The fall of a deity

Rest

"Are you sure it's okay to eat this?" Leukos asked, his voice thick with worry and disgust as he poked at a part of the boar unscarred by the black sludge, slowly cooking over the fire.
"Nope!" Ajax's voice was muffled as he tore mouthfuls from his portion, which he seemed to prefer raw.
He had made the last mile or so of the journey with corpse of the young boar slung limply over his shoulder. They had reached a clearing around the entrance to the cave, a large, foreboding gaping maw of rock in the ground, sloping steadily downwards into the belly of the Earth. Leukos had quickly made a good fire, deciding they should wait until the morning before entering the cave in case of entrances in the rocky roof that may let in at least a sliver of light when the sun was  up. They had stripped whatever meat was salvageable from the bones of the boar and were making a meal of their kill.
Leukos took off his mask to take a tentative, reluctant bite of his meat. Ajax looked up from his own meal, interested. Under the mask was a grey-skinned face, only a little lighter than his own grey. Just like the mask, his now more visible eyes were deep pools of red and green,  full of intelligence. Sharp canines tore at the meat, and two short, stumpy grey horns grew up slightly from the top of his forehead. Ajax chuckled lightly, and Leukos stared at him with questioning eyes.
"Cute horns." He rumbled teasingly.
"Zip it. Just because you're an overgrown porcupine doesn't mean-"
Leukos stopped abruptly, whipping his head to the side suddenly. Something was moving out of the bushes nearby. It was another much smaller black mass, vaguely shaped like a wild hare.
It regarded them both with the same cold, bloodshot eyes. Leukos reached for a hunting knife on his belt as it shambled towards Ajax with the same twitching, flailing movements as the boar. It stopped a few inches away from Ajax's leg. Ajax was gazing at it. He still appeared calm, but he was tense as a thunderstorm, and there was a little flash of panic in his eyes. For a moment, he held eye contact with the thing that might once have been a hare, before very, very slowly reaching out one clawed finger to it.
"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Leukos hissed warningly, standing up and gripping the knife so tightly his stormy grey knuckles turned a dirty white. Ajax didn't react, scratching the top of the gooey hare's head. It shifted a little closer, seeming to enjoy the contact.
Ajax turned back to his partner with a bewildered smile. "It's cold. But it's not sticking to me. There's definitely a rabbit under here. Maybe we could use this one to learn what we're up against?"
Leukos relaxed slightly. The substance didn't seem to be hurting Ajax. He relaxed the grip on his knife, walked hesitantly to Ajax's side and sat back down, watching his partner intently. Ajax reached out his claw again, scooping the creature up and laying it on it's goopy back on his lap. He raised his other claw, and drew one finger from just below the thing's head and all the way down it's stomach. A spurt of the same unnaturally dark crimson as before splattered out of the gash as it's belly was split open by the sharp appendage. It was a killing wound, yet the creature didn't even flinch. It gazed calmly down as the claw mark became covered with the sludge, quickly sealing the flesh.

Ajax, without taking his eyes off the rabbit, spoke up. "So... How did we kill the boar if the goo heals wounds?"
Leukos didn't have a response. He looked around for a moment, deep in thought, and noticed another small lump of goo on a young pine tree nearby. It was a bird... Or, used to be. It was small, something like a robin or a swift, but it was close enough to make out another lump protruding out of the top of it, a tiny shapeless mass that would have been it's head. He reached for his bow and an arrow from his quiver, pulling back the drawstring with two fingers without standing up and expertly loosing the arrow. It whistled through the air, but was on it's target before the lump of sludge had a chance to react. It sliced the thing's head through the middle at such an angle that it's skull must have been penetrated. It didn't react for a moment, then dropped to the ground. It convulsed and spasmed for a moment, then lay still, the sludge half seeping, half evaporating away from it just as before.
"Looks like a direct hit to the brain will kill them." Leukos mumbled thoughtfully, walking towards the bird, now revealed to be a robin, and retrieving his arrow to give it's tiny body a prod with the sharpened end. Many of it's feathers were stained black, some missing to reveal deep purple gauges in the flesh. "Same scars, too."
Ajax's attention was still on the hare. He had lifted it from it's perch on his thigh with one hand and was looking worried. "Hey, Leukos? Remember when we decided it's not spread by touch?" Leukos turned his head back again, frowning. Under where the hare had been sitting was the same deep purple scarring patterning Ajax's leg.
Leukos sighed in exasperation. "I told you not to touch it."
Ajax glared back. "Actually you said "what the bloody hell are you doing" and shit yourself. But sure, that works to" He pawed at the mark on his thigh roughly. "Feels dry. Still my scales, just purple."  Ajax pulled a mock pose, lifting his marked leg into the air and placing one claw on his hip. "Is it a good colour on me?" He said, his tone jokingly seductive.
Leukos wrinkled his nose. "Put your leg down, nobody needs to see that. This is serious. You saw what that stuff did to a boar. And put that hare down, we don't need it spreading to the rest of your ugly body."
Ajax placed the hare onto the ground. No purple marks were on his claws yet. "I think that between me and a boar, I'm the smartiest. Maybe it won't affect me." He could see Leukos still looked skeptical, and he sighed. "Look, it hardly feels any different. Doesn't hurt. Let's just sleep, m'kay? Oh, dibs on sleeping first!"
Leukos glared at him for a few more moments, then sighed reluctantly and sat back down in front of the fire, slipping the hunting knife into his hands again. "I'll wake you in a few hours and you can keep watch." He grumbled. "Try not to let another bunny get you."
Ajax snorted. He'd never really minded jokes at his expense. This time, though, Leukos seemed genuinely annoyed at him, so he didn't try making a dig back. He pulled himself up onto a nearby tree, lounging out on a branch not too far up with his legs dangling and his tail holding him steady like a cat, more than happy to snooze for a few hours after their trek. He would never admit how afraid he had been when the boar charged at him.

Ajax was rudely awakened by both of Leukos's hands digging into his side. His eyes shot open immediately, thinking something was wrong, and he made an attempt to get up quickly. He forgot, however, that he had fallen asleep on a branch. Unprepared, he toppled over, hitting the thankfully soft and loamy soil below with a dulled thud. His twisted horns, sticking straight out, immediately became lodged in the soil, and it trickled down the back of his neck with an unpleasant sensation as he rolled over, groaning.
Leukos had taken his place on the branch, looking down on him with a smirk as he rolled in the dirt. "Good morning!" He said with a mocking cheerfulness in his tone.
"Go fuck yourself." Ajax chuckled in response. A harmless prank. He stood up and shook himself off like a wet dog, showering Leukos with soil and twigs too, before groggily taking his place by the now dead fire.
Leukos ruffled his own hair to get the dirt out. "How's the leg?"
Ajax looked down at it, suddenly jolting awake again. The purple mark had swelled in the few hours he had been sleeping, and the middle of it was so dark it was almost black. He ran a finger over it. The darkest parts were beginning to feel wet. "No better." He replied vaguely.
Leukos frowned, but said nothing, leaning back against the trunk of the tree, pulling his hood up and looking away.
Ajax sighed. He pricked his ears, and gazed around warily, watching for any sign of more of those things coated with sludge. Hours passed, and nothing happened. The woods stayed still and silent but for the wind in the trees, whistling by soothingly. Such a normal thing was comforting. Eventually Ajax was finding it hard to fight off sleep.
It's so peaceful. Surely I can rest my eyes a while, he decided. But a sharp snap brought him back to his senses. Fully alert, guard up, he whipped his head around, looking for whatever had broken a stick. The woods seemed to sway around him. But slowly, as his eyes grew used to the dark, the horrible realization overtook him; the woods weren't moving. The creatures were. They were behind every tree, every bush, and they came oozing out of every shadow, swarming towards him like ants to an abandoned picnic. He tried to cry out a warning to Leukos, but he couldn't get a sound free before the wall of black sludge slammed into him and he was surrounded by the stench of decay. The cold seized his body, freezing him in place so that he could scarcely struggle, sending frost down his spine and icicles into his lungs. He couldn't even move to close his mouth. As the pulsating mass of liquid squirmed over him, it filled his mouth with the taste of rotting flesh and the sensation of squirming maggots until he felt like little more than a rancid slab of meat himself. Soon it was pouring down his throat and filling his lungs until they screamed for air, but every breath he took just drew more and more sludge into him. Soon, he couldn't tell where he began and it ended. Blinding panic blotted out his common sense until all he could do was thrash about, maw gaping in a soundless, breathless, lifeless scream in the murky ocean of disgusting black that he was now a part of. And for the first time, he pitied the boar and the bird and the hare, and whatever else in the woods was trapped in this endless, hopeless, hellish prison of rotting death.
He woke with a start, sitting up quickly and gazing wildly about. He was safe. He must have drifted off during his watch. The sun was beginning to peer over the horizon, sending a weak warmth cascading down and casting long morning shadows. Leukos was still fast asleep on his branch, snoring softly. Just a bad dream, nothing more. His racing heart began to still as his breathing evened out. Looking down, he realized that the purple welt on his thigh was also beginning to ooze black sludge. The rank scent of decay filled his sensitive nostrils once again, making him retch and clamp his jaws to stop a wave of nausea. After the dream, he could hardly stomach the smell, but now it was grafted to his body. He gave a silent prayer to whatever deity may have been listening that the cure, the potion or the poultice or the incantation or whatever it took to be rid of the terrifying, mysterious new plague would be found somewhere inside the cave, however far he needed to go.