Mythos: Last Stand

  Chapter 11 — Edge of the World

  by Caide Fullerton

  Dust rose from the stained ground of the Forgotten Heap, kicked up by the collapse of a gargantuan creature. In terms of width and height, a Kuzumade was large, but not especially so; it was its length that rendered it truly worthy of the descriptor ‘gargantuan’.

  Soaring above the great monster’s corpse, the wings sprouting from her back carrying her high enough to avoid the dust clouds, was a girl with a dark-haired human clutched in her arms.

  By Jackie’s request, Lii was carrying them down to a particular section of the Kuzumade’s body—about a fourth of the way down its length, to be precise.

  Lii: “Um, Jackie, c-can I ask you something?”

  Jackie: “Hm? Sure! I love talking.”

  Lii: “Y-yeah, I picked up on that…” She nervously chuckled to herself, then continued, “Um, why are you all so… nonchalant, about all this?”

  Jackie: “Well, it’s not like there’s much point in being serious all the time, right?”

  Lii frowned. “Yeah, but… I mean, we almost all died just now! Doesn’t that, um, bother you? At all?”

  Jackie raised their eyebrows. “Oh, that’s what you mean? Nah, that doesn’t bother me at all.”

  Lii: “Why not..?”

  They tapped their chin. “Being in danger, almost dying… that’s just normal for me—for us, you know? We’re practically at the bottom of the food chain here. Everything’s a struggle.” They paused, then added, “If we didn’t joke around after almost dying, we’d just be miserable all the time. Oh, and there’s our stop.”

  Jackie gestured down at one of the Kuzumade’s many segments; Lii noticed the shell atop it was shaped differently than all the others, likely indicating whatever Jackie was looking for. She slowed the beating of her wings, and together the two of them descended, landing beside the great centipede. This particular portion of its body sat on the road they’d been following earlier, where it’d originally ambushed them.

  Jackie: “Thanks, Lii. Now for the next stage, I need you to tip this guy onto its side.”

  Lii blinked, giving them an incredulous look as her wings folded up and melded back into her body. “H-how am I meant to do that..!?”

  Jackie shrugged. “You knocked it over earlier with a stone pillar, remember? That should work.”

  Lii turned to the Kuzumade with a frown, then reluctantly stepped up to it. As she transformed, Jackie called out,

  Jackie: “You can take it easy, though. Don’t hurt yourself.”

  With that advice, she began slowly transforming into a column of stone. With great effort she lifted one side of the Kuzumade’s corpse; that was the easy part, as the flat segments on either side threatened to undo her progress. Jackie offered what little support they could, and together they eventually pushed three segments off the ground, the central of the three now perfectly on its side.

  Lii returned to her usual form and wiped her brow, sighing from exertion. Beside her, Jackie placed their hands on their hips as they surveyed the Kuzumade’s underbelly.

  Jackie: “Right here,” they said, pointing out a seam along the beast’s scaled underbelly, “is a second head. Or, rather, it’s an organ capable of transforming into a new head.”

  Lii’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with both hands. “Y-you mean—”

  Jackie: “It’s still alive, probably. There are three points like this along its body that are able to grow into a replacement head and detach. The moment the front head dies, its body starts the process automatically.”

  Lii: “A-and, um, h-how long does that process take..?”

  Jackie shrugged. “A few hours? Either way, we’re gonna kill it for real before it can revive.” With that, they held out a hand. “Scythe, if you please.”

  Lii looked down at their hand and cocked her head. Upon realizing what they meant, she shook away her confusion and took their hand in hers. Her body quickly lost its form, condensing into her hand which then stretched out into the handle of a scythe.

  Jackie: “Thank you.~” They chirped in a singsong voice before stepping forward, raising the scythe over their head.

  ? ? ?

  Some time later, Jackie and Lii returned to the ruins where the Kuzumade had been felled, the former once again in the latter’s arms as they flew across the wasteland. They landed not far from their companions, the three of them sitting around a small fire within the crumbling ruins.

  Strade sat with his back to a stone wall, dressed in a different outfit than before—a dark green vest and baggy black pants, both obviously too large for him; his usual clothes were hung over the fire to dry. Across from him sat Sam and Helena; a slightly bloody bandage was wrapped around the latter’s leg, and Sam was currently dabbing a wet cloth against her burns.

  The three all turned to Jackie and Lii as they returned. Sam looked relieved, Strade disinterested; Helena, on the other hand, gave them both a stern look.

  Helena: “There you are. What were you doing for so long?”

  Jackie: “Long story short, Kuzumade have parts that let them come back to life, so we went and preemptively killed ‘em.”

  Helena was deadpan. “Uh-huh. So it’s dead for real now?”

  At that, Jackie frowned, scratching their head. “We got two heads. One was in some toxic foliage where we couldn’t safely reach it.” Upon seeing Helena’s concerned expression they added, “I doubt it’ll come after us again, though. It knows we can kill it.”

  Helena peered past Jackie. “Still makes me uncomfortable knowing it’s alive out there.” As she complained, her brow furrowed, it was clear she was also upset that her efforts hadn’t been enough to truly kill the beast.

  Jackie: “It should take at least a few hours for that head to regenerate. Probably.” They offered, doing their best to reassure her, “We can get pretty far away in a few hours.”

  Sam: “We can get moving after I’m done treating everyone. If we encounter something else, we’ll want to be in top shape.” He spoke firmly as he resumed his work; Helena took a sharp breath as he dabbed another burn. “Lii, sit over here. I’ll treat you next.”

  Lii raised her hands in protest. “A-ah, um, I’m fine. I heal fast, so, um, you don’t need to—”

  Sam: “Lii.” He repeated, his voice lowering, “I’m going to disinfect and bandage that cut. And I’m going to treat your burns and numb the pain. Please come sit over here.”

  She gulped. “Um, y-yes, sir.”

  Lii obediently walked over to Sam and sat beside him, watching him finish his work. Jackie, on the other hand, looked northward, at the Kuzumade’s body—no, at the horizon beyond it. No shadows moved along the distant hills.

  Jackie: “It worries me a bit how soon this thing showed up after the Kumori. It’s not like it’s unheard of for powerful monsters to be in close proximity, but…”

  Strade: “You think it’s somethin’ else?”

  They nodded grimly. “When I first met y’all, you said you’d seen the silhouette of some huge monster in the distance, right?” They paused, tracing the horizon again, “I’ve been checking, but I haven’t seen it, not once.”

  Strade clicked his tongue. “Think we were just seein’ things?”

  Jackie looked over their shoulder at him. “All three of you saw it, right? If it was a hallucination, you wouldn’t’ve seen the same thing. I’ve every reason to believe what you saw was real.” They returned their gaze forward, “Whatever it is, I’m worried it might be driving other monsters south. Clumping them all closer together.”

  Silence overtook the group, broken only by the crackling of the fire. Eventually Jackie turned, partly shattering the grim atmosphere with a smile,

  Jackie: “All the more reason to get outta here, right? Won’t have to worry about whatever it is in the outside world.” Then, looking down at the fire, they mumbled, more to themself than the others, “Just gotta move faster than everything else.”

  In truth, the potential deluge of monsters wasn’t the only thing clouding Jackie’s mind. There was another, potentially even larger problem they would likely have to overcome.

  The mere concept of an “outside world” nagged at Jackie’s mind. What separated the outside from the Forgotten Heap? Lii had described how the ecology was completely different, how the monsters of the Heap were extreme rarities rather than commonplace, how people gathered in large groups—nations and kingdoms, even—without any regard for a taboo.

  They doubted creatures like Kumori or Mimics or Carrion would be effected much by things such as climate or environment. What prevented them from being as commonplace on the outside as they were here?

  There was only one natural conclusion—at the edge of this world and the outside lay an obstacle more terrifying than anything that lived within the Heap. At the very least, it was something uniquely tailored to keeping the wasteland’s monsters inside.

  Lii had entered the Heap alone, so it surely wasn’t an impassible obstacle, but it worried Jackie nonetheless. How had she gotten past it?

  Well, she was sitting right there. No harm in asking.

  Lii: “Eh? Um, a-at the south edge..?” She frowned at the question, looking down with an almost guilty expression; Jackie’s worries were all but confirmed. “Um… I-I know there’s a really dangerous species of monster that lives along the border of the Heap and Tropika, but…”

  Turning to Jackie, she bowed apologetically. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know anything else about it…”

  That was disappointing, but it got Jackie to raise an eyebrow. “You didn’t encounter them on your way in?”

  She shook her head. “I came in by suicide boat.” Letting that peculiar term slip out, she panicked and began talking over herself, “I-I mean, uh, I-I heard how dangerous the Basilisks are, s-so I decided to sail in instead!”

  Sam eyed her with concern. “Suicide boat?”

  Hearing the term repeated seemed to make her wilt. “It’s, um… what they called it when somebody took a boat to the Heap. I heard it a lot at the port, and… um, it just stuck with me.”

  Strade cackled at her from across the fire. “What’s with you, looking all guilty over a couple of words? You survived.”

  Naturally, that only seemed to make her shrivel up more. Having finished treating Helena, Sam placed a hand on Lii’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to him.”

  Jackie: “So they’re called Basilisks, huh?” Changing the subject, Jackie ruminated on the new name.

  Helena: “Can you figure anything out?”

  Jackie laughed. “With just a name? If I knew anything about how the outside world names things, maybe. Sadly, I was born and raised right here in trash central.” They cracked that joke with a smile, then sighed. “Whatever they are, we’ll have to figure it out once we get there. Just focus on patching Lii up so we can get moving soon.”

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  ? ? ?

  Sam was quite good at his work—at least, Jackie thought he was. He was the only doctor they’d ever met, so their evaluation of him was based solely on comparing him to Al’s and their own medical skills. In any case, he finished his work quickly. The group scarfed down a quick meal as he finished treating Lii, and then they were off.

  They moved swiftly. Even if they had reason to believe it wouldn’t bother them again, Jackie didn’t want to be anywhere near the Kuzumade’s living head when it awoke. For that matter, they didn’t want to be near its dead parts, either; its huge carcass would no doubt attract scavengers before long. They might get to the monster’s remains before it could threaten them.

  Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. Jackie didn’t have the means to prove that other monsters were migrating south, but it was the best guess they had. Operating under that assumption, it would logically mean fewer encounters if they traveled faster than the other monsters, but more encounters if they traveled slower.

  With that knowledge, the group moved as swiftly as they could, and they were lucky not to encounter any other monsters by the time night fell. Along the way, Jackie pestered Lii with more questions about the outside world—particularly about the nations she’d mentioned.

  Lii: “Um, when we exit the Heap, we should wind up in part of Elysium. It’s a huge empire established by the High Elves.”

  Jackie: “And how big is huge?”

  Lii: “The biggest in the world. It covers half of the continent.”

  Jackie: “And how big is that?”

  Lii: “It’s like, um… if you took this entire island and stitched a hundred copies of it together. Maybe bigger.”

  Such conversations continued until the sun began to dip beneath distant hills, and the group stopped in a small ruin of rotting wood for a brief rest. All of them wanted out of the Heap as quickly as possible, and so they agreed on a slightly risky course of action. They would take a short rest, then continue traveling through the night. Surprisingly few of the Heap’s predators were nocturnal—perhaps on account of their Human-like intelligence—so traveling by night would be no more dangerous than moving by day, and it would get them ahead of the competition.

  Jackie volunteered for the first watch; it would be short, anyways. It passed quickly, as did their three hours of sleep. Before they knew it, they were walking again.

  The night passed without issue. At one point they came across a band of three Kritta, but the ratmen were less aggressive than the riders from the day before, choosing to retreat rather than pick a fight with the larger group.

  Though other monsters could speak their language or mimic their appearance, Jackie always felt that the Kritta were the most similar to Humans. The way they acted, the way they communicated with each other, the way they were more than just bloodthirsty animals; it made Jackie wonder if they were even monsters at all. What if they, too, were just people trapped in the Heap, forced to hunt and kill to survive?

  Morning came. A short break, then more walking. Jackie’s feet were getting sore, but they did their best to ignore it. Around noon the group encountered a pair of Jubokko—just the two, and one missing an arm. The rest of their pack had likely been wiped out by a more powerful monster; they attacked anyways, so the group made quick work of them.

  A day of travel became two, then three. In some ways, time seemed to pass faster than it ever had before. Was it because they had company? In other ways, it seemed to pass excruciatingly slow; every passing minute felt like an hour when the promise of a new world laid beyond.

  The monsters truly were thinner here. Either Jackie’s theory was right—and they were well ahead of the migrating horde—or the population down south was just much lower.

  The relative lack of threats wasn’t the only change they noticed. The land itself was different here, and the changes compounded the further south they traveled. The soil was darker, richer. The land was flatter, and there were hardly even defined paths anymore. There was more water—cleaner water—and the piles of trash were much thinner, the large ruins much rarer. The most stark difference, however, was the plant life.

  The grass here—some of it, at least—was green. Not a dull, sickly color, nor a toxic neon one; green. Normal green grass, grass that one could touch without dying of deadly toxins. As the group encountered a large patch of it, Lii made a point of walking fearlessly right through the grass, much to everyone else’s shock.

  The trees, too, had changed. There were still plenty of bloodred willows, but they were accompanied by other trees. Some were tall and branchless, with ridged tan-colored trunks and enormous leaves; Lii called them palm trees. Others were more similar in shape to the willows, but taller than them or the palms, stretching out with huge, vibrantly-colored canopies.

  Jackie had expected the transition between the Forgotten Heap and the outside world to be more sudden—a harsh line drawn between this world and the other. Instead, it was a slow, smooth, gradual change.

  It was louder here, as well. The Heap was usually eerily silent, aside from the incessant buzzing of beetles; here, a variety of animal sounds filled the air. The number of regular animals in the Heap had been rather low; aside from the aforementioned beetles, there were rats, a smattering of other insects, and vultures, but that was about it. Here sounded the chirps and songs of birds, the croaks of amphibians—Lii said they were called frogs—and the mismatched buzzes of a great variety of bugs.

  At one point their forward march was briefly halted by a rustling in the brush ahead. They came to a halt, fully expecting a monster to emerge; instead, what leapt out was a small, orange-furred mammal. It scampered away, much to Jackie’s dismay, as they thought it was incredibly cute; Lii called this one a fox.

  As amazed as they were by the growing variety of wildlife, Jackie was haunted by ceaseless questions. How was this area so much more vibrant? How had that fox—or, more likely, its ancestors—gotten past the Basilisks? Had they been here first?

  Those paled in comparison to the most important question. If a place like this existed, why hadn’t everyone in the Heap moved here? It hadn’t taken them all that long to get here. They didn’t remember the details, but Al had told them of a family history stretching back several generations, all living their entire lives in the Forgotten Heap; Jackie found it hard to believe that none of them had ever discovered this place.

  There must be a reason. Something made this place even worse than the rest of the Forgotten Heap. Al had taught them to avoid thickly forested regions. They’d assumed that referred to regions like where they’d originally encountered the Kumori; did that teaching extend to this place as well?

  It wasn’t long before they came upon something peculiar—a hint towards the answers they needed. A strip of the jungle just ahead of them was coated in stone. The ground, the trunks of the trees, everything in a long strip, about a meter wide, was encased. It was clear it was encased, and not transformed, as the tops of the trees were still alive. Stacks of thin, oblong stones covered the ground across the strip; upon further inspection they were bits of petrified grass and ferns, apparently trampled by whatever creatures had passed over the strip.

  Jackie knelt down to inspect the trampled stones, the others standing back and surveying the surrounding area. With far fewer hills, ruins, and toxic shrubs, the jungle here was wide open, meaning danger could come from any direction; another potential reason it might be avoided.

  Jackie picked up a shard of petrified grass, turning it around in their hand. There was an incredibly thin hole on one end, where a blade of grass had clearly once been; it was now nothing but black rot.

  Sam: “What could have done this?” Sam said as he stepped over to Jackie, less a real question and more a thought spoken aloud.

  Jackie: “Basilisks, probably?” They guessed, standing and tossing the stone fragment back into the pile. “Which means we’re already in their territory. We should be on max alert from here on.”

  The others nodded and their march continued, now more cautious. It wasn’t long before more similar stone formations began cropping up. Some were long strips just like the first; others were smaller, more circular areas, often several clumped together in close proximity.

  Trees and grasses weren’t the only things to be petrified.

  They came upon it as they rounded a particularly tight clump of trees, petrification carving a line up across their trunks. Laying beside them was a statue in the form of a massive creature. It was humanoid in shape, its body like a crude doll pierced by geometric shapes. Pyramids protruded from either side of its skull, its agape mouth a simple slit like that of a wooden puppet. It had fallen onto its side, half of the statue cracked open; the inside was completely hollow.

  What laid before them was the corpse of a Carrion—perhaps the single most terrifying creature to prowl the Forgotten Heap.

  Well, second most terrifying, now.

  Sam clapped a hand over his mouth, stifling his shock. Helena glared at the statue, tightening her fists. Strade gazed at it for a moment, then turned away with a dismissive click of his tongue, fiddling with the hilt of a knife. Only Lii seemed to be out of the loop, glancing nervously between the others.

  Jackie walked up to the statue and climbed up to peer into its shattered edge. “Nothing inside.”

  Had something eaten the Carrion? Were they even edible? They turned to the others,

  Jackie: “We won’t get through here without encountering one. If we could, everyone would’ve escaped already.”

  They were met with a gallery of grim expressions. Helena was the one to speak,

  Helena: “So? What do we do about… this?” She said, gesturing at the statue.

  Jackie: “Whatever this thing does, it looks like it only coats its targets in stone—which means it can be survived.” They stepped over to the Carrion statue’s head and knocked on its open jaw, “If you’re getting petrified, keep your mouth closed. Eyes too. We might be able to smash the stone off your face and get you breathing again, but not if it petrifies the inside of your mouth.

  “Our top priority is survival. Try to hide from them if you can. If someone gets petrified, focus on dragging them somewhere safe. Don’t rush. We can probably save them if we’re careful.”

  They gave that advice with bravado, but in truth it was all guesswork. They didn’t know for sure how the petrification worked. They didn’t know how the Basilisks caused it, how big the monsters were, how strong they were, what they looked like, whether or not they had other abilities. Hell, even the Basilisks being responsible for this was an assumption.

  They didn’t have answers. They couldn’t get answers, not until they saw the monster for themself. The others needed confidence and direction, not uncertainty; Jackie would do their best to give it to them, even if they lacked both themself.

  Onward they walked. Conversation had dropped to a minimum after they passed the first strip of petrification, but now everyone was completely silent as they continued forward. They stuck close to tree cover as they advanced, avoiding patches of stone as best they could.

  There was a sound. A soft, distant rumble, repeating intermittently with slightly irregular timing. Jackie’s best guess was that they were footsteps—those of a creature that tread softly, but was too large to be silent. With a wave to the others, they knelt amid a cluster of trees, watching the direction of the sound.

  The source came into view before long. It was a truly strange monster, one they had never seen before. Its body appeared to consist solely of three incredibly long legs, each as long as the trees were tall and each joined together at one spot. Its skin was grey, and the end of each leg sported a length of lighter-colored keratin, honed into the shape of a spike.

  The three-legged creature—was it appropriate to call it “three-legged” when its body consisted solely of those three legs? In any case, it wandered through the forest, taking its time picking a path between the trees. As it came closer, Jackie realized they’d been mistaken about its appearance, for it actually had four legs.

  The fourth leg extended up into the air, curved and twisting around as it walked. A thin slit split its spike in two, opening and closing like a mouth, rows of sharp teeth revealed within; a small eye could be seen just above the spike, which, as it turned out, was actually a beak. The monster’s body consisted not of four legs, but of four identical limbs. Three were currently being used as legs, and the fourth had assumed the role of the creature’s head; Jackie presumed that any of the legs could perform the same role were the creature’s body to be rotated.

  Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to notice them, thankfully. It continued forward through the forest, following a path diagonally past the group. Each step was made with pinpoint precision, sinking its spike-beak-legs into the dirt as it carried itself forward.

  It passed them by peacefully.

  Then, another rumbling began.

  A short ways ahead of the creature—Jackie decided to call it a Caltrop—a large mound of stone began to shift. At first Jackie thought it was a partially-petrified monster, but it was darker, a black shade spotted with splotches of whites and greys; all the stone of the petrification patches were a flat, consistent grey. What they saw was not stone, but the dark skin of a large beast.

  The Caltrop froze as it noticed the movement, its “head” pointing at the shifting mass. Out from the dark shape stretched a clawed, stumpy limb, and it dragged itself forward. The mound lifted, prying open what was revealed to be a massive, elongated maw.

  As the maw opened, a thick, greenish smoke billowed out. It was heavy, clinging to the ground as it rolled outward, and a sharp, glassy hiss began to chime along with the smoke’s spread. In its wake, the ground and shrubbery around the creature’s mouth was rapidly coated in stone. Plants crumbled under their own newfound weight, forming a heap of stone fragments at the Basilisk’s feet.

  It dragged itself forward. Its skin enveloped in glossy jet-black scales, the beast resembled a massive alligator, except its snout was taller and more rounded. Its eye locked onto the Caltrop as it stepped forward, the earth shaking beneath its weight.

  The Caltrop was perfectly still for a moment. Then it turned and ran. Thanks to the unique shape of its body, it didn’t actually need to turn at all, but to simply start running in the opposite direction. It moved surprisingly fast on its three legs with a tumbling gait; at one paint it lost its balance and fell forward, but the head simply struck the ground, taking the place of one of the legs; another leg raised up to the sky, taking the previous head’s place.

  The Basilisk continued forward at a careful pace, clumps of smoke spilling out of its mouth with each lurch forward. The time between each step grew less and less, and over the course of a few seconds the beast broke into a full sprint. Its steps rang out with thunderous booms, and it plowed straight through the forest ahead of it, trampling small trees in its wake. It closed the distance to the Caltrop in seconds. Its head twisted sideways as it opened its mouth wide, stretching its jaws to either side of its prey.

  The jaws snapped shut with a terrible, wicked sound that echoed far across the forest. The Caltrop was felled—surely that would have been the case if it was ensnared in the Basilisk’s fangs, but just before meeting its end it had crouched down and sprang into the air. Its body was sent tumbling through the sky like a ragdoll, as it had hit the forest canopy on its way up.

  The Basilisk lifted its head slightly, watching its prey draw an arc through the air. Then came the clicking noise. It resounded over and over, a sharp yet muffled sound, like metal scraping together. It came from within the Basilisk, and with each sound its mouth seemed to puff up. Smoke spilled from its closed lips, static enveloping the air. Sparks and arcs of electricity danced across the monster’s scales.

  Finally, the Basilisk opened its mouth. An enormous cloud of smoke erupted out only to be sucked right back into its throat as it sharply inhaled, the forest in front of it heaving under the weight of its lungs. Having retrieved all the smoke, the clicking sound began ringing out again. A purple glow emanated from the Basilisk’s maw.

  Then, with one final click, a crash like a lightning strike shook the forest. A searing light shot forth from the Basilisk, a beam of electric purple so hot it appeared almost white. The beam tore through the jungle, first searing and then petrifying whatever it touched. With a twist of its neck, the Basilisk angled the beam up into the sky, slicing it through the soaring Caltrop.

  The beam died out; Jackie’s ears popped as the pressure was relieved. Then, a distant crash signaled the Caltrop’s doom, its statue having fallen helplessly to the forest floor.

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  Chapter Glossary:

  Basilisk - Huge reptilian monsters that dwell near the border separating the Forgotten Heap from the outside world. Their cloudy breath turns whatever it touches to stone.

  | Caltrop - Monsters whose bodies are composed of four identical limbs connected like a caltrop. The spike at the end of each limb can split open to reveal a beak. Skewers its prey with precise strikes.

  Elysium - A sprawling empire established by the High Elves. Its territory should lie south of the Heap.