Disarmed and Dreaming

Morn whipped around. A massive Levjottun, similar to the one Azur had killed, leapt towards him.

Morn raised his drill in an attempt to skewer the monster, but wasn't quick enough. The Levjottun swung its clawed hand, knocking the drill from Morn's hand.

The tool flew several metres, landing in a bed of moss with a dull thud. The Levjottun's path continued, tackling Morn to the ground.

Morn quickly pulled a long tube of gas from his bag. He held the sturdy tube with both hands, jamming it against the creature's neck to push the beast away, stopping it from mauling him.

The Levjottun's teeth snapped centimetres from his face. Foam bubbled from between the creature's gapped teeth, dripping onto Morn's skin and causing pieces of his flesh to sizzle and pop.

The creature let out a low bubbling growl as it leveraged its weighty body against the metal tube in his hands. Morn could feel the creature's wet and rapid breaths on his face as it tried to eat him alive.

With another snap of its jaws, a jagged fang scratched Morn's forehead, leaving an irregular scratch above his right eye.

Morn screamed, then slammed his head upward, hitting the creature in its snout. The beast reared back, more from surprise than from pain, then crashed back down once again.

As the creature slammed back down, Morn raised the gas tank, positioning it in the creature's mouth as it clamped its jaws shut. With a crack, the gas began to leak from the tank as the creature's sharp teeth punctured the metal.

An idea blossomed in his mind, a desperate attempt to survive. Morn wrapped his arms around the creature's snout, using all his strength to keep the monster's mouth shut around the canister.

The creature continued inhaling rapidly, causing the gas to fill its lungs. When the sound of gas leaking stopped, Morn let go of the creature with his left hand, pulling the spark-igniter from a pouch at his belt.

Without both of Morn's arms holding its mouth shut, the creature let out a shriek as it opened its jaws wide. The tank fell from its mouth, hitting Morn in the shoulder as it fell.

Gritting his teeth, Morn jammed his arm into the creature's open maw, clicking the igniter as he did so. With a loud whoosh, flames burst from deep inside the Levjottun.

The inside of the creature burned from the lungs up as the Pyral gas inside it ignited. The creature's shriek continued as it cooked from the inside out.

A jet stream of fire emerged from its mouth as it screamed, exhaling rapidly. The fire from the initial explosion and the plume of exhaled fire singed Morn's arm.

Morn tried to pull his arm back reflexively, but the creature jerked its head back in pain, impaling a long canine tooth through Morn's arm, dragging him with it as it reeled backwards. Morn hung a few centimetres above the forest floor, dangling from the creature's mouth.

Morn nearly fainted from the pain. His muscles began to tear as his own weight dragged him down. Slowly, gravity pulled his arm apart as the tooth split his flesh. The skin around the wound rapidly turned black, as if corrupted.

After a few moments of agony, the creature fell still, collapsing to the ground as it finally succumbed to its wounds. As the creature hit the ground, its jaws were forced to snap shut.

Several more teeth pierced Morn's arm, impaling it halfway down the forearm. Morn let out another scream. In disbelief, he stared wide eyed at his nearly severed arm. His hand dangled in strands from his forearm, the wrist a blood, pulpy mess.

Resisting the urge to faint, Morn panted heavily, and began to dig through his bag with his right hand. Morn removed two small vials similar to the ones he had given Haldwin. One vial was labelled Verset, the other was labelled Tairn.

Morn bit down on the mouth pieces, inhaling a lungful of the two gases. After holding his breath for half a minute, Morn felt himself begin to calm, and felt the sharp pain fade to a barely noticeable dull ache.

Morn put the vials back into his bag, then struggled to tear a strip of cloth from his overcoat. After freeing the cloth, he wrapped it around his forearm just below the wound as tightly as he could. A moment later, the bleeding came to a stop.

With the immediate threat of death dealt with, Morn collapsed on the bed of moss near his drill. Morn fainted, slipping in and out of consciousness several times before falling completely unconscious.

When Morn awoke again, his arm had turned purple and the sun indicated it was noon. The black marks at the edge of his wound had spread further down his forearm. Small red runes dotted the edge of the black marks.

Feeling his pain returning, Morn ignored the strange wound and inhaled more of the gases, then slowly and shakily climbed to his feet. Morn grabbed his drill, then began to walk slowly back to the village, but stopped himself after a moment.

Morn turned around, shambling towards the Levjottun's corpse. When he got close enough, Morn attached a new gas collecting tank to the drill, then stabbed the needle point into the Levjottun's throat sac.

Morn turned the hand crank, using his knee to support the drill since his left hand was useless. After a minute, Morn stopped cranking, then put away the drill and, with great difficulty, assembled the walking stick.

Morn stumbled through the forest, heading back the way he came. The walking stick clanked noisily against the ground as he used it to support his weight. Morn felt his body getting hotter, and began to feel an ache in his arm.

Only a short time had passed since he'd last inhaled the gases, but the pain was becoming too intense for the gases to numb. After an hour of agonisingly trekking through the forest, the pain had fully returned, worse than it had felt during the fight with the Levjottun.

Morn collapsed against a tree. He began to slip in and out of consciousness once again. As his vision blurred, the sky slowly became darker and darker.

Morn began to hallucinate, seeing hazy figures dancing across his vision, fire blooming in front of him, and boats sailing through the leaves in the canopy above him. Morn felt his nausea growing as shivers ran through his body.

Using the last bit of consciousness he could muster, Morn raised the walking stick by its end and slammed it into a nearby tree, causing a loud ringing sound to echo through the forest. Moments later, as Morn's vision slowly faded to black, he watched the hazy figures grow closer.

Splitting pain tore through Morn's arm, waking him from his unconsciousness. Morn's eyes filled with light as his eyelids flashed open.

Though his vision was slightly blurry, he could make out a small group of people surrounding him. The only faces he recognized were those of Azur and the village elder, Toli.

Morn attempted to sit up, looking for the source of his pain, but quickly noticed his body was strapped to a table, preventing him from moving. Azur leaned close to Morn, saying something in a comforting tone that he couldn't quite hear in his delirium.

Azur held a gas canister, placing it into the mask Morn still wore. Without realising it, Morn fell unconscious once again.

In his stupor, bits of information made their way into Morn's dream. He ran through a building, evading an unknown pursuer as he dashed down a labyrinth of hallways.

The sound of sawing came from the various rooms he passed, accompanied by screams and laughter.

Red and black runes began to appear in front of Morn as he grew more desperate to escape his pursuer. The runes guided him through the labyrinthine building.

As he rounded the corners in the branching hallways, he'd barely catch a glimpse of his purser, a man dressed in clean robes.

Eventually and with the guidance of the runes, he arrived at a door at the end of a long hallway. With his pursuer close behind, Morn dashed through the door, only to find himself falling a great distance.

Below him, a vast ocean of dark and calm water stretched to the horizons. Various islands dotted the surface, moving about with the currents.

Lights flashed under the water, glowing a light blue. As he fell, the sun on the horizon began to morph into geometric shapes, glowing a dull red, slowly expanding its light to cover the skies.

Illusory hands stretched from the water, gently catching Morn and pulling him into the ocean. Morn watched as the hands dragged him deep below the surface, the light from the surface eventually disappearing.

After some time, a new light came into view, a large glowing tree. As he grew closer, he felt a serene terror fill his mind. The tree was made of hundreds of millions of hands, all reaching out towards him, beckoning. The tree felt like a mirage, shimmering in his vision.

The hands continued dragging Morn, pulling him towards the tree. As he approached, the hands on the tree stretched closer.

Morn held out his own hand, grasping towards the tree. When he finally clutched a hand on the tree, an image filled his mind, a bright cluster of stars shimmered in the sky.

Morn had little knowledge of the stars, but this constellation was infamous. The centre of the star held Mal, a false star formed by the burning body of a giant. Legend said that the ancient people cast a giant into the volcano of Amkabhad in one of the deadly seas, the eruption had fired the giant into the night sky.

In most versions of the story, the giant was still alive, burning endlessly in the sky, suffering with no way to return or to end his own life. In other versions of the story, he had died in the eruption.

As he stared curiously, the stars shone brilliantly and danced as his vision changed. A birds eye view of Malsata appeared before him, the angle made it almost look like a map.

He could see his home island, Yol, in the middle of the map, surrounded by the other 5 great islands. He could see in detail the islands moving through the ocean currents. He saw the many deadly seas and the roiling fog of the deadly Stormpass.

In the Storm Commons, between Fairjott and the Stormpass, he saw a red light floating above a small unknown island.

After observing the map carefully for several moments, he noticed as the stars flew to a portion of the map. A beam of light emerged from the stars, shining on a point in the upper right corner of the map.

The light pointed to a spot in the middle of Fairjott, the deadly sea he and Azur had recently escaped from after abandoning ship. Another beam of light shot out from the red light, connecting it to the beam the stars emitted. The spot where the lights met began to pulse with brilliant bright light, as if calling him.

Morn shuddered as the light grew unrelentingly, filling his mind with light. With a muffled scream, Morn's eyelids flew open as he finally woke from the strange dream.

Morn's body was no longer bound, and he was alone in the room.

Sweat dripped from his forehead, stinging his eyes. Morn raised his left hand to wipe away the sweat. As he did so, his eyes widened considerably and his screaming returned.