The demon attacks, the wugs flee

The stench of sulfur strikes you and heat dries the air making you wrinkle your nose in discomfort. The rushes are suddenly thrust aside, bursting into flame at the touch, and the attacker of the wug village is before you.

His figure was that of a human but that was all that could be said, for if he had been once a man, he was most assuredly no longer. His body was robust as if armoured, but blackened like volcanic rock. Skeletal fingers projected from huge wristbands split by hairline cracks glowing like magma. There was only a skull for his head, burning bright and black in its own personal conflagration, a torch of flame like a candle wick blazing from his neck. In fact, his whole body was aflame, the inferno licking from every seam of his armour and spilling over him, wreathing him as surely as the steam of the water he stood in. Eyes red from his own inferno took in the party.

“Hi!” the demon shouted. “You guys wanna be on fi-re?” No one moved, stunned, but the creature suddenly thrust out a burning index finger at a wug. “A volunteer!”

Fire surged from the demon’s hand and enveloped the wug. The amphibian screamed in agony, no more than a living torch. It dropped its spear as it fell among the waters with a hiss of steam. For some time its corpse could be seen, glowing like embers beneath the swamp water.

Danger had come. This truth snapped through them all. In an instant the wugs fled. You and the rest of the cows can only stare dumbly at the creature, your own instincts of self-preservation, struggling, was slowed, buried under the heaviness of the wug’s venom and your own submission to your fates.

“Hey where ya goin’?” the demon exclaimed, shoving past the reeds, steam wreathing like a white cloak him as he waded through the water. A stream of fire blossomed from his hand and set a woman ablaze with a scream and crackle of blackening bone. “Don’t worry! I come in peace!” His long stride carried him swiftly forward. He grabbed the head of a fleeing wug. “Here! Gifts!”

The wug screamed as the skin peeled off his skull. Now they were inspired. The women fled, some regaining two legs in their terror, others so far gone they continued on all fours, stumbling awkwardly through the waters, chasing the wugs and lowing desperately for their aid. The demon leaned forward intently. “I’m not hearing a no. Come on! Let’s all get together for a game! Who wants to play a game?” A fireball ignited in his other hand. Losing interest, he dropped the wug he had been holding, the neck ending quite suddenly in spine and skull. “Who knows Dodge!” he asked the retreating humans and wugs. “It’s real popular down south. Re-eal popular. Come on!” He hurled the fireball. There was an explosion of steam and reeds, a rain of ignited greens falling over the swamp with rushes bulbous tops ignited like lanterns. “Let’s get some cultural exchanges going on!”

Perhaps it was because you were newer, or perhaps because you were much more willing to accept the fate as the wugs broodmare, but your reaction was different from your sisters of the stocks. Horror had rooted you to the spot, and perhaps that had been exactly what had saved you. Like a cat distracted by a moving object the fire man had passed you completely by in pursuit of the wugs. Everything was lit in a hellish glow as the swamp burned, filling the air with sickly black smoke and sizzling steam. You shrink back, the water now warm from the fires ignited all around it and the burning man striding through. On all fours you retreat. You never look away despite how much the glare of his immolated body hurts your eyes. Only when the reeds once more hide him from you do you slow, panting in terror. At some point you wet yourself. This knowledge you find curiously fascinating and you look over your naked flesh, your pendulous breasts hanging in the water, your heavy thighs and rounded figure gleaming in the firelight as if glazed in oil. You can feel the wug eggs sloshing inside you. You shudder. You have to leave. You turn to crawl through the waters, away from the manic laughter of the demon and screams of his victims. Demon…

You stall in the water. The Stone. The Dark One. How long were you in the hut? You sit back with a groan, pressing your hands against your scalp despite the danger. Your head feels heavy. Thinking hurts so much, but adrenaline helps you clear the fog of the sweetmilk and wug cum. The Stone. Something about a stone. The Stone…The Stone can stop the demon!

You perk up at this knowledge, but then your face falls. But you don’t have the stone. You lost it when your masters…when the wugs caught you. You don’t know…

You look back to where the fire burn brightest, lighting against the smoke stained sky like a bloody dawning sun. The village. The village is where the stone would be.

You look away and towards the comforting darkness of the deeper swamp. But, there is safety. Safety from the fire man. Escape. Your lips curl down at the word whose meaning you had almost forgotten. You hesitate, torn.