Much of the night’s dream was spent in that formless and colorful state again. I didn’t complain. Even though as I condensed back into a three-dimensional creature, most of what I experienced there was unable to be brought out with me.
It’s like using pictures to describe running in a track. No matter how much detail you capture, no matter how much depth of field the high speed camera has, there are still minutiae that can never be captured.
Like taking a picture of a rose, taking that picture to someone that has never experienced a rose, and asking the viewer how does it smell.
Finally I was allowed to step back into Weaver’s form. I found myself at the campsite again. The Shamblings were enjoying a dreary, lazy summer day. From their rumbles of contentment, I surmised they had just had a large lunch that would hold them over for several weeks.
Now that I knew where I was, I wanted to get to a certain location a ways away from the campsite. I waved at the apparently empty locale, knowing the clearing was actually covered with Shamblings at least a foot thick. As I made my way around the clearing, the forest floor undulated like a wave of debris covered molasses. They were waving in greeting.
“Wait.” I paused halfway around the clearing. A Shambling pulled itself from the others and stood up. “How do I look?” Still shorter than me, the mud body looked much more human like. The leaves were shifted from the back of the legs to the front of the torso, hiding any outward appearances of gender. But the back of the arms, the head, and the back of the torso still kept the covering of leaves. I am reminded of stories of wood-wives still keeping their bark on their backs when in human form.
“You look like bait. Like a child that ran away and is filthy from scrounging in the forest. But you might want to have more sticks and grasses up top, to look like your ‘hair’ got caught in the underbrush.” Ke jumped and clapped kir muddy hands. “Eh, but don’t be so reckless with your new toy. Doesn’t it take a lot of water to hold that form together?”
“Yes.” A larger Shambling rippled up to me but didn’t rise from the floor. “But it works to our advantage as long as we don’t waste it needlessly.” The humanoid adjusted kir appearance in accordance with my suggestion. Looking more like a wayward child, I nodded. Contented, it released the form and melted into the living ground.
“How many have you caught, and were they all human?”
The Shamblings remained quiet. I sighed. “Look. I know what you are. I know what you eat. I know that if it wasn’t for the events that got me named here, I would be on the menu. Food chain, I understand it. I’ve done my duty to my kind, I’ve warned them about the forest. Any dumbass that is still willing to step in here after being warned, is fair game as far as I am concerned.”
The floor ripples. “Three. All human. They were seeking treasure. They knew to avoid us, and it is too warm to follow. But one of us used the form you gave us. They followed it right into our embrace.”
“Great!”
“You are… approving of this?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I got a front row seat to evolution and adaptive behavior. This is a world where humans are not the apex predator. Hell, this is a world where humans are pretty damn low on the totem pole. Those that understand that, thrive here. Those that don’t, die.” My laughter echoed across the clearing. “Besides, I’m a misanthropist. I have a low view of my own species anyway. Also, as many times as I have been eaten and torn to pieces… I know they won’t have any lasting damage. Physically, anyway.”
I turned to continue around the clearing, but felt my hand grabbed. I looked back and saw several humanoid Shamblings were pulling me into the collective body on the floor. In the language of rustling leaves, they were asking me… no… demanding that I show them other forms to take.
A person is smart. A people is average. A mob of people is fucking stupid as fuck. The same holds true of Shamblings. Individuals can be sentient and hold conversations. A small group of them can work for a specific purpose and be reasoned with. A large mass of them is ruled by the basic drives of hunger, reproduction, pain avoidance, and desire.
Depending on your point of view, this was a small mass, or a large group. Either way, this was trouble. Small enough to know that I can teach them an advantage. Large enough to force me to do so, or die.
“I can’t.” I pulled back, holding my ground. “Okay, I won’t. I risked losing myself when I melted into you the other day. I was fine because the total mass wasn’t that large, I could still hold my individual sentience. This group is too big. Too many new Shamblings that don’t have the memory of why Weaver isn’t to be messed with like this. Y’all need to chill and let the memory of the older ones sift through.” I yanked my hand free and tried to back away into the forest itself.
My foot is caught and I’m pulled viciously into the mass. “NO! NOW!”
I had expected this and was already prepared. Even though I was buried in tons of mud and filth, I did not need to make a sound to call the Kenaz rune. My immolation needed no air to burn fiercely. The mass quickly retreated from my burning body in surprise.
I stood up on the suddenly dry ground. Standing like a human torch, I looked up to see darker Shamblings pulling away from the brighter younger creatures and retreating from the common mass. The elders were going to let the youngsters learn the hard way, it would seem. Silently I watched them for any indication of how to proceed. One of them took on a humanoid form that would tower over me. Ke made an offering gesture with kir arms. I understood at once. I’m free to do as I will with the youngsters.
Now that the wisdom of the mass has retreated to safety, the rash youngsters surged at me intently. They knew by instinct, the best way to deal with water-evaporating fire, is to smother it. They towered over me as a menacing muddy cylinder for a moment, before committing to the action and knocking me to my knees.
I had only intended to use Kenaz to teach them a lesson. I had already adjusted my form to not need to breathe. Unlike most humans that come into the forest, I knew how to lose my humanity and adapt. Unlike the last time I was attacked here, I had my full wits about me.
Silly me. The Shamblings know magics of their own. They doused my Kenaz fueled flame easily. With the wisdom and bulk of knowledge removed from the mass, what remained did not recognize me as Weaver. I was considered the next human to devour. They scooped me off the actual ground, forming a ball around me as they tried to suffocate me.
Okay.
That’s it.
Enough of this shit.
My feather cloak wrapped around me, sealing me away from the filth trying to crawl into my nose and mouth. I knew I had a few seconds before they tried to drown me in exuded liquid instead.
From someplace deep within me a flame was lit. The fire spread from my innermost to the cloak, replacing the jet black feathers with sweeps of flame. I surrendered to this strange inferno, that was new to me, and yet felt like it had always burned with me. My body became a living flame. My human formed consumed itself and became an ifrit.
With a roar I pushed my wings outward violently. Exploding out from the Shambling ball, throwing burning slags of debris onto the trees around me. The wiser Shamblings had already retreated well out of immediate danger.
“KNOW YOUR PLACE!” I found myself screaming at the surviving youngsters. I looked down at myself to find what pieces of them that still clung to me was already blackened and falling away as ash. In my one expression, I have wiped out half of this year’s new ‘generation’. The others were scrambling to get away from the unquenchable fire, the water-evaporating fire, the living flame that they are able to sense is fucking pissed off at them. But their retreat is blocked by the older and wiser Shamblings. “Think me to be easy prey, still? Think you able to overwhelm anything that sets foot into this forest?”
I turned slowly to examine what remains of the mass. Intentionally isolated from the combined wisdom of those that came before them, they are caught in a ring surrounding me. I was trying to be careful not to allow my wings of fire to come near the overhead canopy.
“Yes. I am human. But I am so much more, as your drying out forms can feel. I can easily become your predator. Learn from those that came before you. Or perish.”
The light of my flame extended deeper into the forest than light usually does. In the distance, I saw the shadow of something like a man. When he saw that I was trying to see him clearly, he stepped back into the embrace of the shadows and disappeared. This makes twice this week, I have noticed him watching me here.
Content that the survivors understand my words, I dismiss my inflamed form, becoming human again. The cloak returns to its normal form of raven feathers and settles down around me. “Any questions?” Neither the mass of youngsters, nor the mass of elders responded to me. “Class is dismissed.” The youngsters were allowed to flee from the clearing. I knew they were headed straight for hidden water sources to replenish themselves.
“Fuck. Sorry guys. I didn’t mean to destroy any of them.” The elder Shamblings, knowing I was safe to approach again, surrounded me and covered me up to my waist in a warm and moist embrace.
“Our mass had become too large, too suddenly. There would be a dying off later in the year. All you have done is increased the strength of what is left behind. Those that remain will not be too greedy again.”
“Culling the herd. Okay. I understand now. The bait form brought in more food than expected and y’all got fat. One crash diet, Weaver style.” I nodded in understanding.
It was my intent to leave them now that the lesson was over, and continue my way to visit another old friend. But my time in the Dreaming was over for now. I could feel the Waking world pulling me away.
Dammit.
I’ll try again later.
The Shamblings held me up in trust and with trust. The dream dissolved around me taking me away.
But the night had one more surprise for me.
In the liminal state between Dreaming and Waking, I did not feel my human body. Instead of some bipedal creature lurking under the covers, I felt myself in the form of a sphinx. A sheet slid off a lazy wing. Giant feline paws dug into the pillow. I batted an errant dreadlock off my face.
Wait.
Dreadlocks? Paws? I opened my eyes to find I had become a sphinx in my own bed. I must still be dreaming. But I’m not pissed. Why would I take on Rage’s sphinx form even though I’m quite calm, quite collected, and quite lazy as fuck?
The alarm called me back to my human form and I woke up completely.
I took the form as a warning to hold a leash on my temper. And on two separate occasions I was glad I did so. Those events will not be detailed here. Only that I did not release my rage after all.