Suggested by: Andy "
(First, click here for "The Siren Song" Part 1)
Rushing water.... Scarred face snarling, pushed away by a muddy
deluge... Pain in his wrists... Pulling his arms, the mighty river
yanking him... Long scaly arms embracing him... Abandoning the rubble of
broken cement and twisted rebar and dead bodies and torture and greed—
Air!
His stomach heaved and he felt the salty, silty water mixed with bile
burned his throat coming back up. The feeling of the hard ground
registered as he rolled over to let gravity clear his lungs.
He
inhaled just once—one shaking, gasping breath—and a loud scream erupted
behind him. Instantly, claws dug into his back as a tremendous weight
pressed the breath from him again. Huge paws rolled his battered body
into his back as the large beast slobbered all over his face. Feebly, he
tried to reach up and push the animal away.
"No..." He protested in a thin whisper. "Stop..."
"CARNOSSUS!"
The
command issued in a voice so strong it could have shaken the cavern.
Immediately, the moist, sticky torment ceased and the weight left him.
He sat up and rubbed the saliva from his face before he dared take
another breath. At last, he could have a good look at his surroundings.
They
seemed to be inside an enormous tree of some sort. Winding pathways
wound around the perimeter, built out of the very substance of the tree.
A sense of ancient magic hung like the cloying scent of sawdust in the
air.
Just next to him was a wide, deep pool—probably their
entry point. His rescuers awaited him at a respectful distance: one was a black panther the size of a Clydesdale with the temperament of a doting house cat; the other, a bronze-skinned woman dressed in animal pelts,
nearly eight feet tall and busily trying to dry the pale-grey scales off
her deep-brown skin. Her long black hair hung down her back in braided
ropes woven with seaweed and studded with shells.
He tried to ease himself onto his feet, but a white-hot flash of pain burned through his muscles. The giantess shook her head.
"No, Benji; Carnossus will help you."
The
panther bounded to his side, and Ben clumsily threw his arms over the
beast's head. Moving slowly and smoothly, the enormous cat lifted its
head, pulling Benji upright and guiding him toward the place where the
woman sat. She had a pile of extra pelts ready, and laid him out on
that. Benji sighed with relief as the softness relieved much of his
pain.
"Thanks for the rescue, Onesha," he sighed.
The Amazon nodded. "I swore to you that whenever you played the song of my people, I would come."
Benji
chuckled, a movement that reminded him of his still-swollen face and
the cracked ribs from his lengthy torture session at the hands of the
guerrillas. He looked around the tree.
"What is this place?" He asked.
Onesha produced a round satchel and began sorting through the pouches and vials it contained.
"My people call it the Hall of Whispers."
Ben examined the wood a little closer; it wasn't any variety he recognized. "Are we still near the Amazon rainforest?" He asked.
Onesha began spreading the ointment over his ribs, binding them with a soothing cloth.
"This
is a place outside of time, yet folded within your realm," she
answered, her warm, resonant voice resounding over him. "You are
completely safe here."
Folded in, Benji thought. "So, it's part of Midrealm?" He guessed.
Onesha nodded. "The collision of our realms provided a safe space for me and my sisters to hide."
Benji
nodded, sitting up very slowly as the Amazon's ointment strengthened
his body. "Right up until the time it started collapsing," he grunted.
She
nodded. "So long as we stayed within the water, we were safe within the
boundaries of Midrealm, but some of my sisters were not satisfied, and
sought to walk among the people of this realm, to war against them and
conquer them as goddesses."
Benji could well imagine the sight
of thousands of ten-foot mermaids crawling up on land and transforming
into eight-foot giantesses; it was terrifying enough the first time he
saw Onesha shift.
Carnossus returned, her muzzle the size of
Benji's head as she nuzzled him. He winced as the pressure of her touch
hit a bruise on his skull.
"Back, Carnossus!" Onesha hissed,
shooing the animal away. She watched Benji with a face full of concern.
"I am sorry you were captured."
He shrugged and bobbed his
head. "That was my own dumb fault. I volunteered to be the bait,
remember?" Benji smirked, while resolving in the back of his mind that he
would never have to go through that experience again. He sighed, looking
up at Onesha.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
Onesha smiled at him, and pulled something else out of her satchel: an antique leather-bound book.
Benji felt an electric surge of anticipation as Onesha cradled it in her hands.
"You
were right; the angry men did indeed hold the sacred book of my
people." She traced the ornate emblem on the front with gentle fingers.
"Within these covers is the secret that can safely separate our worlds
before our warriors launch the attack that will wipe out all humans from
this realm."
Previously in This Series:
Continuous Stories:
Crossover Parts: "Rendezvous" (SM 6/SL 2) "The Viking and the Lore-Master" (SM 9/SL 4)
Single Posts:
#26 "The Tides of Battle"
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