13 R 2 1

Up until this point I still expected something normal. Another town with average looking guy whose face betrayed all the debilitating weariness the unending servitude caused. This, on the other hand, gave me a sneaking suspicion I'd be encountering another snail that trailed crimson mucus all over the place.

"Right. Thanks," I muttered. I had no idea where we ended up at, but we had passed a road with a lot of old signs on it not that long ago. "That way should be another big city," I pointed. It didn't move. I was a little glad - going forth all on my own into a haunted demesne was just a little daunting. Something was off here. I felt watched but there was nothing besides sparse trees. I would very much have liked to turn back abound about ten steps ago.

"Knock, knock?" I called out into the morning fog. Nothing. Why was there fog anyway? How typical. Not like seeing would aid me in any way, but I could have done with less eeriness.

I crept on forward carefully. Right until I found out I can't lift my legs anymore, only barely keeping myself upright at all from the force which gripped me.

"Now that's a little rude," I muttered discontentedly and yanked the foot again, then got an idea. "Of me, of course. Haha. Tracking mud all over your wonderful carpet. Kids these days, huh? No manners."

I unlaced the boot and stepped out of onto the red grass. Brief relief being out of the bulky military boot and then the ground clung to me like superglue again. As delayed pain hit me I realised it was worse than just that – and worse than the constricting heavy footwear. The grass clung like a million teeth. Panic blinded me. I'd be eaten, and then this creature would be eaten, and everything would have been for naught.

I calmed myself. This was always a possibility. And if nothing else I'd be the fodder to a thing which would be taking a bite or two out of the Nerve Matter. This was fine. None of this was real anyway. I was likely already eaten, probably ever since witnessing that girl plop down onto the ground like an overcooked noodle.

All this pain though!

The teeth ripped deeper into my flesh and I exhaled, forcing myself relax. "I really need to talk to your body. It's in danger. I might be able to help," I insisted but the pain hadn't ceased. Perhaps increased. Darts of pain were up to my knee now. I screamed internally. Was this perhaps the snail and it wasn't taking kindly to me, the cause of its current problems? Damn, I hadn't thought about that.

Failed plans tore down my stoic façade and I gripped the knee, hoping to strangle the agony. Tried to rip the leg upwards again, lost balance and steadied myself by plunging palm onto more of that damned ground. Tongues of pain twined around my fingers and reached bone immediately. It leapt upwards. I inhaled to scream when it all stopped. The pain, the constriction and I plunked backwards onto my butt.

Little brother, I thought out of the blue and suffered confusion immediately. There was nothing to remind me of such a thing. I've never had anyone to consider as such. Ruby was closest to a brother I'd ever have, and he'd be the elder one. The rest of the kindergarten was his, so… little nephews as far as I was concerned. All of whom were dead now. Emotion clouded my eyes momentarily and I blinked it away. I need to make him pay.

Right. There was a single percent this wasn't a delusion, or a dream, or a very intricate trap therefore I need to get a grip. As much as reality tried to slip away from me these days, I need to cling to this.

I heard fire roar some ways behind me and saw pyre sway violently closer than where I'd left it. Red grass around was singed and wittered. Was this why I wasn't yet eaten?

"Thanks," I waved to it.

My foot dripped red too. The sock was shredded. Not that I cared, being so close to finish line, but I'd need to hold onto my consciousness for little while longer and blood loss did not go well with that. Undid the scarf, twined it around injury and stuffed the chewed up leg back into its boot. Mistakes were made. Monsters weren't great at horsing around. Got it.

And yet I wasn't glued to the surface anymore. My hand was also hurt, but much less so. I reluctantly touched the pain grass with it yet again. So perhaps I learn anything from the very recent and still vividly clear exchange from just minutes ago.

Little brother, I thought again and it finally dawned upon me those weren't my thoughts. Random words interjected into my sentences and nothing made sense. I had to pull away the hand, because the swirling mess of two consciousnesses talking at same time gave me a brain freeze and perhaps even a seizure.

It was very unlike how snail talked, who provided mostly images. And snail did not hijack my own processes to convey whatever it needed to. This felt very crude and was definitely speech. I had little doubt a human was on the other side of the phone.

"Can we meet eye to eye?" I asked looking around and seeing nothing else. What if there was nothing human about this mouth anymore at all? What if he was the red grass and black shiny trees?

I touched the ground again and heard yes. My mind was clear as a lake on windless day. Come, voice said. Leave your friend there.

Does it still want to eat me and the fireling was what's stopping it? Very likely, but I just needed fifteen minutes of attention anyway.

Why would I eat you when we're part of same body? The distorted echo asked and I pulled my hand away, snapping the malleable threads that burrowed inside my throbbing flesh. The bloody landscape clearly did not know certain things and that would be hard to explain. Perhaps I did need backup for the conversation.

"Could you maybe come over here?" I asked the still air. Wherever it was, the mouth clearly heard me. "Or we can just shout at each other. I don't mind."

There was no reply. It didn't discourage me – chance to speak uninterrupted was exactly what I needed.

"Great! I'll go first," I considered telling him that I wasn't a mouth and that was why I can't come closer, but it could be very short intro. How do I even begin to retell that major clusterfuck? I rubbed my forehead with wet fingers and now my face was all bloody. "As I've mentioned, your body is in trouble… It tried to help me, and in process seems to have angered… uh, another creature which supposedly laid claim on my flesh first. Or something."

I looked at my - thus far – unbloodied, merely baked hand and put it down onto the toothy grass. Perhaps snail's mouth would just figure out the rest without me talking about things I could barely comprehend.

Grass dug into my palm and I kept my mind blank in case snail's minion had any additional input. No words came, it just gripped me tightly. Just like at the start. Except there was no pain. No tearing into the bone, just… holding?

"I… knew… some… thing… was… wrong… but… not… what…" the moor exhaled each word and I felt spiders crawling up my back. I tried to yank my hand away and back up, but no give. Fingers gripped it in place. Not very human-looking, but five strings that I had no other word for nonetheless. "Not… your… fault…" Grassland labouredly exhaled again.

Surprise dyed me just like the colour red the land. This person was trying to comfort me? As though I was a little brother. I gripped boneless appendages and squeezed back.

"It is," I insisted. I could have refused and had decency to just die. Now everybody will become fodder because of my selfishness.

"It… knew… what… would… happen…"

"Even so, the snail is a good person and doesn't deserve this!"

A small amused exhale that came from… a rising bump in front of me which I didn't even realise to be forming. "I call it that, too," much clearer but still malleable, dragging words came out from it. The hillock twitched back and forth and I started to discern head and the shoulders. The process was slow. Where horned devil instantaneously could change its form or even spit out an entire copy in a flash, this seemed almost painful. I was too locked up in a fearful awe to be speaking and the mouth took those silent minutes to do its thing undisturbed.