Callisto

Voices in the Void (pt. 2)

"I wished to wake you," she stated plainly, drawing herself up to full height as though she were addressing a misbehaving clan sister. "A new day dawns, and we have much ground still to cover."

She walked off briskly as she said so, swiftly dousing the fire before she went. Apparently unfazed, she soon heard the soft pitter-patter of her companion's paw-steps echo from behind and an almost inaudible grumble about how he would "kill" for something called "a good fry up."

He was no spirit, Rain-Born reasoned, but he must at least be an apprentice shaman. The spell he had cast on her as he slumbered had been a powerful one indeed.

...

The next day was similarly uneventful for a time. Rain-Born's world was now nothing but the quiet trek through the permanent realm of the nocturnal, interrupted now and then by Jespar's singing. For most of the journey, she heard only the sound of her feet and Jespar's song and beheld only the vision of the black abyss that stretched before her.

Then finally, they both saw it.

The outline of a shape in the dark. A form that looked vaguely human, wreathed in a cloak of shadow drawn around it from the darkness it had emerged from. Dark locks twisted and curled like spectral serpents from the crown of its head. A shadow walked towards them, head bowed, armless, and making no sound as it approached.

"Chief..." Jespar whispered in a voice so utterly distant that Rain-Born could not be sure he had said anything.

The shadow crept forward, still in silence.

Rain-Born stopped and heard herself shout dimly as though she was no longer present in her own body but had left it behind ages ago.

She was nothing but perception. She was nothing but a pair of eyes looking upon the postulating visage of that which was incomprehensible.

Nothing but a trespasser in a place where she did not belong.

The shadow was mere inches from her now, and it had finally ceased its lumbering journey toward them.

Rain-Born blinked. And two open oval voids stared into her.

The torch went out.

The abyss had claimed them both.

...

"Chief! Chief! Chief, where the hell you go?"

Shit, shit, shit, shit shit

Jespar barked in the darkness, hoping to reach Rain-Born to no avail. All around him stretched an endless expanse of nothingness. Nothing but the void, and he, trapped within.

Fantastic, he thought. I escape from one cage and walk right into another. Why has every damn woman in my life had me risk my neck like this?

He paced in a circle for a moment – at least, he thought he did. He couldn't even make out his paws below him. He could barely feel the concrete ground he trod upon. It almost felt like walking through thin air.

Then he had his bright idea.

He sat down (perhaps levitating) and raised his head to howl at the darkness:

"Alright, whatever's out there, giggling away, come on and get it over with. Whatever you're gonna do, get it done because otherwise, I'll just sit here and take the dump I've been holding in for the last half-hour. I ain't dancing to no fake-ass spirit's tune."

At first, nothing happened. Then he heard the sound of giggling approach and encircle him like he was surrounded by a bunch of brainless schoolchildren.

"As you wish," said a voice in the dark.

...

Rain-Born could not feel the ground underneath her. She fought to keep her breathing under control, for aside from her fragmented breaths, there was nothing else to assure her of her existence here in the void.

She knew that Jespar was gone, taken by the voracious shadow just as she was. She could only hope that he, as a creature of the wastes himself, could battle the malevolent entity that reigned in these dark halls and emerge unscathed.

Before her, the cold wisps of air that formed told her the air was cold, yet she felt nothing. She was directionless and absent. Adrift in a sea of black.

This must be the test, she thought. This would be the great trial of mind that the warriors of her Tribe, broken and full of despair, had failed to pass. The Changeling of the Tunnel had judged them unworthy.

"Changeling of the Tunnel," Rain-Born said aloud, clasping her hands together in a gesture of faith. "I am willing to accept your judgment. I will face your trials. You shall find me worthy."

She closed her eyes instinctively as a rush of air assailed her. In the domain of this spirit, she sought the darkness of her own eyes as protection against its all-consuming gaze. She knew the creature was watching her through this veil, studying her for weakness.

"We shall see," said a voice full of mirth.