{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/04",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/04",
  "publishedAt": "2018-12-15T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\"Kinri. Do you smell that? I smell blood.\"\n\nI flicked my tongue and whirled its forks. After a beat it was pressed\nagainst the roof of my mouth, and I only smelled the evil sulfur of the\nBerwem. I ignored it and grasped for the tastes at the fringes. Grape\nand chamomile? No. Boily crab meat? No.Faint sweat and blood blowing\nin from the distance⁠ ⁠---⁠ there it is.\n\nWhat had happened? The lake was stingy with life. And for what it did\nallow, none were mammals. Was it something wandered and lost in the\nlake? Had it come here on purpose? Why here, and what did it want?\nWas it dead? Had something attacked it? But why⁠ ⁠---\n\n\"Follow me.\" Hinte's voice stole into my fluttering mess of questions.\nThe command to do something felt so simple, so commonsense, almost not\nworth giving. But it worked.\n\nThen I waved my tongue.\n\n\"Hinte?\" I saw her turn back to me, fangs bared. \"Are we going\ntoward the blood? It might be⁠ ⁠---⁠ it's dangerous. We should head\nback to town and⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"You can go back.\" The wiver stalked off.\n\nI hissed. Really, I could handle this⁠ ⁠---⁠ whatever this was, right?\nIf Hinte could handle it, if I had Hinte there with me, things would go\nfine.\n\nAnd if I did go back, what would she think? That I had no wind under my\nwings? That I really was useless?\n\nI strode into step beside her, unfolding my wings and stalking forward.\n\nAs we went, the smell loomed more hauntingly, danger limned in scent.\nThe closer we went, and the surer I was that even when I held my tongue\nthe stink clung. Shadows were twisting into shapes suggesting what\nmonster lay at the source⁠ ⁠---⁠ a dying furless wolf, lethally pursued\nby an angry, hungry pack⁠ ⁠---⁠ a towering, lumbering gorilla injured\nand overready to kill just to quietly recover⁠ ⁠---⁠ some horse-like\ncreature hunted by strange primitive dragons whose language I didn't\nspeak and⁠ ⁠---\n\nI licked my eyes.\n\nI was walking over the empty lake, sheltered in glairy lantern light;\nHinte was right beside, and nothing moved in the dark, dirty mist of the\nlake. The only sound was the lake rumbling and the wind almost\nlaughing. The smell that had stood so salient to me still wafted faint,\ndistant.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nMy wings had drooped, and my stalking faded to a march, then a simple\nlow-walk, and now I just slinked after Hinte. At least the smell had\ngrown stronger.\n\nWith the suns cast away, only the ground beneath us could hint at any\ntrue movement⁠ ⁠---⁠ and dustone covered the lake to the shores and then\nsome. Now, though, no more molten glass burst up, and the murky veins\ngrew fainter; we must have come to another shore.\n\nWhen my next breath didn't try to burn my throat, I couldn't help but\nlaugh: Free of the lake once more!\n\nFar away from this shore, a rising cliff wall dipped and split along its\nlength; and in the split a little narrow gully snaked into the wall, and\nwound upward.\n\nI looked up at the cliff, then across, as far as the faint glairy rays\nillumed. If it weren't night, this would make a fun place to fly\naround. Imagine leaping from one of the tall⁠ ⁠---⁠ but not too\ntall⁠ ⁠---⁠ heights of the cliff and trying to glide back into the\ngully! I wiggled my wings.\n\nWe approached, and you could see that the gully was just a big, steep\ndip in the cliff wall: it had a sheer face that met that ground at what\nwasn't a right angle.\n\nThe bright-white figure leapt and lighted onto the face. Her claws dug\ninto the gnarls and crags, and she walked up the wall. I lighted and\nwalked after her. My feet held tight to the cliff face, and my wings\nfluttered at my sides. Yes, climbing clouded next to flying, but it beat\nwalking like an olm beat a glasscrab.\n\nAt the top, the gully narrowed enough I had to follow behind Hinte,\ninstead of slinking beside her. I crinkled frills and pouted, but\nmarched on.\n\nAnother knot was knitting in my stomach, stinking of anxious dread. I\nstretched out my wings, and let my alulae trail against the gully\nwalls. Even at the widest parts, my wings could only unfold halfway.\nGliding in here would be a trick, then. You'd have to balance gliding\nin and wrecking your wings with falling in and wrecking your legs.\n\nI waved my tongue. What sort of awful creature awaited us at our\ndestination? Would we have to face down whatever monster had attacked?\nWould we find we weren't the only things lured in? They might eat\nyou.\n\nThe pressing heat waned and dusty air grew clearer, deigning me the\nprivilege of seeing a dozen strides ahead, instead of six. Still the\nair was bone-dry, and I licked droplets out of my canteen. Our path\nwound higher, and at the top the cliff wall rolled above, being a small\noverhang.\n\nThe smell grew stronger than ever. Was this the source?\n\nI licked spicy venom from my fangs.\n\nHinte slinked forward, close to the ground. The path became a plateau as\nit wound upward and overlooked a hill rolling down to another, deeper\ngully. The dark-green wiver walked to very edge of the path, stopping\nat the ledge.\n\nStanding beside her, I followed her gaze. There, under the ledge, in a\nflat stretch of the hill dotted with boulders, lay a creature on its\nback.\n\nThe head looked flat, without a snout, and the trunk of the creature\nlooked long, yet stocky. Not as long as a dragon, but the proportions\ndidn't make it easy to tell. Was it the shoulders? The high placement\nof the forelegs? The way the hindlegs flowed out from the torso?\n\nThen my eyes cleared. It only had four limbs!\n\nThe scales gleamed silver⁠ ⁠---⁠ no, they weren't scales. Some kind\nof outfit covered the skin.\n\nMy legs were tensed and my claws gripped the ground. I looked behind me,\nat my escape route.\n\nHinte'd bared her teeth, and inched forward with clear brilles and\nfanned frills. Was it dangerous? Before I could ask, she leapt from the\nledge, and landed away from the body. Corpse? It didn't flinch or\nreact at all.\n\nI snapped my tongue at the wiver. What if it had been dangerous? She had\ncalled me careless.\n\nI leapt down after her.\n\nOne of the creature's forelegs had three slashes running down its\nlength, and bleeding holes ran in an almost-circle on its\noutfit⁠ ⁠---⁠ armor?⁠ ⁠---⁠ like something had tried taking a bite out\nof it. Its blood pooled underneath, draining into the undisturbed,\nsandy gravel all around it. In the pool lay a bladed weapon, held in a\nworn, beat-up sheath.\n\nThe head lolled as we approached, but it didn't react beyond that. It\nlooked... familiar. Some creature I'd learned of from my tutors, but\nnever encountered.\n\n\"Uh... what is this thing, Hinte?\" I asked as I landed in front of her,\nso as not to spook her. As Hinte glanced at me, I added, \"It\nlooks⁠ ⁠---⁠ it looks like some kind of... ape? I've never seen one\noutside of textbooks. Or zoos, maybe.\" My tongue wriggled in my mouth,\nsome strange taste tickling the edges.\n\n\"Yes,\" she said, peering at the blood. \"It is an ape. A sentient\nspecies. They cannot survive the heat of the Berwem, without our alchemy\nand preperation. So they stay away. This pitiful creature will expire\nsoon. If it has not already.\"\n\nAs if in response, the ape gave a cough and a struggled movement. I\nflinched, but Hinte stepped forward, standing above the ape. Her weight\nshifted a bit to the side. Then, a claw flew, ripping out the ape's\nthroat. I jumped, but the knot in my stomach unraveled. It couldn't do\nanything now.\n\n\"What--what was it doing here?\"\n\n\"I do not know,\" Hinte said, an unbloodied foot falling over the other.\n\"But we will return to town and inform the faer.\"\n\n\"Why?\" I flicked my tongue, glancing at the ape and its pool of blood.\n\nThe dark-green wiver peered at me. \"Imagine if this were an unmarked\nsky-dweller instead of a human. Do you see why that would be a\nproblem?\"\n\nA frill brushed against my headband. \"But that's different, the\nsky-dweller probably fell.\" I looked again at the pool of blood, then\nup above us, at the overhang.\n\n\"My point flies. Imagine it were a Pteroni, then. What would you think?\"\n\n\"That they were up to something? Pteroni are drafty,\" I said, still\npeering at the overhang.\n\n\"This ape is up to something. Humans are not just exotic creatures. They\ncan war and plot like dragons.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said. Then, \"Hey, does this pool of blood look off to you?\"\n\nHinte looked to the corpse, tilting her head.\n\n\"There's no blood trail leading anywhere, and the scent trail starts\nhere and doesn't go anywhere.\"\n\n\"And there are no footprints leading here.\" She looked at me. \"You think\nit fell.\"\n\n\"I do.\" I looked up at the overhang. \"Do you think there might be more\nof them?\" Waving my tongue, I added, \"I can smell more sweat⁠ ⁠---⁠ and\ncooked crab meat.\"\n\n\"Yes. We can fly up and investigate.\"\n\n\"Um, can you? I can, uh, stay and watch the body.\"\n\nHinte watched me a long moment before humming and saying, \"As you wish.\"\nAs she said this, she stepped away, her tail unstrapping her bag and\nlantern, then offering them out to me. \"Hold these.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said, getting the bag's strap loose around my neck. \"Ow. Why\nis there so much weight in this?\" Holding the bag for one instant was\nenough to steal all my wondering about why she never flew while looking\nfor stones.\n\n\"Emergencies,\" she said. \"And I can fly just fine with it.\"\n\n\"If you like going slow, maybe.\" I peeked in the bag. \"Hey, your\ncanteens are in here.\"\n\n\"Yes, they are.\"\n\n\"Well, my canteens are a little empty and I ran out, so uh... can\nI⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she snapped, already turning around and unfolding her wings. \"Do\nnot drink more than half of one.\"\n\nShe was unfolding her wings to their full extent, only three strides in\neither direction. After running for a few beats, she flapped her wings,\nand leapt high. The bright-white figure rose with heavy beats of her\nwings, looking a silhouette, then a shadow, then a vague hint in the\nsmoky night air. She reached the overhang, and disappeared.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n:::\n\n::: subchapter\nAlone, I looked at the ape. Its s",
  "title": "Melt"
}