HOME | DD

Description
A tall man stood at the gate, wrapped up in a crimson overcoat, his face a little obscured by the heavy hood that shielded his head from the grey rain. In one hand, a tall rod was held, perfectly square, while a heavy pistol was holstered at his side. Kai couldn’t help but stare at it as he walked forwards, the gun was so simple, death in a can. He had seen them fired a few times, a crack of thunder each time the Judges finger twitched on the trigger. Amazing, the teenager thought, and tore his eyes away, to look up at the hooded figures face.

The face was rather grizzled, a few wrinkles and crow’s feet across his face, though Kai recognized him, “Excuse me, I need past.”

“Early one eh?” the man snorted, a deep bass voice, “What do you need out for at this time?”

“I’m going to Brimsley, get some stuff for my pa.” He said confidently, thumbing the worn leather bag on his shoulders.

The Judge nodded slowly, he looked half asleep, they didn’t normally do the gate. It was a bad sign if they felt they needed to, witches or something tainted happening. “You’ll be going over there and back in one day?”

“Yup. I’ve got a shortcut over the beaches, misses out that big detour to Darrenford.” The lad said, hopping from foot to foot nervously. As fascinating as the gun was, he didn’t like standing for long with one.

“Alright, don’t twist anything on the rocks.” The big man muttered, and turned towards the gate. A small key fit into a steel lock snugly, and in a second he was pulling the portal open, just wide enough for the boy to slip through.

“Take care.” The blond youth said, and darted out of the town with a grin. The sky above was grey and pouring down, reddish in the east, but aside from the land was empty. The fields were abandoned looking around the walls, waiting for the day to begin proper, but Kai didn’t care to wait. Waiting meant sitting and doing nothing and wasting time, when he could be out getting the tools for father! The rain was a slight annoyance, but his cloak was wrapped around him firmly, and even as young as the boy was he had known far worse when the fields were swallowed up by mud.

Come to think of it the Judges had been guarding the gates for days before then too. One of their bad signs had turned up from the numbers and maps and chemicals. He hummed quietly and pulled the hood up to shield his face from the rain, plodding along the dirty road diligently. Puddles were gathered along it, but the road was more or less straight, heading north towards lake Sillt, then it would run off north west along that coast, over towards Darrenford at the lakes head, where they could cross over their great stone bridge with carts and horses and so on. It was stupid really, adding all that time on to the journey when if the road went along the lakes round bottom on the north east they could reach Brimsley in less than half the time.

Kai shook his head and crossed off the road a couple of hours later, watching the vast lake sparkle in the morning light. The lake was surrounded by rocky beaches, good for skipping, but on this coast it was more or less empty. All the fishermen lived up in Brimsley where they didn’t need to trek to the waterfront for two hours every morning. He smiled and wandered over the long grass that divided the beach from the road, then onto the large stones that crunched with each step. He bent down for a second and grabbed one disc shaped pebble, then flicked it out across the water. It bounced a couple of times then plummeted into the depths, and Kai kept wandering along the rocky shore, further and further away from the road.

The shore grew rockier and steeper as he moved along, the hills of scree gathered in the south east shattered down to the water, leaving vast boulders and high pillars standing on the coast. Kai enjoyed that area, climbing over the vast rocks and down again between them. There was something nice in the isolation from his family and the other boys, in just having to climb by himself. And if a rock was too high, then he could just go around without being mocked for avoiding it.

After a couple of hours he was two thirds along the shore, surrounded by the vast rocks, fairly exhausted. Kai wasn’t a very large teenager, only about five foot, though neither was he very weak. Nonetheless, the climbs tired him, and he bent over for a second to catch his breath. A look around surprised him, there was a dark hole in a cleft of one of the vast rocks, with soft orange light within.

“What?” Kai muttered, looking again suspiciously. He hadn’t seen the cave before, but there was something strange about it. There were plenty of clefts and hollows around the place, none looked this deep, nor had he seen one lit before. The cave loomed closer and he wandered a little closer, calling “Hello?!”

No answer, he bit his lip and walked closer, curious about the light. Maybe some old beach comber? No, it was a lake why would there a beach comber? He frowned and bent down to squeeze through the passageway, past a couple of candles. Could be a fisherman, but why would someone stay in a cave rather than just find a place in Brimsley? The tunnel wound longer and deeper, still lit by small, foul smelling candles, and he kept going, curiosity overwhelming caution.

“Anyone here?” Kai asked, squeezing through another crack, that opened up into a large stony grey room. Here and there a few more candles were sprinkled around, while a rough bed was laid out against one wall. Here and there, a pot or box was laid, and a few more tunnels opened up from it, covered by curtains. A cool breeze came from behind one, and he wandered forwards, curious. This definitely hadn’t been here the last time he had passed this way, so how could he have missed it? He wandered forwards, brushing one large curtain out of the way, to reveal another large cavern, this one barely lit, save by some candles around a white thing.

It was a large blade-like artefact, fairly thick and wide, arching up to a point. In a way it reminded him of a pearly white gravestone, and Kai walked forward slowly, feeling the air turn cold as he got closer to it. He paused, unsure as to what it was, and extended his hand, brushing his fingers off the icy cold surface.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chill caught his breath. His heart dropped, and he looked around in confusion, mind reeling. The world had changed. The cave, the shrine, the artefact, they were all gone, instead there was just…ocean. Black, sickly looking ocean, blurred and obscured here and there by the icy cold fog. And there was the boat he was in, a damp, shoddy looking rowing boat where he sat, hugging the ragged grey clothing to him against the biting cold. Fog hung over it all, thickening to darkness in the distance.

“Hello little boy.” A voice said quietly. It was pleasant, like a teachers, something about it felt authorities, though he couldn’t see the source. The “little boy” rubbed Kai badly, he was thirteen after all.

“Who’s there? Hello?” His own voice sounded too loud and shrill, scared.

“A friend. Jormund some call me, that’ll do.” The speaker sounded smug, happy. Kai bit his lip, looking around but there was no sign of them. “And you are?”

“Kai.” He muttered without thinking, still scared and put off by the expanse of dark water.

“Good to meet you then, you’re lucky to be alive.” Even with that statement his voice felt jolly, contented.

“What?!” The boy exclaimed, lurching forwards.

“My tooth. The artefact you touched. It should kill you.”

“Wait, so am I dead or alive?” Kai murmured, looking at his hands. They looked real enough, and the Judges held there was nothing after you died.

“Do you want to live? I can save you.”

“Of course I do, what’s even trying to kill me?!”

“I told you, the artefact you touched. My tooth.” Jormund replied in the same relaxed voice. “You’re safe now, I just had to check.”

“Huh?” The vagueness got on the kids nerves. It was infuriating, he had never liked riddles or puzzles, “What do you mean? Who are you!?”

The silence was deafening. For a second he thought Jormund had left, but then, he had never really been there had he? A chill ran down his spine at the thought, it felt like those stories the boys swapped and the Judges tried to silence. Men speaking without moving their mouth, hidden among fog, magic. So deep was he in thoughts that he barely noticed the waters begin to stir, and only looked up when a long wooden spar broke the inky waves. It was followed quickly, tangled with ropes and seaweed, ancient slime encrusted wood that rose up. In seconds it seemed an entire island had surface, a long thing with strange hard rocky branches- coral, the Judges had said it was wrong. Sea weed and swarms of clams, crabs and shells were stuck onto the thing, and he shuddered as it rose higher, the length was at least as large as a galleon by now, a comparison only helped by the mast sticking up from it.

In a moment the vast thing was rising vertically, revealing a vast curved shape that had been hidden in the waters, and Kai could only watch, fascinated as more islands of weird rock and coral rose in the distance. Then his scream broke as the arch stretched, pulling one end out of the water with a groan. There was a head there, massive and stony, like a wolves, or one of those monstrous dragons out of Grandas tall tales. Teeth as large as a claymore each filled the jaw, all rotten, white-yellow things like what he had touched. The monsters eyes, smokey orbs of darkness fixed on him, and Kai quailed in their gaze.

“There we go, it’s nice to have a little change of scene.” Jormund said. The sea serpents jaw didn’t move with the words, instead it stretched, but Kai could feel that this was the source of that happy quiet tone. “Oh, a bit nervous now are we? Good thing I didn’t surface immediately.”

“You’re…you’re…”Kai stuttered, he couldn’t get the words out. His mind was reeling at the sight, and remembering pictures of something similar, some beast from centuries ago, depicted in tapestry after tapestry and image after image. It had always seemed exaggeratedly large, now he saw those as an understatement.

“I am the Leviathan, the Sea Serpent, the Slave of the Abyss, the Fleet Death, the Terror.” Its voice sounded proud of the names, while Kai reeled back in horror, and the giant head inched closer. “And your life belongs to the Abyss.”

The boat suddenly creaked, then shattered, and he dropped into the black water, flailing against the freezing brine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He fell backwards, grasping his right hand tightly as a scream was torn from his lips. The skin of his fingertips felt like it was burning or freezing, thick steam rising from the wounds. He ground his teeth, trying not to bite his tongue as he glanced around the room. It was the same room at least, the damp grey cavern with a few old mouldy candles set up around the artifacts. No ocean, no great serpent to be seen, it hadn’t been real, some horrid vision of the tooth.

A sigh of relief escaped the boy, and then a groan as more pain surged from his fingers. Kai forced his eyes to look at the fingertips revealing black skin along the top of each finger, burning with agony. Further forward, the huge tooth thing still stood, four black marks standing out accusingly where he had touched it. Witchcraft, the stuff the Judges always warned against. His heart throbbed hard within his chest, if it was magic he had to leave, had to run and tell them!

He ground his teeth and struggled to his feet, biting back the pain. The far end of the cave tempted him and he took a step forward before his leg gave way and he dropped to the floor painfully. His fingers were hurting more, screaming out in the nerves, before a surge of icy cold pain ran through his body. His face ached and shifted, suddenly lengthening forwards and upwards, as the teeth in his jaw grew longer and sharper. Shudders wracked his frame, and his legs snapped, bones breaking and reforming. A sharp pain came from the base of his spine as the bone there- the tailbone his teachers called it- live up to its name. His body extended, stretching out behind his legs into a long thin tail at least six foot long, while his head kept bulging out, blond hair thinning and falling from his skull. His arms changed too, the central three fingers on each lengthening into long sharp digits, a membrane running between them, while the thumb and pinkie receded back towards the wrist.

A feral, bloodcurdling scream came again as the pain seized him, remoulding him, tan human skin turning darker and darker and slicker. The small chest expanded, fighting against the ragged clothing, and a pair of nubs tore from his sides. His nose was crushed and blended into the lumpy snout that grew, while from his neck a pair of thin rods started to reach, black as coal and night. At his sides the nubs grew longer, three short webbed claws forming at the end, and a pair of knees allowing for movement. His eyed changed, a painful blot as they turned bright green, and below them another pair opened, staring out as his body tore free from its clothes.

The calm surprised him after it had stopped.

All the pain, even the pain from his fingertips stopped suddenly, like a horse rearing. The cold remained, not sore anymore, but a pleasant clamminess, like resting in shallows on a warm day. No, he grimaced and tried to look around, surprised to note that he was looking out of four eyes. Two of them were more forward facing, the other two were more at the sides like a birds, just behind them. His body had changed, it was long now, like a newt or lizard of some sort, except he could see and feel six limbs, and he was larger than any natural creature he had seen.

The thought hurt, and he whined lowly as he struggled to stand up. He wasn’t a human anymore, the Abyss had cursed him, turned him into this. Cursed by magic, the Judges would slaughter him for being this beast. He snorted, unsteady on the black angular legs while his tail thrashed in annoyance. On his back the long tendrils, ending in small pods swayed a little with the movement. A cloud of sensations came from them, from his monstrous form as he swung his head around, trying to make sense of it all. The creature he was now was a bit bigger than his old body, his head might have come up to his chest, maybe four foot tall, but the long tail nearly doubled his length all by itself.

The bone tooth was still there, different somehow. It was like he could sense it, a feeling of darkness and silence and cold emanating from the great white shard. The black marks were still there, stark on the white, and he winced a little at the sight. If he had just stopped, hadn’t touched it, he’d be safe, he could’ve even told people and gotten rid of it. If such a thing could be destroyed, he thought, and shivered with the memory of the leviathan.

“Hello there,” The monster that was Kai growled and turned around, only to trip on one foot and toppled over. In front of him, a little old woman chuckled at the sight, grinning through broken teeth and under wispy grey hair. “Oh, careful boy, try and get your bearings first.”

Kai growled, flailing his limbs for a second, and then gathered them under his larger body to push up. The woman felt strange too, cold and dark like the Tooth, but to a lesser extent. What was she? His mind raced, she must be the one who had lit all the candles, who had let him into here. Then she was responsible for him touching the Tooth, for turning into this!

“Reckon you can walk?” She rasped kindly, bending over a tiny bit to look at the creatures eyes, and Kai whined again, half tempted to lash out at the crone. No, that wouldn’t help at all, he extended one front leg cautiously, placing his weight on it, and then followed with the other ones, careful to keep a track of each. “Good, let’s get you away from the shrine, wouldn’t do for you to break something.”

She gestured and began to hobble out of the room, pushing the curtain out of the way, while the beast followed behind, moving each webbed foot at a time. He felt overwhelmed by the field of vision, he could see things to either side pass by, and then the senses of the long tendrils from his neck as well. Still, he guessed the best thing was to follow the woman, it seemed like anyone else would try and kill him now. The thought was infuriating, and he lashed his tail accidentally, then squeaked in pain as it knocked against the hard unforgiving wall.

“Like that. Imagine if you had hit something useful.” She cackled, and then sat down on a crude bed. Kai paused, halfway into the room, and looked at the woman with two green eyes, uncertain. The old woman was fairly short, bent and withered with age, but her eyes were sharp as she glanced the monster over, “Yes, you’re a good looking young thing aren’t you. Lucky, he said you were a bit shaken. That’ll fade hopefully.”

“You’re probably a bit confused though. My Charles was too when he turned, but he knew far more to start off with.” She paused and gestured to the floor, “Do sit down, this may take a while.”

Kai slowly bent his legs, resting on the ground, and the hag nodded, “Good. You belong to the Abyss now, you touched one of its shrines. Very lucky. And instead of dying, the Leviathan saved you, at the cost of your life. For now, you are an each-uisge, just a young one. Jormund wants you rested up and taught a few things before you’re used for anything. Understand?”

The creature growled, watching her, but nodded slowly. “Good, then for now, you must sleep, I have some business.”

Description
A tall man stood at the gate, wrapped up in a crimson overcoat, his face a little obscured by the heavy hood that shielded his head from the grey rain. In one hand, a tall rod was held, perfectly square, while a heavy pistol was holstered at his side. Kai couldn’t help but stare at it as he walked forwards, the gun was so simple, death in a can. He had seen them fired a few times, a crack of thunder each time the Judges finger twitched on the trigger. Amazing, the teenager thought, and tore his eyes away, to look up at the hooded figures face.

The face was rather grizzled, a few wrinkles and crow’s feet across his face, though Kai recognized him, “Excuse me, I need past.”

“Early one eh?” the man snorted, a deep bass voice, “What do you need out for at this time?”

“I’m going to Brimsley, get some stuff for my pa.” He said confidently, thumbing the worn leather bag on his shoulders.

The Judge nodded slowly, he looked half asleep, they didn’t normally do the gate. It was a bad sign if they felt they needed to, witches or something tainted happening. “You’ll be going over there and back in one day?”

“Yup. I’ve got a shortcut over the beaches, misses out that big detour to Darrenford.” The lad said, hopping from foot to foot nervously. As fascinating as the gun was, he didn’t like standing for long with one.

“Alright, don’t twist anything on the rocks.” The big man muttered, and turned towards the gate. A small key fit into a steel lock snugly, and in a second he was pulling the portal open, just wide enough for the boy to slip through.

“Take care.” The blond youth said, and darted out of the town with a grin. The sky above was grey and pouring down, reddish in the east, but aside from the land was empty. The fields were abandoned looking around the walls, waiting for the day to begin proper, but Kai didn’t care to wait. Waiting meant sitting and doing nothing and wasting time, when he could be out getting the tools for father! The rain was a slight annoyance, but his cloak was wrapped around him firmly, and even as young as the boy was he had known far worse when the fields were swallowed up by mud.

Come to think of it the Judges had been guarding the gates for days before then too. One of their bad signs had turned up from the numbers and maps and chemicals. He hummed quietly and pulled the hood up to shield his face from the rain, plodding along the dirty road diligently. Puddles were gathered along it, but the road was more or less straight, heading north towards lake Sillt, then it would run off north west along that coast, over towards Darrenford at the lakes head, where they could cross over their great stone bridge with carts and horses and so on. It was stupid really, adding all that time on to the journey when if the road went along the lakes round bottom on the north east they could reach Brimsley in less than half the time.

Kai shook his head and crossed off the road a couple of hours later, watching the vast lake sparkle in the morning light. The lake was surrounded by rocky beaches, good for skipping, but on this coast it was more or less empty. All the fishermen lived up in Brimsley where they didn’t need to trek to the waterfront for two hours every morning. He smiled and wandered over the long grass that divided the beach from the road, then onto the large stones that crunched with each step. He bent down for a second and grabbed one disc shaped pebble, then flicked it out across the water. It bounced a couple of times then plummeted into the depths, and Kai kept wandering along the rocky shore, further and further away from the road.

The shore grew rockier and steeper as he moved along, the hills of scree gathered in the south east shattered down to the water, leaving vast boulders and high pillars standing on the coast. Kai enjoyed that area, climbing over the vast rocks and down again between them. There was something nice in the isolation from his family and the other boys, in just having to climb by himself. And if a rock was too high, then he could just go around without being mocked for avoiding it.

After a couple of hours he was two thirds along the shore, surrounded by the vast rocks, fairly exhausted. Kai wasn’t a very large teenager, only about five foot, though neither was he very weak. Nonetheless, the climbs tired him, and he bent over for a second to catch his breath. A look around surprised him, there was a dark hole in a cleft of one of the vast rocks, with soft orange light within.

“What?” Kai muttered, looking again suspiciously. He hadn’t seen the cave before, but there was something strange about it. There were plenty of clefts and hollows around the place, none looked this deep, nor had he seen one lit before. The cave loomed closer and he wandered a little closer, calling “Hello?!”

No answer, he bit his lip and walked closer, curious about the light. Maybe some old beach comber? No, it was a lake why would there a beach comber? He frowned and bent down to squeeze through the passageway, past a couple of candles. Could be a fisherman, but why would someone stay in a cave rather than just find a place in Brimsley? The tunnel wound longer and deeper, still lit by small, foul smelling candles, and he kept going, curiosity overwhelming caution.

“Anyone here?” Kai asked, squeezing through another crack, that opened up into a large stony grey room. Here and there a few more candles were sprinkled around, while a rough bed was laid out against one wall. Here and there, a pot or box was laid, and a few more tunnels opened up from it, covered by curtains. A cool breeze came from behind one, and he wandered forwards, curious. This definitely hadn’t been here the last time he had passed this way, so how could he have missed it? He wandered forwards, brushing one large curtain out of the way, to reveal another large cavern, this one barely lit, save by some candles around a white thing.

It was a large blade-like artefact, fairly thick and wide, arching up to a point. In a way it reminded him of a pearly white gravestone, and Kai walked forward slowly, feeling the air turn cold as he got closer to it. He paused, unsure as to what it was, and extended his hand, brushing his fingers off the icy cold surface.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chill caught his breath. His heart dropped, and he looked around in confusion, mind reeling. The world had changed. The cave, the shrine, the artefact, they were all gone, instead there was just…ocean. Black, sickly looking ocean, blurred and obscured here and there by the icy cold fog. And there was the boat he was in, a damp, shoddy looking rowing boat where he sat, hugging the ragged grey clothing to him against the biting cold. Fog hung over it all, thickening to darkness in the distance.

“Hello little boy.” A voice said quietly. It was pleasant, like a teachers, something about it felt authorities, though he couldn’t see the source. The “little boy” rubbed Kai badly, he was thirteen after all.

“Who’s there? Hello?” His own voice sounded too loud and shrill, scared.

“A friend. Jormund some call me, that’ll do.” The speaker sounded smug, happy. Kai bit his lip, looking around but there was no sign of them. “And you are?”

“Kai.” He muttered without thinking, still scared and put off by the expanse of dark water.

“Good to meet you then, you’re lucky to be alive.” Even with that statement his voice felt jolly, contented.

“What?!” The boy exclaimed, lurching forwards.

“My tooth. The artefact you touched. It should kill you.”

“Wait, so am I dead or alive?” Kai murmured, looking at his hands. They looked real enough, and the Judges held there was nothing after you died.

“Do you want to live? I can save you.”

“Of course I do, what’s even trying to kill me?!”

“I told you, the artefact you touched. My tooth.” Jormund replied in the same relaxed voice. “You’re safe now, I just had to check.”

“Huh?” The vagueness got on the kids nerves. It was infuriating, he had never liked riddles or puzzles, “What do you mean? Who are you!?”

The silence was deafening. For a second he thought Jormund had left, but then, he had never really been there had he? A chill ran down his spine at the thought, it felt like those stories the boys swapped and the Judges tried to silence. Men speaking without moving their mouth, hidden among fog, magic. So deep was he in thoughts that he barely noticed the waters begin to stir, and only looked up when a long wooden spar broke the inky waves. It was followed quickly, tangled with ropes and seaweed, ancient slime encrusted wood that rose up. In seconds it seemed an entire island had surface, a long thing with strange hard rocky branches- coral, the Judges had said it was wrong. Sea weed and swarms of clams, crabs and shells were stuck onto the thing, and he shuddered as it rose higher, the length was at least as large as a galleon by now, a comparison only helped by the mast sticking up from it.

In a moment the vast thing was rising vertically, revealing a vast curved shape that had been hidden in the waters, and Kai could only watch, fascinated as more islands of weird rock and coral rose in the distance. Then his scream broke as the arch stretched, pulling one end out of the water with a groan. There was a head there, massive and stony, like a wolves, or one of those monstrous dragons out of Grandas tall tales. Teeth as large as a claymore each filled the jaw, all rotten, white-yellow things like what he had touched. The monsters eyes, smokey orbs of darkness fixed on him, and Kai quailed in their gaze.

“There we go, it’s nice to have a little change of scene.” Jormund said. The sea serpents jaw didn’t move with the words, instead it stretched, but Kai could feel that this was the source of that happy quiet tone. “Oh, a bit nervous now are we? Good thing I didn’t surface immediately.”

“You’re…you’re…”Kai stuttered, he couldn’t get the words out. His mind was reeling at the sight, and remembering pictures of something similar, some beast from centuries ago, depicted in tapestry after tapestry and image after image. It had always seemed exaggeratedly large, now he saw those as an understatement.

“I am the Leviathan, the Sea Serpent, the Slave of the Abyss, the Fleet Death, the Terror.” Its voice sounded proud of the names, while Kai reeled back in horror, and the giant head inched closer. “And your life belongs to the Abyss.”

The boat suddenly creaked, then shattered, and he dropped into the black water, flailing against the freezing brine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He fell backwards, grasping his right hand tightly as a scream was torn from his lips. The skin of his fingertips felt like it was burning or freezing, thick steam rising from the wounds. He ground his teeth, trying not to bite his tongue as he glanced around the room. It was the same room at least, the damp grey cavern with a few old mouldy candles set up around the artifacts. No ocean, no great serpent to be seen, it hadn’t been real, some horrid vision of the tooth.

A sigh of relief escaped the boy, and then a groan as more pain surged from his fingers. Kai forced his eyes to look at the fingertips revealing black skin along the top of each finger, burning with agony. Further forward, the huge tooth thing still stood, four black marks standing out accusingly where he had touched it. Witchcraft, the stuff the Judges always warned against. His heart throbbed hard within his chest, if it was magic he had to leave, had to run and tell them!

He ground his teeth and struggled to his feet, biting back the pain. The far end of the cave tempted him and he took a step forward before his leg gave way and he dropped to the floor painfully. His fingers were hurting more, screaming out in the nerves, before a surge of icy cold pain ran through his body. His face ached and shifted, suddenly lengthening forwards and upwards, as the teeth in his jaw grew longer and sharper. Shudders wracked his frame, and his legs snapped, bones breaking and reforming. A sharp pain came from the base of his spine as the bone there- the tailbone his teachers called it- live up to its name. His body extended, stretching out behind his legs into a long thin tail at least six foot long, while his head kept bulging out, blond hair thinning and falling from his skull. His arms changed too, the central three fingers on each lengthening into long sharp digits, a membrane running between them, while the thumb and pinkie receded back towards the wrist.

A feral, bloodcurdling scream came again as the pain seized him, remoulding him, tan human skin turning darker and darker and slicker. The small chest expanded, fighting against the ragged clothing, and a pair of nubs tore from his sides. His nose was crushed and blended into the lumpy snout that grew, while from his neck a pair of thin rods started to reach, black as coal and night. At his sides the nubs grew longer, three short webbed claws forming at the end, and a pair of knees allowing for movement. His eyed changed, a painful blot as they turned bright green, and below them another pair opened, staring out as his body tore free from its clothes.

The calm surprised him after it had stopped.

All the pain, even the pain from his fingertips stopped suddenly, like a horse rearing. The cold remained, not sore anymore, but a pleasant clamminess, like resting in shallows on a warm day. No, he grimaced and tried to look around, surprised to note that he was looking out of four eyes. Two of them were more forward facing, the other two were more at the sides like a birds, just behind them. His body had changed, it was long now, like a newt or lizard of some sort, except he could see and feel six limbs, and he was larger than any natural creature he had seen.

The thought hurt, and he whined lowly as he struggled to stand up. He wasn’t a human anymore, the Abyss had cursed him, turned him into this. Cursed by magic, the Judges would slaughter him for being this beast. He snorted, unsteady on the black angular legs while his tail thrashed in annoyance. On his back the long tendrils, ending in small pods swayed a little with the movement. A cloud of sensations came from them, from his monstrous form as he swung his head around, trying to make sense of it all. The creature he was now was a bit bigger than his old body, his head might have come up to his chest, maybe four foot tall, but the long tail nearly doubled his length all by itself.

The bone tooth was still there, different somehow. It was like he could sense it, a feeling of darkness and silence and cold emanating from the great white shard. The black marks were still there, stark on the white, and he winced a little at the sight. If he had just stopped, hadn’t touched it, he’d be safe, he could’ve even told people and gotten rid of it. If such a thing could be destroyed, he thought, and shivered with the memory of the leviathan.

“Hello there,” The monster that was Kai growled and turned around, only to trip on one foot and toppled over. In front of him, a little old woman chuckled at the sight, grinning through broken teeth and under wispy grey hair. “Oh, careful boy, try and get your bearings first.”

Kai growled, flailing his limbs for a second, and then gathered them under his larger body to push up. The woman felt strange too, cold and dark like the Tooth, but to a lesser extent. What was she? His mind raced, she must be the one who had lit all the candles, who had let him into here. Then she was responsible for him touching the Tooth, for turning into this!

“Reckon you can walk?” She rasped kindly, bending over a tiny bit to look at the creatures eyes, and Kai whined again, half tempted to lash out at the crone. No, that wouldn’t help at all, he extended one front leg cautiously, placing his weight on it, and then followed with the other ones, careful to keep a track of each. “Good, let’s get you away from the shrine, wouldn’t do for you to break something.”

She gestured and began to hobble out of the room, pushing the curtain out of the way, while the beast followed behind, moving each webbed foot at a time. He felt overwhelmed by the field of vision, he could see things to either side pass by, and then the senses of the long tendrils from his neck as well. Still, he guessed the best thing was to follow the woman, it seemed like anyone else would try and kill him now. The thought was infuriating, and he lashed his tail accidentally, then squeaked in pain as it knocked against the hard unforgiving wall.

“Like that. Imagine if you had hit something useful.” She cackled, and then sat down on a crude bed. Kai paused, halfway into the room, and looked at the woman with two green eyes, uncertain. The old woman was fairly short, bent and withered with age, but her eyes were sharp as she glanced the monster over, “Yes, you’re a good looking young thing aren’t you. Lucky, he said you were a bit shaken. That’ll fade hopefully.”

“You’re probably a bit confused though. My Charles was too when he turned, but he knew far more to start off with.” She paused and gestured to the floor, “Do sit down, this may take a while.”

Kai slowly bent his legs, resting on the ground, and the hag nodded, “Good. You belong to the Abyss now, you touched one of its shrines. Very lucky. And instead of dying, the Leviathan saved you, at the cost of your life. For now, you are an each-uisge, just a young one. Jormund wants you rested up and taught a few things before you’re used for anything. Understand?”

The creature growled, watching her, but nodded slowly. “Good, then for now, you must sleep, I have some business.”