Creature Wars: The Quest for the Goddess of Chaos

~Limbo~

                               *

"Welcome to your new home." Amber spoke to her with his arm extended.  Mena was totally amazed at what she saw, a person on fire, sort of. It was like a mesh between a skeleton and an armor with bits of fire escaping it, mimicking long hair that almost reached the ground. It's arm was held out to her, looking a little like burnt coal with a soft layer of ash at the tips of its fingers. She could feel its heat and it calmed her, though scary as it was. 

"Am I in hell?" she thought, gazing into the creature's firery blue eyes."Was I really a bad person?" She took a glance to the other figure standing to the side of Amber, a gorgeous looking man anyone would be intimidated by. She averted her eyes from him and his cool uncaring exterior. "Satan could look like that..."  She returned her eyes to Amber, now noticing how it could pass off as being a demonic being. "This part of hell is confusing. Why does it look like this? I expected a torture camber surrounded by a ring of fire or something."  She didn't want move from where she was. "This isn't a Wife of the Devil situation is it...? I didn't even want to get married on earth." She ducked her head back into her knees. 

Amber didn't realize it, but he really did look scary, something that was brought up before amongst the drunkards denouncing their religion on the streets. "Shapeshifter, be an angel for a moment. "

                                **

"I do not understand." it spoke as it sprouted wings from it's back, "What would this do?"

"Consider it and explanation through symbolism." Amber stated uncomfortably, "Where's the second in command of this welcoming committee?" 

"My colleague..." the shapeshifter stalled while his college hopped off of Amber's head like a flying spark. "...would be with us soon."  Like a plant growing from the ground, a new figure sprouted in an image of a human.

"When did he-?" Amber wondered. He confronted them, "I didn't know your kind was fire proof."

"Elaborate?" they asked. 

"These sparks that flake off of me aren't just potential fire hazards..." he said referring to the embers that escape him, "They are a part of me. They are my mind and I see what they do. I know what I burn to state things simply." They both stood silent trying to make sense of what he said in relation to them. Seeing this, Amber clarified, "Were you pretending to be lice on little ole me?"

"No, just checking up on our opponents." the angelic shapeshifter answered. "There are rumors that the elvish people have an incredible upper hand on your upcoming fight-"

"--I heard that already." Amber interrupted, "There is nothing wrong with looking in their general direction, this is a public area. What opponent do you have that compelled you to stick to my head?"

"...The chimera clan from the High-tide forest." the humanoid shapeshifter responded. "You were requested to consult them. Do you not remember?"

Amber didn't know if they were stupid or cocky confessing this to him, but it was not okay for them to spy like that. They were already a mystery and this made them seem more of a threat. "You are aware that espionage has been band as of three century's ago. And it's a crime that you both confessed too." 

"We are aware of that." the angelic shapeshifter said. "But as of now, there is no motive for us to spy on the chimera clan. Our act of espionage is of a possible fight in the future."

"Picking fights are unlike creature's such as yourselves, not that anyone would know." Amber commented. "So who's your upcoming opponent?" 

"The dwarves form the mountain called Yeti." the humanoid shapeshifter responded, "However, that is not the reason why we readily confessed to you, specimen Amber. There has been a development that we would like to request your presence for at our humble home. "

"With what I know, it should be a nest of chameleons."  Amber referenced  their newest family member, "Very well, I've got the time. What do we do about her?"

"No need to concern yourself." the angelic shapeshifter answered him after revealing a wide disc then placing it on the ground and standing over it. With it's weight, the disc reacted to it by sprouting eight legs and pushing upwards, almost making it appear that the shapeshifter was standing on a stool. Then, like a budding flower, the shapeshifter took that form and gobbled up the girl, enclosing her in a sleeping flower. 

                            ***

Mena was in total darkness, that whole experience frightened her and though she fought back there was no response. So she gave up. Amber and the humanoid shapeshifter, along with the spider-legged plant thing headed deep into the forest to reach to foot of an oddly shaped landform. It was like the mountain had an over bite that arched over at an unsettling angle that seemed like it was ready to crush anyone who took shade under it. The humanoid shapeshifter shrunk down while making a dive for the rabbit sized hole carved into it. Amber was left there with the weird duo beside him. He had this feeling like he was getting scammed. They have been actively suspicious. They knowingly used him to get their way, and have no problem being something other than themselves. 

So for a moment, while he waited in this almost silent clearing, he considered them replacing him with one of them. "No one can mimic this fire. But all that convinces someone, is stand it longer than anyone they could ever meet..."   He gathered fire in the palm of his hand and tested his heat, exposing the flower-bud shapeshifter to a taste of his fire, slowly increasing it every other second. For a while, the shapeshifter didn't respond, though it expressed discomfort according to the way it moved. Amber had hints of guilt, but this was no purposeless curiosity at work. He needed to know this to add to the little he knew about them already. After all, he might of just willingly gone along and walked right into an ambush. Mena was barfed out onto the ground. The shapeshifter molded itself entirely into a blobish hand just to swiftly slap Amber across the dirt. It squealed in overlapping voices as it tried to tackle him, trying to shapeshift into a larger creature only to be in the form a black blob, "You-You couldn't wait-ate!? Was that it-it!? You're impatient-patient!?" 

Amber was ready to go nuclear with what he saw. It was as if all the mock  in the world came together and made a pitch black baby who looked just like it's slime daddy. It didn't know what it wanted to be and at the same time it did. It was almost as if it was fighting over itself, drowning whatever got caught up in it. 

Mena was dazed, she had motion sickness and was ready to throw up. Seeing this battle of odd creatures with this fairytale setting made her think, "Oh. Maybe they're taking me to actual hell right now and that blob thing's going to sprout out tendrils and rape me like the average tentacle porn... Oh no, am I here because of the porn?! That's not cool God, it wasn't real people, just animated! It wasn't suppose to count...or did that make it worse? Not cool, not cool, not cool...", then she had an epiphany, " I'm dreaming right now, a part two to the standstill introduction. My mind wasn't happy without the action, so I got dropped right into a fight scene. Oh God, I hope the lucid dreaming starts here." 

She got up, and thought that maybe she'd enjoy the fight looking over it from a tall far away tree, so she made a run for the closest one. She moved drunk with her light-headedness, or at least that's what she thought she looked like. All of a sudden, she heard splashes of water behind her. Then, there was an ankle height flood that wrapped around her feet just for a little while. She turned back to see what happened. The fight stopped. Everyone and everything was damp. She looked around. It was like one of those fairytale forests, a safe and jolly kind, now with a new glow from the sprinkle of water that probably bounced off of those two. She took a good look at them again. They were being berated by a furry little creature. "I guess I could make a run for it...?"