EMBERS (Of the Earth Series, Book Two)

Chapter 10 - Perspective (Ragger - Eons Ago)

I snarled at the intruder as he gazed up at me, a miniscule thing, dwarfed by my vastness. The audacity of this creature, to venture so deep into my domain, astounded me.

As it eyes met mine, a maw yawned open in what had seemed a featureless visage, teeth glinting like shards of bone. My tail cracked against the stone in response, the impact reverberating through the chamber - a promise of destruction.

"You will not leave this place alive," I roared, my voice reverberating through the cavernous space.

"That was never my intention," it whispered back, the sibilant hiss sending chills down my spine. "Nothing is going to leave this place alive."

My empress's screech of displeasure echoed in the recesses of my mind as the intruder spoke, her disdain for the creature radiating across the planet. "Destroy it, my loyal son," she commanded.

"Yes, mother." I reared back, hacking a glob of corrosive slime at the interloper's feet. It sprang away in a blur of motion, latching onto the wall with preternatural ease, dangling by one appendage as it bellowed defiance. Acrid fumes roiled from the stone as the slime ate into it.

Twisting my bulk, I attempted to track the creature's darting form to no avail. Again I lashed my tail, propelling myself at the wall where it perched. Again it evaded me, raking its claws across my muzzle as it flashed past. The star-diamond scales of my hide sheared away like parchment.

I crashed to the ground, a roar of anguish tearing from my throat. Pain, true pain, an agony I had not suffered in millennia. The creature's venom seared my flesh, warping the very essence of my host body. I ground my face against the rough stone, desperate to scour away the corruption.

It struck again, disemboweling me with surgical precision. My acid sac ruptured, spilling its contents across the floor in a wave of pure annihilation, too potent for even my host's body to withstand. The viscous substance devoured my talons and sloughed the skin from my feet, and began rapidly consuming the stumps of my legs left behind. I collapsed, smashing through the chamber wall as I lost control of my flailing mass.

A flicker of motion in my dimming vision - my queen, scuttling to my aid on dozens of whirring limbs. Her royal jelly splashed over my wounds, the soothing balm staunching the damage everywhere but where the Destroyer itself had dispensed its venom into my face. Those injuries would never mend, but the pain at least had ceased.

"Thank you," I wheezed. "Thank you, mother."

"Get up," she spat, fury contorting her countenance. "Get up or that thing will destroy our entire way of life, our whole civilization, everything I - we - have strived to create. Get up, Anubsika, or be cast out!"

She whirled and fled, vanishing into a crevice in the ceiling, her spinnerets weaving a barrier of resin behind her as she sealed herself in her inner sanctum.

I heaved myself upright, staggering about on ravaged feet, wings grating against the confines of the too-small space and sending shards of resin pattering to the ground. The Destroyer crouched on the far wall, studying me with cold, alien intelligence, the eldritch patterns adorning its carapace swirling and pulsing with unknowable power. It sought a path past me, to pursue its single-minded goal of our extinction.

"Why defend that pretender?" The Destroyer's voice plunged the chamber into an abyss of dread, each sibilant word dripping with venom. "She is the true monster, the architect of our destruction. It is she who deserves the title 'Karagaunt.' As it is, she is nothing more than a glorified Karagon."

Fury ignited in my veins, ancient and primal. "You dare?" The words tore from my throat, guttural and raw. "You dare disrespect your mother, your queen? Even for an abomination like you, that is beneath contempt." I whipped my wing at the creature, a blur of razored membrane, but it twisted away, scuttling across the wall to perch behind me.