Chapter 6 Melting Point (Patreon)

Explanation: I recognize that Khall’s understanding of what a stone is is demonstrably incorrect in a variety of ways. She’s dumb. I know it. You know it. Just let it go, because it’ll be ok.

A stone is what it is–so too was Khall. If an egg was thrown at a stone, the egg would break, and if a fuzzy, cowardly pest entered Khall’s home, she would rip it to pieces. So, even though this lavaline was absolutely more dangerous than anything she had ever seen before, even though it was much larger than her and only barely fit in her den, even though a part of her understood that this thing was currently beyond her, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation as she screamed her challenge to the interloper that dared try to rob her and ran at it. 

Khall thought there could have been a smirk on the thing’s face, but she didn’t care. She bulled into the lavaline, its smirk slowly shifting into disbelief as Khall bit and clawed and shouldered the interloper into the wall and away from her arcanite. With a swipe of her tail she sent the shrunken deposit of stone tumbling down and into the path she had been happily expanding until this damnable creature’s appearance. As the stone tumbled away and down the tunnel, it slowly stopped smoking, its essence no longer being absorbed by the lavaline. Her property now secured, Khall refocused herself on the disbelieving prey that had stumbled or slunk into her home.

This lavaline had experienced a change that she couldn’t place, beyond the underlying glow of its skin and greater size. There was something about it that warned of danger, of power, of superiority, but Khall didn’t and couldn’t give in to it. She was becoming as stone, immutable, and Khall did not retreat in the face of danger, just as a stone does not give way to something that stands before it or tries to change it. With a full rotation of her body and swing of her tail, Khall struck out at her unwelcome guest. Unfortunately for her, there definitely was a smirk on the thing’s face as it jumped over her strike and then onto her back.

Before Khall could begin to try to react, the lavaline lunged down with a wide bite to try to take out her spine. Fortunately for Khall, she had previously experienced a lavaline trying to do the same thing, so Khall rolled herself over and was able to knock the lavaline free from her back before it could take a bite out of her. Immediately and without hesitation, the lavaline tried to press back in and continue its attack on her with another bite, but she opened her mouth wide, jaws gaping wide open to threaten the thief with a bite of her own. Only barely was it able to pull its face back in time to save itself from a quick decapitation as her jaws slammed together. The lavaline hissed in displeasure as it was forced to abandon its initial assault, but Khall wasn’t nearly finished with it yet. 

Having gained a slight amount of space, she continued the roll and, with both her foreleg and rear leg, caught her prey and pinned it beneath her. With her full weight driving her and her prey down, Khall was able to begin smashing her lower jaw into the lavaline’s face. Once, twice, three times did the full weight of her tough, wide head smash into the more delicate lavaline’s nose, and while it hissed and yowled in pain and protest, Khall could feel her prey’s attention and awareness fading. She didn’t hesitate or think further before grabbing its full face in her jaws and beginning to clamp down.

There were whimpers and screams and whines of pain echoing out of her mouth, but Khall knew that her prey was not yet a corpse so she leveraged her weight more aggressively and began to crank its neck further and further to the side. One crack and the grinding sound of bone on bone accompanied the shriek of agony from below her as Khall clamped down her jaw ever tighter. She took a twisted pleasure in the wheezing gasps, the attempts at breathing that sounded from the lavaline’s throat. The prey held in her jaws shifted, and its yowls shifted to something more guttural, more primal. Khall paid it no mind as she continued trying to snap the lavaline’s neck, her muscles burning in tension and… pain? Her throat too! Oh Void below! A horrible shock of pain shot through her as she spit out the lavaline.

With a rasping, agonizing cough she recoiled back and away from the hissing, spitting lavaline while smoke trailed from her throat and began to swirl and pool on the ceiling above her. Khall squinted, holding her mouth open to keep her scorched tongue from touching anything as involuntary, haggard whines of agony echoed through her throat and the den. The mewls of pain involuntarily grated her throat as she staggered back in confusion and looked at her prey as it slowly rose to its feet. The lavaline slowly gathered itself and gingerly stepped back and away from her in the cramped space as it backed away and up the path out of the burrow. Khall still couldn’t understand what the lavaline had done, until she saw the coils of smoke and flame curling from the corner of the beast’s mouth.

Khall’s entire being throbbed in agony from the realization. Her whole body felt as if the magma fry from the lava river had painted her insides with the magma they were spitting from the death river. Nothing she had experienced before could begin to give a comparison to the misery brought by being literally force fed flames. A pained hiss accompanied her own agony as her gaze slid to the grating, pained smirk spread across the beast’s face. At the corner of its mouth, flames flickered and guttered while it painfully adjusted its neck.

Khall’s core essence shuddered as she contemplated running. There must be more arcanite to find and use to evolve, and this thing was dangerous, too dangerous. She had injured it a little, but she knew she was much more wounded than it was now. Plus, it was faster than her, and had gained separation from her, so she could do nothing while it continued to harry her and press the attack. She would need to press closer to do any damage to it, and she didn’t know if she could even hope to do so again without being burnt…

No, Khall shook her head. Even so, she needed to stay, she could feel it in her core essence, that something would be permanently altered if she fled right now. Any escape Khall attempted would betray and cost her the understanding of stone she was only beginning to comprehend. She squared her shoulders and lowered her head, preparing to re engage in the fight. A fuzzy creature besting this scaled, superior form? Never! Then, Khall felt her determination melting as the flames grew in the lavaline’s mouth and began to drip out past its lips and onto the ground where they pooled and continued to burn for a time. Indecision froze her as the lavaline’s eyes shone in evil amusement and it spat the fire out almost teasingly.

Heat flared in Khall’s face and she involuntarily stepped back to avoid the painful heat while panic set in. Her tail slipped into the space that she had been digging deeper as all reason bled from her mind. Escape, she needed to escape. She could come back later and take revenge for this, but she needed to live to take revenge. Staying here meant death. But how could she get past the lavaline? It spat another glob of flames toward her, and she slunk back another step and away from the searing heat. She needed to push past the lavaline. Without any further hesitation, Khall began to sprint forward.

One, then two steps guided Khall towards her escape. It enraged her, but she couldn’t stay here and still survive. A third, and a fourth step. She could feel her new core shudder and begin to crack as she began to renege on her immutability. Five, six. The embarrassment of it all crashed down on Khall and she glared hatefully at the lavaline as she stepped closer, nearly close enough to touch it. The Void-spawned bastard smirked in obvious dismissal and, with its mouth still glowing with flames, stepped to the side before beginning to trek down the path towards the… a flash of inspiration occurred to her with a disembodied, frustrated sigh.

The thought having crossed her mind, Khall thought no longer about the strange sigh as she turned and began to sprint back down towards the lavaline, her jaws still hanging wide open. Her attacker cocked its head in confusion, then the idly sparking flames in its mouth once more began to grow into a nearly liquid, guttering flame as it prepared to spray its fiery breath at her. Khall, noticing but no longer caring or fearing, shoved past and continued down the path, her shadow growing more distinct on the walls as the flames she could no longer see behind her grew in intensity. Where was it? She searched desperately around corners and bends while her shadow grew in size then in clarity from the approaching flames.

Maybe by divine providence of the Divine Path itself, Khall found the arcanite just as the gouting flames began to wash over her. The searing heat of fire covering her body couldn’t begin to be compared to the agony of it being blown down her throat, but even still Khall could feel her skin crackling and sizzling in the sticky, nearly solid flames. Tears and blood alike were vaporized in the all consuming flame, and she could feel it settling into her core, melting her stone core essence and filling the cracks she had put there herself as she’d tried fleeing. Before it could completely corrupt her, Khall began to scream while putting the arcanite in her mouth, hoping that swallowing the magical stone would somehow begin the evolution more quickly while she squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

At the conscious thought of evolution, Khall felt the stone in her mouth begin to shrink, a blessedly cool sensation coursing down her throat and into her melting core as a new word settled into her being. Under the influence of the arcanite, her melting, deformed core began to reconsolidate and heal, but into something different, hotter, stronger. Behind her closed eyes, she could see her evolution begin before she felt it.

[Evolution begun: Stonescaled Juvenile Drake. Requirements: consumption of 600g of low arcanite, develop stone– Evolution overwritten. Evolution begun: Moltenscaled Juvenile Drake. Requirements: consumption of 600g of low arcanite, develop magma core essence COMPLETE.]

As Khall’s evolution began, she felt herself immediately begin to grow longer, taller, and stronger. From where she curled under the gouting flames washing over her, she could feel her body expand to where it was touching walls where it hadn’t been before. With the growth came a shift in her body, the most immediately notable was the cessation of the agony that still coated her throat and bathed her body. The evolution brought healing, a release from all of her previous pains.  Even still, Khall kept her eyes closed and instead continued to watch her changing core essence, its shift from stone to magma.

The new word that replaced immutable in Khall’s mind began to surge as she felt the deep and absolute change in core essence from stone into magma. Stone was immutable… until it wasn’t. If you put stone under enough pressure, under enough heat, it will begin to change in a variety of ways, some positive and some negative. Before stone… was magma. The origin of stone was magma. The origin of action was magma.

Magma is what stone would be if it had passion, if it had life, if it was more than just a boring, dead rock. Magma was stone made volatile. Khall was no longer immutable, but volatile, changing, powerful, shifting to where she could explode forth with force, moving to where she could do the most damage to those who stood before her, move to where she could progress the most. She could melt stone, evaporate water, scorch the very earth she walked on… and it would bow to her might. Everything would give way to the volatility of magma.

No way was she going to allow this stars-forgotten robber to be the end of her. Consciously she drew the flames trying to scorch her from around her to within herself and with a grin opened her eyes as the ruler of flame.