DoA Halloween Prompts: The butterfly effect

Life in the Natraki pod had been relatively quiet for many months, with their powerful elemental wielders and famed healer keeping the larger pod safe and sound. Their cavern home was decorated with various banners and crafts, showing the culture that was created and maintained. What Ophelius hadn’t expected was a large yellow and black polar to come barreling into their camp, covered in what appeared to be cuts and gashes across his body. Ophie carefully uncurled himself from his den and cast his element out, soft voice filtering into the area “Easy big fella, care to explain why you’re covered in wounds and look like you saw a ghost?” 

Njano was panting heavily as he glanced at the strange healer, who sported a soft pink coloration and..an infestation that manifested as roses across his body. The polar immediately began to freak out, thrashing his tail and crying out “You’re one of THEM! Please don’t hurt me! Your kind has already done enough to my pack…” The healer looks a little offended at that, using his bulk to push the polar down so he could start healing “Quiet. I’m not some mindless infested, frankly you should think twice before saying something like that. The next aqrion may not be as used to that as I am. Now..what happened?”

The polar was quiet for a minute, enjoying the sensation of the ache and burn of his wounds fading away slowly under the care of Ophie. When he speaks it starts with a low sigh “Well..it started yesterday, our pod was finding weird remnants of a hunt in our territory as well as claw marks gouged into the sea floor and nearby rocks. We..we couldn’t find anything that could have caused this...so we ignored it. That was the worst choice we ever could have made..and we paid the price.”

Njano’s pod mates had all settled down for the night, though the polar couldn’t sleep just yet. He instead swam out to the outskirts of the pack to take one last look around, maybe whatever killed those whales the night before was hanging around the area. His yellow coloration made him stick out like a sore thumb, but nothing around the area was brave enough to take on a polar. As he settled to watch and wait he saw a shimmering shadow out of the corner of his eye, though when he turned his head the thing seemed to disappear. Njano huffed softly to himself “I must be seeing things..I never should have listened to all those ghost stories”. Though he saw nothing come for the carcasses, he did hear a piercing wail of a pup inside the camp, followed by more panicked screams.

By the time he turned around to see what startled his pod, a sudden force slammed him off his perch and to the ground, the attacker was hiding with chromatics. The creature in front of him was no longer considered an aqrion, rather it was a void slave. Long blunt claws were holding the polar down as the once-giant began to laugh and start howling to the large shape of a fluke singer that drifted overhead. The howl was responded to with a shimmer of energy and..these strange fluttering creatures that settled on the heads of the pod, shining in red/orange hues. By the time folks realized it was a trap it was much too late, the frenzied howls of other corrupted rapidly joined the area and began an all out brawl. Njano let out a distressed roar, slamming the lanky giant in the leg with his tail. It hissed and backed up as purple blood leaked from the already exposed area, rapidly preparing another lunge as it shimmered out of sight again. Though it’s blunt claws did latch in and tear some rivets into the sturdy polar. 

Njano was faced with a choice, to stay and fight or to run and possibly get help, so he fled into the night as he heard the furious screech of his attacker, and happened to see the creature come into sight, sporting black hide dotted with a reddish purple sensation that was rapidly darkening. He decided to use his element to cool down his body, noticing the attacker was rapidly losing the ability to track him. The yellow polar just kept running, worried if he stopped that the giant would show back up. When he reached the Natraki pod he was exhausted, running purely on adrenaline at this point. As he wrapped up his story Ophie was looking at him thoughtfully.

“That’s..quite concerning, but you’re safe here. Our scouts are some of the most skilled, a few are famed corrupted vanquishers! We’ll send a search party out tonight to see if we can find anyone from your pod, alright?” Njano nods slowly, sighing as he looks at the faint scars left from his healing. “Thank you..I’m just worried about them. Those were definitely corrupted, but they seemed...smarter.” Ophie hums gently as he swims around the den idly “Corrupted are still aqrion too, some are able to keep control of themselves and even form pods like we do. That’s when they get dangerous, since they can travel in numbers for safety and even plan out...attacks…”

Ophie trailed off as he watched a trio of those all too familiar reddish orange creatures flutter into the den, Njano starts to hiss and growl “Those are the things that got my pod killed! We need to get out of here before they come and kill us all!” The polar was about to have a complete meltdown before Ophie gently nudges him “It’s alright, I’m not sure what you're seeing but nothing is here to hurt you. I’ll prove it by going outside, okay?” Before Njano can say anything, Ophie swims out and sits outside the cave, smiling at the polar. “See? Nothing i-” A pair of paws with long blunt claws reach down and grab Ophie from just above the cave, yanking the healer out of sight before that all too familiar giant slowly crawls down and stands in the cave entrance “you’re quite the troublesome one, but I enjoyed this hunt. I’ll make you a deal, you get 12 hours to run as far as you can. After 12 hours, me and my pod come and find you. Make it unfound for 24 hours after that and you’re a free man...though if we find you…” He trails off as that same frenzied howling fills the area, loud as cannons to Njano “I’m sure you can guess what happens here..but your time starts now.” The giant steps aside, and Njano has no choice but to start running again.