Crimson

Chapter Nineteen

His scales aching, pulsing his bio-light, they danced as they bathed in his inner light. Back in his original form, larger than his gray, his essence stretched back to fill his limbs, to surround his talons. Thick fog flooded his vision as his onyx orbs struggled to absorb the stimuli present. Blinking, he shuttered as a coarse granular matter swept his vision. Grimacing slightly, he blinked rapidly with his inner and outer eyelid to help dislodge the remnants molesting his vision.

His senses, slowly acclimating to the visceral change as his limbs tingled, his stomachs protruding a pain so swift, causing him to pause. Furiously rumbling, exploding, causing an inner turmoil to present itself, deep hunger pains struck his abdomen.

A low garble sounded nearby. It's intermittence and inflection displayed properties of speech. However, the clicking and screech sounded unfamiliar to him. His mind swam trying to figure out the nature of this thing. Pligal's vision, unfocused, could not provide insight to the originator of the noise. Tensing slightly due to the presence of this thing beckoning to him, Pligal's mind spun.

Again, it sounded the same pattern. Pligal ran his palm over his scaly face. His muscles flexing as the screech faded to tolerable levels. The clicks following did not convey their normal aggressive overtones, now some semblance of understanding followed, sounds forming words, words developing syntax.

"Rise! Child! You were gone far too long." The Terra God has nearly come." An elderly voice called out.

Slowly, sitting up from the ground cushioning him, a thin veil of dust freely fell to the ground from atop his scales. His orbs focused on displaying the world around him. The Seeress' words fell to deaf ears as he took in his surroundings. The stone hovel, the plasma lightly flickering in the pit as the lightening of day snuck through the porthole of the home.

As these images passed before him, he thought of the recent distress the visions provided him. The separation of his beliefs, the eradication of years of tutelage and careful observation, as well as the connection of that other being enveloped in gray garb. Her words, clear to him as the Seeress before him, conveyed warmth causing him to listen intently.

The choice now his own, Pligal could detach himself from the teachings of his kind or amalgamate the feelings and fears of an unknown world or multiverse as the beings described. The beings, once revered as ancestors to his kin, now provided a potentially disastrous view upon his society. A disaster, which could mete out its own justice while annihilating those it trampled underneath.

The Torsons, which held the potential to decimate his people, could do so with impunity. The universe or multiverse would not matter if one world perished. The countless lives in the other lands would move about if nothing ever transpired, as if they did not matter. Seas of gelatinous masses could sweep his people, his kin, into oblivion without the others understanding or concern.

Pain filled his thoracic cavity. All he knew, all he understood, proved false. Sitting up, he realized that was an immediate mistake. The room shook violently against him. The heaviness of his limbs caused him to fall back into the pit, a stream of air escaping as he landed. Dust blew around his weighted body as it thumped against the dry land.

"The ancestors have cause you to be confounded." The Seeress stated musingly. "You forget your bearings, child."

"No," Pligal responded not attempting to rise. "They have destroyed me."

Not directly responding to his statement, the Serress stood and shuffled to a small porthole in the building. A small place where the Terra God shone through. The light shot through the hole bouncing against the multicolored rock and soil. Glittering, it shimmered brilliantly as each reflection gave refracted light towards a broader surface until the whole of the abode erupted in a cascade light. Pligal's eyes refocused while the dust settled upon him. Some lingered in the air, suspended while capturing the brilliance of the Terra God.