Information
Auriana the Hyquus
Umoya
The
Common Experiment #1031Owner: Alkuna
Age: 5 years, 4 months, 2 weeks
Born: October 31st, 2020
Adopted: 5 years, 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Adopted: October 31st, 2020
Statistics
- Level: 11
- Strength: 27
- Defense: 27
- Speed: 27
- Health: 27
- HP: 27/27
- Intelligence: 33
- Books Read: 33
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Unemployed
Umoya - “Spirit” in Xhosa
Jake did not feel even remotely ready for this task. He had been sixteen when Bleidd had terrified himself and his friends out of the catacombs. It was two years of training later, and at the ripe old age of eighteen, Jake still did not feel like an adult at all.
I should be braver than this, Jake scolded himself, but how do you ever feel you're ready for hunting monsters?
Samael, Pillar of Mind, had given this task to his mentor, and she had been drilling this lesson into his head for nearly a week. Hunter Cassandra, Cass for short, had given him a manual that had given him the details about the creature he was supposed to lure into the open. She had quizzed him on it, discussed over and over the plan, and promised that she and the massive Serpenth would be nearby to step in and keep him safe.
Umoya, Pillar of Soul, was the epitome of a campfire story, urban legend, and cryptid designed to make flesh crawl and nightmares spawn. Three centuries of insanity, and a twisted, hostile forest had turned him into something... else. A creature that was supposed to resemble a horse, but had been twisted into something that wasn't a horse at all.
Jake took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and began to follow the path, gripping his flashlight and wishing for at least a dozen more talismans, even though he was currently wearing a full compliment. More than that, Cass had given him three of her own, simply because his part of the plan had worried her sick.
It was night, and the forest felt warm and normal under the protection of the talismans. Moonlight spilled through gaps in the trees in silver shafts, and the insects were alive and noisy.
This is all right. This is okay. Jake chanted to himself. The forest is friendly and not at all out to kill you.
He had been walking along for almost an hour when the forest lost it's friendly nighttime decorum; the shafts of silvery moonlight that angled through the trees abruptly winked out. It was a thick, oppressive darkness- worse than anything Jake experienced outside of a cave, and worse than any moonless night. The darkness began to press in, and there was something very wrong about the way the beam from his flashlight suddenly seemed to only illuminate what was directly in front of him, while on either side he was enveloped in a heavy nothingness.
The talismans grew warm with the effort of holding back the danger, a heat that he could feel through the jacket they were tied to. Despite the heat of the talismans, the forest around him plummeted in temperature so quickly that his hands burned where they gripped his flashlight, and his face and nose began to hurt. The breeze, formerly mild and rustling in the leaves, now began to whisper.
Coming...
Something's coming...
It's lurking. It's just out of sight.
The whispers. The concepts. The chill. Suddenly it was as if Jake wasn't wearing any talismans at all, despite the spots of heat that were slowly increasing in temperature. It took a very strong monster to overpower the talismans like this, and Jake remembered Elena's battle with Reep.
He needed to act normal. "There's nothing up here besides wildlife," Jake's voice felt way too loud in a forest that had suddenly gone silent around him. Oh God, this is so bad...
Jake managed about three more steps before he felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. He knew this precise feeling; something was watching him.
He heard it then: the low sound of hooves on the rich loam of the forest floor. Jake had heard that Antlephore and Neela liked to frequent normal forests, browsing on vegetation, or leaping gracefully through the underbrush. But this was no normal forest, and no one had seen either of those deer-like animals in centuries.
Adrenaline surged through Jake as something large suddenly emerged from the woods, forcing him to halt in his tracks. He cursed the animal under his breath for being so damned close.
It wasn't an Antlephore or a Neela. The creature initially appeared to be a horse; it was entirely black from nose to tail, and it made a peculiar whickering sound as it turned its head to face the young man directly. But upon closer inspection, it was clear that something was amiss. Its eyes were completely white, lacking pupils or irises, and yet they were fixed on the young man. He had no idea how, but those blind eyes could see him. Furthermore, the placement of the eyes was unnatural, set too far forward on its head, reminiscent of a predator rather than a typical horse.
Its movements were equally disturbing, lacking the smooth, flowing gait of a racehorse or the heavy plodding of Old Man Wyatt's plow horse. Instead, the creature's motions were abnormally twitchy, almost puppet-like, as if the puppeteer controlling it had not yet mastered the skill to make it move convincingly like a real animal. There was an undeniable sense that this was no ordinary horse, but rather some unsettling, unnatural creature
It was Umoya; Pillar of the Soul. And he was definitely not as friendly or as sane as Samael, even in his Serpenth form. Jake got the sudden, very powerful feeling that he was safer crawling into the winged snake's coils than he was standing here staring at the Not Horse before him.
Umoya slowly turned toward him, the clip-clop of hooves were slightly muffled on the forest floor, his movements even more twitchy and jerky now that he was coming closer.
Isn't it supposed to have four legs? Why do I only hear two hooves? Jake didn't dare look down; not yet.
His attention was all for the Umoya's face, and his body went cold. A horse's mouth did not extend two thirds of the way up the skull, nor did a horse's teeth look like a bunch of X-Acto blades sticking out of the gums.
Umoya had double jointed limbs which were disproportionately long. And the creature seemed... predatory. This wasn't an ambling horse on a midnight wander, but something menacing that was closing the distance steadily. It moved like a... oh god! It was like a spider, if a spider were to straighten its legs to hold its body straight up! If Umoya bent his legs to carry himself like a spider, his knees would reach above his head. But the legs remained straight, bending at far too many joints, with that horribly twitchy, stretch-and-pull movement that no horse could ever duplicate.
Jake felt his stomach sink heavily even as his skin felt as though it would crawl away without him. Funny, I used to think tarantulas were so cool, he thought weakly. Suddenly I understand the sentiment of 'Kill it! Kill it with fire!'
He needed to leave, and he needed to leave right now! His frantically scrambling mind seized upon Hunter Cass' plan. "If you hear him, no you don’t. If you see him, he is perfectly normal. You do not comment on how odd he looks. Turn around and walk away. Do not run. Walk." Cass had warned him. "Don't react to him following you, no matter how close he gets."
"Oh," he said, a little weakly, "it's just a horse."
Jake turned away and began walking ahead of the animal, desperately ignoring the sound of hooves behind him. He didn't look back, even as the sound of hooves got uncomfortably close, and a very chilly breath seemed to huff on the hair on the back of his head. The talismans were hot now; so hot it was like opening the door to the oven at home; not quite burning, but almost there.
Dimly, he heard Cass utter an f-bomb from the woods ahead of him, and there was a sharp snapping sound; the sound of a crossbow firing. Umoya screamed, and there was nothing horse-like in that high, keening wail. Jake leaped forward and tucked into a roll on instinct, spinning to face what was behind him. A silver crossbow bolt was sticking from Umoya's neck at the base of its skull; a kill shot. Or... it should have been. It clearly hurt like hell, but that seemed to be it.
Well that sucks, Jack lamented, scrambling backward from the flailing front legs of the creature. Silver is supposed to be one of the most effective weapons we have. Jake drew his silver infused mace with grim resignation.
Umoya was still on his hind legs, balancing far too well for a quadruped, and began flailing front legs at Jake that did not end in hooves, but long, skinny hands. That's why I only heard two hooves. Ugh! Who, or what, thought this thing up?
Jake swung the mace in a blow that would have shattered a hose's limbs. The thwack brought another high keening wail, but seemed to do nothing better than smack the legs aside. It certainly didn't do any serious damage. Both Jake and Cass dropped an f-bomb this time.
A loud hiss exploded above him, and Jake heard the scrape of scales right before there was a snap of feathered wings. Something thicker than a man's torso and longer than a school bus plunged down from the trees between them.
The black-spider-not-horse-Umoya thing towered over the raised front coils of The Warped. The Serpenth hissed again, threateningly, flaring his black wings as he defended the human boy with the bulk of his body. Yes, Jake felt MUCH safer with the Serpenth than whatever Umoya was!
Faster than the blink of an eye, The Warped struck, fanged jaws seizing Umoya by the throat, black diamond-pattered coils winding around the Not Horse with deadly efficiency. Umoya screamed again and thrashed, unbelievably wrenching the massive snake back and forth. For a moment, Jake thought the Serpenth was going to be thrown off, despite having his fangs embedded in flesh. Umoya staggered but recovered for a second or two. He flailed, unnatural hands grabbing and shoving at the crushing muscles and scales, before the forelegs lost coordination and fluttered down to hang limply. Finally, Umoya collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Samael's had bitten and pumped his venom into Umoya for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only ten seconds. Ten seconds too long for anything mortal.
Jake was dumbfounded to watch as the black flesh melted and flaked away. It was like watching the town of Silent Hill transition into the dark and corrupt other world in the video game. Only instead of rust and blood and monsters, he watched a monster flake away to... something still creepy, but far less threatening. The talismans on Jake's jacket cooled rapidly, the forest returning to the warm, friendly place it had been with the talismans at full power.
Beneath the flesh, something pale and ethereal was revealed. Umoya lost the black, nightmarish body and became a ghostly, skeletal horse. That was it... a normal horse skeleton engulfed by a pale glow. The milky white eyes disappeared, replaced with a pale purple glow in the eye sockets of the horse skull.
The Warped, Samael, seemed to fall away from the horse spirit, who passed through his coils and floated almost serenely above the ground on invisible legs. A soft whicker, this time very horse-like, and a head shake came from the being that no longer menaced the trio of travelers.
"Umoya, Pillar of Soul, welcome back." The aristocratic voice was warm and smooth, even coming from that fanged Serpenth mouth.
"Samael, Pillar of Mind, it is good to BE back," the voice echoed, as though coming from a tunnel, but holding the same warmth in it.
"Do you know where Kadavr is?" Samael asked conversationally, as though he hadn't just used his fangs to rip Umoya's soul from his still screaming body.
There was a pause, and then Umoya shook his head, the gesture oddly human; "I haven't seen him since before your death."
Ask the necromancer.
Jake jumped. Cass jerked her crossbow to the left. The Serpenth and horse spirit both turned in the same direction the Hunter aimed.
Perched on a flat boulder, sat a Nightmare Jollin. He chewed absently at a front paw, then grinned at the group, razor-sharp teeth gleaming white in the black muzzle. Then he turned and disappeared.
Well," Hunter Cass said, awkwardly looking from one Pillar to the other, "I guess that's as good a hint as any..."