Soharaa wrinkled her nose when she stared at the dead corpse laid beneath her feet. She could smell its blood and decaying body, and thought it beyond the smell of disgusting. Not even the different smells of Taloba could match this stench of death, made that way so everyone would fear it. Soharaa did not fear death, although she feared that she may one day smell like the fallen corpse before her.
"Dead, all of them," Tank said as he stood over two other corpses. He, too, was wrinkling his nose at the decaying stench. Soharaa took her eyes off the lying bodies to look at him, standing tall, angry, and sad at the same time. She knew how he felt, for it was not every day that a fang of Taloba gets killed, but when it is, Myrian retribution is often sought out with a hint of sadness.
She stared at the body in front of her again, a young woman, but older than Soharaa by a few years. She looked like she still had a prime life to live, but her skin was now milky white and flies infested her mouth and wounds. She was dead now, and there was no coming back from this. "May Myri see your soul safely returned home," Soharaa said, then kneeled down to close the woman's eyes. They had been staring at the ghosts of the sky since Soharaa found them, and that was not how a dead body should lay rest.
Soharaa ran her eyes from the corpses head to her stomach, where a hole had been made, so large that she could fit a basket inside it and make a birds nest. Where Tank stood, there were two corpses, one with a missing head while the other missed the bottom half of its body along with its abdomen. The abdomen-less body was the one that sickened her the most. She would have left this murder site quickly if it were not her job to be here.
"What are you thinking?" Soharaa asked Tank, who had taken the liberty to pray for the safe returning of the other decaying souls.
"The bodies stink and are cold, meaning they had been here for a while. I guess a total of seven nights." When Tank was done praying, he stood up and walked to Soharaa. "These aren't the workings of a Dhani or Symnestra. I've seen Dhani bites, and the Symnestras poison their foes, not mutilate."
Soharaa stood up as well to meet Tank's eyes. They were fierce, as they always were before and during battle. "Then what do you think could have caused this?" She asked him impatiently. Their job was to find the missing fang members who had left long ago to investigate the possible tracks of a Dhani near the city. When the fang did not return after many nights, it was up to a Soharaa, Tank, and Silence- who was in the trees scouting somewhere- to see what kept them from returning. In a total, the fang that had disappeared was a four man team. Soharaa's group had only found two and a half bodies soiling the jungle grounds. At first, the Soharaa's group thought that the missing fourth had betrayed his fellow Myrians, but when they looked closely at the injuries, they realized that something in-human had caused this slaughter.
"From the way they were killed..." Tank hesitated. Soharaa wanted to punch the answer out of him, but that would do nothing but quench her anger that she had developed. It would get them nowhere else to fight amongst themselves. "I can only guess that this was the workings of a Ya'Tago."
Soharaa furrowed her brow. "This close to the village? That cannot be." Soharaa knew what a Ya'Tago was. A giant creature that was once a regular mantis. It murders anyone who comes across its territory and leaves the bodies behind to attract more Ya'Tago. Taloba was an entire day away from where they were now. It was uncommon to see a Ya'Tago, but when seen it becomes deadly. To have one so close to the city meant danger to Taloba. "It must die, we must kill it!"
Tank shook his head. "We don't know how large it is. We'll come back with an army, but we are not going at it alone."
Both Soharaa and Tank heard something land lightly on the grass, and knew who that could possibly be. Like her name suggested, Silence moved to the other two with nae a sound to her step. Soharaa always thought Silence as a graceful woman, someone whose every move was like a leaf in wind.
Silence came up to Tank and Soharaa and shushed the both with a forefinger to her lip. Quiet, Silence said with only a hand gesture, then listened to the air. Soharaa and Tank did the same, and for a moment the jungle seemed quiet. Almost too quiet, like there were no creatures who lived in it. The quiet worried Soharaa, and she thought that she would be driven insane if she did not hear an animal's sound. She found herself looking at every dark corner of the jungle for a single animal movement, but she saw nothing. She wanted Silence and Tank to at least say something and share their uneasy feeling with the group, but Like Soharaa, they were too busy listening to the silence to speak.
Out here in the jungle, Soharaa felt naked for some reason. She thought herself like a rabbit being stalked by a hungry eyed snake. She turned around, searching for the watcher. Her spear had gone to her hand, clutched by Soharaa's ferocious trembling fists. She didn't like being hunted, or feeling as though she was. She preferred to meet an opponent head on and beat them, not have them hide in the shadows and pick her off. She felt like she was being hunted now, and almost thought to call out to the forest for the hunter to show themselves.
But she didn't, because a new series of events happened that shut her mouth completely. It appeared that their listening had paid off. While they were searching for a small shred of sound, something could be heard off in the distance. When Soharaa listened more, she realized that the sound was that of leather. Leather that flapped in the air so fast that only something in-human could be controlling it.
Soharaa pictured a wooden machine like structure flapping some leathery jacket like a bug with wings. That's when she began to understand.
The flapping of wings, the sound of a bug, and noise so giant that it could be maid by a horse. Soharaa knew what was making those sounds, and it appeared that everyone knew what it was as well.
They quickly ran to the nearest tree, Silence dragging Soharaa along with her when she stopped to gather her spear. All three hid behind separate trees when the final sound made a stop near where they just were. They stood, hopefully hidden behind the trees, waiting desperately for whatever they were hiding from to go away.
Soharaa heard motion, the sound of something picking something else up, and a cry. Out of all those sounds, it was the cry that made Soharaa scared the most. For, it was not the cry of a baby or grown man in a state of utter fear. No, those cries would not scare Soharaa, but more than likely annoy her. This cry was mighty, this cry was strong, and this cry was fierce. This cry, Soharaa realized, was the cry of a Ya'Tago. And it made her bones shake. |
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by Soharaa on July 27th, 2015, 12:33 pm 