INE

My body felt heavy as I pushed through the space between the listless biped and the wall, while being careful not to contact the wall surface that set smouldering flames in my gut when touched. I put my hands over my hips and panted as I rolled out of the passage. Looking around, I felt a fog of confusion settle in my mind. My ears perked up at the sound of water on the surface stream. For the first time in years I was thirsty.

The water was bland with a mild salty taste. I drank it nevertheless. Satisfied with the fill, I trod outside the cave. The sun rays were bright and the unshaded earth was warmed up by it. Uncertainty gripped me again.

I didn't know where to go or what to do.

Everything felt blank. A white void engulfed me and I struggled to figure out my next step. But nothing dawned on me. I spent long, watching the breeze across the palms, the tiny golden-green humming birds biting into the low hanging plantains.

Shaking my head, I glanced at the cave behind me. I wondered if the fallen biped had any kin? Or had he been alone like me? Dropped in the middle nowhere and told to survive? Just like me?

I felt terrible. My mind that had felt blank a while ago was now flooded with questions.

I remembered Saynab. Fumbling about my hair I picked up the funnel and spoke to it.

"I have some questions." Most of the times, our conversation started like this. It started with a question and ended with a question that she avoided to answer-like my parents, or the reason for having to survive here. She said she was a Sphinx, whatever that meant, and she was serving the Lord of Six lands and Seven seas. And apparently she couldn't answer those questions because this Lord didn't allow it.

For some time, I paced about the mouth of the cave, awaiting her reply, and stomping the ground as and when my impatience tipped to the next level.

"I just killed a creature that could see me!" I tossed the funnel behind my shoulder and kicked my foot. I had to leave. I had no intentions on killing another creature, or getting killed by it. Choosing a direction, I began to walk, but stopped when I remembered about my blade and pike.

Hells! I had forgotten it back inside the cave. I let out an angry groan and turned back.

The cave was just as bleak, silent and dingy as I had left it. I hurried up to the passage, shuffling to the biped's side and fetched the blade. It was back at being the arched instrument with the Rompon horns tied along the life-spine, making the moment that it had turned into a shotel, an illusion. If not for the lifeless biped on the passage I'd have thought that I had been dreaming about the whole thing.

Half of the length of the pike was buried under the weight of the biped's body. I struggled to move it. With life gone, the creature's body had turned rigid. I clamped my arm on its bristly, cold shoulder in an attempt to shift it to other side. But one look at my own hands, I froze.

Shock came before I could comprehend the situation. I just stared my in absolute disbelief. They looked foreign.

My once smooth and delicate skin had now turned leathery and unsightly!

My nails... oh! They looked more like claws. Just like that of the biped!

My eyes darted to the dead biped. And the moment that I had drank its soul flashed in front of my eyes. I rubbed my hands as if it could undo the change.

I felt my skin itch. Every inch of me had been turned into the leathery mess. Anxious, I ran to my hand over my face. I groaned at the reckoning.

"No, no, no!" I screamed uneasily.

The buttery soft skin now felt rough. And more to my shock, I could feel slight sideburns too. I did not try fathom what my face looked like now.

"No..." I began to sob.

"Ijji," I heard Saynab's stiff voice from the funnel. "Answer me, Ine!"

I didn't care to answer her. The earth was slipping beneath me. I didn't have to see to know how my legs looked. They looked more hideous than I had expected. My chest was already starting to burn, reminding me to breathe. I sucked a long breath of the mucky air of the cave and screamed in terror.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please vote and share.