{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/06",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/06",
  "publishedAt": "2018-12-29T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\"Hinte!\" I yelled out.\n\nOn the other side of the dark-green wiver a slender, black thing shot\nout from the vog. Like an arrow it plunged into Hinte's side. I didn't\nsee the bite⁠ ⁠---⁠ but Hinte growled deep in pain. I was yelling out\nin fear, in useless warning. My wings twitched but the sight had\nvitrified me.\n\nAnother shadow flew at her neck. The wiver twisted --- the creature flew\nclose, belly running along her neck, a near-miss. There was a hissing\ngrowl.\n\nSudden knife-claws raked down my back. They tore into my sifting suit,\nand left small cuts. The shadow above me yarled, vicious. I felt the\nimpact of more claws ---⁠ but no pain. Blood flowed down my neck. Not\nmine.\n\nThe human! It'd saved me. Teeth sunk into my side --- a fourth shadow.\nIt ripped through the white suit and slashed my scales. I buckled.\nHead smashed into the ground.\n\nHinte's fight came as a mess of yelps and growls, almost in turn. The\nwiver's cries tended more frequent and pained. Did she need my help?\nWhat could I do?\n\nI flailed my wings at the toothy thing beside me. It growled and backed\noff. I fled. Above me, one still ripped or slashed at the human. I\nclawed at the ropes. They split!\n\nI leapt high, the bloody corpse falling to the ground. Dare to look\nback⁠ ⁠---⁠ the trick worked. The third continued to rip into the\ncorpse.\n\nBelow Hinte was fighting her pair of shadows. One gnawed on her right\nhindleg ---⁠ ouch. The other circled around to lunge at her neck\nagain. But that was all I glimpsed.\n\nIn the air, the fourth shadow still chased me! I smacked it with my\ntail. It bit my tail! I curled in the air, growling. I grabbed onto\nthe shadow and we crashed into the lake surface. The lake skin\nfractured and split open fiery gashes.\n\nWith a free forefoot, I reached for the mouth of the creature. Force it\nclosed. I reached⁠ ⁠---\n\nThe shadow bit me! Its teeth cracked the glass and pierced the\nscutes. I grabbed its lower jaw.\n\nDistantly, Hinte screamed.\n\nNo!\n\nHolding it in two feet, I swung the shadow. Land in the lake,\nplease! But as I let go, the third thing came. It lunged at a\nforeleg. Old glass bore the brunt.\n\nIt clawed again and I saw it draw blood. I kept swinging --- but the\nother creature ruined my aim! I could only slam the shadow on the lake\nskin, shattering dustone. I pushed harder, to submerge it. The other\nshadow was lunging again! At my neck!\n\nI wouldn't. I dodged away, and it only clawed my face --- but it\nclawed again and again. Blood dripping down my face, I couldn't\nsubmerge the shadow. I gave up.\n\nI wasn't a fighter. The lake had worn me away. Even with the frenetic,\nfatal energy in my blood⁠ ⁠---⁠ I could give up. It was what I did.\nThe thought rang out in my head, but its echo was\nsomething⁠ ⁠---⁠ different:\n\nRockwraiths will fly away after you stop moving. Hinte's voice, the\ndistant wiver who hadn't seen me stand up to humans.\n\nI feigned death, and fell limp. The two wraiths --- what else could they\nbe? --- they continued to claw or bite at me. I screamed, but I let the\nsound falter and die. They stopped, and --- brilles clouded --- I could\nfeel them staring at me, waiting.\n\nBreathe, low, breathe calm. I had to think! They had caught Hinte by\nsurprise, injured her even more. She was over there, alone. I had to\nhelp her.\n\nBut how? I needed to make them stop attacking her. Distract them? Lure\nthem away?\n\nA vague memory came to me, another echo that wasn't my voice.\n\nIt awakens sleeping things, sleeping out the gray season.\n\nThe gray season. When volcanic activity waxed with the coming perigee\nof Laswaith, the great moon of violence. When the animals in the lake\nestivated to weather the heat and ash. But if these wraiths were still\nactive, well, they had to eat something. The glasscrabs ate the\ncrysts. And what else could the wraiths eat but glasscrabs?\n\nBreaking my feigned death, I did a quick dart to my bag, where\nglasscrabs poked out. The wraith lunged in the corner of my eye. I\nrushed a crab out. Then threw it out in front of me. It paused, and\npeered at the crab, tongues flicking. I leapt up, running in the\nopposite direction. The two wraiths disappeared in the distant darkness\nbehind me.\n\nWhen no razor fangs came crushing down on my legs, I breathed. I did it!\n\nAway from the wraiths I was again limping on injured legs. My left\nforefoot had teeth marks down its middle. My right foreleg had three\nbleeding breaks in the glass. Adding to the pain, my face dripped blood\nfrom numerous swipes, both deep and shallow, and the horrible bite on my\nbelly. Despite all of this, the pain felt distant, muted.\n\nFree from the fight, I could flee. Fly up into the sky and glide back\nto Gwymr/Frina. Hinte needed my help, but would I even make a\ndifference? Maybe it was better if at least one of us lived. She could\nunderstand that, right?\n\nThat same echo:\n\nI would not let you die.\n\nNo, she would try to save me. I needed to stop cowering. She had saved\nme twice⁠ ⁠---⁠ I could show my thanks. And, well, I'd been some help\nagainst the humans, hadn't I? If I could just think...\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nI had a plan, I just needed to find Hinte. She'd been fleeing last you\nsaw, and I'd... gone in the opposite direction. Aching legs slipped me\ninto a high walk. I slinked over the gnarled ground as fast as I dared.\nThe new speed ripped pain in my forelegs, but it didn't matter.\n\nThe fight made ripples over the lake skin. The fractured and bulging\nground turned to another obstacle standing against me. In the nighttime\nvog I was half-blind; but I could do better than just hope Hinte was in\nthis direction; the burning cracks ripped open left me half-sighted.\n\nThe stark bright of the molten glass seemed to darken the vog even more.\nI could see almost nothing but what had been limned by the wake of the\nfight.\n\nMoments of stealth passed like this, and I was tripping over my claws\nwith spicy anticipation on my fangs.\n\nAt last I came back around to Hinte and her attackers.\n\nFirst thing you saw: the fading white glowy stuff spilled all over the\nground. What you smelt? Blood in the air. Tart and spicy venom. And\nrank, stinky wraiths.\n\nDogged by rockwraiths, Hinte fell into a crouch, and stumbled into a\nleap⁠ ⁠---⁠ a lopsided leap that was brought low in breaths by the\nwraiths. She tried, again and again.\n\nWith an injured hindleg and wing, the bright-white figure couldn't fly\naway. You were built to fly, take that away and how much was left?\n\n\"Hinte!\" I shouted. \"I have a plan --- play dead!\"\n\nAlready falling and crashing on the surface, she didn't get up⁠ ⁠---⁠ I\njust prayed the endless stars it was on purpose.\n\nBreath, Kinri.\n\nMy last glasscrab was in my feet, held tight, and I pulled back and\naimed. Between the bright-white figure and me it landed aright. One\nwraith glanced at it. And it went back to biting Hinte!\n\nA growl left my lips. I had one last gambit. It might throw away all\nI'd worked for ---⁠ but if I succeeded, it had to be worth it.\n\nA glass came from my bag, a glass of glasscrab blood. I unlidded and\nthrew it over the crab corpse. As it fell, the contents spilled out\nbelow it. It landed with a crack.\n\nBoth wraiths looked, this time. Hinte stayed still.\n\nBreaths passed.\n\nA wraith jerked its head back at Hinte. No!\n\nMy last glass was in my feet before I could think, before it was flying\nlow over the lake skin before it smacked into a crag with a big pop\nthat was only loud because it was so quiet all around and⁠ ⁠---\n\nA rockwraith moved. It ambled twitchingly over toward the crab and the\nspilled blood.\n\nI still held my breath, but something eased when I saw the other, larger\nrockwraith lunge after the first with a gait that was like a very\nefficient limp.\n\nAt the creature, I peered. Like the cloudwraiths above, these things\nscented the air with two tongues. Long, curling forelegs doubled as\nthree-clawed wings, wyvern-like. Hindlegs looked almost draconic,\nmonstrous limbs for leaping into the air. And midwings sat between\nthose two pairs, much wider than the snakelike body was long.\n\nWhen the first wraith reached the crab, a small bite was taken. This\nsmaller wraith then hopped onto it, and grasped the corpse in its\nhindfeet. The leader leapt winging away, and the smaller followed,\nlugging the crab.\n\nThe rockwraiths winged over to where I'd left larger crab. There, my\nonce-attackers were still taking ravenous bites out of the first crab.\nThe leader landed and in turn nipped both of the hungry wraiths. Cowed,\nthey fell in line as the leader clutched the big crab and led them\nwinging off.\n\nIn formation, they all flew away, victorious.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nI had lost my crabs. I had lost the crab blood. My face and legs were\nred and wet. But, just maybe, there was a victory of my own: I had\nsurvived. And Hinte? The stars had to have spared her. They had to.\n\nMy wings took me toward the spilled white glow on the ground, the\nglair-like stuff pooling out around her lantern like a cracked egg. The\ndark-green wiver lay on the ground, in the same spot where I'd told her\nto play dead.\n\nWith the wraiths gone, the frenetic energy in my limbs faded. My wounds\nroused awake, and I faltered in the sky. When I crashed, I fell to my\nside and stayed there for a bit.\n\n\"...Kinri?\" came a certain jagged voice. A head rose, and the lines of\nthat dark-green face came to life. The amber goggles still hid her\neyes, but I imagined behind them, eyes opened and searched around.\n\n\"Hinte!\"\n\n\"It's over? Your plan worked.\" Hinte had shifted from her slumped\nposition. She now crouched on her hindlegs, forelegs and wings\nsupporting her weight. Others might look frail in that position. She\nonly looked defiant.\n\n\"It did.\" I looked away. \"But it--it feels like a defeat.\"\n\n\"It is not defeat until you can no longer play,\" Hinte said, sounding\nlike an echo. When my head didn't rise with her words, she added,\nsounding more urging, \"Kinri. Those are the same wraiths",
  "title": "Vitrify"
}