Somber

How was one supposed to respond to this? He sat at the edge of the cave staring directly upon the body. Her limbs curled painfully underneath her Pheonix could still see the mushrooms growing from her body. Like the earth was taking her again. Roots planted themselves with their blue glow. Phoenix watched her body carefully. No signs of breathing but the growth continued in decay. His daughter….. Gone. The male felt his heart broken in two but also relieved that she no longer was suffering from the dark illness plaguing his mothers homeland. No…. She was gone too. It was his home now.
In his daze however the fog thickened in the dark, flowing into the entrance of the cave and covering his daughter's body. Instinctively he grabbed hold of her brown scruff and carried her just beyond the mouth of the cave. Near a tree he had already dug a deep hole long and wide enough to bury the yearling. His mouth felt strange holding her like that. The mushrooms touching him in their glowing slimy state, would he get infected too? He wasn't one to get so depressed he'd give up; he had taught his daughter at a young age how the world was because of the loss of his son. Yet somehow this felt indeed worse.
Gently pushing with a paw her body rolled into the hole. A thump occurring as she hit the earth below, that was enough to make him flinch. Gritting his teeth he began the slow burial process of pushing dirt onto her body. The mushrooms grew out of the soil and even after her body was long not visible they poked and rose from the earth in the dark. He sneered, lifting a lip in disgust. His daughter didn't deserve this…..how did he stop these things from growing? Anger filled him as the fog thickened around him, it felt oddly explosive. Turning suddenly he tore into the earth and screamed. Screamed as loud as he could. It was not a howl, the straining of his vocal chords as anguish, anger and depression left him.
Then there was calm. The faint glow of the mushrooms dimmed and he felt an odd presence around him. Circling he made out the shape. “Vipera” his voice whispered. The soul stopped looking almost see through. He could male out where eyes were supposed to be but the whispering couldn't make him see straight.
“P o i s o n.” The voice was empty and hollow. Desperate even. “T h e m.” Her head turned suddenly to a cluster of rocks. Growing in the cracks where the crystals and mushrooms plague the land. Moving, glowing, growing, causing more pain and more misery. He growled, his daughter correct. He was a poison master. There were things you could do to kill fungi. But the crystals he wasn't sure about. “A c i d.”
Vipera was right. “I made some a few days ago. I can put it on the source!” He ran back into the cave. Feeling his daughter's ghost follow him, staying at his side. In her death he would try to find a way to get rid of these vermin. A small bottle he had found lay cracked open. An acrid smell of rot and vinegar came from it. Carefully he picked up the tincture and brought it to the mushrooms that grew. She watched him with hollow eyes as he tipped the jar over directly into the roots. Filling the cracks as he heard the sizzling of it work. They seemed to shrivel at first.
What he didn't like was the screeching of the crystals against the organic matter. As the mushrooms died and fell off the rocky outcrop the crystals grew larger. He desperately looked to his daughter. Her shaly form in the fog almost looked like she would be swept up in the wind easily. After a few minutes the gloe from the mushrooms was gone but the red crystal was shining high into the sky.
“WHY” he screamed lunging forward with his weight he took the half of the crystal off. Holding it in his jaws as the ghostly figure of his daughter began to fade.
“C o n t i n u e.” The voice echoed in his head.
“No! Vipera don't go, you must help me!” He ran towards her, and past her. His body only just passed through hers. As Vipera turned she began to fade. She wanted him to continue to kill the mushrooms that had killed her? Then he would not stop. He turned to the rock…. The mushrooms did not come back there. The shriveled disabled forms of the roots no longer gave off the eerie glow. It took three days to make that mixture. Was this really a way to stop the growth?


word count : 808