{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/atdra/i1",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/atdra/i1",
  "publishedAt": "2019-10-13T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "tags": [
    "rough"
  ],
  "textContent": "He watched the great-clawed shrimp as it dug through the glittering\ndirt, eating grasses from the roots up. A dark, slender form was\nstalking up from behind, and the shrimp continued to eat, slow, almost\nunaware of the fanged danger lurking behind.\n\nThen the tiny sand kitten leapt asudden, claws out to utterly gore the\nshrimp.\n\nIt simply dodged.\n\nThe shrimp moved quicker then you might expect, leaping right into the\nface of the kitten, raking it deep with claws, drawing lines of blood.\nYowling, the cat died.\n\nThe giant shrimp leapt off its failed predator, and returned to grazing\nupon the grass.\n\nHe swooped down, then. A raven cloaked in black feathers, it stood\nabove the gore and eyed with four pupils the medusae, one by one by\none, daring them to contest its meal. None did. With a low crooned\nnote, the raven began to feast on the corpse.\n\n\"That's the third raven I've seen today.  Pests.  Where in the sun are\nthey coming from?\"\n\nOeara turned lazy eyestalks to observe the speaker. A wide, striated\njelly, colored a translucent purplish hue. She treaded lightly in the\nair.\n\nShe only considered his words once before he spoke.  You should always\nconsider words at least once.  She said, \"It lends at least a little\ncredence to the suspect's claims.  Ravens are the servants of death.\nIt is known.\"\n\n\"You think he's telling the truth?\"\n\n\"I think we'll find out.\"\n\nShe --- Hua --- spun in the air once.  Letting a breath audibly escape\nher, she said, \"You have to be expecting something when we find this\nsecret shrine or temple or whatever.\"\n\nShe considered the boredom of answering straight.  Squeezing herself\nslightly, she answered, \"Do I have to expect something?\"\n\n\"You can't not. Why don't you want to answer?\"\n\nAnother squeeze. \"What haven't I answered?\"\n\n\"I'm not going to spell it out.\"\n\nOeara felt her bell swelling a bit at that. \"I win.\"\n\n\"So you do.\" The sharp, sullen note in that only swelled her bell\nfurther.\n\nOeara turned a few eyestalks up at the indication of the sun behind\nher sunshield.  Others looked out at the expanse of the the wild\ncanyons.\n\n\"Let's go. I want time enough to rest when this nonsense is over.\"\n\nOeara was who had stopped them, and at her unrooting and floating off,\nthe other two medusa began to follow.\n\nThe head guard ran just a trickle of magic down her tress to her\ngodstinger, and a lance of bright blue stabbed through the shrimp and\nkilled it instantly.  The bird fluttered away a space, staring,\nimpressed.\n\nOeara swore it called her name as they floated away.\n\n- - -\n\n\"I can't believe none of you thought to ask for directions.\"\n\n\"We should be able to find the shrine by following the scent of rot.\"\n\n\"This is such an obvious delaying tactic. He wanted to get us off his\ntrail. I can't believe you fell for it.\"\n\nFour more eyestalks swiveled to regard Hua. Oeara's response: \"And he\ncould only distract us by revealing knowledge he did not want us to\nhave. You had to have caught that too. Why would he want us to know of\nthe death shrine?\"\n\n\"I don't like it.\"\n\n\"Trust my judgment. And trust our partners to keep Ruwen under\nrestraint.\"\n\nShe sung something unintelligible.\n\nOeara could guess the sentiment which didn't bare mention. Who ever\nrooted out the death shrine would be rewarded. Would be remembered.\nGet their own mural in the sun spire. Nothing else, for the one who\nfinally secured the rule of Aveltane under the sun.\n\nEven internally, where only she herself would hear, Oeara could not kid\nherself and say that it would only prudence which launched her after the\nshrine so quickly.\n\nNevertheless, they followed after the scent of rot. The raven had been a\npremonition of sorts --- the farther they went into the wild canyons, the\nmore black forms they spied high in the sky, or milling in the grass, or\nstaring inscrutably, almost medusa-ishly off canyontops.\n\nOeara imagined even Hua was coming to believe there was something here\nafter all.\n\nAside from all the ravines centuries-carved into the countryside, the\nwild canyons were largely a flat affair. One saw far to the horizon,\nwith hardly a hill or butte to block the view.\n\nAt first, it was just another black form to them. As it came closer, the\nsize became apparent, and the shape, and it was decided that round form\nfloating closer could not be any species of raven.\n\nHua activated her gift, and she was simply a distortion in the air.\nOeara and Waia --- the unspeaking green medusa --- had magic barely\nrestrained at the mouths of their tresses. Both of them had slings in\none tentacle and a spear in the other.\n\nOeara called out wordless and melodic, pitched loud and low in a way\nthat would carry.\n\nThe black form called a friendly reply in response, before angling\nthemselves for speed. Diagonally they shot across the country, crossing\nvast canyons in breaths.\n\nThis close, they could see the medusa wielded no sunshield, only a cloak\ndrawn tight across their bell. Sown into that cloak was the emblem of\nthe vast desert reef, and a name: Maahi.\n\nThey were a tall, slender medusa, with a loop bulging about their bell,\nand black tresses and tentacles that came below the cloak.\n\n\"State your purpose.\"\n\nA swelling beneath the cloak. \"Does any medusa have a purpose?\"\n\nOeara lifted a tress, took aim, and fired. A lance of blue bulleted\nclose enough to rip the first layer of their cloak.\n\n\"Slow down. You do not want an enemy in me.\"\n\n\"Then cease antagonizing, and answer the question. What are you doing\nin the wild canyons? You tend close to the lesser canyon reef and we are\nthe guard.\"\n\n\"I travel. A medusa comfortable in no place, seeking forevermore a land\nwhich she may not find --- is that so foreign a concept? What dread has\nyou so swiftly at my throat?\"\n\n\"You have no need to know.\"\n\n\"Oh, so it's entirely fine to play with my questions, is it? How\nabout I decide I do intend to know, and to have you tell me.\" They\nadjusted the loop around their bell.\n\n\"We seek a certain shrine rumored to lie in these canyons.\"\n\nMaahi chuckled. \"You mean the death shrine?\"\n\nA pause, then Oeara lifted a tress aimed at Maahi, wordless.\n\nShe didn't fire. \"It seems that we have a mutual desire for answers,\nthen. You start.\"\n\nThere was a raven, up on a coral tree, watching with one eye. Beak\nbloody, it was familiar.\n\n\"Well?\"\n\nOeara considered. Then, \"Waia, did Llaree's vision include a traveler?\nAnything close?\"\n\n\"The master of the serpent,\" he replied. She never got used to his\nenunciated, sine wave melodies. \"They remember that phrase. Who blazes\nlike the earth and seeks the key. Something like that.\"\n\nOeara lifted another tress, then she poised to shield her heart. In case\nthe traveller had some missile, or projectile gift. In case Oeara had\nreflexes quick enough to make a difference. She considered it.\n\n\"We simply intend to investigate the shrine. We have accounts that\nsuggest that the death god may be planning something against our temple\nof the sun. We are precautious.\" Oeara spun around. \"Now you go.\"\n\n\"I am on a pilgrimage. I visited the death shrine, and will visit your\nsun spire next.\"\n\nHalf of the deep blue jelly's eyestalks pointed toward the green jelly,\nthe other half toward the empty space on the other side of the cloaked\nmedusa.\n\nThe words were sharp, quick. More a first move in a battle, than the\nrequest they seemed. They were: \"Come with us.\"\n\n\"I will not.\" They adjusted the loop around them once more.\n\nOeara had rope in her bag. A few eyestalks glanced to Waia again. Above,\nthe raven still watched.\n\n\"So be it.\"\n\nThree things happened at once, but are properly understood in sequence.\n\nThe traveler recoiled back, out of line with the coordinator's tresses,\nanticipating the missile she'd fire.\n\nMagic flooded through Waia's tresses, and the traveler reappearance on\nthe other side of Oeara.\n\nOeara, instead of firing immediately, adjusted her aim, knowing exactly\nwhere Waia would teleport the cloaked medusa.\n\nIt didn't hit anything vital. Missed the heart, missed the primary blood\ntubes, but of course: her aim was true, considered.\n\nIt did, however, spear one of the traveller's magic glands. A\nprecaution.\n\n(Always, it's the small things that knock you off balance.)\n\nThe sudden trauma choked off the flow of magic down their tresses, and\nthe travelers was falling to the ground.\n\nAnd then the bulging loop around their bell moved.\n\nIt went down, under the cloak, and came out jostling the eyestalks and\ntentacles the dangling below.\n\nA harvai eel. It had deep, brightly saturated eyes, purple like drops of\nconcentrated poison. It's massive jaws yaned open, emitting a low,\nhitching noise that provoked something primal. And the smell of\nprocessed death emitted from that maw.\n\nIt moved like a sinuous dart, and it was instinct the rocked Oeara out\nof the way for one second. Just one second, because then her magic\nchoked up, and she couldn't think quick enough to get herself out of\nthis, let alone far enough ahead to deal with the murderous, unholy\nworm. Then the eel wasn't there anymore. She saw it surprised and --\nfor now --- motionless, far away, a canyon between the jellies and the\nfloating land eel.\n\nUnfortunately, it was a distraction.\n\nThere was an black aura forming around the Maahi --- their gift --- and as\nthey moved (faster than even the eel) it was as if they left\nafterimages.\n\nA knife was held tight in their grasping tentacles, and sinking into\nWaia before stopping, barely a tress's width before reaching the heart.\n\nA hostage.\n\n\"I will reiterate. You do no want an enemy of me.\"\n\n\"Now,\" was all Oeara said.\n\nHua regained visibility with a spear in her tentacle and rushing toward\nthe traveller.\n\nThen she hesitated, eyestalks glancing to Oeara for indication.\n\nBlackness crackled as it flew down the traveler's tresses, and engulfed\nHua, and then a singular sound filled the canyon for a moment.\n\nWaia was fresh to the force. It was this day that he learned the\ncacophonous, shattering timbre of a medusa in agony.\n\nA breath passed, and the red orbs at the end of the hilts of the\ntra",
  "title": "Interlude: Oeara"
}