"It's starting."
Amon muttered, his gaze shifting toward the forest.
The Black Stone in his pocket pulsed faintly, almost in rhythm with the ground itself when,
SCREEECH!
A sound so sharp it sliced through the night air and dark forest.
'For the screech to reach me… Must be one hell of a creature.' He thought to himself with a sigh.
Amon looked around for a moment.
Everything inside the village was perfectly quiet. Neither Goblins nor Hobgoblins had ears as sharp as his, after all.
The Black Wolves brought by the Hobgoblins seemed unbothered as well.
With a Perception Stat of 22, only Amon could sense what was about to happen.
"No… No, no, no…"
Or so it seemed for a moment.
"You need to do something!" She shouted. "Something… Something is coming!"
Amon turned in her direction, remaining hidden.
"You there! I… I know you're there!"
Amon let out an annoyed sigh.
'Of course she knows.' He scratched his neck. 'Her ears are as good as mine, if not better.'
Amon stared at the dark sky above.
For a while, he had been delaying the meeting.
"Please… Please, you need to help me!"
Her cage had been brought into the Goblin Chief's hut. Amon couldn't see her or the cage, nor could she see him. Still, they could hear each other.
"Stay quiet." Amon whispered.
A silence ensued.
"You have to help me, please." She whispered back.
More than a dozen steps separated them, along with the Goblin Chief hut's wooden walls.
Still, they could communicate with whispers thanks to their ears.
"It's that thing… That thing you brought with you. Something is coming for it, I'm sure. That screech, you heard it too, didn't you?" The Half-Vixen added.
Amon stared at the Goblin Chief's hut for a bit.
That hut was where it was supposed to happen. To the Goblins' dismay and disappointment, the feasting on the female had been delayed. With the Goblin Chief's return and the Hobgoblins' leaving, the time to feast on the female would finally arrive.
'If I hadn't dealt with the Chief, then right now,' Amon stretched his neck as a feeling of unease rose. 'Syl would be gone, and she would-'
Just as he was debating whether or not to hop off the roof and enter the Goblin Chief's hut,
"Ah…" Syl sighed as she walked out of her hut, scratching her head. "Ron only took the huts to mess with them. We normally aren't supposed to spend the night here." She whispered to herself, staring at the Goblin Chief's hut.
Syl took a deep breath, and started walking.
'I was right to stay hidden. Syl hasn't been asleep for that long, after all. Wait, what is she doing?'
Amon's eyes narrowed, noticing a knife in Syl's hand as she walked into the Chief's hut.
***
Kilometers away, the forest had erupted into chaos. Beasts howled and screeched in terror, scattering in all directions. Wolves trampled over each other to escape, birds crashed into trees in blind panic, and insect swarms abandoned their hives.
But not all fled. Very, very few creatures staggered back toward the cave with twisted movements.
At the heart of it all, in the deepest part of the cave, stood a horrible creature that should, by no means, have a place in this world. Its skin was black, torn, and stretched thin over exposed muscle. Its body looked like a turtle stripped of its shell, fused with a featherless chicken. Bony ridges stuck out along its spine. Its eyes burned with unnatural hatred as it screeched again, the flesh covering its jaws stretched and tore.
Before that creature lay a nest. A nest where fragments of eggshell glistened in the dark, broken, yet thick with a clinging black ooze.
The creature had no place in this world.
***
Long ago, before the Goblins and Hobgoblins, before the Black Stone, and before the eggshells, a dead dragon egg rested in the cave. Its life had long since faded, its potential wasted.
The Beasts could sense that wasted potential. They swarmed around the area, searching for the nutrition and strength held in that egg. But it couldn't be found.
A veil had been placed.
"The two of us are the same, aren't we?"
A cold hand lay on the egg.
The Exiled Dark Priest had placed all his hopes on that dead dragon egg. He carried an artifact that should have remained within the Black Church Temple's walls, and placed it upon the egg to awaken what was lost.
Days and weeks passed.
Many of the Beasts and Monsters looking for the nutrition and strength held within the dead dragon egg now feared the energy emanating from that Artifact.
"The ability to wield Dark Magic, to wield the powers of Corruption, and to wield Death itself… That is what our Lord and Savior has given us with his death, with his heart." The Dark Priest muttered, staring at the artifact brimming with darkness and life. "With you by my side, I will gain control of the Church, set them back on the right path, and then…"
Months passed.
Finally, the egg stirred, twisted, and cracked.
"Finally... With this-"
Instead of the birth-cry of a Dragon, there was only a wet, tearing sound.
"What is the meaning of…?!"
To the Dark Priest's dismay, the creature born was not Dragon.
It was not a Dragon, nor a Beast, nor anything the world could name. Wingless, scaleless, with torn skin and hatred coursing through its veins… it rose in hunger.
The one who awoke it, was to be its first meal.
The egg, while it existed, had called to beasts, promising nourishment and power. They had come. They had been torn apart. And as their blood spilled, the Black Stone's corruption seeped into them, fusing flesh and bone back together.
The Dead rose again. Enraged. Undead. Corrupted.
***
The corrupted creature turned its gaze to the empty nest. The stone was gone. But the hunger remained. Without the energy from the Black Stone, it would starve. Flesh alone wasn't enough to satisfy that hunger.
Sniff… Sniff…
It raised its head and sniffed, for it had no eyes. Flesh covered its eyesockets, as if eyes and lids had melted.
Sniff… Sniff…
Screech!
The Black Stone was near.
***
SCREECH!
Amon's hand instinctively pressed against his pocket.
The Black Stone was pulsing harder now, as though reacting to that distant call.
'Whatever it is…' Amon smirked nervously. 'It's coming for me.'