Kaliak's Tales of The Unatural Ones.

This is an extract from a chapter.

 

These are passages from my book Honour and Deceit. The companions have been lead through a maze and are about to rest. This is when their guide, a dark-elf decides to tell them stories of a long dead race of sorcerers called the Unnatural Ones.

“The Unnatural One who bore the guise of the obese creature, being dragged along by two frail looking arms, wanted first to take perverse and malicious pleasure in playing with its prey. The ill-fated denizen, it had chosen to begin its hatred with, was a farmer named Hiod.                        

This agreeable man was peacefully dreaming about walking through a golden, sun drenched meadow in his homeland of Formorior. Hiod was drifting back to the house where he had been taught how to work the land. By trial and error his father, also taught him how to be an honest man. This continued until Hiod chose to leave the home of his family. He only took from the warm place, skills that had grown in him. Each piece of knowledge continually developed as he became another fair branch to his family’s ever growing tree.

Several birds merrily flew about in contented bliss and had become highly visible, in their unconcerned joyfulness. One even gracefully floated down to perch upon Hiod’s outstretched arm and sung a melodious tune that seemed to have only been made for him. Small furry, brown rodents, with large, feathery ears, playfully darted in and out of the long, golden stalks of corn. Occasionally, one would stop and stand on its tiny back legs. Twitching a tiny nose, it would peer with welcoming and sparkling eyes at this new friend. After being watched by this affable rodent for an unknown amount of time, it would blink once. After a slow turn, the creature scurried into a welcoming field.

These agreeably yellow meadows rolled on as far as Hiod could see and looked ready for harvest. The mature heads of golden corn rippled and swayed. Eventually, the home of his birth came into view. Walking up to the grain heavy, sturdy, oak door, he keenly grasped the simple doorknob. Instantly Hiod knew that to push, would open the door and allow him to enter his parent’s home. After swinging effortlessly open, Hiod simply glided across the plain wooden floor. His body had become a feather, one that was tenderly being blown along by a caring breeze. When he lived here, the objects he remembered were still in the same places they were before he left.

Eager to greet the parents he had not seen for several months, Hiod glided further into the heartening place of his birth. He floated past comfortable chairs and the solid oak table that once again had succulent meats, as well as fresh fruit resting upon it. After gently halting, he now stood just after the table and before the dark brown wooden steps that led to his bedroom. Looking up the flight, he noticed that they also had not changed.

Yet, in the corner of his right eye, he suddenly became aware of a closed door in the furthest wall. He was sure it had not been there when he lived here. His want of his bedroom became distracted and Hiod was pulled into opening the door. Instantly he stood in front of the grainy way out. A brass doorknob looked especially inviting because of the curiosity he now felt with opening the door. With eagerness born from the anticipation of seeing something new, he grasped the doorknob. Hiod twisted the handle as he pushed.

Standing about four meters before him in a scene devoid of colour or objects was a flabby man. Looking in dream blunted interest; Hiod noticed how large he was. The man was not just rotund; he had layers of fat flesh rolling down his body in rubbery waves of loose skin. This repellent body was also totally naked. The only thing that hid his means for breeding was a sagging, bloated belly. Abruptly a leering grin broke across the corpulent mans face and sent a ripple of flesh rushing around his bald head.

Apparently useless skinny arms that had suddenly grown from his sides stretched and leisurely came down to rest a couple of feet in front of the now unable to move farmer. Hiod quickly felt unsure in his apparently sleeping thoughts. He sensed creeping fear, crawl up his back. In one mass of pale, shuddering flesh, the stranger’s body heaved itself forward, and landed with a soft plop in front of Hiod. From its obese face, it stared through vacant black eyes. While its inane leer carried on rolling across its head like the fateful collapse of a house, a great shudder tore through the creature. From its oversized body, large folds of rubbery flesh erupted, flew towards Hiod and enveloped him.

The farmer quickly found that he could not move, even slightly. Hiod now felt another sensation other than terror. A solid substance was loudly experienced as it pushed violently into and down every orifice. He believed that the fibrous material even poured deep into his thoughts. His ideas about life were quickly being replaced with thoughts of obesity. Once his entire body, mind and essence had been covered by The Unnatural One, Hiod felt that he was slipping away. Soon he knew that gristly fat pumped through his veins and not blood. Images the farmer once held dear, like those of a warm life in the farmlands of Formorior, disappeared.

Away from Hiod’s nightmare, he lay unmoving on a bed of clean straw. The peaceful idealist’s watchful wife had worked in the fields, though now entered their bedroom. Deyni had begun the days labour after deciding to leave her husband to slumber. When Deyni entered, her worries about gathering harvest evaporated into one, meaningless thought. No colour remained in her husband’s once joyous face. Sun-browned shades of life were now replaced by a sickly, white hue. He lay rigid on his back, with eyes transfixed in terror and hands bent into claws. Deyni fell to her knees and wept.

High above this chilling scene and floating in a pitch black sky, a bloated astral form shivered with immoral ecstasy. Then it voraciously hurtled into its next victim’s dreams.”                                

If there were any questions about Kaliak’s in depth story, the dark-mage did not wait, or want to hear them. He immediately returned to another depraved tale.                                    

“I will now describe for you the dream the creature that bore the appearance of a flying beast whose face was the distorted image of its victim.”     

“Deep in a densely wooded glade between two imposing mountains, wandered a woman named Beth. Early in her life, Beth had quickly grown a deep affection for the sight, as well as rich fragrances of the pleasant vegetation. She often walked amid the tall grass, between trees and bushes of the restful dale. Her body had grown strong from many years of working the land, while also remaining supple. Her long, curly, blonde, unkempt locks blew in the breezes and looked as if the sun itself sat upon her shoulders. Beth would often think about the cheery landscape while attending her tasks or dream about the dale when she slept.

The sun in her dream was a joyful shade of garish yellow, with many bright oranges and reds dancing merrily inside. Long shafts of light poured down to bathe the countryside in pleasure. She believed that the sun was similar to a parent caring for many children. As Beth walked, rays would immerse her in a crowd of friendly colours.

Standing over Beth’s feelings for the land, was the passionate thought of her deepest desire. One she had kept secret from people close to her. This unremitting yearning was for the man who waited patiently for private meetings, among the green, waving grass and thriving Parlio bushes. Beth’s parents had taken an instant disliking to the worker of the soil, Torith, when they found out he simply guided a plough, pulled by an overworked ox. He was not a squire or even someone of reputable standing, a position that would take their daughter to higher importance in their village. The young lover’s adoration had been kept away from the scorn of Beth’s parents, whose daughter also, worked the soil.

Thick undergrowth always parted eagerly as Beth raced onwards. Longing was her strongest thought, as her pace took her through the landscape which always promised more. As Beth moved faster, she floated above the ground several hands high. Soon a stream would joyfully gurgle and splash beside her. The sky of the reverie was always full of darting birds, singing harmonious and bright songs.

Rapidly she flew over the valley. As she hastened, all that could be viewed out of the corner of her eyes was a blurry haze of mottled greens. Soon, the scenery around the flying woman of Formorior started to fall back into a more stable backdrop. Tall trees with long vines that tenderly entwined around one another now stepped back into view.

Instantly after her bare feet had touched the settled ground, Beth moved with long and eager strides to where she knew Torith waited. She noticed that the ground was touched by dew. The mist clung to each vibrant blade of grass with an eager clinch of pale silver. Many translucent and spherical globes of watery droplets lightly clung too each shaft, as if a gentle hold on the stalk had given the damp a reason to exist. Beth now sensed that the object of her heart was near. Many abundant Parlio bushes again separated their slender, leaf heavy branches to show Beth an easy path.

Soon, Torith was standing before her. He was dressed in a dark brown leather jerkin with a baggy, heavy green garment that fell from his waist to his bare feet. His powerful frame could easily be seen through the partings in the rough leather. Beth became eager to have his body pressed close to her own. Taking a light, yet excited step towards her, Beth soon became held by robust arms. Her joy of receiving his deep and passionate kiss turned to terror, however. Torith’s handsome features quickly ebbed away, like a melting, wax head.

The previous rugged shapes of a strong face quickly distorted into the image of Beth’s own feminine look. Her unperturbed feeling of briefly looking at a heartening reflection was thrown into disorder. This facial twin bore a fanatical grin that reached from ear to ear. It seemed that if it opened its mouth the head would certainly split in two. Also, where Beth’s eyes sat, and twinkled with a bright, dancing blue, only sunken holes existed. These pits of despair appeared not to end in the truth of the back of a head. Their darkness stretched out, with no end. She now stared into the hideous charm. A more disturbing world was revealed to her and it filled Beth’s mind with a threatening, consuming void. The sickened girl eventually tore her horrified gaze away. As Beth did, a sickly reddish-purple gore discharged slowly and methodically out from the hollow tunnels. Glancing at the rest of this creature, she hastily saw its bulk. It was of a large and sinewy bird of prey. However, instead of bestial wings, something more dreadful than she had ever thought of grew there. Pushing out from each side of the repulsive bulk were one her butchered parents.                                      

Beth turned in a painfully slow twist. Wanting to tear away from her nightmare, she was devastated when no burst of speed came. Instead, each step Beth now made felt as if she walked through cloying mud. As thoughts spun in frustration and terror, the land became a blur. Vibrant greens of the foliage and strong, timeless hills were gone. Gone was the pleasant sunlight. The sun had been replaced by a blood red orb of fear. An ill looking glow now poured and the land was bathed in crimson. Yet, Beth knew that this nightmare was still in her own thoughts. Control must only belong to her, for escape to be possible.

So she forced herself not to believe that she was being held. Instantly the muck loosened. Instantly breaking into a run, she raced from the vile mirror. Though, fleeing strides were slowed because the uninvited muck again reached up to seize her bare feet. Quickly the young lady was pulled to the ground. Falling face first into the slime, Beth felt it pour up through her nose as well as mouth. A viscous chaos then churned inside her and its sickening touch rapidly sapped away her will. Lying with her face, buried she felt the brightness of her golden hair drain away. The waning girl now thought about the futility of living without Torith. She felt a sudden pointlessness with fighting any approaching death.

Yet, a resolve was found and her head rose from the vile, clinging mess. Beth pushed herself into sitting on her knees. Unfortunately, rising any further was prevented by her soft captor. After hastily scooping mud from her eyes, she gazed at a rotting landscape. A malformed landscape of decaying mottled hues lay all around.

She understood that the surroundings were dying and accepted the change. Even the thickset hills were melting into the white viscous slime that clung to her. Beth was snapped out of a fixation with a nightmare taking her favourite dream, when a noise thudded into feelings of despair and lost. Thick flapping was now heard. Gliding down in gloomy shades of obscurity and silhouetted against the crimson sky was the creature that earlier had replaced Torith.

This thing of nightmares stood silently over Beth and leered down with two holes that implied a bottomless feeling rather than giving one. 

Strength that had exploded from Beth like radiant flare had now been sucked away. Despair keeping her down, was nearly as strong as the slime. All that she could do was look up at her vile mimic in futility.

A breeze of stinking rotting flesh now engulfed Beth in a fetid hold. Suddenly a gentle stroking was felt by Beth upon her wet cheek. She also experienced the mild caressing in every fibre of her body. Her sight became misguided to staring at the creatures grease laden feathers. Wrongly, she wondered why they trembled in the strange draught. In her trance, Beth failed to notice that the creature had moved closer. It was of gigantic proportions, for its vile wingspan reached further than her eyes could see.”                                                         

Looking closely at Torok, Kaliak broke his telling and said, “That is, if anything Beth dreamed of, can be thought as being true.”           

The warriour creased his forehead in an unsure attempt at understanding. Though, only thoughts of feeling ill came. The dark-mage noticed this and knew that he was moving into Torok. With a deep and over-prolonged intake of musty air, the dark-elf carried on.                                            

“Beth tried to wrench herself loose. Yet after all her thrashing, she was not free of the glutinous subjugator. Now the pulled taut image of her face attached to the nightmare impossibly widened its already immense grin. Its grotesque leer now completely filled Beth’s sight. After raising the sickening mock parents high above its vile body, the creature heavily brought them down onto Beth. An idea that was a sliver, against her swamping wave of terror was thought. This creature was crying.

Of course, the Unnatural Ones had no such remorse as their emotions had already evaporated. All that Beth saw was the pushing of further gore.                       

An instant crushing of Beth’s life would have been a blessing, yet this was not going to happen. After each mutilated parent had landed, it instantly sprang into an individual rupture of life. Weeping lesion swathed arms flailed and hands clawed outwards with black fingernails as hard as iron. No attention was given to Beth’s futile pleads of mercy. While being shredded, she felt that her dream had ended. When one piece of her flesh had been hurled away, immediately another was dismembered. Her body broke, as easily as water flowing through a hand. Soon, the macabre limbs had turned the once healthy Beth into a tacky pile of remains. They would have looked at home on a butcher’s board. From the shock of her dreaming, the heart that regularly sang to a rhythmic beat ended its dance. When Beth’s real and caring mother had decided to go and wake her oversleeping daughter, all that Faeynor found was a lifelessly cold shell, engraved in terror.”                                      

Seeing the companions wilting shapes was not the reason that stopped Kaliak from telling many more tales. It was the fact that the time when the amulet was moved to another place was approaching. Deciding to finish, he told of the Unnatural One leader, Gioyun.                         

The dark-fable teller began to speak in a quieter tone than before. This forced those who listened to intensely concentrate on the distasteful words.                                     

“Hovering above the land in the now doom laden sky of Formorior, Gioyun let his rotted mind fall onto his quarry. All, the Unnatural Ones had chosen their victims similar to an adult taking important time to be concerned for a child. A zealous explosion flared up when Gioyun had seen a man with a dangerous lack of willpower. Tearing through the veiled night, as quick as a blink usually passes unnoticed, he entered. The Unnatural One became part of the surreal contemplations of a man named Dukil. The farmer did not respond to the slight waver along the images in his dream. In his creative, mind was a landscape filled with tall trees sprouting beckoning limbs. Grass covered the land in a ranging carpet. It was made from many dazzling colours, most not known by the ordinary denizen, (such as you, sneered Kaliak). These countless, high blades swayed in harmony with their own colour.

This sight pleased and relaxed Dukil. Also in vast quantities were large and lavish bushes. Again, they were decorated in the finery of bright, extravagant shades. Contained in their broad, leaves were motivating blues, flaming reds, vivid and juicy speaking oranges. A majestic purple streak ran through all the colours similar to the furious path of a charging bull. This myriad of tones, were the clothes of polished gold kindling belonging to each fantastic plant. The bushes did not sway. Several waterfalls poured sparkling waves of translucent liquid into a large and meandering river that appeared to have no beginning or end. All the cascades emerged from the many shades of blue, yellow, red and green of the sky. 

In the landscape, no animals scurried or flew about, though sounds of activity were heard. Calls of various screeching tropical birds, mundane warbles and announcing cawing sounded. Continually waving grasses calmly undulated around each bush and tree as surf laps around rocks on a coastline. Dukil would wander aimlessly, until he roused from sleep.

From time to time Dukil would crane his neck skywards and gaze wistfully upon the many hued clouds which floated grandly across the coloured sky. At first, they were simple shapes and would come into his view as soft, feathery clouds. As the light forms floated away, he was still aware of them and they swelled into various joyful shapes. Outlines of people he knew and cared for became filled in with richly coloured softness. In his dream, countless waves of light were decorated in vivid shades of brilliance. Warmness that was not felt, but imagined covered Dukil.

As usual, the trees humanlike arms waved around constantly. With the swaying grasses and the ever ambling clouds, the dream was one of motion. While he walked toward no particular destination, the forested limbs gently patted Dukil or gave his relaxed shoulders reassuring squeezes. He was content and happy within his illusionary world.

So, it was unfortunate that Gioyun corrupted the unspoilt landscape with a deadly presence. Dukil still felt no change but he was aware of an uneasy feeling crawl up his spine like a bloated spider quickly scuttling over its silky line to a trapped fly.

He was now held in a haze of indecision usually felt while dreaming. After finally deciding to move, Dukil walked further inside his dream. Previously welcoming tree limbs began to lurch forward in a drunken stagger. They sought to grapple instead of reassuring. Twisted and bony fingers appeared at the end of each limb. The farmer now heard a sinister creaking and groaning. Also, the enjoyable purr of singing birds became replaced by noises of guttural cries. This loud din sounded as they were being strangled out of the dream. A dousing of life and creaking wood were now the only noises in his dream.

When panic took its encompassing grip, Dukil broke into a run. The branches of trees that once were his extraordinary friends, had sprouted hurtful thorns that tore his skin. Any clothes he had, vanished and he became painfully aware that he was naked. Many tears soon crisscrossed his skin and he rapidly looked like a harshly woven tapestry, with thread of weeping lesions.

‘This should not be happening,’ quickly become Dukil’s only thought.

Foliage was now dense. All trees had turned even darker while being covered with a greater foreboding. Branches forcefully whipped down in anger, swathed in spite. Brightly coloured bushes became cloaked in sickly yellows and rotting browns, lined through with dark, decaying greens. Thick tendrils now darted from them to wrap with vice like grips around Dukil’s limbs. He was unceremoniously brought to the ground. He experienced no gentle floating; only the uncontrolled speed of collapse. Lying motionless, he glimpsed through confusion a disembodied nose fly out from behind a tree. It stopped two arm lengths in front of him. Looking at the hovering facial part with morbid curiosity, he then saw several eyes and more noses, simply swagger from behind the thick tree. They then hovered around the first nose.

Darkly mottled vines which firmly held Dukil quickly became joined by many other tendrils rapidly pouring out of the violent bushes.

Here was a man being cocooned in a thick layer of plants.

All that the trapped farmer could do was move his neck and he forced it upwards. High in the sky, several tiny dots appeared. After he shifted inside his restricted shell, the parts suddenly hurtled downwards with extraordinary speed. As if they had slammed into some invisible wall, both stopped and hovered next to the other floating features.

This group soon became a mass as more eyes, noses, ears and mouths poured from all around him. The grisly flying parts soon began to clumsily swirl, often bumping into each another. Then they all abruptly halted, about a tall man’s height off the ground. Silence descended upon Dukil as not even malicious groaning or creaking was heard. Also, the last cries of birds had stopped. A human shape suddenly appeared in front of him. It was thickset, yet not fat, stood taller than the average man, was covered in a shifting shadow and wore no clothes to cover what was not there. After thrashing and twisting about in an increased effort, Dukil soon realised escape was futile.

The more he struggled, the greater he became entangled, like a Yourk fish caught in a fisherman’s net, far out in the Omarcla sea. As if all the pieces were now commanded to move, they swirled about with increasing violence. Under another silent order, the ghastly parts stopped just above the figure now draped in existing shadows. Some pieces now spun faster than lightening and swam together to form a face.

Staring through the spaces between each floating part, Dukil could see the rotting landscape behind. Soon, this decaying vision, held in a face, grew. Decayed foliage and twisted branches of trees now swayed in time to some unseen sighing. When any part of the giant face touched vegetation, the feature would envelope the bush or branch. Then it would be wiped from the landscape. Then, the facial feature grew bigger. With horror, he looked at the death of his dream, and an immense, grisly, human-like face.            

The gigantic threatening face stared down at him with black unreadable eyes. After he had witnessed this brutal change of scenery, he then found himself swiftly returning to the overpowering awareness of being entrapped in vines. Far past the vagueness of sleeping, Dukil briefly wondered if he was experiencing a nightmare within a dream. He decided yes.

Now he closed the part of him he believed was his eyes. After willing himself to wake, familiar smells of freshly cooked bread, a recently dew soaked meadow and the clean, crisp morning air hit his nose with reassurance. Yet, after he had rapidly opened his eyes and hopefully banished the nightmare, he did not see his comfortable bedroom. A giant, malicious face contorted with dark ideas of hate still stared down upon him. Dukil also was still restricted by iron hard creepers.

“Did you enjoy my hopeful game of deliverance?” became the mocking sentence floating from its oversized mouth.

Staring upon its trapped prey with immense eyes full of despair, it smiled a leer that showed dead foliage in large gaps between translucent teeth. Dukil suddenly became aware of the fading sensation in his body and mind. This enlarged moment of terror, tried to break Dukil back into reality. It did not succeed and his weightlessness, continued. A deep feeling over took him, similar to an eager swimmer trying to reach their destination. Itching that could not be reached spread across his face.

He now felt parts of his face being pulled. Another macabre cloud of facial parts was forming above the unclear being’s head. Dukil instinctively recognised them. As the cloud grew, so did the pulling on his face. Soon only Dukil’s left eye was not in the cloud and it blinked in unconscious rhythm. The itching the farmer had sensed now deepened into clawing and was felt all over his body. With his remaining eye, he cast it downwards. Parts of his body were stretching, into the morbid cloud. Soon, the only experience he had left was a manically moving eye. In fading vision, he saw his torso, arms, legs and facial parts all churning above the shadow. Finally, there became darkness as Dukil’s world was turned off. Piece by piece, like a small pile of pebbles being dropped into a bucket, Dukil’s parts joined the face below. Dukil had now become part of Gioyun and for the moment this Unnatural One was satisfied.”                

 

Author's Note

Please ignore grammar problems and comment on the writing.

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[TLK]

Please double check your apostrophes and make sure they're not backslashes. Otherwise the reader is put off going past the title, as there is a clear mistake in it.