance to the swamp village, but it was Kat who had hit upon the image of the village before Noruh.

The expression of astonishment, her mouth slightly open and her eyes so wide that they looked like they were going to pop out of her face, that was the look of someone who seemed to have found a lost city or Atlantis or maybe even the entrance to the new world. An expression that Noruh did not take long to notice.

"oh, so I guess we're here, hehe"- Noruh turns his head slightly towards Kat's direction, "and well Kat, what do you think of my home?".

Kat didn't seem to understand Noruh's words, her sight was completely mesmerized by the beauty of the swamp village.

"hehe, treasure, just look at your face, I'll take that as a 'not bad at all', hahaha"- Noruh laughed kindly as he deduced that Kat has liked her home.

 VILLA SWAMP, the small town hidden in the swamp, both on the trees and at the base of them, the huts consisted of a vertical oval design which, despite looking simple, were still very elegant to the eye, the trees supported the houses which were all connected by a large number of bridges which ran all the way through the trees.

some spheres hung throughout the city served as its lights which emitted a warm purple and orange light. 

At the base of the entire city was the lake, which was also adorned by several luminous spheres that let you see the lower town of the village, very similar to a fishing village, but maintaining the same elegance and beauty as the tree houses. Many bridges connected the entire lake where several people could move around without fear of falling into the water or having to find their way through the shallows.

Still unable to articulate because of the endless, marshy beauty of VILLA SWAMP, Kat now fixed her eyes on those who lived there.

The inhabitants shared the same ethnic traits as Noruh, dark skin and some white tribal tattoos, but their attire was different, the vast majority wore what appeared to be dark purple fur covering their bodies, in some cases, the entire body, but also a very distinctive feature, were the ornaments which appeared to be animal skulls worn to cover their faces, giving the image of "magical swamp creatures", as well as the upper and lower levels of the swamp, the people emanated the same aura of tranquility and peace away from the outside world.

"wow..."- was the only word Kat could give, but it was also a small tear running down her face, not realizing that she had been captivated by the beauty of the swamp village.

in another place, completely away from the island of MAREDEVINA and therefore out of the Swamp. 

Mistyk had already managed to hold her position throughout the city of KILLPOP, the maniacal thunder goddess had not completely destroyed the city, she had only murdered a large number of people and had left others for her entertainment, a sadistic game.

"very well, I will only repeat it once more, I am going to count this ten and you will have to take the other one between those destroyed buildings, if you make it in time, you will win your freedom and therefore your life, isn't it fun!!!!"

Mistyk, who was drunk from the endless amounts of alcohol in his gourd, had found only one way to kill time. To allow his victims to flee, but it was all impossible, the distance where the destroyed buildings lay and the place where the survivors lay, was very long, even in a car, to travel that distance would easily take about 10 minutes or even more, but Mistyk didn't seem to understand human limitations very much.

"but we won't be able to get there in that time"- one of the survivors exclaims with great fear and concern about the impossible challenge of the thunder monster.

"please, give us more time or ask us for anything else!"- a woman with an injured leg pleads in tears, clearly she couldn't do anything in Mistyk's "game", even if she had weapons on her legs.

Before the complaints of her victims, Mistyk only continues drinking, but something that stands out in her drunken attitude is the fact that she does not get upset by this kind of complaints, even showing herself to be patient and understanding with those she would not hesitate to kill in any circumstance, but in this occasion, she only seems to be looking for a genuine way to distract and have fun with her victims.

"you guys are really noisy, tell me, is your civilization always this tantrum-ridden, I'm just trying to make sure we can have some fun!"- Mistyk gives a limp shout at the end of the question, there's not much interest in arguing and the thunder goddess decides to take another big gulp of her alcohol gourd, "so let's see, I'll give you 10 seconds to run in any direction, if you manage to save yourselves from the lightning bolts that will fall from the sky, you can leave, that's the new game, take it or leave it!".

Without waiting for any response, Mistyk Starts waving his big maso in the direction of the sky, all to create a big vortex of clouds and thunder again.

"10!"

Mistyk begins his macabre count while watching as his victims begin to flee in complete terror, a total of 20 people run to all directions, even with wounds and a difficulty to run, all do their best to find a safe place from attack that destroyed much of the city and now is about to explode all over again.

"9!, 8!, 7!, 6!, 5!, 4!, 3!, 2!, 1!!!"

As if it was a horrible surprise, Mistyk suddenly sped up the final countdown to launch his lightning attack and connect a powerful strike to the ground in order to destroy half of the city once and for all.

"OH FRIENDS, YOU REALLY ARE SO SLOW!!!"- Mistyk aims with all his might at the electrified ground. But something interrupted the burst of thunder.

"Huh?"

Mistyk let go of the huge thunder whirlwind in her maso, as her attention shifted completely in the direction of a black hole which had begun to materialize over the sky, as if the very fabric of reality was breaking, giving way to another cataclysm just as dangerous or maybe even worse than the goddess of thunder Mistyk herself.

"Nif, is it really not enough with me?"- with an annoyed expression, but still keeping a smile, Mistyk watches as lights fall several kilometers where she lies. Two violet orbs finally arrive on the planet of the humans, "and now who else has decided to join the party?"

On the outskirts of KILLPOP CITY, the two orbs take their time to fully materialize on top of a large building.

The light that had been very flashy now became all dark, but still leaving only two silhouettes visible, a tall shadow and a small one. the taller one being accompanied by two pairs of horns where its forehead should be, while the small one only possessed one in the same place.

In both of them, only their eyes reveal an insatiable appetite...