Legend Land: Tale of the Nameless God

Chapter 22.1: Old Habits

(Song contains explicit lyrics)

Part 1

Words: 1403

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"We have got to stop meeting like this. What, with you drunk on pain and cosmic confusion, and me being...well, me—it's highly inconvenient, Namonai." Consciousness slips through my tenuous grasp on reality, slithering around me like an eel. Or a snake? It definitely feels slimy. While the rest of my body slowly regains pinpricks of feeling, my eyes blink open to soft light, and dark tentacles wrapped around my shoulders. I let out a low groan of frustration, and Mutovinatum nods with what I can only assume is mock sympathy.

"Yes, yes, I know, everything hurts. But that can all get better if you let me help you," he says. I try to recoil from the darkness pressing against me, but my body doesn't get the memo. "And I know you said you weren't interested before, but maybe now that you see what you're up against..."

"No," I mutter. I manage to sit myself up straighter and look at where Mutovinatum's eyes would normally be. I try to muster up force behind my next words, but they still come out as a wheeze, each breath shaking my lungs like dead leaves. "Leave me alone."

"That isn't what you really want, and you know it," Mutovinatum coos. I start to sidle out from underneath him, but he's everywhere, suffocating me with his presence. "I can make this all better Namonai. You just have to let me in."

"You're already in!" I shout in exasperation. My head throbs splinters of pain through the pathways in my brain, and I can't tell whether it's from being knocked out, or the reverberations of my own voice. Shit, am I dehydrated? "I just want you out."

"You don't mean that," Mutovinatum says with a small pout, which looks more threatening than his smile.

"Wha—of course I mean it!" Immediately my vocal cords snap taught from the strain of being so loud. "Ouch! Goddammit!" I half-wheeze past the pain. I shake my head, trying to clear the swimming visions in front of me. The world twists upside down, tilting and swirling like a top. "You're a pest," I spit. "A leeching, parasitic whore. And," I lean in close enough to smell the decay in each of his hyperventilated breaths, "the thought of sharing the same space as you makes me want to eat my own skin." Mutovinatum's mouth hangs open for a brief second, either from his shock, or his mounting desire to devour me. In his defense, I am quite delicious.

"Things are a little heated right now," he replies. "You've said some things you don't mean, and I don't want to say anything I'll regret. Why don't you leave, and we'll talk later when we've both had a chance to cool off."

"What do you think this is?! I'm never coming back."

Mutovinatum remains silent for a brief moment. Without looking at me, he speaks in a low, sharp tone. "You have to sleep eventually, Namonai. You can't escape your own mind. Now," I open my mouth to reply, but he has already planted a firm hand on my chest. "Leave."

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I suck in air, filled with the stench of dirt and disease. It smells like shit, and tastes worse going into my lungs, but it's real air.

"That bastard got the last word," I gasp. My words cut like razors across my parched throat. "I can't believe this shit." After I get past the overwhelming stench of my current exotic locale, my other senses begin to adjust. Unfortunately for me, it still feels like Malor. No pleasure cruises for me. I shift off my back, feeling the dirt sift through my fingers, sharp rocks nicking my skin. When I finally bring my eyes up from the ground, they come face-to-face with a wide-eyed, dirty face. Well, snout is more accurate.