Blood and Earth

[pangolin]

The Hin carefully sniffed his way into the clearing. The air was crisp and clean and bathed in the pumpkin-orange of late afternoon. This part of the forest was empty and silent. No bird sang. No creature scrambled through the fallen, bitter leaves. The ground was pungent with decay and birth. Tock was alone. He stalked to the center of the glade, his senses open and alert to the slightest of signs. When the time was right he acted quickly and with great ferocity. Tock threw himself to his knees and ripped his tunic away from his body. He pulled the sickle from his belt and sliced deeply across his chest. He stabbed the sickle into the earth and cupped his hands below the smile-like wound, filling them with blood. Tock brought his hands to his lips and filled his mouth with crimson life. He raised his face to the now starlit sky and spat. Blood sprayed over himself and the darkened clearing. He leapt to his feet and began dancing frantically in an ever increasing circle, screaming to the night and beating his knotted fists against his bloody chest. Tock stopped suddenly and whipped around to face the thing he called from the depths of the forest.
The leopard poured out of the shadows and into the glen. Each step it took a testament to power and grace. A slow rumble began within its chest as it circled opposite the diminutive Hin. They faced each other, the black panther now snarling and hissing, the Hin still beating his chest and cursing in gibberish. Without notice the great cat sprang at Tock.
Tock ran forward, then reversed direction, grabbing a mammoth paw in his hands. His head snapped around and he dug his teeth into the meaty fleshy behind the cat's ear. He rolled backwards with the leopard, shaking its ear in his tiny jaws. The cat screamed in rage and tried to claw Tock loose. Tock's belly was torn and his thighs were shredded. He worked his way to the back of the panther's neck, maintaining a tenacious grip on its ear. He grabbed the great cat by the scruff of its neck and released his bite.
The leopard froze and Tock began a whispering hiss into the remains of its tattered ear. The cat relaxed and the glen was filled with deep purring. Tock lay exhausted on the big cat, slowly bleeding to death...

[pangolin]

The great leopard Tock bound himself to was licking his ragged wounds, slowly cleaning the dying Hin. Tock's breathing had become shallow. His skin was pale, even beneath the caked blood and earth. His head rose shakily and he looked without seeing into the trees. Something was moving in the twilight purple forest. Something big that stunk of the kill even though it had not revealed itself. Tock dropped his head to the ground and his grip on the great cat, much like his grip on life itself, loosened. He coughed gore and his eyes drifted out of focus. He knew he was dying, yet did nothing. Tock was waiting for either death or deliverence and as he exhaled his last breath, both stepped into the clearing.
It was a behemoth, yet moved with insectile grace. Its head was boar-like with the exception of massive antlers that draped moss and vines. The head sat atop a black furred bear's body that emitted a fine mist, luminescent in the moonlight. Its muscled arms ended in paws that seemed to continually drip blood. The beast moved to the Hin's corpse and ignoring the melanistic leopard, picked it up. Its eyes glowed white-green as it inspected the lifeless husk. The creature snorted once, blasting steam and black snot into Tock's dead face. In a single motion it held him up by his leg and dropped him into its gaping maw, swallowing him whole. The beast then snatched the leopard up by the scruff of its neck and gazed into the cat's eyes. The panther fell slack, as supplicant as a kitten. The forest god placed a single claw on the cat's forehead, then traced a rune-like sigul in the cat's bloody fur. It lowered the now sleeping cat to the earth and squatted in the center of the clearing. It lifted its muzzle to the moon and with a deafening bellow, shat Tock into the dirt. It clawed away the amniotic sac that enveloped the Hin and placing bristling jaws over his face, breathed life into Tock. Choking and coughing, he rolled over onto all fours and vomited pale green fluid. By the time he rose unsteadily to his feet, the god was gone...

[mr duncan]

A lil sick... but great to have you writing now.


J