Behind My Shadow - Book Three

54. Every Lesson Forms a New Scar

I hop off my Angelus Reprobi and land on a ledge near the top of the sweltering maw of the nest. My legs are so shaky, I fall to my hands and knees as soon as my feet hit solid ground. I instantly taste bile and I feel like tossing my cookies yet again but I somehow manage to contain myself.

I gotta lure the Jabberwocky out of this nest somehow!

I have to complete the Labors in order, but I can't help but imagine how much easier it'd be to destroy the egg after the Jabberwocky is able taken care of, but I suppose if I die facing down the big beast than both the Jabberwocky and its evil egg would be alive. At leastwise by destroying the egg first, there's one less Jabberwocky to worry about in the future.

These creatures are strictly solitary, I remind myself as I try to rack my brains for an idea, so it's not like I'll have to worry about two Jabbers in here. These monsters don't even need company to breed, they're all capable of laying eggs themselves by themselves, but they can only lay one egg in their life and that's it.

Hey, I did a lot of research on these things as soon as I could so don't mind me geeking out every once in a while.

As it is, I have an idea I hope might work...

I use my Angelus Reprobi to circle around the top of the nest with a booming roar. Hopefully the Jabberwocky nesting will come swooshing out to chase my animal soul spirit and I'll have enough time to slip inside and destroy this evil egg thing.

My chest suddenly gets tight with terror, and I can't even breathe now as I sense something inside of the volcano stir. It feels like the entire mound of earth is waking up.

I bite my tongue as the ground develops a pulse, like something massive is crawling up the inside of the volcano, getting closer and closer to opening. My Angelus Reprobi flaps her wings and rears back on her hind legs, I elect not to allow myself to see through my soul's eyes so that way I won't be scared senseless at the sight of the creature.

I'll see it soon enough and I don't wanna get psyched out just yet.

I close my eyes tightly and press myself as far against the rock as I can, as if it'll swallow me up and keep me protected from view. I sense my animal soul spirit take flight and now I hear a powerful beat of another pair of wings. The wings are so huge and they hit the air so loudly, it sounds like a clap of thunder. It rattles my eardrums painfully in my head. The thunderous noise eventually gets farther and farther away from me as the beast chases my animal soul spirit.

I look around wildly. I don't see the Jabberwocky; I do spot my bright white Angelus Reprobi though. She is so small and so far up in the hideous looking sky that she looks like a little glowing star. Where is the monster chasing her? How could something so enormous just vanish like that?!

I anxiously remind myself not to get psyched out and now swiftly begin scaling the volcano.

I begin the descend into the dark, sweltering maw of the den.

I summon element earth and rapid create a staircase spiraling down into the dark depths so I can run instead of wasting time scaling down. I have no idea how long my animal soul spirit will be able to keep the Jabberwocky distracted and I really don't wanna face the thing while cornered down here like this.

I summon fire to my fingertips to see as I race down the steps.

My boots suddenly crunch over bone as I leap into the nest. Wha...? OMG. I feel dizzy as I sweep my fiery hand over my surroundings. The entire nest of made out of bones; enormous bones, normal bones, tiny bones, everything is bones and it's all been fused together by what looks like fiery breath. The bones are scorched and blackened and most of them have been melted together.