Squib Ep.29 - Primitive Aspects
(Start at the beginning here)
The blue glow and strange odor of a gaseous fire illuminated Bandana’s face. The smell was unpleasant but she didn't care, things could have been worse, and if anything she was just happy for the warmth. The area was littered with such flames. Vents of foul smelling air bubbling up from the depths of the earth, streaming from far below the muddy water to create tumultuous pools or, in this case, an open flame that seemed to float on the water's surface. Like everywhere, the rain had consumed much of the swamps landmass but here, whatever natural forces had been at play within its depths had caused an unusual number of tall hillocks to form. Squib and Herule had settled on an island of sufficient size while retaining proximity to an open flame, shortly after which Bandana had moved to its nearest edge to warm herself by. There she had remained ever since.
“Herule did good finding this place. I’m surprised, I didn't know about these fires.”
Bandana looked into the hanging tree tops above. Squib was busy circumventing the sporadic shoots that sprouted along a wider branch, crawling dexterously in order to tie some of the trees limbs together to form a thick canopy of leaves. The interim effort was leaving Bandana doused in a freshly shaken monsoon of water, but as the work progressed the rain falling from the sky was beginning to reduce to the occasional trickle.
“Lizardman has his uses,” Squib called down, half distracted by his task.
Bandana busied herself with a knife, cleaning and skewering some of the softer skinned critters while another roasted, suspended over the flame on a bowed branch. The work was gruesome, something she’d normally avoided or left to her sisters if it came to it, but with everyone busy and her stomach rumbling, she felt spurred to get on with the task.
“What’s with you two anyway? You almost murdered each other when we met.”
“Lizard tribes and Goblin-kind exist to hate each other. Lizards eat Goblins so Goblins eat Lizards. Everyone angry that one eats the other, so kill and eat more. Generations of eating and killing, killing and eating, then more eating and more killing,” Squib trailed off into a mumble amidst the futility and apparent meaninglessness of it all.
Bandana’s face marked her concern and, for the first time, she considered some of the primitive aspects of her new companions. Not that it hadn't been apparent. It was one thing to witness it, but another to hear it explained first hand by one so apart of it.
“It must be strange for you, now traveling alongside a Lizardman?”
Squib shrugged, “Silkwood is strange place, Squib’s life strangest of all. What’s strange is human girl swimming through swamp on Lizardman’s back.” Squib pointed out, still ignoring Bandana for the task at hand.
Bandana stopped amidst her carving, hand and knife dripping with blood as they hung limply off her knee. “I have to, unless I want to be left in debilitating pain, or worse. This map on my back is a curse, I either follow it to its end or suffer my ignorance.” The irony that her ignorance was what had got her into the mess in the first place was all to apparent.
Squib’s head hung suddenly over his branch as he peered down, thinking. “Hmm, I think strange girl is strangest of all, even stranger than Squib.” He went back to what he was doing.
In the distance Herule appeared, partly carrying, partly dragging a bulbous object that nearly matched him in size. It slid heavily over a bar of muddy earth before slipping back beneath the water where he towed it while submerged beneath the surface. By the time he’d made his way to the foot of their camp the Lizardman was visibly labored from the effort. He hauled the object onto firm soil revealing an empty tortoise shell who’s owner had long since vacated.
“What’s that?” Bandana asked, pointing.
Herule, getting the hang of perceiving such questions, banged his fist upon the hard exterior, “Ssnapping dragon sshell. For you, a place to ssleep. It will keep the rain off.” Herule shifted forward, abandoning the shell along with the topic at the prospect of food. Crouching he pulled the branch holding the roasting morsel from the earth and tested its scent with his nose. Bandana’s stomach made her jump to protest but seeing the shell, knowing its purpose, and having witnessed the length Herule had gone to get it made her hold her tongue.
“Gob-lin?” Herule inquired having garnered the word from listening to Bandana speak. Before Bandana could answer, seemingly on queue, Squib dropped from the tree. He grabbed hold of the stick, jousting for the prize at its end before a full fight with snarls and hissing broke out. Bandana sighed, turning her attention back to the task of meal making, and longing, not for the first time, for the company of her sisters.
(Continue to Ep.30)
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