They Come To Feed

Chapter 12

The warriors gathered in front of the citadel to make their final preparations. The raiding party wrapped the serpent-skins in layers over their bodies with the aid of strips of leather and old sailcloth, and needle and thread, in hopes it would protect them from Those Who Come To Feed. By the time they had finished, little showed of the warriors but small slits for their eyes.
Earlier, Grimm had carefully cut Gulkuna's venom glands from her mouth, and they used the venom to coat their weapons.
"I think the serpent venom hurts the creatures. It may at least make our weapons a little more effective. But I don't think it will prove as effective as the bite Wazu saw Gulkun inflict upon the demon," Grimm explained. The men nodded in grim understanding.
Grimm secured the Kytelle to his waist, and with that, they followed M'boto to the cave.

It was late in the afternoon when they arrived at the cave. They listened attentively as M'boto, with Tonga's aid, explained the interior layout. M'boto was to await them without the cave, but they left with him a spear, a bow, and quiver full of venom-tipped arrows. The bulk of the pirates and Gambusi returned to the village to prepare its defenses, lest the raiders fail in their mission, so they might make a last stand. At the first sign of failure, swift little M'boto would carry the warning back to the settlement.
The warriors crept into the cave, Grimm and Wazu went first, then Freyja, followed by Tonga, Marula, and Cartenio.
The raiders did not make it far into the cavern before the Guardians struck. They were both alike and unlike the Hunters. The Guardians were stationary, seemingly rooted in place, they neither crawled nor moved but merely sprouted from their cubicles. Their tentacles were thicker than those of a Hunter, and they were fewer in number, but the Guardians' tentacles were able to expand and contract like pseudopods, and they were arrayed about a central lamprey-like mouth.
The Guardians did not all strike instantly, but seemed to wait until the raiding party had all filed into the cave. Then the Guardians seemed to spring to action, herding the party away from the only egress with their flailing limbs.
The fight became one of speed, agility, and coordination. The knitting of muscle to fighting-brain was being tested to the fullest. Tentacles lashed out, seeking a hold on the intruders. The intruders dove, leaped, rolled, slashed, and stabbed with their weapons.
A thick tentacle wrapped about Cartenio's waist, forcing the air from him. Seeing his compatriot's plight, the nimble Marula leaped over a searching tendril and slashed violently at the offending member. Temporarily freed, Cartenio sought to find his footing but another feeler had his ankle instantly. Now Marula too was hard pressed, a Guardian dragging him inexorably towards its toothsome maw. Tonga slashed wildly at both his own oppressor and that of Marula.
The entire chamber was transformed into a gauntlet of writhing tentacles. A surreal scene of leaping and grappling bodies, and flashing steel, humans battling against an alien blight under the rosy hue of the strange crystals that throbbed high above.
Even Grimm's superb fighting prowess had met its match. Raw strength and iron will vied against a mass of tentacles seeking to crush him and drag him to his doom. His sword arm, still free, slashed madly at the tendrils. With the other arm nearly incapacitated, and wrapped by a stout tentacle, he drew the Kytelle from the crimson sash at his waist.
His eyes shot about, they found Freyja. She alone of all the embattled raiders was still free. She was near at hand, but under duress. Their emerald eyes met as he tossed the Kytelle at her slender feet.
"Freyja, I am sore pressed, it is all on you now. You must slay the Mother," came the hoarse words from Grimm's mouth, as he struggled against the entangling tentacles. Freyja snatched up the Kytelle, and turned hastily toward the stony archway to the next chamber.
As Freyja crossed the threshold, she immediately beheld horror. The walls of the huge chamber were lined with countless cubicles filled with the torpid sleeping Hunters, slowly pulsating under the pink glow. Suspended from the ceiling by slimy webs were cocoons of pinkish mucus, which held the partially devoured people and other animals that the Hunters had carried off in their attacks.
Freyja's tread was silent as she crossed the chamber, fighting the urge to empty the contents of her stomach. She could still hear her comrades struggling behind her, and quickened her pace, sick with concern for her mate. Then she was there, at the entrance to the Mother's lair.
Freyja entered the chamber boldly. Instantly she felt the room's sole occupant's attention upon her, pounding into her mind like a psychic fist. Words seemed to form in her mind, the Mother's words: "How dare you come here earthling, bearing the hated Weapon? How dare you threaten the Mother? How dare you harm my Children?" came the buzzing alien mind-voice.
Freyja's will strove to block the hateful voice from her mind. She regarded the thing before her gaze. Like the other star-spawn, the Mother was encased in a metallic structure, although somewhat larger and more rectangular. It was flanked by only two suckerless tentacles, each as thick as a young spruce. Its lamprey mouth was smaller than the others, but contained those same shark-like teeth.
The Mother trained her hideous eyes on Freyja, a cluster of malevolent opalescent orbs attached to prehensile stalks sprouting from between its mouth and tentacles. They glared at one another in palpable fury.
Then Freyja saw it, above the mouth was a gelatinous organ, throbbing dull red, and Freyja knew it for what it was: the Mother's heart and brain, the monster's nucleus. Freyja thought of the Kytelle and understood what must be done.
In that instant, the Mother struck. The tentacles were too quick, and took Freyja off guard. She was wrapped in the writhing putrid limbs, one snaking up her arm and squeezing with terrible strength. The Kytelle fell from her nerveless hand, clattering to the floor out of reach. Freyja had failed. The other tentacle wrapped tightly around Freyja's waist and thigh. The Mother dragged her struggling form slowly but inexorably toward its waiting maw.
Neither Freyja nor the Mother saw the small dark form that scurried noiselessly into the chamber and grabbed up the Kytelle. The wiry figure vaulted over the florid tentacle. Suddenly brave M'boto stood between the perilous alien mouth and the black-haired swordswoman.
He held the Kytelle before him with both hands and drove its fierce point into the Mother's heart-brain.
An agonizing psychic scream tore into M'boto and Freyja's minds as the Mother convulsed in her death throes. The tentacles that wrapped Freyja went limp and she fell to the floor. The scent of ozone permeated the air and an aurora flickered over the Mother's shriveling form. Moments passed as the monster seemed to become desiccated, and at last it utterly evaporated. Nothing remained of the horror from another world.
M'boto lay down next to the prostrate Freyja. She weakly wrapped her arm around the boy, pulling him close, and he wept long and hard into her gently heaving bosom. Then there on that stony floor, within that den of horrors, they slept.

When morning came, bringing its gentle light into the cave, the five warriors awoke. Their alien foe had suddenly shrivelled and evaporated to nothing even as they struggled. With the enemy vanquished, exhaustion had dragged all five men down into her warm black embrace.
Grimm sprang suddenly to his feet, fearing for his mate.
"Freyja?" called Grimm into the depths of the cavern.
"Here Grimm, I'm coming," spoke Freyja in a thin voice from the darkness. The crystals no longer gave off their weird ambient light. Freyja came into the dimly lit antechamber, supported by M'boto, smiling weakly.