Emotibeast Chronicles

Rage woke up to the sensation of his face getting licked and opened his eyes to see Sleip licking his face. 

“I’m okay Sleip, it’s ok” Rage responded. Rage sat up and looked around. He seemed to be in Avia’s hut back in the beastinct village. “Do you know where the others are?” Rage asked his animal companion. Sleip snorted at Rage and began to push him around gently. “What? What is it Sleip?” Rage questioned. Eventually his eyes met with a passed out Primal wrapped tightly in a blanket and with that the memory of the fight came back to him. Taking a moment to reflect on everything Rage eventually started to gently poke Primal, before switching to lightly shaking him in an attempt to wake him up. 

“Hey…you’re still alive right? I’m really sorry, I sort of zone out when I uh…I guess when I turn into a puriton…Please don’t be dead.” Rage spoke as his shaking intensified.

 Primal grumbled and slowly opened his eyes. He stared at Rage with a narrow annoyed glare and tried to struggle out of his blanket.  

“Yeah I’m alive, I’m kind of surprised, never seen another emotibeast turn into another emotibeast before” Primal responded. “Oh hey you guys are awake!” A friendly familiar voice exclaimed. Aurora entered with a spring in her step carrying a few medical tools with her. “Neither of you guy sustained any injuries, but Rage I’m just dying to know how you transformed! I know vivisection is probably a big no, but I wanna at least check out if it comes from your body’s exterior.” Aurora excitedly explained. Rage subtly covered his body with his blanket as he stared at Aurora with a blank face. Primal stared at Aurora with a curious look on his face. “So you’re into studying emotibeast guts and stuff?” Primal asked. “Well to be more specific, I’m a doctor, I’m fascinated with emotibeast physiology, it's like a fun mix of science and magic” Aurora answered. Primal paused for a moment before speaking up again. “Maybe you can help answer something for me then…” Primal spoke. 

He got up from his bed and moved towards the corner of the room. He got down on all fours and began to dig at the dirt on the floor until finding and pulling out a chest. Primal took a deep breath and opened the chest with shaking hands. From inside the chest he took out a strange looking head. It was red and had a fin-like horn running up the middle of its head. It had one strange yellow eye with hundreds of hexagonal irises all bundled together that wrapped around its head like an arc shape. Four of its teeth were protruding down like a saber tooth tiger with two teeth going up like a sheep. Each tooth was sharp like a knife. Rage and Aurora stared at the head with a mix of fear and confusion. “Can you tell me what emotibeast this was?” Primal asked as he delicately handed the skull off to Aurora.

“Huh…It's got no sign of rotting or decay and feels hard like armor, so it's a chitin based exoskeleton meaning this thing is likely insectoid. The eyes suggest that too, they’re compound eyes just like some of the insects on this island. However, the only insectoid emotibeasts on this island are the armorients. Are you sure this wasn’t just a wild creature?” Aurora asked. Primal nodded affirmatively. “I know, because it spoke to me…It was years ago when…When…” Primal responded. His voice trembled as he tried to muster up the strength. “It was when something happened to Levi…wasn’t it?” Rage asked. Primal began to tear up. “Yeah…Years ago before I moved to Warrior Lake there was an attack here in the village. We were gathering food when we heard loud buzzing in the sky, nowadays we call them Death Divers, but at the time, we didn't know what to even think of them. There were hundreds of them in the sky then all of a sudden this one here said “Burn it all, and take the survivors”. We weren’t prepared for what happened next. Their bodies became cloaked in flame and rocketed down on us like fiery rain. They destroyed most of our village. My sister tried to save as many beastincts as she could. Our warriors are strong, and in the end…we only lost one beastinct. I was trapped under rubble from the destruction of the homes. I wasn’t strong enough to free myself, so my brother Levi tried to free me. He was about to free me until they swooped down and grabbed him. I saw them fly off with Levi, and that was the last I saw of either of them.” Primal informed. His face continued to weep until Rage grabbed his hand. “I understand now why you were so fixated on getting stronger now. If those things ever come back, just call on my team and we’ll help you out” Rage reassured. “Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Primal said as he wiped away his tears. After putting away the head Primal faced Aurora and Rage once more. “You guys need a guide through the Forest of Illusion right? Lemme help out with that.” Primal offered. “Really?! That’d be great!” Rage enthusiastically responded. “Just think of it as a way of me honoring your win back at the lake. Get your group together, we’ll leave as soon as you’re ready.” Primal instructed.

     A few hours passed and soon the whole team was gathered together again. Thana, Fionn, and Misery all ran up to Rage with both concern and amazement. They were still impressed with his fight with Primal, but more so with his puriton transformation. It was like a group of teens talking about the next biggest trend. Eventually everyone was ready and prepared. Primal grabbed some torches. He got one for himself and handed out some to the others. 

     “The forest is dangerous and cloaked in a mysterious mist. It's easy to get lost in there and danger can be waiting around every corner…There’s something else I should probably mention…Time in there isn’t normal. It will only feel like a moment passed out here, but inside the forest the rules feel different. There have been tales of warriors that entered the forest and left feeling like they had lived through decades. Some say they see visions of the future and the past. Keep close and keep focused, if you fall for the forest’s tricks you might be lost forever.” Primal explained. 

Skits gulped with anxiety as his mind already began to drift off as he imagined the horror that could befall him and the others, however he wasn’t the only nervous one. Thana also seemed a bit deterred by the idea of being visited by a vision of the past, especially one as questionable as hers. Even Lobe seemed hesitant to enter, but luckily the three were able to build up the resolve with a rally from Rage. Rage seemed more than eager to enter the forest, the warnings from Primal seemed to do nothing to Rage’s ambition. 

“As long as we stick together it’ll work out right? We just gotta stay close to you right Primal?” Rage asked. “You make it sound easy, but pretty much, yeah.” Primal replied.

Just like that the group headed into the forest and followed Primal as he tried to lead them through. Almost instantly they were met with a thick misty fog that their torches only barely managed to shine through. The forest was full of strange mysterious noises, some of which belonged to creatures that the others had never even heard before. Every so often Primal would stop to smell the air and let his nose guide the way. The deeper they traveled into the forest the denser the fog would become. Skits tried his best to stay calm, but this was futile when his eyes glanced over to his side and he caught the fleeting glimpse of something big sink back into the fog. He became almost stiff and his grip on Payne tightened, alerting the painnequin to his aid. 

“Skits? You okay? You seem spooked like rustled cattle.” Payne asked. Skits’ only response was a very forced “Mmhmm!”. 

He didn’t want to bother the others with what he figured was just his anxiety working against him. Nonetheless Payne stayed close to Skits and kept a tight grip on his boyfriend. Skits eyes kept darting around as he watched the large shadow stalk them. It looked like a giant feline creature standing on two legs. Multiple yellow eyes shined through the darkness around its head and it dragged a sharp looking staff through the dirt. Skits’ breath began to hasten until the shadow launched towards Skits and the paranoitor finally gave into his anxiety as he tried to turn and run, dragging Payne behind him. Everyone but Primal brought their gazes to Skits and Payne. 

“You can’t trust what you see in this forest, it’s best you don’t look around, trust me.” Primal warned. 

This strange warning was met with a bit of doubt demonstrated as Rage called out to his friends trying to keep them with the group. Lobe also decided to ignore Primal’s words and quickly stretched his hands out towards Skits and Payne in an attempt to catch them before they strayed too far. His eyes were focused solely on them until something began to appear between his arms, blocking his view of Payne and Skits. It was a female neurotal with yellow shoes and a long flowing purple dress. Lobe’s concentration instantly broke as his hands retracted back to his arms like a tape measure and he keeled over to the ground. As he tried to look up he saw the neurotal looking down at him again, this time with a bloody imprint of a fist on her face. 

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry Medula!” Lobe cried out in anguish.

 The stress began to build up exponentially in Lobe and his body began to slowly show signs of his mystful form again. Skrit quickly came to his friend’s aid trying to stop him from transforming while also trying to keep him to his senses. Payne took it upon himself to try and slow down Skits by transforming one of his hands to a pickaxe. He slammed it into the ground to try and slow down Skits. The inertia worked against the two and soon Skits and Payne went flying forward from the sudden stop. Thana reached out towards her friends, but stopped once she looked down to see spirits grabbing at her arm like moths to a flame. These were not just any spirits, Thana instantly recognized some of their faces as people she had previously killed back when she was a lone assassin. She tried to pull away, but couldn’t shake them off no matter how hard she tried. Lobe continued to look around and looked at Skrit only to be met with Medula’s face on his body. He cried even harder now and dug his nails into his face as he continued to profusely apologize again and again. 

“Everyone I know you must all feel freaked out right now, but you have to stay calm! Stay where you are and I will come get you. Stick together and don’t separate!” Primal instructed. Despite Primal’s instructions Lobe’s stress continued to build up as his arms began to twist and transform into the ones like his mystful form. Skits and Payne finally began to recover from their crash, only to be met with Lobe’s incoming breakdown. 

“He gonna turn into that giant monster again?” Payne asked nervously. Rage gripped his fist. “I can’t just let him suffer like this Primal, I don’t care about the rules I gotta help him” Rage said. “No stop!” Primal shouted. He reached out for Rage as he ran, but a wave of fog washed over Rage as he ran off, vanishing him from sight. “Rage!” Thana exclaimed. She too ran off trying to catch up to Rage and soon was enveloped by the fog as well. When it cleared, Rage and Thana were both gone. “This is just great, anyone else want to run off?” Primal growled. He gave the air a good sniff and kept his eyes closed tight as ever. “The fog has already taken him pretty far, his scent is faint but we can still track him. Just please stop wandering off, it makes it harder to find you all!” Primal insisted. “Primal, Lobe is a mystful, if we just let him freak out wouldn’t that just cause even more trouble for all of us?” Misery asked. Primal grimaced. “Well I guess you got a point there.” Primal replied. 

Following Lobe’s scent he carefully led everyone towards his direction. Despite Lobe only visually looking he was only a yard away it looked as if they were not making any progress towards him and Skrit. Primal suddenly stopped as his tail stood up on end.

“Back up! Back up now!” Primal yelled to everyone. He jumped back as a mouth lurched forward out of Lobe and Skrit, revealing it as an illusion. The mouth was attached to a long tendril, and attached to that tendril was the body of a large creature. 

“Everyone be careful! This thing has a scent, it's a real serwhip!” Primal warned. 

The serwhip was a strange species of creature almost alien in appearance. A serwhip can be identified as a large black creature with round flat feet like an elephant, and six eyes on the front of its torso. It has two long tendrils that are topped with crocodilian-like mouths sporting long fangs for tearing flesh. It is a species that has lived on Cerebral island for millennia and has earned a reputation as the most dangerous of the island’s fauna. Normally these creatures seek refuge away from emotibeasts, such as a forest that most emotibeasts try to avoid. The serwhip let out a terrifying low bellow that shook the group down to their bones. Primal began waving his torch in the serwhip’s direction trying to ward the beast off. The serwhip in response hissed violently and began to stomp its feet trying to drive Primal’s party away as well. The intense shaking caused some of the old withered trees to shake and start to come undone. One such tree started to fall towards Primal who was luckily taken back by Fionn pulling him by his tail, but in the process the beastinct had dropped his precious torch. 

“Thanks for that, but don’t ever pull my tail again.” Primal growled. “Well that’s such a  strange way to thank me.” Fionn replied.  

The serwhip was now enveloped completely in the fog. Primal’s nose went wild trying to sniff out its location. He could tell the beast was still around them trying to find the perfect opportunity to strike. 

“Behind us! Jump away now!” Primal shouted at Pandora and Aurora. The girls did just that as one of the serwhips mouths narrowly missed a chomp on them. “Shoo!” Aurora shouted as she bit a chunk off the serwhip’s tendril. 

The beast let out a wounded roar and could be heard running off as its fleeing footsteps shook the very earth. With that settled everyone seemed relieved as they tried to get themselves readjusted. Misery started a headcount. 

“Oh you got to be kidding me, now Fionn is gone too?” Misery complained. “It’s easy to get lost here, please just take what I say extremely seriously. We’re likely far from everyone who we lost, but we WILL find them again I promise. This forest knows your heart and mind, that's why I don’t even bother to look around. I know it will only try to tempt or terrorize me with its illusions. The only thing we can trust here is the sense of smell. Now tell me who are we missing now?” Primal asked. “We’re missing Payne, Skits, Lobe, Skrit, Rage, Thana, and Fionn.” Misery explained. "Alright well everyone stick close and lock arms. We'll start with finding Lobe and Skrit, then we'll move on to the others." Primal instructed. Misery, Pandora, and Aurora nodded as they locked arms together with each other and Primal allowing the beastinct to safely lead them.

Elsewhere in the dense fog Rage continued running with his torch. He kept calling out to Lobe. Soon his cries turned desperate as he started calling out for everyone. He was now completely sure he was lost. “I really messed up now…” Rage said to himself. He could hear his stomach growl from hunger. “Have I really been wandering here that long?” Rage wondered. 

He bit off a piece of his torch to try and satiate himself, but the growling continued. Rage listened closely and realized this growling was strangely very deep and loud, it couldn’t be him. In a nervous manner he created a ball of light in his hand and held it up. He put more of his energy into it trying to make it even brighter, and by doing so revealed a serwhip approaching him slowly. Rage yelped as he closed his hand and extinguished the light. Rage could hear the beast still approaching so he decided to start running. The sound of the serwhip’s feet pounding into the ground followed. Rage could feel the ground shaking as it approached closer and closer. He tried to look behind himself as he ran, but in doing so rammed himself directly into something hard. In his disoriented state Rage tried to cast another light ball to try and see where he was. As he looked up the serwhip approached from out of the dense fog, however it stopped. Its tendrils began to shake with fear and soon it began to back up fast. Rage was confused as he stood up. He placed his hand on the strange hard surface he had run into. It was warm. Rage’s eyes widened as he jumped back and looked at the surface revealing it was scales. His eyes then made their way up until they saw the glistening four eyes of a draconic creature with a skull for a face. Its skin was a light purple and it had wings that looked made of purple flesh with fangs at their tips. Its whole body was very bulky looking and now it was seemingly looking over Rage. It snorted hot air at him and began to open its mouth. It had two jaws like a snake’s skull and to Rage’s horror the creature spoke in a deep feminine tone. 

“You don’t belong here” The creature whispered.

“I…I’m sorry?” Rage asked befuddled. “This is sacred ground. This forest was blessed by my brother Genten, tell me how did you make your way in here sekevil…no…not just sekevil…You are two races. Sekevil and Puriton…Like some sort of “sunblazer”…Cherunis spoke of you before” The dragon spoke. “Cherunis? You know him? Are you a guardian like him?” Rage asked. “Not exactly. I suppose I can tell you, if Cherunis trusts you I can as well.” The dragon responded. The beast gripped the earth as its body began to transform. Bones and flesh cracked and contorted until the dragon now stood on two legs in a humanoid form still sporting a skull for a face. “I am the mother of glory, Century. A mystgon.” The god introduced.