Demesne

Just before we crossed the border out of the demesne, we saw a very strange sight.

Well, strange even for post-dragon conditions. We'd seen unfortunate seels that had lengths of driftwood and still-growing branches fused to their bodies, keeping them afloat but putting them at the mercy of the river's current. There had been a huge boulder of what seemed to be solidified air just resting on the riverbank, standing just out of the water, which had been very disappointing because it wasn't metal or something that we could use. We had seen the corpse of a dragonborn abomination that had been a leaper and a waddler somehow fused together, which seemed to have died because the two heads had tried to eat and claw at each other. There had been a lot of bugs that seemed to have various small plants growing on their backs, and unfortunate ones who'd become part fruit, mostly happyfruit. Nearly all of them were dead, devoured by other bugs as the alterations done to them had made them too awkward to be able to fight back or run away. No wonder Kolinh hadn't been too worried.

This was none of that, which made it strange in comparison.

We all stared at the large mass of blackness just at the edge of the demesne, right on the line where the browns, greens and grays of plants, dirt and rocks was covered by the glittering, multi-colored growths of Iridescence. It was a familiar blackness, but… well, I couldn't think of any reason it should be here. It was also large, about five paces high and ten or fifteen paces across as best as I could estimate, but I couldn't tell how deep it was because it disappeared into the trees. There was one on either bank of the river, putting me in mind of some kind of wall around the demesne. For all I knew, it was, but if so it wasn't meant to keep out anything solid.

"What's that for?" Lidz asked, looking curiously at darkwisps among the trees.

"I have no idea," I said. "Lori didn't do that when the previous dragons happened. We can ask her when we meet her."

"It reminds me of the binding on the Coldhold's cargo boxes…"

"Probably not the same purpose, they're on the inside of the demesne," I pointed out, "so she can't be keeping Iridescence out."

I realized what I'd just said as we crossed the border of the demesne, and turned to look back at the darkwisps.

…

"Daising, how dangerous are insane thoughts if there's immediate help from medics and Deadspeakers nearby?" I asked.

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We didn't run into any insane thoughts, twisted vistas, ill-bound wisps or rampant life as we sailed along the river, which I was told was actually to be expected. Except for twisted vistas—which apparently could float atop water because it was a defined boundary, as I had learned from our then-new settlers from River's Fork last year—the others tended to fall below the waterline unless they were physically unable to due to being too buoyant for one reason or another.

Thankfully, there weren't any twisted vistas in our path, though we did see one resting on top of a tree. At least, I was reasonably sure that's what it was and not some sort of ill-bound wisps twisting the light. I know what light passing through a vista looks like!

The weather was very still, but that was all right because the air was still relatively cool even without wind. Personally, I felt the overcast was a nice contrast to the persistently hot and sweaty sunlight that we'd been enduring all season, though I had thought that the others wouldn't share the feeling. Surprisingly, however, everyone was in a good mood despite the gloomy weather and constant reminders of the dragon still far up in the sky.

"Oh, this?" one of the militia with us, Bearded Vov, said. "This is a fine summer day back in Lomabuyar Demesne. Lord Rian, even if it's a still a bit warm. But it's a lot cooler than what we've been having, so it's still an improvement."

Well, I couldn't deny that.

So we all enjoyed the far cooler weather—even if we'd already lit the wisplights we'd brought along just to be sure that we had visibility—as we moved downriver as quickly as safely possible while still watching out for twisted vistas. On either side, we'd occasionally see more dragonborn abominations. There were waddlers that had ropeweed growing on seemingly random places on their bodies, making them look like they had hair. There were fewer dragonborn bugs in sight, but what we could see were eaten or mostly wood, and the few that were moving had cracked carapaces and empty torsos. Their limbs moved awkwardly, so they were probably missing pieces of muscle, or whatever bugs used for muscles.

We'd also seen a beast that looked like a chasmos but had two long horns running down its jaw with what seemed like several flowering bushes growing from its back. It seemed unperturbed by the additions to its anatomy, though it was a question how long that would last. It was also eating from an offshoot of a bush on its back that was too close to its mouth, which was probably some kind of cannibalism. Lidzuga looked in physical pain from not being able to draw it. Hopefully we'd be able to find it again in the coming week. It's certainly interesting.

It was a little after we crossed the border into the boundaries of River's Fork that we started seeing signs of Shana's handiwork. Dead undead abominations that were a mix of plant and something else, with the plant aspects much more clearly dominant. By their placement, some branches had clearly acted as limbs, and so must have needed some kind of Deadspeaking that Shana had disrupted with her forced 'healing'. Even at a casual glance, there were far more of such abominations here then there had been in Lorian Demesne, likely a result of the defenses Lori had in place. Well, while Shana didn't have defenses, she did have offences. Some of the fallen abominations were large enough that I doubted Kolinh would have only made mention of needing axes.

We all stared at what looked like a tangle of trees that had fused together, its general shape making it look like some kind of squid—as opposed to a grasper, whose heads were more bulbous and bodies less linear. From the furrows on the riverbank, and the way the roots on the end of some its 'tentacles' were covered in mud, it had dragged itself out of the river. It would definitely take more than just axes to deal with an abomination like that.

…

When we got back home, I was going to get Lori some roast tail meat even if I had to set up and cook everything myself. We did not thank her enough for keeping us safe. And I was also going to give Shana my share of any fruit we had for a week. She'd more than earned it if she spared us from having to deal with something like that.

The sight of the fallen abominations didn't exactly dampen everyone's good mood, but it did make people more watchful. I trusted them to it as I kept guiding us downriver. Despite the angle of the sun—as much of it as I could make out from behind the tentacles high in the sky—it seemed closer to sunset than noon, and I was worried about us heading back. We might have to spend the night here in River's Fork, which might prove to be a bit cramped…

When we reached the center of the demesne, the dome looked relatively whole and undamaged, if covered in several spots with dragonfrost. I couldn't tell if the dome was dead or still alive, since the leaves were still hanging on and many of them were already a bit withered from the summer. There were also dragonborn abominations there, fallen over and unmoving, although there were two—no, wait, make that three—that were still alive and mobile, though the way they moved indicated that it wouldn't be for much longer.

One was a leaper—or at least something leaper-shaped, since it was smaller than the leapers I remembered being terrified would jump out of the grass and eat me—that looked to have mushrooms growing in random places, which wasn't a good sign for its general health. Either it had been physically fused with the mushrooms, or it had an extensive and most likely lethal fungal infestation over significant parts of its body, which given where some of the mushrooms were growing, involved its internal organs and its brain.

Another looked to be at least three waddlers whose torsos had fused together. Their legs were more or less pointed down, although two feet didn't seem to be touching the ground properly, and not all of its upper limbs had ended up on the outside. There were long, curving claws sticking out from the shoulder region of one of the heads, and from the way there were flicking back and forth, there was most likely a whole hand's anatomy in the flesh beneath, which implied the whole limb must be in there as well. That implied not everything on the insides of the waddler mass belonged there.

The last of the still-moving abominations—for a given value of 'still-moving'—was… well, I couldn't be sure what it used to be, because the most concise way of describing it was 'its insides were on the outside'. It looked like a bag of wet meat, every part twitching and throbbing. I saw hearts, lungs and tubes that must have been intestines, and the multiplicity of these organs meant it must have been more than one beast or seel that had been… inverted for lack of a more concise term. There was no sign of claws, fur or feathers, and no bones were exposed. Neither were there skull or brains, which might have been a mercy, but given the whole, it was more an easily missed detail. Thick, golden fluid bled from where the delicate flesh of the organs had abraded on the ground, and it was already attracting bugs that… well, those organs weren't going to survive out here anyway, so it probably didn't matter if they were sterile.

Most of us were staring at that last with various expressions of discomfort, disgust, distaste and nausea. Lidz had turned away, one hand over his mouth and breathing deeply.

"Well," I said brightly, "I don't think that last is going to be moving from there, so why don't we save it for later?" I was not going to say 'it's not going to give us trouble. That's just asking for trouble.

We had to move a dead seel that had gotten lodged onto the dock, slugs seemingly fused in patches on its fur, before we could dock the boats. The carcass was pushed out of the way with spears since no one wanted to risk touching it and no one wanted to get into the water that the thing was lying in. Once the dock space was free, we all cautiously went ashore, keeping an eye out for the waddler lump and the infested leaper, the militia fanning out in case they suddenly rushed us or there was some kind of abomination that Shana had missed in her purge. Thankfully, it seemed our little Dungeon Binder had been thorough while we had been sailing downstream, and nothing living or dead came towards us desiring to consume our flesh, or at least chew on it thoroughly.

The dragonfrost was thin enough along the shore that we didn't have much difficulty kicking it out of the way or walking over it, though the two shovels we'd brought along still saw use. Once we managed to get under the dome, the ground was mostly clear, with only a few isolated piles here and there that had fallen from above. We moved cautiously towards the dragon shelter, Wet volunteering to take the lead in case of insane thoughts. The man actually seemed eager to run into one. A rope was tied around his waist so we could pull him back towards us in case he actually did run into such a thing, while the rest of us were watchful for twisted vistas and ill-bound wisps. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any on our way from the docks to the hill where the shelter was housed, but there were several unmoving abominations on our way. Large bugs, chokers, seels… all of them were in one way or another fused with some sort of plant or piece of wood or fruit. The latter had already begun to smell as other bugs swarmed them, exposing their fruity pulp to the air.

Once we were out the other side of the dome, we needed to shovel more, kicking the dragonfrost out of our way as best as we could while keeping an eye out for the two still living abominations. They were a fair distance from us, with the closest being the inverted organs, and that was staying in place. We managed to clear the path up to the mine, climbing carefully so we didn't slip.

The entrance to the mine that contained the dragon shelter had a stone wall raised in front of it, blocking the doorway into the mine and encrusted with more dragonfrost. It wasn't a very thick wall, merely the length of my palm—I didn't have anything to measure with, so I worked with what I had—and didn't go up very high, leaving the upper stri—sorry, upper ten yustri— or so of the copper-sheathed wooden door of the mine visible, as well as the air intake slits.

…

Sighing, I stepped forward, and carefully knocked on the exposed copper as loudly as I could. The metal was cold, and it felt like my flesh tried to stick to it with every impact. "Lori! It's us! We're here to retrieve you!" Admittedly, the knocking wasn't very loud since the wood beneath the copper was thick, but I was hoping my voice got carried inside. I could hear the sound of the ventilation binding still drawing in air. "Can you let us in, please? It's safe to come out!"

…

The militia around had started taking defensive formations, two watching the stone of the hill above me as I knocked on the door again. Ugh, my knuckles…!

…

Eventually, the stone wall began to sink into the ground, the stone displacing to one side to become part of the stone of the hill as the dragonfrost broke off, piling up in front of the door.

Oh good, Lori was awake. I really hoped she hadn't been taking a nap that she'd been woken up from. That would put her in a terrible mood.