Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 82: Fury Blood

Life was chaos. More and more day by day. His friends were crazy.

Clay-Crawler had thought he had left the craziness of life behind when the Deadskull rescued him from the Dark Bloods and brought him to his new clan. But in the Bloodlands, his new clan were becoming as crazy as his raider brethren. It was the land. The Red Menace. It birthed and bred insanity in the air.

He was still feeling ill in the stomach, and had lost interest in completing the blood-bond ritual for Whisper. It didn't help that his friends had cooked up the radraptor he had hunted for her and then eaten it between them. He had managed to extract the blood he would need from it before they got their hands on it, but it was no longer fresh and had lost it's sacred essence.

He did know a ritual that would bring the essence in the blood back to life. The Summoning Ritual; to call in the ancient spirits to possess the essence of the blood and bolster it's blessing. It was performed even on fresh blood for the greatest of blood-bonds, like for the warlords Slay and Dark-Drinker. But it was usually performed by the spirit people. He had never performed it himself.

Maybe if he reunited the bond between him and Whisper, she would calm down and stop being so crazy. Then with his woman calm, Deadskull might calm down, too. And with him, everyone else. One big happy clan again. They should be out uniting and forming blood-bonds with the Red Claws to defeat the Dark Bloods together, not fighting each other.

So the young raider braced against the sickness churning his guts and set about with his preserved bowl of radraptor blood, gathering the ingredients he would need for the ritual. From what he had foraged around the borders of Camp Talion, he selected a fireleaf from the firefern he had plucked the firefruit off, a dollop of soursap from the roots that spiralled through the caves scattered beneath camp, a dusting of milkmoss collected from underneath various boulders, one single white iceberry for it's narcotic properties, and lastly a generous splash of the stale blood. All of these ingredients were then mixed in a separate bowl to form a tincture of bloodmilk.

Bloodmilk was a sacred substance to both the Dark Bloods and Red Claws. From what Meek had told Clay-Crawler, it originated with the ancient spirit people of the Dark Bloods, and when the Red Claws detached and formed a rebellion, they adopted the ritual. Bloodmilk was not only customary to drink during the Summoning Ritual, but before battle to imbue a warrior with enhanced strength and the Blood Blessing of the ancient spirits, whom favored the warriors whom conjured the most fire and blood.

The pungent aroma from the bloodmilk made Clay-Crawler both salivate and dry retch, his stomach turning. What was wrong with him? It must be because he had gone so long without feasting on juicy flesh. All this 'new clan' food wasn't agreeing with him. Though he had formed a specific liking for the fruity things that Whisper often delivered to Deadskull and that always gave him an embarrassed smile when she called him her 'Dandy Boy.'

After mixing the bloodmilk tincture, Clay-Crawler tried to remember the incantation Meek and Eye-Daddy would chant to complete the ritual. He sucked in his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his memory to do his bidding.

In the ancient tongue he uttered in a hushed hymn, "Rise from the dust of the Deadlands, rise from the embers of the Dark Deep, breathe in the fires of the apocalypse to cast the fury of the dead into this blood and bless your blood children with it's curse. Exhale your curse into our fury blood."

The raider exhaled as if he were the embodiment of the ancient spirits himself, releasing the fire and fury of the apocalypse from his blood. Upon cracking open his eyelids, he felt convinced that the bloodmilk was now blessed with the curse of the fury blood, throbbing with diabolic power from the Deadlands of the Dark Deep, vibrating with an occult demon born of his summoning. Holding the bowl in his metal hands, he felt a moment of fear in what he had done. Then came the heady rush of power. He had done it, performed the Summoning Ritual. Summoned the fury blood demon.