Beware the Ills: Part Seven
Worms. They look like worms. Veins I mean. Veins that are attached to severed limbs to be precise. They’re outside the skin, leaking blood out of a round dark tube. They have a meaty texture to their ends, and they glisten with fresh exposure. You notice how intricate the body works even when you’ve been doing this like I have.
Even when it’s an Ill, not a human, you still notice things.
When I killed this particular Ill, these severed veins belonged to, he wiggled his arms in the air as I pinned him down with my knee. He squirmed. I cut off his arms. I paused just long enough for his mind to catch up with the situation. He doesn’t realize right away the blood violently spilling out belongs to him. Actually, Ill-blood resembles dirt in color, but in a liquid form.
He died of shock immediately after he came to acknowledge his situation.
I’m standing over his corpse. We’re on the edge of the mountains. We ambushed the Ills as they walked in the open along the cliff face of a lesser peak. The sky brews clouds towards the shore, with smoky breaks where the sunlight casually peaks through.
The suns never bothered the cold here. Nothing on this island deters the cold.
I can’t help but think of that fresh crop of trespassers on the western shore. I imagine the trap will slow their reconnaissance. There are no more traps, however. Traps in the end are ineffective. Invaders can adapt to them quickly. They’ve seen traps before. They’ve got experience. They’ve made that clear with their weathered expressions and callus reactions. I always give them a half day to get their strategies together, to build all their best violence for me.
I want them to be at their best, that’s not selfish of me.
The grey cliffs we were sitting on had been used by the Ills to put together a war party. The cliffs across the mountains are smooth from their little running feet. The landscape is forever altered by them.
It vexes me with a strange, terrain-based jealousy.
I throw the Ill I killed onto his stomach. His face sits in a pool of his own blood. The rest of the Ills are blocked from the path leading back into the mountain’s tunnels. Their shoulders are against the edge of the cliff. Blue has pinned them there cleverly. They’d have to rush him to get back into the mountain’s mazes. We’d never find them in there, they’d have the advantage. They know those tunnels. They have every nook and cranny memorized.
Blue’s brawny arms are opened wide and menacingly. The span of his arms is like a row of mountains. He’s showing them his nails, too. They’re blue and hard as stone. I’m sure the Ills know all about them. We’ve occasionally had to let a few live from our skirmishes. We need to preserve the intimidation and legend. Essential, it’s flawlessly essential.
Blue twitches eagerly. He may not begin yet. We must preserve the moment.
No snow currently, but the air has a whirling cloudiness about it. The forest has a clear and lucid gleam. The snowy patches below the trees make their needles glow and shimmer. The Ills are firing arrows at Blue. They’re crude black arrows with uneven points and feathers. This makes them uneven and unbalanced. Blue covers his face with one massive paw. He laughs at the Ills in his strange animal giggle. He’s almost roaring.
The Ills start to hiss and scream like walking-snakes. They’re such vile creatures. They’re shorter than men because their backs are hunched and riddled with lumpy deformities. Their forms are brewed from the tunnels and narrow halls they’ve lived in for centuries. Being bent down beneath a mountain your entire life would be irritating. Their skin glows a dark green like the needles in the forest. They’re covered in blemishes and scars. They’re very strong, stronger than men and sometimes faster. The Ills lack intelligence however and cannot conceive strategies or plans.
They’re unable and unfit for war games.
I’ll be releasing my novel Beware the Ills in segments every Friday. You can find out more about the book right here, or check out Amazon’s info. I love this book. Happy to simply share it.
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