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So… are y’all ready for another?

Moniker: @obrian-of-the-surface-world

Book Title: Excavatia: From Dust Arise
Audio Link: Prologue: The Beachhead – Scene 2 – A Meeting of Monsters
Duration: 10 minutes 42 seconds

Here is the Text:  (Word Count – 1137)

A creature of living darkness emerged from the well of the deep. It had been summoned from the great gulf that separated the world of the seen from the unseen. The beast was given a keystone granting it a metaphysical form reflecting its monstrous nature, allowing it to pass through to a place where the designated one would come to be tested to learn to lead others either by faith or by sight.

The supernatural swords of fire blocking its entrance were briefly parted by the keepers and it was, at last, permitted to enter the hidden world from which it had been ejected so very long ago.  Soon others would emerge from the world of the seen, but this was its opportunity and its singular mission: To kill the desire of the one called to lead.  To stop the opening of the other gate beyond the hidden world to the kingdom without end.  A kingdom called Excavatia.

Like a shooting star, the creature came through a ragged tunnel in the evening sky opening just above the horizon’s edge of the marching sea.  Upon hitting the atmosphere, feathers of smoke peeled from its falling form creating contrails that marked the path of its fiery descent.  Its ponderous bulk plowed into the shoreline with a crash and thunderous clap echoing across the breaks and turns of the seashore cliffs.  The pressure of the impact caused the crawling shallow water to explode into the air, and a large furrow tore into the rising shore, casting a cloud of sand into the air thereafter.

Something huge emerged from the furrowed trench masked amid the falling water and dust, clouded in a loamy patina, sparkling with wetness as if it was newly birthed into this world of sea and lowering sun.

It shifted, undulating in the air, seeming to twist the landscape around it as if bending the light out of its path like a massive, invisible fist moving under plastic.

Its form was translucent, but opaque with the accumulation of sand sloughing off its ponderously moving body.  It lumbered forward and headed towards the open darkness of a sea cave carved by wind, time, and water.  The sea swelled and surged behind it as the rippling, translucent, hulking thing faded into the sea chiseled cavern as deeper darkness enfolded it into its waiting bosom.

An old woman’s voice, coming from somewhere deep within the cave spoke to the newly arrived monster and said, “Welcome to the Mid-World, my prince.  We have waited long for your coming.”

The beast filled the cavern with an even deeper darkness, raising its darkling form to cover the escape route through the entrance to the sea cave.

Words, seemingly formed of rock and evoked from the deep-belly of the land and sea, responded to the woman’s voice, rumbling out of the walls and echoing throughout the recesses of the deep cavern.

“You speak in the language of the original tongue. How come you to know this? And by what power do you recognize me? You have the hinting of human blood about you, but it is not your own smell.”

The monster drew in a sniff that sounded like crashing waves of the sea, “I sense the water and dust within you, and the smell of another Prince of the Dark. Are you a creature of this land, or another place?”

The woman’s voice responded, quavering, “I am a confined spirit of the air, my Prince. The original tongue is native to me. I was given this form through the blood and formation of another. I am your servant and the one who beckoned you with the accursed stone.”

“The traces of water in you, are not of this outer sea. From whence do they come?”

“There is a great and deep river between the mountains, my liege. It is called a fjord. There I was infused by the Beast of the Sea, your kind, along with the killing of the human form that previously bore it.”

“And what of that Prince? How come you to leave your loyalties there and bring them to me?”

“The former Prince of the Waters was slain, my Lord. Its head was taken by fishermen, even as I was present, lurking hidden within its locked jaws. I alone had enough blood left to sustain me.”

The monster seemed to ponder her words thoughtfully for a long moment, and then the bellows of its throat chamber formed an odd popping sound like that of breaking rocks.

“Then, servant, you will be my eyes upon this land, for I move among the shadows and beneath it. The light of this world burns.”

“What is it that you wish of my, my master? I knew you would come, but I did not know for what purpose.”

“There is one of the Ancient Land soon to come to this place. We are to undermine him at all cost, for he like others before him seek the Kingdom that is hidden here.”

“But the stone…I saw you consume it. We have disposed of the virtue stone needed to bring the prophecy about.”

“We have only delayed it. The stone is embedded in me. I could not consume it, for its power would send me into Tartarus.”

“You mean it is here still? Not out in The Void?”

“It cannot be lost. The virtue stones are from the altar of The One. They can be contained only for a time, but they answer another’s call.”

“So how are we to prevent the one who will lead another of the stone quests?”

“You will join their company. You will undermine their group, and sow seeds of dissension among them.”

“I have done this before, only with some limited success. Those who knew the form I bear, eventually suspect.”

“Then it is for you, that this charge I give is perfect. Those arriving here do not know the others. They will all begin as strangers without names.”

“Your will is mine, my Lord. I am called Torlah among those who know me by my true form.  I am called Noadiah, but the others who see only the blood form I now wear. And by what name shall I call you?”

“My name is Sheol, for I am the Lord and Master among the many graves of men.”

“So, My Lord Sheol, how shall we begin this deception together?”

“Bring me a sacrifice so that I may feed on human blood. From this, I will give you another form, beside the ashes of the one you now wear.”

The monstrous bulk in the shadows slowly moved aside, allowing the faint graying light from outside the cave to pass around its body. Giving the old woman leave to go to the outside and do as it had commanded her.