ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 31: Into the Fore

The Companion ended up proving to be a nimble and reliable scout. It was able to land on a window ledge far above the pack of humanoid creatures, keeping a quiet watch on them as I carefully made my way across the sand dunes that lined the rocky beach.

I would occasionally use my connection with the Companion to 'borrow' its senses – giving me a disjointed experience of its vision overlaid onto my own. If I closed my eyes and focused I was able to see as if I was there perched behind the Companion.

It was still there, keeping watch on the hairy creatures I had spotted from the beach. The surprisingly uninquisitive creatures had ignored its staring– even as it sat on a window ledge behind them, constantly watching. Perhaps it was true that almost no one ever looked up. Did that even apply to non-humans?

I could feel a desire to feast and kill rising up in me. Sitting there watching creatures it considered prey annoyed the bird, filling it with bloodlust that bled into my own emotions. I hurried, knowing that I would not be able to reign in the creature's impulses for long.

Even worse, I wasn't sure how much they would influence my own actions.

I reached a bend in the beach that took me out of sight of the courtyard, then closed my eyes to look through those of my Companion, which still wore the form of a large kingfisher.

I could feel the soft wind as it twirled around me, pulling up on my wings and ruffling my feathers. Powerful talons gripped stone, and I could hear faint cracks as the claws slowly slid into the marble windowsill as if it were as soft as dough. My sense of smell was full of the sweet smell of earth and decay, of life and death in a constant cycle.

The views were amazing from this height, even with thick mists limiting my field of vision. Beneath me was the ruined courtyard, once the face of a five-star hotel, now vandalized and taken back to nature. Pool chairs and tables had been broken apart and stacked for firewood, while grasses, thick bushes, and vines had invaded the cobblestone and grown up through the wooden planks of patios and gazebos.

The pool was empty of water and had been caved in on one side. Within the hollow grew a thick bramble of dense vines with dagger like thorns that protruded in thick spirals around the long and curving branches. Hidden within were fleshy blue fruits and bright red leaves, broad and oar-shaped.

Directly in front of me, past the courtyard and the narrow stony beach, was the Charleston harbor. It was still heavy with rolling waves that crashed like hammers upon a shore that was blanketed by thick mist. This fog had rolled up from the sea to cover the entire area, giving me the feeling of looking down upon mountain tops poking through from beneath the clouds.

The ground around the hotel had been raised up into tall hills covered in massive trees and foliage. The immense silhouettes created by the new terrain dominated the landscape, towering over everything like sleeping giants – hazy and mostly hidden in the fog.

A pressure began to build in the back of my mind, pulling on my consciousness like a rubber band almost at the point of snapping. My mind became fuzzy and it took all my focus and willpower to hold onto the connection.

It was a slightly disorienting experience. It felt like the lurch in my stomach during the initial drop of a rollercoaster mixed with the swimming vision and confusion of being spun around until dizzy, and then punched in the gut. It was much like I had always imagined skydiving would feel, something my father had regularly tried to convince me to try.

With practice I quickly grew accustomed to the discomfort, or at least familiar enough that it only gave me a mild feeling of nausea. True teamwork might have eliminated this discomfort and would have significantly sped up my progress along the beach.