MCYT RANDOMNESS 2

Torn and twisting - Pt 1

GuESs wHat it's CONVEX AGAIN-

Nah it's fun and unique I promise-

PoV: Cub

Trigger warning -->

There's something blinding me.

I try to open my eyes, and find the sun immediately above my face, giving up,  keeping them closed while my memory jogs. While I remember what happened to lead me here, waking up, staring at the sky. There's growing pain in my head. And then my leg, stinging, a strange pulsing that doesn't feel like a heartbeat. Something's happened to my leg.

The puzzle pieces don't quite fit together yet, so I have to open my eyes again and look around. One aching arm rises to block the sunlight. This time, I spot the diamond crystal, the dendritic twists shining in the light. Except for the nearest end, the shock of dried blood on the point. My base, then. Another piece of information. I cut my leg on the crystal. I fell off something? The containment structure, maybe?

Yes. That's right. Sure enough, I'm at the bottom of one of the walls I was working on. Everything fits together. I fell off, cut my leg on the way down, and was knocked out by the landing. Except it doesn't. The strange pulsing against the wound. Not my heartbeat, or blood pouring from it. Because I can't feel any blood, and I'd be in much worse condition if I'd hit an artery and been bleeding that badly. Why aren't I bleeding that badly?

I struggle to find another reason, why it's there, why it's familiar, why that constant pulsing, like another heartbeat, another entity that's latched to me.

And then I realise.

Sculk.

There's no sudden fear with that realisation. Nothing except dull acceptance. I jerk my leg away from the sculk.  A ripple, a scream of protest as it snaps apart. Some returns to the ground. The rest burrows deeper.

I should be terrified. That's terrifying, I think as I haul myself up. Why aren't I scared?!

I black out for a moment at the sudden movement, the shift in perspective. I have to just sit there, waiting for my vision to return properly and for the world to stop spinning. Eventually, it does. Some of my clarity returns too, but not much. There's still a cloudiness, a faintness, as I ease up my torn trouser leg, a little by a little, to see the damage.

Ouch.

I let out a hiss of pain as I spot the gaping wound, long and straight down my left calf, oozing a congealed dark red, merging with inky black goo. A thick, glowing tendril of sculk digs into the flesh, a rotting blue, and a bulging vine of black beneath my skin.

Ok. Ok you can handle that, Cub, my aching brain decides. Just pull it out, put in some stitches...

I reach for the sculk, forcing my hand a little closer, then a little more then a-

It flashes out, latching around my wrist. I yelp, stomach lurching. The sculk just tightens, cutting off blood supply. Before turning dormant again. With shaking fingers, I grab it back, the feel of the slimy, black vine against my palm again almost making me vomit. I pull, just a little, tentative.

Pain.

A flash of searing pain up my leg as the sculk fights back, digging further, corrupting deeper. With a ripple of popping bubbles, it spreads further up my arm. The blood on the ground, my blood, must've been feeding it. My energy. My vexling magic.

I go to pull again, but can't. My mind screams for self-preservation, insisting, don't hurt yourself, please don't hurt yourself. I don't have the reach, or the strength, anyway. I take long, shallow breaths. My heart is fast, a cold sweat pulses from my aching, foggy brain. The sun above is sweltering, burning and blinding. I have to squint, already feeling weaker, even more tired than when I first woke up.