Page 29 of Dark Stars
He couldn't just dump it, though, that wouldbe even worse than dumping ordinary toxic chemicals.
He could, however, do something very verynaughty.
Chapter Eleven
"I'm not sure I like that grin on your face.Tell me what's going on." After Bobby did so, Alejo wrinkled hisnose. "Lovely. So what's this naughty thing you're going todo?"
"Offer it," Bobby said with a laugh. "I'mgoing to make it an offering to one of myotherrelatives.That will start family drama to last foreons. I just haveto decide who to offer it to. My mother? My grandfather? One of myaunts or uncles? What do you think?"
Alejo swept his arms out. "I don't know yourrelatives. How about your grandfather? Grandparents are always goodfor stirring up drama."
Bobby snickered. "The Great Cthulhu itis."
He jumped down to stand in front of thestatue. Cutting his hand, he smeared his blood across the front ofeach vessel of milk. Beneath their feet, the ground rumbledfaintly, like a distant earthquake or something waking. Behind him,Alejo inhaled sharply.
Kneeling, Bobby pressed his hands togetherand held them high, and spoke in the language of his mother'speople."Great Cthulhu, High Priest of the Great Old Ones, HeWho Lies Dreaming and Will Rise Again, I your humble grandsonCtheldush, offer these vessels of Milk of the All-Mother inappreciation for all you have done, all you do, all that you willdo."
The ground rumbled harder, enough to shakethe trees, a cacophony of falling fruit and nuts and more fillingthe cave. Bobby withdrew to the far side of the dark altar,beckoning Alejo to come stand with him.
Slowly at first, and then more quickly,several shadowy shapes appeared, like pools of darkness given avaguely human shape, but far larger than any human, towering andominous, eyes like glittering stars deep in the folds of darkness.One by one they approached the vessels, scooping the contents outinto themselves and vanishing, more taking their place until thecontents were entirely gone. The ground rumbled one more time,trembling through him, making his teeth rattle, and then there wassilence.
"Yeah, let's never do that again," Alejosaid. "That wasn't fun in the slightest. What happens now?"
Bobby remained silent, though he wrapped hisarms around Alejo from behind and held him close, nuzzling hisear.
On the dark altar, something shimmered,shone, and then solidified before the light slowly faded away.Bobby perked up and let go of Alejo before approaching. "Aww,Grandfather gave me a gift!" Reaching the altar, he picked up thesmall object there. To most, it would look like a strange,oversized coin made of copper long turned green.
In reality, it was a talisman of R'lyeh,rare and precious, highly prized for the power of Cthulhu itbestowed on the bearer. For humans, for all mortal and even manyimmortal beings, it was too much. It turned them mad or destroyedthem outright.
For him, though…for him it was a powerboost. An extraordinary one. Cthulhu was not the type to doaffection—any more than his mother—but in his own strange andpeculiar way, this was precisely that.
"I'm starting to get jealous of that stupidthing," Alejo muttered. "You look at it like you've been married toit for twenty years."
Bobby tucked the talisman away in hisjacket's inner pocket before pulling Alejo back into his arms andkissing him softly. "Wait till you see how I look at you aftertwenty years."
"Oh, be quiet," Alejo mumbled, but didn'tprotest in the slightest when he got a few more kisses.
Eventually, though, their current situationneeded to be focused on again. "Come on, let's get out of herewhile we still can. We're lucky nothing more than my nasty littlecousins has bothered us." He took Alejo's hand and together theywalked back out of the strange, beautiful forest. They were justfeet away from the entrance they'd used, though, when Bobby heardvoices. "Someone's coming, we need to hide."
He didn't wait for a reply, just scoopedAlejo up into his arms and ran back into the woods, wending throughthe trees until he was well past the altar, well beyond where thecultists were likely to go. Hopefully.
Stopping beside a particularly large tree,what must have been one of the very first to grow in thisimpossible forest, he shifted Alejo to his back, ignoring theindignant sputtering for the moment, and jumped. Alejo muffled ashout in the hollow of his throat, shaking against him as theylanded on a high, wide branch, and Bobby slowly let him down.
Alejo whacked him on the chest, then did ita few more times for good measure. "Don't do that! We just had thistalk!"
"I didn't throw you anywhere!" Bobbyretorted in a low hiss. "I panicked a bit, all right? I just wantedboth of us safe and well away from whatever those dumbasses areabout to do. They probably felt a shift, or perhapsShub-Niggurath's displeasure, since by now she'll know her milk wasstolen and that her grandson has it, fairly offered by aworshipper."
"You worship your grandfather? I don't thinkthat's healthy."
"Nothing about my family dynamics are whathumans would call healthy. I don't worship as such, but he doeshave my loyalty so long as that loyalty is not in conflict with mylove and devotion to my parents, and now you. It's complicated. I'mworshipper and humanenoughthat stealing the milk andoffering it to him worked. Shub-Niggurath gave it to her disciples.I stole it. I offered it. All fair and inviolate." He made a face."Doesn't mean she can't send her sycophants to beat the shit out ofus, though."
"We really need to talk about your idea ofdates."
"Youare the one who said 'let's getthe creepy shed out of the way,' so I don't want to hear it."
Alejo made a face, but didn't further replyas Bobby held a finger to his own lips. Voices drifted to them froma distance, faint and indistinct unless Bobby pushed his powers abit, which he didn't dare do while servants of Shub-Niggurathskulked. Even a half-decent one would be able to feel his arcaneenergies. Averygood one would be able to sense hispresence if he wasn't careful to keep it masked. Thankfully, hefelt no one of any such ability. Not a guarantee they weren't outthere, but the chances were slim.
He watched as far below, people scoured theforest. He hadn't thought they'd come back this far, but he'dclearly been wrong. Thankfully, it hadn't occurred to any of themto look up. Even if it did, they were up so high that it would takeeagle vision and a hell of a lot of luck to spot them.
