26. Loud
Time froze. All animation ceased. Haet no longer breathed. The corpse all about them labored no more in silence. And the cry of conversation fell away from her ears.
Celia was alone. The entire world around her slowed to an impossible crawl. A darkish blue hue tinting the air. One that only she could move through, that she was the only one left unaffected by it. And that was no coincidence.
Designation: Trueborn Hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: Feastling
Slots open: 6
1: locked, 2: This maw for Mine, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash, 6: Hard shell, 7: empty
Modifications available: none
Insight(s): The color of shadow
[The Hunger Pained, The Self Fractured]
Warning!
[Seldom seen, Seldom heard] has placed his eye upon you.
Something was watching her. Something that seemingly had the power to freeze time for everyone around her and exclude her from the effect. And likely itself as well. And if Celia was a betting woman, she’d take that as an "invitation" for a more private discussion. So she waited. For all of five minutes that is. Five minutes that passed without a single word being spoken. The world still stuck in its frozen silence outside of her own thoughts.
Which, after a moment of thought, made her reconsider what this was. Because it wasn’t just something seizing her for a talk. Apparently. No, whatever this [Seldom seen, Seldom heard] was it was watching her. Keeping its eye on her while stopping time.
Maybe it wanted her to find it?
Celia went with that. Slowly going back through the ship and checking every nook and cranny she had access to. Which was pretty much everywhere the door was left open. Opening doors when time was stopped was actually pretty hard as it turned out.
What wasn’t so hard was walking outside and realizing that the giant dragon on a throne was staring directly at her. Eyes following her as she quickly moved side to side. Proving her suspicion. And after that, she did the most reasonable thing she could think of, and prepared to get the daylights beat out of her. As, in her limited scope of experience with this world, that seemed like the most likely scenario.
Still, it didn’t stop her from eventually heading towards the dragon. Stepping off the corpse ship, and immediately finding herself back in the market. Once again surrounded by a horde of unmoving faces. Some in the midst of bartering, others eating, and a few even fighting.
It took Celia a very worrying amount of effort to not take some of the food for herself. And it was horrible easy to continue on her way toward the dragon. Each step in its direction accompanied by a thought. By the scrambled beginnings of a plan of action in case things went exactly as she thought they would.
Tremor sense slowly painting her a map of the city in case she needed to run. Teeth preemptively prepared along her arms and legs as weapons. Tendrils cooling up like a snake prepared to bite. Tongue dripping with hunger fueled sharpness and slowly infecting the rest of her body. Eyes opening up to the secret color of shadows, if only because she had no idea what to expect.
It was everything she had, and she knew it wasn’t going to be enough. Obviously, anything that could just freeze time on a whim was no simple creature. Not something that she could probably fight, at the very least. If anything all her preparations were moreso to make her feel just a little better about potentially walking to her own death. Well, it was more like she was definitely walking to her own death.
And it was for the same reasons she was sure she was going to die that she was also convinced that running also wasn’t an option. It would probably just freeze her in place as well. And if it was up to Celia, she’d prefer not to die as a frozen doll.
Something about it just rubbed her the wrong way.
Feelings about how she died aside, it didn’t Celia much time at all to reach the throne where the Dragon sat. Stepping past a collection of guards armored in scratched up bone and esoteric symbols, a collection of creatures wearing actual clothes, and up a large set of steps. Beyond all that, the dragon sat upon his throne. Body unmoving except for his bright blue eyes, burning like torches in the night, which openly stared down at her.
Celia took a deep breath.
"Uh, hi, I-I think you wanted to talk?" She said, words tumbling out her mouth as she did her best to appear brave.
And she didn’t need anyone to tell her that she failed miserably at that.
And just as she let herself wonder how the giant near skeletal pale dragon might react, from laughter to a deadly swat, it slowly roused from its slumber.
A twitch moving through its whole body, starting at the toes and heading up to the very tips of its wings. The blue fire in its eyes igniting, chunks of flame sputtering out of them and coursing through its body. A blue trail that followed the path of its veins, bringing life to everywhere it touched. Fingers twitching, grasping at nothing, both hands forming around an invisible shape. A shape that was soon made real by a combustion of blue fire. A staff forming between its hands, as more flame filled the groves in its wings. Wings that unfurled with a shockwave that ripped through the open throne room. Throwing up dust that froze once again after a moment spent in motion.
And when it was all done, the dragon stood before her. Immense scaled body leaning upon its staff as it looked down at her. House sized jaw formed into a crooked smile dripping with azure embers that seemed to make the very air itself hazy.
And then the beast leaned down. Bringing its head over ten feet closer with such a simple act.
Then it spoke.
"i had begun to wonder what it was that rascal was looking for, sending his agent here. but to think it was something so young? you know, I first thought he was after one of my sleeves again, typical brat that he is."
Celia felt every word that came out the dragon’s mouth reverberate through her. She felt them, understood them in a hundred languages she had never heard of, and a thousand more besides. Saw them intertwine themselves on the stars themselves, drinking meaning from the sky above before descending back. The weight of them, of what they were, and the impossible possibility of what they meant slam into her with all the crushing weight of a mountain.
It was enough to undo her. To stab into her and twist her apart on a level beyond physical matter. Like she was hearing the whole universe sing beautiful finality down her neck and into her ear. It’s heady breaths enough to melt thought from her brain and replace it with the scorching heat of a star.
But the worst part was that hearing it made her understand that the thing before her was not a creature in the same way she was. It was a thing operating on a different level. Breathing on a different plane. Looking at her from somewhere she could not reach. As if she were an ant met with a tiger, the scope of its existence beyond sight from the ground alone.
It’s whispered words seized her again.
"oh, I’ve forgotten how fragile you things are. here."
And suddenly the pressure wasn’t so suffocating.
Celia fell to her knees, vomit threatening to spill out of her as she remained there taking in sharp lungfuls of air. Strength slowly returning to her, before she found the power to stand. And when she did, she was once again and immediately cowed by the towering beast of scale and flame before her. The nightmare like visage only somewhat challenged by how it - or rather - he was looking at her.
As if he expected her to speak.