Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 32 (Patreon)

Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 32

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Sivantic.

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Epidemiology was the study of discerning the source of illness and disease. In my last life, my first theoretical encounter of the practice was in the classroom. Events in history where people drank from polluted wells, used unsanitary tools to hew off limbs after a battle to save lives, and tracing the source of disease to ticks on mice. In practice, I was aware of the diseases that stemmed from living in the trenches. Feet swelling and the skin becoming compromised and leading to infection, poor sanitary conditions leading to dysentery, and finally the constant violence breaking minds and leading to shell shock.

There is a root to every malady, like a tumor or a wound, which must be addressed in hopes of saving a person.

In this case, however, the cause was the parasitic creatures that took over bodies and controlled monsters and the body was a whole nation of people. This was no singular disease or wound on a person, but an infection that threatened to spread and kill thousands of people and use their bodies as hosts to propagate and reproduce. Still, as terrifying as the creature was, it still needed a source. A place to come from. A damp, wet environment outside of the host body to utilize as a form of spawning ground.

If they reproduced and populated their host body, they’ll lose them, and that would be a terrible loss for the parasite. The spawn will need a place to be disgorged and to safely grow. I did not yet know the complete life cycle of the parasite, but I knew that even the mature forms were weak and incapable of withstanding the deepest winter or warmest summer. In all my tests, I discerned what they needed to live without a host, so I would make use of that knowledge to find and kill them.

And, so, I did.

The front of the cave had been heavily defended by infested guards. Their bodies were that of human males, but with altered physiques. Much like the animals the creatures inhabited and overtook, humans taken by the parasite became stronger in body, had heightened senses, and gained tougher skin. Perhaps, it was a cocktail of hormones combined with the ‘magic’ of this world, but even without knowing the method, the result was the same: the guards of the front of the gate were strong, but they were no match for me and the others by my side.

“Wait.” I held a hand up towards my companions as they approached the mouth of the cave. Spelunking wasn’t something that I wished to practice without training, especially with hidden foes within. So, I cleansed our surroundings with flame and extended a hand towards the cave. “I will search the cave first.”

From my extended hand came forth my strings, coursing with my power, and they entered the cave.

“Keep watch around me, while I search the cave.” I felt through the touch of the ends of the wires I sent forth. The spools that I hod would need to be sterilized after this, but it was better than traversing the dark without a plan. The infected had no need for light, and we would need it, especially as the darkness of the eternal night would ensure that we’d need torches. They would see us from afar with utter ease. No, it was better to do our work from outside the cave. “Be ready to receive enemies. Some are surely on patrol and guarding this place.”

“Yes, physician.” Gale muttered my way, and so did all the others. The disguised young woman, however, stayed beside me as the others began to pace the outskirts. She took the bow on her back and strung it while readying her arrows. Her gaze was on the outskirts, as well as the mouth of the cave. The bow was composed of the bones of a large, lizard-like creature whose scales were like metal several months ago and the ligaments of a truly massive bear. The arrows used with the longbow had metal shafts and sharpened monster bone for tips, and she made use of poison whenever able. Usually, she simply let it rest amongst her luggage, but against the faster, tougher infested, she made use of it while setting her projectiles alight. “What do you think is down there?”

“A spawning pool. A place for them to bring food, bodies, and reproduce. Look at the side of the cave. It’s a place for refuse.” They were tidy and industrious creatures. The outside camp had lean-tos and burrows with roofs. Wagons were broken down and being repaired in one corner of the cave-front camp. Their intellect was obvious, but so was their desire to take the bodies of others, use children as hosts, and tear people apart from within so that they cannot be extracted. These were parasites. “Not only that, but they’re maintaining weapons and armor and working with other creatures of the night. They are more than mere beasts. Their intentions are to conquer and subjugate. I can only hope that all who encounter them have the means to defeat them.”

“…You’re right, they might not just be here. What of the lands of the Wind Folk and the Earth Folk?” I wasn’t familiar with those names, but I was reminded with the stout individual who pleased with me to go with him to attend to his long-sleeping and ancient king. His people lived in the mountains in great holds… and I could imagine no more terrible a place to try and hold against this creeping infestation. Underground, sealed behind thick walls, and with entrances and exits easily sealed? If one gets through, if they do not isolate properly, then whole cities can become spawning grounds for the creatures. Spawning grounds surrounded by industry and farming suited for living underground.

I knew not what the ‘Wind Folk’ were, but I imagined that they were simply another people with slight changes to their forms because of this world’s differences.

“One person cannot change the world entire. Focus on what lies ahead of you. Think of others after you have saved yourself.” The words came to me, while I searched the caverns and encountered creatures within. Most were bats, but they were different from the normal creatures. Larger, faster, and more decisive, I could tell that they were not the normal, flying rodents any longer. Instead, they were infested and so I dealt with them. I wrapped them in my threads and burnt them thoroughly by conducting heat through the threads. Only once they were ash, did I move onward. Still, as I did, a loud roar echoed out of the cave and the few birds resting in trees after our battle fluttered into the dark sky. Then, I felt something rush past my weapons, then another and another. I took hold and burned all that I could, but it felt like a horde was coming forth and I could not grasp them all.

There was no time to spare.

“Fill the cave with as much wind as you can muster. I will fill it with flame.” I wished to try and explore it and find evidence to my theory, but the creatures were rushing towards us now and whatever patrols they had were coming after hearing the roar. We needed to ensure that we would not be flanked. “We will burn everything within.”

It was too well-defended for them to have hostages within. That was the reason that I gave myself when the question arose in the back of my mind whether they held innocents within there. My own memories of the creatures told me that they infested people on the battlefield, that there would be no reason for them to take hosts within their spawning pools, and guard them when they could simply overtake them and minimize risk.

Still, though, I was not completely sure that there were no prisoners within the caves… yet, I still knew no other option that did not risk the lives of those with me.

If I were alone, if I could fight without risking others lives, I would’ve stood in the remains of the camp and slain all that came forward.

However, such was not the case, and I had to make the choice.

Guarantee the lives of those around me, or risk them for lives that may not even exist in the darkest depths of an enemy stronghold.
The choice was simple… and so I joined the great gust of wind shot by Gale into the cave with a burst of flame that I traced through the path my wires traversed. I sharpened the flame, condensed it, and followed the wind that was generated by Gale. It consumed the air made by Gale and ate the air within the cave, as it grew, grew, and grew into a bright serpent coiling through the walls of the cave and melting stone.

There was a moment where all I felt through the flame was stone, rock, and detritus as it coursed through the tunnels. It was necessary for me to envelope the flame with my power. It was the same as moving my threads or my wrappings or healing. I needed to suffuse it with my ‘self’ to guide it with precision, to concentrate it, and make it rage forth towards my foes.

However, it also meant that I was the flame, as it collided flesh, as it burnt skin, as it turned muscle to ash, and seared bone into cracking and breaking apart. In the flame, I felt the silhouettes of people, as they writhed, tried to fight, and tried to leave, even as they were utterly encapsulated in flame. They struggled, tried to claw at walls to find some salvation, and screamed. Their screams were the last vestiges of breath escaping their lungs, only for my flames to flow into them and burn them from within.

Then, I found the source of the creatures, what they were fighting for and protecting with zeal.

Once a mere pool of water deep within the cave depths, it was transformed. Flesh that burned with ease covered to the floor, and there were mounds of meat and crushed bone in every direction. Bodies lay unmoving even flame consumed them in shallow pools of water… no… not water. It was some sort of slurry of water, blood, and other nutrients. A primordial soup composed of what the creatures hunted and brought into the cave.

The pools themselves… writhed and undulated as my flame washed over it all. In the rapidly-boiling waters, I felt dozens of creatures the size of my pinky-finger start thrashing, jumping, and trying to find purchase in the bodies that were burning. They were meant to mature and find purchase in the host bodies, perhaps competing for the body against all their kin in the pool, but that mattered not. They boiled in the waters, popped as superheated steam coursed through their bodies, and their future hosts burned with them.

I turned all within the cave into ash and dust.

I filled and filled the cave with flame and power, until there was nothing within but a firestorm. Everything within was molten and aflame and the lack of air within it caused air to surge into the empty gap. I moved myself and Gale out of the way of the entrance as a severe backflow surged forth from it… just as our enemies arrived from all over the surround forestry area to engage us.

As the creatures screamed and charged at us, I felt a semblance of relief even as I joined the battle.

It was better than burning people alive and feeling them burn within your power.

…

I burned the bodies formed from the battle and checked on everyone after doing so.

I was pleased to find no injuries amongst our number, and the others tended to the weapons and armor equipped by the creatures in order to make use of it all.

Gale came close to me and I turned to her.

She looked at me with a solemn expression in her gaze… and I realized that she must’ve felt the flame consuming the enemy through the winds she contributed.

“Is that why you choose to not kill people?” There was a look of disgust and fear in her eyes as she looked at her own hands. When I first taught her to use the power, she’d beamed with pride and practiced every day since she learned how to use it. Now, her hands trembled as she still felt her power kill and murder like she had done it with her own hands. “So you… you don’t feel that?”

“No. I do not kill people because I chose to.” I told he the truth. The sensation of burning the flesh of another hung heavy in my mind. It was a feeling that a human shouldn’t understand, but I did. It was like I wrapped up a man in my hand and set him alight while he could do nothing to survive or harm me. Like wrapping a person in my embrace and burning them alive completely and utterly. The thought of touching another person made me fear burning them, even though I knew such a fear was foolish at best. “However, it is a good as a reason as any to not kill.”

Gale slowly nodded at my words, but hesitated.
Even though she was disgusted by what she felt and what she contributed to, the world remained a dangerous place.

I addressed that issue before she even aired her question.

“Yet, still, the world is dangerous and you would be remiss to not use that power to protect yourself and those you care for.” She swore no oath to do not harm and come to the help of others. There was no reason for her to stop herself from using her power. She was a regular person who sought to help others by fighting monsters. Therefore, not killing would endanger her life. “I suggest using the power like many other users of power do: relinquish control and precision in exchange for not feeling yourself as part of the flame or the wind or whatever you wish."

"...I’ll do that. I can’t stand what I feel with too much control." Gale decided on her course of action with surprising speed, and moved to leave when I gave her a nod. She looked at my, as if trying to find something to say, before shaking her head. “Take care of yourself, physician. Do not lose yourself using that power.”

I nodded and accepted her words… but I’d felt worse with my own hands than burning monsters alive.

Still, even in another life, I still felt my hands going through a man’s innards in search of wounds, while he lay bleeding and screaming for his mother… while I felt his life fade and fade in my hands.

That was far worse.