Dec 10 2024, 12:35 PM
Trust and fear briefly warred, all the variables of how little time it had known Anubis and its own prey-beast terror mingling and confusing it until the confusion itself won out. Anubis was a smarter being. Obvously, he would know best.
The bat took flight, which ironically carried it closer to safety: higher in the air, above the whatever-it-was below. It was as Anubis had promised, but it was true. It swept forward, and its sonar provided a slightly clearer picture. The thing below was massive compared to it, but it was not as large as the largest Valkhounds Anubis might have seen. It was smaller than Vargas, than Tectus. But it was tall, and it was slender: lithe and swift as it turned, maybe even thin, given how little there was to eat, here. Its skin was hairless, smooth and rubbery. These were the impressions the bat managed before the thing leapt.
Then it moved, and a pale shape swept upward into the small circle of firelight. There was an impression of a skull-like, eyeless face; sickly white skin, veins visible through it; and a few misshapen bristles along the top and bottom of a long, muscled neck. It struck out for the bat, guided by something other than sight, and hit. The height saved it, but nonetheless the pitch rat was struck, the powerful yet glancing blow reverberating through its body.
The fire was dropped, torch toppling to hit ancient dust- or maybe sand-caked stone below. The bat itself was thrown, a crack of some bones or other rippling agony through it but leaving it alive. It screeched, terror filling it, and caught itself halfway down: flapped, struggling higher, streaking toward a wall. It found one by sonar alone, then clung there, shivering and panting.
New impressions: holes in the wall. Large, rectangular--doors? They were spaced evenly around the Pit, the sides and rear, and were not only at floor level. Rings seemed to be old, worn-away walkways higher up. Row after row of doors cut into the stone sphere's walls. The bat made for one in a panic, a last backward glance showing the movement of six tall, pale limbs moving at the edges of the abandoned fire's light.
The bat took flight, which ironically carried it closer to safety: higher in the air, above the whatever-it-was below. It was as Anubis had promised, but it was true. It swept forward, and its sonar provided a slightly clearer picture. The thing below was massive compared to it, but it was not as large as the largest Valkhounds Anubis might have seen. It was smaller than Vargas, than Tectus. But it was tall, and it was slender: lithe and swift as it turned, maybe even thin, given how little there was to eat, here. Its skin was hairless, smooth and rubbery. These were the impressions the bat managed before the thing leapt.
Then it moved, and a pale shape swept upward into the small circle of firelight. There was an impression of a skull-like, eyeless face; sickly white skin, veins visible through it; and a few misshapen bristles along the top and bottom of a long, muscled neck. It struck out for the bat, guided by something other than sight, and hit. The height saved it, but nonetheless the pitch rat was struck, the powerful yet glancing blow reverberating through its body.
The fire was dropped, torch toppling to hit ancient dust- or maybe sand-caked stone below. The bat itself was thrown, a crack of some bones or other rippling agony through it but leaving it alive. It screeched, terror filling it, and caught itself halfway down: flapped, struggling higher, streaking toward a wall. It found one by sonar alone, then clung there, shivering and panting.
New impressions: holes in the wall. Large, rectangular--doors? They were spaced evenly around the Pit, the sides and rear, and were not only at floor level. Rings seemed to be old, worn-away walkways higher up. Row after row of doors cut into the stone sphere's walls. The bat made for one in a panic, a last backward glance showing the movement of six tall, pale limbs moving at the edges of the abandoned fire's light.
@Anubis