Vaid Empire: Mother of Tentacles
Chapter 28
19th of Onis, 758 BVE.
Near The City of Tentacles.
Darmi’s eye fluttered open in the darkness. It fell shut once more. Her entire body ached deeply as she fought to claw her way from unconsciousness. When at last she awoke, she found herself in the depths of a living nightmare.
Gone was the sky.
A pained moan escaped her lips as she tried to move. Finding herself on her back, she struggled to turn over. The remnants of shattered branches lay scattered all around, and she realized she was on top of Invaelag’s tentacled mass. The beast had protected her from the deadly fall.
Every inch of her body screamed to surrender and remain limp upon the ground. She couldn’t wait for her pain to fade, if it ever would. She merely had to hope that her internal wounds would not prove fatal as she struggled to her feet.
Rising, she beheld the walls of Aslyd looming above her. Jynae-bal’s strike had sent her hurling into the trees just beyond the barren perimeter. She could hardly make out the sight of the ziggurat standing in the distance as the colossal tentacles of the trio loomed in the darkness.
“Aifa…” she managed to utter through her pain. Beyond the walls of Aslyd, Darmi had truly lost her.
The Mother of Tentacles was gone. There was nothing left to save.
Feeling tears gathering in her eye, Darmi’s sorrow was shattered by the feeling of Invaelag’s thoughts prodding her own. Turning, she saw his damaged body crawling closer. A transparent tentacle weakly reached up to wrap around her waist, his mind offering a warning of deadly urgency.
She could feel them through Invaelag’s senses. The countless seedlings that had fallen unconscious after the flash of light were beginning to awaken. The horrid sound of their maddened writhing echoed wetly from inside the city.
A sea of beasts began to scurry about, their simple minds utterly ruined. Invaelag’s wordless warning was clear.
She needed to run.
Darmi turned her back to the city a final time, her unwanted legacy echoing noisily behind. She began to limp through the trees while Invaelag struggled to crawl after her.
The beating of her racing heart quickened further as she heard the seedlings behind. Fear numbed her pain as the beasts rushed wildly through the surrounding trees, spreading out. Only Invaelag’s protection offered her a chance to escape.
Stumbling, limping, Darmi hurried away as quickly as her wounds would allow. Through the treetops she peered up at the consuming void above. A long moment later, she was nearly blinded when the sky flashed blue for a single instant, only to fall to absolute darkness once more.
The Creator had abandoned them.
***
Aifa hung in the grasp of tentacles as she was carried down the side of the ziggurat. From the top of a doomed world, she descended towards the chaos below.
The black sky hung above her as she rested limply. Her eyes fluttered, offering no struggle as gold tentacles cradled her slimy body. Darmi was gone. Her mind was gone. No part of her remained to fight against her fate.
Twitching, she heard the sounds of death all around. The trio’s great tentacles swatted away seedlings that scrambled up their towering forms, sending them hurling into the city below. Gold, azure, and crimson tentacles dueled with black tendrils as maddened seedlings sought to tear their superior kin to pieces, only to be smashed beneath their might.
The Trio had lost control, though their whispers remained calm and calculating within what remained of Aifa’s mind. Their tentacles protected her against the swarm’s wrath and lust.
Cavari women throughout the city were smothered by writhing tentacles, drowning in slime and seed as they were violently ravaged. Great tentacles reached forth to protect the citadel housing the children, crushing any seedling that threatened to harm its inhabitants, safeguarding the next generation of breeding slaves.
Aifa hardly heard the screams. Aslyd fell once more, yet already she was lost. The tentacles holding her ushered her safely inside the ziggurat, and she was sealed away.
The ruins of her mind were lost to a dream as she was returned to her tomb. The seedlings inside, directly beneath the trio, remained under their control. The living pillar of her torment loomed in the center of the cave.
A tremble was all the fight she could offer. Somewhere deep within her mind, the Aifa she had been screamed as she was sealed once more into her permanent torment. Limbs spread and bound, her body was returned to its rightful place.
Tentacles licked and tickled her body as others wrapped around her head. She quivered, squirming in the constricting grasp of her prison as a tentacle wiggled into her vagina. The womb that had created them all was doomed to serve eternally.
She had witnessed The Creator’s return. Her children had reached up to touch the hand of a god, having become creators themselves.
As her suffering resumed, however, she thought only of how Darmi’s hand had grasped her own before their doom.
24th of Onis, 758 BVE.
Deep Jungle.
Always running. Always moving. Darmi stopped only when absolutely necessary.
Hurrying through the jungle, she and Invaelag fled as quickly as their wounds would allow. The city had long disappeared in the darkness as the miles passed by, though still the transparent beast sensed his kin. Still they heard the sounds of wet tendrils through the trees.
The frequency of their encounters with the maddened creatures decreased the further away they fled. The swarm had spread out in all directions without aim, and now Darmi could go hours before spotting one scurrying nearby.
Invisible to their hunters, it’d be a simple thing to hide in place and venture out only when she required food. The world was doomed, though perhaps she could wait out her final days in whatever small comfort she could forge. Invaelag’s wounds, however, destroyed such a possibility. Crawling along just behind, the transparent beast’s protection was steadily beginning to crumble. Soon, it would fail entirely.
The smallest of Darmi’s hopes drove her steps. It seemed impossible to escape her inevitable fate, though she had to try. She had to put as much distance between herself and the swarm as possible before Invaelag’s protection failed.
Pushed by the urgency of her companion’s withering concentration, she stumbled through the vegetation.
The trees were towering monsters in the darkness. Only the faint light from Darmi’s glowing parts guided her path. No night came to tell her to sleep. No sunrise rose to announce the passing days. The sun, the moons, the sky, all were gone. The hours passed, and the world remained dead.
Darmi winced as she crouched to pass beneath a fallen branch. No doubt a rib or two was broken. There was no way to assess her internal wounds, save for the reassuring whispers of Invaelag as he sensed her body. At the very least, they hadn’t proven fatal.
Though still she ached badly, her ample experience permitted her to continue. Foraging for various plants as they fled, Darmi knew which specimens would dull her pain when consumed. Aided by Invaelag’s soothing thoughts, her limping had greatly eased.
She peered up through the treetops at the consuming black void that had replaced the sky. Doomed to the longest night of her life, a darkness that seemed never to end, the occasional flash of blue offered a dying hope. A mere flicker, a hint of the sky they had lost, it grew rarer as time passed. She gazed up expectantly, for hours had passed since she had last witnessed it. When at last it occurred, an instant flash of light through the darkness, she shielded her eye.
No longer did the entire sky flash. Now, mere patches of blue flickered, growing smaller each time as if the darkness’s permanent hold was spreading. One day soon, her doomed world would taste its last flicker of light.
“Aifa, what have we done?” Darmi whispered.
Hardly had there been time to grieve. Now, miles upon miles laying between her and Aslyd, her sorrow refused to leave her thoughts.
Aifa’s body lived, though a dampness gathered in Darmi’s gaze for the women that had been lost forever. Regret prodded at her without mercy, for she should have cut her throat atop the ziggurat. Perhaps she should have cut both of their throats. Wair’s daughters were at peace while she and Aifa remained in the doomed world they had forged, and as she remembered the vile torment she had pulled Aifa from, the thought of what she must now be suffering was too horrid to imagine.
Stifling her tears, Darmi marched onward.
The sound of a howl snatched her attention. Scurrying beneath the vegetation to conceal herself, her remaining eye frantically searched the darkness of her surroundings until she saw the predator through the trees.
A long creature flanked by five pairs of legs crashed against a nearby tree, splintering the wood. Its cries sent a sickening echo through the jungle as it struggled, battling an attacker. Darmi watched as the dark tentacles of a towering seedling coiled around the predator’s limbs, snapping and shattering its legs one by one. Squeezing its prey in its crushing hold, the tentacled beast wrestled the monstrosity until it fell limp at last.
Leaving a dead mass of broken flesh behind, the seedling bled back into the darkness.
Calming her beating heart behind a hard expression, Darmi carefully rose and continued on. She left the dead predator behind, the latest she had seen fall brutally. The seedlings searched the jungle, relentlessly slaughtering any creature they encountered. They took nothing from their kills.
With Invaelag’s tentacle wrapped around her waist, his protection threatening to fail with every mile they ventured, Darmi felt a shiver run up her spine. When they caught her, would she be dragged back to Aslyd to join the suffering of the remaining members of her species, or would her fate be that of the predators?
She quickened her steps.
41st of Twic, 758 BVE.
Near Deep Jungle Edge.
Exhausted hands gathered clumps of mud, just as Aifa had taught her. Darmi packed the makeshift walls of gathered branches around them with wet clumps, smoothing the surface of their shelter. The dark void hanging above them was banished as she completed the ceiling, sealing them inside.
A weary sigh filled the cramped shelter as she eased onto her back. Atop Invaelag’s mass, she settled into the comforting hold of his transparent tentacles. They wrapped around her, promising safety that threatened to shatter at any moment.
She didn’t know if it was truly night, or if the concept of night even existed anymore. Her legs were sore after countless miles of hurrying through the jungle, however, and sleep beckoned to her.
The whispers of Invaelag caressed her mind. The sensation brought her the only comfort she could cling to, though it was a dying thing. Even as he sought to soothe her, she could feel his mind straining to maintain his protection. She could bury herself in mud and branches all she liked, for when his abilities faltered, there would be nowhere to hide.
Resting in his slimy hold, she felt the weight of a dead world pressing down upon her. When his whispers shifted, her burden increased tenfold. “Invaelag…”
His unspoken words brushed her mind to offer the same warning he had repeated for days. A wounded mass of tentacles squirmed weakly beneath her.
“I need you. If you go…” She squeezed a tentacle.
Regret poured through his whispers. The beast desired nothing more than to protect his mother, yet his concentration strained with every passing moment. His wounds were too great to keep her hidden.
“Just a little further.” She hated the desperation in her tone. “Please.”
Once more, his whispers shifted. He allowed her to sense the nearest seedlings miles upon miles away. Having put most of the vast jungle between them and Aslyd, she had forged the head start she had sought.
Would it matter?
“You’re not slowing me down,” she lied. They both knew the truth. As the plants continued to numb her pain, her stumbling had long become swift strides. Still her body ached. Still her internal wounds remained, though it was Invaelag’s crawling mass that now slowed them.
Thoughts brushed against her own. She bit her lip. In mere hours his protection was certain to fail.
“They’ll tear you apart.”
The whispers offered a vision of his transparent mass hiding away to slumber and heal. He could keep himself concealed from the swarm with ease. No longer did he have the strength to keep her safe.
Gritting her teeth, Darmi felt as if she endured one sorrow after another. She squeezed his tentacle tighter, as if she could keep her child from leaving her side. “Don’t go.” She sighed, knowing they had little choice. “Not yet.”
On her back, a tentacle slid down her abdomen. It caressed her lovingly, the last affection she feared she’d ever receive. Unspoken whispers promised to remain a little longer, at least until she had rested.
She sought to savor their final hours together. Her constant companion for the last few years, she thanked him for all he had done with a gentle kiss as she brought the tentacle to her lips.
His thoughts caressed hers with sorrow, though the tentacle upon her belly ventured further. It crept between her thighs, granting her loins a loving caress.
Though she shook her head, his touch coaxed a tingling need deep within her. Always running, always grieving, the ever-present ache between her legs had been the furthest from her mind it had ever been. “Invaelag…”
His whispers soothed her. The tentacle rubbed her gently, offering the final touch of a lover and of a creature eternally loyal to its mother. The tendril licked between her delicate lower lips, offering a goodbye.
The pleasure was a bittersweet sensation, overshadowing her dulled pain. She wondered if it would be the last she’d ever feel, permitting herself to rest in his grasp. Exhausted, her hope withering, she let her head fall back as the tentacle slid into her sex.
Darmi closed her tired eye. A soft moan whispered softly through the cramped shelter as she parted her thighs further. Her neglected need was an itch always at the back of her mind, and with every slow thrust, the pleasure pulsating inside her became her temporary sanctuary.
She squeezed his tentacle like an old lover, feeling the transparent tip brush softly against her cervix with each weak movement. He served her gently, his wounded mass resting beneath her as he held her petite body.
With her lips parting, Darmi savored the pleasure as she surrendered to her memories. She had been little more than a girl sleeping comfortably in the cave of her tribe when Nula-bal had found her. Her life had been a simple one until then, an inconsequential girl.
A subtle longing for lost days tingled within her, though she pushed it aside. There was no undoing all that had occurred. Her fate had been sealed the moment Nula-bal had spilled his seed inside her. Now her father was dead. Now Aifa was lost. Now the world was doomed to darkness, and she saw no escape.
From her loins had come the apocalypse.
Invaelag’s slime tingled upon her crimson skin. His tentacles traced her scars weakly. At the very least, Aifa had made her into a survivor.
She moaned softly, the pleasure a refuge as she thought of all the women still trapped in Aslyd. The anger of a childish girl had doomed them all. She couldn’t save the world, though she had put an end to her own part in its destruction. She had walked away, though she wouldn’t be spared from all she had done.
“I don’t think…ahh…I’m going to escape.” The words were little more than a whisper, a confession she finally dared to utter. She felt a dampness gathering in her gaze as she wrestled with her fear.
Invaelag offered soothing thoughts as his tentacle continued to serve her. He could feel the new shape of the world, though offered only false promises. It was better to keep the last of her withering hope alive, rather than snuff it out with the truth.
Where could she possibly go? Where could she hide? They approached the edge of the deep jungle, further than she had ever ventured. Already the towering trees were becoming subtly shorter and the vegetation less dense with every passing mile.
The eldest members of her lost tribe used to recount hushed tales of the lands beyond their jungle. They had offered stories of other strange humanoids that roamed the trees far beyond Cavari territory. Further, legends claimed that water surrounded their world, waves stretching forever beyond the horizon and brimming with monstrosities.
She could continue to run. She could risk encountering other humanoids if they truly existed. Perhaps she could even reach the water, though the swarm would continue to spread. It would consume everything.
The tentacle pushed against her deepest limit, and a burst of pleasure tingled through her worries. She had to keep going.
Darmi sighed, feeling Invaelag’s soothing thoughts. She calmed the slight trembling of her hand as her fear surrendered to her pleasure, pressing a tentacle to her lips once more. “Thank you…Invaelag.” She kissed her old companion with gratitude. “After all this time…after all you’ve done…thank you.”
She felt her orgasm approaching. She wanted to feel his warmth squirt inside her a final time. Long had his touch become a familiar comfort, though never had his seed managed to get her pregnant. Perhaps that was for the best.
Squeezing his tentacle, Darmi’s lips parted in pleasure as a final thrust coaxed her climax. Thighs quivering, her orgasm was a fragile, weak thing, though still she uttered a moan.
She had felt the deepest depths of mind shattering pleasure at Aifa’s side. Now, as she savored the warmth of Invaelag’s seed squirting inside her vagina, her climax was a whimper dulled by pain and worry. She clung to her orgasm, breathing softly when it faded.
Her loins tingled in the aftermath. She felt his tentacle slither from her sex.
Held in his protective grasp, she allowed herself to rest.
***
Their shelter lay cracked open as Darmi stood among the trees with Invaelag. Having awoken again into the nightmare of reality after an hour or two, it was time to part ways.
His whispers revealed a sorrow that matched her own. She felt the tentacle around her waist loosen as it uncoiled. When at last it left her crimson skin, a lonely sensation settled deep within her stomach.
She would face her fate alone.
“Goodbye, Invaelag,” she said softly, watching him go.
His transparent mass of tentacles crawled away weakly. Standing in silence, she watched him fade into the surrounding darkness. Never again would she see her loyal companion.
Entirely on her own, she knew she couldn’t delay. Though she stared into the darkness with an emptiness within her, she turned away. The seedlings no doubt sensed her already. Miles away, the swarm would surely be scrambling towards the final unclaimed Cavari womb.
Swallowing her sorrow, Darmi began to run.
44th of Twic, 758 BVE.
Near Deep Jungle Edge.
Three days.
All the distance she and Invaelag had put between them and the swarm had earned her a mere three days. Darmi hurried through the trees, moving as quickly as she could manage as she felt the first hint of the seedlings caressing her mind.
The swarm was close.
Without Invaelag’s protection, her inner voice had returned to normal. Her own thoughts seemed loud inside her head after being muted for so long. Now, however, the unseen tendrils of approaching seedlings prodded at her. Their simple minds caressed her own from miles away, a subtle sensation that coaxed her needs against her will.
Though they were insignificant compared to the minds of the trio, the seedlings beckoned to their prey. The most mature and advanced of their number prodded at her, manipulating her thoughts from miles away to draw a warmth between her thighs.
Running, ignoring the unnatural ache pulsating within her loins at their approach, Darmi felt her unwanted juices coating her thighs. She could feel the miles between them, their minds growing closer and closer with every passing moment.
Gritting her teeth and bearing the pain that the plants were no longer able to numb entirely, she ran swiftly. The seedlings were simply faster.
Her heart raced as she rushed frantically through the darkness. A rock sent her tumbling as she tripped, only to scramble back to her feet and continue on.
“Father…Aifa…Vaecath…Invaelag…” she thought to herself, biting back her fear as she ran. “I…I’m sorry…”
There was much she would give anything for to go back and change. Such was impossible. Her fate approached with every minute, the seconds dragging by as she ran from the inevitable.
The jungle had long grown quiet around her. Now, she heard the distant noises of tentacled creatures hurling themselves through the trees towards her. There would be no escape.
Through the darkness, however, she saw the consuming void through the trees. As above, it stood ahead. Confusion required time she didn’t possess. She merely ran until she finally burst from the tree line, utterly taken off guard when the jungle suddenly came to an end.
Barely managing to slow herself in time, Darmi slid to a stop at the very edge of a steep cliff. To her utter horror, however, she peered down to realize that nothing but the void itself stood ahead.
Lips parting in shock, she saw that empty darkness waited below. The world simply came to an abrupt end, the land giving way to a drop that seemed to have no bottom.
“W…what…is this?” she muttered in horror. Her world seemed to hover within the consuming void. Peering over the edge, she felt her legs beginning to tremble. “What…have we done?”
The Creator had truly abandoned them. She stood upon the edge of the world and gazed into the horror of her reality.
Her shock couldn’t persist for long. Still she heard the sounds in the distance. Still the swarm approached. A horrid end was promised with every echo through the trees, and nothing but the void itself loomed ahead.
She saw movement in the jungle as she turned around. Dark tentacles writhed as she was cornered. Seedlings emerged from the shadows all around, dozens ready to leap forth and snatch their prey.
The unknown loomed at her back. Certain horror crept towards her. Darmi made her terrible decision.
Standing upon the very edge of the bottomless cliff, she closed her eye. Having spent much of her life fleeing and struggling to survive, she uttered a long breath as she finally surrendered.
Darmi allowed herself to fall backwards, toppling over the edge. The world fell away as she plunged into the void.
***
The darkness around her was nearly peaceful. At long last, her struggle had ended. She fell, and fell, and fell.
Twirling through space, her short hair fluttering wildly, she waited for the end.
It never came.
She continued to fall. Consumed by darkness, she could see nothing when she opened her eye. No ground existed for her to strike. The void possessed no bottom, endless and consuming.
Falling, ever falling, Darmi had ample time to ponder her mortality. The peace of her surrender bled away into terror, realizing the horrible mistake she had made. A scream cried out into the darkness, though none could hear.
A minute became several. An hour passed like an eternity, yet still she continued to fall.
Her mind raced, alone in the depths of a lonely void. She had chosen to die on her own terms, yet death would not come.
Another hour passed. Regret bled through her veins, recalling her life. Always falling, she had an eternity to think.
Would she fall until starvation eventually claimed her? Would her corpse wither in the endless void forever?
Doomed to her fate, her hope flickered, and her heart jumped as she glimpsed something through the darkness. For the first time since jumping, an object appeared far below.
Falling, Darmi realized with horror that what she saw was the jungle edge she had jumped from. Baffled, her mind racing, she fell from the sky towards the landscape she had long left behind.
She didn’t understand. She had jumped from the world, yet the void had curved to bring her back.
When she fell past the edge of the world again, her hope died forever.
***
Always falling. Always wrapped in darkness. Darmi hardly cared to scream.
Hour after hour, she continued to fall through the void, feeling as if she’d lose her mind. Occasionally she passed the jungle’s edge again, though too far to strike the ground, she merely continued to fall repeatedly.
A hunger began to settle into her stomach. The promise of a slow death began.
She awaited her horrible end, helplessly falling forever. She replayed the memory of all she had seen in Aslyd over and over, wondering if she deserved any less. Her hope was as dead as the world. She was merely a corpse waiting to die.
When the sky abruptly flashed blue, Darmi was blinded.
Blinking frantically, she regained her vision in time to see the patches of blue fade within the void. She could see images of a strange landscape through them, as if they were tears in the fabric of reality.
When they faded, she was consumed by darkness once more.
***
Darmi waited. Every hour was an eternity, and she wondered if a day had passed. Had two? Perhaps even three? It was impossible to know.
All she could do was wait. With nothing but darkness all around, she felt her mind threatening to slip away in her isolation.
When at last the sky flashed again, she found her salvation.
Realizing one of the blue patches had appeared below her, she fell into its grasp in an instant. The void gave way to a bright sky, and she felt the sunlight upon her skin as she fell into a living world.
She had been saved from the darkness, though her end swiftly approached.
Tumbling through the sky, Darmi finally screamed once more as she saw the landscape stretching out below her. Her endless fall finally ceased when she struck the ground.
46th of Twic, 758 BVE.
First Continent, Beyond The Deep Jungle.
The bright sun beat down upon Xynas’s blue skin as he crept through the trees. Like his brother, he readied his spear as they searched for any hint of the vile creatures.
Long had it been since any of their tribe had been attacked by one of the monstrosities. Masses of black tentacles, they had begun to spread through their territory, only to abruptly withdraw back into the deep jungle from which they seemed to originate. Gone was their vile kind, along with the deep jungle itself.
“Wait.” Ynays raised his hand.
Xynas froze. Together they listened, only to lower their guard and continue. Though the beasts seemed to have vanished, they had to be certain. The brothers were but one pair among many their tribe had sent out to search the trees. No doubt countless other tribes were doing the same.
When at last they emerged from the tree line, Xynas couldn’t help but gasp.
“The reports cannot express its grandeur,” Ynays muttered. Though others had searched the area before them, no tale of what they had found could prepare the brothers for what they now saw.
Ahead stood a steep drop, a cliff that fell for miles. A vast basin of exposed rock stretched out into the distance, wide enough that they could not see the other side.
Xynas turned, seeing the cliff continuing at either side far into the distance. From the reports of the pairs that had surveyed the land before them, they knew the cliff edge gradually curved. Communicating with other tribes, it seemed the new gargantuan basin was circular, as if The Creator himself had scooped up a massive chunk of the continent and removed it from the world. Miles below, the deep pit gradually filled with water from the distant ocean.
Awestruck, Xynas remembered the land as it had been before. Long had he hunted in this area with his brother and father. Now the trees he had grown familiar with dangled over the edge of a massive cliffside that hadn’t existed a little over a month ago.
All members of his tribe knew the limits of their territory. They knew to stay away from the deep jungle. Now it was completely gone, replaced by a gigantic hole in the landscape.
“Keep your wits about you.” Ynays poked his brother’s arm with his spear, snapping him to attention. “You’ve seen what those creatures do to males. If we…by The Creator, what is that?”
Xynas followed his brother’s gaze, spotting a crimson hand reaching from the ground nearby. They heard an agonized moan as they hurried towards it, horrified by what they found.
Ynays winced. “It’s…she’s alive.”
“Barely…” Xynas peered down, for at their feet, the body of a girl rested in the mud. Near the edge of the cliff, her ample wounds spoke of a great fall. He looked at the surrounding trees, finding that none were tall enough to match what had happened to her. She appeared as if she had fallen from the sky itself.
“A Cavari, yes?” Ynays tilted his head as he studied her crimson skin. Though she only had a single glowing eye and was missing an antenna, she matched the tales from their tribe’s elders well enough. Her bioluminescent blue blood decorated the surrounding mud. “Last of her kind.”
“Perhaps.” Few of their people had ever encountered the strange crimson humanoids that dwelled within the deep jungle. Now that their land had vanished, the girl would die alone.
She gathered the strength to lift her hand once more towards them, her voice hardly more than a weak whisper. “Aifa…”
“Aifa?” Ynays asked. No doubt their words were as strange to her as hers were to them. “What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.” Xynas lowered himself to crouch at her side. With an expression of pity for the girl, he gently took her reaching hand. She squeezed with the last of her fading strength.
“Aifa…”
Xynas felt her grip loosening as he held her. “It’s alright now. Be at peace.”
The girl’s eye fluttered, gasping as she struggled to take her final breaths.
Ynays watched in silence as his brother remained at her side. When at last the life faded from her gaze, Xynas rested her hand on her still chest and closed her eye.
Neither brother desired to speak. They had seen death many times, though the girl’s death brought the end of an entire species.
Quietly, Xynas broke the silence. “We should bury her, like our own.”
Ynays merely nodded.
They began to dig nearby, just beside the edge of the cliff. Preparing a traditional grave, a way to keep predators from consuming the corpses of their people, they lowered the girl’s broken body respectfully inside.
Beneath the bright sun of a new day, they buried her. At last, she was granted a peaceful rest from the horrors of the world.
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A brutal penultimate chapter. Next week will see the release of the final chapter, and I hope you’ll all enjoy the conclusion to this series!