Ven

The tired wooden stairs groaned under the scholar's weight as she made her way down... Down... Down... Further and further into the darkness of Home's roots.

She wished she could ask Cova to repair them before they finally collapsed, but she... Couldn't.

As the smell wafted into the guardian's nose, her grip on the bucket tightened. Although she wanted so dearly to say that she was used to the stench, it was simply so foul...

She knew from experience not to look down at the contents of her bucket, else she would risk regurgitating her entire stomach. Instead she held her stern stare forward, into the void of darkness that stretched before her.

Finally a light. A feint glimmer of sun in a hopeless void. It illuminated the end of the guardian's trek, a balcony over absolutely nothing.

The scholar stopped and peered over the railing like an intrigued tourist, hoping to catch a sight of it.

All she could see was a flurry of humble dust particles dancing in the sun's rays.

After an uneventful moment, she called out.

"Ven...?" Her voice was soft, but it traveled far, far into the depths of this special hell.

"Ven... It's time for dinner..."


Metal chains clanged against concrete as it began to slog forward. It's body was too large, too weak to make full use of it's many appendages, so the mass of flesh simply dragged itself along the ground.

The particles of dust scattered in fear as something flickered in the darkness. A pair of eyes. Two. Three. Many more. They bobbed and weaved as if in a confused daze.


It's voice was a raspy cough from a dry set of lungs.

Valdis' face twisted with disgust as she reached into her bucket and grasped a slab of moldy raw meat. Flint had never asked what she did with his leftovers for all these years, and she was thankful for that.

With a grunt she tossed the meat off of the balcony. Blood dripped onto the floor as it sailed through the air.

Suddenly it was full of vigor and lust. It's five heads surged forward and tore at the meat with crooked teeth and bloodshot eyes. After a brutal battle, three of the strongest licked their lips in satisfaction while the other two went hungry.

After a moment it focused back on Valdis, crazed eyes waiting expectantly for more...

"I'm sorry, that is all I can give you."


Valdis wretched her gaze away from it, "I can't..."



A voice tore itself away from the harmony of the dead in time for his solo performance. Valdis couldn't help but raise her head in response. "V-ven..." she spoke, her firm voice breaking slightly.

One of the heads, the original one, the first one, broke away from the disoriented swaying of his peers. Clumps of skin clung to him by a single scale, battle scars bubbled and festered with infection, drool shimmered in what little light the cavern could produce. He lurched towards her on his pathetically skinny excuse for a neck.


"Ven...?" Valdis leaned over the balcony, her mouth slightly agape.


The guardian felt... Weak. Her legs could barely keep her standing, and her mind felt as brittle as the ground below her.


Valdis reached out and took her true love's broken head in her trembling hands. Some of her tears fell onto his snout while others were lost in the abyss below.

"I-I love you t-too... I a-always will..."