Fateful Meeting (Ch2 edit) (Patreon)

Chrysalis is a work in progress!   So there's going to be points where we have to go back and revise major points.   At the time we didn't realize how important the vendor getting vaporized in ch2 would end up being (Selkie's death being the driving force for Lloyd joining the Glade), so we decided to go back and rewrite this section a bit.

Would love to hear what ya'll have to say about our little Seal girl!  Also, let me know if you would like other notable edits posted like this in the future.  Reading comments like yours really helps and encourages me and the team!

And now, with no further ado, the Ch2 Edits, picking up from just after Lloyd makes a break for it.


+++ New Ch2 Story Edit +++

His moment of relief doesn’t last long. The crowd surges. Something’s breaks free. Something black and amorphous, an ocean of leeches loosely contained within a billowing cloak, slithering and shifting to flow around anything in its way.

Four golden eyes.

All fixed.

On him.

Lloyd's face goes pale.
He turns and runs, his wings humming fearfully behind him. The creature's moving fast - too fast.  The thought of the creature tasting him makes his heart claw its way towards his throat.

He’s not going to make it.

In panic he veers to the right, losing sight of the white electrical light for a cluttered row of vendors. He can’t outrun it.  Maybe he can lose it in the crowd. Is he going fast enough? He risks one quick look over his shoulder-

The next thing Lloyd knows he's crashing headlong into a stack of balsa and wicker crates.  Tiny rabbit-like creatures spill out and scatter every which way like startled insects.

“What are you doing?”

It’s a woman’s voice, tight and low.    Unlike the other vendors, she’s dressed in a bright red burlesque outfit, her exposed skin adorned with mottled grey patterns,  a fistful of flyers in a hand, she tosses them to the side to help him up.

“Are you alright?”  She asks, her expression a wash of irritation and concern.
“What’s wrong.  Why are you wearing wh-”

He doesn’t have time to listen.   He tries to pull away and she grabs hold of his arm.  He's got to keep moving.  He's got to get free, he's...

…the leech creature towers behind the woman, waiting to fall on them like a landslide.  Lloyd screams and the woman looks up in confusion and horror as she realizes too late what’s happening.

The living marsh crashes down on them both. Indiscriminately it swallows and carries them with its momentum.   Lloyd struggles and thrashes, trying to escape, but it’s pointless.  With his hands cuffed behind him he’s completely incapable of breaking free.

A hand, the woman’s hand, grabs him roughly around the arm and pulls, trying to get them both free.   Is she… swimming?  Regardless it feels impossible.   The crushing presence of slithering tendrils tighten around his body.  He can’t breathe.  He can’t see.   All he can hear is the submerged, gloating croak of the creature.

Until,
something hums.   

Distant at first, muffled by the wall of leech flesh encasing him. In time it grows louder and clearer, and then there’s a warmth, and a glow.

Piercing white light cuts through the all-encompassing slithering and blasts them away, blistering and shrivelling into ash, in a wave of white-gold heat. Despite the impact it’s having on the leeches, to Lloyd it feels like summer sun on a clear day. Behind his back, the cuffs split and fall apart, the metal dissolving into nothingness.

Lloyd takes a few gasping breaths, looking around.   Where had the woman gotten to?   He had to make sure she was-

He catches sight of the red dress, or what’s left of it, everything else reduced to ash.  The woman, along with the leeches, were gone.