Page 50 of Dark Stars
When Alejo was fast asleep, bundled upagainst the cool, almost chilly air, Bobby stretched, drank somewater, and went to do a bit more exploring.
He was heading back to their sort-ofcampsite when he felt it. Dark Young. Were they hoping for a roundtwo? They were trying to remain stealthy, but the forest felt themand thus, so did he.
As they drew closer, he enfolded himself inthe accommodating dark. Two…no, three of them…and there wassomething different about them. They'd been altered somehow.
When they finally drew close enough he couldsee them, the difference became obvious. They'd been given theblood of Azathoth. What a fucking mess this was. Azathoth at theroot of it all, Shub-Niggurath his little front for the cult, andthe Unnamed Darkness assisting as well. The entire fucking familywas trying to use him, gain power and followers they'd never havehad otherwise.
He hadn't bothered any of them. All he'dever wanted was to live his life, strange and incomprehensible tohis relatives though it might be. And they thought they could justuse him like any other human. Take what was his, take what he'dalways freely offered to his relatives. Well, to his mother andgrandfather, because the rest of his family didn't even like him sohe'd assumed they didn't care. If they'd justasked, hewould have worked something out.
But he knew better than to expect primordialbeings to think like mortal ones. Hell, even mortal beings were alltoo often willing to just take.
Well, if they wanted to play, he'd play,just like he had with the last batch down in the caves. Thankgoodness Alejo was asleep.
Sinking fully into the dark, he let go ofhis human form, sighing happily as his tentacles stretched andwrithed. The forest filled with alarm and disgust, and he soothedit as best he could, even as fireflies came out to flutter andtwinkle in the space between the mortal plane and the great,eternal dark.
Like starving wolves, the Dark Young roundedsharply from their prowling to focus on him, hooves sparking wherethey struck stone, their eyes glowing red from the effect ofconsuming the blood of the Daemon Sultan himself, and the acid thatdripped from their maws was black and oily, rather than the usualwatery yellow-green.
This might be a problem. He could deal withhis cousins when they were only themselves, in larger quantitiesthan the seven he'd face in that cave. But these three… they werehopped up on every good street drug all at once, with a side of acrate of energy drinks for good measure.
They tried to flank him, and unfortunately,it largely worked. But he had hundreds of eyes and uncountabletentacles, and a reason to fight against even Azathoth himself thatthe hunger-driven fools would never understand.
Still, it hurt. They ripped and shredded,tore tentacles away entirely, sank venom-dripping fangs deep intohis body, leaving him screaming and writhing, even as he continuedto fight back. They were stronger than usual, faster, meaner, whichwould be impressive if he didn't hate them so fucking much.
He managed, finally, even as he bled andscreamed, to get one wrapped up—and then ripped it apart, first inhalves and then into more pieces. That startled the others enoughthey paused for the barest moment, but then they renewed theirattack, howling long and loud.
Which brought more. Damn it. He'd thoughtthese three were it, for surely Azathoth would be more sparing withsharing his blood, his power.
Instead of just two now, suddenly there werefive, making the fight not just difficult, but close to impossible.He managed to get another one, but before he could rip it apart,one of them managed to get to his throat, biting down hard,injecting venom at the worst possible place.
Ctheldush screamed, the sound rippling out,shattering the air like glass, making the dark ripple andwrinkle.
"Flick!"
No. No, no, no!
With another scream, he finally shook theothers off long enough to kill the one he still held, then turnedto the next.
But now there were insects everywhere, slowin numbers at first but growing exponentially. All manner of types,shapes and size. Cockroaches, centipedes, weevils, flies, wasps,moths, and more. They swarmed as though possessed by a pied piper,enfolding the Dark Young, sending them flailing and panicking.
It was all the opening he needed. Hesnatched up two that time, tearing them apart like paper. Fourdown, two to go.
One of them tried to lung for Alejo,standing in the mortal plane but just barely visible on this one,as though he stood at the threshold like the fireflies andinsects.
Snarling, Ctheldush lunged forward, slippingout of the primordial dark and halfway into the mortal plane,snatching the cretin up and tearing him apart just like hissiblings.
The last one fled, dripping blood andshedding insects, and was gone in the next moment. Well, fool them,because whoever he reported to would just declare him useless andeat him. Good riddance.
Alejo stared wide-eyed. "Bobby? Oh, god, Ithink you're bleeding."
Bobby warbled a weak laugh and tried to pushout reassurance. Yes, he was injured, and rather badly, but hismother had done worse to him wholly by accident, unaccustomed tohaving something so small and frail around.
His healing would go faster if he hadsomething to consume. Like the corpses of his worthless cousins.But that would mean ingesting the blood of Azathoth, whichcertainly would give him some perks, but would also mark him, andmake maintaining control a bit more difficult for a time. Still,he'd heal instantly and be much stronger for days, wouldn't need toeat for months.
Pain pulsed through him anew, and Alejo'sworry was palpable, as sharp and unpleasant as eating somethingspicy when you'd expected sweet. With a silentfuck it, hereached for the corpses of his cousins and pulled them to hisenormous maw, tearing and crunching them into pieces barely smallenough to swallow, more interested in doing this quickly thanresponsibly.
They didnottaste delicious, buthe'd hardly expected them to. This was work, not pleasure.
He consumed them one by one, bite by bitterbite, until all five were nothing but food in his belly. Afterthat, he crawled the rest of the way out of the primordial dark,returning entirely to the mortal realm, and then over to theirmakeshift bed.
