Dark Lord Saga : The Blood Mage

Chapter 22 : Corpse

On the third day, Grey pushed himself past the mist covered trees, deeper into the forest. Here the magic grew even thicker, the air itself distorting reality. Things no longer phased in and out, but even changed shape and form. The trees felt like hard stones, their branches hanging over his head, they towered and swung as like vines.

Every now and then a large branch would swoop low and crash against the earth, before reeling back up like a whip. In this chaotic scene, Grey stayed close to the tree trunks, to avoid getting struck. It took him a few minutes to realize the things were branches, but after a few hours, he passed this area too, with his group of turtles.

Kuu was like a wayward traveler. He would stick his head out, then retreat his head to avoid getting struck. As Grey approached the next area, there was a lingering sensation that nestled in the pit of his stomach. It was an odd feeling. He still could not see, so he did not know what it was about this new area that made him feel so strange, but there was something. Something here. The ground beneath his feet was rocky, there was a wall on one side. He imagined he was in a gorge. This uneasy feeling grew stronger when he went towards his right. Along the wall, it opened up to a cave entrance.

The turtles themselves didn't follow him this far no matter how much he prodded. But there was something here. In this cave. He gave Kuu a gently pet and decided to venture into the cave alone. His hands feeling upon the cold moist rock. He crawled on the ground, to make himself a smaller target for any curious eyes.

A few hours into the cave, Grey discovered the source of his discomfort. His hands feeling upon a wet surface, a soft tissue. A human corpse. His hands patted down the body, feeling upon it. He touched a small knapsack. It was Max. He was dead. The shock ran through Grey's body. He dared not touch it anymore. But...even so....something about it was calling him closer.

The body seemed to have fused with the ground. Parts of it molding into the bottom of the cave. He had a curious and revolting sensation that this was one of the ways magic worked.

"Accept everything. Good and Bad," whispered Iris in his head.

"Sorry, Max." mumbled Grey, steeling his heart. His hands gently touched the back of the human corpse and there he meditated.

The hours passed into a night and there Grey sat thinking about the corpse. How did it fuse into the ground? He sat and listened. In silence of the cave, Grey began to hear a thumping. Thump. Thump. His heartbeat. It moved down to his hand and echoed through Max's body and into the cave.

The cave magnified this sound in his ear. Body fused into the earth. Did this mean that the earth was the same thing as a human body? Grey breathed deeply. The same thing? He felt the skin on his hand and then the hard stone beneath his feet. He pressed his hand down on the ground and his hand sank into the stone.

He pulled up and his hand rose from the ground. There was a terrifying feeling as he pressed his hand down that his hand ceased to exist. As if the earth had eaten it whole. Grey began to realize what Max had found here. He probably went too far and the earth won, eating half of Max's body.

Scary. Truly terrifying. Even so, Grey had a good feeling that this place had to be a very special. He couldn't explain it, but he felt empowered in here. As if something was pushing him up, the vastness of the cave, making him feel much larger than he really was. He sat and thought. And passed the rest of the day in meditation.

~~~

As he slept, Grey felt a pain at the back of his neck. He groggily woke up. His hands feeling his neck. He touched something wet and warm. Blood. His senses snapped to attention and the fluttering of wings spread out before him. Hands. Legs. Neck. Everywhere his body was exposed there were bite marks, oozing out trickles of blood.