This chapter has been edited due to content. If you want to see the unedited version GO HERE.
JASH
Outside of the cavern the cold night raged on. It would have been safer for me to go out naked and wait for sunrise than to start my journey. Outside the cavern were threats that I was used to while the path of my journey was unknown. At least Serena would be able to walk me to my bed.
We walked silently through the manor and I tried to quell the sense of unease threatening to take over my body. I took in every sight, sound, and smell that I could as this might be the last time I could experience them. What if I did die? Would my soul stay in the Mountain or would I simply disappear?
Serena pulled up the covers and I lay down. She was like a mother as she pulled the covers over me. It was a pleasant feeling even if it did make me feel like a hatchling.
"I'm not as good at goodbyes as I thought." I said with a nervous chuckle. "I had a speech prepared that no bard could hope to improve."
"I'm nervous too, Jash." Serena replied. "I don't know how I continue to draw breath after breath."
"You're stronger than you think, Serena. That kind of strength doesn't die easily or at all."
The depths of my feelings for the vampire had been unsaid from my lips. It would be crossing a line if I said anything about how I really felt. But after I began my journey then...if I did die...this would be my last chance.
"I was married when we first met and you had suffered abuse." I said, my mouth feeling like a desert. "If the circumstances of our meeting were changed then I might have had the opportunity to take you as my wife. I would have gladly accepted you into my bed if it had been ours to do so."
There was a silence and I didn't know how it felt. Had I crossed a line? If I returned could my egg-sister ever forgive me?
"I want to get married one day." Serena said, breaking the silence. "I like reading stories about heroic adventurers falling in love with beautiful maidens. There's no heroic adventurers in the world but the feeling of being in love is something I want to experience one day. Sometimes you're the adventurer I want to fall in love with but I can't. Not now."
Again there was silence that stretched into minutes. Was she using this time to delay me? Did she think if I had time that I would change my mind? I had had nine long years to change my mind and my resolve had never wavered.
"If there is one thing I'm thankful for, it's that you decided our friendship was important." Serena said with a sad smile. "I've known men that would kill a woman who didn't offer herself to them."
"I want you by my side and it doesn't matter if you're a friend, lover, or spouse." I said. "When you find someone you wish to guard your heart, remember your worth."
"Divines bless you, Jash."
"May the Hist guide you, Serena."
I closed my eyes and allowed my soul to drift to the Mountain. It was a strange sensation as I lost my physical form and became pure soul.
As my plane solidified around me, I looked upon a vast cave. Nearly a mile behind me was faint sunlight from an opening. The cave was empty except for numerous corpses of the same dryskin. All around me was proof of my many failed attempts to reach Alex Casey.
I swallowed my bile as I became more nervous. Those corpses weren't me as I had become someone completely different. Yet they were also too much like me. I didn't know if I was more disgusted by the corpses themselves or the fact that I used to be a dryskin.
Somehow my legs walked past corpses in different states of decay. On some of them the flesh had entirely rotted off leaving a mere skeleton. Others looked fresh but the smell was that of a corpse that had rotted for centuries. And still others weren't whole with a skull in one place, legs in another, and the remainder didn't exist anymore.
Each corpse, while having their own differences, was the same. They were all of a woman dryskin in her late thirties. Their height was all the same of just making it past five feet. Their hair was also purp-no, their hair was dyed purple. The purple color faded into a dark brown color the closer it got to the scalp.
Finally I stood in front of the dryskin woman from my vision. Unlike all the others, she was pristine in death and showed no signs of decay. This was perfect for my purposes. If any part of her had started to rot then Alex would have been forever lost to me.
I thought back to the tome Urag had given me as well as my magical expertise. My rank of Arch-Mage was due to such expertise and I had lead many a student to greatness. The problem was that my main School of Magic was Destruction. Though I used Alternation and Conjuration spells when situations called for it. Out of those two I was more proficient in the latter.
But to give myself a physical form on Earth I would need to combine the Schools of Alternation and Conjuration to create a spell. Serena had helped me turn into another Saxhleel to make sure I could accomplish such a challenge.
I looked at my old dryskin body and felt her essence. It wasn't a soul but it was enough of a connection to make the spell possible.
Within the blink of an eye I was...I was...in pain! The senses were all wrong! How had I ever lived like this? The world looked wrong. The scents and sounds were much weaker. And...and...oh, Hircine, I could drown in this form! The way my lungs worked I knew I could!
I don't know how, but I managed to make adjustments so this body felt right. No, not right. I made this body bearable to me. I could still drown but at least the world appeared closer to how I experienced it.
This body felt disgusting. Not only was it much shorter than my own but it lacked a tail or horns. At least there was a chance Alex would be attracted to it. When we had ****** he had let me take charge but...there was something that told me he had never been with a man before. Was it nervousness or pure need that had driven him to let me take charge? And beneath it all I could sense experience which meant he had been with women in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment