Aftermath ...
- Thread starter Haiku
- Start date
Haiku
Jedi Master
The final chapters of Aftermath, I hope you enjoy it. Now I have a lot of editing to do, make it meld together better. I doubt that I will ever get to publishing it, I really don’t think there is enough time. Until next time, Ta-Ta for now, Haiku …
Of note: I put quite a few survival items in the stories, this was intentional. I just hope that those that see this time, in this reality, that they have these concepts to help them survive a little better.
Of note: I put quite a few survival items in the stories, this was intentional. I just hope that those that see this time, in this reality, that they have these concepts to help them survive a little better.
Haiku
Jedi Master
One of my characters was a demon beast from another reality, I named him Wrath. A small beast with incredible powers that rode around on a leg of my main character, Max. To understand Wrath and what motivates him, I had to realize him. This is what I came up with in my writing of Aftermath. Enjoy Wrath's World, Haiku …
Wrath’s world …
A plateau on some forgotten world, it was as big as a continent. Around it, a bank of clouds hanging low on some unseen ground below. From above it was a good mile drop, but that was just to the clouds, no one knew what was down below it, there could be nothing at all.
What lived here, stayed here, it was like a prison for dangerous things. It was constant daylight there, the sun never moved, and the moon never hangs in the sky. There was no time here.
Wrath was one of those things being held here. Right now, he was looking over the edge, seeing if there was any change down below. He had patience so he waited and watched. It was always a swirling cloud, some turned this way, some that, and it was always moving. All he needed was a single spot, one point of clearing to see what was beyond. He was sure that he could survive the fall if there was ground below, but he had to see it first.
Wrath was a creature all his own, there was no other like him, at least that’s what he has found. He was only a foot tall long pointed ears, sixteen spikes on his back with claws on his hands and feet. And oh yes, he was black right down to the color of his eyes. He was older than time itself.
He had been there long enough to have completely traveled this entire plateau from top to bottom, through the caves of the underground and to the quartz peaks in the east. He had always been looking for a way out, not to kill and maim, but to find out where he came from, what he was. It was all a mystery to him. Even if he could find another like him, someone like him to be with, it would calm this eternal want in him.
But for now, he monitored the clouds, watching and waiting.
A noise came from behind him, it was subtle but when you have ears like these, you can hear even the smallest of bug walking by. He sent out a searching tone. It was a low vibration that he could send out, it sounded like a growl. It sent waves out, like a pebble in a pond, it touched something. It was a water walker.
They are entities that can control water, the legs and most of their body is water. The core, a ball only an inch wide, is the stomach and brain of the beast. It resides in the upper body of it as it walks around on four spindly legs. It stood two feet taller than Wrath even though it was a much lesser creature. Now, the water in it can’t be hurt, it feels nothing. To kill the beast, you have to take out the brain.
Wrath turned around to meet it, this was an easy beast, he knew how to take it down. But it was useless to him, there was no nourishment in it. He charged it and all of the sudden the ground fell beneath both of them dropping them down into a chasm, deep underground.
The water walker tumbled as it fell, bumping into walls and ledges, without damaging it. Wrath on the other hand, landed on his feet in a pile of broken egg shells. He looked around, they were stint eggs, that was bad news but as long as there wasn’t a queen around, he could deal with it. Then the water walker finally hit the bottom with a splat. It stood up, it seemed nervous jumping around as if it had to go to the bathroom.
Wrath looked up at the way he fell in. He could jump twenty feet if he needed to, but there was nothing above him that would facilitate this, he would have to find an alternate exit. He turned to watch the water walker, see what direction it takes off in.
There were three tunnels leaving this area. One round one at least eight feet in diameter, the queens use these tunnels. Then there were the two smaller tunnels, they were ovals four feet wide and half that in height. Small holes covered the walls, it is where the young hide. You see, the Queen has a tendency to eat their young.
Wrath watched the water walker, it went to the first small tunnel, it didn’t like the look of that and went to the big tunnel. It was looking for the queen, you could see it was thinking about running this tunnel in hopes that it makes it past the queen, but it was very risky. It went to the third tunnel and looked in.
All of the sudden the water walker took off running down the third tunnel. The stint babies started making a buzzing noise, they noticed the walker coming their way. Then all of the sudden the babies started launching at the walker, coming from all directions. They were popping out of the little holes in the wall, piercing the water of the walker having no absolutely no effect. Then a lucky shot and a baby stuck the walker right in the brain. The intelligence that held the water together stopped and the water fell, dropping the water, baby and brain to the ground below. The baby wiggled its way back into its hole with the brain still stuck to it and it was gone. The water from the beast just drained down into another baby hole in the tunnel.
Wrath’s turn, he went up to the large second tunnel. It looked clear, but that could change in a seconds notice. A queen lives in her straight tunnel and can travel from end to end in a few seconds. The queen used this to capture food that think of using her tunnel as a passage. Some of these tunnels were left over from an ancient time and were empty. Wrath turned around and looked at the eggs, they were fresh meaning a queen was definitely nearby.
Now Wrath knew how to disable a stint queen, but he didn’t know how to kill one. Wrath was an energy beast, using his power depletes his energy which he drew from worms here on this plane. To disable a stint queen, he had to use his ‘claw’, a sword like extension that he could slash at enemies. Three slashes, uses 10% of his energy, and it took three slashes to disable a queen. Wrath’s strongest attack was the lightning strike, it used 49% of his energy to use, he has never used it on a queen yet, it was just too costly.
Wrath turned to the third tunnel. As dangerous as it was, it was safer than using the queens tunnel. Wrath had natural abilities, like his jump/leap. It was a physicality ability that did not use any of his energies. He was going to use that here to get through the baby tunnel.
He backed up to get a run at the tunnel and he leapt forward barely touching down at any point and he leapt again and again. The babies were alerted and were striking out at him, but they were slower than Wrath, it would take a guesstimate strike to hit him. When he reached the end of the tunnel and he looked down, three babies were sticking out of him trying to bore into him. He grabbed them one by one, threw them onto the ground and stepped on them to kill them. Then he healed himself from their injuries, that only costs him 1%.
The baby tunnel exited out to another queen tunnel. He carefully peered out into it. The tunnel was almost vertical, underground it was difficult to realize this. So, he looked down into darkness, if there was something there, it was far away right now. Then he looked up, and he saw light, the tunnel broke out into a cave up above him, but it was a good thousand feet away. To get up there he would have to zig-zag off each wall to wall to climb up and out of there.
Wrath wanted a better view, so he leaned out into the tunnel looking up. A woosh of wind blew by him, it was the queen, it was moving. He sent out a searching tone and it found something close, it was the queen, it was right behind him. He felt her breath, and he caught his. A queen was a grown stint, a cone some three feet long. It’s encases itself in a gelatinous shield for protection, a material composed completely of stomach acids. This made the creature about twenty feet long allowing the beast inside to float from end to end. It was at this end right now, he could feel it.
He had to take the upper hand, he attacked first. With his claw, he sliced a slash right across it. He rotated sixty degrees and took another slash, he turned sixty more degrees again and took the third slash. The front of the beast was sliced into six equal sections that peeled back to expose the creature. He grabbed it and pulled it out of the gelatinous muck, yanking it a good ten feet out of the goo. It was attached by thousands threads that connected it to the muck. He dropped the creature and it fell back and splashed down into the slime. Wrath stood on the cone of the beast, his feet burning from the acids of the beast, he didn’t let it bother him.
He leapt from side to side of the tunnel gaining ten feet for each zig or zag. It took him a few minutes, but he finally got up to the top of the tunnel. He popped up on flat ground, it was the floor of a cave. He looked around and he recognized it, he had been there before. But the stint nest, that was new, he would take note of it.
He took inventory, he had 87% energy, one for the heal, two for the scans and ten more for the queen disable. He looked down at his feet and healed them, now he was at 86%. He needed worms and there was pool of water near there that they congregate around. He took off walking toward it.
An hour later, Wrath was looking off a cliff, some fifty feet above the water pool. Water bothered him now since he was pulled through to another dimension. It was a short excursion to another reality. At first he thought he was free from the hell he was in, but he was wronged by himself. He was nothing more than a slave that had to hang onto others so it wouldn’t die. He was nothing more than a genie in a bottle. He was returned here with a very nasty taste in his mouth.
But he could see what he needed, worms were all over here, more than enough to replenish his energy. Worms are the lowest lifeform here on the Plateau, they are six to eight inches long and two to three in width. When a self-serving soul gets recycled and has to start all over again, a worm if the first solid form that they get. It is like the other-serving souls with their first form as a rock, a piece of granite. At least the self-serving can move around.
Wrath slid down to the pool, he kept as far away from the pool as he could and still get worms. He picked up his first one and bit into it, not to drain his fluids but to gather its energy, although the end result was something that resembled a burnt stick. But each worm gave him 1% back in his energy reserve. When he was finished there were fourteen burnt sticks lining his path around the pool of water, he was full once again.
He leapt away, he didn’t want to stay near a pool any more than he had to. he knew where all the exits were here, and he headed to the nearest one. he crossed over a heard of purple bears, the air beasts, they were harmless. A few more jumps and he was up on the plateau once again, he felt the warm of the sun again. The edge was near, and he walked over to it and sat down on the edge.
Once again, he watched the clouds down below. It was just another day on the plateau …
Wrath’s world …
A plateau on some forgotten world, it was as big as a continent. Around it, a bank of clouds hanging low on some unseen ground below. From above it was a good mile drop, but that was just to the clouds, no one knew what was down below it, there could be nothing at all.
What lived here, stayed here, it was like a prison for dangerous things. It was constant daylight there, the sun never moved, and the moon never hangs in the sky. There was no time here.
Wrath was one of those things being held here. Right now, he was looking over the edge, seeing if there was any change down below. He had patience so he waited and watched. It was always a swirling cloud, some turned this way, some that, and it was always moving. All he needed was a single spot, one point of clearing to see what was beyond. He was sure that he could survive the fall if there was ground below, but he had to see it first.
Wrath was a creature all his own, there was no other like him, at least that’s what he has found. He was only a foot tall long pointed ears, sixteen spikes on his back with claws on his hands and feet. And oh yes, he was black right down to the color of his eyes. He was older than time itself.
He had been there long enough to have completely traveled this entire plateau from top to bottom, through the caves of the underground and to the quartz peaks in the east. He had always been looking for a way out, not to kill and maim, but to find out where he came from, what he was. It was all a mystery to him. Even if he could find another like him, someone like him to be with, it would calm this eternal want in him.
But for now, he monitored the clouds, watching and waiting.
A noise came from behind him, it was subtle but when you have ears like these, you can hear even the smallest of bug walking by. He sent out a searching tone. It was a low vibration that he could send out, it sounded like a growl. It sent waves out, like a pebble in a pond, it touched something. It was a water walker.
They are entities that can control water, the legs and most of their body is water. The core, a ball only an inch wide, is the stomach and brain of the beast. It resides in the upper body of it as it walks around on four spindly legs. It stood two feet taller than Wrath even though it was a much lesser creature. Now, the water in it can’t be hurt, it feels nothing. To kill the beast, you have to take out the brain.
Wrath turned around to meet it, this was an easy beast, he knew how to take it down. But it was useless to him, there was no nourishment in it. He charged it and all of the sudden the ground fell beneath both of them dropping them down into a chasm, deep underground.
The water walker tumbled as it fell, bumping into walls and ledges, without damaging it. Wrath on the other hand, landed on his feet in a pile of broken egg shells. He looked around, they were stint eggs, that was bad news but as long as there wasn’t a queen around, he could deal with it. Then the water walker finally hit the bottom with a splat. It stood up, it seemed nervous jumping around as if it had to go to the bathroom.
Wrath looked up at the way he fell in. He could jump twenty feet if he needed to, but there was nothing above him that would facilitate this, he would have to find an alternate exit. He turned to watch the water walker, see what direction it takes off in.
There were three tunnels leaving this area. One round one at least eight feet in diameter, the queens use these tunnels. Then there were the two smaller tunnels, they were ovals four feet wide and half that in height. Small holes covered the walls, it is where the young hide. You see, the Queen has a tendency to eat their young.
Wrath watched the water walker, it went to the first small tunnel, it didn’t like the look of that and went to the big tunnel. It was looking for the queen, you could see it was thinking about running this tunnel in hopes that it makes it past the queen, but it was very risky. It went to the third tunnel and looked in.
All of the sudden the water walker took off running down the third tunnel. The stint babies started making a buzzing noise, they noticed the walker coming their way. Then all of the sudden the babies started launching at the walker, coming from all directions. They were popping out of the little holes in the wall, piercing the water of the walker having no absolutely no effect. Then a lucky shot and a baby stuck the walker right in the brain. The intelligence that held the water together stopped and the water fell, dropping the water, baby and brain to the ground below. The baby wiggled its way back into its hole with the brain still stuck to it and it was gone. The water from the beast just drained down into another baby hole in the tunnel.
Wrath’s turn, he went up to the large second tunnel. It looked clear, but that could change in a seconds notice. A queen lives in her straight tunnel and can travel from end to end in a few seconds. The queen used this to capture food that think of using her tunnel as a passage. Some of these tunnels were left over from an ancient time and were empty. Wrath turned around and looked at the eggs, they were fresh meaning a queen was definitely nearby.
Now Wrath knew how to disable a stint queen, but he didn’t know how to kill one. Wrath was an energy beast, using his power depletes his energy which he drew from worms here on this plane. To disable a stint queen, he had to use his ‘claw’, a sword like extension that he could slash at enemies. Three slashes, uses 10% of his energy, and it took three slashes to disable a queen. Wrath’s strongest attack was the lightning strike, it used 49% of his energy to use, he has never used it on a queen yet, it was just too costly.
Wrath turned to the third tunnel. As dangerous as it was, it was safer than using the queens tunnel. Wrath had natural abilities, like his jump/leap. It was a physicality ability that did not use any of his energies. He was going to use that here to get through the baby tunnel.
He backed up to get a run at the tunnel and he leapt forward barely touching down at any point and he leapt again and again. The babies were alerted and were striking out at him, but they were slower than Wrath, it would take a guesstimate strike to hit him. When he reached the end of the tunnel and he looked down, three babies were sticking out of him trying to bore into him. He grabbed them one by one, threw them onto the ground and stepped on them to kill them. Then he healed himself from their injuries, that only costs him 1%.
The baby tunnel exited out to another queen tunnel. He carefully peered out into it. The tunnel was almost vertical, underground it was difficult to realize this. So, he looked down into darkness, if there was something there, it was far away right now. Then he looked up, and he saw light, the tunnel broke out into a cave up above him, but it was a good thousand feet away. To get up there he would have to zig-zag off each wall to wall to climb up and out of there.
Wrath wanted a better view, so he leaned out into the tunnel looking up. A woosh of wind blew by him, it was the queen, it was moving. He sent out a searching tone and it found something close, it was the queen, it was right behind him. He felt her breath, and he caught his. A queen was a grown stint, a cone some three feet long. It’s encases itself in a gelatinous shield for protection, a material composed completely of stomach acids. This made the creature about twenty feet long allowing the beast inside to float from end to end. It was at this end right now, he could feel it.
He had to take the upper hand, he attacked first. With his claw, he sliced a slash right across it. He rotated sixty degrees and took another slash, he turned sixty more degrees again and took the third slash. The front of the beast was sliced into six equal sections that peeled back to expose the creature. He grabbed it and pulled it out of the gelatinous muck, yanking it a good ten feet out of the goo. It was attached by thousands threads that connected it to the muck. He dropped the creature and it fell back and splashed down into the slime. Wrath stood on the cone of the beast, his feet burning from the acids of the beast, he didn’t let it bother him.
He leapt from side to side of the tunnel gaining ten feet for each zig or zag. It took him a few minutes, but he finally got up to the top of the tunnel. He popped up on flat ground, it was the floor of a cave. He looked around and he recognized it, he had been there before. But the stint nest, that was new, he would take note of it.
He took inventory, he had 87% energy, one for the heal, two for the scans and ten more for the queen disable. He looked down at his feet and healed them, now he was at 86%. He needed worms and there was pool of water near there that they congregate around. He took off walking toward it.
An hour later, Wrath was looking off a cliff, some fifty feet above the water pool. Water bothered him now since he was pulled through to another dimension. It was a short excursion to another reality. At first he thought he was free from the hell he was in, but he was wronged by himself. He was nothing more than a slave that had to hang onto others so it wouldn’t die. He was nothing more than a genie in a bottle. He was returned here with a very nasty taste in his mouth.
But he could see what he needed, worms were all over here, more than enough to replenish his energy. Worms are the lowest lifeform here on the Plateau, they are six to eight inches long and two to three in width. When a self-serving soul gets recycled and has to start all over again, a worm if the first solid form that they get. It is like the other-serving souls with their first form as a rock, a piece of granite. At least the self-serving can move around.
Wrath slid down to the pool, he kept as far away from the pool as he could and still get worms. He picked up his first one and bit into it, not to drain his fluids but to gather its energy, although the end result was something that resembled a burnt stick. But each worm gave him 1% back in his energy reserve. When he was finished there were fourteen burnt sticks lining his path around the pool of water, he was full once again.
He leapt away, he didn’t want to stay near a pool any more than he had to. he knew where all the exits were here, and he headed to the nearest one. he crossed over a heard of purple bears, the air beasts, they were harmless. A few more jumps and he was up on the plateau once again, he felt the warm of the sun again. The edge was near, and he walked over to it and sat down on the edge.
Once again, he watched the clouds down below. It was just another day on the plateau …
