The Hunters of Sian

Oculis Capti Mortem

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Chapter Twenty-Five

Oculis Capti Mortem

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They roused after an hour or two of sleep. Sallos stretched out, content to watch his human scamper about making the even meal. Nell tried to concentrate on the rabbit he was supposed to be cooking but the midnight dark figure of his master spread out lazily on the bed was incredibly distracting. Then he yelped as he nicked his knuckle with the knife he was holding.

'Watch what you're doing Nell,' Sallos said in what could only be described as a purr. Nell felt his cheeks go red. The ache in his ass was not as bad as the first time they had lain together but it was defiantly adding to the distraction as he knelt by the fire.

'You're not helping,' Nell mumbled under his breath. He heard the rustling of fabric and gasped as fingers tangled into his hair and drew his head back. He stared up with wide eyes at the demon above him.

'Aren't I?' He had no idea where this playful seductive side of Sallos had come from, but Nell wasn't complaining. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Sallos let go of him then and moved away to redress. He supposed there were some perks to being cooped up with the man for weeks...

Whilst they waited for the stew to cook, Sallos cleared the table of spare quills and parchment and took down one of the old tombs from the bookshelf. It was beautifully made and sigiled against dust and damp. The cost of it must have been truly eyewatering. Sallos opened the leather-bound book carefully and turned the pages. Nell leant over curiously. It appeared to be full of sketches, some of flora and other of fauna. Sallos found the page he wanted and settled the book and Nell felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

'Is that...?' he asked, already knowing the answer.

'Yes, this is an adult Oculis Capti Mortem or a Crawling Nightmare.'

It was somehow nothing like Nell had been imagining. It looked almost like an enormous naked mole rat with a few key differences. The first being that it did appear to have fur, smooth looking and sleek like a seal. The second was the enormous, clawed front legs with huge hooked black talons.

The third and most horrific was the ugly eyeless head with a protruding rat-like nose and at least five rows of teeth underneath in a gap that was a more a maw then any kind of proper mouth. As he studied the figure inked onto the pages, he realised there was a like sketch of a man beside it.

'Is this to scale?' he croaked. His master nodded. The sketch of the man was barely a third of the size of the Nightmare.

'This animal hunts using its sense of smell and the vibration it feels in the snow around it. It burrows and hibernates in the core of mountains in the summer months and use tunnels of ice it digs to move around the Hoarfrost Forest in the winter. The blubber it has underneath its hide is extremely valuable but very thick. There is only one proper way to kill one, can you see it?' Swallowing down the horror he felt at first sight of something so disgusting and terrifying, Nell studied the drawing more closely. It looked like a very thick ugly slug with teeth. If they couldn't cut into it, how were they supposed to kill it?

'It doesn't seem very logical to use fire sigils to burn it...' Nell said slowly.

Sallos actually smiled. 'No, nor would the beast approach if it sensed magic. They have basic intelligence but are sensitive to the magic of sigils. That aside, such a feat in the snow would be incredibly difficult and draining on us. Try again,' Sallos encouraged and pointed to the beast's gaping maw.

Nell winced. 'We have to kill it through the mouth, don't we?' he guessed unenthusiastically.

The demon nodded. 'We do. Straight through the mouth and into the head cavity. This is one of the reasons I approved of your assignment of the glaive. I will be using that.' Sallos pointed to a thick heavy looking spear. It would have been too heavy for Nell to throw but with Sallos' demonic strength, he could obviously handle it. The head of the spear was slightly barbed. It was designed to go in and not come back out until it was cut out.