Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 31

Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 31

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Sivantic.

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Monsters can be tamed. Such is how the As’Kari live in the Great Desert. Their mighty steeds and creatures were born of monsters, until they were subordinated and bred into beasts of war, labor, food, and more. The monstrous versions of creatures such as Cornelius live in the wastes, more massive in size and with greater appetites, and not specialized for any task. Generations of selective breeding, refining training methods, and many other techniques all led to the creation of my faithful steed, whilst its wild cousins remain monsters.

Unfortunately, there was not enough time to tame, to breed, and to train the sludge-like creature that we have now encountered. There is even the question as to how such a creature could be domesticated in the first place. It is a parasite that takes the bodies of others, infiltrates, uses magics, and controls other monsters. Why would it choose to be subordinate when it could be the master? What stopped it from trying to take the body of its tamer for itself? What relationship could come forth that would become the foundation of a long-term relationship?

And, finally, if it could think, feel, plan, and strategize to such an extent within the bodies of others, was it not sentient?

Was I not ruminating on inflicting upon a thinking, living, and feeling creature a multitude of atrocities?

Though these thoughts weighed heavily on my mind, the sight of a child coming apart, flesh sloughing off of bone, organs rupturing, and brain coming apart stalled any thoughts and concerns of mine regarding the righteousness of my chosen course. If I did not find a way to tame and control this creature, discern its strengths and weaknesses, and compose stratagems with which to defeat it, then they will take the bodies of others, they will steal, pillage, corrupt, and leave destruction in their wake.

Treating this creature like a living disease seemed wrong after seeing that it can plan, think, and put aside the instinct in favor of a greater purpose, but as of now it sowed discord, violence, and stole the bodies of others. Though I held myself to the standard of a physician and swore off killing, torture, and other similar things, to not do my utmost to counter this threat would be to allow a living blight to grab hold of the entire world.

So, I swallowed my concerns and looked upon my samples of the creature that we’d gathered and began my experiments.

Could it feel?

Could it think?

Could it see the flames, the electricity, the frost, and all the others things I called upon at my finger tips to inflict upon it?

I did not know.

Yet.

…

I looked up from my work to see Djet’Is.

“Eat.” She ordered, and I complied after realizing that the oil lamp I was using was almost empty.

“Thank you.” I accepted the food with a nod and retreated from my work towards her. I dumped the gloves I used into boiling water and summoned flame over my hands, then I left the square of burnt land upon which I worked, which was surrounded by a constant light that I continuously fed. Divesting myself of the simple clothes I wore, all of which went into the boiling pot, I cleansed myself once more with flame before taking a robe to dress myself. Djet’Is looked away, even though my body was that of a child, until I dressed. As’Kari customs on propriety were familiar to me. Family could see one another naked, or those who were wed. “Have you found anything?”

While I conducted my studies, Cornelius rested, and Djet’Is led Gale and Averi out.  The survivor of the expedition to Hilldale, Jacob, was a capable cook, and he tended to whatever makeshift camp we made. He made sure to stay close, though he kept quiet and rarely did anything but rest, clean, cook, and make sure that someone else was guarding the camp. When he slept, he stirred, and something awakened with a shiver, but kept to himself. A good, honest lad that was shaken by what we found and what we might find.

“No. The lands are quiet and when I leapt upward, in the distance I caught glimpse of a city. Fires flowed from the buildings, and flames moved peacefully on its walls.” Djet’Is’ physical abilities would put demigods and heroes of myth to shame, save for the greatest such as Hercules. That would be more like Kan’Is and his absurdities. But that was beside the point. By jumping, Djet’Is could easily pass the tree line and with her gaze, she could see perfectly into the horizon. I had no reason to disbelieve her words. “We may have outpaced the creatures. Or, perhaps, we stopped them short when we struck down their forces in Hilldale.”

“That might be the case, but there may be other paths for the disease to take. We stymied one such path, but more may be hidden and coming.” I grimaced before sighing and taking a bite of food. Jacob had pointed out many supplies in our travels and we took Cornelius could carry, which was quite a bit, since I raised whim was great care. He carried a wagon-load with him now, and that barely bothered him. My dreams of him one day becoming large enough to carry a true building, but still fly, seemed closer and closer by the day. But, that was a matter far in the future. For now, I dined. “Have you eaten?”

“I have. The… tender of plants cooks well.” The As’Kari had no name for a farmer and we spoke to one another in the As’Kari tongue. The meal was without reproach. A flat bread covered in roasted nuts and honey and dried berries. A thick stew made from the flesh of monsters, which Jacob had taken offense to until Gale had words with him. The stew was familiar to me. It had tomatoes, carrots, onions, and even potatoes. The last and first were both surprising. Both those plants came from the Americas in my previous life, and I had no knowledge of lands here beyond this kingdom and the Great Desert. I was sure that this darkness did not stretch over the world entire. If the enemy had such power, we would already all be dead. “The food made from grain is interesting and sweet.”

“It’s good.” The As’Kari had few sweet things. The desert rarely had fruits and most were dried and stored away. Most ate meat, and flatbread was common, but it was usually like barley and brown wheat. Here, they milled their wheat to a pure white and so there was an almost overbearing sweetness to it. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to have more of it.”

Djet’Is nodded at my words and watched me eat.

I focused on sitting, on eating, and resting and emptying my mind of any thoughts.

When I finished my meal, though, Djet’Is spoke her mind.

“What have you found regarding the creature?”

“It needs a host to reproduce. It cannot simply exist and reproduce without a host. It dies in hours without being supplied with blood and meat.” The moment of respite was all that I needed. I fished out the spare clothes I had that were already dried and donned them. From my feet to my head, I covered myself as closely as I could with linens and bound where clothes overlapped with my wires. My spare goggles clasped onto my face, feeling tight as I never wore in their straps, and I made myself ready to enter my laboratory once again. “Rather than heat, I have found that cold harms it more easily. Its ruptures its flesh with ease, whereas it can resist flame somewhat.”

“I see. So, the coming winter will be able to halt their progress?” Djet’Is’ question gave me pause. With the darkened sky, and the coming winter will be harsher and more terrible. When I subjected the creature to extreme cold, outside of a host, it more easily froze because of an outer layer of wax-like substance that enrobed it. The creature frozen from the outside then suffocated or ruptured through intense frost. Inside a host, I’m sure that it would be different. I gave Djet’Is a tentative nod. With a harsh winter, the growth and spread of these creatures can be slowed. “That bodes well. What of your studies to extricate it from a host?”

“That goes poorly. The creature consumes and eats what it replaced every time, as though it needs to do so in order to replicate the function.” I had applied the parasite to a multitude of small rodents filched from the grasslands. The test subjects were then used to practice extrication. Each time, I found the organs of the creature more and more worn from within. Until, I came to a realization. “The smaller creatures I test it on is effectively consumed and used to produce more of the parasite. Save for bones, everything is consumed and turned into the parasite itself. I believe that the hosts of these parasites intend to take younger children and take their minds and bodies at an early age, because they're more to grow henceforth and they can receive from the body the necessary foods to do so.”

It was co-opting the maturity process of children, so that It could infiltrate and take over with less of the creature it was using being consumed in the process, or less of its body used to do unnecessary things. The nervous system and the brain were the first to be overtaken. Essentially, the parasite was replacing or co-opting the original person within the body. Many of my fellows, and even I had believed, that the body was naught more than a vessel in the brain and the nerves. That was until found myself in another form entirely in another realm.

That was the sole reason why I believed that the people infested with this parasite could still be saved.

“The creature takes most of the brain within an hour. Within four, the brain is entirely segmented with many stretches of the creature replacing it.” I was able to see the striations and extensions through the brain of each mouse. The creature took over and replaced the front of the brain first, then slowly took the rest. It consumed, replaced, and overrode the brain. If this were not my second life, I would have thought that the end of the matter. But the soul exists. “However, the replacement parts cannot endure the cold as well as the rest of the body that persists. My belief is thus: freeze the individual to near-death, kill the parasite, and then use my power to mend the wounds.”

“…When will you test that belief?”

I gazed at Djet’Is one more time, before giving her my answer as I entered my operating room.

“Now.”

…

To cut through the body in order to save it.

The idea seemed almost farcical, but it was what I learned to do, and what I did many times repeatedly in my past life. However, in my past life, it was far more difficult. I could not guide blades with a thought, sew wounds together in an instant, apply heat and cold, and mend flesh with a power in my body. Though I lacked many medicines and agents that attacked the microscopic enemy, I could use my newfound power to clean and cleanse them away, and so I operated with greater ease upon all others.

Still, in the end, my hands and newfound powers were guided by my past life’s experience and knowledge. Every step that I took now, everything my power allowed me to do, was simply to improve upon what I could once do and do what I could without what I had in my previous world. Everything that I could now accomplish, and have accomplished, lay upon a foundation set by previous life.

And, such was the case with my latest achievement.

I held a small, brown mouse in my hand, which was alive, awake, and free of the parasite that I had inflicted upon it.

Gale noticed my presence first and blinked at the sight of the creature I held.

“You did it?” She surmised the truth of the matter in an instant and approached me. Djet’Is, Averi, and Jacob all moved to look my way. Astonishment flittered across their faces, until Gale stopped and looked at my countenance. “There’s limits, aren’t there?”

“Yes. There are. Prolonged exposure leads to wounds that I can heal, but nothing is left behind. The body persists, lives, but there is no will that remains once more than a fifth of the brain is consumed.” The mind was an enigma to me. Its folds, layers, crevices, and strange composition couldn’t be healed completely. Just like a lost limb couldn’t be completely regrown. Or, perhaps, the soul left the body once a certain amount of damage was done to the brain and invalidated it as a receptacle? I did not know the explanation, but the result was there. “However, I have discovered something else. A way to prevent the infection by rapidly chilling the body. It is safer to use than flame just upon the skin.”

I gestured with my hand and let loose a wave of frost that went over stone. A light sheen of ice formed on it that melted away instantly through the heat of the flame.

Averi, Djet’Is, and Gale looked upon it with surprise.

“That’s all?” Averi spoke. “How could it hope to survive a winter bereft of light?”

“No. That explains why they’re heading for the tree of light and the cities, instead of staying in the darkness. They need the warmth and light it provides, too.” Gale spoke up, and the knight blinked at her words before realizing the same. “They know what blocking the sun did, and they’re using it to their advantage now, and making strategies against it when it becomes a disadvantage.”

I nodded at their words, filing their information away, before turning to Jacob… who was startled by my stare.

“Jacob, I have need of information. I discovered what they cannot endure, so I now know what they need to propagate and multiply.” Djet’Is realized what I asked for and straightened at my words. The others realized as soon as I asked my question. “I have a map of the lands. Can you tell me of a place with many caves, which is cool all year round, where many things can be stored and water is plenty?”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Good.”

We will put these creatures to the torch and prevent their spread.