Part Three

Pt3.

I looked in the direction I was dismissed, toward the head of the beast. Many ill growths protruded from its back, each leaving a trail of dark smog that was whipped back in the wind shear and slowly sank back down to the join with what lay on the surface. I thought I could make out the head of the beast; it was a mere dot on the horizon. The beasts head must’ve been over a mile distant, it would be some trek before I’d get my answers.

As I set off I noted how odd it was that this could be the same writhing mass of energy that I perceived from the ground. It was so still to walk upon; the only movement I could feel from the beast was a small vibration beneath my feet. It was as if I was walking along some massive stripped and shaggy road. Albeit one that was occasionally despoiled by ugly boulders. If it weren’t for the constant billowing of the wind I’d struggle to imagine that we were moving at all. Yet due to this unstoppable breeze I was feeling quite the chill. I pulled my coat closer around me, digging my hands into my pockets as I lent slightly into the wind.

Approaching the first node on my way to the head I saw movement. Shocked I stood to stare for a moment. There was a small grey creature that had two eyes plumb centre on each side of their head, which itself looked oversized for its body. The movement that caught my attention was the head suddenly twisting so one of the eyes could stare unblinking right at me. Its egg shaped head was rounder on top, tapering to a thin neck. Its round eye in the centre of a dark grey ovoid gazing deeply at me was perturbing enough but as I drew my eyes away from the stare I noticed other oddity’s about these creatures. They looked like small children, there grey skin hairless and were dressed in dirty loin cloths. It was their hands and feet that truly disturbed me, for where I would imagine hands to be the wrists and ankles narrowed to shallow hooks that it used to cling to the side of the lumps. No other features could I spy on the smooth heads.

There were three on the growth next to me, all eyeing me, all perfectly still. I looked out to other growths, there was more of these little grey creatures. For what I could see no protrusion was free of them. The other creatures were not still on their respective nodes, they moved in a swaying stop start motion about the protrusions. They would occasionally pause at certain places, I can only assume that they were tending or feeding off of the gross nodes.

I felt as though they were examining me for potential threat, coiled and waiting to pounce if I dared to show aggression. I had no desire to be attacked whilst on the back of a beast which was floating several thousand feet in the air. So I gave them a wide berth as I edged around them they followed my movement eerily twisting their heads to keep me as the main focus for one of their eyes. My shoulders stooped a little as I realise my journey to the head of the beast had just lengthened, for I would have to pass several score of these strange nodes. Still I soldiered on; no destination was ever arrived at by remaining still or wasting effort on fretting about the journey.

I received the same disturbing reception at each protrusion, every time a shiver slid its way through me when as one they stopped to stare. It felt as though just by passing them they took a little from me. My reserves of energy were waning; I started to at first think and then lust for some sustenance. I could not remember my last meal or even a time when I was so famished. The walk was turning into a stooped stumble. My mind started to wonder off to tangents dark and unpleasant, flashbacks of deeds I was most ashamed of crept through my mind. I had survived two long wars; there was much in my mind that if I dwelt on could lead me into a deep ravine of depression that I knew would take me years to function properly. I had led men, some of them good and decent folk to their deaths. Each face now came before my eyes, pale of skin and scarlet of blood.

I had to blink, screwing up my lids hard against my eyes to get my focus back to the path I was walking. I noticed that as I walked past each protrusion the sensation of woe became stronger. Things I hadn’t thought of for years were leaping across my mind. My father dying of a liver complaint, my mother’s non-stop weeping for being left alone, my wife’s death from the birth of our first child who himself was stillborn. It was as though every hurt that I had ever felt were fresh again and competing to weigh my heart down. I do not know what it was the kept my feet moving forward maybe it was something deep in me that knew I had grieved for all these things. Yes each new image hurt but as each new wave swept over me I knew it could not hurt more than it did when it happened. I could feel that it lacked rawness. The greater my bodies desire to stop the less I allowed myself to cease my forward momentum. It was my loving wife that aided me in this, the fresh hurt from her passing allowed me to force other memories of her into my mind. She had always said that I was a stubborn sod.

I started to pick up my pace, my stride became more confident with this the images were fading from my eyes. Now as I strode past the strange grey things I noticed that there were less of them on the facing side of the growths. Now my eyes would focus less on them and came back to my goal, looking up to see the head of the beast now only a few hundred yards from where I was nearly brought a tear of relief to my weary eyes.

I past the last of the protrusions at a near jog, so eager was I to finish this heinous journey. The creatures head was massive, easily the size of a very comfortable room; neck thinned a little and was certainly rounder than his flat broad back. The first step upon his neck I slipped, tumbling down the side of the neck. My guts churned at the acceleration of a falling body, I flailed my arms behind me gripping tightly to the thick fir, dangling from the very side of the neck. Walking along the flat of the back I had no reference to see just how poor my town shoes were at gripping the fir. If it wasn’t for the abundance of his long fir I would’ve fallen from the beast and into the gloom that whisked by below.

I climbed at an angle as so I wouldn’t have to navigate the neck, pulling myself, tired, hungry and thirsty to a stop in the centre of the beast’s massive head. I lay for a second catching my breath. Then a rumble like thunder said. ‘GREETINGS BARTHOLOMEW, YOU HAVE JOURNEYED FAR AND I KNOW YOU HAVE MANY QUESTIONS; WHICH I WILL TRY TO ANSWER BUT I’M AFRAID YOU’VE COME HERE NOT FOR ANSWERS BUT BECAUSE I NEED YOUR HELP.’

               With that I started to laugh.

Continued in pt.2...

I crawled on my one hand and knee’s for an indeterminate amount of time, the concept of minutes and hours faded to be replaced by the halting repetition of shuffling my knee’s forward with a brief pause to move my supporting hand along. I noticed that the texture of the floor became gritty, I’m sure that I was starting to shuffle through sand. A dim refracted  light was starting to reveal the floor and the walls of the tunnel. It was indeed sand I was crawling through, it was coarse and yellow with the walls of the tunnel were dark grey rock. Confident that the arrival of light into this narrow tunnel was a declaration that the end of this uncomfortable journey I picked up my pace.

Poking my head out of the exit to the tunnel a desertscape presented itself. The gently undulating sandbanks were punctuated with large mounds of the same dark grey rock that I had just crawled through. They rose abruptly from the ground more as if placed on top of the sand as supposed to it forming from the ground. My view was foreshortened by a black fog, with visibility of over a mile impossible.

I stood from the tunnel, my journey here thus far having made perfect sense to me I was suddenly overcome by the strangeness of my predicament. A wave of nausea plumbed its fathomable claim on me as I staggered a few steps forward. I struggled to comprehend just how it was I came to be in this foreign and alien land. Just as I could feel an incomprehensible rave start to work its way through my body I was dumbfounded by what my eyes took in. A gargantuan reptilian head writhed its way through the dark smog. It was easily thirty yards across, teeth and rough scales protruding unkempt from its face. What’s more it was clearly over one hundred feet from the floor and travelling at quite the pace straight for me.  I had little time to wonder at the even thicker beastly body that contorted behind the monstrous head as the very same survival instinct that saw me through two bloody wars kicked in and I ran for cover.

The gust of wind that battered my body as it passed over me, still some distance from any cover, knocked me clean off my feet. I turned on the floor to at least see my killer, but the beast seemed quite uninterested in me. I watched yard after yard of scaled body pass before my eyes, details were hard to make out due to the pace of the beast. I perceived the occasional limb which seemed somewhat redundant as the beast seemed to use its body to beat its way through the air, much like some of the snakes I’ve witnessed swimming it the tropical regions of the far east. After several minutes of me lying on my back staring at the body of strange animal pass not too far from my head it started to thin leaving a whipping tail chasing the rest of it. I stood to look after it disappearing into the murky sky.

Dusting myself off I came to realise I was quite out of my depth, but thanks to my innate survival instinct and my hardy demeanour I dusted myself off and went to retrieve my abandoned coat and hat. For panicking now would not help any chance of me living to see my beloved home again. I must try to retrace my steps I can remember thinking, amongst several prayers to any god whom might have the inclination to be listening to me, for where I came in should surely lead to my way out. Picking both out the sand and dusting them off, I put them on whilst looking for my footprints in the sand. My heckles aroused as I sensed something approach me from behind. I turned to not only see another behemoth loom through the mire of sky but dozens. These beasts were different in composition but most similar in size. I saw what looked like elongated big cat’s to misshapen horses, a myriad of beasts completely alien yet disturbingly familiar were all twisting their way across the sky. I was in awe of this sight.

With so much to take in a once and with a little more perspective between me and the animals I was better able to take in the details of them. On each of their backs were sickly protrusions, which looked like vast tumours of ill growth. The smog that beseeched this land poured forth from these growths leaving inky trails settling in the beasts’ wake. I noticed that they were weaving close to the rocky outcrops.

A familiar grating voice told me to ‘Climb.’ Rending me from my observant reprieve I glanced about to locate the girl. She was nowhere to be seen, but I deemed I should follow her suggestion. I ambled up to the rocky mound that I came out from; looking for an easy path up, it wasn’t a difficult climb. As I neared the top I looked in the direction that they were flying in from and saw that a beast like a huge malformed tiger was flying in my direction. I could see what might be described as a pained expression on its face.

‘Climb.’ Her voice came again.

‘I cannot get higher!’ I declared to this world. No sooner had I finished shouting I heard an unearthly scream berate my eardrums on many different levels. I staggered as a burst of tinnitus whined through my ears. Looking up I saw what looked like a much smaller version of the reptilian airborne beasts was stamping its way toward me on long stick like limbs came across the sand. Maybe it’s an ingrained knowledge from our early animal years that told me that I was very much prey to this very hungry predator.

What sounded like the rapid and heavy beating of wings encroached on my hearing, I turned to see what looked like a massive ladybird hovering a few meters away. ‘Are you still confident you made the correct decision?’ Her voice was clear in my mind yet the whine of my ears was replaced by a rage of noise that was the wind shear from the great tiger like beast passing very close by me.

‘What are you?’ I shouted over the noise.

‘You could not begin comprehend the answer when you’ve more pressing matters at hand, now climb before you’re food, climb!’

The rapid thud of the smaller beast brought my attention back to my immediate surrounds. It was yards from where I stood; quickly I rolled to the opposite side of the stack. It’s monstrous head peered at me as it curled it’s neck around the rock. Clinging to the rock with my fingertips I scrabbled for foot purchase finding it just as it lurched for me snapping at the rock where I was just clinging I kicked around the rock leaping and pulling with every fibre of strength I had. It was twisting its body around the narrow stack of rock while trying to find purchase of a descent lunge at me. Hurriedly I began to think, I couldn’t keep climbing around this rock I could feel myself tiring already. Where could I go? As I rounded the rock I saw my escape, the tiger-like beast, the long fur of its body was rustling past the very rock I was on. I leapt for a handful of it just as the smaller more dangerous beast snapped at my legs grabbing a mouthful of my long coat. I was thankful for its sharp teeth as they neatly sliced through my coat as I whipped away clinging to the flank of flying behemoth.

‘Climb.’ Her voice taunted me again.

‘I’ll give you bloody climb in a minute missy.’ I muttered under my breath.

I tried to inch up the side of the beast, standing on the ground each loop and twist of the behemoth’s looked stationary as their long bodies passed though the same point but it was all I could do to clutch to the side of the body as I was thrown about somewhat as the beast whipped through the air. My hat was long lost in the ferociously beating wind and whilst I was glad for what warmth my coat could provide its drag though the air weighed heavy on my arms. Just as I thought that the strength of my arms was wan the beast arched up to shoot to the skies. A jolt of adrenaline was all that my body could muster to aid me to cling to the deep fir; the acceleration it put me through was breathtaking. As it levelled off the beast stilled to a gentle glide above the murk that had enveloped the land.  Grabbing tufts of fir and clamping it between my feet I shimmied up the side of the beast.

As I crept on to the flat back I looked up to encompass my new surrounds. The dense cloud of smog appeared to cling to the surface of this world, dumbstruck I stared at the crimson sky; it fell to a deep sanguine at the horizon with an infinite array of strange stars penetrating through past the glare of a huge white and pink moon. The ruffle of my hair brought my senses back from the vastness of the sky. Thin trails of smoke gently fell from the foul nodes running down the length of the stripped body. The head of the beast was small in the distance, it was soaring straight and true. I could make out in the periphery of my vision other massive beasts breaking the surface of the murk all around, though they seemed not to stay above for long.

Closer afoot the ladybird was clamped to the back a little ways up from me; I felt steady enough to stand on the massive back. It was time for some answers. I strode toward it and as I took a breath to speak she unmoving said. ‘Answers, answers. First questions you must find. He wishes to speak with you.’ And with a twin flick of her antenna dismissed me. If answers I wanted it wasn’t from her that I’d be getting them.