Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 10

Day: 3125 (Blood Moon)

Days Left: 2355

Lives Saved: 17

As Henry approached, the fire demon noticed, yelling at him to stay away and run that they had a handle on things. But they didn't. The fire demon restrained the thunderbird, and their ignited body was scorching the thunderbird's feathers and flesh, but at the same time, the lightning from the thunderbird and the fire demon's powers were self-destructive. They would both lose together.

Henry inched closer, flinching in fear from the spiking lightning that flared out, crackling and hissing, scorching the earth nearby.

"I said get away, you fool!" the fire demon cried through gritted teeth, wincing as another split in their rock-like skin grew larger and spread.

"I can help!" Henry stepped closer; his body, which was continuously phasing and jerking uncontrollably before, was now almost every second, nausea building up until Henry put his hand over his mouth, catching the sand that came up. Holding tightly to the sand, Henry lunged forward, right in front of the restrained thunderbird, risking getting struck with lightning, and then, with a gentle breath, blew the sand into the thunderbird's eyes.

*

The man paused. At first, he noticed the deafening silence; the only sound he could hear was his own breath and heartbeat. And then he noticed the endless surrounding darkness, yet he could still see himself.

Where was he?

Not a moment ago, he was striving to achieve victory, to capture The Warren for himself finally. It was time for a new rule. And they were the closest they ever had been if it weren't for that fire demon or how incompetent this batch of prisoners had been.

He looked around again and finally spotted something in this darkness. A figure.

The figure was wearing a suit, tall and slight, too slight that it was either unnatural or on the brink of starvation. Their skin was a ghostly pale, almost blue, their face gaunt with shrunken cheeks, pointed cheekbones, and a hooked nose. Occasionally, as the figure stood there, the image flickered as if they were in a movie; it was missing a few frames or was sped up during moments.

"Who are you!" the man demanded. "Where the fuck have you taken me?" He searched himself, trying to find his thunderbird mask, but it was nowhere to be seen.

The figure cocked their head to the side and took a step forward.

Panicking, finding no mask or weapon on his person, the man retreated.

And the figure continued its approach. It raised its arm and dragged its long claws along the darkness, leaving tears with a screeching sound, like nails to a chalkboard.

The man winced, cowering and crying out as he covered his ears with his hands, trying to snuffle out the sound. "Stop!" the man screamed, and it did stop.

Silence again.

He slowly rose to his feet again and opened his eyes, finding that the unknown figure had disappeared. It had gone. And then he turned around, met with the face of the figure, a grin on their face as they reached out a hand to the man's eye and-

*

It was only an instant after Henry had blown the sand into the thunderbird's eyes that the creature turned to stillness, to calm, the lightning ceasing, before the thunderbird writhed and screeched, trying to break free of being restrained, but its struggle just caused it to get burnt further. Enough of its feathers had been scorched to the point that it could no longer fly, and the crackles of lightning weaving through its wings were small and possessed barely any power. Even if it still had its feathers, the thunderbird could not do anything but attempt to flee in its current panicked state. The fire demon kept a firm grip around the creature, giving Henry a sideways glance as if wondering what he had done to rattle the thunderbird, or more likely why Henry had just blown sand in its eyes and if that had actually helped.