Entity #444

10: You Are On the Fastest Route

Playlist songs for this chapter:
Fata Morgana- Unlike Pluto

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Update: 6/22/22: I've added my illustration to River to Nowhere. Go see it if you haven't already!

#6 in #astraltravel- thank you so much!

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A rocky-sounding growl arose from deep within Nazarius' chest that echoed throughout the tunnels. I looked from Nazarius back to the reflective face of the Smiler sitting in the center pipe. Then it clicked.

"Nazarius-your-eyes..!" I spat, beginning to panic. "Turn your eyes down!" I then did as he told me, and moved backward slowly towards his hindquarters. The Smiler watched us patiently, with its crooked, white grin, never blinking. It should've been spurred at us by the glowing lights that were Nazarius' eyes. I looked up at him in question.

Reading my mind yet again, Nazarius said, "I don't think they tolerate deep water very well..."

I looked from Nazarius to the room around us. "So that means..."

Something else is here. Something worse.

To my horror, the stallion gingerly trudged forward to the edge of the pool. Black water lapped at the edge ever so gently. Keeping one cautious glowing eye on the Smiler, he lifted one hoof and dipped it into the water. When it hit bottom, the water had stopped at his knee.

He looked back at me; "Keep moving, darling. It won't challenge me- but stay close." He delved into the pool with all four legs, motioning me forward with his skull.

I followed behind with hesitation, the dark lukewarm water soaking through my leggings and the bottom of my shirt. I had lost my socks miles ago; wet and musty were quite the undesirable sensations on my feet.

We waded a distance of about one-hundred feet to the back wall of the pool. As we neared the three pipes, I realized just how big they were. These were more like tunnels.

Thank God, I thought. What if they happened to be too small for Nazarius to fit through? The thought of turning back made me shudder, and the image of the bloodtrail returned to my mind.

The anxiety had risen from my chest to my throat since we had lost the trail in the pool. Alarm bells were going off in my head, every instinct of mine screaming out for me to not go any closer. We had zero way of knowing which tunnel housed this other, lethal creature.

I kept one hand on Nazarius' left flank as I followed him to the leftmost pipe. My eyes grew wider and I had to speak up.

"Nazarius are you sure-"

He kept both of his eyes on the Smiler as he inhaled sharply. "Do you not trust me, delicate woman?" Almost as if it were said out of shock or confusion.

Alive for millennia and nobody has ever questioned him? I scoffed quietly, half to myself. "I do-"

"Hush." The word took my anxious thoughts and wrapped them up in a neat little box with ribbon.

My mouth dropped open, however, I did what he said. I still couldn't take my mind off of the Smiler, which hadn't been visible to me because of Nazarius' position. His body blocked the view of both of the other pipes as we reached the entrance of pipe number one.

Nazarius stood at the mouth and I waded up closer to him, immediately receiving a nudge in the torso. "You need to go first," he rumbled in a rather curt manner. Then, a more softened, "I've got your back." He then took a secure stance facing the other pipe. "Go on."