A stench began to fill the air as Ayumi covered her nose her eyes watering, the sound descended down the stairs unlit by the flames. At the bottom of the stairs, it forms came into view.
/////////
Ayumi's body relaxed as she sheathed the blade standing upright she stretched her arms in the air.
"You stink Hakk." Waving her hand before her nose she quickly covered it as she walked away from him towards the shuttered windows.
"Leave it closed."Hakks distant voice drifted in the room.
Ayumi turned to face him, her eyes searching over him.
Near the fire, Hakk set down his wooden box taking a seat atop it. The flames danced about his features revealing bits and pieces of mossy grime that now covered him from head to toe.
"Staying or going?" Ayumi approached the fire and crouched down before it with her hands wrapped about her knees.
"Going." Hakk proceeded to toss in the extra wood that laid beside him.
"What about them?" Ayumi pointed to the corner where the small frame of a form was still crumpled and now unconscious.
Hokai eyed the individual over his shoulder.
"If they wish I'll take them." Hakk leaned hunched over to the fire as he closed his eyes.
Ayumi walked over to the individual kneeling down on her haunches she tapped on their shoulder.
"Hey." Her voice was quiet barely the chirp of a cricket.
Their eyes opened dipping down again as their head slouched.
"Hey, wake up." Ayumi snapped her fingers. "We're going, are you coming?"
"Go..?" The reply came as a whisper their head rolled to an upright position. "W-what happened." Their eyes caught a glimpse of Hakks form near the fire. Pulling their feet up under them they pressed hard against the wall.
"It's just Hakk, told you he was real." Ayumi smiled as she expanding her nostrils slightly.
"Real?" They looked at Ayumi with a wide-eyed expression. "What?"
"Hakk real, we go, you come?" Ayumi pointed to the form. "He'll take you with if you want to leave."
"You-we can't leave." Their eyes darted from the two figures before them.
"Why?" Ayumi cocked her head to the side as arched her head closer to the others face.
"You walked through that stone forest to get here, once on this side there is no leaving, I've tried!" Their shoulders rose as their body stiffen pulling itself into itself.
"There is another way." Hakks voice cut through the air as he tapped his pipe against his box dropping some unburnt tobacco onto the floor, stuffing some in again he lit it and took a long deep inhale of it, the room filled with a sweet-smelling smoke, though not enough to cancel out the bog smell.
The two continued to stare at him a redness forming in the cheeks of the other. Their form became tense as they propped themselves up.
"Listen h-he-r" they hunched over as they began dry heaving. "Listen…here," Their rasping voice came out. " I've been trapped for a long time, I've tried every way to escape, there is only the way you came in."
"Through the mountainside cliff." Hakk took another long drag of his pipe as he rubbed his shoulder.
"That's a sheer drop into their territory!" The other leaned forward attempting to stand up only to crumple halfway forward on themselves.
Ayumi's head tilted sideways as her eyes seemed to dance about the room as a grin from ear to ear formed on her face she opened her mouth wide. "WE GET TO-"
A deafening screech filled the air again as Ayumi put her hands over her mouth, the other beside her had fallen over and landed buried in the now fallen curtain.
"Gather what you wish, once I return we will go." Hakk stood with the pipe in hand facing the two for a moment than climbing the stairs dissolved into the void of night.
The room filled with a deep silence as the fire crackled in the backdrop. With a big smile across Ayumi's face, she jumped up and began packing her gear. Taking from the fire the remaining lizards uneaten she stowed them in her satchel and picked up the few remaining things she'd left out from before. Setting it all down next to Hakk's box she walked over to the pile of curtains, pulling the dust riddled cloth back to reveal the other. She offered her hand to the other who looked back their eyes narrowed and hallow.
"You're staying?"
The other sunk back into the curtains. "Those things, the ghoul canis, they won't let us escape they've been trying to find me since I can remember, and with this." They held their bandaged arm. "I can't protect anything."
"It's die or die than, right?" Ayumi put her extended arm closer as she bent her knees. "Why not chose one that has a chance at living?"
"How are we going use the cliff, you got a giant bird I didn't see come in with you."
Ayumi chuckled. "You didn't see Hakk." Sticking out her tongue as the other glared at her taking her hand.
-----
Outside the dilapidated building, the three stood, Hakk at the edge of a rotting first-floor deck that overlooked the vast mountainscape before them, behind Ayumi with her satchel and Hakks box on her back with the other slung over her shoulder with their other hand holding tight to a small sack tied across their chest.
A grey fog was filling the air as it drifted by the heavy scent of pine filled the air. The wind was silent distantly the sounds insects filled the air as the dampness of night retreated to more dry air.
Hakk arched his neck cracking it to the side and rolled back his shoulders a few times. Lifting his shirt he lifted it above his head a few scars dotted various parts on his upper torso. Bending down he removed his pants and tossed them in a pile at his feet. Standing in the flesh he straightened his back and took a deep breath. From his lips spread out a translucent blue like dark ocean color that emanated a bioluminescent glow. As it spread his form began to morph as it consumed the previous into an ever-expanding shape that ballooned outward from itself.
A large tail grew past the two and before them stood four or five times their length, a creature with the head of a turtle, ears of a bat and body of an axolotl. Along it's back run spiracles that rose and fell with each breath, under his chin a weasand was ridged in countless layers. The hands and legs were like that of a hairless lion with the front two gripping onto the rotting deck underneath them with the back end floating above the rest of it. Amongst it, his eyes peered from small slits in the center of his face like black orbs piercing the night.
"Better than a giant bird." Ayumi cooed as she walked with the other in tow up to him. Bending down she picked up the discarded clothes. Looking up to Hakk she smiled, her eyes wide.
"Ready?" The voice called from the form before them.
Ayumi nodded her head and turned to the other. "Don't worry."
Hakks form relaxed his jaw as he turned his neck and head to face the two, opening his toothless mouth wide.
"Wait," The other looked up at the oncoming mouth "What, no-" the other began pulling back away from Ayumi but she held tight.
Hakk swallowed the two as they tumbled down his throat to rest inside his would be belly.
Ayumi giggled as she folded her feet under her, the inside of the belly was like a soft dry sponge and through a blue-black film one could see the outside world around them. Taking off the box and satchel Ayumi crawled to the edge of the space and looked out.
Hakk adjusted his hold on the rotting ground and took in again a long breath with his weasand expanding like that of a frogs gullet, growing about twice as large the rest of his body in the minutes that followed causing his tail end to hit the roof above and jostling the two inside a bit.
Releasing his grip on the deck he pushed off they began to float above the mountainside before them. All around them the landscape unfolded to their right the mountains climbed up and out and over into various peeks, to the left, the land fell into a deep dark forest canopy as far as the eye could see.
"Which way are we going Hakk?" Ayumi looked through the floors belly at the cliff below them, a dry waterfall bed now overgrown by nature ran below them.
"North." The voice came from the very walls of the stomach.
The spiracles on his back began to change direction angling southwards as a sudden lurch dragged Hakk downwards.
On his left leg was wrapped a jagged clawed hand shrouded in midnight that trailed down to massive canis animal with two heads and many more arm like appendages about its neck that stretched to reach out its target. The beast's eyes glowed with an encompassing white gaze, and from their mouth sounds like the cracks of thunder escaped as they ground their teeth. Their fur was a mat of black and grey colors with their height measuring about half of Hakks current form. Besides the first, there were another on the opposite end of the deck side and one more trailing behind the others.
Hakks leg began to vein in a purple fashion as it crept it's way upwards. A growl came from his mouth as his leg attempted to kick free of the grasp, the second one began to send up its clawed hands as Hakk dodged by dropping low.
Inside Hakks belly Ayumi and the other were pinned against the back side of their confinement. The other closed their eyes taking in a deep breath they closed their eyes tightly, the sounds began to fade as a dense fog began to cover them only to fall away. Sweat poured down their face.
"S-sorry..." The words a small whimper from the frail body as it curled up into a ball.
"Can I do something." Ayumi hand rested on her blade as her eyes trailed the oncoming hands.
"Wait." The words came as Hakk continued to dodge the assaults, the third had climbed to a higher point and Hakk's eyes were fixed on it as it began to reach out. The grey fog began to billow from all of the cracks of the buildings, a loud crashing sound gave way as the building opposite them went up in flames licking and eating the dried timber instantly, the second of the creatures vanished in the orange and yellow flame and the first was blown back into the building they'd been in, its grip disintegrated in a black ash as it drifted on the wind. The third continued to peruse as it climbed higher along the edge of the mountain cliff.
Hakk took in another breath as the clawed hands reached out for his tail, pulling both his tail and feet into himself the hand's undershot drop as Hakk accended higher before it could attempt again. The three began to drift towards the north as the creature howled from the peak of the mountainside it's clawed hands still grasping in the night air.
The winds began to pick up as they left the shelter of the town, Hakk dipped and dived with the air pressures as he began to pick up speed.
"My…home…" The small voice came from beside Ayumi.
Ayumi turned to the other who was looking out over the view. Behind them, the whole of the mountain was ablaze as it lit up the sky in a soft orange pallet. Black and grey smoke filled the nights' sky horizon as it hung almost motionless in the distance. A few tears ran down the side of their face as they quietly sank down to the floor burring their head in their sleaves.
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