56 Chapter 22: The Depths of The Forests (1/2)
Having to venture through the dreaded path everyone was on high alert. Even if everyone had to keep their guards up for incoming attacks, the thing that was lingering on everyone's was what could have done that to a human body, only leaving the outer layer of skin...
After walking for an hour on end, they stumbled upon what Meiko and Karim had found. The dreaded sight was even more gruesome than they had described...
As everyone walked passed not wanting to see what had happened I stood there for a minute baffled by the fact that a creature in this world was able to do so. Looking at it at first glance it seemed nothing could have been left behind by the culprit.
But when I looked closer this time at the sockets that were completely devoid of eyeballs...I noticed circles. Almost invisible to the naked eye it gave me a feeling like something had struck inside the sockets.
The crazy thought occurs thinking about the insertion of something sharp and hollow inside, like a funnel.The signs had left a minuscule mark that made me think incredibly amounts of suction were applied to the bodies.
As everyone noticed after a while that I was trailing behind, they slowed down their pace for a bit, allowing me to catch up.
Ragnee then quickly joined me in the back asking what I was doing.
”Why did you stay with the body?”
I looked at Ragnee, deciding the slightest hint could help us survive I told her about my findings.
”Well... what Meiko and Karim had told us... something didn't feel right, so I observed the body for a bit on my own. And found something astonishing!”
Ragnar's eyes got bigger as her worry pierced through my being.
”I think I know... since it had to do with the body.It must have been something about the sockets, right?”
I looked surprised at her, as she had guessed right.
”Yes! I found signs of suction, maybe even proof the victim was still alive while this happened...
The thought sickens me... thinking about it makes me shiver to the core... But how... how did you know?”
Ragnee decided to tell me, hoping the others wouldn't notice.
”The thing that's responsible for what we saw...Is a creation of the Serpentine Clan... we from the Ragnee clan have worked together to create the horror I am thinking of right now...”
Not knowing what to say I stood there in awe...Then I realized... not knowing anything about this world at all...
”What... what is the thing in the depths of the forest?!”
I asked as I finally returned to the land of the living.
”Before you can truly understand what the thing is... I have to tell you a bit about the history of our clans.
You see, several decades have past where our clans have been researching the legends of old. Our represented clans had their divine god, or celestial being so to speak.
I bet you can guess by our names.”
I didn't have to think long before it dawned on me.
”Your divine god must have been a serpent!”
As we all kept on moving in the direction the map had pointed us at, Ragnee continued her clan's origin story.
”That is correct! To be precise it was the Large Snakes of Light \u0026 Shadows or like we used to call them; Orochi; Kage no Hikari. These celestial beings lived in harmony and peace as they are the bringers of dusk and dawn.
Kage and Hikari were the clans' guardian spirits protecting the balance of day and night.
As Kage represented Dusk he was a black serpent who could mask its presence with shadows.As it gained its prowess drawn from the moon, It had an extremely important task to keep balance in the world. On the other hand, Hikari, she represented Dawn as she was the white serpent known as ”Orochi”. And had the prowess of light allowing her to warm and heal anything within her rays of light.
But one day, our lands got attacked by outsiders.In the heat of the battle, the two guardian spirits bonded together with the patriarchs representing their religious believes.
Together they fought off the enemies but at great cost. Both guardian spirits had perished that day,as they had never been seen again.”
As the story began heating another fork got in the road this time splitting up in two. As our team had split up to quickly check if there was any danger ahead.
Meiko had half of the team and headed left,while Karim took command as she headed to the right with her team.
As Meiko went on her way I could have sworn something was following us from a distance,I couldn't confirm what it was, yet I had the feeling of constantly being watched.
Ragnee and I stayed behind to protect our rendezvous point, and because we had time to kill, Ragnee continued her story.
Our ancestors had survived as the Orochi sacrificed themselves for the greater good. Nothing but empty husks remained. Wanting to protect their clans each took their celestial being back home and began observing and extracting all that was possible about the beasts.
Then after years had passed both patriarchs had found a similar element to fight with. ”Venom”.
Despite after decades of experiments both began growing mad as ”poison” wasn't the only weapon they had found a means to.”
Ragnee looked away, ashamed of her clans' history.As they had seemingly sacrificed their guardian deities to gain prowess of equal footing.
After sighing deeply she braced herself and continued.
Having sacrificed our guardian deity seemingly wasn't enough, not wanting to waste any effort both clans began experimenting on the remaining DNA of their gods. Horrific results were created by experimenting with the implementation of their blood throughout our bloodlines.
Eventually creating a smaller version of Orochi they became too strong to control as the specimen all escaped to the outside worlds. Some say that even till this very day, our clans use the venom and blood of Orochi to gain strength and prowess being believed.
Which is where we got our resistance to venom from as well as special bloodline abilities through the implementation of DNA and excessive breeding.”
I could see she wasn't proud of her heritage,but she had to move on. Having heard the story I became curious about the experiments and began to ask about them.
”I think I understand why that makes you feel fear towards others, as you don't want them to judge you solely on your heritage, but look at it this way.
To me you telling me all this didn't change the way I look at you. On the contrary, it made me even more interested in you! Hey... tell me, tell me! Now I have even more questions, haha!”
Ragnee could see my eyes had a shine of admiration towards her, had she been afraid of nothing? At least the person she admired didn't think less of her as she told me about their clans' history.
”Well... I don't know... I think it's okay if you asked some more questions...”
Ragnee said as she became all fidgety and shy.
Right after I almost jumped on her as I couldn't contain my excitement. Now holding both hands of her I began ranting the questions that came to mind.
”Say... say... since you and June are both descendants of the Orochi, Kage \u0026 Hikari, do you by chance have scales as well? Please, please show me, I want to see!!”
Ragnee overloaded at the thought as she usually covered her scales with clothing.
”W-w-wait! Before you try anything funny!! Hiiiii!!”
I had already latched on to her hips and belly trying to find anything that resembled the feeling of scales. But before I could continue Ragnee pushed me away and picked up her pace.
”My tights and belly are sensitive area's you idiot!!At least wait until our last rendezvous point, as we have to wait for the other teams to arrive there!!”
I had to admit to being surprised by her innocent reaction as a chuckle escaped my mouth.Soon after I began to realize she was just as human as anybody else, which made me realize she was rather cute.
After we had ventured deeper into the forest and further down the path, the feeling of being watched became stronger and stronger. Eventually, coming to stand still,the team had stopped moving.
Annoyed and interested by why this had happened Ragnee and I went to the front.As we arrived... It became clear why the others had stopped.
Huge drag marks could be seen, unable to grasp what would be causing this everyone looked into the distance. Trying to find the path it had taken.
Instead, we found more bodies with the same symptoms... the team became restless, and couldn't stay focused while only one thing was on my mind.