Can this night get any worse?
Ben
I tried to thin myself, but horrifyingly, I couldn’t pass through the walls of its gut. I didn’t know why. Was it because I was covered with too much of the creature’s gut grime? Or was there something special about its constitution that prevented me from passing through it?
Whatever the case, I was certain I was going to puke inside this hunkri. Murky-looking stomach juices sloshed around as the hunkri hurtled through the sky. A disgusting gaseous smell overwhelmed me. I had to try to escape through its mouth, but gazing up, I couldn’t see an exit. It was like the roof of its mouth had sealed over me, locking me inside.
I pounded with my fists against the side of the creature, hoping to make it feel as sick as I was feeling. It didn’t seem to hamper its flight at all. If anything, it felt like it was speeding faster.
Where is Aisha?
I’d been hoping she could hurl a curse at the creature after catching River. No luck there. I prayed the girls were all right and hadn’t been claimed by the other monster.
Without warning, the hunkri’s stomach contracted. I was tipped upside down on my head. Its mouth opened and then I was falling, through its neck, jaws, until my body hit a sharp, rocky surface.
Before I could even orientate myself enough to attempt escape, the hunkri’s wide, powerful webbed feet kicked me right in the gut, sending me rolling until I slipped over… a ledge.
The next thing I was aware of was heat. Heat unlike anything I’d experienced before. I had plunged into a thick, gritty liquid of some sort. I couldn’t breathe. I waded through it, fighting to reach the surface. As I opened my eyes…
Oh, wow. No wonder I feel hot.
Bright red lava bubbled around me. Charred black walls surrounded me on all sides. The hunkri had kicked me into a crater filled with molten lava. Directly above was an opening—where the lava no doubt would spurt—and beyond that was the dark sky.
This is… something.
My whole body was blazing with fire. But unlike the burning sensation I’d experienced earlier, back in the Drizans’ palace, this was unpleasant. Intensely unpleasant. Like someone was stabbing me with daggers all over my body. And it was getting more unpleasant by the minute. I might be a fire fae—whatever that meant—but was there only so much of an element that a fae could take?
A bubble of lava nearby exploded in my face. Then came a deep splash. As if I wasn’t in enough hot water already, the hunkri had just dived into the pool and resurfaced next to me. Grabbing hold of my head, it submerged me again in the lava.
Ugh, get off me, you bastard. What was it trying to do? I’m not interested in bath time with you.
I managed to resurface, but the creature only grabbed me and pushed me down again. I could imagine how comical this would look to any onlooker, this lively game of whack-a-mole, but humor was the last thing on my brain as I fell short of breath. I managed to distance myself enough to resurface and gasp in more than three seconds of air before it hammered me down again. It was like it wanted to cook me or something. Since it didn’t have teeth… was it trying to cook me into a homogenous mush and then eat me?
Instead of continuing the foolery of attempting to distance myself from it, I decided to move right up to it. How I wished that I possessed the claws of a vampire in that moment. Gripping hold of the webbed hand that descended to bash me down again, I dug my fingers into it, holding it in place, before kicking sharply upward at its thin elbow joint. Bone cracked, followed by an obnoxious scream.
It flailed and let go of me, allowing me to rise to the surface.
“Ben!” River’s voice echoed down from above.
I gaped upward to see her hovering with Aisha high above the opening of the crater. At least they were okay. They’d found the hunkri’s trail. My head pounding with a migraine like no other, I shot upward. But not for long. Even with a broken arm, the hunkri wasn’t letting go of its meal so easily. It lunged for me again with its tongue, this time gripping me by the waist.
My vision was becoming blurry. It felt like my brain was overheating. I had to… get out of… this heat. Whatever strength I had remaining ebbed out of me as the hunkri dragged me back down. I was slowing down. Shutting down.
“Ben!” River screamed. “Do something, Aisha!”
River.
No. I can’t go back into the bath. Not back beneath the surface.
With a guttural roar I hoped would rouse the rest of me, just as the hunkri had drawn me a few feet above the lava, I grabbed hold of its frilled skin flap behind its ears. Planting both feet against the side of its head, I leveraged the stance to pull hard, tearing the frill from its head in one place.
Again it flailed, and this time appeared to be in more pain. A surprising amount of pain for a small tear.
I shot up and as I flew away, looked more closely at my captor. I realized that it hadn’t been the rip that had caused it to release me, but a leaden spear sticking out of its chest… That would explain it.
Aisha drifted down toward me on her own, licking her lower lip in satisfaction as she eyed the hunkri.
“Thanks for that,” I rasped. “Though I could have used that help a bit sooner. Where’s River?”