ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 32: Flowers of Change

Other than the waist high grass, the area in front of me was relatively open, with only a few hills and small lakes dotting the landscape. The grass itself was more rigid than I had expected, more like tiny stalks of bamboo than anything you would find in your front yard. The ends of each blade of grass were split into multiple thin threads topped by wisps of something blue and fluffy that fluttered and spiraled up into the air as a slight breeze picked up from the east.

The air around me was filled by these small particles of blue fuzz, as if someone had made a wish by blowing upon a giant blue dandelion, sending millions of tiny cerulean florets into the sky. I hesitated to enter the cloud, but I was anxious about rejoining my friends, and the substance didn't immediately appear dangerous. Even my mild pollen allergy was unaffected.

Wading through the field did little to slow me down, most likely due to my strength being double what it had been before 'stats' were a realistic way of measuring human performance.

I started off with a steady walk, carefully taking each step and occasionally stopping to scan for dangers. I still had unpleasant memories of when Catayla had revealed a peaceful meadow full of flowers had instead been a trap for a carnivorous monster made of rotating teeth and bone smashing vines. I couldn't even trust the grass not to kill me.

I missed the blue-scaled scout, she had a quiet competence that I enjoyed having on my side. I was glad she was with Tiller and the others, as she was the main reason I was convinced the group had made it across the river.

My plan to find them was simply to search the area of the riverbank where they should have landed – the lack of current meant this area should have been fairly narrow. I had judged that they were likely in a small range that ran from the remains of the Ravenel bridge down to Patriots Point, where the Naval monument the USS Yorktown was still moored.

If they had crossed back to the downtown side of the river, I would simply make the trip back across to join them. This seemed unlikely, however, as I knew Catayla would have pressed them to continue the mission, with or without me.

I was headed north and slightly east across the golf course, a path I knew should bring me almost directly to where I needed to be.

Navigating through the grass was made difficult due to the terrain changes that blocked my view of any easily identified landmarks. To my east were tall rocky hills and thick forestation that had replaced an area that was once nothing but flat, dusty land containing only a few sparse shrubs and loose pebbles. This blocked my view of the bridge and the Yorktown, forcing me to rely on memory to plan my route.

To the west was an inlet across from which were the ruins of an old residential neighborhood that had been made up of cookie cutter McMansions decorated with tacky Greek-style pillars and thin brick facades, now mostly buried in earth and vegetation. Creepers grew up over the crumbled homes, as if seeking to drag what little remained of human civilization back into the dirt.

At some point the neighborhood had been torched. Ash covered the ground like snow, lightly brushing across the dark browns of soil and the vibrant greens of freshly grown plant life. Brittle wooden boards, broken and burnt, stuck up from the earth like blighted teeth cast down into the ground. A faint whiff of smoke mixed with the smells of earth, decay, and something more metallic.

My perception stat had increased significantly with the bonuses it received from my class and feats.

I could hear the wind as it played across the field, each blade of grass giving off a faint hum as the breeze touched it. As I set a foot down upon the ground I could feel the vibrations as they rose up through my bones and hear them as they spread out into the ground around me.