Creep

Chapter Twelve: A New Start

Vimelk's eyelids felt like they'd been glued together. She tried to move her hand to rub them, but something was wrong. Her hand refused to move. Feeling panic start to rise, she tried to move her other arm. That one refused to move as well. Her legs failed to respond as if they conspired against her too. Had she finally succumbed to the wound the young soldier had given her? Was this what death was like?

Through sheer force of will, she managed to get her eyes to open. Stone walls loaded with expensive looking tapestries lit up by torches surrounded her. A couple of particularly ugly gargoyles stared down in her direction. It all looked familiar, but she'd never seen it from this angle. Usually she was standing upright and able to move her limbs without putting any thought into it. Now she appeared to be laying down.

Had she been saved? Vague snippets of a conversation tickled at her memory. Why had she been brought here? There was a small infirmary in Palestone Castle, but it wasn't for the use of people like her. It was for the Queen's favourites. Her pets.

Uneven footsteps sounded from somewhere close by and Vimelk tried to turn her head. Movement was still impossible, so she had to wait for the owner of the footsteps to appear in her line of sight. Someone soon came into view and, to her relief, she recognised them as one of the Queen's scholars. She'd never had much reason to speak to the scholars, but she'd often made a point of greeting them as she saw them scurrying around the castle. This one was the only gnome on the Queen's staff. A strange little chap who almost seemed to hop around, rather than walk anywhere. Vimelk couldn't remember his name, but she knew many referred to him as Hoppity behind his back. She wondered if he knew about the nickname.

"Ah," he said as he bent over her, "I see you're awake." He gave her a soft comforting smile and Vimelk couldn't help but want to smile back. "You probably have plenty of questions, but for now the best thing to do is rest. When you're feeling up to it, you can give your new body a try."

"My new body?" she asked, her voice sounding strange and somewhat echoey.

"Ah... right. I've probably said too much. I thought you knew." The gnome was getting flustered. "Probably best to just go back to sleep... and then someone else will be with you."

"Tell me what's going on," Vimelk demanded, putting as much authority into her new unnatural voice as possible.

The gnome's fingers twisted in his beard and his eyes shot to the open door and then back to Vimelk. "I really don't think I'm the best person to do this. I'm a scholar... you need a healer or someone who knows how to... y'know... talk to people."

"You're talking to me right now." Vimelk's patience was already wearing thin. "Tell me what's going on."

"You were hurt," the gnome began, resigned to what he had to do. "Wylie helped as much as she could. She gave you the Witch's Blood... that stuff usually does the trick, but... well, she was a little too late. Your body was... er... well..."

"Spit it out! My body was what?"

"Well, it was pretty much dead. Your head was almost severed... Do you remember that?"

"It's not something that's easy to forget," she replied. 'Especially when it was done by one of my own soldiers,' she thought. 'And witch's blood?' The thought spun wildly in her mind. Vimelk had been privy to many a conversation about Witch's Blood, but she never really paid much attention to it. While she dealt with real life battles and strategies, the abilities of Witch's Blood seemed like a fantasy. A fantasy that created monsters.

"Yes, quite..." The gnome fiddled with his beard a little more while he chose his next words. "So, Wylie took your head-"

"She took my head? What about the rest of me?"

"I... well, I didn't ask. I didn't think to really... it wasn't my concern. I presume the rest of you is still out there somewhere. Probably wherever you fell." Vimelk couldn't help but think the gnome's bedside manner left a lot to be desired, but she didn't interrupt him again. Whatever information he was going to give her was going to be unpleasant and Vimelk preferred to get those kinds of conversations over and done with as soon as possible. "So, yes, Wylie brought your head to me. She'd already given you the Witch's Blood, so that was working its magic... all you needed was a body. As luck would have it, I'd been working on a little project and Wylie thought it would be just the thing."

"What have you done to me?"

"It's probably better if you see for yourself." Without waiting for her to say anything else, the gnome reached over and picked her up, placing her in an upright position. Her height didn't change all that much, but her head didn't fall over. "It's going to take some getting used to - you do have extra legs now - but you should be able to move around."

"Extra legs?" she asked.

"Yes, my research has been on spiders. They're the Queen's favourite." There was a hint of pride in the gnome's voice.

"You've put my head on some spider's body?" Anger started to rise inside Vimelk.

"Of course not! Don't be silly! I made you a brand new body. It just happens to look like a spider's body... it's where I got the idea, you see! It moves through a complex system of cogs and a fair bit of magic. In fact, I used a lot of the magic science in this one. I'd say it's one of my greatest works. I can't wait to see it in action... er, I mean you. I can't wait to see you in action."

Vimelk looked down and saw copper coloured metal legs. She tried to move one and, to her surprise, the leg obeyed her.

"There you go!" the gnome said, full of pride and excitement. "You'll get the hang of it in no time at all."

"You made this body for me?"

"I did indeed." The smile on the gnome's face was ridiculously wide now.

"Then why didn't you just make me a human body? Why did it have to be a spider?"

The gnome shrugged. "The Queen likes spiders..." His voice was quiet and the look on his face suggested he was a little surprised that Vimelk wasn't overjoyed with his work. It probably hadn't even occurred to him that he could have made a more human-looking body.

"But what am I supposed to do with a tiny spider body?"

"I don't know. I guess it's up to you. You can climb walls. Stand on the ceiling. Perhaps Queen Elsbeth plans for you to spy for her? Other than that, I know she wants you to be the head of the military."

"The head of the military? Are you joking?"

"What? No..." The gnome became flustered. "Oh, I didn't mean to offend."

With that, he hopped away, moving as quickly as possible. Vimelk tried her new legs again. This time, the movements didn't feel quite so unnatural. Maybe she could live with this.