Warning; Scales is a body-horror and, at times, terrible terrain for the mind.
“I guess it’s now or never, girl.” I gave Lily a pat on the head and a gentle massage of her right ear.
Chuckling, “I know, that one’s the itchy one.”
Lily grumbles and whines in a satisfied tone as the scales on her ear gently break apart. Picking the last pieces off gingerly. Carefully removing them from the hairs in her ear canal. It’s a bright red still, which means we still have viable tissues.
‘That’s good,’ I thought.
We sat at the edge of the world for a moment longer. Contemplating the next move while understanding there was nothing else to do but what ‘was next.’ The bog waits. It calls me for penance. And we have a body to find.
Or, I have a body to find, rather.
“Lily, home.” I commanded. She hesitates.
“Go,” I say without looking at her.
I know what will happen if I look at her.
The water is still. An occasional gurgle or bubble compels itself to rise around me as I walk slowly into its depths. I take one last look around, watching Lily’s ears from a distance. Bouncing as she bounds away home. My pack, months of preparation, fastened to a tree. The water is not cold, nor warm. It is the exact temperature of the air surrounding it. Viscous, tepid, and yet…
It burns.
A patch of scales on my arm fester and spit like a forgotten pot on a stove. Angrily, so. My legs nearly crumple at the onslaught of fire. Now to swim.
Reaching the middle I take one last large inhale for the dive.
Wake up, time to die.
“No kidding,” I responded.
At once, the air I held is knocked out of me as my eyes are forced open. The pain is unrelenting. Each piece of flesh is a new catalyst in a nuclear reactor. I am being undone.
I am being unmade.
“Open your eyes and see me, child.” A familiar voice rings out through the watery hell.
“You’re not Bleu.”
“No, but thank you for delivering them to me.”
“I delivered nothing, you took them.”
A smile stretches across the creature’s face. Contorting my friend into an unfamiliar cruelty.
“And what will you trade for their body, child?”