Chapter 59: A Second Encounter With the Horrors of the Night

Having constructed the base of the movable basin I now had to find the most crucial part of the job ahead. The water itself.

Seeing all the green plant life indicated that there must be an an abundance of water nearby, so I set out once again to find what I was looking for.

This time with my creation tugged behind me gently with my tail.

It did not take long before I noticed that the creation was rather difficult to take with me, but there was no other way... At least it would secure the water safely once it was obtained.

Time flew by like what felt like minutes had quickly become hours when finally I arrived at a stream which led me to a pond, this time more cautious than the last. I began stationing the contraption which I had put together.

In essence it was just a gigantic bucket which had the possibility of closing itself off, not giving the water the chance to leak out. While at the same time making the collective process a lot easier than usual.

Now that I had stationed the contraption at the edge of the pond I stared into the depths for a moment with a stern look on my face...

I was not about to let myself be pulled into the depth again... Not letting myself get carried away by my own imagination I quickly snapped back to reality and manned the contraption.

I opened the locking system, which consisted of rock and wood and gently started to lower the spherical bucket which I had created from moss and wood. Keeping the openings closed with ember which apparently was some kind of hardened tree sap.

Slowly it went into the water almost like those metal pockets which humans used to ease in the hearts for tea. It made me laugh for a moment thinking of that exact process, because the moss had been inserted to easily absorb the water and keep it fresh at all times.

With the sphere filled to the brim I began pulling in my contraption. It took a while, because the water had made it heavier than I initially thought...

Not only that, but when my sphere finally surfaced there were some rather peculiar creatures attached to it. They looked kind of like worms... But where they really? What seemed like their mouths were attached to the grooves and edges of my contraption, almost like they targeted the ember on purpose.

To my surprise it wasn't just that they got attracted to the fossilised tree sap which in a way must have tasted like honey or maple syrup, no... to my surprise creatures similar to star fish had sucked themselves onto the contraption as well.

It took me a moment before I realized that the wurm-like creatures were worse than that.

Because I was in an environment just like the rain forests back home. Then that must mean...

The moment the realization hit me, all the starfish which had those wurms attached to them fell of the contraption. Quickly I checked making sure it wasn't in the water

But then the confrontation which I had feared for happened... Their slippery bodies all drenched un mud, gave way to their twitching bodies. The wurms... Were actually leeches...

Still of the same family as the wurm, but way more ferocious as they attach their mouths filled to the brim with razor-sharp teeth to their prey and suck out all the life essence until there is nothing left. The starfish crumbled to dust as the leeches fell to the ground one by one. But then something remarkable happened...

The leeches began to twitch and make high pitched screeching noises, almost like they were satisfied with the sloppy muddy landscape outside of the pond...

"Could it really be?"

After asking myself this question the something began to shed itself of the slippery bodies, almost like they had adapted to they environment of the dry land at an alarming rate.

I could see it happen in front of my eyes, as their frilly soaked fins which had covered almost their entire bodies from top to back, left, right and even bottom. The fins similar to those of baby Squid. Suddenly cracked and shrivelled up...

The display made me think of fish fighting to survive on the drylands, as they gasped for air with their gills. For a moment I thought they were done for and decided to make my way back to help put my new found friends... But what I didn't know was that this was only the beginning of something far worse...

On my way back I couldn't shake the dark display nature had given me, thinking back my experiences haven't really been pleasant in the least. I couldn't even say that I had enjoyed the food up until recently...

Having arrived at the foot of the area we were last together with my new found friends, wanting to make sure everyone was safe I looked around to make sure I wasn't followed.

I wanted to move my contraption to the centre when I heard something unexpected; "rustling".

From behind me. The moment I looked back nothing really seemed out of the ordinary, but then when I thought that I could move on again, suddenly I heard it.

High pitched screeching noises, similar to that of the leaches I had seen at the pond.

"But that couldn't be, could it? I better make sure the others are safe!"

But when I wanted to head towards my friends a swarm of leeches rushed out of the shadows, straight towards me. I had been followed and they were out for blood, our blood!

I had to warn them, but before I could I needed to hold back the swarm! I pushed the contraption further away allowing me to make sure the water was safe. Now it was time to focus on the unpleasant guests who had presented themselves to us.

The leeches rushed out of the shadows straight towards me, the first living creature who could present them with their much needed diet. "Blood".

They looked different like they did when gasping for air, now there were no fins or gills to find, rather they seemed more like crabs to me in a way.

Horrifying really, how fast the aquatic leech adapted to the land in such a short time.

"Could it be... They too?"

It was the only explanation how such freaks of nature could roam the drylands within mere hours... But there was no time to try and figure it out at the moment. Because right now, I had friends to protect.

For the first time in what felt like years I had someone to protect, someone other than myself.

The savage devil her babies and my new found snow white Ferret friend! I couldn't let them fall prey to these monstrosities!

At that moment I had to do something to keep the leeches from infiltration our new found safe space.

My emotions took the better of me and right before they reached my body with their razor-sharp teeth a wall of flames blocked their path.

"Did... Did I just do that? It can't be, right?"

I looked at the gigantic wall of flames in front of me, staring at it in disbelieve the leeches screeched in pain as their slippery bodies were caught aflame.

For some reason I could look past the flames allowing me to observe the leeches, the features they had gained true seemed like those of shrimp or crabs for that matter, they now had tiny little legs who allowed them to traverse the lands and even claws for that matter, but why?

The leeches had no to travel past the wall of fire, screeching in unison their gigantic mouths opening wide, their size could roughly be seen as a shrimp too, seeing how I was bigger than them at first glance as well.

Something strange was happening on the other side. Their mouths widening even further, with their teeth making way for their throat.

Something did not feel right, I stared into the depths of the creatures body, shortly after a faint light could be seen, a light which reached till the edge of the leeches their mouths.

A light so bright that it rivalled the flames which had blocked their path towards us. I didn't know what was happening anymore and hoped the wall would keep them in check, but then... Something only seen in fiction started to happen, something which honestly made me remember those horrifying leaves in the dungeon before all this here...

"No... they couldn't be part of this place top, could they?"

But when I asked myself this question I knew it had to be them, for the light began to shift, distorting itself into creation slowly forming what looked like glowing eyeballs. Getting my contraption back to the safe space assumingly took more time that I had initially thought as the sun had already set... Now in the light of the fire wall the glowing eyes looked all the more ominous, almost as if they could pierce straight through ones soul...