novelraw Chapter 90 – Skitter
Chapter 90 – Skitter
Without another word, she dropped into a low crouch, her claws scraping the ground as she prepared to leap. Rava’s sharp inhale came too late. With a sudden burst of energy, Vivienne launched herself forward, her limbs powerful and sleek, her tail whipping behind her like a scythe.
She propelled herself through the air, her body curving in a graceful arc aimed toward the last flicker of movement she'd spotted in the grass. She could already taste the satisfaction of the hunt, the thrill of the chase driving her forward.
But just as she neared the edge of the ward, her outstretched claws reaching toward the elusive prey—thud—Vivienne collided with the ward’s boundary, and a sudden, jarring resistance sent her careening backward.
Vivienne rolled her shoulders, brushing off the minor embarrassment with a flick of her tail as she stood upright. She stretched lazily, her movements more theatrical than necessary, and glanced at the barrier with a bemused smirk. “Not my most graceful moment, I admit. But at least we’ve confirmed it’s as sturdy as you said.”
Rava, still scanning the dark edges of the camp’s perimeter, only half-acknowledged Vivienne’s remark. “Yes, well, sturdy doesn’t mean infallible. That’s why we need to be smart about this.”
Vivienne sighed dramatically, folding her arms across her chest. “So, to recap: either we leave it there and hope the wards hold, we take them down and risk letting it into the camp so we can fight together, or I sit here and play cheerleader while you deal with it.” She punctuated the last option with an exaggerated wave of her hand.
“Exactly,” Rava replied, her voice clipped. Her eyes flicked toward the faint shimmer of the ward, looking for any sign of the lurking aetherbeast. “And setting up these wards takes time and precision. Taking them down means losing our best line of defense if something goes wrong. So, yes, I’d much prefer it if you stayed inside.”
Vivienne huffed, her tail thumping lightly against the ground. “Fine, fine. You’re the boss.” She flicked her tongue out, tasting the air with a snake-like motion, her black eyes narrowing slightly. “But if you change your mind or things get dicey, I’ll be ready to jump in. Just say the word.”
“Noted.” Rava gave her a quick, appreciative nod before refocusing on the task at hand.
Vivienne flopped back onto the grass with a groan, propping herself up on her elbows as her tail coiled idly behind her. “Alright, Rava, show me what you’ve got. I’ll just... be here. Useless. Watching.” Her voice was drenched in playful sarcasm, though a sharp glint of curiosity betrayed her interest in the impending fight.
Meanwhile, the tension in the air thickened. The barrier shimmered faintly, casting an eerie glow across the camp, but the night beyond remained silent, the creature seemingly biding its time. Vivienne’s grin faded slightly as her focus sharpened, her playful demeanor tempered by the ever-present hunger gnawing at her core.
“If it comes through,” Vivienne murmured, more to herself than to Rava, “I am having first dibs.”
Rava ignored the remark, her focus laser-sharp. She stepped to the edge of the ward’s glow, her imposing form casting a long shadow against the flickering light. Her fists rose in front of her, the oversized gauntlets gleaming in the faint illumination.
Under her breath, she began to chant, her voice low and steady, each word carrying the weight of practiced ritual. The air around her seemed to shift, charged with energy, as the ground beneath her feet trembled ever so slightly.
With a sudden, decisive motion, she slammed her knuckles together. The impact sent a ripple through the air, a burst of sparks igniting around her gauntlets. Arcs of lightning crackled and danced along the metal, licking at the edges like serpents eager to strike. The faint blue-white glow illuminated her determined expression, her amber eyes reflecting the electric brilliance.
Vivienne leaned back on her elbows, her grin returning as she watched. “Fancy,” she said, her tone light. “But let’s see if the beast is impressed by your fireworks.”
Rava didn’t respond. She took a slow, deliberate step forward, the lightning from her gauntlets growing more erratic, trailing sparks that hissed as they struck the ground. Another ripple of movement flickered in the grass beyond the ward, faint but deliberate, as though the creature was testing their resolve.
“Careful, Rava,” Kivvy whispered from her spot near the fire, clutching a dagger close to her chest. “It’s still out there. Watching.”
“I know,” Rava replied, her voice calm and steady. She squared her shoulders, her stance firm, as though daring the creature to make its move.
The silence stretched on, heavy and tense, broken only by the occasional crackle of electricity from Rava’s gauntlets. The shadows beyond the ward seemed to shift, the flicker of movement growing more deliberate, more pronounced. Whatever was out there, it was biding its time, testing their patience as much as their defenses.
Vivienne tilted her head, her black eyes narrowing as her grin widened. “Oh, it’s thinking. That’s cute. I wonder if it knows I’m starving.”
Rava kept her gaze fixed on the shifting shadows. “Stay ready. This thing isn’t rushing in blindly. It’s calculating.”
“And yet,” Vivienne drawled, her tone teasing, “it has no idea how bad of a decision it’s making.”
The flickering movement suddenly stopped. The silence grew oppressive, each breath feeling heavier than the last. Then, with an earsplitting screech, the creature made its first true lunge from the darkness, crashing into the ward with enough force to send ripples of light surging across its boundary.
Rava didn’t flinch, her fists glowing brighter as she prepared for whatever came next. “Here we go,” she muttered, bracing herself. The faint hum of aether in her gauntlets resonated with the ward’s energy as she launched herself past the barrier effortlessly. Where it had been like running into a wall for Vivienne, for Rava, it was as simple as walking through an open door.
The creature revealed itself as Rava stepped closer, its massive form slithering out of the tall grass with an unsettling fluidity. The creature was a monstrous centipede, its segmented body stretching three wagon lengths. Its height was imposing, rising to half of Rava's own stature, with each segment plated in dark, chitinous armor that shimmered faintly with a celestial glow. The surface of its body seemed alive, tiny threads of aetheric energy tracing patterns that shifted and flickered like starlight against a night sky.
Its head was broad and vaguely triangular, bearing five gleaming black eyes that seemed to drink in the light, leaving none reflected. The eyes pulsed with an eerie, rhythmic glow, as though marking the beat of an alien heart. Its jagged mandibles, serrated and sharp enough to cut through steel, clicked in a rhythm that matched the pulse of its eyes.
The giant insects legs—hundreds of them—moved with a grace that defied its size, each one ending in a hooked claw that left gouges in the dirt as it shifted its position. The tail tapered into a wicked stinger, glowing faintly with aetheric energy, and was poised like a scorpion’s, ready to strike.
Its mere presence distorted the air, a faint haze of dusk aether trailing behind it like smoke. Around its body, the faint sounds of whispers could be heard, as if the creature’s energy was resonating with fragments of forgotten voices, a haunting effect that only added to its menace.
Rava’s eyes narrowed, her stance widening as she prepared to engage. “A duskharrow. This will be easy,” she said with a smirk.
Rava’s smirk deepened as the Duskharrow tensed, its segmented body coiling slightly as if preparing to strike. It moved with a deceptive speed, its mass rippling as the stinger lashed out like a whip. Rava sidestepped smoothly, the stinger’s sharp tip slicing through the air where she had just been, sending a faint hum reverberating through the clearing.
“Fast for something so big,” Rava muttered, her gauntlets sparking with barely restrained energy. She launched forward, closing the gap in a single bound. Her fist arced upward in a thunderous uppercut aimed at the beast’s midsection.
The blow landed with a resounding crack, sparks and aetheric energy erupting upon impact. The Duskharrow’s armored plating absorbed most of the force, but the beast recoiled, segments rippling in a wave as it skittered backward.
It responded instantly, its mandibles clicking violently as it surged forward again, legs scrambling across the ground with terrifying precision. Its tail swung around in a broad arc, forcing Rava to duck low. Even as she did, the creature twisted unnaturally, its agility belying its size, and lunged with its mandibles.
Rava brought her arms up, her gauntlets catching the razor-sharp mandibles mid-snap. Sparks flew as she held them back, her muscles straining briefly before she twisted her wrists, forcing the beast’s head to the side. She planted a solid kick to one of its legs, sending it staggering again.
The Duskharrow loomed over Rava, its full height casting a twisted shadow in the flickering light of the campfire. Its legs unfurled like jagged spears, its stinger twitching above its body, ready to plunge downward at any moment.
Rava didn’t falter. She planted her feet firmly, her gauntlets glowing brighter as the tempestous energy coursing through them hummed in anticipation. “You want to play tall? Fine by me,” she muttered, crouching slightly, muscles coiling like a spring.
The Duskharrow struck first. Its stinger lashed out with incredible speed, the faint hum of aetheric energy surrounding it as it aimed directly for Rava’s head. She twisted her body at the last second, the stinger narrowly missing her as she pivoted around its bulk. With a sharp inhale, she leapt upward, aiming a powerful punch at the underside of its exposed torso.
The blow landed with a thunderous crack. Sparks and celestial energy erupted on impact, and the Duskharrow screeched in pain, its segmented body convulsing violently. It swayed but didn’t fall, its numerous legs digging into the ground for stability.
“Still standing, huh?” Rava taunted, a smirk playing on her lips. “Let’s see how long that lasts.”
The Duskharrow retaliated, twisting its body in an unnervingly fluid motion. Its tail came around in a broad sweep, forcing Rava to duck and roll to avoid being struck. As she came up, the creature followed with a lunge from its mandibles, the sharp edges glinting in the dim light.
Rava braced herself, catching the mandibles in her gauntlets once again. This time, the force was greater, pushing her back several steps. Her boots dug furrows in the dirt as she gritted her teeth and shoved upward, forcing the beast’s head away with a grunt of effort.
Inside the ward, Vivienne watched the exchange with barely contained excitement, her tail flicking eagerly behind her. “You know,” she drawled, “you’re really dragging this out. I’d have had it half-eaten by now.”
“Stay out of it!” Rava barked, not taking her eyes off the Duskharrow.
“But I’m so hungry.” Whined Vivienne with a pout.
“You’d rather eat that bug than the stew that you made?” Asked Kivvy in disbelief.
Vivienne turned her head toward Kivvy, her black eyes glinting mischievously in the firelight. "Oh, absolutely," she said, her voice dripping with mock reverence. "You see, Kivvy, stew is sustenance, yes. But aetherbeast? That’s a feast, an experience, a delicacy of chaos and magic all wrapped up in crunchy legs and squishy insides."
Kivvy gagged, clutching her half-empty bowl protectively. "That’s... revolting."
Vivienne let out a laugh, her tail curling lazily behind her. "Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Though I doubt you could handle it—takes a refined palate." She licked her lips for effect, tasting the air like a predator anticipating its prey.
Outside the barrier, Rava shot them both a glare. "Could you not? Some of us are trying to stay focused here!" she called, her voice strained as she sidestepped another swipe of the Duskharrow’s clawed legs.
"You're doing fine, darling!" Vivienne called back cheerily, resting her chin on her hands as though watching a casual sparring match. "But maybe hurry it up? My stomach’s growling louder than that thing is."
Rava growled in frustration, her gauntlets sparking as she delivered another punishing blow to the Duskharrow’s side. The impact sent a ripple of energy through the creature’s carapace, earning a guttural screech that echoed through the night.
Kivvy scooted closer to the campfire, her eyes flicking nervously between the ongoing battle and Vivienne, who seemed completely at ease in her sitting position. “You’re really okay just... watching?” Kivvy asked, her voice filled with a mix of disbelief and concern. She looked over at the flickering shadows of the fight and then back at Vivienne, unsure whether to feel comforted or unnerved by her calm demeanor.
Vivienne yawned dramatically, her sharp teeth flashing for a moment in the firelight. “Not really," she replied with a lazy stretch. "My instincts want me to hunt, to earn my kill, but I have enough control to know dismantling the ward would put us in danger.” She settled back on her hands, her eyes gleaming with an unsettling mix of curiosity and disinterest. Her tail flicked slowly behind her, almost languidly. "I’m not some... mindless beast. I know when to wait."
“Oh.” Kivvy blinked, processing the response. She hesitated before adding, “That is a more thoughtful answer than I was expecting.”
Vivienne quirked a brow at Kivvy, a small, knowing smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “What? Do you think I am all claws, teeth, and violence?” Her voice carried a teasing edge, as though she were genuinely amused at the idea. She straightened slightly, cocking her head as she studied Kivvy with an amused glint in her black eyes.
Kivvy didn’t immediately respond. Instead, she sidelong stared at Vivienne, the nervousness still evident in her expression, but now mixed with something more skeptical. "Well, yeah,” Kivvy said, her voice quieter now but still tinged with the disbelief of someone who had seen too much. “Especially after that stuff you did in that underground fortress.” She paused for a moment, recalling the violence and chaos Vivienne had unleashed. “That... was pretty intense,” she added, as if the memory was still lingering uneasily in her mind.
Vivienne shrugged, the motion casual as if the question had little weight to it. “I guess? In hindsight, what I did is something I would have been horrified to even hear of.” She let out a dark chuckle, her eyes glinting with an almost amused detachment. “It’s strange how much I crave violence now.” Her voice lowered slightly, as if pondering the shift in herself, a tinge of something darker lurking beneath the nonchalance.
Kivvy blinked, clearly confused. “Now?” she asked, her voice a mix of curiosity and concern. “Were you not always like…” She gestured vaguely at Vivienne’s body, her hands waving as if trying to encompass the entirety of her imposing, somewhat intimidating form.
Vivienne shook her head, her long black hair swaying slightly with the motion. “No, no. I used to be taller, for one.” Her tone was almost dismissive, as if her height had been an insignificant detail that she now simply shrugged off.
Kivvy, however, wasn’t satisfied with this answer. “You are a shapeshifter,” she pointed out, her tone tinged with a bit of impatience, but also a hint of wonder. “You can just choose to be taller. I’ve seen it even!” She was now speaking more matter-of-factly, clearly believing she understood the nature of Vivienne’s transformations.
Vivienne chuckled melodiously, a soft laugh escaping her lips. “I suppose,” she agreed with an almost teasing tone. “Though this shape I take is what I consider my... well, prime form as my sort of default.” She lifted one hand, gesturing toward her current body, but there was a subtle sadness in her eyes, almost imperceptible. “I wasn’t always,” she said slowly, her back still turned to the distant battle between Rava and the duskharrow, “this.”
Kivvy’s brow furrowed in genuine curiosity, her nervous energy dissipating for the moment. “What were you before?” she asked, her voice softer now, almost as if she had stumbled upon something more personal than she’d intended. There was no judgment in her tone, only the unfiltered curiosity of someone trying to piece together a puzzle, but the question hung in the air, heavy with the possibility of a deeper truth.
Vivienne turned her head slightly, her expression momentarily distant, as though she were slipping into some far-off memory. Her black eyes flickered briefly, a quiet storm of emotions dancing behind them, before she refocused on the battle before her. There was a pause—long enough to make Kivvy wonder if Vivienne would say anything at all—before she spoke, her voice softer, but layered with an unexpected gravity.
“Human,” Vivienne said, almost as though testing the word on her tongue, a faint trace of bitterness lacing her voice. “In a faraway land. So very far away.”
Her tone was flat, yet there was an undercurrent of something deeper—loss, perhaps, or regret. She wasn’t looking at Kivvy now; her gaze was fixed on the struggle unfolding before them, but there was a noticeable tightness to her posture, the slight rigidity of her shoulders betraying a vulnerability she rarely allowed to surface.
Kivvy, sensing the heaviness of the moment, didn’t immediately respond. She simply watched, her wide eyes flicking between Vivienne and the distant battle. For a while, the only sound was the soft crackling of the fire and the distant, echoing screech of the duskharrow. The air between them felt thick, like a weight was pressing down, yet neither of them was in any rush to break the silence.
Vivienne’s voice, when it came, was quieter than before, as if she were speaking more to herself than anyone else. “I miss my kids.” The words hung in the air for a long moment, and there was a vulnerability in them that felt almost foreign coming from the usually confident Vivienne.
Kivvy blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift in tone. “You miss your kids?” she repeated, her voice barely above a whisper.
Vivienne turned her gaze from the fight, her eyes distant as she stared into the fire. “Yeah. I had two. A son and a daughter.” She exhaled a soft breath, as if the very mention of them carried a weight she hadn’t quite been prepared to carry. “I had one with my first wife, and a few years after we divorced, I found a wonderful man. He was a single parent, too. So, we kind of just... became this blended family.” She smiled a little, but there was no joy in it—only a bittersweet nostalgia.
“It was... it was everything,” Vivienne continued, her voice lower now, laced with emotion. “Two little wonders, both with their own worlds and ways of seeing things. It was never easy, of course, but it was life. It was home.”
Her eyes glazed over slightly, as if lost in a memory that she couldn't quite pull back from the depths. “I miss hearing their voices. The way they would argue over the silliest things, but still have each other's backs in the end. They were a force to be reckoned with when united, and heaven help anyone who tried to come between them. Getting divorced was so worth it in the end.”
“You got divorced? Did one of you commit a crime?” Kivvy asked, her tone scandalized as if the concept itself was entirely alien.
Vivienne barked out a laugh, sharp but genuine. “Ha, no! Nothing quite so dramatic. After I… after I revealed something about myself, my wife at the time decided she very much didn’t like that. She didn’t want anything to do with me—or our little Lucian. So she left, took half of everything we owned, and I never heard from her again.” Her tone grew slightly bitter. “She never even tried to talk to her own child. Just... disappeared.”
Kivvy’s brow furrowed, her head tilting like a curious bird. “But doesn’t divorce only happen when one of you commits a crime?” she pressed, clearly struggling to reconcile Vivienne’s story with her own understanding of relationships.
Vivienne’s laughter softened into a chuckle, her tail swaying lazily behind her. “That sounds extreme. Back where I’m from, something like fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. It’s just... life, really. People change, grow apart. It’s usually not a huge scandal.”
Kivvy’s expression remained skeptical, but she said nothing. Vivienne leaned back, stretching slightly as if shaking off the weight of the memory. “Four years later, I ended up getting remarried to a wonderful man with his own little daughter, Sarah. She was only a year older than Lucian, and those two got along like a house on fire. On one occasion, almost literally.”
Kivvy blinked, her curiosity piqued. “What do you mean, ‘almost literally’?”
Vivienne grinned, the edges of her sharp teeth catching the firelight. “Oh, they thought it would be a great idea to create a ‘magic ritual’ in the backyard. Sarah borrowed some candles from the dining room, Lucian brought the incense from my old meditation set, and the next thing we knew, the garden shed was missing half a wall. They were fine—thank goodness—but I don’t think I’ve ever seen James run so fast.”
Despite herself, Kivvy giggled at the mental image. “Sounds like they were a handful.”
Vivienne’s smile softened, her gaze distant once more. “They were. But they were worth every moment.”
Kivvy giggled at the image, though her curiosity still lingered. “And this wonderful man you married—he must’ve been something special, taking on another person’s child like that.”
Vivienne’s smile grew softer, her tail curling slightly at her side. “James. He was kind, patient, and had this way of making you feel like the most important person in the world, even when life was throwing everything it had at us. He loved both kids like they were his own. We became a family—messy, chaotic, but ours. Those were some of the happiest years of my life.”
Kivvy hesitated, her expression caught between awe and sadness. “What happened to them?”
Vivienne sighed. “Nothing, I hope. Something happened to me.”
Before Kivvy could ask another question, a thunderous sound echoed in the night, a deep, resonant boom that seemed to shake the very air.