They danced around the open flame, long claws clinging onto each other as they spun around so fast that the direction could not be identified by mortal eyesight. Shadows bounced off the walls, each one twenty-fold the height of the original flesh.
The roughly carved stone that surrounded them on all sides glittered as if it contained precious metals, despite the absolute black that covered the entire surface. Appearing to twinkle in the soft light of the flickering flames like distant stars, and to flow as the shadows moved through it full of the same erratic turmoil that possessed the white rapids of speeding waterways.
There was a brutal elegance that encompassed the event, not unalike to a natural disaster.
The creatures had ears as big as a hound's spread out like bat's wings on either side of their head, moving in accordance to their emotions. Standing straight and tall on two legs, it looked as if half of their legs had joined their arms, the sharp nails along their fingertips reaching past their knees. Their bodies were built like the great apes of the southern jungles, with deep chests and widespread feet.
A chant began to resonate through the atmosphere of the cavern. Each sound was spoken equally in a language that could not be understood, wiped as it was from the records of history, and the entire reality of the outside world.
"Ti chi al far, no ma ti cho, ti chi get ik, la kin ti cho..."
And on and on it went, the same words echoed endlessly by a hundred different voices. Magic began to stir in the air, moving to the motion of the creatures' bodies. The enchantment, be it a blessing or a curse, struck like a cornered viper. Lashing out until it made the deep purple shells glow, each of the even two dozen eggs began to vibrate and hover above the rough earth. They were lifted only scarce inches off of the ground, moving seamlessly one after the other in a path too perfect to have not been planned, spiralling closer and closer to the darting tongues of flame, just to pull up at the last second before crossing that stone barrier into the firepit. Colour clashed in the light that shone between the shadows each time an egg crossed the fire, each time a different hue that hung heavy in the air with a meaning that could not be deciphered by an outsider.
"Ti chi al far, no ma ti cho, ti chi get ik, la kin ti cho..."
The creatures never ceased the rhythm of their chant, steadily continuing to strengthen the enchantment as their hides reflected and the lights bounced off each scale as if it were a mirror, and small spots of brightness appeared over the stone walls that surrounded them.
Delicate scraps of material that covered the absolute minimum of their bodies picked up at the edges and began to flutter to a non-existent breeze the more they slowed down. The texture was thin enough that the colour could bee seen through them as they wavered in front of the open flames, showing every colour of the rainbow and many more in between.
The movements from the otherwise solid black of their silhouettes against the fire continued to dwindle down until every one of them – male and female, grown and adolescent, elderly and disabled – were as still as stone carved statues.
Details were still difficult to identify, but what ever they were managed to appear both native and alien within the same moment. Large eyes glinted harshly in the flickering light, appearing bloody, golden, or a moonlit sliver.
"Kor phi niti!" One of them shouted unexpectedly, it's hunched back attempting to straighten as the last of the eggs rolled through the air currents to rest alongside the others where they were nestled amongst the dripping stalactites of the cave's ceiling. It grunted, growled, and then repeated itself.
After a long moment of silence that was weighed down heavily by a dark suspense, the rest of the gathered creatures repeated after their elder. Snarling and snorting as they waved their long arms in the air above them in celebration, until the festivities were cut off by a sound that all of the mortal beings knew and feared.
These creatures were no different, stopping immediately as they identified the what was behind the clack of thousands of claws, and the mutated snarls of a thousand wolves.
Of the imminent bloodshed that always followed.
YOU ARE READING
A Match of Monsters
FantasyAgainst the cold, oncoming winter, young Elain the Gatherer is forced to take shelter in a cave to survive the night. But what she finds there risks her life just as much as any of the monsters prowling outside would. A dragon kit. Just hatched, the...
