Disarm Evil

Chapter 15: Infection

I walk down streets laden with mental fog. Sunlight breaks through the mist and bounces off of nearby windows creating a sea of rainbows akin to the four sanctuaries. The pleasant smell of baked bread guides my progress as Miya the yetu rides along on my back.

Suddenly a figure stops in front of us. My body freezes in shock at the sight of my parent Numo.

"After everything we did for you," Numo says, "We gave you the best start anyone could hope for. Opportunities for power, money..."

"I never asked for any of that." I retort.

"How could you be so ungrateful!" Numo yells, "you would leave behind everything we did for you for the false promises of some pedofile. I thought I raised you better than to fall for something like that. What are you stupid?"

"I didn't have anything to leave! You died!" I defend, "Besides, you never cared about what I wanted. Everything you did wasn't for me. It was for you!"

"How could you think it was a good idea to go with Lise? Look at ver! Ve is clearly a predator." Numo gestures to a newly manifested Lise.

Lise bears teeth of violet thorns. Ver skin is white as snow and lips blue like death. Veins are pronounced but look like scarlet roots, and ver eyes are wide and lifeless as they stare at my body.

Fear compels me to run.

"I freed you from your parents," the monster growls as it gives chase, "I gave you the opportunity to serve Ritu that you always wanted and how did you repay me? I'll tear you to shreds!"

"Miya! Miya get us out of here!" I yell.

"On it!" Miya says as ve extends ver wings. Ve begins to lift us to safety when suddenly a spear comes from nowhere and severs a portion of Miya's wing, sending us crashing into the ground.

Once I skid to a stop I look for Miya and find a bitu in ver place. I try to pull myself back to my feet, but my legs will not move. So I begin to desperately crawl to somewhere safe.

"Just as you should be grateful to Ritu for forgiving your transgressions and offering to save you from Hase. You should be grateful to me," says a new familiar voice. I keep crawling, but I cannot help taking a brief glance over my shoulder to see Makali's towering form, a silhouette in the mist, but there is no mistaking the shadowy figure for anyone else. Behind Makali is a perfectly circular ring of fire and it is hard to tell whether the person speaking is Makali or Ritu, "I've given you another opportunity to serve. I have humbled you. Saved you from your pride. Perhaps you need to be humbled further."

Suddenly Lise bursts through Makali's smoky form to seize me in ver jaws.

~~~

I wake breathing heavily, sweating, heart racing, as one does when waking from a nightmare. Though it is hard to tell if I have really escaped the nightmare by waking. I am still in a bitu body, still paralyzed, still in Hosudiha. Ever since the start of Lise's "ministry", nightmares have been nothing new to me. However, the one's I've had over the last couple of labors have been an evolution of the usual nightmares of being trapped and assaulted. Not only do they fill me with fear and dread like they used to, now they make me feel guilty, unsure, and then there is the whiplash of going from dreams where my legs work, to nightmares where they don't, to reality where they still don't work. It makes it hard to get the labor started.

Apart from Miya's and my nightmares, Miya is slowly gaining more and more precision control over ver larger limbs; enough to pick up and grab onto things with ver whole paw, but not quite with individual fingers just yet.

Shibi works hard to take care of everything that needs to be done around the hut. Ve cleans the clothes, hangs them to dry, and puts them away. Ve cleans and puts away the dishes. Ve collects dead foselitu from traps, but does not yet know how to clean them. Ve scrubs the floor and, erm, helps Miya and me with our waste. By the end of the first labor, ve looked ragged. I try to help as much as I can, but it frankly feels like tending to me takes more time than my help buys. I can, however, use my sewing skills to mend the clothes which are in dire need of such repairs. So that becomes my main means of contribution.