Chapter 2 Fire!... Hurts… (Patreon)

Khall woke and immediately growled to let the world know she was grumpy. Her head was all fuzzy, it hurt. Her back hurt too, and she could feel her heartbeat in the scratches in her back. She groaned and fussed, but since she had woken up, Khall began to burrow out of her hasty shelter. After all, there wasn’t anything that cared that she was unhappy, and she needed more food so she could be happy. Preferably one of those soft, cowardly, stinky, ugly, stupid thieves. They would be much easier to hunt and to eat, Khall knew it. Before she could do that, though, she needed to get out there. 

The little burrow had collapsed in on itself overnight, and Khall instinctively understood that this was because of how little care she had put into its construction the night before. There was no reason to think about it, though, since it didn’t matter much to her if that little hole lasted any longer, just like the words that continued to float in front of her eyes didn’t matter. Both were things that happened and changed, but neither really affected her. Right? She thought so, at least. That said, the words were a little annoying since they just stayed there until… until… what did they wait for? Oh, yeah, they usually disappeared when she actually looked at them, so she began to read.

[Proceed towards the Divine Summit. Ascension awaits. The System guides Stines. Ascend from the Void below.]

None of that made sense, but the annoying words disappeared after, so it was a good thing to have done. She knew what the Void was, the space without being filled by the Steps, but the rest meant nothing. A growling grumble from her belly had Khall immediately forget whatever the words had said to look around for potential prey. The earth here was barren, more information that she simply knew instinctively and didn’t care to question. Still, this time it mattered, since there wouldn’t be much prey around here, so Khall set off to find something to fill her belly. After all, she was going to go to the Deemine Sunlit and show how amazing she was, and if her tummy grumbled while she was there, that wouldn’t be so majestic.

Aimless, Khall stalked forward. She quickly realized that she couldn’t see any prey, but she was sure that, before long, she would find some weakling she could easily overpower and eat. Looking around, she could see that there were some bushes here and there, but they were ugly, different from her. There were no leaves on the bushes, and Khall knew they never would. She couldn’t see far enough away to see if there were any that would have leaves on them.

But… did the bushes have food in them? Khall walked close to one of the bushes, then shook it, but nothing came out. Then were the bushes food? She didn’t feel like they were, but she needed to try. She took a bite from one of the tough branches, and after gnawing at it for a moment, ripped a mouthful free. Disgusting! No, she didn’t think that was food. But… was it gross food, maybe? Khall took a second bite. No, too gross to eat. She spit it out. Even if the sticks were food, she was too amazing to eat them. No, she would find new prey! Something like the fuzzy beasts from the day before!

Khall would find her prey, kill it quickly, and then eat until she was full! And this time, she wouldn’t let any fuzzy Void-sent fuzzy dummy steal her meal! Hunting was easy, she knew it.

She was wrong. Hunting was not easy. Maybe it was the constant grumbling of her belly that scared off her potential prey, but eventually Khall found herself approaching a strange smell, one that wasn’t food. Instead, it was a painfully stinky odor of… brimstone and sulfur? She wasn’t sure of what those words came from, but Khall continued following the smell, eventually seeing a flickering warm light in the distance. As always, a part of her hoped it would be one of the horrible thieves from her last hunt, but as she got closer and closer to it, she realized that instead of a creature, the glow was a flowing river!

Before she could get close enough to actually inspect whatever it was that was flowing and lighting up this river, Khall felt her skin crinkle and crisp up. The flowing river was searingly hot, even from this distance. Even more than her skin, Khall could feel her eyes begin to feel grainy and irritated. It wasn’t quite painful, but it sure wasn’t good, so she was about to retreat when she saw… prey.

Within the flowing hot… whatever it was, were some little bite sized prey things! They had fins and a tail, but no arms or legs, so they must be easy prey! After all, the things that could hurt her were just things with arms and legs. With a small hiss of laughter and excitement, Khall approached the prey. The heat became unbearable as she got closer and closer to the hot river, but she stayed where she was, watching the small creatures swim in their glowing, burning home. 

They were funny looking, with just tails. They were just like a tail with a face, strange and weak, so Khall squatted in place, thinking about how to get them out of their fiery home and into her mouth. The smell of brimstone filled her nose while the smoke from the river burned her eyes along with the heat. The heat continued oppressively baking her skin, and Khall hated the feeling, so she approached the banks of the river further in an attempt to find some hint as to how to get the prey out and into her belly.

Musing, Khall looked over the flowing liquid and was mesmerized by the steady, illuminating glow. It was quite pretty, and since it was glowing she could see more detail and more completely fall into a relaxed crouch. There were spots where the river was a glowing near white, where other spots were a cooler red. She wondered what the reason was for the river to change so much, and that was when the prey spat something out at her.

It landed on her foreleg, and the skin immediately began sizzling and burning, the scent of her burning flesh overpowering the acrid stink of brimstone in the air. With a wailing cry of pain, Khall tried to scramble away from the hot river of death, but when she put weight on her suffering right foreleg it buckled beneath her and sent her tumbling down the banks towards the fiery death river.

Panic welling within her, Khall tried to catch herself, to slow the descent into superheated death… and was barely successful. Screeching in agony, Khall tried to sprint up the banks to escape, but before she could gather herself, three of the cowardly, armless, horrible creatures leapt out of the river and bit into her sides before attempting to drag her back down into the river, to her death. The sheer audacity of this prey hurt nearly as much as their unprovoked and unnecessary assault. After all, they were her meal, not her theirs!

The glowing hot teeth of her assailants sizzled and burned into her flesh, Khall’s blood boiling as it made contact with the scaldingly hot bodies of her attackers. The scent of iron filled Khall’s nostrils, her blood’s scent filling her with even greater panic as she fled up more and more away from the banks of the fire river, the despicable prey holding tight to her skin.

The creatures remained latched onto her as they squirmed and thrashed, trying to pull her off balance enough to force her to fall down and tumble once more into their domain. Fortunately, Khall was strong and fast enough to escape the banks of the river and begin to gather her wits about her outside of the death trap that was the fire river.

Before she could calm herself though, she realized the three little hellspawn were still latched onto her, their sharp and hot teeth grinding against her ribs. With a hissing shriek of defiance and rage, Khall rolled over once, twice, thrice and knocked her would-be killers loose. Outside of their home, they flopped around worthlessly, unable to spit the fiery death blobs at her nor jump at her to tear into her flesh once again. With her prey now helpless, Khall happily looked down at the squirming, weak creatures.

Now that she saw them out of their home, the three creatures were larger than she’d initially thought. Their bodies were just a bit shorter than her own, with beautifully glittering scales that covered their entirety. No, not beautiful, ugly, and… stupid! Yeah, they were stupid. They didn’t have her long, powerful tail and strong legs, but with their fire spit, Khall had to admit that they were a bit stronger than her, but only while in their home. Now, they were at her mercy, and that option had disappeared once they’d fried her foreleg.

One by one, Khall positioned herself to where she could bite deeply into her prey’s stomach and leave it to bleed out. At least, that had been her plan before. Her mouth was filled with teeth, but they weren’t sharp like the fuzzy ones. Instead, they were thick and powerful, so after a couple bites each, Khall had torn enough of their bellies to leave the weakening creatures to bleed out. After disemboweling the three prey and leaving them to die in agony, Khall looked around to make sure no tricky furry beasts laid in wait and, once she was satisfied that there were no lurking thieves, she began to dig a little burrow, just enough to fit herself and her prey.

As she was digging, more of the annoying words appeared in her vision.

[Magma Spitting Fry, 2, slain. You have gained experience. Current Racial Designation: Juvenile Mud Lizard. Current Occupation: None.]

[Magma Spitting Fry, 4, slain. You have gained experience. You have levelled up to level 3. Current Racial Designation: Juvenile Mud Lizard. Current Occupation: None.]

[Magma Spitting Fry, 3, slain. You have gained experience. You have levelled up to level 4. Current Racial Designation: Juvenile Mud Lizard. Current Occupation: None.]

[Proceed towards the Divine Summit. Ascend.]

Khall wasn’t sure what these words meant, exactly, but when they appeared, her sides stopped burning in pain and her foreleg stopped its agonizing waves, so she figured that they were a good thing. She continued to focus on digging out a dwelling for her and her meal after the words appeared. For a moment, as she dug, Khall allowed herself to try to understand what this “ascension” business was about. She wanted to go up, and she didn’t understand why. Was this what the ascension stuff was about? Why did she feel like she needed to follow the words’ commands? 

Khall couldn’t bring herself to care. After all, she was finally going to eat her fill! At last, her burrow was ready and she carried her two prey “fry” in to safety. Dragging them down the slope into her new little home wasn’t too hard. Their scales were different to hers, and they were kinda slimy, so they slid right in where she wanted them. Then, with her resting place finally prepared, Khall laid across the two bodies, the massive bounty provided from her hunt!

There was something different about these two, she knew it, but looking at them, they were the prey that she had slain. Had something else come to take a bite from her prey? No, and thinking about it was no fun, so Khall figured it was just how tired she was, so she settled down and ate one in its entirety. The feeling of “full” was amazing, one she wanted to always feel. “Hungry” was miserable, and she never wanted to be hungry again. Khall wanted to help herself to more of the second and final fry, but she was just too full. So, with her belly full and aches mostly settled into a dull burning, Khall settled down to rest, a smile spreading across her face as she used the body of the second fry as a pillow.