A new day was just beginning to dawn after a bitterly-cold night, with the orb-lights gradually brightening. This was the only time of day Captain would visit the massive expanses of salt; it was either way too hot otherwise or he wouldn't nearly be able to see as well as he liked. Stepping on a scorpion in the dark was not ideal for a jaunty stroll.

Not that there was anything for fun about this visit. Out of all the parts of Hydra, Captain held a special hatred in his heart for the salt flats alone. The rest of it was fine. (The dunes were highly mediocre.) There were way too many creepy crawlies who killed herbivores like him with deadly venom. At least with vultures, you could run and hide even while bleeding.

Get in, eat salt, get out. That was the mission. Hopefully with no further complications, though that might be asking a lot from Hydra.

An accidental hoof on a little scorpion was not the threat Hydra would throw at. Instead, the scorpion whose attention Captain drew was massive: a solid two feet long, with two long, hooked tails curled over its back.

It came forward in a quiet skitter, and after a moment, gauged which direction Captain was moving in. Then it circled around, trying to come up stealthily from behind. Would the growing black beast notice it--either by wariness, or chance? Or would it manage its stalk without issue, and sink stingers into its would-be prey-?

Captain must roll a barely+ to avoid the stalking Cave Scorpion. Failure to do so will result in further danger.

@Captain

Mmm, salt. Kuh-click click--wait, that wasn't the sound licking the ground was supposed to make, was it? Eh... it was pretty tasty, though. Giving the crusty white stuff a last reluctant lick, Captain turned, scowling, to face the new threat.

"ARRRRRR, YE SCURVY DOG," he thundered. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YA THINK YER DOIN', SNEAKING UP ON ME LIKE THAT, BUT YOU BETTER GET YER UGLY MUG OUTTA MY SIGHT BEFORE I TURN YOU INTO SHARK BAIT!" Captain wasn't sure what a shark was, but it sounded like a suitably terrifying word.

He brandished his horns with a toss of his head and stomped a hoof down on the cracked salt crust. To his complete and utter surprise, a new kind of superpower manifested. White shards formed around him, rising into the air. "YEAHHHHHHHH!!!" he cheered, utterly delighted with himself. "GO GET HIM, SHARKS!"

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

One moment, there was a scorpion--frozen comically as the bull had turned to it in his realization. The next, a whirling knifestorm of salt-and-sand-fused blades.

The creature never knew what hit it. It was skittering rapidly back, pincers raising, doubled tail curving up in a warning. Carapace was sheared to pieces in a whirl of white, legs clattering frantically and then stumbling as pieces were simply carved away. White meat and goopy, dark blood spilled forth from beneath the exoskeleton, the hapless would-be predator tipping to one side, crashing into the salt, and flailing frantically as it was sliced to shredded pieces.

By the time the storm subsided, what was left was a mangled heap of exoskeleton and scorpion meat, the limp tails dribbling greenish venom.

One leg twitched, once. That was all.

@Captain

Captain stared in complete awe as his superpowered sharks literally cut the scorpion to pieces. It was a bit... gross, actually. Why did scorpions have to be so goopy and liquidy inside? His eyes were transfixed on the gore with a sort of horrified fascination. There were so many different colors, all of them as disgusting as the next.

Nausea roiled in his stomach, and Captain quickly stumbled away from the scorpion corpse. Well, that kind of ruined this patch of salt for him. Now he had to find another, less venom and blood-soaked area to lick from. But fuck if he was going to just leave now that he was already here and had defeated the threat to his life in such a spectacular way! He hadn't gone to all this effort to travel here for nothing, and he wasn't about to leave now just to have to come back sooner in the end.

Hooves clattered on the cracked salt earth as Captain moved to a new location on the flats. Actually... could he lift up a patch of salt somehow, and take it with him? And carry it in my mouth all the way to the Marsh or the Crucible? It would be a daunting task, and most likely extremely unpleasant and unsuccessful in the end. But if he did succeed, Captain wouldn't have to come back here for a long time.

ARRR, FUCK IT, Captain decided. Crazy or not, the idea was worth a try. Who knew? Maybe he'd even be successful, what with his magical superpowers and all. Glancing around to make sure that his surroundings were suitably free of scorpions and scorpion gore, Captain stomped down a hoof to deal the salt flats around him a percussive blow.

This time, though, nothing out of the ordinary happened. ".... yarrrrr?" Captain said questioningly. "Where'd me superpowerrrrrs go?" There was supposed to have been magic! Why wasn't the magic happening?!

Shaking his head with a disappointed grumble, Captain returned to licking salt the old-fashioned way. Ugh. Guess there was no way out of visiting this place.

exit