Discovering a Living Plague

“It rains here a lot...”

The incessant pour had started coming down in excess ever since they had left their last stop on the road. Teri adjusted the hood of his cloak with a frown, more securely pulling it into place so the water could not touch him. He grumbled as he glared up at the sky. The rain pelted onto him without remorse of his plight, but still never seemed to seep in or soak through the fabric of his cloak, as though something protected him.

Gone was the sun now, and instead gray clouds dimmed their way back home. Saran pulled his horse to a stop, looking up over the tops of the trees on his right. Smoke. He smelt it before he saw it. There was a trail of it climbing into the sky off in the distance. Beside him, Teri suddenly gagged.

“What—what is that?” he coughed.

“Smoke?”

Teri looked over to where his companion had been looking.

“There’s more than smoke...” He said, pressing a fist against his mouth and puffing out his cheeks.

Saran looked back towards the sky. His eyebrows lowered and pinched together, prompting him to pull his scarf up over his mouth.

Through the trees, there was a small trail. It was unused and grown over but it led right towards what could only be assumed to be a small town or hamlet.

They both dismounted their horses, leaving the animals to roam freely as they began to make their way down the narrow trail. The smell got stronger as they drew closer. Houses and rough infrastructure started to come into view. From a distance, bodies could be made out, sitting around a fire.

Their attire was familiar. The cloaks of the acolytes of the greater dragons. Teri narrowed his eyes towards them and his muscles tightened in readiness.

“Saran.” His voice was calm but stern when he spoke. Behind him, the dark-haired man disappeared into thin air.

As Teri pushed through the foliage, ready to give the acolytes a piece of his mind, he stopped abruptly. The ground was not yet wet enough by the rain to warrant any puddles, but the wet splash under his foot said otherwise. He looked down, finding his boot splattered in blood. He stepped back. The puddle of blood was connected to a smear of guts and innards that led to a mutilated body. A woman, eyes still wide open and dried blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.

He starred expressionless at her body for a moment and then looked to the acolytes again. They weren’t moving. He approached from behind their camp, stepping up the hill with caution. His first thought was that the acolytes had succumbed to sleep, but he soon realized what plagued them was the same thing that plagued that woman's corpse. Death.

Their bodies bare no wounds however. Some were simply without life, but others had remnants of a black ichor covering them. It quivered and undulated as though it were alive.

Teri made sure to give it a wide birth as he stepped past the camp of dead acolytes and into the town. A cluster of bodies were at the center, piled up and covered in slashing wounds. An axe was still set in the head of a man. The acolytes handy work, no doubt.

Down the path, the town opened up more and Teri’s attention was drawn up to the top of a burning building. More of that black ichor had burst up from inside the house and had formed into a long curling tendril. He gawked at the strange thing, seeing several more of the dark tentacles wrapped around things or bodies.

*Behind you.*

The demon whirled around too quickly and knocked into something wet and warm. He shuffled back with a heavy breath. The chain creaked and ached as it swung. A villager was wrung up by their neck and hung before him. The corpse’s face was pale and sallow, with eyes that starred at nothing as it swung from the chain.

Teri reached out and grabbed the leg, stopping it from moving as he starred past it at what Saran was warning him of. At the edge of the road lay the body of one massive creature. A ravager. A huge chunk had been taken out of it like something had bit into it. A black tentacle lay on the ground beside it, partially wrapped around it. It had emanated from the ground.

He went to go closer, a look of concern finally coming to his face, but he stumbled to a stop. A wave of pressure hit him. It came from the dark ooze. It was like when a flood of water went up into your nose and blocked your senses. He quickly stepped back from it in order to gain his senses back, grunting at the feeling as he grabbed his head with both hands.

“Fuck...it’s not just it’s smell that has range...”

He looked over the ravagers body from afar and let out a sigh.

“Anyone still alive?” he said into the air.

*All the houses are empty and there’s no pulses.*

“Great...”

The silence was deafening here. If there had been any stray breathes, he would have heard them. There was only the sound of crackling fire as it consumed the remnants of the houses around him.

Finding a stray piece of lumber that was on fire, he chucked it at the dark tentacle. It did not burn well, and soon the fire died out.

Swallowing, Teri walked over to one of the animal pens and grabbed one of the chickens. He threw it too. The animal squawked in defiance. It seemed unaffected, but was not happy to be covered in the moist black that spattered the back of its feathers. It scurried away from him swiftly, circling the pen and wanting back in to join its brethren.

He groaned in irritation that the animal was not affected.

“What do we do?”

*Tell your dragon friend? She knows things, doesn’t she?*

“Don’t you know things?”

*Not this. We’ve not been here long enough, and they have no technology. My progress is slower. You know this.*

“What about the crystal? You said it helped.”

*It’s a different kind of magic. I have to re-learn it first.*

“Different? Bah! Still burns the same.” he said while rolling his eyes.

Teri looked down by his feet. The chicken had returned and was cooing with ragged breathes. It had come to rest by his feet. It struggled for a moment and then fell over. It too died, the life leaving its eyes like a shadow descending. He kicked the corpse away, somewhat fearful of the black goo still moving on its back. He sighed again. The results kept getting worse...

“Sample?” Teri asked.

*I don’t think it's safe to even get near this never mind collect it...*

“Then let’s leave, quickly, before we get “infected” too.”

*The captain will not be happy about this.*

“At this point, I could give two shits what the captain thinks.” Teri murmured; his eyes hard as he left with his companion in tow.