novelraw Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Destruction. A pleasurable rumble of satisfied laughter bubbled up through the depths of Arach’s coils and fanned the red-hot coals simmering in his gullet. He rolled the word off the tip of his forked tongue as though savoring the flavor of a fine robust wine. Such a delightful word: destruction. It even tasted good when he spoke it.
Arach filled his lungs with the stale dank air of the blood-soaked cave and waved away annoying carnage flies buzzing about his face. This world had turned out quite nice indeed. A bit on the dull side of late, but all in all not a bad place to spend a few millennia. Arach dipped his head with a single nod of certainty. Yes. He definitely considered his time here well spent. He’d most assuredly rate the prey of this world as one of his favorite races to hunt. Arach chuckled. The confused lot was even more enjoyable and entertaining than warming his scales beneath the scorching sun once a feeding frenzy was over.
Arach unsheathed one razor sharp claw and hooked it into the meatiest part of a smoldering carcass spread across the sticky stone floor. Impaling the body on the extended tip of one talon, he lifted the dripping corpse into the air, threw back his head and dropped the charred body into his mouth. Ah yes. Delicious. And the lovely screams the humans released as they realized they were about to die could not be matched anywhere else in this universe. What could be more musical than shrieking cries of a begging victim blubbering for something as ridiculous as mercy? Silly fools, these simpering mortals. What in the world could ever make them believe he would succumb to their pitiful begging? It must have something to do with that strange thing he’d heard one of their women wailing about while she clutched her mate’s dying body against her chest. What was the word the female had used? Arach slowed his chewing and thoughtfully tapped a greasy claw against his blood-spattered chin. Hope. Yes. That was it. Arach snorted. Their highly-prized hope was as useless a ploy for saving their lives as was their incessant pleading.
Snugging his barbed tail around his scale-covered body, Arach crunched down on the last bits of dismembered body piled between his stubby front legs. Such sweetness. Human bones made such a delectable pop when properly toasted before enjoying.
He cocked his head and brought his grinding jaws to an abrupt halt. A disgruntled gurgle bubbled at the back of his throat as he unsheathed a foreclaw and slid it in the side of his steaming mouth. Curling his leathery lips back in a sideways sneer, Arach probed along the third ridge of molars and pried a particularly worrisome bit of rib-bone out from between two stumps of hardest to reach back teeth. Apparently, he’d not scorched this one quite long enough. It still had a bit of fight left to it. The bone shard popped free and ricocheted off the glistening black walls lining the rear of the cave.
There. Much better. Smacking his slime-covered lips together, Arach pulled them back in a revealing grimace and examined his reflection in the pool of blood surrounding a pile of swollen torsos. Good. It looked as though he’d finally scraped all the bits of man from between his yellowed tushes. After all, one never could be too careful. A left behind piece of rotted meat or sliver of gristle could make for a miserable soreness in one’s mouth.
Arach scratched his delightfully full belly with a bloodied claw and slithered the cumbersome length of his body to the opening of the cave. Life was indeed quite decent since coming to this reality. He only wished there was a bit more challenge when it came to the hunt for fresh blood. Boredom did tend to grate on his nerves in the most tedious way.
Arach smacked his lips and sucked at his teeth as he groaned in a gut-stretching breath. He adored the plentiful food of this place and the humans had been quite good at rebuilding even more lovely structures for him to destroy. As a matter of fact, the buildings of this era exploded and burned with the most glorious billows of black smoke he had ever seen. Arach exhaled as he mindlessly tapped a claw against the limestone shelf. If only these mortals would learn how to fight back. It had been eons since he’d faced an interesting battle or found any victims worthy of well-thought-out torture.
Arach released a distracted sigh. Still, this hunting ground had lasted much longer than the last world he’d plundered. Of course, he’d been several millennia younger at that time and hadn’t known to pace himself as he’d done here.
The crashing sea roiled past the mouth of the cave. Greenish-gray waves spewed seaweed-filled froth across the sharp outcropping of stained black rocks protruding from the fissures of the cliff. Arach stretched himself out on the windswept ledge. With a sweep of one paw, he scattered sun-bleached bones out of the way and rested his sticky, blood-spattered chin atop the crossed cushion of his meaty forearms. Yes. He’d learned much since burning through the last reality much too quickly. ’Twas a good deal wiser to take things slowly. Savor the killings for the deepest possible enjoyment. After all, one must allow the prey time to breed and repopulate the land. Rather like when those silly mortals allowed the fields of their farms to lie fallow and gave their world a bit of a rest. These odd little mortals tended to be quite prolific if given the time and the short-lasted comfort of a few quiet decades. Once the mindless fools relaxed in the belief that their world was safe, they replenished their numbers quite readily. Arach smiled as he nestled his snout to a more comfortable angle in the crook of his crossed arms. Silly mortals. So easily picked off one by one when he resumed the scourging of their lands.
Arach rumbled a sigh and slathered his tongue around his greasy lips. Besides, juicy worlds filled with prey and ready for destruction grew more difficult to find every day. And even though he wasn’t getting any younger, he still had several more millennia left in this set of scales. Why burn out this world and have to go to the trouble of finding another?
He chuckled under his breath as his heavy eyelids slowly drifted shut. He must remember to thank the foolish old Cailleach. If not for the ancient woman of the moors guiding him to this particular gateway, he might’ve actually missed the pleasures of this world while traveling through the corridor.
The squawk of a gray heron sounded above the rim of the cave. Arach cracked an eyelid open, found the outstretched form of the graceful bird and incinerated it in a single explosive belch of orange flame. Useless birds. Constantly disturbing his naps. A distinct waste of valuable firepower but their racket was so damn irritating.
The blackened steel hull of a fire-gutted ship scraped against the base of the cliff, trapped inside the barrier of rocks jutting out from the swirling sea. The rhythmic screech against the jagged rocks sang like a delightful lullaby to Arach’s heavily armored ear-slits. Yes. That soothing sound was much better than the annoying squawk of the shore birds, especially when it filled his dreams with the anticipation of crunching down on bodies rotting in the hold.
Fidgeting against the curve of the ledge to find a more comfortable position, Arach rolled to his side and exposed his swollen belly to the fleeting warmth of the sun. Lore! What would it take to get comfortable? A nagging restlessness prevented his leisure like a sharp rock poking into his side. Arach slapped at the midges buzzing his blood-streaked nostrils with writhing tentacles sprouting from his jaws. How the hell was he supposed to sleep off a meal with a cloud of insects crawling up his snout?
Snorting out a short burst of blue flame, Arach lumbered to his feet. It was useless. Sleep would never come to him at this rate. He might as well take flight and seed a few thunderstorms among the skittering clouds. At least watching the humans scatter for cover from destructive lightning might provide him with a bit of entertainment. What he wouldn’t give for an exciting hunt, a true challenge to rid him of this bothersome tension and gift him with the delicious weariness of a hard-won kill.