- Tentacles

So, on a moonless night, I find myself staring at tentacles made out of some kind of black, slimy, oily substance. They were initially reaching and grasping the skies, then slowly stopped wriggling.

Then, they began to spread out and reach for the mouth of the jars around the furnace. They entered and slurping sounds could be heard and after several seconds, the contents of the pot was empty. Not even the stains from the fish guts could be seen.

Wow. Talk about a proper dish washer...

After 'eating' the contents of the pots, the tentacles retreated and converged back to the hole in the furnace. They wrapped around one another and squeezed into a ball shape. Violet fire starts to form in patches around the black ball before the whole ball of tentacles was covered by a large blaze.

Reminds me of those campfire marshmallows... Especially if you accidentally burn them...

As the flames continued to burn, the nearby night dwellers begin to kneel and adopt a worshipping posture. Even Muriel hurried to join us and kneel in front of the fire.

Small motes of fire sparked off the large blaze and jump on to the kneeling night dwellers. The motes of flame crawled around their body, like a squirrel scurrying around the trunk of a tree.

I could see from their faces that discomfort could be felt but there was no pain. Black smoke seemed to seep out of their bodies and converge on the motes of fire.

After a while, you could see a black pearl like object in the middle of the fire motes. They then started to jump again, bringing the black pearl along with them.

All the fire motes from the robed night dwellers jumped and landed on Muriel. Black sweat started to seep out of her skin and she grimaced in pain. As the multiple motes of fire crawled around her, they combined when they hit one another, forming a larger flame.

Soon, all the motes had combined and Muriel was kneeling inside a conflagration of violet flame. However, none of her hair or clothes seemed to be burning so the flame was probably illusory.

Or maybe some beyonder magic bullshit...

Gasps from the nearby villagers, who had acted as porters and assistants, made me pay more attention to Muriel. I couldn't help but suck in a breathful of air myself as I notice her hair start to turn black and the wrinkles on her face disappear.

Her youth began to slowly restore as black smoke and drops of sweat converged above her. As she turned into a pretty teenager, suddenly, seemingly formed out of nothing, a black tentacle reached out from the furnace and grabbed the agalmation of black fluids and pulled in. The black pearls, black sludge and violet flame was pulled violently from Muriel and into the furnace.

The young Muriel fainted but nobody helped her as they were still too busy witnessing the furnace in awe.

More tentacles formed and reached the mouth of the recently emptied pots. The sounds of sand falling could be heard as the pots were mysteriously filled with a white ash. The tentacles were even polite enough to cover the lid with cloth lids and stack the pots neatly, just like how they used to be initially positioned.

The fire in the furnace starts to dim until it slowly went out. The glowing runes on its surface also started to dim and flicker off.

Soon, the only souces of light left was the torches carried by some villagers, leaving the whole area dark and silent. A sense of awe permeated everyone.

As we stood partially stunned at the recent events, I jumped in surprise by the sound of a foghorn. I was the only person to be affected though as everyone else barely moved or changed their expressions.

Fog began to billow in from around the forest and I could hear the sounds of waves crashing into the shores. It was like we were suddenly transported to the beach. A deep rumbling sound was heard and as I looked back my jaws dropped down.

I could see, even from behind the trees, a tsunami taller than the mountains was approaching. As it approached closer, I could only stare dumbfounded at the majestic sight and soon the gigantic waves reached us.

To my surprise, there was no impact to the environment as the tsunami washed over the whole island. I could see the water rushing past me but not a single strand of hair on my skin was touched.

As the illusory tsunami began to disappear into thin air, everyone in the area beside me started to faint. And soon I was standing alone looking in confusion.

Before panic set in, sounds of shuffling could be heard and everyone woke up one by one. Slight confusion formed in their faces before they started walking around and getting busy tidying up the place nonchalantly.

"Hmm. Not bad..." A lady's voice beside me made me jump in surprise. I clutched my heart and looked to my right. It was young Muriel.

I told her, "Holy shit! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

She simply put her hands on her waist and raised one of her eyebrows, "What? Why are you so jittery? I just gave you a compliment. The amount of ash produced this time is enough to last us for quite a while. "

She then looked at the walking stick that she held on her right hand in confusion. After a while, she shrugged and tossed it away then turned to continue chatting with me. "You know, this is probably the most amount of sacred night soil we managed to produce like, ever. This new batch including you must be quite talented. Makes me optimistic for this village's future...

And let's hope the merchants come back with lots of medicine. Then, we won't have to do the cleansing rituals too often..."

As everyone began loading the pots of ash onto carts, I decide to try my luck and perhaps improve my life. I nudged the young Muriel, "Hey, hey! As the blessed chosen apostle thingie, shouldn't I get special treatment? I wouldn't mind some special servants that can take care of my needs. Also not do the job in the nursery..."

Muriel smacked the back of my head, "What chosen one? You think you're special or something? Try to be funny again and I'll assign more hours to your nursery job."

***

After some observation over a couple of days, I learned that no one in the island had any memory of a tsunami or tentacle fire abberations. They also acted as if Muriel was always youthful.

Instead of feeling dread however, my spirituality somehow made me feel safe about all the recent events. I decided to just keep the occurrence secret, only known to myself.