Ink Stained

10: she who invites*

伊弉冉尊

The clouds are the ground she sits on.

She should be more concerned about that, but she isn't.

When she looks down, through the misty clouds, she can't see any land. There is only a dark mass of broiling ocean below her, hardly discernible through the pot-hole patches in the cloud-ground she can just as easily plunge down through.

Above her only yields a sight of endless darkness. No light, no sun, no stars penetrate through the shadows that linger so close. Pai lifts her hand, up to the mist, to see if she'll come up against anything solid. Her arm goes up through the mist and meets nothing, fingers curling into a fist and drawing back to her chest as a sliver of unease worms through her stomach.

She can hear the beautiful, mournful wailing of what sounds like women in the distance, and the abandoned roar of strange creatures rising up from the raging waves, the tortured cry of birds unknown screaming in the air far above her.

She tips her head back, staring unblinkingly at the mist that hangs over her. She draws in a breath, lungs freezing from the cold bite that invades her. She blows. The air rushes out of her and swirls the grey-white clouds, into the blackness beyond, but nothing is made visible.

A gust of cold wind wafts from her back, and Pai shivers. She lifts her hands to her arms to rub some warmth back into her, and realizes, as she glances down at herself, that she is completely naked. The cold wind raises goose flesh over her chilled skin. Strangely, she sees there to be nothing wrong with her nudity. It is as if finding herself in a new and unfamiliar land, completely naked, is normal. There's nothing to be concerned about.

There's something wrong with that, she knows. She can't quite bring herself to care.

When she looks down again through a hole by her foot, she sees the scaly, ridged backs of strange serpentine creatures as they wade through the crashing waves. She watches in rapt fascination when a gigantic serpent lifts its head out from the surface of the ocean.

The creature's skin is a dull, glistening white, its scales massive with water streaming down between its back like thin, silver rivers. The serpent has a fanning hood, like that of a cobra. It moves as the serpent shakes water from its head. Its snake eyes are pure white, as if the creature is blind. Through the fog of clouds she can just make out the disconcerting white of its eyes as the serpent raises its head to the sky.

It opens its mouth. She sees that it is filled with sharp teeth, canines longer than Pai's whole body. As it parts its mouth wide open, it draws in a powerful breath –

And screams.

The sound is unlike anything she's ever heard before. It is unbelievably loud, and she instinctively raises her hands to cover her ears. The powerful vibration of the scream pulses and echoes through her body, sending a frigid shiver down her spine. The sound comes from the maw of the giant serpent, and it is clearly the cry of a beast, but it sounds so human.

Her heart is heavy as she continues to stare, enraptured, at the screaming serpent as it roars balefully to the heavens. It is so sad, and angry. She can't imagine what could have grieved it so, and she's not sure she wants to know either way.