Tenebroum

Chapter 194: Ravenous

The Queen of Thorns had been ravenous since whatever had happened, happened. Part of her wanted to journey back to Blackwater to discover why she no longer felt connected to the Lich, but the rest of her told her to stay very far away from that dark place.

She wasn’t sure whether it had been struck down, but she knew she wanted to enjoy her moment of freedom for however long it lasted.

So she’d hunted and prowled gracefully through the wild places, looking for creatures worth killing and spirits worth adding to her growing collection. At any moment, she expected that the darkness would flood her mind once more. She wasn’t certain if it would punish her for some imagined disobedience, but amidst the thrill of freedom to do what she’d wanted for the first time in her entire existence, she couldn’t make herself care too much about that once the feral parts of her mind started to take over.

It didn’t, though. Even after a full moon had come and gone, the Lich never reappeared. Instead, her fear for that moment faded into the background as her hunger took over. Until this moment, she had no idea how much energy she’d drawn from her creator. Now she did, though, and after only a few weeks, that hunger caused her to devour everything in her path just to keep going. Before now, she’d hunted only the rarest and most powerful beasts, along with whatever spirits she could find. Now, she left only death in her wake. Animals were left slaughtered and drained, trees were felled by blight and rot within days of her passing, and insects swarmed behind her in a rising tide of darkness.

The Queen of Thorns thought about journeying north to Constantine. Perhaps there, in that cursed soil, I can find some sustenance, she told herself. Those thoughts lacked conviction, though. A journey of hundreds of miles felt too exhausting for words. Instead, she continued as she’d always done, moving from one forest to the next, leaving ruin in her wake.

That was when it found her for the first time. She knew the scent of the wolf from the time she’d been forced to work with it before it even got close to her that first time. She also knew that scent well enough to know that it had changed in a way that was ominous.

If she wanted nothing to do with her master, then she wanted even less to do with one of its other pets. She remembered its savagery well and, at first, simply sought to steer clear of it. That soon became impossible.

Oh, the Queen of Thorns could run faster than the mangy dog. It could never catch her in a race. It simply never stopped pursuing her, though. No matter how far she bounded ahead or where she hid, it always seemed to find her again.

This worried the dark goddess. She was used to being the predator, not the prey, and in all the time she’d faced off against other small gods, she’d never found one, yet that could track her when she wanted to disappear.

Now, it didn’t seem to matter what she wanted, which made the encounter inevitable. So, eventually, she stopped trying to run. Instead, she chose a tall and sturdy oak and waited on a branch twenty feet above the ground while she waited for the cursed wolf to find her.

I won’t be able to do anything about my terrible hunger until I shake this thing, she told herself, even as she waited for the inevitable confrontation.

What strode into the grove was not what she’d expected. She knew that the wolf’s scent had changed, but she didn’t expect the creature attached to that smell to change this much. Rather than the bloody, mangey mutt she’d hunted with for so long, the wolf had regained all of its strength and then some. It had sprouted a second rat head with red, beedy eyes, and it had a strange mane that looked almost like a bush made of plaid, squirming flesh.

As surprised as she was by that, she was even more surprised when the thing began to speak to her. “Greetings, daughter of the forest,” it growled and chittered. “You have led us on a merry chase indeed.”

“You can talk now?” she scoffed, acting unimpressed. “That’s a new trick.”

“I have many new tricks,” the beast answered mockingly. “Your master was kind enough to put me back together, and now I’m pleased to say that gloomy spirit is no more.”

“You killed the Lich?” she asked as a chill ran through her. “That’s impossible.”

“Dead things can die too,” the wolf head answered while the rat head laughed. “I should know. I have been dead many times myself, but you cannot kill hunger or violence. Just like disease and famine, they always return.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Well, then be on your way, wolf,” she said firmly. “If my master is as dead as you say, then we need no longer have anything to do with each other. The world is a large place, and we need not see each other again.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That is true,” it growled, “But you commanded. Me, you forced me to halt, and this I cannot forgive.”

“Sounds like your problem, not mine,” she answered dismissively. She was uncertain of what else to say or do, though. There was no denying that the wolf was dangerous, and with its new powers… well, she had no idea of what the full extent of them was, but she was certainly in danger.

While the Queen of Thorns pondered all of this, the wolf and the rat began to knaw into the hardwood, removing chunks one bite at a time. That should have been impossible, but it was undeniable, and she felt the thing shudder as she stood up and tried to decide what it was she should do.

Part of her knew that she should run. The thing had bragged about striking down her master. If that was true, then it was not to be messed with lightly. She couldn’t, though. She might have no love for the Lich who had tortured her into existence, but she valued her own life, and she knew that this thing would keep tracking her wherever she went. She would never be safe as long as this monstrosity was on her tail.

If I have to fight it no matter what, then there’s no point in delaying the inevitable, she told herself as she studied the creature. All I can do is find the most favorable ground.

“You’ll have to try harder than that,” she said, melting into the tree she was perched in. “I’m not in a playful mood.”

Even as she spoke and fled, the ground erupted with roots and vines to ensnare this thing. She didn’t think that would work, but it cost her very little to test its strength. The Queen of Thorns bounded away from the monstrosity as it broke free without much effort. Sometimes, she moved between trees with magic, and other times, she leaped between them as she transformed into the six-legged jungle cat that was her preferred form. She was always moving away from it, though, and all along the way, she was throwing up more traps to slow it down.

“You’ll pay for this, foul dryad!” the wolf-chimera growled as it bounded through the forest after her.

Its way was harder than hers, though. For the nature spirit, the plants moved to make her passage quicker, and for the wolf, they moved to bar its way. That gave her enough time to let her think, but not as much as she thought it would. No matter how many tricks she used on this monstrosity, it just kept coming. Eventually, that meant that she would have to fight it.

She chose a clearing, bursting with life, that would keep her well-fed and powerful for what was to come. Then she let the monstrosity flow her in before she bound it to the ground once more. It broke free even faster this time with a wordless cry of outrage, but by the time it did so, she’d already pounced on top of it.

No human would have stood a chance in the battle that followed as the two impossible beasts battled for supremacy. The Queen of Thorns raked the wolf with all six of her claws, even as she tried to snap its spine with her jaws. It collapsed, but only in an attempt to crush her, as each vied for advantage. She made the unknowable beast bleed. She even made it stagger, but it wasn’t enough. No matter how much damage she inflicted, it wouldn’t stay down. Eventually, it dislodged her, and she reattached herself to its sown underbelly like a sinuous python.

The two combatants stayed entwined like that for several minutes. The Queen of Thorns had trusted in her powerful, sinuous body with no bones to be broken to hold this monstrosity in place while her thorns ripped it open, and her pestilences grew in those open wounds. She had seen this beast die before. She knew it was possible.

It did not have two heads, then, nor the strange wavering mane, and that proved to be her undoing.

“You think you can defeat wrath and rage in single combat?” the beast said through its rat mouth, even as the wolf mouth tried and failed to gain purchase by finding somewhere to grab her. “Stronger godlings than you have fallen at our feet.”

She ignored that, trying not to think about the Lich. Her strategy was sound. Her form was superior to her opponents. It was more malleable and versatile, and she could hold on to her position wrapped around its broad underbelly with 4 claws even as it raked against its belly with her last two.

That wasn’t enough, though. Even as she bit and squirmed and fought with everything she had, she could feel herself growing weaker. It took the Queen of Thorns far too long to realize that it was happening or even guess at the cause. By the time she understood that the mane was more than decorative and the worms and leeches were painlessly burrowing deep in her flesh to drink deep of her lifeblood, it was too late.

The dark goddess slipped, and that was all it took. The wolf seized the opportunity, biting deeply into her shoulder as it flung her around like a rag doll. From that point on, there was nothing the Queen of Thorns could do to break herself free. If she’d been stronger, she could have mutated her body to make the monster’s grip lose purchase or let that limb detach, but as it was, she was entirely subject to its brutal whims.

When she finally fell to the ground, limp and defeated. Her torment didn’t end there. First, she tried to burrow her roots deep into the soil.

“This would have been so much less painful if you’d just given in. The entire world belongs to Malkezeen,” both mouths taunted in a strangely sonorous way. “You weren’t even a distraction. You will barely be a snack.”

Glancing at the monstrosity looming over her, she noticed that the thing was already halfway to healed. If only I could gain a little bit of strength, I might yet escape, she thought to herself.

That was impossible, though. Even as she listened to this monstrosity prattle on, all she could do was lay there, willing the darkness to take her and give her oblivion. Those wishes did nothing to stop the pain when the beast that had defeated her stopped bragging and started to devour her, one bite at a time. All she could do then was scream.